The E66 does have an improved email client

Despite what people have been saying Nokia must have improved the built in email client of the new E series devices. I’ve been using the E66 and have set up the email client to use imap with gmail and it’s worked perfect for the last week. The idle works as it should, it sits there waiting for new mail and the server when it receives mail pushes out to the client.

I switched to using the N95 email client yesterday and that has the newer settings but it doesn’t do idle correctly. This evening I’ve swapped over to my E61i and that has the old settings still and doesn’t do idle at all, it didn’t even check with the server in the 5 minute intervals I set.

This is shockingly bad implementation of imap from Nokia and with gmail now offering imap and Apple flaunting imap as the real push email solution Nokia needs to fix this in the firmware release for the current phones. They obviously can do it and have done so with the E66, but they need to fix it on the not so new devices.

So if you haven’t got a new e-series, forget imap and go with exchange, if you’ve got a new e-series dump exchange and go with idle and manage a single inbox…goodnight.

Pulling the trigger on Twitter

I’m pulling the trigger on Twitter today and will slowly pull out of all things Twitter. I’m not the first by any stretch and I think Twitter has had it coming. Leo also pulled the trigger too, and I think it’ll be the start of the end for Twitter.

I just went to my Twitter page about five minutes ago and scanned through the first page and went to click ‘older’ but it’s grayed out so can’t go back.@ Replies are also down so of what use is it.

I’m staying with Jaiku of course, much much better and with a great S60 app easy to keep up to date whilst mobile and I’ll be using FriendFeed too. It’s a lot like jaiku but the comments are there on the main page as opposed to one level down.

So check out my FriendFeed and follow me on Jaiku….so long Twitter..I wouldn’t say it was a blast, it was OK.

Freeing yourself from E-Mails Grip

There’s a great article in the New York Times about Luis Suarez and his use of social networking tools to reduce his email. It’s a great article as it’s a huge sales pitch on how IBM can help your business become more productive by installing the social network tools that help.

I’ve written before on Facebook in the enterprise, as has JP in much more detail, but it’s clear that social networking tools work and that it’s the topic or subject is what people congregate around. So social networks could work in the enterprise around the topic of the business and Luis mentions IBM’s Facebook-like application.

I’ve worked for IBM and now work for the France Telecom group, two huge organisations and I’m convinced that more social tools within these organisations could only benefit their operation. IBM’s adoption of these tools an willingness of it’s managers to adopt them is a great sign that it works. [via]

Home screen plug-ins on the E66

I moved back to the N95 last night for a few hours and I noticed a couple of things, one the battery is dire and that I really miss the ability to edit the alerts and plug-ins on the home screen. This is another of those e-series features that needs to cross over to the N-series and quickly too.

There’s a great new plug-in on the E66 for email, you select it and a pop up appears that gives you a little more detail of the unread email you have. I first I thought it’d be a gimmick but I’ve grown to really like it.

So in those two hours I learnt two three things, the N95 is old and the battery sucks and that I’ve got to get a new e-series ASAP.

Imap on the E66

I’ve been using a hosted exchange account from mail2web for a while now without any problems at all and at 2.50ukp a month it’s a bargain. But as soon as Google turned on imap I’ve been trying to get a decent email application to play nicely with imap idle without any success. As you may have noticed, I’ve got an E66 from Wom world right now and I set that up with my exchange account and it’s worked well, even though it wasn’t supposed to, there was a new release of mail for exchange for the E66 and E71 last week, I used the E51 version btw.

So with this new handset and several new tweaks within the S60 OS I thought I’d give imap another whirl and it’s working perfect. I set the interval to 15mins, but the emails are coming through as soon as they hit my account, so I can only conclude the imap idle is working perfectly. The other check I did is that going into the email account and clicking settings asks you to disconnect, so I can only assume it’s permanently connected which is what you’d expect with idle.

So it could be time to drop my exchange account now that imap idle is working well.

Whilst we’re on the topic of imap, the new release of the N800 firmware updates the email client on the tablet. That too plays nicely with imap now and it’s a great device to do your email on.

1 week with the Nokia E66

I’ve now had the brand new Nokia E66 for just over a week and..I haven’t been able to put it down. It’s one of the best phone’s I’ve ever had. So I’ll kick off with the bad points first of all then cover the good things about this device.

First off, the firmware has a few bug’s scrolling in the browser doesn’t show the web page image (see below), I’m sure this will get fixed so no big deal. The headset socket is 2.5mm and not the larger 3.5mm like the N95, this means having a different set of headphones for it than my iPod and N800. The camera doesn’t deal with low light environments at all, but outside on a bright day no problem, photo’s are fine. The N95 camera is in a different league compared to it which is fine, but for taking snaps it does a job.

The good points, the size and build quality, this phone is so nice to hold and fit’s in your pocket with ease with no unsightly bulge like the N95. The metal back and case makes it feel really solid and expensive and the sliding mechanism is perfect. The keyboard is excellent, slightly flatter than the N95 keyboard and as a result easier to use. There are lot’s of other good points such as the new calendar which I like, the new message notification. The ram is also a massive plus over the N95-1, not so over the N95 8G. The battery life is also better on the E66 than the N95, the E66 has a 1000mAh battery, whilst the N95 has a 950mAh battery. The E66 is lasting all day, 7am till 11pm with jaiku on ‘more up to date’ and push email is on too. With both of those on my N95 it’d start beeping around 5pm, so that’s a major bonus, a battery that copes with a solid day of use.

