24 hours of highlights with the Nokia 5800

[slitchfield]

My smartphones are usually geared around helping me work - email, web, IM, and so on. But every once in a while, real life intervenes, with family visits (in this case) demanding a complete break from work activity. And yet my Nokia 5800 turned out to be a star performer in everyone's eyes rather than a geeky 'Steve's trying to work when he should be chatting' electronic toy. Somewhat surprisingly.

Read on in the full article.

[alistairj]

Interesting article, Steve. Touch is taking over...
re. Nokia Maps "but it's still the best mobile sat-nav for me". Better than TomTom? TomTom seem to have given up on S60 but I thought that navigation was still a lot better than Nokia Maps (in the UK at least)?

Personally I think the best bit of Navigation Software for the S60 is NavMii - www.navmii.com - It's very similar to Tom Tom and optimised for the 5800 too. Also cheaper than Nokia Maps! I reviewed it on Nokiaaddict.com here - http://nokiaaddict.com/2009/05/25/re...-nokia-5800xm/

Kip

The great thing about a 5800 is that it makes the bridge between a smartphone and a normal human beings phone, it's just a phone that does all the good stuff if you want, but not a social crutch like some I could mention.

[rvirga]

Originally Posted by alistairj

TomTom seem to have given up on S60

I don't think it has given up, but rather removed duplicate product offerings (Nokia might want to try that sometime ). As you probably know, TomTom has acquired Tele Atlas, which still makes one of the finest S60 navigation programs, McGuider, available both for 3rd and 5th edition (yes, they started supporting the 5th edition in an update, even if it might not be clear looking at their web site).

[garbleart]

Good article Steve. I rate Google Maps as well, just used it to plan a small holiday break. I'm in a similar place with the Nokia 5800, I wish the camera was better but its good for most purposes.

[morpheus2702]

Great feature Steve. Certainly shows what the 5800's camera can do given the right lighting conditions.

Just wondering why you didn't use Nokia Maps to search for the Spanish campsite?

[timsalmon]

...and the future of streaming/downloading?

As for S60 devices, I've really appreciated being able to download and play-when-I-fancy iPlayer stuff on the N96 and (more recently) 5800 but the real power of this service is clearly going to be when I can actually *keep* it. I enjoyed downloading 'Survivors' and more recently 'Reggie Perrin' but once the period of time allocated has expired, it's gone. Rafe has explained in the (recent) past about the reasons for this after meeting the responsible bods from the BBC, I recall, but surely we must get past this?
I might be old fashioned (for now) but I still like 'collections' and 'owning' stuff. This is the reason I still have a Sony DVD/HDD Recorder - so that I can record/burn TV shows that I want to 'keep forever' on a DVD - which, incidentally, I have done with Reggie Perrin and now have a permanent record of it on DVD. (BTW - it's not a patch on the original, but still, it's fun!)
On iPhone, it (as Steve mentions) streams and does a good job of that (as long as one's connection is sharp - I have 1MB download at home and 8MB at work and that's a *huge* difference in streaming terms. At home I often have a 'break' in delivery).
My O2 SIM-card now dances regularly between the iPhone and E71/90/5800/N96 and I can't decide which is 'best' for my needs on an hourly/minutely basis!
I love the Apple 'way' with apps and super multimedia connection with iTunes - and most of it 'just works' but something in me just keeps jostling back to S60. Maybe that's just the 'SIBO/EPOC factor'?! The biggest challenge for me just now is that the iPhone works beautifully with Facebook and Twitter and Audioboo and although there's a Facebook client/link on the 5800 and a Twitter 'link' for S60 (unless you want to pay £8 for Gravity) there's no way of recording audioboo submissions on a S60 phone - unless you know better! And it's all just 'links' and not 'apps'.

Time I slept! Night!

Tim

[slitchfield]

Yes, wish there was a proper Facebook client for S60 - inexplicable how noone's come up with one so far.... Maybe the N97's Facebook widget can be extended downwards?

Oh and don't baulk at Gravity's £8 cost - it really IS *that* good. Just buy it. Twitter on your phone, definitively and natively.

