Digital Common Sense

I’ve had my N95 back for a while now. I probably use mine differently that a number of folks, so I thought it was time to update, especially after the workout it got this weekend.

Perhaps the largest common concern everyone has has is battery life. At this point, I find it quite acceptable. In fact I’ve not run out of power since getting the N95 back in my hands. it’s powered on 24X7, but I tend to stay plugged in to power often. That means if it’s not in use it might be plugged in. But that also means that it worked fine for 6 hour outings making calls, taking pictures, sending them to a blog or Flickr, and text messaging. In short, I don’t have a battery life problem at all right now. I’m quite happy with it.

That said, I have set the phone for optimal power use for me. I’ve toggled it to GSM only as I don’t have access to a 3G network. Even if you don’t have access, the phone will eat battery power hunting for it if you don’t shut it off.

I have WiFi scanning off. There’s no reason to constantly scan for WiFi ever. Ideally, it would be nice if Nokia automated this. I’d like to turn on WiFi scanning so I can find an access point, but have the phone automatically shut scanning off after two minutes.

I have Bluetooh always on, set for continual active pairing with my N800. If you don’t need it on for that or constant headset use, shutting it off would help conserve battery life further.

I haven’t used the GPS a lot. I know many people run it all the time. I’m mostly on my home turf. I don’t need a GPS running in background to get home from my office. For me, the ability to automatcially geotag photos would be a reason to leave it on at times. Don’t suggest Shozu please. I know they say it will do this. I also know it has screwed up the six devices I’ve tried it on, four of them Nokia N-series phones. Given Nokia’s support for Flickr and Vox built in, I want geotagging as a native option tied to the camera. Do it in a future firmware release and don’t make me rely on unstable third-party applications.

I like the camera a lot. I took a ton of pictures at Cannon Beach over my long holiday weekend with both the 5 megapixel N95 and my 6 megapixel Nikon D50. While the Nikon obviously has more controls and flexibility as a photographer’s tool, the N95 compares nicely for quality. Here’s one picture form the weekend that I think demonstrates the quality and detail easily captured with, let’s face it, a cell phone. Put it in perspective and this is nothing short of phenomenal.

People do have complaints about the camera, but frankly I don’t. What I do have is a hardware flaw. if you read here regularly, you know the N95 went back to Nokia for camera failure. It had double icons in the primary camera and quit working. After it was restored and returned, I’ve had the problem again. It’s a fairly common problem. When it happens, if you turn the camera off, close the lens cover and give the phone a firm tap above the lens, it will come back and work fine. Mine has only failed once so far, but this is fairly widely documented on the Net. If a physical tap fixed it, it can only be a hardware problem. Perhaps a flawed electrical connection. Whatever it is, it has to be fixed for the N95 to gain critical acceptance. But it is fixable.

I made some Gizmo VoIP calls, and it’s frankly everything I’ve come to expect from Gizmo. if the WiFi is decent, the call quality is great. Nearly seamless integration and a fabulous first glimpse of what fixed mobile convergence can one day become with the right network capabilities.

As I said, I actively pair it with the N800. That means the GPRS link is running as a data modem for the N800 all the time. Well, all the time I’m outside WiFi range, which is a lot. I’ve paired the other N-series phones the same way and they all work perfectly in my experience.

I’ve used it as a music player, tapped into the stereo in my 5th wheel. Works great. It also works great as a small stereo in my shirt pocket out anywhere. After all, you never really know when you might just need to tango - the beach, the mall. A tango could be needed at a moment’s notice.

The N95 user interface is cleaner and crisper than the earlier N-series phones. WiFi setup is easy. The Gizmo client worked very handily for me. The menus are a bit more intuitive, although many items are still too deeply nested. But it’s getting better.

What the N95 isn’t is a fully developed, mature, third-generation product. This is still the first generation. It’s a glimpse of the future of mobile phones that are far more than phones. And when paired with the N800, the pair are solid casual computing…today. Perhaps more important, they’re a vision of the computing environment of tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Nokia, N95, next generation, mobility

Filed by Ken at 5:01 pm under Mobility & Handheld