Fourth Interview-The long journey of Pankaj reached to Nokia E72

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I should say that the idea of the same interview series started with the man himself only. It was our last tweepup (in fact, the first ever tweepup of mine) with me, Pankaj and Krishna, where this idea came in my mind. It was his extreme care of his own handset and knowledge over various services and functions that challenged me to think that its not only we blogger, who try to keep eyes over the things going around, but the ‘common’ people too. Its just that the time that blogging may ask from you sometimes, is not everyone’s cake.

We didn’t got time for the second tweepup (Sigh!!! the professional lives of us are too tough to find time for even self and family), but was wishing to spend much time with Pankaj for asking about things he used to do with his mobiles and due to crunch of time for both of us, I thought about this way.

Anyway, why to bore you all, let’s talk about Pankaj only here.

Pankaj, Can you tell us something about you? like your profession,background etc..blogging\ social life
Hello Guys. My Name is Pankaj Kapoor. I am a married guy with one Son, working as Chief Technical Manager in Cowi India Pvt Ltd. We deal in 3D digital maps, something which you see in Ovi Maps and Google Earth etc.

On Personal Front, I am very much a family guy and my hobbies include mobiles, movies, technology in general and hanging out with family on weekends.

On social front, the guys on web and various mobile forums know me as freak4mobiles. Was long time member on sites like Zedge and was Moderating wonderful forum symbian-freak.com. Now I am active on twitter and people know me as @pannkaz.

Me: Whoa… didn’t knew that you had moderated symbian-freak.com in past. Secret secret… hmm

Which was your first phone and the journey of the freak started?
My first Nokia was 8310 and I instantly fell in love with the phone and company. It was one of the best and sexiest phone of its time. Then came Nokia 6600. The first symbian phone I used and what an experience it was.

It seems you are a big fan for Nokia, if yes then since when?
Yes thats true. I am big fan of Nokia as company and using Nokia phones since 2001. So its almost a love of 10 years.

can you list out the phones you have used for last few years?
Since my first phone which was incidentally a Ericsson T28, I have used a lots of phone. Here is a list of the phones I have used in 10 years.

Ericsson – A3618, T28,
Nokia – 1100, 1200, 1650, 2100, 2300, 2600, 3310, 3510, 3610, 6230, 6233, 6270, 6600, 6610, 7610, 8210, 8250, 8310, E61, E72, E75, N73, N82, N86
SE – M600, P990, T610, W800, Z600
Samsung – N620, C100, R220

And few more.. So its almost 35 phones in 10 years. That’s why got this nick freak4mobiles.

Me: Whoa .. that’s some crazy, some real crazy. I noted that you missed N70/ N72/N73, otherwise, it’s huge

When did you plan to go for Nokia E72, was it planned or accident?
Since I have earlier used E71 and other qwerty phones, so I was waiting for some nice upgrade for them. So the day E72 was announced, I knew its a phone for me. So you can say it was a well thought decision.

What’s your views on touch screens? Have you tried them yet, if yes then which one?
Yes I have tried few touch screen phones but incidentally no Nokia. I have used SE M600 and P990 touch screen phones.

you must have read about Nokia E7-00, what’s your views on it?
Yes But honestly speaking I am not too excited about this. For me a phone should be able to last me one full day on single charge, but I fear E7 with 4 inch screen and 1200mAH will not fulfill my needs. Otherwise its a great phone and is going to sure shot hit.

E72 Special Questions

How is the keypad response of Nokia E72 and have you tried other qwerty variants like BB?
The keyboard response on E72 is very good and there are very few mis hits. Before this I have tried other qwerty phones like E61, M600 and P990, but honestly speaking, Till date I like the keyboard of P990 most. The keys were tiny but raised and have gaps between them.The typing on it with combination of touch screen was great.

What you say about the S60 3rd Edition? Have you found any other non-touch OS better than this on mobiles? Like Windows Mobile etc.
S60 3rd Edition is un-doubtedly World’s most stable and widely used smart phone OS. New entrants like Android and iOS are developed with touch screens in mind. For non-touch smart phones, there is no competition to Symbian. Regarding Windows phones, lesser I say is better.

What are the applications you have installed so far, please list it? how many give trouble to you (any compatible error etc..)
X-plore, ScreenSnap, Google, mPaper, JbakTaskmanager, Nimbuzz, Worldmate, Gmail, Google Maps, Facebook Mobile, Skype, Divx Player, BookMyShow, ngPay, MidDay, Profimail, Gravity, Qik. eBuddy, Y!Cricket, Foursquare, Socially and Opera Mini.

Quite a big list and happy with all of them.

What do you say about the speed of E72?
The overall speed of E72 is very good and the phone is real snappy and fast. There is no lag in menu transitions and moving from one folder to another. It doesn’t matter if it has only 600Mhz processor. I will like to say here that Symbian is still most resource efficient OS among all other mobile OS.

Are you a game player? if yes what are the games do you play on E72? If no, then what is your favourite time pass with Nokia E72?
I am an occasional game player and do play few games on my E72 whenever I get time after work and twitter. Here are some of games installed on my phone: Block Cascade, Solitaires. Snowboard, Asphalt 4, Prince of Persia, Street Marbles, HighSpeed 3D, Archery, Splinter Cell, Bubble Bash2,
Assassins Creed, Block Breaker 2.

Me: Surprised to see Cricket T20 not in the list. You must try that one.

What you expect from the next E-Series successor? It has to be touch based like we seen E7 or something else (May be E6)
My next dream E-series Phone has to be a combination of touchscreen and qwerty like P990. Here is what I like it to.

3.5 inch screen, full qwerty keyboard, 8MP camera with dual LED, Symbian^3, 512MB RAM, 32GB memory with memory card slot, and if possible 1GHz proccessor.

I will also like it to have full social web integrations like direct IM, twitter, facebook access from Contacts itself and Calendar to have sync with facebook and twitter.

How is the connectivity options on Nokia E72 and what’s missing ones mean to you like FM transmitter?
The connectivity options on E72 are really great and this is the phone which can keep you connected most of the time. Since I travel around 3-4 hours daily, I do miss the FM transmitter on it. I have used the same on N86 and its a great add on to have. I fail to understand, Why Nokia has different software suites for different phones. For mid range its OK, but for high end phones, they shall give all the options whether its a N-series or E-series phone.

What about the camera part? How you find Nokia E72 camera? Specially if you would have tried others like N82 or N86.
The E72 camera is really the best among business phones, though you cant compare it with camera-centric phones and its not meant to compete with them. But still the day pics from this phone are one of the best I have seen from 5MP snappers. What I will really love to have on next E-series is Dual LED. That shall be made standard on all phones with camera now. For night shots, its like any other normal camera phone and cant compete with powerhouses like N82 or N86.

