The Nokia Blog » N95

Nokia N95 Variant Shown Off in Mobile Radar Research Concept Video

Mark Guim — Wed, 27 Jan 2010 21:52:39 +0000

The official Nokia Conversations blog published a video about a “Mobile Radar” research concept on Wednesday and I spot a somewhat familiar Nokia device. It looks a lot like the Nokia N95, but with a thicker front slider and certainly different designs for the display and camera. Take a look.

Here are screenshots from the video:

The Nokia N95 that was released looked like this:

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Nokia N95 vs Nokia N97 Food Photos – LED vs Dual LEDs

Mark Guim — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 14:35:31 +0000

It’s been a while since contributor Ninong Brown contributed something to this blog and that had to change. We had lunch at a local Malaysian restaurant and put our Nokia N95 and Nokia N97 to a duel. Which one takes better pictures of food with the flash on? LED vs Dual LEDs?

All the photos below were taken in auto mode, but the flash fired on all photos for both the Nokia N97 and Nokia N95. There was definitely not enough light and flash was necessary.

Roti Canai

Nokia N97 – 1/30, f/2.8

Nokia N95 – 1/42, f/2.8

Sweet and Sour Pork

Nokia N97 – 1/24, f/2.8

Nokia N95 – 1/30, f/2.8

Sizzling Chicken (it wasn’t sizzling)

Nokia N97 – 1/20, f/2.8

Nokia N95 – 1/15, f/2.8

Malaysian Fried Noodles

Nokia N97 – 1/24, f/2.8

Nokia N95 – 1/30, f/2.8

Chow Keuh Teow

Nokia N97 – 1/30, f/2.8

Nokia N95 – 1/30, f/2.8

Results

It’s hard to judge from the photos embedded in this post to see which cameraphone took the better photos – Nokia N97 vs Nokia N95. You have to click through to compare the larger sizes.

It’s really close, but I notice the Nokia N97 took slightly sharper images. Take a look yourself because my eye doctor told me I’m almost legally blind.

I included the the exposure and aperture data for the camera geeks. They’re pretty similar. I understand this isn’t such an objective test, but I rather take photos from real usage than color graphs and line patterns.

Which cameraphone you think took the better photo? Nokia N97 or N95? Ninong Brown says, “The N97 is a good phone, but in my honest opinion it’s as if the N95 took steroids & had a drunken threesome with the 5800 & E71.”

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Your Nokia Usage Poll

Mark Guim — Sun, 18 Jan 2009 20:42:30 +0000

I was asked to answer a few questions about Nokia by the guys over at WOM World. I’m sharing my answers here because it got me curious to what others will answer. Take a look at my response and let me know your answers.

Questions

1. How many devices have you used over the past 6 months (please list them below)?

Owned: Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia E71, Nokia N85
Trialed: Nokia N96, Nokia 6220 Navigator

2. Has your trial experience ever led to you purchasing a Nokia device? I was not sent the Nokia N95 8GB, E71 or the N85 to trial beforehand. I bought them when they first came out and absolutely love them. On the other hand, my usage and trial experiences which I share on thenokiablog.com lead to visitors and friends purchasing Nokia devices.

3. Has your trial experience ever led to you recommend Nokia to friend? The Nokia N96 experience led me NOT to recommend the device to friends and thenokiablog.com visitors. During my trial, it had faulty firmware, slow response and was too annoying to use to bother testing further.

4. Which features of your Nokia device do you use most often (ie camera, GPS, gaming etc)? Please list below and feel free to list more than one… Web browsing, camera, GPS navigation

5. How often do you use the following Nokia services? [daily] [weekly] [monthly] [hardly ever] [not at all]

N-Gage – weekly
Nokia Maps – daily
Share on Ovi – Not at all. I prefer to use Flickr.
Nokia Music Store. Not at all because it isn’t available in USA.
Widsets – Not at all. Useless.
Nokia Email Service – Not at all. I’ve been using Profimail instead.
Mosh – Monthly. Good place to download free games.

7. How many mobile apps (games, widgets, downloads etc) have you installed and used over the last 2 months? [between 1 and 5] [between 6 and 10] [between 10 and 20] [more than 20] More than 20

8. How do you define “convergence”? Using one device instead of carrying a camera, iPod, cellphone, and gps navigator.

Your Answers

Let me know your answers to this poll. Just list the question numbers with your response instead of copying the questions over.

