The Mobile Perspective » Nokia

Credit Is Due To Nokia, Color Me Impressed

Jeb Brilliant — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 18:14:33 +0000

I was very excited to wake up this morning to read what Nokia had announced. I’ve been stewing on it all day and intentionally not commenting. I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to like let alone be impressed with today’s announcements. I’m still bitter about Nokia fumbling Symbian so badly and going with Windows Mobile. It may be petty but I’ve been a Nokia fan since 1997 and I don’t like big changes all that much.

I didn’t think Nokia would be able to pull it off, I didn’t think they would show up with guns blazing and deliver the goods. Well I’m happy to report I was seriously WRONG. Nokia has done it again. Nokia launched 2 pretty darn good devices from what I’ve seen and heard. I’m impressed and that’s not easy anymore, I’m genuinely interested to give the Nokia Lumia line a shot. I’d like a chance to play with one to really decide for myself, right now I’m just reading what my trusted friends are writing and making assumptions from that.

I am happy to be able to say that Nokia may have done the unexpected and created a line of devices that the masses will want and the masses may be able to afford. Nokia may also have in the meantime made been able to shine some much needed light and life into Windows Mobile phones. They had been looking a little lackluster to me though I must admit a tad tempting (of late).

I can’t wait to get my hands on the Lumia 710 and 800 and give them a real play with, until then I’m not going to pass any greater judgement. Congratulations Nokia and credit is due for cranking out 2 impressive devices in such a short time. I’m happy to see you back on the world platform.

Image Credit to Ben Smith

I Need A Java App To Track A Senior Citizen ASAP

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 17:39:37 +0000

Tuesday was a rough day in our family but it made me recognize a need for a service that may or may not exist. I don’t want to go into details but we’re very glad that my father in law is home safe and we’re grateful to a very thoughtful gas station attendant and Anaheim Police Officer.

Here’s what I NEED, a way to find someone in this case my father in law at a moments notice. He almost always takes his cell phone with him when he leaves the house. But he doesn’t have an iPhone with Find My iPhone he has a dumb phone, where is the equivalent app for dumb phones? Maybe a basic Java app with no mobile interface except to download and activate. Everything else would be online, or even better for me a mobile app that I could use on my iPhone.

There are thumb drive size fobs that have a GPS built in but I haven’t seen an app for a dumb phone. I know this isn’t an isolated incident and could easily happen again. I also know this happens every day in every country, an elderly parent goes out and scares the bejesus (sp) out of the rest of the family when they can’t find them and they don’t answer their cell phone.

I would pay big money for something that would allow my wife to look on her iPhone and within a few seconds know where her father is and be able to tell her Mom and relieve the family of the stress of not knowing. I’d even like the dumb phone app to start when the phone turns on and have it run like an OS application so it never shuts off.

I need this ASAP. I could probably find someone who’d fund it if you can build it. Just a ultra basic app that will allow me to find where the phone is but the key is it must work on dumb phones, like my father in laws Nokia 6555. There are all kinds of other features to build into it like SMSing the location to others, making the phone beep to find it in the couch cushions or display a message on the screen asking anyone who finds it to call a number. But for right now I just want to see where the phone is on a map.

Nokia Astound C7 Review

Jeb Brilliant — Tue, 10 May 2011 14:07:51 +0000

I was lucky enough to be chosen to go to CTIA in Orlando last month by WOMWorld/Nokia to participate in the Nokia Astound promotional tour. The Nokia Astound by T-Mobile also known as the C7 is an interesting device. First off let me just say that I really liked it while I had it for review. It is surprisingly comfortable in the hand and nice to look at. I wasn’t sure how much I was going to like using it but surprisingly enough it was kind of a joy. I’m usually a buttons kind of guy, like on the E72 but lately I’ve been trying to “like” touch screen phones and the Astound kept me on track. It is a huge upgrade in terms of software from the N97 (mini) which seems to be a pretty popular phone abroad (I’ve been traveling lately).

I got lots of comments from people about how nice looking the Astound is and questions like “Is it a good Nokia?” and “How’s the camera?”. The answer to both those questions is that it’s good. The camera is great for a phone this size and the UI is much improved. I’m not a technical guy in terms of build numbers and so on but being the newest OS it is a huge step up from it’s predecessor. Battery life was great, it went on for days and days and using it was a joy.

Ovi Maps is excellent, I mean it is the best maps app I’ve ever used. It’s not perfect, the search isn’t super robust but the navigation itself rocks my sox. It’s very nice that I can change the voice that gives me directions, I can’t stand a robot sounding voice on Android phones. Plus it’s nice that I can load the maps in advance and not need to use any data, saving lots of mb and money.

