Sidingsound

Last October, I posted about a small problem which I was trying to work out: how to synchronise the calendars on our Mac and my Nokia N95 mobile phone, with Google Calendar.

Four months on, and I’m sorry to say I haven’t made much progress in the interim. To recap, these are the essentials of the setup which existed prior to last October:

• The N95 calendar synced “over the air” with Google Calendar via the GooSync service.
• The Mac calendar synced with the N95 via iSync on Mac OS X.
• The Mac can also update Google Calendar directly via iCal, thanks to GC’s CalDAV interface.

You may have worked out that Google Calendar acts here as the de facto “master” calendar, i.e. the primary copy of the calendar data. In this setup, the Mac doesn’t have a “local” copy of this data (it connects to Google’s server and displays what’s there), whilst the N95 does have its own copy of the data, but still treats Google as the “master” version.

This arrangement worked fine until last October, when GooSync ended its free service level, in favour of “GooSync Lite” (£5.99 per year). I haven’t renewed my subscription to date, as I’ve been prevaricating on what would be the best option—a lifetime subscription to GooSync Premium is £40, with a fair number of additional features, so that might be worth consideration. (The same service costs £20 for 12 months, and £30 for two years; how likely is it that GooSync might disappear within that time?)

So, at present, I can access Google Calendar via the Web, or via CalDAV (using either iCal on our Mac, or Mozilla Thunderbird (via the Lightning calendar add-on) on my Linux-powered Asus Eee 701 netbook). If I want my calendar synced to the N95, at present I would have to sync the phone with the Mac rather than Google; this is all well and good, but what if I am away from home and therefore unable to access the Mac?

I am also unsure whether iSync will transfer calendar items which aren’t located in the Mac’s own iCal database—i.e. because they’re on Google’s servers instead. For me, this is a wider issue: the Mac and netbook can only display the calendar if they have Internet access (more of a problem for the netbook, as the Mac stays at home). Therefore, I would like to find out whether it’s possible to sync the Mac and netbook calendars with Google (i.e. create synchronised copies on these machines of the events on Google), so that the events can be viewed and interacted with when the machines are offline.

I think I have a few options at this stage:

• “Admit defeat”, and cough up for a GooSync subscription. Otherwise known as the “path of least resistance”, at least this would sort out the N95/Google sync issue. If there are SyncML-compatible clients for Mac and Linux, I suspect GooSync Premium might also solve the “local copies on Mac and netbook” issue above, as GP allows up to four “devices” to use the service; this may require an email to GooSync to clarify.
• Sync the N95 with the Mac (and/or netbook) instead of Google. This would rely on a few “ducks in a row”: for one, clarifying whether iSync on the Mac needs the calendar items to be present in the Mac’s iCal database first. There is apromising-looking “one ring to rule them all” syncing utility for the Linux GNOME desktop—Conduit—which looks like it might be able to act as the go-between for Google, the netbook and the N95, but so far it appears that mobile phones are not yet supported explicitly (no doubt that will follow).
• Some combination of the above—e.g. GooSync for the N95, and other methods for the Mac and netbook.

So, the saga continues—just hope I can come up with a suitable solution before that vein in my head goes “pop”…

A couple of months back, I looked back on some of my “computing milestones” from the past fifteen years or so, and in passing, mentioned that for a couple of years I was the proud owner of a Psion Series 5mx.

Whilst I had time to write about how I was getting on the Internet with it in 2001 (via my then mobile phone—a Nokia 6310i, as I recall—via GPRS over an infrared link!), I didn’t mention another use for the Psion at the time: it was also my calendar, which I synchronised with Lotus Organizer (sic) on my desktop PC via PsiWin.

Of course, there’s little new in syncing a PDA with a PC/Mac—owners of handhelds have been doing this since the 1990s. However, after parting with my Psion I didn’t get back into calendar-syncing activity until acquiring my current mobile phone (a Nokia N95), in the summer of 2007. This syncs very nicely with our iMac (either over USB, or more often, wirelessly via Bluetooth), but it can also exchange data with calendar hosts on the Internet.

