Two thumb typing on the Nokia N97 (or lack of)

July 12, 2009 at 8:45 pm | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, S60, Symbian, Video | Leave a Comment
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The Nokia N97, if you take the time to get accustomed to it, has a pretty decent physical QWERTY keyboard. However, there are times that I need to use the onscreen alphanumeric keypad, like when I’ve only got one free hand or if I simply just want to text with the phone closed.

The latter of “two handed T9″ I cannot do because the screen keyboard only registers single keypresses. If you have your finger on one key, it locks out all the others.

This means I cannot type as fast in T9 mode with two hands on the N97 as I can with a traditional physical keypad. This is an issue already raised by 5800 users. But it’s not like the screen itself cannot register multiple keypresses. A video a while back of an app on the 5800 shows what appears to be “multitouch”.

It’s no iPhone, but it’s a start.

I can’t find the download link for that game, but you can sort of try it out “multiple-touch” for yourself – go to the menu and a grid full of apps. With one thumb at one corner and another at the opposite end, you’ll see that the screen registers both keypresses. Depending on the ‘pressure’, you can also control which icon is highlighted (see video below).

it’s not multitouch, I’m just wondering if there could be a workaround, like in the first video, to somehow get multiple keypresses registered onto the on screen keypad? Or is that just not possible and the most we’d ever get is selecting the key inbetween the intitial two key presses? (AAS’ Steve Litchfield has already proposed such for the 5800’s QWERTY).

I don’t really know how it works or the limitations imposed – perhaps at least for the N97 it’s in Nokia’s best interest to keep two handed use for the QWERTY and one handed for T9.

What I do know is what I want, and that’s for the next flagship touchscreen device from Nokia to have native support for multitouch and finger gestures.

Also worth noting is the video (from this same post) with versatile multitouch on a resistive screen – until they get to the same feather pressure sensitivity as capacitive, Nokia really needs to switch to capacitive.

Video: The Phones Show – Episode 85 – James Burland on the iPhone 3GS (and Nokia Rant)

July 9, 2009 at 11:32 am | In Nokia, Nseries, Rant, Video, aPPLE | 2 Comments
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Episode 85 of the Phones Show focuses on the new iPhone 3GS, with James Burland of NokiaCreative giving us a tour of its new features.

But before that, Steve also briefly takes a look at:

  • HTC Hero – Android Smartphone which interestingly has full adobe flash
  • New Firmware updates of recent Nokia phones, notably N97, N96 and E71
  • Ovi Maps 3.0

The star of the show is Apple’s iPhone 3GS.  I am really overwhelmed at what Apple’s been able to do with the iPhone. It is extremely impressive on the visuals and execution of these new features. Something as simple as being able to switch between video and photo at a single tap.  Nokia – why did you take that out of the N97/5800? Though it wasn’t the best interface with S60 3rd edition, at least with initial start up of the camera, the first option within one click is to switch between photo/video. Ideally though, it would be a hardware switch – so that you can immediately start in the prefered mode without having to wait to switch.

At times when my friends ask me about Nokia things and I get a little rant started, my only excuse for those shortcomings is to suggest some sort of saboteur at the helm ofcontrols, slowly passing off undoubtedly crap decisions as something good for Nokia. The blogosphere is screaming to Nokia what they should be doing. Their suggestions aren’t risky fantasies as you see those suggestions for Nokia becoming standard features amongst its competitors.

However, Steve is quick to point out (and cool my 3GS amazement) that:

  1. “there are still no background third party applications. So that means waiting for each game to start up again after each interruption. Though the extra speed does indeed help here. Also this means no background streaming radio and no background social media applications keeping track of your life.
  2. iPhone’s safari still has no Flash
  3. iPhone’s camera still doesn’t have LED flash
  4. Battery life still rather poor
  5. No user accessible file system.

