At our company, we're using the Dynamics NAV (Formerly known as Navision) application for some financials and approvals. Its a lousy application. Bug ridden, hopelessly unsuitable for its purpose.
Whats most ridiculous is that its so heavy on network utilisation, that its inpractical to use it in a wide network (ie. we're using around offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.). So the solution is that you have to use terminal services to connect to our head offices here in London to use the apps. A 100meg network is the bare minimum required for it.
If the rest of the Dynamics family is anything like the Navision application, then the whole venture deserves to crash and burn in spectacular fashion.
11 XBoxes sold in that one week? Nintendo have the Japanese market pretty much to themselves. The PSP is the closest competitor, and thats selling only half the numbers of the Wii.
The iPhone seamlessly integrates with corporate exchange systems? Nope. Does it last for a week on one charge of the battery? Nope. A decent keyboard to type on with tactile feedback? Nope.
I was supporting a corporate Blackberry roll-out, and the management absolutely loved the devices (7230, 7290 models), they did exactly what they wanted - make calls (for the few that had that enabled), and keep on their e-mail without having to connect to a wifi hotspot. And the fact that most of them could go away from the office for a week and not have to take a charger was a massive bonus.
No, the iPhone doesn't directly compete with the Blackberry/Treo. Its more a competitor to the SE W950, which is a similar phone overall, but I think that I'd stick with the SE. Its cheaper, available NOW, based on a considerably more mature phone/mobile OS (Symbian).
That is the case in the good ol' US of A, but over here in Europe, phones tend to be pretty open from the outset. Sure, we have operator customisations on the UI, but the majority of the time you're fairly free to do with the phone as you please.
I'm intrigued by saying that Apple want to dominate the market. Whilst I wish them well with it, Nokia/Moto/Samsung/SE have a stranglehold on the market (especially Nokia). That is a massive market lead to try and take on. Especially with one (relatively expensive) product. I'm pretty sure Jobs said something about wanting 1% of the market.
And just how many DS games are purely based around the touch screen? Its an additional input method, but the majority of games/apps for the DS use the other controls as well.
I think V-Rally on the old SE P800/900 range showed a racing game with a reasonable control method, but far from ideal.
Was there any mention of J2ME support on the iPhone? The majority of mobile gaming seems to do a fairly decent job of handling 3D via Java now (look at Helistrike, Ashphalt 3D, etc.), and its getting mature enough to make a viable gaming platform.
So, I go away on holiday somewhere, it'd be a total freakin pita to have to charge the phone every day.
Heck, my Nokia N73 has a fairly decent feature set, and even with a reasonable amount of talking, texting, music playing and camera usage (and its got a fairly usable camera, its replaced my Casio EX-Z600), it can go 3+ days before needing a charge.
And I figure you can't easily change the battery on it, in the same vein as the Nanos, etc. which is painfully short sighted of Apple. They've focused on design, and forgotten about basic usability.
So, it'd be real nice if those guys at Wired could actually check their facts before they spout a load o' rubbish. If I remember right, 3 are also including a data plan that allows voip (most other UK carriers that have "unlimited" data plans specifically exclude voip).
Of course, you guys in the US will have the handsets locked down tighter than a tight thing at a tight things convention...
Should also add that Motorola have been shipping USB to their proprietary adapters for quite a few years - I got one with my HS820 headset, and can charge it from my PC.
The N73 is different on that setting - Settings/phone/standby mode/left selection key.
Quite easy.
At least on the N73, everything is pretty logical. In fact, the majory of options are exactly where they were on S60 6.1, as it was on my ancient Siemens SX1 (I'll have to bring that back to life just to compare the two).
Simple yes/no toggles *are* handled with a single button. Press the joystick in. Bluetooth on/off, etc. perfect.
Gallery is stupid, thats for sure. No proper sequencing either.
Wish that Nokia had looked at the SE walkman player for the music app, the Nokia one is retarded.
SMS - no way of putting emoticons or animations into messages, which isn't particularly useful.
Back to the original article though, my last S60 phone was v6.1, a Siemens SX1, and the UI is practically identical in almost every way. Very intuitive. My main bugbear has to be that I've gone from a phone with a 120mHz processor, to one running at between 200 and 300mHz (depending on where you read), and its overall UI responsiveness is pretty much the same as the old Siemens.
