Nokia goes Windows Phone

It's been 8 months now since Nokia announced the strategic partnership with Microsoft, involving a complete adaptation of the Windows Phone operating system in all price categories. Yesterday at Nokia World, finally, the first Nokia Windows Phone 7.5 "Mango" devices were introduced.

 Nokia Lumia 800 running Windows Phone 7.5 Mango

Since I've known for months that there would be a Nokia phone with WP7, I have patiently kept using my old phone in hope of a jump to the next level. I loved the design and simplistic aspects of N9 very much, but there were two major defects that I simply couldn't ignore: 1) high price 2) lack of future apps. Now just to make it clear: I'm not an app-fanatic but e.g. when searching for some cool photo/panorama apps for the N9 from Ovi Store, there just didn't seem to be anything to satisfy my needs.

Nokia's Lumia 800 was exactly what I was hoping for. Ok, front facing camera is missing, but in the end I figured I probably wouldn't need that so much. NFC would've been cool too, but it's more of the future features as well. But everything else was pretty much great stuff: The gorgeous N9 design, good camera and other decent specs + the benefits of the Windows Phone eco-system.

Then I realized they wouldn't release it in Finland, not this year anyway.

I was quite pissed off. Of course, I understand and approve CEO Elop's strategy to go to big markets with a rumble first, but still.. Finland is Nokia's homeyard and I wonder if they have ever before decided to skip the premiere launch of a flagship product here.

Anyway, so here I am, still patiently waiting.. or more to say, trying to figure the heck out on what phone to buy next. Yet, perhaps some hope remains. Thanks to the loose borders of the EU (at least in the economic terms), I might be able to order a phone for me all the way from UK or Germany. I surely hope I can somehow get the phone I want and all this wait hasn't been for nothing.

Video: Nokia N9 Journey

The Nokia N9 is definitely one of the most beautiful phones ever built. Now they've managed to create a very cool video of the manufacturing process of that device. You can see it on YouTube:



It's been interesting to see how great ads Nokia has been making in the past few months (new ad agency perhaps?). Although, I don't like the N9 ads with extereme shot cuts, but many of the videos featuring CGI renders and great music really create a positive image of Nokia. You can see the official videos from Nokia at YouTube.

Sports Tracker

If you like outdoor sports, such as bicycling, running, walking, skiing etc. and are used to carry a smart phone while you're out there, you might like Sports Tracker. With Sports Tracker you can easily save the data from each of your exercise, such as route in visual format, kilometer count, speed, calories burnt etc. and share it with your friends - or the whole world. If you prefer, you can keep your stats private, of course.

At least personally, I love statistics! I love investigating maps too! I love.. ok, enough of that.  Anyway, I have kept record of all the kilometers I've ran since 2000, but with Notepad style. I'm stickin' to my old habits though, since no matter how great Sports Tracker truly is, it has it's downsides. Most annoying thing is that (at least on my cellphone) the GPS signal is pretty unreliable (and it consumes A LOT of the phone's battery life). Still, I recommend you to at least give it a try, it's fun!

Here's an embed of one of my exercises:

Panorama photography

I love taking photos, but I have not been able to produce panoramas due to my old phone. Thus I have used my employer's iPad 2 to create some panoramas. I love how easy doing panoramas has become, and how good in quality they are (reflecting on the amount of effort put in making them).

Multiple images stitched into one render with Photosynth. 

Taken at our summer cottage in 2011.

The two software I have tried are: Occipital 360 Panorama and Microsoft Photosynth. Mostly I have used the former, because it seems to be faster and has better recognition when doing full 360° panoramas. On the other hand Photosynth seems to have better image quality when the stitching has gone well. It's worked great for partial, wide-angle photosynths like the example above. The examples on the official web sites of both software indicate, however, that with right skills (and device?) you can make some really amazing stuff with them.

If you're interested, you can see some of my 360 Panoramas at my homepage's panorama-page.

