DISQUS

Hey! I just got mine today too! I'm going to be posting my first impressions and the unboxing video tonight. Drop me a line if you find a quirk that hasn't been covered all over about the N800 already (I know you will).

Thanks for the post. The 3G N95 has thrown me right back into the S60 world after a bit of a hiatus (being banned from HoFo didn't help much either).

I'll be calling them in the morning to get my name on the list.

Edit: Nevermind. I didn't know you were limited to the small list of games provided on the first screen alone. Nifty, but needs to be much larger.

This is awesome. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten an itch for some new games and decided to go shopping for some without reading and reviews ahead of time. Despite the browser being awesome in S60, it is beyond frustrating to deal with EDGE speeds when trying to pull up gamerevolution.com or gamefaqs.com just to find out whether or not I'm wasting $49.99. Great find, Zach.

Does this app also work with phones with autofocus or does it force a fixed focus image to be taken?

For the record, the shutter sound seems to be region dependent, and not in any particular pattern anymore. Most EURO phones of old and new have the shutter tone turned off when warning tones are turned off in the current profile, but the APAC versions (as well as the Euro versions sold in the US flagship stores) keep the shutter tone turned on, regardless of settings.

Aside from this app to correct the problem, changing the product code to a Euro variant and flashing the phone. For details on how to do this, consult my good buddy Google.

Aside from the strain on my eyes, I love your blog and I can't tell you enough. This app is incredible and it's already on my buy list. I'm going to put your claim to the test and see exactly how the N95's anorexic battery is going to handle this app, but since it's already under 300kb for disk space alone, I have a feeling you're absolutely right.

Thanks again. :)

I am on neither! I've taken an unexpected relapse from all things related to communication, such as my underdeveloped blog, AIM, HoFo (getting banned didn't help), Twitter, and even some of my emails have started to decay with age. I want to give Jaiku a try when I find some time since I've heard nothing but great things about it over Twitter.

I heartily agree that the multiple page browsing is disappointing on the native browser, but possible nonetheless! ;P

Zach, have you been using the S60 Web browser or the Services browser? I only ask because a lot of the features you refer to as missing from the S60 browser are in fact there, such as multiple pages. Or were you comparing UCWEB to the Services browser because you thought UCWEB was for WAP only? Great write-up, I'm glad there's some more competition for S60 browsers now.

Dude, money?! What?

Have you used SpotOnS60? http://www.outbank.de/index.php?id=29&L=1

Not particularly. I certainly hope I don't have to spend another $500+ dollars on a new phone for at least another 6 months.

I ended up uninstalling this app. It's a great idea, but the transparent background didn't work out so well, it looked out of place on certain menus, and it didn't adjust very well in landscape mode. :( I was hoping for something a bit more integrated, which may be where FP2 comes in.

I'd be curious to see the effects of this device if you were to slide it under your pillow case and sleep with your face against it, but that's just me. :P This is an awesome idea.

SHUT UP! That's awesome!!!

The day before I heard about FP2, I wondered, "How hard would it be to just...display the time on the top bar of the s60 menu, no matter what application I'm running?"

Forget FP2, this is all I need...well, unless FP2 has more than 20mb of RAM available. :)

This screensaver looks awesome, but how bad is it going to kill my N95's tiny battery?

I certainly hope so. It'll either work to everyone's advantage or work against the entire market. Nokia has already turned their back to the US, or at the very least, kept their main focus elsewhere. Hopefully, the iPhone will make them pay attention. If not, they'll do what they have been doing and the situation will only get worse. Americans will have their RAZR's and their iPhones and Nokia will just look the other way.

BUT! The s60 touch interface is supposed to be right around the corner, so perhaps they are listening. My fingers are crossed. I love having a device that no one has ever seen before, but I'll love seeing a bunch of people running around with hundreds of different s60's even more.

