n91 review

This is the final post of my N91 Review series. One sentence summary: The N91 is an awesome music phone if you are a power user who's not in love with Smart Playlists and if you are not looking for a blogaphone.

LIKES:

1. Great iPod phone if you can live without iTunes Smart playlists OR you don't mind drag and drop
2. Great Standard hardware ports - Down with the pop port. Up with headphone jacks and USB jacks!
3. WiFi rocks - I will never pay my own money for a phone without WiFi. The value of having WiFi cannot be underestimated if you live and work in a sea of WiFi which is almost everywhere in Vancouver and elsewhere that I frequent.
4. ShoZu over WiFi rocks

DISLIKES:

1. Symbian Series 60 v3 is not stable enough
2. ShoZu on S60 is not stable enough (not to diss Cognima or Symbian, it's just the way it is, hopefully fixed in firmware upgrades and ShoZu upgrades) - in my opinion ShoZu working stably especially with WiFi phones should be used to test S60 and if it's not stable enough that S60 v3 phone should not ship. But I am biased :-) !

The N91 is a great music phone if you are a power user or geek. Why? Well because it doesn't "just work" with iTunes which is what most people are using. With the Nokia Music Manager on my Mac, I can sync playlists (but not smart playlists) manually from iTunes. I, as the user, have to manage what will fit on the N91 rather than having iTunes do it like it can do with smart playlists. So all in all not for normal people who use iTunes. Need seamless iTunes integration for normal people!

If you don't use iTunes and you don't mind drag and drop (which is less than 10% of the world I guesstimate!) then the N91 works fine. I dragged 2.5 gig of random music onto my N91 last week and it was fun listening to it.

Having the phone and your music is very compelling. After my week of having my music on my phone, an iPod integrated with a phone done right is inevitably in Apple's future methinks; Apple is of course biding their time and waiting for an opportune moment.

It's a no brainer that the phone and music player will converge especially if the phone has a standard headphone jack and (for those with money) supports stereo Bluetooth headsets.

My prediction: the Pop port will go the way of the Dodo and by 2010 all phones will have normal headphone jacks and all handsfree talking will be done either via speakerphone or a wireless headset.

On the commute home, my N91's volume keys stopped working. I had to reboot the phone to get them to work. Again, this sounds like a software problem that could be corrected in a future firmware update and again my fingers are crossed that this will happen.

Here's what I did:

1. updated firmware on N91
2. reformatted hard disk
3. installed LifeBlog

At this point everything was OK

I then installed Opera Mini (latest version, the built in web browser based on Apple's Web Kit doesn't work too well on my N91; it runs out of memory when you go to flickr for example! It's fine on Boris's E61 with flickr so this may be an N91 specific issue) and noticed over the next couple days several spontaneous reboots of the phone. Was this because of Opera Mini or is this just a coincidence? I have read (but can't dig up the link) of other people having the same problem

Needless to say I am not impressed with the stability of Series 60 v3. As an ex-developer I can however see that: i) it could very well be Opera Mini (but Java programs are sandboxed and shouldn't cause reboots right :-) ? ) ii) no software is perfect (although I didn't experience reboots like this with the N70) iii) this is Nokia's first phone with a hard disk which is much slower than flash memory which most Nokia phones use instead

My hope is that this will be fixed in future firmware updates and/or Opera Mini updates.

Still haven't finished my Nokia N91 review (unfortunately my review of the Series 60 v3 OS won't be the kindest since even with just Lifeblog and Opera Mini and the latest firmware, my N91 is still unstable after snapping about 50 pictures so it's not a ShoZu issue as I implied previously) and Andy Abramson and Brooke sent out the N93 and N73 which I received today! Wow! Mobile Christmas at Halloween. And the N93! I thought the next phones in the program were the N80 and N73! Thanks to Nokia and Communicano for continuing to allow me to review phones frankly and honestly!

One problem: the N93 only came with a 128MB card, which is not going to be enough for my videoblogging experiments with it and the N73 didn't come with a card.

The pressure is on. Need to get the N91 review finished. I think I am going to go to Future Shop and buy a card tomorrow for the N93. I'll finish my N91 review shortly. In the meantime I'll use the N73 and the N93 without a SIM.

ShoZu rocks! With the N91 and WiFi, you can set it up so that if you live in a "sea of WiFi" (i.e. spend most of your time at places with WiFi like I do), that it will automatically upload photos and videos over WiFi to flickr or wherever you want. No r*poff GPRS or 3G data plan needed.

Shozu is great on the N91 .... when it works. Unfortunately even though I am using the latest firmware on the N91 and the latest version of ShoZu, reformatted the Hard Drive, crossed my 't's and dotted my 'i's and tried throwing salt over my left shoulder :-( ShoZu starts freezing the phone after 50 or so photos.

