The occasional scrivener

So Telia finally released pricing details for the iPhone 3G and to no-one’s surprise they basically suck.

There’s no flat-rate data plan. If you pay the highest plan (859 SEK/month) you get 1GB free data. Thereafter the daily data cost is capped to 9 SEK.

If you choose the 16GB model and pay the highest plan for 24 months, you’ll pay 21,400 SEK in total (24,000 SEK if you max out your internet 3 days a week).

Cheapest deal in total is the 8GB with cheapest plan in 18 months, 7,880 SEK. The cheapest 16GB is 8,680 SEK.

In contrast, you can buy a fully unlocked 16GB model from Italy for €569 (around 5,150 SEK) and get a plan that’s better for you.

Here’s an Excel file with my calculations.

Thanks to Emil for finding the Italian price!

Update 2008-07-01: Techdirt reports that Rogers in Canada has even worse iPhone deals (I admit I’m too lazy to any CAD to SEK comparisons.) The interesting thing is that people are petitioning Rogers online to be a bit more reasonable, thereby creating a lot of bad publicity for the company.

Update 2008-07-15: Christopher notes that you’re not limited to the ridiculous iMini/iMidi/iMaxi schemes, you can buy the iPhone using any other Telia plan. Prices are here. However, good luck actually finding a phone….

I’ve had my E61 for a month now, and even though the usage patterns haven’t been really typical it’s time to try to get some thoughts down on how I feel using it.

Looks and build quality

I still like the looks and size of the device. It’s rather flat and broad, but it has to be to handle the qwerty keyboard. The screen is gorgeous — I love the wider-than-tall aspect ratio.

The keypad is rather cramped but useable.

The body has a fair amount of metal in it, which is nice. Despite the fact that the battery cover is manganese alloy, it’s developed a slight creak that manifests when I type. Also, the right softkey is niggly like a loose tooth.

My keypad backlight doesn’t work, this may be due to a hardware issue with the light sensor that I need to investigate.

Overall, not bad for the price point.

I miss a camera, and I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t wait for the upcoming E61i.

Battery life is pretty good. I’ve got a charger at home and one at work, and I keep the phone plugged in religiously, so maybe I haven’t really stressed it.

Speaking of the battery charger, the charging port is the ridiculous “ant’s penis” 2.5mm new-style one that Nokia is foisting upon us with the newer smartphones. I’m always afraid it’ll break in the phone.

Software

For my geeky self, putty is the killer app. It allows me to ssh into my server and check email, get onto IRC and keep up my blog. The combination of screen and apps like emacs and irssi makes my dreams of 1999, when I was working on a skunk-works mobile for Ericsson, finally come true. A handheld wireless terminal for accessing a text-based console.

Maybe not for everyone.

Email is a selling point for this device. I held off getting it until work upgraded to Microsoft Exchange 2003, which makes mobile email with this device possible.

I’m not too impressed with it though. The included app (Mail for Exchange) only looks in your Exchange/Outlook inbox, there’s no way to access subfolders. If you’re a heavy filtering guy like me, this can be frustrating. However, if mobile email is important to you, you can work around this by keeping all the important stuff in your inbox.

The lack of subfolder access is annoying because you can’t archive read email, forcing you to do this at the desktop or drown in an ever-growing inbox flood. I’d love to know if this limitation is general for Exchange mobile email or if it’s only present on Nokias.

Another issue is the fact that some emails simply don’t appear in the correct order. I’ve gotten mail on the device that are replies to emails that I didn’t get until later. Maybe this is because I use scheduled syncing instead of true push email.

A big annoyance is that you can’t accept meeting invitations.

All in all this means that the E61 is OK for checking if there’s something important in you inbox, but you still have to manage your email manually at your desktop.

I haven’t tried the media apps or the “productivity” apps, due to lack of a large enough memory card for the former and a lack of need for the latter.

Connectivity

3G performance is good. I’ve been using wifi where I can get it (basically at home). Wifi coverage is worse than you might expect in Stockholm, I really think 3G has killed it as a viable business, and most private access points have drunk the security kool-aid and enabled WEP or WPA encryption. But most of the time I can’t find any hotspots. I can almost always get a 3G signal though, which is enough for most surfing.

Bluetooth works fine for syncing with the Nokia PC Suite, although I’ve found it to be a bit flakey sometimes, forcing me to search for the phone to reconnect. There’s an IR port too, and you can use a USB cable.

Conclusion

I really like this phone, the only thing I’m missing is a camera. I like the keyboard and find that the added size of the phone is an acceptable tradeoff for it.

Being recently blessed with a free Fon router, I spent some time researching how to connect to it with the Nokia E61’s wifi.

The problem was that I simply couldn’t connect, event though I had the correct password set. Googling turned up a tip, which seems to work.

First, you can’t create an access point directly from the WLAN discovery tool (Menu -> Connectivity -> Conn. mgr. -> Availab. WLAN) if the access point is encrypted. You have to go into Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Connection -> Access points and define a new one there.

Now, according to this post, the Fonera uses one transmitter and quickly switches between the 2 SSIDs it broadcasts. By turning off the automatic power save in the E61, you can “lock” it to the SSID you want (which is the private one, in my case).

