Nokia N Series – Kikuyumoja

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That’s it. I am going to sell my 6 month old Nokia E72 QWERTZ phone.

Yes, it’s just a phone and “why should I read the following rant on Nokia”, you may be wondering. Here is why:

1. Flexibility

I mentioned it earlier that I had bought a 2G iPhone some month ago, with a broken screen and drained battery from eBay for 65,- EUR, which I managed to repair and have since been using. The iPhone may be a crippled piece of hardware and Nokia may have the best hardware on their phones (also in terms of durability), but there is just so much more I can do with this old iPhone from 2007 that I can’t do with any of my four Nokias (6230, 6230i, N95 & E72).

The iPhone (or an HTC Desire with Android OS) is my logical extension to the computer. Evernote, to name just one application, runs on the iPhone but doesn’t (natively) run on the E72. I am using Evernote to keep track of my notes, so I’ll need to have this run on a phone.

Flexibility is a matter of software support, not only hardware.

Consequently, the iPhone won. I am using it on a daily basis while the E72 slept in my drawers since February 2010. Time to sell it and sum up everything with this blog post.

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iPhone 2G vs. Nokia E72

2. Good at basic stuff

If you’re just looking for a simple mobile phone with sms, Nokia phones are good. There’s a reason why the 1xxx range of Nokias has been so popular around the world – not only in emerging markets. It is also why Nokia keeps on reinventing this series with the recent announcement of their C1 & C2 (dual sim, eventually!) phones. Even the simple QWERTY phone with Bluetooth we’ve been asking for via Eriks post – Nokia’s C3 – is a good phone.

For simple stuff like voice calls or sms, Nokia phones are good. Even as a mobile Twitter device (Gravity) it rocks! …but for anything else than that, you’re probably better off buying a phone from one of their competitors.

3. SOFTWARE!

This is 2010 and thanks to the iPhone and the undeniable revolution it brought to the market, any smartphone without “cool” software and a usable app store just sucks.

It’s not just the missing Evernote on the E72, or other missing applications. You know many ppl have been asking Nokia and their devs to port successful applications from competitors to the different operating systems in use on Nokia phones. No, with software I mean everything:

confusing, often changing user interfaces & menu structures
different operating systems (plus too many different phones at the same time, but that’s another – hardware – issue)
support of their developers (slowly evolving though)
unstable firmwares on their phones, always takes at least 12 month on a new phone to become stable
Nokia website – not optimised for use with mobile phones
Ovi.com (see 5.)
essential stuff like Sports Tracker. It took a spin-off from Nokia to get this cool software a bit closer to where it should be.
Ovi Maps – not yet available for all phones (who are capable of displaying these maps)
the successful Twitter client Gravity being one of the very few REALLY GOOD apps on a Nokia smartphone
Global login on all Nokia sites and products. It still doesn’t work the way it should be (one ID & pwd).
Ovi app wizard. Over at Apple, “apps” that provide nothing else but an RSS feed are meanwhile classified as “spam apps” – and removed from their app store. Are the “apps” built using this app wizard a way for Nokia to bloat their Ovi store stats?

Please, Nokia, software is SUCH an important issue. You’re so good at hardware – why can’t you apply the same diligence to your software products and all related processes?

Also, I’ve realized that I’ve spent considerably more time trying to fix various software issues on my Nokia phones than on the iPhone. I actually do not have the time for such things, and also don’t want to fix my phone all the time and pull information from all over the internet on why application x does not work with firmware y or mobile z. This is really annoying.

There may of course be historical and political reasons for all of this (I know Symbian from when it was still EPOC16 on a Palm Series 3), but then: does this really matter today? Make it work! And don’t make we waste time on it.

4. The mobile office.

Any smartphone that seriously tries to be good at providing some form of mobile office should have

a kick-ass e-mail client
a superb browser
Office suite and/or viewer for various attachments

My E72 came with such an office suite which did the job for me, but the e-mail client and – the E72 is a business phone – the browser just suck.

Nokia, seeing your customers and loyal fans complaining on Nokia Forums and on blogs about the performance of the e-mail client and browser is a NO NO. EI EI!

