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Nokia N97 vs iPhone vs N85 vs N82 Flash Test in Darkness

Mark Guim — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 20:13:15 +0000

I couldn’t sleep last night and was literally staring at the wall for a long time. I figured I might as well take some sample photos of the wall from the Nokia N97, N85, N82, and the iPhone to compare their flashes (or lack of flash). Check it out.

For baseline, I’m going to use my wife’s iPhone 3GS to show you how the wall looks like in darkness from 5ft away. The 3GS doesn’t have flash, so the room is completely black.

Apple iPhone 3GS – doesn’t have flash

Nokia N97 – dual LEDs flash

Nokia N85 – dual LEDs flash

Nokia N82 – Xenon flash

Results

The Nokia N82 remains king of cameraphones. No flash < Dual LEDs < Xenon. The Nokia N85's photo came out better than the Nokia N97 too. I’m curious how the Nokia N86 performs in this test. Were you surprised?

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How To: Nature Photography With Nokia Cameraphones

Ravindra — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 05:44:08 +0000

When Nokia started to ship their Nseries devices with high Megapixel Cameras, a new era of photography was started, and a whole new crowd of photographers carrying mobile phones instead of professional cameras, stated to appear. I was among this new generation of photographers and my specific interest was pointed at nature. Here’s a quick guide on Nature photography which might help other Mobile Nature photographers.

I always loved to snap the beauty of my surroundings, scenery, little creatures, and even the plants they have lot to show off in detail. So I started this with my Nokia N80 and then went on to the Nokia N95 8GB, and now with the Nokia N82. When I started doing Nature photography, especially animals, my readers kept asking me again and again, how to shoot them without scaring them. Read on for my tips.

Limitations. First of all we have to understand that what we use here is a Mobile phone but not a professional SLR. We have to have some measure on our limits. Since we cannot facilitate the shooting with an optical zoom, when doing mobile photography there are certain types of shots that we cannot afford. We cannot snap any subjects which are relatively small in size and far away from our position, like birds on top of trees. But with the Macro mode available in Nseries cameras there is lot to explore, plenty of set ups can be discovered even in a small background. So these are the simple tips I follow in photographing the Nature.

Yield the best of natural light

Natural light is the best lighting you can have, no matter what type of camera you use, so same applies for the mobile phones. With the Natural light you can always have different shades thus you get different effects for the same subject when shoot in different angles.

Early morning is the best time to shoot, as you get perfect amount of light from the rising sun and you always get the lush freshness in the environment giving life to your photographs. Also you can try doing some shooting in the evening too, but in the middle of the day there is certain amount of warn-off effect in every aspect of nature due to the heat and also the light from the sun is too bright, may result the images to show a white washed effect. This depends on what country you live.

Using Macro Mode

For close-ups macro mode can really change the look of an image. It results in great amount of tiny details that sometimes even we don’t notice with our naked eyes. On N80 there is a mechanical macro switch with fixed focus which gives easy triggering but lacks the autofocus feature. But on latest Nseries devices you can use the Macro mode with autofocus, so you have a range of distance to get close to your subjects.

Shooting in the Macro mode require some practice. If you are new you won’t get the best at the first shot, but after trying several times you will learn how far you should be away from your subject to collect most of its details.

Turn off the Camera Sound

The camera sound is the most annoying thing to deal with, when it comes to photograph animals. There is no use at the end, how silent you approach the target, if the camera sound chase off your subject in the first click. So we have to mute it. In some phones activating the silent profile or turning off the warning tones would do the job, but for the others you gotta hack it to mute the camera sound.

Be Patient

In nature photography you must maintain certain level of discipline and you gotta be patient. You have to train yourself to stay still and maintain silence if you want to get close to animals. You also need to be quick because you will need to move swiftly along with the subject without making much noise. If the subject notices your presence, you can still carry on, but the most important thing is you shouldn’t pose any threat. Wild animals are very cautious and vigilant. They will get scared if you try to interfere with their surroundings.

Try to show them that you are not there to chase them away, and also never try to touch them or make them move with force. Always keep in mind that if you are dealing with untamed wild animals, you you have to keep your distance. Especially if you are fascinated with snakes.

Final Thoughts

So as you read this little guide, you will see there isn’t much specifically written related to mobiles. The Nseries cameraphones are getting closer and closer to professional cameras, though it still has a long way to go. Take a look at more of my Nature photos above with the flash slideshow. Head to the blog if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

I’ve also started a Mobile Photography section over at Symbian Stories dedicated to mobile photographers. Submit your photos and I will post all the photos I receive (If they are good enough). Every Friday there will be a blog post with the best 3 photos.

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Why Is Xenon Flash Missing on Nokia N97?

Ravindra — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 06:22:09 +0000

The xenon flash is something I was expecting to see on the Nseries flagship, that is the Nokia N97. But unfortunately once again I was left behind with my disappointment when the Nokia N97 was announced with a dual LED instead of a Xenon flash. I’m not undervaluing the greatest ever achievements they’ve crammed into the N97, but it deserves something like that.

When I asked about this during the N97 launch from the product manager , he tried to justify it by telling that the dual LED is implemented to give a better video capture. But everybody knows that the N97 isn’t their video flagship or the ultimate successor of N93 expected to hit the Mobile Arena in 2010 or mid 2009.

Dual LEDs Not Good Enough

There is a truth behind what the product manager said, but the choice should be prioritized. What I mean here is when you consider the video recording with the Dual LEDs, sure it does make a difference, but does this difference reach up to a satisfactory output? What is the point of implementing something that doesn’t come up with an quality output in overall. The N85 is the best example for this.

The Nokia N85 is capable of capturing video in dark environments thanks to its DUAL LEDs, but if you watch a video, it isn’t good in showing the details. As a result of including the DUAL LEDs, the imaging department gets the blame. Overall, the device is incapable of giving out a quality output at least in any media, video or images. So if the N97 is not going to be the video flagship, why spoil the device specs by giving priority to a less productive area? This is purely my personal view on this, but I know there are mixed thoughts.

Nokia N82’s Xenon Flash

Why am I so impressed and chasing behind the Xenon flash? It’s all about the beloved Nokia N82. The N82 is technically identical to the N95 8GB, but what makes the huge difference is the Xenon flash it carries. It’s not all about shooting at night but in general the Xenon flash accompanies to yield a much better imaging output than its rival 5MP cousins having LED and Dual LED flashes.

The camera on your mobile phone is mostly used to capture your day-today events, so they do not need to be in professional print quality. But who doesn’t like them to be more clear and detailed so that the memories are well preserved with even the tiniest possible detail, rather than being blurry and noisy?

Most of the time people use their mobile cameraphones in indoor environments like houses, clubs, restaurants, etc. In such places, even the daytime light won’t be enough to produce a good photo with the LED flash. I’ve experienced this personally when I tried to shoot with my Nokia N95 8GB. This is the point that should be taken into consideration in order to replace the digital camera with your mobile phone. Even the cheapest digital cameras now come with Xenon flash and eventually the advantage tend to inclined towards them rather than a LED flash device.

This picture was shot in pitch black with the Nokia N82.

This is also a night shot but look at the details on the lizard.

Day time, taken inside a termite mound.

I’ve written two blog posts over at Symbian-Life Blog on N82’s night time capturing and capturing a moving image on the Symbian Stories.com. After checking out the image samples you’ll notice the difference that the Xenon flash makes.

