palmsolo's personal blog » Series 60

Bunch of gear to review this weekend

palmsolo — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 02:57:43 +0000

Bunch of gear to review this weekend,
originally uploaded by palmsolo.

I received a Nokia E72, Nokia 5800 Navigation, Blueant Q1, Sprint Overdrive,
and Noreve N900 case to review this weekend. Then on Saturday morning
another NDA device was sent for Monday revelation. It is so good to be a
geek

I thought I liked the Palm Foleo

palmsolo — Thu, 31 May 2007 14:50:29 +0000

Palm announced their Foleo mobile companion device yesterday and most every blogger I read over the last 24 hours does not like the device. I actually am thinking about it as a possible future purchase since I think it takes the Nokia Internet Tablet idea and makes it better with a larger display and a keyboard. With the integrated WiFi you don’t even need a smartphone to use the device, but the multimedia functionality is still an unknown. I think if it was priced the same as the N800 (US$399) it would probably sell quite well, but with a full retail price of US$600 then that may push it too far out of people’s comfortable price range.

I take my Stowaway BT keyboard with me and try to use the TV-out on S60 devices, but many times hotel do not have the ports available to turn the mobile device into a traveling computer and the Foleo would allow you to always have a display and keyboard with you. I think the device may be a good companion for the business traveler who needs to get some basic work done on the plane and needs a device that lasts longer than the 2-3 hour battery life on most all laptops. Granted, there are micro laptops out there with long battery life and good performance, but they cost 3 to 4 times what the Foleo will cost you.

I need to get a hold of one and see for myself. What do you think of the Palm Foleo?

UPDATE: After some more thinking about the device, I just don’t think there is a need for the Foleo as I stated in my ZDNet blog entry.

T-Mobile data plan issues yet again, but Nokia seems to work

palmsolo — Fri, 11 May 2007 13:39:25 +0000

I am getting a bit tired of T-Mobile and their data plan issues. I had the unlimited data plan for US$19.99 per month and then added the WiFi option for my trip to London in December, but they never came through with the WiFi part so I tried going back to the data only plan. They wouldn’t let me do that and said I had to pay the US$29.99 plan with the T-Mobile HotSpot access. Well, I don’t want the HotSpot access since I would rarely use it so I tried the US$5.99 T-Zones plan and that has worked for the last 4 months or so.

I just recently upgraded my T-Mobile Dash to Windows Mobile 6 and also just received a Vox to try out and now neither of them will connect with the T-Zones plan, even trying the proxy settings. It looks like my only alternative with T-Mobile is to go with their US$29.99 plan again. I would pay it in a heartbeat if they had 3G like EVERY other U.S. carrier, but they are still on EDGE and I don’t think consumers should have to pay US$30 per month for EDGE and WiFi that is not needed. Why can’t T-Mobile offer the US$20 plan again just for data? I think they better watch out or they may lose more customers with their extreme slowness in adopting 3G while still charging 3G data rates.

On a whim, I put my SIM back into the Nokia N95 I am testing and data seems to work fine with the S60 devices so T-Mobile must have some way of detecting what type of device a person is on and shutting down that pipe. So it looks like my choices are limited in devices if I stay with the T-Zones plan and T-Mobile. I guess that knocks the Vox out of contention for a new device and the Nokia E61i is looking more and more enticing to me now.

I am locked into T-Mobile for at least another year due to contract extensions or else I would most likely jump to Cingular where I could get 3G data for US$20/month. T-Zones may open up again on these Windows Mobile devices like it has before and if not it looks like I’ll be using S60 and not Windows Mobile for my wireless data access.

UPDATE: I gave in and added the full unlimited internet plan (with T-Mobile Hotspots) so I am not limited in what device I use and don’t have to worry about loss of connectivity again.

Now in Madrid, thanks to Nokia

palmsolo — Mon, 23 Apr 2007 21:53:52 +0000

The S60 team at Nokia sent me a last minute invite to Madrid for the S60 Summit and I couldn’t pass up the opportunity. I then paid for a ticket for my wife to come along and added a couple of days to the trip for some R&R. We have been to a bull fight and to Toledo so far and plan to finish our sightseeing tomorrow before I go attend and cover the S60 Summit on my ZDNet blog. Stay tuned for S60 news.

N95 and N800 are in the house and rocking!

palmsolo — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 15:55:16 +0000

I just received a Nokia N95 to evaluate through the Nseries Blogger Relations program and have to say that so far it is FANTASTIC! Check out my initial thoughts and unboxing photos and stay tuned for more experiences as I dive into using it. It was wonderful to listen to Yahoo! Music through my Ultimate Ears earphones, surf the web, and check GPS status on the bus this morning. If you just saw the N95 sitting there you would think it was a digital camera with the large display and Carl Zeiss camera lens, but it is so much more.

I also received a N800 last Friday and love using it as a couch surfing device. My Samsung Q1 UMPC is now available again for sale and I’ll be posting an ad here and elsewhere soon so if you are interested in it feel free to email me at palmsoloATgmailDOTcom.

Nokia N80ie review up on Mobile Gadgeteer site

palmsolo — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 16:44:01 +0000

I posted my thoughts and 24 photos of the Nokia N80ie device that I have been checking out as part of the Nokia Nseries Blogger Relations program and you can find it here. I really do like the device, but I think the N93 fits my desires more. If VoIP is something you want to use a lot then check out my VoIP article to see how functional the N80ie is in this area.