Its definitely a good phone though, call quality is very good, syncs perfectly with outlook, SMS is a breeze, battery life is okayish. Screen is excellent, camera quality is fantastic.
And for those who want to know firmware versions, I'm on the latest Nokia v3 point something, not the Orange branded firmware (that didn't look particularly good, they give you the same "homescreen" that you get on most Orange phones).
Totally agree with that - I also used a BB (7230) on a rotating basis for support at work, it would easily last from the time I picked it up (monday morning) to the following monday.
Not so sure that the later models battery life is quite as good though.
This is one crutial aspect of mobile usage that seems to escape a lot of manufacturers nowadays. What is "smart" in a phone that only lasts a day or two on a charge? My current personal phone (SE W550) does a good 4+ days on a charge, and that is generally about as good as you'll get with a mobile phone nowadays. I'd love for the manufacturers to start working towards improving battery life rather than improving camera/other features. (I'm aware that one of the Panasonic VS range does have a very, very long battery life).
I'm on Tiscali, and download a little, and only a little bit via P2P.
Their attitude is to totally BAN P2P activity in the UK at least. Even though I'm well under my monthly allowance (30gig, I believe, I'm typically at 10 or so - heck, last month had a total 6gig down, 1.8gig up). And I'm sure that a very large percentage of this was iTunes.
I've had a few "Heavy usage warnings", after the first one, i asked for details of when, they effectively ignored that request, but I still capped anything I did on Azureus to 10kb/s, ie. SLOW.
They've now decided to start "managing my usage". Their attitude is terrible overall, customer service is lousy beyond belief.... and this article just sums them up.
I tried to get into TAG years back (my degree work was around real-time embedded systems), but they just weren't taking on anyone at the time.
TAG are probably at the bleeding edge of engine management systems, so far ahead of Microsoft that you'd figure the race to be pretty much over. It has to involve Microsoft buying in some other company to get into that market.
Were you running some custom DVD software on your PS2? It was (is) terrible. Sure, its handy, but we've got £25 DVD players here at home that walk all over the PS2. Heck, the PS2 can't even get the aspect ratio right.
Bluetooth has an audio distribution profile (A2DP), which apparently supports higher quality stereo audio. There are a few products on the market that support it, obviously there will be more with time.
Bluetooth can have semi-decent bandwidth, but I haven't listened to any of these units to comment.
I've worked at a fairly high profile UK defence site, and the physical security of their networks would prohibit such access to anything of a sensitive nature - there is NO physical link between the TS networks real world, so it is totally impossible to hack in without having gained access to the site (ie. bypassed the guards with the guns, etc.)
I call BS, or honeypot
I had a very similar experience, first at secondary, then at sixth form.
The secondary teachers of the time (up to 86) weren't that knowledgable at all, but by the time I hit sixth form, both myself and some fellow students had so far surpassed the teachers knowledge that invariably when it came to any questions from other students, the teacher would pass the question over to my friends and myself.
There are devices that do handle this convergence quite well, but Nokia just don't ever seem to quite "get it".
Look at the SE K750, W800, W810 or even the much cheaper W550. They are all excellent at the primary phone functions (ie. battery life, signal, call quality, text messaging). They all offer relatively decent cameras (1.3mp in the W550, 2mp autofocus on the others), darned good music playback (easily equal to an iPod Nano).
The Nokia S60 products are invariably interesting, but lacking in things that make such a device truly usable (battery life and physical dimensions).
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I don't think its a web based app.
At our company, we're using the Dynamics NAV (Formerly known as Navision) application for some financials and approvals. Its a lousy application. Bug ridden, hopelessly unsuitable for its purpose.
Whats most ridiculous is that its so heavy on network utilisation, that its inpractical to use it in a wide network (ie. we're using around offices in London, Paris, Amsterdam, etc.). So the solution is that you have to use terminal services to connect to our head offices here in London to use the apps. A 100meg network is the bare minimum required for it.
If the rest of the Dynamics family is anything like the Navision application, then the whole venture deserves to crash and burn in spectacular fashion.
Those figures are pretty astounding.