All Nokia fans can do now is wait in hope that Nokia have something brilliant up their sleeves; that it’s taking them so long to put out because it will be truly mind blowing, something overwhelmingly unexpected, bringing a new breed of device(s) that symbolize Nokia’s worthiness in being the number 1 phone manufacturer in the world. Ultimate hardware, advanced yet user friendly software and streamlined services – from Nokia? Or will it forever be just a dream?

In the mean time, we’ll get these interim(a.k.a. half-assed) solutions to keep interests in Nokia devices and services (though at the same time frustrating them, tarnishing the Nokia reputation with the confusingly poor compromises being taken).

Via 3lib

Things are looking good for the N97 with the new firmware update to V11.0.021

June 30, 2009 at 11:24 pm | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, S60, Suggestions, Symbian, Video | 3 Comments
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In a few hours, it will be 1st July 09, the release of the new N97 firmware: V11.0.021.

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Teo, from Symbian-Freak, has found the changelog via serie-n.it, which at first glance for me looks great, as I’ve unfortunately encountered the bugs that required such fixes:

USB detection error fix

  • PC does not detect N97 or USB charging connection not detected.

-Additionally for me, the N97 has twice frozen after being connected via USB, then after removal from USB, still displays the charging animation. It can only be restarted by removal of battery.


-Widget

  • -Home screen online/offline widget crash fix
  • -Fix for “Alphabetical and Number input are mixed in facebook until end key is pressed.

Fantastic. This has absolutely p’d me off when trying to post on friends’ walls/statuses and the keyboard is stuck to either numbers or symbols.

  • -Widget UI improvement – New facebook widget fixes a problem of Home Screen background visible on soft-key area.

I’m loving the facebook widget for the N97. It does have certain stability issues, and annoyingly locks up if you suddenly lose signal in the middle of posting. As you cannot exit facebook to restart it, you have to restart the phone again.

The visible background thing also happens sometimes in the bloomberg widget.

  • -Browser fixes to improve widgets stability.

I encountered an awful bug today which led the phone to crash every time I tried the browser or a widget. Restart after restart. I had to remove the battery to resolve the situation. Hopefully this is fixed.

-MfE related fixes

  • -Partial fix for Messaging/calendar entry lost.
  • -Mail for exchange calendar entry synchronization error fix.

-UI transition error fixes (Portrait <-> landscape transition, there is a home screen corruption.)

  • -UI transition (Slowness and bad effects)

Ah, brilliant. The N97 UI looks much nicer if you set theme effects on. You’ve got a visual transition from homescreen to blank background, menus pop up nicer, and there is a transition (though pants) from landscape to portrait. However, it’s do painfully slow that I had to turn it off. I can’t wait 3 seconds for the phone to orientate itself.

  • -Slow Touch UI response

Another annoyance which has caused a lot of finger mashing of the screen as you aren’t really sure if your presses are being registered.

  • -Picture of the device lock appears half of the screen when transitioning the UI sometimes
  • -Landscape: in some cases the soft buttons on touch (right hand) show the Home Screen in background (install maps.google.com)


-Photos thumbnail performance and stability improvements

  • -Device performance deteriorates when lots of content in the device – especially photos

I don’t have much content yet, only a paltry proportion of the entire 29.8GB available, but I have noticed the phone to be steadily slowing down with each collection of new photos taken, music/video added.

Furthermore, photos taken in sequence mode take an age to appear in gallery beyond initial thumbnails. (But sequence mode is actually very good, with sufficient frames per second to be a real “burst” mode. Though I do miss “timed” sequences, e.g. 1 a minute. Good for stills time lapses)

  • -Partial fix no display backlight illumination when unlocking lock-key – CAP Genius reported already.

I’ve had to restart sometimes because I thought the phone had frozen only to realise it’s just the backlight, but then it’s too late and I have to wait to restart.

