3 posts tagged “nokia”
Bah, in the face of imminent competition in the GSM market Vodafone (currently the only GSM carrier in NZ) has today announced they will begin to lock handsets from May 1st. There will be a $50 fee to unlock the phones.
This is what Paul Brislen (Vodafone's external communications manager in NZ) had to say on it:
Hi all,
Vodafone’s mobiles are sold exclusively for use on Vodafone New Zealand’s network.
From 1 May we are locking new handsets to our network. All new handsets sold will include information about handset locking and how to unlock handsets.
Locked handsets can be unlocked for a fee of $50.
This is being done to protect the customers’ experience of the Vodafone brand. Vodafone brands its mobiles with both the Vodafone and Vodafone Live! look and feel. If a customers takes a Vodafone mobile to another network, the customer won’t be able to access the Vodafone experience and services.
Cheers
Paul
He posted this at the Geekzone forum (it's pretty cool that he posts there, I must admit that, although there are direct benefits to him also). The comment I made there is that its not the lying that hurts, but the credit he's giving our intelligence - I mean "this is being done to protect the customers experience". Spin-doctoring at its finest - this is being done to make it difficult for people to jump ship pure and simple.
Mark my words Vodafone - if your competitors about to enter the market offer better data plans you may well see an exodus.
The upside is that I can now start selling my services unlocking Nokia's - thanks for putting some money in my pocket Vodafone!
To New Zealand readers: you can get a slice of that pie too - I linked to instructions for how to debrand Nokia's in my post on GPS in N-Series devices in NZ!
Hi all,
Just a very quick post regarding an update to Nav4All (one of several download-maps-as-you-go styled GPS softwares).
I received an email this morning from Nav4All to let me know that they have now added New Zealand maps support to their service.
You may be thinking "So what? I already have google maps, and MGMaps installed on my phone for that". Well here is the thing: Nav4All has voice guidance - a rarity for this style of free-GPS software.
I've yet to try it, having just received the email from them - but rest assured I will give an update once its installed and running replete with screenshots!
Ricky Cadden over at symbian-guru had this to say about Nav4All - bear in mind that the software has been through a couple of iterations since then and you may its performance improved over Ricky's experience.
I see a few others around the net have been posting up their wishlists for Nokia in 2008, so I thought I would follow suit with my own list for what I'd like to see happen to N-Series devices. Anyways, enough with the preamble, here they are in no particular order:
Optical zoom on flagship N-Series devices. There are a few solutions out there that could facilitate the inclusion of optical zoom without blowing out device size - click here for a discussion of one such solution.
Xenon flash and lens protection standard on all high-end handsets.
Snappier UI in general, but with particular emphasis on the camera application.
Larger, higher resolution screens - N-Series iterations sporting the touch interface should meet this need.
A flagship level N-Series QWERTY please! For my money the Helio-Ocean styled QWERTY 'landscape slide' is the best option as it doesn't destroy the aesthetics of the form-factor. Just make sure the top row keys are nicely accessible, its a simple thing, but a design error that crops up with stupifying regularity from a myriad of device manufacturers nevertheless.
Improved TV-Out implementation - would be really nice to have the ability for users to select the TV-Out resolution for applications. I use my N95-1 quite a lot for the productivity side of things, I'd really love to be able to view/edit word/excel/powerpoint/PDF documents and browse the web at a decent resolution.
More RAM. Now don't get me wrong here, the increased RAM that Nokia began using in response to criticisms leveled at the N95-1 is great and now multi-tasking is a breeze. . . but. . . you still can't watch a full length movie at 640x480 via TV-Out without problems. I'd really like my N-Series device to be both my homes multimedia hub, and my portable movie player, but as things stand this isn't a reality.
Please release the NGage platform in 2008. Please?
While on the topic of NGage - please ensure the release of some games that utilise the 3D acceleration of the higher-end NGage handsets! I understand the need for initial releases to capture the largest potential user-base, hence the inclusion of the N73 and so forth, but I want eye-candy! In all seriousness though, capturing the hardcore end of the gaming spectrum, and winning some credibility for the platform and mobile gaming in general requires this.
The corollary to that last point is that a commitment should be made to include 3D acceleration in the hardware of all future N-Series releases.
Keep improving the S60 UI, there are plenty of small optimisations still needed to really hone the end-user 'out-of-the-box' experience. Little details like the new text message alert actually displaying the name of the sender, or using the same method to exit from every application really make a difference for users - particularly the less tech savvy.
Improve the backup process. I'm certainly not the only person to have mentioned this recently, but having to reinstall all your software after a firmware upgrade is a real hassle, to mention nothing of the problems faced if a user tries to restore their phone settings across a firmware upgrade.
Improve the build quality. Based on my experience with the N82 at Nokiaworld, I'd say the Nokia has taken a step in the right direction in this area, but there is still a ways to go. While the N82 doesn't creak and feels nice and solid, it still feels like a 'plasticky-toy' in your hands, which is not what users are looking for in a device of that cost. Perhaps the S60 Project Managers could take a look at what the S40 people are doing? The S40 handsets shown at Nokiaworld were rock-solid; I can't say how much I'd love my next N-Series phone if it felt that like in my hand. Let me put it this way: Darth Vader wants an N-Series with metal construction - fail him at your peril.
Here's a particularly 'kiwi-centric' wish: Maps updates please! The NewZealand maps are terrible, which is a huge turn-off for new N95 owners here, many of whom purchased their N95 largely on the basis of its GPS functionality. I spoke with the person manning the maps display at Nokiaworld, and he basically just pointed out that Nokia contracts a third party to produce the maps, so he couldn't give me any timeframe around updates. His advice was "just keep checking". This is unacceptable! While responsibility for the actual production of maps may rest with a third party, the overall responsibility for the end-user experience must reside with Nokia. If you talk with users from affected countries, even ones who understand where the maps originate, you won't hear them cursing a third party - its Nokia whose image is tarnished by this. Take note Nokia. For good measure I might mention to this Chad Darth Vader. . .
Well, thats it. I don't think theres anything too demanding amongst that list, and with luck Ovi and the S60 touch UI will bring about the fulfilment of many of my wishes.
Obviously I welcome comments, so tell me, what does your N-Series wishlist look like for 2008?
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