Filip Norrgård’s blog @ filips.net
Filip’s blog about mobile technology, tech itself and other stuff

Sweet Looking Nokia N95
31 January 2007 in Phones | Comments (0)

The Symbian fans at All About Symbian have gotten their lucky hands on a Nokia N95 and released the first impressions.

I must say, that the N95 is looking sweet: 5 MP camera, WiFi b/g, Bluetooth 2.0, USB, Infrared,GSM, WCDMA, HSDPA, integrated GPS with routing software, 150MB of internal memory and a 3.5 mm audio jack. In other words, holy macaroni!

The camera looks to be having a sligt bluish tint on some of the outdoor pictures, but that might be because the weather is a bit overcast? The noise in the 5 megapixel shots is quite high, but that might be because you have so much crammed into so little (space). (And it is nothing a little median filter pass would fix) But, the 5 MP camera is still so much better than the 2 and 3 megapixel integrated cameras I’ve seen.

As the Engadget Mobile guys put it: “Let’s hit up the good based on AAS’s touchy-feely on the N95 — very good-sounding stereo speakers built into the sides, a diet form factor compared to previous N-series units, every wire-free connectivity option you could ever need, and a 5 Megapixel cam with Zeiss optics and even VGA video capture — what’s not to love?” (Emphasis added by me) Yeah, what is there not to love?

Gah, I need to keep my fingers away from the order button on this one! The order force is strong.

Windows Vista Update Can’t Count
31 January 2007 in Root | Comments (0)

Since I enabled Windows Update to be using Microsoft Update (a-ha! spot the difference! :P) the Windows Update has lost the ability to tell the total number of updates pending…

Now, ok, this is a small bug, but I wonder why it even should be so hard to get the count of updates pending, even when it is just one waiting in the queue.

(Oh, boy, here comes the Microsoft jokes?)

10 Reasons The Nokia N91 Is Better And Worse Than Microsoft’s Zune
30 January 2007 in Phones | Comments (0)

Nokia N91 is better than Microsoft’s Zune:

1. Can use WiFi for surfing, download podcasts, email, feed reading, streaming videos (though it is stinking Real Player), Bittorrent and Gnutella downloading – Zune can only share with other Zunes via WiFi
2. It is also a 3G phone – no phone just yet
3. You can MMS with music to friends that do or do not have an N91 – Zune says no
4. Can act as a hard drive or music player (to Windows Media Player on the desktop computer) out of the box, no installation required – you need a hack to get the Zune to look like a hard drive
5. Uses a mini-USB cable – the Zune has a proprietary connector
6. User changeable battery – the Zune’s battery cannot be changed by the user
7. Can PlayForSure, i.e. Windows Media DRM:ed music – the Zune cannot PlayForSure
8. Integrated 2 megapixel camera – Zune zero cameras
9. Can sync calendar, to-dos, notes, contacts, music, to name a few – Can sync music and video to the device
10. Integrated Bluetooth for sending music, links, etc. to friends – No Bluetooth on the Zune

Microsoft Zune is better than Nokia’s N91:

1. Larger hard drive 30 GB on Zune – “only” 8 GB on the N91 (latest model)
2. Larger 3 inch screen size – larger than the N91’s screen
3. Better battery life – has no battery eating UMTS radio which the N91 has (although UMTS can be turned off)
4. Easier to customize the background for the whole user interface – though that might be a bit harder on the N91
5. Better video capabilities – did I mention that Real Player really stinks?
6. Includes protective sleeve – the N91 didn’t for some strange reason
7. The Zune store is the only store – no need to search for a compatible store online (for better and for worse) as for the N91
8. Analog TV output – no such thing on the N91
9. The Zune can be bought in white, brown and black, some might be pink – Nokia N91 8GB edition is only black, previously also available in a silvery color.
10. Able to show other Zunes nearby what you are listening to or doing through advanced settings – not yet available on the N91

There might be something else that I missed, but this is just a small overview that I noticed. Fire off in the comments section if you think I missed something essential.

