Tag Archives: mobile

N95 8GB v31 Firmware, The Aftermath

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Image showing the Nokia N95 with slide opened
Image via Wikipedia

Slightly dull albeit useful post, just upgraded my N95 8GB to the latest firmware. Here’s everything I now have to reinstall or setup with a wee description.

Mobbler - last.fm client
Viewranger - OS Maps with GPS support
Large Clock Screensaver – as it sounds, makes for a much handier quick check if you’ve received a message.
Twibble – Twitter support, including ability to use twitpic and include gps location.
Mobipocket – for when my Sony Reader is too bulky, and I want to read something interesting.
Location Tagger – Automatically GPS tags any photos I take.
pyPozmonica - use your phone as a spirit level, amazingly handy
Mobitubia - a YouTube client, very handy for showing odd videos to folk from time to time. And for impromptu sing-a-longs. (was going to link to Joe’s Quantum theme but it’s gone missing, natch).

And new this time Noka Maps 3 complete with 3D bridges… not so sure about that particular feature, but terrain mapping on demand is handy. Indeed, the 3D tower bridge looks… terrible.

So with all that on there is the N95 “what computers have become”. In a word, no. For one thing I don’t risk destroying a computer completely when I patch it against a security hole. For another it’s not reliant on another machine to get patches applied. I could go on, but for every minute of use I’d had from my mobile I’ve then had a couple more minutes of reboots, freezing and irritating hassles like the screen dying for no apparent reason.

Still, could be worse, could be an iPhone. (ducks)

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Flickr Furtherance

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Further to my recent post on my flickr profile I’ve been hard at work trying to organise and sort my photos. I noticed that I’d got slightly hooked a while back on grabbing letters so I made a set called Alphabet, and submitted a couple of photos to group called One Letter.

Wasn’t expecting this, and am most amused:
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Of course, if I can find an E then I can spell theft in my set as well. Though I do like such a creative reuse.

What happens when I watch one thing…

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So Ian (whose fault it usually is) sends me a link to this nifty video of tilt shift shenanigans in motion video form.


Beached from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

I realise I rather like the soundtrack and google it finding out that it’s by Sonido Lasser Drakar who have an album on emusic.

And before you know where you are you’re listening to an electro remix of the Knight Rider theme.


Pontiac Firebird by Sonido Lasser Drakar

Just a normal evening in really. One of these days a similar link from Ian will push me over the edge and I’ll given in and buy either a Pentax K20D or a Nikon D90.

iSulk

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Compare and contrast:

Marketing blurb for the 160gb ipod:

Decisions, decisions. Who needs ’em? Why should you have to choose what to put on your iPod? With up to 160GB of storage, iPod classic lets you carry everything in your collection — up to 40,000 songs or up to 200 hours of video — everywhere you go. In a completely new, even thinner, all-metal design, this iPod is a modern classic.

And now for the 120gb ipod:
(freshly announced and replacing both the 80gb and 160gb models)

With 120GB of storage, iPod classic can hold up to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video, or 25,000 photos. That’s more than enough room for a day’s — or a lifetime’s — worth of entertainment.

Yes folks, I was quite looking forward to Apple’s announcement this week. See, I think now that my Rio Karma seems to be unable to play a song without skipping, keep the battery going for more than 4 or 5 hours and crashes every so often that it could be on the way out. Now, those of you who know me well know I’ve had a large mp3 collection for some time, indeed for so long as I’ve had one it’s always been larger than the biggest mp3 player on the market by a factor of about two:

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(some figures estimated, I’m not that anal!)

Now, I’m sure I could get by with 120gb, but it looks to me like when looking at capacity it’s going to take a few more years for flash based players to get to where we are now with disk based players. I do approve of many of the strides that Apple are making in becoming a bit more environmentally friendly after a crap start. But it does drive me a bit mental that they still think that making a piece of technology as thin as possible is more important than making it long term sustainable by having user replaceable parts.

