Carphone Warehouse Loves the Powerful N900 and Maemo 5.
Carphone Warehouse is the largest mobile phone retailer in the United Kingdom (A.K.A. the Phone house is also the largest in Europe). In Cardiff city centre alone, in the space of about 500 metres, there are FOUR Carphone Warehouse stores (the two on the highstreet are 30 metres apart on either side…there’s another in the new St David’s 2 mall, and one just outside it. You know just in case you missed Carphone Warehouse the first time, there’s three other chance). There are even more outside the city centre.
So with all that presence, it’s great to see Carphone Warehouse giving the N900 some recognition. Full front window exposure, leaflets, and front cover lead of their monthly magazine price guide. Pretty funny that the same people in that shop said there was no such thing as the N900 a few months back. Now the N900 is unavoidable in their store. [Also funny that N900 is mainly on Vodafone (might recently have become available on O2), when Vodafone guys in several stores said they won't be picking up N900 as it has Linux...then they had N900 exclusively]
The selling point of the N900 in CPW’s eyes is the multitasking capabilities, and subtly, the stupendous browser. Carphone Warehouse shouts out about being able to handle up to 24 tasks simultaneously (though you can do much more than that!) and shows off the N900 browsing the real facebook.com website. Not an app. Not the mobile site. Full, desktop version of facebook.com.
So, February, the romantic month of Valentine – Carphone Warehouse’s date: the N900.
Contract price is pretty good considering this is from a high street shop where it’s normally much higher than what’s available online.
If this is the attention the Geek Phone, “not for masses” Maemo 5 is getting, just think about how the Harmattan Maemo 6 phone will be received. I wish they had demo units though so people can see just how good the N900 is in store.
The N920 or whatever the successor is called (please have a name not a number!) I really hope Nokia work with the phone retailers to put out demo units so people could fiddle with it. Take photos, browse the web, make it multitask, watch DVDs, play 3D games, etc.
#Symbiangives:Over $5500 grand prize total to win and a bunch of other prizes with @Symbian on Twitter!
If you head over to www.symbian.org/symbiangives you’ll see that Symbian are giving away some prizes from today up to next Friday (Feb 19th). There’s gonna be a few prizes to win, as well as a grand prize total of over $5500.
What do you need to do? Well follow @Symbian on twitter, and up until the 19th Feb, you’ll notice tweets from them with instructions (Maybe some as imple as Retweeting [RT] their tweets, including the hash tag #symbiangives.
F.A.Q.
Q: What is the #symbiangives campaign?
A: We have recently made our source code free to everyone and we’re still feeling in a generous mood. So to share our joy, we decided to reward the community for celebrating with us through their Twitter Tweets. For ten days (Monday – Friday from Feb. 8-19,2010), we’ll be giving away various prizes to randomly selected people who either Retweet us with the hashtag #symbiangives, or who send us a clever line following the creative template from our campaign.
Q: I forgot to include the “#symbiangives” in my Tweet, but I did everything else right. Am I still eligible?
What would it take to bring you back to Symbian?
Perhaps you’re still a Nokia user who’s moved over to the greener Maemo 5 pastures, or strayed completely into the dens of other smartphone OS [iPhone/Android/WebOS/Windows?!/Blackberry?!?!]. Whatever the case, if you’re no longer using Symbian or know that your current Symbian handset is the last one you ever want to use:
What would it take to bring you back to Symbian?
- Are there any physical features that would totally sway you back to Symbian?
- What OS/UI/UX facets is Symbian missing?
- What have you seen in other smartphones that you’d like to see in Symbian?
- Can Symbian^4 deliver/meet expectations of high end mobile OS?
Or perhaps you’re a very content Symbian user already and look forward to future models?
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Nokia’s supposedly bringing out a 12MP beast with Xenon this year, but it might be Symbian flavoured (though it might be the newer Symbian^3). If xenon and Symbian touch is what I’m after, there’s already Satio from S.E.
