Disqus - Latest Comments for Antoine of MMM

Re: The Tao of Mac - The Joy of Webpads

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 22:19:54 -0000

Man; I wish that I could shake your hand. This is exactly my argument, versatility versus use. You hit the nail on the nail on the head as to why user experience and user interaction is so very important in a device that you are so physical with. The whole really does need to speak as one more often than speaking as bits and pieces of a dream.

Re: Hello World. Today is May 15, 2008. This is the first post on the Thumb Report!

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 15 May 2008 16:09:04 -0000

Love the concept; this is a excellent idea. And makes total sense. Best of blessings with this; I'll be tuning in.

Re: Zyb signals intent to socialise mobile address books

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 07 May 2008 10:58:49 -0000

I love the idea; and this is something that I have been preaching for years now that carriers and manufacturers have just plum missed out on doing.

Now, make sure that it plugs into every major social network in terms of being able to send presence updates and this will be something I'll be looking into.

Re: Why doesn’t my E90 come with a 400 quid Windows XP computer?

Antoine of MMM — Sat, 10 May 2008 10:22:27 -0000

Ouch; that's just sucky. Then again, if S60 could do firmware updates from a memory card OTA that would help in these situations. I really wonder what that is not possible/done these days.

Re: Do You Jaiku? A Review of the Upcoming Jaiku Beta Update!

Antoine of MMM — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 17:00:51 -0000

This is a really good review of Jaiku and makes me look forward to getting the beta on my Nokia devices. Heck, Jaiku has been one of the main reasons I'm looking away from PalmOS Treos, its just that solid of an app and service.

Re: S60 Browser Bug; Blank Back Thumbnails

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:50:06 -0000

I have it on the N75 as well. In my case, it always seemed related to memory issues with the Nokia Web Browser. The browser seems to have a memory leak in some areas, and it just might be that this is only really seen when the back button is envoked, or other high memory tasks are being done.

Re: N96 and N78 hands-on overview

Antoine of MMM — Sun, 11 May 2008 22:04:52 -0000

Nice coverage and thanks for the compairson shots with the N81 8GB. I had that model for a review some weeks ago and in seeing the N96, I wondered exactly how different it was.

The N78 is growing on me; but I still like the N96; its just a slick piece of hardware design IMO.

Antoine of MMM's last blog post..Bible Study/Sermon Prep Application Thought

Re: The Nokia Blog Redesigned for 2008

Antoine of MMM — Sun, 13 Jan 2008 17:55:56 -0000

Nice redesign. Now, if this doesn't play well on my N800 Tablet or N75 then Ima come back and complain ;)

Re: Dear Gear Diary…

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:21:24 -0000

Considering what Bill is asking for, the N95-NAM, N95 8GB-NAM, and ATT Tilt would be your best bets. US compatibility with 3G gives the versatility, and the rest is a matter of having a small yet powerful device. The N95 is plenty stylish IMO.

Re: What’s On My Tablet?

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 09:46:26 -0000

I can totally vibe with you in terms of not installing a ton of applications on your tablet (or other devices). Part of getting the most out of devices is using them as is for a while and running from there.

I've yet to do Wordply, but that's definitely in my list of things to download. I've added a spellchecker extension for MicroB, and at some point will find the patience to deal with command line and install Rapier (failed download issue there).

Vagalume was the only reason I've tried last.fm; and so far (when I'm connected) its sweet.

Re: Discovering The N810 – Bluetooth Woes

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 08:17:14 -0000

Well Rita; what you are asking for is the simplicity that just isn't there. Its not so much your fault as much as your user experience with Bluetooth is different than the one that the IT is letting you go through.

As you run thru the IT, you will find that the user experience is fustrating at times, and other time kinda neat, just as you have here.

Re: WiMax N810 Leaked, To Be Announced At CTIA?

Antoine of MMM — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:12:19 -0000

Ooooh, nice.
The design changed here, neat as well.

Re: Using The N810 – Writer's Friend (Or Not?)

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 19:44:10 -0000

I find similar issues with the N800; albeit without the hardware keyboard. The on-scren keyboard is actually pretty solid. I'd personally love to see some use of an alpha layer instead of taking up the entire screen, so that one can see where they are typing and then use shortcuts to move to other text fields.

From a hardware perspective, a flush screen and haptic technology would really make the on-screen keyboard something more of a wonder. I am not sure that is something the IT will see for a while though, but its something I do see as being a benefit.