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Nokia Going Off-Course: A Rant

Andrew Leung — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 03:12:12 +0000

This is a little bit of a rant. And please don’t misunderstand this post, I love Nokia and everything they do. I love the fact that they encourage creativity, blogging and the rich community of Symbian fans everywhere. I can’t help but feel like they are falling into the same dangerous pitfalls other companies (i.e. Moto, SE, RIM) have. What can they do better?

You may ask, Andrew, what brought on a rant about Nokia’s downfalls? This is THE Nokia Blog afterall, you should be singing praises for Nokia 24/7. Wrong. I want Nokia to make the best possible handsets, if they didn’t I wouldn’t write for this blog.

Never in the time that I owned any Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, HTC/WINMO Device was I able to share the joy of a high end handset that I was able to when I had an N95 or N95 8GB. Being able to take great pictures (and show others where the pictures were taken) and video, and immediately share video online or even on TV is what helped me convince people that a cell phone is and should be capable of doing a lot.

People that were once stubborn that they wanted to only have a cell phone to make calls and did not want to spend a lot on a fancy feature phone were wowed by what the N95s could do. A few even bought the N95 8GB on my recommendation at full retail (~$700!) in the US after having seen the pictures I took on vacation as they were taken and uploaded in almost real time. I was never able to do that with any other phone, no matter how impressive the feature set.

Blackberry’s Update

That said, early in September I was lucky enough to be provided with a Blackberry Bold (one of my retailer buddies really came through for me and got me an unlocked one). A few bugs aside, I was blown away. Updated OS, Great new Look, lots of new media features, amazing Blackberry keyboard, High-res Screen, they really have a winner here. Release delays, and criticisms aside, the Blackberry Bold, is a PROPER upgrade from the last generation.

It took everything good with the previous product lines and made it better (looks, media integration, messaging), they left every good staple of their phones intact (Keyboard, Email, BB messenger, security features), and they worked on their downfalls (sucky mp3 player, 2.5mm jack, cruddy processor, cruddy browser, boring unattractive OS, and worst of all, having to choose between Wifi/GPS on different models of the same phone).

Many of my colleagues have been waiting for this phone since they first heard it was being released, ignoring the 3G iPhone, E71, Touch Diamond etc. There were physical upgrades, and there was innovation. All in all a good balance. Call me a Blackberry fanboy, but the only thing I feel that this phone is missing from a hardware perspective is a good camera.

Nokia Going Off-Course

All this made me really think of the way Nokia has been in the last year, and of course, their upcoming lines. And while I don’t think they are completely heading in the wrong direction, I feel that they are going slightly off course. Below, I’ve listed a few of the things I would like to see done differently as we near the end of 2008 into 2009.

Please update your OS, processors and hardware for 2008/2009. I’m not saying completely revamp all these things, but c’mon, at least make it look like you’re trying! SE added the Xross media bar thing to their phones, and is doing that panel interface thing to the X1, RIM has OS 4.6 on the Bold, HTC has that fancy touchflo on top of Windows Mobile, why can’t you spruce up S40/S60? Well maybe not so much on S40, but we pay out the nose for S60 phones, bring on some more polish to the OS.

Speaking of polish, I love that you have the OLED screen thing going on the N85 and the Carbon Arte, now up the resolution! In 2009 320X240 will not be acceptable, the iPhone has 480×320 on that big screen, the Bold about doubled the resolution from the curve to 480×320 (on a significantly smaller than iphone screen no less), the Xperia is going to be 800×480. Finally, up the power on that processor. Right now even your newest phones have sub 400 mhz processors. More hardware power = nicer software = we’re happy.

Take a look at my two poorly taken pictures, if only the N85 had this kind of screen resolution to match the OLED.

Less Phones

Wait WHAT?! Less phones?! I’m talking high end phones here. Make a couple of Nseries devices and make them amazing. Don’t do what RIM did with their 8800 and Curves. The original 8300 curve had no GPS or wifi, the 8310 had gps, the 8320 had wifi, it wasn’t until mid 2008 before the 8330 came out with both wifi and gps, nearly a year after the original was released. That just isn’t fair.

Cameras

Likewise, don’t bring out a great camera phone and put a crappy flash on it, or take the lens cover off. N96, N95 8GB, N85, N82, N81, N78, 6220 Classic. So many phones with overlapping features, each slightly different, and based on when they were released very similar price points. Most of these phones have 5 megapixel cameras, GPS, wifi 3.5g, and differ slightly. They all run on S60 3rd ed. Seriously why make us choose. Choose a couple of form factors, make one or two variants and make them damn good. Look at the Samsung i8510 innov8. That phone is like the culmination of all these phones + a better camera AND it has a similar price point to the N96, maybe even a little bit cheaper at release depending on where you’re from.
WHY?!

