Nokia N95 - the good and the bad so far

Posted by martin

I have had the N95 just over a week now and it's definitely fast becoming my favorite gadget of all time. It really pushes the boundaries of what you can do with a phone - it's pretty much got my wish list of features.

The good (most of the following are all in-built)

  • Fantastic quality camera - takes great quality pics in pretty much all conditions
  • Equally fantastic video camera
  • Wireless and 3G web browsing (unlimited if on t-mobile)
  • Catchup on RSS feeds, check your mail anytime any place
  • Stream media where ever you are - bbc news, podcasts etc
  • Post directly to Flickr and Twitter
  • Make and receive VOIP calls - Skype on the move (with Fring)
  • Apparently I can also blog directly from the phone but I've yet to try that
  • Use can use your standard walkman headphones
  • Phone is compact yet still usable and not a bulky PDA
  • Extremely user friendly - lots of neat touches and intuitive shortcuts

The bad

  • Battery life - 1.day at most if you are lucky
  • Prone to occasional crashes
  • Memory/storage - Soon runs out after a few tunes, pics and vids are taken.
  • GPS / Navigation software - this should be in the list of good points but it's been a real pain to try and setup. You can't just download the maps directly and from what I have read the GPS can be flakey at times. I've yet to get this installed.
  • Lack of support for Mac - bundled sync software / utils are all PC based

What next?

I'm heading to RailsConf next week and hoping that Duty free might be able to help me out with the following:

  • A 4GB micro SD (if it's out yet)
  • A spare charger - either USB or battery

I may even try and do some blogging from the conference next week - no promises though!

Sync'ing contacts from Sony Ericsson K750i to the N95

Posted by martin

I recently upgraded to the Nokia N95 (fantastic bit of kit btw) however my K750i was refusing to sync directly with either the N95 or my Mac. So short of time and knowing that the most up to date version of my contacts where on my phone here is a tip for quickly transferring your contacts.

Make sure you have Bluetooth turned on all three machines. On the K750i go the address book > options > advanced > send all contacts > via bluetooth

Select your Mac and it will upload a file with all your contacts in. You can now import these to the address book and sync the N95 directly with the Mac. Hopefully that might help somebody in need of a quick solution.