Monday, July 6, 2009
Nokia 5800 - All is forgiven
Well, I have been using an iPhone for the last month, and I have to say that although the user interface is better than the Nokia 5800, there are fundamental things that are wrong that stop it being my main mobile.
First, the crippled bluetooth. If you own a Mac, and have any other phone with bluetooth than an iPhone., you must try BluePhoneElite. It connects to your mobile and allows complete control over calls and text messaging (SMS). When someone calls, BPE puts up a message telling me who the caller is, and an answer button. You can even use the microphone and speakers built-in to your Mac as a hands-free kit. Texting now works like iChat, and has a threaded list of texts. A real killer app once you've started using it. Of course, because of the iPhones lack of bluetooth profiles, BPE doesn't support it.
Video over 3G. I can watch BBC1, BBC2 and BBC News (and other TV channels) on my Nokia 5800 through the 3G network. Last weekend I was watching the tennis at Wimbledon whilst my girlfriend was shopping. It is a very useful feature. Unfortunately, Apple bowed to AT&T and only allows such apps to work through WIFI. Why does the rest of the world have to suffer because of AT&T?
Hopefully, Apple will make bluetooth and network access work as expected when their exclusive deal with AT&T comes to an end. Until then Nokia 2:Apple 0.
Labels: 5800, Apple, BBC TV, BluePhoneElite, Bluetooth, iPhone, Nokia
Sunday, May 24, 2009
More Nokia 5800 Annoyances
Now here's a really stupid one. I have my 5800 on a mount in my car. I am using either the SatNav or listening to music. The phone rings. I press the on screen button to answer the call, and the call screen disappears and goes back to the one I was on before receiving the call.
Why is this stupid. Well, I am in a moving car and want to use the speakerphone facility. Only now, the button for the speakerphone is no longer available.
Nokia really screwed up this one.
By the way, this is on the 5800 with the V21 firmware update.
Labels: 5800, Mobile, Nokia, S60v5
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Nokia 5800 Annoyances
Further to my recent post about Nokia's 5800 touch screen mobile that's their answer to the iPhone. I have found that when I'm using an application, such as the built in Sat Nav and the mobile rings, as soon as I've pressed the answer button I'm taken back to the application instead of staying on the call screen. This means that I have to switch applications back to the call screen to turn on the speaker, which I use when I am in my car. This is a really annoying feature, and one that I hope Nokia fix in a future firmware update.
I have seen pictures that purport to be the firmware from Nokia's N97 ported to the 5800. It appears to let 5800 users rotate the home screen, which we can't do at the moment, but could do on my Nokia N85. It appears to be a more refined version of the S60v5 operating system on the 5800. Hopefully more information will come to light about the hack that allows this soon.
Labels: 5800, iPhone, N85, N97, Nokia, S60v5
Monday, April 13, 2009
Nokia 5800 Mobile Phone
Not having O2 where I live, and not wanting to jailbreak an iPhone, I have opted for a Nokia 5800. Using mainly Macs myself, I have found that it syncs to a Mac very well. Nokia have done a good job with their Mac software, and they have iSync conduits for all their compatible phones available for download from their website.
The interface isn't quite there yet, but overall I am impressed by the S60 touch interface that Nokia have implemented on the 5800.
Having such a large screen is great. It is excellent for watching programmes from iPlayer, films etc. It is also good for showing more information than a smaller screen mobile, such as when viewing calendars.
So far, for such a cheap phone, I can highly recommend the Nokia 5800 if you have a Mac.
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