Turn off the power save like this:

Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Connection -> Wireless LAN

Press Options and choose Advanced settings. You’ll get a warning, which I duly read and noted. Continue, and choose to disable the Power saving feature.

Note that this will probably drain your battery if you use it for push email. Just keeping a screen session up in putty drained by battery in one evening.

Updated 2007-01-11: revised cost estimates.

Apple’s iPhone has been announced, to the surprise of many and the delight of many more. It certainly looks like Apple have pulled another winner off, like they did with the iPod. I’m not a mobile pundit, although I’ve been known to play one on TV, but here are my thoughts.

No 3G

This is a biggie at first sight, but I don’t think it’ll be a deal-breaker for the intended audience. Wifi will take care of the high-bandwidth needs. GSM has lower power requirements and smaller physical footprint.

Personally, I wouldn’t buy a phone without 3G.

Cost

It’s expensive. The famous reality-distorsion field has everyone saying it’ll cost $499 for the 4GB model, $599 for the 8GB. But these prices include a two-year commitment to Cingular. I’m in Europe and don’t really know how much such a commitment would cost, but I’ve heard that $50 a month is not unknown. If we’re generous and say that $25 goes towards subsidising the phone, that works out to an unlocked price of $1,200 for the 8GB model. I’ve seen speculation that the subsidy from Cingular will be in the region of $200. This would give an unlocked cost of about $800.

That’s insanely expensive. The Sony Ericsson W950i is comparable to the 4GB model. It’s music-centric, has 4GB flash storage and a touchscreen. It costs 4,950 SEK ($700) unlocked in Sweden. I’m predicting that the Nokia N95 will cost between 7,000 and 8,000 SEK, and that phone also can give the iPhone a run for its money spec-wise.

Update 2007-01-14: Amazon.de is taking preorders for an unlocked iPhone. Cost for the 8GB version: €999. Hat tip: Gruber.

Interface

Time will tell if the touchscreen interface will work in practice. Here are my question marks.

Fingerprints will be an aesthetic issue, although they can obscure content if you’re unlucky. More important will be one-handed operation. Can you use the phone with your thumb? Another one is touch-typing, obviously hard to do. Not to mention that this is not a phone for blind people.

Part of the appeal of the iPod is that you can switch songs and adjust the volume etc. by feel alone. This doesn’t seem possible with the iPhone.

The one thing people seem to be most enthused about is the visual voice-mail application. This is a nice idea, and kudos to Apple for developing it. The rest of the handset makers should be ashamed of not pushing something like this themselves.

Tentative conclusion

Pros: cool design leaves other handset makers looking dated and derivative (I’m looking at you, Palm), interface rethink is welcome in a fragmented industry.

Cons: Price! No way I can afford this phone. Network specs and camera are dated already.

Questions: interface responsiveness, power drain.

MobHappy have a good list of more comments. Head over there to see what the big boys think.

These are the access points on my Nokia 6630, noted here for future reference.

“Telia SurfPort” and “Telia MMS” are new settings that I got via SMS the other day. Apparently Telia thinks I got a new phone when I changed my subscription terms.

“Tools -> Settings -> Connection -> Access points”

Telia Go!

• Connection name: Telia Go!
• Data bearer: Packet data
• Access point name: online.telia.se
• User name: None
• Prompt password: No
• Password: None
• Authentication: Normal
• Homepage: http://go.telia.se

Advanced settings:

• Network type: IPv4
• Phone IP address: Automatic
• Name servers: Automatic
• Proxy serv. address: 10.254.254.254
• Proxy port number: 8080

Telia MMS

• Connection name: Telia MMS
• Data bearer: Packet data
• Access point name: mms.telia.se
• User name: mms
• Prompt password: No
• Password: ? (four stars, assuming “None”)
• Authentication: Normal
• Homepage: http://mmss/

Advanced settings:

• Network type: IPv4
• Phone IP address: Automatic
• Name servers: Automatic
• Proxy serv. address: 193.209.134.132
• Proxy port number: 80

Telia SurfPort

• Connection name: Telia SurfPort
• Data bearer: Packet data
• Access point name: online.telia.se
• User name: None
• Prompt password: No
• Password: None
• Authentication: Normal
• Homepage: http://mobil.teliasurfport.se

Advanced settings:

• Network type: IPv4
• Phone IP address: Automatic
• Name servers: Automatic
• Proxy serv. address: 10.254.254.254
• Proxy port number: 8080

I was planning on writing an in-depth review of the N93, but as time went by I realised that first, I’m really not that good at writing reviews, and second, the more I planned to write the less incentive I had.

So I’ll just jot down the things that hit me when I was using this phone, both pros and cons. For links to more reviews, check out Jim’s Nokia N93 wiki page.

Handling

The N93 has not improved on the N90’s most noticeable feature, the humongous size. This size is dictated by the barrel of the Zeiss Ikon Zeiss Vario-Tessar zoom lens positioned atop the hinge of the flip.