The email experience is VERY Nokia esque. It was perfectly fine and has some nice features but my 1 complaint was the lack of push email. It would check email every 5 minutes (I think) which should be fine for most people.

The carrier data speeds were incredible on the T-Mobile network. In my hotel room where AT&T and Sprint were struggling this little silver beauty was pulling down approximately 3mb/second. I was impressed.

I almost forgot to mention that for some reason T-Mobile is considering the Astound a feature phone so you can get their lowest data plan for only $10/month versus the more expensive smart phone plans.

Lastly and very importantly the in call volume was nice and loud. I was able to hear in noisy situations just fine. It also passed the window down while driving test. The speaker phone and speakers for music were just as nice.

My first thought during the breakfast briefing I attended in Orlando where I was given the Astound was that this will be a great first phone for a lot of young people and women. The price point isn’t painful, it’s thin and super sleek. It’s not for everybody, it would be a step down for an iPhone user for example, but I think there will be a lot of happy Nokia Astound customers. All in all it was a good device and I would recommend it to the “right” people.

MWC ’11 The Device To Have Had

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:36:54 +0000

As I fly home from a long week of meetings, parties and the over abundance of mobile phones I think I’ve seen the future. I imagine this is the same all over the world and in many industries and that it will trickle down into the general population.

Every year I see a trend and find that I’m noticing 1 phone stands out more then the rest in that it’s more commonly seen during MWC being used by the mass of people there. I will say I’m still shocked at how many feature phones I see at this show from people in the mobile industry, it’s amazing and not in a good way. Last year it was the HTC Nexus One (that could have been because Google gave a ton of them away at the show) and the year before that it was the Nokia E71 and the year before that it was the Nokia N95 and N95 8gig. Every year I see lot’s of iPhones but they’re not everywhere like you might imagine if you live in the US.

Well this year was unique. The device to have was not a phone. The most popular device to have that I saw was the iPad. It seemed like everyone had them. Some people told me they had a laptop in their hotel room to get serious work done and others said that that’s all they brought with for computing. Now here’s the interesting thing. It wasn’t just the iPad I noticed, it was a combination. It seemed like many of the iPad users had a BlackBerry to compliment their iPad’s. With the iPad you get all the greatness of iOS and it’s similar to an iPhone but with the BB you get a great email experience enhanced by the QWERTY keyboard and battery life of the BB. It’s a match made in heaven and I can definitely see why people go for it. Additionally BB’s use much less data then an Android or iPhone which is great when traveling abroad.

I see this as a combo that might last an entire year we just might see it back at MWC again as the combination to have. Or maybe it will be a BB combined with a Rim PlayBook.

Stay tuned for much more MWC ’11 coverage.

Nokia E73 Mode Review

Jeb Brilliant — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 18:29:11 +0000

I was lucky enough to get invited to a party and video shoot highlighting the Nokia E73 recently (thanks to WOM World/Nokia). I was given an E73 Mode to review and review it is what I’m doing. I’m totally enthralled with this device, for the most part it’s everything I need it to be.

I’m a heavy emailer and like to respond to email on my phone if a computer isn’t at hand. I don’t like to have to look at an email twice if I can avoid it.

The E73 is a good business phone. I’ve used many many phones over the years and something I have always wanted was a phone that would work fully (including 3G) here in the US and abroad wherever I go, be it Europe, Israel or anywhere in the US. I’ve always had to compromise on the 3G and it really annoyed me. The E73 runs T-Mobile USA’s 1700ghz band as well as the 2 other 3G world bands. The E73 has other great features as well, the speaker phone isn’t half bad, I’ve been able to have calls in the car while driving. A HUGE plus is the 3.5mm headphone jack on the top of the phone allowing any standard head phones to be used. There’s also the built in flash light and last but not least the 5mp camera. This is all nice and good but let’s not forget, the phone feels great in my hand. I can’t tell you how much I like it. The metal is nice and cold in the summer and the when I press the buttons they feel good but are nearly silent (so I can work in bed). I really like the button set up around the Dpad. I occasionally press the home button instead of the left soft key but I’m getting used to it and doing that less and less.

My favorite feature is the UMA. I use it when I’m in a location with bad reception or when traveling outside the US. UMA is basically wifi calling and it’s something I think all wifi enabled phones should have. Plus on T-Mobile with the E73 and most of their Blackberries you can make calls over UMA for free anywhere in the world.