Cooperate with Yahoo!, install Gmail as default e-mail clients, ship your phones with the Opera Mini browser – do whatever it takes to fix this because a business phone with such an average e-mail client and browser just won’t be enough for us – your customers.

Or else team up with Android.

The e-mail client on my 1G iPod Touch (30,-€ @ eBay) actually made me buy the 2G iPhone in February this year. And this although I had just invested ~270,- € on the Nokia E72 in december 2009.

5. Ovi.com

Ovi – Finnish for “the door” – should be a door to combined Nokia services. But – yes, you guessed it right – it still isn’t.

The Ovi client on phones sucks, sometimes can’t be deinstalled and has a very particularly BAD user interface. It may work with Nokia’s touchscreen phones, but for all other phones it just sucks.

I can’t explain all faults on Ovi, there is just so much wrong with it. I also can’t see what changed from MOSH (which by itself already was a bad joke). This piece of software – as an app on the phone – just makes me want to hit someone with a Nokia 2110. It’s very frustrating. Very.

The most annoying Ovi bug, imo: You’re on Ovi.com on your computer. Ok, found a nice app, have a link to it sent to you via sms. Check your mobile, the link on that sms opens the web browser – so far, so good. But THEN the Ovi client decides to chip in and re-open it inside the client. This is very annoying, especially for those who are paying a lot of money for data traffic. Can’t this hook be implemened in the OS? => “All http://store.ovi.mobi links to open in Ovi client by default”. (my N95 runs on FW v35.x which was only recently released).

See the App Store on the iPhone? It may not be perfect, but hey – I’VE SPENT MONEY ON THE APPLE APP STORE. Something I would probably never be doing on Ovi App Store. And I guess I am not the only one.

On the other hand, it has to be mentioned that I somehow like the web version of Ovi.com. There may still be a lot of details that do not make sense to me on their website, but truth be told that their app store may be opened by anyone AND that it doesn’t open any client software like iTunes or only shows a crippled version of the market like Android.

Also, the Nokia Ovi Suite has greatly improved since it was launched, succeeding their PC Suite. Nokia is slowly getting there + iTunes is worse, I think.

This whole experience around buying software and interacting with Nokia via Ovi.com and its offered services – that’s the FIRST thing I would try to improve on as Nokia.

6. Strategy

As a serious customer, I am not looking for a fun phone with lots of games, but instead a durable workhorse that will guarantee persistence.

Nokia is in a process of change, they’ve realized that revenue is made on emerging markets and that most of their top-level phones actually can’t really compete with competitors on all levels. A great camera, long battery standby time and smart design (“use with one thumb”) are very good – buy they won’t drive the masses to Nokia stores. The E72 was supposed to be a good successor to the very successful E71. Well, is it really?

Heck, they don’t even seem to have a strategy for emerging markets and still consider Africa and the Middle East as one market! Crazy.

Or their Bicycle Charger Kit which will be released to the market later on this year. You can read my thoughts on this in the comments at Julianas AfriGadget post.

On the iPhone, I can port my apps from the 2G to the 3G, 3GS and probably also to the iPhone 4 (even though some apps, like the new iMovie seem to be limited to the iPhone 4 for hardware reasons). Will this also be possible with apps I’ve bought for the Symbian 9.3 S60 FP2 platform (e.g. the E72)? Will I also be able to use them on future Nokia phones?

The Nokia E72 may be great phone with good hardware, but it currently comes with only average software (except for Gravity) and looks like a dead end street to me. It also doesn’t help that Nokia is very innovative in their Beta Labs, ships new phones with free navigation (thx, Nokia) and a full range of accessories you’ll have to pay extra on competitors.

Nokia has missed to communicate a clear strategy to its customers. Maybe they should pitch us, tell us why their phones are better than the rest. And prove it with cool software that teams up with the already awesome hardware. Right now, I can’t see a reason for the purchase of their phones. There is no persistence in the software side of their products, and my patience with and passion for Nokia products is gone.

What will you do about it, Nokia?

