Connor Bevans

Thanks to Nokia, I was able to get my hands on their latest Nokia N95 8GB smartphone. Let’s get down to this thing they call, um, what is it again? Oh yeah, a review.

Media and Look

Well, I’m sure you’ve seen a few shots of the phone before, but it comes in Silver and Black and is about 4 inches long, 2 inches wide, and insanely thick. Like, literal Candy Bar thick, not Candy Bar phone thick, approximately .82 inches thick. That’s no joke, people. The phone’s a slider, which takes a bit off the length, but the huge phone is made up for by a nice 2.5 inch screen.The built-in speakers are quite impressive for a phone, but still aren’t anything amazing. It works in landscape and portrait mode, but you have to actually have to slide the slider one of it’s two ways to make it change mode. For landscape, slide out the multimedia tab which includes basic media controls, and for portrait, slide out the keypad tab. It includes two cameras, a 5 megapixel camera with flash which takes great pictures which are generally the quality of a point and shoot camera from a few years back. There’s also a front-facing camera which is about 2 megapixels. Another nice thing is the face that it actually has a 3.5 mm stereo jack included right on the side.

Feel, Operating System, and Technical Specs

The N95 runs Symbian OS, and can use great apps like Qik for live video from your phone, twibble for mobile twitter, or Fring for all of your IM and VOIP on the go. However, I’ve experienced a few problems with the phone. For one, it locks up occasionally. It will freeze and sometimes it just needs to load something, and other times it entirely stops working and forces me to pull out the battery. Overall, the OS looks and feels nice though, and the apps are welcome and work great. The system has a great big 128MB of ram, which definitely packs a punch and aids in it’s impressive gaming section. It comes with integrated GPS, however I haven’t been able to connect to it, because of Rogers’ network. It uses 3G, which definitely makes a huge difference in speed.

Conclusion and the (Inevitable) Comparison to the iPhone

So, where do we go from here. We’ve found out it’s a nice phone. We’ve found out it has 3G, GPS, multimedia, and downloadable apps. Sounds like a product that’s recently been announced? Yes, as expected, I’ve come to the comparison between it and the iPhone. The iPhone 2 has all of the features and more that the N95 has, and more, at a lower price. The only real reason to get an N95 over the iPhone is if you really care about the camera in your phone, and have some sort of love for really thick objects. I have a digital SLR, if I use the camera in my phone, it’s for quick little action shots at times where I wasn’t carrying around my camera, or was really bored. The N95 isn’t next generation for mobile phones other than the fact that it’s got good specs, 3G, GPS, and a great camera. It doesn’t have something comparable to multi-touch or the amazing web browser  of the iPhone. It doesn’t step up it’s game. And now, there’s been rumored replacements for great camera phones, for instance Sony’s apparent 8 megapixel camera. It’s got custom apps, the iPhone has the App Store, a single place to get all of these apps. It’s got multimedia, the iPhone has the classic and loved iPod interface. It’s got 3G and GPS, so does the iPhone. The iPhone has twice the RAM the N95 has. The iPhone is better in almost every aspect. The iPhone, unfortunately, leaves the N95 in the dust. However, I’m excited to see what Nokia pulls out their sleeves to try and compete with the iPhone now.

So, I decided it was time to join the pack (albeit a bit late) and do my own iWant list. Here we go:

• Camcorder. Not sure what type, thinking of a Canon XL1 maybe, has to have some form of higher quality mic input though.
• MIDI Keyboard. Well, necessarily MIDI, but some sort of thing I could use to control Logic with, thinking 2-4 octaves (16-32 keys), and like, $50-125.
• Microphone for Camcorder. Most likely will be an SM58, however, maybe something else.
• MarsEdit: So you can have more wonderful blog posts like this!
• iPhone/N95: Okay, might not get this one for awhile, but whatever, it goes on here anyways. Let’s hope that I can upgrade from my current phone to either one in September!
• New Camera - D60, switching to Nikon! Also:
• Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens
• SB-600 Flash with diffuser
• 18-200 VR Lens (won’t be getting this for awhile, it comes with a 18-55 VR)
• Crazy In The Future: MacBook Pro: I want to go portable!

No, if you’re wondering this post is NOT about Canada, or the US, it’s about the Republic of Ireland, and the insane price of the iPhones there. iPhones will be coming to Ireland on March 14, carrying with them a price of $1813 USD, and runs on older networks than some other phones. And the minimum service plan is around $70 USD per month, and that only allows 175 minutes of talk time, and 100 text messages. So, if you’re thinking about getting an iPhone in Ireland, do yourself a favour, and Jailbreak it! Source: CNET’s News.com

Well, yesterday I decided to look around for some mac software, and I found MainMenu, find out more about the program in the video. 

Click To Play

Apple updated the MacBook lineup today, but the MacBook was the most changes was the MacBook Pro. What the Pro received today was the multi-touch trackpad of the Air, faster CPUs and Video Cards, and the option of the LCD being backlit on the 17 inch model. I do appreciate that they now have 512 MB of video memory in the Pro, and a slightly faster CPU, but, I have to say, what’s so good about multi-touch? “Rotating photos is easier than ever.” Woah! Do you mean that when I take a photo into aperture I no longer have to click the rotate button! “Easily move back and forward pages in Safari, without ever leaving the touchpad.” OH MY GOD! Are you serious? I don’t have to move my aching fingers to the keyboard and press command+(left or right) to go back and forward, thank goodness, ’cause I’m so lazy I can’t move my fingers a centimeter or two to go backwards or forwards! Thanks Apple. Well, in case you didn’t realize, I’m being sarcastic. Multi-touch is cool, but not really more effective in this scenario, and its hardly a breakthrough in technology for a trackpad. The old MacBook Pros had multi-touch, it just wasn’t being utilized in software. Hopefully Apple will do something to help those guys.