aBrilliantBlog

So I’ve been a big fan of FourSquare for months now.  I never minded seeing peoples updates in Twitter but it seems like MANY people do.  Anyways, I’ve nearly lost all interest in FourSquare in the last month or so for no known reason.  I’ve also been hearing more and more backlash against people posting their FourSquare updates into Twitter.

As much as I like FourSquare I think it’s popularity is taking a toll and waning on some of it’s users.  I think lots of people who consider themselfs on the bleeding edge of technology and enjoy using the newest and coolest are tiered of FourSquare.  I know I am.  FourSquare takes work and I don’t have time to put it in.  I don’t want to have to check in to places, I want it to know where I am if I’m going to continue using it.  Google Latitude for example just shows my friends where I am any time I leave it running in the background.  They don’t need to know if I’m at Toorak Coffee or Deli News, 2 eateries I frequient that are next door to each other.  It doesn’t matter exactly where I am, just that my friends can see I’m close.

Anyways, I’m kind of over the whole novelty of FourSquare and I don’t think I’m the only one.

I may be late to the game but I think Nokia is doing what Nokia does best, make phones people want and buy.  Isn’t that what it’s all about.  I know Nokia has been playing catchup for a while now and they will continue to for many years on the touch screen front, but I think they are poising themselves to kick some butt in the low end smart phone market.  I’m running across more and more people every day that are giving up their touch screen phones and going back to a phone with real buttons.  A phone they can use without having to look at it.  A phone that doesn’t get broken in their pocket anytime they bend over the wrong way.

In my opinion Nokia is going to sell millions and millions of these C5 phones.  First off it’s a nice looking phone.  Second, it’s a phone again.  Yes you can update your status on FaceBook and yes you can send/receive email, but it’s a PHONE.  This is a phone that my Dad would love.  It’s a smart phone in that it will sync contacts very easily.  It will run a few apps and check email.  But it’s also a phone at it’s core which is what my Dad wants.  He’s still old fashion in many ways and using a the phone in his pocket for much more then making and receiving calls isn’t what it’s there for.

So I think if my Dad would like this phone it will sell millions and put another Nokia handset on the (Ovi) map and put Nokia back in the hearts of much of the normob masses.

By the way, I think my Mom, wife and many of my friends would love this phone as well.

Ovi Store is what it’s called, right?  they why is it only selling apps.  Why isn’t the Ovi Store selling Nokia handsets and accessories?  Nokia clearly has the ability to sell devices online already directly to the consumer so what’s holding them back from selling phones on the Ovi Store?  If Ovi bills the service provider for purchases on the Ovi Store then by all means bill them the few hundred dollars for the new phone.  If not just take a credit card number from the buyer and be done with it. I know I know, I’m going to be told there’s a lot involved in the back end of it but it seems like an easy sale.  Someone already has a Nokia device obviously, so why wouldn’t they buy another one?  Make it as easy as possible by allowing them to do it with their beloved device. That’s it, figure the rest out yourself Nokia but come on.

I’ve had the N900 for a few weeks now and I have so many different and conflicting feelings about it.  I have been a huge fan of the tablets since I first layed eyes on the N770 many years back.

PROS:
The N900 is a stupendious device

The web browsing has been amazing
The built in Conversation app with IM and SMS is nearly exactly what I’ve been wanting to see for a while now
The camera is the best 5mp camera phone I’ve used
The handset build feels very good also
The screens is stupendous
I love that it has a kickstand
The QWERTY keyboard was easy to get used to
The full version of GMail runs on the N900
Almost daily apps are rolling out for the N900, including Witter for Twitter and BarrioSquare for FourSquare

CONS:

I’m really impressed with so many different aspects of this device

But I’m extremely disappointed with the email integration on it
I can’t find a way to create a shortcut to have the inbox on any of my 4 homescreens
Profiles (like vibrate or night) are basically gone.  You only get 2 options, Silent and General
The battery life is dismal, I mean really bad.  I’ve heard that with a software update it will be significantly better
Google Maps for mobile doesn’t work on the N900 yet, that’s because of Google, not Nokia or the developers
Some apps should just run in mobile mode on a device this size

I have one last huge gripe with the N900. There is no built in way to hard reset it.  The only way I’ve heard really works is to download a bunch of programs on to a PC and run them, then type in some command line stuff and reset it.  This is totally unacceptable.

