Profimail Issues

For an email client on all of my 4 symbian phones I use Profimail because it provides a desktop like experience, is highly configurable and support rules for filtering. I have been using it for over a year and pride in using it over the standard nokia email client including the new nokiamessaging client.

The number of issues with nokia messgaing over the past months have had me laughing at people who use it and the number of times it failed. However today we the profimail users were the ones to be laughed at.

For some reason we could not collect email for the majority of the day and we were getting weird connection 300/301 errors please contact the application vendor messages. At one point I had a blue screen of death (BSOD) which whilst common in windows was most unwelcome on the phone. But I had to laugh at least I didn't need to reboot.

Anyway the issue was because the software we had purchased couldn't connect to the registration server to see if we had a legitimate version. Apparently there is an option to have his removed but you then lose the portability of being able to move the application to a new handset.

Eventually at the eleventh hour after the forum here was clogging up with message and after several emails the application began working. LCG responded with the email below:

Dear customer,
we acknowledge that our registration server was down today for few hours, and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience caused to you.
We tracked and fixed the error. We'll also put more failsafe code into future version of ProfiMail, so that any problems on our side don't harm you as customer.
Once again our apologies, and hopefully you'll love to use ProfiMail in a future.

Best Regards,
Lonely Cat Games Team

So it turns out there is no acutal redundancy available in their Registration server which effectively means the application will stop working. Why on earth it needs to check in with this server each time I collect email especially after I have paid for the software is beyond belief. Then there lack of acknowledging there is an issue either via the forums or using facebook or twitter is very poor.

Being in IT I know you get engrossed in the issue at hand but you also need to remember your customers as we are the ones who pay you.

The issue of checking the license each time reminds me of the WGA issues in Windows. It is a shame when a company needs to police the ones who have purchased the software. I appreciate they have to look after their interests but there are better ways. When I purchase the software they have my imei so they can supply a key. They could even employ a check each time an update is completed to see if the install is legal. Lastly, they could even use twitter with NAGIOS or provide a simple web page providing server update statuses.

Whilst I could use other email clients available to me I will still continue to use Profimail for its featuresn and hope that they change both the way they treat their customers in not providing updates of issues and that the license check is permanently removed or a alternative is found.

Multitasking or switching

I can recall the first time I used a HP UNIX computer at De Montfort University back in 1991. The screens were huge at 21" where for back then both these machines and screens would have cost thousands of pounds. The workstations themselves had a RISC processor and 32mb of ram and a hard drive. Previously I had used a PC with Windows 3, an Atari ST and Apple MAC. All except the atari could run multiple applications concurrently but unless you had enough memory on the PC, like the apple mac it would task switch. This meant the application in the foreground would run and other applications in the background would sit and wait until they were brought to the front to continue processing. Windows had a 386 enhanced mode which would allow mutlitasking and you could set the priority times for dos applications. The HP UNIX boxes at university could multitask properly with all of the applications. I could be compiling, on IRC, doing FTP downloads, emailing and possibly some text editing all together over a 9600 baud link that was shared with several 1000s of computers at the university. Back then I could see the benefit of multitasking and when Psion brought out the 3a I eventually got my first PDA (a psion 3c) and was running many applications at once.

I recently posted on twitter that I run 12 applications concurrently on my phone. I also had to chuckle when I read Engadget where the editor was struggling to do several things on his iphone. Possibly if he had several phones with him he would have been able to accomplish his tasks more easily and quickly.

If I look at my usage I will always focus on the one task and occasionally switch between applications if I know an email has arrived or twitter has updated. But there are times such as when I am using flyingmoney to reconcile my accounts whilst the web browser is open. Or, if I am in the middle of doing something else and I don't want distrurbing then my call handling software will take control - all happening in the background and without the need to close down applications.

Apple's recent idea of using push notifications is good in principle but after hearing that people are stopped in the middle of their current task. They then have to manage the notice, then can carry on. But if they receive for example several messages they have to deal with each one separately whereas I can just ignore them.

There are many reasons why we should not multitask because not focusing on one task makes us unproductive. Reasons not to multitask. I find having the flexibility of being able to do several things together I can still focus on the task at hand and switch as the need dictates.

