Roland Tanglao's Weblog

I rode in the June 2008 Vancouver Critical Mass bike ride (check out my Mobile Muse Channel with pictures, videos and text as well as my partial Nokia Sports Tracker map of the route as well as flickr pictures which I can't get into the Mobile Muse Channel since there's no RSS feed) and streamed video live using Qik from my Nokia N95, like I did for the Vancouver Car Free Festival. Only this time I didn't use WiMax just Edge

Some observations and comments:

1. The ride is quite the phenomenon. As a 3-5 days a week bicycle commuter; it was quite liberating to "take over" the streets and cycle with impunity (if you were in the middle, not so in the back) and be a 1st class citizen (for once!) on the road rather than feeling the need to maintain a constant vigil for cars not seeing you and running you over. Is this a form of civil disobedience or are we just Critical Massh*les? To be honest, I fluctuate between both.
2. Lots of people taking digital photographs and using their cellphones and taking video but nobody doing this live. Imagine 5 years from now when everything is live!
3. My Io Gear power unit Nokia N Series power connector is flakey! Aaaargh, too late to return it too.
4. The N95 really isn't designed for streaming video live over a cellphone network from a bicycle. The S60 interface is designed to be used with one hand while standing still and the phone itself is not designed to be mounted on a bicycle. I would love for Nokia to build a mobile cellphone streaming device but realistically making my own with something like the Bug from Bug Labs (hopefully I'll get mine soon) will (eventually) be the way to go

IF you are a multimedia creator and a north american THEN get an N95 8GB NAM or N95-3 NAM

IF you are a multimedia creator and a european or asian (except japan of course) THEN get an N95 8GB or the original N95, the N95-1

ELSE get an iPhone 3G when it comes out

That's my capsule review of the N78 :-) What can I say? I am spoiled by the iPhone's ease of use and wonderful application environment and the N95's wonderful 5 megapixel camera and video! And with the N95 coming down in price, I can't recommend the N78 (which except for the GPS being faster seems like a downgrade!).

DETAILS:

1. Pricey at $US 500 for the N78 NAM (NAM = North American 3G version), especially when the the N95 North American is $469.97
2. Only 3 megapixel camera on the N78 (but it takes great pictures but not greater than the N95!) unlike 5 megapixel camera on N95
3. Camera is slower to focus (even in fixed focus mode) than N95 which means more blurry photos
4. N78 Keypad is awful, number keys are fine but the Green and Red Keys are very difficult to hit consistently
5. S60 3rd Edition FP2, the OS on the N78, has hardly any real improvements. I'd rather have an simplified, easier to use UI than FP2's eye candy. I'd also rather have a phone that doesn't reboot like the N78 did on me (could be due to the Nokia Sports Tracker beta I was running but all the S60 phones I have used since 2004 randomly reboot). Please make S60 more stable!
6. N78 Lanyard/strap clip is cool.
7. N78 GPS seems faster and better at getting a satellite lock.
8. Video is only 15fps unlike the 30fps on the N95 (and the difference is noticeable!)

Marketing maven and startup veteran and co-founder of Strutta, Maura Rodgers, on her Rogers N95 8GB NAM and S60

S60 Positives

1. 1st reaction - "wow" "multimedia machine"
2. Love being able to upload photos directly to flickr (presumably from Camera App) - allows her to upload photos directlyt
3. Loves to connect to internet via laptop via her Rogers N95 8GB NAM
4. Overall 1st impression - great
5. Great for taking videos at Launch Party Vancouver and other events and Strutta videos
6. High quality video
7. It really is a multimedia computer

S60 Not so Positive

1. Usability not great!
2. iPhone user interface in comparison is awesome
3. Too many clicks to get what you want
4. Doesn't like the apps popping up without intervention e.g. Fring pops up when IM comes in
5. Nested menus hard to comprehend
6. Found it difficult to change ringtones coming from a BlackBerry
7. Battery dies quickly
8. Maura again hasn't heard of OVI (to repeat yet again, not suprising since Nokia OVI marketing is zero in Canada)

After 12 hours with a borrowed Rogers N95 8GB NAM, my conclusion is still to get an unlocked one!

In short, the Rogers N95 8GB NAM is:

1. The Multimedia creator phone that N series users the world over have learned to love. Great camera and great video!
2. The S60 interface we have come to love/hate which is hard to use as all N series aficionados know.
3. Rogers has put their bogus "deck" in the web browser and Vision software on their version of N95 8GB NAM and it's just as suspected, unusable and totally superfluous. Change the home page and don't use the Vision app; none of it's any good!
4. It's the Rogers Data plan that we have all come to love. Danny who set up the phone, was told by a Rogers CSR he could get a 1GB data plan for $100/month which contradicts the $65/month 1GB PC Card plan that Alec Saunders got from Rogers. Inconsistencies 'r Rogers! Or is it a deliberate attempt to confuse customers by telling different customers different stories about data plans?

My conclusion remains the same: get an unlocked N95 8GB NAM and a $65/month PC Card plan. You'll be a lot less frustrated!

Some more details after the jump

I love my iPhone (which I paid for with my own money and am still glad I did) because:

• it's beautiful and so is the interface
• the web browser is great, gmail and google reader work well
• the switching between WiFi and EDGE is seamless
• SMS interface is great, so it was great when I was out of Canada and didn't have access to affordable data and wanted to communicate with fellow SXSW attendees
• the voice call interface is great
  

I hate my iPhone because:

• the 2 mega pixel camera s*cks
• no video, i need video!!!!!!
• it's closed at the moment so there's no ShoZu, I need ShoZu! I am addicted to ShoZu's ability to post photos of the kid to my private flickr account and other pictures to my public flickr account

If the iPhone had a 5 megapixel camera and video and ShoZu was available for it, I'd switch in a heartbeat and use it all the time for everything. As it is the phone in my pocket is my N95-1 provided by the Nokia Blogger Relations program (thanks!) and the phone that i would buy with my money if I lost my iPhone and N95-1 would be one of the N95 North American versions.

