Peter's Blog

A comment made to this blog led me to finding some gems for my new phone:

Google Mobile Maps

A java application that does google maps! I don't have a sat-nav as I would only need it about twice a year and it's cheaper to get lost. I usually print a google map before I leave home and make sure I have memorised enough to understand what I am doing.

I'll probably still do that but having google maps in my pocket will put my mind at ease when venturing into unfamiliar territory. I always get panicky when my fuel gets low and I have to find a diesel outlet. These days they tend to be hidden away at the nearest backstreet Tesco rather than being on the main roads.

The application includes a primitive (accurate to about 1km) location finder! And it can show satellite photos(!).

Opera Mini

A much nicer browser than the built in browser. It shows the whole page and you can move around it easily and zoom into the bit you want to read. This terse description doesn't do it justice. Very nice, especially in landscape mode.

I'm hoping the novely of my phone will wear off soon as otherwise I will need a data plan. I've spent £3.60 so far and each google map page is 80k of data.

Google Notebook

Not a java app but a link to the mobile version of Google Notebook. Post notes from your mobile and access them from your desktop without messing with syncing/email.

The mobile internet on my new phone seems much faster and more usable than it did on my old phone. The main thing that helps is that the phone goes straight to a google search page whereas on my old phone I had to wade through a load of vodafone branding. I am finding it handy to be able to google whereever I happen to be rather than have to remember to do it later.

I think the last time I used the internet on my old mobile was when I had sold my car and needed a taxi home from the wilds of Thurrock, alien territory. I went through the vodafone crap and found a search page and searched for local taxis. I got about three references, one didn't answer, another was limosine hire and the third was a bus company. I walked for miles that day.

I think (the phone doesn't make it obvious) I am using plain old WAP for browsing. I don't think any gprs is set up and I've turned off the 3G search as I have read that trying (and continually failing) to scan for a 3G network is a waste of battery power. The performance on plain old WAP is ok.

At work one of my chores is to set up the email on the managers new smartphones. That job has put me off the hassle of having one of those and the speed that the email downloads at isn't wonderful. I have installed the gmail reader on my mobile and that was much easier than trying to set up imap on a nokia. Oh, if only the company used google apps...

The big news could be the launch of Peter's Moblog. I got a new phone, a Sony Ericsson k800i as I wanted something with a better camera than my old K750i. This one is 3.2 megapixel and has a proper flash, albeit weedy. When I take pictures with the flash the background tends to be black. As a camera it is obviously not a patch on my Nikon D80 but the D80 doesn't fit in my pocket (I carry it in a backpack camera bag that I bought in Lidl). The k800i is a 'Cyberhot' i.e. branded as more camera focussed than a W series walkman phone.

The latest camera-phones are five megapixel but much more expensive and for me good lenses and low-noise electronics are more important than high resolution.

The flash pictures are a little noisy and the backgrounds are dark but they are ok, much better than the blurry efforts of the K750i. It has a feature that allows it to take nine shots at once, four before the shutter is pressed and four after so you can choose the best one. Problem is this doesn't work with the flash. It shares with the k750i an annoying long delay between pressing the trigger and getting a picture so a pose has to be held extra long. Thats something I love about the D80, photos are INSTANT.

The lens on the phone is very wide angle and one wonders why they bother with an autofocus mechanism. You have to get the phone quite close to the subject to fill the frame and it borders on fish-eye.

Anyway the phone has a built-in facilty to upload photo's as blog posts to blogger so I couldn't resist setting this up. I hate to think what my phone bill is going to be but I hope the moblog can be a non-techy slice of life, mainly watching my daughters grow. I really like the idea that I can update it anywhere there is a phone signal. The main problem with it is getting the portrait/landscape orientation right.

Sometime I may try to integrate the blogs by pulling the moblog posts into this blog.

UPDATE: if any blogspot veterans can let me know why some photos on the blog are disappearing then I'd be grateful.

UPDATE2: according to online billing, each picture post costs about 15p. Not too bad unless I do more than one a day when investing £6/month in a bundle may be better. It seems much faster for browsing so I may be using more data anyhow. Turns out phone is 3G and I could get Sky TV on it if only I didn't live in the back of beyond that is rural Kent. I think one of the G's get lost the other side of Maidstone.

UPDATE3: More notes:

• I like the ringtone I've chosen. The phone is a good music player, quite loud even if it isn't a walkman: perfect for annoying people on long train journeys. It can play CD tracks I've ripped in iTunes.
• Much less interference when talking close to a computer.