Nseries hardware issues...

Today I got a new keypad (the upper part) for my Nokia N95 8GB as it was losing its chrome... I Don't know why Nokia makes these devices such a way that their chrome finish peels off after some time of use? We all know of the "Computer made beautifully" the N76... I still remember those days when I used the N76 which I had got out of utter excitement as it was the most good-looking smartphone at that time and I guess till today. It seriously had good looks but was of no use as the looks didnt last even 3 weeks. It was really sad to see the chrome peel off and you can do Nothing.
I guess the same material was used on the N95 and the N95 8GB which peel off after after like 6 months of usage. Well if Nokia wants their users to be more happy with the phones they buy then I think they should make this chrome thingy last more longer or get a new idea. No one likes a phone thats looks like a Clone/Duplicate one after 3-4 months of usage.
I had to shell out almost 500 Indian rupees to get the keypad replacement which is sad.Hope the future Nseries phones have better and tougher hardware.

VoIP on Nseries via Gizmo 5

Well yesterday thanks to my friend Arjun again I've started using VoIP on my Nokia N95 8GB via Gizmo 5. Yes Gizmo 5 is the site where you can register for a free Gizmo account and then download the installer file for your Nokia Nseries device from here. Once the installation is done, add your login details when prompted for and you can enjoy free calling to other Gizmo users from your Nokia device via wi-fi.

Sounds cool right ? Yes is sure is! I've tried it out and I love it! Well you can make:

• Free calls to other Gizmo users
• Free calls to gtalk users
• Calls to Skype users
• Calls to any landline or mobile number for a very small amount.

To call you need to key in the username of the person you would like to call for that, Simply press "1" and then "HOLD #" from the home screen till a blank space for you to key-in characters appears

1. now to call gimo users you just have to key in the username of the person
2. to call gtalk you have to key in username@gmail.com username is replaced with the username (id) of the person.
3. to call skype users you have to key in "skype_username" username is replaced with the username (id) of the person eg: skype_stephen
4. and to call anu other numbers you just dial the number and select "Internet Call" from options or from the contacts menu.

Here are some screenshots taken from my N95 8GB.


so are you gonna try out VoIP ?

N95 8GB, Nokia's Best ?

Today I was chatting with my friend Arjun, he was telling me about the phones he has used till now, Whoa! he has a BIG phone history! some of them were Nokia's N95, N95 8GB, N85, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic E71 etc.

Surprisingly he told me that his best was the Nokia N95 8GB. Even after having used phones like the N85, E71 and 5800 XM he still finds the N95 8GB a good package all together.

With a Good camera, Good sound, Wi-fi , GPS and VoIP, he feels the Nokia N95 8GB is the best. Well if you don't remember then let me remind you that when the Nokia N95 was released there was this advertisement that said "There is something in your pocket, but it's not one thing.... It's MANY" Well the N95 itself had a lot to offer proving the advertisement correct and then came the Big Brother Nokia N95 8GB version! with the better screen More memory (seriously MORE memroy) Black color, it cetainly stood out of the other phones available at that time. I'm pretty sure many people out there use this phone and I'm one of them. And yes now even I think that the N95 8GB is a complete package. So is the N95 8GB Nokia's best ? what do you think ?

Evolution: Nseries Devices

Long time since my last post, well the thing is that I have absolutely no time left for blogging these days. I had thought about this post about 3 weeks back and I have finaly got a chance... :)

I feel Nseries devices have evolved keeping an 'All-in-one' device in mind. So lets rememberand read a bit of those old devices that have made our lives so much better ;) 

N70 and N90:

Well these were the first Nokia 'Nseries' phones. They mainly were high quality imaging devices and both had a 2 MP camera which was Excellent for a phone at that time. Seriously I still remember my N70. I felt that it could take really good images for a phone. The N70 having a candy-bar form factor whereas the N90 which had 'Carl-Zeiss' optics had a twist form factor.