Even the iPhone makes replacing the battery on a mobile phone feel like commiting a minor crime against the Cult Of Jobs. I’d probably overlook the reduction to 120gb if I knew I could replace the battery easily. I mean, come on, surely ipods are so standard by now that having user replaceable parts available on the market could acutally make Apple more money _and_ help save the environment at the same time. Hands up, who’d carry two batteries? In the meantime, you might just find me carrying not one iPod, but two in the near future. Unless the Zune tempts me to continue being an accidental Microsoft nerd.

And yes, I could just go and get a 160GB model, but given the low reviews on amazon and talk of low reliability I’m willing to guess Apple have decided that particular model was too unreliable to stick by, fortunately Toshiba’s 240gb HD is meant to be somewhat lower in power usage and heat dissipation than it’s 160gb predecessor, so maybe it could be in a nice shiny new player before Christmas when the prospect of long train journeys will finally make me crack and buy something. For now, I’ll content myself with the 3000 songs I’ve stuffed into my N95, though AAC HE has some artefacts, there’s not so many that it annoys me when listening for short periods.

Daphne Oram's Oramics

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Absolutely brilliant documentary on the Radiophonic Workshop last weekend, which I missed (well, it was on Radio 3) and have therefore just listened to on the iplayer, Wee Also Have Sound Houses. Focusing on Daphne Oram, one of the founders of the Workshop there’s lot of interesting tales of the early days mixed with appreciation for these pioneers from Mira Calix and a few others. Her primary interest, from as far back as the ’30s, was in converting images to sound, something she achieved using her Oramics machine.

You’ll have to hurry to listen to it, though, because our beloved BBC takes it off the iplayer at 10:32pm on Sunday 10th August exactly. Is a week really long enough to keep this stuff up for a public service broadcaster I wonder… anyway, do hurry and listen. In the longer term, the BBC Programmes page should list any future broadcasts, shame you can’t sign up for an e-mail alert for future broadcasts… or even request.

Now to order a copy of her album, though I’m not sure why HMV makes a lewd suggestion when I search for it there (though amazon is similarly clueless)…

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…so it appears to be only really availabile online via Boomkat in mp3 or CD.

There is a bit of Oram on Late Junction from Wednesday as well, skip to 57:40 or so – youve got longer to listen to this, until 1:02am on Thursday 14th August. And if you want to read up even more on her work there’s a lengthy article from Hugh Davies on sonic arts network in the internet archive.

Obligatory Zero Punctuation Praise Post

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I’d be failing in my duty to you all as a “hip” “young” “blogger” who plays “video games” if I didn’t heap praise on the wonder that is Zero Punctuation, a series of flash video delivered reviews of Video Games which essentially revive the spirit of classic Your Sinclair/Amiga Power/Digitiser (new?) video games journalism and merge it with a rapido style fast delivery and cheap animation.

It’s genius.

So, I’d recommend you watch this round-up of the current consoles:

There’s a new review every Wednesday, here’s another favourite of mine reviewing Medal Of Honour Airborne:.

"Tired of using technology", you say?

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Then why does the bulk of the song (other than the amusingly terrible lyrics) consist of a C64 loop being pitch shifted up and down (and badly at that!)?


50 Cent AYO Technology feat Justin Timberlake

On the plus side, the instrumental version is a great example of how to integrate chip music into a modern sound. Though for me I’ll still look to the likes of Kelpe and 8bitpeoples for my fix.

They Might Be Geeky

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There’s a really good two part interview with John Flansburgh (of They Might Be Giants) over at GearLog which lets him ramble over all kinds of technical topics. Most interesting of all is his talk of the early days of dial-a-song, their pre-answering machine phone service allowing their fans (and just the curious) to call and hear their latest songs. Kind of a proto-myspace.

The thing that was interesting doing Dial-a-Song was that we could find an audience in the daytime. They could experience our music at their jobs, on the phone.