James Powell from the Talk About Nseries blog has found a PDF document highlighting the differences between the N95, N95 8GB and the N96. No surprises here, but analyzing the document reveals a few interesting details. First of all the document indicates that the N96 includes A-GPS, but that it has an improved antenna. Another interesting detail is that they mention that the N96 has “Enhanced Audio Quality.” But it’s still unclear whether they are referring to the Digital Audio Processing for music playback or that audio-recording during movies has been improved. The N96 also appears to have the ability to natively playback WMV and WMV-DRM (finally!) But the most interesting information has got to be the fact that they indicate that the N96 will have an effective transfer rate of about 50 Mbit/s, 10 times faster than the N95 8GB and N95 which is a huge improvement over current devices on the market. It’s something that we’ve been complaining about and I’m glad to see the the official numbers. I do have to say that the real-world transfer on the N95 8GB is more around 0.8 to 1Mbit/s (the document mentions 5Mbit/s) which I think should put the real-world transfer of the N96 more in the 10-15Mbit/s range which is still pretty fast.
Archive for May, 2008
Kishonti Informatics, the guys behind JBenchmark have released their latest benchmark in the form of JBenchmark SVG.
The new version features:
- Heavy load on animation, DOM access and modification, spline and polygon rendering
- Mapping test
- User Interface simulation
- Font rendering
- Gaming
- Cartoon animation
- SVG load and parse test
- Low level performance tests
What’s cool about the JBenchmark series, including the new JBenchmark SVG, is that you can customize the benchmark by choosing what subtests to include. These subtests are like small test benchmarking your Nseries performing different tests like gaming, cartoon animation etc. and upload the results and compare to other devices.
If you’re interested in more graphic-intensive benchmarking you can always try the Futuremark’s SPMark for Symbian OS or Nokia E3 Tech Demo. The hardware-accelerated Nseries are known to ace these test, but how do they perform in 2D, animation and mapping tests?
Point number 2 of my recent post: “The 10 reasons why the N82 isn’t perfect ” mentions that something that the N82 lacks are media keys. This got me thinking: On sliders like the N95 it’s been pretty much solved by doing a dual slide design which houses media keys, but how should these be implemented on a Mono block device like the N82?
1. Slide-out top-mounted media keys: The N95’s slide-out design works perfectly, so why not do the same for a mono block device like the N82? This could be done by having a small slide-out portion at the top of the device.
2. Traditional side-mounted keys: This is probably one of the more traditional ways of adding media keys: placing keys on the sides of the phone. Peter Rullmann from the Humane Computing blog suggests that side-mounted media keys on the mono block devices like the N82, would Not only to control the music player but also to start a voice recording.
3. Sliding front cover. A similar idea was implemented on the N91 and N91 8GB which in fact were candybar devices with a sliding front cover.
4. Stealth keys surrounding the D-pad, which were implemented on the N81 series of devices and soon to be released N96.
In my opinion the raison the etre for candybar devices is having a sturdy and compact devices and having slide-out (point 1) and slide-to-cover solutions like the N91 (point 4) would work well, but would add unnecessary moving parts which candybar lovers are VERY sensitive about. Stealth keys like the N81 don’t work so well as it all has the be pushed into a very tiny space and it also increases the chance of accidentally pressing the wrong keys. Based on this, I would say that tradional side-mounted media keys stay true to what candybars are all about, while still adding the convenience of media control. What do you think is the best way of implementing media keys on a Candybar design like the N82?
Over at Allaboutngage there’s a well-written article indicating something that I personally wasn’t aware of: your N-Gage library is locked to the original handset forever. I always thought that my purchased games would somehow be linked to my N-Gage account, but as it turns out getting a new phone means losing every single purchased game! The article goes on suggesting that Nokia should fix by either doing game activation by consulting Nokia’s servers or Linking games to a single N-Gage account, and linking that account to a single phone. Personally, I won’t be making a single purchase until this is sorted. What do you think? How should the N-Gage system deal with game purchases, activation and transfer?
The N82 is in my opinion currently one of the best multimedia-oriented smartphones on the market, doing everything a N95 or N95 8GB can (sans the slider of course)in a more compact, go-anywhere-do everything package that’s also sturdier due to the candybar design. Its design doesn’t scream “smartphone” like the N95, which should allow it to appeal more to the general market. Not bad neither that it has one of the best cameras on any smartphone, including that wonderful Xenon flash and the impressive low-light performance. Despite of all these notable attributes, it’s far from perfect and here are 10 reasons why.
1. No Optical Zoom: The N82 has the aspiration of being and even replacing your digital camera, but lacking Optical zoom means that you’re pretty much stuck with the digital variant,which by now we all know is pretty much useless. Lacking Optical zoom still means that the N82’s plans for digital camera domination will be cut short.
2. No Media keys: Having a smartphone means doing many things at once. A lot of times, playing music is going to be “one of those things” and the lack of media keys mean constantly having to open the Media Player to control your music, instead of just pressing a single button.
3. Lack of micro-USB charging. Having the ability to charge via USB not only means one cable to take along, but also charging while transferring data, especially during those firmware upgrades or those long first-time music-sync sessions.
4. micro-USB and charger connector Placement. The micro-USB and charger connector should be placed at bottom phone. Both of them get in the way when I’m talking on the phone and charging the device at the same time.
5. Small screen. Ask any N95 user and they tell you that one of the things they miss is the large screen, which does come in handy when viewing videos or pictures. While sliders have the advantage of being able to house larger screen, on the N82 there seems to be a lot of empty space to facilitate this. Making the phone bigger to achieve this would also seem like an understandable compromise.
