The Nokia N900 plays in a different world via Branedy
When the Nokia N900 does real-time face tracking it again demonstrates why it’s not playing in the same SmartPhone world as the iPhone and Android phones....
‘an chuid eile’ of the world via Branedy
I have been having discussions all over the net about smartphones and feature phones and the vast marketplace for non smartphones in the third world. A market that Nokia is big in, but is not well supported with things like facebook, Twitter and other social networking communications features, due, in part to the lack of more robust networks in those areas. Even during a discussion at yesterdays Cork Open Coffee the subject of community services came up and I was reminded of a New Beta from Nokia called Nokia Listings ( here, here, here. and here ) which is intended to support communications, operating within a weak infrastructure, in a social networking type of framework....
Nokia 5800 Long Term Review via Holy Shmoly!
Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is a smartphone and portable entertainment device by Nokia. It was introduced on October 2, 2008 and released on November 27, 2008. Code-named “Tube”, it is the first touchscreen-equipped S60 device by Nokia. The version being s60v5. It’s part of the XpressMusic series of phones, which emphasizes music and multimedia playback. The touchscreen features tactile feedback. (Wikipedia)
I’ve had a Nokia 5800 for almost a year now. I was really excited when I bought this phone last year. My first touchscreen smartphone! It took some getting used to, having mostly been a Nokia S40 user. It didn’t take long, and in fact now I try to press the screen when I use older phones!
The phone itself does all the usual things and frankly, there are many... Nokia N900 moviemaking via Branedy
Even though I’ve had my Nokia N900 for some time, I’ve never really tried out the video recording ability, So here’s my first.
It seems quite adequate as a recorder of the present reality....
Nokia Smartphone reality check, Ka-ching! via Branedy
All the bad news,
Nokia smartphones dumb down profits
Nokia releases Q2 2010 results; profits down, market share flat
Nokia Q2 2010 results – profits down but smartphone sales up
So lets do a reality check on the facts; Nokia profits are Down 40%, but are still making a Profit. Which means they are in the green economically, and are making a Profit of €221M Euros (285M$). But 40% less than last quarter, meaning that they are only making 60% of the profit they made last quarter, during the worst recession in over 100 years And everyone is complaining?
The only thing this tells me, is that a manufacture like Apple who makes more profit on their iPhone 4, is ripping off their customers by charging a premium price for a Smartphone and Nokia does not!
Reality Check cashed,...
The best Portrayal of Nokia via Branedy
This article is one of the best portrayals of Nokia’s Perceived fall from grace: The Background Story
…But somehow with Apple, the facts no longer matter. The iPhone was the ultimate best phone ever – according to Steve Jobs – and because Steve Jobs says so, that started to become the storyline. The truth didn’t matter…
Mobile Phones Shipped last quarter
…Because Apple was in the game, now anything Steve Jobs said was the word from god. And no matter how severely deficient the first iPhone models were, because they were Apple phones, that meant they were the world’s ‘leading’ phones. And if you didn’t match the current iPhone model with a potential ‘iPhone killer’ – then you were obsolete. …... My N900 Desktops via Branedy
I’ve been seeing a lot of iPhone screen snaps lately so I thought I’d post some of mine from the N900 as I use them.... Symbian to MeeGo not without pain. via Branedy
Some how I think that the Nokia announcement that their N-Class phones were moving to MeeGo from Symbian was not greeted with universal internal acceptance, or gracefully.
When Charles Davies departed abruptly and with the appearance of a mystery Nokia N9 running Symbian^3 instead of Meego, I couldn’t help but make a connection. Internally I believe Mr. Davies was bent on pushing Symbian in the N-Class series after the management decision to move to Meego was made, hence the leak of the N9. But who am I to cast aspersions, I was rooting for Maemo....
N900 3G speed test via Branedy
I have been in Stockholm this past week on a bit of a holiday, and while I was nursing my pay-as-you-go Vodafone account I tried out both the GSM Edge and 3G speeds while in the Stockholm Arlanda Airport
Disregard that it says it’s testing a Vodafone.ie connection to Dublin, it’s from Stockholm to Dublin and what it indicates is that it’s more than 30% faster download speed than my Eircom DSL and more than 3X faster upload speed. So much for DSL. And compared to a test I ran from Vodafone 3G in Cork a while back, it’s was fully 3 Times the speed both up and down link. Why do we put up with such third world performance from our broadband providers? We’re Sheep, has be be, ready to be shorn.... Internet Pads everywhere via Branedy
This article about a possible ARM-based Nokia tablet to come in the fourth quarter? And the author mentions that the Nokia Tablet MAY run Windows 7 Can you imagine? Nokia management shipping yet another OS on their equipment?
I think this is grounds to fire everyone at Nokia from the VP’s on up, and replace them with monkeys. They couldn’t possibly make worse decisions that this group of Nitwits....
SmartPhones in the reality distortion field. via Branedy
I have had a revelation with regards to SmartPhones and the Reality Distortion Field.
