Small and slim : 6120 classic

Got enough time to take a few snaps of the 6120 classic. Nice phone really small and slim.

More pics here.

Indian leopards,mobile phones: Any connection?

Indian Leopards fall for mobile phone ringtones

"The wildlife officials recently found that the leopards can be lured out of the village more effectively and humanely with animal sound ringtones- as opposed to real animals."

Ha haa, ain't we really technology-centric. Read full story here.

MoMo Mumbai : August event

The August event of Mobile Monday Mumbai is on the topic “Location Based Services” and will be held on 27th August.

Thanks to Qualcomm for sponsoring the event and supporting the community.

Topic:
Location Based Services

• What are the trends in Location Based Services globally?
• Relevance of Location Based Services for India
• Location Based Services and mobile advertising

Read more here.

India on top

I am really busy with a lot of work these days but there is always time for me to go through google reader on mobile (http://www.google.com/reader/m) whenever I travel or use the loo :D

This is one good news I read on AAS , India overtakes USA as Nokia's second largest market.

Thats impressive, even commented on that post. Not only GSM but I think Nokia CDMA sell good as well. Seen a lot of Reliance users with Nokias ever since they introduced FM Nokias in their line up. Nokias get us good resale value, they look good and they are quiet durable. I've dropped my phone so many times, worst case the phone can be seen in three parts - the front panel , the back lid and the battery all go in different directions. But all I need to do is put them together and it starts working again. May be the phone gets a few scratches but it works. Nokias come at every price range , shapes , form factors and colors. Most of us are not locked to any operator so we can change our phones whenever we want. So just head to the nearest market and get the phone exchanged for a new Nokia. What more does one want :D

Battery fiasco : Aftermath

It happens only in India, literally. After going through most of the news and blogs on the net I found that India is one country that has reacted the most to the issue. I blame it to news channels for this, the way they went on about it the whole day when Nokia made the battery announcement. And there was no need to show that exploding cell phone visual.

Battery fiasco may cost Nokia India Rs 8 crore & buyers' faith
Nokia's brand image in India might be in shambles, CEO to visit next week
Airtel, Hutch come in support of Nokia in hour of crisis
Spooked customers turn heat on battered Nokia
Battery and assault: Mayhem at Nokia centres

Nokia 5700 MusicXpress fails to rock the floor

Thats what Indiatimes Infotech reports, and I quiet agree with it. I posted(Twisty Issues) months ago. Now I understand why the prices went from 18k->15K->12K :(.

A little from the article:
"Youngsters, for whom this phone is designed, dumped the Nokia 5700 straightaway. Why? For two reasons. The design is ugly. And second, it’s feminine. I don’t understand one thing here -- any mobile phone which is not black or coffee, is termed feminine."

" The 5700 is not even priced attractively. The retail kit costs Rs 14,399 (inclusive of taxes) bundled with a decent set of earphones, 1GB of micro SD card and USB cable apart from the standard apparatus. No doubt the pricing is aggressive.
Our value for money meter points the Nokia 5700 to 40 per cent. Maybe the pricing is on account of the 16 million colour display and the bundled 1GB micro SD card. "

Read on here.

New version of Jaiku for S60 is out

Got jaiku'ed yesterday that the new Jaiku for S60 is out for download, some features mentioned on the Jaikido Blog are

Other new features include:

• The choice between longer battery life or more up-to-date presence (a much requested feature).
• Reading and writing comments from and to your contacts.
• Go back in time! Using the ’stream view’ for your contacts, you can see what they were doing and saying in the past, not just their most recent post.
• More than just Jaikus! You can also see when your contacts have posted to flickr.
• Improved presence view, to make the most of your screen real-estate.
• A whole raft of usability improvements, based on what our users have been telling us they need, including an even easier to use interface, and a progress meter, so you can see what’s happening.
• More optimal data transfer and connection maintenance, giving you more bang for your wireless data dollar.
• …and all the essential (but not that interesting) stuff like bug fixes, speed improvements, that sort of thing.
• Oh, and let’s not forget - a spiffy new manual for this client.

Diva update

If you've not been following Darla on Jaiku, do it now. She had landed in Helsinki and we all look forward to have many pics and Espoo experiences from her. Its a place where all Nokia enthusiasts wanna be at least once ;)

BTW, do read Stefan Constantinescu's "My afternoon at Nokia Headquarters in Espoo, Finland" and get jealous.

Sideloading

Sideloading is a very much mobilecentirc word:

"Sideloading involves users downloading mobile content (ringtones, wallpapers, music, games) onto the PC and transferring it to the mobile. Since the content does not pass through the mobile operator’s network, it cannot be charged for and there is a revenue loss to the operator."

