Futurechat

This post is about two devices, one a conventional mobile phone and the other being an iPod Touch. The conventional mobile phone has a data connection (if signed up) which is always available but the iPod Touch needs a wifi connection to access the net.

You can actually use the mobile phone’s data connection to provide wifi access to the iPod Touch. To do this , follow these steps

1. Install a software such as JoikuSpot Premium or Lite on your mobile phone. Nokia phone users can download this software from the Ovi Store. The software has a two day evaluation version, post which you can activate the software after paying from within the application itself.

2. The installed software, in a Nokia phone,  is available within the applications folder. Simply start this application each time you want to provide a wifi signal to another device. Each time the application launches, it will ask if you want to allow sharing of your internet connection with external devices. After pressing ‘Yes’, it will ask for the access point for the internet connection. In the case of Airtel, it would be Mobile Office so select that from the list provided.

3. It will then  start the wifi connection. Once the connection is started,  external devices such as your iPod Touch or laptop would be able to detect this connection. You can now start using this connection without making any changes in your laptop.

4. Once you have completed your work , make sure you remember to stop the JoikuSpot connection in the application by going into options and selecting  ‘Stop’.  If you forget this, it is quite likely your phone would run out of charge faster than anticipated.

Remember to take the following steps , when you install this application for the first time.

a. Launch this application and then go to settings. In the settings options,

• Network Name : Either use the default name or Provide a unique name. This is the name that other devices would detect as a wifi signal.
• Access Point : Select “Ask Always”
• 802.11 Channel : Automatic
• Encryption     : WEP Shared
• Encryption Key Type : ASCII
• Encryption key length : Choose either 64 bit or 128 bit
• Encryption Key        : Provide the password. This is the password that you need to enter in your external device. Please ensure you put a good strong password. It is for your security.
• Don’t change settings from Landing Page, GPS positioning for now.

Some benefits to consider

• Your existing data connection is provided to the iPod Touch and its range of applications.
• Getting Wifi to work on devices such as Laptop is far easier than providing bluetooth/data card based internet access to the same device. This is especially true for Apple Mac users who have to go searching for settings for datacard etc as the telcos don’t seem to provide this information.
• Well you do not need to invest in a new smart phone when you can install the latest applications on your existing iPod Touch.
• You can continue to use this approach even when 3G launches in India.

The widely anticipated Pre, iPhone and now Nokia N97 have  been introduced in various markets worldwide. On June 10, 2009, Nokia’s Global Design Head , Axel Meyer , talked about the design philosophy of the N97 at a Blogger Meet in Delhi.

The  key points of the design theme were :

• To understand that it was not simply about Connecting People but instead about People Connecting with People
• To create a beautiful to use solution
• Creating and sharing experiences about Those Magic Moments in a person’s life
• Creating a Home Screen that is unique to each person.

Axel Meyer of Nokia talking about the philosophy of N97 design

The presentation was less about specific numbers like Megapixel, space , processor etc and more about the experience of the product itself. It was something that was of immediate interest to me as I have written previously on the need for Nokia to create a cohesive mobile experience. I had wanted  to  ask design and experience specific questions but there was a time constraint. Perhaps another time.

But the context of the design philosophy was powerful enough for this thought to develop.

The most important people in your life and the importance of the mobile phone in managing this relationship ? If at all… Think about this

We are children to our parents and we could be parents as well. Using the calender to remember birthdays and other important occasions is easy enough. Taking pictures and making movies and sharing within the shared network comes in next. But what about keeping track of simple things such as the inoculation schedule of a child, the treatment and medicine history of people important to you. Or may be just recording the fitness or diet regime of one’s own self. Then there are things like recipes, gifts and maybe religious applications too.

Work is generally hectic and includes multiple interactions with colleagues from all over the world. Work tasks  could be scheduling meetings , managing emails and calls. Taking it to the next level, it would mean managing travel and hotel stays, conference call and presentations etc. The next level would include getting updated data from business applications and delivery of learning content

The Nokia N97 design philosophy talks of the Home Screen that is unique to each person. It allows you to make available  the 5 most important aspects of your life on the home screen for quick access. They can be changed at any point on time. The phone would launch in India with a significant number of India applications. You can read about them here and here.

After scanning the lists and the Ovi store, there are still some applications that i would have preferred seeing. Some examples that are missing include a care giver application, webex presentation manager, social networks such as Linkedin etc though there is a Facebook application.

It would make the N97 more compelling and closer to the original design philosophy, if there was real choice when it comes to choosing the 5 most important aspects of our lives for the Home Screen. The Applications Store thus is critical if the phone is to reach its potential. Hardware specifications wise it seems good,  consider giving it a spin.

The challenge though is when you define a powerful philosophy such as a unique N97 for everyone,  does the Nokia mobile + service experience measure up ? What is a good phone for you ?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Nokia Adds Facebook to the Ovi App Store (insidefacebook.com)
• Qik Now Comes Standard on Nokia Phones (mashable.com)

If you are interested in the Apple World Wide Developer Conference keynote coverage, here are some mobile specific notes after scanning various sites :

1. The Anticipated Announcement was the launch of the new iPhone 3GS. It has been introduced in 16GB and 32GB variants. ‘S’ stands for speed and is supposed to be faster than the existing model. The look of the new phone also remains unchanged.

The existing 8Gb 3G version is now available at a lower price point. Will Airtel and Vodafone lower the prices for this version when and if they launch the new version?

Some of the enhancements include

• Accessibility Control for those with special needs.
• Voice control to manage phone and audio usage. Is it similar to the ipod shuffle feature?
• Upto 9 hours of surf time over wifi. 30 hours of audio time. This seems like a substantial improvement.
• Video capture, editing and uploading onto YouTube plus an enhanced 3.2MP camera with Autofocus.
• Enhancements such as cut paste and mms are also now active.

