Phones Show Chat 2 and the Nokia N97

[slitchfield]

In Phones Show Chat episode 2, AAS's Tim Salmon and I chat about software issues in the Nokia N97, have a few jibes at the iPhone (always a somewhat easy target, I know, but...) and manage to bring quite a bit of Android to the party as well. See also the RSS feed for this new audio podcast.

Read on in the full article.

This one's even more boring than the first, the only good thing is the improvement in the audio quality.. Stick with your 10 min videos

[slitchfield]

Sorry you found it boring. It's meant as a fairly cosy chat between two geeks that you can have running on your phone while you get on with something else. So it's probably not aimed at you.

It's also an experiment. The UK hasn't really got any phone tech audio podcasts that I know of, I was hoping this might start to fill a gap. I could be wrong, of course. 8-)

[rvirga]

The audio quality is excellent this time.
I have to agree with Unregistered above: it's still too long. It's longer than AAS Insight, and here you don't have Ewan's humour to keep us awake. I would suggest that either (a) you do more frequent, ~15 min podcasts (you can record two or three at a time, if it is more convenient to you and Tim), or (b) invite Ewan!

[Ratkat]

I found it quite interesting, and the length was fine.
A few things though.

1: Can you put the new podcast on iTunes?
2: sorry Tim, but the N97 always had the standard email client built in, Nokia messaging was only an installable extra, which to be honest works appallingly.
3: the call quality issue on the iPhone has less to do with the phone and more to do with the O2 network, I run my iPhone on Vodafone and call quality is as good as any of my Nokia's, but on O2 it's a problem for sure.
4: I get great battery life on my iphone 3gs, at least 50% more than I ever got on the N97, and I hit it pretty hard with calls, texts and a lot of wifi use.
5: Nokia multimedia transfer works great with the N97, the best way rather than using the phone fill up option, is to great a playlist in iTunes and then transfer that via Nokia multimedia transfer
6: the continuing lack of an iSync plugin on the N97 is due to a change in Nokia's implementation of sync, even third party developers can't create an iSync plugin, unless Nokia 'fix' it there will never be a plugin.
This along with the lack of c drive memory were the main reasons I dumped the N97.
7: the video recording on the iPhone 3gs is the best of any phone I have ever used, the original N95 comes a close second though

[sapporobaby]

Great post ratkat. I agree with you 100000%. I too had an N97 and returned it. My reasons were the same as yours. The firmware, USB and BT are so screwed up that 3rd party developers are no longer even trying to develop plugins or software for it in the Mac community. If Nokia does not fix it, there will never be a way to make it work with a Mac. When I turned mine in, my friend in the flagship store told me that Nokia is getting quite many phones back for various reasons. It looks like the N97 is a flop in some respects. As for syncing media, the NMT is not the most reliable. I used Salling Media Sync which works better, is more reliable, and most of all, is not made by Nokia. Correct again about the call quality if the iPhone. I am using mine on Sonera in Finland and it works great. Even using AT&T, and T-Mobile in the US produced great call quality so Tim's point is moot. The iPhone email is great and the battery life is much improved. All in all, right now Nokia does not have a really viable touch screen match for the iPhone. The Nokia phone that I am very pleased with is my N86. It works well, the camera is great and will get better with the next version for sure. Why does Nokia need three updates to fix things when Apple can generally release a pretty near flawless device out of the gate? I guess I will just have to use an iPhone along side my Nokia because to rely on Nokia would be foolish.

P.S. The podcast was pretty good. It could be a bit shorter but the sound quality was very good. You can publish to iTunes Steve by clicking on a link in iTunes and then point to the link.

[timsalmon]

Originally Posted by Ratkat

I found it quite interesting, and the length was fine.
2: sorry Tim, but the N97 always had the standard email client built in, Nokia messaging was only an installable extra, which to be honest works appallingly.

Yes, you're right, of course it wasn't omitted from Messaging in ROM but the point I was making was that (recently) when you download and run the installation of the Nokia Email app, via Software Update, it just makes *another* mailbox *inside* the 'standard' Messaging client, whereas, it used to provide a 'standalone' front-end (like is still does in the E52).

Thanks for your useful feedback. We are going to be putting the podcasts onto iTunes but I think Steve thought that it would be better to wait until there's more than just one or two shows to start that ball rolling...

[timsalmon]

Now managed to find a route to get the 'new flavour' Email app back onto the N97 - http://email.nokia.com/account/home.action - still taking up 2MB of C: space, but at least it's there.

Edit: 54MB free RAM after boot with (new) Messaging running.

I´m ok with the length...i liked it alot

Thanks boys, the sound was much better on this cast.
I would love to hear a comparison between Nokia’s E series and Blackberry’s, I am utterly divided on which to go for Nokia or RIM.

[timsalmon]

Originally Posted by Unregistered

Thanks boys, the sound was much better on this cast.
I would love to hear a comparison between Nokia’s E series and Blackberry’s, I am utterly divided on which to go for Nokia or RIM.

Thanks for the encouragement - I'd love to have a BB in my hand for more than a five-minute-outing with a friend's! I guess that from your comment you're talking about a non-touchscreen BB v Nokia E71/2 - as the E series/BB won't try to compete with the Storm/E71/2 (particularly if you exclude the lack of WiFi!)
I'll try and get my hands on a BB so I can pass judgement!

guys,

enjoyed most of the podcast but just ran out of time to listen to it all and didn't go back.

liked the pickiness about the phones, all the little things that annoy. but personally I would prefer a 20min max chat.

thanks,
dj