Micky’s Neighborhood

I've been meaning to write a comprehensive article about Nokia's Ovi.com for a while now, being pushed as much as it is, but never really got to it so far. Now I dived into the different things Ovi offers (or not), and managed to salvage these things from the bottom of the sea.

Syncing
Face it, it's a pain in the ass. The Ovi Suite is still laggy as hell (talkin about a Q9550 with 4GB RAM here), seems like it has serious difficulties handling the phone, no matter what I wanna do with it. Syncing from the phone, well...chew me up and spit me out. All the digging into the menus to find that place where I can actually sync from, and even then still have to change the active profile AND then the settings (unless you want all your data messed up on phone and on the server too)...ugh. And if the settings are lost, due to a device format or whatever, it's yet more pain to get them back on the phone what with the sending and pin and whatnot. Really, why does it have to be so complicated? And have you noticed that it can actually only sync Contacts, Calendar and Notes? Not e-mail, not (multi)media, not bookmarks, not messages, not contacts group...why? Why can't Nokia create an all-the-way backup possibility with such an otherwise virtually full-featured online service? Read on for some of the answers.

Contacts
Not as much smooth to use as it could be, but it's passable I guess. Only thing I don't understand is why the Groups part not defined at all, seeing how both Ovi and the phones can handle that...no syncing though. And it takes too damn long to load any entry's details. (Even my N97 is faster there at least.

Share / Photos & Videos
Uhm...right. Guess this part went through some improvement lately. Still, it's a bit messy - you can't have folders, only albums, and handling them...well, let's say, if you wanted to move one album's content into another one (you know, as in, subfolders), you'd have way too much to do. Plus, it annoys me to no end that you can't sort your images/videos in the albums. Everything will stay in the order you upload them (by default, it'll most likely be a Z->A order). Don't understand why though, it'd be quite important to let users decide things like that, be it by filename or date/time (you know, photos, EXIFs...?), location, whatnots. Or at least a basic photo-or-video distinction maybe? Not like, forcibly separated, but optionally if one so decides?

Calendar
Kinda the same as Contacts. Sometimes I find events duplicated or even tripled, for reason beyond me, like put in different categories...that's downright annoying again. Same goes for speed as well.

Store
First of all, I can't believe I've just logged in to Ovi and then I go over to Store and I have to log in again. Wtf? Second, I'm wondering why the drop-down menus won't work in Opera? Anyway, I ain't gonna go to IE just for that. At least now if I type the name of an app in, it seems to find it - took long enough to get there. Third, if I select "Show free only" (phone app, but prolly same goes for website too), I do NOT want to see demos and trials and "limited" editions of apps, thank you very much! Go create a "Shareware" category for those stuffs. Fourth, why the HELL do I absolutely need to send links to phones via text messages? If I browse things on my computer, let me download the damned .sis or .wgz files right there, would you kindly? It's a good idea, the store, but way too much of a mess-fest still.

Mail
Well, it's nice, I guess, but with Messaging and all that, it's getting quite hectic. If it could display the inboxes of those emails I've signed up for Messaging too (in clearly distinguished folders, of course), that'd really make handling emails just nice and smooth.

Maps
Um...okay, bit like Google Maps, with favorites from my device added (remember tho, there wasn't any Maps settings defined in the general Ovi.com Sync profile)...and apparently I can't do anything with routing cuz my Opera is not supported. (...everything else is, ffs, annoying us Opera users on purpose?) Um...right. Guess it's a nice thing, or it would be, if we could create routes and save them and get them on our devices too. As such, I can't even get to routing at all.

Music Store
THE totally useless pos. Sorry, Nokia, but your service is only available in 21 countries, and yet you're pushing it way too much all around the globe like it had any point. I appreciate the effort, but frankly, even the little navigation "toolbar" disappears from the top of the site when I get there, so I can't even move anywhere else unless I hit the browser's back button first. Un-cool. And btw, if you're going to merge games to Ovi Store, why can't you do the same with Music? Provided that the service is available in the given person's region - which would be the easiest to check automatically when one's signed in, since we have to enter that info in the Account part anyway...if it isn't, it just shouldn't be displayed at all (and this stands for the devices' Music Player as well).

Games / N-Gage
Now there's a story to that. I've been an N-Gage fanboy since the day the very first N-Gage device was even announced. I think that was in 2003. A lot has happened in the years, but the gaming community that gathered around the platform is quite one-of-a-kind and special. Now the link from the Ovi "toolbar" takes me to the N-Gage site - which wouldn't be bad, but again, the toolbar disappears (see Music Store), leaving me no navigation options, I have to select my region (even tho I've been logged in to Ovi, so it should've been able to determine) and login to the N-Gage site as well. That's messy. And then, you want to shut down the N-Gage platform altogether. That's sad. As in, really, really sad. I mean, how on earth do you even think to incorporate gaming into Ovi Store when that's still an ugly mess to start with? Not to mention the community - you said you'd do that when N-Gage shuts down. I don't even dare to think of what's gonna happen to the games we've already purchased (you know, PAID MONEY for). You go all community-focused on one hand (Messaging, anyone?), and then you take a step back on the other hand. Where's the logic? I don't get it. The whole platform as it is, is way better than Ovi Store: much more straightforward and much smoother to use, even if it could do with an update for devices like the N97.

