Nokia Geek

We've moved!

2007-10-31T16:46:00.000-07:00

We've moved over to http://nokiageek.com

New site, same focus, more effort!

N95 8GB initial impressions

2007-10-21T17:02:00.001-07:00

Click to Play

Brief tour mainly of the physical features of the N95 8gb. More to come later on in the week.

Wonder what's in the box?

2007-10-19T11:59:00.000-07:00

Nice little present today...

More videos to come, and lots of write ups. Keep checking back.

Stay tuned for some bit blog related news too... There's a reason I've not been posting, and it's all good!

Nokia Download PC client

2007-09-02T09:23:00.000-07:00

Don't know if I'm late with this one but I can't find a mention of it. WaveyDavy from the 3g.co.uk Forums and BeingWaveyDavey has spotted that Nokia Beta Labs have realsed a PC version of the Download app that comes on your N-Series phone. The beta labs page asks you install a new beta of the phone app to your phone and then download the PC version. The PC download client integrates into PC suite and appears as a new option. Clicking on that loads it up. Firstly the client detects your phone, and then pops up with whatever is available for the handset.

Can't spot any difference between what was available there and what was available on the corent phone only version, but it's nice to see Nokia pushing the 'phone and PC integration' thang that they were talking about so much at Go: Play.

Thoughts after Go Play

2007-08-31T14:54:00.000-07:00

I'm back, and so massively tired you wouldn't believe. I know there's a few posts up now, but I'm going to try to condense some of it, and I'll elaborate on other parts as and when necessary. I may skip and jump between parts here, so if it's hard to keep track, I do apologise.

The first thing to take from this event was that the handsets weren't the most important thing announced. Yes, we got 4 handsets announced (N95 8gb, N81, 5310 and the 5610) but Nokia were pretty strong in the fact that they wanted to push the servies that they are launching. One of the opening statements was 'This is about Nokia renewing itself'. That's a pretty bold thing to say for such a sucessful company. The big key phrase is 'The 4th Screen'. We were told that Nokia moves in different directions all the time (they used to make tyres?!?) and now, they are changing into an internet driven experience as so much of our lives is spent online.

We were shown a couple of videos next, and they showed off a new multimedia menu. For anyone who uses a PSP or PS3, it's instantly recognisable as the Media Bar. It's pretty much lifted. Personally I thought it was a bit dull and grey, but it does incorprate so many extra parts. There's a specific maps tab for example, which has all your bookmarks in it. All your music is listed in their too. This is going to come as standard on all Nseries devices.

A quick video was shown showing a device that was held in a horizontal position. They were talking about the interfaces on phones, and it showed a guy touching the screen and moving whatever was on there, just like the iPhone. It created a few groans/laughs from the audience and at the time I thought 'I can't believe they've so obviously nicked this.' Turns out this devie has actually been doing the rounds at Nokia for about 2 years now. If I remember right, Stefan told me it was code-names 'Tube'.

There was chat about how Nokia wanted to free the internet. This all makes sense later on when the new servies are announced.

We're told that single use devices are being marginalised. For example, MP3 player sales are now levelling off, while phones with MP3 players built in are rising in sales.

We start to talk about music phones. What makes a good music phone? Battery life, transfer, storage. Basically, there should be no compromise made. It must look good, have a good interface so it's usable.

We move onto the new handsets themselves. A couple of Series 40 handsets come first. I'll list them one by one below.

Nokia 5310

A candybar style handset. 9.9 mm thick with a nice metallic feel to it. Triband, 70g in weight. 2.0" screen with a 17.7 million colour display. It can take up to a 4gb microSD card (we're not told how much memory is built in). Dedicated audio chip and a 3.5mm jack. There's dedicated music keys on the left hand side of the screen. 2 megapixel camera. Not 3G.

Nokia 5610

Slider design. Black gloss finish, aluminium side panels coloured. Quad band handset. 2.2" screen, 16.7 million colours. Again, can take a 4gb card (and again, no mention of what's built in) . Has the dedicated audio chip. 3.2 megapixel camera, 8x digital zoom, auto focus and a dual LED flash. 30 fps video recording on the main camera. The front camera records at 15fps. Horizonal slider key build in under the screen to flick through menus. For a S450 device, I've gotta say this was a pretty neat phone.

And now the ones we want!

Nokia N95 8gb

Cut a long story short, it's so much better it hurts. The slider is amazing, when you click onto the multimedia control keys there's a resounding thunk. It feels solid all over as well, no creaking at all. The screen is bigger, it's now 2.8". Oddly, it seemed like some of the fonts have been stretched. Hopefully that'll be fixed on the full release. The keys below the screen have been shrunk, but they don't feel too small at all. They're also raised more. There is no cover on the camera but it actually makes the back look so much better. The front cover is extremely shiny (maybe a bit too shiny) while the back is a matt black and plasticised, rather than the rubberised one we have now. The new battery is in there. The new multimedia menu is built in, and there's a fantastic search funtion. Load it up off the front screen, and you can search for anything. Music, files, apps, you name it, you can pull it up from right there. Navigating through the phone is much faster. To confirm, there is over 80 meg free RAM. See screen shot, courtesy of Ricky from Symbian-Guru who managed to sneak Taskman onto the phone!

Bear in mind too, the version I used was a pre-prototype model, so the processor wasn't the proper one, it was in fact a slowed down version. This handset will FLY through stuff.
So you can compare the sizes between the two versions, here's a photo from Rafe at allaboutsymbian.