Technical Issues

The conclusions above are based on real life general user experience. But with a little bit of research, I was convinced that what the product Manager said simply in few lines could justify the omission of the Xenon from future Nokia devices.

Lets take a look at the technical background behind Xenon flash vs LED flash:

The “Light Power” (which determines how bright it appears) of the Xenon flash is much greater than of it in the LED flash. But though this is the fact, it fools us. What is important and plays a crucial role in mobile phone cameras is something else. It is the “Light Energy” which determines the total amount of light it receives while it is capturing data. In the case of LED this is much greater than it is with the Xenon.
The Xenon flash requires a bulky storage capacitor, but in the case of LED, the supercapacitor used is very thin, usually 2mm. Space is a significant factor that is considered in mobile device design.
The Xenon Flash tube is fragile and susceptible to fracture during drops, where LED has no such issues. Better be careful with your N82 and think twice before you hold it loosely.
The Xenon flash works by discharging an electrolytic capacitor pre-charged to 330v, across a Xenon gas filled tube resulting a intensely bright light. This leads us to two issues. There is a safety problem to fit the highly charged capacitor without triggering other circuits. This also requires much energy than the LED, so the 2nd one is absolutely going to be a matter of battery power in mobile phones.
The Xenon flash requires a mechanical shutter resulting extra cost, power, and space where the LED can be used with a rolling shutter.
Video capturing requires a separate LED flash for Xenon flash devices.
The recharging of electrolytic capacitor in Xenon flash takes more time than the supercapacitor in LED flash, in between photos.
The electrolytic capacitors charge can be only used for flashing process but the supercapacitors charge used in LED flash can be used for other requirements too, like flash pulse, RF Transmission for GPRS, uudio and HDD for storing audio and video. This would have been big hardware issue for sure.

Reading through these points, it is obvious why they skipped the xenon flash on the Nokia N97. Still it isn’t easy to bare in general camera usage especially for me and I’m sure it would feel the same for most of you. I will still buy the N97, but I wont be able to capture action shots like these. The bitter truth is that Consumers aren’t aware of hardware issues at all. What they are looking for is the quality of the product and its output. Nokia should find a solution to cope with these issues and come up with a device that have better flashing solution, maybe a device that has both Xenon and LED along with a much powerful battery.

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Vlog: Nokia Sports Tracker Bike Cradle

Mark Guim — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:10:03 +0000

I have a video of the Nokia Sports Tracker bike cradle which is a promo product that we’re not sure when or if it will be available in stores. It was sent by Ms. Jen who is an avid Sports Tracker user and scored a few from a Nokia manager.

Note: video below might not be visible in some RSS readers.

The cradle actually consists of 5 things you have to put together. It came with instructions that were easy to follow. The materials look very cheap, but putting them together makes the whole thing pretty secure. You basically strap it on the handlebars so that you can look at your phone while riding your bike.

The size of the strap lets you put any phone there, but it looks like it was made for the Nokia N82. The strap is placed so that the screen does not get covered.

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Why I Came Back to my Nokia N82 From G1 Android Phone

Chris Walters — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 05:11:11 +0000

When T-Mobile released the G1 (aka the HTC Dream) two weeks ago, I caved in and bought it. No more waiting for Nokia to someday bring its own touch interface to the U.S., I decided! I bought a G1 online within hours of it going on sale, and I made plans to sell my four-month-old Nokia N82.

History

To explain my interest in the G1, I have to back up a little. Ever since I first saw the iPhone’s UI, I’ve stared at my S60 devices like a husband with a wandering eye: I want to be faithful to my Nseries phone, which I love dearly, but how can I when there are these sexy new models moving in to the neighborhood?

I’d always successfully resisted the iPhone’s siren call, mainly because I’ve never been impressed with what that UI or the hardware can actually *do* once you get past the surface beauty. But I’m a sucker for open source projects–even when the term is only loosely applied, as it is with Google’s Android OS–and consequently I’ve been secretly lusting after an Android device since the project first came to my attention.

Not sexy enough. There was nothing wrong with my N82, you understand, other than it just wasn’t *sexy* enough to me. No touch screen, no *big* screen, no physical keyboard, no it-just-works syncing with the great Google cloud.

After playing with the G1 for an hour or two, though, I thought, “I’ll just hang on to the N82 for a few days before trying to sell it. Just in case.” After spending a weekend with the G1, I thought, “I’d better keep the N82 until my return period has expired on the G1. Just in case.” And exactly one week after having first turned on the G1, I packed it up to ship back to T-Mobile, and came groveling back to my N82.

Back to the Nokia N82

The build quality of the G1 isn’t that great. The G1 isn’t a shoddy phone by any means, but I suspect some corners were cut to bring it to market at such a low price. The biggest problem I had with the build of the phone was the slide-up screen. Instead of gliding smoothly open, it snaps up loudly into place, and whether open or closed the screen sits at the slightest angle to the rest of the phone. It’s not an intentional design quirk, as far as I can tell–it’s just a consequence of how the hinge mechanism is constructed. Mine never squeaked, but I’ve read reports online of the hinge becoming even noisier after a few weeks of use.

Battery life was the worst I’ve ever seen on a phone–mine would drop by 20% within an hour of full charge, and that was with GPS and 3G turned off. (I suspect WiFi connectivity was draining it, but to turn that off as well would have negated the whole point of owning the G1.)

In addition, it’s both larger and heavier than my N82, which was already heavier than my N95. Why a newer camera with fewer features should be both heavier *and* bigger is a puzzle to me–I can only assume it was to cut costs, but I suspect it was also the consequence of a rushed design phase.

And finally, the lack of a 3.5mm headphone jack, and the tinny, single speaker that’s easily muffled when the phone is face-up, are both head-scratchers when one of the key selling points of your phone is that it can handle multimedia.

The camera is unusable. I was optimistic that the G1, while never matching my N82’s camera functionality, would suffice for snapshots. After all, day-to-day snaps of things don’t need amazing optics or mountains of megapixels. What I found, however, was that the camera and its software were both so undercooked that it was for all practical purposes unusable. The camera app was slow to launch, taking 3 to 5 seconds. Focus time (which you can’t turn off) took another 3 to 5 seconds. Taking the photo, another 3 to 4 seconds. By my rough estimate, that’s between 9 and 14 seconds before you can even find out if the shot you took is worth keeping (more on that below). By comparison, I can pull my N82 out of my pocket, launch the camera, and end up with a crisp, ready-to-share photo in about 7-8 seconds.

Time-to-shot isn’t the only problem, and I could probably even live with the slower G1 camera if only the photos were usable. Instead, with the exception of a few macro shots (the one area where the phone excels), everything I shot with the G1 was blurry and dark. There’s no flash, but even in well-lit indoor environments the photos looked like I was having a seizure when I hit the shutter button.

I remember the problems I had with my original N95 camera a couple of years ago, and I know a lot can change with a few well-designed firmware updates. But even in its original buggy state, the N95 took decent photos. What I quickly realized with the G1 was that I would almost never be able to use my phone as a snapshot camera.

The Phone is Ugly. Sure, beauty is negotiable. I for one love the asymmetrical wedge-shape of the Amazon Kindle, which has been widely loathed by some consumer electronics fans. But the G1 is the first phone I’ve seen where there doesn’t seem to be *any* design. It seems purely function over form. I thought that was supposed to create its own sort of beauty, but the theory doesn’t hold with the G1. The flat black case is without personality; the PDA layout of buttons looks dated; the swing-up screen, as I mentioned above, “clacks” into place, and rests awkwardly at an angle whether in an open or closed position; the flush mirrored boundary around the camera captures smudges that obscure the camera’s pinhole opening. The “chin” on the phone doesn’t bother me, although I know some users have complained about it, but it doesn’t improve the look of the device either.

