Phone-Rush

E71 Sample Pictures and Videos: Big Bear Lake, CA

2008-07-07T19:07:23-07:00

Over the weekend I went up towards Big Bear Lake, CA, about a 2 hr drive from Los Angeles in order to escape the heatwave. I brought along the E71 and decided to take some landscape photos and shoot a couple of videos while I was up there. Coming from a N95, obviously I'm somewhat disappointed with the E71 video recording, but at least it has minimal pixelation while the camera is moving, making it watchable.

With photography, the pictures were somewhat of what I expected them to be for a 3.2 MP camera, good for small size viewing. Also in regards of using T for auto focusing, it's a simple button press for focus and another click for taking the shot. However I wished the AF would be activated with one press of the dpad, and another press for taking the shot. I'll be back soon with more up close shots that can really lay out the capabilities of the auto focus.

Enter The Nokia E71 Unboxing Video

2008-07-02T15:35:10-07:00

Today after been waiting for months and months, I finally have got a hold on the Nokia E71, courtesy of WOMWorld. First thing to do with this was to rip the packaging open and see what comes in the box.

In the next few days I'll cover the hardware and software in great details. If you have any questions in the meantime, leave them in the comments and I'll get an answer for you.

Musing About The Latest Eseries and Purchasing FP2 For Them

2008-06-26T11:40:02-07:00

With the announcement that the E66 and the E71 will come with FP1 raised a few eyebrows, especially since these are high-end Eseries devices and that the recently released N78 has FP2. The response was that FP2 hasn't had time to mature and isn't stable enough for business and/or power users who demand reliability. I get the logic behind this to some extent, but it just leaves more to be desired. On the other hand there are possible reasons why Nokia might not be interested in doing this:

It will make the phones too future-proof, hurting them on sales in the long term.
If FP2 requires specific hardware, the cost of adding FP2 compatible hardware makes the final price less attractive.
It would set a bad precedent for people who already have an older Eseries or even Nseries device and would demand that they get the FP2 treatment as well.
Having one phone running FP1 or FP2 makes developing fimrware upgrades more tedious.

So is there a middle ground in between? Sure. Nokia should think hard about making FP2 available for purchase, at least for the Eseries. I remember there was similar talk that Nokia should make people purchase a firmware upgrade for the N95-3 when there was a drought of real updates for 8 months. This suggestion was made to motivate the people responsible to come up with an updated FW. That didn't happen, but that was inspiration for me to think about this.

Now why the Eseries and not the Nseries? Because the Eseries crowd tend to be more willing on purchasing essential upgrades that will help them with their work. Anything that will make their phone perform better and thus make it easier or faster to perform their work is an acceptable cost. Now of course their is a limit for the price of a FP upgrade. I tend to think that a FP upgrade shouldn't cost more than $50. Of course they can make this available 6 months from now, because by that time the FP2 has become more reliable, and no major Eseries phone would likely be announced. The Eseries tend to have longer life cycles (The E61 was announced first half of 2006, and the E61i was a marginal upgrade that came in 2007), therefore it shouldn't hurt the long-term sales of the Eseries anyway. The whole system of purchasing can be implemented in the Nokia Software Updater as well.

It's also important to note that eventually software or services will be announced by Nokia or 3rd party developers that will exclusively work on FP2 whether we like it or not, so by enabling the newer Eseries devices (E51, E66, E71, and E90) to run FP2, there will be more audience towards those higher-end services. Of course the issue would remain on whether this should be done with the older Nseries or not. What do you think? Is there a better solution to this? What would the difficulties be?

Coverage of the Nokia E71 Reviews

2008-06-25T11:06:30-07:00

Last week Nokia announced a much needed refreshment to their E-series line up, the slider Nokia E66, and the qwerty Nokia E71. Both of these phones have essentially the same spec sheet, just in different form factors. Back in the day I loved my E61i, and if it weren't for it being a little bit slow, I'd still be rocking that phone anyday over the N95-3. Now that the E71 is announced with FP1 and US 3G, it just makes it a no-brainer for me. Enough with my obsession, I wanted to list a few of the Nokia E71 reviews that were put up within the last few days.

Of course one of the most comprehensive reviews can be found on AllAboutSymbian, and so far they have published two pieces regarding the E71. The first is an overall impression and first look, and the second focuses on the multimedia capabilities of it. In the first piece, Steve Litchfield takes a look at the prospective position the E71 will have in the market, comparisons to its direct predecessor the E61i, and a look at the hardware, software and the exclusive tweaks that it has.