Nokia N81

Put it plain and simple, this is one sexy piece of kit. Slider again and it's a really well made one. Feels solid. Lovely reflective black finish. There's going to be two versions, one with 8gb built in, one that takes MicroSD cards. You basic functionality is the same as the new N95 (new multimedia menu etc) but there's some key differences. I'll start off with the one (only one) bad point; 2 megapixel camera. I mean c'mon, squeeze a 3.2 in there, lets not be going down to a 2. I know it's not aimed at that market, but by the time this is launched, people are going to want a certain standard and maybe that will be too low? Good points make up for this though. First of all, the Navi key is great. Before anyone says it, yes it's just like using the iPod wheel, but that's why they've done it! So the user is familiar with how it's going to work. You can't tell on the pics, but where the earpiece is it's actually two buttons as well. These only come into play when there's actually a use for them, for example when playing a game, zooming on photos etc. The keys light up with a white backlight, which on the black phone looks fantastic.
The N81 is due out Q4, and I can see it being high up on many peoples Christmas lists. I'll get some videos up tomorrow, for now, here's a picture of it in my hand.

OK, here's a the low down on the services.

The big word to come out of this is Ovi. There was Ovi branding everywhere. Meaning 'the door' in Finnish what Nokia are aiming to do is to open the door to all their existing communities, social networks and content as well as promoting Nokia content. it will be used to create and share digital content. Basically ovi is an umbella term, and everything is contained within it; games (Ngage, more on which later), Music, video, Contacts, Maps, Photos and the Internet.

The first version on Ovi.com is looking to go live by the end of 2007 in English. The press release says that other markets will launch in the first half of 2008.

I'll now break down the things that make up Ovi.

Nokia Music Store

The Nokia Music Store will lauch with over 2 million tracks and support from major labels, indies and local artists.

There will be an app built into the new handsets (and I believe a download for older handsets). Purchased songs will be easily transferable to your handset using Windows Media Player, or altrnatively with the stand-alone PC client whcih is turning up this year. the PC client has a couple of cool little tricks, such as ripping from a CD straight from the phone. Niiiiice.

The Phone app is basically a fully featured version of the PC client. You can check out songs by listening to a 30 second streamed clip. There is also a recommendation service built in to both the PC and phone clients. On the screens we saw, tracks were listed at 80p per track and albums were about £8 but don't hold me to that.

My conclusion : I'm going to jump down the same route as Ricky at Symbian-Guru and Rafe at allaboutsymbian here. When were shown it, Rafe turned to Ricky and said 'If this goes right, Apple is finished.' Now that may seem like a pretty bold thing to say, but consider some facts here. There's something like 40 million Nseries handsets around right now. We will all have access, on our phones, to this. If every single person just downlaoded one songs, that's 40 million sold. That's not including all the great handsets coming up soon. It uses the Windows DRM, so for example Creative Zens will have no problems using the Itunes store. Nokia are opening themselves up one massive market. And you know what, it works better than iTunes.

Here was the thing I loved. Say you buy something off the store on the PC, but you don't have your phone on you for whatever reason. Your entire libary, including tracks not on your mobile, is listed when you load up your phone client. You can then download any tracks you haven't synced straight to your mobile. Visa versa, anything you do on your phone is reflected the next time you load up the PC version. Now that's sweet.

The PC app... well it's based on iTunes, but the guys are made it are all iTunes users and we were told that they nall agreed on what the limitations of what they were using and fixed them in the Nokia version.

Seriously guys, I don't care if you are a 'free music' type of person, I telly ou know the second you get this on your phone, you'll downlaod a track. And then it'll owrk so well, you'll probably get another. And then you'll see the ease of syncing between the PC and phone, and you'll keep buying them. It's really that good. And this is from a guy who *cough* doesn't often pay for his music *cough*.

I'm not gonna give you a full lowdown on Maps. It's being brought under the Ovi umbella, but we've all used it already. There will be constant revisions of the Maps app to get us to a level where it replaces any navigation devices we currently have. Whether that happens only time will tell because we are all aware of the limitations of the current app, but they are still strongly focussed on it.

Nokia N-Gage

Mobile gamers, prepare to get a bit turned on now. N-Gage is going to totally revolutionise mobile gaming, and maybe gaming on the whole.

We're talking here about a dedicated mobile gaming platform. The best way for me to describe it is Xbox Live on your phone. when you load up the app, your greeted with a great tabbed interface, and the front is instantly welcoming to anyone who uses the Xbox Service. You've got a box with your gamertag to which you can upload a picture to. There's N-gage points which I presumed are your acheivement points from the games. There's a rep section, so don't go about slagging people off or it'll be relected on the service. You can pull up a list of you friends from the next line. Clicking on that will show you what your mates are playing and from there you can send messages to others.

Like the okia Music, there's a PC client as well as the phone one, so you can download the games to your PC and install them to your phone if you need to keep down data charges. I mention charges, because we were told that Creatures of the Deep is currently a 25 meg download. that's HUGE for a mobile game.

There's proper massive developers behind this. EA, Gameloft, Capcom, Vivendi and THQ, amongst a load of others are all developing for it, and also Nokia are pushing titles out themselves including a new version of Snake whcih looks amazing. It's no longer just on one plain as there is rises and drops on every level and music now plays a massive part. If your doing good, the music flows but when you start to mess up, it all starts to drop off. I spent 5 minutes on it and it was really good.

Muliplayer is going to be possible on some games. The developer has full control over whether this is implemented or not. I had a kick about on Fifa 07 on an N81 (absolutely amazing) and chatted with the guy at the stall. EA have not inplemented a multiplayer option over your data connection for the simple reason that network latency would ruin it. However they are still talking about multiplayer over WLAN or locally with Bluetooth.

Games can be trialled, rented or bought. To buy it's gonna cost about 6-10 euros. No prices were given on rental.

Best thing is, it's gonna be a standard on N-Series. The current list reads N73, N81, N93 and N95 but other handsets will be added all the time. Obviously some games may not run on specific handsets (for example if their is an N80 versin, some games may not work) and if you attempt to download one of these, you'll be warned against it.

N-gage is pencilled in for a lauch in major European makets in November. Believe me, I'll be the first in the line for it.

Live from 'Go Play'

2007-08-28T16:51:00.000-07:00

Evening Ladies and Gents.

