which Smartphone would you like - Poll Results show Nokia N95

I recently posed a question to our readers... I asked, Which Mobile Device / Smartphone Do You Want Next?

If you could upgrade your mobile device next month which way would you go?? From roughly 100 responses the results are in:

• iphone 8.8%
• Bold 7.7%
• G1 20%
• N95 33.3 %
• dont need 5.5%
• Other 3.3%
• S60 other 20%

I was somewhat surprised to see that 1/3 of the people responding suggested they would opt for the Nokia N95 - nice choice, that's my device of choice at the moment! Very interesting to see that "other" was very small and the "S60 Other", like perhaps a very slick N96, N82, or a nokia E70 got 20% of the vote. iPhone came in way down, no surprise there and the soon to be released G1 from HTC got 20%... excellent! Thanks for the feedback

Turn your Nokia N95 into a Free Hotspot

Here's another fine mobile tip for you travelers... how would you like to never again have to pay those crazy fees for WiFi that hotels like to slam you with... I'm sorry, but I'm not about to pay a hotel for WiFi if I'm already paying $200+ a night to stay there! Enter JoikuSpot. Simply pout, if you have a smartphone (Symbian OS.. sorry) like an N95, N82 etc... you can grab this free app ( a pro version also exists) and you can turn your device into a hotspot... very simple. no more sniffing for free wifi from lounges and other hotels, coffee shops etc... all you need is your device and a data plan. The app was recently recognized in the Forum nokia innovation series. For more information www.joikuspot.com. Remeber, paying for WiFi is for suckers... much like paying for free GIS data!

Nokia releases Nokia Maps 2.0 - Drive, Walk, Discover

Finally out of Beta, Nokia Maps 2 is here. Updates include enhanced pedestrian navigation, new satellite images and support for integrated compass orientation. Nokia Maps 2.0 has improved its optional Car Navigation, enhanced its pedestrian navigation, added multimedia city guides, now offers satellite images, and is sporting a redesigned user interface. Nokia's mapping and navigation solutions give people navigation features, local content and world maps directly on their mobile device, in a way that only connected devices can. The tagline from Nokia... Drive, Walk, Discover... see http://www.maps.nokia.com

Nokia Sports Tracker (beta) for facebook users

A new facebook application enables users of Nokia Sports Tracker (Beta) to share their tracks with their friends via facebook. To install the facebook application, simply visit http://apps.facebook.com/nstbeta/, login to your facebook account. See more HERE

Explore the Earth with Earthcomber - A suggested Nokia N95 app!

Nokia N95 Suggested Application... I recently added a nifty location-aware search application to my mobile device (Nokia N95) which I discovered via the Nokia Content Discoverer ... aka. content downloader application. Earthcomber enables local search and takes advantage of the built-in GPS that comes with the Nokia N95. Read on for more on this cool, must-have mobile application for anyone who's using a GPS smartphone like the N95, N82, or E90


See the full article here

Geotagging / Geolocating your flickr photos with Yahoo! zonetag and locr - a short tutorial

ok… more on the geotagging photos sent to flickr via shozu and my Nokia N95 GPS-enabled smartphone. I’ve recently been doing some research to figure out exactly how to geotag my photos, and get them up on flickr then view on a map. From the outside looking it one would think, “no problemmo”, however, things are not often as simple as they would seem. Luckily there’s a couple of good third party apps that work very well. Those of you that depend on out of the box functionality that wil accomplish this will have to try again!

My research has led me to believe the following:
- there’s much confusion out there about this.
- it’s a total pain in the arse to accomplish using the Nokia N95 out of the box
- it’s not as simple as blogs and other write ups lead you to believe
- many people seem to be having trouble with many different aspects of this.
- some people seem to be experiencing difficulties uploading via shozu from the Nokia N95 - I have yet to see any issues with this.
- apparently you can tag photos from N95 directly with GPS coords if you run sprt tracker or load the maps application - I’ve yet to be able to accomplish this seemingly simple task.

Enter Yahoo! Research labs zonetag and locr. Zonetag from Yahoo! has just recently come out with a version that supports Symbian S60 3rd edition devices (Nokia N80, N95, 6110 etc…). The application is very simple to use and it works. Simply install zonetag, setup your preferences (I’m still tweaking these) load the app, connect the GPS to grab your fix, take a photo, upload to flickr… it’s as simple as that! Once on flickr your photos will have a hyperlink to map the photo and the coordinates will display when you view the photo on a map. So far I’ve had excellent results with this application.

