The Nokia Blog » Prototype

Prototype Volkswagen Passat Gets Rigged with Nokia’s Terminal Mode

Mark Guim — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 17:12:24 +0000

Nokia is working on Terminal Mode, a proposed industry standard for the integration of mobile apps into the car environment. The specification is open to all auto and mobile device manufacturers. As a demo, Volkswagen shows off Terminal Mode in a prototype Passat. Take a look.

Video is embedded below. Please click here if it’s not visible in your RSS reader.

In this video, they’re using the Nokia N97 to connect with the car’s dashboard.

VW told Engadget that the tech is still a couple of years away from commercial integration into vehicles, but third party add-on kits are expected sooner. They’re also working out the details to prevent certain apps from running that might distract the driver while a vehicle is in motion. More details are available at the official Terminal Mode page.

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Nokia N97 Review of a Prototype

Mark Guim — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 21:15:54 +0000

Last Friday during the New York Nokia Users Meetup, I played with a Nokia N97 prototype. I’m now giving you my initial thoughts about the device. It’s nowhere near production because it kept crashing. Since the hardware is pretty much what we’ll see when it comes out, this preview will be based on that.

Erick from MWI with the Nokia N97. Photo by Will Sisti.

Slider

I inspected the sliding mechanism right away. It is very cool! It’s really firm. You hear nice solid clicks when you slide it up or down. The quality was so good that I was constantly sliding it up and down and didn’t notice any wobble to the sides. We’ll have to wait and see if the production models maintain this high quality.

Take a look at the video below and to inspect the slider. Head to the blog if the video is not visible in your RSS reader.

Keyboard

The keyboard layout was designed differently from a typical Qwerty keyboard. The spacebar is located to the right side. It took only a few minutes to get used to, so this is not an issue I’m worried about.

Keyboard close up

Last Friday, I was concerned that the Nokia N97 was missing a dedicated period button. I told everyone on Twitter that I couldn’t find it! I had to press the Chr button and then click the screen to select the period. A second look at the official press photos and other sources show it being to the right of the letter L. The prototype I played with had the letter Ñ.

I did not have any issues pressing the buttons. All the presses were recognized by the phone. If you were fine using the tiny keyboard on the Nokia E71, the N97 shouldn’t be a problem. The buttons also felt like hard rubber, different from the rest of the phone. The friction from the buttons’ surface helped me feel the separation.

Touchscreen

I’m not sure what I feel about navigating through the menu with the touch screen. For a prototype, the interface was very quick and responsive. My problem was sometimes a menu only needed one click, while others needed a double click. Very confusing, but I’ll wait for the final product to give my judgment.

Scrolling though lists is different from many of us are used to with the iPhone. For example, on the iPhone, you drag up to go down the list. On the Nokia N97, you guide down to go down the list. I hope you can imagine what I just said. We all know that there’s no multi-touch support so we can’t pinch or expand our fingers to zoom in or out of web pages or photos. I will honestly say that with the few hours I spent playing with the Nokia N97, I still preferred the “touch” experience on the iPhone.

Final Thoughts

I’m looking forward to the Nokia N97 because it has great potential. Like what I wrote previously, it could be the answer to my problem. Contributor Renegade Fanboy also chimed in that it will be an amazing device but there could be 5 reasons not to buy the N97. We’ll have to wait for the final retail version of the Nokia N97 to make our thorough review. I really hope Nokia does not disappoint us.

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Preview: Playing With the Nokia N95 Prototype

Mark Guim — Tue, 03 Oct 2006 23:56:28 +0000

Thanks to Nokia for letting me play with a Nokia N95 prototype! The operating system in the version I used was still buggy, so I really can’t say anything about its functions. One noticeable bug was that the camera is upside down. However, I can share my first impressions of its form and appearance. I can look at the paper for the specifications, but holding it in my own hands gave me a better impression of the real thing.

Being a Nokia N93 user, the first thing I noticed about the N95 is the weight. It feels light. If you want to be technical, it is 60g lighter. Maybe I’m so used to the N93’s bigger size that holding the Nokia N95 also felt small.

The slide mechanism moves nicely and felt solid; excellent Nokia engineering! I was surprised by this because I thought a two-way slide would make it fragile.

The buttons did not feel small at all. I was able to press the 1, 2, 3 buttons without the annoyance of touching the top edge.

There were a couple of things I did not like which I hope Nokia adjusts for production. Sliding the camera lens cover automatically opens up camera mode, but the cover felt like cheap plastic. I also hope I was just imagining, but the navigation and menu buttons felt loose and cheap. too.

I wish I could test a production model, because this phone seems perfect on paper. Nokia usually leaves out a key feature in each phone models, but the Nokia N95 looks to be the exception.