Technology Impresses Me 0 comments

One of my mates got himself lost on Sunday trying to find somewhere. Despite him having GPS on his Samsung Tocco Ultra he thought we would ring me due to having 1 bar of battery left. So here is me driving no maps or anything in my car (why do you need maps when you have Sat Nav? OK don't answer that). So I pull over by some shops and get to work. I find the place he wanted on Google. Then opening up Ovi Maps on my N97 I found the area and where he was. I rang him and gave him directions. But then I found you could save the map as an image and MMS it. So I did.

As a result he got to where he wanted in one piece. Stringent GPS. Maybe I should start a paid for service!

I downloaded Google Maps for my N97 and it seems to get a lock quicker than Ovi Maps. So I am thinking maybe my GPS unit is OK in my phone, its just that Ovi Maps isn't as it should be.

My love-hate relationship is continuing with my N97. When it works its brilliant, but it suffers from mood swings when it will not do what it is supposed to or just crash. Still not convinced by the N900.

Can it Be True? 0 comments

Can you fall in love with something (or someone!) despite hating them/it before?

I have seem movies where enemies have developed a grudging respect for each other (3:10 to Yuma springs to mind) but in real life?  I speak of course about the Nokia N97. Mine doesn't seem to have had all the issues others have had as the lens scratching. The GPS is a little flakey, especially when I try the 'walk to' navigation it goes to try to install something after a little while then comes back onto the map, your route wiped. Very odd. It does still misbehave, but yesterday using it quite a lot, web, tweets, email, text, calls, camera etc it never hung once. Sure it was sluggish, but it worked and worked. Could I have done all that on another phone? Well Gravity is my twitter client on my N97 and its the best mobile Twitter client out there IMO. I am setting aside Tweetie on the iPhone for a min. To be straight in some respects Gravity trumps that too.

Do I like my N97? I guess I do now. But I still won't recommend people get one. I had a student who had a 3 branded one. It was STILL on v10 software. I said to her to come up. I checked for an upgrade and the latest version 3 had released was v11. Not even v12. I think that is horrible considering I am running v20. Yes its debranded, but a lot of people are beginning to see v20 on their phones, the unbranded SIM free ones anyway. I was surpried she managed to put up with it.

So my Nokia N97 works. Its taken what, 8 months to get here? Should have been like this from day 1. What on earth do Nokia do in their test labs?

Vista Loops 0 comments

For those of you still having to come into contact with Vista, have you ever had it where you install some updates and it restarts and just continues to loop round and round? You get the Please Wait, then configuring updates 3 of 3 stage at 0% then bionk your computer reboots?

Well the solution which worked for me was not to do a system restore, but it did involve the Vista CD so have one handy. Go into the setup and when asked click repair computer link and load up command prompt.

Now you need to navigate to your C:\ drive, then Windows directory, then WinSxS directory (remember your basic command line commands?) then delete pending.xml

Restart, and hopefully that will do it.

n900 Shipping 0 comments

I recieved word on the Tweets that the N900 is now shipping. While I have almost stuck my N97 on eBay and gone for this I have learnt my lesson. Dont buy a brand new phone just as its come out. Even then would I give up my N97?

Well no. Not now. I have a grudging respect for the device. I dislike liking it. I know thats a U turn in a way. Since v20 its working better. Not perfect, not quite a fluid touch screen as the dare I say it iPhone. I still wont recommend Nokia to people at the moment till they sort themselves out. Their devices are good on paper but in everyday use its been very shaky. The X6 is also due for release I wonder how that will hold up. Nokia have really been grilled recently. I do hope as a company they will listen more to their users and continue to iron out bugs in their software.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 0 comments

My Prestige Edition came a day early. However I didn't open it till late last night. I was considering not opening it and picking it up cheap from Sainsburys for £26.00. But I thought no, I splashed out on it, its being opened. The Vight Vision Goggles take 5 AA batteries which I scrounged out my Guitar Hero stuff. They work really well. I could see down the end of my garden pretty well.

As for the game, I didn't know about the particular scene which might cause distress. However I soon wandered into it. Yeah I can see why, and to be fair, it wasn't needed to set anything really and should have been left out in hindsight. But you know darn well people are going to want to play the whole game given the option. But this does raise the issue of game content and violence. This country has become a police state. I wouldn't be surprised if video game content will be filtered next, but I know this will bring a massive backlash from gamers. While I am not going to get into the ins and outs of it here, do I want my content filtered? No I am an adult and can censor what I want to.

Onto the game, its brilliant. The gameplay is spot on so far and the story mode is engaging. I think it will be the biggest game of the year. The Prestige Edition is certainly the best edition to be produced in my mind and I doubt anything will top it. Would I spend out that much again on a collectors edition game? Depends on the game and what it came with. I probably would have got the Hardened Edition had the Prestige not been available. Its all in a nice case as well, unlike the shoddy R&C packaging.

