Micky’s Neighborhood

Yeah, its here. Finally. It has a terrific feel, it's tactile very pleasing, smooth and silky. Anyway it is here and I love it. Except for its numeric keys. I already have loads of comments to make on this phone, I'll let you know.

update: Recharged the phone at my desk, used the transfer function to transfer almost everything from the N95 to the N82. It sadly does not transfer e-mail, network and sip accounts and other configuration data. Still, pretty nice, I can use the N82 until I get time to configure all settings again. O and clearly a better image quality than the N95.

Update 2: The GPS rocks... compared to the N95. Really rocks. Yihaaah!

In the past Nokia has won the Eisa Award of Media Phone since the category was created in 2005. This year, 2008, the category was changed into Smart Phone. After Nokia's winning streak with the N90, the N93 and last year with the N95 the award now goes to the Windows 6.1 Pro running HTC Touch Diamond. Quoting Eisa's statement on the new winner:

Here’s a device that is certain to attract undivided attention from gadget connoisseurs everywhere. The Touch Diamond’s glossy, shiny case contains an operating system based on Windows Mobile v6.1 Pro, enhanced with a new 3D TouchFlo interface. Images on the 2.8-inch VGA touch-screen are very sharp and clear, making the Touch Diamond a refreshing and rewarding device to use. No user will want for anything in terms of functions, since HTC has included a 3.2 Megapixel camera, 4GB of internal memory, an FM radio and GPS navigation. Connectivity options include HSDPA, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and USB. By achieving such slick looks and performance, the Touch Diamond is a clear winner.

Though the touchscreen makes for a larger display, I'd rather choose myself the E71 (not in the least because of Symbian) or the HTC Touch Pro, both with a mini-qwerty keyboard. According to the dutch Tweakers site the 3G iPhone did not enter as a contestant since it was not available for testen. Though it is doubtful it would have won anyway.

Also the Samsung G810 running S60 wins the European Photo Phone of the Year award:

Is it a phone, or is it a camera? Only a few years ago the SGH-810’s features would have been unimaginable on anything but a high-spec camera. It offers 5 Megapixel resolution from its CMOS sensor, and protects its optical 3x zoom lens with a sliding cover. Image quality is surprisingly good in bright light, while in low-light conditions the xenon flash is a real bonus. Numerous camera-style photo functions include auto focus with face detection, panoramic mode, macro capabilities, multi-shot mode, digital image stabilization and red-eye reduction. Plus the SGH-810 device also includes Wi-Fi connectivity, GPS Geo-tagging, USB, an earphone socket and a slot for microSD memory cards. Best of all, it manages to look at once both elegant and robust.

Sony Ericsson scores with the W980i as the Music Phone of the Year:

Who could resist this piano-black Walkman-series phone? It’s a quad-band handset loaded with 8 GB of internal memory, a 3.2 Megapixel camera, an FM tuner, Bluetooth stereo, and a music player that operates even with the phone flip-lid closed. Opened out, the handset reveals its 2.2-inch QVGA display with 262k colors and stunning picture quality. One incredibly valuable innovation is the built-in FM radio transmitter. This broadcasts phone-based music playback to a standard car radio, even transferring artist and track details via RDS. The music player handles a wide variety of audio file formats, and automatically sorts tracks according to a range of criteria. Finally, two excellent features are the SenseMe and Shake control. These group tracks by mood, enabling track changes and entire playlist shuffling with just a simple flick of the hand.

The full list of awards can be found here.

(Guest posted on www.darlamack.com). For the summer vacation I planned two weeks of R&R for myself. For my Nokia N95 it became two weeks of very hard work. It was continuously at my beck and call, multitasking to every whim I felt. The perfect electronic slave. On vacation I tend to rove around like a little mars explorer on steroids. Reading books in restaurants, coffee shops while taking a break from cruising the cities and countryside. Besides it was raining a lot during my trip,  a good excuse for not hiking too much ;^)

As a result the N95 worked doubletime. From the early waking call until late night, playing musical lullabies for this weary traveller to playback of converted DVDs to my nodding head. Over 200 pictures demanded to be geotagged, while sportstracker running occasionally in the background for hikes. Maps 2.0 working online and offline while routing me towards food, sights, relaxation, parking places, shops and cosy hotels.