Since last year, I’ve been syncing Google Calendar with the N95 over the Internet (3G or WiFi, whichever is available). A sync setup has evolved over time between the iMac, the N95 and Google Calendar where:

• Google acts as the de facto ‘master’ calendar, mainly because until relatively recently, Apple iCal couldn’t update Google Calendar directly. Therefore, I set up iCal to “read” the GC data, and updated GC via either the N95 or the Web interface. (I just learned that iCal now supports “write access” to GC via CalDAV, of which more shortly.)
• Until now, the N95 has synced with Google Calendar over HTTP, via the GooSync online service. (You will note the past tense, the reason for which follows in a moment.) I also sync via HTTP to Nokia’s Ovi service, as it seems to me one can never have too many data backups…

The problem with GooSync, is that they have just discontinued their Free service, in favour of offering “Lite” and “Premium” packages. The “Lite” package isn’t ruinously expensive (about £6 a year), but being a bit of a cheap sort (!), I thought I’d look around for free alternative solutions for syncing between Google Calendar and my N95, or even completely different approaches.

Well, at time of writing, I’m still looking. Basically, I haven’t found another free service offering sync between S60 phones and Google Calendar over SyncML (the preferred method for S60); they’re all paid services. Google’s own SyncML-based service is limited on S60 to contact information (so no calendar sync); however, they offer contacts and calendar sync if you’re prepared to download Nokia Mail for Exchange, which Google warns may result in data loss (“make sure to back up any important data before you set up Google Sync”, but then that’s good advice anyway).

One positive development: I’ve managed to set up iCal on the Mac to access Google Calendar via CalDAV, so I can now not only read GC items within iCal, but add them as well. Whilst I could get around the GC-N95 sync problem by syncing the N95 and Mac (i.e. the Mac becomes the ‘master’), this wouldn’t work if I’m away from home, and I’d also be stuck if the home Internet connection goes down.

Loads of fun, anyway. In the end, it may turn out that I have to bite the bullet and pay for a Google Calendar syncing service after all (in which case, I’d probably stick with GooSync). It all makes me feel as if I took the ability to sync my calendar online from my phone, for free, somewhat for granted.

Whatever the case, it looks like I have some weighing-up of options to do.

Steve Litchfield, the mobile technology journalist and creator/presenter of The Phones Show, made a somewhat poignant comment on his Twitter feed a few days back:

Kind of sad that in 2009, I choose my smartphone based on the premise of “Which one sucks the least” 8-(

I replied via Twitter that the net effect of finding out about the smartphones currently on the market, has been to strengthen my inclination to hang onto my venerable Nokia N95 “classic” until it falls utterly to pieces, expires in a puff of smoke or otherwise “goes to join the choir invisible”. (Obviously, I expressed that within the 140 characters allowed, but you catch my drift )

Whilst it’s no secret that I like my gadgets, I don’t feel the need to ensure that they are the “latest, greatest and up-to-datest”—put simply, if they do what I want them to do, they could look like a potato or run on clockwork as far as I care. The N95 is a case in point: it does many things, it does most of them very well, it is still working fine, the firmware (operating software) is now mature and reliable, and I am genuinely happy with it (and yes, I have watched the competition closely, as you’ll see).

I upgraded to my N95 in the summer of 2007, and whilst it has been superseded by seemingly countless models in the ensuing two years, there hasn’t been a single handset from any manufacturer in my view, which has matched the range of features (and competency at them) which the N95 offers, for a price which doesn’t leave me glancing nervously at the monthly household budget.

