10 posts tagged “nseries”

Location tagger is released by Nokia Betalabs.  It looks great, it's a stand-alone application. Integration a la Nokia Search will surely be coming somewhere in the future!  Symbian Guru had the scoop as far as I noted. Looks like a great and smart application. Flickr uploading is supported ;-)

Update: All About Symbian has a topstory on Location tagger with a nice description, screenshots and explanations. Click here to read.

Cheers,

   Snoyt

Yes, we all know the term. Convergence. Its almost a buzzword nowadays. Especially in our little N95 community. Still what does it really mean, what does it do for me and is it really useful?

Convergence

Convergent evolution pertains to organisms not closely related that independently acquire similar characteristics while evolving in separate and sometimes varying ecosystems [from Wikipedia].

So it means that mobile electronic gadgets tend to get overlapping features and evolve into similar devices with similar features. In example a modern car-GPS has voice-navigation, music and video capabilities, a sim-card for calling and for getting the latest traffic information. E-mail and web browsing are already on the doorstep. And in the future it will even sport a photo- and video-camera to capture proof of car accidents. It will retrieve your PIM information to automagically plan routing to and from appointments, it might even tell you to leave early because of traffic congestions and reserve your ferry tickets. From there on it will become an digital personal assistent. Now, that is what I think of when I think of my smart phone. A kind of device that does anything technological possible for it's size and available power. A bit of magic, an electronic wand with smarts. Mobile phone companies are ahead in this game and Steve Jobs wisely took that plunge and got in the game. Nokia and Apple are going one on one. Microsoft has Windows Mobile but it could never give me the smooth and flexible feel and stability of Symbian which feels a bit like peanut butter without any nasty nut chunks, let alone the reported euforia from OS-X on the iPhone ;-)

Size and mobility

Size and mobility are truly connected. Size truly determines the mobility of the device as it limits your mobility as a user. The smaller and unobtrusive a device the more occasions there are in which you can carry it with you. The smaller the device the more time-consuming the user interface becomes I.e. T9-pad versus mini-qwerty versus a full-sized keyboard. And with size limits there are also power limits. Battery size is finite. Which is not a bad thing.

You see, ever since the 90's there was no need for additional CPU power to do PIM, browse the internet and run a full fledged office software. Already the cpu-capacity of a modern digital watch out performs the computer that took us to the moon. Intelligent software and smart algorithms do just fine. Limits on size for mobility of devices is causing an evolution in usability (ease of use) and power efficient designs. And happy earth, that makes it green! Super green in fact! Whenever I read my e-mail with my phone I use less than 1 Watt compared to the 200 Watt my desktop PC consumes when active.

Technological evolution?

Users will look for maximum convergence and minimal size in their mobile devices. They will also look for flexibility in extending the possibilities of those mobile device capacities in less mobile environments. A bluetooth keyboard, tv-out, A2DP to the car's stereo are simple examples. Mobility will turn the stupid trend to put a desktop computers power and powerconsumption into your phone. Simply because a more mobile, more power-efficient, more user-intelligent and integrated device will fullfill a consumers needs better.

The drive for towards better mobile device designs in usability (ease of use) and power efficiency will also help the limping UMPC platform and make them more mainstream. MIMD as a organizer/UMPC hybrid are getting even more interesting. 64kB of RAM is not enough for everyone, but I think 128MB of RAM and 400 MHz might be sufficient for anywhere. At least for the next couple of years. Mobility is here to stay and will become mainstream for personal use. Desktops will always be faster and bigger en more power-consuming that a mobile device. And the time will come when they are considered the gas-guzzling polluting devices they are for personal use. Like a truck a desktop's PC capacity will only be needed for professional heavy work instead of home computing.

And I think it's a good thing. Go green, go mobile!

Most of us have now seen the leaked pictures of the N96. Whether the model is real, a mock-up or a Chinese clone  important questions remains. Is it crap or fab? The images show some interesting design features or maybe flaws.

• The design is a dual slider again. Check Symbian Freak for a picture of that. Strangely there are media control buttons on the front. Why? Either have a single slide with no media buttons on front or go dual slide with no front media buttons.
• The keypad and the menupad seems to both lack distinct tactile feedback compared to the N95 model. It would require vision while operating the N96. For those with requiring contacts or spectacles finding the answer button on the phone at night might prove rather difficult. But if it works well on the N81. I should perhaps not complain.
  
