Colin Charles Agenda

As more of my tech-savvy friends start purchasing Nokia E61i‘s, it only makes sense for me to actually document my experiences with the phone. I’ve had the privilege of using it for a few weeks now, and find that its rather useful for a lot of things. The SIM in it belongs to the 3 network, so I might be able to provide some war stories of the network, as well.

The Phone
Build quality looks pretty good. Its quite wide, but is thinner than my Nokia N73. Both phones fit quite nicely in my pocket, side-by-side. It comes with a wide screen (display resolution set at 320×240 pixels, with 16 million colors), that makes it very efficient for web browsing. The QWERTY keypad is a more efficient way of entering text, and you slowly get very used to using your thumbs for text input. I guess if you’re a Blackberry person, the E61i is a no-brainer.

Its a Series 60 phone. 3rd Edition. The edition is important, because a lot of freeware you see out there might only be compatible with the 2nd editions.

The Camera
There’s a camera, rated at 2 megapixels. No flash in sight, and there’s no cover for the camera lens (like on the N73), so eventually its probably going to get quite scratched up. The camera is nothing to shout about, its actually pretty weak in comparison to what the N73 can offer. I’ve been taking a few photos with it, so don’t hesitate to check the NokiaE61i tag on Flickr, to see the somewhat horrendous quality of photos.

It also does video, and like all modern 3G mobiles, its meant to allow you to video-conference (i.e. make video calls). I’ve never found the video call feature terribly useful (having it for over 3 years), except when shopping last month. Since there’s no camera on the front, either you see whom you’re talking to and let them see what you’re pointing your phone at, or you turn it around and your other party sees you and you don’t see them. Not very intuitive.

My conclusion is that the camera is a gimmick. Look at the quality. It doesn’t go far. Its just there to be like all other phones that are being sold. Don’t use it if you can avoid it (I know I can, since most times my N73 is in my pocket).

Bluetooth
Worked without a hitch. I’ve sent images to Linux and OS X, and there was no problem whatsoever. If you need to find out the Bluetooth adapter’s MAC address, enter *#2820#. On OS X, when you add a new mobile phone, it also automatically asks if you’d like to configure it as a modem for data transfer. I declined, and will look into using the E61i as a modem later.

WiFi
Connected to several WiFi networks successfully. 802.11g, 802.11b, WEP keys, WPA keys, MAC based authentication, it has all worked for me so far. If you need to find the MAC address of the wireless adapter (its on your box), enter *#62209526#.

SIP (and VoIP)
The phone natively supports the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). So all sensible VoIP providers, including your Gizmoproject account will work, natively on the phone. Once configured, you can receive incoming phone calls on all your active SIP profiles, however, you can only make Internet calls via your currently active SIP profile (you can check which this is via Menu -> Connect -> Internet tel.). The only way to change it is via the Internet tel. option as well.

I have been told that SIP should work on any WiFi network. I’ve tested it on two access points (an old D-Link and a Linksys WRT54G) and since I know my router allows SIP traffic, it worked. I did attempt trying to connect on another network, which was based on a Netgear router – I failed. More extensive testing is clearly needed on this feature, and I’ll report back when I have more information.

You can’t initiate in-phone SIP calls via your 3G/GPRS connection. It only allows you to connect via a WiFi access point. You can work-around this via Fring (as some countries have unlimited data plans, making all calls over SIP might be cheaper).

Proof that Google Maps Satellite View is ancient (~3 years+) – my house doesn’t exist!

Essential Software
Considering you have access to a WiFi connection, there are bits and pieces of essential software that I have installed:

• Fring – If you need Skype, or MSN, this is clearly a useful application to have installed. The current version (3.02 – built March 15 2007) is a little buggy – i.e. it doesn’t allow you to increase the volume, so Skype calls are painfully soft. This is fixed in Fring (at least on some platforms) and will make its way for Series 60 3rd Edition (Symbian 9) phones soon enough.
• Gmail – I don’t use my Gmail account much, but I can see it being useful for some emergency emails and so on. Most people are hooked to their Gmail accounts, so this is probably a must have.
• Google Maps – This might not be so useful if you’re not in a location that allows for Google Maps, but in Australia, the maps are ready and excellent (at least for Melbourne). Real-time traffic doesn’t work, but its impressive nonetheless.
• Screenshot – you want to take screenshots of what’s on the screen if you plan on writing about it later.
• jmIrc (screenshot)- because there are times you may be bored, and want to hop on an IRC network. It doesn’t look like the official version supports SSL (so getting on some private networks are impossible), but I’ve seen a version floating around that has built-in SSL.