So top marks to Infinity Ward for this one. I have yet to try multiplayer, but there are probably enough people playing it right now. I wonder how many people have called in sick today ...

Stuff in One 0 comments

7am my home. Knock at the front door. Its ParcelForce with my Modern Warfare 2 Prestige Edition. The guy said "Ohh sorry to disturb you" to which my reply was "Thats fine I should be up anyway!". So there it is, my MW2. All nice in its box. I actually don't want to take it out the box, so I'll have to get another copy. lol.

So whats really new? Nothing much, you would have kept up with my tweets on some things. I have been playing R&C: A Crack in Time recently and I am slowly getting into it. The story is well written, and at the beginning you could be forgiven by thinking its a cartoon. That is what it is, a massive cartoon. Fun, enjoyable and manic. I did say I didn't think much of the weapons this time round. I haven't unlocked any crazy stuff yet, my blaster is maxed at level 5. The sniper gun is good, but I have to unlock level 3 zoom which would allow me to take out stuff from a difference. Oh and more ammo. 8 shots isn't enough! I prefer to power up specific weapons that I like. I did say I was disappointed with the Collectors Edition packaging. I have bought 3 blockbuster games recently all 'souped up' editions. Uncharted 2, Modern Warfare 2 Prestige, and this. This has to be the worst. The only thing is one of those moving type covers (you know the ones where if you angle it away it looks like the picture moves) which were popular like 20 years ago on kids cereal boxes. The fact that its card and plastic sleeve not even a nice steel book like Uncharted 2. I think thats just bad. The extra content? To be fair I haven't looked at the A6 size book not entered the reference into PSN for extra bonus content. So if you haven't got R&C yet, don't pay the extra for the collectors edition. Not worth it.

Uncharted 2 was one of the best games I have played this year. Really enjoyed it, and I will have to come back to it at some point to revisit it. When that is I have no idea as I am busy all this week with things! I doubt I'll get a chance even to open up MW2.

So if you are thinking what game to get, there are three recommendations for you already!

Change the PS3 Slim 0 comments

I read an article on Engadaget earlier and instead of writing in the comments which are mainly long forum threads and people taking the mick I thought I'd reply here instead. What would I change about the PS3 Slim. For a start it has everything tat the previous fat PS3 had, only a re-design and larger hard drives (120GB and 250GB options). While the hard drive is now a decent size (I recently upgraded my 60GB to 320GB) there are other omissions. 2 USB ports isn't enough. 4 would be better, or at least give one on the rear of the console to plug in an external drive to it.

Someone also added they should attach an external SATA connector. Makes sense as well, but I wonder how many people actually use eSATA over USB for their external drives? Not many. I would like Sony to add the option of backing up to a remote drive over a network, like to a network share. Now thats software related but I thought I would get it in.

I still think PS2 compatibility could be done via emulator in the software. The problem comes by supporting it which is why I bet they haven't done it. Not everything under emulation works flawlessly.

Do I personally like the new design? Not really, I mean obviously if mine died I'd actually try to resurrect it first before splashing out on a new one.

Nokia - A Final Straw 0 comments

OK thats it. I am not going to recommend a Nokia phone to anyone at the moment again. I'll explain why in a minuet, but lets give you my phone history. My first was an Ericsson something. Can't remember the model number and it was before Sony and Ericsson joined forces. Next up was the Nokia 7110, yes the so called 'Matrix Phone' which it wasn't but hey. Then back to Ericsson and a T68 which if I remember the texting on that thing was SO appalling. I could text faster than it came up on screen. Then I got a T68i and sold that and got the Nokia 7650, then the Nokia 7610, then the Nokia N80, then the Nokia N95, then the Nokia N96 now currently the Nokia N97. Those were my main phones. In between I had a Motorola V3i, Nokia 8850 (for use in the US), Nokia 8250. So as you can see pretty bias there. Every time I moved away from Nokia, I said I wouldn't. Mainly because I liked the interface and was used to it. The V3i was pants, the only reason I got it was because it was slim and it wouldn't make my leg pockets bulge out in the summer. The 8250 was an Asia only phone but it was cool because it had the blue lights.

So then a very bias Nokia user here. No more. Well I say no more, I still am using the N97. Over the last few years Nokia (and other companies) have given users the ability to update their phones firmware themselves via a computer. Normally a Windows PC as Mac stuff wasn't considered back then. This stopped the endless trips to the Nokia Service Centres to get the latest updates. Even now on their phones there is OTA updates where you don't even have to connect it to a PC, you just update it using your phones Internet connection.

