The Return

It was June 24th 2010 I had enough of Android due to lack of application and poor handset choice, symbian was a non starter due to lack of handset choice and longevity of the os, mameo; now meego hand disappointed with the n900-again due to lack of applications, Web os whilst a new and exciting os had poor device build quality, blackberry was never a contender and windows mobile had really died.

On this day iphone 4 was launched where for myself the handset on offer had caught up with other devices in terms of specification and was finally an option for me to look at. My last venture in apple devices was when the original iphone launched in the UK in 2007. This was very short lived as the device was only 2g and there was little that could be done with it other than jail breaking. At the time I got rid of it apple has started their application store, but the specification of the iPhone didn't win me over as Nokia was still releasing decent devices that were 3g, so using a 2g device was like going back in time.

By the time the iphone 4 was released the app store had matured and the phone spec was reasonable even of it was on a par with a n95 a few years older in terms of camera, gps and 3g. Albeit some would still argue the n95 surpasses the iphone 4.

Since June I have bought into the apple ethos aka reality distortion field and now have Macs,IPads and apple routing equipment at home. The iPhone started this all off as IOs works better with Mac os; here starts the snowball.

Fast forward to today where a few weeks ago my 4s had to be returned to apple to be repaired. This left me without a device. My nexus S just didn't cut it as a phone for daily use as the battery didn't last too long and I found it very slow especially running ics (ice cream sandwich).

This gave me an opportunity to delve into what else was available where I picked up a Lumia 800 running windows phone 7 and a Samsung Galaxy Note. The Lumia whilst a device with a short life span is interesting as the build quality is great and I have found the application choice whilst small on windows to have most of the main applications I use, except a decent Podcast client. But as a long term device for me it is the next step up from a feature phone.

The note was an interesting choice as I had wanted to get a Dell Streak another 5" device at the time I got the iphone 4. If it wasn't for the local O2 shop refusing to sell me a streak, this journey would have ended up somewhere differently. I had heard a lot about the note but thought that the size was too cumbersome and actively poked fun both at the phone and its owners.

There were a number of people on twitter on podcasts who I follow kept going back to the note so I thought why don't I give it a try.

I ended up ordering the phone though Amazon Germany as it was a cheaper than buying it the UK even with postage. You can find the specification of the device at the following link

www.samsung.com/global/microsite/galaxynote/mobile/spec.html?type=find

To my surprise I have now being using it for over the past two weeks as the screen has just been a delight. The usage has been that fantastic that my 4s is still switched off and I don't think I can go back to a smaller screen. The device is large, the battery lasts about a day but I have spare batteries something I have not been able to change for over 2 years :-)

I was previously a Nokia communication user and loved the E90. Alas both Nokia and symbian was no more for me so I have been looking for alternatives. I find that the note captures the good experience of using a large screen device without comprise. The touch wiz skin on ICS is fluid and I have not experienced any significant slowdowns that I've had on previous android devices. To the extent the device is not even rooted.

Samsung recently released the S3 again very similar size to the note but a brilliant internal specification. There are rumours that tomorrow at the IFA opening that Samsung will be announcing the note 2 with the same internal specs.

I will be watching this closely as this may be my next purchase and not the next iphone even though it is rumoured to have a larger screen.

I have bought a lot of accessories for the 4s and am not happy that the next generation may mean that these accessories will not work.

One could argue the same with any device that there are always changes but at least Samsung has standardised on the micro usb port so my cables will still work.

I have found android to have matured over the past two years on the application side. It still does not offer the to pickings as IOs but it's getting there. It is now at a juncture where I am confident to move over full time as the past two weeks have show.

Applications such as tasker, swift keyboard and juice defender daily keep my phone usage automated and in power. Swift keyboard is as good as the iphone keyboard and it's actually scary how swift keyboard learns your writing style.

So I've finally made the jump again or return whichever way you view it. I may have been an apple fanboi in some eyes but I was just at a point where I needed something that was stable and worked.

For me now-android and the note are my choice until the wind blows again and something else catches my eye.

Posted with Blogsy

Galaxy Tab and its successor

I have tried a galaxy tab and immediately wrote it off after have three other android tablets and figured I could get an iPad for the same price that was a more complete product. The problem I have with the tab is the phone version of android on a tablet that looks like an oversized kiddies toy. The ipad might have its limitations but has always felt a more complete product.

I am still tempted by the galaxy as I like tinkering where this is something the ipad doesn't really allow me to do. However with the recent announcements of the galaxy tab 2 and the htc flyer combined with the price hike of £450 from a shop,o I figure the tab will either be reduced in price soon or will be left by the wayside.

I have had samsung products before and they do not support a product when they deem it as obsolete. There has not been any concrete announcements from mwc 2011 that the tab 7" will get honeycomb or if samsung will continue to support it. Samsung have announced there will be no more 7" devices and reading between the lines I am thinking an impulse purchase will be a bad decision.