Engadget Mobile has also got their hands on the E71, and seem to enjoy the feel of the phone. Their review mainly focuses on the physical aspects of the phone. They've also seemed to be impressed with the Web browser as well.

Also the people at My-Symbian have an overall impression of the phone. They start off with a brief intro about its size, comparison to Blackberries in general and also about the LED notification on the dpad. They continue with a mini-tour of the menus and added features such as VPN, Personal/Business modes, and corporate email setup.

Besides the obvious flaw of having a 2.5 mm jack for audio and the reported short comings in the photo and video recording department, this should be a great device. The only issues that I'd want to find out is that if two flaws that were in the E61i have been or will be addressed: 1. Using the numeric keypad portion as shortcuts within the grid menus and 2. If someone wants to dial a number say 1-800-GONOKIA, will the phone be smart enough to correlate the letter with the correct number just like on a phone with a regular keypad?

N78 US 3G Being Shipped in The States for $560

2008-06-24T21:31:44-07:00

After the N78 being available from online retailers for the past few days, Nokia has finally made it official with their N78 being available online on their site and at the Nokia Flagship stores. This phone is unique in particular for multiple reasons:

It's marketed as a mid-range device offering the latest S60 FP2 firmware with US 3G.
It's almost concurrently launched with the Euro-spec N78.
It boasts a FM transmitter to stream music to any FM receiver within range.
It has a Navi wheel and from the reviews it seems miles ahead of the original one used on the N81.

When the N78 was announced at MWC, I thought of it as a worthy backup phone for the N95-3 or as a great phone for somebody who wants to start with a US 3G S60 phone. It's now available for $560 before taxes and shipping. Hopefully I get a chance to play with one soon and get a better feel for the new tweaks and software running on the phone.

An Overlook On The Nokia N95 8GB NAM (N95-4)

2008-05-15T15:17:17-07:00

The N95 has come a long way since its introduction late 2006. Later on Nokia was forced to create more functional variants to address the criticisms and ride on the successful sales of the original. I'm taking a look at the 4th member of the family, the Nokia N95 8GB NAM or simply N95-4. The N95-4 is a featured packed phone, sporting HSDPA, 5 MP camera, near DVD quality video recording, GPS, Wi-Fi, and much more. Here I want to talk about the features and issues that stand out with this device. What I won't cover is most likely standard N95 features that don't need me to talk about, since it's been covered before. This is more focused on people seeing whether if this phone is worth getting over the N95-1 or the N95-3 (I'd say it's worth getting it over the N95-2 if you can use US 3G as they have almost the same exact features).

Voice Quality:

Let's not forget, the primary focus of this phone is to make phone calls. The N95-4 is awesome for calls because first it has great quality and the voices come in very clear, and second that it is pretty loud, so there is no trouble hearing the other side even when your walking on a busy street. The loudspeaker is excellent, and plenty loud and clear for a noisy environment. I give props to the 3G for the clear call quality.

Screen:

So the screen is 2.8", only 0.2" bigger than the N95-3 and N95-1. That is the worst description of the screen. I use to think about it like that before I got my hands on the N95-4. The screen seems siginificantly bigger in person. It is gorgeous, and it's pretty nice to load up your own videos or stream videos and watch it in landscape. The bigger screen allows for an extra standby icon as well. There is talk about how with the same resolution, when a screen gets bigger, you see more pixelated artifacts. I've never come across it on the N95-4 (my eyes can't tell), so don't let that talk be a deal breaker for you.

Slider:

The slider has a different feel compared to the N95-3 that I have on me right now. To slide the N95-3, it feels tight throughout the whole slide motion, and pops into place at either ends. The N95-4 feels hollow when sliding from one end to another. It's not necessarily a bad thing, it's just that it feels different, especially the first couple of days that you use the phone.

Camera:

What's important to me besides the quality of the pictures taken on the phone is actually how fast the camera is initiated and ready to snap pics. It takes about 3-4 seconds, which is OK, but not as fast as the N82. In terms of taking sequential pictures (how long it takes to take a 2nd picture after the first one is taken) is also decent for a phone, almost the same as the N82.

Transfer Speeds:

The phone has 8GB of memory, enough for 90% of users (even for me believe it or not). However the speed of transferring content to or from the phone is painfully slow. It tops out about 0.7 MB/s over USB cable. For me this isn't a big deal, because I don't transfer content and music to my phone often, and certainly rarely before I leave the house. If you're that type of person who tries to load your phone with music the last minute before you leave the house, you'll be extremely disappointed. If not, then you'll survive.