By contrast, the iPhone is a stunner, and some of Nokia’s Nseries are well-balanced achievements of mixing subtle design choices (e.g. the patterned plastic battery covers) with necessities of design (screen, d-pad, numerical keys).

The more I stared at the G1, the more I was puzzled by HTC’s choice to forgo any design. Here’s an opportunity to ride the Android hype wave and elevate your own reputation as a handset maker, so that people who buy the G1 equate HTC with awesome hardware. For some reason, HTC let that opportunity pass–and another handset maker will surely come along soon enough and win attention that HTC should have won, being first out of the gate.

Carrier lock-in on a cheap, underwhelming phone? No thank you. Being tied to a single carrier for two years, and *still* paying nearly $200 for a phone that was outdated (hardware-wise) as soon as I took it out of the box, was a deal-breaker. I honestly couldn’t see myself using the G1 for more than six months tops, which is too short a period to pay $200 + 2-years-committment for.

Okay, I’ve hated on the G1 enough. Not everything about it is bad, of course: a couple of days before I made my decision to return it, I pulled up a demo of the Nokia 5800 to comapre interfaces, and the contrast between the two was striking. The S60’s touch interface looked so sad and clunky in comparison to Android’s elegance. Here, then, are the things I still love about the G1, or rather about Android.

Syncing is perfect. Setting aside the lock-in and privacy issues of being forced to use Google’s email, calendar, and contacts services, the experience of turning on the G1 for the first time was phenomenal. You’re presented with a login screen where you enter your Google account info, and as soon as you hit submit, the phone connects with the Google cloud and pulls all of your email, calendar, and address book data down to your phone. If you change a contact’s information, it’s synced up to your online contacts list without you having to worry about it. I’ve never experienced such a pure “it just works” moment with any other computer or phone. Android has set a new bar for how to manage the customer data syncing experience.

Android’s alert messaging pane is nearly perfect. Perhaps the best design innovation of Android is its messaging pane–as events happen, they are sent to the messaging pane, which hide along the top border of the screen and slides down like a window shade when triggered. It’s accessible from any app with a simple flick, and it presents everything that’s going on at that moment with your phone: new email messages, new text messages, the current music track you’re playing, download and install notices, calendar appointments, and system alerts.

Android’s extensive GPS/location-based services show a lot of potential. Android isn’t the first to market with location-based apps, obviously, but what it’s doing in the field is interesting. A couple of great apps I tested included a radar/compass app–which tells you how far away your target is, and in what direction, and best of all can be accessed by other location-based apps–and a Wikipedia app that pulled up entries relevant to your current location based on GPS data. Unlike the sluggish Nokia Maps, Android’s maps were fast and fun to drag around and zoom in and out of. In addition, tapping on an address on a web page–it didn’t have to be a link, as the OS is smart enough to just know what an address looks like–brings up the location on a map. It’s all pretty much seamless and invisible. If my N82’s location-based potential was equal to what the G1 can already pull off, I’d be using it a lot more in daily life, instead of just showing it off to friends as a feature of the phone.

The App Market isn’t perfect, but at least it’s not Download! (or MOSH)
And finally, there’s one more element to the Android ecosphere that I think warrants some discussion: Android’s App Market. It’s too early to predict whether it will evolve into a high-quality marketplace for apps, or an anything-goes bazaar a la MOSH (which I love for its variety but find frustrating to search through because of the chaff). But one thing it *isn’t*, thank the gods, is Download!, Nokia’s broken mini-store that comes pre-installed on its phones. Download! is an embarrassment to Nokia–or should be, but since they keep including it on their handsets I have to assume that either they don’t care that it’s so horrible or they’ve forgotten it exists. (Although it looks like Nokia is finally addressing the problem later this month–we’ll see what happens.)

I have a feeling the App Market’s $25 entry fee, along with the rather aggressive app-rating practices being employed so far by G1 early adopters, will keep the App Market free from too much of the junk that clutters up MOSH, while at the same time it’s an open enough marketplace for hobbyists and freeware developers to participate. Symbian nearly broke the S60 freeware/hobbyist market with their changes to how apps are signed last year, although the developing community seems to be slowly adjusting to the new signing system. I’m impressed the Android is being more open than Symbian, and relying upon the security of its OS as well as the good sense of each phone’s owner, to make sure useful apps are installed.

Conclusion

After a week with the G1, my conclusion was that Android is loaded with promise, but the G1 represents a squandered opportunity for T-Mobile and HTC. I’m certain upcoming firmware updates will iron out kinds in the Android OS, and may even make the camera usable for basic snapshots, but you can’t fix ugly design or poor build quality over-the-air. The G1 is definitely not a smart phone, and with the lack of a headphone jack, decent speakers, or the ability to record video or take decent photos, it’s not even really a feature phone.

I thought I’d have some regret over giving up on the Android OS, and to be honest, I *do* miss the fun of tapping and dragging. I spent far too many hours just swiping between the three desktops, just because it was fun to do. But mostly I’m just grateful to have a truly high-quality phone in my pocket once again. Nokia N82, I promise I won’t leave you again… or at least until the successor to the 5800 hits the U.S. market.

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Using Nokia N82 at BarcampLA6

Al Pavangkanan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 16:23:34 +0000

This past weekend, I attended BarcampLA6 which took place at Mahalo HQ in Santa Monica, CA. Barcamp is an “unconference ” where people can share and learn in an open environment. Most of Los Angeles’ tech community showed up to talk about things they are knowledgeable about. I attended talks ranging from dating tips, zombie hacking, budget movie making and twitter novels. I took a lot of pictures with the Nokia N82.

Note: If the embedded flash slideshow below is not visible in your RSS reader, head over to the blog.

Barcamp is a great place for people to show off gadgets. Macbooks are overwhelmingly popular, almost 75% of everyone there had one. Netbooks are not as popular as I thought, I only saw a handful of them there.

Blackberries and iPhones were certainly popular. I was glad to see the Android G1 for the first time, I saw at least 5 people using them. There’s some pretty neat apps for Android, I loved the barcode reader. I saw quite a few Nokia N95s, mainly being used for QIK livestreaming. I saw one person use his N95 as a remote for his powerpoint presentation.

Perhaps the neatest gadget I saw was the Microsoft Surface. It was interesting to see so many people interact with it at the same time. I learned that it uses a camera to detect touches and the apps run on Silverlight.

A great aspect of barcamp is being with gamers. I got to play an original Street Fighter 2 arcade cabinet. People spent most of Saturday night playing Rockband. My favorite was playing Mario Kart DS, playing with people is more fun for me compared to online play.

I took a lot of pictures with my Nokia N82. There were multiple wifi access points available at the Mahalo complex, one access point was stronger on one half of the facility compared to others. To take advantage of this, I went into the settings and made sure the default access point was set to none. After every picture, I would select Post to Web. I added a title, picked my tags and picked the best access point. Uploads were quite simple. The hardest part was thinking up a title for each picture on the fly.

There was a monitor on display with pictures tagged with barcampla6, so I often saw my pictures load. This is what I love about instant uploads, not having to wait until I’m near a computer to upload and manage this stuff. Its all done on my phone.