- For me, to go back and buy a new Symbian handset as opposed to going elsewhere (Maemo 6 in my case) I’d have to have:
- the feature packed Mozilla Based MicroB browser. Or similar/better functionality. I can stomach other things on Symbian that Maemo does a little better but not browsing. I’ve been too spoilt now in properly having the best pocketable web experience (maybe implement multitouch whilst we’re at it)
- Stable, intensive multitasking.
- Maybe native .DivX, .avi, .XviD playback? [though apps like SmartMovie may solve this]
- ….or even the highly customizable homescreens. [multiple, and higher degree of customizability!]
- many other things from Maemo but I’ll stop here.
- Maybe native .DivX, .avi, .XviD playback? [though apps like SmartMovie may solve this]
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Video: Sony Ericsson Satio Vs Nokia N900 [Symbian Vs Maemo?]
YouTube user SpecialVideosHD has got the SE’s Satio and puts it against Nokia’s N900. Essentially, this is Symbian Vs Maemo for the OS part.
- N900 is wider, thicker. Satio is taller, slimmer.
- Whilst both having 3.5″ screens, the N900 in terms of area is bigger due to the ratio
- N900’s screen has much higher resolution (800×480 VS 640×360) – makes a huge difference when framing photos, watching videos and of course, browsing the web.
- In Browser test, the very best Symbian phone is NO competition to the N900. Over a wide array of LARGER pages, N900 will load faster, multiple pages, but best of all most accurately – near, raw desktop compatibility. I cannot stress how much of a leap forward the Mozilla based browser is on the N900 compared to what’s on Symbian handsets right now (to an extent, most other browsers on other platforms in terms of accurate rendering of pages).
- In Camera test, we’ve got to give it to the Satio. But ignore the video when it says it’s because it has more MP. Having said that, the 12MP is actually pretty decent, plus you’ve got that Xenon flash for improved photo illumination (Please let Harmattan/Maemo 6 phone have xenon!!!!!).
- Very subjective, but I much prefer Satio’s odd looking lens cover and the fact it has a dedicated button for pictures/video switching.
- In Video, the N900 is somewhat superior (though some have experienced stuttering/frame drop – could be fixed in future firmware). Overall, N900 higher resolution and MUCH better audio, Satio possibly producing smoother video.
- N900 multitasks better. What other smartphone multitasks better than the N900?
- N900 much faster
- N900 has a physical QWERTY keyboard
Pls, pls, pls let Maemo 6 have xenon flash? Or if the N82’s real successor will still have Symbian, please let us have a browser that’s as brilliantly functional as the Maemo 5 Mozilla Based MicroB.
There’s so many times when instead of taking my laptop from my room and lugging it down to the living room [to research some pages on the net for some notes], the N900 takes its place perfectly.
Custom Laser Cut Acrylic and Wooden stands for the Nokia N900!
Weapon Stand - the stylus is set like a mighty SAMURI sword! In the right lighting it looks like it's floating.
The Maemo Community isn’t just about software. From talk.maemo.org one of the users is creating custom cut stands for the N900!
Now, the N900 already has a stand, but you might want to enhance the angle a little more. Plus,
- this one has a rest for the stylus,
- is more stable on both sides [you can press the screen and it move about as much]
- it would look marvellous on the office or home desk!
Pricing? Where to get one?
The wooden models will be priced as follows:
One for $10. That includes shipping.
Two for $15. (The “home&office” set)That includes shipping.
Three for $20. That includes shipping.Clear acrylic stands will cost:
One for $17, shipped
Two for $30, (The “home&office” set) shipped.
The order form is filling up: Click to head over to talk.maemo.org and see what it’s all about.
I guess it would also fit other phones, like the 5800?
MyNokiaBlog Weekly Post Round Up (Ep 4): N97 V21 firmware update, Symbian fully open source and Golden Retrevo Award
This first week of February on MyNokiaBlog, we bookend with the Conversations app on the N900, showing you how to get more IM account to the default messenger app as well as the update which allows for facebook chat.
But this week has really been all about Symbian, starting with the long awaited update for the N97. The best thing about the update for me was that it fixed my long term frustration with failed bootup. I’ve got my N97 back on track again!