The Ipad has worked 50/50 for me whilst away being flawless on battery life and good for consuming media but there is still the element that its not a full machine or something that I can switch on as a full machine when needed. I really wish that the tab could plug this gap but if my previous android tablet experiences are true, this device will also be a failure.

Which brings the topic around again- what is an appropriate device?

Any prospective iPad 2 will really need more ram as applications close too often on the ipad 1 due to low memory. On android there are really no rich applications when compared to IOS which use the tablet form. Nokia with the n900 was nearly there but again there wasq no applications that offer that real world PC experience. PsiXDA could be another prospect but then you have the problem of a PC in small form factor.

It really saddens me to say that the Psion range of machines have only ever fitted this gap and anything else is just a poor comparison. The latest devices may be ale to play media, do push mail, go online when required or route me around a city but they have never offered a complete solution out of the box. The n900 was nearly there but poor battery life and lack of rich applications made it a failure. Both Android has the interface and IOS has the applications but there is nothing available with a real mix

I know you have to move with the times and cannot dwell on the old but there is still a gap in the market that could be filled.

I can recall being able to get my email, browse the web, run full blown applications and still be able to restore my Psion without the need for a Pc. Android nearly gets there but falls down on the applications. IOS plugs the other gaps with the number of applications but is too locked down and requires a PC for restore.

Seeing nokia recently focus on windows 7 instead of symbian shows the market is becoming fashion driven as opposed to functionality. S60 was never as good as epoc or s80 but was good for multitasking and feature rich applications. Sadly if nokia had been quicker developing their UI or purchasing Palm for WEBOS I honestly believe symbian would still be a viable alternative.

However this is all water under the bridge and we are left with the blackberry, IOS, android and windows phone 7 leftovers. Android has the potential to become more rich where I believe honeycomb will decide this when the numerous tablets are released this year that have been announced. But I feel eventually they will all have the same functionality and it will be the hardware looks that will set them apart - if we are not there already?

But even after all of this I am still left with the dilemma if I should just impulse buy a tab? The issue of not having a laptop to hand is driving me crazy. But I don't want another net book and would still like to purchase the tab to try it. There has been many bloggers say it is the best thing since sliced bread and that it will replace their smartphone due its size and remove the need for a laptop or iPad. Ideally this is the device I wanted and had thought the n900 could have done this for me. I don't make many phone calls so VOIP is ideal for me and the 7" size would be suitable as the ipad is too large. But it means android again on 2.2 which hasn't really got any better since the nexus I imported from the USA whereas IOS seems to be gaining in strength.

My usual cavalier attitude is "fuck it" I will just buy the thing and get rid if I don't get on - the last contender for this was the advent vega only after one week. But then if I purchase the tab I have both and then need to decide which one to keep - the ipad or the tab.

So for the moment painful as it is I will stick with the iPad as I know what It can do. I will decide in the future that any device shouldn't really be an ipad replacement or have to prove itself that it is better in tests. This device should be able to hold its own without comparisons and just fill the niche that I want.

Previously Psion did this but who else is able to pick this challenge and just deliver?




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Backup and Restore

I am away next week in London on training and I want to travel light instead of taking my mac book, work laptop and iPad. I figured the iPad will do all of the functions I need on trip. It's preloaded with media, my course material and can certainly cope with my Internet activities. However one thought came to mind what ignite crashes. The same with my iPhone what if it crashes. I am stumped as I need a PC or mac with iTunes to restore.

Both devices are jailbroken and I use pkgbackup on both devices to backup and restore from Dropbox which works flawlessly. However if the devices die I cannot rejailbreak as I need a Pc or mac. I cannot restore as I need iTunes. I don't know what apps I have installed so I mentally need to keep a note.

Anyone who follows me on twitter I have been an android and Symbian fan.

Now I have found with psion, windows mobile, symbian on nokia and android I can take on device backups. This would either use built in functionality or a new application. I can then restore and all without the need of then Pc or mac.

So I have a dilemma, although I am enjoying iOS, have all the applications I want, can work without the Pc or mac that is until shit hits the fan.

It's as this point I get a reality check and am considering the Galaxy Tab or an android device as a backup.

Apple restores using iTunes work great but if you don't have the luxury of being able to tether or do online backups to the cloud.

You are stuffed until you can hook up again.

There's an app for that but it will cost again

Over the past year I have jumped between mobile devices and various operating systems and have purchased a lot of software as I like to ensure consistency between my devices that I have the same if not similar applications on each one.

One thing that I am doing more is using my device more for data and media consumption rather than making phone calls. This is why I am now looking for a data only tariff that will allow me to use voip for making outgoing calls but also allow incoming as I will have a sim in the device.

