Diaries of a Nokia Fan Boy

So I’ve been meaning to write about this for a while. I’ve used my Android-based HTC Magic for about a month’s time, and I’ve posted up what I felt about it in comparison to my Symbian-based Nokia N95 8GB. But now I went back to my N95 8GB and have for about a month’s time.

My first impression going back to the Symbian phone was really more of a “It’s good to be home” feeling. But after using it for a while I realised just how much more thought out the OS really is. Not only does it allow for some customization not available on the Android, but it runs better. Its much more stable, running for days, if not weeks, without crashing or having to reboot. There are no major memory leaks, and multi-tasking on it is a joy!

Besides that OS, the hardware is much more impressive. I rarely used my Magic’s camera, but the camera on my N95 8GB has such impressive quality that I never have to think whether I will need a camera wherever I am going. Text messaging on this phone is much more pleasant due to the addition of a hardware keyboard.

I must say, however, that Android does have its pluses, and so does the Magic. For one, the Android market is easier to use than the Ovi Store, even considering that the Android market has a terrible search. Also the applications available on the market are better – I downloaded some music players and, while they didn’t improve audio quality/support, they did add some interesting functionality such as immediate lyrics or song suggestions. At the same time, I really liked how HTC allows you to upgrade the OS via a ROM file. Different OS versions out there come with their ups and their quirks. While I didn’t like the fact that the quirks seemed to be quite large and annoying, I did enjoy being able to install a new firmware when it came out because I know someone had ported it (I am referring to my v20 N95-4 when N95-2 is on v30+).

Since I’ve been using my N95 8GB, Mike has been using my Magic and has found some even more fascinating programs. For example, he found a spectrometer that kept us amused for an hour, playing different songs into it and seeing the visual representation – it was quite interesting to see how much richer a voice is compared to an instrument.

Anyway, I’ve been thinking a lot about the direction that Symbian is going in, and whether Nokia should consider other OS’s. To be honest, I think that there is a lot of potential in Symbian, and I hope that Nokia draws that potential out. But operating systems such as Android have already built on that potential and are already available, which will make things much more difficult for Nokia. I think that Nokia is doing well to stand by its operating system, especially considering how stable and efficient it really is, but it won’t be easy to win against the new hot shots on the block.

Also, things I would like to see on Nokia devices:

• Easily and safely exchangeable OS versions (a la HTC phones)
• Much higher support for applicatoins, more so those centered around entertainment
• Smaller, lighter, sexier touch screens (X6 is definitely an improvement)

Well these are my thoughts for a Saturday afternoon,

-Nokia FanBoy

So Nokia released a new version of the 5800 XpressMusic – Navigation Edition. It appears that the software is all the same, its just a touchscreen, XpressMusic version of the 6710 Navigator. Comparing to the 5800 XpressMusic, the phone appears to be identical with a couple differences in what’s included in the package:

• Regional maps
• Lifetime pedestrian and vehicle voice-guided navigation licenses
• Car mount and car charger in retail package

So really its the same phone with a different color variation, included license, and some extra plastic for an extra $110 USD ($299 for XpressMusic and €285 or about $410 for Navigation Edition). It appears that the firmware version is the same, and the piece of plastic being available on eBay for $10, we’re really getting the license for about $100 USD. We can take a look at the Nokia website, and we find that the license for North America is €50, or $70 USD, per annum. Assuming that the license is transferable to other phones and includes future versions of Nokia Maps software and maps, this is actually quite a deal. Especially if we consider that dedicated GPS systems don’t come with maps upgrades!

But of course we have to ask ourselves if its really worth it. That is, is the application itself worth the license in the first place. There is Google Maps that is available for free (and indeed, Nokia Maps is free too so long as you don’t want guidance). There is also Garmin Mobile, and hopefully TomTom will release a new version of their software eventually which would work with touch screen devices and integrated GPS chips. To be honest, I think that TomTom is currently the best GPS guidance software out there. I had a chance to directly compare it to Garmin and Nokia on my E60 and N95, and out of the trio, TomTom came out the clear winner. The software was able to give me directions at the exact time I needed them (Garmin was a bit late), and when I made a wrong turn the recalculations took only 1-3 seconds. Also, Garmin likes to take me through small streets with speed bumps which does not make the trip any faster, and TomTom always takes the larger streets first and ends up getting me to my destination via the faster routes.