Share Online came in handy to help me make sure I didn’t double post some images. I constantly updated my photostream to see what I’ve uploaded and see any comments available. I did occasionally do some double uploads. I used my Nokia N800 to log onto flickr and delete the pictures from my photostream.

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Nokia N82 vs Nokia N85 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia N96 Camera Flash Test in Darkness

Mark Guim — Sat, 25 Oct 2008 05:36:06 +0000

Some people asked me how the dual LED flash is on the Nokia N85 compared to the xenon flash on the Nokia N82. What better way to answer by showing the results instead? I took pictures with N95 8GB, N96, N85, and N82. Sheila was kind enough to stand in front of the camera and try not to get blinded.

Post Now Updated with the answers below and link for larger original image sizes.

Nokia N82 vs N85 vs N95 8GB vs N96

Here’s the breakdown on what kind of flash each phone has:

Nokia N95 8GB – LED
Nokia N96 – Dual LEDs
Nokia N85 – Dual LEDs
Nokia N82 – Xenon!

The photos were all taken in automatic mode with all the lights turned off in our hallway. The wall is painted light yellow and the doors are dark brown. The photos were also resized to fit the blog’s width. Can you guess what camera phone was used? I’ll update this post with the answers and links to the larger original size photos on Monday night.

Camera A

Camera B

Camera C

Camera D

Guess

I wonder if the guesses will be unanimous. Is it hard or too obvious ? We’ll see. Please let me know your answers in the comments.

Answers:

You can click on the photos and check the properties to make sure I am telling the truth. I think the Nokia N85’s picture looks better than the N96, but the Nokia N82 is still definitely Nokia’s photo flagship.

A = Nokia N96
B = Nokia N95 8GB
C = Nokia N85
D = Nokia N82

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Upgrading From Nokia N82 Has Me Confused

Ani — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 01:21:57 +0000

Hello, Bonjour, Sat Shri Akal, Namaste, Salaam! Behold everyone Dr. is in the house. Yes, that’s right! I’m Dr. Anirudh Sharma aka Gomcoite from The S60 Blog. Thank you Mark for having me here. Recently Mark upgraded to his New Nokia N85 Euro/Asia Model off a great deal on eBay. I too am round the same corner and am looking for that perfect device to upgrade from my present Nokia N82.

Having Nokia announce a whole lot of new devices to hit the market has confused me, but having you all enthusiastic Nokia fans here will sure make my job easier and I’m sure you all will give me a great feedback on which one should I pick.

At present the only thing that I don’t like about my Nokia N82 is its keypad and blocky size. On whole I have had a great experience with my N82. Simply love the 5 MP AF Carl Ziess camera which to me has the best picture quality amongst all Nokia devices at present and which is the reason why I got it. I sure missed on the lighter side of things like N-Gage which is practically not as fun on the N82 as it would have been on an Nokia N95 8GB because of it dual slide design.

Choices

Analyzing the choices I have as of now would be the Nokia N96 and N85. No Eseries for me as they totally lack a good camera and are studded with a 2.5 mm jack which I totally hate. Now the big question, Is it right time to upgrade? Will switching from N82 to one of these be worth? I really like the N96 with its huge screen and memory but I don’t want to miss on the microUSB charging in the N85.

If I wait for a while then I guess the 5800 XpressMusic is also not bad as I would love its huge screen and touch interface but this would make me end up with poor camera optics. N79 may also turn out to be a good choice as it is the sleekest Nseries to date and has all the latest features including the Xpress On covers. Oh boy, the more I think, the more I get confused.

Advice

So with all these new devices coming in a pulsatile manner have made my neurons fire in circles. What do you guys feel? Have you been planning on buying a new device and have felt the same? Or were you clear on what you wanted? Share you views and help me figure out the right one for me.

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Video Center On Latest N82 Firmware Adds Scheduled Downloads

Al Pavangkanan — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:07:10 +0000

Last Thursday, v30 firmware was released for the Nokia N82. When I updated my N82, it bricked! Much to my surprise, Nokia Software Update provided instructions for getting it back up and running. Simply removing the battery and holding down the power button brought it back to life. Most news sites and blogs didn’t notice any major changes, but I found one that changes my viewing habits immensely.

It wasn’t until Saturday night that I opened up the Video Center. Normally I use a combination of Podcasting for my phone and Video Center for my Internet Tablet. I watch a lot of video podcasts on my N800 since the screen is larger. Some shows I watch on the N82, since it can handle higher quality video. I don’t use my computer because its VERY old and can’t really handle it.

I added WebbAlert to my channels and noticed that there’s some new options:

First, you can refresh feeds. This updates all your feeds. This could take a while, so don’t touch it until it’s done updating.

Second, you can schedule downloads. You can choose when you want to download (Night, morning, noon, afternoon, evening) and the access point.

From now on, Podcasting will be dedicated for audio downloads and Video Center will handle all video. Some people will prefer using Podcasting to handle all their new media needs, but I like to keep things separate.

One good reason to only use Podcasting is for opml support. You can import and export .ompl files to easily organize all your show with .rss feeds.

Using Video Center, you have to manually add shows. Even with cut and paste or a bluetooth keyboard, it takes time to input. So why am I putting myself through that kind of torture? Any video played from Video Center has a resume function. You can stop a video and come back to where you were watching later.

Recently, the N95-1 and N95-2 also got v30 updates. If you have one, does your Video Center also have these upgrades? Do you have a Feature Pack 2 device like the N78 or N96? Does the Video Center also have this feature?

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Nokia Free Hands Challenge Not Over – Win Nokia N82 + Bluetooth BH-902

Mark Guim — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:06:32 +0000

I tried winning a Nokia N82 and bluetooth headset BH-902 by uploading a stickfighting performance video, but it’s not doing too well. The challenge ends on Sept. 8th, so try your luck. Just for entering, I received an unusual package from Nokia that made my girlfriend smile.

My origami creation thanks to Nokia

Nokia sent me an origami guidebook with colored papers to try out. It’s not as good as winning a phone and bluetooth headset, but cool nonetheless. Take a look at the photos below.

I followed the instructions on making a tulip and gave it to Sheila. She loved how creative I was! Of course I told her I did it all by myself.

Finds out which bluetooth headset is perfect for you

The challenge is supposed to give attention to Nokia’s bluetooth headsets offering. Go visit nokia.com/freehands to find out which bluetooth is right for you. The widget told me the Nokia BH-803 was my perfect match.

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Sighting: Nokia N82 Shown In Official Girl Video With Cassie feat. Lil Wayne

Mark Guim — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 15:02:23 +0000

Cassie’s new video “Official Girl” featuring Lil Wayne also featured a silver Nokia N82… numerous times. You can see Cassie using the N82 in the bedroom taking videos and pictures with it. At almost 5 minutes length, the Nokia N82 was shown a total of 11 times. Pretty cool!

Nokia N82 in Official Girl video

I usually like songs with Lil Wayne, but I’m not a fan of this one. Here are the times the Nokia N82 was shown: 1:21, 1:25, 1:38, 1:52, 2:34, 2:45, 2:52, 2:56, 3:07, 3:15, 3:27. That’s a lot of screen time for the Nokia N82! Did I get it right? How many times did you spot it?

Thanks Stefan for the tip!

