As I mentioned in my previous post, I have been using Nokia N95 for the past two weeks. My dad bought it sometime back in Jakarta, and when he transited in Singapore, I met him, and switch our phone haha…. 
My dad is a simple user, he need only a phone to make phone calls, send SMSes, listen to music, and take good pictures. Well, my Sony Ericsson K800i could do that very well too. However, my dad doesn’t use the rest of features that N95 has, Wi-Fi, 3.5G, GPS to name a few, and certainly he’s not that kind who will bother to install apps onto his phone. I am, that’s why we switched 
So far, I am impressed with this phone. I do agree that Nokia labeled this phone with the tagline “It’s what computer has become“. It has everything you can ever wished for in a phone, big screen, dual-slide, 5 MP camera, video recording at 640×480 (that’s DVD-like quality), Bluetooth, Wifi, 3.5G HSPDA, it even has a GPS built-in with Maps application. On a minor side that often overlooked by phone manufacturer, this phone also has 3.5 mm audio jack, which means you can plug in the normal earphone to listen to music, instead of using a proprietary plug. Mini-USB port is great too. Everywhere I go, I can plug in this phone without having to resort to some Nokia phones-only cables. 
With it’s 3.5G, last week I tried a video call 
with a friend, and I was impressed by the speed, which involves my phone, the other party’s phone and Starhub’s 3.5G connection in between. It was a joy to use video call, not to mention that Starhub gives 100 minutes of free video call every month.
On application side, I have installed various useful applications like Biblereader (I purchased a version for my PDA few years back, and now I can download a N95 version for free, so great), Gmail for mobile, Google Maps (combine this with GPS, to see a map view with an indicator on where you are exactly, route planning, amenities nearby search, etc, this is a killer app), Live Messenger, Opera Mini, and Fring (for use of VOIP like Skype from mobile). I even have the Calendar in the phone sync-ed to my Google Calendar, wonderful stuff. The built-in applications like Acrobat Reader and QuickOffice (to view Microsoft Office documents) are great too.
Some shots using the phone, click for larger version
Of course, it’s not a perfect phone, it has number of flaws as well, though some are attributed to S60 platform, which affect all latest Nokia phones, instead of specific to N95. I have issues with the following scenarios (which I believe happen for all latest Nokia phones using S60 3rd edition platform)
1. You get an SMS from a number let’s say +65-9876 5432. You save this number to your contacts, you get back to Inbox, the message still stays there with that phone number. Only subsequent SMS-es will show the name as the sender. You get the person name if it’s inside the Call Log, but not in Message Inbox.
2. You save your friend name in Contacts as [First Name=John] and [Last Name=Doe]. When John Doe calls you, it appears as “John Doe calling“. However, when John Doe SMS you, the sender appears as “Doe John“. This is annoying to say the least.
Two more issues with this phone, which I think is only N95-specific. First, it has lost signal once that I have to reboot the phone.
Second, the battery life is awful. Normal usage will yield one day to 1.5 days of battery life, I hardly reach two days, with all Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, 3G/3.5G, music player, camera turned off. Use this phone for Wifi browsing, listen to music, or play with the GPS, you’ll probably get the Battery Low message before you left office in the afternoon after you have fully charged the night before. Yeah, it’s that bad.
Some shots taken from the gathering at Grace and Gustaman house on Sunday.
I also got to play with Apple iPhone !!! So great !!! It’s thin, small, and the whole UI looks wonderful. Using the whole interface by finger was much easier that I ever thought it would be. I can foresee LOTS of people will be buying Apple iPhone when it’s out in Singapore early 2008, barring the price. My guesstimate when it’s out will be about $1,000 with two-years contract.
). I have viewed countless houses over at Boonlay, as well as calling housing agents, taking calls from them, buy StraitsTimes every Saturday for the advertisement pages, and so on …. It’s a LOT of activities to get a house, really, not to mention that you OFTEN get out-bid my other people who are willing to pay up to $80,000 above the house’s valuation. How to compete like that? I’ve viewed a house that is so simple (and not very well-kept) until houses that are very nicely renovated, maintained, and has that warm, cozy feeling of home (usually occupied by old couples who wanted to move out to a smaller house after all their children have moved out). On a personal side, my sis and bro has been traveling back and forth to Singapore, so undoubtedly, I’ll be spending time with them. Same case when my parents were here and will be here again next week.
