tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24035134300198597762024-02-19T23:59:27.406-08:00Nokia N8 ViewThis blog will track my experiences with my Nokia N8. It will discuss what I like and what I do not like and make comparisons to other smart phones as the opportunity arises.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-2406898849948155722011-04-22T09:35:00.000-07:002011-04-22T09:35:36.320-07:00Nokia's Microsoft StrategyI was disheartened by Nokia's announcement it was abandoning Symbian in favor of Microsoft's Windows Phone. I think that my N8 is a great phone and that Symbian 3.0 is a strong operating system. Too bad Nokia did not introduce it three years ago. That would have really changed things.<br />
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Nokia is betting the store on Microsoft. Maybe things are desparate enough to make such a bet. I think the company would have been better off to use Windows Phone as a hedge and continue to develop Symbian until Windows Phone proved to be the better operating system in the market place.<br />
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Going all in on Windows Phone puts Nokia in the position of being a commodity hardware vendor. It will be competing with low cost producers in Korea and China. It will be tough for Nokia to prevail.<br />
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I wish them luck.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-90106499534494280762011-01-26T09:29:00.000-08:002011-01-26T09:29:29.988-08:00Flexible Home Screen OrganizationI have figured out how to customize the Home Screen to fit my needs. The N8 provides a lot of flexibility. The Home Screen consists of 6 separate bars and can support up to three different Home Screens. You can move from one Home Screen to another by swiping across the screen or by touching the dots at the bottom center of the screen. Each of these bars can be loaded with a Widget, which is a special class of application. One of the Widgets is the Shortcuts Widget that contain the icons for four different applications.<br />
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After some experimentation I set up two Home Screens. All Home Screen have a standard bar at the top that cannot be changed that includes the carrier information including name, data service, and signal bars on the left and a battery indicator and network connectivity indicators on the right. The Pimary Home Screen includes the time, date, and the selected profile in the first bar. This bar cannot be changed on the Primary Home Screen.<br />
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I then have two shortcut bars, which is how the phone is delivered. I have the Phone Log, Contacts, Navigation, Web Browsing applications in the first bar and Sports Tracker, AccuWeather, Photos, and Messages applications in the second bar. These two bars are then followed by the Calendar widget, which shows the next Calendar entry, the Email widget which shows the emails in the inbox for my primary email account, and the Notification widget, which shows missed events, calls, or messages.<br />
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My second Home Screen has two Shortcut widgets at the top. The first includes the Dictionary, FM radio, FM transmitter, and the Panorama applications. The second includes the Calculator, the Notes, the Phone Setup, and the Settings applications. These are followed by four widgets. The Music Player which shows what is currently (or last) playing, The Bloomberg widget which shows article titles or index performance, RTL info which profides French language news of Belgium, and a search Widget for Google and phone searches.<br />
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I really like this approach. I will change this organization replacing applications and widgets over time. I will probably add the third screen. This ability to create and modify Home Screens brings the functions of the phone up to the top level and minimizes the requirement to go down into multilevel folder hierarchies to find applications.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-5316995315648646002011-01-15T15:38:00.000-08:002011-01-15T15:38:29.152-08:00Music Player Organization IssuesThe N8 Music Player provides two ways to view music. One is to mix Artists and Albums into one presentation. I find it difficult to find music this way. I have about 200 albums on the phone. I end up rolling up and down in this display to find the album I want.<br />
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This is not great, but it is workable. What I do not like is the way it handles genres. The genres are listed, but when you select a genre, all of the songs are listed in alphabetical order. What other music players do is give you a list of the albums of that genre. I find a list of albums much more useful than the list of songs.<br />
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I think that Nokia really got this wrong.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-74360891040031549662011-01-15T10:44:00.000-08:002011-01-15T10:44:17.281-08:00No Headseet Sound from NavigatiionOne of the more irritating shortcomings that I have found on the N8 is that the Navigation application will not route its audio to my Blue Tooth headset when it is activated. The audio comes out of the phone's speaker. I like the audio to come through the headset because it is easier to hear the commands and because the audio will not bother the other occupants of the car.<br />