US Support

PLEASE get US carrier support. We Love you in North America, thats why we keep buying your phones at full price. US carrier support means greater exposure, and subsidized phone prices. Earlier this year I was thoroughly convinced that the N95-4 was the best phone money could buy. I tried very hard to convince people of this, some bought them, some didn’t. Those who didn’t only didn’t because they couldn’t stomach buying a 700 dollar cell phone. In fact, the last time I walked into a ATT/TMO/Verizon store, I dont remember seeing anything past 700 dollars for a standalone handset.

Better Email

HTML email + better internet browser for S60 out of the box. As I said in my earlier Nokia E71 review, by now, there’s no excuse for not having html email. It should be built into the client. The internet browser is chock full of features for a stock browser, but I can’t help but feel that its sluggish at times and sometimes just errors out and blows up on its own. Maybe this goes back to the slow processor not being able to handle it. Maybe the browser just needs a revamp.

Browser

Whatever, I just want to take advantage of the awesome 3.5g you put into my phone. This isn’t Windows Mobile. I don’t want to have a 3rd party browser because the stock one sucks (OK the S60 browser doesn’t suck but its no Skyfire).

Upgrades

Uniform and regular firmware updates across all regions. Probably easier said than done, yes, but many a N95-3 user felt burned by the lack of love.

I guess after using a Bold and seeing the difference between last gen’s BB compared to today’s latest and greatest, I can’t help but feel like the N96 is a slight incremental upgrade and not the super flagship model it should have been. Not to say that it isn’t looking to be a very good handset, but for that price why the slight upgrade? 8 Megapixel phones becoming the new high end standard, don’t fall behind! Other companies tried to imitate the 5mp Camera that was on the N95, they tried, some were close, many failed.

The Phone to Beat

The reigning champ is getting old, and the competition is newer bigger and faster. Don’t pull a Moto and start making pink N95’s now. We want Nokia to create the phone to beat again.

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Evening With S60 Party At Nokia New York Flagship Sept 17th

Mark Guim — Fri, 22 Aug 2008 22:04:08 +0000

Hey New York Nokia/S60 fans! There’s a party at the Nokia Flagship on the night of Sept 17th. There’s going to be food, drinks, people like you and of course cool new phones to play with. During the last Evening with S60 NY event, they gave away a Nokia N95 before it was generally released! I’m predicting a Nokia N96 giveaway this time? Who knows… better show up!

I had fun at the last event and wish I can make it to the party this year. Unfortunately, I can’t be at two places at the same time. I’ll be in Berlin that week for another event, the Maemo Summit, and learn more about the people and platform behind the Nokia internet tablets like the N800 and N810. I’m excited to visit another city, but wish I did not have to miss Evening With S60 in New York City.

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Waiting For A Rapper With A Nokia Music Video

Mark Guim — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 17:11:06 +0000

Big name rappers like T.I., 50 Cent, and Lil Wayne are carrying Nokia N95’s to broadcast videos online to Kyte.TV, so I’m thinking it will only be a matter of time before we hear a Nokia rap. Companies pay hip-hop artists to name-drop in their lyrics, so it won’t be that much of a surprise. I’d love to hear one.

TI with the Nokia N95 NAM

We’ve seen sightings of Nokia phones on music videos before but they’re not as lyrically obvious as P. Diddy’s Pass The Courvoisier and the recent Stepped on My J’z by Nelly. The songs not only featured the Courvoisier and Jordan brands, but was actually written about them.

The closest thing to a Nokia Music video is the Camera Phone by Da Muzicianz which you can watch above. The whole video showed the Nokia N90, but no name-dropping in the lyrics. Although I’m actually glad they didn’t mention Nokia in their lyrics because the song is ridiculous. The Nokia N81 song by Pop4real does not count because that was produced by Nokia themselves!

With rappers now carrying Nokia N95’s around, I’m sure they’ll ~~be inspired~~ ask to get paid to write an N95 rap real soon.