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Review: Nokia N82 Leather Case By Trinity

Mark Guim — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 05:00:54 +0000

Trinity, one of our sponsors here at the Nokia Blog, sent a Nokia N82 leather case to review. I have never protected my phones with leather cases before because I think they cover my devices’ beauty. With the Trinity Nokia N82 leather case, the front of the phone retains its appearance with the help of see-through plastic. The rest of the phone is covered by leather. For those who want to protect their phone Trinity can be one to consider.

Front view of the Trinity Nokia N82 leather case

Rear view of the Trinity Nokia N82 leather case

Fitment

As soon as I saw the leather case, I thought Trinity sent me the wrong case because it looked too small for the Nokia N82. I actually thought they sent me a one-for-all leather case that fits a lot of other candybar phones. I realized I was very wrong once I put it on/

The Good. The fit is snug. This means it does not make my Nokia N82 feel thicker in my pocket. The holes and openings on the leather case corresponded properly with the power button, microUSB port, volume controls and one of the speakers.

The Bad. Since closing the case includes 2 zippers on the side, the camera button, gallery button, microSD slot, mic, and one of the speakers get covered unfortunately.

Covered on the Trinity Nokia N82 leather case

Usage

The Good. Even though one of the speakers and the mic are covered by the zippers, I did not notice any hit on performance. Sound still came out loud and clear as expected on the Nokia N82. Callers can still hear me on the other line without any problems.

The Bad. The D-Pad on the Nokia N82 is raised making it feel good to navigate with the up-down-left-right keys without a leather case. The snug fit of the Trinity leather case slightly takes away that tactile feedback. Pressing either the left or right direction actually sometimes made the phone thought I pressed the center button.

Verdict

I’m not a leather case user. I like carrying my phones in my pocket and only really want to protect the screen display. If you like to protect your whole phone, then Trinity is definitely something to consider. The snug fitment does not make your phone bulkier than it needs to. The only problem I had is the performance of the D-pad after I put on the leather case.

4 types of leather cases for the Nokia N82

The price for the exact case I received is 9,99 EUR not including shipping. There are 3 other types of cases you can choose from for the Nokia N82 pictured above.

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Nokia N82 Impressions From N73 User

Melissa Rich — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 18:29:06 +0000

I received a loan of the Nokia N82 from S60 Ambassadors program three weeks ago, and have been playing with it every since. Coming from the Nokia N73 that I currently use, this phone was definitely an upgrade. Read my impressions on music, camera, and web browsing on the Nokia N82.

Music

My first priority after installing the SIM, was to set off on a walk, taking particular attention to the quality of sound, as this device has been marketed with exceptional media qualities. The sound is above par, and after comparing the same song on the iPhone, I would pick the Nokia N82 hands down. After downloading a selection of my music on the N82, I have chosen this device over everything I own to play music when mobile.

5MP Camera

The next thing I concentrated on was the camera. Since I am a photographer in training, I have yearned for a phone that has better quality than the greenish hue we all remember from the Paris Hilton video’s. A simple point and shoot is all I have wanted, and this is what I have and more with the specifications being a Carl Zeiss 5 megapixels with xenon flash. What do all those words mean? It means for those moments my child is being awesome and I need to capture the moment quickly, the Nokia N82 comes to the rescue, rendering a nearly perfect picture with proper color and not being distorted like so many camera phones on the market.

Nokia N82 in silver with 5 megapixel camera

Browsing the Web

The one thing I have not absolutely been smitten with is the native browser and so I chose to download Opera Mini instead. This has rendered my mobile browsing needs sufficiently for me, and at speeds that don’t make a turtle look fast.

Overall

Overall, the learning curve from a Nokia N73 to a Nokia N82 has been relatively fast and painless. This is a product that has even impressed my non-techie friends. I love to use this phone to show off all the qualities of a good phone can for a person.

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Tip: Faster Multiple Selection Of Images And Videos In Gallery

Mark Guim — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:00:39 +0000

For those who don’t know yet, there are faster ways to mark or select multiple images and videos on the Nokia/S60 Gallery. This is really useful for transferring files to your computer through bluetooth, or uploading multiple photos to Flickr and Ovi using the Nokia Share Online application.

After selecting the first photo, marking the rest is easier.

Fast Marking Option A

At the Gallery screen, go to one of the photos or videos you want to select, then press Options – Mark/Unmark – Mark. That photo is now marked (notice the check on the upper right corner).
Instead of going through the options again and again to select other files, press on the center key for each additional photo then Mark.

Fast Marking Option B

At the gallery screen, go to the first photo you want to select, then hold the pencil key (or # if you don’t have the pencil like the Nokia N82), with one of the direction keys.
It will mark all the files in the direction you go to.

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I Entered The Nokia Free Hands Challenge To Win A Nokia N82 and BH-902

Mark Guim — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:03:35 +0000

Nokia just launched the Free Hands Challenge where you can win a Nokia N82 and the Nokia BH-902 bluetooth headset each week. I am not passing on this opportunity, so I’ve already uploaded my video. The challenge itself is to find out what people can do with their hands. My first video is during a cultural show where we demonstrated stickfighting martial arts. We messed up a bit, but check it out.

Video might not be visible in your RSS reader. I’m the one in the red, and Allen is the one who gets the girl.

The most popular video each week wins a prize. Pretty cool! Upload your videos now and also leave the links to your videos in the comments below with a short description to get some more views. Good luck!

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Nokia E71 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia N82 Screen Size Comparison

Mark Guim — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 05:00:30 +0000

Let’s take a look at the screen sizes of the Nokia E71 with the Nokia N95 8GB and the Nokia N82 using side-to-side photos. We all know they use the same resolution size, 240×320 (or 320×240), but the actual screen size on the Nokia E71 is 2.36 inches compared to 2.8 on the Nokia N95 8GB and 2.4 on the Nokia N82. Pictures do better when comparing sizes, so let’s take a look.

On paper, the difference is miniscule. On a picture, 0.34 inches difference is in fact, pretty big. Click on the images for larger view.

Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia E71, and Nokia N82 side by side.

You can see the biggest difference between the Nokia N95 8GB and the Nokia E71. I placed an American quarter on there for comparison as well. Don’t they appear to have the same width? This realization made me wish the Nokia N95 8GB featured a higher resolution.

Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia E71 screen size

Price Check

Check out the Nokia N82 price check or the Nokia E71 price check to see the lowest prices available for these phones unlocked and without contracts.

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Nokia N82 Using Sportstracker At 10000 Meters Altitude

Al Pavangkanan — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 22:16:30 +0000

I recently flew home from Houston to Los Angeles. I got myself a window seat during check in. I was pleased to find my seat had two windows. Inspired by a post by Monadi at Phone-rush, I wanted to try GPS in mid-flight for myself.

Before takeoff, I set the Nokia N82 to offline mode and then turned it off. When the pilot started talking, I first turned on my Nokia N95. It took a few minutes to get a GPS lock. I couldn’t move it around without losing the signal.

I turned the Nokia N82 on and it didn’t take long for it to get a signal. I turned on the GPS data application and got this screenshot:

Nokia N82 at high altitude

Taking a cue from the great position artist Stavros, I turned on the Sportstracker application to make some of my own position art.

I first changed a few settings. I set the units to imperial and the GPS filtering to low. I was able to keep the Nokia N82 in my shirt pocket and maintain a signal lock. I then activated the Sportstracker. Here is a map of my position art:

View Larger Map

One giant stroke across the American Southwest.

This is a detailed log of the journey at the sportstracker website. You can see some screenshots and a few pictures I took while in midflight.

