Just got my N95. It's a great device generally, the screen is so much bigger and brighter than that on my E70, speakers are louder, generally seems a lot faster.
But, I'm seriously hacked off with Nokia imposing restrictions on this device.
Mail for Exchange isn't supported - so I bought RoadSync, no problem.
However, Active Standby plugins are locked out, so I can't see new mail messages on the standby screen.
And now, it looks like they have also locked out Access Point Groups, so I can't have the device work over WLAN while at home and then switch to 3G whilst out on the move.
I don't think the Windows Mobile devices have any of these stupid restrictions, just to make the E-series more desireable for business users.
It's a dirty game and quite frustating. My next device will probably be a WM device, as long as they bring out a suitable one with 3G.
I don't use the qwerty keyboard on the E70. The perfect device for me would have been something in the N73 form-factor, but with specification of the N95 and software of the E-series.
I'm quite happy with the form factor of the N95 though.
They've got the hardware right but screwed with the software too much IMO.
I have to agree with you, I can't understand via nokia can't leave the active standby the same as the e series and show messages, and also as you say access point groups.
Surely even a device aimed at multimedia should still have both of these functions.
The voice commands are a bit useless too IMO. I would have thought it would be possible to choose any application or menu item and set a command for it. the obvious one for me is Sat Nav. I had an HP Ipaq and would just say "load TomTom" and off it went.
The shortcuts on the active standby are also limited like this. I can pinpoint a specific application and create a shortcut for it but not a menu item like Apps for example. I would also have liked the bar to scroll, allowing you to have MORE than 6 shortcuts.
Seems like there is still plenty of room for improvement!
May I ask what do you mean with "Locked access points"? Do you ever used any Nseries else than N95? Are there any differences between the way you setup access points on other Nseries and Nokia N95?
I am asking these questions because I am going to buy one and it is really expensive over here. About $1100.
Thanks.
ZeroCode wrote:May I ask what do you mean with "Locked access points"? Do you ever used any Nseries else than N95? Are there any differences between the way you setup access points on other Nseries and Nokia N95?
I am asking these questions because I am going to buy one and it is really expensive over here. About $1100.
Thanks.
On the e-series phones, you can create an "Access Point Group", which is a group of access points such as "Home Wireless", "Office Wireless", "Starbucks Wireless", "Burger King Wireless", "Cellular Edge", "Cellular GPRS", "Cellular 3G", etc.
Then, instead of configuring your stuff (e.g. web browser, Roadsync, SIP phone etc) for a particular access point, you just configure it for the Access Point Group ("My Group", or whatever you named it), and then the device will try to connect to those various access points within the group. This means that when you are in range of the wireless, it'll use that, saving you money, and when you are not in range, it will fall over to GPRS/3G etc.
As it happens, Nokia's Mail for Exchange application on the E-series doesn't work with Access Point Groups either, but that's just another annoyance.
Basically the N-series has this facility disabled/hidden/not there.
I also think I found another bug. It seems that if I have two entries in my Contacts/Phonebook with the same number (say I have a duplicate in there..) then when that person rings, it doesn't show their name - just their number, so I don't know who just called.
In answer to your question, I suspect all N-series are the same. It's just plain frustrating that they disable these facilities of the software, just so they can say "it's not a business phone" - I thought it was a multimedia "COMPUTER"?!?! 😞
carl0s wrote:I also think I found another bug. It seems that if I have two entries in my Contacts/Phonebook with the same number (say I have a duplicate in there..) then when that person rings, it doesn't show their name - just their number, so I don't know who just called.
Thats not a bug, it's over-expectaions by the user. How is the phone supposed to identify between the two (or more, I have four contacts with the same number in my contacts) different contacts with the same number? Since it could be either of them, it could randomly decide which contact to display (and when it got it wrong, it would annoy you) or it could just ignore the dupes, and display the number, which is what it does. The phone isn't magical.
ktabic wrote:Thats not a bug, it's over-expectaions by the user. How is the phone supposed to identify between the two (or more, I have four contacts with the same number in my contacts) different contacts with the same number? Since it could be either of them, it could randomly decide which contact to display (and when it got it wrong, it would annoy you) or it could just ignore the dupes, and display the number, which is what it does. The phone isn't magical.
It should go for the first alphabetically. My E-70 didn't display this behaviour.
The fact that I chose "Delete all data from the device before synchronising contacts" in the Nokia synchronisation application before having it sync, and it ignored the option - duplicating 90% of my phonebook (since the phone -> phone sync failed 90% of the way through, so I did it via Outlook afterwards) didn't help.
You can get something like Access Groups by using smartroaming. I use this on the Eseries too because of the aforementioned inability to use access groups with Mail for Exchange.
See: http://www.smartroaming.com/public/index.php
Major frustrations, the browser.
I thought I might get round the mail problem via Outlook Web Access. Works a treat, loads up really quickly and looks much like it would in IE. Problems arise when one tries to reply. Everything opens up as normal but when you click in the box to input text the damn cursor jumps right to the bottom of the box underneath all the previous correspondence and you have to scroll all the way back up and stop just at the correct place. Very frustrating and as far as I can make out no way to force the cursor to go where one wants it to.