Home Media (Home Network):

The Home Media application allows the N95-4 to become a client or a server of multimedia on your home network. The N95-4 allows you to stream or remotely watch content without downloading it (unlike the N95-3 which you have to download it to the phone in the latest firmware). However just like Ewan from AAS has pointed out, this applications needs to be revamped. Half the times it won't stream the content, and the interface and menu options are a little clunky for a Nseries device. A few times I've also been booted from the application which just adds to my frustration. It's also a pity that they took out the shortcut from the Gallery and left everything in the Home Media application. On the N95-3 all you have to do is set it up, and then you really don't need to go back to it to access your home network, you just go to the gallery.

Playing N-Gage:

The phone's design is almost 2 years old, therefore it wasn't designed with N-gage gaming in mind. The phone is only good for one-handed gaming. During this time I tried using it with FIFA 08, and although it has great graphics for a cell phone, it's challenging using two hands to play the game. However using one hand, the learning curve is short and the controls are pretty straight forward. It's just a pity that the N95 8GB can't be used in landscape mode for practical gaming. The prominent bug that I came across was that the half the times the games would load in landscape mode although clearly the phone was in portrait mode.

And the Reboots:

Well, for the first few days I thought that the phone is pretty stable. it is pretty stable when you have no applications at all. One you put a dozen applications or more, you can notice the difference with the speed of the menus. I was at a point that I'd experience 4-5 reboots in a week. This might not sound a big deal, but it is when 1 of those times on average is when you're trying to make a phone call. This can be fixed with future firmware updates, so I'm not too worried about it.

So do I think if it's worth it over the N95-1 and N95-3? I'd say definitely over the N95-1. More RAM, bigger battery, bigger screen, more functional in the US. Is it worth upgrading from the N95-3? Maybe, depending on how much extra you have to pony up. If you can upgrade for less than $100, then I'd say it's a no brainer and you should go ahead. If you're in a crossroads between the N95-3 and N95-4, go with the N95-4. It looks better and has a great screen.

Nokia Sports Tracker + GeoTagging + N95-4: A Few Observations

2008-05-12T12:29:35-07:00

Last week I wasn't liking what I was seeing in the mirror, the bulge of fat around my stomach. From that time I've made a conscience effort to lose some weight. I did try using Nokia Sports Tracker before, but I never really dove into the features it offered, and abandoned it for a while. Since last week in my walks I've had it activated and occasionally set it to live stream my walk which could be followed on the Sports Tracker website. I also had the Location Tagger running in the background, and was taking pictures of any interesting sites or scenes during my walk. These photos being geotagged, it's an easy effort to upload them to the Sports Tracker website with the workout stats at the same time. Of course thanks to Mark he has a tutorial on how to embed this info from Sports Tracker on Google Maps. During the last week I've made a few observations and have some issues with the service which I hope can be ironed out for the next release of Sports Tracker.

1. In the path tracer on the applications, you can only see a trace of where you have walked so far. Where is the map that shows the streets? It can't be hard to put one there, even if it needs a data connection to retrieve it.

2. It would be great if an Auto Upload option is available so that my workouts get uploaded to the service right after I'm finished.

3. Right after the workout is over, I manually try to upload the workout to the service, and half the times it doesn't happen until I reboot the application.

4. When the workouts get uploaded, the pictures don't make it almost half the times. At all. Even when they do at times they aren't position correctly.

5. This might be related to the internal GPS of the N95-4 (or all N95s in general), but the speeds and altitudes have too much fluctuations in the readout on the application and on the website. Does anyone else have a problem with this? Is there more precision with an external bluetooth GPS?

6. It's relatively easy to import the Sportstracker info to Google maps. However in the process the geotagged photos on Sports Tracker don't make it through for some reason in the final map on Google Maps. This could be a glitch in the system or something wrong in the setup.

Still, this is a great application and service combined together, and it's a must have for any S60 and workout junkies.

[Photo: blogs.s60.com]

How To Tether Your Nokia S60 Phone To Your Windows Vista Laptop

2008-05-07T09:12:27-07:00

In this how to, I want to show you how to connect your Nokia S60 phone and utilize the cellular data that it receives and channel it to your laptop, therefore making you're laptop go online anywhere you get a cellular reception. There are 3 main ways of doing this:

1. Using a Bluetooth Connection
2. Using a USB cable
3. Using an application called JoikoSpot or WalkingHotSpot. (If using this method your phone has to have Wi-Fi as well)

Now that we know the methods, We want to "tether" our phone to the laptop running Windows Vista using the first two methods. For this how to I'll be using a N95 8GB NAM (N95-4), as it supports US 3G HSDPA and makes practical sense to tether (tethering can be done with other S60 phones with GPRS or EDGE as well). Of course there are multiple ways to set this up, but I'm trying to aim for the most stream-lined way of doing it, by using the Nokia PC Suite (or Nseries Suite).

