Recently, the nice folks at WOMWorld sent me an N97 Mini to review.  Thanks guys.  I received the Euro model, the RM-555, which supports UMTS on the 900, 1900 and 2100 Mhz bands, in addition to quad-band GSM and a 802.11g WLAN radio.  Living in the US, I’d have preferred to have looked at a US model that included the UMTS 850 Mhz band, but beggars can’t be choosers, right?  Right.  So, on to the show..

Physical Attributes

The device’s size is great.  Nice and small.  I had an N97 for a (very) short time not long after it came out, and I was not a fan of the form factor.  It felt almost like carrying around an old 9500.  What a brick that thing was.  Contrasted with this, I’d be totally satisfied with the form factor.  Obviously, thinner would be better, to a point, but I’m not unhappy with the thickness.  In terms of construction, there’s just enough metal to make it feel solid in your hands, like it’s not going to snap in half while you’re typing on it.

One problem I had with the layout – the position of the headphone jack.  On my train ride home from the office yesterday, I had my headphones plugged in while listening to some tunes.  Typing a couple of emails and texts was awkward.  It would have been better if the headphone jack had moved toward the top, but the camera assembly would then need to be relocated.  Typing on the keyboard wasn’t bad, took a bit of getting used to, but nothing ridiculous.

Software

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  S60 is really showing its age.  Yes, S60 v5 has some advances over v3, even FP2, but it’s still got a lot of the baggage that’s accompanied S60 devices over the years – mostly speed related.  This phone won’t win any UI races.  The device lacks any form of multi-touch capabilities, due to its use of a resistive touchscreen.  Yes, I’ve heard all the arguments about how you can use resistive screens while wearing gloves.  Frankly, I don’t often find myself trying to use my phone while wearing gloves.  I’d rather have a capacitive screen – much more responsive.

As it’s big brother does, the N97 Mini includes Ovi Maps, and is compatible with the new version of Ovi Maps that includes free navigation.  I love the free navigation concept, and expect others to follow suit.  That said, I much prefer using Google Maps.  I find it faster and more responsive than Ovi Maps overall, and think it’s much better at finding things in the area because of its hooks into the Google Search infrastructure.  I’d use something like Ovi Maps in my car for navigation, but I’ve owned a Garmin Nuvi for several years now, and I’m not quite ready to get rid of it.

For email, I’m using Mail for Exchange.  The latest version for S60 v5 does not include HTML mail support, something I miss from my E72.  I’m planning on trying out RoadSync on this phone as well, but since I already know that it doesn’t support network destinations (i.e. access point groups), I’ll be disappointed there as well, though I will get my HTML mail.

In the browser arena, as expected, I found the Nokia browser to be adequate, but not really as good as I’d like to see it.  I tried out Opera Mobile on the device, and was generally more pleased with its functionality, though I found it to be slightly less responsive than the stock Nokia browser.

Network

I ran a some speed tests from a variety of sites, using both AT&T 3G data as well as via the WLAN in my home.  Over the air, I saw download speeds ranging from 500 – 780 kbps.  Over the WLAN, I saw speeds around 1.2 Mbps.  On my Mac on the same WLAN, I see about 18 Mbps down and 4.2 Mbps up (I have 20/5 FiOS at home).  These performance numbers are consistent with my tests with other S60 phones, like the E71, E72 and my wife’s E75.  It’s also close to what my iPhone toting friends in the area see.

Conclusions

In summary, the N97 Mini is definitely a better choice than the bigger N97.  It’s more pocketable, and has the same features, with a better form factor.  If all you’re after is an S60 v5 touch device, you’d probably be better off with the 5800 Nav Edition, but if you can’t live without a qwerty keyboard, the N97 Mini is a winner.  Will I buy one?  Probably not – I’m satisfied with my E72.  Right now, Android 2.1 has ActiveSync that gets email and contacts.  If they add calender support to it, I’ll be on an Android device before too long.  Why?  Newer devices, more innovation, actual integration with Google Voice – something I actually use on a daily basis and more than one vendor really interested in using it.  Hopefully S60 can turn things around before my next phone purchase.  As a co-worker said the other day, the call quality on Nokia devices is better than anything else I’ve ever used.