Locr (www.locr.com) operates in a similar manner. Install the app, setup an account, connect to GPS to get a fix, snap a photo, upload to flickr and to locr if you wish. Your photos are maintained in a locr account and from the mobile device you can also view your photos or photos that are near you. Once feature I’m not big on is that the application takes over the camera and you don’t seem to get the full functionality from your device. This contrasts with Zonetag where you use the camera in the same mode that you normally would with your device.

Please note, you should have an all you can eat data plan to use these applications otherwise the results (and your next phone bill) could be scary! I use shozu for uploads normall, however, it seems that when using zonetag or locr you are actually bypassing the shozu functionality… I’m not worried as I can use al teh data I want. Stay tuned for more on these apps. Overall, I give locr a 3.5 out of 5, zonetag gets 4.5 out of 5!

Related weblinks:

http://flickr.com/photos/gisuser/

http://zonetag.research.yahoo.com

http://www.locr.com/

Nokia N95 multimedia computer makes global debut

It's official, the 8GB N95 is now available to users pretty much anywhere! Now with A-GPS, Nokia N95 8GB connoisseurs can whiz to their locations on Nokia Maps faster and enjoy maps for over 150 countries. Explore the world, find specific routes or locate services such as restaurants and hotels, covering more than 15 million points of interest. Purchase additional features, such as city guides and voice guided navigation, is an option too. The N95 8GB multimedia computer has an estimated retail price of EUR 560 before taxes or subsidies. For more on the N95 see www.nseries.com/n958gb

The Tech traveler - why not the Nokia N95

I noticed an article in USA Today the other day and it chronicled the journey of tech savvy travelers and discussed the technologies used. The techies used the notebook, blackberry, iPod, a 3G wireless router for sharing Wi-Fi and took advantage of wireless resources, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and other enabling technologies. All these gadgets were used to enable quick check-in at the airport and hotels, mapping and routing, reservations, and the all important entertainment. Inside I was laughing because I had to ask myself why on earth would such a tech-savvy professional tote all these gadgets around when one simple device - The Nokia N95 - could accomplish everything and more! LOL

Nokia N95 USA version coming - a pointer to a first look

Over at Engadget they've rolled out a pretty decent look at the Nokia N95 which will be officially rolling out here in the USA and Canada very soon - although there are already a number of lucky users (like yours truly). If your interested at all in this powerful GPS-enabled smart phone be sure to give this one a read - be sure to check out all the comments (some good Canada/USA bashing there too!) I'll be really interested to see which carrier(s) gets the bulk of the business on this one... T-Mobile or AT&T... or will you have to go through Nokia's sales channels? See here

The 8GB Nokia N95 - GPS, loads of memory, now games!

Rumors of the 8GB Nokia N95 are not exagerated. I have to admit, info about this device is tough to locate on the Nokia website although there are many images posted in the press area (no wonder people have a hard time buying this awesome device!) I wish I could tell you more about the availability on this elusive device, however, if you have a Nokia shop near you (New York, Chicago) you might see this cool device for sale. Like the traditional N95 its a quadband World phone, complete with integrated GPS, loads of cool apps to leverage you location information and memory - lots of it. With the supported 8GB card (supplied with this one) you can store all kinds of apps, videos, music and as of today you can try ALL the N-Gage games for free! N-Gage has matured from a device (mine got stolen from my car a couple of years ago - want some games??) to a platform. More on the 8GB N95 can be found (I think) at nseries.com or nokia.com (see also the N95 support site) . A tip.. Nokia, to sell even more of these units maybe bundle some integrated GPS supported apps on the deck that work without the need for doing loads of research, for example, send and MAP the photo to flickr, Google maps (like a MyMap) and try a couple of cool colors like Pink and maybe even a "Trimblish" yellow with a ruggedized, grippy shell.. that would sell! This device appeals to mobile field force workers and outdoor enthusiasts, maybe try marketing to them!

