Crappy customer care recordings

The other day i was using Vodafones computerised customer care to
enquire about some new offers that i'd heard about. But since i'd been
relaxing to music until then, instead of using the usual nokia
headphones, I had plugged in a pair of hifi neodymium equipped phones.
And i was able to notice the difference in sensitivity and sound
reproduction in a different kinda way.

As soon as the recorded voice started playing I was not only able to
hear sales pitch but in the background there were a whole lot of guys
talking. Turning up the volume i was even able to hear a guy shouting
at another guy in hindi and another person giving the "welcome to
customer care" dialogue. =)
It's like a Kinder Egg. You can hear different sound bites for each
offer. I wonder if i'll be able to find something interesting in
there..

Bar code reader has become more nerdy

I just noticed this while running through the n95 apps. It seems the
bar code reader has been enhanced during the last firmware update to
include a physical representation of the reader calculating the
barcode that it detects from the camera. Upon scanning you can see the
autofocus coming into play and then a series of polygons show up on
the screen as the phone calculates and processes the images that
"sees". It looks pretty cool =)

Google Mobile Maps screwed up

Today as i returned from my hostel, traveling through my home town in
Kerala, a coastal area in South India, the Google maps application for
the nokia n95 screwed up big time. One moment i was cruising through
the NH47 National highway, and the next moment i was shown, according
to the mobile map, standing atop a building in Hoa Xuan, Vietnam.
Wondering if i'd taken a wrong turn somewhere which led me to Vietnam
from India I refreshed the GPS signal. And this time i ended up in
Bandar Seri, Indonesia. I decided to switch of the Nokia n95 and enjoy
Indonesia =)

Vodafones new GPRS offer, sane version

Vodafone has released a toned down version of GPRS in India. I should
say, the introductory offer was incredible - unlimited GPRS and MMS
for a whole month at just 2 dollars a month ! Talk about unbeatable
offers.. In fact it almost seems insane at that rate !!

But the new offer is a little more in with the current rates of rival
service providers. It gives you the chance to browse for 50MB a month
inclusive of MMS at the sane rate of 2 dollar/month. Hmmm...

Nokia N900: ?

This Nokia mobile handset comes with a whopping 600mhz processor. But the battery just manages to contain 1320mAh of charge.. Bummer. That's lower than the battery that comes with a n97 - and that n97 doesn't have have as demanding a processor as the n900 nor does it have a similarly sized screen. Even the n800 had come with a 1500mAh battery - but it didn't have call capabilities nor such a demanding processor.

Java and Nokia ..

Java Platforms Micro Edition a.k.a Java ME provides a robust, flexible environment for applications running on mobile and other embedded devices—mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), TV set-top boxes, and even printers as well. Java ME includes flexible user interfaces, security, built-in network protocols, and support for networked and offline applications that can be downloaded dynamically. Applications based on Java ME are portable across many devices, yet leverage each device's native capabilities. Springsource is one of the companies that provides java services - our friendly neigbourhood Nokia, the one which makes the mobile computers (n900) and booklets, are part of their clientele for java application servers. I think they are in for those Apache Tomcat servers, they seem to be pretty popular everywhere. Finnish telecoms solutions provider Nokia had signed an agreement with the United Kingdom software company Ubiquity Software Corporation Plc to offer the Ubiquity SIP Application Server as part of the Nokia IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) solution. Under a reseller agreement with Nokia, Ubiquity's programmable, JAVA-based, 3GPP-compliant SIP Application Server will be integrated into Nokia's IP Multimedia Subsystem solution. As a result, the open service creation environment and runtime server will be available globally as part of Nokia's solution for providing excellent performance in it's mobile handsets.