MobileDan’s Weblog

It’s been a bit since my last post…

I’ve been slacking…

Sorry!

Ok, in a nutshell…  in about May I received a Nokia 5800 Xpress Music… I’ve already posted about that here, but in the following months (it’s all actually been a blur) I received a N79… it was pretty nice, but like i said in my last post, I cannot go back to buttons… Maybe I am broken?

It’s actually a shame, because I really wanted to like that phone, but have found that I am completely touch screen from here on out…

Unless the N86 can win me over…

Enter the N97!

I was asked to go with the Wom World / Nokia 24/7 tour with such bloggers as

Matthew Bennett

Jonny Bruha

George Kelly

Andrew Currie

What an experience!  the task was to pretty much go 24/7 using nothing BUT the N97, its GPS, the amazing 5mp Carl Zeiss optics camera, the comfortable slide out (or pop out whichever you prefer calling it) keyboard. 32GIG! of installed memory with the option to upgrade another 16 gig Micro SD card, the home screen with the widgets which made using the phone’s features that much easier because they were all accessable from the home screen… ie. the facebook app, the weather app, up to 8 contacts on shortcut, up to 8 apps on shortcut…  all around, I fell in love with the device…

But, what was more exciting than that…

I was tasked to be the ‘wrangler’ of the above mentioned bloggers, or “voices” as they put their devices through rough and tough trials!

For those readers who didn’t happen to follow the Nokia N97 24/7 campaign, we all met in LA, traveled to SF then off to Chicago and finally ending in NYC! They were tasked to push the device to it’s fullest, we used public transportation, hiked around town, and to most of the touristy places, seeing and doing as much as we could do… all said and done, the 5 of us generated about 20 Gigabites of content!

All in the course of 2 weeks…

We drove up the Pacific Highway and had amazing conversations, we attended BarCamps in all of the cities we visited. and discussed amongst other things, where we see the future of mobile technology (usually at the expense of me being called a mobile addict, always having my eyes on my phone… (i’ve gotten better about texting and surffing while I drive guys! Which is a serious safety concern throught the world, and really isn’t worth the risks taken!)  )

It was a great experience, and I look forward to many more!  Please take the time to visit the above bloggers’ websites as well as My new employer’s website, 1000heads / WomWorld/Nokia

That’s right!  Welcomed to the UK by 1000Heads, who run WomWorld/Nokia, I am the new Voices Executive for the US!

I am writing this post, from a bus (with Wi-Fi!) from Oxford UK to Heathrow Airport, returning from my 1 week of training here at both the Milton & London offices!

I am excited to see that there are going to be exciting changes and improvements in the US market for WOM World/ Nokia and that I can be a part of it!

Expect a lot of more postings regarding this, although I am wondering if I should post this to my personal site instead… and keep the format and information found on mobiledan as it was… (with more updates of course )

With that, I end this posting, but look forward to hearing your thoughts and ideas!

Daniel Silvers

MobileDan

dandandan

So, I think I’ve gotten my own self to believe that I am possessed…

The 5800 has been shutting off on me!

Well, this time, I Googled the symptoms Nokia 5800 shutting off” I found this

Turns out, the battery terminals on the 5800 are raised off of the back of the mother board… leaving a bit of play between the terminals and the battery… so, if the phone is jogged, or squeezed, the battery terminals loose their connection, even for but a moment, it’s enough, and it’s enough frustration for the user…

This might not be the case for ALL 5800 phones, or even all the users, but for those of us who it does deal with, here’s a solution!

What I did was I took the corner off my pack of cigarettes (I know, I’m trying to quit!) and I placed it under the battery, where the terminals are… Seems to have done the trick!

Hope this helps… I can’t claim this, all credit should go to damolee who is a sage at Nokia Support Discussions. I can only link my video and elaborate to the original post…

I think this could be a huge recall problem, so I hope someone can get something together, because this device really is a beautiful thing…

One Idea I have is for Nokia to send out stickers, to a certain thickness for dealers, repair centers and any consumer who asks for one. Have a specific location picked out on where it should go, and that should do.

for the units not yet sold, maybe a thicker battery? Maybe install the sticker where it’s needed?

I would really like to know why the battery is upside down though…

MobileDan

First impressions…

I like buttons… I like T9 buttons to be more precise… I don’t hate QWERTY, I just don’t like it very much…

for the same reason that I don’t like most other 2 handed devices… or things that really distract me, or my eyes from the road…

I think I’ve become a master at driving and T9 typing… My Perry Farrell vision is amazing…

Anyway…

The package arrived… turns out it’s a 5800 XM NAM!