• Particular annoying is the absence of the edit button of the N95. It is a cherished button over here. Particular while writing e-mail and such. And why does the edit button of the N95 not work in my web browser?

I loved the N81 design and I am happy to seem much of it reappear in this design. It's sleek, gentle and nicely black.

• There is a nifty fold out stand for the phone. Although it looks very weak and vulnerable.
  
• Where the hell is my protective camera shutter? I really want, no I demand, the proper shutter design of the N82. This is a major screw up.
  
• There are two LED's instead of a xenon flash. Well if it works it works, but I fear that a xenon flash is better and gives sharper images. The flash duration is shorter compared to LED's and thus your pictures are less blurry.

But why such a crappy improved model? We all know what we want:

• N81 design and cool black surface.
  
• N82 flash and shutter. A bit more flash power would even be better.
  
• Should stay upright on its side to take pictures on self timer.
• N95 8GB sized battery.
• Lots of free RAM, UNIX-like stability for wifi.
  

Some more fanciful wishes:

• 3x optical zoom, even if the phone is 1 cm larger.
  
• 640x480 or 800x480 screen resolution
• Mini-qwerty
• touchscreen a la iPhone...
• Voice control of  the phone for in the car. Assume that Nokia Maps running simultaneous:
  
• Control of Nokia Maps via the headset, next gas station, road block - rerout. Navigate to contact.
  
• Read sms outloud
  
• Read e-mail outloud
• Mix navigational instructions through a call.
  
• Pause music when the Nokia Maps blonde needs to chat you up.
  
• Control of the media functions for the A2DP capabilities of your car. Play, stop, next song, next artist.
• Improved SIP support for with firewalls i.e.

It's nearly X-mas I am allowed a bit of whishful thinking...

Update another wish: The Full PC suite in Java en OS independence. Let it connect sync the N95 via internet/intranet. With SSL encryption as an sync option. Carry your PC suite on a memorystick and make it portable. Make the PC suite run on the N810.

Betalab writes:

Multi-User Publishing Environment (MUPE) is an open source application platform for mobile multi-user context-aware applications. Just install the MUPE client to your phone, play the growing collection of MUPE games and services, such as:

• Piper: classic pipe puzzle game
• Pocket Realms: multi-user strategy game
• CamQ: multi-user camera quiz game
• Press “Get More” button to see the complete list of available MUPE applications.

Beta labs also warns you that all MUPE applications are online services and require an active data connection (and costs). Multi-User Publishing Environment (MUPE) is an open source application platform for mobile multi-user context-aware applications. Everyone can develop and write their own.

In the Duke Nukem's famous words: "Come get some". Right here. Looks like free games to me!

Symbian Freak mentions em-Tube was released. It's a fully functional youtube browser and player. It performs well on my N95. Although downloading and playing simultatenous in landscape mode is stuttering. Portrait works allright. Saving then playing works best. The application allows for saving the flv-movies, searching, storing favorites and more. It is really fantastic. There is a special version fot the N95 for autoscreen rotation support.

Hi there, for anyone not running the Exchange 2.0 plugin on their N-series or E-series Nokia. An alternative called Emoze showed up yesterday in my N95's download application. It claims push e-mail and synchronization of e-mail and PIM data for Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Exchange, Lotus Notes Domino servers and POP3 online email services such as Hotmail, Yahoo! and Gmail.

Have a look in your download or go directly to the website of emoze.

It's a news reader application. It's for all S603rd edition devices. On the N95 the screen rotates if you rotate the phone. Yes, our first official application that uses the g-force sensor. Still the channels are limited. For now I hope. Still you can read European news in 7 languages, the new york times and the Helsingin Sanomat (Helsinki newspaper) in Finnish and English.

The first negative thing I notices was the scrolling makes the screen flicker and you can not switch it of. Worse even there are also pop-up advertisements.... :-\

Tired of playing with the acellerometer light saber application and want to get serious?

Today Nokia World 2007 started and they showed a new game for the coming n-series n-gage platform:

Hi Folks,

With all the new nseries models from Nokia. I felt they might have gotten the feel to be left out and created a nseries group to lure all N82, N93(i) and future nseries owners into that group. Since there is so much overlap I suggest we encourage crossposting between both groups (this and that one). It should draw more people in with whom we share a 'connection'.

Cheers,

Snoyt