Nseries LA event: Preliminaries & sea of phones

Ok, so I just realised now why all my shots keep getting blurred with sunbursts at the lower left corner – there’s a massive smudge on the dang lens that’s preventing the camera from focusing properly – eeek! Sorry guys, I only noticed that now. (Now, maybe with no lens cover on the new N95 variants, that will be easier to notice?)

Anyways, these are some shots leading up to the actual event. When I came down the lift/elevator to get to the Lobby, Jonathan Green of atmaspheric | endeavours entered at one stop. I was like, “OMG, is that really him?” Star struck as ever, I kept schtum – then he hook out his iPhone! Aargh! A couple I wanted to see in person, never thought it would happen in an elevator.

Jonathan’s iPhone with my N95. That was the first time I used the iPhone and it was very nice to know how to use it pretty much without ever having seen or used one before. Everytime Jonathan explained a feature, Christian(below) was nodding with a smile, “I know, I know”.

It’s very  slick. The whole touch interface was a delight to use. In picture flicking, music scrolling, all except text input. Man, that was harder than I thought it would be. I couldn’t even get the letter my finger was directly pressing…what the fork? Susan and Jonathan, the two iPhone owners said it takes a while and it gets better in that time.

Delon was really pissed, he couldn’t get to type the “w” for howard in the url! Thumbs down for iPhone!

IMO, it’s a great head turner. Not going to fit the bill on my current needs as a mobile user, no 3G/3.5G, crippled bluetooth, no GPS, however it’s an instant conversation starter.

“Oh, is that an iPhone?”

“Sure, you wanna take a look?”

iPhone themes…N93 and the iPhone.

Jonathan (Below)

The guys waiting around…

Above: Abhi, Chris, James, and Dan (Thoughtfix)

Delon (above right) took some comparison shots of our clamshells, Mark’s (above left) N93i, his own N76 and my rather shoddy looking N93.

(Yes, sorry again for this blur…)

This got me thinking…hmmm what with everyone being here having at least a couple of phones, why not get a shot of all of them together? So I asked the peeps who were at the lobby and this is what we got.

In order of screen size

Yes, there is an iPod touch there. A bit disappointed, I thought we would overfill the table with phones, but still pretty good. (4 devices on that table aren’t even phones)

After this photo was taken, we set off outside for the “coach”. Check out on another post as that will be my LA event blog post – the whole reason for going out to LAX.

Bye, bye LA

Just about to go. Will finish recapping the event when i get back.

Nokia N95 with 1200mAh BL-6F battery! It’s possible!

Since the very beginning we’ve been told that the reason the N95-3 and N95-8GB’s shutter was removed was due to the larger battery.

Even though I saw the N95-8GB at London, the model I tested did not have the BL-6F for me to find out wheter it could fit or not. But I was amongst many others that were peeved that they didn’t do something simpler like redesign the back or even the battery to accomodate that extra space needed.

Yesterday at the Nseries event at LA mansion (pics will be uploaded soon) station reps and even the Product Manager said confirmed the same thing about BL-6F is not for the N95 due to size constrainsts.

Recently, due to the shoddy state of my N95 battery cover, I posted a rant about the possibility of using a larger battery on the N95-ORIGINAL, now with the extra space provided by the crystal case that kept the useless battery cover on.

Due to Nokia claiming that the camera shutter cover prevented the BL-6F from fitting, I believed them, and thought that they should have redesigned the battery instead. But even that’s not needed! Look what I found out last night!

Yup, that’s right! It fits! Current N95 original users may be able to use the higher capacity BL-6F if you wanted to (albeit with the use of a crystal case – which is perfect for me since I have to use the crystal case )

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It’s a perfect fit! The only thing I’m not sure about is whether this would pose any long term problems down the line, since size seems not to be the problem, there may have been another reason not to have included the BL-6F in the N95 original.

I’ve asked to test out the battery to see if there will be any problems, so as a disclaimer, be warned that the BL-6F was not designed for the N95 original and you may put your own N95 at risk by using that battery.

As a power user though, I’m very happy.

• Longer music playback,
• Longer video playback,
• Longer calls
• GPS use for longer time is feasible(no more, I’ll stay lost otherwise I won’t be able to make a call)
• Longer camera use!

