Ok, I have the absolute greatest wife ever, she got me a white Nokia E72 as a fathers day gift.  I am the luckiest guy ever.  Well here’s my review, I love it for the most part.

The Nokia E72 has a great number of benefits like the

• 3.5mm headphone jack
• The flashlight
• The newer version of Symbian
• A VERY quite keyboard when typing on it
• Many many other benefits.

But it also has some drawbacks

• I don’t like the fact that it doesn’t auto capitalize the letter “I” when typing messages.  It is my biggest annoyance with the device
• It doesn’t have enough RAM
• The build quality isn’t as good as the E71
• The battery life isn’t as long as I would like
• The center of the D pad should be white on the white version of the handset that I have
• My biggest problem with the E72 is that mine is defective.  I wasn’t sure I was going to mention this but I figure I should.  The left soft key on my handset has to be depressed extra hard to make it work properly.

I am madly in love with the idea of this device but I’m not sure it’s a big enough step up from my previous phone the Nokia E71.  If you don’t have an E71 then I think this is a perfect phone but if you have then you may be disappointed.

That being said, I’ll probably get another one anyways.  I do love my Nokias!!!  And I’m proud of it @Ew4n.

Our good friends at WOMWorld/Nokia (part of 1000 Heads) recently completed a campaign to promote their new Nokia CarKit CK-200. It entailed 5 very high power sports cars driving all around England doing all kinds of tasks.  Then 5 bicyclists’ finding their way to a park and meeting up with the cars and drivers.  This all culminated with a very enjoyable party from what I saw.

This was one of the most entertaining advertising campaigns for me the viewer and I’m positive the drivers.  I felt like I was fully involved and really created a great deal of interest for me.  I’m now watching a bunch of WOMWorld videos and loving all of them.  I’m supposed to be in one of them (James).

Back to the video I’m here writing about.  I was so impressed I wanted to share it with you and give WOMWorld/Nokia big props for one of the best thought out and executed campaigns I’ve ever seen.  I hope they bring their expertise here and hire me to help them put on a great event or campaign in the US.  My side of the Atlantic needs some action, how about a Cannonball Run Style race from NY to LA???  I’ll be Bert Reynolds.

Anyways, enjoy the video they put together when it was all over.

I don’t know why but I’m in a “Tell it as it should be” mood, so I’m going to voice my opinion once again.  And as usual it’s directed at Nokia, don’t take it personally Nokia, I really like you and want you to succeed and blow away the competition.  Now that that’s out of the way here it is.

The Nokia Ovi Store doesn’t always have the most current version of apps so when I download them I’m starting off not being up to date.  For example I downloaded Fring from the Ovi Store after a firmware update of my E71 and started to run the app.  I realized the app wasn’t up to date so I went to m.fring.com and got the newest version.  I also downloaded emoze from the Ovi Store and as soon as I got it set up it automatically checks for new versions and low and behold there was a new one.

Now I’m a bit of what you would call an extremist when it comes to cell phones but I do expect the part of the company that directly interfaces with the consumer on a day in day out basis (the Ovi App Store) should have the absolute newest builds within 24 hours after they are published on the companies own site.  It should be part of the agreement of putting your app in the app store that it is updated as the software is updated and in a timely fashion.  Otherwise just make the app store a link farm and send me to m.fring.com and m.emoze.com to download the app knowing it will be the freshest from the developers.

To be clear, I’m not laying the blame on the companies but on the Ovi Store itself.  This needs to be part of the deal to be allowed to have your app in the Ovi Store.  But the companies producing these apps could do a better job as well.

Ok, I’m done giving my constructive criticism for today.  Hope everyone has a nice weekend.

So I’ve been a big user of the Ovi Store lately.  It has come a long way in the last few months and I’m very keen on it.  But while I was in Barcelona a few months back I had a meetings about the Ovi Store and voiced my frustration that I couldn’t purchase handsets from it.  I said how silly it was and I thought they were missing out on an untapped market.  Some people don’t have computers and some (like me) don’t have shops to visit to purchase Nokia handsets.  Then it happened…

Last week I was on top of the world.  I had a great day and I was thinking it was time to get a brand new white Nokia E72.  So I actually (knowing it wouldn’t be there) opened the Ovi Store app on my E71 and searched for the E72.  Of course it didn’t appear.  It didn’t even give me a link to go and buy the phone from the Nokia website.  Seriously Nokia, there needs to be a link that appears if I search for any of your phones that will shoot me off to give me a chance to purchase the phone.