Thinking Differently

Here's my geek history in brief. Enjoy! =)

My greatest nerd/teenage years were around the time when Apple ran it's famous "Think Different" campaign. Late 90's were probably the peak of my Apple fanhood as well. But it all began much earlier.

It was in 1991 when my mom bought the first computer to our household. It was her work machine, but naturally the rest of the family got to try it. The computer was Macintosh LC and I still remember my first comment being something like "I'm never going to learn how to use this". How wrong was I =)

It wasn't long 'till I was indeed the nerd/tech support guy in our family. I also loved creating drawings with KidPix, animation/first multimedia applications with HyperCard etc. etc. I always tried to tell my friends how great, easy to use and cool system Mac was, but only got mocked in return. In that aspect, "Think Different" suited me well amid all my pro-PC/Windows friends. Naturally, I thought of Windows as the pure evil itself.

After Steve Jobs returned to Apple he basically rocked the grey IT-industry with the candy colored and beautifully designed iMacs. I think the move to consumer electronics with iPod was the point when "regular" people also started to give Apple a try (Graphics design/Ad companies had always been the core Apple users before).

Meanwhile, in the early 2000's I also got my first phones from the Finnish national pride, Nokia. Their devices were greatly popular, I guess because they were easy to use, stabile and well-built. Much like Apple's computers.

So there I was, happy, to finally see Apple bloom, while using my iMac and sending SMSes with my Nokia (Windows was still something I never ever wanted to use).

Then, in 2007 came the iPhone that truly changed the game. I was probably the first one ready to jump over to Apple's vision of a mobile device. And just like me, millions of others saw it as the future and Nokia's descent began. Nokia has been in trouble since and Apple has been making more money than ever. But I am not so happy.

The reason? I think it's because Apple has lost it's underdog pioneer status, and (as a result?) it's innovative speed seems to be falling behind competition. I think this is the exact same reason why Nokia has had troubles. So things do change. I was literally stunned when I first saw what Windows 8 would be all about - I saw the future. Equally delighted I was to see and try Nokia N9 and it's sexy, new design.

This has truly made me think differently. What if  Nokia has gotten it's golden touch back? What if Windows was the pioneering OS now? 

I admit I still love Apple's products, but I refuse not to give a try at something new. I give great respect to Microsoft for having the balls to try something so fresh. Same goes for Nokia. Then there's also Google with Android, who knows what they have in their sleeves? In any case, I look forward to see the gadgets of the near future - and try to keep thinking differently.

All of my cell phones

Yeah, these are all of the phones I have ever owned =) So I guess it's time to get a new one already, huh?

I got my first phone, Nokia 3210 in year 2000, I was so thrilled about my first phone I even made it into a drawing. My second was also a Nokia, 1100 to be exact. Still stickin' to the cheaper models and a black&white screen.

Then, when I heard Apple was making a phone (I'll write another post to explain my history with Apple and technology in general), I knew it would be my first top-notch phone. Sadly, the first iPhone never arrived in Finland, but the 3G did and I bought it immediately.

The iPhone 3G has served me well for over three years so I guess it's already passed it's retirement age. Now then, I'm finally ready to upgrade since the latests smart phones have these things I want:

1) Good camera with HD video recording. I like taking photos, but I am so tired to always carry my large Canon EOS400 or Ixus pocket cam with me, e.g. when traveling. Bad camera and no video rec has been the #1 drag of iPhone 3G.

2) More processing power, enough to run the latest software. I don't think Angry Birds works on iPhone 3G.

3) The "Wow" effect. Or at least something fresh. Everyone has an iPhone these days, and they all look pretty much the same and the main UI is still about static icons. Easy to use? Yes. Innovative? Not anymore.

So, now I am still waiting for that next wow-phone to arrive. It may already be out there, but I have decided to wait for the first Nokia Windows phones to see if they've got that something special I'm looking for.