I got back from Rome earlier this afternoon. If I could find the cable for my camera I'd upload photos, but failing that I'll use a card reader to pull them off it ...
Rome was fantastic, so now I have to get geared up for Sydney ..
On the phone side ...
I'm currently using a backup phone, but can't use my E71!!
Why?
Because Three still haven't given us the unlock codes!!!
So not only did they manage to disconnect me from the world last week (and seemingly they didn't "allow" several or our numbers to be ported, so some of my staff were left in "limbo") but now I can't even use my phone!
Three win the prize for most inept and useless company I've dealt with ever. Seriously.
If you want to get a mobile phone DO NOT use these jokers!
When I got my Nokia E71 back before Christmas I immediately fell in love with the device. One of the options that we setup was MFE (Mail for Exchange) which was pretty functional, although a bit limited.
However while we were working on our Hosted Exchange service launch Paul came across a really nice bit of software that takes the E71 and Microsoft Exchange 2007 to a whole new level.
The software - RoadSync - is really cool and makes full use of ActiveSync on Exchange server 2007. Basically it means that you can get "email push" without having to spend a fortune on expensive addons for your Exchange server.
Configuring RoadSync is pretty easy. You just enter your login details on the device you're using and off you go.
If you're connecting into an Exchange Server 2007 setup, like we are, then you can turn the synchronisation to use ActiveSync, which means that you'll get your email on your phone almost instantly.
The other features that give RoadSync that extra "edge" are its support for HTML emails (MFE simply can't handle them) and sub-folder support. Since I get so much email every day I have a rather complex set of rules to filter emails off to different folders depending on subject lines, senders and addressees. MFE simply cannot deal with the subfolders, whereas RoadSync does a reasonable job of it.
All in all moving my business email onto my phone has made things a lot easier. I don't feel as "tied" to my desktop / laptop as before and can receive emails easily while on the move. While admittedly a lot of this would have been possible on my N95 the full keyboard on the E71 takes "possible" to "comfortable", which in my mind is a pretty important difference.
The only problem with any of the mobile email software seems to be an inability to handle multiple Exchange accounts, which is understandable. Unfortunately it means that I can't move my personal email onto our Hosted Exchange cluster, which I wouldn't mind doing ...
Since upgrading to the E71 I've found myself using online services on my phone a LOT more. There are two reasons for this:
The data plan we are now makes it a loss expensive to use and abuse web services
The full QWERTY keyboard
One of the things that I would love to be able to do is blog directly from my E71.
For some odd reason Nokia did away with the LifeBlog application in their newer phones, so I haven't had much luck finding a usable replacement.
Most of the Symbian software options for blogging are either ancient and don't work with MovableType 4.* or simply are not compatible with MT at all.
There probably are some wonderful software tools out there that are compatible with both the E71 and Movable Type, but I haven't had much luck in finding them.
If anyone knows of any solutions please let me know!
As I mentioned the other day, Three have given me a nice new Nokia E71 to replace the N96.
I've only had the phone for a few days, but so far I am very very impressed.
First off there is the build quality.
The N96 felt like it was cheap and nasty, while the E71 feels like it was built to last. Take a look at the back of it: The back is metal, while the N96's was weak plastic. This may seem like a silly thing to focus on, but if the back of your phone falls off it can cause issues!
You'll also notice that the E71 sports a 3.2 megapixel camera. Compared to the camera that comes with the N96 or N95, the E71's camera is quite underpowered and performs very badly in low lighting conditions even with its builtin Flash.
However the E71 is not designed for snapping photos. It's a business smartphone.
And this is where it gets interesting.
The phone has a full QWERTY keyboard, so you can use it for email and sms very easily. It takes a bit of getting used to, but even after a couple of short days playing around with it you soon discover the joys of having access to your email on the phone.
The Mail for Exchange application that Nokia provides is quite easy to setup and allows you to poll your office Exchange server as often as you like, while also offering you "peak" and "off peak" profiles ie. more often during working hours and less frequently in the evening and at weekends.
