Roland Tanglao's Weblog

Got the 16GB iPhone yesterday. Stream of consciousness notes so far:

1. Just like the original iPhone, ithe iPhone 3G still camera s*cks and not having video also s*cks! A slow, 2 megapixel camera doesn't cut it in 2008!
   
2. Does seem a bit lighter and battery is faster
   
3. 3G doesn't seem that much faster than EDGE
4. Browser crashes more often
5. Google Reader is noticeably faster 
6. ShoZu doesn't geo-tag and only posts one photo at a time and only at 640x480 (yes i know shozu is working on it! go ShoZu go!)
7. AirMe is better but only does 1024x768 and rquires bogus userid registration (complete with bogus personal questions)
8. Apps are great; I have already thought of some that would satisfy Apple's p*ranoia :-) and might be fun to develop and might even make money! Apps are great both because of Apple's p*ranoia and also despite it! A "mass market, mobile GPS with decent connectivity and bandwidth" platform is what the iPhone is; the first ever. Sorry Nokia you don't have such a platform (S60 isn't it, Maemo isn't it, S60 Python isn't it, Widsets isn't it, Flash Lite isn't, etc,, time to focus Nokia!) yet. Vive la competition; I trust Nokia has something in the works; it's been a year and either the Nokia cupboard is bare or they are going to launch something truly great soon.
9. I am waiting for Qik (aka live video streaming) and Nokia Sports Tracker
10. I like Tap Tap whatever it's called even though it's dumbed down from the unofficial SDK version

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!)

Interesting. I still think that S60 needs a drastic UI overhaul and simplification to compete with the iPhone long term and that Nokia would be better off with a Linux core for their mobile phones rather than Symbian and S60 but we'll see. Go Open Source S60 go! Does this mean both S60 and S40 will be 100% open source within 2 years? As the cliché goes, the devil is in the details!

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Nokia isn't finished with its acquisition spree just yet. Tonight the Finnish company announced a plan to acquire the 52 per cent of Symbian it doesn't already own and make the platform open source

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From The Symbian Press Release :

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Contributions from Foundation members through open collaboration will be integrated to further enhance the platform. The Foundation will make selected components available as open source at launch. It will then work to establish the most complete mobile software offering available in open source. This will be made available over the next two years and is intended to be released under Eclipse Public License (EPL) 1.0.

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Got my N78 yesterday from Nokia Blogger Relations yesterday (thanks!).

"Blink" reactions to the phone:

1. I like candybar phones
   
2. Why does the phone pre-flash even when I turn the flash off (I know it's to focus but why? The N95-1 didn't do this!!)? Can I turn off the pre-flash off?
   
3. I don't like the small buttons on the numeric keypad. I keep hiting "7" instead of "*"
4. Not a fan of brown. Can I have pink, green, orange, purple or some fun colour :-) ?
5. Nice and light. The N95 feels very heavy in comparison
6. Don't like the buttons in general: too small
7. I wish it would charge via Micro USB
   

"Blink" reactions to the S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 software:

1. As a experienced S60 user, I don't like the text in the middle e.g. "Open" - When I first saw that, I though hmmm, is there a new button in the middle? Of course there isn't. you just press the dpad in the middle to select that operation
2. The zooming effects of the UI are ok but I could live without it. Rather have the menus simplified and fixed!
   

Bonus:

My unboxing video taken by the incomparable social media maven Dave Olson

As part of my contribution to the S60 Ambassadors program, I'm doing some videos of people's reactions to S60 and awareness of Ovi. Herewith my first 1:30 S60 Ambassadors video with Cecily Walker, library and social media maven (recorded with her N82 at Vidfest). - Watch Cecily's S60 video or check out my transcript below!

Positives:

1. absolutely loves it
2. changes the way Cecily views media, "all in one package" she can post audio and video immediately via Bluetooth or WiFi
3. really pretty
4. paid with N82 with her own money! (off Craigslist since not officially available in Canada, aaargh!)

S60 Not so Positive

1. S60 "really really buggy" things quitting without error message
2. Never heard of OVI (unfortunately most people in Canada haven't but that's not surprising given Canada's lack of awareness on these issues and Nokia's lack of marketing)

UPDATE: Wireless North appears to have the N95 Rogers skinny. It will apparently cost 1.5 cents/kilobyte for 3rd party apps which means 300 MB of pictures uploaded via ShoZu/month = $4500/ month. Aaaaargh, I hope this is *not* true, if it is the r*poff continues! 