  • -New version of Accueweather to improve the “Connection error” situation
  • -Device reset when browsing with high speed packet access (for Malaysia)
  • -“Browser soft key UI doesn’t work after putting Chinese character with qwerty keyboard”
  • -Java fixes (TCK, Pre-install app disappearing, *#7370#*)
  • -Operator fixes (CMCC, Hutchson and Telefonica, Vodafone)
  • -Ovi store client now embedded in the core image

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Some other annoyances that spring to mind right now (there’s more, but can’t remember) which aren’t on the changelog:

  1. Voice command disabled. Maybe it’s just my handset. It worked a few times, and it was surprisingly accurate, even in a busy Cardiff shopping street. However, it proceeded to later crash, lock the device needed for a battery removal restart.
  2. Music player in homescreen doesn’t always display the track that’s actually being played.
  3. When slide closes from landscape view, (e.g. I’ve just typed in something, I want to minimise the form factor) the phone reverts into portrait even though I’m not holding the phone in portrait – then proceeds to switching back into landscape.

There are also some UI issues, which may have to wait for another firmware update, such as :

  • continuity of kinetic scrolling.

This should not be just in certain apps, web browser/certain widgets. It should be a fluid character of every single area of the phone, stepping towards more finger friendly gestures.

  • slowness in typing.

Using the keyboard, the letters seem to be slightly delayed before appearing on screen. It doesn’t happen when using the alphanumeric keyboard, but because the screen cannot register multiple presses, when typing at “fast” speeds with two thumbs, your input is not registered.

  • Better input of numbers/punctuation from keyboard.

A lot of people have wished that the keyboard would register a long press as a number selection. e.g. instead of

“RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR” we get “4″.

Additionally, punctuation. Full stops, commas, apostrophes, question marks and exclamation marks are (I’m guessing) are the most frequently used. Strangely, it was much easier to get punctuation from the old style nokia keypads than this full fleged keyboard. Yeah, you get used to it. But full stops, commas and apostrophes should have never been mashed together in one button.

  • Improved predictive text (mainly in QWERTY).

Both alphanumeric keyboard and physical qwerty have predictive text. It helps slightly as you get used to knowing what words will come up, so pressing spacebar on qwerty completes it (Set auto-fill on). However:

-it doesn’t have the intuition to know that when I’m pressing the awful .,’ button, in attempting to type “I’m, or I’ve or It’s, you get I.m/I.ve/It.s” Even when I’ve added it to the dictionary by spelling it, it still isn’t recognized.

-When you complete a previously entered word, it automatically fills it in, including any capital letters you may or may not want the second time around. You cannot undo it unless you type the last letter separately.

-Pressing up or down gives you suggestions on what you may have wanted to input, but it’s inconsistent. Sometimes it gives full words, sometimes it only gives a few letters. I may have to read the manual to ascertain the actual function of this, maybe it’s not meant to be for suggestions/corrections as it doesn’t fullfil either function properly.

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Whilst it’s a deep inconvenience to encounter these bugs on production firmware, it’s good to see Nokia fixing these bugs extremely quickly. As I remember from testing the N95, the guys fixing the firmware bugs were incredible. An email about a bunch of bugs to them and they release an update to fix it. Aha, if only it were that quick and simple for production units.

From Serie-N.it via Symbian-Freak

Video: Hands on with the Sony Ericsson Satio

June 22, 2009 at 1:09 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, S60, Sony Ericsson, Symbian, Video | 2 Comments
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If we were to somehow rewind one year, and I was asked to think about

“what features I would have liked to have seen in a phone that would be sufficient enough to replace the imaging capabilities of the N82 entirely?”

  • Symbian S60 Touch
  • large high resolution screen
  • great camera
  • xenon (true) flash
  • dedicated camera/video switch
  • media button

-  I would not have expected that the world would see that all coming first from Sony Ericsson.

via JUSTAMP

It’s annoying because it’s not like Nokia weren’t aware people want these kinds of features. They’ve been harped on constantly, by several other consumers who voice their opinion online in their blogs or forums.

I won’t start on another xenon rant. But I will begin one about a dedicated video/camera (stills) switch/button.

It is not hard, Nokia.

You did it way back in the N93/N93i.

