3 days to go. . . .Shozu Rocks….WOM pack received!

January 22, 2008 at 6:54 pm | In 3rd edition, Applications, Event, S60, Symbian | 9 Comments
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Taking a break from even more revision, just a little update.

Yesterday’s update made me aware of a fun little application called Shozu, after recommendations from both Vlad and Ryan (Thanks Guys!).

Man, did I feel like I’ve been out of a loop! Like, if the earth’s orbit was the loop, I was out of it!

I’ve heard friends mention the word Shozu in conversation but I never actually looked it up to see what it was.

For someone like me, who was planning on making frequent video blog updates via YouTube (for the Urbanista Diaries), Shozu seemed to be utterly perfect for the job. You all most definitely know what it does, here’s me preaching to the converted, but for the few who haven’t like myself: I’ve only just found out about it and I love it!

There’s an MMS version that I didn’t care for, and the application that can be installed onto your phone. (I’m concentrating on youtube videos for now) Once installed and signed in, when I took a video, the phone asks if you want to upload to YouTube. Click yes and a few minutes later ..it’s there.

Apart from the multiple fire alarms going off early in the morning, the searching for information/samples of Shozu in action kept me awake. There’s thousands of users using Shozu, even top most subscribed/celebrities like Ashley Tisdale and Funeral For a Friend . And rather embarrassingly, some have been there since December 06!

Shame aside, I’m really pleased to have finally come across this application a, fingers crossed, it will allow me to keep constant vlog updates during my part of the Urbanista Diaries. Applications like this make me seriously want to invest in getting unlimited data (which still as of this moment, data rates are a giant rip off in the UK).

This leaves my N800 simply now for just Blog updates (and photobucket upload. Is there one for PB? I couldn’t find it)

Here’s my first YT upload via Shozu…haha. It’s boring, and I uploaded it twice even though it said it had already been uploaded because I didn’t see a “uploading” bar that I assumed would come up)

Awesome communal bin action going on there.

Lastly, this morning I received a big package from WOM as delivered by the DHL man, who somehow managed to get into the building, into my flat and promptly standing outside my bedroom door.
wompack

In the box there were:

3 x Nokia N82 (European variety, no shutter sound - Yay!)

3 x BP-6MT batteries

2 x O2 simplicity SIM

1x Proporta charger

1 x Nokia SU-W8 Bluetooth Keyboard

1 x Pirate Earring a.k.a. Nokia BH-701 headset. Haha (Yeah, I know it’s not meant to be worn like that. Actually, it looks a little more odd worn the right way)

Jazz Man at Santa Monica Pier, LA by N93

October 9, 2007 at 8:14 pm | In 3rd edition, Accessories, Nokia, Nseries, Symbian, Video | 2 Comments

Footage of Santa Monica Pier’s Jazz Man, filmed by the Nokia N93, mounted on a DT-22 tripod.

The N93’s form factor makes it a brilliant video camera, and the tripod gives it the stability to show off what the N93 can do (i.e no jelly wobble that Nseries video taking devices seem to suffer from).

The DT-22 I’ve found also works as a counter balance boom, so that when you’re on the move, it sort-of keeps the N93 steady whilst giving extra reach and odd angles. The most useful part of the DT-22 is just the vice-grip bit. This can be attached onto any other tripod with the universal size screw bit, my favourite of tripods being the gorilla pod as that can attach anywhere, literally.

Mr Burland of the Nokia Creative and his editing skills will be doing something special with this footage along with some he’s taken himself. Look out for this soon.

As for me, there should be one final personal post about the Nseries aftermath, aka day after stuff and then seriously back to Nokia news, rants and reviews. Oh, and there’s gonna be a new writer. Discussed it during the Nseries LA event with this guy but should be able to sort this out within this week.

Thanks for reading My Nokia Blog!

Nokia N95 with 1200mAh BL-6F battery! It’s possible!

September 28, 2007 at 4:36 pm | In 3rd edition, Accessories, Rant, Rumours, S60, Symbian | 35 Comments

Since the very beginning we’ve been told that the reason the N95-3 and N95-8GB’s shutter was removed was due to the larger battery.

Even though I saw the N95-8GB at London, the model I tested did not have the BL-6F for me to find out wheter it could fit or not. But I was amongst many others that were peeved that they didn’t do something simpler like redesign the back or even the battery to accomodate that extra space needed.

Yesterday at the Nseries event at LA mansion (pics will be uploaded soon) station reps and even the Product Manager said confirmed the same thing about BL-6F is not for the N95 due to size constrainsts.