It looks like I started Sportstracker at the end of the ascent portion of the flight at almost 11000 meters (36000 feet) and a speed of 846 km/hr (536 mi/hr). It began to slow down and descend quickly somewhere over San Bernadino. I turned it off as soon as the pilot said to turn off all electronic devices.

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Vlog: Changing Phones With The ProClip Car Mount Kit

Mark Guim — Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:40:09 +0000

After reading my review of the ProClip car mount kit on the Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia N82, take a look at my video showing how quick it is to switch between devices. All you have to do is slide off and then slide on. Enough talking and watch the video.

Like I said in my review, I got tired of the windshield suctions that kept falling. I really think the ProClip is the best mount for our phones.

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Review: ProClip Car Mount Kit For Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia N82

Mark Guim — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 21:15:18 +0000

I finally found the best car mount for our Nokia phones. It is the ProClip kit. I was already disappointed with cheap windshield mounts I bought from eBay as they kept falling off. The ProClip solution is specific to your car and device, so the fit is perfect. Take a look at my review.

Purchasing

Purchasing the kit requires you to buy a specific holder for your device and then a specific mount for your car. Instead of the generic ones where you adjust for different devices, each holder conforms to the specific shape of the device. ProClip’s website makes it easy to find the right parts you need using drop down selections.

I selected the holders for the Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia N82. I then selected the mount for Mitsubishi Eclipse 2000-2005.

Step 1: Select the holder for the device.

Step 2: Select the mount for your car.

Optional Clip. That’s your basic need above. If you want to easily change devices, you’ll want to get the Move Clip. Without the move clip, you have to unscrew and screw each time you change devices. The clip allows you to slide in or out different holders on one mount.

Optional Step 3: Move Clip lets you easily change holders on one mount.

The price is high compared to the cheap windshield mounts you can find from eBay.

Package

The kit comes in a package with the necessary screws and illustrated instructions. You’ll need 2 different sized screwdrivers. I don’t exactly know the sizes, but I’m sure you’ll have them lying somewhere in your house.

Holder for Nokia N82, Nokia N95 8GB, car mount, and move clip.

Installation

Installing the kit was a breeze. If you don’t like reading, don’t worry. The pictures are self-explanatory. The instructions even show pictures specific to your device and car! ProClip also provides the instructions in pdf format in addition to a printed one provided with your package. Take a look at the Mitsubishi Eclipse mount instructions for example.

ProClip mount with Move Clip, without holder.

Slide the back of the holder with Move Clip into the mount.

Results

The mount is rock-on steady. It doesn’t shake or make rattling noises. The two holders perfectly fit the Nokia N95 8GB and Nokia N82. I was able to switch between devices very quickly. Since the mount is placed on my dashboard, the car charger easily reaches the phone if needed. I am also able to reach the phones if I ever need to press buttons while driving.

Nokia N95 8GB with the ProClip

Nokia N82 with ProClip

The view. I recommend getting the holder with the swivel because it gives you a better angled view at the display. Here is my view from driver’s seat.

View from driver’s seat.

The ProClip kit made me appreciate my Nokia N95 8GB even more! The 2.8in screen on my dashboard makes GPS navigation on a phone look really cool. I didn’t even notice how beautiful Nokia Maps look on landscape view until I installed the ProClip. It’s like the Nokia N95 8GB transformed from a phone into a navigation console when I entered my car and placed it on the dashboard.

Pros: Excellent quality and fit. No worries of the phone falling off. Thieves won’t notice you have a GPS navigation because they don’t see anything suctioned to the windshield.

Cons: A little pricey. I also think the Move Clip should be included with the kit instead of extra accessory to pay for.

Gallery

View full Flickr set of the ProClip.

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Review: Nokia E90 Part 2, Main Features and Functions

Mark Guim — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 23:30:32 +0000

Part 2 of the Nokia E90 review covers the main features and functions of the phone. I’ll be making a lot of the comparisons with the Nseries, because devices like the Nokia N95 and Nokia N82 are what I mostly use. You can read Part 1 of the Nokia E90 review on the Physical aspects before continuing if you haven’t done so. In the end, I think the Nokia E90’s large screen is its main strength. Thanks again to Expansys for providing the E90.

The Nokia E90 runs on S60 3rd edition similar to the Nokia N95 and Nokia N82. The main functions are very similar with a few differences unique to each phone.

Phone Calls

Making phone calls look very similar to other S60 3rd edition phones. Press contacts, and then you can scroll or start typing in names to find the right person with the exterior screen. When opened, the bigger display shows more information other than the name as you scroll through the list.

Contacts on the Nokia E90

You can also choose voice dialing. Unlike the Nseries phones where you hold the right soft-key to activate voice dialing or voice commands, you press and hold the side button on the Nokia E90.

Sound volume is fine on the earpiece, but I found the speakerphone not loud enough to my liking. The speakers are covered by your right hand when holding the phone in open position and also covered when faced flat on a table.

Messaging

The exterior screen is not as useful in reading email. You need to use the main screen for better usage. I set up my Gmail imap account on the built-in messaging application and was able to receive emails and get notified as they come. This feels similar to Push Email as described by All About Symbian. I like the automatic notifications, but I’m not impressed with the interface when it comes to reading my emails. I much prefer going to the Gmail website to read the emails.

Email on the Nokia E90

The Nokia E90 supports Exchange, but I don’t use that type of email and cannot comment my own experience. Take a look at E-series.org’s take on Mail for Exchange 2.5 for S60.

Text message alerts are different on the Nokia E90 than on the Nokia N95. Instead of a window pop-up, an alert appears within the active standby screen. What’s cool is that holding the left soft-key allows the E90 to read the new messages aloud for you!

Calendar

The bigger screen is utilized pretty well in the calendar application. As you browse through the calendar days on the left side of the screen, a quick summary of your schedule is shown on the right side. On the Nseries using the smaller displays, you have to click on the dates to see the same information.

Nokia E90’s calendar

Connectivity

The Nokia E90 supports Wifi, infrared, GPS, bluetooth, A2DP, microSD, EDGE, and 3G (though not compatible with US 3G). I have no complaints in this area other than I wish it was compatible with US 3G!

Browsing the Web

I love the wide screen on the Nokia E90. Most websites fit to the screen’s width and they appear similar to what you’ll see on a computer monitor. Since the browser supports Flash Lite 3, you can even go to Youtube to watch videos from the site directly.

Nokia E90’s browser versus Nokia N95 8GB

Games and Other Applications

Since the Nokia E90 runs on S60 3rd edition, you can install a bunch more applications on the phone to increase your productivity or even play a few games. Attila Katona over at All About Symbian wrote a nice article on Gaming with the Nokia E90 you should read about and my top 10 applications.

Conclusion

The Nokia E90’s 4in. screen allows more information displayed to the user. It enhances the experience with the main functions such as messaging, managing contacts, scheduling, and browsing the web that are all very important to a business user. One negative thing I need to mention is that I’m still not a big fan of the built-in email application. I have a better experience reading my emails on Gmail’s website.

On the next part of the Nokia E90 review, I’ll explore the camera for photos and videos.

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Vlog: Marble Maze Game Demo

Mark Guim — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 16:13:33 +0000

If you have a Nokia N82, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, or other S60-powered Nokia phones with built-in sensor motion or accelerometer, you need to check out Marble Maze by Cahoona Games. It’s a labyrinth game where you control the ball by tilting the phone. Instead of reading about, why not watch my demo video?