Having being predominately a symbian user in the past using both s60, s80 and uiq in its former days I found that any application that I purchased could not easily be transferred to another device without having to make the purchase again. Whilst I can understand this for pc based os such as windows and Mac os x when I upgraded from s60v3 to s60v5 I found the same rule being applied by many software houses. More recently I have found this with meego/maemo with an application such as docstogo or sygic maps both of which I have owned on previous os such as s60.

Like s60 you will find the same restrictions with android and ios where If you purchased one application on android you will sometimes need to purchase the same one on ios to continue using it. However there has been one difference with these devices, should I own more than one device such as an iphone 3G and 4 and a nexus and htc desire, you are able to install the paid applications onto both devices. Now with ios I believe this is part of the license agreement although you may find applications that you need to purchase twice to get full functionality. Whereas with android you will need to refer to the license agreement with the software.

I will add where I have two or more devices and want the same applications on them then if the license dictates that I must purchase separately then I will do this, for example i do this with the ipad and iPhone as there are usually differences between the two applications.

On thing that has become apparent to me is that when upgrading either an android or ios device how easier it is than symbian as there is no messing with license keys when reinstalling the software. After spending many hours setting these devices up this has been a godsend and made the enjoyment of owning them a lot more pleasurable.

Now Nokia have announced two exciting devices this week the n8 and e7 where it is the latter I would love to purchase but it is on symbian ^3. However I am being held back by my previous experiences with symbian and applications as I would expect to have to make another purchase in order to upgrade. Whereas htc announced the desire HD and desire z today and I know if I bought them or if a new iPad/iphone was released tomorrow then I would be able to use the applications I had already purchased and not have to spend my money again.

The hardware features of both the n8 and e7 are excellent but for now usability and the application store experience is becoming a more key attribute when selecting my next device in addition to specifications.

I have found the Ovi store to be a kludge and very unusable, slow and painful when either trying to install or purchase applications So unless Nokia can ensure that the Ovi App store experience improves to the standard of android or iPhone then I will not be rushing to get a new symbian device.



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Nokia spolit my fun.

Today Alk finally announced Copilot 8 UK Live traffic for Android and several other platforms at £19.99 per year. This is something that I have been waiting for since last year where I really could have done with it a few weeks ago on a long journey. However since it has only come out I had to resort to my trusty Navman S50 with traffic alerts on this particular trip.

I am also waiting on Sygic Mobile Maps for the N900 as the onboard OVI maps isn't really a satellite navigation solution. I believe the application has been submitted to Nokia for the past several weeks for approval but still nothing on when it will be launched or an indication of the actual cost.

Both of these announcements would have meant me rushing to purchase them straight away as I believe traffic announcements for Copilot are necessary and the N900 having an onboard mapping again enhances the use of the device.

However, old news as this is. I recently blew the dust off my old 5800, upgraded the firmware using windows 7 (another story some time) and installed the free Ovi Maps. I originally subscribed for 3 years to Nokia Maps (as it used to be known) when I first got my N95 because it worked out cheaper than getting 1 year. Since the subscription elasped I purchased Garmin Mobile XT for S60 another good satellite navigation program with freentraffic and cameras. So when Nokia announced that Ovi maps would be free my expectations were high but I was anticipating it to be no better then when I had initially subscribed.

Well how wrong could I be, free traffic alerts and rerouting. Free safety camera warnings. 3D landscapes rendering quickly. Lane guidance. It took me on my journey with the 5800 in landscape mode and didn't falter either on the routing, no delays in dispalyed or spoken instructions and the landscape display was large and clear to view the onscreen map.

Now the excitement of copilot and sygic has gone because I now have everything I need albeit in another phone but it is free. I only need to swap my sim as and when required.

So whilst nokia might have spoilt my fun because I really want to test these two software products, I am now getting all these features for free.

I will probably get Sygic for the n900 because it needs the software to make the device more useful especially considering this is now my main device. But I do hope Ovi Maps is extended to the n900 with free navigation.

All of the satellite navigation companies really need to wake up and smell the flowers, At the moment Ovi Maps for me is more cost effective than both Copilot and Sygic mobile maps because I have access to more mapping regions which can be stored on the device and free traffic/safety camera updates. It will be interesting to see how the satellite navigation business pans out in 2010 especially when Google extends their free navigation.

Today, my advice to anyone looking for a satnav is purchase a 5800 or another Nokia phone with free Ovi Maps Navigation.

N900 - To be or not to be?

There are a lot of n900 reviews online talking about specifications of the hardware/software and how all of the applications work to the nth degree of detail. My post is from using the n900 as my main device for a period of 4 weeks (the length of time will become significant later).

