Man in New Mobile Shocker
Okay, so my old phone broke and I had to grab a new one. What’s changed since the last time I looked?
Hmmm – well, I get a camera that actually works decently (with flash), a big touch screen, Bluetooth (which works properly these days too), GPS, wi-fi, combi TV-out/headphone jack, live BBC, live Sky Sports, BBC iPlayer, various mapping applications (of which Google Maps seems to be the best), decent web browsers that run Flash and umpteen other media formats, a full QWERTY keyboard, handwriting recognition, impressive battery life, IMAP/POP3 email, an accelerometer, excellent audio, microSD, video and sound recording (30 fps), an office document viewer, video calling, MSN chat, Yahoo! chat, ICQ, Skype, Geocaching, a radio, USB, and loads of other things that aren’t interesting enough to mention.
A few screenshots from the new phone …
Google Maps satellite view:
And Google Maps street view:
The main menu:
Part of the applications menu:
BBC iPlayer:
Fring:
IMAP email:
Some of the connectivity options:
QWERTY keyboard:
Playing with the on-phone photo editing (size reduced for web):
I’m impressed
All part of a free upgrade on an existing cheap contract. I’m delighted to have had my expectations surpassed for a change.
Well done, Nokia. Maybe everybody will stop havering on about iPhones now. :O)
Posted in internet/tech.
April 24th, 2009 at 12:22 am
You’re just jealous ;o)
http://bigbananamountains.blogspot.com/2009/04/sometimes-there-are-wee-things-that-can.html
April 24th, 2009 at 5:58 am
That’s a nice pink towel yours came with, right enough. ;O)
Which Geocaching app are you using then? I haven’t done anything more than take a quick peek at mine.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:36 am
A towel is about the most massively useful thing an interstellar hitchhiker can have…
Its the official one off the geocaching site I think, I got it on special off itunes as it had just been released.
Can you get different apps for your phone? That was the big seller for with the iphone. I only wish it could run viewranger though!
April 24th, 2009 at 8:01 am
Aye, it’ll run different apps.
I’ve never heard of Viewranger but I see from their website that they’ve just updated their software to work with Symbian S60 touch screen phones. I’ll go and have a shot and report back shall I?
April 24th, 2009 at 8:18 am
Jamie Bassnet knows of this stuff I seem to recall. As far as I’m aware it effectively turns your mobile into one of those GPS’s with the OS maps on the screen…Satmap I think they’re called.
April 24th, 2009 at 9:16 am
Hmmm – well I’ve tried it this morning and I suppose it’s nice to have a map to scroll around on but it doesn’t really make the best use of the touch screen. There’s a really clunky selection cursor you have to use to move waypoints and things like that.
You have to scroll the text route descriptions using the sidebar instead of running your thumb up the text like every other app. That doesn’t sound too bad but it really is. The text wheechs up and down too bloody fast and you cannae read it.
Double-tap doesn’t zoom either which again every other app does. Instead there are wee icons off to the side for zooming in and out.
It doesn’t appear to automatically change map from, say, the overview map to the 1:50,000 scale when you zoom in either. You have to go and select the most appropriate map yourself.
It’d be nice to just have the 1:50,000 for planning a route in the pub or something but that’s about it.
B-
April 24th, 2009 at 9:45 am
All this and battery life of about a day I guess
😉
April 24th, 2009 at 9:46 am
I suppose then I could do that with Multi map on the internet but I’d need a Wifi connection otherwise it’d be painfully slow.
April 24th, 2009 at 10:59 am
You’d think so, John. Certainly that’s what I was expecting but the battery life’s been impressive so far. I’ll have to wait and see if it declines …
I think I’d have to stick it in offline mode in the middle of nowhere or, as mobiles do, it might knock itself out trying to pick up a carrier.
—–
Aye, you’re right, ‘Nanafeet, it’d be too slow. Scotland at 1:50,000 for £80 isnae bad from Viewranger when compared to the unworkable alternatives.
It only just occurred to me now that people who normally use GPS/mapping software might not mind the Viewranger app as much as I did. There might be more favourable reviews than mine out there on t’internet somewhere.
April 24th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Who’s the sad tosser that’s emailing you about rucksacks?
April 24th, 2009 at 8:17 pm
I knew you’d clock that sooner or later. :O)
June 2nd, 2009 at 2:14 pm
Gordy you are the daddy in more ways than one! Symbian S60 is sooo the way forward, and phones which don’t have limits! Those sodding Apple “Fisher Price” Iphones are rubbish compared to the Nokia Symbian phones! Yeah they look ace for a day the Iphones but you soon realise the corporate rip off giants ( who oddly don’t get the same reputation as MS do, and I’ve never untderstood why as I think they are worse! ) have stopped you doing half the things you need or want to with the toy, even though it has the technical ability to do those things!!! I’ve got an N96 and N95 before that which both run Viewranger and it is a brill piece of software and the guys who have created it are great too and give excellent service! Another excellent piece of software is Joikuspot. It turns your phone into a wireless router that advertsises like a normal wireless network, using your current web contract connection, last week in Ullapool and on many othr occasions it is a god send, we had several laptops all using it, the phone sat on the side in the cottage all week as a router and enabled us to get online, cracking piece of software. Battery life is a sod especially when using the wireless or GPS. You can down the radio strength of the wireless though somewhere in the settings you can take it down from 100m strength to 10m strength which helps, and batterys can be sorted for trips as they are light.
June 2nd, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Yes, Joikuspot is indeed a wee cracker. I can’t say I’ve used it a lot but I’ve been glad to have a couple of times.