You made so many great steps in terms of ease with imaging (it’s just a shame that the N93 stills was absolutely pants) – dedicated flash/video light button, dedicated video/camera button and 3x optical zoom!

But we never saw this again- not even in the damn camera orientated N86! (Having said that, the N86 does have a lot of improvements to imaging which seem to be silent as they all result in improving image quality – e.g.  wide angle, improved latency, large aperture, better sensor in general so it’s really not all about more megapixels but being more efficient with the pixels you already have)

Perhaps I just need to tame my geekly cravings of the ultimate all in one and realise, the world just isn’t ready yet for such powerful convergence devices, in this case, here with imaging capabilities so great it could rival the humble point and shoot cameras.

But then, we see the likes of Sony Ericsson with the Satio which reawakens my high expectations from mobile phones. Soon imaging we’ll see another forceful phone, the Samsung m8920 – a very capable feature phone that trumps the Satio slightly with 3x optical zoom but in a possibly slimmer, better looking body than it’s previous incarnation (the “fat” G800).

So where is Nokia’s answer to these phones? Maybe there won’t be one.

Does Nokia have too much on their plate at the moment trying to sort out Symbian and fight iPhone in the software war to have any time on being at the forefront of hardware?

At the moment, it’s like Nokia’s in a confused state. Stuck in middle ground where they just aren’t particularly excelling in anything – not in software, not in hardware. Just a good, decent middle ground of slight mediocrity.

Stephen Fry’s Review of the Nokia N97 (and also iPhone 3G S) and awfully long rant.

June 20, 2009 at 8:31 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, Reviews, S60, Suggestions, Symbian | 7 Comments
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As a long time Nokia fan, it is disheartening to hear such crushing words about what’s meant to be Nokia’s best ever phone to date.

stephen-fry-and-iphone

FryPhone

What’s worse is that we all knew what Nokia needed to do, yet for purposes beyond our comprehension (perhaps to cut costs in an attempt to be mass market friendly), there were too many compromises in the Nokia N97. That just should not have been for the flagship!

Here’s the flesh slicing snippet from Stephen Fry’s review, just about the N97:

“….I am panting to try out the Palm Pre and the HTC Magic and have been looking forward to Nokia’s new entry for months and months.It distresses me more than I can say therefore to announce that the N97 is a crushing disappointment. The candybar design is handsome enough (not dissimilar to the iPhone and also available in white or piano black) and offers the best slidey-outy keyboard I’ve yet come across. Nokia’s Ovi Marketplace (their equivalent of the iPhone App Store) allows the simple OTA downloading of apps (including live-streaming Facebook and news widgets) which is all good. But the Symbian S60 operating system that drives the device is achingly old-fashioned, sluggish and unfriendly.

Setting up ‘access points’ is fiddly and horribly yesterday. I am aware that Nokia want to position this as a kind of ‘My First Smartphone’ for users who might be put off by the radical nature of the iPhone or the businesslike qualities of the BlackBerry, but a resistive touchscreen (another way of saying a touchscreen you have to keep tapping until it decides to obey you – damn it, they even include a stylus) that displays blocky icons that remind you of the ugly horror of their E63 unit is no way to inspire confidence in the Finnish giant’s commitment to modern smartphones.

It really pains me that I can’t rave about this device. I love what Nokia has given to the market – I was devoted to the Communicator for years – but no one who has used an iPhone would do anything other than laugh, weep or bray with contempt at the N97. It just isn’t good enough and that is a terrible pity. It is nothing like as godawful as the BlackBerry Storm, but then nothing is.”

Stephen Fry.com

Oh dear, here comes the rant.

A lot of of the ground achieved by the hardware of the N97 is absolutely mauled by the pathetic looking Symbian S60 5th Edition UI. Although S60 OS is very mature and has been able to do a lot of things Apple’s iPhone is taking years to put in, the UI for the most part appears to be old S60 3rd edition with a touch screen just slapped on. Very few things are optimised for finger friendly gestures. A lot of things are buried in a labyrinth of menus.

