Review: Game Gripper for Nokia N900
However, after proper setup and calibration within the emulator, game play was excellent. I like ... [read more ››]
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Review: Game Gripper for Nokia N900
Last week I wrote about the Game Gripper accessory for the Nokia N900. As I said I ordered one right away and a couple of days ago the Game Gripper arrived. I really did not know what to expect from the button design because it wasn’t that clear to me how the buttons were inserted into the rubber piece. I ordered the SNES style of buttons since that looked like the most traditional type for playing games and I enjoy SNES games on my N900. I ordered an extra set of buttons and now wish I would have purchased the orange ones I was thinking about.
Design and installation
The Game Gripper is composed of the main body and inserted buttons. The main body is thick black rubber that seems like it will last forever. The rubber has openings on the top for the button inserts with a small “gg” over on the right for Game Gripper. On the right side that leads down and around the right side of the keyboard you will find a rubber piece with a round opening for the 3.5mm headset jack. On the left side you see a square opening for the microUSB port.The game buttons are hard colored plastic and do have movement in each of their openings. The opening they fit through is small than the nub on bottom side so they should not just fall out with standard handling. It takes a bit of effort and stretching remove and replace a game button, which is what you want for such an accessory.
The buttons is designed to fit perfectly over selected keys so that the proper actions are taken when you play games.
Setting up your emulator
As you can see in my video, you do have to go through each emulator and setup the Game Gripper to get the best game playing experience out of your N900. I didn’t cut out my mistakes from the video and as you can see just popping it on there and hoping the keys were mapped did not work for the Colecovision or SNES emulators.First impressions of Sygic Mobile Maps 10 for Maemo
A couple of days ago I mentioned that Sygic sent out an email letting us all know Mobile Maps 10 was available as a free upgrade to N900 owners. I went on a short camping trip and wasn’t able to test out the latest version until last night, but shot the video embedded below and took the screenshots you see below in the image gallery. I am going to do some more extensive testing over the next couple of weeks and will post a review here when I finish checking it out. Here are some initial thoughts on my experiences, along with the video of the program in action.
What is improved?
Even though I have only spent a few hours with Sygic Mobile Maps 10 for Maemo I can tell you already that it is much improved over version 9 that I found wasn’t very useful at all. Here are the following improvements found in Mobile Maps 10:- A new and better look and feel with default full screen mode.
- Online services for speed traps, traffic (not yet enabled), and incident reports.
- Navigation to addresses stored in your contacts database.
- Improved finger scrolling support.
- Updated maps with more detail.
- Auto & instant rotate between portrait and landscape.
Initial experiences
As you can see in my video, I was sitting in the back seat with my Nokia N900 (in default configuration mode) held between my knees and the N900 seemed to secure a GPS signal within a minute. This time Sygic tracked my position accurately where the last time it kept jumping around on the screen and couldn’t seem to find my actual location.The user interface was quite fluid and it was easy to navigate around the software. I jumped to Navigate to… and entered an address down in Seattle and then a couple seconds later the route was calculated and shown. You can select your country and the voice you want to use for navigation. You can change settings to customize your experience, including how you want the main navigation panel to appear as you drive around. Other settings include 2D/3D toggle, dynamic control settings, day/night control, sounds, online settings, online services, advanced settings (similar to what we say in Sygic Mobile Maps 9), planning preferences, toll charge settings, language and voice selector, and more.
T-Mobile Nokia E73 Mode: The Review
The Nokia E71/E71x was at the top of my top three Symbian devices of all time and had a form factor that couldn’t be beat. There were a few areas for improvement in the E71, namely the camera, headset jack, charging port, and display resolution. Nokia updated most of these in the Nokia E72, but it was still a device with support for foreign and AT&T 3G networks. I was caught off guard by the solid rumors of the Nokia E73 Mode and was very pleased when Nokia sent an evaluation unit for me to try out last week. The E73 Mode is essentially a Nokia E72 with support for T-Mobile USA’s 1700 MHz 3G data network and as a long time T-Mobile customer I couldn’t be happier.