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Vlog: Qik Tip – Streamed Videos Are Saved in the Gallery

Ninong Brown — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:00:20 +0000

Have you ever recorded a live video stream via Qik that you also wanted to upload on Facebook? Don’t want to have to download the video off the Qik website on your laptop or your phone? Can’t install the live player on your site? Well, upgrade to the new version and see what’s what. The streamed videos are now also accessible through the gallery. Autosave FTW!

Note: Embedded flash video below might not be visible in your RSS readers.

Hopefully Mark and I were able to provide you with some useful information, or at least made you laugh.

My advice, upgrade to the new version of Qik and start uploading your videos to Facebook and other sites as well. It’s not overtly profound, but it will make your video uploading time shorter and easier.

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Featured Site: Nokia Daily News By Matthew Bennett

Mark Guim — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 19:37:25 +0000

Tired of reading news? Then check out the Nokia Daily News, a blog by Matthew Bennett, who makes daily videos on the what’s currently buzzing around Nokia. It is refreshing to watch Nokia news instead of reading them. Here’s the podcast link for itunes.

Want to know what else is cool about his videos? They are all captured and edited on a Nokia phone (not sure… N95 maybe?)! Great work, Matt! Keep doing what you’re doing.

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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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Review: Nokia N95-3 Firmware 20.2.011

Sergio Aguayo — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:26:55 +0000

After long delays finally Nokia released a firmware update for the Nokia N95 NAM (N95-3). I updated my phone as soon as the Nokia Software Updater told me about it. So far the experience has been mixed in my case.

Demand Paging

This update at last implements on-demand paging on this device. The effect is quite noticeable: with the old firmware I had 70MB RAM free, while I now have 83MB. Note that this includes the antivirus. Besides the obvious free RAM, I also feel the phone more responsive and with a better startup time. Another performance improvement I have noticed is in the camera startup and processing time. Now it is really usable.

Flash

Also in this update if Flash Lite 3, the long awaited Flash update for this model. Functionality is now up to the experience described for the N95 8GB. I could watch some videos from within the web browser.

Browser

However there are some bad points in this update. The web browser is somewhat unstable, crashing sometime when I enter to Settings. Also I have a bug with WLANs which makes the phone not recognize a WLAN I have defined and asks the access details again. This creates another access point in the Access Point configuration in the form of “MyWLAN (1)”. This wasn’t there in any previous version (11.x, 10.x).

I liked the way the menus were in previous versions. They didn’t change from 10.x to 11.x. However in this version they have gone, in my opinion, a somewhat big redesign. While they are better organized, it adds extra clicks to get where you want. Anyway, you could tweak your menu to make it appear similar to previous versions.

Developers

If you’re a developer you’ll have problems with on-device debug. I recommend installing AppTRK version 2.8.9 (which comes with Carbide.C++ 1.3.1), as previous versions will not work.

Conclusion

All said, I think this update is worth installing as it enhances performance and includes some nice new features. It would be nice if Nokia released this kind of upgrades more frequently, specially for high-end models such as this one. Well done Nokia!

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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: Nokia N95 In CSI Miami

Ninong Brown — Wed, 21 May 2008 05:00:02 +0000

Here we go again… Nokia plays another small but important part in a crime! A crime? Yep, another sighting of the Nokia N95 from one of America’s most watched tv show, CSI. My last sighting was in New York. This time, it’s in Miami. More after the incriminating evidence.

I’m starting to think that there’s something wrong with me! Lol, it’s not that I purposely look for a Nokia phone, but what can I say, I’ve got a good eye!

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Video: Nokia N95 8GB Open to Anything Commercial And The Worst Magician

Mark Guim — Wed, 14 May 2008 03:06:44 +0000

Remember the eating contest in the Nokia N95 8GB Open to Anything commercial? Now we have the world’s worst magician using the Nokia N95 8GB’s GPS to find his way when he gets lost in his disappearing act. He then uses the 5 megapixel camera to take pictures while waiting for his mom to pick him up. LOL take a look!

On a side note, I like the way they say, “Nokia N95 eight gig” instead of “eight gigabyte” on these ads. It’s shorter and sounds much cooler. I think I’ll start saying it this way from now on… “Hi, my name is Mark and I love the Nokia N95 eight gig.”

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How I Use Nokia Nseries Phones For School

Mark Guim — Fri, 09 May 2008 20:30:58 +0000

I was showing how S60-powered phones like the Nokia N95 8GB help me with my studies yesterday at the Nokia Open to Anything party at Slate Plus. The three main applications I focused on are Mobipocket Reader, Quickoffice, and GooSync.