Driving directions, assuming I’m GPS-less

Bundled Software

• Beware RealPlayer. By default, it wants you to connect via your mobile Internet settings. Change this if you’re not on an unlimited data plan, especially if you’re going to be playing with m.youtube.com (YouTube Mobile).
• Flash Player is pretty stock.
• WidSets – for the life of me I can’t figure out its usefulness. Maybe someone else can tell me what its good for?
• Email via built-in messaging – works a charm, speaks IMAP, and I’ve written an email or two when I’m on the road.
• Web browser – does what its told to do. Will crash if you try to load a Zimbra login page (because its so huge). Has the ability to bookmark, and my most viewed sites are probably m.twitter.com or google.com/reader/m. Google’s Mobile Calendar is useful as well. The browser renders websites pretty well, but you also then realise that the web itself, isn’t made for mobile devices (that rant for another day).

WidSets

What else is there to look for
I personally would like a mobile blogging tool. Maybe if I took a photo, I’d like that uploaded to a blog, where I write about today’s zeitgeist. I’m unsure if Azure is a good tool, or if KABLOG will even work on the device. Bonus points for supporting multiple blogs and multiple blog APIs.

A tool like GAIM Pidgin that supported multiple IM networks. I’d ideally like my AIM, ICQ, MSN, Yahoo!, Gtalk, Jabber all in one.

Planet 3 to actually work. This isn’t a phone problem, its a 3 problem. They do browser detection, and if you didn’t buy a phone from them, they just disable your access to Planet 3. Seems kind of daft, but at least for my main usage, I found a solution on the Web (see what my monthly account usage is like).

I have yet to try out SSH (via s2putty) or even the new Gizmoproject client for the phone. There’s bundled QuickOffice, though I’m unsure of its usefulness. Syncing always gives me nightmares, and its not something I’ve attempted (or honestly want to attempt); I think the future of syncing will happen via the Web, so maybe ShoZu for contact backups? Are there more cool software packages to try out? I have no (or limited) interest in commercial software, free and open source is preferred.

Technorati Tags: nokia e61i, e61i, nokia, review, phone, mobile, camera, cameraphone, bluetooth, wifi, sip, voip, google maps, gmail, fring, jmirc, widsets

The other day, my friends and I decided we’d like to participate in a video-conference. At this point, I was the only stumbling block – the Luddite on Linux, with Skype 1.4 Beta, and no webcam. I proceeded to move to my Mac OS X powered laptop, that are all now coming with built-in iSight’s (and thinking back, I’ve been Intel-Mac for a little over a year now).

Shiny happy people, video-conferencing

Guess what? Skype does not do multi-party video-conferencing. Sure, you can do multi-party voice chats (these work on Linux too, obviously), but they only do one-on-one video conferencing. This is where Global IP Video comes to the rescue… In a nutshell, its a Flash-based application that harnesses your webcam and allows multiple parties to video conference. From what I gather, it doesn’t do voice – for that you still need Skype.

Everyone else had no problem working it, except me (as always, the non-Windows running person). To make Global IP Video work with the iSight, you need to right-click the Flash application, click Settings, then go to the 4th tab, which has a graphic that represents a webcam. Choose the appropriate Camera – for the built-in iSight its USB Video Class Video. Close the tab, and like magic, you’ve got a working webcam now!

The correct Camera allows everyone to video-conference

Bandwidth usage for both video and voice seemed to taper around 20-30KB/s, so you have a pretty clear picture that video is taking about 15-25KB/s. Everyone was on a DSL (or Cable) connection of some sorts, and this spanned countries far and wide. No real delay in the video, so we were all pretty impressed.

Update (09/09/2009): Removed the link to Global IP Video because the service is no longer available.

Technorati Tags: voip, skype, video-conference, video, conference, video conference, macosx, windows, linux, flash, global ip video, ip video

Vertical advertising. I just stumbled upon The Problogger Job Board. They advertise it as such: post a job ad, for 30 days, at only $50.

People that visit the Problogger website, or job board, are definitely bloggers. Visiting the latter, means they’ve bought the hype that they can be a professional blogger, and make a living out of it. So what better way to hire journalists. Professional bloggers are no different to writers in a newspaper, magazine, and so forth. Turnaround times are quicker, the idea of formatting is probably a plus, but generally you’re a writer.

The FAQ lists the 37signals Job Board – $300 for 30 days. They’re a company that came to popularity thanks to a good blog, and Ruby on Rails. People that read the 37signals blog are probably programmers and developers that have an interest in cutting edge technology, are ready to improve, and possibly the cream of the crop. Or at least thats what they want you to believe. 37signals also does the ultimate geek thing: their job board has an RSS feed. And an amazing live search. And if you’re a contract killer just up for a contract, there’s always the Gig Board.