You may remember the Home Virtualization Project from last year.  In that project, I converted my existing server, based on a Shuttle XPC (SP35P2 Pro, to be more precise) from a Linux server running VMware Server 2.0 to a VMware ESXi 3.5 server.  It worked well, but left a few things to be desired, such as..

1. No RAID
2. Onboard NIC required significant fiddling to get working under ESXi 3.5u4
3. No onboard video, so I needed a video card, plus a network card to get going (the real root cause of #1 above).
4. A bit loud.  The system wasn’t terribly loud, but for something that’s on full-time in the background in my office, it could be distracting at times.

So here we are, it’s a brand-new year, so the big project was an upgrade, inspired by some requirements I found with a project at work.  In the end, the old server was converted into a workstation and now has a happy home.  So what’s the current system?  Another Shuttle XPC.  This time, it’s the SG45H7.  This is a slightly smaller chassis than the already small SP35P2 Pro.  The SP line has space for 2 hard drives up top, above the optical drive that the SG line lacks, resulting in a shorter case.  The SG45H7 is targeted as an HTPC, and includes onboard video with both SVGA and HDMI outputs.  Further, it includes 2 expansion slots, one PCIe x16 and one PCI. Continue reading »

At long last, after promises to open up Facebook chat to Jabber clients, it’s up and going.  Finally!  No more crappy plugins for Pidgin and Adium that stop working randomly.  No more leaving a browser window up and connected to Facebook either.  It’s working quite well, so far at least.  Interested?  Head over there and they’ll walk you through the process.

What brought this about?  Facebook has started opening up and federating their IM system with other networks.  First up is AIM.  That’s right, AIM users can now chat with Facebook Chat users.  Since Facebook wisely chose the open XMPP (eXtensible Messaging & Presence Protocol) for this, which allows easy federation (i.e. interoperability) with other IM services, including the greater Jabber/XMPP community, which includes Google Talk, both in its standard and “Apps for Your Domain” flavors.

Here’s the gist, tell your Jabber client (they give precise instructions for Pidgin, Adium and iChat) to connect as your-user-name@chat.facebook.com and you’re all set.  For other Jabber clients, check out the link above for any particulars on the connection parameters.

One thing that they did not do, and it’s a bit irksome – no SSL/TLS support.  Come on kids, we’re in the 21st century here, let’s get with the program a bit.  After all, the standard login.facebook.com page uses SSL, so why not this too?

So overall, it’s great news, but they’ve still got a bit of work to do.

The Apple iPad

Ok, so it’s been a couple of days since Apple announced the latest gadget that’s going to be “revolutionary,” or perhaps this one is “game changing.”  Whatever it is, the iPad, which many had very high hopes for appears to be a big dud.

People have been clamoring for Apple to enter the netbook/tablet market for some time now, at least an hour after the Asus eeePC started gaining popularity.  Well, they finally got their wish this past week.  Unfortunately, it’s a big dud.

Take an iPhone 3GS, make it bigger, slap a huge bezel around the screen, and take away its ability to make phone calls.  Blammo, you now have the iPad.  I’ve got so many questions about this thing, and the choices they made in its design, that I’m not entirely sure where to start.  How about the CPU?  Apple went and designed their own, rather than do something sensible like use the Intel Atom.  It boggles the mind.  Ok, so it plays HD video.  So does the Atom, when outfitted with a proper graphics chip, like the Nvidia ION.  Rather than put all that effort into the CPU, they could have done so much more with the hardware.  And despite touting it as able to play HD video, it’s got a 4:3 ratio screen, rather than the widescreen aspect ratio it deserves.

No front-mounted camera.  Apple loves to trot out the latest iChat video stuff during keynotes.  Why not on this thing?  I thought it was supposed to be “the netbook, but done right,” or something like that.  Then the OS, the iPhone OS?  Blech.  Multitasking anyone?  Sure, I understand their attraction to the fact that it runs iPhone apps out of the box, but that’s bound to be problematic.  Consider games for instance – those are designed down to the pixel on the little screen of the iPhone/iPod Touch.  Now suddenly they’re on a bigger screen.  Is there resolution independence, or will developers be doing hoop jumping to support the iPad?  We’ll find out, eventually.