I share your sentiments on the Notes progam in that its not fully featured. But not that it is unusable. I have that bug of saving every line or so, and hence have not had that data loss issue. But it would be nice to see an 'export to Google docs' option for docs that you would like to upload. And then an option to pull down and use docs saved in a Google Docs profile. Considering the type of device, this would seem like a logical extension of the software.

Re: Using The N810 – Writer's Friend (Or Not?)

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 14 Mar 2008 20:15:59 -0000

Bret; for any of the web applications, you have to first be online in order to get to the point of being able to use them offline. Until the IT gets a serious overhaul of its memory handling and browser engine, as well as an update to the various runtimes, RIAs (rich internet applications) which would be the best solution for such a device won't be able to happen.

Re: Multimedia Computer? - We’ll See!

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:44:58 -0000

I heard about your experiment via Ring Nokia and think that you are doing a good thing by trying so. Granted, I've been doing this for a bit over the last year with my Treo 650 (now 680) and have had varying degrees of success with doing so. I think that the N95 is a great device to try solo living on, and outside of battery life and the occasional site that goes funky, you should be just fine.

If you don't mind, I'll be commenting on your progress via my personal blog, and then extending things via Mobile Ministry Magazine topics. The time is come to put the computers up to the abilities that they should have had some time ago IMO.

Re: PC-Free - The 2 R’s

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:44:25 -0000

You said:
"However, if my posting, and therefore updating of the community of the results, suffers, then it would have been more than a simple failed experiment. If I'm unable to share what I've learned, then in reality I might as well not have learned anything."

I don't know if it would be a failure per say. You might just expose some things about mobile communities that the *big* web wasn't made for. And even then, you'd be extending the mobile sphere towards thinking about mobile-centric issues just a bit more than having a cool phone and then just looking at info about it when away from the phone.

It does sound like you've learned a good bit so far, and in my book, any success is good success :)

Re: Mobile Email - Success

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 18 Apr 2007 11:48:26 -0000

I like that breakdown of emails that you speak about (long ones versus short ones). I didn't even realize that I have been doing the same thing, but when mobile and you don't have a lot of screen to work with, you indeed only take a quick moment to read, and set aside time for the longer ones.

I do admit, I've become a bit of a pest though because since being mobile, I've been getting on friends and fmaily about sending forwards that have huge attachments or haven't be cleaned up (meaning I am reading groups of email addresses and carrots ('>>') before getting to the email content).

It has made me a better reader though. And to some extent, a better writer, because I have taken the time to say just what it is that I want to say.

Re: Multimedia Computing Paradigm Shift Defined

Antoine of MMM — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 17:39:53 -0000

I like this furthered definition of computing. From how my brain is working thru it, this seems more or less how many causal users would rather "do" computing than how the fringe users do.

"It's technological freedom, and I love it. One of my personal goals in the next 5 years is to have a job that I can do from anywhere, and I think Nokia and Ken are quickly enabling and discovering that. I'm a firm believer that technology should enhance and enrich real life as opposed to replacing it."

It's funny. I am in a position now of moving and looking for a new job as I am unemployed. I just prayed a bit ago that God would show me something that points towards what I want to do; reading that quoted piece all but says it. I still just wonder how that can happen from there (on my end) and overall how computing will be adjusted in the minds of this computing culture to enable such freedom.

Re: Multimedia Computing Paradigm Shift Defined

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 20 Jun 2007 17:44:31 -0000

I am with you there with QWERTY Elfguy; I travel with my Treo 680 more than with my N95, but enjoy "living" off of both.

Heaven forbit that the perfect mix of both of those mobiles comes, then I'll have no excuses :)

Re: US 3G Nokia N95 - HSDPA and a Sling Player

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:14:29 -0000

Whoo Hooo!

Re: US 3G Nokia N95 - HSDPA and a Sling Player

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 09 Aug 2007 16:51:16 -0000

ooh, good point Brendan. Though, I'd personally wouldn't care if it stays. I like using the front facing camera for pics and it would make for neat VoIP calling with the pic.

Re: First Live Pics of the US 3G N95 - In Mocha!

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 08:14:18 -0000

Nice update Ricky. I do wonder though if it should get a bit of a name update though. Just calling it an N95 does seem like a marketign snaffu, considering most in the US and abroad who already know of the N95. Maybe this will be one of the Internet Edition/Music edition themed models or something.

