Roland Tanglao's Weblog

Colin of All about N91 commented that the N80/Series 60 v3 SU-8W driver should work and it does, thanks! D'oh. It's very confusing to figure out which device runs which variant of Series 60. In my sleep deprived state, I mistakenly thought the N90 was also a Series 60 v3 device. Nokia, please update the SU-8W driver page (and also build this into the OS or pre-install it!).

After taking over 1200 photos and 50 videos with the Nokia N70 camera phone review unit (courtesy of the N70 Nokia Blogger Relations program, thanks Andy!) since I received it on January 20, 2006, it's time for an N70 review.

Ignorance is bliss. If I hadn't recently tried out Robert Scales' new Sony Ericsson K750 or Harry's Nokia N90 (the guy who told me where to buy my grey market Nokia 7610), I would be 100% content with the N70.

BOTTOM LINE:

The Nokia N70 Cameraphone is a fantastic cameraphone as well as a fantastic cellphone. Except for the lack of a macro mode, the 2 Megapixel stills are great and there's lots of great toys like in camera digital cross processing. And the video mode is great! Good-bye postage stamp videos! What would I buy with my own money? Hard to say, but if I could afford it, I think it would be either the just released N91 (so I can try WiFi) or the N90 (for the the macro mode). If I didn't have the money, I'd definitely pay for the N70 because it's more than good enough and I can (mostly) live without a good macro mode.

<RANT>

For me, the camera combined with always on mobile internet access is my killer app (i.e. ShoZu is my killer mobile phone app) for a mobile phone and while the camera is fantastic on the N70 (in comparison to the crappy RAZR phone camera or almost any other cameraphone out there except for the forthcoming Sony Ericsson and Nokia 3 Megapixel phones with optical zooms e.g. N93), I pine for the camera of the K750 and N91 with their killer macro modes.

But you won't catch me switching to Sony Ericsson! For all my criticism of Series 60, it's really the only viable mobile platform out there at the moment. Sony is unusable and has no software (compared to Series 60) and no way to develop software easily (Series 60 has python! go Nokia go!) and I hate Sony's proprietary memory stick. Motorola is unusable (but cool looking in the case of the Razr) and also has no software to speak of and no way to develop software easily and don't get me started on Java on mobile phones :-) ! And BlackBerry is a non starter: no camera not to mention no (well OK very little compared to Series 60) software and no way to easily develop software! Sorry but I don't need "always on" email ) and if I did, Profimail, or heck even mobile Gmail would be good enough

</RANT>

LIKES:

• Great still photos (unlike for example the cr*ppy camera on the Razr).
• Great video. High quality and big! Seems to be a little fuzzier than the 6630 when you move the camera but maybe that's just my jittery hands.
• Great phone phone. Excellent voice quality.
• Love the "no need to train" voice dialing mode.
• iSync works great (with hack and now in Mac OS X10.4.6)
• Lots of great apps like ShoZu
• Easy to write your own apps in Python if you are a developer.
• Love the in-camera digital cross processing effects (sepia, black and white, negative)

DISLIKES:

• The joystick is unusable. I like the one on Boris' 6630 much better. I always find myself hitting cursor down, up, left or right when I mean to press the joystick button. Nokia, please get this right consistently on your phones!
• No Macro mode
• Needs a button to save and retrieve user definable camera settings.
• Can't lock the camera cover so the camera always ends up opening when it's in my pocket.

In particular: IM+. Is it better than Agile Messenger?

From What's on my N90?.:

QUOTE

I've been using a Nokia N90 S60 smartphone for almost a month now. I have the full unlocked 3G version from Europe, not the crippled cracked out one you can buy at Ritz Camera in exchange for a new contract with T-Mobile.

...

Some of the built-in applications on the N90 are quite good. For example, the email client is fantastic. It supports IMAP, IMAP-IDLE, and email gets pushed to me as fast as my BlackBerry ever got it. I have no complaints there, really. The input device doesn't even bother me that much because a lot of my email when I'm mobile is consumption anyway, and I rarely have to type out a huge edict or anything unless I'm at a desk. Even the built-in browser is quite good. I have also installed Opera and Opera Mini but honestly I use the built-in browser most of the time.

But like any smartphone user, I have managed to accumulate some favorite applications over the last month that I feel are very useful, so I'll be outlining them in this post.

This post is a doozy. Get comfortable.

UNQUOTE

At least from a power user point of view, the Nokia Canada online store's selection of phones is disappointing. Unfortunately you can't buy the hot Nokia phones from the store which to my mind are the: 6630, 6680, N90, N70, etc. Just ho hum phones like the 6020, 6030, 6101, 6670, 3120, 3220, 6010, 6620, 6820, 7280, and my beloved 7610 (which was hot in summer of 2004 but isn't so hot at the end of 2005). Carrier Conspiracy or holiday scarcity (after all it only launched on December 1st)? I hope it's the latter but unfortunately I think it's the former and of course I hope to be proven wrong! Now if the store only had a blog or news section with RSS for me to track new models coming in and other updates instead of a l*me "What's New" section. One can only dream. Nokia are you listening?

From Darla Mack: Nokia Canada Launches Online Store.:

QUOTE

In Press Release yesterday, Nokia announced the launching of their new online store for Nokia.ca. Nokia's online store not only offers phones and accessories, but consumers can also create a wishlist.

Per the press release, the phones available from the Nokia Online Store will be carrier neutral allowing any Nokia GSM phone to be compatible with any Canadian GSM carrier's network.

UNQUOTE

Go Andy go! Since the forthcoming N91 was designed in Vancouver, I hope some Vancouver based bloggers are involved in the official Nokia N91 Blog. Andy, I'd love to have an N91 on trial like Ross Mayfield and blog about it when the time comes. Call me at 604 729 7924 or email roland AT rolandtanglao.com!

My qualifications? I bought a 7610 and have uploaded 4576 photos to flickr (and more every day) using Shozu and Lifeblog. And I plan on doing lots of videos once Shozu works with the 7610's videos (which I hope is real soon now)!

From Nokia N90 Blog.:

QUOTE

Welcome to the Nokia Nseries N90 Blogger Relations Blog site. Here you will find blogger and media information that you can repurpose and utilize in your blog postings about the N90.

UNQUOTE