Nokia N8–Friend or Foe?

It’s now been a few week since I got my N8 and I am quite confident that I have been in to just about all of it’s nooks and crannies. 

I am please to say that the only disappointment so far has been Nokia. 

Lets start with the negative, to get it out of the way.

For some unexplained reason the device ships with no podcasting (podcatcher) software installed and despite my best efforts I have not managed to get one of the .sis files offered on the Nokia website to actually install.  I have spoken to their help desk and been promised  a call back but, as is their way, none has been forthcoming.  It has been a couple of weeks since I last tried, and I will try again (as this is really the only fly in the ointment).

The only other thing that does not work is the Audible player (so I can listen to audio books) but I do not hold this against anyone (not even Nokia) as it is a very new phone and I am sure they will come up with a version that works asap.

So let’s move on to better things…

I manually copied some podcasts and music to the N8 and, as is my way, proceeded to delete them as I finished listening.  Arrggghh!! an old N97 “feature” appeared.  One of the podcasts refused to delete and kept on telling me that it was “in use”.  This was not possible as I was playing other media in the player.  I tried using the file manager to remove the file, but to no avail.  Eventually I connected it to my laptop and delete the offending file (brute force and ignorance).  I was expecting the file to still appear in the music player and clutter the place up for ever and a day, as it did in the N97, But NO!!  When I went back in to the player it was gone.  Joy!!

I have had a few syncing issues, duplicate calendar entries, addresses etc, but I suspect that was because I was using Goosync and the Nokia Ovi over-the-air Sync AND Ovi Suite.  Since I stopped doing that and restricted myself to Goosync and the Ovi Suite things have settled down.  I am syncing, via the PC to Google and Ovi, but can’t decide if their is any point to the Ovi stuff.

Other than that the Phone is great!  Email syncing with Gmail and Live Mail works well.  Why would you want a Blackberry?  I have loaded a game or two, just as a test as I really am not a gamer, and the graphics are stunning.  The Camera is beyond fantastic, although I currently have 2 stuck MMS’s that have gone but will not clear from the Queue.  I suspect it is because I sent very high res images.  Doh!

One bit of good news since I started writing this.  I have found a site that has great Free Symbian applications http://www.drjukka.com/index.html I have loaded a podcatcher from here.  It is a beta, and a little flaky, but does do the job and I am sure it will get better.  I also have a file manager that makes the inbuilt one look like a bit of an embracement. The site has loads of other tools and apps that can really enhance your phone.  Or bugger it up.  So beware and load them at your own risk.  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!!!

One feature that I really like is the ability to lock the phone by sending a text message.  One message with a secret code word in it and the phone locks itself, the SIM and the memory card. Fantastic if I ever leave the phone somewhere.  It means that I know that it cannot be abused while I figure out what I have done with it.

Anyway, I will end now and may add some more comments later.  Suffice to say that this is a major improvement by Nokia and it sounds like Symbian ^4 is on it’s way which should be a good thing.

Shame Nokia support is so poor.

Anyone know how I can get rid of the stuck messages?