For those who don't know, I'm spending the next couple of days down in London town checking out the Nokia product launch. I landed down here a couple of hours ago so I've got a night to pull myself together before the show starts.

I've got a bit of an idea what's being launched but I've a feeling there may be some suprises along the way (for example, expect some Ngage news).

I'll be using this thread to keep you guys up to date with what's happening, so you'll all be among the first to know what's coming up in the world of Nseries.

2007-08-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

Bgb N95 is go!

2007-08-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

It's funny this story has surfaced today because I've had a conversation with someone that basically went along the lines of...

Me 'When's the 8gb N95 coming out?'
Other person ' I don't know what you're talking about...(cue giggling and near hysterical laughter)'

Now I'm not the most perceptive of chaps, but I'd say that's basically a 'I'm not allowed to say.'

I wasn't gonna post about it for fear of it not turning up and then looking stupid but allaboutsymbian has got the scoop on the release. The FCC has published the manual so it's basically confirmed now.

Here's a couple of pics to wet your collective appetites.

Now is it just me or does that screen look bigger? The multimedia buttons are raised, which I'm not overly keen on. The site also states that the back has been redesigned to remove the camera cover in order for the bigger battery to be fit in.

Another very interesting part of the manual states the it's Ngage compatible.

So what do you existing owners reckon? Enough for you to upgrade?

[Story and pics via allaboutsymbian]

Jaiku Mobile Client Updated to 0.80

2007-08-18T10:45:00.000-07:00

Jaiku have posted a new verion of their S60 client. The new 0.80 client has these new features.

- The choice between longer battery life or more up-to-date presence (a much requested feature).
- Reading and writing comments from and to your contacts.
- Go back in time! Using the ’stream view’ for your contacts, you can see what they were doing and saying in the past, not just their most recent post.
- More than just Jaikus! You can also see when your contacts have posted to flickr.
- Improved presence view, to make the most of your screen real-estate.
- A whole raft of usability improvements, based on what our users have been telling us they need, including an even easier to use interface, and a progress meter, so you can see what’s happening.
- More optimal data transfer and connection maintenance, giving you more bang for your wireless data dollar.
…and all the essential (but not that interesting) stuff like bug fixes, speed improvements, that sort of thing.
- a spiffy new manual for this client.

I've had Jaiku
installed on my N95 since I found the previous version, which I think was 0.48. I always keep it on their, but I've never really pused the use of it all that much, primarily I think because I found the original version after coming across a post on atmaspheric endeavors with a video, but I was bit gutted when I realised the video was of a forthcoming version and the one I had was a bit poor in comparison. The new beta sorts all this though.

Thing is, I really kinda love Jaiku. It's always open on my desktop I just found the mobile client a bit... pants. I've never been a massive fan on telling people exactly what you're doing at any given moment (Twitter posters take note) and I like Jaiku because I find it's more people talking about stuuf thats actually interesting. The fact that none of the others have a half decont mobile client is where Jaiku makes it's big mark. What's the point of soical networking if you've got to be sat in front of a computer? Also it drags in your feeds from everywhere else.

Download it, check it out. And add me too, I'm there as munkimatt. I'll be a lot more active with the new client.

Extremely annoyed with Nokia

2007-08-10T10:20:00.000-07:00

OK, I love my N95. I really do. As any owner will tell you though, there's two pretty annoying aspects to it; the battery life and the lack of RAM. But you know, you get on with it till you're due an upgrade and...

WHAT THE HELL IS THIS!!! US N95s are getting more RAM and a bigger battery? Despite the obvious 'Hang on, why have I bought a product that you now seem so desperate to upgrade' annoyance, I'm annoyed on one further level. This is because I e-mailed Nokia not too long ago to ask a couple of questions. Both of these questions related to the lack of battery and RAM. Guess what repsonse I got? The general 'everything is fine with the N95' e-mail.

If that's the case, then explain this Nokia; Why have you felt the need to upgrade it?

Bit of an accident...

2007-08-08T14:04:00.000-07:00

Sorry things have been slow. Along with the new job I had a massive car crash on Monday morning which involved me crashing into a stationary vehicle at 60 miles per hour and writing off 4 cars in the process. I'm OK, the guy I crashed into came off much worse but thankfully he's OK, just whiplash.

My back is very sore at the minute, so sitting in front of a computer isn't exactly helping but I'll do my best to squeeze new posts in whenever I can.

Thanks for your patience.

Nokia N81 Viral Site

2007-08-08T13:50:00.000-07:00

Nokia have launched a viral site for the soon to be announced N81 over at www.070829.com/. It's a rathy trippy effort so I suggest not watching it after taking acid.

Various symbols float around, pause the movement (you'll grasp what I mean) when it's shaped like the N81 and you'll get treated to one of the wierd video sequences. Do it enough times and you'll see a timer on the screen...

The timer counts down to the 29th August, when Nokia are having a big event at the Ministy of Sound niteclub. They're supposedly using this event to announce the launch of their music store so it makes sense to launch a music themed handset at the same time (see this story over at allaboutsymbian.com)

If anyone needs a reminder of the N81, Symbian-Guru did a write-up a while ago which you can check out here.

Can anyone help with the blog?

2007-08-02T13:13:00.000-07:00

I would like to play around with the design of the blog, but I have absolutely no idea how to do it. All I want really is it to be wider, with a second bar, the same as the one of the right hand side on the left hand side.

Can anyone help?

Txt2Lock - a preview

2007-08-02T12:57:00.000-07:00

Last week I got an e-mail from a chap called Ed. Ed has made a little program for Symbian devices called Txt2Lock which basically does exactly what it says on the tin.

One thing that bugs the hell out of me when I lose a phone (a regular occurance) isn't the fact I've actually lost it. It's more the thought that some little scrote is using MY phone. Yeah I know, at soe point it's gonna get locked for calls, but he could still use it as an MP3 player, watch videos, all sorts of goodness.