Rediscovering my Nokia E61

palmsolo — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 20:22:31 +0000

I have been using my T-Mobile Dash for the last couple of months and really do enjoy using the device, but before I was using the Dash the Nokia E61 replaced my Treo 650. After discovering that some new VoIP applications worked on the E61, there was a new QuickOffice Suite for the S60 platform, and my Twitter usage has increased I decided to give my E61 another shot. I actually put the cool purple Nokia N95 theme on it too and love the looks of it. Fring lets me call people via WiFi on Skype, Google Talk, and MSN Messenger or even chat with them using these clients and this is just too cool. The more I play with the E61, the more I think an E61i with the camera may be in my future since a camera is really the only thing I miss from the E61.

Compared to the Dash, I love the way you can customize the folders, main Home screen, and look and feel of these S60 devices. I do like the way Windows Mobile Smartphones use the smart dialing feature though and this is missed on S60 devices. The web browsing on the E61 is incredible though and the BEST of any mobile device. The new free Nokia Maps application is also awesome since you get GPS navigation and maps for free.

I wish there was a PocketBible client for S60, but understand it can be difficult to develop and support the S60 platform with an application and books like this since Nokia makes regular updates to the OS that break the functionality on previous versions. There are some decent Bible applications for S60 though so that helps in a pinch.

I am loving the N93 again, after a hiccup this last weekend

palmsolo — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 21:10:59 +0000

I can take awesome videos with the N93 and have used it quite a bit to take sports videos and other videos of my daughters to share with family and friends. Given that fact, I popped in my SIM and took along the N93 to my daughters end-of-the year soccer party held at Bullwinkle’s Family Fun Center in Tukwila. I then flipped open the fully charged N93 and the camera application wouldn’t launch. I shut it down and tried again and it came up. I then tried to take video and it locked up again. I did another restart that actually required me to take out the battery. This time I tried to check email and the device just kept freezing. I tried a few more times after waiting a bit and the device just wouldn’t perform. This was a mystery to me as this N93 has been rock solid up until now and I even used it for 95% of all the CES photos I took for Geek.com.

After the event, I had a bit more time to think about what was going on and thought that maybe the miniSD card was causing problems since I took it out to take off the photos and something may have been corrupted. I also saw that a version 2.x firmware was available for the N93 so in a bold move I completely reformatted my storage card and upgraded the firmware of the N93. Now, everything is working well again and my camera/device issues may have just been related to a corrupt storage card. You know there is a utility on the N93 that allows you to reformat the storage card right from the device so that is something to think about if you are having issues.

I also discovered that the latest version of Mail for Exchange from the Nokia Business site does not work on the N93, but the previous version (1.3 I think) does work very well and luckily I still had a copy of that on my hard drive and will have to burn it to a CD since I don’t see a way to download older versions from the Nokia business site. The N93 is a beautiful, high quality device and I plan to load up some Office suites and try using it with the TV out functionality as a mobile PC device coupled with my Think Outside keyboard. There have been lots of cool free apps released recently that I have been talking about on MobileTechRoundup that I will be trying on the N93 too.

Mail For Exchange works like a champ on the Nokia N93

palmsolo — Fri, 05 Jan 2007 04:56:12 +0000

As readers know I have been testing the Nokia N93 and like it for the most part. One feature that I like to have is the Exchange sync feature, such as on my Nokia E61, that allows me to sync my Calendar, Contacts, and email (PUSH too). I have been using RoadSync from DataViz on the N91 and N73 and just recently installed it on the Nokia N93. However, when the device has WiFi (i.e. Nokia N91 and N93) RoadSync keeps trying to connect to a WiFi access point and won’t let me use my T-Mobile data plan. I searched all over the forums and online looking for someone who has figured out how to use GPRS/EDGE rather than WiFi, but haven’t found an answer. Thus I took off RoadSync from these devices. I then took a chance and downloaded the Mail for Exchange client, available for free from Nokia, and I am very happy to report that it works very well on the N93. I now may actually use the N93 to capture video and images at CES and upload them to the Geek.com CES Flickr set that I created.

T-Mobile disappoints, but at least cheap data is available

palmsolo — Wed, 03 Jan 2007 05:29:50 +0000

I wanted to prepare for ways to connect while in London so I updated my T-Mobile EDGE data plan to the EDGE and WiFi plan a couple days befor e departing. The problem is that I never received any login information for the T-Mobile Hotspot account and had no way to connect once I arrived in London. As a result, the new service was useless to me. I then came home and requested that my account be restored to what I had, the $19.99 unlimited data plan. I actually received a couple emails back from them stating that I never had a data plan on my account and that the $19.99 plan hasn’t been offered for a couple years. I told them to check my bills for the last year and see what was on my bill. They then replied that yes I did have that plan, but that plan is no longer available so I was stuck paying $29.99 a month even though I would never use the T-Mobile Hotspot access.

I then actually considered signing up with another carrier for data, but T-Mobile gives me a very strong signal at home so right now this doesn’t make a lot of sense. I then told them to drop my unlimited data plan and just add the $5.99 t-zones data plan. The guy on the phone said that t-zones only allowed you to browse wap sites, but after getting my account setup I can access everything I did before using S60 and Windows Mobile devices. I haven’t tried any instant messaging client out yet, which may not work. However, I don’t really use IM on my devices.