Now N90 was quite a big phone to be a clam shell cum twist device. BUT it took really good quality videos and photos at that time.They also were equipped with lower resolution front cameras for video conferencing.they also were 3G compatible. These phones were powered by S60 2nd Edition. 

N91 and N91 8GB:

These devices really Music on Nokia to a higher level. At that time Sony Ericsson was considered to be the best music phones, but then the N91 and its 8GB version (which was released a bit later) changed a lot...

The N91 was loaded with 4Gb of internal memory and could store upto 4000 songs! it was one of the first devices to sport a 3.5 mm jack for headphones, thus any headphone of your choice could be used! with dedicated music keys it was one of the best music phones available at  that time.

N72, N71 :

 

Nseries devices which couldn't be that successful as others for some reasons. Both having 2 MP cameras.The N72 resembles an N70 in looks and other stuff the only difference being the front camera. I can say the N72 sold quite well in India though.

N92:

One of the first devices to have DVB-h technology i.e. mobile TV! I still don't know how successful this device was But I NEVER seen a single N92 in India atleast.

N73, N93: 

Imaging took another leap with N73 and N93. Both devices having 3.2 MP cameras. Both photos and videos were quite Good. The N73 and N93 were really successful and the N73 which now comes in the Music Edition is also very successful.

N80:

Nokia N80 was one of the internet oriented devices. Having WLan connectivity etc., It was one device that was a a sleek slider with a 3.2MP camera. I really liked this one.

Nseries Music Range:

The N70, N73 and the N91 were availabe in two editions: one of them was the Music Edition. In which they got an all black look new themes (music ones) and then they came with higher storage memory cards. the N91 8GB as it states came with a 8GB on board hard drive for storage of upto 8000 songs.

N77:

Another device with DVB-H technology but only a lot more sleeker than the N92. with its candy-bar form factor it was a good device for all those TV fans.

Nokia N95: 

'There's a thing in my pocket, But its not one thing..... Its Many.' Remember this ? of course you do! 

The Nokia N95 one of the best devices by Nokia, the Ultimate device in a true sense. I don't need to talk about this device! because everyone knows this Device In-depth!

N76, N93i :

   

The N76 one of the best devices I have ever seen in my life. A computer made so beautifully. It is a masterpiece! but was very disheartening to see it lose its chrome....  Seriously it was something that broke my heart!....  I thought my N76 was flawless but within 2 weeks the truth was in front of me. And I know it wasn't just me but more than a million people out there who were shocked at this. Well I request Nokia to make sure your products are reliable.

The N93i had also made its debut with the N76 and the N800 internet tablet. It was the improved version of the N93.

N95 8GB, N81, N81 8GB: These Devices marked the arrival of Ngage 2.0 The much awaited gaming platform that provided High quality gaming. N81 has dedicated gaming keys. My current device is the N95 8GB.

N82: One phone that could match the N95 was the N82. In its candy-bar form factor I feel today most people prefer the N82 over the N95 8GB. With a 5 MP camera its one phone that stood out like the N95.

N96: The Daddy of all Phones ! LOL ! 16GB internal memory and a Memory card slot! How much memory do you want ?! 5 MP camera. Well this is ruling the mobile world at the moment!!

N85 & N79: the upcoming two phones that are soon gonna be a BIG hit !

N-Gage Gamers’ Gang

What’s N-Gage all about?N-Gage is not a console or a single device. It is a gaming platform, which is now available on a fast growing range of smart phones.   

Owners of N-Gage compatible handsets can buy or try the new N-Gage games from N-Gage - http://www.n-gage.com/ngi/ngage/web/g0/en/home.html 

 

N-Gage games can be downloaded straight onto the phone through mobile phone network or Wi-Fi. Alternatively, if you are near to a PC ,you can transfer them to your phone 

About N-Gage Gamers’ Gang

N-Gage is the mobile gaming brand of Nokia. It has a tremendous

following world over and has evolved as a popular platform for gaming enthusiasts. Carrying that thought forward, we are building a community of gaming enthusiasts who enjoy playing and sharing games within their own communities

 

They have launched two communities on Facebook and Orkut, the two of which have a large reach amongst technology and consumer communities. The idea is to create a touch point for N-Gage, where gamers can get latest updates, insights, communicate with a like minded community. 

