I left a while ago...

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Disaster for Motorola

A trip to the wild side: financial data. I can't say I understand news on the numeric nature, but still even I think this is significant. After being so confident that they would gain (and even level?) Nokia's market share in the near future, Motorola warns that they wouldn't make any profit on this quarter. On the contrary, a loss is on the cards.

Motorola Muddles Forward

Amazing! I think that this is not good news not only for Nokia but Sony-Ericsson as well. When the appeal of Razr-like phones are vanishing, it appears that the feature-phones are selling like hotcakes. Music and camera phones anybody?

We do get the Browser for S60 as a separate sis. file!

atmaspheric | endeavors » An Evening with S60…

"I’m looking forward to the browser release which should arrive within the next 1 month. Apparently, the user voices have been heard and the browser will be pulled out from the FP updates so we’ll all be able to take advantage of the progress that’s been made without having to drop some serious dough on a new phone — just to take advantage of the browser…"

It seems that the initiative taken by the people at the Web Browser for S60 Blog has borne fruit.

This is great news! I'm not sure if it's a good business decision, however, because one of the reason why I was thinking about buying the new Nokia N95, was to get the new version of the browser. Now I don't have to, because I can install the sis. file directly to my N73! I think there are other people (quite a many) who think the same.

Take a look on the new features here. They include:

Best of both words: Full Web browser and a WAP-browser in the same application.
Floating (!) Toolbar to enable easy access to frequently used features.
Widescreen mode for every device!
Autocomplete and password manager!
Improved Web Feeds (alltough I remain sceptical if these built-in RRS readers can ever match Google Reader).
There should be better Ajax-support as well.

Bubbling under are some nice new features as: Web pages can be saved for off-line browsing, Flash Lite 2 support and Favicons (you can save the Web address with its icon for easy identification=image-bookmarks?).

I found Jonathan's news via the Nokia Blog.

My Formula One 2007 season preview

So, soon it will start! The week before the weekend will be difficult. How I'm going to get any work done?

As usual, the pre-season testing has been a source of on-going speculation about who is in front and who's trying to catch who.

Let's go over the protagonists:

At Ferrari things look good. Everybody is saying that they have the pace and reliability. Strong and consistent pace in long stints. But who is going to be the faster of the two?

As a Finn, I'm of course hoping it will be Kimi. However, Massa can't be underestimated and is actually being touted as the favourite by a numerous high profile commentators. Granted, Massa has been faster in the pre-season testing, but testing is testing. You can't never be 100 % sure what they have been doing respectively. Still, I think it's difficult to hide your pace inside the team. Telemetry information would surely show any kind of sandbagging somebody is trying. And let's not forget, Massa beat Schumacher fair and square a couple of times last season.

Like Kimi says, Melbourne will finally show to us all, where they stand. I wouldn't be surprised if Massa had the upper hand early in the season. Hopefully that then changes soon.

Actually, I've been a bit surprised on the amount of criticism Kimi has received lately. And just because he likes to party (admittedly sometimes quite heavily) now and then. At same time so many rues about the lack of characters in the sport. Mayby it's something to do about being a Ferrari driver. Until you have won couple of championships you have not done anything right.

Mclaren seems to be in a good position as well. They have ironed out the reliability hick-ups and the new tyres seem to work fine with the new car. Alonso doesn't need any introductions and I doubt there will be any in the media suggested tantrums from his side, even things don't start smoothly. He is in his dream team and there for the long term. Money is good too. Hamilton will be an interesting driver to follow. How he handles the rookie year and, of course, we all are interested about his performance compared to Alonso. Let's hope we can see some surprises there!

Renault is a question mark. They lost Alonso and the trusted (and bespoke) Michelins. It could take them a while to catch up in that respect. Car itself is reliable and has a good engine. But does it have room for development if they see themselves trailing the fastest? Alonso is a BIG loss when you compare the current line-up. I don't rate Fisichella that high and Kovalainen, who is a compatriot and I wish him well, is a rookie. It is paramount to Kovalainen that he outperforms Fisi if he wants to be considered as a future superstar.

You don't need to be an expert to say that Fisi needs to up his game considerably from previous years. If Alonso would be Kovy's teammate everybody would consider Kovy the apprentice. That's not the case now. There are other hungry (and vocal, like Piquet jr.) young drivers waiting their chances too. Fisi's time is over sooner than the season finishes, if Heikki outperforms him on a regular basis.

