I’ve got an S60 mobile phone (the Nokia N82). This application, JoikuSpot, when installed on my S60 device, creates a WIFI Hotspot which shares the GPRS connection. I can then connect to this hotspot using my iPod Touch while, oh, sitting in Beijing traffic!

This solves the only real complaint I had with the iPod Touch (no bluetooth for internet connection sharing).

Rocking!

Buy Data!

Those of you in China, be sure to buy a data plan from China Mobile or China Unicom! Otherwise you’ll be surprised with a rather large bill at the end of the month (or your employer will be surprised, which ever the case may be).

I have the 100RMB a month for 800 MB of data. I’ll monitor this to see how it goes. I hope this is enough…

Some Initial Concerns

As this is “beta”, there are some deficiencies worth mentioning. First, the hotspot it creates doesn’t have any security yet. Yikes! Joiku, the software maker, states future versions will add security. Let’s hope this becomes a reality sooner rather than later. Second, I am curious what the battery consumption on my N82 will be after a 30 minute cab ride. I’ll report back if I notice any excessive consumption. What’s probably more of a concern is me hitting, and then bypassing my monthly limit of 800Megs.

GigaOm suggested not to use this application unless you had a nice 3G service for your phone. But in actuality, now that China Mobile has Edge, the speeds are acceptable, at least for the time being.

Here are some screenshots I created from my S60 device:

It was a very small download and quick install. It automatically placed the icon in the Applications folder.

After running the application, it first asks whether you want to share your connection. When you select “yes” it will ask what connection to share. For me, I shared the “CMNET” connection (note, this is only valid for China Mobile).

Now, you can see the Wifi Hotspot is connected and available for your device(s) to access.

After selecting the JaikuSpot Wifi hotspot on my iPod Touch, I can began accessing Websites. On the phone, it shows you how much data is being sent in both directions.

You can also see what devices are connected – a useful feature, at least until security is added to the app.

Oh, and it seems that Shozu is getting much better at geotagging the photos automatically!

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…