Simply put, if the device, any device, that does not behave like a profit generating platform for Apple, should not be considered a Smartphone.
Platforms based on Symbian OS, BlackBerry , Windows and Palm and are based on a principal that the phone provides smart services to help the owner become more productive. To assist with the communications and telephony functionality and on the side, provide other useful apps. For the newly renamed iOS the goal is looping the customer into more expenses, locking them into Apple products, and Apple’s iPhone Ecosystem. To behave as a continuous advertisement and mobile marketing stream. A profit stream that even Razor Blade Salesmen would love....
Maemo vs Meego via Branedy
This week Nokia announced that MeeGo would not officially be supported on the N900. On first appearance this would seem to be a bad thing. But I managed to down load the MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks and burned it to a DVD. I attempted to run this with VirtualBox and then Parallels and neither would finish the load. But my old work Dell Pentium 4 worked just fine booting from the CD.
So I went exploring, and overall it was a bit of fun, and most 5 year olds will be comfortable in a few minutes with it. But use it on an adult machine, a netbook to get work done on? Not a chance, it’s like a world-of-wonder 5-10 year old grade toy.
And guess what, it’s a GREAT thing that this, this, what ever MeeGo is, is not going to be forced ‘officially’ on the N900 users of the...
A GPS for Genealogy via Branedy
One of the things that i’ve found very useful about the GPS in the Nokia N900 is that when the wife and I are out investigating the back-and-beyonds the N900 is suppling us with townlands as we traverse. In genealogy often the only locational information you can find are townlands, and many modern maps do not label them. Now I don’t know if othe GPS’s have this data, but it’s nice to have them in the pocket, in the form of the N900.... Nice day at Black Rock Castle via Branedy
A very nice sunny day at Black Rock Casltle, what more can you say more than that.... Wating for the unexpected via Branedy
It’s pure vanity that makes one believe they can be unaffected while waiting for an unexpected event. It may be even worse when you are a geek waiting on something as Geeky as the Nokia N900 PR-1.2 update. It’s like waiting on arthritis and old age, you know they are coming, just not when....
life is good, at least the N900 part. via Branedy
I’m enjoying the Nokia N900 more and more. The replacment of my original unit has demonstrated what the N900 is all about, and vindicates my choice of this system over Android or iPhone. I know that there are plenty of great smartphones out there, this one is mine.... A cute new N900 promo via Branedy
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The Return of the N900 via Branedy
Sounds like a Saga doesn’t it? Well it might be, if for no other reason than one of learning.
My Nokia has finally returned, thrice actually. My original Nokia N900 was always having a problem with battery life, and a bit of problem with the media player application not being able to play video and The problem required a solution.
If you’ve been reading this Blog, the first repair attempt was a fiasco which resulted with the N900 being returned without being fixed my Nokia directly. But upon contacting Expansys where I purchased it, and they directed me to sent it to them. And I did, 5 weeks ago! I had contacted them after 3 weeks of no news, and they indicated that its was being ‘quality’ checked and would be sent in a few days. Another week elapsed, and I...
I love Graphics via Branedy
While Apple is claiming to be the number one provider of wireless devices, this chart show a different story. Apple might have 49.5% of the mobile internet traffic in the U.S., it only has 12% of the world wide smart phone market....
Another iPad prediction via Branedy
Having read this article about iPad sales predicted to top 7.1 million in 2010 alone, the term, FanBoy gains a new meaning, Delusional! It’s not that the iPad isn’t cute, or that it won’t BE fun or even useful. It’s that this is still a recession, and there aren’t 7.1 Million geeks in the world who have enough money to buy this thing. The second point, Apple with all it’s planning couldn’t get God to manufacture 7 million of these things this year.
I almost assumed that the article was a late April Fool’s joke. But there really are a lot of people who believe that Apple can do no wrong. Mostly because of youthful forgetfulness no one seems remembers the Cube and even though Steve Job’s was not at Apple, still there was the Newton....
Nokia N900 Battery life via Branedy
While I love my Nokia N900 I’ve often been disappointed with the battery life. Recently I’ve been only getting 6 hours between charges and while I’ve had better runs in the past, I could never narrow down what the major drain was, but I think I have it. It looks like the ‘extra-devel’ Pidgin Protocols may be spending too much CPU keeping in contact with Yahoo IM. When I have that disabled from the ‘Availability’ panel, my battery life doubles.
So for now I’ll have to content with just GSM/SMS Skype and Skype IM for my connections....
Nokia support is indescribable, really indescribable. via Branedy
What can say Nokia support is indescribable, as in not available. I have an New Nokia N900 purchased through Expansys U.K. Which shipped it to me, from london (as in U.K.) but it turns out it was acquired by them from the U.S. and Nokia Europe does NOT service (as in repair) Nokia handsets that are sold by Nokia U.S. in the U.S.