Again, you're right on. I'm actually a perfect example of how Apple changed the market. My first MP3 player was a 3rd gen iPod, which I upgraded to a 5.5th gen Video iPod some years later. It was only when I got so tired of converting video with Videora to work with it that I started looking elsewhere and came across Creative and their line of products. I read up on everything, including the Zune, the Zen, products from iRiver, and made my choice based on what I read.

The point is that the iPod was still the gateway. I had never dreamed of using an MP3 player until my friends were all using 20gb iPods. Apple revolutionized the MP3 industry with a device that certainly wasn't the best available (even at the time), and they're about to do it again. It's probably not going to take over nearly as fast the iPod did due to the price point, but it's going to make that RAZR user start to look into what else is out there.

It's frustrating because I know I'm going to see tons of iPhones on every corner, and for that period of time, the masses will be completely ignorant to the idea of a superior product, to the point where it would be a waste of time to argue. Even now, before the device is even released, it's hard widen the tunnel vision of an Apple fanboy who's only impression of Nokia is the bar phone that everyone had 10 years ago.

Do yourself a favor the next time you watch one of those iPhone videos; pause the video when you get a chance to see the home menu. Then, count the apps that you see and compare them to what you already have on your E61 and what you can add to your E61 as well.

By my count, I see Text, Calendar, Photos, Camera, Stocks, Maps, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, Settings, and at the bottom, Phone, Mail, Safari, and iPod. Each one has a corresponding application already available on s60, but the biggest difference is going to be the fact that you can add more applications to your s60 from 3rd party developers, whereas we may be lucky to see applications from Apple through iTunes. Engadget mentioned that there was supposed to be a developer kit released to software developers sometime in the near future, but if I know anything about Apple, I have a feeling even those apps will have to be filtered directly through AT&T and Apple to see the light of day.

No doubt the interface is untouchable (or, rather, VERY touchable) compared to s60, but I'm not seeing such a gorgeous new interface being used to its fullest as it could be. I'm still seeing a locked and branded phone that's stunning on first glance and a thrill to play with all of the features, but but lacking in expandability to the point where the novelty of it will wear off after a few weeks. Those commercials alone made me want to pass on it just because I feel like I know exactly what's coming now and exactly where the fun is going to stop. I'm really hoping there's way more expandability up the iPhone's sleeve.

You're absolutely right when you said Apple knows how to market. I anticipate what this device is going to do to the general public who settle for the free phones from a carrier, only to complain about how bad it is a month later.

Well, from what I've seen, there doesn't seem to be too big a hit on battery life or any major problems with RAM usage at all. There's only a couple things I've noticed that really bother me.

First, my phone blinks a couple extra times when it starts up because of the application. Not a big deal, but still a bit annoying.

Second, the indicator to show that an application is open (present in FP1 phones) is constantly showing that I have an application in my Tools folder that is open (since Phone Guardian is stored in the Tools folder).

Third, I can not view my phones processes with Best Taskman anymore since the application locks out any app that would even potentially be able to close it. That's pretty secure, but also a pain if I want to use Taskman to stop a different process.

Having tested the lock feature by sending the lock SMS to my phone, it definitely works as advertised. Very impressive stuff.

Excellent review! I find that every application you blog about makes its way to my phone eventually. My only concern with this app is using it with the N95. I'm pretty paranoid about apps running in the background begging to drain my battery, but an application like this is invaluable when using an $800 device, like you said. Coming from an N80, I think you know exactly what I'm talking about. I'll let you know if kills my battery after a full day of regular usage tomorrow.

At first glance, it sounded like Ricky developed this app.

From what I've seen and experienced, all s60 smartphones have a hard time after restoring backup data to a newer firmware. My girlfriend's N73ie wouln't even boot properly after I restored a back up to it. Your best bet is to wipe the phone clean with a *#7370#>12345, format your memory card, and start fresh. Of course syncing with Outlook and copying your media from your memory card to your PC will make things easier and won't have any effect on a firmware upgrade, but just make sure to stay away from the backup/restore utility built into the phone. Hopefully that'll help you out.