The Amazing Nokia N95

I know, I have been too lazy to update my blog & my website, but ever since I got my Nokia N95 cell phone, or should I call it the "multimedia mini computer"?! I can't help but to express my fascination regarding the this amazing phone. Naturally people might want to compare the iPhone with the Nokia N95, such as this Cnet YouTube video:

I have to admit that the iPhone is more stylish (or more sexy so to speak) than the Nokida N95. The iPhone has a bigger screen, 3.5 inch v.s. 2.6 inch on the original Nokia N95 and 2.8 inch on the 8GB version. The iPhone also has a touch screen and pretty cool interface, the "sexiness" as mentioned in the video, but that's about it when comparing with what the Nokia N95 can do. Check out this link to learn what the Nokia N95 North American Edition can do: http://www.nokiausa.com/A4546019.

The one I got is the Asia edition which I prefer over the North American Edition, because the the camera Len shutter cover is removed from the North American Edition. I have a Sony Ericsson 840i, the camera len on the phone has no cover, after a while, I found a thin layer of "foggy" film on the camera len, although it doesn't seem to affect the picture quality. The reason to remove the camera len cover is to make more room for a bigger battery, since there is a lot of complaint about the original battery life. However, the latest firmware update to Version 20.0.015 does improve the battery life about 30% when playing music, up from 9 hours to 12 hours as noted on the firmware update documentation. I did notice the phone now has a longer battery life after I upgraded the firmware on my phone.

Caution: After updating the firmware, you might be supprised to find out the original language pack is no longer available. This has to do with the product code on the phone. You can find it by removing the battery. I found this out the hard way and got really upset & panicked. Luckily for you, I found the solution to get whatever language you want by changing the product code before performing the firmware upgrade. After spending hours on the Internet, I found the solution, please visit the link below to learn how to change the product code on the Nokia N95: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showthread.php?t=67130, and here is where you can find the product codes: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/forum/showthread.php?t=58225. You'd better hurry, while it's still available & free.

The other reason I like the Asia version of the Nokia N95 is that I can choose the Chinese language option on the phone and the ability to open Chinese Word document and surf Chinese websites. It even has the Chinese Luna calendar! Usually, I set English as the default phone language option, the phone runs like Window XP with Asian language pack installed. Also, I really like the Chinese-English dictionary on the phone. The dictionary didn't work right out the box, I had to visit the Nokia-Asia website to download the vocabulary set update. Here is the link: http://www.nokia-asia.com/A4416003. I suggest you download the last one with the biggest file size. Hint: to make the dictionary work, you need to unzip the file and copy the folder inside the "private" folder into the "private" folder in the phone or the microSD memory card. You can pretty much ignore the instruction on the web page, or at least that's how I got it to work on my phone with my method.

Anyway, after playing with the phone for a few weeks, I am really got hooked on it now. It's really amazing how much you can do with the phone. There are so many applications & games available, it's just like a mini computer with phone functionality. You can easily spend hours on exploring the possibilities of what the Nokia N95 can do. I haven't used an iPhone yet, so I wonder if the iPhone can do any of the funtions below? Here is what distinguish the Nokia N95 from the iPhone and where the fun begins. I use a program (called "Screenshot") installed on the phone to take the screen shots below, pretty cool, isn't it?!

Productivity:

- The Chinese-English Dictionary

The Ability to Work With MS Office Documents (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) -

Here I use the phone to read some interesting articles in Chinese Word format:

As you can see I can use the phone in landscape display mode too.

Internet Access (Web Surfing) -

Google Search:

Chinese Website Surfing -

Here is one of my favorite site. Overview of the web page and zoom:

Other Useful Apps -

WorldMate:

GPS Functions -

Actually, I don't want to rely on the GPS feature for navigation. Turn by turn navigation costs extra. Dedicated GPS units like the Garmin Nuvi 360 I have is much better, which has text to speech function. Nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to have the GPS receiver bulit in. It can "pin-point" your current location. The Earthcomber program makes good use of the GPS receiver & the Internet connection. It can help you find point of interest such as restaurants, gas stations, movie theaters...etc. It will also provide you with direction, spot & make new friends who are also running the program on the phone. Here is screenshot of the program:

Want some fun? You can have a lot of it. It's GAME time!

After the firmware upgrade, the n-gage game icon is added. You can preview the exciting games which will be available for the Nokia N series phones. Here is the link: http://www.n-gage.com/.

Here are two screen shots of a free car racing game I downloaded from a Nokia website. It looks amazingly good on the phone.

Here is another cool free game - Free Flight:

The above are just samples of what kind of programs you can run on the Nokia N95. Also, don't forget that it has the 5 Mega pixel digital camera which produce very acceptable picture & video qualities. Like a comment left on a Nokia N95 blog, the only thing that the Nokia N95 missed is a TV tuner. But overall, I can't complaint much. So, unless the iPhone can do the above feats, I would rather keep the Nokia. People whom prefer to have the iPhone over the Nokia N95 is for its looks, but I prefer functionality over style, besides, the Nokia N95 looks pretty sexy & sleek too. And I don't have to be stuck with Cingular, I could if I want to though.

As for now, the Nokia N95 actually costs more than the iPhone, the original Nokia N95 costs about $500 and the 8GB version about $700. But what if I tell you I got mine for FREE! Yes, I got my free with a two year T-mobile plan from a local wireless store, and it's the unlocked version too, excellent! And since I am bilingual in Chinese & English, the ability to utilize Chinese with the phone makes it a very useful tool for me. By the way, can anyone tell me can I read Chinse in the iPhone? Showing song title in Chinese, surf Chinese websites, read documents in Chinese...etc?

