So, finally its July 2010 for Nokia N8

If you have your eyes on a new Nokia N8, the time is getting close. The countdown timer at the Helsinki HQ of Nokia reads 44 days and 7 hours until launch.

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Yahoo and Nokia joins hands

No I am not late to the news, thanks to Twitter, I was well aware of the same announcement once it was made about the deal between two major players Nokia and Yahoo, but at that time I was in journey and now after reaching home, was busy with parents and purchases, didn’t got a moment to comment on the same. So, joining in now ….

For the people, who don’t know about the news, here are the words …

May 24, 2010, Nokia and Yahoo officially spoken about the deal that was already being speculated with code name Project Nike. While earlier it was expectation that Yahoo! will come up with things like revoking old relations like Yahoo! Go Mobile (which were once backed by Nokia and later were vanished from the screen), it came out something bigger than that when both of them announced that from the second quarter of the year Yahoo! Maps will be branded as powered by Nokia while Ovi Mail and Chat etc will be branded as powered by Nokia.

For the simple logic, I must say that it seemed making some sense. Currently only Ovi Maps seems to handling the tag of being only competitor of Google’s Map offerings and perhaps in a way seems to be best selling point for Nokia Smart phones now days on the other hands, even if facing tough competition and somewhat getting weaker day by day, Yahoo! mail and some of its services still has a firm presence in market (In fact, in America still Yahoo is the most visited site) and definitely capable of doing much better than currently Ovi Mail is doing, which only seems to serve purpose of news only till now.

But the question is that what change does this deal going to make and is anyone excited about the same? Why not? Why not deal  between such two big companies making a huge buzz that would have been here if Google and Nokia might have signed a pact?

I come to read somewhere that someone said that two losers don’t make a winner. Sounds true as Yahoo! loosing big time on grounds of maps and Nokia struggling at its best for pushing Ovi Mail, contacts and chat to its customer base. Both already have tried on their level best, but didn’t got some improved results themselves. But still their joining hands doesn’t excite, at least for Nokia fan base.

Is the deal of some worth to Nokia?

Yahoo! is getting irrelevant day by day, but its not the case with Nokia.

People might have been saying that Apple and Google eating up share much faster than anyone could have expected and soon Nokia will be forced to remain mute from Smart Phone market, but neither me nor many of likes will find it reasonable. Nokia still getting strong by providing best value of money at all the level, still they are the biggest manufacturers in the world and release of sets like Nokia N900, Nokia E72 and Nokia N8, nothing seems to stopping them in near future as well. Ovi Maps have became part a normal Smart Phone user’s life, while Nokia Messaging after some early hickups now seems to getting steady to beat RIM offerings.

Yes! the only places their Ovi services seem to be failing are mail and chat. Its been long since they tried hard to push these two services (their chat app only enable Ovi for Voice talk or Avtar showing capability), but it doesn’t made any sense till now. But is a pact with Yahoo going to solve any issue? Does Nokia really needs Yahoo at this point? Are you announcing your weakness in loud words?


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What’s the problem?

My voice is not new. Many might have been disappointed with this deal. Many voices have sent negative concerns. What innovative one finds in this decision? If Nokia might have taken over Yahoo! completely then it would have made sense, but now it seems that Nokia thinking to keep itself limited to manufacturing Smart Phones and leaving the whole of its internet offerings on its new experienced partner.

Definitely a big disappointment as we have not much hope left as far as Yahoo is concerned. With Yahoo! Go, yahoo was ahead of its time, thinking more seriously about the mobile services and this new emerging market but their miserable failure pointed that they lacked of innovations somewhere, only which is badly needed to Nokia right now. No one is expecting neither anyone assured them that this deal will offer users something entirely new. Ok! people are not using Ovi Mails, but how many are using Yahoo! till now? or even if some then will anyone new will start coming toward it when Gmail and Hotmail still offering best of the things?

