Roland Tanglao's Weblog

I tried to record a video using the new video APIs in S60 Python 1.4.1 but I can't get it to work. My code (inspired by instaflickr code from the S60 Python Book Sample code) runs but the red light doesn't come on on my N93 and nothing is recorded. I am guessing (Forum Nokia post, SourceForge Bug Report) I have an error in camera.start_record() in the following code (which is also attached):

import appuifw

import e32, key_codes, os, os.path, camera, graphics

def cb(im):

  try:

    canvas.blit(im)

  except:

    appuifw.note(u'cb')

def cb2(im, blah):

  try:

    x = 1

  except:

    appuifw.note(u'cb2')

def start_viewfinder():

  camera.start_finder(cb)

  camera.start_record('E:\\Python\\whatever.mp4', cb2 )

  canvas = appuifw.Canvas()

  appuifw.app.body = canvas

  start_viewfinder()

  e32.ao_sleep(30) # record video for 30 seconds

  camera.stop_record()

  camera.stop_finder()

If anybody can help, please email roland AT rolandtanglao.com, call +1 604 729 7924, skype: rtanglao or Jabber: roland@bryght.com

Yay! Go my hello world program to work and finally got the OS X Bluetooth console to work. The trick is to:

ls -l /dev

and use the last tty for the screen command

e.g. if the last modified tty is tty.bt_console6

then you have to do screen /dev/tty.bt_console6

Now on to to create a program to create video in ego blogging mode (i.e. with screen facing you) using the high res camera.

I can't get the following code to work:

and I can't get the Nokia camera.py from Nokia's python sample code wiki page to work, help!

More N95-1 observations:

1. shutter lag is less, still too much lag in general (sensor turn on lag, focus lag and shutter lag)
2. I seem to get more out of memory errors on the web browser than the N93 browser
3. Video stabilization like the video stabilization on the N93 doesn't seem to do much
4. I prefer the larger keys on the N93, but love the N95 compact form factor
5. Assuming the doubled free RAM on the N95-3 allows you to run ShoZu, Twitter in the web browser and the Jaiku mobile client simultaneously without crashing, the N95-3 looks to be a killer device. for mobile multi-media creators like myself. I can't recommend the N95-1 but based on the early reviews for the N95-3, I can definitely recommend the N95-3; too bad Nokia isn't giving N95-1 North American owners a rebate like Apple did for iPhone early adopters

More N95-1 observations:

1. Had my first spontaneous power off of the N95-1 3/4 of the way through my commute to work this morning. ShoZu bug? S60 bug? N95-1 firmware bug? Who knows. Very annoying
2. Webkit browser still doesn't work properly with Twitter i.e. you don't see your twitter immediately like you do if you twitter from Firefox
3. Video looks great. Indistinguishable to my not very discerning eyes: Check out 5:21 of my morning commute video
4. N95 is not as conducive to videoing on a bicycle as the N93. Not a surprise since there is no pistol grip so you have to hold the phone upright which means you can accidentally turn off your recording which is what I did!
5. ShoZu still hasn't crashed on me yet, yay! But after about 30 or so photos, the camera app (I think it's the camera app, maybe it's the gallery process doing the thumbnails?) slows the phone down which looks like a crash but really isn't!

Day 2 thoughts:

1. Seems faster shot to shot than the N93
2. Photos seem more vivid (more sharpening)
3. EDGE s*cks but just like on the N73 less s*cky than GPRS
4. Video seems just as good as the N93
5. Got my first out of memory errors from the browser (at this point I only have ShoZu installed and a few videos and a few photos :-) )
6. ShoZu owes me lots of beer :-P for the number of people I have taught how to configure ShoZu over WiFi and how to config ShoZu in general (it's not that bad but it could be improved, the flickr authorize screen could be more obvious and that "chess piece" capcha has to go)
7. Just like using a Tom Tom GPS puck with a N93 and N80, the GPS lock is problematic and works erratically

I am doing a mobile study with Simon Fraser University and have the original N95 for a week.

"Blink" :-) reactions after 12 hours with an N95-1:

1. The double slide *does* appear flimsy as reported by many others
2. It is much lighter than the N93
3. Limited battery life reported by others hasn't affected me yet
4. Not sure I like the multi-media key menu - after over 6 months with the N93, I am used to invoking ShoZu by hitting the multimedia key and then up; the N95 way (multi-media key and then use arrow keys to scroll to ShoZu) is slower and takes more keystrokes
5. ShoZu hasn't crashed on me yet ! Yay! But I have only taken about 20 or so pictures. I'll stress ShoZu more during my commute tomorrow morning by taking 40 or so photos during my 40 minute door to  door commute
6. Love the hardware volume keys (which I believe the N91 had)! Wish the N93 had that.
7. Love the smaller form factor. Don't miss the optical zoom of the N93 yet.
8. Menus changed yet again on the N95 versus the N93. It's a bit disconcerting but not hard to find where things are!
9. Screen seems sharper
10. Photos seem better. Need to compare with N93. Haven't tried a video yet

cool! Shozu slideshow - another viral attractor for ShoZu. Now if only Cognima and the ShoZu team would fix the crashing bugs that I experience when there are over 200 or so photos on my Nokia N93 (which I think is an S60 problem but what do I know? As always willing to run debug versions to help fix this and to act as a tester for S60 and ShoZu teams)