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The Nokia E72, QWERTZ keyboard (DE), 6 month old, mint condition, fully equipped, with Gravity licence, OtterBox Commuter Case. 250,- EUR and it’s yours.

UPDATE: SOLD!

My Top 6 S60 apps

The reason why every new mobile phone will be compared to Apple’s iPhone – obviously a very succesful phone with a superb user interface albeit known disadvantages that even let this consulting company diagnose some Apple fanboyz with the Stockholm syndrome for their ignorance…. the reason why almost everyone out there likes the iPhone is because it comes with a HUGE market of “apps”: applications & games, something that’s not necessarily important, but will make you pull out the phone when you’re bored.

Not so on Nokia’s side. I am using Nokia phones since 1998 and have recently swapped my N95 for an E72 – Nokia’s successor to the very popular E71 with a QWERTY keyboard instead of the T9 keypad on traditional phones. I can’t find the link right now, but remember having read these days that Nokia will from now on concentrate on QWERTY phones on one hand, and on the other hand push touchscreen phones. Some, like the new N900 which runs on MAEMO, feature both methods, so this range will be very interesting in the next few years.

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The E72 is based on Symbian S60, an operating system that has been around for quite some time now. And although it’s been quite popular in terms of sales, there are almost no interesting apps available for this platform.

Remember, we’re in December 2009 now, and the iPhone has been out for at least 2.5 years, with the Apple App Store being online since July 2008. Since then, over 2 billion (!) apps have been downloaded from their store.

The iPhone may be a crippled piece of monoculture for MacBook users, with a fixed battery, a very restrictive policy, no out-of-the-box functionality you’ll find on many other phones and a list of other flaws – but it STILL wins over most other phones – just because it comes with those apps. And also because it comes with a very usable browser.

Apps, which are dearly missed on Nokia’s S60 platform.

I may not be the perfect reference when it comes to testing different applications, but I can tell you that I’ve only kept six (6) additional applications on my E72 that I think are useful. There may be more – there certainly have to be more – but these six are the only ones that make sense to me for the moment:

1. Gravity

Scr000009 There can’t be enough praise for this application. It’s the only – really GOOD – application for S60. A Twitter / Identi.ca / FaceBook / Google Reader client, a software that will allow me to feed my three active Twitter accounts directly from the phone, check some subscriptions on Google Reader or comment on my friend’s FaceBook status updates.

Nokia obviously knows this fact (they are busy promoting it on Ovi.com and other sites), but they had even failed to invite the developer (@janole, from Berlin/Germany) to their Nokia World 09 event which took place in Stuttgart this year. It’s not only a failure, but a disaster.

You can actually stop reading here because it won’t get better. In my not-so-humble-opinion on this, most – if not all – future applications for Nokia phones should be designed like Gravity. And remember that Gravity was designed & coded by one humble programmer only. Which goes to show what’s possible if you really want it. If interested, pls make sure not miss out this interesting interview with @janole. On this interview, Jan Ole also mentioned that any serious developer should get an iPhone or an iPod Touch to get some orientation on what a good user interface should look like. Hej Nokia, you won’t have to reinvent the wheel – just take the 100 best apps from Apple’s AppStore and port them to S60 (if possible). I know this approach has been discussed before on Nokia Forums, but I for one am still waiting for this …luxury.

A fully registred version of Gravity will cost you about 10 EUR – but it’s the best app you can buy for a Nokia S60 phone these days.

2. Fring

Scr000013 Fring is a chat & VoIP client for your phone. You can use it to connect via Skype, MSN, Google Talk, Yahoo Msg, ICQ, AIM, Facebok, Twitter, last.fm & Co with your friends. It’s free, it works, it wins.

Fring is a nice app that I’ve tested right from the start two (?) years ago, it’s been constantly updated and will even work on a brand new phone like the E72. I don’t know how these guys are earning money with the provision of such a well-developed tool, but they have been around for some time now, are serious about what they do, respond to user requests and also cover many different operating systems.

It’s not that you’ll be seeing me chatting via my phone that often, but it’s great to have a mobile Skype version.

3. QR-Code Scanner

Scr000019 Nokia BarCode / QR Code Scanner tool is a rather inconspicuous little tool, but of such great functionality to me that I’ve put a link to it on the stand-by screen of my phone.