Don’t get me wrong. I love S60. But as I may have mentioned before – right now, to Nokia, S60 is a limb gone gangrene that just absolutely needs to be amputated. It does not have the slickness that people (er iPhone users) have become accustomed to.

Maemo Harmattan?

I am very doubtful that S60 will ever receive an overhaul overwhelming enough to rival iPhone’s UI, and hoping that the rumoured Maemo Harmattan (or any other New OS built from scratch) will be the “salvation” Nokia so desperately needs .

OS and UI aside, I really do hope that Nokia will resolve the issue of just making one badass device with the best hardware (just having capacitive would have appeased some of the anger of having to add a tad bit more force when poking the screen). Nokia  – until you make a phone all other manufacturers can look up to:

  • Please, save the whole sifting and separating of devices to meet different markets when it comes to your bloody flagship. We know Nokia’s capable of making the ultimate convergence smartphone. Do it!
  • Don’t make a half-assed flagship phone that’s just “good” in the knowledge that in 6 months you’ll announce a better one which is what the predecessor should have been. Focus all your attention on getting one phone right and be totally amazing, than have several “just good/great” phones. [See rumoured N900/Rover]

Hopefully, Nokia can do this before Apple’s grip with their App Store becomes too great. Apple could, right now, release a pile of shit and call it iPhone 4, but it will still be extremely desirable to many, simply due to its bountiful library of Apps. It’s a bit sad that Nokia used to appeal to customers that way – you bought a Symbian S60 phone because of it’s Apps, even if another handset may have superior hardware. A bit like as Fry said, Apps go beyond what the phone could do (as set by the manufacturer), instead flourishing and evolving with the ingenuity and creativity of the new applications. The problem with Nokia is that really, only people “in the know” could actually find and install those applications.

Now, with Ovi Store, Nokia is trying to reclaim what little presence they had in terms of apps, (and also with ringtones and wallpaper -_- ). But it’s doing it with a fragmented base (different phones/different OS), and spearheading it with S60. Yes it’s good, in that there are a lot of S60 devices. It allows Ovi Store to somehow grow some roots with people, and establish an awareness of Nokia’s services. But being S60, it also embeds a rot. A rot that will continue to harm Nokia’s position in the high end smartphone war if S60 UI remains prehistoric. To get rid of the rot:

  • Nokia needs to relegate S60 to lower end devices, focusing resources on maybe a new OS for higher end handsets (with emulation capabilities to run S60 library of apps)
  • S60 UI needs to get a bigger face lift than Joan Rivers and Michael Jackson combined. Either be up to date with current expectations in UI or totally blow us out of the water by exceeding the expectations on how intuitively users can interact with their devices (instead of hopelessly attempting to catch up and cringe-worthily failing).
  • (Deserves own post, but the implimentation of Ovi Store – yes it’s in its infancy and desperately needs guidance to maturity)

Maybe the answer will not come from Maemo Harmattan, but what ever the Symbian Foundation is cooking up?

We can just wait; in hope that Nokia will pleasantly surprise us.

Although, with all the wait and hope for an improved/revamped/brand new Nokia OS, I’d sooner just love to see a Nokia Smartphone with WebOS/Android or even iPhone OS. But that is but a dream.

Review: Boy Genius Report & Phone Arena’s Nokia N97 Reviews (and another Nokia/N97 rant)

June 13, 2009 at 10:42 am | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, Reviews, S60, Symbian | 5 Comments
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BGR and Phone Arena both review the Nokia N97. BGR’s is short, more of a quick summary, whilst Phone Arena’s is laid out over 5 pages. There are some intruiging differences between the two, but both seem to share this growing disappointment from the N97. It seems that whilst the N97 is a great phone in its own right, it is severely lacking behind the standard of 2009.