Bad:
The email shortcut button can’t be configured to open a certain email inbox’s
There’s not nearly enough RAM, but keep in mind I’m a heavy user
I’ve had it freeze up twice in 3 weeks, really not that bad in the big scheme of things

The biggest problem I have with the E73 is the built in email app. It’s the standard Nokia Messaging app you would have expected but according to my sources it’s not run via Nokia but by T-Mobile and they put some heavy limits on it. For one thing push email isn’t available. The biggest problem I have with it is that even though I have it set to check my email every 5 minutes it sometimes won’t check for hours and I mean like 12-24 hours. This isn’t even close to acceptable, it’s as far from acceptable as you can get on a device like this. It’s a phone geared toward messaging and email doesn’t work on it. I had to download a 3rd party app called Emoze for reliable email and it also syncs my calendar and contacts (disclosure, Emoze is a past client).

Also the PIM on all Nokias is so outdated it’s scary. I still don’t get a proper sync with my Google Contacts. It’s amazing that I can’t have 2 mobile and 1 home number for the same contact.

I know this is on the new N8 but it should have already been on the older phones, I need multiple calendar support.

My final thought on this phone is that it’s amazing I love it and would recommend it to almost anybody.

Is Nokia Dead??? Just kidding. I have a few suggestions err rant.

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 01:06:23 +0000

I keep reading about this, people ask me about it and I’ve even asked myself the question a few times. The answer is NO, Nokia is nowhere near dead. They sell a bazillion phones a day and are still the leader in smart phones with Symbian. I personally prefer Symbian over every other platform I’ve ever used. Yes I know, I know it’s “not innovative”, “it’s not user friendly”, it’s not blah blah blah. Stop throwing up your rants at me. I just prefer it. Yes Ewan (@Ew4n) I do, even if you point and laugh at my choice of phones. I will say that Symbian isn’t perfect, for consuming data on the go Android is the best, for variety of apps iPhone is the best, but for what I want Symbian is the best. I have been known to spend 2 hours a night answering emails in bed and I don’t have patience to do that on a touch screen phone so I use my trusty Nokia E71, which I just upgraded to an E73 (US and T-Mobile only version of the E72).

Here’s what I think though Nokia, if you’re listening. It’s time to spend the big bucks on advertising in the US, IF and only IF you want to succeed here. Not if you just want to sell a handful of phones but if you really want to sell like you used to. I’m talking about Super Bowl commercials and pumping as many handsets into Hollywood movies, TV shows, commercials and music videos as you possibly can. I think it’s time to through so much money at WOM World/1000 Heads that they don’t know how to spend it all. Do a bus tour across the US. Hire a few thousand developers and pay them top dollar to create top shelf apps. BTW give Jan Ole Suhr an award on the front lawn of the White House for keeping Symbian alive. Sponsor the next natural disaster in the US by plunking down a 747 full of handsets with prepaid minutes and data preloaded and help people send email, Twitter, and FaceBook messages to their loved ones so they know their alright.

Nokia, you and I and many many others know you have the potential to succeed in the US but for pete’s sake go for it. Take off your suite coat and tie, roll up your sleeves and throw some punches. Stop making me look like a fool when I take out my Nokia phone at CTIA or MWC because people think I’m crazy for carrying a Nokia . I want to feel cool again if I whip out an E73 or an N8.

This probably sounds like a rant just like a bunch of others you’ve read lately from other bloggers. But here’s the thing, we all want to see Nokia succeed and flourish. We all have your best interest in mind. So LISTEN to what we have to say. My last suggestion for this blog post is this, fly a bunch of us Nokia enthusiasts, not only bloggers to all meet with the future CEO. I promise no one will yell at him, but let us tell him what we think and how we think he should fix the problems. Let’s do a full blown un-conference with a dude ranch or a tropical island setting and allow us 24 hours to explain ourselves.

Okay back to your regularly scheduled programming. Oh and I’m not going to edit this because I don’t want it to lose any of its edge.

Nokia E72 Quick Review

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 20:40:36 +0000

Ok, I have the absolute greatest wife ever, she got me a white Nokia E72 as a fathers day gift. I am the luckiest guy ever. Well here’s my review, I love it for the most part.

The Nokia E72 has a great number of benefits like the

3.5mm headphone jack
The flashlight
The newer version of Symbian
A VERY quite keyboard when typing on it
Many many other benefits.

But it also has some drawbacks

I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t auto capitalize the letter “I” when typing messages. It is my biggest annoyance with the device
It doesn’t have enough RAM
The build quality isn’t as good as the E71
The battery life isn’t as long as I would like
The center of the D pad should be white on the white version of the handset that I have
My biggest problem with the E72 is that mine is defective. I wasn’t sure I was going to mention this but I figure I should. The left soft key on my handset has to be depressed extra hard to make it work properly.