I like the recessed camera, looks a bit classier than camera-eey.

With the increase of RAM (and hopefully support for OTA firmware updating), I could see the N95 really capatilizing on the multimedia computer moniker.

Re: Why Are People So Outraged At Contracts?

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 09:27:55 -0000

If carriers would offer customers the option of buying their phone at full-retail and getting a monthly discount for the contract. So you can get the phone for free and pay $40/mo, or you could pay $150 for the phone and pay $30/mo for the same minute plan. The monthly discount expires when your contract does. At the end of the contract, you can go month-to-month at full price, or sign another contract to re-activate the discount.

That is probably the best idea that I've heard in a long while on this subject. I'm in agreement with you; wonder who I can call and shoot this too?

Re: Core Player for Symbian OS - Aug 29th

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:34:57 -0000

Wow. If they have cleaned up the UI, this could be very good news. Better still, if signed, and Nokia/SE are behind it, this could be very good news for all.

Interesting on the date, wonder if the announcement does have something to do with this. Maybe CorePlayer is the new media player to handle the new music/multimedia store. Would be a nice salvo for mobile media and open source software that's for sure.

Re: I’m going Full-Time.

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 17:58:26 -0000

Hey, congrats on the move to SG being a full-time gig. Best of blessings on your career change.

Re: I have a new job!

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 17:18:43 -0000

Congrats on the new writing gig Ricky. Will be looking forward to your views on other parts of mobile there.

Re: TapTu Mobile Searching - AWESOME

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 21 Sep 2007 09:44:47 -0000

Useful yes, but this (like other mobile serarch engines) would be best served by having a widget/native app that can be launched from any application on one's device.

Looking forward to seeing what it will do, reminds me of 4INFO though.

Re: Chatting with the Guru - Ep 4 - Tabletblog.com

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 17:36:52 -0000

Doing the QR Code was a nice idea. Very innovative.

Re: First Account of OTA Firmware Update on S60?

Antoine of MMM — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 07:06:08 -0000

While I havent had the experience of doing so, this should be a process that at least mid and high end handsets should have. Besides the ability to download the OTA update to a memory card and then run an update, it would only make sense that if manufacturers (besides Nokia) are pushing mobiles as the future of computing that a computer to update it would not be needed.

Re: Day 3 & 4 - N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 04 Jan 2008 22:48:36 -0000

Rita;
Here's a tip when you are browsing. The * and # keys will zoom the text, and the '8' key will bring that mini-map up so you can navigate pages a bit faster. Once I learned those, browsing on my N75 become a lot easier.

That access point thing stymied me when I reviewed the N95 months back. That really is not good for the user to experience that.

Re: FlipSilent - Silences Calls AND Alarms!

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 10:05:03 -0000

Nice app. Very cool to see that its as simple as this to develop such an app. Given some solid advertising, flipping a phone to silence it could be just a nice, usable feature.

Makes me want the kinda N-series device that could take full advantage of this ;)

Re: Motorola Z10 Runs Symbian UIQ

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 07 Jan 2008 16:19:49 -0000

Looks like they tweaked the UI some more. I like what I see here. Not sure that it will be a bad seller, but it could have been called the RAZR Banana and made a bigger impact :)

Re: In With The Old, Out With The New

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:20:16 -0000

Nice post Ricky;
If Nokia (and others) followed a philosophy of releasing fewer devices and more substantial softawre updates, there might be time to grab the types of attention that draws in newer users to paradigm shifting devices.

Re: Day 5 - Main Letdown Of The N95 8GB Leb Ambassador: Gaming

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:31:14 -0000

Well Steve, if Nokia is saying that the N95 is what computers have become, then it needs to be able to be played for that long and not have an issue. To be able to say that if you want to do something more that you need to get another "specalized" piece of hardware marks the N95 not as what computers have become, but what they still are. If you will, the product design philosophy and implementation don't match, hence a disappointed reviewer.

The hardware was not designed with heavy gaming in mind yes. But as a company, Nokia knew that and should not only come out with the games that make heavy gaming possible, but the accessories that drive people to doing it more and more.

Re: 2008 Nokia Device Rumors

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 11:26:17 -0000

Nice roundup Rita; thanks for doing so.

In terms of whats there, it would seem that the hardware refreshes are minimal; so we should hope that there is a considerable upkick on what happens on the software side. I would hope that FP2 not just does new things, but addresses long standing issues in user experience for the devices.