I don't think my phone is a lemon :( Everything else works! My unfortunate reality is that adding ShoZu to the mix, destabilizes my N91. Lifeblog (even though I hate its 10 photos at a time limitation) works so it's not the WiFi stack (or so it would appear).

I blame ShoZu's tight integration with the operating system. My guess is that ShoZu has some sort of event handler or interrupt or some such operating system integration which is buggy or problematic in Symbian Series 60 v3. I figure it's a V3 issue since I uploaded over GPRS thousands of photos with ShoZu and the 7610 and N70 (both of which are v2 phones) without this instability.

Lazyweb HELP! I'll buy whoever fixes my problem lunch. Until then, I'll keep doing the ShoZu reset dance every 50 or so photos.

In my opinion, every phone should have a hardware keyboard lock switch and a standard headphone jack like the N91 does. It just makes sense. Nokia put these on every phone please!

Others have panned the N91 joystick. I love it. Much easier for my fingers to use than the N70 joystick. I get far less mis-reads than the N70 joystick. To each his or her own!

Herewith my saga of updating my N91 to V 2.00.052 25-07-06 RM43 N91 (01.01) using the Nokia Software Updater (only the Nokia UK site worked for me, couldn't find the software updater on the USA site):

1. backed up my contacts using iSync using my Mac
2. reset the phone using *#7370#
3. downloaded the Nokia Software updater onto a Windows PC (yay NOT!) that had an old version of the PC Suite; I figured I didn't need the PC Suite since I had iSync
4. plugged the phone into its charger
5. started the Nokia Software Updater
6. Plugged in the N91 into the USB port of the Windows PC
7. Phone was not recognized by the Nokia Software Updater
8. After trying 3 or 4 times, I quite out of the Nokia Software Updater and was ready to give up when I noticed
9. that Windows was installing USB drivers for the N91
10. When the drivers were installed (I think there were 3 of them!), I started up the Nokia Software Updater again and it worked (after about 25 minutes and not before reporting that it failed!)
11. After the Nokia Software Updater reported a failure, I restarted the phone and checked the firmware with *#0000# and it appeared to be the right version
12. Re-paired the phone with my Mac
13. restored my contacts and appointments with iSync
14. Re-installed ShoZu, putty and the Nokia Wireless Keyboard App which are the only apps that I must have on my phone!

All in all the Nokia Software Updater is very "1.0" :-) but it works! It should check for the USB drivers before checking for the phone. To be fair, most people would probably run PC Suite first and presumably PC Suite would install the USB drivers!

It's awesome to finally be able to upgrade my phone without having to go through Nokia Canada who refuse to upgrade firmware for phones (i.e. all the cool, useful ones) that aren't officially for sale in Canada.

I hope this firmware update fixes the issues I have had with ShoZu! Fingers crossed!

The N91 has imperfections that myself and others have chronicled but it's a great 21st century transistor radio. Download the Nokia podcasting client, download a few or many podcasts to the 4GB drive and then listen to what you want (as opposed to what some f*ol programs on some radio station :-)! The N91 also has an FM radio so you can listen to that if you must!

Your mileage may vary, but I find podcasts like Coverville, the "mostly opaque but full of chestnuts" Gillmor Gang, the Raincoast Books Anthony Bourdain podcast, etc. infinitely more interesting than FM radio!). They sound great on the built in speaker (which is much better than the speaker on the N70 or the 7610) while chilling out on a chesterfield, while driving (use the standard headphone jack to hook it into your sound system) or even while walking (use the headphones, respect your aural environment!).

All in all, the N91 listening experience unexpectedly reminds me of listening to my old red transistor radio powered by a 9V battery that I used to listen to the 72 Canada Russia Hockey series. The technology changes but the song remains the same!

Now running V1.10.030 05-05-06 RM-43 N91 (17.01) Firmware courtesy of Nokia Vancouver (whose lab is pictured above in a picture by Richard Smith).

First impressions:

• Still have out of memory error in Nokia Webkit web browser which makes it almost unusable. Luckily Opera and Opera Mini work well.
• Haven't seen the theme reset bug. Hopefully it's fixed by this version of the firmware
• ShoZu beta crashed again, aaargh! Other people don't have this problem with their N91 and ShoZu and other devices running ShoZu and Series 60 v3 like the N80. I am going to reformat the hard drive and do a reset of the device before I make a definitive judgement on this.

