NokiaDNA has moved servers. The new site can be found here http://project-dna.org Read the rest of this entry »

 

As a child you will have heard very many Bedtime Stories, some of those are very gentle, sweet and entertaining and some may have been that little bit scary but, every Bedtime Story has a happy ending. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Meego, NOKIA

We have seen some very good and fun videos from Nokia, on the release of their devices, particularly the Lumia range. But sometimes, the other side just does things better. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: NOKIA, not at nokia, Video

The Nokia Gem is an interesting concept from Nokia, which I have not come across before.

However, there are some interesting highlights and similarities to Samsung’s recently filed patent technology that operates partially in the same manner. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: NOKIA

We have seen concept phones before from Nokia but this comes from an outside individual. I must say that I like the design of the phone even if it is rather iPhonesque.

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Tags: Concept, NOKIA, not at nokia

As promised yesterday, here is my simple guide on how to go about swapping out your black iPhone 4 headphone jack, and replacing it with a white version. Read the rest of this entry »

Tags: Platform / OS

Bit of an update on my iPhone 4 white conversion. This afternoon I completed replacing the headphone port/jack on a spare iPhone 4 frame I purchased, and have taken a series of photos to put together a guide on how to change/replace it.

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Tags: NOKIA, Platform / OS

As mentioned in my previous installment of my ongoing iPhone 4 experience series from a Nokia Enthusiast,I briefly touched upon my iTunes experiences in part 2, and in todays post I will be sharing my experiences in actually buying applications, and games from iTunes, but also underlining the ease of updating any installed applications on my iPhone 4.

Seeing iTunes has some limitations when it comes to adding certain bank cards as form of payment for purchases, you are either forced to use a service called ClickandBuy, which accepts some debt cards that iTunes does not support, however in my experience this too did not support my Finnish bank card, so I was then forced to follow another method of crediting my iTunes account.

iTunes Gift Vouchers are available a plenty on the likes of eBay, and thats what I ended up doing, as for me, using Paypal was my favored option, and I’m surprised that iTunes does not accept this as a form of payment as of yet.

I purchased a £15GBP iTunes voucher on eBay for £13GBP, and received my code via email within an hour or so. This code can then be Redeemed in your iTunes account. One must note however, if you are purchasing an iTunes voucher, that voucher can only be used in an iTunes account of the advertised country. In my case, a UK iTunes account.

Due to certain applications not being available in the Finnish iTunes app store, I have chosen to open a couple of extra iTunes accounts, UK, Finnish, and a US account. I will add though, although its easy to do this, and easy to download, and install applications, games, and utilities from the various iTunes Stores, whenever an application update becomes available, you gave to log in to the specific iTunes store the application was purchased from.

This updating of an installed application is easy enough, but does get a little confusing at first in my experience, as I was not aware at the time of the afore mentioned requirements to update an app.

Talking of app updates however, i am really impressed with the iPhone 4′s functionality of notifications on your device when an installed application has an update available. This is shown in the App Store application, under updates, and shows a little number in a red circle on the icon in your menu screen. (See screenshot below).

I would like to see this kind of thing on my Nokia device, and can’t be that difficult to implement surely? I know of a few apps that do similar, but not quite in the same way as on the iPhone 4. A Symbian application I have used which caters for in app updates is of course the great Symbian Gravity application from @Janole of mobileways.de

Going back to punching applications in the App store, this is somewhat too easy if I may say so myself, I found myself spending that £15GBP credit in just over an hour. I had gathered a collection of applications, and utilities in my “Add to Wishlist” within my iTunes account. Yet another great example of iTunes functionality.

Once you have purchased your applications, not only are you invoiced quickly via email about your iTunes purchases, but you also have a detailed account of them in your iTunes Account page. In here you have the options to “Report a Problem” if you should encounter any problems with your purchased applications.

I have only experienced one such issue where I needed to report a problem, and that being a game from Namco Games called PacMan. I paid £2.99 for this game, and whilst I enjoyed it immensely, bringing back many a fond memory of PacMan’s heyday, I continued to face a bug within the application.

This bug was related to creating a new account within the application so you could share your new high scores with fellow players, but each, and every time I tried this, I was informed to choose a new username, but it simply didn’t matter what username I chose. Each time after hitting “ok” after this prompt, I noticed my email and password fields were filled in, so I proceeded to log in, but then each and every time, the app crashed, closed.

Given the above issues with this game, I contacted the developer of the application first via the iTunes link to developer, and informed them of the issues i was experiencing, and also kindly informed them of the many complaints within iTunes reviewing system.

I got a quick email response from Namco developers giving me a series of steps to try on my iPhone in order to get it working. Now this is where I slipped up. Let me explain.