Ok, What? Nokia will NOT service Nokia handsets because it’s a U.S. Nokia warrantee and not a E.U. Nokia warrantee. It’s a Nokia, and it’s a their warrantee!
BIG FAIL, NOKIA!
Now I have to ship my phone to the U.S. to find warrantee service on my NOKIA Phone!...
Apple knows best what your want on your iPhone. via Branedy
In another example why I’m happy with my choice of the Nokia N900 over the iPhone as Apple removes Wi-Fi finders from App Store . After all, Apple knows better than it’s customer what it should allow on IT’S product. The customer is stupid and incapable of using OUR product without proper controls.
So Apple joins Amazon in determining what the customer should be allowed to do on THEIR product....
My Nokia N900 is Broken via Branedy
Or rather fractured, at least as far as the operating system. It appears that the DSP, a function (I think) of the GPU (PowerVR SGX) is not working as the DMESG command executed in the terminal application results in the following output:
[ 83.651947] WMD_DEH_Notify: ********** DEVICE EXCEPTION **********
[ 83.651977] WMD_DEH_Notify: DSP_SYSERROR, errInfo = 0×300
But due to the very forgiving Debian/Maemo kernel simply works around the issue, by making the CPU work harder, and consuming the batteries quicker. When everyone else was experiencing improved battery life with the release of PR 1.1.1, mine got worse.
Now the issue will be how to get it serviced as I bought it from Expansys out of the U.K. (I’m in Ireland, the Republic of) and there is the question of wither I...
Gowalla vs. FourSquare VS. Latitude via Branedy
Gowalla FourSquare, and Google Latitude are all Geolocational applications intended to provide your whereabouts to your friends while out participating with life events. Restaurants, sports, shopping or any other activity outside of your home. And while interesting, they bring into question this, if you went to these places, would you want to have your followers join you there? I’m fully aware that the participation in these application ‘games’ are part advertising of the location you are at, and sometimes benefits the user. But it does so by utilizing your active participation, bandwidth, and costs in a new kind of distributed broadcast medium.
If you can truly state that you would love to have your friends meet you at these venues, then this is all very well. The... A reply about the Nokia N900 via Branedy
I was ask to tell someone about my Nokia N900 and I replied:
I blogged about the N900 here, Nokia N900 , and in the beginning was disappointed with the way Nokia was releasing it. My N900 was obtained from Expansys which turned out to a U.S. N900 with a U.S. Power supply.
However the system, and I have to call it a system as it not just a phone, was bought with the purpose of replacing my then Nokia phone and my Palm T/X. I wanted a computer with a phone. And that is exactly what the N900 is. I have to agree, if you are a power Phone user this is not going to cut it, as an example it does not do MMS, (I’ve never sent an MMS, ever) with the exception that there is a third party developer who had deployed a MMS app that fills this gap. And I guess that is the point, all the gaps,...
Mobile Firefox needs some work. via Branedy
I downloaded and tried out Firefox Mobile a few days ago and while it seems to be very useful (and actually fun to use), I discovered yesterday I was having serious battery drain issues. I had thought that I had gotten passed this, it was disturbing that the problem had returned. I was afraid that I was finally going to be required to reflash my phone. Then while Googling the issue, I stumbled upon a discussion about the Mozilla JVM runtime that gets installed as part of Firefox and it turns out that it’s not exactly perfected on the Nokia N900 yet, Functional, but it spins up the CPU in the background, using up the battery. So I un-installed it with the App Manager and I’m back to the regular Nokia browser only, which is just fine....
MaePad for the N900 begs for a printer. via Branedy
I’ve been playing with the early release of MaePad and it’s quite a lot of fun. Like a sketch pad / notepad / finger paint thing. The only thing it needs is the ability to print it out in it’s full glory. And that brings back to the point about the Nokia N900, it really is a computer with a phone app installed. And while you can live without a printer for your phone, having a computer without a printer is missing something....
How to perfect the iPad. via Branedy
The answer is simple, the processor that Apple has chosen for their new iPad is called the A4 which is really just a ARM Cortex A9 with an integrate GPU. And guess what, there is another OS, a better OS, that is both touch integrated and ported to the Cortex / ARM cpu, Maemo which you can test for yourself on the at maemo.org or handle as the Nokia N900 pocket computer cum Smartphone. This OS can do everything that the iPhone OS can’t do like Multi-task and Flash. Sounds like a perfect iPad, just jail-break the iPad and install......
Apple’s iPad, misses the mark. via Branedy
Since I didn’t bother to comment on what is now a fan frenzy event and the flurry of rumors preceding it, the Apple iPad has now appeared, and I will comment, Meh! Everything that the pad does, I can do with the Nokia N900, for less money, and I can carry mine anywhere. I even have a real, though small keyboard. Mind you I like the new screen, it’s nicely sized, but I have a MacBook with a bigger better screen. Is there really a gap to fill, sure sort of, and this can fill it, maybe, but will it be the next big ‘thing’ NO!...