Getting Bigger

Phablets by Maria Elena

You have probably noticed that over the last few years mobile phones have been getting bigger, and tablets, such as the iPad have been getting smaller. Almost a convergence in terms of size between phones and tablets.

Doing some internet research for another article I found this comment I made on Brian Kelly’s blog post (from 2008) on what devices we would be using in 2013. My main comment was wondering if devices (such as phones) would get bigger!

James Clay said
7 February 2008 at 1:16 pm

I believe that the key difference will be is that the storage capabilities will become less important, as connectivity improves allowing easy access to information and content whenever and wherever you are.

I wonder if the devices will get bigger rather than smaller?

Think about phones, the Nokia N95 is a BIG phone compared to the compact small phones of a few years ago.

The iPod touch screen is so much bigger than the iPod video screen.

Bigger and thinner possibly?

Though for me the downside of all the functionality is battery life and I wonder if there will be minimal improvement in functionality, but a huge leap in the battery life as technology improves the power efficiency of the chips and memory.

As with all things rather than look five years in the future, look five years in the past.

In 2003 I had a phone which could play music, video, had an in-built radio, could surf the net (slowly on a GPRS) connection.

In 2008 I can do all those things but in higher quality and I know where I am (GPS).

In 2013…

I thought it would be interesting to see what said then and see how things have changed and also look forward a little more.

I said back then “I wonder if the devices will get bigger rather than smaller?” well in 2013 we saw the first large phones or phablets. The iPad mini had been released the year before and we had played around with the iPad since 2010, but now we wanted smaller tablets.

Now in 2015, the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus have been released by Apple and as with many Apple devices, and as I predicted, these are bigger and thinner than the phones we had in 2008.

Connectivity is much better with most new devices able to access 4G speeds, but not all of us can afford to be connected at those speeds.

These larger screens, more powerful connectivity have large power requirements compared to older devices. Back in 2008 I said

I wonder if there will be minimal improvement in functionality, but a huge leap in the battery life as technology improves the power efficiency of the chips and memory.

Manufacturers have improved battery life for their devices, still for most people there is a requirement to charge every day, but at least the battery does last most of the day. I remember having a Nokia N95 and too often the battery would only last half a day as I did use many of the different functions on the phone.

One thing that wasn’t mentioned in the first post was battery life, but I commented on in the following post.

Upon reflection I realised why I carry multiple devices around. The key reason is battery life.

If my phone has GPS, plays video and/or music, internet, acts as a 3G modem for my laptop, oh and makes phone calls; then even with a large battery I don’t expect it to last the day.

Spread the functionality over multiple devices and suddenly I can ensure that I can do all of the above, over catching the 6.30am train to London, all day in a meeting or a conference, and back again to reach home at 7.30pm.

I have multiple devices as a single device can not last for the time I need it.

The one change from 2008 that is much more apparent is the decline of the specialist device and the move to a multi-function device. No longer are we carrying pocket cameras, dedicated music players, video devices, e-book readers; our larger phones now do all that for us and then some…

So what will the device of 2020 look like?

Well that’s more difficult to predict, what do you think?

Image Credit: Maria Elena

Retiring

iPhone 3GS

After many years good service I have decided to retire my iPhone 3GS. It was the first iPhone I had purchased, though I had been using an 3G for work for about a year. When I got it I was totally impressed compared to the 3G and it did so much more and much better than the Nokia N95 it replaced (which was in itself a replacement for the LG Viewty I had that was an awful phone and was “broken” from when I got it). The Nokia N95 is, or was a great phone, it still has one of the best cameras in any phone I have used, and there are features of the Symbian operating system that seem to work much better than the same features on iOS. There were a few apps that I used on the N95 which I really liked and again haven’t been really surpassed on iOS.

I used JoikuSpot for many years to tether my laptop to the internet. This was a great app and very reliable, though it did kill the battery. The Nokia N95 was one of the first phones to have 3G and WiFi. I have never been that impressed with tethering on the iPhone and as a result rarely use it, much preferring to use Android on a Google Nexus One for tethering.

The other app I liked was Shozu which made it really simple when taking a photograph to upload automatically to Flickr or my blog. As it linked into the phone operating system, this meant you could use the standard camera app. Due to Apple limitations with how apps work with iOS, you can automatically upload images to iCloud, but not to other places. You can have an app that automatically uploads when you take a photograph, but you need to be using that app when taking the images. I have tried Shozu on iOS, but it isn’t as smooth as it was on the Nokia N95.

