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

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.

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.

Testing the Nokia Bluetooth Keyboard SU-8W
5 May 2005 in Phones & Pocket PC | Comments (3)

However, I can report on a new device that dropped in the mail a few days ago: the Nokia Wireless Keyboard SU-8W. Now, initially Nokia claimed that their keyboard would only work with their keyboards and still do so on their Finnish website (not their international .com site though).

Well, for those considering to buy the SU-8W, I can gladly report that the first Bluetooth keyboard from Nokia isn’t tied to their products only. It fully supports the Bluetooth HID profile and I’ve gotten the keyboard to work with my Nokia 6260, desktop PC and Pocket PC! Stay tuned for the review on PDAGold.com…

Public Phones Soon a Shadow of the Past in Finland?
19 April 2005 in Phones | Comments (0)

Finnish Broadcasting Service reported today that all Finnish public phone carriers TeliaSonera and Elisa will start to phase out all remaining public phones and (wired) phone lines. TeliaSonera will cut the cord to the public phones as soon as by the end of this year, and Elisa by the end of this decade.

I’ve been noticing the disappearance of public phones around me ever since the start of the IT boom at the end of the last century. I guess this move was inevitable, but I can’t help but wonder how tourists will relate to our lack of public phones. No wait, I can already see it before my eyes in CIA’s World-book: Finland lacks public phones and as such travelers to Finland should bring their own cell-phone, or buy an used, unlocked cell-phone in Finland for a few euros, and additionally buy a pre-paid GSM subscription for their time in Finland.

Well, we’ll have to see how things will turn out later, I guess. I hope that someone of our operators will get inspired by the US operators (was it Verizon, maybe) that turned old public phones into WiFi hotspots. Are you listening Finnet, TeliaSonera and Elisa?

I Also Want to Play GPS::Tron!
31 January 2005 in Phones & Pocket PC | Comments (0)

Do you remember the game Tron from the days of playing it on the C64 and Amiga? Well, I do and can’t forget the fun that was. Now, someone with a bunch of sparetime on their hands have upped the ante for Tron gaming and brought it out from the 2 dimensional world to the 3D (or 4D if you believe in Einstein’s theories) and made it into GPS::Tron.

So, the game now takes place in the real world with GPS statellites tracking your movements and using GPRS (or some other datatransfer method) puts the location of you on a gaming server while retrieving the location of the opponent and updating your game view. This currently works only on Nokia and Siemens phones, but I assume that we’ll see this ported to many other platforms shortly (that is when this gets widely popular).

Now I’m just furious at the Finnish GSM operators for having some unusually high GPRS data prices for the moment. Maybe some more GPS::Tron gaming would bring the friggin’ price down…

New Bluetooth Safety Guidelines
14 January 2005 in Phones | Comments (0)

Following the spread of worms and other pestwares via Bluetooth between phones running Symbian, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group has released new safety guidelines for Bluetooth phones. One guideline, or tip, is:

Users should not accept files from unknown or suspicious entities. Users should not download or install unknown or suspicious software. If the origin of the software is unknown, it should not be installed. If the device gives a security warning during installation, carefully consider if installation should continue.

Sounds like good ol’ sense to me, but unfortunately not to everyone. Many people think “wow, great someone is sending me free software” and choose to install the worm Cabir or some other virus/worm/pestware. I wonder where common sense in computing has gone?

Nokia 7710 is Official!
2 November 2004 in Phones | Comments (0)

Today, Nokia finally revealed their 7710 model that features a sweet set of goodies:

At the annual Nokia Mobility Conference in Monaco and the Destination Nokia event held in Bangkok, Thailand, Nokia today announced the Nokia 7710 widescreen multimedia smartphone with pen input. With a wide and high-quality touch screen with 65,536 colours, the Nokia 7710 is a pleasure to use for a variety of tasks. The powerful Nokia 7710 includes a full Internet browser, an integrated music player with stereo audio, an extensive set of video features such as playback, streaming and recording, a megapixel camera with 2-x digital zoom and FM radio with Visual Radio client.
The Nokia 7710 works on GSM/GPRS/EGPRS 900/1800/1900 networks, with shipments in Asia and China planned to begin in the fourth quarter, 2004 and in Europe and Africa in the first quarter, 2005.

The 7710 will also support the Digital TV format DVB-H when using an add-on. The price for the 7710 can be expected to be around 500 € /638 US$ when released in Europe next year. The Americas should not await the 7710, since it will not appear there yet.

For more stuff on the 7710, here are some links:

• Press release
• Press photos
• Realone video commercial
• Official product page
• InfoWorld article

The Nokia 7710 phone to be annouced soon
22 October 2004 in Phones | Comments (0)

The world’s first, err… no sorry second digital TV capable phone is to soon become official material. According to PhoneMag.com, the 7710 is to be officially annouced at Nokia Mobility Conference in Monaco in November.

The Nokia 7710 is set to be something of a multimedia smartphone and PDA with a large touch screen, MP3 and AAC (probably not Apple DRM compatible) music player, FM radio, XHTML browser, Bluetooth and able to synchronize with PC.

It would be so cool to try out the digital TV part of the 7710. But, currently it seems like I would have to go down to Helsinki to try out the sweeeeeet DVB-H accessory on the 7710…

Nokia 7710 makes an appearence once again…
4 October 2004 in Phones | Comments (0)

… and this time with more pics than you can dream about. Ok, maybe not that many…

What is interesting to see is that the Nokia 7710 seems to have a better input panel than the Pocket PC that supports localization! This means that I can switch to Finnish keyboard layout, and a guy in Germany can use his German keyboard layout. At least, so is the theory for the moment…

Now, my Chinese is practically very, very bad (I can’t read a single symbol) but what I could make out from that page, linked below, was that this 7710 will support DVB-H. For those of you who do not know, DVB is the digital television system used almost around the whole world. DVB-H is a derived format that is optimized mainly towards handheld devices on the move.