While surfing the web, I sometimes see pages that I would like to instantly open via my phone. So I click on a barcode icon on the lower right corner of my Mozilla Memoryhog browser and – voilà – a QR-code window pops up with a link to that page, encoded via a nice little Mozilla FF plugin. I then only have to activate the scanner tool, scan the image and will instantly have the link or encoded text on my phone. Dead simple. And it works. I’d even pay for this app and the browser plugin if it wasn’t free.

4. YouTube client & Google Maps

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I am not a YouTube kid, but since it enables me to stream videos to my phone, I’ve started appreciating this nifty application – provided free of charge by Google.

Something similar applies to Google Maps which I actually prefer over to Nokia Maps just because it’s faster. Nokia Maps 3.x may be better these days as it also comes with preloaded maps and an optimized application. However, Google Maps worked right from the start. There wasn’t any iteration of updated versions which would remove this or that bug like on Nokia Maps. Google Maps just worked right from the beginning.

I’ve also tested full-blown Navigator suites for Symbian S60, but why should I pay extra if I can have free navigation via Google Maps? I am on a 1 GB flat fee on the phone anyways… so I am back to using both Google Maps and Nokia Maps – whichever is more appropriate for each situation.

5. Spb TV

Scr000003 Speaking of multimedia content, I’ve been searching for an application that will stream live TV to my phone. Something like Zattoo for the European market, but with an S60 client (which they unfortunately don’t have and which could be their killer application).

And again, as much as I am not a YouTube kid, I even do not like TV that much. But sometimes I do, and those moments I want to watch it on my tiny phone screen. Sorry, David Lynch!

So the only option I can think of is Spb (IP-)TV, a rather strange application for USD 14,95 with a lot of unknown stations from around the world. The screenshot above shows it playing BBC Arabic with picture-in-picture mode.

Now, I probably won’t understand what they are saying as only learned how to order a cold beer in modern standard Arabic, but there are other channels on this (still locked on the screenshot, now unlocked) application. Some are in German, most in English, some in French, Russian, etc. Interesting. I understand German, English and French, so there’s some choice for me. It may not be the best TV app for a phone, but it works, has a unique and smart interface and made it to my Top6 list of Nokia Symbian S60 applications. And besides – is there any other S60 TV app?

Exactly. There are no alternatives.

6. Internet Radio

Scr000022 Came shipped as a pre-installed app on my N95, had to add it manually on the E72 though (use the one from the Nokia 6120 Navigator). Works brilliantly well, perfect user interface, perfect out-of-the-box experience, no unnecessary information for the user which would probably only confuse. Choose your desired (internet) radio station by name, location/country, language or genre. Unfortunately, Radio Okapi from the DRC isn’t included anymore, but they do have triple r from Australia (which I obviously like :-).

It would be very interesting to know WHY Nokia hasn’t included this wonderful application with all their phones (why not on Nokia’s E-Series?), but I guess that it’s because they want to push us users into purchasing music files via their online music store. Ah, marketing. Horrible.

——

Marketing may be one of the reasons why most applications for Nokia’s Symbian S60 still suck in 2009. Probably a mixture of greed and mismanagement that have led to this problematic situation where we see Nokia still producing great phones (c’mon, they are well engineered), but totally fucking it up on the AppStore side. Ovi.com is a really bad joke at the moment – the website is even more informative than their S60-based tool to access the Ovi store. It’s a chaos with mostly shitty applications, I’ve spend quite some time on Ovi.com, trying to find useful applications, only to quickly realize that I am much faster googling for anything of interest instead. Ovi.com may experience a relaunch in the coming month, but to imagine that they can pull anything positive with it right now is a dream that will not come true with the current version. Nokia is supposed to be the leader in the smartphone market – and their app store is anything but smart.

Scr000017 Nokia’s Ovi.com app store or even individual stores on the interwebs – all of these initiatives are pretty much useless if we won’t see more applications like the few good ones above.