Re: Day 12, 13 & 14 - N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 09:37:02 -0000

That last one is a doozie ain't it. Being able to do TV-Out with some office documents work is kinda neat. That's one of those paradigm shifting moments that I'd love to see Nokia push a lot more.

Re: Was I Tempted To Run Away With The N95 8GB?

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 22:13:56 -0000

Uh oh. I just got the N81 8GB this week; and if your views are this bad, you really will not wanna give up the N81...

...hehehe, welcome to the life of a mobile tech reviewer (especially when the devices are cool).

Re: Scroll Wheel - 1 - Bravo Nokia!

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 12:21:22 -0000

You are better than I; the fact that the scroller isn't implemented system wide; that its inconsistent in speed; and that its counter-intuitive in terms of direction = scrolling makes it am incomplete in my book. But then again, you've got a few different opinions on the N81 than I ;)

Re: Unimpressive Nokia N96 Specs Leak

Antoine of MMM — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:05:06 -0000

I personally like the design. Though the battery and lack of US 3G kinda hurts. Hope the software's UI updates can make up for the ck of what otherwise looks like a minor hardware one.

Re: Sony Ericsson Unveils New G-Series UIQ Handsets

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 09:12:55 -0000

For a touchscreen-based device, there's a lot of buttons on the screen. One of the issues that people asked me about with the Treo is why it has so many buttons if there's a touchscreen. I'm inclined to agree with them on note of these devices.

Re: The Browser Handset?

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:37:57 -0000

An RIA app (aka a hybrid app) is where browser apps work best. There's information that should be enhanced by having access to the Internet cloud, and times when that information is best just being used only on the personal-user's handset.

I'd love to see more device support these, but until browser run-times get with the program (so to speak), it wil not quite be an immediate future in terms of using the browser as the interface for all apps.

Slightly side comment: This should have been the aim of the Internet Tablet since the introduction of OS2008 IMO. The hardware is more than ready for it on this device.

Re: Nokia Morph Makes James Bond Dead Jealous

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 09:39:27 -0000

I don't think there'd be a problem making it practical, but it will be a bit before you can sell the mainstread consumer on something so 'in-reaching' in terms of ability. I would liek to see this in 7 years as a high end handset. And as long as nanotech doesn't leak into my skin, lets go for it :)

Re: Exciting New Job Announcement

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 14:05:10 -0000

And this is what I get for getting into a few conversations and not staying tuned to a few feed readers. Congrats Ricky, and like the others have stated, this is something definitely befitting your skills and passions.

Re: E90 And E61i Go Nomadic

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:13:20 -0000

Very cool; and I am glad that they are doing such things with their mobiles. The next thing I'd like to see is a non-traveliers version where people are using their mobiles only in day to day rural/urban settings where they don't leave a city. That would demonstrate versatility on another degree that could do the mobile culture good.

Re: Webkit Becomes Perfect, S60 Browser To Benefit

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:09:49 -0000

One would think that you could update a browser without having to go thru the hassle of doing the entire OS, but that is something that seems to be not quite there when it comes to mobile operating systems.

As much as this is indeed a good thing, making sure that Webkit correctly uses the @media handheld property for its shrink to fit modes on mobiles would be even nicer.

Re: Mobile Web Server Challenge - Are You Up To It?

Antoine of MMM — Sat, 05 Apr 2008 23:27:42 -0000

You know, this contest is really cool. I need to see if my N75 could handle the Mobile Web server. I've got a few ideas on how an application with it could work really well.

Re: Phones As DVRs, Not TVs

Antoine of MMM — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 23:00:55 -0000

I would totally use an N95/N96/etc. as a DVR. Makes sense for my lifestyle (mobile, not married). For those who have families, this might be a bit much, though I would guess that that wireless protocol for controlling home multimedia devices (Unpp or something like that) would be able to step in and have the mobile essentially become a media center and media controller for multiple TVs in such a home.

Re: The Dual-Mode Active Standby

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:40:07 -0000

Not to sound like a total usability arse, but that's not a smart idea on SE's part, nor on Nokia's. The Active Standby screens should be plugin-able to allow for the toggling on/off of plugins related to the content you speak about. Having two screens is an extra step for the user. Allow a person to setup the default plugins with initially setting up the mobile, then from there, if there is something downloaded that would be able to take advantage of that screen, allow for the API calls for that to happen.