Video formats: Web high quality, Mobile, Youtube, Share Ovi

The free version comes with 4 levels and 1 type of ball, but the full game that costs $6 comes with 40 levels and three types of balls. Each ball has its own speed, friction, or bounciness.

The game is really addicting and a nice way to show off your phone to friends. You can download Marble Maze at Cahoona Games.

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Road Trips and Mobile Survival

Al Pavangkanan — Sat, 31 May 2008 17:33:43 +0000

I’ve been in Houston, Texas visiting relatives for the past week. Yesterday, I took my mom on a bus tour to a casino in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The trip took two and a half hours to get there. I’ll tell you how I survived the road trip with the Nokia N82, Nokia N95, Nokia N800, and Proporta charger

The night before, I loaded up about 2 hours of video podcasts on the Nokia N82. I managed to watch all of it before the battery ran out.

I also managed to take a few pictures along the way while on the bus. I love the N82 geotagging feature, I’d never know where these pictures were taken otherwise.

This fire truck was on its way to an accident. Thanks to geotagging, I can see that I took this picture west of Vidor, TX.

There’s a map of the whole trip.

So anyway, when we got to the casino, the Nokia N82 was out of juice. I then plugged the N82 into my Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger. I don’t gamble, so I walked around and toured the grounds.

After a large lunch at the buffet, I found a nice quiet area and watched some movies on my Nokia N800 internet tablet.

On the trip back, I listened to a podcast on my Nokia N95 with my bluetooth headphones while internet browsing with the Nokia N82. I neglected to fully charge the N95 and ran out of juice after about 90 minutes. I plugged in the Proporta charger and I was able to continue listening without having to turn off the N95 to change the batteries.

When I finally got home, the Nokia N82 was out of juice. I plugged it in and got one more full charge out of the Proporta charger before it gave me the red light.

This is what mobile survival is all about. Having fun with your gadgets all day long without worrying about battery life. The Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger sells for $45 and for the month of June, Proporta is offering free shipping to the USA.

Disclosure: I do not work for Proporta or Nokia, but I love their products and can’t help but shout their praises.

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Sighting: Cool Phone T-shirt at Uniqlo

Mark Guim — Wed, 28 May 2008 01:17:28 +0000

I was shopping at SoHo today with my girlfriend and I just had to get this t-shirt I found in Uniqlo. It said “phoney.” I’m not sure if the Nokia blue color was intentional. Check it out.

Here we have the Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N82, and Nokia E90 posing with the t-shirt.

… and this is me going phoney.

Do you have one?

LOL I’m not sure if I’m ready to see this, but do you have a phone or Nokia t-shirt? Take a quick pic, upload somewhere, and post the link in the comments!

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Nokia N82 Camera and Battery Trial

Al Pavangkanan — Mon, 26 May 2008 16:03:15 +0000

I was going to write about my experience with the Nokia N82 at a sporting event, but instead I want to share my experience at a concert last Saturday and more specifically with the camera and battery life. In the end, I noticed bubbles appeared on a few pictures, but I was really happy with the battery performance.

Before you read on, you may be interested in checking my review of the black Nokia N82.

Usage

I left my house around 6:30PM. Since I wasn’t driving, I took a few pictures while on the freeway. This was one of my faves:

Concerts have a lot of varied light shows. The Nokia N82 got a good capture of the lights here:

and here

The Nokia N82 flash performance was hit and miss. Here, I got a great shot of this guy using his Nokia N93:

However, I turned around and got this horrible shot of the crowd:

When the house lights came on, the flash caused some strange bubbles:

Thoughts

I was really happy with the battery performance. I took over 100 pictures and when I came home around 1:00 AM, I still had 3 bars left. I didn’t need my Proporta Mobile Charger at all.

I don’t like the auto mode much. I think it caused the bubbles seen above. It would be really nice if the camera application could remember your last settings. I like to use the User Defined mode, but it takes three clicks to activate.

Another thing I’d like to see would be keypad shortcuts. Kind of strange how the S60 browser has keypad shortcuts, but the camera doesn’t.

I don’t like the placement of the lanyard hole. It forces the Nokia N82 to be worn with the left hand if using a wrist strap. My left hand shakes due to the pressure required to press the capture button while maintaining a good grip. I have gotten the hang of one handed shooting with my right hand, but this makes my wrist strap useless.

Despite these problems, the Nokia N82 is a still a joy to use and I can’t wait to buy a black one for myself.

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Review: A Week With The Black Nokia N82

Al Pavangkanan — Sun, 18 May 2008 05:00:47 +0000

On Monday, I received a black Nokia N82 to trial. As soon as I got it out of the box, I was in love. Read on for my initial impressions as well thoughts on the form and function.

Initial Impressions

The phone looks amazing. The black color and slippery casing make it feel like a luxury device. It fits well in my hand; the weight of the device feels just right.

Buttons. A lot has been said about the keypad. Most people see the small number keys and say that’s a horrible design decision. I love these buttons. They are little stiff from being new, but I definitely prefer the Nokia N82 keypad over my N95-1. The only knock against them is they have a white back light. I’d have preferred blue.

The number keys aren’t the only buttons that are stiff. The multimedia button is hard to press. I often have to use a fingernail to get enough precision pressure to activate the button.

The camera button doesn’t stick out much compared to my Nokia N95. On the N95, the camera button has a lot of give, so a gentle press activates the autofocus. With the N82, it takes a bit more force.

The directional pad is a joy to use. It performs like a joystick with a hat on top and is very responsive. I love having a large center button. The layout is excellent. I have not had any accidental presses of the either menu or multimedia buttons like on my N95.

Input/Output. I don’t like the placement of the charger port. It makes it impossible to use the phone one handed while charging. It is also a hindrance when watching video, since you can’t prop the N82 against something with the plug on the side.

I don’t have a problem with the change to micro-usb. It creates a very snug fit, there’s no worry it will fall out like on the old Pop-Port cables.

Lanyard Hole. I don’t like the placement of the lanyard hole. It forces the N82 to be worn on the left hand and forces two handed use.

Form and Function

Multimedia Menu. I’ve enjoyed the new multimedia carousel menu. I really love the integration of each item. Gallery shows your last picture and quick access to albums. Music has the last played track. Videos shows the last clip viewed. Maps goes to the last placed you looked up. The Contacts page can be set up like a speed dial. I do miss the ability to hold down the multimedia button to load the music player.

Music. As a music player, the Nokia N82 is great. I plugged in my Grado SR-80 headphones and was incredibly relieved to find the hiss from the N95 was gone. I’m a fan of the playback buttons on the N95 and the N82 is a little limited by its lack of such buttons. The AD-54 makes a suitable replacement; the N82 had no problems using it. Another workaround is to use am A2DP headset. Paired with the Nokia BH-601, music performance was great and the playback buttons worked fine.

Video. Video playback has been a joy. Opening a clip from the Video Center always goes to fullscreen. I love this, since the Nokia N95 won’t do this if its in portrait mode. The placement of the speakers really excels here, as the video experience is better in stereo.

Games. Gaming with N-Gage is flawless. On the N95, transitions between screens would seem glitchy. Games would start in a random orientation; one game starts in 180 mode, another in landscape, another in portrait. This is gone from the N82. Transitions are seamless and the orientation is always in portrait.

Camera. Here’s a funny fact about the camera. It loads and performs with the same speed as my N95-1 (with v21 firmware). The daylight picture quality seems a bit better. The auto mode on the N82 probably has been better tweaked. The integrated location feature is great. It seems like every time I started the camera, it already has a GPS lock.

