hello 5800

I now have a Nokia N8

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:15:37 -0400

So hello 5800 will be rarely updated. That said my 5800 is my back up phone. It was unlocked out of the box (thank you carphone warehouse) and the settings wizzard makes sure it just works whatever sim i put in it - where ever i am - essential for travelling and using local sims.

So it’s not quite goodbye 5800, but you’ve been a fine companion. The C6 / C7 look like awesome mass market replacements for the 5800.

Foursquare on Nokia N8 (symbian^3) Nexus one (android 2.2.1)...

Sat, 02 Oct 2010 05:12:55 -0400

Foursquare on Nokia N8 (symbian^3) Nexus one (android 2.2.1) iPhone (iOS 4.2 beta) Noia 5800 (symbian^1)

all running side by side on teh same wifi lan. - note though the iOS version crashes - the iPhone is running beta firmware, the N8 is also running pre-release firmware. Nexus one / 5800 have the latest OTA updates.

all have slightly different interfaces but support the same feature set.
iOS/android versions appear to be a little quicker than the Nokia versions. I believe the nokia one is a web runtime app (ie embedded browser app) vs the android/iOS versions being native code.

mostlythis: Exclusion is a mini game to support the nokia / tim...

Tue, 27 Jul 2010 10:22:47 -0400

mostlythis:

Exclusion is a mini game to support the nokia / tim kring ‘conspiracy for good’ ARG currently running. ( http://www.conspiracyforgood.com ) Along with several apps in the ovi store to support it, some are just for the events, others to follow the story, theres a hacking game called inclusion I haven’t tried yet. See them all here.

Though actually quite a high quality full game, in fact I would almost go as far as to say one of the best on the 5800. It’ s probably more fun than the actual arg, but thats more the casual nature of the puzzler.

It’s a touch based game, simply ‘slice’ the ‘memes’ to clear the levels. SImilar to the sword play on Wii Sports Resort and Ninja Fruit on iPhone. But with a level based format. Lots of little game play add-ons are introduced and it no doubt ties into the ARG storyline. But of course the main thing is its FUN.

These mini games work well with in depth content like ARGS because they are easy to pick up, whereas args can, frankly, be a chore. The mini game will spike interest in the main content and lead people to discover more. It’s also tying in nokia handsets to the games, which they are funding after all.

hurrah! heres comes v50 OTA

Sat, 29 May 2010 02:11:40 -0400

Just installing V50 via Over the Air, as I don’t have a windows PC I have to wait for the Other The Air updates. Just in time for a trip to ireland, where i use the 5800 as my main phone, and constantly use the awesome OVI maps navigation.

Nokia Go. OK so Nokia WomWorld contacted me about a challenge,...

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 11:06:57 -0400

Nokia Go. OK so Nokia WomWorld contacted me about a challenge, I’ve had trial Nokia devices to review in the past, and sat in on Nokia product development focus groups - which i can’t talk about. But I can talk about this, trouble is … it’s all shrouded in mystery. A package arrived at my desk while i was out and in it was a memory stick containing a personalised movie - which you can watch here. All i know is there’s a hashtag #NokiaGo.

The sekreet challenge is due to start Saturday May 8th…..

OVI Maps FTW: I took my 5800 (and nexus one) on holiday to...

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 07:37:25 -0500

OVI Maps FTW: I took my 5800 (and nexus one) on holiday to ireland, loaded up a local PAYG O2 sim card - I got 3.5G most places, Edge elsewhere. Data was capped at 99 cents a day, perfect for short trips. I had google maps on the 5800, installed the v4 version of google to check out the buzz layer.

My nexus one was on a uk sim so I turned off 3G and data and left it as a regular phone (the battery lasted days like that!!) and I could get data when in wifi areas.

Unfortunately I hadn’t preloaded up the new maps for ireland. But they came in no problem once I had my 3G sim in, this would be an issue if you are roaming. So offline only use wasn’t available for me, pre planning would of sorted that out. Coverage wise the OVI maps for Ireland are way better than google. Every little road (including some that are little more than tracks) are on there, correctly named. Google maps had some wierd naming of areas, it seemed to be using ward names rather than villages, so thumbs down to google maps of Ireland.

The voice guidance had to be download, but was quick (I did this while on the road, my wife was driving). I tried surf dude, which was amusing but highly annoying after five minutes, so switched to uk female, and added street names support too. It’s a lot like the voice from that site that turns scripts into cartoons. So I kept expecting her to ask me if I wanted a Hannah Montana Screensaver.