 

The thought: A community for N-Gage, which can be joined by gaming freaks and can be cultivated as a platform for gamers to share their experience with N-Gage, announce their scores, compete with gamers and get to know the latest on N-Gage. 

Nokia N-Gage Promotion 

Also, this is complimenting a special promotion that Nokia is running on www.nokiangageindia.com N-Gage users can share their player ids, password and phone number over here. Within 24 hours, they will receive free code. This is on till October 31, 2008. Gamers have been asked to share their player ids on N-Gage Gamers’ Gang so that can start sharing their scores and experiences with a wider gaming community. 

Well so when are you going to start gaming!? I tried out the above procedure and got a free N-gage title and when are you getting yours ?

Nokia Nseries Feature Pack 2 Themes

If you wanted the feature pack 2 Nseries themes(like the ones on the N85,N96 etc.) on your Devices then your at the Right place!

Here are two themes Nseries Orange and Nseries Blue which are made to work on the S60 V3 devices.

Download both the themes from here

Below are the screenshots taken from my N95 8GB:

Music: N91 vs N81 vs N95 8GB

Well today I decided to do a music test among Nokia's best Music Nseries Devices. I got my friend's N81 and N91, as they are one of the Best music Nseries Devices.

Nokia N91: As we all know this device was Nokia's first official Music Nseries device that came in two versions namely the N91 and N91 8GB. The N91 comes with a 4GB hard disk.

This was the first nseries device to come with a 3.5 mm. slot for headphones.

It has volume keys on the side and the music keys(play/pause, stop, backwards,forwards) on top of the 'actualy keypad.

I've used standard Nokia headsets that is the 'AD-54' that I got with my N95 8GB. The sound quality on the N91 is very impressive. It can give a good fight to many of the music players in the market. The sound was extremely clear and the volume was really good.Also speaker sound quality was good enough. Music on this phone is a really good experience plus we it has wi-fi. But there are many drawbacks of this device. First of all is the device design. The phone is really too BIG and heavy for pockets and to carry around. Secondly is the SLOW user interface. The device is way too slow to use and when it comes to the 'start-up' of the 'music player' it just takes a serious amount of time to load the music on the device.

But I must say that being a quite 'old' device, its music and sound qualities are just too good!

Nokia N81 : Most people say this device is a successor to the N91 in terms of music quality. Well yes this can be called the successor to the N91 and more exciting that this phones is an all together better and 'SMALLER' package compared to the N91. 

This device also has the same Music keys like on the N91. Its a much more smaller and lighter phone compared to N91. User -interface is obviously fast and smooth and just flows nicely!

But the main problem was that the music sound quality on the N91 was slightly better than the N81 ! shocking!  though the volume was almost the same on both the devices, somehow the sound quality was better on the N91. In an earlier post (you can read it here) I had tried out the music on the N81 and I found that it was quite good and even beat the N95 8GB for music qualities on headsets, but today I was shocked to find out that it wasn't as good as the N91. Speaker sounds are almost same as the N91. But I must say that the N81 is a very good package. A neat and small device with N-gage and wi-fi connectivity. Also the N81 comes in the 8GB version that is the N81 8GB, so you can have more space for music.

Nokia N95 8GB : The N95 8GB maybe an 'all in one' device but the sound quality and volume isn't that good when compared to the N91 and N81. This is surprising, I mean why doesn't Nokia make thier similar devices have same sound quality etc. ? the music keys are placed at the top and the slide needs to be slided downwards to see them (we all know this)

But its not that disappointing also, I mean its not hat bad its good enough! The speaker volume on the N95 8GB is the highest among all 3 phones. We all know when all the technical speciafications are compared the N95 8GB stands on top of all the 3. But it qould be really nice to have N91 sound capabilities on the N95 8GB.