The deal might give some life to Yahoo but for Nokia, it seems to end up as a bad joke only. Definitely its not that what Nokia is looking for.

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via  this link or widget via this link.

Welcome Nokia E52 to the family- The unboxing

As mentioned in last post, today become the day, when I got Nokia E52 in my hands finally. There were fears related to low memory, suspicions over camera performances but that high level of connectivity and battery life, I just experienced few days back with Nokia E72 finally became deal breaking and here am I, welcome Nokia E52 to the family.

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I visited shops on last day as well, but got more confused about prices as they offered Nokia E52 in Rs. 11, 950/-, Nokia E71 in Rs. 13, 500/- and Nokia E72 in Rs. 17, 500/-. Definitely Nokia E72 was the best choice and price was at least Rs. 1, 500/- less than expected, same time Nokia E71 had a legendary reputation and also a close price tag with QWERTY. For me, connectivity was deal breaker as bro was to use the same only and so E52 won due to its upto 10 mbps download capability.

Second trouble was related to Navigation Accessories. As per recent announcements, now many navigation devices are coming with Car Holder or Car Charger etc and Nokia E52 was supposed to have Car Holder in package, but what packages all the shop owners shown (including Nokia Priority Dealers) were without the same. I thought to confirm more shops today, but luckily one HotSpot got the Ovi Package by today morning only and saved me from doing a compromise.


Coming back to Un-boxing.. I really think I should have gone for un-boxing all my devices with blog posts in past. I never did one for Nokia N70, Nokia N82, Nokia 5310 XpressMusic and even Nokia 5800. Thanks to my article over Nokia 5800 and later on trial devices from @WomWorldNokia that started this habit in me.

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So, as shown the purchase location was local HotSpot and the price was Rs. 11, 905/-

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Thought to add more spice in joy of brother with 8 GB Transcend Card.


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This was a different blue colour package than the earlier available one for Nokia E52 on the same shop and as clearly mentioned, was going to include lifetime free walk and drive navigation.

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While the sales package seems to be ordinary and I missed mention for any carry case, but the most strange thing was absence of any CD/DVD with the same. More strange was absence of any ear buds of the provided excellent quality headphones. I wonder why Nokia did this? Definitely all these things were no where costly.


Anyway, leave the negative things apart, here comes the beauty … the opened package with all accessories inside …

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Oh did I mentioned about the shiny Car Holder ..

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Next noticeable difference was the charger and adapter ..

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Rest are some usual accessories with missing ear buds

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Now this is the time to present the pages and manuals with device …

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A nice T9 Keypad, dedicated Camera key, hot plug but covered memory card slot, metallic volume keys and power key and no cover MicroUSB port like Nokia N82 that’s what exterior of Nokia E52 showcases for you. The solid feel of body with unique texture on back and near five way scroll key adds in to the quality that an E-Series device should posses.


With any new Nokia Device, the first thing to be done always goes to be updates, got firmware update v34 and also an update for Ovi Suit. Also who was going to miss the famous 3.04 Ovi Maps and other my kind of basic apps (Chat, Fring, Skype, Google maps etc).

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Interestingly, the screen size and resolution didn’t bothered me and I felt it like bigger than what I expected. Though technically I know its the same size as my Nokia N82 screen, but I didn’t expected that it will deliver exactly the same experience as I had with Nokia E72. Definitely, camera performed better than I expected, but I found myself complaining about the GPS (though didn’t given a full try under open sky which I will do tomorrow), its sure not like 5800 or N97 Mini or E72. Unhappy a little.

Oh!!! didn’t I mentioned that this handset I bought for my youngest brother not for me, but even then I thought that it deserved my ‘own special test’. Downloading a big file within the Smartphone and as CJ mentioned, its indeed exactly like Nokia E72 in terms of software.

