David Pitkin

My new browser homepage is Umair’s “How to Build a Next-Gen Business Now”. Reading the comments I found this amazing gem, hope you like it even 5% as much as I do:

[edit] the peak oil title was lame

I lost the LD-3W that came with my N800 Navigation kit on one of my trips, I just forgot it on the dash of a rental car. So here is the unboxing of the fancy new LD-4W from mobileplanet.com.

The box front and back and then the contents of inside . And here is all the stuff the karabiner that it comes with is a joke, brittle crappy plastic the device itself is awesome it is a perfect size and the addition of the hole allows you to actually use it with a suction cup and not have it awkwardly around like the old style. . It has soft rubber on the back so it does not slide around and uses the standard 2.5mm charging cable that most Nseries devices now use.

I wanted to share the list of applications and setting I have done so far for my brand new N95 today.

Installed: WorldMate for weather Nokia Maps Nokia Map Loader downloaded NH, MA and CA to my 2GB card Shozu Conversation Handy Taskman Sport Tracker Google Mail Mobile Google Maps Setup GooSync to get my calendar, the database name is “Calendar” and use the other generic settings. Synced with iSync to the Mac address book

This device is fantastic.

I was thinking this morning about why I wanted an iPhone. It’s a step backwards from my “Nokia N80:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_N80 but I still wanted one. I came up with two reasons.

1. Apple has done very little exposure of the fact that this is the coolest video iPod ever. Touch screen, 3.5” widescreen display, coverflow. If it had no phone features I would be ordering one. In this way they have managed the conversation around the bad parts like AT&T coverage and EDGE speed. So they managed my expectations and kept me subliminally hooked with the stuff you “forgot” about it, and you only forgot because they did not market that part.

2. I was then thinking about a post I can’t find now titled something like “Would your users stand in line for your products”. How about thinking of the flip side of that exact question, how could you create a line for your product? Maybe not take any preorders, release it after the work day ended on a Friday before a vacation week. Apple is good at so many facets.

My friend Donald already brick-ed his 4G iPhone! While syncing a lot of music and contacts it just locked up, he tried reloading it from iTunes twice but it still won’t boot up past the beautiful apple logo. He is on his way back to the store where I am sure they will swap it out. Oh and Dave had one that did not work with his wifi router which promoted the response “my router stinks” if your [INSERT OS HERE] phone had a 700MB Operating System and did not work with your preexisting network you think the manufacture could ever get you to blame your own hardware (even if it did stink)? Oh don’t worry I do think I am going to take a trip to Salem to pick one up.

Oh one sobering note, it is a odd time we live in to think while the country is at war people can line up outside of stores to buy a $600 gadget. Very strange.

I got a Nokia CA-100 charger from Expansys via MobilePlanet today. It was kind of expensive at 41 US dollars, converted from the 18 GBP. Look at all the devices it can charge for me from any USB port I can get my hands on. This will be a most welcome addition to my laptop bag.

Who knew there was a Google Earth Store where they sold cool stuff like the Trackstick II. With it you can upload your track like I have been doing with the Nokia Sport Tracker to Google Earth via a kml file. It can also provide you with the GPX file you need to link with your camera photos to your location and automatically save the location in the photo itself. The Google Earth/Keyhole team continues to impress me.

Update: The Trackstick II requires Windows to export your files. That is kind of lame given the outputs are all open formats.

Nokia Europe released a N-series Mac app to transfer music AND pictures from your phone to iTunes and iPhoto! Previously it was only for the N91 that could play music from iTunes. Your phone connected with bluetooth can show up as a camera in iPhoto to transfer pictures from and you can fill your phone any % you want of random songs from your iTunes library when connected.

This is a Macintosh week, as I am swapping my HP tablet and MacBook Pro on and off every work week so I can play with both operating systems. A new version of Twitterific and the Nokia app today were great Mac additions.

I arrived in San Juan, Puerto Rico and needed to get to the other side of the 100 mile island to the HP Plant in Aguadilla. I was already familiar with the roads near the plant but getting out of San Juan and across the island in a rental car was another matter. The map that Avis provided was in English (a plus) and that was all I had provided to me.

I did however pack my new N800 Navigation kit, as I sat in my cool blue Chevy Malibu I attached the horn looking mount to the windshield and fired up the n800. Oh crap there are not maps of Puerto Rico included! I could have checked before I left but other things were on my mind. Ah well I used the Avis map to navigate out of the city and onto Route 22 a road with many tolls that went directly across the north coast of the island to my destination.