This was a life saver, and is so much better than the one on my VW touran, which has 5 year old data and nothing outside of the main towns and trunk roads. It kept up well lock wise and was spot on.

The only issue I had was it kept saying too many active data connections, OVI maps was the only app running so it wanted me to close the OVI maps connection! hitting cancel sorted it but it did it a few times.

Battery wise it did well, I had no car charger, it lasted the two 1 1/2 hour journeys with a little to spare, and I took a lot of photos when i arrived. and wasn’t quite fully charged on starting.

This show the greater detail on ovi maps vs google, plus the correct village name, here pallas green is the main location, not shown on google (browser version shown here). But look at the side road details, much greater on OVI. I suspect google will catch up, Ireland has been terrible about releasing map data.

Google maps now has free navigation in the US, so i look forward to that rolling out to europe, though I’ll need another sim :) The main reasons I stuck the local sim in the 5800, were:

Setting wizard, sorts out all APNs
JoikuSpot lets me get data on other devices
Ovi Maps navigation

Make your 5800 a ‘navigation edition’ for free. Yes...

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:32:39 -0500

Make your 5800 a ‘navigation edition’ for free. Yes today nokia announced a new version of OVI MAPS, with free turn by turn guidance. AWESOME. And its ready to download right now, just go to app update, a nice treat while your waiting for v40 OTA.

Tinned Luxury, Oh my WOMWORLD sent me a pair of these nokia...

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 08:15:00 -0500

Tinned Luxury, Oh my WOMWORLD sent me a pair of these nokia BH-905 blue tooth (with wired option) noise canceling headphones to trial, and BOY they are good. I had a pair of sony noise canceling headphones about 10 years ago, and the were a bit rubbish. These are amazing, even without music playing a couple of seconds after you turn on the canceling - suddenly you get drawn into a silent place. apparently there’s 12 microphones built in to sample the surrounding sounds.

Music sounds great on them, I’m no audiophile but they sound really good to me, there are lots of specs that mean very little to me. Every bit of the product oozes luxury, the metal bit seem gold in some light and silver in others. Theres leather, fabric, metal, and a twist in every direction to get the right fit. This is solid engineering, yet they are smaller than you expect, lightweight and comfortable.

There’s a range of adapters for using in ‘wired’ mode, but the freedom of bluetooth make me never want to grab them. The carry case is quite large, and only really suitable for traveling. I would of liked to have seen an additional soft pouch for slinging in any old bag.

I had some drop out and that weird bluetooth ‘catch up’ on the N900 when first connected, but no issues on the more mature firmware of the 5800. And of course on the 5800 they work with nokia music store purchase and spotify / last.fm mobbler.

The N900 had worse quality sound than the 5800, though I’ll need to test the same mp3 file on both to be sure. But as the 5800 is a music focused phone it’s no surprise, as it has dedicated music decoding hardware.

They also worked a dream with my macbook pro.

My wife tried them out and I didn’t get them back for over an hour. Likewise in the office they got nabbed as soon as i put them down. Though we did have a tinny sound issue with a desktop mac pro, not sure why it was sounding very muffled, no problem with other connections so seems some sort of bluetooth compatibility issue with that mac hardware.

I made a couple of phone calls with excellent call quality. In fact it made a teleconference far less painful as i didn’t have to hold my phone for 20 minutes.

I’ve always avoided over the ear headsets before, but having tried these out i now want a pair, as they are so much better than the admittedly more convenient in-ear options.

They cost an eye popping £250, but you can get them a lot cheaper online, google shows £149 being best current price.

Click the main pic or HERE for lots of photos of the headsets.

I’d secretly love to try these baby’s with the all you can eat comes with music X6 and its capacitive screen.

Spotify has a nice audio player than the built in S60 app, nice...

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:55:00 -0500

Spotify has a nice audio player than the built in S60 app, nice big album at at last, with added notes. last.fm mobbler is equally nice. Come on nokia, its the express music - lets make the music player a bit more 2000’s and less last century.

Also spotity on S60 has two killers over the iPhone version:

Syncing offline playlists on 3G
it runs in the background

UPDATING/Betas :)

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 08:46:16 -0500

maps 3.1 and messenging 10.1 currently winging their way on to my 5800 via app update, and the bera of communities is out - so a new twitter option :) more later.

oh, new Ovi store…. I wonder if it will let me re-download...

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 06:39:00 -0500

oh, new Ovi store….