Any great pics which you might have snapped with your E72? Specially macro shots or scenery shots?
I will say let the pictures speak themselves

1. The sunny outdoor pics

2. Little easy on light

3. The amazing macro shots

4. A shot in complete darkness.. the flash rules

What about the build quality and what you think that could go more better? Like Anodized aluminum etc

The build quality of E72 is spectacular. I have used it for more than an year and it still looks like new. No moving parts, no loose battery cover, nothing. Perfect. Using Anodized aluminum will add entirely another dimension to already wonderful build of E72.

Me: Really wanted to show all readers the spectacular and still new Nokia E72 looks. Pankaj will share soon

Is it loud on calls? What about the music performance?

Its good for a business phone, but not too loud. You may miss a call or two when you are in a very noisy environment. But for most of day to day conditions its loud enough. The Music performance through ear phones is very good and best till date in E-series, but not through phone speakers as its only a mono one. But its not meant to be a music phone, so that doesn’t bother me that much.

Which next phone, you are planning to buy after Nokia E72? Is there anything already out, which you are eyeing on or something that is about to come later?
I am very Happy and contend with my E72 and not planning to replace it in near future. I will wait till someone comes with Candy bar form factor with touch screen and top of the line specification. In the meantime I may get N8 for imaging to compliment my E72.

Do you think that E72 still stands as best reliable partner for business persons like you? If yes then why so?
E72 is a phone which has already blurred the line between business phone and social phone. I have seen many youngsters using E72 and keeping in touch with their friends through social networking. Its the form factor and ease of typing, which has made this phone hit with business people as well as young.

what you don’t like about E72?
There is nothing major to dislike about E72. The only thing I wish is that it should have come with at least 256MB RAM.

Battery life of E72? We already heard a lot on it, but wish to hear some specific experience of yours which might have happened in past?
Battery Life on E72 is really amazing. As my personal experience, it lasts me easily 1.5 day with Gravity, Profimail (Always connected mode), lots of calling, some imaging, videos and messages.

Few months back I went to holiday and there I used my phone without any internet connection and only did calls, some photos and videos and the battery lasted me full 3.5 days. That’s really awesome. I really wish Nokia shall use same battery in all there flagship phones, not like one they are using N8 and upcoming E7.

Me: I would like to tell readers that Pankaj love to Qik streams and when he says videos then you know a part of it is Qik. Think battery now.

Your score points to the E72 (rating if any..)
8.5 out of 10.

I understand the limitations of time and pages I could write on it, but its always feels less when we talk about something that we really love and with a person, whom we wanted to talk more and more. Feel just like that when finishing this interview for now. Really want Pankaj to write for me sometimes 😉 though I know how tough this gonna be for him.

Drop me your comments or to the man himself @pannkaz on twitter. There will always be something remained that you can learn from his.

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Third Interview-Yogesh on his long wait and Nokia N8

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So, while Apple iPhone interview with Deep ended last day with a warm note and some of the new things about iPhone 4, the choice of right person was also the hardest part to me.

Most of the times, when it comes to Apple products, then we get fanboys only, who wont take it if anything goes against Apple and I was looking for a balanced one. Deep really did the same job beautifully.

The next was equally tough, when I was to look for someone to interview on Nokia N8. Like Apple iPhone 4, it was equally hard to find someone owning Nokia N8, who might not go in fan boyish tone rather than talking real and still I was looking for people outside the blogging world.

The name of Yogesh came in my mind as a person, who was very active on twitter, yet away from blogging at least till now. His insights about various phones might have passed through your eyes as well, if you are active on twitter in those Nokia/ Symbian discussions.

Anyway, I know more than my words, the interview series is going all about the common people talking about their phones, so let me leave the stage now for the person himself and the questions of mine.

Yogesh, Can you tell us something about you ? like your profession,background etc..blogging\ social life.
Hi, my name is Yogesh Nikam. I am 28 years old boy from Vashi, Navi Mumbai. Have a computer engineering degree ( BE ) from Mumbai university and have worked in my field for 4 years. But since childhood my dream was to get into the civil services, so left the job from last 1.5 years and right now going through my upsc exams.Hopefully one day I will get into the IAS / IFS service. MY interest areas are technology specially smart phones these days, reading, movies, sports and bikes.

Interesting to note that you are very active on smart phone related discussions on twitter, but still have no blog to voice your opinions? Why so? (Very much thinking to invite you as a guest blogger on my blog. You get hands on devices much before than me)
Right, I do get access to lot of phones early , but I don’t have any blog to express my impressions about the devices. I am pretty active on twitter which already allows me share and interact with lots of smart phone enthusiasts like me. Don’t have my own blog as it takes lots of time to maintain & update, but sure maybe sometime after my exams are over. Surely, I will be glad to contribute to your blog as guest writer one day.

The reason I started using twitter was that it gave me a great platform to interact with @phonedaz a.k.a. Mr. Damian Dinning, who is the chief architect behind Nokia Camera phones. From the start I have been a big fan of camera phones with SE k750i being my first gsm handset to start with. Since then I have used almost all camera phones.

Me: Sure, Yogesh, like I said, I would love to have you with me on my blog. Hope you don’t mind the name of blog that been the biggest obstacle in asking others to come with me.

How long do you use Nokia products? Any other brands, you might have been with earlier or now? Can you list out the phones you have used for last few years?
I started using Nokia products from Feb 07 with N73 ME because of being a Camera Phone lover and wanted to try out Symbian OS (before that I was using SE K750i).

I started with SE and then went with Nokia. A long list of phones used by me includes – K750i , N73ME, K790i, N82, N95 8gb, N85, N86,N79, Wave, Galaxy S and now N8. In between, I had pretty good hands-on with SE K850i, SE C905, Samsung Pixon 8, LG Renoir, Samsung Pixon 12, Google Nexus one, HTC Desire, HTC Desire HD and Dell streak.

I have seen you keep a close eye over discussions related to Smart phones and not only that but you get hands on over devices very soon. Envy you. What’s the secret?
I have got few friends who are tech freaks. And Smart phones being the latest trend in technology these days, they do get all the latest & greatest Smart phones and hence I get to experience them early. HTC Desire HD being the latest one that I really liked.

When did you plan to go for Nokia N8, (was it a plan or accident?) Knowing the pros and cons, how the final decision went?
When did I decided on Nokia N8 ? Hmm.. very early, very very early. I Came to know that Nokia is working on a 12mp camera phone sometimes in November – December last year and being a hard core N86 fanboy, I knew N8 would be something very special. I kept on teasing Damian about that but no info came out of that channel. I thought they will show N8 in MWC 2010 but sadly no luck.

Finally a Genius from Russia leaked that and we came to know about Nokia N8. Nokia then officially came out with N8. So, I could say that the decision on N8 was made very very early actually and I was waiting for N8 for a very very long time. And now I am very happy with my decision and N8 is simply a great all round device for me.

Whats your views on touch screens? Do you really feel that they are at par with Non-Touch ones about text entries?
We are into the age of big touch screen phones. With the start of 3G services in India, if you want to experience the power of internet on your handset then you will need to have a big screen device, hence even if you been fan of non-touch, you can’t run away from a touch screen device.