I found the N900 to be an amazing device, BUT it seemed like you had to know how to deal with a little programming to get the darn thing to do what you want.  I don’t believe it’s for the average mobile user.  I also don’t think it’s available software is 100% baked.  Here’s another big BUT, but I do think it can and hopefully will be in the next few months.  I also believe it’s a revolutionary device for Nokia as well as Maemo and they should both be very proud of it.

Here’s the big question.  Will the N900 be ready for ME in a few months?  NO.  Though that is only because of my personal preference of device formats.  I like the E71 style.  I think an average mobile user will be ready for the N900 shortly.

I’ve been wanting to blog about some Truphone (one of my favorite services) news for days now and I’m finally getting to all the news.  Instead of writing 3 different posts I’m just going to condense it down to one short post.  Let’s get to it.

1. Truphone is in an MVNO relationship with Vodafone UK.  Meaning they buy minutes/data from Vodafone.  This gives them the ability to resell it to you when you use one of their nifty new sims.  This is great for people roaming in the UK, make sure to check it out otherwise you may get hit with one of those $700 roaming bills that we’ve all heard stories about.

2. Truphone Local Anywhere is also a great service for folks roaming around the world.  You will also use Truphones new sim and get reduced rates for your calls, sms, and data.  This is exciting to have another one of the big boys in the roaming sim game.

3. Truphone is releasing a new build for Android and this will make it the first VOIP app on the new Google Nexus One.
Update on the release for Android: It has some kind of glitch, but instead of sitting on their hands Truphone is working hard to get out an update ASAP. Personally I love when a company listen to their users and react quickly instead of pretending they don’t know about problems.

I used to do a great deal of travel for work when I was producing events almost every weekend.  Since then I don’t fly nearly as much as I used to, sometimes I miss it but now that I have a wife and 2 daughters I prefer staying home.  My airline of choice is American Airlines though I flew all different airlines which means I was accruing miles on all those random airlines.  Now, I’m a sucker for a loyalty program and I hate to lose the milage I have earned.  So what do you do if you haven’t flown on an airline for many years but don’t want to lose those precious miles.  I have been able to keep mine by doing 2 things.

Whenever I rent a car or stay in a hotel I push the points that I get to an airline who’s miles will expire soon.  For example I stayed in some random hotel while on vacation in Utah this summer (btw, one of the most beautiful places in the world) and had my miles pushed to United Airlines which I rarely fly but have a great deal of miles on.

Another trick to keep your hard earned miles is to shop online.  What am I talking about you ask???  Almost all the different major airlines have an online mall.  Meaning you can click thorough the airlines website to shop on many major and some minor web stores.  I have many times shopped at Target and Staples to keep my miles active.

Anyways, I hope this is just my first installment in my travel tips.

I’ve been using the Blackberry Curve 8520 on T-Mobile here in the USA on and off for a few weeks now.  I see how and why so many business people are such huge Blackberry fans.  My family and friends call me a power emailer so I was very excited to get my hands on the 8520.  Almost every aspect of it is nice.  From the screen to the fact that it has 3.5mm headphone jack.  I like that it comes with however small a memory card.  The track pad is pretty nice.  It charges via a MicroUSB plug.  The battery life is amazing.  There is no shortage of Twitter apps for it and the app store seems to be useful.

My favorite part about the BB is that it has UMA, meaning it connects to a wireless router and let’s you make calls over the net.  I have almost zero reception on T-Mobiles EDGE network in my office (though 3G is alright) and I was able to make and receive dozens of calls.  From my understanding you should be able to use the phone via UMA overseas on any wireless network.  Plus you can get unlimited calls on UMA if you pay T-Mobiles added fee.  It’s a great deal if you are a heavy talker in my opinion.