I don’t know which phone I’ll buy next, but I can tell you that I’ll put the availability of decent & cool applications as a top priority on my list of criterias for any upcoming phone. If Nokia can’t deliver, well then I’ll switch to Android or maybe even an iPhone and its OS (as much as I’d hate doing that).

Nooooh!kia…

Seriously, Nokia…

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…what kind of crippled, 7″ long USB cable is this you’ve shipped with the new E72?

Sure it makes sense to have a smaller cable for the pocket, but please, it is so useless at this length. Very annoying.

Else, the phone looks like a great new toy. A bit different from the E71 which was almost all metal. Coming from an N95 though, anything in monoblock shape will be better for me.

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So.. yes, I’ve eventually settled on a new phone after 29 (!) month. I know it will not have the same smart browser I’ll find on an iPhone, a HTC Hero, a Motorola Droid / Milestone or even Maemo-based Nokia N900, but it will give me real keys to press with tactile feedback, provide we with a known operating system and I’ll be able to shot snapshots @ 5mpx and multitask some applications. Now let see if it lives up to all expectations – the build quality already is a bit different from the E71 which I remember being a bit slimmer and much more even on the edges. Like when you move your thumb between the screen and the menu keys, you’ll notice a sharper edge.

What I’ve come to appreciate on the N95 is a good grip on the rubberised back cover. The E72 having a metal plate, it still seems to provide a better grip than the E71. The lock on the back cover isn’t as strong as on the E71 though, and I even had to bend the metal cover a bit to fit it better into its position. Not so nice on a brand new phone.

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Whatever. It is mine, I’ll have to use it for the next 24 month and it will hopefully do a good job. The moment I unpacked it, I realized how really small it is. Annette even mentioned that it would be too small for my fingers, but it’s surprinsingly easy to hit the right keys.

You know I’ve been waiting for this phone I had never actually held in my hands before I bought it (because it wasn’t yet on the market), so I had to rely on the user generated opinions you’ll find online only. But something similar actually also applies to the N95, and since I am no TED fellow or something like that, there’s no swag aka free E71 coming my way… so a purchase like this one has to be well planned. I got mine via a 24-month contract as a subsidized phone. Since I am normally using a prepaid card only (with a 1GB data flat), the new SIM will remain – unused – on the old phone. 10,- EUR / month for the next 24 month = cheaper than buying a new phone for ~ 360,- EUR.

Talking about money, the “Kikuyu” in Kikuyumoja probably isn’t such a good idea. I’ve recently spend most of my savings on a new kitchen from IKEA, or let’s say..

from this:

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to this:

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Not that big, but it’s MINE and I’ve built it with my own hands. Very rewarding. :-)

Considering that my kitchen corner in Embu looked like this:

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… the real difficulty is to find the right partner who will understand that even average kitchen corners will be superb when compared to the alternative. And mine in Embu even was a brand new one! I am mentioning this because my sis has an awesome kitchen with all extras. It’s these two worlds we’re living in that sometimes still make me think: yes, Germany, nice & comfy. But do I/we really need all these extras? Maybe one of the reasons why we’ve only now – at this advanced age (yeah!) – agreed to give up the single room appartment and move into a bigger one (from 25 sqm to 76sqm, actually).

Anyways. I haven’t been offline or on a blogging hiatus – just working on the new kitchen and renovating my new home.

As for the E72, it’s a great phone and I will certainly come back for another, more detailed review, even though I’ve also said that I actually don’t want to do a review this time. I am too much of a geek not to waste some precious time on a new gadget.

Waiting for the E72…

nokia-e72 I am waiting for the Nokia E72 (phone) since it was first mentioned about a year ago (!) and then officially announced in June (July?) this year. It’s a successor to the very popular Nokia E71 which I had reviewed back then and features a nifty 5mpx cmos camera and a keyboard similar to the one currently found on the Nokia E63.

One of the best ways for staying up-to-date on product launches is Twitter Search. I’m scanning Twitter for E72 related news for quite some time now and I can tell you that many ppl are desperately waiting for the E72 to hit the market. I heard it will be October 6th or 12th…

The Nokia E63 itself is a very nice phone – I actually prefer its keyboard over to the initial E71 and so I am really glad that the E72 will not only have such a similar keyboard, but also come with a camera that will be able to compete with the really decent 5mpx cam on my Nokia N95.