This is where Txt2Lock comes in. I'm gonna do a full review in a few days when I get the final version for the N95 but the long and short of it is that it makes the phone completely frigging useless. No calls, data is encrypted. Even the screen goes off. And only you can turn it back on!

Serious, it's cracking and it's only gonna be 6 quid for normal people. I say normal people because if you're reading this blog (Reading this blog makes you a super special person, not a normal person) you'll get a discount off it. when I do the full review, I'll be sticking a promo code on here for you lucky lucky people.

Stay tuned.

N800 - final thoughts

2007-08-02T11:56:00.000-07:00

Long time no post.

OK, I've had the N800 for two weeks now, and I'm a bit gutted it's going back. There's a couple of reasons for this. One, I've just started a new job so the time I've had to play with it has been really slim. I'm up at 5 every moring and driving over 300 miles minimum daily, so I've been shattered. It's meant I couldn't post on here as much as I wanted, and has limited the time I've had to find out extra bits and bobs about the N800.

Second problem is a bit more... controversial. There are some sites/blogs out there which are really helpful and post great little bits of info about the N800 or new apps. Good examples of this are Symbian-Guru, which is one of the few 'Must read' blogs, and maemoapps.com (I think Jonathan runs the site but I've been too shy to ask). However I always think that a device succeeds when there is a supportive community around it who help EVERYONE, not just those who are in the 'clique'. I'm not going to mention names here, but I think it's pretty crap when you ask questions because you want to learn more about something and you get completely ignored because they class you as (to use a forum term that I despise) a 'noob'. I know another well known blogger has posted the same issue in regards to the same problem and I completely agree with that person. If you are experienced enough with a device and you frenquent forums don't just keep it all to yourself or the people who are high enough up in the food chain for you to actually speak to them, you should share youre knowledge with less fortunate people.

A device lives or dies by the support around it, and a massive part of that support is forum users. You fail to help others, the device suffers as people will just get frustrated and ultimately give up.

Rant over.

All this said, I love the N800, I just want more time with it. I'll end up buying one, just because I feel I've yet to explore everything it can offer me. Just it's basic function of an Internet Browser is handled with aplomb. Fast loading, well rendered pages which works extremely well with the touch screen. In regards to the screen, it's acurate and responsive when being touched and looks extrememly bright and clear. It makes using the device a pleasure.

There's some superb little touches, like the one I'm gonna show in this video below.

That's pretty cool (the menu, not my fat hand...) and makes it a real joy to use and much mroe convinient.

Mulimedia playing is as stated superb. Videos look clean and crisp with good sound thanks to those cracking speakers.

As shown on the first video, i love the old school gaming aspect that's possible on the N800. I've occupied myself many times now by sitting back and playing a bit of Sam n' Max or Day of the Tentacle (If you've never played them, go play them NOW. Finish reading this later.) Screw new games, give me classics any day of the week.

So yeah, all in all it's great. Brilliant in fact. It works great and looks bloody awesome. I've lost count of the amount of times people have stopped mid conversation when I've pulled it out and asked 'what's that?' and then stood with jaws open as I've shown the basic stuff it can do. But I know it could be a million times more brilliant if I had the time and ultimately the support that wouldn't had helped me to use it to it's full potential. So I guess I'm off to put an order in, because I'm not going to let it get away! It's an absolute pleasure to use.

As I've said before, many thanks to WOM World for sending this out to me. I've really enjoyed my time with the N800, and I really appreciate it. So again, thanks very much.

Thanks to WOM World, Symbian-Guru and maemoapps.com/

Cool little game for your N-Series

2007-07-26T06:35:00.000-07:00

I was flicking through Symbian-Gurus site and he's posted on this awesome little game which works on the N95 and I expect other S60v3 devices.

It's been made by the Budapest University of Technology and Economics' Dept. of Automation and Applied Informatics who are also the chaps responsible for Symtorrent and Symella, two great apps for S60v3 devices. the game is basically Labyrinth and involves you rolling a ball around the screen to a destination. You could use the keys, but the best thing here is that it can use that camera to determine at what angle the phones being held at, and then moves in that direction!

it's pretty basic, there's no fancy textures or anything but it's all displayed in 3D and apparently you can multiplayer over bluetooth, which is damn cool.

I'm not a massive fan of mobile games, but if we see more of this kind of thing then I'm all for it.

Download it here!

N800 video review

2007-07-25T18:29:00.000-07:00

OK, I know it's late. Seriously late. And it probably wasn't worth waiting for either was it? Sorry about that.

Well it's my first review, it's on a system I'm not overly familar with so I have my excuses!

I'll be posting more as and when I find new things.

Any comments much appreciated.

N800 video coming soon

2007-07-22T18:18:00.000-07:00

I know there's not been any updates for a few days, I've been really busy this weekend, I've done nearly 8 hours of driving on Saturday and Sunday so I'm shattered. Just to let you guys know, there's a video coming of the N800 which I've been given to play with for a couple of weeks. Should be posted on Monday.

v12.0.013 official changelog

2007-07-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

3G.co.uk Forums member hneklbr has just posted what he says is the offical v12.0.013 firmware changelog.

Check it out below.

