Roland Tanglao's Weblog

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!)

The KRZR K1 video is decent CIF quality but it's two year old techology. The Nokia N70 videos were just as good quality back in 2005.

Check it out and judge for yourself:

KRZR K1 video of the Skyte (blip.tv bug, I rotated the original but the flash video below is not rotated: original KRZR K1 Skyte 3GP Video with correct orientation)

Click To Play

Compare and contrast with Richard's Nokia N70 video of the Skyte

Courtesy of the Hill and Knowlton (Hill and Knowlton Blog) Motorola Bloggers Relation Program, I picked up my free trial Motorola KRZR K1 phone (complete with new phone number and unfortunately locked to Rogers) yesterday. Bottom line so far: for the power multi-media creator user, Nokia's phones are much better and I would pay my own money for a Nokia N95 or N93 or my mythical N999, I wouldn't pay my own money for the KRZR.

Cool

1. Came in an awesome aluminum briefcase
2. Great form factor and light weight
3. USB Charging
4. Text Auto Complete even with ITAP turned off
5. Camera has a nice mirror for self portraits

NOT COOL:

1. Cheesy Operating System (ugly to me but YMMV)
2. Adapter for normal headphones must be unplugged to answer a call!
3. no flash for camera - Nokia flash is not great but better than nothing. Sony Ericsson flashes are much better!
4. the web browser doesn't allow you to change the home page (Rogers bug not Motorola bug?)
5. the web browser is primitive and bad - sorry to be harsh, but compared to Nokia's Web kit browser or Opera, this browser is a toy: it doesn't support upload of attachments to mobile gmail, no way to enter a URL to surf to (you have to create a bookmark), many, many problems
6. ShoZu doesn't work on this phone (Rogers bug?). A phone without ShoZu is like a phone without sunshine :-) !
7. No WiFi - I wouldn't pay my own money for a phone without WiFi
8. No obvious way to upload your photos or videos without going through USB or Bluetooth "chain of pain" - I prefer ShoZu but there's no support to upload photos to flickr and photos and video to Vox which the built in Nokia gallery app on all recent N series phones does
9. Voice Recognition doesn't work for all commands (e,g, I can't turn off Bluetooth with a voice command)

OK, the N80i is not supported. I hope the N93 is supported! Sorry about those having comment problems; I need to upgrade to Drupal 5 to fix it. Soon!

FROM Geotagging not working (Nokia N73):

QUOTE

You won't need to wake the GPS antenna, ShoZu will do this when necessary so you don't need to do any more than pair the device. What you will need, however, is a very strong GPS signal. ShoZu will wait until you have signal from 5 or more satellites before tagging your images because any less than this can produce inaccurate results. You'll notice sometimes on weak signal that your navigation software will jitter for a moment, if we tagged images at this time they would be way off. So please make sure you don't just have signal, but you have a very strong signal. We've done this because we figure geotagging is no use unless it's 100% accurate all the time!

By the way Roland, the N80i is not supported as yet and there are a lot of memory issues on this phone so just be weary of this also. Tried to post a reply on your blog but it had an internal server error and now I'm listed as a spammer and it won't let me post! Now's the time I finally get to ask you for support :-D

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Fellow Bryght guy Steven's N73 review is brutally honest (he's Belgian but still just as blunt as the Germans)! I agree with his review, the N73 is a sweet cameraphone marred only by the less than optimal and not easy to use S60 software (which is better than the competition but could learn a thing or two from Apple's iPhone) and by the non standard ports (the POP port is cumbersome and unnecessary but to be fair to Nokia the competition features lots of proprietary connectors too)! Luckily it appears Nokia is "doing the right thing" and standardizing on USB and standard headphone ports!

From Nokia N73 Review | Steven Wittens - Acko.net:

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After two months, the only thing I've consistently used other than voice calls and SMS is the camera, because it is really good for a phone. All the pictures on my Flickr page since December 1st were taken with the N73. I also listen to music whenever I can, but the MP3 player and proprietary headphones are too cumbersome.

The only part of the N73 that really stands out for me is the phone's form factor. I love that in spite of all its features, it's only as big as a typical phone. It's clearly designed for snapping pictures with and the screen is large and gorgeous. If the data-cable and file system didn't suck so much, I'd probably use it as a USB stick too (or better, if you could mount Bluetooth storage as local, ejectable drives).

