The ride is quite the phenomenon. As a 3-5 days a week bicycle commuter; it was quite liberating to "take over" the streets and cycle with impunity (if you were in the middle, not so in the back) and be a 1st class citizen (for once!) on the road rather than feeling the need to maintain a constant vigil for cars not seeing you and running you over. Is this a form of civil disobedience or are we just Critical Massh*les? To be honest, I fluctuate between both.
Lots of people taking digital photographs and using their cellphones and taking video but nobody doing this live. Imagine 5 years from now when everything is live!
My Io Gear power unit Nokia N Series power connector is flakey! Aaaargh, too late to return it too.
The N95 really isn't designed for streaming video live over a cellphone network from a bicycle. The S60 interface is designed to be used with one hand while standing still and the phone itself is not designed to be mounted on a bicycle. I would love for Nokia to build a mobile cellphone streaming device but realistically making my own with something like the Bug from Bug Labs (hopefully I'll get mine soon) will (eventually) be the way to go
IF you are a multimedia creator and a north american THEN get an N95 8GB NAM or N95-3 NAM
IF you are a multimedia creator and a european or asian (except japan of course) THEN get an N95 8GB or the original N95, the N95-1
ELSE get an iPhone 3G when it comes out
That's my capsule review of the N78 :-) What can I say? I am spoiled by the iPhone's ease of use and wonderful application environment and the N95's wonderful 5 megapixel camera and video! And with the N95 coming down in price, I can't recommend the N78 (which except for the GPS being faster seems like a downgrade!).
DETAILS:
Pricey at $US 500 for the N78 NAM (NAM = North American 3G version), especially when the the N95 North American is $469.97
Only 3 megapixel camera on the N78 (but it takes greatpictures but not greater than the N95!) unlike 5 megapixel camera on N95
Camera is slower to focus (even in fixed focus mode) than N95 which means more blurry photos
N78 Keypad is awful, number keys are fine but the Green and Red Keys are very difficult to hit consistently
S60 3rd Edition FP2, the OS on the N78, has hardly any real improvements. I'd rather have an simplified, easier to use UI than FP2's eye candy. I'd also rather have a phone that doesn't reboot like the N78 did on me (could be due to the Nokia Sports Tracker beta I was running but all the S60 phones I have used since 2004 randomly reboot). Please make S60 more stable!
N78 Lanyard/strap clip is cool.
N78 GPS seems faster and better at getting a satellite lock.
Video is only 15fps unlike the 30fps on the N95 (and the difference is noticeable!)
After 12 hours with a borrowed Rogers N95 8GB NAM, my conclusion is still to get an unlocked one!
In short, the Rogers N95 8GB NAM is:
The Multimedia creator phone that N series users the world over have learned to love. Great camera and great video!
The S60 interface we have come to love/hate which is hard to use as all N series aficionados know.
Rogers has put their bogus "deck" in the web browser and Vision software on their version of N95 8GB NAM and it's just as suspected, unusable and totally superfluous. Change the home page and don't use the Vision app; none of it's any good!
It's the Rogers Data plan that we have all come to love. Danny who set up the phone, was told by a Rogers CSR he could get a 1GB data plan for $100/month which contradicts the $65/month 1GB PC Card plan that Alec Saunders got from Rogers. Inconsistencies 'r Rogers! Or is it a deliberate attempt to confuse customers by telling different customers different stories about data plans?
I love my iPhone (which I paid for with my own money and am still glad I did) because:
it's beautiful and so is the interface
the web browser is great, gmail and google reader work well
the switching between WiFi and EDGE is seamless
SMS interface is great, so it was great when I was out of Canada and didn't have access to affordable data and wanted to communicate with fellow SXSW attendees
the voice call interface is great
I hate my iPhone because:
the 2 mega pixel camera s*cks
no video, i need video!!!!!!
it's closed at the moment so there's no ShoZu, I need ShoZu! I am addicted to ShoZu's ability to post photos of the kid to my private flickr account and other pictures to my public flickr account
If the iPhone had a 5 megapixel camera and video and ShoZu was available for it, I'd switch in a heartbeat and use it all the time for everything. As it is the phone in my pocket is my N95-1 provided by the Nokia Blogger Relations program (thanks!) and the phone that i would buy with my money if I lost my iPhone and N95-1 would be one of the N95 North American versions.