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I have not tested the navigation extensively, however, I have used it to get home from my errands around San Francisco. Generally, the routes that it chooses do not match the route that I would take. In some cases, its routes seem rather bizarre. I follow my route and have found that the N8 recalculates routes quickly.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-45041279786269509192011-01-15T10:37:00.000-08:002011-01-15T10:37:06.298-08:00email IssuesThe process of setting up was straightforward for my larribeau.com email account. However, I could not set up my AT&T DSL email address using the wizard. It could not handle having the mail servers with a different domain name than my email address. What I did was set up an email account for <a href="mailto:root@larribeau.com">root@larribeau.com</a> and then manually change the settings to those for the AT&T account. That worked fine.<br />
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One feature on my N95 that is missing on the N8 is the ability to delete a message from the server when I delete it from the phone. This is useful for getting rid of junk mail when I am away from my computer for an extended period.<br />
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The mail software does not let me set up folders to stash emails. This would help me keep my good emails separate from the junk email.<br />
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Other than that, the email application is very good and will be a useful way to receive email when I am away from my computer.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-19402530754535882242011-01-15T10:29:00.000-08:002011-01-15T10:29:06.607-08:00Text Message Stuck in the OutboxText Messaging on the N8 is very nice. It presents the messages as threads, which is a nice feature.<br />
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However, I have a message stuck in the Outbox and labelled as "Deferred". Apparently I have to delete the thread to get rid of it.<br />
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My N95 did not have this problem. It is too bad that applications seemed to have developed serious regressions when they were moved to the N8.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-28045264668880925942011-01-15T10:15:00.000-08:002011-01-15T10:15:03.541-08:00What am I doing?I am still trying to figure out what to do with this blog. I think the hardware and the operating system of the N8 are strong, but the applications have surprising deficiencies. I think I will document these as well as pointing out the strengths of the product. I hope that this will not make this blog too negative. The N8 is a strong product, but I am not sure that it is as strong as the iPhone or the Android phones.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-17538898995924414952010-12-30T16:50:00.000-08:002010-12-30T16:50:22.276-08:00Initial Experiences with NavigationI have downloaded the U.S. maps along with the maps for France and Canada. I searched for the addresses for some cousins in France and found that the street names had to be exactly right to get a hit.<br />
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I have also used the navigation driving around San Francisco a bit. It worked fine, but some of the routes were not what I consider to be optimal. It recalculates quickly and figured out my route. It looks to be quite useful, but you probably should have a car power adapter for a long trip.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-41146612487958492032010-12-30T16:39:00.000-08:002010-12-30T16:39:31.281-08:00Ovi Synch BugI also ran into a problem with Synchronization using Ovi. I would click on Synch using Ovi on the PC and nothing would happen. The Nokia N8 blog had the solution. You cannot select Automatic Synch in the Settings menu. Once I turned off Automatic Synch and did a Contacts and a Messaging Synch before I did a Synch All, the Synchronization worked. I will let you know if this fix is not permanent.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-67898478117484138462010-12-30T16:35:00.000-08:002010-12-30T16:39:51.017-08:00One Touch Dial BugI have run across a problem with One Touch Dialing that seems to be a bug to me. I assigned Contact entries to One Touch numbers, however I got a message saying that they were invalid when I pressed the button. I had numbers set up as +1 (aaa) bbb-cccc. I read on the Nokia N8 blog that the phone cannot handle anything but numbers for a One Touch number. I could dial these numbers just fine from the Contact application but not as a One Touch number.<br />
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What I finally had to do is to reenter the numbers under a One Touch key without spaces or punctuation. One Touch dialing worked after that.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-48990061928817112342010-12-30T16:29:00.000-08:002010-12-30T16:40:05.409-08:00Initial Software InstallationA lot of software had to be installed or reinstalled. The basic phone software was up to date, But I had to install a new version of the Mapping software, the Ovi application, and the Top Applications software. I then installed all of the maps for the U.S. (including the U.S. Virgin Islands).<br />