Oh, there have been a couple of phones which “came close”, and to name but three:

• the Nokia N82 offered most of the same features as the N95, and added a xenon flash to make it possibly the most capable cameraphone on the market;
• the Samsung i8910 packs HD (720p) video recording and a great screen, but is expensive and only available in the UK on Orange, who apparently “could’ve done better” with the software; and
• the new Nokia N900 “internet tablet” looks great, but again the price is likely to be eye-watering, and we’ll have to see if my network offers it (as I don’t want to switch).

When it comes down to basics, though: quite simply, I’m generally content with my N95, and even more so with the monthly tariff I’m on with my network, which is now really quite modest whilst suiting my needs nicely.

Of course, there’s the question of what I’d do if my N95 failed, broke beyond repair, suffered some nasty accident (dropped in the toilet, fell in a cement mixer, etc.), and I had to replace it. Assuming I couldn’t get a replacement N95 without going on eBay or the like, and I wanted a new phone, there’s only really one handset which I think would offer me similar features (though not all of them) at a fairly low cost, and that’s the Nokia E75. I would be sacrificing two megapixels of camera resolution (and the Carl Zeiss lens) and video editor of the N95, but I would be gaining a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and USB charging (and possibly more), and retaining many of the N95 features I use.

I don’t know if my network would offer the E75 at the time I would “need” it, or if there will be a better alternative by that stage. However, I’m hoping that my N95 has at least a year or two more in it, so I can make the most of possibly the best all-round smartphone Nokia has ever produced. And nearly three years on from its introduction, I think that’s no small achievement.

When we last left the question of how I could record and upload short audio clips from my N95, you may recall that I’d hit a snag: being, that the N95’s built-in voice recorder doesn’t save to MP3 format (only “full-fat” yet poor-quality WAV, or patent-encumbered and poorly-supported AMR), and that the few MP3-capable, third-party audio-recording apps for S60 3rd Edition (and I stress the word “few”), are either expensive, phone-quality audio, or both.

I could have a moan about this (i.e. “how come there is such a gaping hole in the range of software available for S60 devices?”), but instead, I prefer to reveal that I think I have hit upon a solution to audioblogging with the N95. It’s not ideal, because it involves an extra piece of equipment, but for now it will do the job.

The extra item in question, is my iRiver H320—a circa-2005 hard disk-based digital music player, which was referred to in one review as the “Soviet iPod” (due to its bulky nature and somewhat clunky interface), though it actually does quite a few things that even the latest iPods don’t. The relevant features here from that list are:

• it has a built-in microphone, or can take an external one;
• it records to MP3 format (at various bitrates); and
• it has a USB host function (also known as USB OTG).

That last feature, in case you wondered, means that one can connect a USB mass storage device (e.g. a USB flash or hard drive) to the H320, as if the latter were a PC. As the N95 can act as a mass storage device, it means I can transfer recordings made on the H320 over to the N95, and then upload the file(s) from the N95 as normal—all without needing another computer.

At least, that’s the theory, and I’ll need to try it out sometime, but this sounds like a solution to the problem of audioblogging from the N95, at least until someone wonderful comes up with an equivalent of Audacity for S60…

Who would’ve thought it—I go away on holiday with my family for a week, ready to photo/video/audio-blog the whole proceedings with my N95, and… well, knock me down with a pot of Mumbles’ legendary ice cream parlour’s finest, if I wasn’t so busy having fun with everyone that I didn’t have time to upload more than a couple of photos to Twitpic. (Incidentally, if you’re ever in the Swansea area and have a bit of a ’sweet tooth’, Joe’s ice cream parlour in Mumbles is an absolute must-visit. Just take our friends’ advice and go for the ‘plain’ vanilla one first, then work your way through the menu…)

So, how did it go? Well, we had a pretty good time, I think, topped off by my (impossible-odds-defying) unexpectedly meeting one of my favourite musician/composers in a folk music instrument store… oh, you mean how the N95 content uploads went? Well, pretty good overall, although I did encounter two “flies in the ointment” with the system:

• Perhaps a bit obvious, but even where you’re fortunate enough (as I am) to be on a 3G network with an “all you can eat” usage policy, that still doesn’t help if the area you’re going to has a low or variable signal strength. I’d almost forgotten the frustration (from my 56k modem-using days) of having a long upload fail almost at the end, because the sputtering mobile data connection gave out at the last minute; clearly, a good WiFi connection is useful here, if you can find one and (if appropriate) don’t mind paying for it.
• Pixelpipe seems to have its fair share of quirks when uploading the same content to multiple different content sites (which is basically the point of the service), using the Nokia Share Online utility on the N95. There’s probably a whole post I could write about these in detail, but in a nutshell, the items you fill out for a new NSO upload (tags, summary, etc.) don’t always appear where you would expect them, when you check your content sites later. For instance, when you upload a video to YouTube, your ’summary’ text doesn’t appear for the uploaded video—YouTube just shows the title of your video where the summary should be.
  To be fair, the problems are almost certainly as much (if not more) due to the content services’ application interfaces (i.e. how Pixelpipe interacts with them), but I have to keep a mental note of what works well and what doesn’t, so I can correct the glitches later.

Oh, and I’m pleased to report that I finally invested in a new 8Gb Sandisk Mobile Ultra MicroSD memory card for the N95 (four times more capacity than the previous card), so no more mad scrambles to find more storage space on long trips where I’m taking lots of video (and perhaps more room for the odd movie or three!).

Must go—I’m installing Xubuntu on an old PC for Naomi. Lots of fun…

This seems to be a time for following up on previous blog posts, so here’s another one “revisited”:

Back in May (when this blog was still run off Blogger), I wrote about how I’d really like to find a “hard” carrying case for my Apple wireless keyboard, which I use a lot with my Nokia N95 as an alternative to a laptop.

Basically, I haven’t been able to find one to date—I suspect my particular application for the keyboard isn’t a very common one—so at present I use the cardboard box which the keyboard came in, to protect the keyboard when it’s being carried in my gadget bag (and believe me, without protection, it would really get beaten up in there).

The box works, but I’d rather like a more elegant solution. The nearest I’ve found online is a padded “sleeve” case made especially to fit the Apple wireless keyboard, but nice though this is, it wouldn’t necessarily prevent the keys being pressed whilst the keyboard’s in the gadget bag, and I’d rather avoid this happening to save the keyboard’s batteries (and the N95 responding to unwanted key signals).

I’ve been thinking more about what I’d want in a hard case for the Apple keyboard, and here are a few of my ideas:

• The case’s dimensions should be quite close to that of the cardboard box which the keyboard came in, including the recess to accommodate the cylindrical part of the keyboard which holds the batteries and the power switch, and tilts the keys off the desktop.
• There should be some measure of foam rubber padding inside, if that can be done without increasing the case’s size much.
• I’d like to be able to use the keyboard inside the case (i.e. lift the lid, and it’s ready to go)—think of how a laptop works, and you’re on the right track.
• Related to the above point: if possible, the lid should be “angle-able” like a laptop’s screen, and I’d like to be able to place the N95 on the lid so that I can see it while controlling it with the keyboard. (In concept, this would be a bit like the phone holder on the Nokia SU-8W Bluetooth keyboard.)
• Definitely not essential, but a carry-handle might be useful, a bit like those you see on briefcases (and preferably smaller than those).

I wouldn’t really mind what material the case was made from, as long as it worked as set out above (and wasn’t liable to give me splinters or damage anything near it).