As a result I ran into some big little annoyances. Revealing some of the N95's strong and weak points. I won't mention the obvious things the N95 is famous for. It has been chewed over enough. Thus not a word about the excellent camera quality, the top video quality for a mobile, nor my 8 GB microSD with 3000+ songs on it and 1,5 GB of map 2.0 data storing all of Europe with plenty of room left for recording video and photos. Nor will I complain about it's scrungy battery capacity. I had my car charger, my 220V-travel charger as well as a 3500 MAh Proporta to keep the little fella happy and beeping all day and night. I was prepared, happily so, to go on the road with my trusted e-buddy. After more than two years of ownership not expecting some interesting observations about my N95, an not in the least the ultimate frustration when it broke down the last 3 days of the vacation.

Searching places with Maps

Having maps 2.0 was mostly great.For rainy days it gave me zoo's, cinema's, aquariums and amusementparks to relax. For sunny days it yielded places with terrific views, hilltops, old castles and more. It suggested pubs, restaurants, hotels and car parking spots. It supplied phone numbers to call and check in advance whether or not it was open and make reservations.  In other words pure freedom.

Maps performed well in offline (saving on roaming) as well online mode for searching places. Bothersome is that the content of the offline database and the online search database are very different. Items found in the offline database are not always present in the online database and vice versa. Some kind of merging that search results would be really nice or at least one being a subset of the other. For a complete search, you have to check in both modes. Very annoying.

Routing

Routing works well in larger cities like Bonn, Koblenz etc. However when routing through rural areas maps it shows its shortcomings. It carelessly navigates you over single car wide farmer roads where two cars in opposite direction can not pass. "Hello mr farmer I happily will drive the last kilometer again but now in reverse to let you pass... This suggests that those roads were probably badly digitized from satellite pictures. Particular since some have traffic signs forbidding entrance, or even state being a deadend. Of course this is unlikely to be a purely Nokia Maps problem. In any case I applied some intellect and ignored the satnav when directed into smaller roads when not yet near my destination. Followed those oldfashioned roadsigns if they are available until I was in the right micro-village and could be safely directed to the proper location. Still, why in heaven's name don't they use the road width information from a satellite picture to my advantage?

A typical Nokia maps problem I found with its 'voice directions'. They occasionally are contrary to the routing displayed on the phone screen. The eternally blond, occasional says: "Turn right", actually meaning occasionally: ' turn left'. The road might bends right in front of the T-junction, but you really need to go left as the map on the display of the N95 shows. This is by all means not restricted to rural areas alone, though it shows to be more frequently there. In this, Maps 2.0 can do with some serious improvements. I also heard an interesting warning, never heard before in civilized roadcountry: 'sharp turn ahead'. It is a nice warning but it is inconsistently done and might even give a false feeling of safety and perhaps trick me into an unsafer driving style.

N95 GPS tagging and tracking

 During my trip I continuous swapped between maps, e-mail, music, gallery, n-gage, photocamera, videocamera and my very important webbrower. In the background locatontagger ran. Occasionally suplemented with sportstracker. Here is where the N95 shows it's first 'age'. Despite running V20 firmware with demand paging,  location tagger regularly got kicked out of memory, not tagging this or that picture. I resorted to contineously checking for it's proper working, but that soon became annoying.

On the positive side, I ran the music player through a bluetooth stereo headset (BH-500) simultaneous navigating with Maps 2.0. This worked brilliantly. It nicely reduced music volume and upped the Maps voice. Again, not without some form of a little big irritation. Switching between music and voice is a bit slooow, missing at least the first half second of the Maps girl announcing a turn. This happends using any bluetooth headset  with Maps 2.0 with to listen to voice directions. It regulary eats the first half second of the message making it impossible to distinguish between going left and right (in dutch it is 'left turn' instead of 'turn left'). Very nasty, particulary in difficult traffic conditions where you can't take you eyes from those crazy roadwarriors. It is technically very easy to activate the bluetooth headset half a second before making an announcement. Why not do so?