With Nokia releasing the version 20 software, again UK users are being forced to wait. How long I have no idea. Normally about a month, then more before the networks release their branded stuff. It has gotten to the point where Nokia seem to be releasing new devices than firmware updates. This leads people to invalidate their warranty by changing the product code of their phone just to get a 'patch' that makes the phone better. This is just poor customer service. Concentrate and sort your existing devices not announce new ones. Like the N900 is being branded the saviour really. Thats not how it should go down, fork out another £500 for a phone which works (and even then the N900 battery life is rubbish and it doesn't have MMS. Hmm sound familiar?) I though it was only Apple which conned its customers. Nokia are loosing a huge market share. Sure they are still the biggest but if they continue to stick their head in the sand or keep their fingers in their ears and sing lalalalalalala its not going to bode well for them in the coming months.

So what are the alternatives for me? Not the iPhone, sure the screen is lovely and the GUI works seamlessly, but too expensive, camera rubbish, no flash, HAVE to sync with iTunes, I can't just stick some MP3's on there and it will find them. SonyEricsson? Well maybe. Their phones seem to get good reviews, the Aino has peeked my interest. Forget Samsung and LG. Clunky UI and just really really rubbish. My mum has the Tocco Ultra. Its naff. Lasts about 12 hours, and I can not find anything easily in their silly menu system. Plus the touch screen is very bad. That really leaves one thing, Droid phones. TBH HTC phones are ugly. REALLY. I mean they need to get some decent designers on those things. Even the new Motorola one isn't a looker, they are more PDA like than phone like. The N900? its a Nokia, and I don't like them at the moment, plus the lack of MMS support and the probable lack of software updates for it has put me off too.

So a Driod phone or another SonyEricsson phone. My contract comes up for renewal in March. I might just say, keep the upgrade and reduce my monthly outgoings I'll source the phone myself thanks. If a decent phone is out by then which will surpass the N97 on paper and usability (read more forums and blogs next time) then I might go for that.

For now the v20 software on my N97 has improved my experience with it. It needs to go through a bit more vigorous tests but so far its holding up. If Nokia get their act together, then I'll probably stick, but it won't be a Symbian based phone. BTW did you see how dead the Symbian conference was this week? I wonder why.

So what do I recommended then? Have a look at SonyEricsson or the Droid alternatives. BUT remember Android 2.0 is coming ut soon, so hold off for that unless like the HTC Hero it has been promised that it will support Android 2 and an update will come out for it. Now thats forward planning. Nice one HTC.

Nokia N97 Version 2x 0 comments

Its finally here. Nokia have pushed their latest software out to the N97, although I wonder how long it will take the UK generic phones to receive their update. It has been pushed to the generic Euro phones (of which mine now is as I changed the product code) and they can update.

So initial thoughts then. Kinetic scrolling is nice and works well. The interface is a little snappier, and most importantly, to get the alternate blue coloured characters on the keyboard you no longer have to press the function button, you just press and hold like you would on a phone. Have I got loads of C: space? No. In fact I did an upgrade and had 19.5MB left. After I cleared my Internet cache I had 25.5MB so no idea what is causing the hog.

The upgrade preserved all my settings, but it did reset my home screen to the default Junkbook and Weather so those ha to be tweaked. Oh and Messaging still reverts back to C: drive instead of Mass Memory. I haven't really put the phone through its paces, to be honest I can't remember what the bugs I experienced were. I need to try the keylock again and see if thats fixed. Seems to be OK, but time will tell if it is fixed or not.

For those of you who want an N97, still tread carfeully is my advice. If you are buying on a branded network such as 3 or Vodaphone, bear in mind this version 2x software will probably not be out till the network have finished stuffing it full of their stuff which will delay it for about a month or more at least! So stay tuned here or my Twitter for updates on it.

Food ... Lovely Jubbly 0 comments

While I am sitting on the tube waiting for the Piccadilly line to trundle slowly towards my stop I thought I would quickly review a restaurant I went to this evening. Its called Lemonia and is in Chalk Farm. Thats on the Northern Line tube for those who aren't place aware. I wasn't never heard of it. However my friend and I stopped off at Camden Town for a drink before making our way there.

The restaurant is Greek Cypriot. Have to get that right for fear of being shot at. The setting was really nice and we got there just as is opened at 6pm. We opted for the meze which is a mix of different foods ranging from humus, pita bread, chick peas to fish and meat. Needless to say it was beautifully cooked and tasted great. The service was excellent and even though later on in the evening the place began to fill up the service wasn't compromised at all. A place I would recommend. The meze was just under £19 a person plus drinks.
I don't think I could fault it. Food great. Service great. Cost good. So then a 9 out of 10 for that one. Oh company wasn't too bad either. :) We didn't have any wine or anything so cant comment on that. But they had a nice choice selection. No breaking of plates either I am afraid.

Go back? Yup. Deffo one for the revisit.

My tube is currently being held up. No idea if its going to move soon. W00T its going all the way through.