I personally love them after using Wave, Galaxy S and now N8. Can’t say we can type as fast as good non touch T9 keypad devices such as Nokia N86, Nokia E52 or a good qwerty ones as Nokia E71, but you can achieve very good speeds with swype keyboard that came preinstalled on Galaxy S and now on N8. I just love that onscreen keyboard and its the best thing to have happened to text entry on touch only devices.

There are a lots of buzz around symbian that they are not coping well with things and people with money prefer going with other products, what you say?
Symbian is an excellent Smart phone OS as far as multitasking, contacts management, power management etc. factors go, but they are definitely lacking in UI, browser, text input, IM & social network integration in OS and need to improve on that as fast as possible to not lose customers to other competing platforms like Android. Quality of third part applications too need to rise quickly, same can be said for quality games now that, we have pretty good Broadcom GPU inside symbian 3 devices.

Nokia N8 related Special Questions

You use Nokia N8 for accomplishing which thing most… calls, browsing, navigation, movies, twitter.. which one?
I use my N8 in various different ways- Calling, texting being the basic use of course, I do use it as my main imaging device for photos/videos, Music / Movie player using HDMI out & USB-OTG, for video calling to my friends in other cities using MTNL 3g, twitter via Gravity, Fm radio/internet radio via wi-fi, Ovi maps, Gaming with Angry birds, NFS-SHIFT etc, a bit of browsing via opera mini and a bit of gmail via inbuilt messaging client. N8 being a very versatile device we can use it a hell lot of other ways actually.

Now days, the dead Nokia N8 issue is being pushed in media, what’s your views about that? I have not seen one, but have you seen any such case around you yet?
No idea about the much talked about power management issues. No issues with N8s around me. It seems to be true as even Nokia representative has said it himself. If such problem is indeed there then we can get it replaced under warranty.

Everyone talks about responsiveness of iPhone and SGS. Nokia N8 has improved considerably due to capacitive finally. What you think different here, underlying screen tech or processor or OS itself?
N8 is very responsive, obviously because of capacitive screen technology, a powerful Broadcom graphics processor and an optimized symbian 3 OS. Its a combination of all three factors. Add to that they have upped the clock speed of ARM11 CPU to 680mhz on N8.

Hardware is undoubtably great, but there are some annoyances in hardware. Nokia Social is not a great one as people say, sharing was bring by Pixelpipe etc rather than inbuilt, what’s your views? Aren’t they really slow?
I don’t like the Nokia Social app at all. No idea why Share Online was not included in symbian 3 OS and we need to rely on third part pixpelpipe for that task. As of now, most of my media uploads are from pc only.

Nokia has been known for two thing since decades; Signal strength and battery lives. Anything improves or go average with Nokia N8.
In terms of signal strength N8 is excellent. Battery life on 2G is very good considering it has only a 1200mAh battery for a 3.5" display device. Battery life figures on 3G are not desirable to he honest.

Like in last interview, Deep said, if someone really need a great camera then digital cameras are already there and for people highly concerned on quality there are DSLRs. Is camera really important to be a part of smart phone to be treated as deal breaker?
I don’t know about others but for me, camera is very very important in a smart phone. You do carry your phone everywhere with you 24/7 and you can see a lot of people taking pictures with their phones, most of the time with poor cameras built-in. Then why not have the best camera built in your phone.

Its not about competing with digital cameras, but its about how good your cell phone camera can be. Its been a great asset for me at least. I will say again, its very very important to have a excellent camera in your phone like N86 and N8.

You must check some of my photos taken from Nokia N8 to understand that how handy and full fledged thing this is.

Anodized Aluminum is something that is very special about Nokia N8 and amazing that they managed a unique shape for their product when Samsung, HTC etc seemed to following iPhone at some places. What you find good or bad about Nokia N8 build?
I do like its build quality. Its excellent, obviously with anodized aluminum and unibody design. It does feel great in your hand and I can only say one thing “A great Job well done for Nokia” .

In the hype and fanboys around, many simple and important points get missed like Pentaband of Nokia N8 or FM Transmitter or HDMI or USB OTG Support.. whats special about Nokia other than highlighted Camera, which you find absent with others? What use cases those features make for general people?
Features like Penta-band 3G is interesting to have. You can experience 3G services all around the world, if your a businessman on the move. Features like HDMI out & USB OTG along with native Divx/Xvid/Mkv format support make N8 a very potent media player. FM transmitter is a very handy feature to have in car and I do use it regularly.

Also simple things like "quality stereo audio capture" in video recording usually go unnoticed. Nokia is good at providing all these features in a single handset. May not be noticed or important to others, but highly appreciated from my behalf.

iPhone always stood as slimmest one around. With Nokia N8 they tried to come close of slimming finally. Where slim phones stand for you? While lowest weight is sure nice, but some say that slim phones are generally easy to get slipped from hands? real?
All these slimness crazy stuff is obviously going overboard. Things like that prevent manufacturers from putting bigger capacity batteries, excellent quality camera modules like N86 or N8, xenon flash in those handsets. I am not against slim devices, but I want all these practical stuff to be included instead.

I hear about the absence of Camera cover and their explanation of augmented reality and tougher glass. Is it really unbreakable, uncatchable? If not then does this thing really cut for people, who might be buying their Smart phone for next 5 years?
Active camera lens cover of N86 , N82 type is a must for any wannabe camera phone. It saves the precious lens from all the dust, dirt etc. Nokia had to go without that in N8 due to design restrictions. But I would have liked a camera lens cover in N8.

As about augmented reality apps – let them come first, only then I can comment on that. We have to keep cleaning that glass over camera lens in N8 which I seriously don’t like. No idea how tough or scratch proof it is, I can only say after 6-8 months of heavy use.

Portrait or Landscape.. what you prefer about texting? How much it worth having portrait on Nokia N8? How it will behave with narrower width due to 16:9 screen?
I use swype keyboard in a landscape mode, that’s it. The default ones are retarded anyways. Let Nokia come with a portrait qwerty and then can I comment on its usability.

The portrait keyboard on opera mini is pretty difficult to operate to be honest.

For symbian, Nokia N8 changes the meaning of camera, gaming on phone, data transfer (OTG), what it means to you?
For me N8 is a complete device specs wise, very long speck sheet of N8 says it all. No major things are missing in it apart from led flash for video recording. But then for good quality results, you need dual LEDs of N86 class and there wasn’t enough space for those. Also as stated earlier camera lens cover would have been great.

While Qt and Symbian^3 was to bring portability of app among phones, it frustrates when we see Swype was here for C7 but not N8, Skype came and gone due to unstability and bugs. Sure confusing. Is it really same across all phones now? Is it really easy to port old apps here? What are the view of common man watching all this?
Nokia is banking heavy on QT. Hope its helps developers port their quality apps from iOS and Android to symbian easily. It sure does feel bad when you have to use swype keyboard meant for C7 on N8, before official N8 version came out.