May be this is a "sour grape" case, but I am happy with the original version, yes, the 8GB version has more intergrated internal memory and bigger screen, but that makes it a bit more bulky, same to the iPhone for holding it (a bit too wide). I believe the 8GB version doesn't have the MicroSD memory expansion slot, which the original version has. I heard that it could accept the new 8GB MicroSD memory card, but I could be wrong. Right now I have a 2GB MicroSD card in the phone. I have about 160 songs (I converted the mp3 to WMA format to save space) in the phone, but I still got over 1.5GB left with quite a few apps/games installed.

I like to conclude my review on the Nokia N95 with this cool blog link I found on the topic: http://sjc-123.blogspot.com/ and more of the Nokia N95 vs iPhone Youtube videos: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrJp20O-tmE&feature=related. Enjoy!

Nintendo Wii

Finally I got my Nintendo Wii. A friend lined up outside a Target store and bought one for me. Well, I have always been a computer game fan and had never own a game console before. What set Wii apart from other game consoles like the PS3 & Xbox360 is how Wii keeps the player's whole body involved. Instead of just exercising my fingers, I can exercise my whole body while having fun. My job requires me to sit in front of the computer all day and most my after work entertainment is sitting in front of my computer at home again, either surfing the web or play computer games. With the Wii, I can at least get my butt off the chair to play "tennis", "baseball", "bowling", "golf" or "boxing". The Wii comes with the "Wii Sports" game which includes the games mentioned above. What makes the Wii unique is the Wii Remote and the Remote sensor. You use the remote just like a tennis racket when you are playing tennis or your swing it like the baseball bat when play the baseball game. The Will also has the built-in WiFi capability. Connecting the Wii to my home Wi-Fi Internet access is easy. I can check world wide weather and news and other fun activity with other Wii channels. In all, I love my Wii a lot, instead of playing video games passively in the couch, I now can get some exercise as well. Below are some pictures I took right after I had the chance to open the box and setting it up when I returned from work late at night, sorry about the picture quality.

My favorite Wii sport - Bowling:

Strike!

Gateway FPD2275W 22-inch Widescreen HD-LCD Flat-Panel Display

I have been looking for a 22-inch widescreen LCD diplay to replace my 17-in LCD display for a while and finally I bought the Gateway FPD2275W 22-inch Widescreen HD-LCD Flat-Panel Display .

I must say that I am pretty happy with the display. It has the most input options which you can't find in other 22-inch LCD display: VGA, S-Video, Composite video inputs and DVI-D with HDCP input. on the back left hand side of the monitor, there is a integrated powered 4-port USB 2.0 hub. This is a definite plus for me, I have so many gadgets which require a usb port for connecting to my PC.

Like me, if you didn't own a widescreen monitor before, you might be a little frustrated in setting the monitor up. The image may be stretched, but after I set it to the max resolution of 1680x1050 and a little of fine tuning on the brightness & contrast, the image & color looked very impressive, no more text, image distortion on the screen. The only complain I had is the bleeding of brightness on the corners of the display as some reviewers pointed out on the product page on amazon.com. But an reviewer said that if a DVI cable is used, the bleeding will disappear. But for now I can live with that. I also found a single dead pixel close to the left hand side of the display, but I hardly notice it, only when there is no video signal or that part of the screen is displaying dark color.

Besides the great functionality, this monitor looks very stylish too. The menu controls are built inside the right hand side of the panel and it's very sensitive to touching. If you install the include EzTune software and purchase an optional stand, you can rotate the monitor from landscape to portrait. You can also set up a PIN to protect the monitor from theft. Without the valid PIN, the monitor will not work with other computers.

In all, I will give this monitor a 4.5 out of 5 rating just because of the bleeding issue and the single dead pixel.

Sansa e260 4GB MP3 Player

I love electronic gadgets, so natually I own a few of them, for examples, the Sansa e260 MP3 player, Sony W810i cell phone and recently a Garmin Nuvi 360 GPS...etc. Well, today I like to talk about the Sansa e260 MP3 player.

I was in the market for a mp3 player, after doing some research on the Internet and at the local electronic stores such as Circuit City & Best Buys, I decided to purchase the Sansa e260 MP3 player from Sandisk. I have heard rave review on the ipod series from Apple, but somehow I have never been the Apple product fan, just like the PCs vs the Macs, I have never own a Mac. Sorry, Apple fans, I have to admit, I am on the cheap side of spending money on electronics when there are perfectly good alternatives.

Actually I have bought & used the Sansa mp3 player for serveral months, and I must say I am very happy about it. It has all the features I expected from an mp3 player & more. It's stylish & compact. It plays music files in mp3, wma format; dispaly pictures & play videos. It also has a built-in FM tuner; you can also use it as voice recorder. It comes with 4GB of intergrated flash memory with a micro SD memory expansion slot, so there is a lot of room to store more musics & vidoes.

Product Features :

Audio Player
Video Player
Photo Viewer
FM TunerFM
RecorderVoice Recorder

Playback Duration 64 Hour(s) 960 Song(s) @ 128Kbps MP3128 Hour(s) 1920 Song(s) @ 64Kbps WMAAudio Formats

Flash Memory (Integrated)
Display Screen

1.8" TFT Color LCD
Interfaces/Ports

1 x USB1 x Audio Line Out
Storage Capacity

4GB Flash Memory

Still Image Formats: PNG, JPEG, GIF, BMP,TIFF

Video Formats: DAT, WMV, MPEG, AVI, MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, VOB, QuickTime MOV

Where to get it:

Unfortunatly, it doesn't come with an auto charger for in car use. If you car stereo has a buit-in aux jack like I do, you can plug it in with an audio cable which you can buy from Radio Shack or other electronic stores. Or you can buy a FM trasmitter with the charger, that way, you don't have to worry about running out of battery charge on a long trip.