What should be done?
First of all, bring all content and services together to Ovi.com with the "toolbar" on top being constant everywhere. And, with the different services being able to process data from our profiles on their own and by default. Make it a bit smoother to use and define all the syncing profiles (okay, I get it if you don't want everyone uploading all their music and images/videos on your servers, but at least give the option to share what we want, from one place, to the appropriate part of Ovi, by default). Indeed, a more proper way to backup purchase history (and data, like activation codes) would be cool too - I don't want to go through migraines in case I format my device or get a new one. And for sanity's sake, create ONE unified application for the devices that can handle ALL services, from one place, with one login? I mean, Syncing's a nightmare, and then there are all the separate apps: Share Online, Contacts On Ovi, Maps, Messaging (which btw won't properly set up my email accts now with v20 fw on N97, only defines them to the default Messaging app), Store...and prolly even Software Update could be brought here as well. Maybe an option to create online backup of ALL the phone's settings (not talkin about 3rd party apps of course), so that when I, say, restore data from Ovi (Contacts, Calendar, whatnots) after a format or something, I could also get settings back the way I used to have them?
I've been supporting Ovi since the first day it started, I guess, with photo/video sharing back then, and in ways, I still don't see any improvement. Scattered, not intuitive at all, and while a lot of services have been added, it's just not really a nice experience to use. And experience counts the most, really, you know, it's that thing called iPhone. That's about the only thing it really has as advantage.
I just can't, or don't want to believe, ppl working at Nokia are still being so incompetent. You don't need a diploma to just see how others are doing it and which one users like, yet somehow it gives the impression that Nokia just ain't listening to anyone else at all, just following what they cook up blindly.
Oh, and one tiny thing again? I've mentioned this earlier, but...GIVE US A BLOGGING APPLICATION for cryin' out loud! All the devices with QWERTYs, all the focus on email/IM/communities, and no blog app? Wth...

She's such a sweetheart

This is classic and pretty much somes up Britain's mismanaged train network to a tee...

Network Rail, the company responsible for the country's rail network (as the name suggests) have discovered that sending 200 of their staff from Reading to Coventry is prohibitively expensive by train - so they're sending them by coach instead!

An open return ticket by train is a whopping £135.  By coach, it's just £12.  A bit of quick mental arithmetic tells me that the train costs just over 11 times more than coach.  Yes, that's right - ELEVEN times!

Despite Network Rail being the company that maintains the rail system they aren't entitled to discounted services from the companies that run the trains on their network.  Even if they were to receive a discount, it's hardly likely it could compete with the far more sensible fares provided by bus and coach (including the ones run by the same companies that run the trains!)

By choosing road over rail, the company has saved itself £24,000.  None to shabby!

Remember a few days ago I posted about a bunch of luxury phones being sold on the streets of Basingstoke after being half-inched from a warehouse outside of the town a couple of months previous?  Well it appears these are being flogged on eBay.  Not only that, it would appear they're not making much of an effort to conceal what they're doing from Hampshire's finest.

I can't say I'm 100% sure these are the stolen handsets but, check the following out and I'm sure you'll agree there's some fishiness here, is there not?

Priced at £1,200 new, these aren't your common garden variety mobile handsets.  Seems just a little suspect that someone based in Basingstoke should be selling one on eBay for such a considerable discount on the RRP (especially as it's listed brand new in box) not long after 118 were stolen from a warehouse near Basingstoke...

'Direct from Motorola UK' indeed!

Of course this could be genuine, in which case I apologise to 'Tanya' for thinking otherwise - and offer these words of advice for her: In future, tell the gift-giver how much you appreciate what they've given you but ask them to take it back to the store for a full refund.  They'll appreciate that more than you flogging the £1,200 gift they gave you for a third of the price.  Hey, you could split the difference and both be quids in!

Just up the road from Basingstoke, in Fleet, we have two more lucky people who received an Aura as an unwanted gift...

On the off chance that these were stolen and you naughty people get charged with handling stolen goods or whatnot - DON'T blame me!  FFS, what do you expect if you put the items on eBay?  Do you not realise that the boys in blue check eBay for such booty and a quick Google search brings up the Basingstoke seller?

OpenJDK is the place to collaborate on an open-source implementation of the Java Platform, Standard Edition, and related projects.

There are two OpenJDK streams:

• JDK6
  
• JDK7
  

CentOS and OEL include a java-1.6.0-openjdk rpm in their yum repos and you can find java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin rpms for Fedora 9,10 & 11 at:

• http://www.icewalkers.com/rpm/java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin/fedora-core-9/
• http://www.rpmfind.net/linux/rpm2html/search.php?query=java-1.6.0-openjdk-plugin

You can test your OpenJDK Java SE plugin is working by running the java jre jvm demo examples that can be found at:

• http://java.sun.com/products/plugin/1.5.0/demos/plugin/applets.html
  

...even with v20 firmware, there's a small pile of things that just drive me mad on a daily, common-usage basis. Not much, really, but nonetheless annoying.