New features
* A-GPS
* HSDPA indicator

General improvements/changes
* Property watcher added to the screen saver
* Improvements to WLAN sniffer
* WLAN stability improvements
* Screen saver timeout default value stays correct after MMC backup
* Stability improvements to memory card formatting
* Image editor stability improvements
* Lifeblog input improvements
* Colors of Java Midlet icons no longer scaled down
* Localization corrections
* Voice mail number now correctly read from SIM card
* Download Manager stability improvements
* Improvements to animations in Midlets
* Multimedia menu stability improvements
* BT stability improvements
* Correction to WLAN interoperability problem with Netgear router
* Correction for High Capacity memory cards
* Correction to backlight blinking
* Barcode reader no longer prevents deep sleep
* Improvements to USB plugin handling
* Better Out of Memory handling
* Performance improvements
* Improvements to RCPI based roaming(WLAN)
* Improvements to cached PMKSA authentication with WPA2-PSK(WLAN)
* Correction to secondary SSID handling(WLAN)
* Improvements to registration in offline mode(WLAN)
* Stability improvements to Quick Office
* Correction to WLAN setup wizard
* Multimedia Menu shown correctly also when Chinese image as a background image
* Calendar stability improvements

Browser
* Stability improvements to text box input in browser
* HSDPA throughput improvements
* Improvements to file upload
* General stability improvements to Browser
* Animated images shown correctly in Web pages

Media Player
* Stability improvements for incoming call handling during music playback
* Volume and time bar positions adjusted
* Music store closed properly after use
* Memory handling improvements in Music Player
* Audio Handling improvements
* Improvements to Find in music player
* Improvements to reconnection to live stream
* APN query shown correctly in Music Shop

Gallery
* JPEG scaling no longer corrupts exif info
* Image print stability improvements
* Stability improvements in Gallery
* Performance improvements to slide show
* Improvements to UPnP picture copy from Media Server
* UPnP stability improvements
* Improvements to image rendering
* Correct LSK shown after a call
* Zoom&Pan hidden when TV-out is connected
* RSK & LSK shown correctly after editing play list
* Correction to image rendering after screen saver is activated
* Music selection dialog shown also in landscape mode in slideshow settings

Messaging
* Stability improvements in messaging application
* Improvements to email handling
* Improvements to email sync
* Correction to MMS sending during VT call

VOIP
* Improvements to SIP settings
* Callback request call is made secured like the first call
* Corrections to VoIP emergency call handling

Camera
* Changing camera scene mode no longer changes Sharpness value
* Phone goes now correctly to deep sleep after taking images

Telephony
* CPHS corrections
* Call forward icon now shown correctly also after reboot
* MT video call shown correctly on UI

Navigation
* Lots of maps improvements
* Position Method now selected correctly
* WLAN APN removed from AGPS positioning server settings

My own person Jealous Computers attack!

2007-07-18T09:37:00.000-07:00

it's happened to me!

Warning to all Nseries Users!

2007-07-18T06:07:00.000-07:00

There's been a warning put out from the Healthy Computung Volunteer Group. there's been a rise in attacks from jealous computers aimed at N95 users.

This is becoming a serious epidemic, and on Jealous Computers site you can see footage, and a map showing where attacks have takken place across the world so far.

I've put a couple of videos here showing what you should be careful of.

Remember kids, stay vigilant out there. You might be next.

New video of N-Gage... sorry, NeXtGen

2007-07-17T10:22:00.000-07:00

I had a comment left on my original post regarding the videos for the N-gage system for Nseries handsets. It was from a group called Project NeXt, and they were basically telling me that the videos came from them originally.

I went over and checked the site, and while going through the forum, they've got a new one posted up, which you now can check out here!

So we now know the prices for the games, which are as follows...
Trial = Free
Day Pass = 1 Euro
Subscription = 5 Euro
Full Game = 15 Euro

Now that's not bad, and the ability to 'try before you buy' can only be a good thing. I'm sure most of us have been stung by crap games before.

Anyway, check out the video, and check out Project NeXts site as well.

[Thanks to Project NeXt. Sorry for not giving you the credit last time round!

New Version of Bliin available to download.

2007-07-13T13:42:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post to let you know that the new version of Bliin has been made available to download today. I've been playing around with the new version on my N80 last night, and N95 today and there's some marked improvements. I've posted about Bliin here before, and I was impressed but slightly critical of the software. Turns out that was my fault. You really shouldn't install apps to your memory card, it makes them run awfully. Since shifting my install location, I've been using it nearly every day.

The opening page has a bit more info on there, showing what part of the connection stage you're at. Also shows how many available GPS points you have, so N95 owners will see both their internal and external GOS if they have one, and an option to switch between the two.

A big thing for me is that pics you upload are now scaled down before they are sent. This makes a huge difference. I uploaded a test pic and was amazed when it was sent in a few seconds.

There's a big feature that they've added this time which they seem very proud of, and I think it's a great idea. they've now added an option to be shown as idle if you have no GPS signal. You can add bookmarks from the main site and then access these later to show people where they are. For example, I've got a bookmark on my house, so when I;ve not got GPS, people know I'm in! You can also be shown at your last known location too, so say it tracks you into a pub, you can set a bookmark there.

It's little updates like this that are gonna make this a must have app in my opinion.

I would also just like to mention the people who work at Bliin. they're a really friendly bunch who always leave you comments on stuff you've uploaded, and will help you out if there is a problem. There was a couple of little bugs with the new N95 version, and Tomas there spent a good few hours today sending me version after version, until we got one that worked right. they take in your feedback, and listen to what we have to say.

Cheers guys, thanks for the new version, and keep up the good work.

Check out the release page to see what the updates are, or hit here to go to the main page and download the app.

N-Gage gaming promo for N-Series NEW INFO

2007-07-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

You may or may not remember Nokias N-Gage gaming platform. To cut a long story short, it was a dog. The first model was incredibly poorly designed, including the fact you had to hold it on it's side to make a call. The second, the QD, was much better, but the damage had been done by then and it ended up sinking.

Back in 2005 Nokia announced they would be re-invented the N-gage platform, but this time as a part of the N-series. It will basically allow you to play high quality games, on your N-Series device. Sounds good.

It's all been a bit quiet recently on this front, but they the boys over at Symbian-freak post up this, a video containing some in game action from a selection of N-gage games being developed.

Now, anyone who knows me know I love my video games, but I'm not overly keen on mobile games, so this fills me with glee. Some of the graphics on there (that fighting game) look incredibly good for a mobile device.

The games from what I've read don't seem to come on memory cards, they are all downloadable from a central platform. Time to invest in those 4gb miniSDs.

Keep an eye on Future Watch. It'll keep you up to date with deveopments regarding this.

