Piping hot

As you will almost certainly be aware, I don't have an iPhone. And you will also be aware that I really want an iPhone but can't afford one. So I'm making do with a Nokia E63 smartphone instead, and the biggest frustration with this solution is that I can't avail myself of some of the really useful apps available for the iPhone.

I like the fact that you can upload photos and text to a variety of sources through the iPhone - apps like Evernote, Flickr, Twitter and so on. The iPod Touch (which I love) doesn't have the camera nor the "always on" connectivity so although it has the apps, it doesn't have the hardware.

I've found a fairly decent solution for my Nokia via the wonders of Pixelpipe. You set yourself up with a free account, download the software to your phone and then set up your "pipes" - essentially which services you want to connect to. I've enabled Twitpic, Facebook, Flickr, Evernote and Blogger. You can write text items or attach photos to individual posts and then select their destination. You can upload to all your services simultaneously, or select which pipes you want to use by using a simple tagging system. Once you hit the upload button, your post appears as if by magic on the internet. It all works very well.

Highly recommended for those of us "slumming it" in the land of Symbian...

Joi to the world

If you follow my Twitter feed you may have heard me mention a little application that I downloaded for my Nokia E63 called Joikuspot. It's a very clever little program that uses the phone's 3G connection and wi-fi to create a little personal hotspot for you to use to get internet access.

I'm pleased to report that it works incredibly well, particularly bearing in mind that it's free. There is a "premium" version but I'm quite happy to look at a landing page in my browser when first logging on in exchange for not having to pay!

As you might expect with plain old 3G, you're not going to set the internet alight with amazing download speeds (I'm getting about 256kbps) but when you're without a web connection, then it's a very neat option. It's essentially doing what the Three Mi-Fi does, but at very little cost. My phone network (Virgin) gives you 24 hours of unlimited browsing for just 30p, so for the few times I need to jump on the web away from home its perfect.

In fact, my Eee PC is connected via Joikuspot as I sit here and type this in a local (wifi-less) coffee shop. There's not many times that my budget Nokia phone option gets one over on my iPhone using friends, but this is one such occasion.

Decision made

After much faffing (i.e endless hours of internet research and many visits to shops) I've finally decided on my new mobile phone. And the winner is?

This one! (I'm going to make you click this link in a vain effort to create some suspense, rather than just telling you outright).

I've gone with the tried-and-tested Nokia/Symbian S60 platform, combined with the convenience of a QWERTY keyboard, which for an old man like me makes texting, emailing and web browsing considerably easier. Wifi too, which is nice.

I've previously gone on at some length about why I haven't got an iPhone, so don't start asking me about it okay? I know your phone is better than mine.

WWDC today - but do I care enough?

With only a few hours to go until Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference 2009, it is now pretty much accepted wisdom that there will be an announcement of a new iPhone. If this is true, it'll be the third year on the bounce that they've released new iPhone hardware. Now I'm all up for technological advancement, and bearing in mind I'm about 6 weeks away from the end of my current mobile phone contract I may well be in the market for just such a device.

However, I have a few issues with the whole iPhone sales model. If Apple continue this 12-month cycle of hardware upgrades, how are customers going to fare with this incessant pace of change? If I got myself a new 18-month contract for a 3rd generation iPhone as soon as it's released, I'm pretty much guaranteed to have an obsolete model after 12 months. So do I then get the 4th-gen iPhone when the contract expires, knowing that if I'm just a bit more patient I can have the 5th-gen in just another six months? My god, it's enough to make your head spin!

But my *real* problem with the iPhone is unfortunately more fundamental than the obsolescense of the hardware. The cost is just a bit rich for my blood. I know that you're getting what is arguably the best mobile phone in the world, but the monthly cost is what's putting me off. The cheapest contract for an iPhone is £30 a month, for 18 months, with an upfront cost of £100 for the 8GB model. For that outlay, you get 75 minutes and 125 texts and unlimited data.

Now I can get a super-shiny Nokia E71 (which admittedly, isn't an iPhone but is widely recognised to be the best smart phone on the market bar none) for free on an 18-month contract with 200 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited data for £20 a month from three.co.uk.

There's an interesting comparison between the two phones from Wired.com - just try to ignore the geeks and concentrate on the phones...



So over the life of the 18-month contract the iPhone will set me back £640, the Nokia will cost me £360. That's some significant margin - £280 is a lot in my world.

So there's my problem - I *know* the iPhone is better. I *know* it's cooler. I *know* it's made by the almighty Apple. But when I already have an iPod Touch (which is 75% of the iPhone anyway), I just can't justify the cost. My iPhone-owning friends have all said "but it's only an extra £10 a month", but the flip side of that is that "it's a WHOLE £10 extra a month".

So yes, let's have some shiny new hardware. Let's make the best phone in the world even better. Let's bask in the glory of Apple's design and vision. But more than any of those things, LET'S MAKE THE DAMN THING CHEAPER.

*** UPDATE ***

So now the WWDC keynote has been and gone, and Apple have announced their new iPhone model, the iPhone 3GS. So far as I can tell, it's very similar to the old model but now sports HSDPA and a 3 megapixel camera with video capability. Both of which the Nokia E71 has had since it's introduction over a year ago. But the best bit? The upfront cost for the 8GB iPhone 3GS is a bargain at only £185. Which, from my earlier calculations, pushes the total 18-month cost up to £725. Excuse me if I don't rush to buy one.

Pump up the volume

I've had a Nokia N73 mobile phone for about 15 months now, which means it's getting a bit long in the tooth. I don't know about you, my phones seem to take quite a battering - sometimes literally - and when most phone contracts these days are for 18 months, the last six months prior to an upgrade can be a bit touch and go as to whether the phone will survive. Needless to say, I'm not about to spend an extra £7 a month for a luxury like phone insurance either.

So my N73 started playing up the other day. The rocker switch - which controls the earpiece volume when making a call or the zoom when in camera mode - went worryingly flaccid and refused to function. Rather annoyingly, I managed to turn the volume right down and then couldn't turn it back up again. Doh!

Upon opening the phone up (always have a T6 torx to hand I say) I discovered that the microswitch which controlled it had broken right off the mainboard and my soldering is in no way up to the job of replacing it. I sent it off to have it looked at under Nokia's fairly generous 2-year warranty, but they sent it back unrepaired saying that the warranty doesn't cover "physical damage". What the hell does it cover then?

Anyway, I discovered a way round the problem. Go and find that headset that came in the box with your phone (probably still shrink wrapped and unused...) and plug it in. This has a button on it that allows you to control the volume remotely. Get it back to the level that you want, unplug and your problem's solved.

Doesn't fix the camera zoom, but you'll just have to walk closer to your subject... :o)

Download gMail Mobile app v2.0 for Nokia/Symbian

If, like me, you've been wrestling with your Nokia Symbian S60 smartphone trying to get it to download the new gMail Mobile 2.0 app via your phone's browser (which is a well-documented issue), I'd suggest heading here and downloading it straight to your computer instead. Then you can bluetooth or sync it to your phone directly and Robert's your mother's brother. For some reason Google doesn't want you to do it like this, but it's so much quicker and easier than doing it the "proper" way.

And whilst I'm dispensing advice, I've just discovered Foxmarks, a Firefox add-on which keeps your bookmarks synced across multiple machines. Just what I've been looking for! And if you want to try it out, they've just released betas for Internet Explorer (why would you be using that?!) and Safari too.