I get home, sync the phone from the N78, seems to have taken a bit longer then usual, and I think it was because it was also syncing all my music from the 4 gig card over to the 8 gig card…

I walked around the supermarket in a daze, checking out all the neat things that could be done to change the experience of the phone… the home screen theme of contacts bar, having 4 main easy to touch and call contacts, seems cool, if I had more then my GF that I called on a regular basis… maybe more like 12, fill up the whole screen… but 4 is better then none…

I really like the feel of the screen, if that makes any sense, since it’s the screen that feels me… It reminds me very much of the screen on my N800 Internet Tablet, responsive enough for handwriting, I think I could get to like this phone!

Texting has proven to take a bit, when sitting down, I can easily turn the device to use the full screen QWERTY, but this is not so handy when driving, which I do a lot of… the mini QWERTY keyboard makes me feel like I should be using the included guitar pic or stylus, or keep going back and forth deleting my errors… there is also handwriting, but I haven’t set it up yet… but wait…. there is also the option for an Alphanumeric keypad… that is about as close to T9 as I am going to get… well, it is, but it does not have actual buttons, but… it is T9!  I am very very happy.

downfalls… no sportstracker… BOO… no contacts on Ovi, and no Conversation and no Nokia Email… so far… I need to find other things that I CAN do with this device… expect more updates as I start playing with this device more and more… for $338.39 from Dell Small Business, it’s so far sounding like a sweet deal!

As a part of my trial of the N96, I was trialing  NokiaviNe, I was also asked to do a mobi-documentary… a sort of “Day in the life of”

I have seen some other documentaries and chose to do mine a bit different.  I’m not up for video editing just yet… so bear with me

Using the N96 for music and as a camera, NokiaviNe for tracking and choosing one not so crazy day to track, I set out to document a part of my day.  Due to the nature of my current work, I cannot film inside clients houses’ so I more or less did updates to and from the job.

One of the things I like about “viNe” is that you can see the icon for music, photos and/or video and then click on that icon to see it via your browser.

As of now, I cannot search for my “viNes” or myself by username, so I have to zoom in on my area and find the specific “viNe’s” that I want to show for this post…NokiaviNe is still working on ways to be able to link to “viNes” so I am going to include screenshots of the NokiaviNe website.

Back to the task at hand, “A day in the life… Gosh I get sidetracked easily!

Zooming in on the Westchester County New York area I can see that I’ve posted a bunch! And that there are others around me also posting a lot as well!.

My day in my life viNe

Zooming in further I can pick out some of the videos that I posted, and can even view them on the page!

This video shows how I take the above picture…

Here are the rest of the videos I posted…eNjoy!

Driving though Westchester in morning traffic…

Finally with my boss, letting him do the driving…

Entering the city, Harlem River Drive, driving under I95 and the extention for the George Washington Bridge…

CrAzY  cAbBiEs!

Going to get eqiptment from the truck, and a blended video,

The last video kind of bleneded together, weird, I didn’t edit them, it just kind of worked out that way…

Hope you enjoyed this, I will next try to learn video editing whenever I get a chance!

Take care, and thanks for visiting!

Hello again, I’ve been keeping up with adding content to my site, and just in time!

The friendly gang at WOM World/Nokia have sent me yet another device to put through the paces…  It’s the New Nokia N96-3! for US3G!

It's a new N96!

Opening the box, I found, of course, a beautiful device, neatly framed in it’s all black package.

Would ya look at that!

Upon lifting the cover I read Nokia’s “we recycle” statement.

we:recycle

I never thought of it before, (I hope this doesn’t make me a bad person) but, acording to Nokia, Up to 80% of your old phone can have a second life… They go on to state that there are over 1 Billion Nokia users, and how we can all make a difference… Please check this Nokia website to locate a take back program in your country! Also, they urge the consumer to recycle the entire package as well! All of the plastic bags that I saw in the package wrapping the wires and whatnot all have the easily recognisable recycle triangles on them!

Please Recycle!

Peeling open the upper cover, I noticed the device flanked by a set of HS-45 ear buds on one side and the media controller on the other side… This is the layer of what you need on the go to listen to your tunes which can be stored in the 16 Gb of internal memory or or on your own Micro SD card, up to 8Gb!

Opening the package...

On the lower level you find the CA 75U A/Vconnector, for connecting the N96 to a TV to take full ability of the 40 hours of movies and video you can store on the device!(or on your Micro SD card ) Also below is the CA-101 Micro USB connector used to connect the device to your computer to take advantage of the different suites Nokia has to offer, for backup and data transfering. 