Then there’s the price.  Wow.  $500 for a 16GB tablet that’s only got wifi?  Yikes.  Want that 3G?  No problem, just add another $130 to the price of an already overpriced gadget.  If you wan the big dog model (64GB) with 3G, that’s going to run you a cool $829.  Oh yeah, and then you still get to pay the monthly recurring charges for your carrier’s data plan.  Since it’s free of contract pricing and you can start and stop at-will, why not just simply sell it unlocked?

Lots of folks are up in arms that it’s yet another device bound for AT&T’s network, but I completely understand (and agree with) the choice.  You want to minimize your build costs to maximize your profitability.  Just like the iPhone, that means GSM 850/900/1800/1900 and UMTS 850/1900/2100, guaranteeing your ability to sell the product pretty much anywhere globally.  Especially perturbing to many is that it isn’t available for use on the Verizon network, for the reasons I just gave.  Honestly folks, everyone’s moving to LTE-based networks, even Verizon, so you’ll just have to wait a few more years, then you can get your iLove on the VzW network.

Last, but most certainly not least – the adapters.  Want to pull pictures from your digital cam into iPad?  There’s an adapter for that.  You still need the special dock cable to connect it to anything as well.  I get it – I understood the use of the dock connector back in the day.  It’s time to abandon it in favor of the Micro-USB connector that everything else is either using, or moving to.  My Nokia E72 uses it, as do all the newer BlackBerrys, as does the Kindle, as do many newer digital cameras.  Join the rest of us in the land of “only 1 cable for all these devices.”

Will people flock to this thing?  Probably.  But, I just don’t see the attraction.  Maybe after 3 or 4 revisions it will be cooked enough, but in its current state, it needs more time in the oven.

My trusty E71 finally took a dive for the last time onto a nasty floor.  I was using a Nokia N85 for a bit as a stopgap.  Great phone, fantastic camera, but typing email with T9 drove me nuts.  The N85 is now hosting my home phone’s SIM.  But this review isn’t about the N85, so back to the topic at hand..

Between the N85 and the E72, I tried out the Blackberry 9700, which was lovely, as much as a Blackberry can be, but lacked some of the features I liked, such as a working SIP stack, and especially the ability to tell when my data is moving through the corporate network/BES, vs. WLAN, vs. carrier data that’s not via the BES – I found that utterly impossible on the BB 9700.  Otherwise, a nice phone.  But again, back to the topic at hand.

First, I’ll start with the physical attributes of the E72.  The E72 is a tiny bit wider than the E71, but is the tiniest bit lighter than the E71.  The E72 trades in a good bit of the metal housing for plastic, but gets new & improved features like a 3.5mm headphone jack, instead of the 2.5mm mess that’s on the E71.  Radios are mostly equivalent to the E71.  Mine is the US variant, the E72-2, so it’s a quad-band GSM/EDGE device, with works on UMTS 850/1900/2100 Mhz bands.  The 2100 Mhz band is a nice addition to the device, for users who travel abroad, as is the support for HSPA 7.2 Mbps.  The WLAN in the E72 is essentially the same as the E71 – 802.11b/g. The camera is a nice bump in the E72 as well – a 5MP cam, a step above the E71’s 3.2 MP cam, with a single LED flash.

My favorite part about the phone?  The messaging experience.  At work, one of our options is Exchange ActiveSync, so I’ve been a Mail for Exchange user for quite a while now, even with its deficiencies, like the lack of ability to sync folders other than the Inbox, HTML support, and lack of ability to create a meeting request from the phone.  The device works with Nokia’s Messaging service, which I’m not using at this time.  For my personal mail (hosted by Google Apps), I use the Google Gmail app, which works just as well on the E72 as it did on the E71.

Overall, the E72 is a worthy successor to the E71.  Right now, Amazon’s got it for $369.  If you’re going to buy, please consider using my link to it.

It’s that time of the year again kids.. For some reason, I didn’t do this last year.  Here we go, my 10 predictions for technology in 2010.

