Path to happiness continues

And so the drooling starts again… In the beginning there was Nokia 3650, then 6680, then N80 to be followed by my current N95. Over the period of three years I jumped through so many phones that each time I buy one, it’s almost obsolete. My current N95, which I bought in April of this year is the Euro version as there seemed to be no indication that “semi” American version would be released. I say semi because it contains only at&t frequency and no T-Mobile (which is the carrier of choice for me). Even though it means that I will loose 3G connectivity while traveling to Europe I decided to make the jump because of the higher specs and upon my return to Chicago I will switch to the American version of N95 (aka N95-3).

Digital Photo Frames

Recently I made a post on one of the internet blogs about some no brand digital picture frame. Later on I found out, that those funky things boast DPF acronym like many things in our daily life these days… SMS, MMS, MMC, VOD, MP3, LCD etc etc. Unfortunately it seems that quite a few products released these days always lack the “final link” to make it perfect. A few examples relate to mobile technology; Nokia’s flagship model – N95…gorgeous device but lacks two things in my opinion; #1 being multi band 3G and #2 – the design…let’s face it it’s slightly on a cheap side.

Elections in Poland… GO PO (Civic Platform)

Textually.org writes about recent Parliament elections in Poland and the use of text messaging to … Read on for more.. http://www.textually.org/textblog/mt-tb.cgi/17759

Update

Due to the fact that I’m still in Poland caring for my mom I will not be updating anything for a while.  It’s just too hard to think about geek stuff at the moment.

Share Online 3.0

Nokia just released Share Online v3.0.  V1.0 was what was originally preloaded on your N95.  Then v2.0 was released which allowed semi-transparent background uploading.  Now v3.0 seems to be catching up with Shozu.  Hopefully it won’t be as big of a memory hog as Shozu is.  I’ll give it a try and will post some feedback later on.   Click here to go to Nokia Beta Labs download site.

In Poland…

Today I arrived in Poland where I’ll be for a couple of due to personal reasons. I flew from Chicago to Dublin and then on to Warsaw. In Chicago I went through hell where Aer Lingus staff was taking their sweet time and took over an hour to issue one ticket. The ground experience sucked as it seemed like nobody cared about anything. The flight on the other hand was quite nice however i though I’d never say it but it was too short (only just over six hours). When I fly directly yo Poland at least I have enough time to sleep. This flight on the other hand departed Chicago at 4.20 pm and arrived in Dublin, Ireland at 5 am (which made it 11 pm Chicago time…WHICH is the time I go to sleep) and after arrival I had the whole day ahead of me. Two hours wait for my connection to Warsaw. After arrival in Warsaw I did not make it on yet another connecting flight to my hometown due to weight restrictions on the aircraft…that’s the joy of employee travel so now I have to wait five hours for next flight. I’m barely awake and the only way to get on the net (besides depleting completely my prepaid sim card by running on 3.5G) was to connect through hot spot at the airport hotel (Marriott) for PLN 35.00 which today equals $13 for one hour. This is a total robbery but what’s a geek to do….. I’m surrounded by a load of business people…some are negotiating deals other is interviewing a girl for some kind of job…and all are on their smart phones…So far only one on BlackBerry and about 10 with Nokias…ranginf from the new slim 6300 (ok..not so smart..after all it’s only S40) then some on 6630, a couple of N70’s. As far as the laptops…only one is the fashion conscious Mac user. The rest are using PC machines….. I just peeked at the girl that’s being interviewed by the businessman…she’s a wreck…chuckles and giggles from time to time but stress is showing on her forehead…poor thang… I hope she gets the job (or at least that the job is worth the stress).

Nokia to acquire Navteq

I don’t think anyone saw this one coming but I opened up my google news today and was greeted by a news that Nokia is set to acquire Chicago based Navteq. This means that Nokia will become a MAJOR player in the GPS market. GO NOKIA. Below is an excerpt from Bloomberg’s article.

Nokia to Acquire Navteq for $8.1 Billion in Cash (Update1)
By Juho Erkheikki

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) — Nokia Oyj, the world’s largest mobile-phone company, agreed to buy Navteq Corp., the biggest maker of maps used in car-navigation equipment, for $8.1 billion in cash to add more data services.

Nokia will pay $78 a share, the companies said in a statement issued on the Hugin newswire. The bid is 34 percent higher than Navteq’s price a month ago, the companies said. Navteq closed at $77.97 on Sept. 28.

A purchase of Chicago-based Navteq, the world’s biggest maker of maps used in car-navigation equipment, would help Nokia add more features to its phones to attract customers. Sales of personal mapping devices will triple to $12.8 billion by 2010 over four years, according to iSuppli Corp., a research firm. Espoo, Finland-based Nokia already is adding music and games.

Geekapolooza 2007 aka WOM World LAX Party

Here we are in LA. After three and a half hours of flying I arrived in LA for the WOM World LA Party. After arriving to hotel the rooms were not read yet so I had to wait a short while. Since I have not met anyone in person I had no clue who to look for… but after entering the lobby it did not take long to spot my fellow geeks and geekettes. Donna threw a warm hug to welcome me and at the same time I got a chance to meet the rest of the gang…a total of about 30 people from websites all over the web….the famous Darla, Ricky, Howard Forums gang, Nokia Users and more. I will post the list at the end of post. It’s nice to be surrounded by a crowd that shares the same hobby as you do…and it’s funny to see everyone reach for their phones when Nokia jingle emerges from someone’s pocket. For now the set of photos on Flickr has only a few shots but after tonight’s extravaganza party I will post more. Stand by for more

Welcome aboard !!!

I have been blogging for only a few months on the internet but for a long time a certain individual with a great ideas has been my “Hyde Park” where I can offload my ideas and have a great and challenging conversation. This individual is my good friend, Dr. Patrick Duparcq. I have known Patrick for over 10 years now and for as long as I can remember, he has always been ahead of time with his ideas and suggestions. Dr. Duparcq has worked for many universities, conducted many business and technology seminars all over the world and currently is teaching courses at Kellog School of Business at Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois. Just click on this link to find some websites about Dr. Duparcq Read more…

NEW :-)

Today (09/21/2007) Nokia Beta Labs announced the availability of Conversation application which is a threaded texting application for S60. I immediately installed it and I have to say I like what I’m seeing so far. It’s integrated nicely into the native contacts (for some weird reason… I’d see it personally as an additional option under the messaging menu rather than contacts). It adds a tab in the contacts menu allowing you to skip between Contacts, Conversation and Groups tabs.