My N95 is 27 months old now and – compared to other phones I’ve owned in the past – a bit worn out. The other day I also dropped it on the floor and it fortunately still does the job, only a few scratches on the (exchangable) cover. Back then I urgently wanted to get my hands on the N95, only to quickly realize that it has a “prototype” design and comes with other flaws I’ve mentioned on this blog in the past. Another problem with buying brandnew phones is that a stable firmware (~ the operating system on the phone) will probably only be released after a year. This isn’t a Nokia-only problem though, others like Apple have experienced similar issues.

The interesting part on this next purchase will be the question if I should get it like my N95 – with a 24month contract and a subsidized phone – or directly buy it without a contract and paying the full price.

The pre-order price for the phone currently is around EUR 360 and I am expecting this to change over the next coming weeks. Also, I think the current trend is that less phones are being subsidized these days and that mobile network operators and their resellers started leasing out phones, so you end up paying a hefty monthly fee + ~ EUR 15 for the phone. You’ll still find many customers asking for “a free phone” from their operator every two years (the way it has been in the past), but it is actually cheaper to get a prepaid card & buy the phone (unless of course you’re on a flat fee contract and using the phone a lot). I don’t call that much, but often check my mail via the phone, so “cheap internet access” is my main issue. I also like the browser on the iPhone, but then: I guess I am too stupid for Apple’s Monoculture and Operating System. The iPhone may have a great browser (the greatest?), but a non-removable battery, a lousy camera and no taskmanager (or is there?) are a no-go for me. Plus it is still too expensive in Europe.

I really can’t wait to get my hands on my own Nokia E72 because it will eventually enable me to return to the monoblock design. The 2-way sliders on the N95 are *interesting* but absolutely useless and it’s about time for me to upgrade from a T9 keypad to a full QWERTY (QWERTZ) keyboard.

The 2 best reviews so far are the one by Antoine of AllAboutSymbian AllAboutNokia (part 1,2,3,4,5 and his verdict) and Eldar’s piece on Mobile Review. These two reviews are also reason enough why I just want to own the phone and won’t do a review on it once it’s here.. :-)

OH, and it HAS A FLASHLIGHT!

Twitter is better with Gravity

If you own a recent Nokia phone with the Symbian S60 operating system (S60v3, S60v5) and are using the microblogging services Twitter or Laconia, you may be interested in using a new Twitter client for the phone:

Gravity

Gravity v1.00 is the first fully-featured and native Twitter client for the S60 platform. It supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica, TwitPic and wraps everything into a gorgeous looking interface.

Compatible with Twitter and Laconica

All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, DM, follow & unfollow, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …

Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, …

Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time

Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends

Post pictures via TwitPic

Open URLs from any Tweet

Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )

Theme support on S60v3 ( fixed dark and bright theme )
(source)

The only downside to this software is that it may create too much traffic whereas the alternative – Twibble (which I’d also used since its first day as a public release) – seems to generate less traffic.

I’m on a 1GB flat for my phone, which means I can generate 1GB in traffic via the phone and only pay 9,90 EUR / month. I actually don’t need 1GB at the moment because we also have DSL here, but it makes sense if you happen to download more than 41 MB / month (9,90€ / 0,24€/MB = 41,25 MB) + it isn’t limited to a proxy server, special online pages or other crazy limitations. And DSL sometimes fails, so it’s a good fall back option.

Creating a sceenshot of Gravity is a bit complicated as the Shift (Pencil) key on the phone (which is used in combination with the middle joystick button) also triggers the input form for new tweets on Gravity:

The beautiful part is that you can really SCROLL between tweets like you would do on an iPhone – bila the touchscreen on my N95 though..

And another good part is that it’s now much easier to insert images on your tweets (Twibble also has this but isn’t as comfy to use).

