nokia

My Nokia E65 is at the end of its 18 month contract, so I unlocked my mobile from HTG Three for 15GBP.

Since unlocking I thought I should boot Win32 in VMware and give firmware upgrading the E65 another try…

I found this firmware update page a good start. I downloaded the Nokia updater and then found that I was up-to-date on the 1.x firmware. Ummm, no there is 3.x firmware available. What I needed to do now was change the product code to 0536850 from the Three specific product code 0545395.

This free Nemesis tool download allowed me to overwrite the product code. Though it was a dodgy process. The cable seems a little flaky and the phone kept on asking about a “PC Suite connection”.

However this time I was prompted to install the 3.x firmware! Oh yes. First I backed up my contacts with Zyb and then away I went. I almost had a nervous breakdown when the phone lost connection and on a restart the flash looked bricked. It was extremely ‘touch and go’ and then again by some miracle a PC Suite dialog re-appeared and the update completed. Hallelujah.

So the phone is now a clean slate. I synchronized with Zyb again (by logging in and getting them to send me an SMS with my settings) to get all my contacts back. I lost some poor quality pictures, oh well. I fiddled around getting the soft keys setup how I like them (New msg. & Web) and installed Google maps. Now I’m all set.

Only took a couple of hours of trauma. Not convinced yet if the phone software is really any better. The S60 browser looks the same. Nokia drops in some very sad “nokiaforbusiness” dotMobi site. No clue.

So now I plan to go PAYGPAYT with Vodafone until T-mobile fumbles out the release of the Gphone. Since I can’t write native applications in Android I might not rush to buy it. Hixie survives with just his Ipod touch. I should be able to do the same with mine and the E65, though 3G data is still unaffordable unless on some monthly subscription plan in the UK. Sigh… Update: Just discovered my Nokia E65 is not a HSPDA device… doh…

I wish I could buy mobile devices outright at a reasonable price and get 3G data on pre-paid at a reasonable price too. I’m really tired of long ‘strings attached’ contracts & software environments… want to be free to innovate.

Let’s be honest. The lowest common denominator mobile text platform between my friends and I is still SMS. And it’s likely to stay that way considering SMS is how operators love to make money and the expense of smartphone devices.

I’m been wishing for this awhile and Google have finally done it.

• Static Maps API
• Non-JS local search

So I saved the URL http://nonjslocalsearch.appspot.com on my mobile device too, so when I bookmark places on my desktop I can easily refer to them on my mobile. Web applications without JavaScript are great for mobiles!

I’m disappointed to hear Nokia aiming to re-invent itself as an Internet company.

Yes, Nokia re-invented itself before from rubber boots. And yes shifting boxes like what Dell does is kinda boring (and not very profitable). However I still think the mobile hardware industry has a long way to go before reaching the sort of unsexy stage the commodity PC market is in.

Right now I think Nokia should restructure. Nokia has something like 100000 (~65000 in Finland last I heard) employees and its the kind of company that would not miss a tenth of those employees. Nokia needs to concentrate on paying talent more money for a start.

Innovate in the mobile hardware space Nokia. I think there is much more to be done here and I really think they could take on the Iphone with their excellent maemo developer platform (urm, with a GSM chip would be nice).

I don’t think they should necessarily do software or a browser, let alone get into the Web “Internet company” game. Any Nokia Web service I’ve seen has been god awful. They have a legacy of crap Web applications that I don’t see how Nokia can get a fresh start on the Web.

Nokia.mobi is supposed to be one of the most popular mobile Web sites, receiving billions of hits. Have you ever visited this Nokia.mobi site? It's absolutely embarrassing. I assume the reason why anyone visits it, is that it's the default homepage on the devices they sell.

Recently we’ve seen Nokia getting into the ad business and into retail and spreading itself even more. Cut the fat and focus on hardware and commit to an open software platform like maemo please Nokia.

Javascript is popular, but are widgets? We're well into 2008 now and 2007 was the year of the widget.

I’ve been looking into widgets as they are defined by Opera and contributed to the W3C.

I believe widgets originally came from Apple dashboard. I personally don’t like it, though then again I don’t like MacOSX. Debian & dwm are much better.