It’s at times like these that I wish I were more “handy” with DIY, software-coding and that sort of thing…

Posted by Wordmobi

This being the middle of the worst recession in most people’s lifetimes (as the media seems to take a little too much pleasure in reminding us most days), the Walker family is taking a somewhat modest summer break this year, and it starts this Saturday (raaaaay! ). It’ll be great to just go away and do/be somewhere different to the normal routine, and I’m looking forward to it a lot—not just because it’s a holiday…

…but in true Sidingsound style, it’ll give me the first proper test of whether I can ‘run’ this blog, and post multimedia to it, all from my mobile phone

I’m calling this a “road trip”, even though we’re not likely to be driving that far by US standards. We’re going to stay with some friends in south Wales for a couple of days, and then… well, you’ll just have to wait and see. I’m planning to blog the journey and the places we visit—certainly in words (this blog and Twitter), and depending on access to 3G data and/or WiFi hotspots, in photos (Flickr and/or Picasa) and videos (YouTube and (suitably fast data connection permitting) Qik).

By the time we go away, I intend to set up a separate page at the blog, with an embedded Google Map so that you can view photos by their geotagged information (i.e. they’ll show up as markers on the map), and hopefully any videos which I can upload while we’re out. I’ll also tag any Flickr photos, YouTube videos, etc. with “walkerroadtrip09″, which should help you find them.

More details nearer the weekend…

Here’s a ‘poser’ for you for the middle of the week: what do all the following items have in common?

1. Bluetooth keyboard support
2. Support for Flash in the Web browser
3. 5Mp still photos
4. Carl Zeiss lens/optics
5. Video editor, with the capability to add captions and render movies at full VGA resolution

Guessed it yet? Yup, they’re the features which (to the best of my knowledge) the iPhone 3GS doesn’t have, which my two-year-old Nokia N95 does have (and which I actually use), and which Apple are going to have to add to the next iPhone before I will even consider switching.

Now, believe it or not, I’m not trying to be deliberately provocative here. I love my gadgets as much as anyone (if not more), and as a Mac owner, I really would love to like everything about the iPhone. I’m happy to admit, the above list is gradually getting smaller than it used to be—the 3GS now supports cut/copy/paste (as the N95 always did); it now supports Bluetooth headsets (ditto); and you can now use the live video-streaming service Qik with the 3GS (thus joining my N95, which I’ve been using with Qik for the last eighteen months).

It’s hard to believe one still can’t use a Bluetooth keyboard with the iPhone without ‘jailbreaking’ the latter—ironically, it doesn’t even support Apple’s own wireless keyboard (which, to further ladle on the irony, I use perfectly well with my N95). It seems to me that an iPhone or iPod Touch paired with a BT keyboard, would make a brilliant laptop replacement, so I wonder if Apple has deliberately withheld this support so as to avoid cannibalising sales of MacBooks (which wouldn’t make much sense, given the disparity in price between the products).

To top all this off, comes the continuing speculation that Apple is readying an “iTablet”—that is, basically a larger iPod Touch with a bigger screen (and presumably a few more bells and whistles). Sounds interesting, except I’d place a bet that it’ll have an eye-watering price tag, and probably still won’t have Bluetooth keyboard support (again, not to cannibalise sales from the MacBooks).

Anyway, it looks like I’ll be sticking with my trusty N95 at least a bit longer, even if it doesn’t look as cool as a laser-engraved Apple product…

Apologies for the seemingly endless stream of posts about the Nokia N95, but this one should be the last for the moment…

Ever since I got my N95 just about two years ago, I’ve wanted to be able to access the photos, videos, music, etc. on our home server (a ‘hacked’ Linksys NSLU2 running Unslung Linux), but for various reasons none of the possible solutions I’d looked at were ideal. The good news is, finally I’ve now found what appears to be the best way.

At the weekend, I finally upgraded my N95’s firmware from a positively ancient version (12.x, I think) to the latest (v31.0.017), which amongst many improvements, added UPnP “renderer” (client) support. In other words, the N95 can now play media from a server, instead of only being a server, as was the case previously.

