Pre Order Your N97 on Vodafone Now!

The time is here folks.

The N97 officially starts shipping tomorrow in the UK.

Judging by the text I've just received from Vodafone, they are going to soon be stocking the device.

Checking out the Vodafone online shop, it indicates that the N97 will be available from 26th June, thats just 12 days away! However, it will only be free for those of you willing to sign up for a £40 a month tariff over a whooping 2 years!

Unfortunately for some of us current Vodafone customers, we are not allowed to upgrade until our current contracts are up. Obviously if I were an iPhone fanboy I would be disgusted at this kind of treatment from my operator.

So there we have it. I'm expecting my account to be eligible for an upgrade in September, so hopefully the price plans will be a little more realistic by then.

The list of Vodafone high street stores that will have an N97 in for you to play with from 19th June is as follows:

Basingstoke, Festival Place
Birmingham, Bull Ring
Kent, Bluewater Experience
Brighton, East Mall
Bristol
Cardiff
Cheltenham, High Street
Edinburgh, Princess Street
Exeter, High Street
Glasgow Guildford, 66 High Street
Liverpool
London, 127 Oxford Street
London, 341-349 Oxford Street
London, 474 Oxford Street
Manchester
Manchester, Trafford
Tyne Tees, Metro Centre
Milton Keynes
Newbury Norwich, 47 Castle Mall
Norwich, Merchants Hall
Oxford, Cornmarket
Reading, The Oracle
Sheffield, Meadowhall
Southampton, Above Bar
Swindon, The Lock
Thurrock, Lakeside
Watford
White City

N86? No Thanks!

I am quite sure that the new Nokia N86 which is imminently due for release will be a very good phone. I am sure it will be brilliant in almost every way. I am certainly sure that most who buy one will love it as they would a new puppy.

However, I won't be buying one, and here's why.

It's not different enough.

Peel back the fancy bevelled exterior, and all you have is an N95 with a few small improvements here and there.

The trouble is, is that because the N95 was so good, and relatively speaking so far ahead of the competition when it was released, is that Nokia actually shot themselves in the foot but having to then design a device to better it, next time around.

They tried with the N96, and failed. Spectacularly.

And now they are going to try with the N86. I don't think the N86 will fail like the N96 did, but I reckon all those who upgrade from devices such as the N82 and the N95 will secretly be a little bit disappointed with the N86.

A new device has to capture your heart. Capture your imagination. You need to be addicted to it 24 hours a day for at least the first month for you to be determined as a geek, and for the device to be determined as one of the greats.

I just don't think the N86 will deliver on this level. We have seen it all before. 2 years ago!

I certainly do not see anything to get the geek in me excited. FP2? Come on. FP2 is just FP1 with the ability to sort it's own internet connection out. 8MP camera? 5MP is enough for the majority.

Yes, I know some of you will bleat that the N86 was never conceived as a N95 upgrade, but to Joe Public, it is.

The N97? Oh, that's different. On so many levels.

The N97 is definitely getting the geek in me excited.

Crap App of the Week - BBC iPlayer

So, the 'Crap App of the Week' feature is making a comeback for the second week in a row.

Ok, ok, keep it down at the back.

This week the award goes to BBC iPlayer, and here's why.

BBC iPlayer application for S60 is a prick tease. A prick tease of the highest magnitude.

First thing this morning I spotted this post from Gerrymoth. Now, I realise that post has since been edited, but the fact that I can install iPlayer onto my N82, only for it to tell me that my phone is not supported is the utmost of irritations.

What the hell is taking the Beeb so long? I can realise that they initially put all their efforts into sorting it out for the iPhone so that they could steal the headlines, but that was MONTHS ago. What have they been doing since?

Whilst the rest of the world seemingly seems to be caught up in iPhone fever, I would have at least thought the mighty BBC would have seen right through this. Err, HELLO, some of us have had phones capable of streaming video for quite some time!

I mean, it's not like they haven't made the iPlayer available to S60 already, sure they have with the N96, the 5800 and now the N95 and E71 join that invite only club.

How long do us other, inferior S60 owners have to wait now? Another 6 months? Just for you to tweak iPlayer somehow so that it now works on the N82/N93/E51/E61i?

You have working S60 code for both 3rd Edition and 5th Edition, please just let the rest of us enjoy some of the content we are paying for. How hard can it be?

Tough Test for the N82

Yesterday was a day of reckoning for my N82.

Rarely do I put my phone under quite so much duress, and sometimes it is a bit worrying as to wether it will raise it's game and live up to the task.

Over the winter I have done almost no exercise whatsoever.  The weather, and my canny knack of procrastinating at any given moment make sure that more than one hole on my belt gets used quite often.

So, the weather has picked up, and it was time to do something BIG.

Something to kick start my summer.

Something to make me realise that I am horrendously unfit.

Something to give me right old kick up the harris.

