Well despite trying a few things, I still can’t get the BBC iPlayer working on my Nokia N95, either to stream or download BBC programmes.
Next thing to try is upgrading the Nokia N95 firmware.
If that doesn’t work then I am going to forget it.
JoikuSpotting
I really do like the iPod touch, the interface, the browsing experience, the video playback, the different applications now available.
Of course to get full functionality you need to be in the vicinity of a wireless hotspot. You can’t (for obvious reasons) use a 3G dongle and without bluetooth or the ability to connect a cable you can’t use a tethered mobile phone.
Now I know what you’re saying, get a 3G iPhone, well yes, that is all well and good, but three things are stopping me, one I already have a Nokia N95 which does what I need (well the typing is nowhere as near as nice as on the iPod touch), secondly I am well into a long contract too with T-Mobile. Thirdly, I quite fancy upgrading to the Google G1 phone.
So I was quite interested in trying out JoikuSpot. What JoikuSpot does is basically turn your 3G wifi mobile phone into a wireless hotspot.
So the Nokia N95 connects to the internet via the 3G network and then allows wifi clients connect to it via the 802.11 wifi.
It works very well and is in my opinion very clever.
The free version is limited and doesn’t allow you to do e-mail which is a pity, so I will probably upgrade to the pro version.
BBC iPlayer on your Nokia N95 updated
A couple of days ago I mentioned that BBC iPlayer was now available on certain Nokia S60 phones including the Nokia N95.
I did have a go and well let’s just say it wasn’t a great success.
So this morning, with what is being Sunday morning and all, decided to try the service again, wasn’t holding out much hope.
Interestingly when I started the BBC iPlayer application there was a message saying an updates was available. Usually when I see that and my application is working fine and there are no new features I ignore them, in this case though, obviously having problems, I did go ahead and download and install the update.
First major difference was that it was now possible to download programmes from BBC iPlayer, something which wasn’t possible before this update and before has only been an available service on the Windows platform.
So selecting something, I clicked download…
4%…
56%…
98%…
Error!
Hmmm.
Phone must be registered with BBC Content Provider. Register phone now?
I guess so…
Unable to download…
Okay
Tried again.
Unable to play content
Okay let’s try the streaming once more.
Oh that still doesn’t work.
Well that’s fifteen minutes of my life I am not going to get back!
BBC iPlayer on your Nokia N95
I was quite interested in reading this article on the BBC iPlayer for the S60 series of phones.
It seems that the BBC’s version of iPlayer for S60 has gone live, download it here. It has been implemented as a web runtime widget that kicks off streaming in RealPlayer. And it’s also, naturally, a bit fussy about which devices it installs on. It seems happy with the N78, N95 and N96.
Well having enjoyed using BBC iPlayer on the iPod touch, was quite interested to see it working on my Nokia N95.
Well as you can see from this video capture, I did not have a huge amount of success.
I was using wifi and I had configured RealPlayer to use wifi, but still no joy. The video would start, but then it would just start to buffer and eventually the connection would fail.
Hopefully I can get it working soon.
Seesmic on the Nokia N95
If you use Seesmic, you can now get an application for Seesmic for your Nokia N95.
We are announcing today the release of a new application for Nokia N95 cell phones that allows users to participate in video conversations from anywhere and at any time.
What is really new with our client is you can not only send your videos directly to Seesmic from your phone but you can also participate in conversations and follow the entire thread of videos, a space Seesmic has created anywhere you are.
Read more.
Could be useful if you use Seesmic a lot.
Podcasts on the Nokia N95
Generally if I want to listen to a podcast, I use iTunes and sync with the iPod.
The other day I realised that I had forgotten to sync the iPod and therefore the latest version of MacBreak Weekly was not on my iPod.
Problem was, I was in my car and away from the computer.
So I stopped the car, and using my phone, a Nokia N95 I browsed to twit.tv and clicked the relevant link for MacBreak Weekly.
The phone then started to download the podcast over the 3G data connection. So I drove off…
Unfortunately the first attempt failed for some reason, though I guess I may have lost the 3G signal.
