thomcochrane’s blog

After using the Nokia N97 for a few days I thought I'd record my initial impressions. In general it's a great evolution of the N95, although the camera specs are not actually improved (The N95 camera is still pretty good!). The N97 feels like a cross between the Xpressmusic 5800 and the E90, with higher (N95 level) specs and a big leap in memory capacity (32GB standard, with option to add up to another 16GB via micro SD memory card). The N97 touchscreen experience is welcomely much better than the XM5800, but still not as fluid (and the UI is not as intuitive) as the iPhone. I think Nokia are struggling to reign in the iPhone, especially with the upcoming iPhone 3GS that answers most of the iPhone 3G's short-comings!

What I miss most on the N97 in comparison to the iPhone 3G is the wealth of applications available, and so integrated via the iTunes Store - the Ovi store experience has so far been pretty meager :-(, and I'm still having to rely on some golden oldie Java apps - thankfully they mostly run far better on the N97 than the XM5800 due to the inclusion of the built-in keyboard on the N97.

However, there are three areas that the Nokias walk all over the iPhone - video out (screen mirroring - great for demos), broader bluetooth connectivity, and ease of mass memory storage connectivity.

N97 the Good:

• It looks cool!
• Nice physical keyboard, but not as good as the E90
• Great camera
• Touchscreen feels nice and relatively responsive
• Nice all-in-one device, almost a laptop alternative (If there were a wider variety of apps available)
• Relatively good battery life - in comparison to the N95!
• USB charging FINALLY!
• Good built-in memory capacity
• Nice screen - bright and good resolution
• Web Browsing experience almost as good as the iPhone (Trumps the iPhone with Flash compatability!)

• Ridiculously expensive - makes it easy to choose the iPhone 3GS instead!
• Stupid dangling stylus/plectrum for handwriting - should have been integrated into the case.
• Lack of native applications
• Charging via USB ONLY! - having to carry an adaptor to use my older Nokia chargers to work with it!
• UI and software BUGGY - crashes with any RSS widget on homescreen! - although it seems to be much more stable after the firmware update
• Doesn't feel ground-breaking after having used the N95, E90, and XM5800 - so you do kinda wonder about being able to justify the cost when upgrading from these!
• No A/V cable included in the package!

from http://mashable.com/2009/07/02/technologic-overkill/

The v3 software update is free for the iPhone 3G, and brings significant new features - so it's a good idea to update to v3 software using iTunes. This will UNjailbreak your iPhone, meaning cycorder, QIK, netatalk etc will be removed. However you can re-jailbreak your iPhone after upgrading to v3 software simply using 'Redsn0w' from http://blog.iphone-dev.org/ , then reinstall cycorder, QIK, netatalk etc... using Cydia.

A tutorial on how to do this using either a Mac or PC is here: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/how_to_jailbreak_your_iphone_to_os_30.php

Some of the new v3 software features are:

• Landscape Keyboard - available in most applications now
• MMS
• New Search feature, with shortcut access
• Built-in Voice recording app, with email upload function
• Better YouTube app - with your YouTube account login option
• Use as modem for laptop via Bluetooth
• Stereo bluetooth for stereo Bluetooth audio accessories
• Direct buy and download of movies etc from iTunes Store to iPhone
• Cut, Copy, Paste text between apps
• Automatic WiFi login - great for using the Unitec 'HOTSPOT' - no more painful repetitive login process!

Free sms polling, http://www.polleverywhere.com

An example twitter poll:
Poll: Quick Poll for Unitec students following me: What are the key features of smartphones as learning tools http://poll.fm/117ta

Demoing shareonline

15062009134

Screencast demos of using Shareonline on the Nokia XM5800 to upload videos directly to VOX and YouTube (using Pixelpipe for YouTube upload).

Check out the Novation Automap application for the iPhone and iPod Touch:

• MIDI CONTROL IN YOUR PALM
• Now you can turn your iPhone / iPod touch into a MIDI controller, with multiple faders and buttons easily assigned to parameters in any software that allows MIDI control, and even some that don't!

IPhoneNovationAutomap

First year Product Desgn students receive netbooks for their course

Screencast showing how to connect a paired bluetooth Nokia phone as a modem for a WindowsXP laptop or netbook (DUN Settings).
For bluetooth internet connectivity via your phone, first pair the phone & netbook via bluetooth (make the phone discoverable in BT prefs, and then scan for bluetooth devices on your netbook. Create and enter a PIN of your choosing on both the netbook & the smartphone).Once paired, there will be a 'DUN or Dial Up Netork icon in your BT preferences/places on the netbook. Double click this to open the connection dialogue. Keep the username and password blank, and enter *99# as the phone number to dial. This will cause your Nokia smartphone to connect via it's default internet connection & share this over Bluetooth with your netbook. VOILA!