Other annoying features of the browser are no short cut buttons for page up/page down. The method of going back a page and reloading is a pain, the back is worst as it always takes you to the top of the previous page not the place on the page you were at.
Are there any alternative browsers worth considering, I have a trial version of Opera but this is not ideal.
carl0s wrote:It should go for the first alphabetically. My E-70 didn't display this behaviour.
Thats how it worked on my 9500. But that doesn't mean it is the way it should go. All four of the (different) people that have a same number in my contacts also have alternative numbers (in one case four alternative numbers). The one most likely to phone me is the one that is alphabetically last, so the E70's (and 9500's) default behaviour results in the phone nearly always displaying the wrong name. IMHO the phone should followed the route of least surprise, which, to me, is for the phone not to try and second guess an unknown phone number. The N95 does this, so apparently the Nokia devs (currently) agree with me.
carl0s wrote:On the e-series phones, you can create an "Access Point Group", which is a group of access points such as "Home Wireless", "Office Wireless", "Starbucks Wireless", "Burger King Wireless", "Cellular Edge", "Cellular GPRS", "Cellular 3G", etc.Then, instead of configuring your stuff (e.g. web browser, Roadsync, SIP phone etc) for a particular access point, you just configure it for the Access Point Group ("My Group", or whatever you named it), and then the device will try to connect to those various access points within the group. This means that when you are in range of the wireless, it'll use that, saving you money, and when you are not in range, it will fall over to GPRS/3G etc.
As it happens, Nokia's Mail for Exchange application on the E-series doesn't work with Access Point Groups either, but that's just another annoyance.
Basically the N-series has this facility disabled/hidden/not there.
I also think I found another bug. It seems that if I have two entries in my Contacts/Phonebook with the same number (say I have a duplicate in there..) then when that person rings, it doesn't show their name - just their number, so I don't know who just called.
In answer to your question, I suspect all N-series are the same. It's just plain frustrating that they disable these facilities of the software, just so they can say "it's not a business phone" - I thought it was a multimedia "COMPUTER"?!?! 😞
Thank you very much for your help. At the end, I want to ask you what would you do if you had to pay $1100 to N95? would you buy it or wait?
ktabic wrote:Thats how it worked on my 9500. But that doesn't mean it is the way it should go. All four of the (different) people that have a same number in my contacts also have alternative numbers (in one case four alternative numbers). The one most likely to phone me is the one that is alphabetically last, so the E70's (and 9500's) default behaviour results in the phone nearly always displaying the wrong name. IMHO the phone should followed the route of least surprise, which, to me, is for the phone not to try and second guess an unknown phone number. The N95 does this, so apparently the Nokia devs (currently) agree with me.
No, honestly, it should go for one of the entries in the phonebook, not *none* of them. Whether it's alphabetically first, last, surname, forename, whatever, it should go for *one* them. And then you could fix your phonebook and remove that number from that person if it's wrong.
Rafe wrote:You can get something like Access Groups by using smartroaming. I use this on the Eseries too because of the aforementioned inability to use access groups with Mail for Exchange.See: http://www.smartroaming.com/public/index.php
Thanks for that Rafe. I'll take a look at it :icon14:
bullroar wrote:Major frustrations, the browser. I thought I might get round the mail problem via Outlook Web Access. Works a treat, loads up really quickly and looks much like it would in IE. Problems arise when one tries to reply. Everything opens up as normal but when you click in the box to input text the damn cursor jumps right to the bottom of the box underneath all the previous correspondence and you have to scroll all the way back up and stop just at the correct place. Very frustrating and as far as I can make out no way to force the cursor to go where one wants it to.
Other annoying features of the browser are no short cut buttons for page up/page down. The method of going back a page and reloading is a pain, the back is worst as it always takes you to the top of the previous page not the place on the page you were at.
Are there any alternative browsers worth considering, I have a trial version of Opera but this is not ideal.
How about oma? Enable Mobile Access in ESM, and ensure it's set to "allow support for other (unknown) devices", then then head to http://servername/oma instead of http://servername/exchange
basic, but almost guaranteed to work.
Nice idea and it probably wouuld work but if I understand correctly it means I would have to get the IT guys to change the settings in the Exchange Server. If I have missed the point please advise.
It would be so much better if the on board browser went to the top of the page rather than the bottom.
Cheers
bullroar wrote:
I thought I might get round the mail problem via Outlook Web Access. ...... Problems arise when one tries to reply. Everything opens up as normal but when you click in the box to input text the damn cursor jumps right to the bottom of the box underneath all the previous correspondence and you have to scroll all the way back up and stop just at the correct place. Very frustrating and as far as I can make out no way to force the cursor to go where one wants it to.
.
After much poking around on the N95 and N80 I have found a way round this problem. Click in the the text box then press the right cursor key on the phone cursor pad and the cursor jumps to the top of the text box, page up in other words. It seems to work for other text boxes such as the ones on this forum.