78 posts tagged “nokia”
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.
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.
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.
Sadly, I am here to report that I have not returned home from my trip to Portland with a new Nokia handset. Rather, I return with the sad realization that when it comes to being things being too good to be true, they usually are (except in the case of the HP Mini 2133 or Nokia E90 transactions I had). To summarize quickly, the guy has a knock-off Nokia N97. Had I not had my wits about me I likely would be holding this device in my hand right now.
- Look for the Nokia hologram (the two severed arms shaking hands) on batteries. The buyer may have replaced them with an OEM-spec battery, in which case the hologram will be missing. (I've yet to see anyone use a non-Nokia battery, though.)
- Batteries have a model number listed on them. (For example, the E75 uses the BL-4U battery.)
- Nokia never uses cheap and flimsy aluminum sliding trays for holding SIM cards. This isn't a very good test, because they do use trays (and sometimes these are aluminum), but if the tray is difficult to use, it's generally a good sign that the phone may not have been taken very good care of.
- Typically, the battery cover will having writing on it's backside. In the case of E-Series with a metal back, they tend to have the metal-type printed on them. (Ex. "STAINLESS STEEL" or "Mg")
- The front-side of the battery cover will have Nokia written on it most of the time.
- Look up what the camera on the back of your device should look like. (A simple picture of the backside usually suffices.) If the device has something weird, inspect it with a critical eye.
- Check how "NOKIA" is written on the device. If it's written "NOKLA" or "NOKlA" (the second one has an "L" in place of the "I"), walk away. It's often easy to overlook details like this because of the excitement of holding a new device.
- Is the spec-list correct? If it is correct, does the phone actually have all of those features?
- If the display is touchscreen, and it shouldn't be, it's not a Nokia. I don't care what the owner tells you about it being a prototype, it's a knock-off and you won't be happy.
- Is the display capacitive? As of August 2nd 2009, Nokia only has two touchscreen devices (the N97 and the 5800). Both have resistive displays. If yours doesn't, something is wrong.
- What does the front-facing camera (if it has one) look like? This will be really obvious if it's incorrect. In other words, if it looks like the same image-sensor as found on the back of the device, something's wrong.
- How do the buttons feel? Are they flush when they shouldn't be? In addition to being a fairly good test for a fake device, it's also a good indicator of abuse by the previous owner.
- Is the software legitimate? This might be harder to tell on an S40 phone, but on an S60 it should be rather obvious.
So, we're nearing the end... one last chance to impress. Are you up to it?! Once upon a time, there were few ways to get a message to a large number of people. The best you could manage 1000 years ago was standing on a rock and shouting. Later on, Guttenberg allowed the written word to spread far and wide, before cinema and finally the internet let anyone able to use a mouse dive into an ocean of information.
Why not make your voice heard, and spread your views on the E75's email capabilities far and wide? Grab a camera and post a video on your coach's site - you never know who might be watching!