So I tried again and this time it worked fine.
Now what I liked was that the operating system on the N95 knew it was a podcast and added it to the podcast area and started to play it.
I liked the way the phone downloaded the podcast really really fast and then knew what to do with it.
Serving media through the home
I really like my EyeHome device. I’ve had it a few years now and even had it fixed in Germany one time when the power supply failed. Changing to 802.11n made it much better and more capable of showing content from my Mac on my television.
It’s such a great concept I did wonder if I would be able to serve media to other devices and not just the EyeHome.
This came up recently when I put a Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) under my television which can act as a uPnP device and serve content from an appropriate media server. Not only that, but you can pair a PlayStation Portable (PSP) with the PS3 to be able to access the PS3 remotely.
A plan was starting to form…
If I could get the PS3 to access content from the Mac, I could then watch it remotely on the PSP. The PSP didn’t like accessing content direct from the Mac, so this could work, couldn’t it?
The first issue was getting some media server software running on the Mac, the EyeHome software didn’t work; and though Elgato make a uPnP software product, EyeConnect, it appeared from the Elgato website that the PS3 as a media extender was not in the list of supported extenders, and there were a few reports in the Elgato forums which kind of put me off. There is a 30 day trial, so I might give it a go later.
What did come out in my research was Twonkymedia.
The PacketVideo MediaServer enables you to share your multimedia throughout your home. It is available for many different platforms and interworks with a large variety of client devices including XBox 360™, Sony PS3™ and Sony PSP™. TwonkyMedia requires fewer resources and is faster than other UPnP media servers, and provides more features that help users enjoy large media collections.
Installed and ran it…
Worked very well.
The PS3 picked up the iMac which I was running the software on.
The PSP picked up the PS3 – though I believe that the PSP can access the media direct, but I was trying to be clever!
I tried a few other devices.
The iPod touch through the web interface could access the media.
My Nokia N95 could access the server, and the media.
A Nokia N810 could access the media, it just couldn’t play it!
Overall I was impressed, very likely to pay the €30 it costs.
iPhone or S60, the choice is yours…
Great blog entry on why, though the iPhone is great, there are things that a Nokia S60 phone such as the Nokia N95 can do that the iPhone can’t even some close too…
Crashing Nokia N95
Over the last couple of days I have been having a few issues with my Nokia N95.
It keeps crashing! So much so that I have had to open it up remove the battery and reboot.
I was using Shozu to upload photographs to Flickr, so was using a third party application, my 3G connection and the camera.
Not sure of the reason behind the freezes and crashes.
Photo source.
Well, not having much success…
I have been using a Vodafone USB 3G stick with my Sony VAIO UX1XN with some success now. However downside is that it sticks out the side and I do worry it might break off (which would be annoying).
I do have a T-Mobile phone and a 3G data plan with them, which allows me to use my phone as a modem. This has worked fine on my Mac, but I decided it would be good to use it with my UX1XN.
However I not having much sucess.
I first tried the Nokia N series software, which required about 100MB of stuff to be downloaded…
This eventually installed, and after I had paired with my Nokia N95, I expected things to go smoothly.
However it failed to make a connection as it said that the modem was being used by another application.
This unhelpful error was because the modem drivers needed resinstalling and the help unhelpfully said that, but didn’t say how to do it!
So after a few attempts, I gave up and used System Restore to rid myself of the Nokia software.
I then tried the standard Nokia software (which also works with N series phones) and alas everytime I tried to to get a connection, the Bluetooth software would case a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD).
Using Windows Me I would get BSOD all the time, with Windows XP it was quite a rare occurence. On Windows Vista on the UX1XN I get them all the time, I keep having Windows Me flashbacks.
After a couple of attempts, I decided to use the VAIO Update feature to see what new drivers were available.
So have spent the best part of a day, downloading updates and installing them. The automatic updates took their time, but there were a bundle of non-automatic updates, most of which consisted of:
Download update
Uninstall software
Restart
Install new software
Restart
It wouldn’t be so bad, but Windows Vista on the UX1XN takes an age to start up.
Getting there, final update being installed, will try Nokia software again!