I paid £2.99 for this application, but in the steps given to me by the developers, one step was to uninstall the game from both my iPhone, and my iTunes account. Big mistake. I will skip to the chase. The steps I carried out didn’t make the app work, but following out the steps the developer gave me removed my right to get a refund of the £2.99 that I paid for this application.

You see, what happened was I removed packman from my iPhone, and iTunes, and although iTunes knew I had already paid for the app when I proceeded to download the app for a second time, this was then invoiced to me as £0.00, this removing any chance of getting my money back.

Yes, I still had my original email of my original purchase, but this no use, as you can only claim your money back via your iTune purchases account. I’m just glad it was just £2.99 and not much more. I put this down to a lack of experience, but lesson learned here.

My experiences with Ovi Store purchases have been quite good in comparison, and so much so, I wrote about them here.

Anyway, that concludes todays post on my experiences with iTunes, Application purchases, and Updates. I hope you enjoyed reading this part, and Im sure you will enjoy part 5 coming soon which will be covering a few games I have purchased. Cut the Rope, Fruit Ninja, and a couple more.

I have to say the whole gaming experience on the iPhone 4 is nothing short of incredible, and I have never experienced anything quite like it on a mobile phone. Even looking back at the days of game play on my Nokia handsets, none can touch the smoothness, performance, and user interface that the iPhone offers in gameplay. As said, I will cover this much more in detail in part 5, but for now, thanks again for reading!

Tags: apple, Platform / OS

I have now owned my new iPhone 4 for a few weeks, and it still today, impresses me, but what I wish to focus on in this particular part in my ongoing series are the photo, and video capabilities, but first would like to remind you all as to why I am publishing iPhone content on my Nokia blog following the many questions I have received asking me this.

The answer is simple. I’m a long time Nokia user, and enthusiast, and have always owned Nokia devices, but with Nokia’s current high end device shortages, or lack of competing devices in the high end,  I thought it high time I started learning about other brands, and OS’s, which in turn I’m very keen on learning from Nokia’s competition, and adding the experiences to my portfolio.

Not just these reasons though, I know for a fact many people are very interested in hearing what I have to say on my transition, not just by the many questions, and comments I receive each and every day on twitter, or email, but also looking at my blogs stats, as  since posting my iPhone series, I have seen a significant increase in my sites traffic. Obviously makes interesting reading for many for sure.

Now back to this posts purpose, iPhone 4 Photo, and Video experiences, and later iOS 4.2

I have already covered my experiences with FaceTime Video calling, which can be found in Part 2 here.

Having been out and about in the real world putting the iPhone 4 camera to the test in a range of environments, although very easy to use, with smooth UI, and Transitions, my initial impressions were quite good, with fast start up times, launching, point and shoot times, however this somewhat changed once I have got back home, and transferred my photos to my MacBook Pro.

Here are two examples below, can you tell which was taken with the iphone 4, and which one was taken by the N97? (Yes, we have our Christmas tree up already, mainly for our daughter, but you probably know all us parents say that lol).

Yes, the camera on the iPhone 4 is pretty good don’t get me wrong, but its when you start inspecting the ‘quality’ of any taken photos, its then you realize that the iPhone 4 cannot rival Nokia’s Optics I have come to know and love over the years, in any device, from N95, N82, and N97, all of which also have a 5MP Camera, MP for MP.

I took many photos with the iPhone 4, but each and every one simply could not match Nokia’s 5MP Quality Optics.  Did this come as a surprise to me?  No, not at all, I have always known Nokia’s Carl Zeiss Optics were unrivaled, and still remain so today.

So would it be fair to compare the iPhone 4, 5 MP Camera to the Nokia C7 8MP Full Focus Camera? Maybe, maybe not, even though there is a difference in pixel count, in my experience the quality produced from both cameras are pretty close when compared side by side, with identical settings set, and is quite an interesting point to be honest. The samples from each below are not the best example of this, as the iPhone 4 zoom reaches further, thus washing out the shot when compared to the C7, which zoom is not as far into the depth of field. Also the weather played a major part in the photos below.

You can check all my photos, all of which were pretty much taken in the same areas, in a range of outdoor conditions, here for C7 shots, and here for iPhone 4 shots.

iPhone 4 full zoom

Nokia C7 full zoom

The one thing I really do like however with the iPhone 4 camera is the ability of touch and focus on a specific item within the depth of field of the viewfinder. For example, placing a few different items on a desk, each placed a different distances from the iPhone 4, you can touch each item in turn on the screen to focus the camera on said object.  This also extends to video recording, which is a great feature of simplifying focusing via touch.

Another aspect that the iPhone does well with your photos is presenting them to you in a very smooth gallery viewer, which I have not experienced any lag, or delays when launching, and browsing through my taken photos, and video.  This also allows you to pinch and zoom your photos, (not videos) which actually look better quality on the iPhones Retina screen that on a PC.