1. Using a Bluetooth Connection:

Now my laptop has built-in bluetooth, but If your's doesn't, you can head down to any electronic store and pick up a bluetooth dongle for around $20. All you have to do is pop in the installation CD from the dongle and follow the instructions. Once you've installed your bluetooth dongle, install the Nokia PC Suite. Once you're done with that, you go to the Get Connected Wizard (or on the newest version of the PC Suite you can select "Click here to connect a phone).

From here you select bluetooth as the means of connection. Make sure at this point that on your phone bluetooth is on and that it is visible. After the wizard finds your phone, initiate the pairing process. If this is your first time connecting your phone, PC Suite will attempt to install a file on your phone called MMSync. I'd also recommend going into the bluetooth settings of the phone, in the devices section, and set your laptop as an authorized device so that you don't constantly have to give the laptop permission to interact with your phone.

Once you're done installing this, the application starts installing the modem drivers and you get a pop-up notifying you that "Standard Modem over Bluetooth Link #x" is installed. Now at this point you don't really need to use PC Suite to go online, but if you prefer to use it anyway all you have to do is go to One Touch Access, and from the settings there you can access this Standard Modem and either choose the pre-defined settings for your operator or enter the settings manually.

If you prefer not to use the PC Suite for tethering, just simply go to the network icon in your taskbar at the bottom right corner of Vista and from there choose the Standard Modem over Bluetooth Connection and enter your operator settings manually. This method is my preferred method of using Dial-Up-Networking (DUN) over bluetooth.

2. Using a USB Connection

This method is very similar to the bluetooth connection. At the Get Connected Wizard, you choose the cable connection, and then plug in your phone using a USB cable, and the wizard will automatically identify your phone and install the drivers, and this time you get a bubble notifying you that Nokia xxx USB Modem (OTA) is installed and ready. Again you can either choose the One Touch Access of the PC Suite or just simply going to Vista's Connect to a network. You can either select the pre-defined settings for the operators, or enter the settings manually.

A Note

I'd like to mention that before you start tethering, MAKE SURE tethering is allowed on your data plan. If you do tether without having it on your plan and the operator finds out, you can be slapped with a hefty bill.

Next Generation of Nokia Chargers to Use 90% Less "Vampire Power"

2008-05-01T12:20:10-07:00

Over at Nokia Conversations, Charlie Schick has an update with the development of the next generation of Nokia chargers, that use almost 90% less energy when left plugged into an outlet than the current chargers in the market also known (Going from 150 mA to 15 mA). This power being wasted as a result of leaving chargers plugged in without charging anything is called Vampire Power. He also explains the significance of this, given the fact that there are around 3 billion phones and therefore chargers out there, and therefore if all handset manufacturers would embrace energy-efficient chargers there would be less demand on the power grids.

The newest charger that utilizes this technology is the Nokia High Efficiency Charger AC-8, and you can read some interesting comparisons there between the AC-8 and the power usage of regular Nokia chargers per year. In the article there is a link to new solutions for charging phones without wasting energy as well. I admit I'm one of those people that leave their chargers plugged into the outlet, but it would be a start if we can all unplug those idling chargers. If you have multiple devices that use the same type of charger, it's better to leave one charger idling compared to having all of those chargers plugged in at the same time doing nothing.

Video: Nokia N78's FM Transmitter in Action

2008-05-01T01:07:01-07:00

The Nokia N78 was announced back at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona in February, and the feature that made it unique was the inclusion of a FM transmitter, which allows the phone to wirelessly stream audio to a FM receiver, most notably a car stereo. Greg over at SymbianFrance has a brief video of the whole setup, which is definitely worth the watch. Having a FM transmitter is great for people who can't utilize a patch cord to connect the phone to an AUX jack. I'm eager to try the FM transmitter feature here in LA, where there is heavy congestion on FM frequencies and see how well it works. The FM transmitter has optimal performance on an empty frequency. I'd like to also figure out if it's possible to potentially use the FM transmitter during calls, effectively using the phone in a handsfree mode and listening to the other side of the line through the car speakers.

N78 FM: fonction transmetteur FM
by symbianfrance