Recently, due to the shoddy state of my N95 battery cover, I posted a rant about the possibility of using a larger battery on the N95-ORIGINAL, now with the extra space provided by the crystal case that kept the useless battery cover on.

Due to Nokia claiming that the camera shutter cover prevented the BL-6F from fitting, I believed them, and thought that they should have redesigned the battery instead. But even that’s not needed! Look what I found out last night!

Yup, that’s right! It fits! Current N95 original users may be able to use the higher capacity BL-6F if you wanted to (albeit with the use of a crystal case - which is perfect for me since I have to use the crystal case )

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It’s a perfect fit! The only thing I’m not sure about is whether this would pose any long term problems down the line, since size seems not to be the problem, there may have been another reason not to have included the BL-6F in the N95 original.

I’ve asked to test out the battery to see if there will be any problems, so as a disclaimer, be warned that the BL-6F was not designed for the N95 original and you may put your own N95 at risk by using that battery.

As a power user though, I’m very happy.

  • Longer music playback,
  • Longer video playback,
  • Longer calls
  • GPS use for longer time is feasible(no more, I’ll stay lost otherwise I won’t be able to make a call)
  • Longer camera use!

The crystal case I am using is from ebay. For about £2 I think, you get 3 sets (you only need the back). They are pretty sturdy, but be warned also that they may break (mine hasn’t, only at parts due to my strap, which most people do not have on their N95).

Darla Mack has already performed extensive battery tests with her N95-3 (US) that uses BL-6F and results are very positive as to how much more juice we can expect from the BL-6F and the original N95.

“So exactly what does this mean? It means that Nokia listened to the requests of their users and improved the battery!

Now the next request would be to make a similar battery for existing N95 users.“

Wooo! We can, Darla!

Here’s a video demo to show the N95 working nicely with the BL-6F

MMMMM…Meeting of N95s

September 27, 2007 at 1:55 pm | In 3rd edition, Accessories, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian | 1 Comment

Even within a small sample batch of five N95s (Mine, Donna’s, Frank’s, James’ and Chris’), there’s already much difference between the build quality between each one, particularly the presence or lack of, of the slider wobble.

The states of wear and tear is also interesting to see, with mine looking the sorriest of the lot with my now useless battery cover kept on with a mean looking crystal case.

This post kinda went on too long so I split up with a new post to rant about the state of my battery cover. Check it out here: Clicky

Pro Session Golf Now Available for Nseries

September 18, 2007 at 11:22 pm | In 3rd edition, Applications, Nokia, S60, Symbian | 1 Comment

 

Darla Mack brings the info on the Golf Application that was once exclusive to the N93 Golf Edition.

Now you can get Pro Session Golf for your Nokia N93i, Nokia N93, Nokia N73 and Nokia N95. (Really? Just those 4? - there’s screenshots from the N80)

Key Features include:

  • Frame-by-frame video playback
  • Golf-tailored viewfinder
  • Split screen swing comparison
  • Drawing tools for detailed swing analysis
  • Sending swing videos over e-mail, Bluetooth, infrared or MMS
  • Reference swings by Titleist Performance Institute

If you’ve got enough money to be frequently spending your time playing golf, then you may be more willing to spare 65 EUR (90 USD) to own this application.

Pro Session Golf is available online at www.prosessiongolf.com or www.nseries.com/golf.

- Darla Mack

Differences between the original N95 and the upcoming N95 8GB

September 18, 2007 at 4:21 pm | In 3rd edition, Go Play, Nokia, Nseries, S60, Symbian | 7 Comments

At least of what I can remember:

N95 (left)

1. Silver + Plum/Sand/Graphite/Pink/Brown
2. 2.6″ Screen
3. Larger main control keys
4. Chrome front keys, inc center select button with with silver Dpad
5. Flat Menu and Multimedia button keys
6. Flat media buttons
7. Blue keypad lights and media button lights
8. Micro SD slot for expansion of micro SD cards up to 8GB+ when they become available
9. 99 x 53 x 21 mm, 90 cc
10. 120g
11. Cannot stand on side without opening the slide (when taking timed group photos)
12. Completely flat back except for camera protrusion
13. Slider Shutter camera cover, automatic camera activation when opened
14. Battery cover has flimsy plastic hooks that break easily
15. Uses 950mAh batteries only
16. 64mb RAM, Approx 20mb free RAM
17. Slightly slower on start up to the standby screen
18. Slower to reach Autofocus lock
19. Slower to save photo
20. Linear, bright Carousel customizable Multimedia menu
21. 6 Active Standby Apps
22. Less Robust slider