Anyhoo, I root for Kovy of course. He is a nice character and my no. 2 favourite driver.

BMW-Sauber could be quite strong even in the beginning. They have some reliability issues, but pace has been good on occasion. One thing to remember is that they are sure to improve as the season evolves. They have resources and a plan. They could be really up there in the end. Driver line-up is good too. Expect some fireworks here if the intra team battle continues the same way as compared to last season. Hopefully Theissen let's them compete as fiercely as it is meant to.

Kubica has had some issues with the new tyres. He says he has had to adapt his driving style to better suite the new rubber. Hopefully, if this actually true at all, this doesn't affect his speed or aggressive racing. Heidfelt is fast and generally underestimated by the viewing public. He is a hard worker and smoother on the tyres than Kubica. Kubica entered with a bang in the middle of the season last year. Heidfelt vs. Kubica is something to watch as well!

Red Bull Racing is a dark horse. The car is designed by THE Adrian Newey. Well, after this season we really now if he is magic or not. I hope we get good racing a many teams able to win. In that respect I wish them well. Drivers a on the more experienced side considering the youthful image of the team. Nothing wrong with that and Coulthard vs. Webber will be another fight I will be following with interest. No bias involved here, both are very likeable characters.

I hope Williams surprises us this season. They have a good engine with Toyota's powerplant, but as a privateer they lack the resources compared to the big names. According to recent Rosberg interview, Patrick Head has moved his bed to his office, so at least they are giving it all they got. Rosberg is a half Finn, the son of the Keijo "Keke" Rosberg. This year he is teamed up with Alexander Wurz. Very interesting how Alex does in his racing come-back. I wish him well, but of course Rosberg is the priority. He really needs to stop making mistakes and be faster than Wurz. That's not going to easy.

Honda does seem to be in trouble. Pace is missing and the less said about the new colour scheme the better. I don't think the campaign itself to ill advised, but..Driver line-up is solid if unspectacular. As a Brit Button gets a lot of coverage which is not wholly unjustified. He is good. Barichello was a bit of a disappointment last season. I've read, that a lot of it was down to the Michelin tyres which had different characteristics to the Bridgestones he was using when with the Ferrari. Hopefully this battle will be interesting to follow as well.

Toyota really REALLY needs a good season. How can they justify the money poured in to the F1 project when they can't get ANY results. The horror-story of the current Toyota program is the final proof to any doubters out there just how difficult F1 is. Trulli and Schumacher are both good drivers able to win when the machinery has that potential. Hopefully they haven't lost their edge during the dry spell.

Super Aguri will be biting the heels of any above who lost their game. It' s a solid outfit. Honda power is good, but how will the car be developed is another question. If Honda is really bad, they don't even want to use their bits and pieces. Sato and Davidson are both good drivers and will be fascinating to see who has the upper hand in the end.

Let's hope that the Spyker team is here to compete seriously. It will be miracle if they win anyone, but let's hope they are trying it in earnest. Gascoyne is a proven thing, so that's a good sign. Their use of legion of third and test drivers isn't. It takes valuable track time from the racing drivers and they aren't exactly nearing the test kilometre limits with their current test program. Let's see how Sutil does with everything this. He should be faster than Albers. At least Hamilton thinks so.

New S60 application (mostly for women): Wellness Diary

Check this out! Nokia has developed a Wellnes Diary. Ok, I wrote in the title that it's mainly for women, but the overview shows that it's more versatile than just your average calorie-counter.

Do you keep track that you sleep enough? I will definitely check this out.

Overview:


" It is an S60 application for storing and analyzing wellness-related data collected from everyday life.

• Monitoring and tracking everyday wellness related issues


• Lifestyle management


• Monitoring, tracking and analyzing:
  
  
  • weight,
  • exercise,
  • number of steps,
  • eating management,
  • fat %,
  • sleep,
  • ... and more."

NRC - Wellness Diary

I found this one via Helsingin Sanomat (in Finnish).

Bravely going places where no man has gone before..

Okey, I live in Helsinki Finland. We have had 3G for about two years. Well, sort of. Even to this day the coverage is not 100% in Helsinki city centre. Not at least with my current operator Saunalahti, which basicly uses the same network as Elisa.

