21 posts tagged “nokia n95”

This is a test with the Vox app. Not the online share function in gallery.

Update: it works! Whatleydude can you see this? (It also worked from my E62 a while back.)

If you're sick of hearing about the iPhone, STOP. Go back and read my posts on the Mobile Web Server or something else if you haven't already =)

We've seen lots of people trying to compare the iPhone with the Nokia N95. Or even the N800 (I guess coz it's touch). It's refreshing to read an article comparing it to the Nokia E61i.

Now, the E61i is a brilliant device. Every person I know that owns it, loves it. However it's marketed more as an "enterprise" device, quite unlike the iPhone or N95 which are considered as "multimedia" devices.

But Michael Robertson proposes that the E61i actually compares very favorably with the iPhone. The touchscreen is sleek and all, but is it practical to be almost totally void of buttons?

Read his argument and see if you agree with him. As for me, one main reason I use my E62 much more than my N95 is the qwerty keyboard - i.e. more buttons. Touch screen keyboard? I bought the N800 and sold it one month later, and its touch screen keyboard is much bigger than iPhone's. I kept saying I'll blog from the N800 but never did. I'm blogging from the E62 right now (ok, I'll have to edit this post later to include links but that's about it).

Lastly, there are a few little "multimedia" tasks which the E61i can do that the iPhone can't: mms, video recording, and using your own music files as ringtones!

Having said (typed) all that, I still want to play with an iPhone and get my fingerprints all over its glossy casing.

From the NSU team:

Dear Updaters

We are pleased to announce a new software release for the Nokia N95 available through the Nokia Software Updater.

Due to potential backup/restore incompatibilities, we strongly recommend synchronising your Calendar details before updating your software.

Version 11.0.026 is available for most product codes, but please note that not all operator variants are included yet. These will be added as soon as they are available.

Warm regards,
The Nokia Software Updater team

Details and how-tos here.

Gonna try it out for myself too!

My sister and I went to a concert, "An Evening of Romantic Music", by the UTD Musica Nova (I was part of it before, and still guest perform with them occasionally). They played works by Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, Barber, and even Bernstein. My favorite piece is this "Lust Fantasy" (I believe it's called? **) by Robert Xavier Rodriguez (also the director of Musica Nova), performed by Jeff Lankov on the piano.

(** It's Fantasia Lussuriosa in Italian)

If you don't have time (or patience/interest/whatever) to watch the whole clip, at least forward to the 5:00 mark (close to the middle of the clip but not quite... it's about 12 min long) for an interesting twist on the performance.

The original file was huge... like 250MB. I used Helix Mobile Producer to convert it to H.264, reduced the frame size from VGA to QVGA, and the bitrate from almost 3Mbps to less than 500kbps. The resultant file is less than 40MB, and I tried uploading it to youtube but forgot that besides the 100MB size limit they also had a 10min time limit. Vox is better in this regard!!

Playback of the two files on the N95 don't look too different. However if you do a seek, you can see the smaller file has less I-frames and so you get ghost-images for a couple of seconds if you seek to a non I-Frame (I think I set it to every 5 sec.). And of course since the resolution is different, the first file will look better output to TV, although I haven't tried.

I'm not a good pianist by any means, but playing the piano is one of the best ways I can find to relax. It has been a tense weekend with tax returns and all, so I'm glad I had the piano for company. Plus I wanted to see if the AV Sync issue has been fixed with the firmware update. (Yes, it has!) If you like Evanescence and are brave enough to hear my playing, here's the piano part of "Good Enough":

Evanescence - Good Enough (Piano)

6 comments

Same edits were made with HMP as with the previous clip. While the AV Sync and audio gain are much improved, I really don't care for the washed-out effect. It's as if someone turned the EV way up (in photos too). I think the retail version of the firmware doesn't have this problem though (which is good). Mine is supposed to be a newer version but apparently they changed something in the wrong direction.

I guess then these are not very good examples of N95's video capabilities? Oh well, just an excuse to share some piano music. Hope you like the first one and can tolerate the second....

I can't believe I waited this long to take the Nokia N800 out of the box. Usually I'd be ripping the packaging apart the moment I get it. But I wanted to do this video... and had no idea how to go about it. Waiting a couple of days didn't give me any inspiration either so I decided to just do it.

It was actually 3 separate clips. The first was cut short when I dropped my camera (N95). The second one wasn't cut short, just that I decided to record going through the initial setup of the device after that. And then I used the video editing features right on the Nokia N95 to cut and merge the 3 videos. Neat huh?

Sorry about the amateur quality... inexperience + lack of a tripod. Hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless. I was really more excited than my voice would lead you to believe.

My N95 feels like a different person... I mean phone... I mean .. what's the proper term now? multimedia computer? convergence device? phone+pda+camera+pmp+gps unit?