[malbry]

As for S60 devices, I've really appreciated being able to download and play-when-I-fancy iPlayer stuff on the N96 and (more recently) 5800 but the real power of this service is clearly going to be when I can actually *keep* it. I enjoyed downloading 'Survivors' and more recently 'Reggie Perrin' but once the period of time allocated has expired, it's gone. Rafe has explained in the (recent) past about the reasons for this after meeting the responsible bods from the BBC, I recall, but surely we must get past this?

I have a 5800 and don't bother with the in-built iPlayer for the reason you describe. Instead, I download onto my PC or Linux netbook using iplayer-dl (Google for it) to save a local copy without DRM. Since the 5800 doesn't natively support Quicktime mov format (which iplayer-dl uses), I run the file through VLC to convert to mp4 format. The resulting file plays perfectly on the 5800, and is great to watch while commuting.

Best regards,
Malcolm

TimSalmon, I believe that recording and keeping TV programmes is illegal in the UK, you may use your DVD recorder for time shift purposes only. If you want BBC programmes to keep forever then you need to purchase them on published media. So, buy the Reggie Perrin DVD box set when it comes out and convert it down to mobile.

Of course, everyone is legal right........ ahem.

Originally Posted by slitchfield

Yes, wish there was a proper Facebook client for S60 - inexplicable how noone's come up with one so far.... Maybe the N97's Facebook widget can be extended downwards?

Oh and don't baulk at Gravity's £8 cost - it really IS *that* good. Just buy it. Twitter on your phone, definitively and natively.

Gravity might be an excellent peice of programming, but Twitter itself is useless and pointless.

If the developers of Gravity could apply their talents to something useful then that would be great.

i dont know if this is of any help to anyone
but my mates 5800 has a facebook app installed(seems to be through the fw tmobile uk
ironically enough mine has myspace....and for the life of me i cant seem to get facebook!)
there is also a mobile widget through yahoo go! where facebook
can be added but just as a widget....its actually pretty decent....
hope this helps someone....

someone asked steve why he didnt use nokia maps to search for the address of
his sister in spain.....im not sure if this is the reason, but maybe steve didnt have
spain as one of his downloaded map data?

i do agree with what steve outlined.....the 5800 seems to
be a hybrid between a smartphone and regular phone....
i commend nokia on finding such a balance with the device...
its good enough to keep regular users happy as well as us geeks
(as we geeks cant complain when we buy it as we know its limitations)
but regular users are quite happy with this "feature packed phone"....
then throw in a price of sub £200 pounds and well weve got more sold than
mcdonalds!!!! lol

[timsalmon]

Originally Posted by slitchfield

Oh and don't baulk at Gravity's £8 cost

...ah, before I do that I must decide on a device to focus on or it's £32! ;-) I have used the demo on the N96 and it is good, you're right.

But I still say that even with the luxury of a big (touch, if you like - personally I gravitate more to the N96 than 5800) S60 screen, if you want to do web-surfing for anything other than a quick-check, the iPhone can't be beaten (at the moment) so our previous combination support for both is a good idea for those who can afford it. An iPod Touch is only £150 now so it needn't be expensive to do. Incidentally, contrary to what Maemo fans say, the N810 (though technically superior) is not a patch on the iPhone/iPod Touch in terms of slick usability, speed, scrolling and zooming. Using the N810 is just a cludge for that purpose. And I haven't even started on games - as covered in your recent article!

I will say one thing further to emphasise my previous point, that the N96 gets much more SIM-time than the others and for some reason, the restrictions of not having QWERTY and no touch-screen don't seem to matter. I would prefer that the keypad had raised keys, like the N95 8GB, and I'd prefer to have the 1500mAh of the E71 (incidentally, don't bother to try getting the 1200mAh battery of the N78 and 'trim it down' as instructed in various YouTube assurances - it doesn't work - you can't close the back up) but there won't ever be a perfect device, as we keep saying to each other time and time again - until we're blue in the face!

Anyway, I drivel on... I'm sure I'll be touting device sales on twitter soon myself, too!

Tim

[timsalmon]

Originally Posted by malbry

I have a 5800 and don't bother with the in-built iPlayer for the reason you describe. Instead, I download onto my PC or Linux netbook using iplayer-dl (Google for it) to save a local copy without DRM.

That sounds interesting - I'll take a look. Thanks Malcolm.

Tim