As I drove across the island I thought to try the Nokia Maps application on my N80. One of the cool things about the N800 nav kit is that the GPS is a bluetooth model that works with other devices. It connected right away and started to download maps via GPRS! I had roads in Puerto Rico abit on a small screen. I was in business and was confident in my location and where I was going. I was a little bored so I thought why not try out the turn by turn navigation option but I knew already that you had to pay to enable it. I asked for a route and it connected over the network, when you click start navigation a prompt to purchase shows up. It actually offers you a few subscription options such as 1 day, 7 days and 1 year and 3 years. I chose the 7 day option for 11$ USD! Voice guides were downloaded and I was in turn by turn navigation mode, nice.

Now the screen on the N80 is small. This led me to attempt to get some sort of maps on the N800 and load up Maemo Mapper. Now this grey market program can connect to the same Bluetooth GPS and downloads maps from a URI to Google, Microsoft or any other map provider. This is not entirely okay with the copyright restrictions on the maps but was downloading maps through another bluetooth connection to my N80 and on the windscreen. Score update.

Now I already know the few roads around Aguadilla and the North East corner of the island so cruising around with the N800 works great for a few days.

On Friday evening I made the trek back to San Juan. And started right off with Nokia Maps, at first it told me that it was back in an unlicensed state! I attempted to buy another license and it correctly told me that it was already licensed and started to work again. It was an easy ride back across the island. No points awarded since Maps crashed the phone when I attempted to redial a call from my bluetooth headset. I am still impressed that it tried, this little device was connected to a bluetooth GPS, downloading maps and route information from a GPRS connection as well as making phone calls back to the US, all of this in the Caribbean ocean and 1,600 miles from home.

Back in San Juan and near the aeropuerto. I needed to find the Courtyard Marriot where I was staying. Hmm Nokia Maps has no POI database in San Juan, I did a search for Marriott and it returned a few hotels in Florida (only 900 miles away) and even a few in Boston! How useless is that. Okay we have even more technology here. I called the hotel first and got some directions that I could follow. I also fired up Google Maps mobile on the N80 to find the hotel address. It worked as perfect as a Java app on an S60 device can first by prompting me to allow it to access the network and then by letting me triple tap the hotel name in. This is where it got really wacky. The addresses in Puerto Rico are in a mix of Spanish and English, so the Hotel shows its address like 7031 Boca… but Nokia maps could not find it. Never mind that in this area of San Juan near the big casinos there are a bunch of one way and confusing streets. I eventually wound up at the Hotel from the directions on the phone as none of the devices were any strong help except Google Maps!

I can’t believe how much stuff actually worked (like Nokia Maps and Google Maps) and how much at the same time I had traditional methods like paper maps and phone calls to actually get myself around. It was nice to have lots of options.

I took my N800 to Puerto Rico this week. It worked out great, I was able to jump on open wifi and use GPRS all over the island. Once online I could check gmail, facebook, twitter, and forums all without lugging and opening up a laptop. It also was great for maps and navigation but that is a story in itself.

The highlights was making my first Gizmo call home when I had no mobile coverage. I did have wifi that worked best in the bathroom of all places in the room.

On the plane home I checked out the pictures I took with the N80 on the screen by popping the miniSD card into the n800. When I did not grab the N800 I used google mail, widsets and shozu on the N80, I continue to be impressed with the N80. If only the networks I use had 3G coverage and used the same frequency as Europe. . . The only camera I carried was my N80 which made it a truly mobile communication device providing calls, pictures, navigation, information and even sent a video up to youtube while standing there outside Castillo de San Felipe del Morro.

The only gripe is that the battery life could be better! This has always been the case but it really hurts when you are relying on it for so many things. It continues to be nice to only need one power adapter for most of my mobile devices the list of: N80, N800, BH-800 headset and LD-3W GPS all use the new 2.5mm Nokia jack so one car adapter for them all. I can’t wait for the CA-100 to ship so I can even suck power from any USB port ;)

First the requisite picture of all the stuff out of the box. Not pictured is a car charger with a new nokia style 2.5mm connector, just the one charger for the GPS and Tablet but I guess you can always run one on it’s battery while the other is charging.

It is really nice that now almost all my Nokia gear uses the exact same charger.

The Navicore software installer crashed under Vista, first time that happened to me. I then used a Windows XP machine to run the installer. You pick the locations (USA East, USA West, and Canada) and voices depending on how much of the included 2GB MiniSD card you want to fill up.

While that installer was copying a GB over USB I paired the LD-W3 GPS with my N80ie and started up the Nokia Maps app, it worked perfect! The GPS locked on fast and worked great even indoors.

The funniest thing I noticed is that the intersection on the Nokia box happens to be Route 2 and 495 which is about 10 miles from my house!

I am really excited to take this out on the road!