The crystal case I am using is from ebay. For about £2 I think, you get 3 sets (you only need the back). They are pretty sturdy, but be warned also that they may break (mine hasn’t, only at parts due to my strap, which most people do not have on their N95).

Darla Mack has already performed extensive battery tests with her N95-3 (US) that uses BL-6F and results are very positive as to how much more juice we can expect from the BL-6F and the original N95.

“So exactly what does this mean? It means that Nokia listened to the requests of their users and improved the battery!

Now the next request would be to make a similar battery for existing N95 users.“

Wooo! We can, Darla!

Here’s a video demo to show the N95 working nicely with the BL-6F

Touring LA, Part 2: N95 goes to Hollywood

N95 at Virgin MegaStore:

– With emergency charger

– Reflected my Master Chief’s helmet

– With the almost iPhone

Walk of Fame…

Britney Spears

Mary-Kate & Ashley

Antonio Banderas

Matthew Brodderick

James Burland (oh yeah, with Harrison Ford)

Anthony Hopkins

Halle Berry

Steven Spielberg

Nicole Kidman

Martin Scorsese

Charlize Theron

Nokia Eninetyfive

Bing Crosby

Shirley Temple

George Clooney

Harry Potter

Man’s Chinese Theatre

Dressed up With James

And Delon

Winning the Oscar

Yellow Cab

Hollywood Sign

With James Dean

46 ounce, thirst quencher

Santa Monica Beach

Touring LA! Part 1.

So, whilst we wait for the rest of the US group to come to the Crowne Plaza, James, Chris, Delon, Abhi and I travelled around Los Angeles to see the sights, experience a bit of LA and get some pics/vids.

What a city! Like Vegas, everything here seems larger than life. Passing by the landmarks seen often in relation to high listing celebrities and shows felt so surreal. Were we really in LA?

Any big day must start of with a big breakfast.

Melons, sausages, bacon, egg, pancakes and maple syrup. I copied Chris’ plate.

Abhi, James, Chris and Delon.

The locations we intended on visiting were out of walking distance for the time we had so we took taxis.

First stop was Kodak Theatre

At Virgin Record’s Store where I got a hat and Chris got a memory card.

There were some nice belts there too:

Another theatre minutes away, Man’s:

Walk of Fame

Walt Disney

Britney Spears

(More of this set to come in part 2)

Topless Tour Bus:

Some villains and super heroes were wading through the crowd:

Batman

Tigger

Run for it!

Group Photo

Jame’s Oscar:

We got given about 20 DVDs of this guy:

Map to Homes and Crime scenes ofthe stars:

Where to go next?

Yellow Cab to Hollywood sign

We had to walk about 1/4 mile up to the hollywood sign since our Taxi wasn’t allowed up

Observatory seen in Transformers

Hollywood Sign

Smoggy Skyline

Bird of Paradise

Back in Taxi to Santa Monica Beach, Delon Sleeping

Santa Monica

American Pigeon

Fariswheel

Climb up, hit the button and get a prize!

Filming the smooth jazz musician

Jazz 2

Abhi

Delon

Scenic

Final Poses

Baywatch Jeep

James and the Dog

This post of part 1 isn’t finished but everyone is downstairs about to go to the main Nseries event, so when I get back, I’ll update you on the photos and details.

Keep watching for the finished part 1 and project N95 for part 2.

Pictures updated.

The LA Event Crew – So Far

(BTW, Time Stamp is GMT, local current time is 7:34 am)

Frank Grindrod and James Burland fighting over the last piece of bread.

James & Frank

Chaslam

angel_wing0 (Watch the drinks)

Where’d the booze go?

Donna Suffling

Listening to Mike…

James & Mike Davison

Oh, btw, abhi from HoFo also came last night but I forgot to take a pic.

Well, that’s him and I due for a pic today 🙂

Grilling of Nokia peeps.

 

This lovely herbed chicken breast has been grilled to perfection, and in a few hours, so will Nokia Product managers by the many attendants at today’s Nseries event at LA Mansion.