So Nokia missed the boat on me.  Sunday morning I was in a bad mood about an email and when I thought about it I was in no mood to spend the money to purchase and E72.  If it was only possible for me to buy the phone somehow via the Ovi App Store they would have made a sale.  And I know I’m only 1 person but how many people do they lose out on in a day/week/month because they can’t buy from their phones?

Now I also know some people will say, “I don’t want a $300-$400 phone on my phone bill”, fine, ask me for a credit card.  I don’t mind.  I’m used to shopping on line and I don’t find my phone to be any less secure then my computer.

I don’t think any of the mobile phone app stores sell handsets and I just don’t get it, not at all.  I can imagine someone dumping their phone in the sink accidentally (I didn’t say toilet because I wanted to be classy) and killing it.  People can’t live without their phones so I would imagine them borrowing a friends phone and buying a new one on the spot, no questions asked.  So Nokia, let’s get the show on the road, it would have been nice to have purchased the E72, but I’ll have to live with my old E71 a little longer.

Hello Nokia, are you there?  Are you listening?

Ok now that I have your attention I have something to tell you.  Come close so I can tell you in your ear.  A little closer.  IT’S TIME.  It’s time to start pushing apps like never before.  It’s time to step up your game like never before.  It’s time to start competing on the main stage again.  The masses are starting to forget who you are and your name is being trampled in the dirt.

Nokia are you listening?  Are you there?  I’ve just been given an N97 mini to play with and well it seems like you’re at the very beginning of the right track.  But you’re still floundering a bit like a fish out of water.  It seems like things are moving along but not fast enough.

Nokia are you listening?  Are you there?  I have a suggestion for you.  Come close so I can tell you in your ear.  A little closer.  HIRE DEVELOPERS TO DEVELOP APPLICATIONS.  Yes you heard me.  Hire a developer to create an app for DropBox, a developer to create an app for Evernote, an app for Fandango, an app for Kayak, and app for Layar, an app for OpenTable, an app for TripIt, Urbanspoon, GoogleVoice, ZumoDrive and all the other big apps that don’t yet have a Symbian version.

You’re lucky enough to have apps like Truphone, JoikuSpot, Gravity, Nimbuzz, Fring, and emoze.  Give these developers a ton more support.

Better yet, better yet, create  web apps and show the world that platform specific apps are silly!  Ok ok I won’t get out of hand, just work on making apps for Symbian and lots of them.  I’m sick and tired of not having apps for the device I choose to use.  Yes I still prefer Symbian over any other platform.  But this could change if things don’t get better and I’m sure many other people feel the same way I do.

I suggest contacting as many good developers as you can and putting them on retainer to start developing as many hi profile apps as possible.  I’m talking about the apps that will get the big download numbers and keep people interested in Symbian.  It’s just not enough to wait and hope developers create their apps for Symbian as well as all the other platforms they’re already developing for.  It’s just not going to happen guys, Symbian has lost some of it’s luster in the public eye, this is a way to get some of that shine back.

So Nokia it’s your job to get these apps built, at way necessary.  Good luck and if you need some help, I know a few developers.

I had a great chat with Di-Ann Eisnor of Waze back at Mobile World Congress over a month ago then we got to hang at CTIA and I’m just now getting around to putting up my content from the trip.  I really like what Waze is doing and if you haven’t checked them out be sure to do so.  It’s an amazing social mapping program that creates the maps from the trips it’s users take.

Thanks for your time Di-Ann and best of luck with Waze.

Spending time in the Nokia suite at MWC in Barcelona I got to chatting with the maps guys and I learned something interesting thanks to Rita alerting me to the data usage issue.  Ovi Maps can be used out in the field entirely without a data connection. Yes you read that right, no data necessary to run Ovi Maps. The key is sideloading, meaning you load the maps before you head out the door onto your phone. By doing this your handset is fully loaded with the maps and anything that you would search the map for, including directions and services like restaurants and movie theaters.

I got a chance to get a few words from Dan Marinescu-Gava of Nokia who told me a few very interesting facts.
1. Nokia can put all of Ovi Maps, being most of the world (but not all) on about a 5gig memory card.
2. The entire United States is only about 1.4gig
3. All of Spain is only 194mb

Here is Dan talking a little about Ovi Maps

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.