Mobipocket Reader

Mobipocket Reader is an eBook reader. I added a drug reference eBook for use. As a nursing student, I need to know what kind of medications I give to patients. Like I explained in my previous post, carrying a small device in my pocket instead of a thick reference book is more convenient.

It is also faster. While my classmates using a physical book have to go through the index to find the drug, I can type the first three letters on my phone and usually find the specific drug instantly.

Quickoffice

Quickoffice is an office suite that can read/write documents, presentations, and sheets. I can’t speak for all students, but all of my professors use Powerpoint presentations for lectures. These slides are all available for us to download and print read before class. I transfer the Powerpoint files into my phone and view it on the train or bus on the way to school.

If that’s not geeky enough for you, connect a bluetooth keyboard to the phone. Type in extra notes on each slide as the professor speaks. You don’t need to carry that laptop to school!

GooSync

Goosync synchronizes the phone’s calendar with Google Calendar. Knowing project due dates is really important and I need constant reminders. I can enter calendar entries on Google Calendar while I’m at home using my Macbook, or use one of the PC’s at the school computer lab. I can also enter the dates on my Nokia N95 8GB’s built in calendar application, but no matter what other device I use to enter meetings or due dates, it is all synchronized using GooSync.

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How To: Use Amazon 5% Trick To Save Money On Your Next Nokia Phone

Mark Guim — Thu, 08 May 2008 07:28:21 +0000

I’ll show you a useful trick to save 5% on your next Nokia phone if purchasing from Amazon. The idea is to trick Amazon into thinking you own an accessory related to the phone you want and Amazon will generate recommended products in the Gold Box each day that are priced 5% off. So instead of paying $489 for the Nokia N95-3, you pay $465.

Steps

Create/Login account to Amazon.
Search for an accessory to the phone you want. For example: Nokia N95 Leather Case.
Scroll down the product page and mark the “I own it” box.
At the top of the screen, click on Recommendations.
Go through the list of recommended items and click “Not Interested” for the ones that aren’t related to the Nokia phone you want.
Check your Gold Box and scroll down to “Quick Picks” every day until the phone you want shows up.

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Hiking Mt. Beacon with Nokia N95 8GB and Sports Tracker

Mark Guim — Tue, 06 May 2008 21:29:14 +0000

This past weekend, my hiking class went up Mt. Beacon and I had my Nokia N95 8GB with Sports Tracker to track the hike. We were scheduled to go up on Breakneck Ridge but the instructor told us the the trails might be slippery that day. I absolutely hated this Mt. Beacon because the flies rained on us all the way to the top. Check out the embedded map and the data provided by Sports Tracker.

The Nokia N95 8GB recorded my GPS location as I went up the trail. Take a look at the map below to see where we went.

View Larger Map

Here is the data recorded by Sports Tracker on the Nokia N95 8GB. All this information can also be found on my Sports Tracker page.

Start time 04/05/08 12:36
Duration 1h 12min 27s
Distance 3.2 mi
Speed (average) 2.6 mph
Speed (max) 13.2 mph
Pace (average) 22min 38s per mi
Pace (max) 2min 49s per mi
Altitude (min) 58.5 m
Altitude (max) 348 m
Step count 4032

If you would like to record your hike or other activities, give Sports Tracker a try and read my guide on how to embed Sports Tracker data on Google Maps so you can also show off your hike on your blog.

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Sighting: Nokia N95 Spotted on CSI

Ninong Brown — Fri, 02 May 2008 05:00:20 +0000

Now I’ve had a few sightings of Nokia Nseries devices usually around music videos, movies and the internet, but I never spotted one on a TV series. Then “BOOM!”, I caught a few scenes with the Nokia N95 8GB and the classic Nokia N95 on CSI. Catch the scenes after break.

Too bad the iPhone got a lot more shine during the show than the N95. Hmmm…If you had a choice, would you use a phone with a 2 megapixel camera without flash or a phone with a 5 megapixel camera with a flash?

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An Evening With WOM World Nokia: Open to Anything LA

Al Pavangkanan — Thu, 01 May 2008 05:35:49 +0000

I spent Tuesday Night at the Skybar in Long Beach, CA. WOM World Nokia invited me and other Nokia/tech/photo enthusiasts from the Los Angeles area to celebrate the opening of the new Open to Anything website. Take a look at some videos and pictures for a recap.

