If any of you guys are following me on twitter (doubt it ) you’l know that I’ve had some serious issues with the micro-USB port on my N8; where cables hardly connect except after hours of fiddling and then I must stay deathly still cause the slightest movement disconnects the cable (for the record the USB port wasn’t great to start with, even when the device was new but over the past five months it’s gotten completely horrible- possible defective device???), unfortunately the local Nokia care (Jeddah-KSA) was closed so I wasn’t able to talk to anyone about it. However I thought since I was already at the HUB of mobile phones in the city (Basically a really long street crammed with hundreds of 3rd party mobile sellers) I decided to do cut my SIM, stick it into the Lumia (Crazy since it’s a trial…but yeah) and do some snooping.

According to several stores I asked the Lumia 800 has arrived in KSA but isn’t for sale yet, meaning it’s in stock somewhere while people are trained probably; the expected price is 2,500 SAR (650 Dollars) which sounds about right considering the N9 launched here for 2,800 SAR or so (740 USD) and is now currently selling for 2,000 SAR (515 USD).

Just for the sake of curiosity I decided to flash my trial Lumia 800 around a bit, seeing what price I could get for it AS-IS (no box, cables or headphones/case); a lot of people had no idea what it was, while I did get an offer for 2K or $515 which is quite good; honestly I expected something waaayyyy more considering almost nobody has this device in the whole country. Overall if Nokia wants to sell the 800 here they’re going to have to do some serious advertising as Samsung (S2 & Note) as well the 4S are killing the sales, 2 years ago every single billboard in the area was  a Nokia billboard/store sign, now every single one is Samsung (I literally couldn’t find a single Nokia sign on store billboards- except the dedicated Nokia stores).

P.S. I wonder what Nokia Connects would do to me if I sold their phone for a crazy price (considering it’s not out here) and bought a N9 and sent that one back? (will take best offer below) – then again I can’t really part with the 800 <3

Seeing as MyNokiaBlog is powered by WordPress, I thought it would be only fitting to bring a WordPress app to your attention.

I was looking at Nokia Conversations and I found this app. ( Also a WP version is on the site. See source for link.) I really like it. It is simply to use, and great for us bloggers who need to post when on site at a press release.

In fact, this post comes from the app. I am not sure if it is due to design, but the only limitation I have come across is seeing posts prior to the day you log in. The app allows for tags, images, videos, links, quoting, etc. All the main features you use on the desktop site, is right there in the palm if your hand. You can set up multiple sites as well, which is quite a nifty feature. It even lets you schedule and edit posts!

It is a great little app, and the fact it allows you to upload images directly from the device, is quite something. Definitely recommend it to anyone who has a WordPress, or WordPress-powered, blog.

Source: Nokia Conversations

Michael

In this week’s episode of the BBC’s Hustle, there’s more Nokia sightings as usual. This time, with the Nokia E7 up the top there.

The Nokia N8 also makes an appearance, but unfortunately, Mickey seems to take the call upside down :S.

Holding the right way up first…

Now he’s making an upside down phone call. I don’t know if that’s to make the Nokia N8 bump more prominent and recognizable.

UK viewers can see Episode 3 here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01b1tng/Hustle_Series_8_Episode_3/

The Nokia N900 was apparently sighted in a move called ‘Seeking Justice’ or ‘Justice’ as it’s now known. I’ve had to slightly pixelate what’s on the screen but you can guess what it said.

It’s a shame it’s a Nicky Cage movie. That poor man seems to be a stamp of a bad movie (saving graces being Face Off, Con Air and possibly Kick Ass). Perhaps I’m too fussy and unforgiving of Nick’s apparent facial palsy. Apparently it’s not just me who thinks this. Bad acting, bad movie, bad script. I haven’t seen ‘Seeking Justice’ but I’m guessing the best bit of the movie is when the Nokia N900 appears.

Apologies for those who are Nicolas Cage fans. Here’s something for you. http://niccageaseveryone.blogspot.com/

Cheers incognito for the tip!

Do you remember Michael’s Telescope Mod for the N8? He mentioned you could pretty much put any type of lenses. This time he’s made a connector for the Canon EF style Lenses.

It’s just a proof of concept, his mount is made of cardboard, rubber bands and the screw cap of the lens is what’s used to attach it. At the end of the video, you can see some samples and they look pretty good.  I’m liking that effect of manually focusing in and out during video to change between foreground and background subjects when you have a lens like a 50mm 1.8 or similar that have narrow depths of field. The N8 of course is designed to have a very wide depth of field (without being EDoF).