Adding the versatility to do more on the Active Standby/Today screen is a good thing; adding complexity to make it happen isn't.

Re: Why Don't Nokia Apps Work On Samsung S60 Devices?

Antoine of MMM — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 22:56:55 -0000

I would think that if Nokia's implementation of S60 is not working with Samsung's, then shouldn't that me something that the S60/Symbian body be addressing? Is there some kinds of checks and balances about a base level of compatibility that apps should have?

And for the sake of argument; if it is just an issue of certificates, then who controls the certificates that verify apps, developers, manufacturers, S60, or Symbian?

Re: Share On Ovi Offers 2 New Mass-Upload Tools

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:33:06 -0000

If the uploader works on the N800, I eill be happy. I am usually on it doing uploads and it would seem a good idea for it to be able to utilize this method to upload.

Re: Mobile Web Server Slaps You Across The Facebook

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:43:20 -0000

Many thanks for the link love Ricky.
Its a personal web presence where a person is not only a domain name, but literally the land on which people come to visit too. Quite neat IMO. Then again, I have replaced one of my websites with the MWS so I'm probably a bit biased ;)

Re: E61i Thoughts - Qwerty Ain't THAT Bad

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 13:46:02 -0000

AH!
Told ya :)

Re: N78, Big Disappointment Or Your Next Handset?

Antoine of MMM — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 18:18:53 -0000

I am interested in the N78. But more for friends than myself. The FP2 updates don't seem all that great at this point, and my needs for a mobile go slighty beyond the offering. That being said, I think its perfect for both Nokia and most normobs and should sell very well on and off the carrier deck.

Re: Mobile Web Server Updated To V1.4

Antoine of MMM — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:25:59 -0000

WhooHooo!!! Several pieces of good news this day, with some link-love from SG. I'm rocking my personal website off the Mobile Web Server at this point. Its something that gets just enough solid traffic that it keeps me from tweaking it to high heaven. That, and I get to learn more about the idea of being a mobile web server admin, which is a much less stressful position than those normal server administrators.

I'm with SG in a means to share MWS files between devices. If you will, being able to use the Phone Transfer app to share/sync the MWS component would be pretty neat. That way one could swap SIMs but keep their mobile site going.

Re: Mobile Web Server Updated To V1.4

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:08:18 -0000

Now; how are you going to go and have your guestbook on your MWS not accessible :P

Re: Nokia E66 Walkthrough - Calendar

Antoine of MMM — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:12:14 -0000

That calendar item creation view is *miles* better than what S60 has right now. Seriously, Nokia needs to make that (slight enhancements of course) for all E and N series devices. Thank you *someone* at Nokia for doing that much to use the screen better and clean up that UI. I hope the Contacts app got the same treatment.

Re: Meet My New Laptop

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 14:23:41 -0000

Rita; you know my position on these kinds of experiments. I personally think that you might find that you might not want to go back to a full laptop except for specialized tasks. You will learn many of the limitations aren't so much in the software or the hardware, but how it is all designed to work for what you need it to.

Now this is mobility :)

Re: The $450 U.S. 3G Question

Antoine of MMM — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 23:58:12 -0000

You are right in saying that the library of what is here is now better than it has been. The issue though is the same, folks just don;t know, or are duped into thinking that this could not be a better solution.

All that means is as much as ever that we have to keep pushing he boundaries of our N and E-series devices, showing what is possible if folks are willing to just think outside of the mainstream opinion/behavior for a moment.

Re: Nokia N85 Dual-Slides Into My Heart

Antoine of MMM — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 08:32:30 -0000

I agree that its not a bad offering, but somehow I am a bit underwhelmed by it. Though, the fact that its 3G everywhere is pretty nice, and AM OLED is kinda slick. I'd like to see some battery numbers on this device in use, as I am not to sure that the numbers quoted really take into account use.

Re: S60v3 Feature Pack 2 on the Nokia 6220 Classic

Antoine of MMM — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 20:15:41 -0000

I find it interesting that you just noticed that. This was the case with the N78 as well; though its not because its slow that I noticed that; I read the OS specs about FP2 ;)

Re: MIR: How do you use your mobile handset?

Antoine of MMM — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:54:03 -0000

Reading this makes me quite happy. I am borderline the same way, without nearly the commute that you have. Honestly, I like computing better this way, it just feels better.

Next step for my devices, plug into a dock so that I can work from them without worrying about whether the battery will last the entire day. That will pretty much natch it for me.