Before I used Dual mode at the network settings. That doesn't however work too well if you want to maximise the download speeds and the 3G experience. Dual mode uses both gsm-edge and wdca (or UMTS or 3G) -frequencies and the device decides which ever to use according to the signal strength.

You start to appreciate how complicated these devices are when you notice that on places where the 3G coverage is weak and the thing starts to think that may by it should use the edge or even gprs connection now. It slows down the browsing experience and wrecks havoc on the battery life.

I noticed that with my N73 this thinking starts at a point where there still actually is 3 G coverage, but it's weakening. Lately I have been experimenting with the 3G-UMTS mode only. First impressions are positive. I don't know about dropped calls (and I don't mind a few dropped work related calls..), but the browsing seems to be as fast as it should be on a regular basis.

No thinking required!

Don't try this outside metropolitan (Hah!) areas.

The S60 browser HOWTO

Well, The Reg got it wrong. Others still don't get it, but fact remains the new S60 Browser is the best invention since sliced bread.

The Reg review was written by Adrew Orlowski. A man who's writings I often find informative and to the point. Lately I've discovered a pattern of excessive whining. At least when he is writing about "smartphones". Not inspirational, no, not at all.

See his take on the browser.

I haven't seen he apolosizing his careless and clearly unprofessional review. So Andrew, this is for you..

Note: This is how I actually use it. there are links for the more technical details.

1. Picture:


This how it starts. No, I know, doesn't look good. Well, we will start by pressing number 8 with our keypad, which is the shortcut for overview.

Please could I get the picture 2. please..

2. Picture:


Yes, now we are getting there. Good old The Reg. I hope you notice how nicely you can preview the page and the content with this view.

For me the S60 Browser has these advantages:

1. It is fast! And when visiting familiar pages you can even stop the downloading process and then go directly to the area of site you want to go without waiting the whole page coming down the wire. It's fast even with pictures. I have an all I can eat data-plan, 3 G.

2. It can go places others can't touch. Yes, it is even better than the Opera on my Nokia 770 Internet Tablet.

3. It shows pages as they are. No need to adjust the reading habits to obscure fonts and layout.

The text too small to your eyes?

Picture 3 please..

3. Picture:


You can manage the size of the zooming with the * and # shortcuts respectively. You can see the zoom level on the left hand upper corner of the display. Ok..two pushes with the # gives us nicely all the three columns of The Reg. posts in line.

Still somebody, like Andrew (you miserably old git), would prefer the comfort of small screen rendering and scrolling up down the individual posts. More on that later.

Now, on this picture you see one post highlighted. I chose it with the cursor you can control with the joystick. It can move around without limitations on the screen. So choosing a post to read is fast. You don't have to jump or scroll from post to another.

Oh no, didn't you notice! Andrew didn't like that! Let's see what he was writing:

"The decision to show a viewport onto a page, rather than formatting the page so it's one vertical column, makes for an immensely frustrating experience. It's like being on a boat in a storm - the user is constantly lining up the column to be read in a horizontal plane - a fiddly experience. And even then it truncates the text of many popular sites horizontally, obliging more scrolling.

The decision to navigate in two planes also robs it of the one navigation method that's become a de facto standard. Usingthe small screen approach taken by the Opera and NetFront browsers: a down key takes you through a screen at a time, while a left or right highlights the link. Nokia's designers also had the brainwave to keep a cursor on screen visible all the time. Nor, incredibly, are there any shortcut keys."

So, de facto standards must apply. Everything else is automaticly bad for us? And some shortcut keys are already been mentioned. Was busy with the deadline, ehh?

Ok, let's see what the hell is wrong with Google Deutschland.

4. Picture:


So here we have the actual post. see, how nicely it renders the individual posts. There is no need for boat trips. Or maydy you where having a another kind of trip?

Granted, you can see, that the topic goes a bit wider than the rendered page. That can happen with pictures as well, if they are wider than the text column. No need to start trippin' though, you can handle this with the zoom keys.

Well, of course it's not perfect. It needs password manager and auto-fill, would be nice. These are coming in the next version of the browser.

And if you pay highly on your data..well, mayby Opera Mini would be the right choice for you.

As for memory consumption.. I haven't had any problems lately after getting regular firmware updates from the NSU. The broser and it's visual memory works fine, but I wouldn't risk running too many apps during a browsing session..:)

For more information see mobile-review's excellent peace here. Eldar's English can sometimes be a bit funny (like mine), but at least he has done his homework.