I’ve replaced my N95 with the E66 and I’m still using my E61i for work, the difference between the E66 and the E61i is huge though, it’s like using a phone that’s 10 years older. But for me it’s about the E66 being a viable replacement for my N95. The N95 is about creating and consuming media, and the camera, TV out, 30 fps video, stereo speakers and 3.5mm headset socket are all benefits of the N95 over the E66. But I could live with those, the camera is OK, the upload straight to blyk missing out the TV negates that issue, I’m not a chav so don’t tend to listen to music via the stereo speakers whilst waiting for the bus so again they won’t be missed. Finally having and carrying around in a bag a second pair of headphones isn’t such a huge bind.

So to conclude, for me the E66 can do pretty much everything that the N95 can do, and last longer in my pocket as the phone. So the E67 needs a 3.5mm headphones socket and a 30fps 5mp camera and we’re done.

Again thanks to WOM World.

E66 sets world record

OK, it got you to look, I don’t think it’s a world record, but it’s a record for any phone I’ve had. I’ve managed to open 30 applications and still have 32.3mb of ram left. There are some big ram hungry apps open in the list too, Google maps, Nokia maps to name two. Even with all the apps open the phone still works, I can post to Jaiku happily as well.

This is a great feeling, but able to just keep opening apps and not worry about closing them out when you’re done. Having over 70 mb of ram available makes a huge difference of the 25 or so I get on my N95 and 20ish I get on my E61i. The day’s of you need to close a window/app are long gone…good.

Day two with the E66

Having had the E66 for 24 hours there’s a couple of new things that I’ve found. You turn the device over and it goes silent, obviously using the accelerometer here. The new calendar app new event screen is a little daunting at first, but I’m sure I’ll get used to it (see below)

The camera is a little bit of let down, but it’s a business phone and the photo’s are way better than the E61i

Here’s an outdoor shot

A brightly lit (inside a shop) shot

And a low light shot with bright spots which are difficult to handle.

The new message notification is pretty cool and a good use of dead space on the homescreen.

But the RAM, just wonderful, loads of apps open and no noticeable performance loss or low memory notifications for sure

So day two has proved to be an interesting day with new features found.

The Nokia E66 breathes gently

The E66 breathes…it sits there all dark, then the white light around the D-pad slowly comes on and then dies away slowly. This is a lot nicer than the aggressive flash of other devices that tell you it’s still alive.

First impression of the Nokia E66

It was a huge surprise today to get a knock on the door and find a courier holding a phone sized box. If you didn’t know there was a Nokia event in London today for the launch of the new E66 and E71 devices. WOM World had kindly sent me a E66 to play with over the next two weeks.

The unboxing

The rest of the video’s are here

So here’s my first impressions of the device, it’s a peice of real quality, I really like it. I had the new E51 a few weeks back and didn’t really like it, it had nothing over the devices I already had. The E66 has everything, 3.5G, GPS, 3.2Mpix camera which does 30 fps and a realy excellent slider.

3.5G on the E66

The device itself, the hardware is something special, it’s such a different quality to the N95, it’s smooth flat front, the glass front keys and excellent keyboard, complete with bluetooth key (I hope that becomes a standard) and that sliding mechanism, sorry to go on about it but it’s so smooth, I wish the N95 was like it.

The device open.

The back (a bit of a finger print magnet)

The flat front…very nice

There’s a few interesting items of note, the slim USB cover is easy to remove, but not sure how long it’d last, and the back removal is interesting, there’s two buttons either side which you press to release the very thin metal back plate. This allows you to insert the 1000mAmh battery. The speaker is down the bottom left on the back of the device, but it’s very loud and very clear when playing music. When you nudge the device, when it’s in sleep mode, just the light around the d pad lights up in a very neat way. There’s also a headphone jack on the left slide near the top.

So the device it self is really smart, a very nice device so top marks to Nokia here.

The operating system has had a few tweaks and on initial use very neat indead.There’s a new calendar app and some funky little new features. One of the items’ to note is the 70.7M of free ram on boot up, which is wonderful.

70.7M on boot up. There’s also a 2GB card in the device which should be plenty big enough for most things.

The new calendar app, this is the default first screen now for the calendar app, it’s nice, not sure how it’ll pan out in real life use, but we’ll see.

The first thing I noticed when sending an SMS was the little flying envelope, very neat and there’s the little SMS icon at the bottom of the homescreen now which is interesting.

The action pop on contacts.

email pop on homescreen, again, it’s an interesting feature, but not sure if it’s no more than a gimmick.

The switch modes screen, this is the interesting new app, on the E66 and E71, it allows you to switch very easily between two settings, of themes and profiles in one go. It’s very nice app and about time too, it makes switch between two setups very easy and if you’re keen enough to have just one phone and use it for both work and pleasure then this app is a must to flip between setups.

The music store and podcasting installed, thing ground breaking, but good that those apps are there and not left out as it’s a ‘business’ phone. The new S60 tweaks are all very nice and make the S60 experience that little bit nicer, so I wonder if they’ll float through to the other devices via firmware upgrades, or if they are E series only.

The phone in use is as would be expected, very good, sound quality is great and due to the devices light weight and it’s thickness easy to use and hold to your ear. I haven’t given GPS a whirl yet, but the camera is fine and the video is 30FPS, which I’m well impressed with. I really like the 30FPS video of my N95, so to get the same quality on the E66 is great news.

So first impression is extremely positive, this is a very nice phone. I had been thinking that the E71 was the phone for me, but this is a very special device. Hopefully I can get to give the E71 a whirl as it’s closer to the E61i that I use daily, but the E66 is almost closer to N95 than a business phone.

But thumbs up to Nokia on the E66 and a big thanks to WOM World too