Mobile Pundit has put together how sideloading is a pain to the operators and what the Indian biggies have said about here.

Nokia says sideloading is a key feature for iPhone & smartphones , read here.

Other links:
Gizmodo
M-Trends
Wirelessweek

POLL : Which is your dream phone?

I always wanted to put some POLL on the blog and now that blogger has released this widget I would like to know which is your dream phone. Do take the poll (on right side) and if there is some other phone you dream of do mail me at mobilecentric at gmail dot com. Although the results are available any time , I would also display other phones which people like at the end of this month.

Will try to have a poll every month, do suggest some questions.

Dont panic, its just that battery and it wont blow up

YOUR NOKIA PHONE WON'T EXPLODE.

I am ,like most Indians, a big Nokia fan. This post is just to tell all that there is no problem with the Nokia phones, its only a defective battery. I was really annoyed with a news channel showing a graphic of Nokia 6600 bursting into flames. These kind of visuals do have an effect on a lot of people. Just checked out this post on Tech2.com. Please read it and spread the word.

आपका फ़ोन फटने वाला नही है। T.V. वाले आज कल कोई भी खबर को सनसनीखेज बाना कर दीखा देते है।

Visit the official Nokia battery replacement announcement on my post here.

S60.com : Music Box

Music Box is this months exclusive download on S60.com

"Tired of the standard ring tones available on your phone? Got a creative streak? This month’s exclusive download is Music Box, a simple, fun way to create your own ring tones."

So log on to S60.com and get it.

Nokia Battery replacement

This Nokia battery replacement announcement has spread like wild fire. I first read it on AAS , then got it from friends on IM , got Jaiku'ed about it and got a couple of mails from friends.


If you've got a nokia phone in the period Dec 2005 and Nov 2006 do check out this link. You may get your battery replaced.


P.S.
Indian residents can find out their battery info by sending sms, see the image below, its form the Nokia India site. The 26 character battery id no. can be found on the back of the battery.

YOUR NOKIA PHONE WON'T EXPLODE.

N95 : Radio works without antenna

This is what I always wanted. Play radio on phone by plugging any headset/headphone and NO ANTENNA. I connected my computer speakers directly to the N95 headset jack to listen to some MP3's on the card. I just turned Visual Radio on and to my surprise the FM worked loud and clear. This is something I have never come across earlier. Does N95 have an in-built FM receiver/antenna? I thought its necessary to plug the headset(AD-43) first which came with the N95.

Whatever, I am enjoying it at the moment :D

I posted the same on AAS forum and got a reply that
"Anything you connect will act as an antenna."

Well I didn't know that and I am sure many others also were not aware of it.

A month with the N95

Its going to be a month now with the N95 and its been quiet an experience.
I got the phone with firmware v11 and at that time v12 was already out. But the net was full of posts talking about v12 bugs. So after 7 days of holding myself back I gave up and upgraded to v12. I was quiet happy with v11, there were no issues but then every one had upgraded (every one with N95 puts down their firmware version in their signature on most of the forums) so I couldn't have stayed with it. Yes the keypress bug is present but its not as annoying as many have said, even I am a fast texter and hardly encounter the bug. But the thing is that it (the bug) shouldn't be there and so I hope that its rectified in V12+.
Another thing that I would like in the upcoming firmware is the Active Standby Plugins feature. I've already posted about my slider issues , and I think I will be heading to the service center to find out if they can fix that gap on the right bottom side of the slider. I don't want that fragile N95 feeling whenever I press any right side key on the slider.
One more thing that needs to be fixed in the newer firmware is the radio volume when the speakers are on. My dad's Sony Ericsson J230 has much better loudspeaker output than the N95. I cant stand all those comments my dad passes when I use his phone to listen to the radio :( .
I never use the Multimedia keys. I hope they make it configurable or at least make it do something else like opening the most frequently programs or whatever.

The camera is one of the most impressive features the N95 has. I've taken say 300+ photos with it so far, with the maximum of them of my month old niece. I find the sports mode and the close up mode very useful at times. I've tried the Edit picture option and its quiet impressive too. I just don't understand the cartoonize feature in the in the Apply Effects options. I thought it was related to some cartoon stuff but it does some image color transformations. The camera captured the 3 blades of the fan in sports mode.
Check photos here.

So far the phone has hung just once. I was downloading a pic, it was just 54 kb. Just as the transfer reached 99% the phone restarted. Now that was bad. But as soon as the phone started I got a query box asking "There are incomplete downloads. Would you like to see them?" something like that, so it opened the browser. I went into options - downloads and saw the transfer was paused at 99%, all I had to do was resume the transfer. Now thats good :D .