Before Christmas 2009, after much deliberation I decided to purchase an N900. The phone was bought through a reseller where the price was competitive with what they where being sold for on eBay. When the phone arrived I promptly unpacked it and charged it up but within 1 hour of use it rebooted. I over looked this and promptly set about configuring the exchange sync, my email accounts and looking at what applications were available. I used various sources from NokiaAddict.com to allow me to access all of the development and testing resources and twitter for recommendations which gave me access to more applications. Previously being an N810 user I was aware of the issues around using test applications and that you might cause the device to become unstable, but I didn't care. For my N810 I have completely repartitioned the internal disk to increase the available installation space which has lead to the device being more usable. Considering I usually push things to the limit the enabling of these repositories was just another "walk in the park" for me.

Over the first few days I began experiencing several reboots a day which initially because the device was new I wasn't worried about but it got the point of becoming annoying. Doing investigations through searching on the web and posting to twitter wasn't really conclusive as there were two camps. People who were returning their n900s for replacements as they believed it was a hardware fault. This went to the extent of people commenting on how long they charged the battery from when the device was first switched on to discussions of battery replacements, battery charging voltages, what types of chargers were being used, the variety and quality of components inside the n900 and even people suggesting it was applications from the testing repositories. Other people were suggesting it was something to do with the device being in the middle of a process and trying to go into idle mode where it would force it to reboot.

The error I was getting of which could be displayed in a command prompt using "cat /proc/bootreason" was wd32_to.


Through following the link I was able to disable enable_off_mode which whilst reduced the battery life as power management had effectively been switched off it made the reboots from 8 a day to 0.

After 12 hours use I also came across another issue related to the reboot count where each time the device reboots due to the above it adds a value of 3 onto the reboot count. When the reboot counts goes over 50 and the phone reboots it will not load the OS, merely sitting at "2nd dot " of the "5 dots". Effectively the n900 was bricked where I had to reload the firmware to restore it. Again there was a fix for the reboot count. Recently I have managed to brick the device again but used this link to resurrect the device without the need for a reflash.

So whilst all of this was happening up until the first week of January 2010 through trying to use the device daily, I had come to the decision that should a fix not be released shortly then the device would be on EBay.

On January 12, a small fix was released that essentially allow the larger update to be done over the air when this would be released. Sadly, this fix didn't resolve the reboot issues and I had to resort to the workarounds mentioned above. Again, I was of the same opinion if no reboot fix was to be issued then the device was bound for EBay. It was fun trying to get this firmware on due to the fact I had filled the root filesystem so had to remove applications to make space in order to load the new firmware on.

PR1.1 firmware was released on 14 January, again this would not go on so was forced to take a backup, reflash using a cable and restore from backup. Firstly, the backup/restore was flawless in that it both restored all of my data and reinstalled my applications - although it had to download these again. This was nice to see bearing in mind I had seen some concoctions over the years claiming to me mobile backup solutions but wasn't any good. I had to laugh about the application reinstall because to my horror it needed to download 670mb of data so there is no wonder I filled up the root filesystem. The other advantage was any garbage that had been installed previously had been removed and my root filesystem is now back to a reasonable size although I do question the partitioning considering there is over 32gb on board and to only use a minimal amount for rootfs is ridiculous. In the forums it has been said my rootfs has gone due to me installing test applications of which are not installing to the correct partitions but this is just an excuse. Should someone repartition the n900 and provide instructions in a similar vain to my n810 then I will do this.

Now to the question did it fixed the reboots?

After reading up on the issues around the reboots I came to the conclusion it looked like a software bug as the workaround was to disable power managment. I also had assumed that this could be fixed through software. My conclusions were correct, the device since the firmware updates is getting zero reboots to the extent I was proud to publish an up time of over 24 hours on my twitter.

Daily I am enjoying using the n900 for Internet web browsing, Instant Messaging, Twitter. Email - in fact everything it was intended to be used for. The keyboard and form factor are great and as a two handed device it really works for me especially considering I am a fan of the Nokia Communicators. It could be used in portrait mode and there is movement to make more applications and the OS to work in this form factor but I am not convinced. Other than the phone application I see no need for this feature as it is just as easy to pull out the keyboard and work in landscape.

The main issue with the n900 is lack applications even though the device is new. Whilst there is a back catalog of Maemo 4 applications these all need porting. Because the web browser is full featured you can use this instead of applications for example you can use Google Docs, Google Maps, Twitter and edit your blogs without the need for dedicated applications. But because the browser can be resourceful having several windows of web open can slow the device down and ultimately when web crashes it closes all of the windows. Whilst the screen resolution is wide enough for browsing again everything within an application can seem cramped so you either have to zoom in/out. But until applications are released you have an alternative available.