The 1 thing that has me down on this phone is the keyboard.  Writing so many email on my phone I want the best keyboard possible.  I understand that the Bold keyboards are the lowest end versus the the Tour for example.  That’s not ok for a phone company who’s key focus in the past has been mobile email.  Every single BB device should have the TOP of the line keyboard.  I sometimes spend 2 hours on my phone reading and responding to email and I want a top of the line keyboard from a BB who’s supposed to have the premiere email devices.

As a whole I liked the Curve but it’s just not for me JUST because of the keyboard.  If you like the keyboard then by all means, I would recommend it to anybody.

I’ve been reading Ewan MacLeod’s blogs for many years now.  I started back when MIR was SMSTextNews and was inspired by Ewan to write my own blog and endevour into the mobile industry.  I went from an observer to someone involved and participating, from hosting industry events all over the world to traveling to the biggest trade shows (MWC).

I read Ewan’s rant (now being refered to as The Cannes Doctrine) about where he’d like to see mobile services go.  I’d like to add to that and rant a little myself.  I’m sick and tired of where the mobile industry is right now.  I’m a long time Nokia fan.  Anybody that knows me knows that.  Problem is Nokia is not going anywhere fast in terms of what our phones can do for us.  They have made huge strives in what we can do with our phone but not what they will do for us.  Great, now I can take an 8mp camera phone pic, I can listen to music while I’m out and about, I can check my email and I can read Ewans rants on the go.

Well my rant is along similar lines as Ewans, I want more integration of mobiles into our regular lives.  I don’t want my phone to make calls and compose sms, but I want my phone to know when to ring and when not to.  I want it to know exactly what I’m doing and when I’m doing it.  I don’t want my phone to ever ring from 9pm to 8am in it’s regular tone unless my calendar says I’m out and about.  I want my phone to know I’m at home (utilizing GPS+wifi+calendar) and that it shouldn’t ring or ding but only beep because I’m at home and my wife and daughter may be sleeping.  I want my phone to activate it’s GPS service like Google Maps or Nokia Maps when I’m outside or moving more then 15 miles per hour.  I expect my phone to vibrate instead of ring if my  calendar says I’m in a meeting.  I want my phone to automatically log into whatever wifi I’m around and connect me to VOIP.

I want my phone to read my ToDo list and know that I need to pick up flowers for my wife for her birthday and remind me when I’m driving by the flower shop.  I’d like my phone to actually order the flowers in advance knowing I’ll be driving by the flower shop.

All along my phone should know that I don’t want to accept IM’s while I’m driving because that wouldn’t be responsible of me to read and respond while I’m behind the wheel.  I want my phone to know to check for firmware updates on a regular basis and same thing for the apps I run on my phone.

One of the biggest things I want my phone to handle for me is mobile payments.  I went grocery shopping a few months back and was Tweeting on my way out the door.  I ended up forgetting my wallet at home but not my mobile (of course).  So I was shocked when I went to check out and pay.  I had to run home and get my wallet with my credit cards in it versus just swipe my phone by the credit card reader to pay.

I want so much from my phone and I expect all of this to be here now, I’m not patient like Ewan.  I expect these apps to integrate with each other and deepely into my phone.  I’m commited to Nokia, that’s not to say I’m not tempted by an iPhone.  But I see Nokia doing so many things right that I can’t live without.  I need my emoze email, Truphone VOIP, and a few other apps that either aren’t made for the iPhone or aren’t as robust on the iPhone because of the lame ducked SDK.

One of the biggest things I want is the Nokia E71/E72 form factor on whatever platform I use.

Every aspect of what Ewan and I are ranting about is here, it’s not years away, it’s just delayed due to the integration of the hardware and interaction with the other apps.  I would like to make a suggestion to the industry.  I’d like to see standards layed out accross each platform for software and hardware develpoers to work with to give the ability of proper marriges within apps and phones.  So that my work IM app will work with the office wifi and ringer profiles to know where I am and to integrate with my calendar so it never rings while I’m in a meeting.  I propose to the industry to come together during Mobile World Congress and work with each other to make what we already have that is overly fragmented into a transparent clean user interface.