Ummm... Cables...

Also in the bottom of the box is the paperwork.  While looking through the paperwork I noticed the all usual documentation, warantee information, the getting started introduction manual, a disk with information on the new device, and the user guide.

Included paperwork

I couldn’t help but be surprised at how much smaller the user guide was compared to any other previous device that I remember. It seemed to be shorter in it’s wording, more direct and to the point, saving words, saving paper saving trees… And, also saving the reader from boredom!  I even saw instructions on using widgets, tiny web based applications

N96 on the left, N73 on the right

Last but not least, included in the paperwork, there were 2 last items that really caught my attention… Well…  Actually there were three…

The first is a guide to Ovi.com, describing Maps, N-Gage, and Multimedia and how to access these features on the device.  I’ve recently started using Ovi.com as well as the Ovi suite instead of just using PC Suite by itself.  I have grown to like the way that it handles, and look forward to more features being rolled out

The second pampllet was a more straight forward instruction guide telling the reader to “Get Out And Play”. Explaining how to access N-Gage and start playing!

The third item hidden under the paperwork was a DC-4 mobile charger for the device.  

Mobile charger for MobileDan...

I’d like to think that this was something that they folks at WOM World put in there especially for me… You know, Cause I’m MobileDan and all… 

Expect more on my review of the N96-3 in the near future…

The ups AND the downs that I’ve experienced in the last 2 days…

It could be pretty, or it could get nasty…  So keep your eyes peeled here to find out!

I was recently interviewed by Serko from MobileDivide regarding my mobile usage, devices as well as preferences in Mobile Operating Systems. From their website, their mission statement is clear,

MobileDivide is a technology based website devoted to the ever evolving world of mobile phone communication.

As the mobile technology space moves faster and reaches farther everyday we hope mobiledivide.com becomes your independent source of all things mobile phone related.

MobileDivide covers all the major mobile platforms including: Nokia’s S60, Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s BlackBerry and Google’s Android.

No matter which mobile phone you’re currently using mobiledivide.com is the place to be if you’re looking to learn and do more with your device than you ever thought was possible.

This Mobile Divide that we are facing with Mobile OS’s I feel will be a forging force in Function over Form.

Most people rarely take a second to think of what is driving their devices, yet we sometimes make it a big deal on what our computers are using.

With computers we have the 3 main OS’s of Windows Os, Apple OS as well as Linux OS

and with that we have people who are adamant about what what they use, and those that could care less.

With mobile devices we have a couple more choices of the IPhone OS, Windows Mobile

Symbian OS, RIM (Blackberry) Palm OS, and the new Google Android. And with that most of the users that I encounter in my analog life couldn’t care what’s inside…

My belief in using S60 in my devices stems from when I was awoken such as Neo in the Matrix, I realized that there is so much more that I am capable of doing, and so I got off the bandwagon of form and style as my priority and opted for function.  There is so much that I feel that I am able to do now that I am in control.

As you have or will read my blogs, you’ll realize I’m not the best with grammar, I’m not a business person, I’m a regular user, one who might demand many different things out of my day, and with that I haven’t found any devices running any other Mobile OS’s to be able to deliver to me, what it is that I need…

My hope is that you go seek out information, read my blogs, read others blogs on the right in my blogroll.

I know that a lot of what is out there is always in “Beta” and isn’t fully tested, but I can remember when only important people needed a cell phone, now, everyone has one.

There are a lot of apps that are being tested, and now when they are let out into the public every individual user might use the same exact device in so many different ways.

This brings me to my feelings on Networks and Unlocked phones…

I was wrong in my thinking that it was Stefan that said “Born Free”

I had read it at atmaspheric endevours HERE I suggest that anyone reading this, go listen to anything that Jonathan has to say!

In my opinion, the phone was meant to work as they designed it, with the ability to use add-ons… this is not the case when you purchase a device from the carrier, it seems crippled, and it is usually, not able to do everything that it’s creators envisioned.

I use AT&T because they are currently the largest GSM 3G network in the United States.  I noted GSM because that is the global standard, that is what most phone manufacturers are designing for!

I need my network for service to their network, I don’t need anything else that they offer me.  if you have a CD player installed in your car, should you pay an extra toll to use the highway?

There are so many people out there willing to help wake you up, especially in the current economic position we are in, this is where I believe that S60 should be marketing towards, FUNCTION OVER FORM, not the say the devices aren’t pretty, I think they’re Sexy! but it’s what’s inside that makes the phone what it is!

