24 June 2012

My Nokia Blog

My Nokia Blog

Weekend Watch (or read): Multitasking. Which style do you prefer?

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 04:48 PM PDT

mul·ti·task·ing

Pronounced: [muhl-tee-tas-king, -tah-sking, muhl-tahy-]

noun – Computers .

The concurrent or interleaved execution of two or more jobs by a single CPU.
Dictionary.com

Hello All,

I’ve been thinking about doing a writeup about multitasking, more specifically, the BASIC differences of the mobile implementations. This article won’t contain any ground breaking news or scientific lab reports, but just a simple weekend watch and read. A thought-provoking article, if I may say. The video clocks in at almost 14 Minutes and includes a LOT of talking so if you are bored, it is rainy out or you are sitting in the mall waiting on your family or friends to finish shopping, click the video (OR read the text) and leave your comments below. Let’s get started!

Multitasking, for the purpose of this article, will be broken down into 2 simple categories:

Real-Time, where applications continue to run in the background while you use other applications and  Saved States, where the applications pause while you multitask and resume when you return.

Symbian Multitasking: – Type of Multitasking: Saved States

1. Saves states: ALWAYS resumes EXACTLY where you left off. …unless you are completely out of RAM…thus crashing the app or even the phone.

2. Will NOT close applications for you and will keep them open until you close them or restart the phone.  It has been weeks at a time where I would go “Oh yeah, I was using that a month ago”…forgetting that my expense app was still open. Older Symbian phones (looking at you N97) before the N8/S^3, 256MB RAM era, would get frequent Out of Memory errors since Symbian refuses to close apps for you. With the newer Belle phones (looking at you 808 PureView) coming with 512MB of RAM, you shouldn’t encounter those errors.

3. DOES NOT play videos in the background. I honestly think I did get a video to play in the background on one of the very first leaked Belle roms….just like how we could open the camera from the lockscreen…but that was taken away. I chalk this one up to programming. I wish it could play videos in the background when the screen is locked. Why? I have videos of events, people singing, that I would like to be able to HEAR while my phone is connected to my car and shutting off the screen would save battery. Yeah, I could just plug the N8 to the car charger but sometimes my other devices are using it.

4. Takes battery life into consideration by not allowing apps to run in the background real-time. Example: HAWX opening cinematic is does NOT continue to play if I switch to another application. It pauses and continues when I come back to HAWX. By *not allowing applications (I’m not talking about the music player and so forth as they DO run in the background) to run in Real-Time, system wide, Symbian literally sips battery juice. Later, I’ll talk about a battery guzzling multitasker that is as far away from Symbian’s efficient multitasking as you can get!

*Additional Clarification: I am NOT saying that Symbian cannot run applications in the background, as I stated pertaining to the music player. There are plenty of other applications programmed to run in the background as an exception, examples like GPS, voip, download apps like symtorrent, music apps like mobbler, gravity, fmobi, joikuspot: Examples Credit: dss. I am saying that as a whole, applications are not allowed to run Real-Time as in Maemo5 or Win7. Symbian falls on the side of a Saved States multitasking experience rather than a real-time multitasking experience. I hope this or the video explains it better)

 

Android Multitasking (Tested with ICS 4.0.3) – Type of Multitasking: Saved States

1. Saves states:  Resume state is dependant on available ram and software optimizations. Sometimes you may resume exactly where you left off, other times it ONLY remembers that you had the app open recently and has to reload the entire app, losing any information that you previously had.

2. WILL close applications at will in the best interest of saving RAM and presumably to improve battery life. The parameters of when an app closes appear to be based on RAM first and Time secondly. Example: If RAM is low, you can count on the app being closed as the OS is coded as #1 priority. If RAM isn’t low, but you don’t use an app for a while, the state may be forgotten/removed from RAM, causing the necessary reloading of the app rather than resuming where you left off.