There was great wine and appetizers provided. After three hours of conversations about mobiles and other things, Ms Jen took us to Alex’s Bar where this happened:

Note: This post contains embedded flash videos that may not be visible in some RSS feed readers.

Good times had by all!

My Flickr set from the event is here or check the slideshow below.

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Nokia N95 8GB Open To Anything Website Is Now Live

Mark Guim — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 17:48:40 +0000

If you don’t have the Nokia N95 8GB yet, I’m convinced that visiting Nokia’s Open To Anything page will make you want to get it. It shows how 6 people use their Nokia N95 8GB like getting text messages from plants, using it as a hypnotizer, as a lie detector, and other wacky ideas. At the end of each story, the video zooms on the phone highlighting a few features like the 5MP camera, GPS, and 3G connectivity.

I especially like the one that pixelates his face with a press of a button. What do you think of the new site from Nokia? Doesn’t it make you want to go check out the Nokia N95 8GB?

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Vlog: Built-in Auto Rotation On The Nokia N95 8GB (N95-2)

Mark Guim — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:14:16 +0000

The updated firmware version 20.0.016 for the Nokia N95 8GB (N95-2) came with built-in auto rotation. This is a video I made after the update. The option was not turned on by default, so you can see where to find it to turn it on. I think it’s great and wish the feature comes on the other variations of the Nokia N95.

Other Formats: High Resolution, Mobile, Share Ovi, Youtube

Compare vs. Nokia N82 Rotation

The Nokia N95 8GB rotates even on the main active display. The Nokia N82 does not rotate on the active display. I also noticed that the N95 8GB is more responsive. In my opinion, the screen rotation is much more useful on the Nokia N95 8GB because of the bigger screen.

Created By Nokia N82

This vlog was made possible by the Nokia N82. Make sure to check out the high resolution version of the video to see the full quality, 640×480 resolution at 30fps.

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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.

If you enjoyed posts like this, consider subscribing to the Nokia blog RSS feed or subscribe by email to have new posts go straight to your inbox.

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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.

If you enjoyed posts like this, consider subscribing to the Nokia blog RSS feed or subscribe by email to have new posts go straight to your inbox.

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Vlog: The Speed of Dark

Ninong Brown — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 05:30:16 +0000

As we all know, the speed of light in a vacuum is 299,792,458 metres per second (as per wiki, lol). Well, have you ever wondered what the speed of dark is? Probably not, it’s not the most common thing to pop into one’s head. Well, I’ve actually got the speed for you, and believe it or not, it was captured with my Nokia N95-NAM! Go DARK after the jump

Lol, that was our buddy Andrew. And no, he wasn’t offended nor saddened by my little tasteless joke. He’s always claiming that he’s a tad bit darker than us so I took the shot while I could.

You can never underestimate the power of the Nokia N95 (any variation). My friends and family have become more wary when I’m around, due to the fact that I always have my little friend to record any insanity at any moment.

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North American Nokia N95 8GB TV Ad

Mark Guim — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:25:56 +0000

Jeremiah from Nokia Users got an exclusive video of tv ad for the Nokia N95 8GB NAM. How do we know it’s for North America? It’s part of the Open to Anything campaign which started last fall and looks to continue on this summer. It’s got an Apple feel to it which I like!

I have information that there will be some sort of “Open to Anything” events/meetups across America, and I’ll be participating in the one here New York City. More details as I get more information, but check out the Nokia N95 8GB NAM ad below (may not be visible in RSS reader).

The Open to Anything website is not live at the time of publishing this post, so I’m wondering what’s behind the curtain. I’d love to see some Nokia Nseries commercials on TV.

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Review: Adobe Elements 6 Complements Cameraphones

Ninong Brown — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 05:30:43 +0000

I know it’s a bit off topic, but I recently purchased Adobe’s new Elements for my Mac. However, I think a review is appropriate. Possessing a cameraphone like the Nokia N95 or the Nokia N82 that can take 5 megapixel pictures and not having a decent program to correct some of the “faults”, either by the user, phone, or situation, is unacceptable. Why shoot pictures without being able to make them even more beautiful? View more after the jump

What’s in the Box?

Adobe gives you the option of either purchasing the Disc and doing a “manual” download or via downloading the program itself from Adobe. I went with the box rout since It would’ve taken a tad bit longer over the interweb.

Anyway, the box itself is minimal. As you can see, it comes with the disc, some rebate and registering forms and a useless little manual. As usual, Adobe packs in a ton of features in it’s software but they never provide the customer with an appropriate manual. In my case, it’s not a problem, I love exploring.