Having said that I also have a love/hate relationship with my N95-1
I love my N95-1 because:
It runs ShoZu which has literally changed my life. The ability to "photo-document" my life in real-time has been and continues to be amazing. And if ShoZu ever integrates with Twitter and gets Facebook status updating working, I'll never have to use SMS again when I am in Canada which would be no big loss since I am not a fan of SMS (or paying for messages, I just want to pay for the bandwidth I consume, SMS rates are a ripoff.)
It's "open" (since you can only develop 1st class applications using Carbide which only runs on Windows and uses the archaic and silly C/C++ combo, it's not fully open in my book; the whole certificate model and the fact that the amazing hardware on great devices like the N93 is crippled by missing certificates for Python so you can't really access the full power from more modern and dynamic programming environments like Python means Python et al are second class citizens on S60)
I hate my N95-1 because:
S60 is not truly open (see the Python problems mentioned above). Hoping for a re-focus around a Linux core e.g. using Maemo from the N770, N800 and N810 Internet tablets.
S60 is clunky, hard to use and a maze of twisty little menus and apps are constantly moved around each firmware release. I have taught many people who just got their S60 phones how to use their devices. you don't have to do that with an iPhone which while not perfect is much, much easier to use.
It doesn't have enough RAM so ShoZu occasionally hangs and a reboot is required (granted this has become a lot better in the latest N95 firmware updates thank goodness!)
The display is too small. As big as the iPhone or VGA please!
A wee bit late to the party: yesterday I received an N95-1 from Nokia Blogger Relations (thanks Andy and Comunicano and Nokia; I'd love to do a N95-3 comparison since I've already managed to run out of memory just running the web browser, something which I think is solved by the increased RAM on the N95-3).
I am enjoying the EDGE (anything's better than GPRS) and the WiFi and I have some video hijinx in mind which require a 4GB micro SD SDHC card. Anybody know where I can get this in Vancouver, Burnaby or Richmond (the usual suspects: Future Shop, London Drugs, and NCIX only have 2GB micro SD cards)?
I know I can mail order but I would like instant :-) gratification. Leave a comment or call or IM me please.
shutter lag is less, still too much lag in general (sensor turn on lag, focus lag and shutter lag)
I seem to get more out of memory errors on the web browser than the N93 browser
Video stabilization like the video stabilization on the N93 doesn't seem to do much
I prefer the larger keys on the N93, but love the N95 compact form factor
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
DemoCampVancouver03 was the best yet. Action packed, full of humor and great pitches and with the added bonus feature of BattleDecks! (Google Dogs and USP 2.0 will live on in infamy for those present :-) ! )
Here are the N95-1 videos (almost as good as the N93 but still great quality for a cameraphone!) I took (some of them are truncated due to me having finger problems due to non familiarity with the N95).
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
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
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!
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!
EDGE s*cks but just like on the N73 less s*cky than GPRS
Video seems just as good as the N93
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 :-) )
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)
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:
The double slide *does* appear flimsy as reported by many others
It is much lighter than the N93
Limited battery life reported by others hasn't affected me yet
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
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
Love the hardware volume keys (which I believe the N91 had)! Wish the N93 had that.
Love the smaller form factor. Don't miss the optical zoom of the N93 yet.
Menus changed yet again on the N95 versus the N93. It's a bit disconcerting but not hard to find where things are!
Screen seems sharper
Photos seem better. Need to compare with N93. Haven't tried a video yet