The Symbian countdown finally finished revealling that Symbian was now finally open soure, 4 months ahead of schedule.
There were a couple of cool apps on show from Nokia Beta Labs: Diagnostics and custom dictionary as well as a notable update for the Ovi Store.
Finally, thanks to all your support, we have reached 1 million views, broke 170,000 views in January and also coincidentally, won a Golden Retrevo award in the Mobile Gadgets Category. We aren’t really a traditional tech/nokia Blog of sorts, just blogging with whatever Nokia story comes of our interest. Thanks so much for reading the randomness on MyNokiaBlog.com ^_^
- How to: AIM, MSN, ICQ, Yahoo! QQ, GaduGadu, Sametime, Google Talk, Ovi Chat on N900’s inbuilt messaging client January 31, 2010
- New Nokia N97 firmware update V21.0.045 and 21.2.045 from Feb 1, 2010, 08:00GMT. February 1, 2010
- Freeware: Nokia Custom Dictionary Word List Organizer V0.02(2) for S60 3rd and 5th Edition [Experimental]February 2, 2010
- MyNokiaBlog reaches 1 million views, breaks 170,000 views in January and wins a Golden Retrevo Award!February 2, 2010
- N97 Failed Boot up/Hard Reset Problem Fixed by new firmware update V21.0.045?! February 2, 2010
- Nokia to go to S^3 in Q3 of 2010 and not bother with S^2! February 2, 2010
- Symbian (community) using their spare time to make auto 4×4×4 rubics cube solver! February 2, 2010
- WiiMote, Duke Nukem 3D and N900 February 3, 2010
- Something Big with Symbian Tomorrow? #symbiancountdown at 12 February 3, 2010
- Nokia Orion – Touch Screen Gaming Nokia Concept February 3, 2010
- World’s number one mobile OS, Symbian becomes fully Open Source [#symbiancountdown] February 4, 2010
- New i version of the 6303 classic to be launched February 4, 2010
- New App: Diagnostics from Nokia Beta Labs February 4, 2010
- Big Push N900 Event at London tonight! [@PushN900 #PushN900] February 4, 2010
- N900 free on a £25/month contract – £240 effective price. Unlocked, Unbranded, unlimited internet, plus free case. Best deals for the Nokia N900? February 5, 2010
- Video: Tour of FireFox on the N900 February 5, 2010
- Updated Ovi Store App on the Nokia N97 Works Great! Accurate Search, more content, improved navigation and stability! February 6, 2010
- Facebook Chat for N900’s inbuilt Conversations app. February 6, 2010
Facebook Chat for N900’s inbuilt Conversations app.
On Sunday, we wrote about how to get additional Instant Messaging accounts to the N900’s built in messenger client.
This was through the “Pidgin Protocols Plugin..”. The N900 only just now notified me of an update whereby now FaceBook chat is included. Facebook via conversations app was available a few days earlier but with extras-devel – so probably why I’m only getting notification now as I’ve only got extras-testing catalogue. See here for instructions on how to add that catalogue
Facebook Chat for N900? Fantastic – that’s the one I really wanted for the N900 and why I missed Nimbuzz from S60 so much (though you did have the option to use the facebook chat on the N900’s browser).
As with the other IM accounts, to see your contacts, go to the phone book. Change the contact view to “availability” to see only those on Chat. Even better, you can even further into account groups. Great if you have multiple ones set up. This way, you can specifically filter, say, just the facebook contacts.
So that’s google talk, Ovi Chat, Skype, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ, AIM, GaduGadu, Groupwise, QQ and Sametime, all integrated into one same messaging app as your texts. Wonderful convenience.
Updated Ovi Store App on the Nokia N97 Works Great! Accurate Search, more content, improved navigation and stability!