Many people think that this is just a watered down version of CS3. Well, if that was your opinion, you’d be wrong. Elements 6 is a full featured program geared more towards users who wouldn’t be considered novices nor experts by any means. I myself had the beta version of CS3 and it was a tad bit much to my liking. Unless you’re a professional photographer and who is dependent on great photos in order to eat, this is a solid program for you.

Sample Edits

Here is the welcome screen where you have the option to choose where you can import pictures from.

Here is a simple photo I took of Mark the other day.

Well, I decided to show a simple little edit that will turn Mark’s boring background into a more interesting white and black-distorted background.

A quick little 2 minute edit using the Quick Selection Tool to isolate his background. The I chose to use a filter called “Bas Relief” to make it look like the following:

… or how about a different look?

Final Thoughts

My advice is to purchase the program and start experimenting with the different edit options. Sooner or later, you’ll get used to it. Even though it just came out, there are some web guides out there.

It costs around $99 to purchase, but I think it’s worth it. It is a great complement to your Nseries cameraphones. Please believe that when I say it’s worth every penny, IT IS.

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First Hike With The Nokia N95: Castle Rock Unique Area

Mark Guim — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:40:14 +0000

I’m currently taking a hiking class and will be hiking every Sunday until May. I have the Nokia N95 NAM with me to record the hike, stream live videos, and take geotagged pictures. The first hike was in Castle Rock Unique Area in Philipstown, NY, which is about an hour and a half north of New York City.

The introductory hike was 2 miles with a vertical height of 700 feet. Introductory was definitely not easy. For the next hike, I need to bring better shoes. My boots were too heavy and it tired me out right after we started.

Recording Hike With Sports Tracker

The hike was recorded with GPS data using Nokia Sports Tracker. Below is a map of the hike showing geotagged photos right on the map. If you would like to know how to do this on your blog, read my guides on embedding geotagged photos and embedding sports tracker data to your blog.

You can also change views or zoom in. May not be visible in RSS readers.

Streaming Live With Qik

I was also streaming live videos using Qik, but decided only to do it in safer trails because I did not want to get hurt if I lost my footing and needed to hold on to something. You can view one of the videos below.

Geotagging Photos With Location Tagger

I was also running Location Tagger on my Nokia N95 while taking pictures. All the photos were tagged with the current GPS location. Take a look at the photos below and Flickr will show you the location in the photo’s exif data. On the upcoming Nseries phones, this will be done automatically without installing another program!

Thoughts

I was able to record my hike’s path, take GPS-tagged photos, and stream live videos to the internet. It’s good to know that I was able to do all of this at the same time using a device that I carry around every day: my mobile phone.

I know the Nokia N82 was marketed for this kind of usage, but any phone running S60 3rd edition is capable. I don’t want to get too technical with this post so head over to S60 to learn more about it. My N95 NAM also have faster internet connection due to the North American 3G. Streaming live videos during a hike with the Nokia N82 in the United States will be useless.

The next hike for next Sunday is at Popolopen Gorge with the distance of 5 miles and 1,000 feet vertical rise. Subscribe to the Nokia blog feed to watch my progress.

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Vlog: Helio 3G Billboard Spotted in Flushing, NY

Ninong Brown — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 11:30:21 +0000

Apparently, the Helio Ocean has been popping up on billboards across the greater NYC area promoting it’s 3G capabilities. Hmmm… it seems to me that using 3G on a phone these days are old. See more about Mark and my video opinion on Helio after the black hole.

This video was taken with Nokia N95 NAM (Nokia N95-3) which has high speed 3G internet capabilities in North America.

I’m sorry, but NOKIA FTW!

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Live Vlog: Mark at the Park

Ninong Brown — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 22:25:35 +0000

Here we have a bunch of asians attempting to play ball. Our dear friend Mr. Nokia Blog himself is playing. Can you spot Mark playing ball? Peep after the jumpshot.

LOL, don’t hesitate to critique Mark and his game. This is presented to you by Qik running on my Nokia N95 NAM (Nokia N95-3), which I still say is the best streaming software for any mobile phone. You can read more about what I think of Qik in my review.

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Review: Nokia N95 8GB Look And Feel

Mark Guim — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 23:40:41 +0000

In first of a few series, I’ll be giving a review of the Nokia N95 8GB concentrating on its look and feel. There are a few changes on this model compared to the other Nokia N95 variations, more importantly the bigger 2.8 inch flushed screen, bigger battery, and the shiny black color. In the end, I think it looks great and a lot better looking than the older Nokia N95 variations.