Unlike the N90, the barrel is fixed in position. Instead, the display can now be flipped up in widescreen display mode. Other modes are standard upright flip and camera view mode, which emulates a handheld digital movie camera.

The phone is decked out in matt black and chrome and the styling is more Samsung than Nokia. This is accentuated by the mass of little plastic flaps covering the Pop-port and the memory card slot. This latter has an additional function of providing a knurled rest for the index finger in camera view mode. Overall, the impression is more of ugliness than exclusivity.

The outer display is much smaller than in the N90, and doesn’t provide a handy way to preview incoming calls and messages. On the other hand, the phone has gained a vibrator mode, much appreciated.

The inner display is the new standard S60 QVGA with lots’o colours. Rotating between upright flip, widescreen flip and camera mode worked OK most of the time, though I had a freeze-up at one point.

The main navigation pad is rather shallow and I missed the centre button more than a few times. On the side of the phone there’s another d-pad (much smaller) which is used in camera mode to access menus and options.

Battery life is good, I barely lost 2 bars during a weekend taking photos and surfing via wifi.

Software

The N93 is running S60 3rd edition, which I don’t know enough about to comment except to say that some apps won’t even install on the phone, if they’re compiled for earlier versions. This affected Wireless IRC, which ran in compatibility more on the N90 but didn’t even install on the N93.

There are no less than 2 web browsers on the phone. The new “Web” is much more full-featured than the old “Services”, but the icons are nearly exactly the same. On the today screen (the default display) Web is part of the row of icons running along the top. If you press the application button (the “swirly button”), you’ll find Services smack dab in the middle of the icon grid. In this view, Web is buried in the the Office folder. The two browsers work differently and don’t share bookmarks, yet the only difference is a slightly different icon. Confusing? You bet.

Navigating backwards in Bloglines mobile didn’t work that well using Web’s new thumbnail mode, but it was pretty easy just clicking on the “Back to subscriptions” link to return to the list of feeds. Navigation using the d-pad is much smaller than jumping from link to link like you do in Services, but it was sometimes hard to navigate between small posts as you tend to overshoot.

Stuff like marking posts as saved worked fine in Web.

I didn’t really spend much time outside Bloglines so I can’t really say how the phone rendered other pages (including this one).

Connectivity

The Pop-port is situated on the side of the phone (there’s a lanyard anchor at the bottom). This makes is pretty hard to use headphones due to the bulk of the device. I guess you can use widescreen mode to watch movies, in which case the placement doesn’t matter as much.

The phone has wifi, which rocks! I couldn’t create an access point for the office network, which uses client certificates and stuff, but it worked like a charm at home. Surfing is super-fast and you don’t have to worry about data charges.

The phone asked which access point to use when starting an internet application, and in that list you could choose to search for wireless networks. I didn’t have time to wardrive, but it sure makes it more attractive to use web and email if you don’t have to pay through the nose for 3G. Wifi is definitely a must for my next phone.

The package includes an A/V-cable so you can view videos on a TV. I planned on testing this but never got around to it.

Picture quality

This is, in my opinion, the most disappointing feature of the phone. The still picture quality is simply not as good as you’d expect from the lens. We have a Contax SL300R T* which also has the Vario-Tessar lens. I took two pictures of the same subject with the Contax and the N93 (click through to see the full-size images):

Considering that the Contax is getting rather long in the tooth, I would expect the images to be comparable. The difference may be more aggressive JPEG compression on the N93.

Shutter lag is very noticeable. The little LED flash is ineffectual.

Considering that the lens determines the camera’s size and overall ugliness, it’s difficult to justify owning this phone as long as the pics are as disappointing as the above.

Summary

The Nokia N93 is a big clumsy phone with a lot of features but which doesn’t live up to its promise as a premium imaging device. Redeeming features are the new operating system, web browser, and connectivity options, but these are also available in smaller phones from Nokia.

I got the chance to borrow a Nokia N93 from work over the weekend. I’m trying to be more focused in testing this than I was when I had the Nokia N90.

Having said that, I can say the following:

• having built-in WiFi rocks
• having two browsers that are almost, but not quite, wholly different sucks.

More to follow.

Several new users of the Charlie aka the Nokia 6630 have mentioned the coolness of the Transfer application. This is a little program (Menu -> Tools on my phone) that is sent via Bluetooth to the phone you want to upgrade from. When it’s installed there, it sends all your information (contacts, calendar details etc) to the new phone. Painless.

The docs say that the 7610 and 6600 are supported, but I had no problems syncing with the N-gage classic.

Of course, you can use a sync with a PIM for this, but Transfer handles pictures too.

I mentioned it in the post linked above, but it’s such a nice feature I felt it should get a bit more attention.

The taco earned it’s stripes today as a business phone. When I answered a job call at home (for the first, and I hope the last, time), I needed to login to the firewall. No probs, I used the handsfree set. Until Viking decided he wanted to play with that.

Hmm. The taco is impossible to hold between the cheek and the shoulder like a normal phone. But it does have a loudspeaker. Presto, I could check logs, talk, and hang out in IRC at the same time.

The only thing left to use is the games in a boring meeting.