Introduction to Ovi

An introduction to Ovi on Nokia



One thing, I've always called it Oh-Vee, with the open O. Apparently, that's wrong!

Free Internet Access on Vodafone UK

Vodafone UK are cutting their PAYG prices for accessing the 'net from a mobile on 1 May, and to celebrate are offering free access from your mobile for the whole day on Friday 1st. From 0:01 Friday morning to 23:59 Friday night, any web access from your handset to either wap.vodafone.co.uk or pp.vodafone.co.uk will be totally free of charge. Seems tomorrow will be an ideal day to whack my Vodafone PAYG SIM into the E75 and give it a real going over on the web.

As for the price changes, daily usage charges are now capped at 50p per day, down from £1, and the allowance is up from 15MB to 25MB. This is a welcome move, and a significant price cut, but is still twice the price of O2 for daily users. A standard monthly charge will still be £15 if web is accessed daily, which whilst better than £30, is still double the O2 data bolt on for PAYG users which is only £7.50 per month.

More information here

Nokia E75

I have been given the opportunity to trial a Nokia E75 for the next week, thanks to the guys at mobiles.co.uk. As I use it I will add some thoughts here; initial impressions are positive, but certain annoyances are already starting to be revealed. I certainly don't think there is enough to tempt me away from my N82, that's for sure.

The phone is solid enough, feels well built, and is pretty hefty. I like the fact that there is a separate charging point, even though the E75 can also be charged by USB. This was one of the things that started to bug me with the N85. The QWERTY keyboard is usable, but redundant to me (anyone who has read posts here before will know, I can't stand QWERTY keyboards or touchscreens.)

I've put a few applications on it, will load some Maps later on, and see how the phone performs over the next few days. If anyone has anything they'd like to know about the handset, drop me a note in the combox and I'll check it out.

Nothing Better

It should come as no surprise, but sometimes the obvious needs to be stated - There's nothing better than the Nseries. Now, to qualify that.

A while back, as I posted about occasionally, I've been trying to look at other handsets, to see if there is anything else that can offer what I want from a phone. I've looked at Eseries devices, I've used phones from other manufacturers, I've probably changed handsets more in the last few months than I have in the last few years.

Most recently, I've used the Samsung Tocco, the LG Renoir. I've got a Motorola Z10, I've had the Sony Ericsson C905, a Nokia E51, E66, E71, a Nokia 5800, an N85, an N95 8GB, and the N82. They are all in their own right good handsets, but there's not one there that is better than the NSeries, for all round power, features, usability and durability.

The Tocco has to be the worst device I've ever used for web browsing, the Renoir is just a mess. The Z10 is a good imaging device, with some nice editing features (Something the Nseries lack, strangely) but isn't the most user friendly device, and there is little in the way of additional software available. The C905 has a great camera, but is slow, buggy, and has real hardware issues; The E51 is a great device, if I had to be ultra picky, the screen is too small which really effects web browsing and the camera shouldn't even be included, it's not worth having. The E66 and E71 are great devices, with excellent build quality, I really like them. The E66 is let down with a really poor battery, and I found I didn't get on with the keys on the E71. Moving on to the 5800, it's a nice enough device for what it is, but a lesson I still need to heed is I don't like touchscreen. I battled with it, to try and get on with the phone, but when I want to scroll down a page, I just want it to happen. Sometimes trying to get a response from a touchscreen phone is just a major pain in the ass, it really is. Web browsing generally is difficult, as not all sites are optimised, and this means selecting links isn't always easy. At least with a keypad phone, I can navigate the browser simple and easy, and highlight any link I want, quickly and easy.

As for the three Nseries phones, the N85 is nice enough, and would replace an N95 8GB for most people, but there are some points that I didn't like. Like having to turn all warning sounds off just to not have to listen to that awful noise every time I selected something in the menu! How could anyone ever think that was acceptable? The slightly different menu layout was a bit cumbersome, too, making extra button pushes for some features that became annoying. I did like the new way to customise the Homescreen though, at least I was able to get rid of all the ugly writing that is otherwise on the screen when calendar appointments are saved. It would have been nice to be able to choose my own icons on the screen when lining the screen up with a side view active standby though, I couldn't find how to do that.

So, after much cash spent, and many handsets come and gone, I have (eventually) come to the conclusion, there is nothing better than Nseries, and to top that, there is nothing better than the N95 8GB or the N82. Both look great, packed with features, stable OS, excellent all round imaging, web browsing, music playback, video capture, and so on. The GPS is probably quicker on the N82, the keypad on the N95 8GB is better though.

Until the speaker went, I was using an N95 8GB, now using an N82. I hope I've learnt my lesson; when it comes to phones, there is nothing better than these.

Holy Week

This blog is an occasional thing for me, these days, rather than something I regularly update. To be honest, other than the upcoming N97, all things Nseries are rather quiet, and if there's nothing new to see or say, why post for the sake of it?

Aside from that, today is Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week. My time online during this week is going to be absolutely minimal, no more than checking for emails, so there certainly won't be any updates this week, either.

This week is time for contemplation on the things in life that are really important. After Easter, hobby time can recommence.