Despite my reservations on those two aspects of iOS, the rest of the features of the 3GS were very impressive. The key ones that stand out to me were the way it handled text messages, once I got the 3GS, was when I started to use SMS and texting. I really never got the hang of it on other phones, but with the “real” on screen keyboard I found I could handle that and I did a fair bit of texting compared to before. The camera was certainly a big improvement on the 3G, but still not as good as the N95. One aspect of the improved camera was that the iPhone could now more easily read QR Codes. The big difference really though was how easy it was to buy and install apps. Getting apps through the iTunes ecosystem made it very simple to get them. With previous smartphones you would need to go to different developers to buy apps and install them in different ways. If you needed to reset the phone you would need to ensure you had backups. With the iPhone you could get software from a range of developers from just one place. As a result I got hundreds of apps over the last few years for iOS. At least with Google Play today, you can have a similar experience with Android.

The main downside of the 3GS was the battery life, with careful conservation you could make the battery last a day, but if you did anything too power hungry then you would find, as I did, that the battery would run out in the afternoon. In the end I bought a case with an integrated additional battery. This did work well and ensured when I was using the phone intensively it would at least last the day.

The real tricky part of retiring the iPhone though was cancelling my contract with O2! I was out of “contract” on my pay monthly account, so there was no termination fee, but cancelling was very difficult, even when you eventually worked out that you had to “speak” to an adviser, all they tried to do was to keep you as a customer, can’t blame them I guess, but it was annoying. It also seemed to take ages…

Printing from your iPhone

So the iPhone has a really nice camera…

Okay so the iPhone has a camera! It doesn’t take bad photographs and ascamera phones go it ain’t bad!

Now with the Nokia N95 which does have a very nice camera, 5MP compared to the iPhone’s 3MP, and a Carl Zeiss lense, it is relatively simple to print images from the phone without needing to dump the photographs first onto a computer. I have printed the images via Bluetooth and USB.

With the iPhone it has been a little more challenging.

I first saw hope with the HP iPrint Photo (iTunes link) however your HP printer needs to be connected to a wifi network. Alas my A618 Photo Printer which is excellent for printing photographs, is not wifi capable; it does memory cards, USB and Bluetooth, but not wifi.

I then heard about the Canon Easy-Photo Print for iPhone (iTunes link) and as the owner of the wifi capable MP600r I thought ah ha a way of printing from my iPhone.

IMG_0242

Alas the application only works with the Pixma MP990, MP640 and MP560. As a result it couldn’t find my printer.

IMG_0241

Of course I am not going to change my printer so I can print from my iPhone.

Nokia ditching Symbian for Maemo

According to the German FT (via Techcrunch) Nokia is going to move from Symbian to Maemo for its phones.

Nokia doesn’t trust its Symbian mobile operating system any more and plans to equip many of its smartphones with the mostly open source Maemo operating system it uses in its Internet tablets, according to undisclosed Nokia sources speaking to the Financial Times in Germany  (FTD).

Nokia uses Maemo on its internet tablets, and having used the Nokia N810 quite a bit I quite like it as an operating system. Likewise though I also like the operating system on the Nokia N95. Which one do I prefer? Well it’s not that simple, as the N810 is a very different device to the N95 and I use them in different ways.

The Nokia N97 which had huge potential seems to be limited by the Symbian operating system, as Techcrunch report:

The Nokia N97 from June 2009 required heavy tweaking on the Symbian software. It’s touchscreen OS still looks aged and the handling is far from easy and not always logical.

Nokia having seen the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android phone take their market share, they need todo something if they are to remain competitive.

I expect not to see upgrades to existing phones like the N95, but Nokia using Maemo on their new phones.

Joikuspot s60 limitation

If you have read some of my other blog entries on using Joikuspot you will know I had issues with getting both Nokia N810 and the PSP to connect to the wifi network created by the Joikuspot software on the Nokia N95.

Recently found this blog post from last year which  seems to confirm my thoughts that as I said in a previous blog entry:

I suspect that though the N95 is acting as a wireless router, it is still “seen” by other devices as an ad hoc wireless network rather than an infrastructure wireless network and for some reason the N810 doesn’t like this and therefore does not get a valid IP address from the N95.

The blog says quoting the Joikuspot FAQ that

“E) Why doesn’t JoikuSpot work with Sony PSP or Nintendo DS?