Last September, I ranted about my frustrations on the Ovi Store App on the N97 with the post,
“Ovi Store Rant: 7 things wrong with the Ovi Store“
These annoyances consisted of:
7. Inability to update Ovi Store app from the client itself [Ovi Store App updates itself now]
There’s been at least three updates I think, straight from the Ovi Store client itself. No more having to manually download. I’ll continue this post mostly as a comparison between Ovi Store app back in September and Ovi Store app right now Click to read more on the Updated Ovi Store App for Symbian
Video: Tour of FireFox on the N900
Last Saturday, FireFox officially went out of Beta stage, ready for the masses [well N900 owners anyway]
Below is a video tour showing you the great features on FireFox mobile for the Nokia N900
- Awesome bar
- instant bookmarks
- Specific search engine search
- Open tabs on left
- browser controls on right
- awesome bar automatically stows away
- double tap zoom
- Download manager – can download any files to N900
- Add on support
- Weave Sync synchronizes your desktop FireFox with Mobile Firefox. Syncs open tabs from computer to the desktop, as well as history and saved password!
- Manage bookmarks with tags
N900 free on a £25/month contract – £240 effective price. Unlocked, Unbranded, unlimited internet, plus free case. Best deals for the Nokia N900?
Note: Delivery is £3.99 with this retailer and I'm not sure if the free case is with all their tarriffs/monthly plans. update: Yes, the free case does come with all tarriffs. Do ask customer service (I think they have a chat service) to confirm any details/questions before purchasing.
If you’re just after a N900, your cheapest bet might be going for the unlocked option. In the UK that would mean setting adrift £440-£499. Great if you’ve got that sort of cash lying around. Plus you’ve got to fork over extra for data/calls/text.
I prefer the whole contract route. Yes you’re somewhat slightly tied up for a period of time, but if you get yourself a good deal you can effectively get more for your money, whilst paying at a more manageable bitesize monthly debits (as a student, that’s perfect for me).
It’s unlocked/unbranded!
Now I’ve not been paid by these guys (although I’ve mentioned them a few times already and I am a customer) but the best deal I can find at the moment on line is through mobilephonesdirect.The great thing is, the handset is straight from Nokia (they’re a Nokia Retailer) This means, unlocked, unbranded; NOTHING to affect any future firmware updates and swapping network sims. If you buy from Vodafone directly, most likely you will have Vodafone lock and branding (though enquire as they might not), meaning not only can you not use any other sim except Vodafone (awful for travelling/roaming) but it might delay any firmware upgrades.
If you are just after the cheapest way to get the N900 unlocked and unbranded with the added benefit of subsidized handset cost (it’s free!), monthly payments and some talk/text/unlimited web allowance, this might just be the plan for you.
Deal 1: MobilePhonesDirect – Vodafone, £25/month.
At £25/month over 24 months that’s £600. Much more than the £440-£499 range of the unlocked.
But let’s take into account inclusive allowances.
- For unlimited web: £5 x 25=£120 (This is really the most important thing with the N900.)
- For calls and text: £10 x 24=£240 (on a monthly plan – over vanilla pay&go, 20p call/10p text, this could be as much as £936, though not advised to be on pay and go if your usage is that high)
- In total that’s £360 of allowances.
- £600 – 360 = £240. Provided you stick to your tariff allowances:
The effective cost of your N900 will then be about £240.
If you have higher call/text consumption, there maybe other plans, not just from this retailer that will work better for you. But this is the cheapest option for low/minimal usage + unlimited internet.
If 8-14 months down the line, you ever did want to sell on your handset whilst on a contract, you can sell it for £300-£350 (provided it’s unlocked – usually is with MPD but please check with other retailers-, mint condition with all accessories) and then use that to pay off the rest of the contract. At 12 months, there’s £300 [12*£25] left. Selling at a bottom price of £300 and you’ll even break even, ready to jump on a new contract. Sell for £350 and you’ve got an additional £50 for a new contract (or whatever)
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How much did you get your N900 for?
Can you find a better deal than this (make sure it’s from a reputable retailer)?
Big Push N900 Event at London tonight! [@PushN900 #PushN900]
Thursday’s Open Source/Nokia related news isn’t all about Symbian, there’s a taste of Maemo too!
Back in September, Nokia announced the Push N900 initiative. What is PushN900?