Mac os used to task switch where background tasks used to stay still until they were brought to the foreground. Whereas windows applications would in a round about way multitask but not really properly until windows 95. Before Windows I also tried Os/2 which was definitely more grown up. As some of you are aware some of this technology underpinned Windows Nt. I also recall seeing a piece of software called Deskview X which would allow you to run concurrent Os way back in the early 90s and I decided back then that this would be useful but was sadly too expensive for me. It is only in the last few years with virtual machine technology that has allowed me to do this properly. I would envisage that we will also will be able to do this on our mobile devices in the near future.

Many commentators have been knocking Nokia for the S60 UI saying it is outdated and not as intuitive or elegant as the iphone. Whilst there is some degree of truth behind this, I do believe that the UI of S60 can and will evolve into something better if not comparable to the iphone. Again symbian the underlying OS like the iphones OS both are very powerful, can multitask if allowed and are very robust. Whilst I would welcome changes in the S60 ui I would hate to see it limit the devices just like the iphone has, to the extent that it was too simple and it reduced the functionality of not being able to multitask. While I understand Apples approach in trying to limit the number of applications running to ensure the consumer experience and battery life are not affected. Should this ever happen to Symbian then I will be moving to another platform.

In a way the current mobile market is like history repeating itself. In the early days the Psion was the technical superior device. Because it did not evolve and change as the consumer wanted colour screens and form factors such as the palm this could contribute to Nokia's and ultimately Symbians stagnation. At this moment in time I will avoid the word downfall as both Nokia and Symbian are larger players in the market than Psion ever was. They are making structural changes to their organisations and to the partnerships for example the Symbian Foundation, Nokia and Intel partnership, Maemo and QT, Open sourcing (not Saucing.) and Horizon for application development. But what we are not seeing are new and innovative devices just rehashes of old technology.

Nokia have always had two major lines of products with E series and N series. These at some point in time may converge but again I would hope to see that any converged devices whilst simple to use, still allow power users to multitask and work with the machines internals and not like the iphone where the walled garden approach is nice to look at but you are not allowed to stray beyond the fence or walk on the grass.

The E75 still lives on

It has been over a month now and I am still using my E75 and it is going strong. Even with the v10 firmware the phone is solid. In hind sight I have made the right decision to avoid both the E97 and Omnia HD. It also proves how mature s60v3.2 is to provide a good user experience.

I have read many reviews of the N97 and all have commented saying the build quality of the phone is exceptional but actually using the phone is bad.

I have already blogged about the low memory even before the device came out and I was right. After using the 5800 of which like the N97 is not for power users. Probably in 6 months time when there have been several revisions of firmware the n97 might be worth reviewing especially when the price comes down.

What surprised me recently with the omnia hd was samsung actually have released new firmware. Even after owning the i8510 for 6 months, getting rid of it and then 6 months later there has been no firmware. Because of this I no longer will have a samsung as I cannot afford to spend a lot of money on a feature rich handset which has faults and never gets fixed. A chap I am following on Twitter has an Omnia HD. Being an avid E90 user he thought the N97 was a joke so got the samsung. He is having issues but is persevering.

Looking back over my phone choices over the past year the nokia E series have been the best in terms of build and stability. It is just a shame Nokia cannot release a converged device composed of the e series build and stability with the high end features of the n series.

The E75 is quick to respond, has a good camera for stills and video, great for messaging and is comfortable to type on.
Everything I have thrown at it works and it continues to surprise me that I have actually found a good work horse. Okay, there is no wvga, no touch, no stereo speakers and no 3" screen. But after having and trying several devices with this configuration and being disappointed. What am I missing? Just the hassle of these not working.

When I had my E90 I thought wouldn't it be great to have a smaller device with an integrated keyboard. That's why I got the 5800 but I soon got bored because of its limitations. The E63 and similar formats are great to use but a little bulky. Then enter stage left the E75. Both the size and hidden keyboard make this phone an ideal form factor.

My only criticism is qvga where I didn't think it would bother me. I do get sick of scrolling or squinting when trying to read. If there was a device with a full screen and then a slide out keyboard then that would be the next one to consider.

But until that time the E75 is still the choice.