11 XBoxes sold in that one week? Nintendo have the Japanese market pretty much to themselves. The PSP is the closest competitor, and thats selling only half the numbers of the Wii.
How does it compete with the Blackberry?
The iPhone seamlessly integrates with corporate exchange systems? Nope. Does it last for a week on one charge of the battery? Nope. A decent keyboard to type on with tactile feedback? Nope.
I was supporting a corporate Blackberry roll-out, and the management absolutely loved the devices (7230, 7290 models), they did exactly what they wanted - make calls (for the few that had that enabled), and keep on their e-mail without having to connect to a wifi hotspot. And the fact that most of them could go away from the office for a week and not have to take a charger was a massive bonus.
No, the iPhone doesn't directly compete with the Blackberry/Treo. Its more a competitor to the SE W950, which is a similar phone overall, but I think that I'd stick with the SE. Its cheaper, available NOW, based on a considerably more mature phone/mobile OS (Symbian).
That is the case in the good ol' US of A, but over here in Europe, phones tend to be pretty open from the outset. Sure, we have operator customisations on the UI, but the majority of the time you're fairly free to do with the phone as you please.
I'm intrigued by saying that Apple want to dominate the market. Whilst I wish them well with it, Nokia/Moto/Samsung/SE have a stranglehold on the market (especially Nokia). That is a massive market lead to try and take on. Especially with one (relatively expensive) product. I'm pretty sure Jobs said something about wanting 1% of the market.
And just how many DS games are purely based around the touch screen? Its an additional input method, but the majority of games/apps for the DS use the other controls as well.
I think V-Rally on the old SE P800/900 range showed a racing game with a reasonable control method, but far from ideal.
Was there any mention of J2ME support on the iPhone? The majority of mobile gaming seems to do a fairly decent job of handling 3D via Java now (look at Helistrike, Ashphalt 3D, etc.), and its getting mature enough to make a viable gaming platform.
So, I go away on holiday somewhere, it'd be a total freakin pita to have to charge the phone every day.
Heck, my Nokia N73 has a fairly decent feature set, and even with a reasonable amount of talking, texting, music playing and camera usage (and its got a fairly usable camera, its replaced my Casio EX-Z600), it can go 3+ days before needing a charge.
And I figure you can't easily change the battery on it, in the same vein as the Nanos, etc. which is painfully short sighted of Apple. They've focused on design, and forgotten about basic usability.
In prior format wars, porn has been the decider. However, porn has already chosen its next format.
On-line. Does that count as a winner?
Its not vaporware.
...
It currently being SHIPPED (ie actually available) with the Nokia N80 on the UKs 3 network. Its part of a package called "X-Series" that includes
- Skype
- Mobilcast
- SlingPlayerMobile
- Yahoo GO!
- 3MobileMail
So, it'd be real nice if those guys at Wired could actually check their facts before they spout a load o' rubbish. If I remember right, 3 are also including a data plan that allows voip (most other UK carriers that have "unlimited" data plans specifically exclude voip).
Of course, you guys in the US will have the handsets locked down tighter than a tight thing at a tight things convention
I always thought it was 640kb. Then again, I'm being pedantic about everything today.
Should also add that Motorola have been shipping USB to their proprietary adapters for quite a few years - I got one with my HS820 headset, and can charge it from my PC.
This is one of the best moves that Motorola has made for a while, but with one caveat.
You cannot charge a RAZR from being flat via PC/USB, you have to use the mains charger. Maybe only a slight inconvenience, but a point none the less.
Have you looked at the Nokia range recently?
They're now on a smaller version of the power adapter, and use either USB or the pop-port connector for data connections.
Admiteddly, they're migrating away from the proprietary connections towards USB, and to 3.5mm headphone sockets.
The N73 is different on that setting - Settings/phone/standby mode/left selection key. Quite easy. At least on the N73, everything is pretty logical. In fact, the majory of options are exactly where they were on S60 6.1, as it was on my ancient Siemens SX1 (I'll have to bring that back to life just to compare the two).
Simple yes/no toggles *are* handled with a single button. Press the joystick in. Bluetooth on/off, etc. perfect.
Gallery is stupid, thats for sure. No proper sequencing either.
Wish that Nokia had looked at the SE walkman player for the music app, the Nokia one is retarded.