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So, first impression of the device are pretty solid and definitely delivered the same experience like I had with Nokia E72. Thumbs up E52, I am sure my bro gonna love it. In all, its an impressive device with a powerful 600 MHz CPU and insane 15 mAH battery in such a little price.

photo of Nitish KumarNitish Kumar

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via  this link or widget via this link.

All set to buy Nokia E52

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May 24, a special day for my youngest bro, his birthday. Thought to give something special to him, a handset suiting to his requirements, long texting, longer talking, accessing web, social sites, mails and still wishes to have a slimmest of all. Here you go bro.. all set to buy a Nokia E52 for you.

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Ok!! Admitting it, its not my choice look-wise even if it has a solid and slimmest build, not because its not good, but because I am used to of something else. QWERTY!!! Yes!! here it lacks what E71 and likes of that have, but leaving that aside, see what it got.


Best of connections; HSDPA, 10.2 Mbps; HSUPA, 2 Mbps, Bluetooth 2.0, microUSB 2.0, Free Ovi Maps Navigation via A-GPS coupled with Digital Compass (means all that I just seen in Nokia E72)

Best of meat; Got ARM 11 600 MHz, the same which E72 got. 128 MB Ram might be lesser than Nokia E72’s 256 MB, but still enough for keeping your experience more than smooth. Though 60 MB Internal memory kind of disappoints.

Best of battery life; That’s what even normal people love about ESeries devices, the battery. It got the same almighty 1500 MHz, which completely floored me while experiencing on Nokia E72. Hoping to get more of it on a slimmer device.

More of it, I have heard that it works perfectly fine with 16GB cards, nothing get slowed down or buggy. Will see for sure, got offered of 8GB card in Rs. 1200/-. I was worried about 60 MB Internal memory but most of the reviews rating the experience smooth enough (except mediocre camera performance, not that much issue).


The price I got of it was Rs. 11, 905/- and at the same time, they given me price of QWERTY champ Nokia E71 as Rs. 13, 500/-, while Nokia E72 available in Rs. 17, 500/-. Confused!!!! Which one should I go for???

Nokia E72 was not a question at all as wasn’t willing to put more expense neither did bro required such price as of now. Most of the confusion was around E71 and E52 and the deal breaker was HSPDA 10 mbps over QWERTY and improved OS looks of E71. Hope I didn’t made a wrong choice and bro gonna love this.

Still trouble remained otherwise, I would have bought by today only. As per Nokia India’s website there are Navigation Accessories included in package, while Priority dealer here in Laxmi Nagar, New Delhi seems to have no idea at all about that. Is it not available till now? Trying hard to confirm from @NokiaIndia, hope will get an answer before tomorrow.

What you think.. a smart choice??? What else you will like to present your tech bro?

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via  this link or widget via this link.

Do I need a NetBook? Which one? Dell Mini or Booklet 3G

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One and half year back, when I thought to buy my first laptop, then there were sure many constraints to look for and definitely I went for the details in brief before buying (was a mean consumer for sure). I feel proud that the choice I made then, still wont disappoint me, if I get a chance to buy the same again. But yesterday, when a friend asked me for buying something that might be really portable and still good enough to hold his requirements, then my mind flipped once that are the requirements I thought then still stands? …

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At that point of time, my aim was to have as much power I could have in most compact and economical way, but now requirements seem to have changed a lot. After one and half an year, thought to take a re-look over requirements changed  over years …

 


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I must say my Dell XPS M1530 was the finest piece of work among my other PCs and though later I bought a Compaq one as well, but remembrance of that form factor never left my mind. After playing with that for a while (lost the same in a theft very soon), more than the powerful hardware, the things I found most important for me, were the comfort to type, comfort to carry with and the comfort to stay connected fro anywhere.

But still after playing with Nokia N900 a while, I thought to add one most important comfort into the next portable device I would like to own, the longest of battery life, whatever the limits may go through. What’s point of carrying a big laptop with you whole day, when you can’t play with it for even more than 4 hours?