Mountain biking round the legendary Twrch Trail was my chosen opponent, and boy is she BIG!  Climbing more than 1000ft straight from the start is an absolutle killer on the legs and mind.  The resulting 1000ft of downhill singletrack over a fairly short 3.5 miles is a real test of stamina, bravery all mixed in with some stupidry, and screaming like a girl.

Anyway, onto what my N82 was up to.

First off, navigation from my house to Cwmcarn in Wales.  A distance of 112 miles, and it took around 2 hours to get there.  Nokia Maps is not the most perfet GPS solution, but for the few times a year I need navigation, it does a pretty good job.

Next up was Nokia Sports Tracker.  Now this is yet more GPS enabled wizardry, and tracked my route all the way round.  It took 2 hours and 20 minutes to complete the course (which you can view here), and I even took a few photo's on my way round.

Once back at the visitor centre, I made some phonecalls to let people know that we were still alive, I checked my emails, browsed the web, and even uploaded my photo's.

By this time, I was still at 5 bars of battery, and the N82 had not burped, hiccuped, or farted and was still going strong.

Now for the journey home.  Yes, Nokia Maps was loaded up once again.  Although this time not for the navigation aspect, but mainly to tell me how far it was to get home.  My fuel gauge was just above the red, but I was determined not to refuel until I got home.  Some fairly chilled out driving ensued.

It was rush hour, so the journey home up the M5 and round onto the M42 took around 2.5 hours, but still the N82 soldiered on.

I didn't think the battery would last until I got home, but miraculously, it did!

Not just that, it also stayed on 2 bars right through the evening, and was still on when I woke up this morning!  It had to let go eventually, and when checking my emails this morning, it finally coughed it's last 'Battery Empty', almost 24 hours since it had last been plugged in.

Almost 7 hours of GPS, and then general web browsing and phonecalls is really quite impressive in my mind.  There is not a hope in hell of my old N95 even making it through the first 2 hours.

Everyday my N82 does something to impress me.

Everyday I grow a little bit fonder.

Everyday I wonder if my next phone, the N97, will be able to keep up with the expectations I now demand from a phone.

All because of this marvellous piece of engineering which is the N82.  Some berated it when it was released.  Even I wasn't particularly keen.  But it has stood the test of time, and now, almost 2 years old, it just keeps getting better and better.

Caveat to Shozu

The other day, I ranted about Share Online, and recommended Shozu.

However, just 2 days ago, Shozu announced (thanks to James Whatley) that it was going to jump on the App Store band wagon, and start charging people a fee to download it.

Now, I would just like to make it clear that my recommendation for Shozu was based around the fact that it is free.  The main point in fact is that Shozu has it's problems and irritations, but I was willing to overlook those because of the defining point that I didn't have to pay for it.

If it is now a 'paid for' application, it needs to work, and work properly.  Almost every time I have installed Shozu, it has always been a right royal pain in the ass.

Most normal applications require you to download a small .sis or .sisx file to your phone.  It installs, asks you to log in, and you're away.

Not Shozu.

You first of all have to aimlessly wander your way around the mobile site, looking for the download link, which, from what I can remember doesn't exist.  Logging into my Shozu account doesn't make any difference.  Ok, I'll turn my PC on, wait for it to boot up, and then have a look at the normal website.  Still no obviously placed download button.  I think I did find it once, after much hunting.  Instead you need to get it to send a text message with the download link to your phone.  How very irritating.  How very 2003.  Just put the link on the flipping mobile website please.

Once you actually get Shozu installed, it works really well.  Aside from the occasional crashes.

I recommended it purely for the two reasons that it was a: Free, and b: Works really well (once you have got it installed).

Now it has turned to payware, I don't think I will be able to continue my recommendation.  Unless they pull all the stops out of the bag, and not cause people a headache just trying to set the damn thing up.

What do you use instead?  Pixelpipe?  Any other suggestions?

Nokia Sports Tracker Improvements

The last time I used Nokia Sports Tracker, it was good, but a smidgen rough around the edges.  The initial glee that was felt when I realised I could track myself using my phone, and then share said plots with other people was quickly overshadowed by the 'quirks'.

However, the big downside was that I used to use it on my N95.  What was the achilles heal of the old N95?  Yes, the battery.  We all know that the battery was hardly up to the job of making calls, let alone doing really geeky stuff like finding satellites in space.

So Sport Tracker became one of those applications that I always had installed, but rarely used.  If I'm honest I'm much better at procrastinating than I am running up a hill, so this possibly also doesn't help it's plight.

Anyway.  Summer is here, and summer means two or three days of sunny skies for us in the UK, so I thought I'd best dust off my bike, give the chail a bit of oil, and download the latest version of the application.  The big difference this summer is that my N95 is no more, relegated to HSDPA modem duties.  My trusty steed now is the venerable N82.  For those of you who don't know, the N82 can last more than 10 minutes with the GPS on, so should be ideal for tacking my sports.