Improvements from the E71/E71x to the E73 Mode
A couple of the pain points in the E71 were the 2.5mm headset jack, problematic 3.2 megapixel camera (mostly fixed with latest firmware update), lack of microUSB charging, and older S60 Feature Pack 1 operating system. The Nokia E73 Mode has a standard 3.5mm headset jack, good 5 megapixel camera, microUSB charging, and S60 Feature Pack 2 and more as listed in the specifications below.My biggest gripe now with the E73 Mode is the display resolution and fonts. I have been spoiled by some fantastic high resolution displays on the N97 mini, N900, and HTC EVO 4G and now it is tough to go back to a device with a 320×240 QVGA display. Actually, it is more of an issue with the fonts than the resolution, but I cannot find a way to update to less pixelated fonts. The device is so responsive and functional that I am willing to overlook the display resolution/font issue.
Improvements from the E72 to the E73 Mode
At first glance it may look like the E73 Mode is simply a T-Mobile USA branded Nokia E72, but there are actually some design differences that I personally find make the E73 Mode even better than the E72. Check out the image below, credit goes to All About Symbian, and you can see the E73 Mode has a slightly curved QWERTY keyboard that helps match the way your thumbs rotate. You will also find a rather significant change in hardware button layout with the E73 Mode have them all along two extended bars rather than buttons centered making them smaller on the E72. The E73 Mode also a bit more metal below the QWERTY keyboard and IMHO it feels more solid than the E72 and much more like the E71 construction we have all come to love.
Internally, the E73 Mode also has some differences in radio frequencies with support for T-Mobile’s 1700 MHz 3G band and support for UMA WiFi calling (separate post coming that will discuss this in detail).
Back from vacation, fired up about Nokia and T-Mobile
It has taken me longer than planned to catch back up here on Nokia Experts after a lovely Mediterranean cruise with my fabulous wife, but stay tuned for several articles and a new Guide coming next week. I first wanted to say that if you are ever traveling outside the US you may want to seriously consider taking along a Nokia smartphone loaded up with Ovi Maps and a Truphone Local Anywhere SIM card. I placed maps for Spain, France, and Italy on the Nokia N97 Mini and was able to use Ovi Maps walking feature to get around different foreign cities with no SIM card in the device. I had the Truphone SIM card in the Nokia N86 8GB (also used to capture video) and kept in touch with my daughters back home in the US for about 80 cents per minute for phone calls, 18 cents per outgoing SMS, and 12 cents per incoming SMS. I understand that incoming is supposed to be free, but that is not what I was billed although I am looking into getting some credit back. Since my girls like to text, this was an easy way to stay in touch for pretty low cost.
As Dieter posted last week, T-Mobile USA and Nokia announced that the E73 Mode is coming on 16 June for only $69.99. The E73 Mode looks to be a Nokia E72 with support for T-Mobile’s 3G data network. For just $70, you know I will be all over this awesome device and my wife may just have found a reason to upgrade from her E71 too. I wrote an article today on ZDNet asking if T-Mobile can increase the mind share for Nokia smartphones in the US. I know they are the smallest of the four major carriers, but they do not load up devices with crapware, have competitive voice and data plans, and seem to gloss over any tethering discussions. They will soon have both the Nokia Nuron and E73 Mode available for $69.99 each and I know I personally will be recommending these for T-Mobile customers. The Eseries are ROCK SOLID devices and $70 for this is ridiculous, IMHO.
Review: OtterBox Commuter Series for Nokia N900
I just mentioned the Nokia N900 Commuter Series OtterBox case a couple of weeks ago and the great folks at OtterBox sent along a sample for me to check out since they know I am such a fan of my Nokia N900. The Nokia N900 Commuter Series case looked attractive on their site, but after it arrived and I placed my N900 inside I have to say it may be one of the best cases ever made by OtterBox for a phone or PDA.
