82 posts tagged “nokia”

new horse in the stable: nokia n96

3 days ago
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What you're seeing here is the result of $160 and a lot of bargaining work, plus a road-trip to meet the guy in Washington. And, if you couldn't tell, the result is a rather good condition Nokia N96- much better than my friend's would have been should I have taken it. This puppy has basically all the bells and whistles I was hoping to get in an N96, minus the superior camera, OLED display, and FM-transmitter. In replace of the built-in 8GB of storage the N86 has, the N96 is equipped with a whopping 16GB. Not that it makes any difference- S60 software can't really handle that amount of data usefully if every feature of the phone is to be utilized, which is something I have a bad habit of testing all the time.

I've loaded on Nokia Maps (the newest version, featuring 3D landmarks!), Fring, and the N86 Solace theme (something I loved on my E71 and love almost more on the N96). I did initially install the N-Gage launcher but due to a rather finicky Nokia (plus the fact that they've officially announced it's demise) I've since not bothered to reinstall it on my latest hard-reset. (I'm rather picky about having a clean phone both inside and out, which is why I figure out what I want, then hard-reset and load only the bare minimums.) I've setup VOX and OVI upload services, as well as OVI device sync. And, while I had a whole lot of information ready to share about how well this guy performs as a camera, I accidentally deleted everything yesterday in my hard-reset. Let's just say... it won't be replacing my D40 anytime soon, but it's still quite competent.

housing arrived: nokia 9300 rebuild project

Nov 12, 2009
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At long last! The housing for my Nokia 9300 has arrived! Sadly, it beat my old roommate's E71 housing that he ordered about a week before I did mine, but that said... hopefully his will turn out much better as a result of it's longer ship time. However, I'm getting ahead of myself by saying such things- let's dig in!

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This is how the package arrived. Note the customs declarations from Hong Kong listing the contents as an "adapter". Who knows where these odd descriptions come from, but whatever, I couldn't be bothered. What did intrigue me was the packager's rather unusual method of sealing the package... poking a whole (not even with a hole punch!) and then using some sort of purple string to bind the top shut. I'm actually amazed this made it all the way to me- what was stopping someone from simply undoing the not, taking whatever was inside, and then tying it back up again!? Gotta love USPS I suppose!

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The method of keeping everything from getting crushed was, well... basically nothing. A sandwich made of styrofoam (bread slices) is basically all that it is. Inside is a faceplate, keypad, inner-LCD frame, keyboard, bottom housing, and battery cover. I decided to dig in with the transplant, and take picture before-and-after instead of the entire process. Don't worry though, because...

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The new pieces didn't fit! As you can clearly see from this picture, the mold used was smaller than the actual, original pieces, and thus the components didn't actually fit in the housing. I've sent an email to the seller asking for a replacement... we'll see what happens from here.

n-gage is no more

Nov 12, 2009
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New-n-gage-logo

(Photo Courtesy of Nokia)

Have you heard the news? Nokia's N-Gage is officially biting the dust. After an initial hardware release, which flopped, followed by an updated model, which also flopped, followed by a much better revision into a software-only take of the gaming concept (which apparently also flopped), N-Gage services will be transferred to Nokia's OVI store. From what I've read, it seems like the service is going to be taking down the online-multiplayer component which made certain games such a hit, however in honesty I can't say it will be too missed. If Nokia had only made the N-Gage platform available for more handsets, they might have had a winner on their hands. But in the light of the iPhone's radical success, and the iTouch's surprising gaming popularity, I can easily understand the reason for the system dying off. After all, N-Gage games were of the quality that one would want to play them on their televisions, not on the little screens built into their cell phones. And with the rather short A/V cable given to only a few high-end handsets (and not even the N86!), it's really no surprises there.

What is a surprise, is the development of games for the Zune HD! Released today are a few very detail-intensive 3D games for the device. They supposedly take advantage of the built-in Tegra chip to extents I can't even begin to imagine, and I honestly cannot wait to give them a shot! From what I've read, these games give the iTouch/iPhone a real run for their money, something which I feel I need to see to believe. I can tell you one thing, though... side-by-side, the Zune HD makes my iPod look like a piece of junk. It really does.

didn't expect that: n86 in white looks nice

Nov 8, 2009
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(Photos from Symbian-Guru found here.)

Whoa. Now, when I decided I wanted an N86, I was pretty sure I was going to go for the black/blue version. The screen would "pop" a bit better, and it would look a bit more professional. But after seeing this, I'm sold on white, even though it's gonna cost me a significant chunk of change more than the black version. (I just read it's technically sold as "Indigo".)

My previous post alluded to this one, and here's that I'm thinking. I want to get one of these devices at some point. If I keep trying to get the next best thing (aka Craigslist swapping), when I eventually get one I'm going to be disappointed to find myself surrounded by very-similar yet not-good-enough devices that I no longer use. If I keep what I have and save up, I'll get to keep much more different (and therefore much more usable) devices and diversify my gadget collection without cluttering into one category. And by category I mean cell phones. And in this specific case I mean multimedia-oriented handsets.

