Spot the odd one out :) Anna is here, and with it a much faster and streamlined os, basically everything is just a little bit better, add in the beta camera app and you have a new N8.  It’s just over a year since I got my N8, and despite a couple of months using a nexus S as my main phone, The N8 has been my primary and must take phone. 

Now via beta apps you can get a new native store app, now nokia store - the ovi brand now effectively gone. 

for new camera and store visit betalabs.nokia.com

Fruit Ninja: Ok, so I’m more a pirate than a ninja, but let’s just pretend this is cutlasses and ships biscuits :) Fruit Ninja came out last year on iOS, loosely based on a mini game within the swordplay section of Wii Sports Resort.  Initially it did little but let you slice fruit, it’s since added arcade and zen modes which turn it into a massively compelling game - there’s also multiplayer options on iOS. And taking the Wii Mini game into an fully formed game that stands alone as an original title.

Wii Sports Resort image from www.next-gen.biz

The core of Fruit Ninja is using your finger to slice fruit on screen, there are also bombs you must avoid - these are omitted in the zen mode.  Plus the new arcade mode give you 60 seconds to get the highest score you can, with additional power bananas which activate score boosting modes.  Theres lots of unlockable achievements, backgrounds and sword types (the musical sword pictured above).

In arcade mode its all about chaining together ‘combos’ where you slice 3 or more fruit at one time - combined with the bananas for mammoth score boosts. It’s so simple and so addictive, I’ve managed 637 on the android version. 

The N8 version matches up well - it’s animation is smooth and the game is responsive on the capacitive screen, there’s really nothing to fault - other than the lack of any online services to ‘brag’ about your achievements and score on, iOS and Android versions use open feint and gamecenter to share you scores.  

I only once had a slowdown, which was caused by running spotify at the same time - spotify eventually crashed. I had a weird slow down when i tried playing on a TV using HDMI, it just didn’t work well, though angry birds/NFS shift were fine on a telly. Normal play resumed once i unplugged, I suspect an update will fix that issue.

All in all fruit ninja is well worth the asking price of £1 on ovi store.

It’s also in Apple App Store (59p) and Android Market (74p).

Pro’s and Con’s of the N8. So I’ve been using a Nokia N8 as my main phone for over 4 months now. Whats my opinion.  Well mixed, but tipping into the positive. 

Lets start with the good.

The camera, simply just WOW. OK its no SLR, but it knocks the pants off any other camera phone, and even some compact cameras, that said you still get the odd blurry or bad photo, something I also get with my compact, so thats just cameras and users. The physical camera button is worth its weight in gold too, yes the trend is to have button free slabs (cheaper to make) but in some cases physical interactionis the  best UX. The camera interface has’t changed enough for my liking - switch scene modes still seems clunky and a few clicks too many. 

The video is also fantastic, I’ve had other HD recording small phones/devices but while the resolution may be hd the qualitys hasnt been, not the case with the N8. Yes darkness is a challenge, but that’s universal. In short its the best camera, I take a lot of photos (over 1000 in my gallery and I’ve probably deleted 100+) So this is a big deciding issue for me, No android camera has come close to the N8 yet. iPhone 4 is probably the next best is class.

Next up Battery Life, a major issue with smart phones. It’s unbelievably good, the only time I’ve run out on the go is when I’ve not charged for over 2 days.  I have Location, bluetooth, 3G and wifi on all the time.  It will never fail you on an over night charge, unlike iPhone/Androids which with heavy use won’t last a full day with a night out. top up at work is required (or a spare battery for android).

So battery and Camera are too MAJOR selling points that the N8 wins.

The build of the device is quite lovely - I seem to have had a ‘friday afternoon’ one as it’s had a broken bottom housing since i got it - it was pre-prod, so I doubt there’s any build issues - and I’ve seen no moaning on the internet - look how quickly forums filled with issues on the N97 and iPhone 4. The metal body feels lovely in the hand, and the camera hump rests nicely on your finger. The lens cover does need the occasional clean though, I haven’t used any cover and it’s still looking great. (minus the sticky tape holding the bottom cover in place :)

Onto the software, Symbian^3. Well it’s no great evolution on the N97 really, lots of little niggles are fixed, lots arn’t. The built in mail tool feels like going back to an N95, i seriously miss nokia messaging with single sign in for multiple push accounts.  It doesn’t seem to ‘play nice’ with google mail.  Also getting contacts on / off is a pain ovi sync is the only solution, other than finding a pc to plug into.