“It’s a unique project from Nokia. And we’re looking for help from the world’s most skilled designers, artists, hackers and modders.
We want you to come up with ideas to hack the N900. A panel of expert judges will pick the most impressive ideas. We’ll support you to create them and then take the final creations on a world tour
The N900 is the most powerful device we’ve ever made. And it runs on Maemo, which is entirely open-source.”
You may have seen some of these hacks appearing on Nokia’s YouTube channel mid development. Tonight, all 5 winning hacks will be showcased in London. These include Read more…
New App: Diagnostics from Nokia Beta Labs
Nokia beta labs have churned out the latest application (currently only for S60 5th but hopefully more later), Nokia Diagnostics.
From the official page:
Nokia Diagnostics makes it easy to diagnose and troubleshoot situations on the mobile phone by running various tests on the phone, including:
1. Network Coverage test
2. Internet connectivity test
3. Battery charger test
4. Loudspeaker &
5. Earpiece test
Our intention is to create a solution for helping millions of Nokia users diagnose, troubleshoot, and configure their devices with ease on their own. We believe that exposing this idea to the Beta Labs community and sharing this application prototype would help us realise just that.
Compatibility and system requirements
Nokia Diagnostics works well with all S60 5th Edition devices like Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5230, Nokia 5530, Nokia 5800, and Nokia X6.
Not compatible with S60 3rd Edition devices yet (coming soon).
To download the application head over to the Nokia Beta Labs: http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-diagnostics
I have just installed the application and can tell you it works well, you can see a few shots of it in use below, The only test which I found had a glitch right now is the Network test as it does not show the signal strength for some reason! (Hopefully they fix this soon)
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- Bata Labs Page
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- Diagnostics Application
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- Test Page
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- Network Coverage Test
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- Battery Test
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- Earpiece Test
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- Earpiece Test (2)
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- Loudspeaker Test
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- All Tests Passed!
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- Options Menu
Nokia Diagnostics makes it easy to diagnose and troubleshoot situations on the mobile phone by running various tests on the phone, including:
1. Network Coverage test
2. Internet connectivity test
3. Battery charger test
4. Loudspeaker &
5. Earpiece test
New i version of the 6303 classic to be launched
We have all seen the Nokia 6303 Classic, which was 1 of 2 branches (the other being the 6700) from the 6300 which was hugely popular phone for many reasons including the physical design and stable software, but not Nokia have decided to improve upon the 6303 and make the 6303i which boasts an improved battery; up to 8 hours of calls, 30 hours of music or 3 weeks standby.
The second big change is the inclusion of communication tools such as support for instant messaging.
The phone will be made available in 2 full body colours; silver and khaki gold:
Personally I’m not sure about the Khaki gold one but until you actually see the phone in person you don’t know as they phone always looks slightly different in person!
The phone should be released to select territories this quarter so keep a look out.
World’s number one mobile OS, Symbian becomes fully Open Source [#symbiancountdown]
The world’s most populous smartphone platform (330,000,000 shipped), Symbian, is now fully open source. Members of the foundation include Nokia, AT&T, LG, Motorola, NTT Docomo, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments and Vodafone.
In 2008, Nokia bought the rest of Symbian for $410 million…. and then gave it away. In February 2009, Nokia received $630 million 5-year loan from the European Investment Bank to drive and support Symbian’s R&D.
Symbian Foundation [with S60, UIQ and MOAP under their belt] officially launched in April 2009, becoming its own entity. The intention: becoming fully open source, to speed up development, innovation and attract developers.
In addition, Symbian Foundation aims to reduce Nokia’s influence to Symbian’s development to no more than 50% by 2011. That’s great I guess; accessibility and being free to modify is what open source is all about. Apart from fresh ideas, loosening Nokia’s grip allows greater input from the others participating in Symbian’s development. Plus, there’s always that greater sense attachment/’ownership’/loyalty to something one’s been able to actively contribute to.