Ricky at Symbian-Guru has been a busy boy, and found a walk through of the interface. There's a few echoes of the Xbox Live system, which is by my money the best online gaming service out there.

Second Video via Symbian-Guru. Ricky finds all the good stuff!

This is what your N95 could have been.

2007-07-11T20:02:00.001-07:00

As much as I friggin' hate Youtube (clue : a lot) it does occasionally come out with a few corkers, like the time some security footage from my local Tesco turned up on there, and the end of one of the clips shows me a person who strongly resembles me baring his white arse at a CCTV camera. Ahem.

Anyways... Youtube also has witty little vids like this one. Surely the greatest phone ~~ever~~ never made?

Personal favourite line is 'It has Bluetooth, Infrared, Redtooth and Normaltooth'

Another fake N95

2007-07-11T19:48:00.000-07:00

Another one of those wonderful fake N95s has shown up. Interestingly, this one's got a gig of built in storage. The OS looks rather nice too.

Check Just Another Mobile Phone Blog for the info (saves me typing it all again..)

Couple of pics for you lovely people.

How long do you reckon it shall be till we see more horror stories from the depths of ebay?

Nokia Mosh

2007-07-10T21:01:00.000-07:00

Being an insomniac has its plus points. You get to stay up late, and find random things like this post at TechCrunch about Nokias new social networking site, Mosh.

Now clicking that link is not too exciting admittedly, because there's just a password protection screen. Not much use unless you know the password... which I found.

Now I'm fairly sure I shouldn't be on this...

there's not much I can tell you right now, simply because I don't have a friggin' clue what's going on. As you can see from the screenshots, there is a section to downlaod apps, videos, pictures, music, photos etc. You can upload stuff to the site too. There is sections called Raves and MoshBOX, but I don't know what they do yet.

I'm not sure if they'll keep my account on here, seen as it seems like a closed alpha test phase.

You can also point your mobile web browser towards http://mosh.nokia.mobi to see the mobile site side of things.

All looks very exciting doesn't it!

A few thoughts on v12.0.013...

2007-07-06T20:44:00.001-07:00

Posting at 4:44AM. That's a bad sign...

OK, just a couple of little things I've noticed myself, and few I've heard others talking about.

A-GPS is great. I'm getting seriously fast lock on times. This was a major issue with a lot of people so i hope it's gonna cheer up those who were unhappy with it.

General operating seems faster. Navigating, loading apps, gallery etc.In fact the gallery seems much better, but then again I don't have much stuff in there.

Heard a few saying WLAN is much mroe stable. Can only be good news. Hope the people having No Gateway Reply issues have got a fix now.

Nokia PC Suite backup is rubbish. It corrupted a bunch of my apps, which has annoyed me vastly.

No new version of Maps included. What's going on there then? I thought that was a given?

Maps doesn't seem to want to recognise my external GPS anymore. Not too fussed, as I;m all about TomTom at the mo, but still, it used to work, why not now?

All in all though, seems like a positive update.

v12.0.0.013 released for N95!

2007-07-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

that's right boys and girls, get your new firmware update NOW!!!

Black N95... with 8bg hard drive???

2007-07-04T17:12:00.000-07:00

OK, please god don't flame me if this turns out to be fake, but I've just found this on Symbian-Guru

Follow the links through. It's not easy to read, but there's definate info relating to an 8gb N95 in there.

Excuse me. I've just soiled myself in excitement.

Navicore Bletooth GPS receiver

2007-07-04T10:58:00.000-07:00

Ordered a Bluetooth GPS receiver from www.mobilefun.co.uk on Saturday and it's shown up today and I've gotta say it's great. It only cost a touch over £30 but it works fantastically well.

It paired in seconds, locks on to the satellites VERY quick and keeps that lock. I've been using it with Bliin and it's not dropped out once. I've not been out with it either, it's just sat by my window while I'm on the computer with my phone next to me.

To get one thing straight, I've got no issue with the internal GPS at all. it's just I wanted a bit more flexibility for apps such as Bliin so it comes in really handy. Also, my missus can use it with her phone, which has no inbuilt GPS.

best of all it's tiny. Screenies below show its size compared to a Wii remote to give you an idea of how small this is.

Top piece of kit. if you're after that extra flexibility, or if you're having issues with the inbuilt, you can't go wrong with this.

N95 Screen Hack

2007-07-04T05:15:00.000-07:00

Hey kids, I'm back around.

I'm not gonna run through the stuff thats happened since my last post, since you've probably got the news from elsewhere.

So I'll start with this. Randomfan over at the 3G.co.uk Forums has just posted this story he's found on Engadget.

This simply has to be one of the greatest hacks I've seen in ages. If you're thinking what I'm thinking, I'm all about this and the SatNav together... mmmm....

Check down for the video, hit the link for the full story over at Engadget.

[VIA Engadget and 3G.co.uk Forums Big shout to randomfan for the find

I'm still alive!

2007-06-30T14:14:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd let you know that I'm still doing this, I've just not updated because I'm having one of those seriously busy weekends (kids birthday parties, gigs etc) As soon as things settle on Monday, I'll do an update then. With my new hangover.

In other news...

2007-06-28T17:32:00.000-07:00

...I just got a bloody speed ticket!!!!

Now to download a speed camera database...

Episode five

2007-06-28T17:31:00.000-07:00

N95 vs iPhone episode four

2007-06-27T20:48:00.000-07:00

N95 vs. iPhone

2007-06-26T16:39:00.000-07:00

Episode three!

Begging Corner!

2007-06-26T07:02:00.001-07:00

OK, i need help! I've dropped my N95, and my battery cover is screwed. If i pick it up, it drops straight off and out falls the battery. It's not good.

So if anyone's got a spare battery cover, preferably a warm graphite one knocking about, PLEASE can I have it! My phones now held together with sticky tape and glue, which doesn't really look too hot.