After spending over two years gradually converting form windows to Linux through having to find alternative solutions to things that I naturally accept within windows I can be patient with the n900. Through this approach should I not be able to find an application I know there will always be an online alternative that I can use within the web browser. On this basis, I am keen to tell people who are looking at the n900, that should they accept this shortcoming, realise the device is a work in progress still then they will enjoy using the n900. If they are looking for something to work out of the box and do everything an iPhone currently does then n900 isn't for them. Whereas if you are looking for a device that has the potential to do everything an iPhone can and are prepared to wait then the n900 is for you.

I have found that you begin using the n900 for example Twitter, I can tweet, post pictures, post vide, post audio and complete searches but I am using a combination of the built in conversation/IM app, a python application called Witter, another application called MAKU and the web browser. Not exactly seamless but working. So you can begin doing something on the n900 but suddenly find you cannot complete because there is some missing functionality in your current approach so you have to find a workaround.

Another example of this is the OVI Maps solution. This isn't a satellite or personal navigation application on the n900 as it is on other symbian solutions. Currently there is no other navigation application available, however Sygic are making an application to fulfill this void. Hopefully this will be released soon. Google maps can be used with real time GPS navigation using this guide where I had to use this yesterday because OVI Maps was completely useless. Again, in time this will change.

There is an argument that the n900 is not a phone it is an Internet tablet. I have avoided using the reference to phone within this post as I believe it is a new breed of device. The n900 being one of the first devices with this blend of phone, Mobile Internet Device, Navigation Device with a high specification that can genuinely multitask has the opportunity to set the bar from which other devices will be judged. It can be compared and will be compared to the IPhone but they are aimed at two different markets. The n900 can hold its own without connection to a PC whilst the IPhone needs Itunes to benefit using all of its features. For example, I can take 350mb encoded divx file, put it on the n900 and it plays whereas the IPhone needs conversion to be done. Being niche is where the n900 might not be as successful because people want simplicity where lack of functionality and customisabiilty can occur. Most people want to be told what they can do within an application for example, send as an email or mms, whereas the n900 offers more choice share over bluetooth and share via a pipe where they can be extended without having to wait for the manufacturer to build in the functionality. Therefore the N900 has the opportunity to set the bar for this breed of device it also at the very beginning of a new open culture for Mobile Technology which needs to be embraced or it will fail. Android, Windows mobile and Symbian are very similar in that they can potentially and already do everything the n900 does but if you use the n900, look at the possibility that device can be a fully functional computer in your hand and wait (the key factor) here for the applications to be developed then you will recognise the potential and how far beyond the other mobile OSes this
can take you.

However, remember this is the future and not now.

Holding out for a HTC Hero

Excuse the lame title but this has really been a long wait. You may ask am I referring to the review or a phone that I can finally get on with? Well the answer is both.

I had always decided to avoid Android because I wasn't impressed with the lack installation space available and because you cannot install applications onto the SD card. After beginning to get numb over Nokia and their poor release of the n97 plus the boredom of the e75. I thought that I would take a punt at android and get a phone. As there was now more choice over the g1 I was looking at either the HTC magic or hero. Again because I didn't want to spend too much and because I thought a Google version of Android would be better than HTC's implementation I purchased the magic.

At first the experience was great because I wasn't running out of space for installation. The phone worked smoothly and I enjoyed having a central location for application installs just like on the iPhone. However what I did find over time is the magic lacked RAM and was prone to slowing down. Plus the more I was reading and listening to about the hero I should have really got this phone.

I had always enjoyed playing around with a palm pre emulator with the synergy integration and out of the box experience with exchange. To get this on the magic meant purchasing applications but it was built into the hero natively. I tried rooting the magic and ran into issues with cooked ROMs so left the stock Google Rom on. Plus this meant I could get ota updates to android without having to reflash the phone each time.

But I still missed the synergy experience and multitouch so I went out and bought the HTC hero sim free from carphone warehouse. The price was acceptable over the counter considering it would only be a little cheaper online.

Unboxing the hero it feels about the same weight as the magic but the actual feel of the phone is not smooth but like a rubber texture. Also I believe the screen has a special texture that doesn't retain the grease from your fingers. Before setting up the phone I flashed it with the latest Rom from HTC. Again this was quite painless but wasn't as easy as the magic which did an ota update. I really do enjoy not being tied to a pc to do things with smartphones. Unlike the iPhone where you need itunes I do at least get some independence with Google android albeit not as much with the HTC version.

Set up was less painless than I'd thought because as soon as I entered my Google credentials mail started syncing. Whereas with the magic I had to enter the o2 apn details for internet and mms with it being a Vodafone handset. On entering the app store I could see all of the apps that I had purchased. I then spent several hours installing over the 100 applications that were previously on my magic. I was very surprised that other than copilot the apps I had bought could install again to another handset without asking for codes.