The frequency of closing apps seems to be better or worse depending on the phone manufacturer. The HTC One S is over aggressive and closes stuff like it is nobody’s business yet my Galaxy S II is more gracious. I think it has a lot to do with how much RAM the Android “skins” like HTC Sense and Samsung Touch Wiz take up.

3. DOES play videos in the background in the multitasking menu and via apps in the marketplace that allow you to have a floating video player. Samsung also includes this feature in the Galaxy S 3. Under normal use though, you CANNOT open a video, hit the multitasking button and expect the video to keep playing in the background. It will not. This one is entirely software dependant and not a part of the core Android experience.

4. Takes battery life into consideration. Debatable to what level as there are often apps that you don’t even open that run in the background and the ones you open are often closed. Verdict: It doesn’t allow you to willy nilly leave everything running real-time, thus saving battery life. Any thoughts on this one?

 

Maemo 5 (N900) – Type of Multitasking: Real-Time

1. DOES NOT save states. Applications are running in the background just as they were when you used them. The actual computing process never changes. A game will keep playing, a web site will keep loading, a movie will keep playing and so on. The multitasking view itself is real-time and you can see the applications running. You can even play a game FROM the multitasking view, thus showing that even the accelerometers are still running.

2. Will NOT close an application….except for ONE reason…the app crashes. Other than that, you are on your own. Applications will continue to run until the battery gives up the ghost or your N900 becomes toast…whichever comes first. No, seriously, I have had Mario 64, along with other open apps, kill my N900 battery on a long ride home from the mall because I forgot to close it.

3. DOES play videos in the background, sound and all. Maemo 5 is coded NOT to do this and will actually pause the media player as soon as you multitask. The trick is simple: Use the hardware keyboard to multitask as soon as you click on the movie! Press the Sym/Ctrl+<-(back arrow) keys at the same time. You will enter the multitasking view and see your video load and play. You can then go about your business, listening to the audio or impressing friends as the video plays in a tiny window as your 30 other apps run too….which leads us to battery life…

4. DOES NOT take battery life into consideration….at all. Maemo 5 multitasking will DESTROY your battery life. Full day of use? Nope, Half day? Nope. I’m talking hours of use. If you leave resource intensive applications, games, movies or whatever open, they will consume the same power individually, multiplied by each running instance. If you manage your apps with the handy red X and close them when not in use, THEN, all is well that ends well. You can get average battery life.

Honestly, I love the real-time multitasking. It truly is PC like! Just like with a laptop though….you better have a charger+outlet nearby or you will be out of juice before you know it. That is scary, real scary if the N900 is your main device. Nokia should have given the N900 a MUCH higher capacity battery since they gave it the most powerful, unhindered, unmanaged multitasking known to man! You have been warned.

 

Personal Computer (Win7/MacOS/Linux/whatever) – Type of Multitasking: Real-Time

1. Real-Time. Processes upon processes upon applications upon processes run at all times. Like a hungry beast that only knows the limit that it’s stomach (RAM) can hold. With ram in the double digits, you can open hundreds of programs without a problem.

2. WILL NOT close a program, unless it crashes or you restart your computer. Pay attention to updates that require a restart…you may lose all your information from the 1,000 applications that you had open. :)

3. DOES PLAY video, and everything else in the background. I think I hear a kitchen sink, with water running, with dish liquid, and a clean dish towel…running in the background.

4. DOES NOT take battery life into consideration UNLESS you are on a laptop and set your power saving measures. By design, desktop computers are always plugged in and programs run freely (as they should) without taking consideration of running out of power. Laptops on the other hand, you have to monitor it yourself. The OS (Win7 at least) DOES NOT manage your applications for you. Nothing will close, everything will run, until you are out of power and your laptop shuts down. You can set screen brightness, cpu levels and so forth on the hardware side but the OS is not going to make decisions for you concerning multitasking for the sake of battery preservation.