Yay! The N95 8GB North American is available from Rogers starting May 6th. Looks like the N95 8GB has WiFi (just paranoid that Rogers would ask Nokia to disable it so I checked the site) according to Nokia.ca! No sign of the N95 on the Rogers site (c'mon get with the 21st century Rogers and update your website with new products at the same time you issue a press release!) but I found the following worrisome fine print about the $25/month Rogers Vision dataplan that the N95 will be using as its data plan on the Rogers site:

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Rogers Vision Unlimited On-Device Mobile Browsing Plan includes unlimited on-device mobile browsing only. Plan is available on Rogers Vision handsets only (PDAs such as Blackberry or Windows Mobile devices, PC cards and non-Rogers certified devices are not eligible). Data usage incurred on ineligible devices, incurred while tethering (using device as wireless modem for laptop) or incurred using non-Rogers (3rd party) applications downloaded to your device will be subject to pay-per-use charges of 5 cents/KB

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Does this mean if I use ShoZu to upload 400MB / month over HSDPA that I'll have to pay 5cents per Kilobyte? Fingers crossed that this isn't true (it wouldn't make sense but carriers don't make sense (and for what it's worth i don't get dinged for using ShoZu over my Fido unlimited data plan). Could somebody please confirm?

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Well, it looks like Nokia isn't satisfied with taking the rest of the world by storm as the North American continent rests safely in ignorance. Nokia has launched the Nokia N95 8GB in Canada on Rogers Wireless. As expected, the Canadian Nokia N95 8GB is basically the same a the Nokia N95 8GB NAM (Nokia N95-4), and gives Rogers the pleasure of beating US wireless carrier-giant to the punch in rolling out the N95 8GB in North America.

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So far so good. The only bug I can see is that I can't seem to update my Facebook status from ShoZu 4.0. Everything else works (e.g. I can see the last few status updates from my 341 ShoZu "friends"). I am sure the ShoZu folks will make it work pretty quickly; it'll be cool to use my unlimited EDGE for updating my Facebook status for free (rather than SMS which would cost me $).

For those who don't follow the Nokia soap opera, the N96 flagship (with 5 megapixel camera and an incredible 16 GB flash card built in with a micro SD slot so you can expand to 24GB and soon 32GB but with a low res 320x240 screen) introduced today at the Mobile World Congress looks almost exactly like the N81 (major difference: N96 is a dual slider)

Not a big fan of the N81 (it's a great Walkman for those who don't want an iPod and have lots of money but the 2 megapixel camera is b*gus) but it does look a lot better than the N95. I do wish that Nokia had come up with something more radically beautiful when designing its next flagship. Shame the N96 has the same lock switch as the N81. Fingers crossed that the N96 lock switch is less finicky than my N81 (my N81 lockswitch sticks). But oh the possibilities with 24GB of storage! Yum! Go Nokia go! Now just fix S60 and make the screen bigger and you'll finally have one device that does everything!

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In a previous post I expressed by appreciation for the Nokia N81. The simplicity and balance of the design certainly make for a classic look. Hence, I was really pleased to see that the industrial design of The Dark Knight (N96) borrows so heavily from the N81.

There is a real attention to detail here. Is it perfect? No. Is it close to perfect? Yes.

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The above photo shows my "bicyclecast" setup (Gorillapod + N95 + DT-22 Tripod Adapter + my bicycle). It worked for only 6 minutes of my 30 minute commute to work (bug? limited buffering capacity? EDGE too slow?). And was fun. The GorillaPod doesn't keep the camera too snug on the bike but it's low budget, cheap and cheerful. Someday I'll have the money to buy a proper bike tripod camera mount like the pros use for Tour de France videos!

Check it out: qik.com/video/13888 recorded live from my bicycle (the hardest part was fastening the tripod and the phone onto the bike, music courtesy of my N81 Musicphone)

I am inspired by the Nokia Blog's N82 + Gorilla Pod post to get a Gorilla Pod, attach it to my Bike with an N95 and DT-22 and do a Qik live video cast as I cycle in (maybe play some nice background music with the N81 and do some fun commentary via a bluetooth headset as well!) Anybody know where I can get a Gorilla Pod in Vancouver or do I have to resort to mail-order yet again?