I’m tired of ranting, for now…

Watch the video, check the site often, and inform yourself!

As you may remember in a previous post I talked about some of the apps I was using in June…

“Share 3.0

Gmail

Google Maps

Google Search

Screenshot

Fring

Palringo

Device Status

Sports Tracker

and of course

Jaiku“

I’d like to talk about my current Apps, what they have replaced, and what I’ve also added to my arsenal.

Starting with Share, I’ve currently upgraded to Share 4.0 Although I haven’t gotten a chance to put it through it’s paces, I believe that it was a worthwhile upgrade as things seem quicker.

Gmail I still have loaded, but I’ve since moved on to Nokia Email as it lets me pull from up to 6 Email addresses! AND it can run in the backround.

Google Maps is still currently being used as I’ve gotten used to it, and it’s a solid App!

Google Search is still a favorite, although I’ve also been using the installed Search that comes with most newer S60 devices

Screenshot although I don’t use too often, I still wouldn’t even bother trying anything else, this is a free app that does the job perfectly!

Fring, hmm… My only problem with Fring is that whenever it’s running in the backround, and I am doing something else, it takes precedence, this gets very annoying when I am doing something else and the screen changes.  Even still, I prefer it to Palringo, but I have also been trying out Slick IM, so we’ll see…

Device Status, while nice to know info, I have not needed and have removed it from use.

Sports Tracker I am a HUGE fan of, and have recently received a device from WOM World with NokiaviNe installed, I am looking forward to comparing both!

and Jaiku, I wish there were a newer version, but there is not, but the tried and true version .80 is still great when I’m away from a PC (which is often )

Mobbler is a Last.fm scrobbler for devices, I like that I can also track my listening via my S60 device as well as my nano

Friend View is a new LBS (location based service) social app by Nokia, I like it so far because it lets me keep track my friends.

Flixwagon I have only recently started using, and it’s to replace Qik which I added since my last App review.  Flixwagon is now tied to Ovi.com and lets me stream video as well as save to my Ovi Share account.

Widsets is another interesting app which lets me customise my widgets and not necessarily install things to the device

The facebook app is really not an app, so much as a desktop shortcut, but it does the trick! it can be found in the downloads section of your S60 device

Any other Apps I might have missed, anything you think I should be using?  Drop me a comment!

EDIT! I completely forgot T9nav which is a handy app which lets me type in the numbers which corespond to the letters of apps, names of contacts or songs…

“Find anything on your mobile device instantly.

Music, websites, calendar entries, phone functions, contacts, whatever.

Just type in the first few letters and there it is. Unlock the power and potential of your mobile device with T9 Nav™.”

I am still trying it out, but have not noticed any battery drain because of it’s usage, but maybe I should put Device Status back on so I can test it further

Thanks for reading!

How I came to use N78, and why I believe it’s a solid device.

I’ve been using my  N73 for about a year, and although it doesn’t have US3G, I still find it to be an excellent device.  I say device because it’s more then just a phone.  I have come to use this phone for most of my E-Mail, IM, Photography, Social Networking, Calendar, Notes, Games, Maps… I use the heck out of it!

Sometimes I get the opportunity to trial other devices, and when I started using devices with GPS in them, I fell in love with SportsTracker and the ability to do precise positioning in Maps. This brings me back to the N78.

I was supposed to drive across the country to help move my brother from Westchester County NY to Las Vegas, NV. 

Westchester to Vegas

I am fortunate enough to personally know Jonathan Green of Atmaspheric Endeavors, and I asked him if there was a device of his not in current rotation that I could borrow for tracking my trip across the country with my brother.  He immediately volunteered his N78, he defined it as a solid device, and, a solid device it is!

The form of the N78 is the same candy bar form that I am familiar with, the buttons remind me of the N82, which I really loved even though at first I was worried that they would be hard to use, this was and is not the case!

N82

I wouldn’t call this a downgrade at all from the N82, they are both in their own fields, but some features that might be considered too much to pay for, for a daily use phone would save some money in the long run, such as the accelerometer and the xenon flash 5MP camera.

One thing that stood out for me though in the N78 that I must talk about is the FM Transmitter!