N95 vs iPhone

2007-06-25T19:25:00.001-07:00

I wasn't gonna put these on here, but they've made me laugh so much I thought 'why not?'

Episode one

Episode two

Well done to Symbian-Guru and IntoMobile. these are GENIUS. And I do not use that word lightly.

Nseries DJ Mixer

2007-06-25T06:20:00.000-07:00

I found this app, and I think it's absolutely brilliant! I found it on a forum the other day (which I can't post as it's full of all kinds of dodgynesss...) I since then I've been playing with it none stop since then. It's just one of those little apps that's great fun to use, and you know, it possibly could come in handy at some point!

You simply load in your tracks using the really simple interface, and then you're literally ready to go.

All your tacks then go into a playlist. This can only be 9 tracks long, but you can edit the list throughout you're playing. And before anyone says anything, yes I know the tracklisting is a bit random, but it was just a test OK!

And this is a screenie of where you mix from. It's a really smiple interface, but it actually works really well. The crossfader in the middle means that an up or down movement starts your shift from one song to the next.

There's also a Karaoke function on there too, but I've not tried that yet for fear of breaking my own phone.

Brings a whole new meaning to being a 'Mobile DJ' doesn't it?

Download it here (sorry it's megaupload, but I can't figure out how to do it!) DJ Mixer for Nseries

More info about v12.0.013

2007-06-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

Symbian Guru has posted some more info about changes he's noticed with the new firmware.

No point of me re-typing his post, so head over there and check it out.

N95 plus iRiver

2007-06-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

Just read something really interesting on 3G.co.uk. According to one of the chaps on there, pa49, any iRiver MP3 player with a host port will interface with your N95! This will allow you to upload or download tracks, pictures etc. via the two devices. He's using a H340 model.

Led me to wonder, would any other devices do this? Would try it myself, but my iPod was nicked. Swines.

Mobile Web Server and things I want.

2007-06-24T16:05:00.000-07:00

I would have liked to have taken this oppotunity to give you an update on how I'm getting along with Nokia Mobile Web Server but I came across two problems. One, I couldn't remember any log on details. Two, I've got serious hayfever, and can't stop sneezing. Not really helping.

So, in celebration of my runny nose, I want to know how the hell to stop hayfever. Those little tablets don't work for toffee.

Zoovision

2007-06-24T06:54:00.000-07:00

I should start out by saying, no, it's not a live web feed for some zoo somewhere, and you can watch to monkeys fling poo on your N95. However, if any developers out there are reading this, I think that's a great idea.

Video streaming is all the populaa on these internets, and you gotta be honest, the behemoth YouTube pretty much rules the roost. However, their mobile service is shi.... somewhat below par. I quite like to check out videos online, so youtube's general rubbishness for my phone is a bit annoying.

So I was pretty excited when I see a thread last night on 3G.co.uk Forums from Sean at Zoovision, asking us to try their new high quality feeds I was straight in there.

I can keep this quite simple actually. It's great. For a streamed video, the quality is superb, audio good, no lack of sync between audio and visual streams, and importantly for me (as discussed before, I'm not patient) it loaded super quick. The connection is used was my standard 3G connection, and I don't live in a HDSPA area.

All in all, good work Zoovision, and keep those videos coming!

Check out the test video for yourself. Zoo Vision Test Video On your mobile obviously. Or it makes the whole thing pointless.

N95 saves man from angry girlfriend!

2007-06-23T14:08:00.000-07:00

Just read this story over on The Nokia Blog

Ah, technology. saving men from angry women. It's a wonderful world.

A little moment that made me smile

2007-06-23T13:55:00.000-07:00

Just had to say this. Today on 3G.co.uk Forums I found a post with a guy asking a few questions. At the end of the post, he was telling me to keep up the work with this blog.

This haas totally made my day, cos you're never really sure if people read these things, so I'd just like to say thanks very much to gkaloy10

And if you do read this... please leave comments. Things like that make this feel worthwhile.

In other news... it's a slow news day.

EDIT

Thanks to randomfan too. He was the man who popped my blogging comment cherry, and for that I shall never forget that moment when I awoke from my alcohol induced stupor to find a little message from him.

Come back Bliin, all is forgiven... kinda.

2007-06-22T13:23:00.000-07:00

Woke up today to a nice e-mail from someone called Stef. I'm guessing Stef works for Bliin (either that or she just bloody loves it) because she was asking me to give it another try, because there's been a couple of changes. Seen as I've got a face that looks like I did a few rounds with Ricky Hatton it's not like I could much to do today, so I thought why not.

First things first. It works if you put the time into it and your patient. The other day when I tried it, I was in a bad mood I guess, and had no patience. The software for your phone is still a bit dodgy, but I'll come to that later. After getting a lock on, my missus looked at the computer and found me easily. She tracked me while I went round the corner to the chippy.

Here's a screenshot of what you'll see when you're looking at Bliin on your PC. And that's me, bang in the middle. Sorry about the poor photo, but it was my test image.

One massive plus point is that today I actually managed to upload the photo, unlike the other day where it just did nothing. Stef confirmed what I thought, the servers were a bit busy, so everything was backing up.

I've still got one little problem with it. The software. It's really hard to type anything, it sometimes won't go past a screen saying Press 0 for menu. Press what you want, it won't move!

When it works, this is a pretty awesome little thing though. The missus was genuinely amazed watching me drive around on this little map. I'll be looking forward to the next version to come out, because this could turn into something seriously good.

Thanks to Stef for taking the time to e-mail me.

Slightly swolen face...

2007-06-22T06:08:00.001-07:00

Excuse the lack of updates, but after having my face beaten to a pulp last night, I'm less than inclined to be doing this. As soon as I can move my jaw, I'll be back.

Mobile Web Server

2007-06-21T07:30:00.000-07:00

I keep reading here and there about Nokia Web Server. Decided to give it a go today, so even though it's not new news at all, I'll let the 2 people who read this (my girlfriend and my mum I expect) know what I think.