But then Nokia should work hard on increasing no of quality apps on symbian quickly. For a common man, its great to have good no of quality apps that are productive and quality games to play in his spare time.

12) How is GPS there on Nokia N8? I found the A-GPS part better than earlier, locking instantly sometimes based on cell tower even if not precise. Whats your experience with it? Any place you visited with this only? Do you prefer to keep Google Maps installed on your N8 also?
GPS performance of N8 is excellent. GPS lock is instant with A-GPS on. No, I haven’t used Google maps on N8 as OVI maps is more than sufficient for my needs and can be used offline unlike Google maps.

After having used Muti-touch pinch to zoom in their beta Ovi Maps, isn’t age old Google Maps app annoy sometimes now?
As I said before I have not tried Google maps on N8. The multitouch support added in latest ovi maps is great. Nokia should keep on improving a very good product like ovi maps.

Now days China phones are making big in India and one thing they been concentrating on is loudness of music even if on cost of clearness. Nokia N8 is being praised for being loud and yet so clear. Whats your views on that? Do you find it louder than other or some others were better in this regard? Which one?
Mono Speaker on N8 is decently loud and pretty clear for sure. But somehow I would have liked to see Stereo speakers on N8 like Omnia HD or 5800 or X6 style. And a tad more loudness will surely be welcome. China handsets are loud, no doubt but then people do use it those handsets for that single purpose only.

I personally don’t like china handsets due to reliability issue, though I agree they are very famous among general people for that loudness factor.

Ovi Music Unlimited is a thing that is not being spread like wildfire, which it could have been if there were many WiFi’s around in India like foreign places. Did you tried that feature? What you think of it?
Ovi music unlimited is an excellent addition to N8. Yes, I have used it on pc as well as on N8 using wi-fi. More wi-fi hotspots would increase the way people use this feature.

What’s your experience about Ovi Store? Its improved, but still there seems to be less apps and sometimes even available app crashes. Isn’t it seems serious lack of quality from their software division due to race of numbers?
Ovi store experience on N8 is greatly improved compared to previous Nokia handsets. Yes, no of quality apps is low compared to Android market. Most apps I downloaded from OVI store have worked fine on my N8 till now. Surely Nokia must work on this aspect of quality apps on symbian platform.

A suggestion of mine is that Ovi store application on N8 & other symbian 3 devices should have black background considering all these are AMOLED displays and it helps in improving battery life of these devices.

Nokia Messaging, push mail that never seems to work for many with WAP at least. Whats your experience with it? We asked for HTML since big time, but isn’t it look like that keeping HTML view optional was more efficient way?
I am not into heavy email usage on my smart phones. But my Gmail account is working pretty fine with Airtel mobile office internet connection on my N8. I have heard people having various issues with WAP connection, I cant comment on that.

Do you think Nokia N8 can act as a full time phone in your hands or you need some backup phone too .. considering touch screen and battery limitations in mind?
I don’t think I need any backup device for N8. It can surely be used as a full time phone with its battery life on 2G networks being very good. Though I think Nokia should have put atleast 1320mAh battery of 5800 in N8 somehow.

What about Nokia N8 Gaming? I have written a piece on it and really love it. What’s your experience? Is it at par with others?
Due to use of very good GPU like Broadcom BCM2727, the gaming experience on N8 is very good. Angry birds gaming experience on N8 and Galaxy S is pretty same. Same thing can be said for NFS SHIFT on N8 and Wave. I really want to see more quality games like iOS on symbian platform

If you have to show off your Nokia N8 to someone new, then how you go with that? Which features you list and in which order?
Of course the best way to showoff N8 is by showcasing its camera. No other smart phone can come close to it. USB OTG and HDMI out are two other features that can impress general people.

Me: I would prefer to show off the new music gallery first and also the instant thumbnails generation across the gallery.

What about Ovi Services? With one login in start pulling all contacts from cloud, they finally seems to be on right track like others. What’s your views on it? how customizable and simple things are with Nokia N8 when it comes to data transfer across devices?
About cloud services – I don’t use them and hence cant comment on them. But I have heard they are improving but still not as good as Google cloud services obviously

Now days, smart phones concentrating on Internet Apps more and more, but availability of internet and strength is still lame in most area. Let’s say, you got a SIM with no GPRS and you have to start a fresh piece of Nokia N8 without internet, is this really cut then? Specially keeping USB OTG in mind, when you can easily transfer sis files from your friends and your computer, what’s Nokia N8 worth, if it run without internet and data plans?
Even without GPRS or any data plan , N8 is a worth device to have. With that mind blowing camera, excellent sound quality through earphones, very good Amoled display, excellent video playback via HDMI out, some good games, USB OTG, fm transmitter, you can use your N8 in various different ways which sadly can’t be said for most other android devices without data connection.

Be honest, if your younger bro ask you for some phone, then considering the price of Nokia N8, will you prefer the same again for him or you have some alternative to it in mind? Which one? Nokias like C6-01, C7, E7 or some other brands.
If my younger bro wants a new smart phone and he is not hell bent on having best camera, then I will point him towards C7 and if he is on low budget then surely Nokia C6-01.

E7-00 is just too costly with that 1200mAh only battery for a 4" device.

What you don’t like about Nokia N8? And what things stand a chance after the next coming updates?
I wish N8 had super Amoled display like Galaxy S. But then that’s a Samsung exclusive for some time now. I wish it had dual LEDs for video recording, Variable aperture like N86 plus active camera lens cover.

About software update – the browser and text input are two areas I am looking forward too. I Will be glad to see continuous auto focus in video recording mode on N8 plus a bit better xenon flash performance in future software updates of N8.

Your score points to the Nokia N8
My rating on N8 – 8/10 .. missing points due to browser, poor social networking client built-in and less no of quality apps available.

Having so many fans around with Nokia N8, it was really hard to pick one to say it all about Nokia N8 in most simplest manner to satisfy the urge of many others around to know more and more about it. And I must say, I am glad I am chosen Yogesh, who was almost certain to buy one even when it wasn’t even announced.

Sorry to all others, who wanted to speak up for Nokia N8 here, but I was to make a choice.

I want support from all of you to find people from other remaining platforms, I am sure you all want this series of interviews to continue more and more, right?

Layman Take on Nokia N8 – Part 5 – The New Gaming console

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Hi All, so the journey with Layman take on Nokia N8 reached to its fifth part today. Thanks for all the support, you have shown till now. This is what that keeps me going. You can check back again, if you might have missed any of the four parts of the loooong review.

1. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 1 – The detailed unboxing
2. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 2 – First look over exteriors
3. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 3 – Symbian Walkthrough – 1
4. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 4 – Symbian Walkthrough – 2

All of the above are pretty detailed in nature, so sure have some snacks and time, once you wish to read them. May be I have left some of the things here and there, but I tried to cover some of the points that might have missed from eyes of other bloggers. This is a layman take as you know it.