If you’ve been following this blog, you know that I drive a lot!  I have been plugging the phones into the headphone out jack on the phone, while this is nice, sometimes you might find yourself in a situation where there is no wire, and no tape deck adapter.  Setting it up is a breeze, my only problem was that because I live in Westchester County NY where it’s highly populated, so too are the FM stations, so I find myself changing the frequency back and forth, but I also have this problem with my XM receiver.  The quality is excellent!  But, I still have problems with overpopulation of FM in my area, so I choose to use the wire.

The flash on the camera is nice, even though it’s only the LED and not Xenon. It works well indoors and out, day and night.  The N78 comes with a 3.2MP Carl Zeiss optics camera which is still more then most camera phones in it’s price range.  And the difference that the CZ optics makes is HUGE!

The battery life is nice, it lasts me all day and I use SportsTracker, Nokia Email, Fring for IM and occasionally make phone calls

All in all, this is a solid device, still holding it’s own in the world, and being a solid, lower end NSeries device.  I have as of yet to try the N79, but think that that could also be a viable option.  Although I’ve heard of the N78 currently selling for under $300 which would make it more appealing then $4-500.

I believe that this would make an excellent starter phone for anyone interested in getting into S60, or just for getting out of whatever they’re currently using.  I’ve found that I can do so much more with my devices then others. I think that we need to start thinking of mobile devices as more then just phones, and once the idea of function over form sinks in, especially in these financial times, the better off we will be.

So, I’ve been borrowing Jonathan Greene’s N78 for about a week now…

I really need to write something up on it, and I will, but in the mean time… My N73 hasn’t been getting any use…

My girlfriend’s roommate Carlos uses an European LG Shine, and aside from it not having US3G, he seems to like it, but… When I suggested borrowing my N73, he seemedecstatic!

So, setting up a phone…

If you’ve been using Nokia for some time, you might take this for granted… as I did… I had to copy all his numbers from the Sim to his old phone (Just in case…)

Then… I had to blank my phone out, because I was finding it hard to just change the screen names and passwords… so, the good ol’ *#7370# and, we’re off…

Now, I wrote him an email with instructions… and I’ll post it here, but for new users getting into Nokia now, there is so much support! I mean, it’s just starting, but it’s starting to look really good!

There’s Ovi, which, in my opinion, is a sort of Apple Store…

It’s kind of weird at first, but on the top row you’ll find

Contacts..that is your contacts synced from your phone, remember to sync often.

Maps takes you to Nokia site, it downloads the maps you want to your phone for the maps app.

Share is their photo and video storage, another log in is necessary, as this was the original site.

Games takes you to n-gage Nokia’s game area where you can look at games to download to your phone.

Music is their music store, it’s not active in our market, but I like the Nokia music player more then iTunes.

Files you can access your PC from your phone… cool… And use 10 gig of storage FREE!!! Cool? Yup…

Calendar your calendar online, synced from your phone… if you lose your phone or if you’re at work and unable to use it, , you have your numbers, contacts and notes!

As for Apps, to install… that’s on you, you have to shop around, and see if you want it…

As for me, Lately, I’ve been using

Shozu, which uploads my pictures from one single upload to multiple sites, including Facebook!

I’ve been using SportsTracker, which i think is an excellent App, it was to be replaced or succeeded by, (and I was and am still looking forward to using) NokiaviNe, but since I haven’t received N96, I haven’t been able to form my own opinions… (I was told over a month ago it would be here in 2 weeks…)

Widsets of course…

Fring… but I’m going to start looking into Slick

Google Search…

Gmail…

Google Maps…

Weather bug which I found in the downloads on the phone…

Qik, for my video streaming…But i think I’m going to start using Flixwagon more often as it’s now for Ovi.

Scribe for posting to Wordpress from my phone, on the go…

and of course, Jaiku mobile… v. .80, anyone know of any other versions???

Important things to show were the cut and paste… shortcut keys, like hitting the 0 key for the Internet…

Any other things that i might have left out?

I hope that he enjoys it! I like him and a lot of our conversations revolve around technology, I don’t want him to feel that he missed so much, I just want him to see what is out there for him!

How do you get your friends or family off whatever they’re using and onto Nokia?

So, I’ve been a user of Sportstracker for a bit now… 

Over 500 Miles… and I’ve been having a good time with it… 

It’s a GPS app that people can use when running or biking… but since I drive a lot, I use it to track my trips.  When used with a phone that has music capabilities, It shows where on the map I was, and what track I was listening to!  I can even upload pictures and they will be geotagged as well!

This brings me to my next app, it’s called NokiaVine

which is still in beta, but I believe It’s going to be very similar, but I think it’s going to be more social in aspect. I cannot wait to try it out, and see how they market it to others…