Category: mobile

mobile, Telecoms

Sony Ericsson k800i?

In response to my last post about which replacement phone to get for my dead Nokia N70, several people have suggested that I get a Sony Ericcson k800i.

Despite my bad experiences with the N70 (and worse with my wife’s N91) I am slow to move away from Nokia. Why? Well, almost all my phones back to 1995 have been Nokia’s. I’m used to Nokia’s and for the most part they have suited me well.

The two non-Nokia phones I have had were the Siemens S55 and the Sony Ericsson z600. I hated them both. The S55 had a lousy screen. The Z600 had no memory (I had to constantly delete texts to make room for more). And they both had terrible user interfaces.

I went running back to Nokia and bought a 6230, before buying myself the N70 last year. The 6230 was rock solid, if a little limited in functionality, the N70 had the functionality but was flaky!

I guess, to a certain extent too, I fear change!

Looking at the spec for the K800i though, it does seem to be an impressive phone. The only thing it is missing, that I can see, is wifi.  I’m not sure how useful wifi on mobiles is yet. Is it any good?

At €325 from Expansys, it is well within budget.

What do you think, have Sony Ericsson phones improved enough that I should consider abandoning Nokia once more? Are the Sony Ericsson phones more reliable than the Nokia ones?

mobile

What mobile phone to get?

I brought my sick N70 to the Nokia centre this morning and they said it is officially dead. They are sending it away to see if it can be repaired, I’m not holding my breath. That process will take a couple of weeks at the least in any case.

In the meantime I have use of a 2310 which belonged to my mother but that isn’t usable long term. No Internet access, no camera and no bluetooth rule it out!

I’d want to be able to synch the phone to back up the data.

I am kind of overwhelmed by the array of phones available these days – what phone would you recommend?

Does anyone know anything about the Nokia E65 or N80? Are they any good and where are they available?

UPDATE – I see Nokia have announced the release of their N95  – however at €940 from Expansys, I think I’ll have to hold off on considering it!

mobile, Telecoms

Nokia N91 crashing

I bought my wife a Nokia N91 for her birthday last year and initially she loved it. It has got a 4gb hard disk which makes it idea for rich media.

She even used it to listen to a couple of podcasts (no, none of mine, she’s not that sad!).

However, it has now become a major source of annoyance for her as it freezes up completely at least once a day. The only way to get it going again seems to be to take off the back, remove the battery and re-seat it again!

Has anyone else had this kind of problem with an N91 and if so, how did you resolve it?

iPod, mobile, Podcast, Web 2.0

Zune to illegally add DRM to podcasts?

Microsoft is to launch the Zune on November 14th according to its PR site.

This date is just in time for the American holiday of Thanksgiving. What is not clear from the site is if this is an American launch date of a global launch date.

I wrote, in not too glowing terms previously about the Zune. One criticism I missed at that time is that if someone shares one of my podcasts over wifi on the Zune, the Zune adds on its own DRM to my podcast, in direct contravention to my podcast’s Creative Commons Licence causing the podcast to self-destruct in three days or after three plays.

Can someone in Microsoft explain the legality of that to me please? ‘Cos to me, that’s just plain illegal.

Mac, mobile, Windows

The irony of it

James has a post extolling the virtues of the new Nokia N95 – me, I’m sick and tired of Nokia’s lack of support for non-Windows platforms.

Any Nokia you buy only has Windows apps for synchronisation and any firmware updates need to be done over a serial cable (ruling out Macs).

The hilarious thing about Nokia’s slavish devotion to the Windows platform is that Microsoft themselves has banned their employees from buying Nokia phones. Microsoft encourage their employees to buy smart phones using Windows mobile edition and Nokia uses the Symbian OS.