My experiences with HDR within the camera application being switched on were a bit hit and miss, by that I mean, I couldn’t really find an example photo which benefited from HDR. To me, HDR simply adjusts the white levels in the photos, but from the various photos I took in snow covered conditions, proved somewhat a gimmick, and nothing special. Maybe I’m missing something here, so if you know, please let me know in the comments below, thanks!

Now to underline the iPhone 4′s video capabilities, my experiences were much better than my iPhone 4 photo experience, although you cannot zoom whist video recording, (not that I have found anyway) and there is no red led for low light videoing, thus the iPhone 4 video recording is still nowhere near as good as an Nokia device with Carl Zeiss Optics, but still impressive though, given these restrictions, limitations, and considering the actual size of the optics used in the iPhone 4. It can easily record Macro video though which impressed me, check out my very simple video demos below.

Both videos above were uploaded direct from the iPhone 4 to Youtube, and took less than a minute each.

Walled Garden

Apple’s iOS, as many of you already know, is quite restricted, and this is much more apparent within the iPhone 4 camera software. For example, there is no way any third party developer, such as Pixelpipe, can add a one touch upload option due to the iOS restrictions, this is quite lame in my experience, and something Apple should think twice about in improving iPhone owners photography experiences on their devices.

There is of course the Jailbreak route, but this is not an avenue I wish to venture just yet.

The only current share/options you do have after you have taken a photo are, to send photo via email, which I must add is very easy to use, and very quick, and offers you various sizes of a photo to email. Assign to Contact, Use as Wallpaper, or Print to a wireless printer.  Now while these options are indeed welcomed, its the sharing to ones online space that is missing.

To actually upload, and share a photo with friends, and family to the web, to the likes of Facebook, flickr, and twitter you need to launch a third party app such as Pixelpipe, then choose which photos you wish to upload, and your away.

I have found Pixelpipe’s iPhone app to be one of the best for simply uploading to my various online sites, as when launched it loads up your camera roll, and you choose your photos straight from there, and hit upload. There are more comprehensive options available, at a price, and I will cover these in part 4 of my series, which will cover my experiences with purchasing applications, and games from the iTunes App Store.

On a more positive note regarding the iPhone 4′s photography aspects are that after recording a video, you can simply upload to Youtube, and in my experience with this, found it very quick, and simply a joy to use, no mess, no fuss, it just works, simple. You are presented with several setting options for your video upload, including tags, privacy settings, title, description, and of course, quality of video (depending on what settings you recorded with).

I must confess though, having said and done all of the above, I’m still finding myself choosing the iPhone 4 for my simple point and shoot photos, and videos, and this is mainly down to the simple, yet attractive interfaces, speed of opening/launching, and closing the camera application.

iOS 4.2

Yes, as many of you iPhone owners out know, the iPhone got an firmware update from iOS4.1 to iOS4.2.  This was my very first experience in updating an iPhones firmware, and found it very similar to the Nokia Software Updater route I have come to know so well, however, Nokia’s OTA (Over The Air) firmware updates are a different experience altogether, much safer, and quicker too from past experience.

White iPhone 4

For anyone who has been following my plans on converting my iPhone 4 to the white model, the model that Apple never released, my plans are still the same, I will be carrying out the conversion, however due to some reports on white replacement parts being ill fitting, I have chosen to buy a used iPhone 4 middle frame (Antenna bezel) to experiment on first to see if my white replacement glass mates up to it perfectly, it should do being OEM, but I would rather do this first that strip down my black iPhone 4, only to find the parts don’t fit flush.

There are also rumors about the web, that Foxconns backdoor outlet of white iPhone 4 parts was shuttered last week too, which will now result in anyone wishing to get white replacement parts even more harder to get their hands on. Yes, there are many fake white parts available, but its these parts which are not OEM, and are ill fitting.

Now before you post and say no, there are no OEM White iPhone 4 parts, I beg to differ.  Legal, yes. Its no surprise that there is/was a grey market for the white iphone 4 parts, and the latest complete white iPhone 4′s too, but just like many other grey markets for a wide range of devices, appliances, and even vehicles, these things will always be about, just like counterfeiting.

Having been researching the ass off the various worldwide distributing of these parts, comparing high res photos from many of the online sources, checking peoples experiences with various companies offering the conversion services, and companies selling the white parts, I have learned quite a lot of the past few months, and yes, that includes be raiding about the teenager who made $130k selling white parts. I had even communicated with this guy when he first set up his website whiteiphone4now.com

Next week, Part 4, iTunes App Purchases experiences

Anyhow, thanks for taking the time to read this post, my next post in this series, part 4, will be covering my experiences with iPhone iOS Applications, both free, and paid for, from iTunes App Store, comparing it to Nokia’s Ovi Store.