The 8GB Nokia N95 (Source: Nokia)

Getting those Flickr photos on the map

If you have GPS data associated with your digital photos it should be easy to get them on a map. In theory, yes, however, there are a TON of utilities out there and finding exactly the right one for your needs can be tough. Since I now have a Nokia N95 with GPS I would like to have all my photos available via a map UI.. should be simple right? I'm getting close but it hasn't been easy. Geobloggers blog reminded me that RSS and KML formatted Flickr data is easily availabel from flickr.. thanks! So, this means I can grab a KML output file of all my geotagged flickr photos - here's a sample of my photos output as KML. Now I can easily grab this string and enter it into the Google MAps search dialog and then voila, I can see my geolocated images on the map... nice! One problem though... I'm still manually adding my photos on a map using flickr's map this photos utility.. this is the step I need to get rid of. Hopefully soon I'll have the tool I need to enable flickr (and other apps) to recognize and read the GPS data from my photos. A great starting point is this page on the Google Code section on Geotagging photos.

100+ features that you'll find in the Nokia N95 Symbian Smartphone

It's a given that the Nokia N95 is PACKED full of functionality. How much? Well, here's a sampling of more than 100 features that you'll find packed into your Nokia N95 right out of the box.

- Operating Frequency: WCDMA2100 (HSDPA), EGSM900, GSM850/1800/1900 MHz (EGPRS)
- Automatic switching between bands and modes
- Dimensions
- Volume: 90 cc
- Weight: 120 g
- Length: 99 mm
- Width: 53 mm
- Thickness (max): 21 mm
- Memory Functions
- Up to 160 MB* internal dynamic memory for messages, ringing tones, images, video clips, calendar notes, to-do list and applications
- Memory card slot supporting up to 2 GB microSD memory cards
- * Changes to product details are possible without prior notice. Application offering may vary. Dynamic memory means that the available memory is shared between dynamic memory functions. When any of these functions is used, there is less available memory for other functions which are also dependent on dynamic memory.
- Power Management
- Battery: Nokia Battery (BL-5F) 950mAH
- Talk time: up to 160 min (WCDMA), up to 240 min (GSM)*
- Stand-by time: up to 200 hours (WCDMA), up to 225 hours (GSM)*
- * Operation times may vary depending on radio access technology used, operator network configuration and usage.
- Displays
- Large 2.6" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT display with ambient light detector and up to 16 million colors
- User Interface
- Operating system: S60 software on Symbian OS
- User Interface: S60 3rd edition
- Dedicated Media Keys
- Multimedia Menu
- Active standby screen
- Call Management
- Contacts: advanced contacts database with support for multiple phone and e-mail details per entry, also supports thumbnail pictures and groups
- Speed dialing
- Logs: keeps lists of your dialed, received, and missed calls
- Automatic redial
- Automatic answer (works with compatible headset or car kit only)
- Supports fixed dialing number, which allows calls only to predefined numbers
- Conference call
- Nokia Push to talk (PoC)
- Voice Features
- Speaker independent name dialing (SIND)
- Voice commands
- Voice recorder
- Talking ringtone
- Integrated hands-free speaker
- Messaging
- Text messaging: supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list
- Multimedia messaging: combine image, video, text, and audio clip and send as MMS to a compatible phone or PC; use MMS to tell your story with a multi-slide presentation
- Automatic resizing of your megapixel images to fit MMS (max 300 KB size depending on the network)
- Predictive text input: support for all major languages in Europe and Asia-Pacific
- Data Transfer*
- WCDMA 2100 (HSDPA) with simultaneous voice and packet data (PS max speed UL/DL= 384/3.6MB, CS max speed 64kbps)
- Dual Transfer Mode (DTM) support for simultaneous voice and packet data connection in GSM/EDGE networks. Simple class A, multi slot class 11, max speed DL/UL: 177.6/118.4 kbits/s
- EGPRS class B, multi slot class 32, max speed DL/UL= 296 / 177.6 kbits/s
- *Actual achieved speeds may vary depending on network support.
- Digital Services
- Java� and Symbian applications available from Nokia Software Market
- Imaging
- Imaging and Video