So as we see even though being for quite a long time in the market the N91 has a better sound quality among nearly all nseries devices I guess (cause i haven't heard music on N82, if you have please let me know!) Please let me know about your Music experience!

It would be really nice to have better sound quality integrated onto latest Nseries devices like the N96, N85 and N79 etc. Music on Nseries has improved a lot, and I hope it improves even more further in the future. With Music store and Internet radio and other stuff Music on Nokia is a really good experience!

P.S. :The photo is taken by a Nokia 6300 (sorry for the bad quality I didn't have a better devices to take it at that moment)

Micro-blogging with Jaiku Mobile = FUN

As mentioned in my previous post about the Bharti Airtel Internet GPRS connection, I also could use my Jaiku Mobile application !

I must say it was really nice to stay connected all the time from the phone. It took very less time to get it all setted-up and the Jaiku was up and working! it downloads (fetches) all the comments and 'Jaikus' (posts) of your friends within no time and if you have set it to 'have a better battery life' on your phone then you need not take tension cause I used it for at least 3 hours or something and yet didn't loose much power of the battery. All your friends 'current status msgs.' and 'locations' are displayed on the contact list. Its very easy to post comments in conversation threads.

Jaiku Mobile can also be started up in the background when your phone boots (starts) and it continues to work in the background when minimized (as you can see in screenshot 2)

So if you wish to use Jaiku Mobile you can download the application from here

And if you wish to add me to your contact list, my screen name is : stephen1

have fun!

Nokia Internet Radio, Unlimited music!

Yesterday I got my Bharti Airtel Internet connection up and running to test it and compare it with my Vodafone connection, and found that its damn good for people always on the move and who frequently use Mobile Internet.

So I decided to use 'Internet Radio' application of Nokia on my N95 8GB. My experience was just one of a kind! I was thrilled with the breath of fresh air! Seriously there is a huge directory of Internet radio stations and it doesn't take much time to connect because of the EDGE connection. thanks to the unlimited Internet usage on the connection i used it continously for about 2 hours! the sound qualtiy was good enough and there wasn't any lag and stuff.

Well I must say if you have a Unlimited Data plan with your GPRS/EDGE provider or WLAN and you love music, then Nokia Internet radio is the application for you!

*UPDATE* Download the Internet Radio Update from here
Do tell me of your experience in using it!

Imaging: N95 vs N95 8GB

Got to play with my friend's N95 today! soI decided to check out its imaging quality myself and compare it with my N95 8GB. First of I seriously feel Nokia should try and get the camera lens shutter back on its Nseries devices. Well the N95 slider was something your fingers really had to 'work-on' to slide it! hmm.... good improvements to the N95 8GB !

                                        

 Then I took these two pics below. they are of a 'fan' in my classroom ! LOL ya I know its funny but i didnt find a better thing than this to take a pics of ! 

Nokia N95                                                                  

N95 8GB

 Well above we see two pics. first one that is the one above is taken by the N95 and the one below is taken by the N95 8GB.

I didnt spot any difference in the two pics but I must tell you that the image sizes were way different. The N95 image was about 500kB and the N95 8GB image was 1MB.

RE-EDIT :

Well I got these stats from flickr.com about both the images nd the camera's.

For N95 click here

for N95 8GB click here

Stats say that Shutter speed for N95 is 3921/1000

and for N95 8GB is 5107/1000. Interesting! ;)

Nokia N95 8GB Update : V30.0.018

I have successfully updated the Firmware on my Nokia N95 8GB to version 30.0.018 yesterday.

The update file is a total of a 105.3 MB. It was fun! really :P
My earlier Firmware version was 15.0.015.

It took about 11 minutes to Update the Firmware.