Playing engaging big games on mobiles might be yours choice or not, but no one could claim that they haven’t enjoyed the legendary Snake games, which was there on all Old Nokia. Later on some other games also started popping over Nokia and though people started enjoying them too, but J2ME based games were never a big fun, specially without those funky 3D graphics and hardware accelerations, which we were used to live with on our PCs now.

It was the flood of iPhone and iPod touch, which really changed the face of gaming. When Steve says that the world was changed, then the touch experience was first and gaming experience was making a big second to that. We seen Nokia N95 etc, Nokia tried to partner with N-Gaze etc, but touch screen gamming been a slippery side for Nokia till now.

Now, Symbian^3 has started with really big promises on gaming. With handsets like Nokia N8 and Nokia C7 on very reasonable prices, Symbian^3 seems to adding a new dimension to Nokia with excellent gaming potential and market growth, once people started to realize it.

Why one will buy an iPod touch in 16-18k, when you are getting world’s best signals and best navigation experience on just few thousands higher price? And yes .. that would be a phone rather than just a toy at home, so bound to be with you all the time.

Probably, all talking is useless, unless, I show you some real things. Its sad that people buying Nokia N8, will not find any games pre-installed on it and when they will go through Ovi Store, then will think twice before buying any game in price, due to experiences from older Nokia’s. Someone really need to convince them hard that it worth buying, as Nokia users are not used to purchasing apps like Apple ones.

Let me try… I am writing this specially for some of my readers who complained me about unavailability of games on Nokia N8. Yes! its not shipped with game, but there are many out there like you never might have seen yet.

Angry bird on Nokia N8

When you talk about gaming on Nokia N8 and Apple then Angry Bird comes to be a big name. While the price for the full game is around 2.99 Euro or around 180 Rs., you can get hold of lite version with a few levels from Ovi Store to just take the taste.

Butter smooth performance, almost instant startup and multi-touch pinch and zoom, if they would have make use of accelerometer as well, then Angry Bird was trying all the juice of hardware.

Probably what make a game addictive is its being so simple to play with and yet so hard to achieve the tasks which might seems so simple. Not sure about the replay value of the same, but when there are around 105 levels in the paid version and 45 more is coming soon, then sure it’s a fun of weeks. (I have completed only 21 till now).

Warning: This game is highly addictive and lite version may lead you to buying the full one very soon.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 6.71 mb
Price: 3 Euro

Asphalt 5 on Nokia N8

You should pardon me as I was my camera man myself, so was playing the game by one hand and was shooting with other, so couldn’t played well, but I hope the video is enough to show the potential. You will find it reasonable fast to load and then so smooth to play with. One fact which you will realize while watching the video that even the mono speakers of Nokia N8 are too loud and yet crisp clear.

There are games like NFS, Rally Master, GT Racing etc, but what I liked about Asphalt is, its being played by finger and touch only rather than accelerometer, obviously others will find that part more awesome, specially if you might have got some gaming wheels like Siraj @LoveMyNokia got. Its totally your choice, which kind of racing cars you prefer.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 144.45 mb
Price: 3 Euro

War Chess on Nokia N8

Remember those early study days, when we were used to enjoy ChessMaster Pro on our computers… war chess is here to bring similar experience for you with cool 3D animations. Don’t go by my missed touches on the screen as I was handling the camera by one hand, the game is butter smooth and so entertaining for the mind.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 17.2 mb
Price: 1 Euro

Galaxy On Fire

Its one of the free games on Nokia N8 that make full use of accelerometer and so I was again finding myself little uncomfortable, but that’s a mind blowing experience for sure.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 16.15 mb
Price: Free

SIMS 3 on Nokia N8

When SIMS arrived to mobile platform then it was the big news of town and why not.. it was one of biggest name in 3D gaming. It’s still and addiction and another life for many. Deploying 3D animations and still keeping everything going so smooth needs a capable hardware and Nokia just did the same.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 47.89 mb
Price: 3 Euro

Micro Maze on Nokia N8

The game might be new and might not be that big name yet, but it really rocks. Use of accelerometer and rules of physics are so flawless that you really miss the fact that you are having a mobile in your hands. Though with free version there are only 10 levels, but sure you will wish for more. Though 5 Euro price for full 80 levels might seems on a little higher side as of now comparing prices of Angry Bird or Avtaar like games, but its sure a piece of art. Hope soon we will see some reasonable prices on it. Till then you could enjoy the free lite version.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 1.16 mb
Price: 5 Euro

Real Soccer on Nokia N8

Playing football, while your friend might be driving the car in the side, technology really has changed the way, people might have thought of their mobile few years back. I am yet a nob about the game, but details, graphics and smoothness are sure sure admirable. One must give it a try for sure.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 47.46 mb
Price: 3 Euro

Hero of Sparta on Nokia N8

Having an ancient battle in your pocket, oh… don’t race up your dirty mind, I am talking about Hero of Sparta here. Swords, magic and a price fighting its way out in kingdom, sounds interesting… watch it.. its even more.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download Size: 39.66 mb
Price: 3 Euro

Cricket T20 Fever on Nokia N8

It was that I loved most in my Nokia N82, Nokia E72 or Nokia E52. It was kind of default to me installing Gravity, Google Maps and T20 fever on each new mobile I get. I liked the non-touch version more, when I tried its lite version on Nokia 5800. But with Nokia N8, the story was entirely different. The graphics were too amazing and the experience was so so real. Suggestions that you missed the ball.. checking if a ball was really a no ball etc and of course the noise of viewers. Perfect.

Nokia N8 download link from Ovi Store
Download size: 22.62 mb
Price: 1 Euro

When it comes to gaming on Symbian^3, then its a win for all the side.

Consumers They are getting full value of money as they are carrying only one device for all, which can do the best as phone as camera and even gaming. They are so occupied with it all the time and saving money on each of the genre. The same phone has value for each member of your family and with its robust build, you wont mind giving it in hands of your kids.
Symbian They are showing Symbian’s potential via these games that what can you do with your coding skills. Attracting more and more developers is probably the first and most important thing that Nokia and Symbian foundation might be looking for.
Game developers The biggest question for Symbian been that why should a developers spend his hours with C++ to design a game on Symbian when he has to fiddle with more than half a dozen OS platforms of different capabilities. S60 itself had many variant and all running on different capability hardware. With arrival of Qt, Symbian^3 and almost equal base hardware, Nokia seems to hit the nail finally, which Apple was enjoying till now.

For the developers writing games for Apple, a challenge was to reach masses, which they were able to do with iPod touch only as iPhone was sure out of reach for many (talking about Asia). iPod was still a thing of home as no one wishes to carry two devices with him. Symbian^3 and homogeneous hardware platform is like Nokia moving a step towards them and so are they coming back with so many amazing games.

What I love more about Nokia N8 gaming is the fact of having convenience of USB on the GO feature. It’s so easy for one to use their DSL connections to download these hundreds of MB for games and then easily transfer into their Nokia N8.