A few days earlier my wife took the N95 and I carried my old 6630. I missed the N95 like anything. Just an hour with the 6630 and I could already feel the N95 side effects. The keypad lock/unlock which I was so used to with nokia phones (* + unlock), I forgot it. I kept pressing the two softkeys to unlock the phone. The screen felt so small , I just wanted the N95 back. I think I am so used to the bigger screens after E61 and N95 I would not go for a smaller one ever. It means that now I am not interested in 6120 classic :)

So overall the N95 is a wonderful device you wont part away once you have it, with a little issues that I hope will get better with the firmware upgrades.

Symbian developers Wiki competition

A competition has started on Symbian.com's developer network. Contribute to Symbian's Wiki and win cool prizes. The competition is dated from 8th to 26th August. So all developers show your expertize to win these cool prizes

• 2 - Sony Ericsson P1
• 1 - Nokia E90 Communicator
• 1 - Nokia N95
• 1 - Nokia 6110 Navigator to be won.

More info here.

N800 : Without connection

Just got a trial N800 from WOM world yesterday.Spent a couple of hours fiddling with it but was not able to do much as both the connectivity options were not available. I don't have WiFi at my home and because of some technical problems from the operators side my GPRS is not working for the past 4 days :( .

Its been quiet some time since I've got my hands on a device without S60 interface.This is my first hands-on with an Internet tablet. It was a surprise for my wife and dad that its not a phone because they think that if its Nokia then its got to be a phone. My dad is not at all "Mobilecentric" he calls my E61 a calculator and the N800 a transistor (old generation radios) :D.

N800 reminds me of the 7710 (S90) but this Maemo interface feels much zippier. At some point of time I've worked on Linux and thats why I kept searching for a command prompt thingi on the N800, but its not there. The media player is good, nice sound, the image viewer is nice with a fast zoom. Done most of what I can without any connection, but I've set it up with my gmail account. So today when I reach office I'll fire it up with WiFi and will be posting more of my N800 experience.

6110 Navigator finds way to India

The 6110 Navigator support page is up on Nokia-India site. So expect it soon in stores.
Its main feature: its a Navigator. Actually it comes with an internal GPS receiver and Map's application. So does the N95, but the maps software used in 6110 is not Nokia's own Maps software but its Route 66, which is a third party application. Which means that the phone will come with quiet a comprehensive map of India.

Actually India is not a Map country. We usually do not carry around maps like they do in the west, even when we are driving long distances. So having commercials out with people getting happy using the maps feature wont entice any one buying the 6110. They will really have to price it right as there are a lot of phones with the same specifications (except GPS).

OS wars : Should Symbian worry about Windows Mobile?

Every two weeks or so there has to be an article regarding Symbian vs Windows Mobile/iPhone/Linux/..

Heres the latest one on Techworld.com

"Symbian people don't like to hear this, but outside their world, it's very common to hear statements like 'I don't really like Windows Mobile, but I'm familiar with the interface and it synchs with all my desktop apps.' "
...
...
" There are more Symbian phones sold than iPods, so Symbian has no fear from the the iPhone, either. "

Full article here.

E90 : Communicator or not

Lots of people seem not so happy with the E90 according to this link.
Some say the price is not justified, some think whats the difference in features between a communicator and any other NSeries phone while some miss the S80 interface.
I think its one of the coolest device available with a different form factor, forget the E & N Series funda because even I dont understand Nokia's categorization , but yes its a little expensive.
Don't think they left behind anything that was there in 9500/9300, in fact I found the S60 interface much faster than the earlier S80. Its loaded with features and is indeed an eye candy.
No matter what others have to say its 10/10 from me to E90.

Definitely not a "New Coke moment".

I am Nokia NSeries

I see this ad a lot nowadays on TV, its called 'I am Nokia NSeries'. So just browsing and came across the same promotion on the Nokia APAC site. Nothing much just the same nseries flash site with 'I am Nokia NSeries' images added. Also a friendster link where you can comment which NSeries you are.

Check it out here.

Active Standby plugin : Good feature but missing

I never keep the 'WLAN scanning' option ON and I don't want the 'WLAN scanning off' displayed on my standby screen, that goes also for 'No calendar entries today'. If there are no entries don't show it. But there is no setting that would allow me to get them off the active standby. 'Active standby plugin' is one of the cool features that they have not included in the N95 and other phones. Its there in E65,E50 and may be some other phones as well. It's just a customization so why not include it in all phones. It would be great if this comes up in next firmware upgrade for other phones.

Links of what others have to say:
Nokia NSeries
Sumbian Guru