1. Boy Genius Report. <<Click<<

nokian97review_8

I’d agree with mostly everything that’s been said here apart from a few things:

  • - The placement of the spacebar – it’s a non issue and something you will not notice after using the device for a bit. Because of the placement of the Dpad, the QWERTY is shifted to the right, so your right thumb is best place for minimum travel to get to the spacebar.
  • - The layout of the keys in general are fine (can’t really say much about the tactile feedback though – need to test this out) and like the spacebar, something you will get used to fairly quickly.

BGR were very positive about the build quality, as well as the 5MP camera. Unfortunately that’s about it, and there seems to be more negative points from the BGR crew than positive.

2. Phone Arena <<Click<<

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Phone Arena’s review gives explores the N97 much more, evaluating more than the key features BGR did.

Via Boy Genius Report and Phone Arena

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Another Rant and Ramblings

The Nokia N97 is sort of a step in the right direction from Nokia.

ds5r984zhx2f6q4ehjepvizlr5031t-orgIf each feature had a threshold level of “good” to be reached, the N97 would meet it. So, had the N97 been viewed as a phone in itself without experience of other handsets, it would have been hailed as a fantastic handset.

e.g.

  • the 3.5″ screen would have been great – had Samsung not shown us what the standard should be with the 3.7″ i8910
  • The processor and RAM may have been just fine – again, had Samsung not shown that we should really expect 600MHz and 256MB RAM.
  • The interface would have been OK – had we never have seen iPhone or Pre
  • The camera would have been fine, had we not seen the N82 with Xenon or the Satio with 12mp & Xenon
  • etc

This maybe good enough, if Nokia really did intend on making the N97 for mass market success. But then, that asking price crushes that notion, leading you to expect a lot more for your pound/dollar/local currency.

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Unlike, say, the 5800, which was being compared to the likes of the iPhone – the 5800 was a small fraction of the cost of the competition that you could forgive it’s shortcomings. However, the N97 is very close to the prices of its high end colleagues, thus, little room for excuses about the N97’s deficiency when similar priced devices are delivering better.

If I’m going to spend, say,  £500 on a phone, I want to know that

  • it’s a damn amazing phone
  • it’s the best (for features I’m looking for) I can get for that price and that
  • there are no better alternatives available other than that phone.
  • (Great marketing however, can be used to effectively blind the general public into only knowing about your device)

In terms of hardware, it feels like the N97 made too many compromises (at least to impress reviewers), particularly being the “FLAGSHIP”. There is always something seemingly better in each aspect.  But what kills it more is the UI. If the N97 hypothetically had Andoid, or WebOS, or iPhone OS 3.0 experience, you could overlook much of the hardware, because the OS makes the phone just so easy to use. At the moment, it’s like Symbian is a limb gone gangrene and just needs to be amputated for the sake of the whole body.

Current contract prices with the N97 look promising, with overall total ownership cost totalling £527.11. If the N97 drops down in price quickly over the next few months after its release, it may just have the right recipe for mass market success.

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Best UK deal for the N97 so far, found by reader, JoeL

As aforementioned, if each feature had a threshold level of “good” to be reached, the N97 would meet it (in some instances, surpass it). Additionally, the average consumer is still not as aware of the competition as they should be, and the wealth of features the N97 has maybe enough to wow them into buying it. That, coupled with an excellent price (and aggressive advertising) maybe just want the N97 needs to reach those expected 10 million in sales.

Whilst nothing can be done now about the N97, we can only wait and hope that future Nokia flagships do not succumb again to too many compromises. Nokia needs to deliver a real flagship that demonstrates the best of everything Nokia can offer, as well as raising the bar for all other manufacturers to reach, in hardware, software and services. No more step backs, leaving great features you’ve once had before, leaving us to watch other manufacturers pick up that feature you’ve taken out.

New Apple iPhone 3GS announced

June 8, 2009 at 9:24 pm | In Rant, aPPLE | 3 Comments
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I thought I may be swayed into getting the next gen iPhone  given the rumoured specifications, but alas, the upgrades are minor and very disappointing.