Honestly, PC multitasking is a given, something not even thought of as it is an integral, not up for discussion part of PC computing. The more ram, the more you can multitask. I wanted to limit the article to two basic types of multitasking as those methods should cover all operating systems, iOS, BB, WebOS, WP7.5 and any other you can think of.

Phew, if you are still with me after reading those 1,450+ words, here is the video. Yes, I messed up at the end of the video, I meant to say 2GB of RAM on the Galaxy S3 and NOT Galaxy S II. We are all still human right…. ;)

 

 

My question to our readers is: Which style of Multitasking do you prefer, Real-Time or Saved States, and why?

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Lumiappaday #221: First Great Western demoed on the Nokia Lumia 900

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:37 PM PDT

I’ve shown a couple of train apps already, and didn’t think I’d need another but First Great Western (FGW) is awesome. It takes a lot from Rail Planner and TheTrainLine.com into one app. BTW this is free.

You can buy tickets with this app, some of which can be e-tickets (as barcodes) or you can collect them from the station.

This is useful for checking train times, especially the feature which lets you see precisely where the train is, whether it’s at a station, delayed, on time or already passed it. I find this helps when I’m on the train itself just to check the progress of the journey. The only thing missing really is to pin a journey to the start screen.

#221) First Great Western 

Price:  Free

Link: http://www.windowsphone.com/en-GB/apps/4f5bacee-a665-4628-aa98-bb6599c374d4

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cuhw84pWRTI

Developer Blurb:

 This app allows you to search train times, view platform and delay information and purchase train tickets for journeys with First Great Western and most other rail journeys in Britain.

Rating:

Design: 9

Usability: 9

Performance: 9 

Price: 10

N9Apps: Front Camera and Front Camera N9

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 04:10 AM PDT

There are many of us waiting for this application to come as the front camera to most of us is totally unused even not tested once till now.


Application Name: Front Camera
Developer Name: Vesuri


Description:


Vesuri a meego developer has created an application for Nokia N9 to use front camera and take snaps from it, though it only takes snaps doesn’t offer you to do video recording though it’s free and will certainly reduce your frustration if you really needed to use the front camera of Nokia N9.

Store link:


http://store.ovi.com/content/278543

Source:


http://my-meego.com/index.php?p=8062&c=30

Wait…….there is another one for you:

Application name: front camera n9
Developer name: Michael Nosov

Description:


There is both good and bad things about this application let’s talk about the good first:
This application offers you some more quality than the above application by vesuri but the this offers you to record video with the front camera on your Nokia N9. It’s very easy to toggle the snap and recording mode.
The bad thing about this application is that it’s paid (it’s saying Rs.5 here in Nokia store India), in other countries it is definitely more than Rs.5 as for India Nokia store apps were slayed upto 1/10th of the orignal price.
Enjoy some screenshots of this application also:

Store link:


http://store.ovi.com/content/292002

Source:


http://my-meego.com/software/applications.php?name=Front_Camera_N9&fldAuto=1658&faq=5

Source: http://my-meego.com

Regards:
Prashant

Nokia Store updated for Symbian^3, Anna, Belle (v3.30.005) and S60v(V1.30.004)

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:35 AM PDT

The Nokia Store is updated for both S60 and S^3 at Nokia BetaLabs.

http://betalabs.nokia.com/blog/2012/06/19/new-preview-releases-of-store-clients-for-symbian-and-s60

That’s S60 5th but also S60 3.1, and 3.2.

The Store QML client for Symbian is available for Symbian^3, Anna, and Belle phones.  This release (3.30.005) includes:

  • added additional billing support.
  • error fixes, e.g. the client crashes when the user presses the search button during the start-up.

The Store client for S60 is available for S60 3.1, S60 3.2, and S60 5th Edition phones.  This release (1.30.004) includes:

  • improved user experience by allowing longer product description
  • added additional payment methods
  • error fixes

Cheers Death Merchant for the tip!

WP7.8 on Navifirm for Nokia Lumia 610?