There are, however, two minor issues with the software:
It only shows you what is in your inbox folder, so you can't see any of your filtered emails. A lot of my more important emails get filtered off into subfolders so that I can find them easily. Unfortunately I can't see them on my phone
While the software allows you to set a signature on your outgoing emails the length is very limited. A possible solution would be to setup the "common" part of the signature on the server itself, but I haven't got round to that as yet
You also need to be very careful with your connection options. I have a wireless network both at home and in the office, so it makes sense to use them when I'm there and not use the data from my provider (Three).
By default all the "net" applications that come preinstalled on the phone will use the Three connection, but you can easily set them to "ask" before connecting, which could save you on your phone bill if your plan doesn't include a huge amount of data.
The phone's interface is, for lack of a better word, lovely.
Having a number of buttons on the phone to access common applications makes things just that little bit easier. You can still browse through the installed software like you would on other Nokia phones, but you can associate actions and applications with the nice little buttons that are on the front of the phone: The battery life on the E71 is also a bonus.
If you've been using phones like the N95 for a while you get used to having a charger with you at all times, whereas with the E71 that should be a thing of the past - it still need charging, but simply not as often. According to Nokia the E71 has a standby time of up to 20 days!
I might find issues and problems with the E71 as I use it more over time, but so far I am very happy with it.
It's slim and fits into pockets easily
I've also ordered a larger memory stick for it, so that I can abuse it as a storage device as well!
A couple of week's back we switched the company phones over to Three Ireland and were given Nokia N96 handsets: It looks quite attractive, doesn't it?
Unfortunately it's also the single worst phone I can remember owning.
While it may look quite good at first glance try putting in the battery and you're hit by the first of many shortcomings. The plastic cover that Nokia used for the N96 feels cheap and nasty and I was almost afraid to apply pressure to it when closing the case, as I thought it might snap.
Of course you don't take out batteries that often, do you?
Well with the N96's terrible battery life you probably would, but even before you get to use the battery life you may, like me, end up having to remove the battery simply to get the phone to respond. Yes - it crashes a LOT!
While the N96 has one small saving grace - in that you can update the firmware "over the air" - the firmware is dire. Pity the new firmware doesn't make it any more usable ...
Even relatively simple operations are slow and the device seems to spend more time "thinking" than actually working.
I'd never claim to be a "power user" when it comes to mobile devices, but even I found the N96 to be a serious regression when compared to the N95 (damn fine phone!)
Nokia used to be a brand that produced good solid phones that were easy to use and reliable. I've been using them on and off for the last 9 years (give or take) and while some of them weren't exactly exciting I don't ever remember being this frustrated with a phone.
The Three network is 3G enabled, so disabling 3G is a bit silly, but it would appear to be about the only way to render the phone usable!
Fortunately the nice people in Three have swapped out the phones for us and I'm now the happy owner of a Nokia E71 (review to follow)
So if you're offered a N96 I'd recommend you politely refuse, unless you're just a sucker for punishment!
Damien linked to a site that talks about the high costs of locall numbers for many users. David posted about this some time ago and there were several interesting comments on that article.
We are based outside Dublin, so for a lot of people there still is the mental block with ringing an 059 number instead of an 01 or a region free 1850 / 1890
We've thought about the 1800 number long and hard, but we can't really justify it.
The problem as I see it is a catch 22.
If you use a 1800 number it's hard to limit who uses it ie. restricting it to sales calls only.
If you use an 1850 / 1890 some people seem to end up paying more for the calls.
Of course we do publish our "normal" 059 number on the site, so anyone who wants to can use that ...
But if we were to start marketing based on the 059 number would we lose business?
These days mobile phones do a lot more than simply make telephone calls.
Personally I really on my phone to get me out of bed in the morning and to keep me there (multiple alarms!).
I haven't got a huge number of contacts in my phone, but the ones I have are probably going to be quite hard to replace.
I got an email earlier today from a colleague in industry who is obviously facing the task of rebuilding his entire phonebook from scratch as his phone was stolen. I don't envy him!
So what are the options for people?
Are there any sane online backup solutions that people can use?
I know there was one Irish company trying to do something in this area, but they stopped answering my emails when I queried the veracity of their claims (which I would do when it comes to storing important data - wouldn't you?)
Has anyone used an online service for this and if so who?
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