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Well, as you’ve probably noticed from previous entries, I’m the proud owner of a Nokia N95 8gb. I’ve had it for a few months now and, since yesterday’s events, figured it’s time for the review.
I’ve previously owned “dry” company communication devices – Nokia nothings and Blackberries. I’m not complaining of course – after all, the company are kindly paying for the call and data charges – but, after continually shelling out for shiny new phones for Jules and the kids, it was clearly time for techno-Daddy to enter the fray. And, if I’m going to do so, then I’m going to do so all singing, all dancing.
There were a few main points that attracted me to the N95;
- Internal GPS
- WiFi, Edge, 3.5G and every other protocol known to man
- Huge 8gb storage
- MP3 ringtones (I know, I know)
- 5 mega-pixel Carl Zeis camera (
)
- Lovely big screen
- Compact size
- A very extendable Symbian OS
So, the phone arrived, I unpacked it, drooled a little and charged it up.
There is no arguing that this is a serious sexy phone. The call quality is very clear, it has all of the above and I was able to install some very useful applications. On a day-to-day basis, I really don’t think that I could have made a better pick. The one thing that surprised me too was that, for a device with so much going on, the battery life is superb.
I did, however, have a couple of gripes which – until yesterday – I had kind of accepted as being inevitable;
- GPS. Bloody hell, it took ages to get a lock. The device boasts aGPS – which uses the cellular network to speed up the acquisition process – but it could still take up to five minutes to get a lock. I figured that this was down to the fact that the internal antenna was so small that it struggled to get that initial data.
- Camera. When shooting video, the camera would stutter quite alot – resulting in very choppy film. There was also a very noticeable delay in “processing” stills before being able to take the next picture.
Neither of these were show-stoppers, but they conspired to annoy me just enough to keep my trying to find workarounds.
I fixed the camera issue by copying the contents of the 8gig mass-memory to my laptop, formatting the mass storage and moving everything back. Bingo! No more stuttering and no more lag in processing stills.
The GPS issue – together with a bit more – was solved yesterday when I appplied the v20.0.016 firmware to the device and, stone me, what a difference it has made!
The average GPS lock time is now about ten seconds! Even in a moving car – and that’s impressive. It’s holding the lock indoors and the response is terrific. Furthermore, the whole phone is spinning along alot quicker than it was before too.
In all honesty, I think that Nokia must have been bordering on criminally negligent with the last firmware version – as I really can’t understand just how such an enormous improvement in GPS performance can come about unless they’d really arsed up the previous version.
That said, however, I don’t really give a toss now. As it stands, I honestly can’t fault the device in any way whatsoever. The MP3 and video playback is excellent, the web-browser superb, the communication protocols all lightning quick, the storage huge and my MP3 ringtones wonderful! Not only that, I can send my photos straight to my Flickr photostream and blog to here on the go.
Pros:
Pretty much everything. This is one serious piece of kit
Cons:
With the firmware updated nothing really. I guess, being picky, that the lack of a linux version of the integration software sucks, but at least I can run the Windows version in a VM
Overall:
10/10 (This is the uber-phone)
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If you’re looking for a Staffordshire Bull Terrier, then I know where they’ve got loads! Yes, in the ever continuing saga of finding a dog, we did the rescue centre tour yesterday, and clearly, the Windsor area has more than it’s fair share of shaven headed half-wits who try to own a Staffie to look “well hard”.
So, Battersea Dogs Home at Old Windsor was a non-starter.
From there, we headed up to the Dog Trust i nHarefield, and blimey we got close. There was Tara – a ten year old German Shepherd, but she was a little too old for the Jenerator. Then there was Echo – a one year old black Lab, but we got pipped by about five minutes by another couple. Bleah! Other than that, the only dogs who were Jen’s age friendly, were a Trail Hound and a Lurcher – munch munch cats!
So, I’ll potter up there Wednesday lunchtime and see if they’ve rotated the dogs – and hopefully, it’ll be a bit quieter than at the weekend.
Watch this space!
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Ξ June 19th, 2008 | → 0 Comments | ∇ Me |
Always inject a decent word into life every day. That’s my motto. And today, we have microcosm – the world within us, according to “Define microcosm” via Google.
Every day of the week, I have the same routine; Up at six, downstairs to make the coffee and have a lung torpedo the guy five doors down leaves via the back gate, opens the garage and drives off to work – five doors the other way, guy takes rat for a walk – car drives up road too fast, does a U and parks up drink coffee and take one up for Jules, shower, dress, second lung torpedo of the day three doors the other way guy takes dog for a lap of the block – homecare arrives for house two doors down Jules goes to work, tidy up the kitchen, play with Jen and web it up a bit, take kids to school same faces, same time walking down Greys Road head off to work from Jenny’s school and there he is!
The weirdy-beardy guy. I don’t know where he comes from – somewhere down the Marlow road, I guess – and I don’t know what he does all day, but he walks to Tesco every morning with his old-lady’s shopping bag, dressed from a 70′s catalogue and, around two-thirty-ish, walks back home again.
His lips are too big, his hair and beard need cutting, he’s slightly overweight and he looks as though he’s walking to meet the winning lottery numbers. Every single day of my working life I see him.
I suppose he must live alone – hence the daily shopping – but I’d love to know where he spends his day. When I’ve been early for picking the Jenster up from school I see him coming back from the Tesco direction, down the Reading road. He can’t spend an entire day, five days a week in Tesco can he? Maybe one day, I’ll stop him and ask. But that would ruin it. He’d probably turn out to be totally normal – which would mean that I’d have to find a different nutter to speculate about.
So a microcosm. A world within us. Where is the weirdy-beardy in your life?
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…. or “Great days. Crazy days”.
Another trip to Denman over and another bunch of great people to add to the list of friends and family. The only thing the weather wasn’t doing was raining frogs, but who needed weather?
The reason, of course, was for Kit and Anh’s wedding (Anh, I hope I’ve finally spelt your name correctly). A really magic dual-occasion, with a Vietnamese nose-bag 
which was a new one on me and then a typical Denman shin-dig – which wasn’t such a new one on me. 
This time, not only did I get to meet up with Mum again, but also Aunties, Uncles, Cousins and friends. 
Not only but also, I managed to squeeze in being kidnapped by a Hornby Islander – along with my sidekick the Waco Kid.Which, as days out go, was a bit of an experience.
Anyway, with no more rambling, it was a fantastic time, with superb people and I’m looking forward to seeing them all in Henley some time. I wish I could make it out to next month’s day-to-remember to meet up with everyone again.
Lastly, for all you folks out there with unique luggage. It isn’t. I was well chuffed that the fine folks on the aircraft back bumped me to Business Class, as it meant that I was first into the baggage hall at Gatwick. I didn’t have to wait long for my British Army Deployment Bag to turn up and was on the road back home to Henley in no time at all. Unfortunatley, once home and having opened the bag to wash my stuff, I was back on the road to Gatwick soon after to return the bag to it’s rightfull owner.
Arse!
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As you can see. The site is now back up and running and with all the previous content there. Next up ….. Canada!
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What a visit and what an amazing bunch of folks. Whilst I restore all the old content from the buggered site, the wedding photos are uploading to here (http://www.flickr.com/photos/atomicvindaloo/).
It was an honour to meet you all. Write more later.
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Well, the fine folks at Onehostingplan.com went belly up and took the website with them. What complete and utter b@stards. I’ve got a backup (from a while ago) somewhere, so bear with me whilst I try to find it.