I’m now in the process of trying out a couple of UPnP servers on our home server, to stream our multimedia collection to the N95. The one I’m testing right now is MediaTomb, and aside from it seemingly putting a quite high load on the system (“top” was reporting a load of over 3—the NSLU2 is not that powerful a machine), the functionality seems to work. I’ll be testing this further, but it does look as if my quest for portable multimedia anywhere in the house, may have finally found its goal…

If you’ve been reading here for a while—or take a good trawl through the archive—you may discover that I am somewhat attached to my Nokia N95 “smartphone”. It carries out a pretty wide range of functions—some more obvious (phone, e-mail, stills and video camera, GPS navigator) and some less so (games, Twitter/Facebook, SSH terminal for administering our home server, etc.), and overall I don’t see much reason to own another laptop, as the N95 can do most of the tasks for which a laptop would be used.

One accessory which the N95 really needs to make itself a “laptop replacement”, is a Bluetooth (wireless) keyboard, which can be used to enter text and control the phone without needing to use the phone’s keys. It might sound weird to use a keyboard with a mobile phone, but to me it makes sense with the new generation of “smartphones”, which can perform many of the tasks which would’ve required a laptop only a few years ago. Furthermore, the N95’s TV output means that any nearby set with composite inputs (or SCART, if you have a composite-SCART adapter) can be pressed into service as a monitor, and the 10-metre-plus range of Bluetooth means you can sit back on the sofa/bed/whatever and remote-control the lot without ever getting up. How cool is that…?

In fact, for a while I owned a Bluetooth keyboard: a Dell-branded Stowaway Ultra-Slim fold-up unit, which I used for about eighteen months, until what I would call a “daughter/fruit smoothie interface” sent the device to that great gadget shop in the sky. Ever since then, I’ve missed having a keyboard for my N95, and have been keeping my eye open for a replacement.

Unfortunately, not only did I originally buy the Stowaway for a stupidly low price (it had about 50% off due to the Dell branding), but the Ultra-Slim has since been discontinued, and there are relatively few alternatives available at this time which will work with the N95:

• Nokia markets its own fold-up Bluetooth keyboard, the SU-8W. Its main drawback has been its price, which can vary between about £60 to over £100, depending on where you happen to look.
• There are a couple of what one could call “Bluetooth thumb-boards”; Targus makes a “thumbpad”, and Freedom has a “slim keypad”. These don’t even make the running, as they are just too small, fiddly and limited for what I’m looking for.
• The most similar option to the Stowaway, would appear to be the Freedom Universal Bluetooth keyboard. Available at time of writing for around £60 if you shop around, it has an extra row of keys over the Ultra-Slim, but looks less sturdy (almost all plastic, whereas the Ultra-Slim was part-metal). It folds up very small like the Stowaway, but my Ultra-Slim wasn’t the easiest to type on; between the construction and the feel, I’m not sure about the Freedom, and wish it was possible to try one before deciding whether to go for it.

The option which currently has my attention, comes from an unlikely source: Apple, who produces a wireless (Bluetooth) version of the famous aluminium keyboard which comes with their iMac computers. I have one of these, and must say I find the Apple keyboard the best to type on that I’ve ever tried; therefore, I was very interested to read that the Apple Bluetooth keyboard works perfectly with the Nokia N95.

This is an appealing option, not least because I’m so used to the wired keyboard on the iMac, and because the Apple keyboard would give me the special characters I’d need (e.g. for using SSH on the N95). The price is also competitive with the above alternatives—the Apple keyboard can be found for under £50—and unlike the foldable keyboards, the Apple can be used comfortably on a lap (that aluminium won’t bend easily!).

Downsides? Well, I wouldn’t mind the occasional odd look I might get using an Apple Mac keyboard with a mobile phone (!), but thinking about it, I’d need to carry my larger ‘gadget bag’ because the Apple keyboard wouldn’t fit in the smaller one. Other than that, this looks like a cheaper way to get the “netbook experience” without coughing up many times as much as the keyboard’s cost for a dinky laptop.

So, to sum up: time to save those pennies