This really is a real computer!

The first thing I did after I had charged up the battery was to UPDATE THE SOFTWARE.
Either Nokia software development is barrelling along at top speed, or they hadn’t finished the system when they shipped the phone.

Updated the firmware, which was a completely painless process as it was a brand new phone, so I didn’t have any problems with losing software or data. Others I hear have not been so lucky.

I downloaded The Map loader utility and found during installation that it needs Microsoft’s .Net so that had to be downloaded too.

Video encoding app from the Nokia site looks like a great little utility.
Then I found that to run the utility, I needed to download an updated PC Suite to use the video encoder.
Interestingly, it looks like the encoder does a better job of crushing video if the N95 is plugged into the PC.
Is Nokia using the phone as a dongle?

There are some issues with the video stuttering and the Real player doesn’t resize to ‘full screen’ very well.
I’ve been using ‘Super C’ encoding software which gives me much more control over quality.
I’ve also found the TV ‘out’ quality to be a bit average. I encoded a video at 640x480 and downloaded that to the N95. It plays, but Real player has problems keeping the audio synced to the video, and soon the frame rate of the video had slowed to the point where it was pointless watching.

Specking of PC Suite, this application is maturing nicely. I like that it’s become a dock for other applications.
Only prob I had has been in connecting with my old faithful 6600.
I was having heaps of problems transferring all my contact details from the 6600 until I discovered a ‘transfer’ application on the N95.
This app linked up with the 6600, and downloaded a program (I’m assuming it’s a Java app?) to the 6600 which ran, and automagically transferred everything to the N95.
Not only contact info, but photos too were all copied across.
I’m really impressed!

The Video Centre on the phone is a quick way of accessing content, but it doesn’t scan the memory like the Mp3 player does.
The icons that spin to select videos are really cheap looking. Would have been nice to see thumbnails extracted from the videos spinning about the selection menu.
I’m wondering when Nokia is going to integrate all audio/Visual playback into a single app?

Iradio needs a SIM inserted. Weird! as the phone can operate in ‘off line’ mode with the SIM removed.
The fact that the N95 can operate with out a SIM is interesting. The 6600 wouldn’t even finish booting with out a SIM in place.

It’s all good, but is it worth a thousand Oz bucks???