The N86 is showing good signs of following in the footsteps of the E71 in terms of build quality, and then throwing everything the N85 had going for it in for good measure. Then that 8MP camera (with variable aperture!) should be a blast. Question is... if I got one of these before my Japan trip, will I still bring my D40? I'm hedging yes, but then I have to ask myself why I would do such a thing...

Enough drooling. It's time for bed. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

nokia e71 gallery

Nov 3, 2009
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So, in realizing I might have an E90 trade on my hands which might involve my E71 and would likely take place before I'd get a chance to do this, I took some nice pictures of my E71 to help me remember it by should I trade it off. Mind you, regardless of whatever phone I get next, an E71x (as a backup) or an E72 are pretty high on my list for getting, unless of course I have the E90- then I might as well get an N86.

Anyways, that's pretty much it... pretty impressive for a handset that I've owned for a year, never put a case on or even used the Nokia-supplied slip cover for! And all I ever do is just chuck it in one of the front-pockets of my jeans (and almost religiously ensure that I never put anything else in the same pocket). Well... that's it, sorry for slowing down your load time of the page with pictures of a phone. (Again.)

nokia e90... say what?

Nov 3, 2009
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Now this is something unexpected. I was playing with my new 9300 and then had a weird pang of longing for my old E90. Mind you, I traded that off long ago, but a recent eBay search showed the extent of my ignorance in trading it for a mere Nokia N82. Granted, while I still would awfully like to own an N82 again now (although I'd arguably cling to my D40 which is what my N82 ultimately became), the E90 was an amazing device. It's keyboard was roomy, for a start, meaning long word documents and lengthy texts (which have recently become more and more common for me) are a piece of cake. It's camera is one notch above the E71 (most notably the tinting problem is fixed). However, I'm getting off topic here.

The point is, I decided to shoot off an email to the guy whom I made my original trade with. I asked if he still had his E90, expecting him to have sold it off on eBay and now he'll laugh at me hysterically. But to my surprise, he still had it! That's right, he still has the exact same E90 seen pictured above. While I'm not sure what condition it now is in, working or not, new chassis or not, he still has it. So I've decided that my new project is to reacquire this device. I really want it... and I'd be willing to trade my iPod Touch 64GB for it, even. Heck, that beats my friend's N96 by a mile, especially now that I've basically derived that for my needs, an E-Series fits the bill perfectly. I might have to trade him my E71 and iPod for it, though... that's pushing it, but honestly... probably worth it.

In an update about my friend's N96... that's been put on hold. He's having doubts about purchasing a CLIQ on-contract, but he knows I'm after his phone so he'll let me know if he decides to spring for one of the new handsets coming out. In the meantime, I wait! And anxiously, too, because my 9300 case is on it's way and I really want to share some pictures that don't make me look like a fool for purchasing it and don't make the phone look like it's massively outdated. (The Cingular badge on it doesn't help much.)

new phone

Nov 1, 2009
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Here it is! A Nokia 9300. While it's not exactly the newest handset out there- in fact, I used to own the E90, which technically replaced the whole Communicator line- I stil saw it as holding more value than my Motorola E8. From a mere gimmick standpoint, I thought that the ROKR E8 had more appeal due to it's unique input methods and industrial design, but Nokias tend to hold their value a bit better. Besides, once you get past the surface, the E8 really is just a fancy RAZR and the Nokia is another beast entirely.

The picture above was taken with my D40. I found an in-camera resize function, and chopped the image down to 640x480. (Or equivalent.) Then popped out the MicroSD (which was in an SD Card adapter), chucked it in my E71, and uploaded it from there. (I left my MicroSD-USB adapter in Eugene.)

This 9300 has seen better days. I should admit to that now. Not matter how good I think I am at cleaning used phones, this is one handset that really needed some professional help. By that I mean it needs a new face plate (this is old enough that it had interchangeable faceplates!!!). The keyboard frame also could use a replacement, while the keyboard itself and the keypad are actually not bad. The frame around the inner screen could look *neater* with a replacement, and the battery cover is missing one little tab so it doesn't quite close correctly. Not to mention the bottom frame has a lot of paint missing (paint? really Nokia?). So I decided... I'm just gonna order a whole housing set! About $29 off of eBay, I've already made an order. And by that I mean I'd have bought it, but PayPal is going bonkers and tells me to try again in a couple of hours. (Prolly something to do with DST.)

So don't expect any pictures of the 9300 unless I get really bored... because it's a bit embarassing even for me to have admitted to have traded a device as nice as the ROKR E8 for this abused 9300. Once it's got a nice new shell, then I'll be more willing to show it off. And you can expect surgery pictures once it happens. Hopefully next weekend.

quick update

Oct 28, 2009
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It's been quite some time since my last substantiated post, and while I shall hardly consider this post to be content-laden, it hopefully will wrap up a few ties since my last posting. I'll begin by explaining my current situation in life, move on to my take on a few recent developments, and lastly touch base on some future happenings.

