Time for a new phone I thought, and I’ve been hankering for something a bit more high tech for some time. So having been reading about iPhone vs N95 I thought I’d find out what the computer has become.

First impressions - compared to my old K750i it’s big, but then it’s got that lovely big screen. However it’s been living in my pocket quite well for a few days now, so I don’t think it’s too big.

It’s a new interface to learn - I had Nokia before my last two Sony Ericssons and loved it and moaned about having to learn the SE, but you get used to things don’t you? Accepting that I still have to learn keyboard shortcuts etc. the current issues I have are getting confused with when the keyboard will lock, and the text entry could do with a preview of what the next button press will do. And the camera takes too long from going ‘click’ and freezing the picture, to actually taking the image and storing it (I suspect something in the order of half a second?), so you often miss what it was you were trying to shoot - especially in lower light.

Of course my main interest was the Internet browsing, and it was … underwhelming. I really don’t agree with the apparent trend to try and get mobile devices to render normal web pages on small screens. It’s a bad compromise, and will do nothing to encourage websites to make an effort to improve their rendering for lesser browsers. So it tries to render full pages, with a zoom function and a cursor, but it’s still a mobile device with a small screen and vastly reduced input device. And they’ve even removed one of the most useful features of phone browsers - using the keyboard hotkeys for fast navigation. Point it at a site optimised for mobiles, and I’m sure it’s great (although I haven’t yet found a shining example).

This is my initial reaction after not enough time - I will explore more as I’m very keen indeed to partake in helping the mobile internet evolution progress.

I was fascinated by the GPS functionality, having read so much about that’s the way mobile devices were going to go - and I was frankly very disappointed. It takes an age to get the GPS functionality lit up and knowing where it is, and it’s very flakey. And I don’t know that you can automatically geotag pictures. It may be the future, but it’s not here yet from what I see.

I haven’t yet explored the music / video / 3G features yet - I’m rationing the excitement.

I hate the commercialisation of phones - demo games, subscribe to additional features, constantly having to worry what doing anything will cost you. But I suppose it’s the price you have to pay for subsidised handsets etc.

That’s about it. Other than that it’s a phone.

Found this app which really makes me wish my phone was 3G with a bigger screen - MGMaps - it’s a Java app that runs on most mobile phones (those supprting J2ME at any rate) and allows you to access Google Maps Yahoo! Maps.

Runs on my K750i but it’s painfully slow loading the bitmapped images. Once it does though it’s a nice interface. Very useful if you’re stuck without a map - if you know where you are (?)

Now all I need is a phone with 3G and GPS - hmmm. a Nokia N95 perhaps?

Postscript: Following instructions on mgmaps and markus.brosch.net I got mgmaps going on my PocketLoox PocketPC - and in the process got the IBM J9 Java/Midlet runtime going on Windows Mobile 5 - what fun!

I happened to be passing Cameron Moll’s Authentic Boredom site which I delve into every now and then, and read with interest his revisiting of predictions on the iPhone some time after the release, and having been using one. Now I haven’t had the oppotunity to play with one yet, and as described elsewhere I’m less than impressed with Windows Mobile offerings.

“As for the iPhone overall — hardware, software, user experience — I remain completely satisfied and even in awe in some instances. The deeper I dive into the UI, the more I’m impressed with decisions made at every level within the experience of using it. Simply stated, this is one killer device.”

OK, that makes me want to give one a spin - perhaps they are worth the hype. But then I want to get my hands on a Nokia N95