Initial thoughts were how fluid the HTC sense UI is. I have some social networking integration similar to synergy on the palm. I was disappointed to see although the hero has more RAM and it ran smoother than the magic, that the application install space was less than the magic. I have yet to get to no free space. Whilst it was a barrier stopping me getting an android handset, it still needs fixing and like symbian allow installation to the sd card. Further android needs to allow root access out of the box without the need for cooked Roms which then gives me access to tethering and more configurable options.

The whole ethos of an open os is to allow openness in my mind and I hate the sandbox approach of closing the door in my face. By all means like the n810 and palm make it a special key access to switch to the mode but give me the option. When Google removed the option of dev g1 phones not being allowed access to the app store for fear of copying is just plain stupid, but I digress.

The hero keyboard works well and responds quickly in both landscape and portrait. Sometimes if there is an app hogging the CPU it will slow the phone and the keyboard entry. But I have found that if you use a task killer app you can manage this. Android manages the applications currently running like windows mobile. Should it need more RAM it just closes applications down. All very well but I want the choice and I would hope like symbian there was a mode to run an application as a system app which ensures it always stays resident. In theory each app within android runs in its own virtual machine. You can leave a background process running for example a pod catcher which downloads your podcasts. This process uses little memory and when you want to play the podcast it will load the full fat application. Whilst this model sounds good on memory usage I have found I am never confident an app stays resident and when the phone boots it loads up everything. An application like start-up auditor can help manage the boot time applications without the need for root access but again I am not confident it works after mixed results.

After one month of use I am still enjoying the phone. The ability to share media with Twitter, Facebook or email with a few clicks is a breeze. I use twidroid for Twitter the pro version which is about the best and will hopefully soon be on par with gravity on s60.

For Google news I use newsrob which allows me to read offline and share the news. This then is picked up by feedsproxy to send to my Twitter. I am using a free app called blogaway to blog and is what I am using to type this post on. Copilot is installed for navigation and whilst it is good it lacks traffic alerts. For email and calendar I use the native apps. For web I use the native browser as it has multitouch. I use gbackup to send my sms,mms and call information to my Google mail. I have recently purchased mybackup to backup my phone to sd.

Each day is like an adventure where there is always an upgrade that needs doing via the app store or I can tweak the phone a little more. Even with this flexibility I read somewhere that people see android just for techies. Yes this is partially true but even out of the box with no tweaking the phone is usable for normobs. A friend of my who after using my hero has just got one. He had a Nokia 5800 like me back in January but returned it due to the lag during use. He is not a power user but knows a fudge when he sees one. I paid the same amount of £400 for my 5800 (as my hero) because I imported it from Hong Kong. Compared to the hero for money or let's say the cheaper magic it is still bad. Although recent firmwares have fixed some issues it still lacks RAM. This, the n97 fiasco has moved me away from s60. I still have 4 nokias but they are now back up phones. Only my e63 issued daily as a work phone.

Again I want to try the n900 but don't want to pay for the privilege again to avoid expensive disappointment.

The weak points of the hero are the camera. You need to get an app such as fxcamera zoom or snap photo pro but the latter doesn't really work. These apps improve the camera when taking pictures but the hero could do with a flash because in poor light the pictures are bad. I use an app called scan2pdf to photograph documents and convert them to pdf for emailing. A flash would brighten the pages. I use dogcatcher as my pod catcher which has a facility to stop and bookmark my place in the podcast when I turn my car engine off whilst streaming.

The built-in speaker is moderately good but could be louder. But when using the Bluetooth over ad2p for streaming audio it is terrible, but not audio wise. The phone connects to my car stereo but still insists although connected playing the sound over the internal phone speaker. This results in havoc where I either have to reboot the phone or switch Bluetooth off and back on again. The Bluetooth stack is a pain and I am slowly getting to the point of using an audio lead.

I have just bought an extended battery which claims is 3000mah where the supplied one is 1350mah. The phone is a little thicker but as I use it each day as my internet tablet I kill the battery easily. I am mainly browsing over WiFi at home and hsdpa and find it responsive. But I have found the WiFi sometimes needs manually forcing to connect just as the Bluetooth through the recycling of the option.

The browser that is built in is very capable and the multitouch is excellent and a lot better than the magic's zoom buttons.

I have documents to go installed so there are full rich apps available and hopefully more will appear such as a proper banking solution like ms money. The built-in pdf reader will read a 100mb pdf for viewing.

The phone could do with an audio and video editor and a lot more media apps like the iPhone. But like the iPhone I like the simplicity of the app store, the cheap prices and choice of apps including free ones that are available. I have bought many symbian apps and have found good ones are available for android that are free or a lot cheaper. The gaming scene is quiet where there is nothing as flashy as the iPhone but then I only play simple addictive games such as solitaire of tetris.