1. Netbooks – huge.

You thought 2009 was the year of the netbook?  You ain’t seen nothing yet, kid. 2010 will bring a whole new crop of them, this time with the Nvidia ION chipset, allowing you to watch HD content on your little netbook.  We’ve already started seeing better screen resolutions like 1366×768 (instead of the older 1024×600), giving you greater than 720p on the display.  This will continue, though I don’t think you’ll see 10″ screens grow much more in resolution.  Apple’s rumored to release something early in 2010, possibly called iSlate, which will be a hybrid netbook/tablet device.

2. Home Virtualization

In 2009, with VMware ESXi being free, geeks started doing bare-metal virtualization more and more, dumping host-os solutions like VMware Server in favor of better performance.  This trend will accelerate in 2010, and we’ll see someone introduce a virtualization product targeted at the so-called “pro-sumer”.  It will be interesting to see if it’s specifically marketed as such.  What’s it for?  Aggregation of lots of different home network services onto a single hardware platform.  Maybe it’s all a dream for us geeks, but I think something will pop in 2010.  Remember, everyone said the same thing about NAS, and now those are everywhere too.

3. Gigabit Ethernet for everyone

People will stop buying routers and switches for the home that are only 10/100 devices.  The driving forces?  NAS and 802.11n.  As people replace old computers with new, they come with shiny stuff like 802.11n wifi cards instead of crusty old 802.11g.  This means a jump from 54 Mbps to 300 Mbps.  Obviously, 300 Mbps > 100 Mbps, and nobody wants to have access to their data on the NAS to be that slow.

4. Android Cleans House

I admit it.  I like Google.  I love the idea of a common-source OS that’s open for mobile devices.  I’ve got serious technolust for something running Android right now.  I’m doing my best to be patient though.  I want to see the latest batch of devices, hopefully with 1 Ghz Snapdragon processors and Android 2.1 first.  After that, if it’s got AT&T 3G bands and wifi, I’m in.  I predict that people will finally start falling out of iLove with their iPhones, though certainly not in droves, and move to a more capable platform that does “more.”

5. Another new iPhone

As it’s older siblings before it, it will be buzzword compliant, but probably only with stuff that isn’t cutting edge.  You’ll get your 5MP camera (that I had on a phone 2 years ago), you’ll get HSPA – but won’t be able to use it.  What’s the big prediction here?  New headphones that use Bluetooth, sort of like the ones that Nokia sells.  They’ll be optional, and work with the 3GS, but I’d bet they won’t work with the 3G and certainly not the original iPhone.  Nothing earth shattering, but they’ll be Apple-branded, and tightly integrated with the device, so you’ll see stuff like song titles and caller id info on an OLED display, possibly color, using buddy icons from your address book.

6. Another iPod Shuffle down-size

Because they’re not small enough, right?  This time, it will be a single piece of hardware, integrated into the headphones.  It will also see a price cut to $49 for a 4GB model.  Just an incremental change in the end.

7. More gigantic technological misnomers

Like LED TVs.  I had a discussion with someone not long ago who insisted that these were not LCD TVs, and were in fact LED TVs.  He just couldn’t get past the idea that the display technology is largely the same, possibly some incremental changes, but the real change is in the backlight.  LCD TVs that were purchased a couple of years ago were certainly backlit using fluorescent bulbs.  These “LED” TVs use LED bulbs for the backlight.  That’s the limit of the changes.  These are not self-illuminating screens like OLED or AMOLED.  Now an AMOLED screen – that would be HUGE.  What will the misnomer be about?  Who knows?  It’s coming though.

8. A “major” newspaper will fail to make it to 2011

We’ve been talking for years about the impending death of the newspaper, in favor of Internet-based news channels.  I think back to our experience with the local paper earlier this year.  We subscribed purely for the reason of getting coupons.  We subscribed to the weekend package (so Friday – Sunday).  Total cost was about $10 a month.  The problem?  We only netted about $5-6 worth of coupons per month.  After 2 months, we canceled the subscription.  Ad revenues are already in the toilet for newspapers, and will only continue to decline.  Ask not for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee, Mr. Newspaper Man.