Sony PSP and Nintendo DS require WLAN infrastructure mode. JoikuSpot does not support this yet.”

“D) Why does JoikuSpot appear as computer to computer (ad hoc) network?

Currently Symbian OS used in Nokia phones does not support WLAN infrastructure mode.”

Seriously thinking about getting a MiFi now.


O2 Tethering on the iPhone

Despite some issues with JoikuSpot with some mobile devices, it is still one of my most useful applications on my Nokia N95 and I use it a lot.

I have considered getting an iPhone 3GS and this (alongside the iPhone 3G) now (eventually) comes with tethering, the ability to use your phone as a modem with your laptop. I have done this for years with various phones including the Nokia N95.

The only downside is the cost!

I have tethering included as part of my T-Mobile deal which costs roughly the same per month as the O2 iPhone deal, however O2 want an extra £15 per month for a 3GB limit for tethering.

Expensive!

Still no joy with Nokia N810 and JoikuSpot

Today I tried with no success to get my Nokia N810 to get an internet connection through JoikuSpot on my Nokia N95.

Basically it wouldn’t get an IP address from the N95.

I suspect that though the N95 is acting as a wireless router, it is still “seen” by other devices as an ad hoc wireless network rather than an infrastructure wireless network and for some reason the N810 doesn’t like this and therefore does not get a valid IP address from the N95, or perhaps DNS information. Now according to a comment on my blog post (about the PSP and JokiuSpot) on this said:

Actually, I’ve used N810 with JoikuSpot Light in the past. I no longer have the N810 so can’t try it with premium, but I can’t see why it wouldn’t work…

I wonder if it is a DNS issue rather than an IP issue.

I know the whole setup was working as my iPod touch was doing fine.

Of course I can use a Bluetooth connection to use the N95 as a modem and get on the internet that way with the N810, but without using JoikuSpot only the N810 can get online and I (and anyone else) can’t use the connection.

No joy with Sony PSP and JoikuSpot Premium

Last October I mentioned that I had tried to connect an Nokia N810 to the internet via JoikuSpot Lite running on my Nokia N95 with no luck.

Well, no I couldn’t. For some reason though it could  connect to the JoikuSpot wireless network, it would not get to the JoikuSpot launch page and as a result no other internet access was possible.

I have since then upgraded to JoikuSpot Premium and have been very pleased with it in regard to using my laptops and the iPod touch.

The other day I tried to access the internet using a Nokia N810 with no luck.

I have now tried with Sony’s PSP and get a similar experience to the Nokia N810.

Basically it wouldn’t get an IP address from the N95.

As I said before I suspect that though the N95 is acting as a wireless router, it is still “seen” by other devices as an ad hoc wireless network rather than an infrastructure wireless network and for some reason the PSP like the N810 doesn’t like this and therefore does not get a valid IP address.

Just as an aside I also tried with a Windows Mobile PDA, and no luck, but then I always have real issues with connecting a Windows Mobile device to any wireless network!

No joy with Nokia N810 and JoikuSpot Premium

Last October I mentioned that I had tried to connect to the internet via JoikuSpot Lite running on my Nokia N95 with no luck.

Well, no I couldn’t. For some reason though it could  connect to the JoikuSpot wireless network, it would not get to the JoikuSpot launch page and as a result no other internet access was possible.

I have since then upgraded to JoikuSpot Premium and have been very pleased with it in regard to using my laptops and the iPod touch.

Today I tried to access the internet using a Nokia N810 with no luck.

Nokia N810

Hmmm.

Basically it wouldn’t get an IP address from the N95.

I suspect that though the N95 is acting as a wireless router, it is still “seen” by other devices as an ad hoc wireless network rather than an infrastructure wireless network and for some reason the N810 doesn’t like this and therefore does not get a valid IP address.

Of course I can use a Bluetooth connection to use the N95 as a modem and get on the internet that way with the N810, but without using JoikuSpot only the N810 can get online and I (and anyone else) can’t use the connection.

Upgraded to JoikuSpot Premium

After using JoikuSpot Light for a while now and being very pleased with the ease of use and getting my devices online. Despite the impact it has on the battery life of my Nokia N95 I decided to upgrade to the Premium version.

The Light version only really does internet, it doesn’t allow e-mail for example, whereas the Premium version does.

The Premium version also doesn’t have a splash or landing page, which means I am hoping it will work with the Nokia N810.

Not tried it yet, but after paying for it, downloaded and passed ito the N95, I needed to reboot the phone.