Everything works, but is a little less slick and smooth than the iPhone or most Android devices.  Still the OS is way more powerful and flexible than iOS, less so than Android. Initially i had issues with the lack of portrait QWERTY, but in most use cases T9 is as quick, though soon as you need to enter something new it is sluggish and you are quicker rotating and using the full QWERTY mode.  it’s good enough just not seemless or with any WOW factor, also you are thrown out of the app into the text entry mode, again it feels clunky and old. You can get a beta of swype - but it only works in landscape.

The ovi app store is getting better, and now theres lots of quality apps there, again it feels like it’s playing catch up, but at least its evolving and it’s so so much better than a year ago.

In fact most iPhone essentials are available - but again it’s a case of them coming out on symbian later, where are the original titles, other than those coming from nokia/labs.

One jewel in nokia’s crown is the best iPlayer mobile experience anywhere - its the only version that lets you download episodes to watch offline, like the desktop version. essential for commuting, and the adapter is in the box to watch on big screens via HDMI.  Also very useful for other videos you have onboard, the N8 supports a huge number of video formats - nearly everything I’ve thrown at it - just work’s - no need to pull out visual hub and re-encode for mobile.

Of course the downside of full multitasking is occasionally things chug, but it’s not that often. But there are times where you wonder whats going on.  Another annoyance is the screen lock - its not so responsive and I often go though 3 attempts of unlocking and accidently relocking before I get in. Also it’s in an odd position. 

At least screen rotation is as responsive as any device - yes even iOS often struggles to work out which way is up!! 

There’s lots of hardware positives, the zenon flash, the radio fm transmitter, hdmi out, usb on the go, awesome bluetooth, FM radio.  Though some of the interfaces to these is a bit limited - the FM transmitter could do with a scan for empty channels - in london it takes ages to find a slot. The screen works really well in bright light (sorry nexus 1 that was your achilles heel.) 

I use bluetooth headphones all the time, they work, and connect everytime - on iOS I end up trawling though settings to connect half the time.  

Email is the worst part of the N8 / S^3 - its very poor as I stated above, and I end up using web mail more often - which with gmail goes back to a very basic wap version.

For this reason I end up carrying an android phone with a PAYG alongside my N8 - my personal and work email/calendars are google based and work brilliantly on android - as you would expect. But the battery life on android lets it down. I miss the awesome email service I had on my E71 and 5800 - well not as awesome but reliable and working.

On to the supplied / freely available software - nokia always works wonders:

OVI maps are fantastic - essential if travelling as you can preload maps. 

Social - the build in social works but it’s basic, no official twitter/facebook alternatives - gravity is ok but i personally don’t love it enough to spend £8 again on it ( I bought it on the N97 which isn’t transferable - thanks ovi store) 

Music player - seems like a step back - album art often doesn’t import and theres no way to add any. 

Sharing - where’s internet sharing gone? pixelpipe fills the hole but its less integrated.

Sports Tracker - no longer nokia’s but still awesome.

Photo editor - very useful, quite feature full and easy.

Video Editor  - I’ve not used the video editor much - just once to crop a clip prior to uploading to youtube direct on device - but I prefer to edit video off device.

Games - the recent update installs some games - they are also free on ovi for N8 users. These are all high quality games, Need For Speed Shift, Real Golf and Galaxy on Fire, I’d already installed all three as they are great - I’ve also been playing Angry Birds, Assassin’s Creed, Climate Mission, Doodle Jump and The newly out on S^3 Fruit Ninja. All hold up to the iOS originals. 

Other app highlights - Spotify and SoundTracker, Panorama and Skype.

Home-screen’s, not quite android but 100x better than iOS, widgets and shortcuts make home-screen’s useful, Apple may have to pretend they have invented live home-screen’s if they bring them into iOS5. One annoyance is bookmarks don’t use Favicons, meaning it’s impossible to remember which bookmark is which. 

So the minus: S^3 clunky interface - email software - lack of social network software - Catch up App Store - not all the apps you *want*, Symbian is on the way out - app investment will become legacy.

…and the positives - Battery life, Camera, High spec hardware, all the apps you really *need*, great video playback. plug and play hardware. Always on screen. Software updates due including major interface updates.

