Guest writer Nick Raets (raets.nl -usual character
here- gmail.com) was tremendously impressed by his new Nokia N95 while on
holiday recently. Sensing a kindred spirit, I asked him to list some of the
uses he put the N95 to. We hope you find them of interest!
Over to you, Nick:
Marking your car park spot
 The new
Maps 1.1 (linked here, as the official
download appears to have vanished temporarily) with firmware 12.0.013 is
perfect. It is so fast (with the Assisted GPS system) that you can mark the
place where you park your car, without your family getting annoyed by the
delay.
Every day I saved the parking spot as the "date.x" (as you
can see I was near the Belgium coast (in Knokke the entire beach has wifi which
can be used for VoipingCheap).
Taking great photos
Returning home, I have a lot of pictures. Nicer ones than
on my standalone camera because these photos capture the right moments, because
the N95 is always around when I need it. Back in my hotel I used the TV-out
cable to show off the photos and videos from each day on the hotel room
television.
No laptop needed!
I also used the TV-out facility for a better screen for
keeping in touch with the world. With hotel Wi-Fi and the Nokia Wireless
Keyboard I was able to surf the Web and respond to my emails just as if I was
at home.
Beach music
On the beach, I listened to music (with the BH-501
Bluetooth headset). Nokia really knows what people want. I now 'get' the
funny movie about other
equipment attacking. I have now ordered the 4GB memory card and think this will
be sufficient for me.
Battery life
I didn't have any major issues with this, but for 'power
jobs' you should definitely stay 'cord-on'. While navigating in the car I
always use a 12V car power lead, and for surfing on the web in my hotel room, I
also plugged the charger in. With these precautions, I had no problems each
day.
Overall, during the week I made over 300 photos and
filmed for more than an hour. I also had push-mail (Seven AOMIE) on all the
time and used VoIP (VoipCheap) whenever I could find a free Wi-Fi router (often
near internet- bars or where MGMaps indicated a Fonero).
The battery of the N95 is, even with the new gadgets, much
better than the battery of the N80 ever was (even on firmware 4.0x etc.)
 Video watching
We tried to watch a movie using the N95 in the hotel room
when nothing was on the television. Unfortunately, the beta DivX player had too
many sound sync issues (it kept getting behind). Maybe I should try SmartMovie
or the Nokia Video Manager for my next holidays.
However, my wife did enjoy Steve's
Smartphones Show programmes 38
and 39, which I grabbed via Wi-Fi. The Smartphones Show can be viewed perfectly
on the N95, but it's even better when watching on a TV screen (with friends)
using the TV out cable.
Photo reminders
I did take pictures of flyers (not for 'ScanR-purposes',
but as a reminder) and of the odd menu (a great way of taking a menu back to
the beach to read to other family members).
 Staying up to date with RSS
After using Widsets for a while, I changed to Opera,
mainly because the RSS feeds are sorted on time and make nicer (and more
versatile) reading. Keeping up to date with feeds is great if you have to wait
(while shopping with your wife).
VoIP and Skype
Fring is nice on holidays for checking who is still in the
office and for texting them (Fring "skyping" is no option for me, because both
ICVM and ACM use the APS 2.02- server instead of the 2.31-version Fring uses
(you can still text though and see who is online (and call them with the
built-in VOIP of the N95). Install Fring (loose the APS 2.31) and install ACM
again, done.
[editorial disclaimer from Steve - I have absolutely no
idea what much of the last para meant - just ignore it if you don't recognise
the acronyms either!]
Where did we travel?
I also used Nokia's free Sports Tracker (from Download!)
to see how far some journeys really were (instead of the mileage mentioned in
the walking/cycling journey-guides). We were able to view our walks and
bicycle-rides on Google-Earth when we got home.
Karaoke galore!
Finally, even the built in Music-Player and LCG-Jukebox
(again playing through a nearby tv-screen/speaker) were used for an evening of
Karaoke with (new) friends and family.
Thanks, Nick. And to think I thought I was a
power user! What a great N95 tale and quite thought-provoking!
All text (C) Steve Litchfield, Nick Raets, 2006, 2007 |