I spoke too soon in Part 7 of this review. The beta version of ShoZu started crashing shortly after I posted part 7. Aaargh. All is not lost. I am making my way to the Nokia lab in Burnaby tomorrow morning where my N91 firmware will be upgraded from V1.00.028.13 29.03.06 RM-43 to the latest version V1.10.030 05-05-06 RM-43 or later (thanks to Andy Abramson for arranging this because this would not have happened through official channels since the N91 is not sold in Canada!). Apparently the latest version fixes the ShoZu crashing problem as well as the theme reset problem and other various issues. Fingers crossed!

I had the N91 firmware blues. I was having the theme reset problem and various other weird problems (including a beta version of ShoZu crashing randomly) reported by others as a problem with the V1.00.028.13 29.03.06 RM-43 version of the N91 firmware that I have (apparently V1.10.030 05-05-06 RM-43 and newer versions fix these problems as reported at mobile 9) until I reformatted the hard disk.

Fingers crossed, things are working now (for me a phone isn't working until ShoZu works :-) ! ). It looks like my problems were due to one or more of the following

1. the firmware version
2. the Nokia podcasting app (which is in beta)
3. the Nokia Wireless Keyboard app (which doesn't officially support the N91 but I was assured would work)
4. puTTY series 60 v3 beta or
5. the ShoZu beta

which were the only apps I had installed (and yes I am well aware as an ex developer of the perils of running beta software which is why I am not flaming or blaming anybody :-) ! ).

Happy belated Canada Day and happy July 4th to my American cousins.

I am still here. Just took a wee bit of a blogging rest.

Had a nice conversation with Andy Abramson at BloggerCon IV. He told me nicely that my 850 Mhz post was bogus :-) (and pointed me to a nice explanatory mopocket post about the cingular walled garden: "Basically this means that if Cingular does not recognize your phones International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number then you can't use things like MobiTV, Rabble and a host of other applications that companies that are on deck with Cingular have sent me to try but would not install. Your phone must be a Cingular branded phone which means the phones IMEI number will be registered with Cingular. ")!

My summary: it's more the fact that the carriers know exactly what phone you are running (and the N91 is unsupported and unknown to North American carriers as was the N70 and 7610 for the most part) and know you are roaming so they can turn off your GPRS data based on that aaargh!

There is hope. The WiFi stack on the N91 is verrrrrrryyyyyyy 1.0. It crashes and is less than a 100% reliable. However it works well when it works. If every phone had WiFi and every place had WiFi (as do most of the places I hang out in like home, the Bryght offices, and Take 5) and if Skype or a SIP client works reliably over WiFi, then it won't matter that the carriers will only let me do voice calls (and not data with "unsupported" handsets like the N91). Lots of "ifs" but it's coming. Mark my words. 5 years from now making voice calls over WiFi will be painless and something everybody does not just some early adopters!

I don't know where I heard about this but the fact that the N91 (and the N70, 7610 and other phones without 850Mhz) doesn't support 850Mhz means that GPRS data doesn't work (although voice works fine!). Aaargh. Interesting that it worked fine in San Jose at NetSquared; I guess data is not carried on 850Mhz in San Jose.

I must admit I was skeptical but the Nokia Podcasting app (currently in beta) works quite well and it works with video podcasts like Rocketboom (I tested out Rocketboom's 3GP feed at http://www.rocketboom.com/vlog/tele_daily_enclosures.xml and it works well!)

Colin of All about N91 commented that the N80/Series 60 v3 SU-8W driver should work and it does, thanks! D'oh. It's very confusing to figure out which device runs which variant of Series 60. In my sleep deprived state, I mistakenly thought the N90 was also a Series 60 v3 device. Nokia, please update the SU-8W driver page (and also build this into the OS or pre-install it!).

Aargh! There doesn't appear to be a Nokia Wireless Keyboard (SU-8W) driver (why is a driver required in the first place?) for the N91. I tried to install the driver for the N90 (which is also a Series 60 v3 device so it should work, right?) on the Nokia SU-8W software page but it doesn't work ('Installation of Nokia_SU8W_BTKeyboard_1_17.SIS not supported'). This is a show stopper for me using the N91 as my one and only mobile device. If anybody can point me to an SU-8W driver I would be very grateful (I'll buy you a beer the next time you are in Vancouver!). I am, of course, willing, to try a beta SU-8W driver.

The N91 works flawlessly with my Apple Airport at home. Surprised! Go Nokia go (go Nokia Vancouver who I believe did most of the engineering on the N91!)! I am hoping that WiFi APNs appear just like normal APNs so any properly written app can you use it (which I think is the case judging by the many reviews I read this morning when I should have been sleeping). Thanks to Andy, Brooke, Communicano and Nokia for the review unit. More review bits later!