It should make interesting reading, as Nokia offer Service Operator Billing, whereas Apple’s iTunes requires a creditcard registered to your iTunes account, a ClickandBuy account, or if you cannot set these up, require you to buy iTune Gift Cards from the likes of eBay, which you can Redeem in your iTunes, which in turn credits your account to allow purchases.

Be sure to checkout Part 4 very soon.!

Tags: iPhone, Platform / OS

Today I will be sharing with you all my recent experiences with both, iTunes, and FaceTime, but remember, this is coming from someone who has been using Nokia devices, and services for quite a while now.

Whilst I was waiting for my iPhone 4, the white one that never materialized, I familiarized myself with iTunes, and the App Store, downloading new apps ready for my new iPhone.  Seeing as the White one never showed up after waiting months, I opted for the black variant.

Anyhow, back to iTunes, as mentioned, I had only previously used iTunes for searching, and downloading applications, and utilities ready for the arrival of my iPhone, that was, until recently where as mentioned in Part 1 of this series of posts of mine relating to the iPhone, using iTunes to Activate my iphone, which I can say went very smoothly, and was far easier than I had expected.

The one area of iTunes I was unsure about was the Music side of things, as I had read, and heard many a horror story about iTunes being a crippled experience for some.

What I therefore planned on doing, is adding a small collection of my music to iTunes, and then attempt to sync with my iPhone. I successfully dragged, and dropped just under 10GB of my music to iTunes, and it took around 8 minutes in total, but then I was faced with missing album art from many of my albums.  This was expected however as I was planning on using something like MediaMonkey on my Windows machine to add Album Art, but in my haste, I forgot prior to transferring.

No big deal, I started looking around the web for a MediaMonkey alternative seeing as its not likely to be available for Mac OS X.  Upon my searches, I came across a post within the Mac Forums where Im already a member, and it was stating that for basic, run of the mill songs, iTunes can add Album Art, so too does an iTunes Bolt On 3rd Part App called TuneUp.  I opted for the former.

Within iTunes, I simply chose the option from the top toolbar to add missing Album cover pictures, and within a couple of minutes, iTunes successfully  replaced all my missing album art, brilliant.

So now, I was ready to sync with my iPhone.  This is the part where I said to myself, “this is too good to be true, and this is going too well, surely something will go wrong now”.

I connected my iPhone via its usb and 30 pin connector to my MacBook, and found that iTunes proceeded to only sync my apps, browser, contacts etc, but no Music.

No big deal I thought, I will ask on twitter, and within a minute or two, several offers of help came forward, and talked me through the simple process.

Basically all I had to do was select my iPhone in iTunes (was previously viewing Music in iTunes), upon selecting my phone, I then simply chose the option at the bottom of the screen to copy all music to phone.

Having selected this option, I forget its actual name now, but selecting that option, iTunes continued to Sync almost 10GB of my music with album art. I thought this will probably take around an hour as thats what I know it would of took me with my old Nokia N97, but amazingly, in less than 5 minutes, all of music was synced, and on my phone, wow!

Apple really do come into their own when it comes to music, and syncing, it just goes to show how far ahead in this industry they really are, I guess all those iPods account for something.  Brilliant overall iTunes experience, and no more fears as I had previously.

Now onto my experience with FaceTime.  Remember, my previous experience of any video calling was that on a Nokia device, and over 3G.

My good friend Nirave from Mobile-Users.net headed off to Dubai recently, and having spotted his amazing photos on his blog, I commented about them, and he suggested I should call his email address, and have a FaceTime chat.

I was haprehensive at first, as my daughter was streaming a video over our home WIFI network, and I thought this is never going to work, but I proceeded to call Nirave anyway, and to my amazement, after a few rings, Niraves smily face was on on iPhone 4!

Chrystal clear, no blockyness, no stuttering, no out of sync audio, nothing, just pure, clear connectivity, it was mind blowing, and I continued to be impressed throughout our FaceTime chat of best part of an hour.!  What really impressed me the most, apart from the superb video quality was the way we could easily switch between cameras, and show each other our surroundings.

There I was on my Balcony, in -10 conditions, snow all around me, and Nirave in the Middle East, 20+ stories up a skyscraper, on a balcony in sun drenched surroundings, it was really a mind changer, and blew me away that both of us, Nokia enthusiasts, both using an Apple product to communicate this way, but tied in with superb performance, high quality, no messing around with dropped signal, or poor picture, it just worked!  We both had a bit of a laugh during our facetime call, mainly about how things change over time.

Now following my above experience with FaceTime, I got the bug, and started calling a few of my friends around the world, some with FaceTime Beta on their MacBooks, and again, and again, FaceTime simply delivers, it just works.!

That concludes part 2 of my Series, watch out for Part 3 where I will be covering photos, and video quality of the iPhone 4 compared to what I have been used to from Nokia over the years!

Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!

Tags: apple, Platform / OS