6-08-09iphone3gspressd

Still looks the same

Apple have, inevitably, upgraded the memory to 32GB – $299 on contract. You also get a bunch of other “new” features such as:

  • Video recording! Since 2003. It is VGA at 30FPS so not bad
  • 3MP camera – meh – it does however, have tap to autofocus which is nice
  • Compass
  • Other iPhone OS 3.0 upgrades, like copy and paste. -_-

From the comments in Engadget:

I name thee apple iMeh

Yesterdays meatloaf, reheated and a bit parsley on top.

But there is more to iPhone than it’s hardware. The iPhone ecosystem of apps undoubtedly makes any and every competitor jealous – some of the apps being produced lately are breathtaking – both in ingenuity and beautiful visuals. On that alone, Apple can appeal to the crowd, and thus very cleverly do not need to focus much on hardware at all.

It’s quite impressive really – deprive a handset of a feature that’s been standard for quite a few years, then release a new one, with that feature (*cough* 3G, MMS, copy and paste, video recording). Nokia does something similar, but slightly more annoying of having features you think will be standard, then removing it in the “successor”.

Via engadget

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On a side note, some comments have mentioned lack of flash on the iPhone (light flash, although it also still lacks Adobe flash) – then making excuses that LED flash isn’t that good. I agree entirely that LED is not that good, which is exactly why the N97 should have had Xenon (my favourite gripe about the device). It would not have killed the battery – I can take >200 shots with flash on the N82 and still have 3 bars left, and would have made such a difference from being an average camera phone to being a decent all situation point and shoot camera. (I probably will not stop harping on about Xenon flash until Nokia brings it back to their flagship)

Fantastic customer service with Logitech

May 7, 2009 at 3:14 pm | In Rant, Special Edition | 1 Comment
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This isn’t directly phone related or something majorly discussed about manufacturers, but it’s an issue we may sometimes face when something goes wrong with our electronic devices.

Bad experiences

I normally purchase my phones through carphone warehouse, but their customer service, for the 5 or more years I’ve been with them is appalling! One example is when I bought insurance with them for my N93 a while back and when that needed repair, I had to wait 4 months with endless phone calls only to still end up with another broken handset. The only positive that ever came out of that was that I had to come in several times to the store and the manager at the time was Paul Potts. Yup, THE Paul Potts, the winner of the first Britain’s Got Talent. Haha, how I wish I kept his notes and receipts – could have eBayed them as autographs!

Customer service calls

Today I made a few phone calls to different customer service departments, one to Nokia about the fact that the microphone on my N82 had stopped working again, and to logitech about my VX Revolution mouse. With Nokia, I got through pretty quickly today and within 5 minutes I was given the address of a Nokia Care Point 5 minutes away from me who will deal with the microphone.

This post is more about how fantastic the Logitech customer service was today.

I bought a VX revolution wireless laser mouse two years ago.

  • I have no proof of purchase,
  • I don’t have the box,
  • I just have an excellent but slightly worn mouse.

The scroll wheel has become unresponsive and since I had no receipt for usual warranty claims I nearly bought a new one until I came across a forum post that as long as it’s within 3 years of purchase, they will send you a brand new one. For free!

How utterly fantastic is that? You don’t have to send anything away. Apparently all I need is to upload three pictures, with reference numbers and the serial number of the mouse and they send a new one to me. What’s really interesting is that the third picture you take is of a destroyed mouse! That’s right, they want you to smash it with a hammer or cut it with a saw. I thought it was a joke but apparently that’s standard procedure.

How awesome is that? You even get to have a bit of fun smashing up your mouse! I’m not going to do this until after my exams – I kind of need to have a mouse at all times for research/revision/coursework. But other than that, this is excellent customer service. No loops to jump through, so mailing products back out of my pocket, and most importantly, no need for a receipt!

Imagine if all manufacturers would have the same policy? Knowing that a few years down the line of purchasing their product, that company is not going to screw you over and ignore your pleas for help once you’ve you’ve parted with your hard earned cash.