So I tried some random widgets in Opera 9.27 yesterday and a couple of elements of the widgets struck me. The manage widgets didn’t divulge any security information and it’s kinda basic:

The next thing I worried about was since widgets are often touted in the sense of mobiles and scalability with SVG… doesn’t the fixed dimension properties of widgets kill that argument? I looked at the sources of a couple of widgets and the config.xml generally defines a widget’s width & height and generally the SVG graphics that go with it do too. I can’t figure out how to change widget size (scale!) on my desktop machine’s desktop. A difference between Widget&Web applcations is the viewport and I much prefer Web applications in a fullscreen tabbed environment. Floating windows is soo… Windows.

Anyway, the widget experience on mobile devices is probably better.
Opera mini by observation is Opera’s most popular mobile product. However since it’s Java MIDP based, it can’t run widgets on the mobile’s “desktop”. Doh. In fact anything Java I’ve discounted for this reason.

What about Opera Mobile then? Shurrely that has widget support? No it doesn’t on Windows Mobile 6 or the S60 in my test. Oh no, this isn’t looking good.

Ok, there must be another widget implementation! The Nokia Web runtime for example. “Unleashing the power of the Web with Widgets” the headline on Nokia’s page reassuringly says. Then it links the dead WebKit S60 port. Ummm… ok. I never tried widgets in this browser. Lets give application/x-gadget or even application/x-opera-widgets a try. Unsurprisingly widget support by Nokia does not work on my Three E65 device. I did find a porting guide, but I can’t find the Web runtime. WTF is it?

Update: You need an N95 8G with Nokia Feature Pack 2 to unleash widgets on Nokia. Unfortunately my collegue’s brand new N95 from Germany does not have FP2 installed. Goddam, upgrading Nokias requires Windows, time and an ability to endure pain. I suspect it’s even harder to upgrade if you have an N95 with Vodafone Live! branding, like it is with my Three E65 device.

So are the state of widgets really this bad? Or have I missed something? If we cut the hype, we should just call them (Offline) Web applications, in the near future.

As many of you know, I have a Nokia E65 from Three mobile.

Lately I’ve been enjoying the device and its unlimited Internet access by dialling through it from my Thinkpad X61. I’ve only just started using this cool feature, as Three were giving me scary mixed messages… I went into a store and they told me I would get charged extra for using Internet from my laptop. I think there might have been confusion WRT the Three USB dongle which I think most people are supposed to get “mobile laptop” Internet access via Three…

I want my mobile unlocked as I want to be able to use my mobile abroad with PAYG SIM cards from local Telcos. Example: I visit Israel. It’s insanely expensive to call local friend’s mobiles. It’s much cheaper to buy a PAYG SIM card in Israel and use that instead.

Why is it locked, especially since I’m on a contract? AFIAK Vodafone contract mobile phones are unlocked. You basically pay for the Three X-series phone in the very long 18month contract, which you can’t end without paying the whole contract off!

I called up Three and they told me they could unlock the phone for 20GBP. However in that case it will stop working with the Three network. WTF? I was asked a couple of mobile phone shops and they think like me, that’s bullshit. They also need one month’s notice for doing so. So basically if I want to follow Three’s unlock policy with my phone, I need to call a month before my contract expires. Unlock it. Then switch to a mobile operator which allows unlocked 3G mobiles like Vodafone. Isn’t that insane?

Another INSANE and incredibly annoying thing 3 UK has done is made the E65 impossible to upgrade. Nokia E65 sold by Three in the X-series program do not get firmware updates. I am not sure if you can change the Three specific product code to be a more generic Nokia E65 as others have ended up with a bricked phone.

I like the Nokia E65, but if Three has locked it and disallowed updates then it’s a unfair waste of money to me. It’s my phone and I want to exercise rights over it.

