TECH: Symbian - the good and the un-answered...

After spending a little more time with the Nokia N95 8GB I'm enjoying more and more of its virtues and discovering workarounds for some of its more annoying quirks. Here's a few tricks and tips I have picked up along the way and some recommended applications I've enjoyed using.

1. Nokia start up chime. You know the annoying handshake and music every time you turn on the phone? Turn it off in Menu > Tools > Settings > General > Personalisation > Tones > Warning Tone (set to 'OFF')

2. Make Nokia Maps quicker. Using the Nokia PC Suite 2 (get it at http://www.nokia.com/A4544040), download Map Loader and transfer the UK (or applicable area) map to your phone memory. This means each time you start the application, it doesn't have to download the info to the handset over the air.

3. Sky Plus from your mobile. It's a bit of a pain to set up, but head over to Sky and download the Remote Record application for Symbian. Once you've set-up your details with Sky you can browse the 7 day Sky planner on your handset and set programs to record. There's occasionally a delay (upto 30 minutes) but it's a great tool if you're out and have forgotten to record Match Of The Day.

4. Download podcasts direct to the handset. This is a big bonus for me. Rather than download podcasts to iTunes and then transfer to the N95 8GB via USB, you can just download over the air (WI-FI or 3G) direct to the phone. I do this most mornings. Once you've entered the feed address for the podcast, just pick the desired show from the feed list and within a few minutes: voilà!

5. Weather screensaver - there are a few decent weather applications for the N95/Symbian. Sadly, the best ones are payable (unlike iPhone that includes a great weather application for free). The best ones also allow the user to set the powersaver screensaver to weather - meaning instead of the usual time/date bar, you get a nice two day weather summary. Both the weather applications can be updated manually or at pre-defined intervals (it happens invisibly in the background and uses very little data - about 2K per city so using GPRS for connection is fine). The first recommendation is Handy Weather which is payable yearly, whilst the second, Micro Weather needs only a single payment. Both programs have trial versions you can try.

However, whilst the N95 is endearing is some ways, there are still some unanswered questions:

1. On the active standby desktop, the calendar reminder takes you straight to the detail of the entry - is there any way of making it go to a month view of the month in question instead?

2. I'd like another row of active standby applications. The limit seems to be 7. I'd like to see another row of user selectable applications below.

3. Occasionally my back light stays on after using the phone. I mess with the slider a little and eventually it goes to sleep - I'd like to know what causes this or if it's a known bug?

4. The camera quality is dreadful. It might be a 5 Mega pixel camera but don't let that convince you it is on a par with even a an average compact digital camera of 3 Mega pixel. It simply isn't. There also seems to be a lot of compression taking place on the images. Shots at the 5MB setting often weigh in around the 600k mark. Way too small for a decent quality snap of this size. It's hard to know whether the optics are fine and the compression is ruining the pictures or the optics just aren't up to par. Either way, the quality of the camera given it's specification is a disappointment. I hope a future firmware finds some way to address this problem.

TECH: Symbian and the Nokia N95 8GB

My on/off love affair with the Symbian operating system dates back to the Psion 3a handheld computer. The Psion 3a (still have it in my loft) was a beautifully engineered device. Despite only having a small monochrome screen it allowed all the basic office based tasks in a tiny dependable unit. This was back in the mid-90's. Since then, despite the Psion organiser going the way of the Dodo, Symbian, in various flavours ('series' in Symbian speak) has flourished. Particularly in the Smart phone market.
My first look at a Symbian based 'Smart' phone was the Nokia 6680. Despite the potential and adaptability of the operating system the phone was horrible. Slow menus and the navigation was so convoluted it stifled any semblance of intuitive use.

Cue forward and the latest offering is the N95 8Gb. Heralded by many as an 'iPhone killer'. On paper it certainly talks the talk: 8Gb of storage, dual slider design, 5 Mega-pixel camera, TV-out, high quality video capture, built in GPS. The list of specs goes on and on. The N95 8GB also feels good in the hand. It's a chunky little fella but it feels right. A nice large screen, great slide action and accelerometers to switch the display between portrait and landscape modes. Boot up time, something that can take a short age on Nokia Smart Phones is also speedy. The menus navigate quickly enough 'out of memory' errors (previously common on Nokia Smart phones) were completely absent in the week I used it.

The hardware packed into the unit is beyond reproach. Basic stuff like phone reception (questionable on the Apple iPhone) and call quality is peerless. It also has a sensible SAR rating (0.56 W/Kg) and the 5MB camera feels and behaves like a 'proper' compact digital camera. The GPS is 'proper' GPS, not some pseudo-GPS based on cellular tower triangulation. The sheer wealth of add on apps is also incredible. However, much as I wanted to love the N95 8GB, I just couldn't. The problem is my old friend Symbian.
Getting to use the wide and varied features of the N95 8GB is just too difficult. Even worse for users unfamiliar with the OS. For example, I know that if I hold down the 'menu' key, a list of the currently running applications will appear; the apps in the list can then be switched, like the ALT+TAB system employed in Windows. But how are new users supposed to know that? There is no included manual and no central repository for tips and tricks included either with the phone or on the phone itself (e.g. a help section). Sure there are great online resources like allaboutsymbian.com but seriously, how many new N95 8GB owners want to spend the first week of ownership learning how to get their applications running or setup shortcuts for their favourite applications? Or install new applications? Or browse the contents of the device? Surely a phone should be intuitive enough to use straight out of the box?
The Symbian faithful could argue, with a degree of merit, that not all phones have to be idiot proof. Not all phones need to behave like an iPhone. They could argue that having an OS able to behave exactly as you want it is a good thing. I would argue otherwise. The lack of consistency throughout the OS is a major pain. Things that do something in one app, don't do it in another. For example, predictive text, whilst working fine for text messages doesn't work in the browser. This makes entering web addresses an extremely tedious affair. On the subject of web browsing, the browser, similar in architecture to the iPhones, is capable of far greater speeds when away from a WLAN (thanks to 3G/HSDPA capability). But it is simply woeful to use. Besides the aforementioned URL entering farce, actually navigating a webpage is a hideous affair, requiring the shifting of a red 'target box' about the screen with the navigation key. I would wager that whilst out and about, actually browsing and getting information turns out equally slow on both an iPhone and a N95 8GB. The data speed is terrible on the iPhone but the user interface saves it. The situation is reversed on the N95 8GB.
On paper, the N95 8GB is more than a match for the iPhone. It's certainly possible that the iPhone's 0.94 SAR rating may put off the health conscious whilst the odd cheese slab dimensions and glass front may bother those with clumsy 'mole hands'. Ultimately, in practice, despite the iPhones failings in many areas (aesthetic and technical), the incredible user interface trumps almost everything the N95 8GB can challenge it with. I for one would take usability over capability in all but the most demanding of situations.

In conclusion, it would be great to see a complete overhaul of Symbian. A ground up re-write with the emphasis on user experience and intuitive navigation. As users expect more and more from their phones this will doubtless happen but the sooner it does, the sooner the incredible hardware of phones like the Nokia N95 8GB can be harnessed and enjoyed by all. Not just the coneheads...