Windows Calendar and Google Calendar Are Working Fine With iCalendar(s)
23 January 2007 in Code-ing & Root | Comments (0)

With Windows Vista, you will now get a — quite nice — calendar program called Windows Calendar. It looks a lot like Apples iCal.app and probably has gotten a nice amount of inspiration from Apple once again, but that is beside the point. I tested my iCalendar and vCalendar generator that I use in Dingo, and found a bug in Windows Calendar. It seems that Windows Calendar doesn’t parse the characters correctly, and in the attached screenshot you can see that there are boxy looking characters where the character “ä” should be.

Not only that, Windows Calendar only supports iCalendar, no vCalendar. I suppose that it is a good thing going from vCalendar version 1.0 to 2.0 (aka. iCalendar).

I also tried out Google Calendar’s iCalendar support and it seems like they’ve finally fixed a bug in their iCalendar parser. I could upload a single iCalendar file with all my course “appointments” to Google Calendar and it inserted every single one, no buts about it. The Google Calendar team are worthy of an applaude for fixing it in a year (which is the time since I last tried it).

Nokia PC Suite Can Sync With Windows Vista!
16 January 2007 in Phones & Pocket PC | Comments (1)

The latest Nokia PC Suite version seems nicely compatible with Windows Vista. The surprise to me was to see it supporting Windows Vista’s Contacts synchronization already with calendar syncing maybe coming soon.

Now, will my Pocket PC ever sync again? I’ll have to see, but I’m not expecting a miracle since the Fujistu Siemens Pocket Loox 720 didn’t work in the RC1 and RC2 betas of Windows Vista.

SMS Spam Is The Worst Spam
16 January 2007 in Root | Comments (1)

There is nothing more irritating that seeing this arrive in your textmessage inbox:

And opening the message you see this (notice that “soittoaani” should be spelled “soittoääni”:

What it is, is not an offer of gratitude from your mobile phone operator, but plain and simple spam to get you hooked on ordering their services. But, the fun part is that the user agreement (or TOS, EULA, I don’t know the exact word to use here) tells you that you are signing up to their service and paying 2€ for the luxury of free tones per month, or at least so according to F-Secure’s weblog.

Where is the sender from? No-one seems to know for sure, but the domain vkap.net is registered in Germany, so probably from there. (Jamba, aka. Jamster is also from the same country, but there is no evident connection between vkap and them)

What can you do to stop the spam? Whatever you do, do NOT connect to the site or type it in your browser! Contact your operator immidiately when you get this piece of sh… uhum, spam and tell them what you generally think of spam. (Don’t be too harsh, or “direct”, with the helpdesk personel, though; they are humans too.) Hopefully we can all erase this before it grows too big.

January, The Start Of Hurricane Season In Sweden (?)
16 January 2007 in Root | Comments (0)

Sweden seems to have gotten their own hurricane season that seems to last for the month of January every second year.

In 2005 southern Sweden was hit with a amazingly powerful low pressure which generated hurricane force winds. Called “Gudrun” it oblitirated woods and power-lines leaving many without power, accessible roads and telephones.

Fast forward to today (or last weekend to be exact) and yet another storm — called “Per” — with hurricane force winds hits the same southern Sweden. This wasn’t as powerful storm as Gudrun, and most people are having a sense of déjà vu (not like in the movie with the same name, though). Power, phones, roads are down, but this time it seems to be easier to get things up and a-running than when the last hurricane came for a visit.

There’s one thing that’s interesting here and that is the way the Swedes are coordinating the rebuilding as soon as the storm has moved on where as the US government hasn’t done much for the New Orleans post-Katrina, even today. Sure, it isn’t the same case here (country size, GNP differences and such) but it is the thought-to-action-time that counts the points in my book.

I’m only hoping the swedish power companies would try to coordinate some power line buryings to prevent the trees from cutting off power when it blows a little. That would minimize the damage a little the next time they’re having a hurricane season.

Site Update: New Style
8 January 2007 in Root | Comments (0)

The site changes have started. Metamorphosis stage 1 complete.