1. Not liking the slider. Wish it was a clamshell model…
2. Not liking the top buttons. The thin ones are the most useful. I wish Nokia came up with some nice responsive tactile input device like Ipod and Blackberry has done…
3. Not liking the new (why!) small charger size
4. 3 has hooked in their services with the horrible (terrible fonts) legacy (XHTML&WAP) Services browser
5. Installed Google Mail, Google Maps, Opera Mini (high mem version) and Fring
6. Fring allows me use Google chat. Oh yes. Though no chat history.
7. Skype and MSN came with the device, but I don’t use either. Fring gives me the Skype.
8. I have figured out how to adjust the phone’s top menu and shortcuts. Settings->Phone->Standby mode
9. The in built camera is a joke. In a natural holding position your finger can easily obscure the lens
10. Not liking how the screen blanks quite quickly.
11. Andrei showed me two wonderful things; The hidden away, fast, Webkit based “Web” browser that he worked on at Nokia. Wow.
12. And, that holding down the Menu key shows a Task manager. Yay!
13. Gmail application works well. Though like Fring you need to tell it twice to connect to 3 as it’s “unsigned”.
14. Opera mini is great, though “Web” is much faster.
15. 3 has hooked the top right key to go to their services page where a wrong click could cost me dear…
16. Calendar seems absolutely useless
17. Data cable and PC suite almost crashed my machine!
18. Received two text messages from 3 at 9am Sunday morning about configuring the mail application. Er, NO THANKS.
19. ‘Skype In’ works.
20. I have a bag full of packaging. I scanned through the docs, but found nothing useful.
21. I am on a 32.99GBP 900 min&150 texts (Talk & Text 900) with the “X-Series Silver” addon (flat rate Internet) E65 Three deal for 18months. Oh gosh…
22. I can see from the receipt the E65 is valued at 279GBP. 33GBP*18months=594 594–279=315GBP service charges. Yowsers!
23. Bribed with a Jabra 150 bluetooth headset. You won’t see me in public with one of these!
24. I couldn’t get voice dialling to work. No idea how this is supposed to work.
25. I wish the editor was a little more responsive. Predictive text is ok, but still, it seems like input has not really improved for many years now. In fact a little worse with its sluggish-ness.
26. Andrei says he can connect his mobile to his macbook and use the Internet. I wanted to use the Internet through this device, though the salesmen as the 3 store were trying to sell me some USB data cable which I was never going to buy. I wonder if I can get this working with my Debian TP X40 (I think a kernel compile is required…). Update: my particular TP X40 doesn’t have bluetooth. DOH!
27. Complaints aside, I think this is a next generation device. I can check my email, chat and Skype away from my desk. Amazing!
28. The image viewer is really slow.
29. Oh course flash apps don’t seem to work
30. It uses realplayer for video. God no…
31. I was advised not to buy 3 insurance for the phone, though instead to get “First Additions” from Baclays at 6.50GBP a month.
32. “First Additions” gives you insurance for your cards, three other gadgets and some extras. Though after going through a really long process of opening this account feature and registering the IMEI, insurance cover only starts in 3 weeks time. WTF! I hate insurance. I’ve also found out since I don’t have a “Proof of purchase” for my thinkpad or Canon IXUS (no idea where they are), I can’t get them insured with ‘Lifestyle’.
33. I get really daft messages from three.
34. I don’t like how the phone notifies me when plugged into the charger that it’s charging and that the battery is full. It’s disruptive!
35. Three’s support seems useless. After painstakingly finding the right form to send them feedback, they get back to me by calling me. An Indian voice saying that they can address my several point feedback over the phone, whilst I was out and about in the West End. I said to the person, email me the answers and then she said it can take upto 10 days for a response. WTF? I said I’ll wait 10 days then for her email.
36. As for “unlimited Internet on a mobile” type plans. I heard there is some competition from T-mobile UK with their Web ‘n Walk plans. Why do these phone companies have to make such ridiculous names for their Internet plans? Their Nokia N95 offering has got me envious.
37. You need to charge this thing every night.
38. Yesterday (10 days later exactly) I received an email respone from 3, briefly:
39. The is a 1G monthly usage allowance. Though a 3 insider says they actually don’t have the equipment to accurately track that.
40. “You can’t disable services browser”, 3 says. I think I have actually.
41. I wrote to them asking to stop promotional messages as I couldn’t find wtf you could it one their website and they write: “I’ve amended your marketing permissions and you should stop receiving any promotional messages from us after 14 days.”
42. I asked if there was an E65 user group, and they responded, yes, we do have E65 users on the 3 network. No shit!
43. They really seem to want me to call them, instead of email. Crikey…

I hate this phone.

The middle button feels (and looks) like a joystick. It isn’t! It is just a wobbly button. In fact most of the buttons feel wobbly.

Also can you notice how their SMS functionality has chaged? Usually you can just quickly start writing a message. Now you have to first specify who you want to send it to. That initial SMS interface from Nokia’s, say from the Nokia 3210 era is what set it apart from the competition. Now Nokia has fucked it up.

It is terribly unresponsive. It takes like a second to do anything between input presses. WTF!

This phone can’t be unlocked. I would not have bought this for 50EUR is I knew I couldn’t unlock the fucker from T-Mobile.

Btw I hate T-mobile. Their GPRS service in Germany costs a fortune. So if you click menu, then t-online, then you have automatically downloaded about 10k of useless data and cost yourself at least 1EUR. I’ve done this accidentally twice by simple pressing that big black button twice in succession whilst the phone is unlocked.