As you have undoubtedly noticed, the blog has taken a much more festive appearance. To be quite honest, the design layout of my blog was once again beginning to frustrate me, and I decided it's about time I made a significant change, even though it shall undoubtedly be temporary. I now know, from my previous attempt, that Wordpress, while signficantly pleasing to the eye, is not quite useful to the degree of which I utilize VOX. If vox had more design themes, and an option to create albums to be viewed in the same manner as the SplashBlog of old, I'd be undeniably happy! Alas, this is not an option, so no point making it an issue as it's highly unlikely to ever see the light of day.

Currently, my life is regrettably a lot less festive than the colors of this blog itself. I'm a student at the University of Oregon, with a Pre-Business major and hoping to accepted as an Accounting major next year. I live a few blocks off-campus in a three-story unit, of which I occupy one of the two rooms on the top floor. From here I can see my car, which at the moment happens to be a Smart ForTwo. My room is a sort of off-white (beige tint), which is both clean in appearance and cold in demeanor. If I had my way, I'd paint a few of the walls a nice dark red, maroon perhaps, in order to create a sense of creamy coziness. Perhaps I will... that would explain why I'm holding on to so many newspapers with the intention to protect the floor from the inevitible drips that are going to occur.

These days I walk almost everywhere. If the weather is terrible, I'll drive, but only if my destination is more than ten blocks away (aka Safeway and work). I carry in my pockets two devices, my trusty Nokia E71 (in white), and my iPod Touch. I must say, I find the new update for iPod Touch to be rather a letdown- all of my "smart playlists" are all messed up! For example, even if I rate something 5 stars on the iPod, it still won't show up on my top rated. What the heck Apple! Fix this! My Nokia E71, on the other hand, is trusty as always. I actually changed the product code in order to install the v300.21.012 firmware (which supposedly improved camera performance), but so far haven't noticed much new so I'll prolly downgrade/reverse what I did. (I already changed the product code back, anyways.) Which leads me on to my present developments...

I've got a friend purchasing a Motorola CLIQ soon, and as he's currently using a Nokia N96 I asked if I might be able to take the phone off his hands. I'm getting a bit frustrated by my E71's lackluster camera (even though I now own a DSLR), and need something a bit more adventure-worthy. (Wait for future happenings.) He generally takes care of his stuff pretty well, and while I say that he's likely dropped it a couple of times and it may have a scratch here or there. So my plan is to trade him a bunch of gadgets I have around the house in exchange for it, then purchase a complete replacement housing and transfer the electronics to the new shell. Looking it up it looks like if I want a true new N96 on-a-budget as I'm suggesting, I'll need to also purchase a new slide as well... likely a necessary thing anyways since these are known for having rather clunky slides.

Now, while this has always been an option, I do have a friend that might trade me his old C905 for something. Not sure yet, but I certainly hope so! He's already moved onto a G1, so unless he's dead set on wanting my E71, I'll likely toss whatever he wants his way. The reason why this is an afterthought is that the N96 is a real smartphone, and will achieve my ends much better than the C905. (Basically this all comes down to the factor of gaming.)

Now, time to talk about future features! I'll be travelling to Japan on December 12th, and anticipate taking a lot of pictures while I'm there. I'm planning on bringing my Nikon D40 and hopefully a phone other than my E71 to use as a backup camera / messaging device. While I anticipate taking my iPod Touch as well, I hope to only use it while on the airplane. Unless of course the N96 works out perfectly to plan (which I always seem to have trouble with ambitious plans), and then it's 16GB ought to cater to my needs nicely. (And then I might trade off my iPod Touch... who knows?)

So there, my few scarce readers, is what I've been up to. It also explains the reason for the above picture... although if I ever manage to snag such a picture for myself, it'll be a silver C905 instead of the black.

What's In My Pocket?

Aug 12, 2009
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I often get a kick out of my friends' faces when I empty out my pockets, so I decided to share the contents here as well! ^_^

Basically, in my jeans on any given day (and I wear jeans almost every day), you will find my Nokia E71, Peek Classic, and iPod Touch 32GB. And that's not including my wallet and keys! They all mesh together quite well, and in order to prevent scratches, my E71 is given it's own pocket, as are my keys and wallet, and my iPod (which I don't always carry anymore actually) and Peek ride in the same pocket.

Also, you'll notice that this is a rather good-quality picture but all of the devices I own are sitting on this pad of paper...? No, I don't have anything new. Rather, I've revived my Kodak Z812 IS. Which, fittingly, is the reason for why the photo isn't in perfect-focus, and why there's a significant amount of barrel distortion.

I also updated the firmware on the Z812, and while I was hoping for some magical sort of fix... nothing significant happened. What did change? Well, I'm not sure. But supposedly "a performance increase" is something I should be noticing. So I'll keep you posted.

Here are some more pictures taken from the Z812 (the picture nearly identical to the one above is v1.03 firmware, the picture above is v1.04 firmware). I had a bit of fun taking that E71 photo, as you can prolly tell. It is quite a good looking handset, lemme tell you.

Nokia E75: Video Review

Aug 10, 2009
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Finally got around to putting together a short video review of the Nokia E75! Enjoy!