Having said that I also have a love/hate relationship with my N95-1

I love my N95-1 because:

• It runs ShoZu which has literally changed my life. The ability to "photo-document" my life in real-time has been and continues to be amazing. And if ShoZu ever integrates with Twitter and gets Facebook status updating working, I'll never have to use SMS again when I am in Canada which would be no big loss since I am not a fan of SMS (or paying for messages, I just want to pay for the bandwidth I consume, SMS rates are a ripoff.)
• It runs Qik and similar 'live from the phone videocasting' apps. Qik, flixwagon et al are killer apps over WiFi and 3G!
• It's "open" (since you can only develop 1st class applications using Carbide which only runs on Windows and uses the archaic and silly C/C++ combo, it's not fully open in my book; the whole certificate model and the fact that the amazing hardware on great devices like the N93 is crippled by missing certificates for Python so you can't really access the full power from more modern and dynamic programming environments like Python means Python et al are second class citizens on S60)

I hate my N95-1 because:

1. S60 is not truly open (see the Python problems mentioned above). Hoping for a re-focus around a Linux core e.g. using Maemo from the N770, N800 and N810 Internet tablets.
2. S60 is clunky, hard to use and a maze of twisty little menus and apps are constantly moved around each firmware release. I have taught many people who just got their S60 phones how to use their devices. you don't have to do that with an iPhone which while not perfect is much, much easier to use.
3. It doesn't have enough RAM so ShoZu occasionally hangs and a reboot is required (granted this has become a lot better in the latest N95 firmware updates thank goodness!)
4. The display is too small. As big as the iPhone or VGA please!

A wee bit late to the party: yesterday I received an N95-1 from Nokia Blogger Relations (thanks Andy and Comunicano and Nokia; I'd love to do a N95-3 comparison since I've already managed to run out of memory just running the web browser, something which I think is solved by the increased RAM on the N95-3).

I am enjoying the EDGE (anything's better than GPRS) and the WiFi and I have some video hijinx in mind which require a 4GB micro SD SDHC card. Anybody know where I can get this in Vancouver, Burnaby or Richmond (the usual suspects: Future Shop, London Drugs, and NCIX only have 2GB micro SD cards)?

I know I can mail order but I would like instant :-) gratification. Leave a comment or call or IM me please.

More N95-1 observations:

1. shutter lag is less, still too much lag in general (sensor turn on lag, focus lag and shutter lag)
2. I seem to get more out of memory errors on the web browser than the N93 browser
3. Video stabilization like the video stabilization on the N93 doesn't seem to do much
4. I prefer the larger keys on the N93, but love the N95 compact form factor
5. Assuming the doubled free RAM on the N95-3 allows you to run ShoZu, Twitter in the web browser and the Jaiku mobile client simultaneously without crashing, the N95-3 looks to be a killer device. for mobile multi-media creators like myself. I can't recommend the N95-1 but based on the early reviews for the N95-3, I can definitely recommend the N95-3; too bad Nokia isn't giving N95-1 North American owners a rebate like Apple did for iPhone early adopters

DemoCampVancouver03 was the best yet. Action packed, full of humor and great pitches and with the added bonus feature of BattleDecks! (Google Dogs and USP 2.0 will live on in infamy for those present :-) ! )

More details from Miss604.

Here are the N95-1 videos (almost as good as the N93 but still great quality for a cameraphone!) I took (some of them are truncated due to me having finger problems due to non familiarity with the N95).

The pitches:

BattleDecks: Google Dogs

BattleDecks: USP 2.0

Rayt the Net

Live Vote

Indo Chino

Are you normal?

More N95-1 observations:

1. Had my first spontaneous power off of the N95-1 3/4 of the way through my commute to work this morning. ShoZu bug? S60 bug? N95-1 firmware bug? Who knows. Very annoying
2. Webkit browser still doesn't work properly with Twitter i.e. you don't see your twitter immediately like you do if you twitter from Firefox
3. Video looks great. Indistinguishable to my not very discerning eyes: Check out 5:21 of my morning commute video
4. N95 is not as conducive to videoing on a bicycle as the N93. Not a surprise since there is no pistol grip so you have to hold the phone upright which means you can accidentally turn off your recording which is what I did!
5. ShoZu still hasn't crashed on me yet, yay! But after about 30 or so photos, the camera app (I think it's the camera app, maybe it's the gallery process doing the thumbnails?) slows the phone down which looks like a crash but really isn't!

Day 2 thoughts:

1. Seems faster shot to shot than the N93
2. Photos seem more vivid (more sharpening)
3. EDGE s*cks but just like on the N73 less s*cky than GPRS
4. Video seems just as good as the N93
5. Got my first out of memory errors from the browser (at this point I only have ShoZu installed and a few videos and a few photos :-) )
6. ShoZu owes me lots of beer :-P for the number of people I have taught how to configure ShoZu over WiFi and how to config ShoZu in general (it's not that bad but it could be improved, the flickr authorize screen could be more obvious and that "chess piece" capcha has to go)
7. Just like using a Tom Tom GPS puck with a N93 and N80, the GPS lock is problematic and works erratically