I wonder if it will let me re-download the stuff in MY STUFF…. nope :(

Ovi store via bluetooth (or sms) Big high profile push for OVI...

Fri, 27 Nov 2009 08:36:50 -0500

Ovi store via bluetooth (or sms)

Big high profile push for OVI store in london train stations.

Comes with Spotify. Spotify hits S60, a little while after...

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 08:13:15 -0500

Comes with Spotify. Spotify hits S60, a little while after iPhone / Android. And its quite sweet, the iPhone version suffers from no backgrounding/offline storage/the total lack of O2 data in central london.

Oddly the S60 5th edition one uses ONLY a t9 keypad for text entry, though I presume a physical keyboard (like the N97) will work ok. which makes the interface a bit clunky, but it works a treat with my t-mobile sim / web-n-walk.

Just go to http://m.spotify.com on your phone to get it, you need a premium spotify account.

Ok X6, get this: The X^ may be arriving next week, but as its...

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:39:44 -0500

Ok X6, get this: The X^ may be arriving next week, but as its Comes with music only, its not going to stop lots of 5800 shipping for the next year. T-Mobile have a new variant, with a chrome trim, not sure if its metal or just painted plastic. But is another variant to add to the blue, red, black and comewithmusic/maps versions.

nokia charger exchange program.

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 05:35:08 -0500

OK so clearly the word ‘recall’ has been avoided like the plague, you can see if you are effected here: http://chargerexchange.nokia.com/chargerexchange/en/ The charger that came with my 5800 (AC-8X) is not one of the listed ones, phew.

“

The affected chargers are those manufactured by BYD between June 15, 2009 and August 9, 2009 and with the following model types
AC -3U
AC-3E
and those manufactured by BYD between April 13, 2009 and October 25, 2009 and with the following model type
AC-4U

“

Almost online as it happens: There was a interesting /...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:10:00 -0400

Almost online as it happens: There was a interesting / infuriating N series promotion on yesterday as part of the online as it happens campaign of viral videos. The furious fictional bride was selling off the wedding presents and a world trip (2 N900s, N97, N97 mini and N86) for a $1 a piece on ebay as buy it now auctions. You could follow the brides twitters to see when the next one would be posted, but it still involved a lot of [F5]. As the N900 was about to go up I had to leave my desk and go out. So I fired up twitter and ebay on my 5800. Just as I was getting off the bus, the notification tweet appeared, I frantically reloaded ebay, and there it was, another click and agonising 3G wait as the item popped up, hit [BUY IT NOW] only to get an item has ended screen, someone beat me too it.

Still a valiant effort. I tried again this morning when another N900 went up with a round the world airplane ticket, but this time on a macbook, and on 16meg broad band I was still beaten to it in less than a second. Bummed but it was quite a fun campaign.

There’s another change to win by making your own video, over on the site.

Anyone else keep hitting that Ovi Maps icon on their home...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 10:56:08 -0400

Anyone else keep hitting that Ovi Maps icon on their home screen, thinking it’s the internet. Its so similar to Safari on Mac OS X / iPhones. No? just me then :)

For the last couple of days nokia has been entertaining a bunch...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:34:03 -0400

For the last couple of days nokia has been entertaining a bunch of bloggers by sending them on a GPS driven race around london. Ending up at this GIANT good things sign post. This was followed by a press event (with oddly Last years X Factor Winner Alexandra Burke) to launch ovi maps ‘good things’ - personal location based recomendations, and the N97 mini, which is available from the flagship store tomorrow.

The giant sign post will be displaying selected Good Things as they are submitted, you can do this via the web or by getting the latest version of ovi maps.

Ovi / Nokia Maps 3. As I have a mac, getting this on has been a...

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 10:21:09 -0400

Ovi / Nokia Maps 3. As I have a mac, getting this on has been a pain, first I went to a site that had an old .sis. This worked, deleted all my map data, so now its loading as you go until i can find a pc to side load them. Then I found an official .sis on beta labs, so far so good, but no good things support? I guess i will just have to find a pc and load it that way to get good things happening. It has some ovi syncing too which im not quite sure what it will sync but lets see….

Well, it had to happen, a ‘flight control’ clone on...

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 07:07:09 -0400

Well, it had to happen, a ‘flight control’ clone on Ovi Store. If you haven’t an iPod touch/iPhone and haven’t lost your life to Flight Control, this will give you a taste. But it comes without the effortless joy and slick gameplay of Flight Control. Also it’s almost 4 times the price.