Apple have recently announced something similar for the iPhone, whereby should you break your phone due to water damage, for $199, they replace your iPhone. Yes, there’s $199 out of your pocket, but considering that most of the time, water damage is the user’s fault, that’s a really good deal. Nokia don’t do something like this yet, but they do cover a lot within their warranty. They’re pretty good too, in my experience. Fingers crossed, it’ll continue being that way when it comes to fixing the microphone.

Of course, my two problems today with my mouse and N82 could have been solved if the wheel wasn’t so flimsy nor if the N82 didn’t have a recurrent microphone problem. Maybe poor build quality aside on those aspects,  it’s nice to know how relatively easy it is to get it sorted.

Videos: More Nokia N97 demos!

April 29, 2009 at 10:53 pm | In 5th Edition, Nokia, Nseries, Rant, Rumours, S60, Suggestions, Symbian | 5 Comments
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Here’s the Nokia N97 being demoed at the developer summit. Here it is again, if you so wish, at another angle.

There’s nothing to be gained from either video except the noticing the gradual growth of the N97’s UI. I still hate the wasteful menu of S60 5th edition – at least for phones with screens as big physically and pixel wise as the N97 (and 5800!). I don’t know if we’ll ever get a more decent 4×5 grid, and leave the back button to the red button (with long press to exit fully) or have the options bar autohide in the menu! Urgh! It just wastes so much space, dammit!!

The kinetic scrolling is nicely demonstrated again in the twitter application; changing in speed to the level of drag. Pity we don’t see this in the menu, where scrolling is quite painful to watch.

Transition from Landscape(Qwerty) mode to portrait(candybar) takes the N97 an excruciating 3 seconds  with no animation. By launch this better be instant or close to that! It needs to feel more fluid! Take a look at how relatively quickly the Nokia Photobrowser from Nokia Beta Labs changes from portrait to landscape. The wait, if any, between screen orientation should be so minimal, you don’t notice that the computer is processing such changes, instead appearing to be in natural sync with the motion of your hand. Like moving a spirit bubble.

During the video, the guy mentions that “the  N97 is very efficient on power and computational ability“. Is that marketing speak for “it has to do the best it can, given that the processor isn’t as powerful as it actually needs to be“?. The guy does point out that this is “a rough version of the software and that the teams are working hard“.

The N97 may be able to pull it off when it’s officially available in June/July, but how will it’s endurance/longevity be when users start filling it up with applications/videos/photos and developers produce more power hungry applications? Will potential buyers have to look for a rehashed “i” version or another quick replacement flagship? Will that be the keyboardless and super slim N97?

With about a month or two to go, is there time for any pleasant surprises from the N97, or are all the cards already on the table and all Nokia has are a couple of jokers?

What makes a Flagship handset?

April 21, 2009 at 1:06 am | In Rant, Suggestions | Leave a Comment
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Over at Nokia Conversations, where they’re celebrating their first anniversary today, the question they’re asking is:

“What makes a Flagship handset?“

Here are my thoughts on the subject:

A flagship phone is something that encapsulates the achievements of that manufacturer, i.e. having the best of EVERY great feature you have once included in previous handsets, but all in one device.

In  the context for Nokia, the flagship epitomises the true meaning of convergence. The flagship leads the way; it is deeply recognizable to consumers as an example of the ultimate potential of Nokia handsets and sets the bar of innovation for which other manufacturers should aspire to reach.

Hardware wise, you guys have had every single component that if combined could have resulted in the most formidable handset ever made.

But, as a long fan of Nokia, you get to be aware that it’s part and parcel of that Nokia is number 1 BECAUSE  they specifically divide up features for different markets. That’s been perfect for business, but bad for geeks.

The point of the flagship is NOT to be the most sold; it is to bring the confidence in the brand so that when consumers come to buy a different handset, they will know from the flagship that it’s a brand that they can trust; a brand that will deliver the particular requirements they may need in a phone; a brand that delivers the best.

I’ve got other points to add but it’s 1am and I seriously have to be getting back to revision. Aaargh! Exam tomorrow!

Check out Nokia Conversations.

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