2. The most interesting aspect of the above is the iPhone 3.0 Software Upgrade. It essentially gives  existing iPhone and iPod Touch users most of the functionality as on the new phone. It is free for iPhone users and will cost iPod Touch users about $10.

3.  Mobile Midi app, was demoed, allows musicians to carry their acoustic and electronic files. Really interested to know more about this. Other demos included a classroom app called Spark and ZipCar for real time availablity of car rental. TOM TOM GPS, Book Reader but most interesting was AirStrip CC (Critical Care) which allows for Real time information on a patient including wave information. It would be nice to know what doctors here, feel about this and its suitability for them.

4. The feature that seems to have gotten some attention was Find My iPhone which allows for tracking from the Mobile Me site and also the ability to wipe the data from  a stolen phone remotely.

Some thoughts :

a. Existing iPhone customers benefit from the announcement today without needing to change their phone.

b. Applications have been given a lot of attention and by introducing medical, classroom and other special applications, Apple has potentially a much a richer base than other competitors.

c. So the question is if you had a iPod Touch, would you upgrade to the new iPhone 3.0 software and install new games and apps?

d. Is there reason for you to change your phone to the new iPhone or would you evaluate the new soon to be introduced Nokia N97 ?

e. Are existing iPhone users relieved that the new phone looks just the same ?

f. The Apple Ecosystem experience is quite the benchmark, but what are your views on this. What are you looking for in a phone and its related ecosystem?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Apple cuts price of basic iPhone (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Apple unveils new, faster iPhone (guardian.co.uk)
• The Summer of the Superphone (gigaom.com)

I came across this video of a new Nokia N-Series product, N97.

Slick Demo, Interesting User Experience and for the first time a QWERTY keyboard in the N Series…makes one wonder about the E90 and how it would evolve.

Enjoy ! If you have more info, do share.

Further to my post on the mobile opportunity and the role Nokia might play. It was my opinion that Nokia might need to Re-Inspire its fairly substantial base of customers. The discussion is developing rather nicely there. 

On the topic of Nokia Re-Inspiring Customers,  i developed my thought further . Here goes..

For  me it is always the experience or rather the completeness of the experience.

Having had the higher end phones of both the N and E series , I have been baffled by some of the functional classifications but accepted them. I have read about subsequent Nokia releases and I have even visited the stores…. tempted not quite.

When I talked about the complete experience , take the example of Nokia Maps. Since it is a subscription based product. Think about how seamless the payment mechanism could be given the market realities of where i am , India. Nokia share is huge in India. There has been advertising but i would be very curious about adoption.

Nokia Business applications are many, and probably higher than some competitors, but are designed for a certain level of enterprise scale. What about the mid market average user. The catalog or downloads needs to improve significantly. Trust factor could do with some improvement. Does a user feel secure enough about transactions from the Nokia Software Market ?

Some thoughts that you might consider :

1. Better Blog Readers with synchronisation with a users blog aka Flock or WordPress.

2. Making it Easier to setup mail accounts. I know there is Nokia Email but it needs better wizards . Simplicity. Again Payments in Local currency.

3. Social Application interfaces such as LinkedIn for E Series etc. The current web approach is mimimalistic compared to well iphone.

4. PodCasting integration in the PC Suite . Quality of Pod available in the standard directories needs to improve dramatically. Perhaps a less resource hungry PC Suite

5. Feature parity in terms of camera etc at equivalent price points for the N-Series and E-Series.

6. Although it may be because we are in India, there is still no connect with Ovi etc.

7. Magic in explaining features about phones at stores. Did you know i still dont know why i would use a digital pen with my E-Series phone. And I am curious to know its features.

8. Spam Management for SMS , Unwanted call management etc out of the box for N Series etc.

9. I am quite curious about the next generation of E90 and frankly i have wondered if it would really replace my laptop during work travel.

10. Would there be something that would make it easy for me to present from a phone at the kind of resolution that a laptop will deliver or even a netbook? I have read about projectors being embedded but what does it mean in application terms.

11. Frankly the camera of the N95 is nice but one must switch to E90 simply because quickoffice for editing facilities is inexplicably on the E Series. Balance here perhaps.

12. Comes with Music is interesting .. would it be available on E Series . Seem to me No..so then why not. The business user is not a drone.

These are more personal observations that are more or less off the cuff. I might think more as to what would qualify as an inspiring enough purchase. Wifi was inspiring on the E61( and my talking ended up resulting in abt 15 people in my social circle buying that phone ( no hyperbole here )) and Keyboard on E90 but since then nothing that I would say inspiring.

Hope this was useful and this is more an end user perspective. The experts would obviously have more to share. 

A post on Gigaom about Nokia got me thinking about the mobile opportunity in India. The article seemed to present a US market point of view on Nokia and i will follow up there to see if the author agrees or not. 

Some questions that came to mind are 

Not everyone is enamoured by the touch metaphor or the smartphone approach. Some simply want a great all purpose phone with a decent camera etc etc… so in a sense there are many opportunities. Are they not ?

Can one be a one trick act aka iPhone and dominate all segments ?

Have the others got their act together ie Samsumg, LG, HTC etc on a global scale. Yes they get a lot of coverage in the media but does coverage translate to conversion and service.

Objectively speaking in the Indian market Nokia has the largest share and consequently the most to lose , so is the current Nokia line incapable of competing with competing products on a segment wise basis ?

How do the emerging markets view various incumbents and also specifically do they have distribution and service networks in place to compete ?