Anyway, the firmware has improved quite a bit in 3 months. It is a lot more responsive. Copying contacts over is faster, scrolling through media in the gallery is faster, opening and closing the Maps app is faster...

It's good to know this is what end users will experience with the retail version of the N95!

However, the colours of the pics taken with the 5mp Carl Zeiss are different. I'm not talking about the rose tint or purple haze... the colours are less saturated than before. Granted, I've only taken a few pictures with the new firmware so far, but it is quite a visible difference to me. No "pop" in the pictures, if you will. Maybe it's just a personal preference, but I liked the previous image processing. I'll have to test it out more this weekend..

And I just found out yesterday that *#62209526# is *#MAC WLAN# (to find the Mac address on your phone.) It's like... duh! You mean I didn't have to memorize the long number? (although I don't usually have problems with that... it's people's names I have problems with.) Makes me wonder if other such codes have meanings behind them, e.g. *#92702689# ??

Image1005

Guess what's in the box? Yeap, the N800! Fast shipping! Can't wait to open it... I didn't do it yet because I know I'll end up spending hours playing with it, so I'd better leave it to the weekend. Add that to the list of an already packed weekend to begin with!

Robert from Barbados (beautiful place! would love to visit sometime...) recently joined the Nokia bloggers program and will also be getting a Nokia N800 for testing! Keep an eye on his blog for reviews and his experiences with the Internet Tablet... maybe he'd be using it to blog from the beach :) Ahhhh I want to do that too, N800 in one hand, N95 in the other, both feet in the sand... hmm, no extra hand for a drink. Won't be doing that in the near future though, as there's no beach near here.

Gasp, it's been almost 3 months since I updated the firmware on my N95. We flash a lot of phones everyday for test and development that it's almost a chore. So I tend not to bother with the one I use for my personal phone, esp when everything is working pretty ok. But sometimes pretty ok is not good enough. Today when I was testing a video capture, I noticed the AV sync is off on the encoding. (Post coming up...) Time for an update and see if it's been fixed! Probably will try to find the production software (what's the version?) or whichever's the latest I can get my hands on.

One good thing about working for Nokia is of course the possibility of getting lots of prototypes to play with. And really appreciate the amount of effort and expertise that go into putting a great piece of device together. However we don't usually get the final product that comes in a nice retail box. I've just ordered the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, as we don't get this in our department (not S60 device). I can't wait to unveil a spanking new toy out of the box! I finally get to do an "unboxing video" that so many bloggers out there get to do....

Took a day off, drove up to OKC for Evanescence concert. It was super kick ass. We got floor tickets and I was screaming through the whole thing (I don't usually scream). Lost my voice the next day.

Brought my N95 into the auditorium, but decided not to use it. There were guards who seem to know how to pinpoint the good cameras. Too many people were using their camera phones so they ignore the low end flip phone kind. I bet the moment I whip out my N95, they'll be all over me. Just like in the previous Evanescence concert, I got caught and escorted out of the concert hall. I was using the N93 only for one minute... whereas there were people using their sidekicks and what-nots throughout the concert and nothing happens to them.

So I decided to just enjoy this concert and not worry about taking pics or videos. But before that, during the day, we went around OKC to Myriad Botanical Gardens, Oklahoma City National Memorial, and Oklahoma City Museum of Art. Here are some pics from the trip:

I'm sorry to say this... but Oklahoma City was really boring. We got bored early in the afternoon. The "Crystal Bridge" in the Myriad Botanical Gardens was closed for renovation. Bad timing... it would have been cool. The memorial was quite moving... but I was busy rubbing my eyes because of the dust and allergens stirred up by the strong winds. I haven't had an allergy attack this bad in a long time. My eyes were very red, people thought I have been crying at the memorial. My sinus, eyes and throat continue to hurt for two more days after that.

The drive to Oklahoma City and back was an easy one. About 3 hours each way, and I did all the driving, while Bruce and Howie (fellow fan I got to know from the EV forums) napped. I almost dozed off a couple of times (since I had less than 10 hours total sleep the previous 3 nights) but kept myself awake by fantasizing about travelling the world, to much more interesting places than OKC....

As for the concert, I think Amy Lee's voice was better in the Dallas concert we saw last October, but this time they performed more songs, including 2 for encore. They ended with my favorite - Lacrymosa, after which I turned to Bruce and said "I bet they'll do an encore this time (they didn't in Dallas) and play My Immortal". Sure enough, the grand piano rose up to the stage and Amy's beautiful playing and haunting voice filled the auditorium...

If I had half as good a voice as her, this would have been my career of choice. Play the piano, sing, travel... and somehow incorporating flying into there and my life will be complete.

Nokia N-series trio

 

Show us something you cannot leave home without.
Submitted by Quornflour.

One (or more) of these babies... until I get something newer and shinier!