In conclusion the hero has been a good choice. Sure its rough on some edges and can be improved hardware wise. Whilst some issues can be fixed in software such as missing functionality and installation space (or lack of). For now Android is the future for me and has certainly been a dark horse. I will definitely sing its praises to people. I have just ordered an Archos Android tablet to see how it works in this form factor so will post a review of this soon.

N900 Do I or don't I?

I have been an N810 user for over a year where I originally made the purchase of the device as I was disappointed using a converged device like the E90 as there were always issues browsing the web. I thought the idea of going back to two devices with a less powered mobile phone and using this to tether with the N810 would be ideal. Although the N810 was a good device, from being used to a converged device for a number of years the idea of carrying two devices again was daunting. Further while the N810 was good for web browsing it was slow. In the end I ended up hacking the N810 to utilise the internal 2gb of SD space to allow me to install more applications but ultimately it has been gathering dust and is either used as an ebook reader for my emagazine or if I want to tinker. The last word 'tinker' is quite important because in reality this is all I can do with the device.

There aren't really any productivity applications out there other than abiword and gnu sheet for business use. The mail client although been upgraded is still crap not being able to really view html pages. The web browser does work but is slow and the replacement fennec browser again is really slow. This coupled with the poor battery life, terrible multimedia support without encoding to a usable video format and poor low volume don't really sing any kind of praises for the device. Yes, I can carry it in my pocket, it does have a keyboard but the design of the keyboard as a slide does not work for me. Further there is a sudden lack of syncing either to exchange or google. For exchange the recommendation is to use OWA but why do I want to log into a web browser to read my email. For Google sync there is a client of which needs installing and again it is somewhat cumbersome. However I had always thought the marrying of the N810 with a phone would be a good idea.

This leads me onto the N900 of which this concept is now a reality. But... The battery is smaller than the N810 where realistically you would only get 4 hours from an N810 on constant use. The screen is resistive where after using the N810 it is usable but capacitive would be great. But again, because the device does need a stylus you cannot exactly have a capacitive screen although someone is working on a stylus that will work with one. 32gb of storage is good, but how much of this like the N810 can we use to install applications? the N810 could have upto 32gb with micro sdhc cards, but the actual storage space with the internal flash ram, the swap file and preloaded OS meant you were still limited. The camera at 5 mpx is great, HSPA built in is great but again and little things like USB charging are welcome.

But wait a sec..... haven't we been here before with the N97 - the flagship device? Now there is the mini N97 again all of the N97 problems pre packaged in a smaller tin.

I currently have an HTC Magic, a welcome relief to S60 and I have been amazed of how much I am enjoying android. Later in the year the Palm Pre will hit the UK, again another device that I have tried with the SDK emulator and like but let down through lack of software.

So getting back to my question, part of me wants to order the N900 to see if it is what I have been looking for. The idea of a mobile computer with telephony rather than the other way around is for me the correct specification. However, recent Nokia announcements and hype such as the N97, 5800 and S60v5 and through previously owning an N810 are seriously putting me off. Lastly the N900 will cost £499 to order - that's half a grand.... I can go away for this, pay my mortgage and bills for one month or even save it. I was stung last year being eager to get the I8510 another all singing all dancing phone in spec but let down with bad firmware and support from Samsung.

Nokia will no doubt fix any problems the N900 quickly as they appear or at least there is the maemo community to do the work for them. This in itself will help the device become successful.

But overall, I think through writing this piece that I will wait as Q4 has many other things that will be happening. There was once a time I would have pressed Buy Now for example the Nokia 9500, E90, E71 and E63. But now I am more wise and frugal I will take a back seat let the cloud of hype surrounding the launch settle and wait to see what actual users are saying rather than the spin machine.

I may be wrong but ultimately that £500 can stay in the bank earning a little interest then when and if an opportunity of the ultimate device shows itself I can consider a purchase.

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.

So do you touch or point?

I have now had my nokia 5800 for 3 weeks but it has been an up road struggle.

I have always enjoyed touch screen phones where my first was a p800. Before this I had a catalogue of touch pdas such as the psion 5,7 , the palm v, the handspring visor, hp jornada 629, compaq ipaq, hp jornada phone/pda so I have some experience when it comes to tapping a screen.

I got an iphone last year shortly after they came out in the uk to see if I would like it. For me, this felt like a heavy weight boxing game as I hadn't had an apple device before, I have big expectations from mobile devices as I am a heavy user and there was a question if the iphone could cope with me. Lets just say it was short lived and after 2 months it was back on eBay.

I loved the interface, the web browsing was perfect and it was great to type on. I hated the closed environment where you were locked into Itunes and the Apple way of doing things. With my other devices such as Windows Mobile or Symbian I am somewhat free of this and can choose my own route on how I want to accomplish things. I jailbroke my iphone, installed a web server with php, ssh server and ftp server so I could shuttle files forwards and backwards. The only other issue I had was Linux where I would have to connect both the PC and iphone to a wireless network, ssh onto the iphone then mount the iphone filesystem over ssh in order to copy files onto it. Sounds great technically but a total headache in reality. I eventually got rid of the iphone after it decided to wipe my data from its disk even though itunes knew it had several gigabytes of "other data", but could not access it. Only a reflash would fix this issue and this is when it was packed up and flogged on ebay.