6. Speaker placement. The N82’s speakers work great when held horizontally, but try playing your tunes while holding the device vertically and you’ll quickly realize how your hands actually cover the speakers. The placement of the speakers on the N95 works a lot better, but a combination of both should work best.
7. Slow USB transfer. Based on these simple test here, it shows that the transfer speed on the N82 is painfully slow. You could always take out the memory card and use a card reader, but that would defeat the all-in-one purpose, wouldn’t it?
8.Lack of optical Image Stabilizer (IS): Adding Optical zoom means more chances of getting blurry shaky images, adding IS should help a lot.
9. No QWERTY. Not only business devices should equal QWERTY. A N82 with a side-mounted slide-out QWERTY keyboard would be killer.
10. No Flashlight: One thing I liked about the N93 was the fact that you could use the flash as a flashlight and just like the upcoming N96 you could use it during the video recording.
For those of you waiting for the N78, it seems that wait might soon be over as the N78 support page is now up on the Nokia Europe site. If you’ve followed previous Nseries devices before, you’d know that the support page going up usually means that the product should become available in about 2 to 3 weeks. In the mean head on over to the N78 support page where you’ll find demo’s, tips & tricks, software etc.
The N95 and N95 8GB are the loudest in the Nseries when it comes to stereo speaker performance. For this reason many of tend to forget the portable speaker and just use the N95 series of devices to fill a room with our favorite tunes. Here’s a little tip that just might help making the experience a little bit better. For a long time Home Theater enthusiasts have been using a room’s walls and corners to aid in optimizing the sound produced by speakers and subwoofers. In the case of subwoofers it’s sometimes recommended to place them in the corner to effectively increase the output. In the case of bipole or dipole speakers the walls again play a great role as to how the sound will be affected. Applying these techniques makes the already impressive sound output on the N95 series even better.
Next time you want to share your music with other in a room, just place the N95 standing upright on a flat surface in front of wall or even closed windows. This will effectively help to better spread the sound and slightly increase the volume. The effect is even more dramatic when the N95 is placed in a corner. Corner placement also seems to enhance the deeper tones of a song. Try playing your favorite tunes while standing in the middle of a room, now place the device in front of a wall or corner. Hear the difference?
In basic terms Cloud Computing refers to the notion of running applications and services in real-time, even your storage from somewhere in the “clouds”, with such a “cloud” being massive computer servers linked through an internal corporate network or the public Internet .Many believe that this is where the PC is heading and with current Nseries being categorized as multimedia computers, it doesn’t take much to realize that the same could be done on our mobile devices. With this in mind, can you imagine future Nseries devices with applications, storage or even the entire operating system stored not locally but in the “clouds.” Logically a dependable, constant and fast connection would be critical, but it’s not something that can’t be done with current technology. Such a system could have many benefits that include greater computing efficiency, accessibility of data and applications from anywhere or any phone. Lose your phone and it’s just a matter of disabling your account on that phone and enabling all your settings, apps and operating system on a new one. No worries with Software or firmware updates as these would automatically be applied once runned.
Other benefits that you could think of include cheaper devices, due to the fact that most of the “computing” is done by the servers, self-healing in the sense that in case of failure, there will be a hot backup instance of the application ready to take over without disruption. You could even think of having virtual desktops, or in our case stand-by screens or better yet, several virtual operating systems running at the same time, all handled by the servers. This would do away with having to worry about signing applications or even installing them, the application would immediately be there on a rent-to-use or pay-once-to-use models. When it comes to storage it would come down to how much space do you need with no traditional memory cards to worry with. Taking an 8GB microSD card on a trip and worrying that it might fill up could be a thing of the past.
What do you think? Is Cloud Computing the future?
One of the tips in the first part of Getting the most out of your Nseries’ camera was setting the Flash to “On” during the day. It may seem to conflict with logic, but it actually helped to brighten up the subject and expose more details, even during the day. Today’s tip is exactly the opposite and just like the previous one it might seem to contradict common knowledge, but in certain low- shots it actually helps to turn off the flash. As with most cameras, the Nseries device’s cameras are set at default to fire the flash in low-light conditions. The key to doing this is settings the flash to “Off” instead of the default “Automatic.” Doing so will allow the camera to capture the natural light of the scene, instead of the artificial light from the flash that sometimes can ruin a picture by taken away the “mood.”
The example below is a simple way of showing this: by turning the flash off, the candle’s dramatic and romantic light is captured creating a specific mood. The picture with the flash set to on shows a lot more details, but lacks the romantic light effect.
UPnP was introduced to the Nseries on the N80 and since than has been used on numerous flagship devices, including the N81, N81 8GB, N82, N93, N93i, N95, N95 8GB and upcoming N96. Simply put, UpnP allow you to: copy media files from your PC to your phone or the other way around and display images and video stored on your phone using your PC, all done wirelessly over WiFi. Ewan from Allaboutsymbian has written a must-read on how to get it up and running using the built-in Windows Media Player.
Ewan points out a very big shortcoming of the Windows Media Player software: “While we can browse music via sharing Windows Media Player on our device, without installing a third party plug-in you won’t be able to control it from your handset.” This feature has been available from day one on the very first UPnP-enabled device: the N80. The key to using the Nseries device as a wirless remote to control your music via UpnP is getting the right software and in this case I can recommend SimpleCenter, a piece of software that might be familiar to owners of the N80 or N93, as this was included on the install CD and is mentioned on the N80 support page. SimpleCenter comes in a free and paid version, but the basic one should enough for most, including using your phone as a remote. SimpleCenter can be downloaded here.