Package and contents
The OtterBox Commuter Series for Nokia N900 comes in a clear plastic package with OtterBox labeling and details on a cardboard piece sandwiched between two plastic pieces. Thankfully, OtterBox doesn’t require you to have Ginsu knives and a degree in plastics to get the case open and the two halves separate quite easily. Inside the plastic packaging you will find two halves to the case, a screen protector, lens cleaning cloth, installation card, and screen protector instructions. I did not use or try out the screen protector because I already have BodyGuardZ protector on my display and did not want to remove it for this review.Installation
You will find two pieces that form this case and it is clear which piece is for the bottom and which piece is for the top. The bottom/back piece is the most substantial and has integrated silicone rubber plugs for the microUSB port and the 3.5mm headset jack to protect these openings from dust. I liked seeing the substantial silicone rubber piece along most of the top/right side with protrusions to control volume, toggle the power button, and control the camera capture button. There is even an opening next to the camera capture button for the IR port (I never use this though). You will find additional openings on the left/top and right/bottom sides for the stereo speakers, lock switch, microphone and stylus silo. There is no compromise really on any of the ports or openings with your N900 in this case. The keyboard is also fully accessible and the case just adds a couple millimeters around the edges.Flipping around to the back you will see the OtterBox name on the lower portion with an opening around the camera lens that matches up perfectly. There is a notch out of the case so you can easily flip up the N900 kickstand too. You will find your N900 leans back a bit more on the kickstand in the case due to the added thickness of the case shell, but this viewing angle is still great for watching movie content. There is no impact at all on camera functionality when the case is on the N900.
The top piece is quite small and simply clips onto the display with small plastic tabs on the top/right side. I found that these hold the case on very well and experienced no movement or shifting of the case. This top piece adds a border around the display with an opening for the Nokia name and gives a bit of depth to the front display. With the touchscreen part of the display well inside the bezel you will find it has no impact on the touchscreen capability or functionality of the display.
The screen protector is a self-adhering piece of plastic that cover the entire front display on the device with a notch for the Nokia name and opening for the headset speaker. I mentioned I did not use it, but will apply it if my BodyGuardZ wears out since it appears to fit well and looks easy to install (I have used these same type on other devices before).
Every day usage and conclusions
I didn’t think I would actually keep my N900 in the case after the review, but I have to honestly say that it adds very little bulk to the N900 (already a rather chunky device) and my device has not left the case since it arrived. It offers a fair amount of protection and peace of mind knowing that my N900 can probably do better with a slip or fall from my hand while in the case. This is NOT a waterproof case and is designed to protect against bumps and shocks. I found no negative impact on the usability of my device and see no reason it will ever leave the case.The OtterBox Commuter Series for Nokia N900 is available now in black for $34.95. If you are someone like me who spends time out in the field (shipyard in my case) or moves around a lot with their devices you might like to know that your device is protected from minor drops and bumps while also giving it a cool look and more substantial feel.
Ratings (out of 5)
Overall: 5/5
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Nokia N8 announced with 5-band 3G, sealed battery, 12 megapixel camera
I have not been very excited about any Nokia device for a few months, especially with the recent HTC Incredible, Nexus One, Palm Pre Plus, and other devices readily available here in the US. Today Nokia officially announced the Nokia N8 Symbian^3 device and I have to say I am planning to pick one up as soon as I can. One of the most compelling features is the unique 5-band WCDMA 3G support that we have not yet seen on ANY other smartphone to date. This means you can buy it and use it with either AT&T or T-Mobile here in the US and get 3G data speeds.
Another first for Nokia is a sealed internal battery locked inside the aluminum colored shell. This used to be one area where Nokia fans slammed the iPhone, but in all honesty even though I have spare batteries I rarely ever use them and find this to be a non-issue. On the other hand, the specs of the N8 show only a 1200 mAh battery so that may be an issue.