So today I fired up Sports Tracker and headed off on the Norco Bigfoot for a shakedown.  My bike had been in storage for the last 3 years, so this was my chance to iron out any glitches before hitting the Twrch Trail tomorrow.

The application is very similar to the one that was initially realeased, and works well, without the annoying bugs.  You just chose your particular sport, wait for the GPS to lock up, click start and away you go.  It really is as simply as that.

I just pop my N82 into my shorts pocket, and start making tracks.

Stopping on the way and taking some photo's on the way is no bother.  When you have completed your exercise, the application will search your photo's and ask if you would like to add them to your route.

The biggest improvements though are on the Sports Tracker website.  You can create an account (for free) and then you can upload your routes, and share them with whoever you so chose.   It will also upload items such as your top speed, height, and even the photo's that you took on the way round!

You can check out the route I took on my shakedown today, and you can download the application HERE.

So what are you waiting for?

Nokia 6730 Sneeks in Under the Radar

With all the hype and excitement surrounding the launch of the big fish N97, and much smaller one managed to sneek through the keep net.

It comes in the form of the 6730, and is going to be a Vodafone only exclusive handset.

Details are very thin on the ground just now, but it is confirmed as running the S60 operating system, which is brilliant news, and it will be available in either black or white.

Almost no details on specifications just yet, but a run of the mill 3.2 megapixel camera looks to be onboard.  As is support for Vodafone's content such as the Vodafone music service, and other such horrors.

There is also some mention of navigation support, but whether this means GPS is included remains to be confirmed.

What do you think?  I think this will be a great upgrade for handsets such as the venerable 6300, and as long as Vodafone price it correctly will bring S60 into the clutches of what would typically be S40 hunting ground.

Crap App of the Week

Maybe I'll start running this as a kind of weekly feature.  Maybe not.

Anyhow, this weeks "Crap App of the Week" goes to Nokia's very own Share Online application.

This application allows you to upload the photo's from your phone to the website of your choice.  Only so long as it is either Ovi, Flickr or Vox.  Whilst the choice of web destinations is frustratingly small, that is not why I think Share Online is shit.

It's shit because it makes random people's photo's appear in MY feed.

For example, if I choose the 'Your Recent Photos' option, I am not presented with my photo's, but instead with some random other persons lifelong memories.

How very irritating.

I could maybe understand if they had just got my contacts photo's muddled up with mine, but no.  Do I really want to see some random new born baby pictures?  No thanks.

Oh, and whilst I'm at it, Share Online also had a plugin on your homescreen.  This also displays some rather random information.  I think it is trying to tell your how many new photo's and comments there are.  In relation to what, I don't know.

I can't seem to clear the numbers down to zero either.

Do yourself a favour.  Don't install this crap.

Install Shozu instead.  Whilst not without it's own faults, Shozu does a much better job, and will cause you to mutter less obsenities at the screen of your mobile phone.  This can only be a good thing.

My Favourite S60 Theme

 
It had been a while since I last changed my theme.  In fact, I can't remember the last time I installed a theme that worked flawlessly.

The problem with most of them is that they all have an annoying little bug, and usually so annoying I foxtrot oscar it within about 3 seconds of discovering said bug.

I know, I know, I can hear you all hurumpfing, and telling me I should report the bug to the developer, which I never do.  Sorry.

Anyway.  Every once in a while, I come across a theme that is perfect.  Easy on the eye, classy, clear, and best of all bug-less.

That theme, as you can see above is Touch Vista by Tehk7.

It works perfectly on my old N82 warhorse, and it also comes with Feature Pack 2 support as well.

Tehk also has a few other great theme's on his site, so be sure to check them out.

New Flagship on the Horizon

After the complete debarcle that was the N96, Nokia had to come up with something a bit more palatable as their next flagship model.

Luckily for all of us, Nokia has pulled a good one out of the bag this time, and the future is already looking bright for the new N97.

A press release by Nokia today tells us that the new king of the hill N97 is going to start shipping this month!

The N97 is the first N-Series device running the 5th Edition version of the popular S60 operating system.  It's also the first N-Series device to feature a Qwerty keypad, which in my opinion is one of the best decisions they could have ever made.

Vodafone is confirmed as a UK stockist of the latest device, abliet it arriving on their network in July, presumably so they can stamp some kind of branding all over the firmware.

Rumours are also rife that 3UK is going to be putting the N97 on their shelves as well, although nothing 100% official by the looks of it just yet.  However, I would proceed with caution before signing into a long contract with that operator.

You can check out some awesome photo's of an N97 vs an E71 here, and you can also check the support pages and user manual.

If that wasn't enough, you can also check out a quick video walkaround of the N97 actually being built in the factory here.

White for me please.  Which colour do you prefer?

Making a Comeback?

Maybe I should resurrect this blog from the depths of time, and give my views on the mobile world once again.

Crazy?

Let me know if you want me to start up again, and I may think about it.