Simplest and free navigation in Moscow

 

The easiest and totally free way to navigate in Moscow is using Yandex Maps. Application is available for WM, Symbian, UIQ and java phones. It is similar to Nokia Maps, you can download map fragments on the go, via GPRS. I used it during my last visit to Moscow and found that it has the best detalization compared to Nokia or TomTom maps. And if you choose to connect via GPRS and update your location data, you will get access to traffic situation too. However, until now there was a catch22 - the people who needs such navigation most, would be ones not willing to use it due to sky-high prices of data roaming. I personally, used Russian SIM for that trip, but it is not something easy to do for a foreigner, or anybody on a short visit. Now, this problem is solved for smartphones (read not for Java phones), because now you can download full Moscow map (60MB streets or 183MB steets+satellite) availablefrom Yandex Mobile Maps website

 

and put it into predefined directory on your phone. Disclaimer! I have not done it yet, but will try soon.

P.S. While at it, provided you get a local SIM, it is also the easiest way to navigate most other largest Russian/Ukrainian cities, currently, 15 cities available: Москвa, Санкт-Петербург, Киев, Екатеринбург, Краснодар, Нижний Новгород, Новосибирск, Одесса, Орел, Ростов, Рязань, Самара, Тула, Уфа, Челябинск, Татарстан, Крым.

So what version of WM will SE Xperia run?

Recently, screenshots of Xperia running WM6.1 surfaced on major sites, however, the original source of WM6.5 rumours, Eldar Murtazin, insists that  while WM6.1 might be installed on some  devices, it still will go into trade with WM6.5. Million dollar quote here here (in russian).

I tend to trust Eldar, because he never lied to us before, and it is a well known fact that he has access to SE and Nokia upcoming models well in advance of their market launch.

Fake PSP Phone

Too bad if it is fake, it looks like a PSP phone should. Nice try. I would love to see it become a product.

Breaking news! Xperia is based on Windows Mobile 6.5

In the original article in russian (Xperia review) Mobile-Review explains that SE is not allowed to show anything more than their touch task manager at the Barcelona demo stand, because Xperia is built on the new version of Windows Mobile 6.5 (or some other name) that will precede arrival of WM7 in 2009. It will debut in Sep/Oct and will be the most important overhaul of OS interface in its history, will contain improvements to touch navigation, feature fully reworked media/video player, will support 3D-accelerators on OS-level (whatever that means) to combat iPhone & Symbian Co.

" ...Она будет публично анонсирована летом этого года или чуть позже, а первые устройства появятся в конце сентября, начале октября. Сроки готовности ОС тонкая материя и с уверенностью утверждать, что называемые сегодня сроки останутся таковыми и через месяц нельзя, они ориентировочны. Важно отметить, что WM 6.5 (название придуманное и просто вводится мной для удобства, кодовое имя ОС другое, как и номер) это крупнейшее обновление интерфейса WM за все прошедшие годы, ориентация ОС на управление с помощью пальцев, переработка музыкального плеера, видео плеера, поддержка аппаратных 3D ускорителей на уровне ОС, ряд других улучшений... "

Sony Ericsson Xperia

Xperia from Sony Ericsson (xperia home page)

Running Windows Mobile on a 3 inch 800x480 touchscreen in a side-slider form factor. At the moment, I miss info about RAM and processor running the show, battery capacity is unknown. My first uninformed take on this phone will be somewhat similar to iPhone - eyecandy is good, but I have doubts that SE will be able to put together a solid phone on WM platform from the very beginning. I also think that they did not change WM interface that much. Looks that they just added a nicely animated task manager, imitating HTC TouchFlo. In my experience, this is not enough to make phone useful for one handed navigation.

 

According to specsheet it has optical joystick. Hmmm?  And 4-way button. I kind of do not get how this central area combines both, but hopefully it will be revealed tomorrow. Finally, those side buttons, (Call, Windows key, OK, Disconnect) look strangely like touch sensitive kind. In my opinion, this is also a potential weak spot. Let's wait for reviews though, from people on the show floor. Lucky ones!

 

My Worst Mobile Experience :(

Surprisingly enough, I can easily identify my worst mobile experience and unfortunately, it is same for all mobile devices that I ever worked with.

On all devices from Sony Ericsson, Nokia, HP and Raon (and actually all other laptops I used, mostly Lenovo Thinkpads) Bluetooth stack just crashes after some period of use. It takes longer on some devices, or considerably less on others, but anyway, Bluetooth inevitably crashes leading to the need to restart, reboot, sometimes even take out a battery from a frozen device.

Pocket PCs before WM5 were notorios for lack of system drivers memory, and after half a dozen of BT On/Off cycles, BT drivers would fail to load to memory.

Sony Ericsson phones would hang if phone call came during BT connection (file transmission, dialup, syncing)

Nokia handles well under load, but after several cycles of using it with Everun as dialup modem, there comes a moment when it stops connecting to UMPC, until rebooted.

Raon, just as any other XP or Vista computer, doesn't handle well going through several cycles of sleep or hibernation and guess what, at some moment when you need to get online, BT either doesn't start, or connects but doesn't load anything from the phone.

It is my biggest disappointment, that despite being a very old technology, BT stack implementation still remains buggy across various manufacturers. One day I will switch to built in HSDPA or WiMax just because of this.

Mobile Gmail app, v1.1.1 MIDP - 2nd and 3rd instance

If you have several gmail accounts, and wanted to run several mobile gmail apps on your java enabled mobile phone, you probably ran into trouble when trying to install more than one gmail.jar into your phone. Java doesn't allow multiple instances of the same program on Sony Ericsson phones. I edited program name in java manifesto to circumvent this restriction.

You can find v1.1.1 (generic MIDP2) gmail2 and gmail3 here http://rapidshare.com/files/40491513/gmail23.zip.html

I tested it on SE K610. Please comment how it works for you.

Mobile Blogger and Kyte

I am pleased to learn that mobile blogging have developed quite a bit during this year. See, I am more of "blog when you' ve got time" person, and that means, blogging while in transit or on a sunny beach between volleyball rounds. Even my ipaq hx4700 is kinda thick brick for lugging around the pool, so I really looked for a way to blog from my mobile and lately, pieces started falling into place.

1. I have got time

2. I have got unlimited 3G/HSDPA mobile plan

3. My Soneric K610 comes with "photo blog" support.

4. Kyte has released mobile blogging app in java.

5. I learned to use Blogger's " email to blog" functionality.

My setup now looks like this.

Photo blogging: At any moment, I can snap a photo on my mobile, add caption and upload it to (unfortunately only one) blog.

Video blogging: At any moment, I can snap a short (some 15 sec video) and upload to kyte. I have got several channels registered there. e.g. http://www.kyte.tv/pavel. I embedded kyte widget into my personal blog (not this one yet), and automatically appears there too.

Update: even better, kyte supports "email video to blog" funtionality and 50Mb per video is the limit. Blogger also has this functionality in testing, one needs to login into blogger-in-draft and voila - upload limit is 100Mb per video.

Text: I just send email to blogger generated email address. Each of my blogs (personal, mobile, entertainment) has a unique address. So I am able to post to any of them at any time.

Gee, I am back to blogging

Due to a misstep in my official career, I again have more time to do the blogging thing, while my new webshop is being created by programmers.

La Vita e Belle!