In summary, it’s the best touch based nokia yet, nothing comes close in battery/camera operation so if they are important to you - The N8 may be what you are looking for.  But android and iOS are tempting alternatives, the iPhone 4 has a very capable camera, I can’t think of a single android phone that has anything but average camera performance. 

Would I recomend it - yes and no.  I’d always say try it out, likewise android/iOS.  It’s not for everyone,  also I like being different, iOS bores me :)  I’d rather have a N8 or android and iPod touch. 

But as of now I would say get a N8, Nexus S or iPhone 4 - each has pluses and minus, and one size it seems does not fit all.  N8 excel’s if you like taking photos and sharing them, and want the battery not to be dead on the way home. Next month it would be different, and the month after. You have to make a choice based on whats shipping now, or always wait.

I’ve not mentioned Windows Phone 7 in comparison, I’ve not experienced it yet - it looks lovely, if somewhat ‘locked down’ and limited in feature set.  The N8 will never see Windows Phone (any version) so unless you have several months to spare its not currently on the radar. 

As a side point - I work in app development, I’ve been using nokia Flowella and an N8 to prototype apps for iOS, as it’s so quick and easy. It often surprises clients to see their iOS apps ‘running’ on a nokia a couple of days after the brief hit.

Let’s go Lo-Fi: I’ve been having fun taking ‘lomo’ style photos. and putting them on a flickr group called NOMO. I’ve been trying to take them ‘from the hip’ so not framing the subject, often taking these candid photos while walking along.  After taking the photo i go into photo editor, and apply the lomo filter (in effects) and up the saturation, and sometimes mess with the colour balance. The results are hit and miss, well over 50% just get deleted - but every so often you get a beauty. Then I upload via pixel pipe. 100% on device content creation.

And unlike the insta-hip-app, you also have the original unedited version.

original of the above photo    The NOMO group

So join in (it’s and open group) and see what you can create. 

Gravity comes of age. I’ve long had no love for Gravity. It’s expensive and while feature full, it’s a workman’s twitter tool.  Also I ran into issues with mistakenly buying it on the OVI store on my N97, now it appears in my OVI store ‘My Stuff’ section, but I just get an error when i try to download it.  

Luckily there’s a public beta of the new version around, so i gave it a go.  The built in Nokia social is good as a basic client - but its a bit well equally workman like - though alot more ‘iPhone’ like. 

I’ve been spoilt by twitterific / tweetie (now official twitter on android/iPhone) / twidroid and tweetdeck on android.  These all blow gravity out of the water, interface wise.  

The new beta shows gravity has improved alot in the last year. it looks alot nicer, but the front end still feels very very ‘programmer’ designed.  It’s functional but joyless.

Once into a stream things get better, and once you start tweeting the real joy starts, with a portrait qwerty at long last. It’s not perfect, word completion and spelling is absent. But its a great step forward, also it keeps you in the app to enter text, rather than dumping you into an S60 screen.

Now when swype add’s a portrait keyboard I’ll not be so keen to use this version, so can we have swype options ?  

Theres one issue that’s still present, it often loses connection, so on starting it up you have to ‘Go Online’ then manually iUpdate Now’, surely when i go online it should auto update.  But it would be better if it didn’t lose connection all the time. there may be a setting for this i haven’t yet found.

So all in all gravity has gone from a 3/10 to a 6 /10 for me.  But I’m still waiting for twidroid/tweetdeck/official app quality.

New Headphones: I have been usings some BH109’s for the last couple of years, i love them, but i broke them :( SO searching online I found these black versions of the BH 214’s. I think they may be on their way out as they were being discounted most places, i got mine for £13.99 on amazon ( they used to be £44!) Lovely headphones and the black colour matches my N8 perfectly. Also when i demo’d some white ones they got quite grubby quickly. Also the cable is a little less stiff than the white ones. Overall They are a great replacement / upgrade form the BH 109’s and essential for daily commutes :)

The couple of days I spent with wired headphones made me realise once you go bluetooth theres no going back :)

Yay! I’m updated to the ‘retail’ software :) 011.012.00.01

update update update :) 

On arriving back in the uk, nokia social updated itself - good man.

So i ran software update app, to see if anything else will, there was some vague updates I have applied, plus new system software - connect your pc to do this. 

hmmm just tried and ovi suite or just the software updater aren’t playing ball at the moment.