Google's 3D view over Vallila/Helsinki

And so Google Earth got 3D view of Helsinki [digitoday.fi]. Here's a picture depicting Vallila, that is, my current home.

Nokia Ovi barely usable

What is going on with the world's largest mobile phone company? Their strategy is to become big on the net but, man, for me their Ovi is a huge disappointment.

OK, it works fine from my N82 but with Firefox 3 (Linux) some features don't work at all! Yesterday I was trying to define my mobile phone model for Ovi (which should be automatically determined since I had already created an account using my phone's web browser) and the UI just didn't work. I couldn't press "next". The button wasn't there. And another thing, the UI was _really_ slow - not far from unusable.

So I tried the newest Opera and this time the button appeared and I managed to set my mobile model for the system. Still, the system was painfully slow.

What was positive I managed to upload an image to the system from my phone which was my initial goal. And the sync feature worked.

Today I logged in to Ovi again from my desktop - maybe the slowness was just a temporary problem? Nah, it's still slow.

Considering Ovi, Nokia's web technology is insufficient. They should take example from Google on how to make web apps that are platform independent (in my experience, having experimented Google apps from several software and hardware platforms with no problems) and user friendly in easiness of use and responsiveness.

GPS - First notable mobile phone feature since sms

I finally bough a new mobile phone after four painful years with Sony Ericsson k700i. Now some of the Nokia N-series devices, such as my N82, have an integrated GPS module and a pretty good maps application. It immediately came handy when I was in a neighborhoods that was completely unknown to me. From the metro station I just walked to the address I was supposed to go following the moving cross on the mobile phone screen. I have been waiting for this feature for many, many years and now that I finally got it and it actually works, I'm very pleased. This is the first new mobile phone feature since sms messaging that has real value to me. Additionally, the camera is actually taking decent pictures. The camera in k700i was a useless toy.