Hopefully Symbian foundation can really surprise us when Symbian^3 (and then ^4) arrives. Despite its unrivalled success by sales volume, the public image of Symbian OS, mainly due to S60, has been of “OLD, outdated, unintuitive – uncompetitive” compared to rival experiences with Android, iPhone and now Maemo. Functional? Yes. Easy to use? No. That’s not good when today’s OS on any device is all about pick up and play. Manual? Hell no.
Via BBC
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So this is what the #Symbiancountdown has been all about? 108 days ahead of schedule in becoming open source?
UPDATE: 04-02-2010 10:00GMT. Countdown still going. Now at 9.
WiiMote, Duke Nukem 3D and N900
Here’s a video showing Duke Nuken 3D being played on the N900…but the controls are a Wii Remote
If you’ve got a Wii Remote and a N900 you wanna hook it up to, follow instructions on connecting the two below Click to continue reading this WiiMote post
Something Big with Symbian Tomorrow? #symbiancountdown at 12
This blogpost is brought to you by the letter S and the number 12.
Last week, we saw the first of the #symbiancountdown, which was then at 108. It’s been randomly counting down and now it’s at 12. If you head over to countdown.symbian.org you’ll see a sesame street video attached (they’ve had ponies and rainbows…why not…it matches the whole child like yellow ducks and robots and font of Symbian…)
Also, Symbian has tweeted that it’s all gonna happen (whatever that is) tomorrow! [or am I misinterpreting that and it's just going to be another number? I'm sure someone mentioned something's happening this Thursday..which is Tomo.]
Nokia Orion – Touch Screen Gaming Nokia Concept
It resembles a super slim Game Boy Advance, with a touch of E97 ‘clone‘; this concept called Orion by the Recombu guys is a dedicated Nokia gaming touch screen phone which relies on dedicated gaming keys as opposed to purely touch screen.
The E97 part is the qwerty keyboard which appears behind the touch screen, but it has its own screen for texting too.
I’m all for super slim touch screens! More concept Nokia phones to drool over please! (If only I had the skillz – I’m only a MS paint guy >_<) Also, what I really like is that it’s a name. Not a designation/barcode/mysterious digits.
Symbian (community) using their spare time to make auto 4×4x4 rubics cube solver!
So if you were wondering what keeps the guys and girls over at Symbian (community) busy on their breaks or what they do just to have fun? check this out:
If you think about it, it is really impressive, the N95 looks at the faces of the cube from above and checks to see what position everything is and tells the Lego what to do next. It is powered by an arm processor and the following is what Julien Fourgeaud at the symbian blog had to say:
Possibly the first ever mobile powered 4×4×4 LEGO Rubik’s cube solver? This Rubik’s Cube solver was designed and programmed using a Nokia N95 mobile phone, a LEGO Mindstorms NXT and lots of LEGO technic pieces!
UPDATE: I stand corrected…it was made by the symbian community not symbian
My Nokia Blog
- Carphone Warehouse Loves the Powerful N900 and Maemo 5. February 9, 2010
- #Symbiangives:Over $5500 grand prize total to win and a bunch of other prizes with @Symbian on Twitter! February 8, 2010
- What would it take to bring you back to Symbian? February 8, 2010
- Video: Sony Ericsson Satio Vs Nokia N900 [Symbian Vs Maemo?] February 8, 2010
- Custom Laser Cut Acrylic and Wooden stands for the Nokia N900! February 7, 2010
- MyNokiaBlog Weekly Post Round Up (Ep 4): N97 V21 firmware update, Symbian fully open source and Golden Retrevo Award February 6, 2010
- Facebook Chat for N900’s inbuilt Conversations app. February 6, 2010
- Updated Ovi Store App on the Nokia N97 Works Great! Accurate Search, more content, improved navigation and stability! February 6, 2010
- Video: Tour of FireFox on the N900 February 5, 2010
- N900 free on a £25/month contract – £240 effective price. Unlocked, Unbranded, unlimited internet, plus free case. Best deals for the Nokia N900? February 5, 2010
Wordpress Blogging on the Nokia N900
Click to continue reading this post
Authors
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Jay Montano
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chaslam
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nokiacreative
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illusionado
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