- Up to 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944 pixels) camera, Carl Zeiss optics, Tessar� lens, MPEG-4 VGA video capture of up to 30 fps
- Direct connection to compatible TV via Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, included in box) or wireless LAN/UPnP
- Front camera, CIF (352 x 288) sensor
- Video call and video sharing support (WCDMA network services)
- Integrated flash
- Digital stereo microphone
- Flash modes: on, off, automatic, redeye reduction
- Rotating gallery
- Online album/blog: photo/video uploading from gallery
- Nokia Lifeblog 2.0 support
- Video and still image editors
- Movie director for automated video production
- Mobile Video
- Video resolutions: up to VGA (640x480) at 30 fps
- Audio recording: AAC mono
- Digital video stabilization
- Video clip length: limited by available memory
- Video file format .mp4 (default), .3gp (for MMS)
- White balance: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
- Scene: automatic, night
- Color tones: normal, sepia, black & white, negative, vivid
- Zoom: Digital up to 10x (VGA up to 4x)
- Mobile Photography
- Image resolution: up to 5 megapixel: (2592 x 1944 pixels)
- Still image file format: JPEG/EXIF
- Auto focus
- Auto exposure - center weighted
- Exposure compensation: +2 ~ -2EV at 0.5 step
- White balance: automatic, sunny, cloudy, incandescent, fluorescent
- Scene: automatic, user, close-up, portrait, landscape, sports, night, night portrait
- Color tone: normal, sepia, black & white, negative, vivid
- Zoom: Digital up to 20x (5 megapixel up to 6x)
- Camera Specifications
- Sensor: CMOS, 5 megapixel (2592 x 1944)
- Carl Zeiss Optics: Tessar� lens
- Focal length 5.6 mm
- Focus range 10 cm ~ infinity
- Macro focus distance 10-50 cm
- Shutter speed: Mechanical shutter: 1/1000~1/3 s
- Music
- Music Features
- Digital music player - supports MP3/AAC/AAC+/eAAC+/WMA/M4A with playlists and equalizer.
- Integrated handsfree speaker
- OMA DRM 2.0 & WMDRM support for music
- Stereo FM radio (87.5-108MHz /76-90MHz)
- Visual Radio *
- Listen to music and interact with your favorite radio stations
- Find out what song is playing, who sings it, and other artist information
- Enter contests and answer surveys, vote for your favorite songs
- Find out more about Visual Radio
- * To check the availability and cost of the service, contact your network operator or service provider.
- Explore
- Navigation
- Built-in GPS
- E-mail
- Easy-to-use e-mail client with attachment support for images, videos, music and documents
- Compatible with Nokia Wireless Keyboard (sold separately)
- Browsing
- Nokia Web Browser with Mini map
- Digital home
- Play video, music and photos on home media network - compatible TV, stereo and PC over WLAN/UPnP
- Java Applications
- Java MIDP 2.0, CLDC 1.1 (Connected Limited Device Configuration (J2ME))
- Over-the-air download of Java-based applications and games
- Other Applications
- Personal Information Management (PIM)
- Advanced S60 PIM features including calendar, contacts, to-do list, and PIM printing
- Settings Wizard for easy configuration of e-mail, push to talk and video sharing.
- Data transfer application for transfer of PIM information from other compatible Nokia devices.
- Wlan wizard
- Connectivity
- Integrated wireless LAN (802.11 b/g) and UPnP (Universal Plug and Play)
- Integrated Bluetooth wireless technology v.2.0 EDR
- USB 2.0 via Mini USB interface and mass storage class support to support drag and drop functionality
- 3.5 mm stereo headphone plug and TV out support (PAL/NTSC)
- Nokia PC Suite connectivity with USB, Infrared and Bluetooth wireless technology
- Local synchronization of contacts and calendar to a compatible PC using compatible connection
- Remote over-the-air synchronization
- Send and receive images, video clips, graphics, and business cards via Bluetooth wireless technolog
- Video
- RealPlayer media player
- Full-screen video playback to view downloaded, streamed or recorded video clips
- Supported video formats: MPEG-4, H.264/AVC, H.263/3GPP, RealVideo 8/9/10
- Package Contents
- Standard Sales Package Contents
- Nokia N95
- Nokia Video Connectivity Cable CA-75U
- Nokia Connectivity Cable DKE-2
- Nokia Stereo Headset HS-45, AD-43
- Nokia Battery BL-5F
- Nokia Travel Charger AC-5

Hello from the Nokia N95 User

For several months now I've been following the launch and the development of the sweet, GPS-enabled mobile device from Nokia - the Nokia N95 Symbian smartphone. Well, I finally have one. Follow this blog as I hope to become a "N95 Power USer" ... stay tuned ;0 )