Having used this phone, I can clearly see why traditional cellphone makers should fear Apple's iPhone. I've consistenty avoided using the phone's built-in tools like address book and calendar editing, because doing it on my Mac is orders of magnitude easier and faster. From what I've seen, the iPhone changes that. I really wish the iPhone will bring a fresh wave of usability improvements for mobile devices. But, if usability was all that mattered, we wouldn't be seeing so many Windows installs out there either...

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Please read the very thoughtful N800 review that I've quoted below. I can live without YouTube, really (and I am sure this will be fixed!). Easy to make video and audio calls with SIP and soon Skype + open Linux make this the closest thing today to Doc's ophone (anything with a SIM in it will never be truly open!) concept. I definitely want one of these things! Saving my pennies! When Skype comes out for it, I'll be seriously tempted to cross over the border into the USA and pick one up! Go Nokia go!

[BTW still want the N95, N999 and the iPhone :-) Yes I am obsessed or rather I have a compulsive need to create and consume stuff on the go and N95, N999, N800 and the iPhone are (or will be) the best ways to do this!]

FROM My review of the Nokia N800 - when the walkaround web meets the see-me-anywhere call at Internet Tablet Talk:

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Take it from me, see-me calls are just … natural. When you don’t have to decide up-front, “I want to pay extra for this, so it better be worth using,” there’s an immediate acceptance of “this is the way it’s meant to be.” And it’s the kind of thing that makes people buy a new device, the way Visicalc (the first spreadsheet) made buying one of those new-fangled Apples worthwhile 20-plus years ago. The step-in price is reasonable, the experience is unique and persuasive immediately, and you don’t worry that “this is going to cost and cost and cost.”

You won’t hear this described as “video conferencing” or “video calls” next year, btw. Those names are so Flash Gordon in their invocation of the future. So don’t trust that any reviewer who uses one of those terms has any idea of what’s coming. Video conferences are what the guy holding a Treo expects to happen, once Verizon offers it as part of a $120-a-month data plan.

Some users wonder about why the N800 jettisons the useful screen cover that the 770 comes with. It’s so you’re always able to get a call. Putting on the 770’s cover doesn’t turn off the WiFi (or Bluetooth), but it breaks the wireless connection. Users make it a physical representation of “I’m putting my device to sleep.” You don’t put your phone to sleep, and the N800 behaves similarly.

And it makes a world of difference between these tablets and laptops that really do sleep. Your tablet is just on. You start using it. No delay, no wakeup, no nothing. I’ve always regarded the 770 as “instant on” because it’s live the moment the screen cover comes down. But the “never off” side of the N800 is better, and I’m more comfortable with keeping it on all day and connected to my network than I have been with the 770.

It’s my contention that the opportunity to hook up with voip giant Skype got tied to the webcam, and Ari Virtanen’s ascension to the VP of convergent products not only put the internet tablet into the mainstream of Nokia’s future thinking (and N-series)**, but also into the CES and consumer electronic marketing timeframes. They weren’t going to launch entry number two on some random day in spring like entry one (May 25, to be precise).

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I want both an iPhone and the N999. The 1.0 iPhone ain't a blogaphone unless it has a video camera and Shozu-like tech built in (or you can add it which you can't in 1.0) but other than that it's pretty darned close. Until then I will also carry the closest N999 equivalent which will probably be an an N95 (which I got to examine yesterday thanks to the Comvu folks and the screen is fab and it feels light and nice in the hand!).

Thank-goodness for Apple! Now we wil get some innovation in the mobile space. Series 60 and Symbian OS really need some re-thinking in terms of usability and needs to get more stable. Even with just the built-in software, I regularly have to reboot my N93 and the other Series 60 Symbian devices I get for free trial from Nokia Blogger Relations; this is unacceptable!

David Ayre likes his Blackberry Pearl and found an unexpected bonus: watching video on his 45 minute (one way) commute into Bryght!

Stefan's a dreamer about mobile phones and apps just like me, except that he's much younger and more strident (in a good way!). Sometimes I think he's already secretly :-) working for Nokia. +1 to Stefan and keep the dreams and wonderful posts coming in 2007!

As for these 20 resolutions, most of them mirror the requests I made in my Nokia N999 post. In my excerpt below, I have deleted the ones that don't resonate with me and kept the ones that I agree with!