9. Compressed hydrogen will start moving.

Sure, Honda’s got their prototype Accord going in California.  But, we’re going to start seeing a real compressed hydrogen delivery network being built.  Hydrogen is arguably one of the most abundantly available elements on Earth.  The vehicles emit water vapor as their exhaust.  Not so bad, eh?  Please, don’t confuse me with a climate change fruit loop.  I don’t subscribe to cooking the books in order to support my points, as is the case in the climate change circle these days.  But surely a car that emits water vapor can only be a good thing, when compared to a gas or diesel vehicle.

10. A usable water-based fuel cell

This thing is the big dream.  You fill it up with water, and the hydrogen is used to power the device.  It’s completely sustainable, and free to “recharge.”

Christmas Creep

From the Shoebox Blog, of all places.  Go figure, eh?  Absolutely brilliant!

As some of you may know, though may or may not actually care, I was previously running my home server on Ubuntu Jaunty x86_64, and ran VMware Server 2.0 on it.  I had VMs for my SSL VPN and some occasionally used VMs for other things.

I was tired of performance that VMware Server offered, along with its baggage.  For instance, the Web UI suffered from frequent crashes, and it was also fairly slow.  Having had great success in the lab at the office with VMware ESXi, I decided that was the way to go.  ESXi 4.0 is still fairly new, and I’ve had some trouble with my SSL VM on it, so I decided to sit that one out for a bit, leaving me with 3.5u4.

Next hurdle – my hardware.  I use a Shuttle XPC for my server.  It’s small, and doesn’t inhale too much power, so I found it to be a good choice as a Linux server, what it’s spent most of its time as.  Unfortunately, as it uses a Marvell Ethernet chipset (the sky2 driver), and that’s not on the VMware HCL, there wasn’t a driver for it.  But then, KernelCrash to the rescue.  The author gives very nice build instructions to get a mod_sky2.0 driver that works on ESXi 3.5u4.  It’s been good enough that I haven’t noticed any problems with performance or functionality.

I did have to give up my Linux software raid, so at the moment, I’m sort of running without a net.  My plan is to add an external RAID box, either connected via eSATA or 1GbE NAS.  Obviously eSATA will perform better, but I’m not yet convinced I’ll see much of a practical performance difference.  I’ll add a new Intel e1000 NIC to the system dedicated to storage if I do that.  Anyone have thoughts on VMware iSCSI vs NFS performance?

Now I’ve got VMs for my SSL VPN, my File/Pri DNS/DHCP/kitchen sink server, a secondary DNS, and a FreeNAS, as well as some assorted client systems to test various things.  All in all, it’s worked very well.

If you want to go straight to ESXi 4.0, KernelCrash has you covered there as well.

Today, I’m taking a break from my usual talk of technology and the like, in favor of a parenting moment.  Hopefully some of you find it helpful.

For quite some time now, we faced an uphill battle to get our son potty trained.  Now that he’s over 4 years old, it was time and really needed to happen. Alex is a highly focused child, who sometimes gets so immersed in what he’s doing that he doesn’t stop what he’s doing to use the potty.  He’s physically capable of taking care of business, so it’s obviously a behavioral thing.

My wife first found this potty watch at One Step Ahead. Great concept, terrible implementation. You set an interval for how often the child is to be reminded to use the potty (30, 60 or 90 minutes).  When the interval comes up, the child hears a little song, reminding the child to head for the potty.  Unfortunately, it’s a piece of garbage.  Our first one lasted about 3 weeks before the batteries died.  Opening the watch to replace the battery, followed by careful reassembly resulted in a watch that just didn’t work.  We called them of course, to complain about the poor quality of the watch, and to their credit, they did replace the watch at no charge.  The second watch just stopped making music after about 3 weeks.  See a pattern here?

Our final solution has thus far proven to be much better.  My wife found a women’s Timex lap watch that was small enough for Alex’s wrist.  The cool thing about this watch?  The timer feature.  It’s essentially a countdown clock that can be set to automatically restart at the end of each interval.  You can set the interval for whatever you like, no limits like the 30/60/90 of the old potty watch.