May be my requirements might have changed over years or I got more mature with my choices, but when I remember that where I really used my laptops most, then I find myself surfing the web, posting the blogs and watching the movies only while travel or when friends were busy on my comp. Surprisingly, gaming for which I went to buy a much high price then (60k+ was sure some high), was never been my choice in whole time. Finally, I was to admit the fact that Laptops were never meant that for gaming and heavy gaming is not gonna your favourite choice while travelling, so that’s not a thing that should have been meant to be deal breaking.

Probably now after one year or more, this explains to me and me like others that why a market for Netbooks emerged, why I see more 13”, 11” mobile machines around. May be you never imagined about working over smaller screens, but trust me, it takes you completely in it once you try it. Having such a lightweight thing and feeling assured that it has all what you want, sure a satisfying experience.

First of Netbooks I heard of, were Accer ones. Heard of their 8 hours and more performing capabilities. Sure a luring thing but didn’t excited me much once I heard of limitations like NO CD/DVD drives. Might be I was still not that into Netbooks.

Today till now, I seen a few of Dell Mini and this time it sure got my attention big time. A performance wise beast in price of less than $400 with built in GPS!!! In the same time, hearing of Nokia Booklet 3G with even a slot of 3G SIM with built-in GPS on same pattern as their Smartphones have, you could even make calls through it, adding to more there is legendary battery life as well, but this all with a higher price than expected.

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Question is which one to choose? Both are compact, both are good looking, but what more to look for? I have to see more.. comments required…

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via  this link or widget via this link.

Nokia E72 Diary-The last day and some stress tests

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This was apparently the last day of trial, but unfortunately (?) DHL guy didn’t shown up, no call from their side and I was just waiting with huge mess at office. Anyway, the day ended and I thought to post a few moments with addictive Nokia E72.

After Nokia N900, this was Nokia E72, which really taken me under its spell. A device that spread itself into each moment of your daily life. Though their were points of complaint like not that loud speakers (could say that like just little bit higher than ‘normal’ of NSeries) and poor video recording performance perhaps, but two places, where this device is legendary is its battery performance and strongest of connectivity.

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Battery: I must say that this monster didn’t failed a single stress test of mine about the battery. I already posted about my first test about that. My next tests were even more mean.

1. Inspired by one fellow WomWorldian post, I thought to drive the bike and record the moments from bike, but at next moment, I was to get embarrassed as roads between my office to home is not that hilly neither too glamorous to show off. What’s attractive in that to show? But still.. I kept Nokia E72 in my right front pocket (though later only I come to know that using spy cam is not just that easy, should have more experience) and drove back to home in late eve from office.

I was in doubt about the light that if it would be able to capture anything, I was in doubt that after heavy use in whole day, will the battery survive for at least 45 mins from Badarpur Border to Laxmi Nagar? 45 Mins of video recording and still it didn’t heated up, didn’t dried down or didn’t hanged. That’s something incredible. I just wish if the video quality was like my Nokia N82.

So, here comes a view of daily traffic on delhi roads in camera of Nokia E72. Did I mentioned it survived the whole trip and recorded around 46 mins. Obviously couldn’t have uploaded all of it. 😉

2. In continuation of my first stress test, I given it another test. Downloading three 700MB+ files back to back. Can you imagine? More than 2 GB download over a power consuming 3G connection and still it survives till the end. Yes!! barely but it survived. Obviously, I remembered only Nokia N900 that was alive with me even after watching two movie back to back on it.

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You must be thinking na that how much download I might have done? Check out my data usages during the trial period (Note that today’s usages are not added as I was to reset the device to factory setting before sending, its another case that DHL guy didn’t shown up).

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Just 13 day usages.. I am maniac na?? Just think if I was able to use it during the office hours as well? I was just using it after 8PM usually except the stress test that was taken during 2PM-5:30 PM. For people asking about the connection I am using, its MTNL 3G in New Delhi with data recharge of Rs. 2, 500/- per month. Obviously, I have to make something of this much amount, isn’t it?