If you were thinking that Gaming is for only those rich lad.. then your Nokia is back again. This time it is Nokia: Connecting People to Gaming

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 4 – Symbian Walkthrough – 2

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Layman’s take on Nokia N8 been through three parts so far. This thing is too big to be handled in one at least in my ways. Thanks for all the support shown by readers out there writing to me. Feel great, when you say that it looked real and common man perspective. That’s what it always about.

Really wanted to say sorry to all readers as there has been insanely long delay due to some personal reasons though meanwhile I tried to fill in with short posts. But this was always in my mind as a guilt pending.

Check out if you might have missed last three, I hope they worth it.

1. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 1 – The detailed unboxing
2. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 2 – First look over exteriors
3. Layman take on Nokia N8 – Part 3 – Symbian Walkthrough – 1

While the earlier parts were kind of routine ones, here comes the fun part of Nokia N8, Multimedia, maps and gaming capabilities. In this part, I will take a look over Multimedia part.

Nokia N8-00: Music player

Every flagship speaks a language of its own and with every new device of yours, you need to find something big to show off. Something different from others, something that makes an instant connection. With Nokia N900, it was the integrated IM into contacts, while with Nokia N8, the show stopper is the awesome cover flow.

This cover flow on Symbian^3 runs so smooth that one can even ask iPhone or Android users that how easily it pushes theirs off the top. I bet if each and everything of Symbian may go this smooth and awesome looking, then no one wont even dare to say anything against it ever.

While people keep on looking over UI part only, they must also consider that how smooth it operates and how much types of media it supports. Being similar to those of earlier in looks doesn’t mean that its the same. There are hundreds of sorting algorithms available in programming world to give the same output, is that mean all are the same?

When in landscape mode, then the cover flow arrives by default or if someone might have messed with the settings, then you should choose Artists and Albums from options at bottom left after tapping the arrow key on the right top.

Touch any album and you will get a pop up in the middle of the screen with the choices of songs from that album or just shuffle the album songs to play.

Finding the cover flow in the portrait mode takes another route, where you have to go Artists and Albums and then touch any one album to get into the cover flow mode as shown above. You just slide and list of songs keep on updating in lower part, press on album and it starts playing from the first song. Isn’t portrait mode bit faster than Landscape?

One thing about Nokia that is not getting due credits is Ovi Music unlimited, downloading free music from Ovi Music Store might not be getting such trendy in India as of now, but it will be soon at least after launch of 3G services.

As usual, not only your can sort by genre, artist etc, you can get the details on the song as well. but sadly and strangely, there seems no way to search for some song. Might be a trouble, if someone has a huge collection inside their Nokia N8. I guess they will fix it by next firmware, they should.

Now over DRM, it may be annoying to few that they can not transfer their downloaded music through Ovi Unlimited to some other friend via Bluetooth, but that’s the way, Music Industry wish it to be. There been some confusions due to the post from Ovi Blog, but as much tested by myself, “MP3s downloaded from Ovi Music Unlimited is not DRM free”. May be sad news for some, but that’s the way it is.

Once running, Music player keep itself connected with Volume keys means whatever might be running in front, volume keys will serve only Music player e.g. Gallery.

Some readers specially asked me about the Equaliser thing, so putting it here. Though honestly speaking, I am not that advanced Music freak to fiddle much with it. There are some default presets only. Handy, but you can make a custom preset as of now.

Nokia N8-00: Movie player

Movie player on Nokia N8 was something that cleared my dilemma of buying or not buying Nokia N8 in a blink of eye.

Specs will say that it supports HD videos now and you say that one more addition. But hold it, do you know how big it is. See the above screenshot, check the resolution 1280×720, check the bit rate 2264 kbit/s, this is such a video that takes more than 50 mb for just 3 mins.

Do you really think that its just a simple addition? If so, then put a 2Gb BDrip file or VOB and try to forward by touch the progress bar. Its almost instant and now go to your PC with 2Gb or more RAM and then try the same on your VLC player with same video. Did you thought mobiles are always less performing that computers? Think again.

But HD video was not the part that won me, it was the support to multiple formats.

Even if it was not clearly mentioned on specs, it plays all your Xvid/ Divx/ Mkv/ mp4/ WMV/ 3GP/ H.264 formats, which covered almost 80% of my legendary collection of movies. What else would I wished for? Addition of USB on the GO means I could try any video instantly after borrowing some from PC of a friend.

Though true, its not a fool proof setup. There were some videos, special dual audio ones which will play without voice on it. There might be some strange or corrupted format that the video player of Nokia N8 cant deal with the way any VLC player of your PC does. There is no subtitles files support either (you can merge subtitles in movie file though via third party apps and play then), neither audio switcher if you are playing some dual audio file.

But hey!! are you talking about some media player on PC, its just a mobile. As of now, its a state of art best possible media support among the leading smart phones out of the box, not only Nokia. Yes! out of the box. You don’t need to install any core player, any smart movie player, you don’t need any converter on your PC to convert files for your Nokia N8. Just touch the file and it is.

That’s how it changes everything. I was in a train journey and the above was my complete setup for the theater experience. Movie files if not in your Nokia N8, then USB OTG cable and a flash drive.. then those stereo headphones that come shipped with Nokia N8. That’s it.

It was hard to take a snap of movie and forgive me for the blur here, but it was just crisp and clear as it can be.

May be its asking a little too much, but there are not many advanced controls like next video, increasing brightness etc. Just a tiny set of controls which hide them smoothly within secs, when you play a video and come back again once, you touch anywhere. But each of them works perfectly.

If you touch and hold forward/ reverse icons then it first goes by steps of 5 secs and then faster. Aspect ratio icon changes the video to fit the screen or 4:3 or usual 16:9. And yes the player will always run in Landscape and will remain full screen always.

I know it sounds weird, but I had a wild dream that what if they give a cover flow like Music player to it? I know its not practical, but I thought.

Though many would be excited, when VLC arrives on symbian finally, but I would say that will also face a great challenge to meet the level of performance with Nokia one. You could understand that how big praise it is. Thumbs up for the guys working for the core of Symbian. Next generation Nokia will sure will define new levels of Multimedia.

Nokia N8-00: Web TV

Sometimes you get hands on a few things that might be ahead of its time. I guess Web TV is something like that for Indian Customers at least as of now, when 3G services are yet to arrive and Indian TV channels not well prepared for Web Contents in the way they should have been.

When it comes to TV on mobile, then I remember my first handset ever. Reliance Moon Light in 2004 that was an entry level LG Handset that was bringing some B/W TV content over CDMA. Definitely, I was expecting to see something like that here. But phones have changes a lot till now.

There is a Web TV Folder, which by default will carry above 6 icons representing 5 Web TV channels and one shortcut to Ovi Store. Unfortunately, some mismanagement here too. If you install a new one, then by default it seems to be going to Application folder rather than Web TV one or may be I might be messing up with something.