N95 8GB( Right)

1. Piano Black
2. 2.8″ Screen
3. Smaller main control keys
4. Gun Metal front keys, inc Dpad with black center select button,
5. Slightly raised Menu and Multimedia button keys
6. Raised media buttons
7. White keypad lights and media button lights
8. No Micro SD slot, internal 8GB memory
9. 99 x 53 x 21 mm, 90 cc
10. 128 g
11. Can stand on its side when taking group photos
12. Completely flat back
13. Open no camera shutter, long press camera button to activate camera
14. Battery cover is tough has short stubs that don’t break easily
15. Can use either 950mAh or as standard 1200mAh
16. 128MB RAM, Approx 90mb free RAM
17. Faster to reach autofocus lock
18. Slightly faster on start up to the standby screen
19. Faster to save photo
20. Revamped, dull, but extensive multimedia menu
21. 7 Active Standby Apps
22. More Robust Slider, better build over all.

    The most that would matter really are:

    • Free RAM
    • Battery Life
    • Screen Size
    • Responsiveness of UI
    • Camera Cover
    • Build Quality
    • Micro SD hot swap slot vs fixed 8gb internal memory

    Which one to go for really depends on what you need and what price you’re willing to pay. Most people’s needs will be met by the original N95. Power users considering either one now may be happier with the N95 8GB.

    2nd Edition S60 apps that I miss in 3rd edition

    September 17, 2007 at 5:39 pm | In 3rd edition, Applications, Nokia, S60, Symbian | 1 Comment

    There are two S60 applications that immediately come to mind. But why haven’t they been ported to 3rd edition?

    The first was a simple 79kb file called “Power Dictaphone”.

    There were so many good voice recorders for my 7610 but why did I prefer this one?

    • Unlimited recording. Only recently has 3rd edition S60 phones been able to record past 1 minute. e.g. My N93 still has this hindrance. No chance at recording lectures.
    • Recording in .WAV. The AMR files most Nokia phones still record in sounds horrible. It’s like a really, really bad phone call. It took up quite a bit of memory back in my 7610 days. 512mb card helped.
    • 3 pencil button press activation. Now, although the new voice recorder in the N95 covers both of the above, what’s most annoying still is that I have go through menu after menu or even short cuts and still I have to navigate down to the record button. Pwr dictaphone could record just simply by pressing the edit pencil button 3 times.  You could, if I recall correctly, set any key to start recording. Extremely convenient.
    • RAM friendly: My 7610 only ever had about 8mb free ram at best. It was convenient that Power Dictaphone only took under 100kb to work. Current solutios to Power Dictaphone take at least a couple of MB.
    • Automatic start up:  My Only alternative to Power Dictaphone at the moment is Alon MP3 dictaphone (that made the port over to 3rd edition).My main problem with it is that if I need to restart the phone, I forget to have this running in the background so when the opportunity comes and I have to wait to start it up.

    Second: Nokia Album.

    Relatively large, freeware application from Nokia.  When this application was available, most cameras didn’t even have 1mp. This meant that thousands of images could be stored on what’s a relatively small 512mb card.

    It was fairly common not to be transferring pictures to the computer so often and leaving them on the phone. The only problem was that the standard gallery was soo slow. How on earth could you go through that many pictures?

    Solution? Nokia Album. This automatically organised your pictures into:

    • Month/Day grouping. If you remember a particular day, just go to that date and every picture you took will be in that particular album.
    • Location based grouping: If you travel, your camera will take a stamp of what country you’re in and it will save your picture to that particular country.
    • Your own set category:  Much like the album that the 3rd edition has now. Make a folder, stick the pictures in.

    It also had plenty of other great features:

    •  Super fast zooming/scrolling. Album worked by indexing all the your photos. They don’t show up immediately if you transferred pics from a computer but once they appear zooming and then scrolling was really fast. Not something to shout about now, but back then, dealing with large images, you could bake bread by the time the 7610 finished scrolling to the left.
    • Multi criteria search. I haven’t used the app in a while, but I remember it was really easy to find what pictures/videos I was looking for by setting what media type I want to look for, date within it was created and possible file names.
    • I feel there was a lot more to it, but I don’t remember what else it did right now.

    With huge file sizes on multi mega pixel cameras and mb hungry VGA videos, it’s more of a necessity now to transfer pictures over to the computer. However, with larger memory cards (2GB+) it becomes a little more feasible to carry 500+ full size 5MP pics at a time and it would be great to have a media organiser better than the current Nokia Gallery.

    Are there any applications you enjoyed but never made the port over to 3rd Edition S60?

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