Other specifications of the Nokia N8 include:
- 3.5 inch 640×360 capacitive touchscreen display
- Symbian^3 OS with Qt 4.6.2 support
- Bluetooth 3.0
- 802.11 b/g/n WiFi
- HDMI port
- Internal 16GB memory and microSD card for up to 32GB more memory
- 12 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics and Xenon flash and 720p capture capability
- Both a FM transmitter and a FM radio
- Integrated GPS with free Ovi Maps navigation
- 1200 mAh NON-REPLACEABLE battery (seems a bit low for this device)
- 5 colors in aluminum casing
- Dimensions: 4.47 x 2.32 x 0.51 inches and 4.76 ounces
Specifications are not everything though, as we have seen with past Nokia devices, but I think Symbian^3 will add in some user interface improvements. I saw it in action at CES this year and IMHO it looks much like Maemo 5 and Google Android while still having some familiar Nokia characteristics so I think we will find it quite appealing and functional. I am sure others here in the US will slam it, but that is nothing new and doesn’t surprise me. Is the iPhone with its very limited icon-based user interface really that efficient and optimal? I don’t personally think so and never use my iPhone as a phone anymore because it doesn’t give me enough functionality.
I personally want a blue or orange one, but understand they vary by country. I wish this was available in the next month or two and am not sure I can wait until Q3 of this year.
First impressions and video of Sygic Mobile Maps for N900
I really enjoy using my Nokia N900, but think the Ovi Maps client loaded on it is quite lame. I want the Ovi Maps 2.0 software that all my S60 devices have, but we still have no idea when (or even if) Nokia will ever release a good version of Ovi Maps for the N900. In the meantime, Sygic just recently launched their Mobile Maps 9 product for Nokia Maemo 5 devices. I was sent an evaluation code to install and test the software on my device and gave it a first spin last night. I shot the video below of the interface and some initial navigation testing to give you all a feel for the software.
As you can see the software has fairly typical functionality for navigating to your destination. My first impressions are that it has a finger friendly interface for the menus and has all the necessary navigation options, but the map UI could be improved with larger zoom in and out buttons and the ability to automatically switch into a full screen mode and hide the upper task bar. I may have this full screen mode, but I have yet to find it. I put in a route and then tried going another way and the program had some issues staying with me while it fought to reroute me and kept jumping my location to roads that were nearby. I then put in my real destination and it did a fairly good job of navigating me to my destination.
I need to spend more time with their Points of Interest (POI), navigation accuracy, and other settings while using it on more routes. I’ll try to get more testing done over the next week or two and post my full review so you can make an informed decision since there does not appear to be any trial version. It is currently priced at EUR49.99 ($67) so it is not a cheap software solution.
Barriosquare Foursquare app now in Extras-devel, getting closer to Ovi Store
I previously gave you a short tour of Barriosquare on the Nokia N900 and told you about the beta opportunity. We just received word that Barriosquare is now available in the Extras-devel section of the Maemo repository so it is much easier to get it loaded onto your device now. You no longer have to use terminal commands and be a member of the beta test group to install and use Barriosquare.
Firefox Mobile for N900 full release 1.0 now available and much faster
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the latest Release Candidate 2 of Firefox Mobile for Nokia N900 owners and installed it on my N900. It was faster than the previous version, that was very slow and unusable, but I did not use it that often. On 28 January, Mozilla released Firefox for Nokia N900 v.1.0 so I just downloaded it this morning.
As mentioned in the recent RC3 update post, Flash support was pulled out of the Firefox browser to improve performance.