New N95 Firmware

2007-06-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

I can't confirm it yet, because I've not got my cable handy, but Symbian-Guru is reporting that there is a new N95 firmware, dated yesterday. New version number is v12.0.013.

More info as it comes kids!

UPDATE : It's not officially launched Symbain Guru seems to have a prerelease version. I need to more higher up in this blogging chain thing so I get all this stuff free. Still, could be useful if people actually read this...

VIA http://symbianguru.typepad.com/welcome/2007/06/new_n95_firmwar.html

N80 firmware update

2007-06-20T11:34:00.000-07:00

For those of you still using your N80s, symbian-freak has posted that there is an update available. I've connected mine, and it says I can upgrade from v4.0707.0.7 to version 5.0719.0.2

Last firmware update wasn't too good in my opinion, so hopefully this resolves a few things.

VIA http://darlamack.blogs.com/ and http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/news/item/5468_v5_for_the_N80.php

Bliin

2007-06-20T10:26:00.001-07:00

More social netowrking eh...

A bit of news caught my eye on BBCs website this morning. I'll stick you a link here so I don't have to explain!

So long and short, social netowrking with geo-tagged data? Sounds brilliant, where do I sign up?!?

Well that took a while to actually get to sign up, let alone download the app. I think the server would have been under one heavy load considering that the website was front page on Auntie Beeb. When I got round to installing the app (it's a 120kb+ piece of Java) the first thing that struck me was the interface is a touch on the shoddier side. It's still beta though, so changes could happen to that.

Two pretty major problems though. One is it's nigh on impossible to type anything in. It seems like the keypad button presses get missed, or ignored or something, but it took me 5 minutes to type my name and password! I'ma pretty short tempered guy, so when I kept getting 'mtmkimatt' instead of 'munkimatt' I normally would have deleted it there and then. Any letter that requires more than one press, you're gonna struggle with it. No, I though, can't delete it. I've got a blog that no one reads and those no ones need to know if it works!

Well no. After managing to get into the program, getting everything online I was pretty damn excited! So I took a picture with the program, clicked upload and then... nothing. Just said uploading for ages and then came up with an error message.

Pretty hard to recomend something that doesn't work. The idea seems great, but poor software with a shoddy interface lets it down badly. Hopefully this can be resolved in future releases, because there is a huge about of potential there.

I'm gonna keep giving it a go though, see if I get anything. Anything at all. Because that would be super.

Head off to www.bliin.com if you feel a need to try it yourself.

Not much point of me posting a picture of something that doesn't work so... instead I'll give you a pictureof a lion with huge balls.

Update on Jaiku

2007-06-20T04:06:00.001-07:00

Well after working a few things out for myself, I've found that the version of Jaiku we have to download IS NOT the one shown in the video! The video version is a private beta to lauch in July, while ours is the previous version. Apparently there is a massive difference in quality between the two versions.

Time for me to a)start grovelling or b)start waiting.

Opera 4.0 Dimension Beta

2007-06-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

A new version of the Opera browser has launched today at beta stage. I registered for it yesterday and it showed up today! Anyways, I installed it but it didn't seem to want to pair to my BT Homehub. Wierd. Anyways, it worked through my GPRS connection fine. I've had quite a few lockups so far, but's it's beta software, and that's what you expect right?

Visit http://www.operamini.com/beta/ to grab yourself a copy.

Jaiku

2007-06-19T19:49:00.000-07:00

I never really caught on the whole Twitter thing, probably because I never had a blog, so I thought I should give it a go now. I was drawn to Jaiku though, cos I liked the idea of having a client installed straight to my handset to get updates from. it's available for Series60v3 owners.

I'd like to get a few people on here to test it out, so get it installed and we can see what we think.

Couple of screenies.

Here's a video of it too from a guy called Jonathans blog. Tells you far more than I ever will know!

Hmmm... Just thinking. Is it Ok to show videos from other peoples blogs? I don't know yet, but I'm sure I'll gte told off at some point for it!

You gotta love those crazy copies!

2007-06-19T18:55:00.000-07:00

This isn't really the kind of thing I'm after with this blog, but I saw this today and had to post it. With a 3Megapixel Camera and a touchscreen it could be quite good in it's own right if it wasn't such an obvious horrible copy! All that said though, if Nokia had released this... you would, wouldn't you!

Apart from that keypad from hell.

Full spec (in case you were maybe thinking of getting one...) over here http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/12/keepin-it-real-fake-part-lix-e-pda-v16-mocks-nokia-n95

Lets get this going!

2007-06-19T18:04:00.000-07:00

OK, first post time!

Let me explain what's going on here. I've been snooping round these here internets for quite some time now and I'm loving the mobile phone blogs that I've seen around this place such as Marks thenokiablog and Darla Macks blog so I though I'd give this a go myself, and see what I could do!

At 24, I've been through a fair few phones, around the 30 mark to be precise, so it's given me a pretty good idea of what I like, and what I detest. To get it out the way, I detest Motorolas. Don't ask me why, but that menu system really grinds on me and makes me want to punch kittens. What I do like though, is the Nokia N series range, and Symbian 60. I've had a thing for that OS since I first laid my hands on a 7650 and I still like it today. Right now, I'm on an N95.

All this said though, it's more the tech that excites me, so anything that surfaces that makes me go 'Mmmm....' will be fully featured on here.

What I'm going to be doing is trying to get the latest bits of info from around the world of phones, and squeeze it into this tightly compacted space that shall known from here forth as Nokia Geek blog. I'll be posting video reviews of bits of software that I find lying around the place, and will be letting you know what's worth installing, and what's completly and utterly not. I'll be sharing stuff as much as I can as well (within legal guidelines of course!) to give us all a chance to use the newest apps around.

I'm going to give a pre-emptive shout here to the people at 3g.co.uk. It's a great forum, with some really good people on here, who I'm hoping will post a bit on here too.

See you all soon!

Matt