Gravity comes with a 10day demo version and I instantly (!) registered it after using it for only 2 minutes. Now, you’d have to know for yourself if you’re willing to cough up ~ 10,- € (in Germany – sijui why they are adding VAT on shareit.com for other countries) for an otherwise free and time consuming service such as Twitter, but then, again, there are other – much more useless – applications for the iPhone ppl are willing to spend money on and also: there are only a few really good applications for Symbian devices. Gravity is one of them.

You’ll also need to access the download page for the registered version via a normal computer as the phone’s internal S60 browser is having problems identifying the .sisx format. Jan, the developer behind Gravity, also mentioned that he’ll be working on some bugfixes now, so maybe there’s a way to include this as well (refers to the purchase of the software directly from a phone. Update routines are just flawless!).

Verdict: If you’ve been on Twibble before, you’ll LOVE Gravity. Highly recommended application.

—–

UPDATE: After some recent updates (currently 1.1x), Gravity also has the following additional features:

Configurable Audio Alerts for Timeline/Replies/DM’s
Group support for creating custom tabs with user-defined filters (S60v3)
Post pictures to MobyPicture and TwitPic
Preview pictures from MobyPicture or TwitPic
Full-Screen mode on S60v3
Built-in auto-update function and beta access for testing the latest features

And while I think that Gravity is the best application I’ve ever bought for a phone, I’d like to add two remarks:

There should be a cheaper version of Gravity as not everyone out there is able to cough up 9,95 € on a mobile app – and sometimes it’s technical reasons as to why a prog like Gravity is only successful in developed countries: how would you pay for this app from e.g. Kenya (where there is money but no payment system such as Paypal?). And how about a sponsored (& localized) version with fixed banners? Would it make sense? And what would ppl be willing to spend on an app (in other countries than Germany)?
There should be a mobile WordPress editor that’s just as easy to use as Gravity. After all these years of using WordPress for blogs and mobile phones, I’ve often called for better mobile blog editors and tested quite a few on this blog. Twitter indeed already is some sort of microblogging, BUT! it would be great if there also was an easy-to-use editor tool on the phone which could provide true mobile blogging.

Nokia Multiscanner

While testing Nokia’s E71 two months ago, I couldn’t find the following application on the phone I’d read about somewhere else: Nokia Multiscanner. I know that it apparently comes pre-installed on both the E71 and the E66, but on my trial device, it was just missing. Since I already LOVE Nokia’s BarCode reader and think it is a very smart application, I didn’t hesitate for a second upon seeing it as an item on my feedreader today and installed it right away. Unfortunately, the original source of that blog post is currently offline, but Google still provides other interesting resources about Nokia Multiscanner.

[all screenshots are in German as my phone is set to German language]

Screenshot0045

Nokia Multiscanner is an application for S60V3 Nokia phones that provides Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for scanned texts. Currently, both business cards and document texts are supported – it even “reads” German texts and displays them on the screen for further usage.

Screenshot0047 Screenshot0048

available options: save image, adjust layout, binary image (?), language, image size

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You can even zoom in and do the usual auto-focus to get your selected text in focus (doesn’t appear on these screenshots though as I had to simultaneously press two buttons at the same time to get the screenshot).

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It will then display the scanned text and even ask you if you want to further save it as a note, a short message, mms or e-mail. Neat!

The beautiful part is that this application really works to an extend where it is somehow usable. Scanning business cards is even easier, as it will already group different parts of an address to different fields (the user may then still edit). See this forum contribution on Nokiaapps.org for more details on the procedure (also includes lots of interesting screenshots).

Nokia Multiscanner currently runs on my Nokia N95-1 and from what I’ve understood so far, Multiscanner was initially designed as a pocket translator tool – so the pure OCR functionality is a nice add-on.

As for scanning business cards, I will always recommend using Nokia’s Mobile BarCode Reader instead and sticking your very own personal barcode to the back of your phone.

Skype Mobile (Beta) [updated]

Following this post about a new Skype Mobile (Beta), I couldn’t resist and installed the latest version of Skype Mobile on the Nokia N95.

Upon registering your mobile number on the Skype Mobile download page, an sms will arrive with a personalized download link. The application itself is about 360 kb, installs pretty quickly (I always use the phone’s internal memory – not the one provided on the microSD card) and it starts within seconds.