It won’t work to just have a canon lens on the N8 (like the stock photo we use for N8 successor stories).

Video by theycallthislife

More info at

http://theycallthislife.net/post/16205930729/canon-ef-to-nokia-n8-lens-adapter-id-like-to

This is the last series of Hustle, and as always they’ve got a bunch of Nokia phones appearing (as is their history).

On the latest episode, I saw the crowd favourite, the Nokia N8. What’s special about it is that one of the main characters, Ash, is making a phone call on the N8. The N8 is in Offline mode. LOL. Well, that’s still better reception than an iPhone. (pshhh jokes! :p).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b019h3jn/hd/Hustle_Series_8_Episode_2/

there's also too many numbers on the screen and the screen is still on dial mode. hahaha. Oh well. It's not like anyone would notice, eh? :p Is there even a SIM inside? :p

This hack is surprisingly simple. And can be followed in a few easy steps.

Start by downloading this file and extracting it to /home/user/MyDocs which is also the root folder if you connect your N9 in Mass Storage mode. As usual, terminal commands are in italics.

1. Enable developer mode (Settings>Security>Developer Mode)
2. Open Terminal
3. Gain root access
   devel-su
   password is rootme (unless changed)
4. cp /home/user/MyDocs/camera.conf /etc/camera.conf
5. /sbin/reboot

Phone will now reboot, and when it turns back on, you should have the ability to zoom while you are recording video. If for some reason you want to disable the feature, follow these steps.

1. Enable developer mode (Settings>Security>Developer Mode)
2. Open Terminal
3. Gain root access
   devel-su
   password is rootme (unless changed)
4. rm /etc/camera.conf
5. /sbin/reboot

Let me know if you need help

Michael

Source: TMO

From one star looking out to another.

Check this out, Michael’s Nokia N8 has been modified for Astrophotography. the innards are taken out so it can take pictures of the stars!

Michael says he was drawn to the N8 because of the size of its sensor. It’s fairly large (and larger than many dedicated digital cameras at the time of launch and still to this day). He notes that for a camera phone, ‘it’s really big!’ and so very sensitive to light.

Great for planetary work apparently, and major plus due to the HDMI out. A wish though is that the N8 would have a long exposure mode.

More info here:

http://theycallthislife.net/post/11889351780/nokia-n8-camera-teardown-part-1 

This is the moon. Shot a few days ago.

He says he’s interested in trying out microscopes too. I think you might remember some older work by some early generation Nseries as Microscopes.

Videos by theycallthislife

Cheers AmmAR for the tip!

The Nokia N9 64GB is apparently available at Amazon UK for £444.99 via expansys.

• Nokia N9 64GB at Amazon for £444.99 (via eXpansys)

That’s possibly the best UK based price we’ve seen so far. There’s £9 shipping and this is via Expansys UK limited.

You could just go through expansys themselves:

• http://www.expansys.com/nokia-n9-smartphone-black-64gb-eu-plug-with-uk-adapter-225748/

Not as cheap perhaps as FNAC Portugal though I’m not sure where they ship to.

Cheers Dansus for the tip!

The Nokia Developer site says that PR1.2 is coming soon for the developer unit, Nokia N950. So soon for N9 too. Sorry rushing, exam week :S. For a heads up on what’s coming, take a look back at this post of PR1.2 screenshots from the N9.

We will be shortly releasing a developer edition of MeeGo 1.2 Harmattan 1.2 beta (feel free to crack a joke v 1.2 here) to developers with Nokia N950 Developer Device. The goal of this early access release is to enable developers to verify that their applications do not exhibit any regressions in the new platform version.

This release will be available as a one-click-flasher for Nokia N950 Developer Device. In other words, in order to participate in this beta you need to already have a Nokia N950 Developer Device. 

We have done our best to ensure full binary compatibility from Harmattan 1.0 and 1.1 (and 1.1.1 Arabic) to Harmattan 1.2, but we want to offer developers the opportunity to test and verify their apps on the real thing before actual global roll out of the consumer release. There will be also small changes between beta and final consumer release, mostly focusing on ensuring release robustness and performance.

There is at least one known change in the Harmattan 1.2 (and 1.1.1 Arabic) that is impacting developers: The system font change. See blog posts The default font will change — to bigger and better (18th Dec 2011), Font change part 2: playing with the line height (21st dec 2011) and Font change part 3: Flexible UI layouts (5th Jan 2012) for more details.

More information on the release features and fixes, distribution and Nokia N9 support will be available later. The Nokia N950 Developer Device program was closed in the summer, and thus no new entrants are accepted.

Cheers Morpog for the tip!