Nokia, things haven’t changed as much as you’d like us all to think in the last few years, let’s make some changes before the end of 2010.  Pick the biggest and best apps and use them as an example.  Use the homescreen Switch app to control what we see but have it tied into the GPS and accelerometer.  It should know when we’re at home, the office, the park and every other place we go and control what we see on our homescreen reading different IP addresses around it, using GPS and cell phone tower triangulation.  I don’t want my work email, IM, and VOIP on my homescreen when I’m at home on the weekends.  That’s just one example.

So telecom industry, it’s time to take some steps and do what may be uncomfortable.  Make changes and make them quickly.

Warning, I’m about to RANT:

I’m a huge fan of Google Maps.  It’s really a great stand alone app and it keeps getting better but I’m amazed that when they added Latitude they did not include (even just a basic form of) instant messaging with your Latitude friends.

Latitude shows you were your friends are on Google Maps, but how are you supposed to contact them if they are near by and you want to grab a drink?  I don’t want to have to call or SMS them, if I’m already in a Google application I should just be able to IM them from within the app.

With Google Voice now more widely available then it was before I think we should be able to SMS from within Latitude also.  It seems most of my friends have their mobile number showing when I click on their icon, so why can’t I send an SMS to it utilizing Google Voice?

That’s the end of my rant today, more to come later about more deep integration of services into our so called smart phones.

I’m a horrible blogger.  I’ve had the FreeTalk Everyman headset for months now and used it countless times, I’ve also had the Yamaha PSG-01s for a month or so now and haven’t blogged about either one.  I could make excuses but I won’t.  I will just give you a quick review from my point of view, the user/consumer.  I’m not a techie numbers guy telling you that the the SILK processors do this or that and how special some chip inside of “it” may be.  I can tell you this though.

Everyman:
The Everyman Skype headset is fantastic.  It’s a basic stereo headset with a boom mic but it’s much more then that.  I’m no audiophile but I know this, it sounds great on every single call I’ve used it for.  It’s light, small and packs easily into a travel bag.  I’ve taken it on a few trips now and it’s treated me quite well.  Honestly I’d recommend it for anyone in the market for a Skype headset, but best of all it’s only $23.  I mean seriously, you can’t go wrong with this thing.  So my review of the EveryMan is this, don’t hesitate to go out and buy it, you won’t be sorry.

Yamaha PSG-01s:
Now the Yamaha PSG-01s is a real piece of high end kit.  This thing blows other speaker phones away, at close range.  The output on it is great, it sounds just like it should, no break up or static.  The input on the other hand is great, but only up to about 6 feet. When the person speaking is under 6 feet from the Yamaha you will undoubtedly pleased.  It’s as if you are on a wired handset.  On the other hand when the person speaking is more then 6 feet away it is still good but sounds like you are on a speaker phone, which you are.  It sounds a bit hollow and as if you are in a tunnel.  The call can continue without any issue but the quality isn’t perfect.
It’s a great speaker phone for small rooms or at least small tables with people not sitting far from it but it’s not going to be great for a large table of people.

As a whole I like both devices very much.  The EveryMan is something I will highly recommend and suggest people pick up.  The Yamaha is something people should consider carefully, it’s a bit on the pricier side but I still think it’s a great piece of kit.

PS: My good friend Jim Courtney writes here about the Yamaha and more importantly the special deal that runs until the end of 2009.  Normally priced at US$219/£199/€199 – including delivery and VAT/Sales taxes, until December 31, 2009 pricing has been reduced to US$199.90/£179.90/€179.90 – including delivery and VAT/sales taxes.

Disclosure: I have been loaned both of these devices.  All my opinions are my own and not influenced by the companies loaning me the gadgets.  Let’s be honest, if you give me something to review I won’t tear it apart, if I don’t like it I just won’t write about it.