I won’t talk about using the Nokia N95 8GB yet. Let’s think about the curious costumer who just glances by and sees the Nokia N95 8GB. First impressions determines what phone catches my attention and appearance plays a major role.

Dimensions. The dimensions are 99mm x 53mm x 21mm. That doesn’t sound too bad, but let’s compare it to other popular phones, the Nokia N82 and Apple iPhone 8GB. The Nokia N95 8GB is the thickest of the three but also the shortest.

Apple iPhone 8GB: 115mm x 61mm x 11.6mm
Nokia N82: 112mm x 50.2mm x 17.3mm

Apple iPhone 8gb, Nokia N82, and Nokia N95 8GB side by side

Let’s start the tour of the Nokia N95 8GB.

Front

In a closed position, the first thing you notice is the glossy 2.8 inch screen. It is flushed with the rest of the surface which is shiny. The problem with this is that lighting can reflect off the screen and may obstruct your view. It can also be a fingerprint magnet. I personally like the gloss and shine.

Glossy display on the Nokia N95 8GB

On top of the screen are the earpiece, secondary camera, and a light sensor which automatically adjusts display and keypad brightness according to the surrounding.

Below the screen are some buttons for calling, ending calls, and navigating around the phone. There also dedicated buttons to the Menu and the Multimedia Menu. I’ll explain more about its uses in the next post on using the Nokia N95 8GB. For now, let’s stay to the look and feel aspects.

Nokia N95 8GB versus Nokia N95 NAM buttons

The buttons are quite easy to press and provide great tactile feedback. You know which buttons you are pressing without looking at the N95 8GB. This is handy for those who like to use the phone while driving. The contrasting chrome with black buttons look great, too.

Dual Slide. The Nokia N95 8GB is more than a slider phone. Sliding both ways shows either the numeric keypad or media playback buttons. The original Nokia N95 received a lot of complaints on the poor build quality on the older Nokia N95-1, but that is now fixed. There are however, small amount of people who complain about the slider, so just hope that you are not unlucky.

Back

The surface has a “sticky” rubber surface which makes it feel comfortable in the hands. Don’t worry about the phone slipping through.

The back of the Nokia N95 8GB.

Camera. The main feature of the back is the 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens. LED flash is right next to the lens and you might notice the absence of a camera cover. Be careful not to scratch the camera lens too much, or it might negatively affect the image quality of the photos.

Battery. Opening the battery cover shows off the 1200mah battery. Removing the battery provides access to the SIM card slot. Out of all the phones I’ve used, all the versions of Nokia N95 have provided the easiest and fastest way to remove and replace the battery and SIM card. No need for pins or paperclips.

Sides

Placed on each side are the built-in stereo speakers. The location is perfect for talking on the phone with speakerphones. I have no complaints about the volume.

On the left side are the infrared port and a 3.5mm jack for headset and the TV-out cable that lets you view your screen on a TV or monitor with composite video and RCA inputs. I haven’t used infrared yet, and I honestly think it is useless.

On the right side are the volume controls, the Gallery button, and the camera shoot button. The camera button works like other point-and-shoots. You press halfway to focus, then fully to take the picture. I like that you can really feel if the button is half-pressed or fully pressed. I did not like the camera button on the Nokia N82.

Bottom

The bottom of the Nokia N95 8GB consists of port for the charger, mini-usb connector for transferring files with the computer, and the microphone. The future models should really get rid of the charger port and just let the phones be able to charge on the mini-usb.

The microphone’s location should be acknowledged by anyone taking videos. If you are right-handed, it is easy to cover up the microphone while taking videos. Watch out for that.

Top

There’s just the power button on the top. Nothing to see here. Move along.

Nokia N95 8GB Top View

Look and Feel Final Thoughts

The Nokia N95 8GB looks great. Just put it next to the older Nokia N95 model, and you’ll agree without a doubt how much more beautiful it is. A big minus, however, is a missing micro-SD card slot. Transferring files will be limited to bluetooth or USB transfer.

I’ll finish this part off by saying that I agree with Steve Litchfield’s review claiming the Nokia N95 8GB is the best phone ever made. I’ll explain more in an upcoming post when I review about using the Nokia N95 8GB. Make sure to subscribe to the Nokia Blog feed.