Here’s what it looks like:
(pls don’t be irritated by the German language selection)

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So far, so good.

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To edit a message, the S60 editor comes up (same as on SMS, OperaMini, etc.) and you can type your text.

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It even shows you the current credit – nice!

Multitasking apparently does not work that well, as it suddenly displayed the following error message and closed itself.

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Could be due to the running screenshot application that was trying to capture the screen as a background process.

What I like about Skype Mobile:

huge fonts, clear interface
makes use of full screen
shows Skype Credit

What I don’t like about Skype Mobile:

application is still in beta state, albeit being released as version 0.9.26.0 which implies that it’s close to a final release
only covers Skype
(as opposed to Fring that just works like a charm and provides some more services, e.g. MSN, Twitter, GoogleTalk, etc.)
text input is in an extra window (apparently due to the S60 standard setup) – Fring really solved this in a much better way
upon starting the application, it tells you that it will charge you extra for incoming calls. Charge for incoming calls that are coming from another computer? Is this still VoIP? Not so on Fring!
conversations are only accessible through the list of events, not as different tabs
text from conversations (e.g. hyperlinks) isn’t accessible, not even for the copy & paste method (this btw also doesn’t work on Fring)

Let’s compare that with the Fring experience on the N95:

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Fring really is that All-In-One solution that a) just works out of the box, even as a background task and b) provides much more information on useful information (e.g. network, battery, different tabs for open chats).

Verdict: Skype Mobile (Beta) (for Nokia N95/S60!) should go back to the labs – and maybe also remain there, as Fring already does the job.

I don’t know how far Skype is involved in Fring’s business (investors?), or how closed Skype’s API is for Fring (now and in future), but I just don’t see any sense in this Skype Mobile application if Fring is so much more advanced and accepted by users. The only reason I’ve left it on the phone is because it shows the Skype Credit which Fring does not. Other than that, Skype Mobile gives me the impression that it was created for the typical Windows Mobile user who normally uses a pen and a QWERTY keyboard for text entry and navigation. And who will definately appriciate it if his future phone comes pre-loaded with Skype Mobile (at least – that’s what they had in mind, right?).

Also, I just appreciate how Fring is integrated into S60, showing all relevant background information from the host system (network, battery, etc.) and still provides it’s own navigation. Skype Mobile, on the other hand, is one of those stand-alone versions that you as a user will not want to minimize and close down as a background process. The service itself takes up system resources, and if if does not provide the same flexibility as other services, there’s no reason to keep this battery drainer running in the background.

Way forward: what I’d like to see is a combined eBay/Skype solution, similar to what Yahoo! created with it’s Yahoo! Go application. Something that adds value to an otherwise plain service. Currently, not all phones are capable of multitasking, and if battery drainage is still an issue, I think it’s much wiser to offer an All-In-One solution that either provides maximum connectivity (e.g. Fring) or one that integrates different web services (e.g. eBay) and transforms them for the mobile platfrom.

JKE’s Nokia E71 review: (6) software

On to the last part of my extended Nokia E71 review!

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It feels like there’s so much more to mention on this phone, especially if you regard it as your electronic workhose that not only has to deliver basic office functionality, but also manage your business and private life.

What I can tell so far is that it is a very valid candidate that could send my N95 into early retirement. IF only the camera was better on the E71, I’d immediately switch and try to find a cheap contract online that subsidizes the E71. But it isn’t. The camera module (& it’s Carl Zeiss lenses) is the No. 1 reason why I’ll keep my N95 for the time being and maybe switch to an N79 one day or, even better, wait for the upcoming E72 & E75 models.

If I was still stuck with my old Nokia 6230i though and wasn’t spoiled by the multimedia capabilities of the N95 (e.g. video editor on board), I’d probably take the E71 right on. Again, if you’re interested in taking photos in darker surroundings (~ in a restaurant for a business dinner), there are other, better camera phones than the E71. As for the Nokia range of phones, I’d recommend those with a Xenon flash anyways.

So what about the “business & private life” issue?

Continue reading “JKE’s Nokia E71 review: (6) software”