GPRS/3G Trouble

Well, internet worked nicely and in most places. In one rural area one Begian carrier really frustrated my GPRS connection and befuddled and deadlocked the N95 each time it tried connecting. In the end I had to switch off all the automatic internet connecting settings to prevent the phone from trying to make a internet connection and deadlocking itself. I suppose these were the first signs of impeding doom.

Breakdown

The last 3 days of the vaction it broke down. Refusing reboot, showing occasionally colored noise while booting. It simply refused to work. I guess it could not cope with the workload and a hotspell. No GPS, no photo's, no phone! Yes indeed, no phone. Driving over empty roads, kilometers/miles from civilisation I suddenly felt bereft of my little safety blanket. At risk for out-of-the-blue car trouble, chancing to run out of gas, or other unknown disasters waiting to happen. How hollow now the memory of that feeling of superiority I felt when sliding open my 'trusty' N95 to help that guy and his family who got lost because his PNA (satnav) broke down. O shame on me.

I do have an excellent sense of direction and can read maps like a true ranger. Yet a GPS is a wonderful thing when it is 3 am in the morning and you are tired from Aachen's nightlife. The hotel was more than an hours drive in a microVillage in the middle of nowwhere. While suddenly exiting the highway a heavy cloak of nightfog popped up over unfamiliar roads. You suddenly feel like walking into a horror movie. Without the prescient telltale music. Seeying creepy nightfog turning important roadsigns nearly invisible ones for real does that. I tell you, whole heartedly, a little GPS map on my N95 is on those occasions a perfect warning for unexpected intersections and dangerpoints in the road.

Resurrection

After six days of refusing to reboot, my N95 is now alive again. No clue why. I guess the heat and hard work was to much for it. A year ago my first N95 was replaced with a brand new IMEI number after crashing a similar way. I guess this one is already with one foot in its grave. I wonder if its merely pure coincidence or simply bad design/build quality of the first N95 model.

Now I wonder, would it be really that posh to buy a second, spare smartphone? I need a backup for calling in any case. My N95 got me addicted enough to all its little features and software. Instant e-mail access, satnav and webbrowsing. Topnotch snapshot pictures. To feel connected anywhere any time. Twice my N95 has now been defunctional, leaving marked periods of being 'without' in my life. Letting me feel that I really want one, crave one, cherish one. It sounds silly. Give me a backpack, a decent knife, compass, food for a week, sleeping bag, matras and I happily roam the bush bush by myself. Popping out the forest for more when the food is done. Gadgets? Who needs one. Yet, when roaming civilization I really really crave my little smart gadget(s).

A second smartphone posh? I am in fact waiting for the perfect n-series touch creen model. A Nokia with all the N95 features packed (soft- and hardware), with a 16:9 touchscreen and slider qwerty. Pocket-sized,  100x50x20 mm. Yet they are most likely months away. Between starting and finishing this post, I broke down an ordered a Nokia N82. In ninja black of course. It is currently the best in the N95-ish class. Its better stability, larger memory, xenon-flash, properly oriented lens slider, much better gps-reception and battery life would make my N95 blush in shame. I guess I simply am hooked. Hooked on instant knowledge, information and ability any time any place. I expect my N95 will soon be nothing but a spare. Hopefully an unused spare.

A mobile junky

"When was the last time you were at a wedding that had a death defying hike, rogue waves, a luau, ultimate fighting, a presidential candidate and a budding bromance?" asks Papi Chulo. For most of us, the answer is never, but luckily, Papi Chulo and Secret Agent Scotch took the time to Vox all the amazing moments during their unforgettable Hawaiian wedding on 08.08.08 so we could all take part in the festivities.

The story began last February, when Papi Chulo popped the question and  Secret Agent Scotch said yes! Since then, they've kept us in the loop about all the details, from the bride's veil to the wedding song to the final To-Do List. And throughout it all, they inspired us with their love for each other. (I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better than knowing your future husband thinks you are The Perfect Girl.)