There are not much Web TV apps as of now. I seen two Indian names and downloaded them. Well.. I should say that they are not coping well. The apps are poorly made and neither are they service good quality video contents. And let me remind you, you better have a 3G or WiFi at least, if want an acceptable performance.

Like this EROS one. Shows promise in start and then end up show not so good quality videos. But again, its a perspective of someone, who is so used of watching DVD/ HD quality videos on his Nokia N8 now.

But with next app, I find that it was just a wrong apple. This time, its app from India today. Not a great navigation again, but sure, a better UI.

I noticed one thing that all of them not using the default player of Nokia, but emulating of their own. Kind of strange to me as I expected the player to be same throughout.

While Nat Geo, CNN etc had good quality video stuff with them (not sure how current the content was), the best UI I found with Movie Teaser app.

This sure seems to be designed for touch with Cover flow (that’s what I was talking about default Movie player). Not only UI is great but quality of videos too and this is one of those Web TV apps that like to play the videos in full screen with fit to screen mode.

Not only that but it brings some basic level info as well about the movie of course.

So, in all I must say, its a great move and wish that Indian channels and others may adopt it more quickly to make it worth rather than making people watching irrelevant contents from English channels only.

Nokia N8-00: Video Editor

The world changes from here. Big bloggers and experts will say that Nokia did just the same like iMovie of Apple, but its lot bigger than that. First its free of cost, second its shipping with Nokia N8 that still costing half of the price of iPhone 4G. Point is… its gonna reach much more hands than it ever would have with some pricy Apple.

Its gonna bring Video editing in hands of people, who would never experienced it ever before, not even on computers. And believe me, their start would be much more awesome than even the people who might consider themselves expert of movie editing now.

Let’s start with the simple option, creating a slideshow. You remember all the old Nokia phones were shipped with a Slideshow mode of showing pictures, we are not talking about just that. We are talking about creating a actual movie out of your chosen snaps and with different effects to choose from.

Sure its one of the most fun stuff on Nokia N8 and could keep you busy for hours if you had many awesome photos inside your Nokia N8 (who wont have) and its very pleasing that the design team behind this did a great job. Not stupid like you choose some pics and then choose some effect and then if not liked output then do whole thing again. You choose pics one and then could go for previewing it with each of the effect almost instantly.

Either selecting media or inserting pics or it might be adding movie title (overlay text), everything seems to be so perfect and I would say people should try it by their own hands to see how fast it is. Making full use of hardware acceleration and GPU, it sure will bring those Androids without GPU out of water on this.

Not only that the speed to saving the final video is awesomely impressive. Oh.. the output? Here it goes.

And one more

With Video editor, its the same awesomeness. Not only you can crop your videos in length, but could insert your own tracks and overlay effects in between when joining two videos. Most amazing part of it remains the speed. I never seen any of my phone going this much fast and even no desktop software handling video editing with this much ease let alone mobile aside. So intuitive .. so smooth ..

In the above video, I just added two videos in one. There is a lot more one could do with them like we seen in Slideshow.

This went long na.. I feel the same. Hope will be back soon with my review over Gaming part with big titles. Be tuned in and keep writing to me that what more you want me to write on. Nokia N8-00 still has more to write on… just I wish I would have had my hands on Nokia C7 as well to know that what’s more special: Nokia N8 or Symbian^3?

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

A Diwaali night with Nokia N8

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There are some of the shots that I taken on Diwaali night. Though I am not an expert on photographs, otherwise it would have been better as such lighting conditions as it takes a lot tweaking with settings like exposure conditions etc and I haven’t gone through that.

I really want to get in touch with some photographer experts to know that was it better if I would have kept the light exposure settings on low or high?

People across India celebrate this festival in their own ways, but soul of the festival is the same and so the joy is.

While in good lighting conditions, taking shots give you sharpness, in night, when you might be shooting without flash, all the points goes on the fact that how steady your hands were and what angle you chosen.

Wide angle shot on 9mp.

A simple Rangoli …

I am really thinking to read some books on lighting conditions and how to play with them.

I have not seen much shots from my fellow bloggers on Diwaali, so I thought to put a tradition #diwaaliN8

Without flash night Macro Shot in not so great light conditions.

Taken a lot of shots only these only.

The Hindu idols …

I am intentionally keeping Flash off all the time.

Check the difference between the flash and no flash shots. What about the above idea of lightening?

These fireworks shots are too difficult to take when you keep the camera on Automatic settings like I did with my Nokia N8.

In one shot, the focus was on one candle and in other, its on another.

Anaar shots. Too many sparkles to handle on automatic settings.

Fireworks and fumes …

So these were my Diwaali shots, how were yours and what you think I should have improved on? Please let me know.

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Laymans taken on the WordPress App for Symbian^3

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Finally the day has arrived and with arrival of official WordPress App, a long long wait ended for Symbian^3. Over those days, when after looking at names of Blackberry and iPhone on the home page of WordPress, you were feeling like hitting someone.

You must thank people at http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org/ for bringing this on and with this, one more point of my Nokia N900 vs Nokia N8 debate goes down. Now, not only we will be able to watch our movie collection on Nokia N8 without converting it, but also will be able to blog on the go like I did with MaStory on Nokia N900.

Lets know more on it.

Definitely when comes to look and functionality, this wordpress app is leaps ahead of the one I seen on Maemo and sure many will prefer it over MaStory, when very soon it will arrive on Maemo as well.

Just finish a few small details and you are ready for dealing with all the basics related to your wordpress.com or wordpress hosted blog. You can not only add new posts, pages or comments, but you can view even stats of your blog by some very easy and sleek looking interfaces.

If you want to reply some comment, then you can go from touch and hold on the comment and it will open up another page for posting the comment with some normal rich options like bold, italic, quote or link etc.

Though I do not find posting picture option here, but that also doesn’t exists in desktop version as well easily.

Starting a new post is also simple and with all the options like password protected, draft etc.

It hold all the options like adding tags, categories, photos and even videos.

But also note that typing on a mobile app with not so rich editor meant to the fact that you have to deal with some of the basic HTML tags like the give below

There is an option of adding location to the post, but I think its not implemented well till now as I was not able to add it by detecting automatically.

May be some fault from my handset side.

Stats are something that each of the blogger get obsessed about in early days like mine and so its really wonderful to have them always with you on the go.

I must say that the Qt based interface has everything that one needs to get impressed with it and quite handy, if they keep connection and minimal data requirement in mind.

Some big bugs that should have been fixed

Well I must say, I am also not happy about the ways it functions odd times. There are still many bugs that shouldn’t have been here in the real world, when an app officially hits the stores. I understand the eagerness of people to get it as soon as possible, but its part of the job from developer side to test it fully.

Some of the issues are like …

1. It wont open up if you are using WAP connection

I am wrong then someone please correct me, but I have not got it opened yet on WAP connection. May be the reason is, it tries to load last 10 posts in the system. I don’t think that is a good idea. More than a blog managing tool, it also must have been prepared as a blog posting and casual editing tool. That would have made more sense. Definitely for opening only, it must not go to web directly.