Alex gets to wear a real watch, which is also bound to help us with teaching him to tell time, he’s getting a prompt to remind him to hit the bathroom, which is sure helping reduce the number of accidents he’s been having, and we’re all happier.  So far, so good.

iPhone 3GS

Well kids, it’s that time of the year again.  iPhone season.  Last week, Apple announced their latest move in the iPhone marketplace – the iPhone 3GS.  The new member of the iPhone family is a small upgrade from the existing iPhone 3G that’s been beating the street for the past year.

What’s the new kid bring to the table relative to the existing 3G?

• HSDPA 7.2
• 3 MP auto-focus Camera
• Video Recording w/editing on the device
• Voice Control
• Slightly better battery life

Obviously, anyone would be happy with more battery life – though the additional capacity doesn’t amount to all that much.  Video recording is a nice addition as well.  Voice control is a neat toy, but isn’t used too much in general.  Phones that run S60 have had voice control features for years now.  Same goes for many other manufacturers as well.  Is the feature a killer app that’s used all the time?  Nope.

E71 HSDPA Speed

HSDPA 7.2 is a nice addition, vs. HSDPA 3.6 on the 3G.  However, consider that most AT&T HSDPA customers never see 3.6 Mbps download speed, does 7.2 Mbps really matter?  Check out the screenshot on the right from my Nokia E71, which also supports HSDPA 3.6.  This is fairly representative of the mobile speed tests I’ve done on the device.  In the past, I have seen as high as 1 Mbps, but have never come anywhere near close to 3.6 mbps.

Upgrades from the 3G?  Certainly, but marginal, at best.  All of the other iPhone 3.0 OS features are also present on the iPhone 3G as well.

Has this stopped a torrent of iPhone 3G customers who seemingly cannot go on living without the shiny new iPhone 3GS?  Nope.  There’s a gaggle of people signing a Twitter petition in what will be a vain attempt to get AT&T to repeat last year’s exception to AT&T’s standard policy regarding pre-term upgrades for existing users under contract.  Kids, think about this.  Last year, with the move from the iPhone to the iPhone 3G, AT&T changed the game.  The original iPhone used a $20/month data plan that also gave 200 texts.  Contrast that with the iPhone 3G, which carried a $30/month data plan and included no texts at all.  If you wanted to add those 200 texts back, that’s another $5/month.  Effectively, the customer had to cough up an extra $180 a year to maintain the same level of service when they moved from iPhone to iPhone 3G.  This increased revenue level allowed AT&T to make an exception to the upgrade policy, allowing users that were only half way through their contract to upgrade with no additional cost above what a new customer would pay.

Still don’t get it?  When you buy a phone from a carrier, you’re getting it at a lower price because of your commitment to a contract term of 1, 2, or sometimes even 3 years, though 3 year deals aren’t common in the US.  The carrier is partially subsidizing the cost of the device because you’re locking yourself in for a period of time.  For original iPhone customers, only being a half way through the contract, AT&T had not fully recouped the subsidy provided on the iPhone.  However, since allowing those original iPhone customers would result in an additional $360 above and beyond current revenue levels, it was financially feasible to allow the early upgrades.  It was even in the best interest of AT&T Wireless.  The fact that customers benefitted from the move was secondary – don’t confuse it with good will from AT&T.

So here we are, another year later.  The iPhone 3GS comes at an even lower price tag than before, but uses the exact same plans as the current 3G models.  This time around, there is no benefit to AT&T in allowing early upgrades at no additional costs, so they’re not.  This year, there are 3 levels of iPhone cost:

• Fully Subsidized – $99 for the 8GB 3G, $199 for the 16GB 3GS, $299 for the 32GB 3GS, comes with a 2-year contract.
• Partly Subsidized – Early Upgraders (12-18 months into contract) are eligible to upgrade for a $200 premium above the fully subsidized cost.
• No Subsidy – If you’re less than 12 months into your contract, you can upgrade, but face a $400 premium above the fully subsidized cost.

Herein lay the source of angst for the twittioners.  Kids, get this through your heads.  Your phone company is not your friend, and you’re their friend either.  You’re their customer – who sends them money in return for services.  You’ve agreed to be bound by the terms of a contract.  You cannot alter the terms of the deal just because you want the new, shiny toy.