a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Recently I was fortunate enough to be invited to a boardroom luncheon featuring Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo,President and CEO of Nokia. As you can see here, he was gracious enough to allow a photograph and I might add very happy to see my camera of choice was an N95!
The lunch took place at the Paley Center and Mr. Kallasvuo shared his thoughts on the mobile industry with a direct perspective as the leader
Like you need me to tell you there’s a Stevenote on today … T-38 minutes!
I’m clearly in the two piece camp at this stage of my mobile life. Andy talks about the Camps of One or Many today and links to another post written by Alan Reiter on the same topic. Today I use the N95 with the N800. I recognize the benefits of each as well as the overlaps but choose to use one of the other to maximize my enjoyment or enhance the experience across the two. I’ve tried all in one with the iPhone and lasted a few months … A few years ago, I was a heavy Treo user and pushed that to the limits as well.
While I really see the enhanced benefits of browsing, reading and viewing photos and video on a larger screen, I also use my devices so heavily that having a second thing ready to back me up when the battery in one fades is quite helpful. As we see the release of MIDs with embedded WWAN like the WiMax units shown at CES or the alluded to but not yet seen WiMax N810 from Nokia things will get even more interesting.
My normal day works something like this:
I also sporadically snap photos, shoot video (which upload or stream as they are captured). 3G service (ATT) kicks in after about 20 minutes in my ride towards NYC and substantially enhances the overall online experience…
I could probably do all of this on the N95, though it is actually more convenient to have two, in the same way it’s more ideal to work on two monitors.
When I had the N810, I was actually writing posts on the go, not just consuming them and that’s purely a factor of having a built in keyboard and the availability of applications like Maemo WordPy which is offline blog editor for the tablet.
Maybe it’s that I miss my Nokia N810 (still waiting to get a release version swapped with the proto I tested) or maybe it’s the sheer lack of excitement from this year’s CES, but now I really want to get a MID. The Intel booth showed off all kinds of cool devices and for me this really is a category of interest. I know MIDs are not likely to become mainstream in the next year (or two) but for the power user, they really fill a beautiful spot in my mobile life.
Typically a MID is pocketable vs. a UMPC which is something you need a bag to carry. This distinction is something that makes the experience for a mobile power user like myself. I can’t see going to a single device anytime soon. I think the SDK and pending apps for the iPhone are a very interesting thing to watch here, but more interesting to me would actually be a slightly larger connected tablet from Apple …
I was stunned to learn today that Om Malik had suffered a heart attack last week!
“I had a heart attack on Dec. 28. I was able to walk into the hospital for treatment that night and have been recovering here ever since. With the support of my family and my team, I am on the road to a full recovery. I am going to be OK.”[GigaOm]
Om is truly one of the great ones and I have enormous respect for what he does and how he carries himself. While we’ve yet to meet in person I look forward to that day and hope it’s sooner than later.
Best wishes man! I’m glad your report was as positive as it could be today, and hope you take plenty of time to recover properly. Take it easy man and we’ll be looking forward to welcoming to back in due time. I’m sure your growing empire at GigaOm is in good hands while you recover.
I decided last week that I wanted to simplify my mobile media experience and ordered a 6GB microSD card so i could my N95-3 and N810 for evrything instead of also carrying my iPhone just for a few albums and podcasts. I’ve had an iPod since it was first released and have had my computer media experiece live inside iTunes. The full Apple ecosystem is strong and I’m a firm advocate of sync and go … Or at least I was.
For the most part the songs and albums stay the same on my ipod and it’s really podcasts that change with any real frequency – daily to weekly as things update. I thouht the 6GB card would be mainly in the tablet vs the phone as I started planning this but thus far (day 3) my plan has shifted a bit back to the phone. I’ve actually ordered a second 6GB card to use in the tablet so I don’t have to share and so each device can focus on some key pieces of the experience. A surprise arrived on Friday as well in the form of the Nokia N81 8GB which is designed to optimize the mobile music experience and I’ve been playing with that along with the N95.
Music and Video
Right now I have music on both phones and a limited amount of converted video on the tablet. The phones serve as really nice music players – quality seems solid on both. I have yet to do an A/B test as my recently updated iPhone (1.1.2) has not been reactivated… I’ve yet to swap its sim back from the N95 to complete the activation process!
The Nokia podcasting application does a great job importing my opml from iTunes and is able to update on a schedule or manually with a wifi connection or via cellular data. I’ve been manually switching things between wifi at home and cell on the go so I can get the latest stuff for my commute. Since I am unable to install anything on the work machine and do not have an itunes there’s no way to get an updated set of podcasts … Or even a quick download during the day on the iPhone. The Nokia phones however easily take care of business without the assistance of a computer which has really been quite awesome.
The N81 integrates podcasts directly into the music player which is something I’m hoping makes it back upstream to the N95 with a firmware update. In either case you can access podcasts as a genre and using the keypad you can live search through your collection of both music and podcasts. The Nokia Podcasting app also supports video which works nicely too though I’ve gone into the app to playback rather than use the music player which does not show video. When there’s an update to the Nokia Video Center application for the latest tablet OS2008, I will also subscribe there and predict my viewing preference will be the tablet’s larger screen.