Update: It looks like this was the first time glitch, but still even if I am able to view the old cached content now. I am not yet been able to add/ edit. It seems to have removed my account completely though cached entries are still here.

2. I am not sure that if there is an auto save feature yet implemented in it

When you are talking about an app to post blog etc, then Draft feature becomes a must, specially much more big must, when you are talking about a mobile app.

Update: There is no settings for in it for the same at least. Checked that. MaStory has it and they should have taken some good things from there.

3. It freezes kind of too many times without giving a way out

As of now, the ovi store version doesn’t seem to forgive you, if you made some mistake at some point of time. I found the latest on the development blog a little better in this way. But see what happened with the official Ovi Store version.

My only mistake was to put the wrong API key and it just freezes right there without giving any other option than going to task manager and kill it, which doesn’t promises that it will start fine in next.

Well!! is it the issue with whole touch UI, when some app go untested thoroughly?

4. To reply a comment, one should not need a whole post

That some kind of stupid design. Why the app needed to load the whole post again, when he has to reply just one of the readers comment? I guess the app is being tested in some environment with cool and strong wifi connections only. The world is bigger than that. Open up please.

5. No advanced editing options

Yes there are basic ones, but nothing like page justification etc. May be I will find out them like I got to see on MaStory on second day only, but as of now. I am not able to. Thanks to connection issues as I am using Vodafone WAP connection only.

So, these were a few early annoyances, I found in first shot. May be I will find some more or may be it will be lesser soon. But sure, there is always scope for improvement.

Please add up in comments, if anything I might have missed. Your tips are always welcome, lets make this place happening.

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

Portrait QWERTY to Symbian^3-Gravity shows that what Symbian can do

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Its very easy to blame things and saying that Symbian is dead, but it takes genuine talent and vision to show that its not the technology, but its what you do with it. The transparent and split keypad design of Gravity that I was talking about in last post, finally arrives in Alpha stage and available for reviewing it, which stands for just another example that its not rocket science to fix the things.

If you might have given such a regarded name like Gravity, then it becomes difficult to exceed the expectations from himself and it janole, who always came up to raise the bar. Let’s see, what he doing with Symbian this time ..

What special about this custom keyboard?

Not the very first time, when someone might have taken the task of creating a custom keyboard for some app only. If you are unable to recall, then let me remind you, you have seen the keypad of opera mobile.

But when it comes to design something like so native yet so important then usually developers feel out of innovation. While it doesn’t look so in first glance, there are too many minor details that could go bad, when designing a keyboard, like right size of keys (see smaller and almost unusable Opera Keys) or no mention of word count in native Non-QWERTY keypad on Symbian^3 as of now at least. Not only that, but even most basic things that people always taken for granted, when get designed from ground up, the suddenly become a challenge.

Though its only an Alpha build and still lots of things are missing here, but in the above screen shot, you find the following things special:

1. Transparent design, which don’t let you slip the context for which you were writing
2. A glossy touch in buttons and background behind them
3. Word count and that too in enough big fonts +1 from my side
4. An entire new, generic or Google map kind of Geo Tag sign, look more relevant than earlier now
5. Largest screen real state provided to the text in comparison to others
6. A big space bar in the middle of bottom
7. Send button on top means no accidental sending

Not sure that its the same split keypad design that I was assuming it to be in last post, but its sure look exactly, what I thought touch keypad must have looked like

What are the tricks with this keypad?

Well, the very first thing you will get comfortable with is gonna be the landscape mode due to bigger room and bigger keys, but for some strange reasons, the send button is missing here (obviously just got now).

In the first build that was 1.32 6670, there was a little space remaining on the top, which you can’t really notice easily but could have taken advantage by sliding the finger upside and the tweet was posted. Though it was a annoyance too as caused many accidental tweets by me, when I was trying to adjust some words. Anyway, janole removed the option with second build that is 1.32 6671.

On pressing the close button, then tweet will go in draft mode and then you can use the same old send from there, though same wont be the case when you will be sharing some pics from images section means you have to go to portrait after typing there.

The geo tag get a blue color here, in place of green earlier, dark grey when selected and trying to get a lock, faded grey, when not opted. Though I have not figured out that what color does it take when get a network based lock only, which was orange in case of earlier gravity build. Still I guess Green and Orange were better.

The up arrow icon in left side, works for caps lock and the double arrow in the right works for the backspace (though backspace doesn’t work like Swype for deleting whole world in once), but the most exciting thing is inside the second screenshot if you would have noticed the highlighted V letter. Yes! you guessed right, Janole has not only raised the bar by bringing the split keyboard kind of design, but also the multi-touch (at least for one option) to the keypad.

You also find the special character support here, like the one shown in first screen shot that appears when you press and hold ‘P’ and similar with some other keys which might bring some variants.

P.S. Forgive for that annoying sign of connection failed due to poor connection at my place.

Keeping the numeric keypad behind the press of bottom left button might be uncomfortable for people, who might have gotten much used to of Swype, but still I will call this a neat design.

Reply/ Send/ Retweet buttons appearing in portrait mode only as of now. Though, if your retweet exceeds 140 character limit, then you wont be able to see the button, even if touching at the same place will still work for sending off the tweet.

What’s still pending and could be expected in final build?

Not sure that Janole took this task as just an addon to Gravity or really thought since start that how big it could be, but I am sure that initial responses might have given a clue that people really wanted an alternative of default layout. But when we look closer then the smoothness of the design is still without some very basic things.

There is no scroll bar kind of thing, which is not a big thing as whole of text box system on symbian is designed that way, but still it may cause problems sometimes like you can see in above screen shot. Last line is just unreadable and you have to go by guesses only. ~~I wonder, if the same has been reason behind the fact that Janole never tried to implement twitlonger inside Gravity as that feature was asking for a scrollbar implementation and hence weight over UI~~. This has been corrected by @janole with version 6671.
As of now, keyboard is not customizable. No vibration on keys or option to just disable it completely.
Absence of arrow keys is sure a big pain provided there is no predictive mode as well.
You can not select some portion of tweet to delete or copy, which come in contrary of the excitement due to availability of Ctrl + V option.
When Janole is designing this keyboard taking Gravity in mind, then ‘@’ must have been prominent and easily accessible.
As of now, it doesn’t look like Swype gonna integrated in it, while everyone will want so.

Besides, the above, there are something, which we kept on asking from Janole from quite a while like auto completion of names, which sure gonna be possible once the predictive tying and custom dictionary makes the way to here, which will be a toll over the performance as well. Not sure, if it would be an easy thing to do.

Here is the download link for the same Alpha Build of Gravity, give it a try and feel that its not the case that Symbian is dead, its the way its being handled by developers, who are probably confused in fragmentation.

So these are some of my observations and inputs about this Alpha build. Please comment, if you want some more or I missed something important here. Yours words will reach to Janole.

Nitish Kumar

http://nitishkumar.net

http://scifireviews.wordpress.com

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