The New additions were mainly:

• N-Gage was updated to its latest version in the update
• Maps 2.0 included
• Screen -Auto rotate
  
• Share online updated with a link installed on the main home screen.

• Google search added to the 'Search' application

After the update i have successfully re-nstalled the applications and other stuff on my N95 8GB like N-Gage games etc.
My Device Is looking NEW and SEXY now !!!!

N81 sound quality damn good !

I got a chance to play with my friend's N81 in college. i checked out the device and its display remined me of my N76's smaller display compared to my N95 8GB. the N-Gage experience was good, a decent camera and picture quality.

BUT what surprised me was the sound quality and volume on the Nokia AD-54 headset (the ones got with my N95 8GB). It was BETTER than the N95. Well the speaker quality and volume on the N95 was way better compared to the headsets quality. it was really surprising because I used the same headsets on both the devices. Anyways it doesnt matter much because the N95 8Gb is far more better than the N81 !

Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia N82, Which one would you pick ?

The Nokia N95 8GB and the N82 are mostly similar on Technical specifications but the differnt form factor and size, etc. gives each device a special quality.

Both the devices are well equiped with 5 megapixel cameras, GPS systems, accelerometers and OS. But yet we have all seen in many reviews how the two devices maybe slightly different and better in some cases from each other.

So I wanted to ask you people, which device with you go for, from the N95 8Gb and the N82 ?

you can vote in the poll box at the sidebar of my blog! Please do it! :)

you can also give me your useful comments because I really need them ! :)

Nokia Step Counter

This is Nokia's new application that uses the accelerometer on your phone to 'count' the steps you take while walking/exercising etc!
Its a small application and uses hardly any disk space on your device!
All you have to do is start the application and then select 'Start Step Counting'.
Then you can put your device into your pocket,to your belt or your arm and it will count the steps you take! trust me its accurate!, I have tried it out and its just awesome!. Well you can download this application from here. Its currently available for Nokia N95, N95 8GB, and N82. Well these screenshots are taken from my Nokia N95 8GB. do reply in comments about your experience with the step counter !

Sony Ericsson W902, a competitor to the Nokia N95 8GB ?

Well last night I was browsing the internet for new phone releases and related stuf, and I found this amazing device! yes the Sony Ericsson W902 is a very good competitor to the Nokia N95 8GB for its technical specifications. This walkman phone comes with a 8GB memory card and also has a 5 megapixel camera.










Well you can check the product video HERE


the phone technical specifications are as follows:

TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS:
Screen- 240x320 pixel- 262.144 color TFT
Memory- Phone memory 25MB*- Memory Stick Micro™ (M2™) support
* Actual free memory may vary due to phone pre-configuration.
Networks- GSM 850- GSM 900- GSM 1800- GSM 1900- EDGE- UMTS 2100- HSDPA
Available colours- Volcanic Black - Wine Red - Earth Green
Possible limited market availability.
Sizes- 49.0 x 110.0 x 11.7 mm- 1.9 x 4.3 x 0.5 inches
Weight- 99.8 gr- 3.5 oz
Please note that local variations may apply.

well this is possibly the first time that sony ericsson has 'integrated' the 'walkman' and 'cybershot' qualities into one device! the phone is said to be released later this year. Sony have come up with the slogan 'I REBORN MUSIC'.. well that is certainly true. Previews say that the phone has the 'BEST' sound quality on earphones BUT the major set-back is that you have to use the tradtionaly pop-port connector for your headset instead of a 3.5mm pin headset.

Also the phone comes with a 8GB memory card so you can store more music and media on it.

Well I consider it a worthy competitor to the Nokia N95 8GB on the grounds of technical specifications. but the real phone has yet to be reviewed so we cannot say as of now as to which phone is better. Yes the N95 8GB comes with GPS and other cool features, but the W902 is a really good device for Sony Ericsson lovers out there ! ;)



So you decide!