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I had some problems with all of this due to my unfamiliarity with the N8. the Ovi software does not seem to be entirely stable. It will hang my computer up when it is interrupted. If you wait patiently enough, the computer comes back and you can proceed.<br />
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Ovi has been around for a while and supports a broad set of Nokia phones. I expected that its operation would be hassle free by this time. This was not the case.<br />
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I was able to sort these problems out and get the phone set up.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-50364539091923053372010-12-30T16:22:00.000-08:002010-12-30T16:29:58.159-08:00First TakeI opened up my N8 on Christmas Eve. I was impressed by its relatively small size and by its heft. It really feels like a solid product.<br />
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It took me a while to figure out where to put the memory card and the SIM card. The figures on the instruction sheet were small and I could not distinguish them well. After a few minutes I had it put together and making my first call. <br />
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The package included the phone, a power supply, a USB cord, an HDMI converter, and a USB converter. There is also a nice looking pair of ear buds. I already have a good set of Klipsch ear buds and will not use the Nokia buds, at least for a while.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-83982982560889072242010-12-16T15:58:00.000-08:002010-12-16T15:58:07.239-08:00Buying my N8When I decided to buy the N8 I went to the <a href="http://store.nokia.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/productdetail_10500_10101_-1_10000675">Nokia website</a> and looked for what price I could get trading in my N95. I couldn't find the trade in link so I started chatting with a Nokia rep. He gave me the link and gave me a promotion code that gave me and additional $100 off. I was able to get $150 off the retail price. (When I went back to the site today, two days later, I found that Nokia had a deal on the N8 dropping its price by $100. The promotion that the rep gave me met this price, so I did not have to go back and haggle for the deal price.)<br />
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I chose the standard shipping, and I received the phone two days later. Not bad ...Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-3480456215682181392010-12-16T15:28:00.000-08:002010-12-16T15:48:32.957-08:00My Nokia N95A big reason that I bought the N8 is my experience with my N95. In the Spring of 2007, Nokia invited me to an analyst conference at their headquarters in White Plains, NY. At the end of the conference, they gave each of us analysts a Nokia N95 to take home. As I found out later, it was a European model and would not work the U.S. 3G networks.<br />
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I really liked the N95, especially its camera. I took a lot of good photos and videos with it. Its navigation was immature at that time but is not a very good service. I liked having the music player as well.<br />
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My N95 started having problems two years ago, so I retired at the end of 2009. The biggest problem was that the volume rocker failed, so I was not able to raise the volume while listening to MP3s. This made the music player nearly unusable.<br />
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I took the N95 out of retirement a couple of months ago and fell in love with it all over again, faults and all. The latest software that I downloaded was a big improvement, especially in its navigation application. The Ovi store looked good, but does not compare to the Apple iStore. Hearing that the N8 camera is even better than the N95's and that full navigation is included in the phone, I was sold. Especially, when I saw that I could easily load the navigation maps for about 100 countries into the phone and use less than 10 GB of its 48 GBs.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2403513430019859776.post-18866514790176401692010-12-16T15:27:00.000-08:002010-12-16T15:48:55.477-08:00HelloMy new Nokia N8 just arrived today. I will put it under the Christmas tree and open it then. By then, the 32 GB MicroSD memory will have arrived. I bought it because it is said to have an excellent camera and it has built in navigation. I expect that it also has a very good music player. I will let you know how it works out.<br />
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I paid full price for the N8. AT&T is my carrier and it does not offer the N8, so I bought the N8 directly from Nokia USA. I like Nokia products and I wanted to stay out of the Apple and Google orbits. I know that there are a lot of applications on the Apple and Google phones that are not offered for Nokia phones. It will be interesting to see if I still feel that the N8 was a good choice in a few months.Bob Larribeauhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09007028096493888683noreply@blogger.com0