Chris Drumgoole

That may be true, at least when it comes to technology.

I bought a Nokia N82.

Oh, here we go….

What happened to the iPhone idea? Well, I’ll give you the short straight-to-the-point explanation so as to avoid boring you to death.

First of all, signs aren’t pointing to a complete solution to unlocking the newer iPhones by this Friday. It may happen, but I don’t want to risk it. The last thing I want is to go to the U.S. this Friday (yay!), buy it, and then, just look at it for a month while I wait for the crack.

Plus, it looks as Apple will be releasing a minor and major update to the iPhone in 2008. (yes yes, you can end up waiting an eternity for the “right” gadget”)

So, I pretty much nixed that idea over the weekend.

I was pretty happy with my N95, really…. Especially with the latest firmware, it was pretty speedy. BUT, I couldn’t buy the same one. So I was looking at the N95 8GB model - more SDRAM, larger screen (but same resolution as Dutch Tom brought to my attention), better external key layout, and a cool black color.

But, I would have to spend around RMB 5,000 for it. Do I really want to spend that kind of money? It is awfully bulky, too.

Eureka! I remember a former sort-of colleague of mine, Michael, was looking at the yet-to-be-released Nokia N82 (this was back in November or October of this year).. He eventually settled with the iPhone (whcih kind of started the whole iPhone thing for me…) and couldn’t be happier, from what he has told me. Michael: feel free to leave a comment trashing the iPhone…

I did quite of research yesterday on the N82, including comparing it with the N95 8GB. The essential comparison points for me are (in favor of N82):

• Smaller screen size, but same resolution
• Not as bulky
• Same processor and SDRAM (whcih is a major improvement over original N95)
• Same camera
• BETTER flash - Xenon!
• All the other bells and whistles, GPS, etc.

So, the N82 is essentially the N95 8GB, just repackaged as a candybar, and without the restrictive 8GB of memory (you can get 8GB microSDHC cards now, so this is a moot point).

Best of all, the N82 is priced RMB 3,900 here in Beijing.

As a tradition of mine, I went out during lunch today to buy it, you could say, on impulse.

First Impressions

1. Solid as a rock! The build quality is way way improved over previous N-Series devices. (Ok, it’s a candy bar, but, hey….)
2. The smaller screen with the same resolution improves visual quality.
3. The keys are small! I need time to get used to these…
4. The flash is sweet!

Ok, that’s it for now. Will post some more info about it later…

So I guess I should retire the ‘ol “N95″ category for this blog.

“Wait, What?!”

…you may be asking yourself… Yes, I did just buy it in June of this year, so that’s… 5 months and a few days of ownership. Man, I think that’s a record for me!

Here’s the reason:

I want an iPhone. There. I said it.

My dutch friend (yes, the fact that he is Dutch has just about zero relevance here) accused me of “flip flopping”. Yes, I would agree with that….

I went from using an Apple for my first computer, to hating Apple, to buying an iPod, then Airport Express, then a Powerbook, to hating Apple again, to installing Linux on my Powerbook (a post is in the works), and now back to wanting to get an iPhone.

Can I not just make up my mind and stick with it?!

Simple answer: No. With technology, I cannot make up my mind. 

Great, but didn’t I just buy the N95? Money don’t grow on trees, son!

Read the title of this entry: I sold the N95 for RMB 2600 (yes, he did a good look over today and found all the nicks and scratches….). I’ll be in Portland, Oregon on the 21st of December. I’ll buy the iPhone there for US$399. Tax free. That’s around ~2950 RMB. So, it’s a NETT ~300 (depending of exchange rate fluctuation from now ’til then) for a new phone.

The ONLY two things I am going to miss are the 5mpx camera and the GPS mapping. But I can live with that. I have a nice 6mpx Canon point-and-shoot, and maybe I’ll get the Garmin Nuvi. Maybe not…

China don’t have no 3G, so don’t need that shiz.

One of the things I critisized theiPhone was in the past was the lack of earth-shattering technical advances - specifically that it only packed 2.5G (Edge).

The N95 worked on just about any network available on earth. quad band GSM, UMTS, WCDMA, X59TQP, AJAX75, POS1000, whatever blah blah. (Ok, not the U.S. 3G network, but I don’t live there, so…) I now realize: who gives a crap!? I don’t travel much outside of China…

Seeing that China won’t be getting 3G (or at least a western-standard for 3G) any time soon, it doesn’t make any difference.

Also, let’s not forget that Beijing just upgraded to EDGE. So the iPhone fits perfectly here.

So, Chris is a Mac geek now!

Not so fast there. I am perfectly happy with my Linux set-up at home. I still don’t like OSX, for various reasons. And I still don’t support Apple’s sadistic genius business model(s), as a consumer, that is.

But remember - I won’t be using the iPhone in the states. I’ll be hapilly using it, unlocked, on the China Mobile network. No profit sharing from me! I’m sticken it to the “man”!

Google’s new mobile client for Google Maps, Google Maps Mobile, is pretty sweet. It’s now native on the S60v3 devices (whcih my N95 has).  It also has a pretty neat feature called “My Location”.  Now, with the N95’s internal GPS turned on, it will show you pretty darnd acurately where you are on the map (or satellite image).

If you don’t have GPS (or turn it off), then it will, using the cell towers, give you a chabuduo (translate: close-enough) location.  While at work, I did a quick test:

The image on the left is a zoom-out, the image on the right is a zoom-in.  The dot in the center is where it thinks I am; but in reality, I’m at the 6-o’clock position at the bottom of the blue-tinted circle.  So, that’s probably somewhere around a half kilometer off.

Oh well.  Close enough, eh?

I couldn’t wait any longer. I bought a N95 (actually, I bought it on Tuesday, just took me a while to post about it).

Some initial thoughts:

1. Camera is really nice

2. GPS is slow as a dog

3. I hope the new firmware (to be released soon, I hope) that supports A-GPS will work in China.

4. I use Shozu to upload my photos to Flickr. It seems that setting the “reduced to web” function strips out the camera type field int he exif tags. This is annoying. And VGA is too small.

5. Battery life is horrible. I am currently developing a “continuity strategy” to ensure I always have a working phone.

Well, that’s it for now. Bottom line, I’m a fan.