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via  this link or widget via this link.

NGPay for mobiles-Redefining the way you live your life

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Note: This is for Indian readers as I am not aware if NGPay is available in overseas

Mid of the night, you are talking with a friend that suddenly find that you are about to go down on balance. Bye dear!! will talk you in morning? why? You cant recharge at this time?

A happy weekend, you decide to go movie with a friend. Which movie? What are show timings? What are rates? How to book them fast? Lucky if you are at home and could surf sites over Laptop or computer, but what if you are in a restaurant with friends? There are so many malls, how many numbers you could remember for booking through SMS?

Got a few days off from office. Thought to visit your native place. Booked train/ flight ticket somehow, but didn’t got a return ticket, thought will buy from home side (In Tatkal may be). But there you find that only Internet Cafe is half a kilometer and that too suffered with full of virus infected computers and also power cut most of the time. What now? Will you join the queue on Railway station?

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Yes!! you guessed right from the title, I am about to talk on NGPay; also known as India’s Largest Mall on Mobile. For people already knowing a little about it, its a confirmation post that it works flawlessly and for people new to this, here comes something to redefine the meaning of your Smartphone. Its mCommerce.

ngpay is India’s largest mall on your mobile, end-to-end mCommerce service. It is a convenient solution interface between the consumers and merchants. You can shop, bank, buy tickets, pay bills and more easily and securely from your mobile handset. A solution for all situations like I mentioned in start and much more to it.

How to start with: The service is not SMS based, it requires just basic GPRS functionality enabled on your Handset. You thus need to subscribe to basic GPRS plan from your Mobile operator (a rent free plan is available with most operators). And since it is a Java based application, it would work on most handsets (Sorry about Nokia N900 though). Just a 63 kb download from NGPAY.com (from your mobile) and you are ready to go, alternatively you can SMS “ngpay” to 56767 to get the link.

Open ngpay.com on mobileDownload and install NGPaySecurity warning, but don't be afraid

Its version 4.08 as of May 16, 2010Size is just 63 KBDoesn't take long to install


What you can do with NGPay? Not only the above three situations mentioned, you can go for more and more and the comfort will go on as the other services keep on adding into the catelouge. So its your one stop solution for all.

Small orrange icon in your applicationsJust needs working GPRS connectionI mean any working connection including Wi-Fi

Every communication with server is encryptedYou need to register your number and detailsAlso address details

There will be a 6 dgiit numeric passwordWelcome to NGPayCurrently supporting 115 services

I hope you will find yourself using first two a lotRecharge adn Topup will come always handyMay be your cinema not listed here but all leading one like PVR, Big and Fun Cinemas are here

Travel and accomodationYou can book train tickets through IRCTC hereI guess it was gift category

Yes!! you can book snacks from hereTill now only Domino is big name hereFrom Aircel to BSNL all could be recharged from here

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Recharge typeCircle, supoprts all indiaRecharge any mobile directly not only yours

I have posted just a few screenshots to show that you can not only book move tickets, buy pizza, buy recharge PINs or Book railways/ flight tickets but can do much more than it. Sure amazing that how many services it covers. Personally it’s been lovely for me for recharging at odd timings and once life saviour for booking a train and a flight ticket.

How do you pay for your transactions here: ngpay is absolutely safe and has certified financial grade security. You can pay using a variety of payment instruments. Currently your regular MasterCard / Visa credit cards, HDFC Bank Account, and ItzCash cards are supported (yeah!! still not all debit cards, but I hope soon it will). For your convenience and quicker check-out, you can store your payment details in secure ngpay wallet.

I am using my credit card for the payment as currently it doesn’t support my IDBI Bank Account.

So, what are you thinking? Give it a try and tell me back, if its cool.

Now you could download the app for this blog on your Nokia (Symbian5) via  this link or widget via this link.