We’ve decided to disable plugin (not to be confused with add-ons, which are supported) support for this release. The Adobe Flash plugin used on many sites degraded the performance of the browser to the point where it didn’t meet our standards. If you wish to enable our experimental plugin support, you will be able to manually via about:config, but do so at your own risk. We are working on an add-on that will allow the user to have control of which sites to enable plugins for, as some sites, like YouTube, do work quite well.While Flash support is no longer supported in the final release, add-ons are quite compelling and there is one for YouTube called YouTube enabler. As stated above, you do still have the option to enable the Flash plugin (check out this post for specific instructions) if you desire and you can still get Flash support in the default microB browser loaded on the N900 if you want to visit Flash-based sites. Other than YouTube, Flash is really not much of a concern for me so I now plan to use the N900 as my primary browser on the N900.
As stated on the Mozilla site, these are the features of the Firefox browser:
- Awesome Bar – Go to your favorite sites in just a couple of keystrokes with intelligent and personalized searching
- Weave Sync – Sync your Firefox tabs, history, bookmarks and passwords between your desktop and mobile device for a seamless browsing experience
- Add-ons – Customize your Firefox by adding small pieces of functionality, like games and news readers, that help make the mobile Web browser your own
- Location-Aware Browsing – Get maps and information relevant to your location
- Tabbed browsing – View open tabs as thumbnails to easily identify and select the Web page you’d like to go to next
- Safe Browsing – Get an Instant Web Site ID and easily access and edit security settings
- Available in more than 30 languages and counting
There are currently over 40 Firefox mobile add-ons for the N900 and I personally have the following loaded on my device:
- Weave
- TwitterBar
- Lazy Click
- URL Fixer
- Hold4Tab
- YouTube Enabler
- Google integrated search
- Amazon integrated search
- Twitter integrated search
- Wikipedia integrated search
Apple iPhone review – Smartphone Round Robin
It was dark and rainy night back in June 2007 while my two oldest daughters and I huddled under umbrellas as the first people in line at the AT&T store waiting to buy the original iPhone. I had my Mac in the car so as soon as I bought the iPhone I went online to activate it and get it up and running. I still remember that first minute when I turned on the iPhone and how it radically changed everything I thought and experienced on smartphones to date. The iPhone just flew like wind with immediate response and reaction to my finger presses. I remember how easy it was to take a call and then switch between Bluetooth, speaker, and headset speakers. Then there was the drop dead way to transfer music and video content to the iPhone and enjoy it on airplane trips. The iPhone has only gotten better over the last two years and I enjoy most everything about my iPhone 3GS, except that it doesn’t work with 3G on T-Mobile. I had the pleasure of talking with and getting to know Rene Ritchie from The iPhone Blog to hear more about the iPhone since he lives it every single day. I posted some questions over on a TiPB forum to see what his readers had to say about the iPhone too. I’ll give my take on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone OS below, but also make sure to check out the TiPB full iPhone 3GS review too.
Hardware: iPhone 3GS
The original Apple iPhone was an elegant device with sleek aluminum back and the first capacitive multi-touch display we were ever treated too. The iPhone 3GS is only slightly different than that first iPhone with an oleophobic display and better 3 megapixel camera. The display on the iPhone 3GS (480×320 pixel resolution) was outstanding a year ago, but with new devices showing higher resolutions that look fantastic Apple needs to update to higher resolution soon. There is a single front button, volume button, ringer switch, and power button on the iPhone 3GS, which is much different from Nokia devices where we see buttons everywhere. I love the fact that Nokia is standardizing on microUSB connectors and wish Apple would adopt this standard, but they are standardizing on a fairly typical 30-pin iPhone connector.
The iPhone 3GS has an ARM Cortex-A8 processor similar to what we see in the Nokia N900 and it is very fast. The 3 megapixel camera takes surprisingly good photos, but is not as good as the 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss cameras we see on higher end Nokia devices. 32GB of internal flash memory is good to have, but the flexibility in also having a microSD card slot is something I would like to see in the future. The iPhone models also all have integrated non-removable batteries and thus you need to have some kind of external battery source for extended periods of use while you can simply just carry extra batteries with Nokia devices.