QUOTE

ShoZu is soon to launch a web widget that runs on all major social networking sites as well as other online services such as blogs. ShoZu Slideshow creates a virtual photo frame for camera phone pictures and videos, that anyone can create and anyone can post to any web page on the internet. The content can be updated at any time directly from the mobile phone and updates will be seen immediately by anyone who has a copy of your Slideshow.

END QUOTE

Here's my ShoZu slideshow widget:

Here’s how I made the VancityBike Share 502 movie (a video of 10 bike rides in Vancouver using stills taken with a N93)

1. Took 502 photos from my Vancity Bike Share bike over 10 one way journeys to Gastown from East Van and back using my Nokia N93. Uploaded them to flickr with ShoZu. Got lots of memory errors and other random crashes while taking pictures which I worked around by rebooting the phone. Hopefully I’ll get an N95 North American version from Nokia Blogger Relations and its doubled RAM will cure the crashes and out of memory problems. Anecdotally the problems *seem* to be related to running out of memory and an inefficient Nokia Gallery app that slows down the entire phone when you have more than 200 pictures on a card (even though in my case there was over a Gig of memory left on my memory card). Could also be a ShoZu bug.
2. Downloaded them to my Mac using FlickrBackup
3. Changed the modification times to the EXIF date using CocoViewX’s “EXIF - Tools” -> Set Modification Date to EXIF date and then “Rename Series…” using New File Name of “VancityBikeShare###
4. Using QuickTime Pro’s “Open Image Sequence command made a movie with 502 pictures using 2 frames (i.e. 2 of my pictures) per second
5. Found some Creative Commons music using ccMixtr.org and pasted it into the movie
6. Exported the movie using QuickTime Pro

Easy eh :-)? I know there are other ways to do this (Keynote, PhotoToMovie, etc!) but this is cheap and cheerful. Highly recommended as a fun way to make fun movies out of your photos!

Here’s the finished product:

This movie (4:11) was made from 502 photos taken from my Vancity Bike Share bicycle from June 27 to July 11 2007 from my Nokia N93. Music from teru used under a Creative Commons license: Technology (ft. MTGakaCaraMelG) and Start a Digital Revolution (ft. tacet, KCentric), http://terumusic.blogspot.com/

I've asked for this before from ShoZu but nobody is listening :-) ! In the wrap up meeting today of the mobile rich media research study at SFU at that I was part of the last two months, I expressed my frustration at not being able to fluidly upload videos (sorry but email, FTP or Bluetooth or USB just don't cut it from a mobile device) to my favourite video sites like I can easily do with photos. I know videos are much much bigger but we have phones that support WiFi. so LazyWeb let's do it. And I'll pay! The USB / Bluetooth chain of pain doesn't work if you take as many videos as I do and if you use a phone like the N93 which takes gorgeous videos that have huge files which easily exceed the limits of today's mobile uploaders (the biggest I know is Vox which supports video uploads up to 50MB; unfortunately this doesn't work since the N93 videos can easily be well over 100MB).

I need to also write up a long term Nokia N93 review. Read the whole thing if you are in the mood for a longish review; I pretty much agree with what Jon wrote. My quick summary: the N93 is a great mobile computer with a great camera (well as good as my beloved first digicam from 1996 - the Olympus D500) that's hampered by lack of EDGE, RAM and only 2GB memory card support. Add EDGE (and north american 3G maybe), double the RAM and support 8GB cards and you will truly have a great multi media computer. Not as great from a user experience point of view as the iPhone but a functional, versatile device for mobile power users and geeks!

FROM Jon Arnold's Blog: Nokia N93 Review:

QUOTE

Another feature with mixed utility is the zoom. You can certainly zoom in closer than with earlier models, but there’s not much point since the photos never turn out. For taking photos at conferences, I find you can only zoom in just a touch and still get passable results. Things go out of focus in a hurry as soon as you starting getting a closer look at your subject.

I love the video capabilities too – it’s really what I enjoy most about these Nokia phones. As long as you have sufficient memory, you can have a lot of fun taking short videos – zooming is easy, and the sound quality is quite good.

END QUOTE