Bonus dreams: 1. a cool Nokia store in Vancouver at their R&D labs in Burnaby a suburb of Vancouver. Let's get real users who pay with their own money into the Burnaby lab! Show them the unlocked phones and they will come with their wallets open; especially the large population of Canadians of Chinese and South Asian heritage in the Vancouver area who are well aware of the cool Nokia phones that are available elsewhere but not in Canada. I know this is a dream because the carriers (specifically Rogers, Telus and Bell) will never let Nokia do this but it can't hurt to ask!

2. a standard tripod jack and microphone jack (as Steve Garfield requested)

3. The Burnaby lab's local profile is shall we say far too "stealth"-like in the community. Could we please have a public blog or two or three from Nokia Vancouver? I don't think it's too much to expect from a lab that developed the N91 and has hundreds of employees! Especially now that there are dozens of public blogs from other Nokia labs!

FROM Ring Nokia: 20 New Year's Resolutions I have for Nokia (read the whole thing):

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...

3. S60 needs to become componentized in order to offer the best experience for users. One shouldn’t need an entire firmware upgrade just to upgrade the music player application, or the web browser. The core of S60 should remain the core and all other peripheral applications should be made into components; similar to what Microsoft does with Windows XP embedded. I use Opera for Mobile because I’ll never be able to use the web browser you have locked in to S60v3FP1.
4. The PIM needs a retooling. Get all the design engineers a Treo 680 and make them use that as their exclusive device for a month. I’m not saying Palm is better than Symbian, what I am saying is that certain aspects of their operating system are done so well it’s amazing that no one has yet to emulate it.
5. 2.5 mm headphone jacks are useless, when was the last time you walked into a store and you saw them sell headphones with a 2.5 mm jack? If you’re going to sell a music phone then make sure it has a 3.5 mm jack. The 5300 was a disgrace. I want to meet the design team who decided to market a phone specifically tailored for music and not include a headphone jack.
6. Pop port has got to go away. Mini USB is the future, and so far a lot of the devices you seem to be cranking out as of recent have said interface. Continue this trend.
7. Relating to number 6: Mini USB should also take place of the charger. Why should we have to plug one cable in to charge and one cable in to sync? Look at the iPod if you want to know what I’m talking about.

...

9. A team needs to be created to begin porting VLC over to Symbian as well as for the Internet Tablet. Real Player is absolute nonsense and can’t handle nearly as many file formats as VLC can. Not to mention VLC will stream any file format. While you’re at it, start adding SMB support so I can access my files over my network!
10. Begin a marketing blitz in America to show consumers the advantages of going unlocked.
11. Sony Ericson phones use XEON based camera flash technology while you’re still using LED’s. It’s about time you switched, people can tell a difference in the quality.
12. Call Canon or Nikon and license their CMOS sensors to put into your Camera Phones. You guys rock at making phones, time to admit that you can’t make the best optics engines and call in the pros.

...

14. I expect you to release a lot more phones with a full blown QWERTY keyboard running your latest version of S60.
15. The Nokia N95 is the first of many cell phones to come with a discrete graphics processor. Take advantage of this and create a slick 3D operating system that will wow people. The whole icons in a grid thing has been done since the 20th century. Time to move on.

...

18. Announce an international warranty so people can feel comfortable importing a Nokia phone from Europe yet having it be serviceable in the United States.
19. Every device you sell that contains S60 should be able to view and edit office documents and read PDF’s regardless of being an E or N series product.

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In the near future, just like you have settings and/or dedicated buttons for the flash, white balance, etc. you will have a similar way for setting how you wish to share your photos with ShoZu-like technology.

As I commented on D'Arcy Norman's blog, you will have a button to set the 'sharing level' of your photos. e.g. public or private

And you will have time to change it (say a few minutes) and then via WiFi, mobile or whatever whenever there's connectivity, your camera will automatically upload it to your public or private area using ShoZu like technology with suspend and resume.

i.e. "Set it and Forget it" :-) and share it! The bluetooth/usb/dongle/card reader shuffle and its associated chain of pain will be a relic of the past and the kids today won't understand how a camera could not be connected to the network and the various shenanigans we go through to upload and share photos.

D'arcy calls this the "shoot-publish-respond workflow" versus the "hunting trip " workflow of today. I think both will co-exist but the "shoot-publish-respond workflow" will become increasingly prominent.