SMS - no way of putting emoticons or animations into messages, which isn't particularly useful.
Back to the original article though, my last S60 phone was v6.1, a Siemens SX1, and the UI is practically identical in almost every way. Very intuitive. My main bugbear has to be that I've gone from a phone with a 120mHz processor, to one running at between 200 and 300mHz (depending on where you read), and its overall UI responsiveness is pretty much the same as the old Siemens.
Its definitely a good phone though, call quality is very good, syncs perfectly with outlook, SMS is a breeze, battery life is okayish. Screen is excellent, camera quality is fantastic.
And for those who want to know firmware versions, I'm on the latest Nokia v3 point something, not the Orange branded firmware (that didn't look particularly good, they give you the same "homescreen" that you get on most Orange phones).
I've always found it more enjoyable played outdoors.
Totally agree with that - I also used a BB (7230) on a rotating basis for support at work, it would easily last from the time I picked it up (monday morning) to the following monday.
Not so sure that the later models battery life is quite as good though.
This is one crutial aspect of mobile usage that seems to escape a lot of manufacturers nowadays. What is "smart" in a phone that only lasts a day or two on a charge? My current personal phone (SE W550) does a good 4+ days on a charge, and that is generally about as good as you'll get with a mobile phone nowadays. I'd love for the manufacturers to start working towards improving battery life rather than improving camera/other features. (I'm aware that one of the Panasonic VS range does have a very, very long battery life).
I'm on Tiscali, and download a little, and only a little bit via P2P.
.... and this article just sums them up.
Their attitude is to totally BAN P2P activity in the UK at least. Even though I'm well under my monthly allowance (30gig, I believe, I'm typically at 10 or so - heck, last month had a total 6gig down, 1.8gig up). And I'm sure that a very large percentage of this was iTunes.
I've had a few "Heavy usage warnings", after the first one, i asked for details of when, they effectively ignored that request, but I still capped anything I did on Azureus to 10kb/s, ie. SLOW.
They've now decided to start "managing my usage". Their attitude is terrible overall, customer service is lousy beyond belief
I'll second that.
I tried to get into TAG years back (my degree work was around real-time embedded systems), but they just weren't taking on anyone at the time.
TAG are probably at the bleeding edge of engine management systems, so far ahead of Microsoft that you'd figure the race to be pretty much over. It has to involve Microsoft buying in some other company to get into that market.
Were you running some custom DVD software on your PS2? It was (is) terrible. Sure, its handy, but we've got £25 DVD players here at home that walk all over the PS2. Heck, the PS2 can't even get the aspect ratio right.
Bluetooth has an audio distribution profile (A2DP), which apparently supports higher quality stereo audio. There are a few products on the market that support it, obviously there will be more with time.
Bluetooth can have semi-decent bandwidth, but I haven't listened to any of these units to comment.
I've worked at a fairly high profile UK defence site, and the physical security of their networks would prohibit such access to anything of a sensitive nature - there is NO physical link between the TS networks real world, so it is totally impossible to hack in without having gained access to the site (ie. bypassed the guards with the guns, etc.) I call BS, or honeypot
I had a very similar experience, first at secondary, then at sixth form.
The secondary teachers of the time (up to 86) weren't that knowledgable at all, but by the time I hit sixth form, both myself and some fellow students had so far surpassed the teachers knowledge that invariably when it came to any questions from other students, the teacher would pass the question over to my friends and myself.
SE W800 :
Simple : Yes
Cheap : Yes (at least in the UK)
Long battery life : Yes
Totally pocketable : Yes
There are devices that do handle this convergence quite well, but Nokia just don't ever seem to quite "get it".
Look at the SE K750, W800, W810 or even the much cheaper W550. They are all excellent at the primary phone functions (ie. battery life, signal, call quality, text messaging). They all offer relatively decent cameras (1.3mp in the W550, 2mp autofocus on the others), darned good music playback (easily equal to an iPod Nano).
The Nokia S60 products are invariably interesting, but lacking in things that make such a device truly usable (battery life and physical dimensions).
It is running S60, which is a more stable, longer running platform than Windows CE, being evolved from the Psion Epoc (Series 1/2/3, remember those).
You can develop your own apps for it, as it supports the OPL programming language, and there is a huge amount of application support out there.