While I wasn’t able to compare Nokia Maps based on driving instructions, I was able to compare the maps themselves, and again, TomTom came out on top. The maps were easier to read, loaded faster, and seemed to provide more information without cluttering the screen. The interface on TomTom was much more intuitive and took a lot less time to get used to. And the last, but very important point – TomTom just seemed to load faster than the other two. And when you’re trying to figure out where to go, that matters.

Of course, I have to give it to Nokia Maps, they did develop arguably the first GPS system for navigating during walking. In that case voice guidance is not really required, as there is no traffic to keep your eye on. And the fact that the maps include pedestrian streets and walkways is also quite important. However I have not used that part of the software in a long time and so I’m not sure just how good it is in the North American cities.

So to conclude this: Nokia released a new device, its a great value, but you have to be sure that you want it.

-Nokia FanBoy

press release
via: Engadget (read)

So I’ve been using the HTC Magic for a while now, and have had to download some applications from the Android Market. Of course before that I had some experience with Nokia’s Mosh & Ovi Store distribution websites, and Nokia’s Download! application, which I will mention only briefly. Before I get right into it, please note that I am looking at the mobile clients of each distribution channel since, lets face it, who connects their phone to the computer to download content these days.

Well lets begin with the oldest, and now closed, Nokia Mosh. I always felt that while the service was in need of some control, as one would find dozens of different versions of some application you were trying to find, and in some rare occasions you may end up downloading the wrong application. The search function provided with Mosh by Nokia was, to say the least, forgiving. I often received results that only contained the abused “keywords:” line at the bottom of the description, obviously not relating to the application itself.
However, taking all that into consideration, I still enjoyed the service as I was able to find and download whatever application I needed with no restrictions. The only irony in using the tool was that going to the main site from my mobile browser did not automatically redirect me to the mobile version. Considering this is Nokia’s own site the missing feature became quite annoying sometimes.

In comes the “Knight in Shining Armor”: Ovi Store. Or so it would have seemed, only it really did not deliver on what it promised. The application selection is quite limited, which would have been bearable for a while if at least the store functioned well! If we were to compare the number of applications on Mosh and on Ovi Store we would probably find ourselves with a ratio of hundreds to one. The store is basically a mobile-friendly website, however, it is not a user-friendly one. The browser takes a long time to load the photos of each application, and when the photo is not available the entire layout of the page becomes skewed. Every single session requires you to log in in order to download even the free applications, the purpose of which I can not even begin to imagine. And the search has trouble finding even some of the simplest applications.

Android’s Market, on the other hand, is entirely optimized for the handheld that it is running on. It has a large selection of applications without actually repeating any of them for each version the provider uploads. The search capability, while surprising weak considering the major contributor to the platform, Google, at least works, and returns the search results quite quickly. The Market is quite user friendly, and even finds a way to non-intrusively suggest popular downloads. While I haven’t used the application store on the iPhone or any other platform, I feel confident saying that the Android Market is on-par with what a mobile content distribution channel should look like.

This review may seem to give very little credit to Nokia for improving on their existing store applications, however I believe that just like S60 5th, Nokia had a great opportunity to redesign an aging concept and come out with a ground shattering application, but did not. I think the reason behind this is that Nokia is not looking at their competition. After so many years of unparalleled success and market leadership, Nokia forgot how to look behind their shoulder at what the competition is doing, and in that time the competition has done a lot.

-Nokia FanBoy

So I’m not sure about my readers, however I am a little upset that Widsets closed down.

I’ve been using Widsets since its early days and i’ve always enjoyed the various widgets they provided. I had one for horoscopes – the only one I can see on Ovi Store costs 7 Euro; I had a couple apps which downloaded some pretty amazing photographs, such as 500 mpx, and I cannot find anything similar to that on Ovi Store.

Don’t get me wrong, I like the fact that Nokia opened up the Ovi Store, however I just wish they didnt close down Widsets, as there were some great things available there.

Of course the benefit that Ovi Store has over Widsets is the ability to download and install native and Java apps as opposed to just some widgets. Too bad they didnt port something to support those widgets via WRT.

Posted by Wordmobi