The thing that Apple got right and set a bench mark was the touch interface. They have always been at the forefront of GUI interfaces with MAC OS X and carried this over to the iphone. I have to admit after years of using point and click interfaces on psion, palm and windows mobile with a stylus, it was both novel and practical to be able to use a finger and thumb to get things done.

I enjoyed my time using Palm PDAs such as the Handspring Visor because I loved the simplicity of Graffiti for the entering of text. This was carried over onto the Sony Ericsson UIQ phones such as the P800 - P990 (this was a total disaster) . However both UIQ and Palm have totally dried up in terms of current hardware and Windows Mobile is the old elephant on top of a mini and it just a fudge. Even with the current crop of phones such as the HTC Touch or Touch HD whilst the Flow interface masks most of the windows mobile junk underneath you still cannot get away from the legacy interface.

As I like symbian, I needed a phone then S60 was a good choice. I previously had an S80 device such as the Nokia 9500 which if used today is like putting a shoe to your ear. I upgraded to a N95 running S60 which got me used to this new OS and its limitation in time for me getting my Nokia E90. This to date is my favorite all in one device with a keyboard and whilst it does not have touch it is a great workhorse. Because Nokia have been slow to bring out further high end devices - the N95 8GB and N96 weren't really upgrades in terms of hardware I got a Samsung Innov8. In terms of spec 3G HSDPA, GPS, 8M Camera, WIFI 3" screem and 16GB on board all running under S60 then this is the dream phone. However the big mistake here is the compatibility with current Nokia S60 software that is free due to the certificates not being available. All About Symbian have recently discussed this on a podcast and have said that they are looking to developers to provide the correctly signed software so it runs under Samsung S60. This has been an issue since the phone came out in August 2008 and it is still not resolved. Needless to say this phone is now on ebay as I had enough of contacting suppliers just to ask when are they bringing out a version for the Innov8. This coupled with samsung#s reluctance to release firmware to fix annoying bugs was too much and this is when I began looking elsewhere.

So in summary, I now want a device that has a keyboard, is compatible with S60 and a touch screen. ........

Now enter from stage left the Nokia 5800XM aka Tube. I got mine from ebay which originally had been sourced from Hong Kong. The phone has already been reflashed by me with the new v11 firmware and the product code changed. Again, I cannot understand why Nokia insist on phase releasing firmware at different times and areas across the globe. Again, take a leaf out of Apple's book who just get on with it and release it worldwide at the same time. I understand Nokia have a huge catalogue of phones but why should I wait several months for something.......

Since having the phone it has been hard reset four times and now I can reinstall it under two hours. However it does refuse to boot with the memory card in so this has to be removed and inserted when the phone has booted. I know there is something on the memory card stopping it but cannot be bothered to fault find as I just want it to work and have a workaround. Also the Web Feeds within the browser have screwed up with no fix in sight other than to wipe the phone again. Luckily Google reader works quite well albeit the touch interface on the web browser sometimes finds you reaching for the hammer!

So do you touch or point? Well with S60v5 it is a question of both. Whilst it is S60 underneath and the menus and buttons have been resized so you can use your finger there is still a lot of work. The S60 browser might be able to show flash unlike the iphone, however it is both slow when zooming in and out with your finger and rendering a page. Thus when you try and move the page about the screen with your finger it frequently does not happen and will move when it is ready to catch up.

The onscreen keyboard is great but I miss the auto correct feature as on the iphone. It is also
annoying to have to keep rotating the phone to type on the full size qwerty keyboard. There are occasions you need to resort to using the stylus (point) that comes with the phone to select things or use the tip of your finger nail if you have any!

But looking past these small things that can be fixed in software upgrades it has a better camera, and can record video and is more open so I can do more with it. For example SymSMB allows me to both connect to Microsoft networks or share folders on the phone. This means I can hook up my linux laptop and copy my podcasts over wifi, access my pictures or MP3s all without a cable or pc suite. It will be great when they finally get the OTA updates working so finally the cables can be burned other than for charging.

This phone will be a transition similar when I went from the 9500, to N95 to E90. I will be moving to the N97 where I am hoping this should do me as an E90 replacement. It has the keyboard, the camera, the capacity and the screen/interface.

If it will be the iphone killer, all I will say is - there is an opportunity but at the moment Nokia have a lot to fix and need to start innovating rather than following. Palm have recently done this with the pre - another contender of which I will be looking at

Lets hope they can remove the need to point and improve on the touch.