Multitasking. I’ve been floored by all the multitasking I’ve been able to do. On Wednesday, I tested out the Sport Tracker application. I took a walk around the neighborhood and was able to take pictures while also have the music player running. My N95 could never pull this off reliably. A record of my photo walk can be found here.

Final Thoughts

That’s been my first week with the Nokia N82 Black. I absolutely adore this device and look forward to testing it out at a sporting event over the weekend and some night events over the next week. If you haven’t read it yet, also check out Mark’s review on the silver Nokia N82 and the review of the Nokia N82’s 5 megapixel camera.

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Comparison: Who Wins In The Nokia N78 vs Nokia N82 Battle?

Mark Guim — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:49:04 +0000

When the Nokia N78 comes out, its price will be close to the Nokia N82. You need to decide what is more important to you because these two devices are not that similar in features. I’ll explain some important features and let you decide which phone wins over your wallet.

Nokia N78 Pros

The Nokia N78 runs on a newer OS with nicer fades and animations as well as other improvements. You can review Neil’s video demo of the Nokia N78 to see what I mean.
The Nokia N78 features a 1200mAh battery compared to the Nokia N82’s 1050mAh. I’ll assume a bigger battery means longer battery life.
The Nokia N78 is thinner than the Nokia N82.
The Nokia N78 has an FM transmitter useful for long car journeys.
Nokia N78 has a North American variation that will work on AT&T’s fast 3G data. Nokia N82 users in the US are stuck on slow EDGE speed.

Nokia N78 Cons

The Nokia N78 features only a 3 megapixel camera with VGA video capable of 15 frames per second. The Nokia N82 comes with 5 megapixels and 30 fps videos.
Nokia N78’s LED flash is not as bright as Nokia N82’s Xenon flash. Take a look at my Nokia N95 LED flash vs Nokia N82 Xenon flash video.
Nokia N78 does not have a TV-out compared to the Nokia N82. You won’t be able to quickly show off your videos and photos to your friends on a TV with a cable.

Thoughts

Did I miss anything? In the Nokia N78 vs Nokia N82 battle, which one is your winner and why?

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Vlog: Calcium Is A Must Have S60 App

Mark Guim — Wed, 14 May 2008 23:39:40 +0000

If you haven’t heard of it yet, my video demonstration of Calcium will show you how much better it is than the built-in calculator in our S60-powered phones like the Nokia N82 used in the video. It is fast, easy to use, and free to install on your phone. Calcium should be one of the first applications you install on your phone. Check out the beginning of many more videos I’ll be making to show useful applications we can install on our Nokia phones.

Video Formats: Web High Quality, Mobile, Share Ovi, Flickr, Youtube

You can download Calcium at Mtvoid.

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Hiking Breakneck Ridge With Nokia N82 and Sports Tracker

Mark Guim — Mon, 12 May 2008 06:30:52 +0000

Today I went hiking with Sheila at Breakneck Ridge which is about an hour north of New York City. I brought along the Nokia N82 to record our hike with Sports Tracker and take pictures with the 5 megapixel camera. I was really glad I had the Nokia N82 because the ’shortcut’ we took led us to a poorly marked trail and an omfg snake. Read on for more details.

5 Megapixel Photos

I usually go hiking with a big group but felt brave today and went with Sheila. We took our time enjoying the view and taking plenty of pictures from the Nokia N82. Check out the Flickr set for all the photos, but look at a few below. They are all geotagged.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

Built-in Geotagging. What I like about the Nokia N82 is that it now features built-in geotagging. If a GPS lock was available, each picture taken will have the location data recorded without the need of another program like Shozu or Location Tagger. This feature is not currently available on the Nokia N95 but will be on the upcoming Nseries phones.

Sports Tracker

Sports Tracker is perfect for an activity on the weekend like hiking. During the hike, it showed me our distance, speed, and even drew live image of our path. After the hike, it gave me a summary of what we achieved.

View Larger Map

Start time – 11/05/08 13:01
Duration – 2h 33min 6s
Distance – 2.9 mi
Speed (average) – 1.1 mph
Speed (max) – 7.7 mph
Pace (average) – 52min 47s per mi
Pace (max) – 4min 49s per mi
Altitude (min) – 0 m
Altitude (max) – 265 m
Step count – 8443

GPS to the Rescue. Near the top of the mountain, another hiker told us that there was an easier trail to follow downhill, but might be poorly marked. We stupidly listened and easily got lost trying to look for the markers. Simply walking straight towards the parking lot using Nokia Maps was out of the question because of cliffs, streams, and rocks on the way. What made it worse was seeing a snake slither a few feet away from us. It was probably harmless but I hate snakes.

What helped us find the way back is by looking at our path on Sports Tracker to determine if we were heading towards the right direction. We eventually hit a paved private road and followed it downhill.

Final Thoughts

I’m glad the Nokia N82 has built-in GPS.
Avoid shortcuts in the woods.
I scream like a girl whenever I see a snake.

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Using GPS and Nokia Maps 2.0 on Nokia N95 8GB to Find My Parking Spot

Mark Guim — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 17:58:48 +0000

I just started using Nokia Maps 2.0 Beta on the Nokia N95 8GB to remember my spot via GPS and help me find my car in case I forget. What sucks about living near two big hospitals is that it is really hard to find parking during the day. It’s not a problem at night, but I often have to park 5-6 blocks away if I get home early.

Remember It

Right after parking, I add the current location to Places.

Add your spot to Places

Find It

When I need to find my car, I just go to favorites and select Walk to on the parking spot. As you walk, trail crumbs also follow you (see the white dots).

This works great on other Nokia phones with built-in GPS. To name a few: Nokia N82, Nokia N95, and the upcoming Nokia N78 and Nokia N96.

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How To: Upload Photos to Flickr From Your Nokia Nseries Phone With Three Clicks

Mark Guim — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 05:00:14 +0000

Make standalone digital cameras jealous by sending pictures taken from your Nokia Nseries phone directly to Flickr in just three button presses. I’ll show you how simple it is to set up Nokia Share Online 3.0 on your mobile phone for the three-click upload.

Nokia calls it one-click upload, but that is clearly not true. It is also not true when Ricky Cadden wrote that it took a “minimum of 7 clicks” when he criticized Share Online 3.0 for graduating prematurely from beta.

The Setup

First, you need to download and install Nokia Share Online 3.0 if you have an outdated version.

To begin setup, click on the Share Online icon in the Applications folder. If you can’t see it, go to the Gallery and select Images & video > Options > Open Online Service.

Next, select Flickr Ready for activation and click Yes to activate the service.

When your browser opens, Sign in to Flickr with your Flickr/Yahoo! ID.

Click on Ok,I’ll allow it to confirm that you want Share Online to access your account.

Go back to the main Share Online menu and click options > Set as default. The setup is now complete.

The Three Clicks

After taking a picture, a few icons show up on the right. Click down twice to the globe icon then click to upload the photo to Flickr!

This is what you see after taking a picture.

Click on Post to Flickr for instant upload.

When the upload is done, you’ll get a message that it was posted. No tags will be applied and the default title is the date. Here is the photographed Nokia N95 8GB uploaded to Flickr.

Another Option

There are third-party applications that lets you do the same thing. A very popular one is Shozu that is also worth checking out. It’s even got a automatic photo upload after shooting that I previously wrote a guide on.

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