That’s my dish yesterday when I had dinner with Donna, Frank, James, Chris, and Delon (sorry if that’s mispelled)

We met up with Mike – Frank and Don’s Boss – over some drinks at the hotel bar after the meal. There was much conversation about where Nokia could go, and many questions along the line of “Why on earth did Nokia….”

• …remove the autofocus video recording of the N93i?
• …remove the camera cover on the N95 8GB/N95-3?
• …abandon the N93 with only 1 major firmware (still with no A2DP)?
• …allow such confusing and abstract marketing of the N95, instead of the Apple like straight forward “this is what it can do, this is how to use it”.

The WOMWorld peeps were pretty good at answering out questions, but they said the best people to direct this attention to are the Product Managers responsible for those decisions that may have ticked us off.

WOMWorld also kept firm that there are NO new device annoucements/release. No N82 (though they did look shifty, haha) or the successor to the N800, renders/spy pics we saw a while ago.

Pictures coming soon. It’s uploading as we speak, should be sooner except that the internet at the Crowne Plaza has the speed of a parked bus.

It’s so slow, you have to wait for google to load.

N95 Rant: Battery covers/Bigger Batteries/New back cover

I mentioned when first testing the N95 beta, that sooner or later I would have problems with the stupid frail plastic hooks intented by Nokia to keep your battery cover in place.

Due to the relatively weak battery of the N95, it’s a must to carry a spare battery. Swapping batteries often whilst in a rush to get your N95 back in action probably puts undue pressure on the feeble battery cover hooks. Inevitably, one bent too far and broke off.

I didn’t think much about that since it still stayed on. Two days later, another one broke off, putting more stress on the remaining 4 hooks.

Only 10 days ago, my N95 received her first major injury. To add insult to injury and several phone crashes later forced me to manually reset via battery removal. I’m not sure how it happened, but when I opened up the cover, all but one hook remained! Gah!

The only way I can keep my battery from falling out is with a crystal case.

I’ve heard of others in similar positions who’ve also been put in a situation where they needed to buy spare battery covers.

Mobilefun.co.uk is one of many sellers (this one UK based) for spare parts, should you need any for your Nokia. (No I’m not sponsored by them :P) Here’s an appropriate spare battery cover.
The N95 8GB, and I think the N95-3 (US) will not have this problem, since they use short thicker stubs that hopefully should not break. Really though, it should have been like this in the first place.

A couple of things came to mind though when using the crystal case again on my N95.

1. The case adds a mm or two of extra thickness. Basically, this means it’s as thick or slightly thicker than the N95 8GB. The N95 8GB/N95-3 had their camera cover removed apparently to accomodate the bigger battery.

However, looking at the picture (above) you can see that had Nokia DESIGNED A DIFFERENT BATTERY that could still fit in the original N95’s body albeit without the battery cover, the original N95 could have had the potential* to utilise a larger capacity battery too WHILST keeping the camera cover since an accessory as simple as a crystal case could have given that extra needed space.

(*Something mobileburnforum member, difenbaker, mentioned when the N95 8GB proto review was posted)

“…they should’ve done something that can be incorporated into the old design. NOT totally redesign it, or do something that cannot be done on the old one! “

Link 

2. The N95 has fully replaceable back covers. Instead of just swapping the battery cover, I could swap completely for a new colour, Plum/graphite/pink? lol.

The crystal case also shows potential for what a clear cover could look like. It looks cool, no?

MMMMM…Meeting of N95s

Even within a small sample batch of five N95s (Mine, Donna’s, Frank’s, James’ and Chris’), there’s already much difference between the build quality between each one, particularly the presence or lack of, of the slider wobble.

The states of wear and tear is also interesting to see, with mine looking the sorriest of the lot with my now useless battery cover kept on with a mean looking crystal case.

This post kinda went on too long so I split up with a new post to rant about the state of my battery cover. Check it out here: Clicky

We’re in LA!

Frank, Christian, James and I arrived in LA at about 2pm local time. After immigration and customs we got to the Crowne Plaza Hotel where our group met up with WOMWorld’s Donna and Howard forum’s angel_wing0.

Extremely toasty weather, really friendly people; yay LA!

My N93’s being a bit of a bugger and not charging (something wrong with the charger port) so there may be some difficulties with video footage, but pics, I can get you a ton of those 🙂 .