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:35 AM PDT

Navifirm screen shot
The Nokia Lumia 610 has been spotted previously with Tango.

But now it seems WP7.8 is appearing along side it (1066.0.8779.12221)

The middle numbers like 8773 or 8779 represents the core version of the wp7 OS running on the device. It would be a good thing if this device will be further upgraded to WP7.8. It might help its sales a little (at least in appearance it would look like WP8) and would have all the additional features Nokia mentioned.

 

Regards:

Prashant.

 (Co. Jay)

Buildcorp ditches BlackBerry for Nokia?

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:20 AM PDT

ZDNet reports on a story where by Buildcorp ditched their BlackBerry’s in favour of…Nokia. Nokia Lumia to be precise.

http://www.zdnet.com.au/buildcorp-ditches-blackberry-for-nokia-339340159.htm

After the construction company’s telecommunications contract expired, they decided to ditch blackberry and opt instead for WP7. The company had a mix of 50-60 BB and 100 voice phones. The choice to go all smartphone was the need to access project data online. The reason they opted to go for Windows Phone? Recommendations from their IT folks at Netcare which would apparently reduce the administration required. The company providing the application that they needed for their work, ProjectCentre, also advised on WP7.

Well OK, so WP7 it is. But Nokia wasn’t the only choice. HD7 and Omnia were also competing with the Lumia 800 and 710. They trialled all the devices and in the end bought 150 Nokia Lumia phones.

Why?

  • Nokia phone seemed to have a more rugged design (hopefully they didn’t just go on the Nokia indestructible meme). Apparently they might see less broken phones like they did when they owned BBs.
  • Nokia Drive and Nokia maps are popular as is Mix Radio

Why not stick with BB?

Apparently WP7 was more user friendly, better for less tech savvy users or older people (even though the BB userbase is apparently older)

Ironically, they also decided against BB because they were unsure about its long term proposition.

Brett Hoskins from Buildcorp said:

Nokia’s commitment to the Windows Phone platform was important in our decision to adopt Lumia. Other phone providers have a limited number of phones on the Windows Phone platform, with the remaining running Android. This long-term partnership with Microsoft ensures we have the right product support in place now and in the future.

WP7.5 might be a great fit for these people now, but how about in the near future when WP8 arrives? Well their phones won’t suddenly grind to a halt in responsiveness. They’ll still be just as fast. The people providing their app will have it specifically compatible for the OS they recommended. The homescreens could be upgraded in future if they want but the big simple layout right now is working for them as it is. Added customisability later is just an extra bonus.

If in future the handsets need upgrading, then they may move to WP8 (or WP9 by then) which will be backward compatible with any apps they previously used.

Source: zdnet

Thanks Loci for the tip!

GSM Arena’s Nokia 808 PureView 10 page ReView

Posted: 23 Jun 2012 12:02 AM PDT

You guys were flooding the inboxes in excitement about this review. Well here it is, the definitive review of the Nokia 808 PureView.

http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_808_pureview-review-776.php

In this 10 page report, GSM Arena are meticulous as usual. The anticipation for this review has been great due to the teasers/treats for readers to many, many Nokia 808 PureView tests which proved time and time again the superiority of PureView.

So, conclusion: How is it at being a camera phone and how is it outside of being a camera phone?

  • “This is a phone that knows what it’s doing and does it well”. NDTV reiterated the 10/10 score for USP (unique selling point – it has one and does it better than no one else)
Build/Design
  • Certainly not a bad looking fella
  • Plastic is definitely the way to go here (due to already weighing 169g)
  • Surprisingly course finish that almost feels like machined metal…nice to touch (I wholly agree. The texture is fantastic)
  •  808 PureView easily puts any metal-clad phone to shame
  • feel is solid bordering on lethal
  • Despite the size and weight, the device doesn’t feel weird in the hand
  • Easy to balance the top heavy phone in portrait, grippy back welcome
  • Above the display is the secondary camera for video calls (some thought it wasn’t even there)
  • Nokia could have done better than nHD resolution – which wasn’t even top of the line two years ago
  • Other than resolution, great sunlight readability, perfect indoor performance, deep blacks, 16:9.
  • Confirming other independent tests (but with 900), Nokia’s CBD AMOLED wins in outdoor readability test.
  • Built with the camera in mind…Nokia are at their usual best with the build quality of their cameraphone flagship
  • Many will find the camera bump rather ugly, but we think it adds to the phone’s personality.