All this made me want to check out Joel on Software’s Jobs page. After all, thats another popular blog, and when you read the RSS feed, you get thrown ads about job offers. Joel’s demands are greater – USD$350 for 21 days. There’s even a rationale as to why 21 days, and he makes The Fog Creek Promise – unsatisfied with applicants, get a refund. The Jobs page also has an RSS feed. And they require the company name – talent have a right to know whom they’re going to work for.

So if its not been obvious, here’s the pattern – write amazing content for your readership, get them hooked, and tell advertisers only the best read your writing. Then, sell advertising (in the form of job ads). Joel/Fog Creek are bold – they even offer a refund.

MySQL have had a jobs forum for ages. It is advertised as a “forum for companies looking to hire MySQL talent”. It contains a hodgepodge of people looking for work, and people offering work. Nothing ever expires, there is no barrier to entry (its completely free to make a posting), there is an RSS feed, and the job ad itself, has “no format”. Do you think the MySQL Jobs forum should change? Should there be a barrier to entry – a simple charge, but a guarantee of better applicants? Requirements can be made clearer, there could be better search, and it probably should not be a forum, per se. Would you pay, to have an ad for 21-30 days, to hire top MySQL talent?

Technorati Tags: jobs, job boards, gig board, mysql jobs forum, online job boards

As more and more people get on the Twitter and Facebook bandwagon, advertisers are bound to crop up. I bring you, a rather devious ad company, Twitcash. Everytime you place an ad on your “stream”, you get paid per follower, per post on Twitter, and per friend, per feed item.

Granted, its not easy to get followers (on Twitter) or friends (on Facebook) unless you actually have interesting content or really, real friends.

Will Twitcash take off? Are you willing to risk your friends being annoyed by your adverts? Somehow, I doubt someone “un-friending” you on Facebook for an ad or two (similarly with Twitter). On Twitter, you can just “leave” the person, yet be a friend. On Facebook, there’s a good chance you’ll miss the ad, amongst all the folk adding (or removing) applications :)

I think this is just a start of the market, for advertising firms to look into the next generation of advertising. For instance, no one paid me to get blown away by the Heinz ad on tv last night. But I Twittered it, and blogged it. And therein lies what an advertising company should be looking at if they were to start a marketing campaign.

On another tangent, I for one think Friendster is nearing the end of its life, with Facebook being the clear winner. However, reading today’s newspaper, it seems that it still gets 22.5 million visitors monthly. ” It is also the top site in the Philippines and the No 2 site in Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia. It has a strong presence in Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Macau.”

Technorati Tags: ad, advertising, twitcash, twitter, facebook, social networking, friendster

I don’t normally get excited by seeing an ad on television. In fact, I don’t normally watch “live” television that has ads in it, to begin with. But on this cold day in Melbourne, I was blown away by the Heinz soup ad.

I found that in 2002 Slate had an article about this exact ad. Leo Burnett/London created it, and I’m wondering if they’re reusing it or its just reached Aussie shores. A must read, Ad Report Card: hot soup, cold comfort.

Technorati Tags: heinz, soup, ad, instant gratification, 2 minutes, hot soup, cold comfort

Like many out there, I’ve got an itch to check out what OpenSolaris has to offer. With DTrace (something I’ve played with extensively in OS X Leopard betas), ZFS (something that might show up in OS X for file system storage), Zones, and a whole bunch of other features, I’d be a luddite not to check it out.

But I must admit, Sun has got a way of confusing you. Going to the Downloads page tells you that their main intent is to confuse users. How am I supposed to choose between Solaris Express Community or Developer edition? The former is updated every other Friday, does that necessarily turn me on? Then there’s NexentaOS and the like.

Who distributes operating systems in segments? Sun do!

An OpenSolaris newbie like me, ended up picking the Community edition as well as NexentaOS. I think I’ll get them to dual-boot on my soon-to-be-dedicated Solaris box. Now, once you’re done getting their Community edition (the Sun download system doesn’t allow you to get all 3 segments at once as well, mind you – you’re limited), all 3 1GB zip files, you get the pleasure of unzipping each and every one of them, and then (get this, its really funny), use cat to make them into one large DVD ISO.

Apparently I’m not the only one who thinks this sucks. Ian Murdock has adressed this (or well, is open to comments on how to address this). Glynn Foster has also spoken about building the community mojo – Ubuntu’s ShipIt program was a great success, maybe Sun should consider this for OpenSolaris? Time-based releases are better than “builds every other Friday”. Take a cue from Ubuntu’s download page. Redmonk’s Stephen O’Grady has his traditional Q&A on Project Indiana – a must read.

Technorati Tags: opensolaris, sun, download, community, silly download mechanism