Movies and TV shows are pretty easy to convert for the N810. Unfortunately video does have to be converted which takes time, but is relatively straight forward with the right tools. MediaConverter is probably the simplest to use and with the promise of making a file the tablet can play it’s hard to pass on it. Handbrake and (if you use Windows) Nokia’s new video conversion application also work well though if Hanbrake is your preference you might want to copy the settings from one of the other apps to make sure you get playable files.
Phone + Media Player
Like you would expect the Nokia phones pause and resume playback for phone calls much like the iPhone… So there’s no magic there, but it works relieably and well. The N81 has a dedicated music button next to the naviwheel and the N95’s multimedia key serves the same purpose. I discorvered today that a press and hold which brings up the music player on the N95, can also bring you right back to your previous application … A nice and I am sure not well known function.
The more I’ve used the phones as media players I can really see the potential benefit to an A2DP headset which would deliver stereo sound and also let me handle calls without switching things around my ear. My Shure E4C earphones are great but if I knew or needed the flexibility daily a wireless single unit would be killer.
What’s missing?
Amazingly the N81 is not supported by Nokia’s recently updated Multimedia Transfer application which would let me take advantage of playlist syncing as well as photos through iPhoto (though I use Aperture). While the N95 is supported, I’ve chosen to maintain a parallel experience and did a bulk copy (~4GB) using mass transfer mode on the N81 and a card reader for the N95. As it happens my mac mini media server crapped out at home so I had the external media drive on my desk and did a hunt and find to then drag over on both devices. This process took considerably longer than it would in iTunes to find what I first wanted and then actually to copy over. The Mac finder estimated over 2hours and after about 30 min I walked away. When I returned both were ready to roll. Sync is a really great thing to have and I hope that the Nokia Multimedia Transfer application (which has also been brutally slow for me) supports the N81 or that Nokia develops an actual plugin for itunes much like they did for iSync.
Copying video to the N810 was also done through a card reader and I will continue to do that as the video files I am using for my mobile needs are not really things I want clogging up iTunes.
Final thoughts
Outside of the initial bulk load, day to day use has been a pleasure. Music and podcasts are easy to access and update and video podcasts as well as converted video on the tablet all play well. Since I am already well converted as a two-piece mobile user, this plan works great for me though there’s no reason why the phone alone would not also do a lot of good. Of course you can’t playback any iTunes Store content as there is no Apple DRM access on anything other than their mobile devices, but that’s far from a deal breaker for me. Most of my content is from my own physical media collection and Amazon’s MP3 has an excellent DRM-free collection for “need it now” moments. I’ll probably dabble with the Nokia Music store when it eventually works in the US, but I’m less of a fan of Windows DRM.
Just as a sidenote, this entire post was written on the N810. That’s definitely not something I ever considered with the iPhone.
Technorati Tags: Nokia, N-series, N81, N95, N810, media, mobile, itunes, Apple, podcast, blog, internet tablet
what else can I say here…
Android Demo Video
While there’s no gPhone per se, this demo gives a cool overview of how the platform works and what can be done. Seems like we are just scratching the surface here, but with WebKit, 3D acceleration and 3G data services some very cool stuff will be sure to arrive.
Too bad we have to wait until 2H 2008!
Tonight I gave my Brother-In-Law my Nokia N93 and my Sister-In-Law a Nokia N95-1 which they selected from my collection. To say they were not living on the edge of mobile tech would be an understatement… They were sharing a Nokia 6600 after my Lindsey’s BB Pearl was “washed” by their daughter. I’m not clear what happened to Henry’s phone, but it’s dead and gone.
When I was asked whether I might have any old phones, I did not really have to think for very long …
While I don’t still have all of those devices sitting and waiting, they chose from an array of Palm, and Nokia devices to select their “new” phones. A quick reset and sim swap and they were on the air – thank you open phones!
Neither is a sophisticated user, but a quick demo on S60 and Lindsey and Henry seem to be on their way. Both seem very excited about the image capture options, music features and the ability to connect and share on a TV with the accessory cables.
Having Wifi is also an interesting twist to have since neither have real data plans currently with their carrier TMO… though I showed them how to connect here in the house so they could browse and check email. I even used the Nokia settings configurator to send Henry’s email settings OTA To the N93 so he did not have to tap it in via T9. It will be interesting to track their progress moving forward with much more advanced phones than they have been used to using. I’m hoping they have as positive an experience as I’ve had since making the move into S60.
Can you hear me Obi Wan?, originally uploaded by atmasphere.
Just having some fun with Photo Booth in Leopard … using the Hologram effect.
A quick hey from our breakfast table after spending a few moments with the new tablet. So far it’s excellent! Very solid build and beautiful screen. The keyboard takes a bit to get used to as it’s small, but easy to use.
The hardware is pre-pro and you can expect the full release in both hardware and software in the next 4-5 weeks.
Did I miss this as a software release somewhere or is this just gadget porn?
Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day!