Symbian:

  • finally caught up to the competition in terms of features with Belle and now we have Feature Pack 1 to polish it.
  • The way you move things around in Symbian isn’t as streamlined and intuitive as it is in competing OSes and Feature Pack 1 has done nothing to change that.
  •  lightweight Symbian Belle was always a snappy OS even on limited (by today’s standards) resources.
  • The bump to 1.3GHz (older Belle phones ran at 1GHz tops) enables buttery smooth animations and transitions.
  • you really don’t notice you’re running on a single-core processor
  • The app store battle has been lost though - in today’s market, the apps are the main driving force behind smartphone sales.
  • 808 PureView could be the grand sendoff an OS with such rich history deserves
Telephony
  • Reception on the Nokia 808 is good and we didn’t experience dropped calls.
And this is only page 4.
Carry on to read the test of the review:

Cheers everyone for the tip!

Weekend Watch: PureViewception – GSM Arena’s Nokia 808 PureView hands recorded with Nokia 808 PureView

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 11:41 PM PDT

We’ve seen quite a few videos now of Nokia 808 PureViews recording Nokia 808 PureViews. It’s very much up to the job and that rich recording certainly blows listeners socks off.

by 

(BTW, yes, I’ve seen the links, I’m currently going through the GSM Arena review right now, but I’m on mobile net so loading takes time :)


Photo: Early Builds of Wp7.8 Being Tested on Lumias

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 10:06 PM PDT

One thing that really surprises me is how well Microsoft kept everything under wraps, I’m sure there must have been at least hundreds of devices running these early builds or prototype WP8 but not a single soul who wasn’t supposed to see it saw it, now that the covers a=have been lifted some MSFT employees are tweeting pictures of the early builds such as that above on a US variant of the Stormtrooper Lumia 900- but are quick to point out that it’s still  ” a Suuuuuuuuppper early build” so don’t get too excited guys.

An early build of windows phone 7.8 on my lumia :D  http://sdrv.ms/MCJePj 

@tomwarren Sorry for teasing, I just wanted to show that it’s real :-) It’s a suuuuuper early build, we’re still working on it.

I must say i really LOVE the utilization of the full screen as well as the re-sizing, I for one don’t use the calendar tile so I would shrink that down; and adding the Phone/Messaging/Email and camera buttons as small tiles to the top row would act as a Pseudo-notification center getting the job done quite nicely.

Nokia Camera Extras Now Available in US & Canada

Posted: 22 Jun 2012 09:54 PM PDT

This is quite surprising, within two days of announcing that the new “camera Extras Application” will be available in “the upcoming weeks” it’s now available for anyone in the  US & Canada to enjoy; word on the street is that it’ll be available for all other regions sometime in July (one more week). What’s interesting is I thought this was an improvement to the Camera app itself and not a standalone app (like creative studio) however the banner says “in marketplace” which would mean it’s just a normal appp- kind of disappointing.

I think the speed of this release really shows that Nokia are focusing on customer satisfaction for now trying desperately  to appear as the guys who aren’t screwing their customers over; and I think it’s working- We know how long it takes Nokia to get some things done (Belle & Anna Release) but customers in the US who are trying out Nokia for the first time are probably quite impressed with the speed of their actions (the 3 day fix for the data issue); hopefully this all goes to improve Nokia’s standing in the US as well as everywhere else.

Anyone get the App in the marketplace yet?

VIA
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