It's an amazing love story and we are thrilled they shared it with us. Watch the video of the ceremony and please join us in wishing Papi Chulo and Secret Agent Scotch the fairytale ending they deserve.

And What's a Team Vox Post without New Themes?

Spice up your Vox blog with one of our latest themes (found in the design area under "New") or any of our hundreds of themes. From shopping to sushi, comics to cycling, there's something for everyone.

Can't get enough of the wedding? A few lucky Voxers - Krissy, djchall, and Beau Smith - made the trip to Hawaii to take part in the celebration. Check out their Vox blogs for more pictures and stories.

Congratulations again to Secret Agent Scotch and Papi Chulo! Enjoy the Honeymoon!

~daisy 

Back in June, I bought a Nokia N82 Black on ebay.  The price was $500 and included a 1 year warranty.  Combined with a Live Search promotion and a coupon, my final price was $325.  I was ecstatic.  I waited for it for so long.

After a couple of weeks, the right speaker went out.  So I tried to sent it back to the seller, who was located in Hong Kong.  I went to FedEx and they wanted $100 to ship it.  I tried USPS, and they wanted about $50.  My dad offered to ship it from Bangkok on his next trip, since the shipping would be cheaper there.

It was shipped on July 10 and has been lost ever since.  I really wanted to take the N82 to the San Diego Comic Con.  The pictures I took with a trial N95 8GB NAM were dissapointing. 

I'm in Bangkok right now and have learned there was no tracking number used, so its lost.  I'm quite upset about this.  Not just about the lost phone, but the experiences I'm missing.

I can't take pictures of things I find interesting.  I can't load maps to know where I am and find what's nearby.

Seeing as there's no phone that's been leaked that has interested me, I'll probably end up getting a second N82.

Sometimes it's just so good to just "hang" a little and just take it easy, as this wonderful weekend when I mostly have done nothing. Well, I've got a little done, cleaned  the apartment after my holiday. You can not guess how much dust it will be when you are not at home and stir in it (the dust thus!).
Well then, I have installed my favourite software on my new-old N95a. Well it came to swapping it altogether when my old was completely dead. Yes, and they changed everything but the shell, which meant that I got back my broken battery door. But fortunately, there are tape! But still its got the new slider at least! And I decided not to upgrade to V21 of the firmware (the phone os if you wonder)
So good to have the GPS feature back at normal speed for locking the satellites, so now all my photos will be geotagged again. It’s so easy to know where you took a picture, when I now go in to Flickr and look at my photos from the trip to Finland, I can see where it was taken, when and what weather it was… .. Well not the last, but everything else is in the details on each file.

The trip was exactly as I wanted to see it be, a kind of test for a potentially longer trip next year. And to meet these great people that I talked with for so many months and told that they were like when you meet wonderful judgement, too. There is nothing that I would have done differently either, I got both the warmth ( yes it was hot, but nice, almost useless to shower), impressions and an amazing extended friendship.

Now I have one more week of vacation, but there will be no more travelling done. I will just hang around at home lounging.

This is my last post from this travel. and I hope you have enjoyed reading wnat I have done, seen and been.
This past days I have just been hanging at my mothers place outside Gävle, its been nice to just be without plans and places to go. But my travel has been fun, good and something to remember. I will also take some experiences with me on my next travel when it will be.
Going back home today will not be the end of my travels, no way, I have already strated to plan some new adventures and I will blog from those also.
One of my ideas right now is to go hiking in Europe next year, or exploring Norway. I cant decided right now what would be the most exciting thing to do right now. Both are really tempting I must say.
I want to say thank you to some of the people I have met during this travel: Carol (you are amazing), Minna (Great to fianlly met you, hope to see you soon again), Stefan (tnx for the visit to the Nokia Building in Espoo), Ella (My travel companion on the boat from Finland to Sweden, hope to hear from you soon!).
Well all you not meantioned here, you have also been both helpful and I thank you all for that.
Until next time!
Kepp on rocking in the free World!!