First, which is very much obvious, is the graphics/UI, so I'm only gonna say this much: c'mon ppl, thing SCREAMS for an overhaul with so many fancy and unique customisations of virtually every system. (In other words: ain't Nokia ashamed that SE could do better with the theirs-for-so-long Symbian's S60 v5 in the Satio?) -_-"

Second, the camera button. FFS, REMOVE the "start 2ndary camera from home screen" functionality! It's the button I usually go to press by gut instinct to check statuses (clock, messages, whatnots), and 2 out of every 3 occasions it goes and starts the front camera! Annoying! Unnecessary! Unwanted! Shooooooo!!!!!!!! >.<

Third, the Music Player. Honestly, I haven't the faintest about what on earth you did to it - the album arts in the list look nice, but a) it seems to select image from tracks randomly where there's more than one to one album; b) it seems to select displayed album artist randomly (just one example for this two, I put Beyoncé's Ego Remix from her remix album to the I Am Sasha Fierce album, it's a featuring Kanye West track, and lo and behold, for the ENTIRE I Am Sasha Fierce album, in general, the displayed art is that of the remix album's, and displayed artist is Beyoncé ft Kanye West...).

And here's a separate section for the Music Player's Now Playing screen, cuz that's a tragicomedy (you know, as in, so bad that the only thing you can do is burst out laughing).  For one, wth's up with the album arts? Displayed for ALL the albums in the list (even if not correctly, see above), and then at random tracks, I just see the emptiness / default album art "icon" in the Now Playing screen. Someone explain, and even more so, FIX it, plz? The right function "button", serving as "Back"? NO, IT WASN'T A GOOD IDEA TO MAKE IT SWITCH BACK TO THE HOME SCREEN!!! I'm tearing my hair out every time I want to select a few track and press Back to step back to the lists (cuz that's how it's worked since forever), and find myself on the homsecreen! It's a freakin' pain in the ass to have to flip through my entire album list every time instead of going back to where I've selected the currently played album. >.< Oh, and between the lists and the now Playing Screen, where on earth does the CLOCK get losts? I mean, it's displayed everywhere BUT there, geez. -_-"

Sorry if I sounded repetitive, but that's just it. Had to let it out in a "BUGFIXES-NEEDED-ASAP" type of rant too.

Okay, so only one of these films actually revolves around the fall of the Berlin Wall and the impact it had on East Berliners.  The other two are still worthy of a view too as they either feature attempts to cross the border or what life was like for those living in the former German Democratic Republic.

Good Bye Lenin!

This is one of my all time favourite films.  It can be appreciated even if you're usually not into foreign language films.  Sorry about the sound quality of the trailer, 'twas the best I could find...

The Lives of Others

This gives you an idea of what it must've been like to live in the former GDR, how the state monitored every aspect of people's lifes.

And finally, back to something more light hearted and in English (for those of you not keen on subtitles...)

Confessions of a Dangerous Mind

This is supposedly the real life story of US game show creator, Chuck Barris.  He was responsible for 'The Dating Game' ('Blind Date' in the UK).  He was also, apparently, an agent for the CIA - chaperoning winning couples from the show to Berlin...

Oh, and I said, games too, didn't I?  Well make that one game, Tony Hawk's Underground 2 which, if my memory serves me right, has Checkpoint Charlie in it and the odd piece of the wall.

Nokia are instigating a product recall, swapping out faulty chargers.  Apparently some have casings that can come loose, posing a risk of electric shock.

According to The Times, there's a whopping 14 million that need to be replaced!

Rather than list all the ones affected - head over here instead.

Thieves stole over one hundred Motorola phones from a warehouse near Basingstoke, Hampshire back in September.  Now local police are claiming these are being sold in the town itself.  Okay, so not exactly the most interesting story ever but, as you'll be aware from the title, these are no ordinary phones. No siree, Bob!  These things are worth a whopping £1,200 each!

I'm a local and have yet to see or hear of anyone with one of these or to have been approached by someone trying to flog one.  But the police claim these are doing the rounds and have warned people they face up to 14 years in prison if they buy one.  Yeah, right.  Recently a local man stabbed his wife to death and is likely to serve just 3 years.  Strange world we live in, isn't it?

Here's Trusted Review's take on the Aura - as it's known.  There's no 3G, Wi-Fi or GPS and only 2 gig of built-in memory with no options for expansion.  Seriously, what the fudge?!?

I'm not in the habit of buying stolen goods and this phone wouldn't tempt me anyway.  I mean really, £1,200 for that?!?  Yes, a circular screen looks rather cool but can you imagine finding apps to work with it?  No Opera Mini for a start!

Did you know that next month Zelda: Spirit Tracks will be coming out. I've already pre-ordered it from Game so i can get the exclusive tin and figurine set. I might do a reiew soon. Check out this picture and video.