Yongsan is famed in South Korea for its electronics shops. The first thing that strikes you as that there are no prices on any of the items. This really puts me off. I love comparing prices and just getting a price from a salesman is a chore. It goes like this:

• Initial smiles and formalities in actually pointing out the item you’re interested in
• Getting the price usually means him tapping on a calculator for about 10 seconds
• Then you work out the price in your head. Here I worked in USD because dividing WON by 1000 is pretty easy
• Then you are naturally shocked by the initial bad price
• Then he taps some more on the calculator and gives a better price
• You struggle to memorise the price and the model number of the item you just looked at, and try to leave to find another price from another stall to compare with
• Salesman jumps around and gives you an even better price or wants to show you another product

So it was a real chore. Together my sister and I wanted a:
* MP3 player
* Electronic Dictionary
* Wireless router as my network port on my laptop is a bit flaky
* Hard drive upgrade
* Mobile phone

In Korea there are millions of different types of MP3 players. Without getting into too much detail we bought a 512mb Qoolqee digital audio player (E-D023–05-4165(B)) for 100USD. I didn’t think it was such a great price. I was quite worried it wouldn’t work on my Debian system, but in the end it did. Though there is a license.drm file in the root fs on the device which sent shivers up my spine.

The electronic dictionary devices are surprisingly expensive. We settled on a Casio. I won’t publish the price and it was a birthday gift for a friend.

Wireless routers don’t seem to be very popular here. I tracked down a Linksys WRT54G for 65USD. It works well and I am happy with it. The packaging asks you to run the CD before, but since it was obviously for Windows I didn’t bother. I set it up painlessly with default ‘admin, admin’. I still prefer a wired connection mind.

I could only find like one place that was selling momentus hard drives in bulk. There was awful miscommunication and haggling. At first I painstakingly agreed on 160USD for 100GB and external USB enclosure. Then he goes and fetches me a Fujitsu drive. FS. Then he tries to sell me a 4200 Seagate. Eventually I got what I wanted. 5200 100GB momentus, but the price was 180USD for it (170USD without the case). Argh. It’s about 150USD in the states.

I didn’t bother with the mobile phones in the end because there are just too many different models. And getting a price on each one and comparing was seriously too difficult. The Korean mobile system seems a little odd. It’s not compatible with the Japanese system or GSM. There aren’t sim cards, so after buying a phone, getting a contract seemed like another incredible mission. There isn’t any Nokia phones. Many Samsung built phones sold under different brand names. I didn’t bother to scrutinize the Web UA software. Last night I bumped into a couple of Finns who actually work for Nokia. I asked them what the hell are they doing here as they have like 0% market share in Korea. They said they are making partnerships with Samsung et al and selling the Symbian series 60 OS. OMG. He tells me that the series 60 platform is already deployed in places like Italy on Samsung phones. Oh dear.

Anyway back to Yongsan. I was looking for Thinkpads, but they only had new machines. I was hoping to find some good 2nd hand stock. No one seemed to have the new T60 or X60 models sadly. There was no Apple stuff to be found. Ok, I admit I did see a shuffle on sale, but that was it. I was hoping to drool over a MacPro.

I really do not want to go back there! I was so exhausted and traumatized after haggling all day. The prices are not better than the states. I much prefer shopping on the Internet.

Last month I made a few posts at the W3C defending the The Magical Mobile Web Browser.

I asked in the end for some sort of W3C sanctioned certification scheme for Web browsers. W3C has the corporate contacts, I just wish they would use them. I don’t think so with XML loving expert from Vodafone leading an ill concieved work group.

Opera’s mobile browser seems the best hope of getting things ship shape with mobiles. Though, funny enough my ex-flatmate Andrei Popescu is working on porting KHTML to Symbian.

In other news I’ve been asked to make a pitch on creating a payment system that will work on a mobile. In order to make a payment, Credit Card payment gateways require:
* Full name or Account name
* Card number (49xx xxxx xxxx xxxx) Isn’t there some checksum for Visa/Mastercards?
* Expiry date mm/yy (could be checked)
* Check code on the reverse of the card. 3 to 4 digits.

I could write this to work on most mobiles, though there must be some existing implementations. Aren’t there?

Though I wonder how many mobiles support HTTPS/SSL?

If you have a mobile, please try out the HTTPS and DIGEST test (user:d, pass:p) on dabase.com