I am madly in love with the idea of this device but I’m not sure it’s a big enough step up from my previous phone the Nokia E71. If you don’t have an E71 then I think this is a perfect phone but if you have then you may be disappointed.

That being said, I’ll probably get another one anyways. I do love my Nokias!!! And I’m proud of it @Ew4n.

WOMWorld/Nokia Know How To Do A Campaign, NokiaNav

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 04 Jun 2010 23:45:07 +0000

Our good friends at WOMWorld/Nokia (part of 1000 Heads) recently completed a campaign to promote their new Nokia CarKit CK-200. It entailed 5 very high power sports cars driving all around England doing all kinds of tasks. Then 5 bicyclists’ finding their way to a park and meeting up with the cars and drivers. This all culminated with a very enjoyable party from what I saw.

This was one of the most entertaining advertising campaigns for me the viewer and I’m positive the drivers. I felt like I was fully involved and really created a great deal of interest for me. I’m now watching a bunch of WOMWorld videos and loving all of them. I’m supposed to be in one of them (James).

Back to the video I’m here writing about. I was so impressed I wanted to share it with you and give WOMWorld/Nokia big props for one of the best thought out and executed campaigns I’ve ever seen. I hope they bring their expertise here and hire me to help them put on a great event or campaign in the US. My side of the Atlantic needs some action, how about a Cannonball Run Style race from NY to LA??? I’ll be Bert Reynolds.

Anyways, enjoy the video they put together when it was all over.

I’m Frustrated With So Many Touch Screens Wheres the Blackberry Format?

Jeb Brilliant — Thu, 27 May 2010 19:44:20 +0000

I’m getting frustrated with mobile these days. I am really tired of the popular formats of phones and nothing is really changing. I know touchscreen only handsets are popular but I’m personally bored to bits of seeing them everywhere. Everyone and their mother has a touchscreen phone and I see them struggling all the time.

I personally just don’t like the format. I’m a big fan of the Nokia E71 or Blackberry format of phones. Screen and QWERTY keyboard is what I like. Problem is I haven’t seen any new inovation in that form factor since the Palm Pixi was released. Nokia has the new E72, Blackberry has the 9700 and all their other new models but where are the rest of them? Hello HTC??? I really enjoy my Android Nexus One but would like it more with a physical keyboard.

I’ve been using phones with a QWERTY keyboard since I got a Nokia 9500 many many years ago. I have used other formats since then but always go back to the physical kb. So where’s the innovation?

I’m hoping we’ll see an amazing Android phone with a full QWERTY keyboard this year but my expectations are diminishing. I’ve been told Android isn’t really geared to a physical keyboard. WELL ADAPT, please.

HTC are you listening? I think you have the most potential to do this. I don’t mind having a smaller screen just to be 100% clear. It’s fine with me. I need a bi directional communications device and non QWERTY devices are just for receiving information and not responding to it. Not creating, not writing email, sms, Twitter, etc.

What do you all think? Are we going to see a Blackberry style device with Android? Do you even want that?

The Nokia Ovi App Store should have the latest app builds

Jeb Brilliant — Fri, 14 May 2010 22:17:26 +0000

I don’t know why but I’m in a “Tell it as it should be” mood, so I’m going to voice my opinion once again. And as usual it’s directed at Nokia, don’t take it personally Nokia, I really like you and want you to succeed and blow away the competition. Now that that’s out of the way here it is.

The Nokia Ovi Store doesn’t always have the most current version of apps so when I download them I’m starting off not being up to date. For example I downloaded Fring from the Ovi Store after a firmware update of my E71 and started to run the app. I realized the app wasn’t up to date so I went to m.fring.com and got the newest version. I also downloaded emoze from the Ovi Store and as soon as I got it set up it automatically checks for new versions and low and behold there was a new one.

Now I’m a bit of what you would call an extremist when it comes to cell phones but I do expect the part of the company that directly interfaces with the consumer on a day in day out basis (the Ovi App Store) should have the absolute newest builds within 24 hours after they are published on the companies own site. It should be part of the agreement of putting your app in the app store that it is updated as the software is updated and in a timely fashion. Otherwise just make the app store a link farm and send me to m.fring.com and m.emoze.com to download the app knowing it will be the freshest from the developers.

To be clear, I’m not laying the blame on the companies but on the Ovi Store itself. This needs to be part of the deal to be allowed to have your app in the Ovi Store. But the companies producing these apps could do a better job as well.

Ok, I’m done giving my constructive criticism for today. Hope everyone has a nice weekend.