Nokia E55 v22 firmware update

Is finally available for UK sim-free E55 - more than a month after it was released in Australia and whatever new Eastern Europe country that emerged over the past couple of years. Nice knowing how Nokia Care UK and its outsourced third party support treats its customers in the UK. On the upside at least the update is available via OTA.

Update: Well, the firmware update could not have gone smoother. Took about 3 minutes to download via OTA, apply the firmware update and for the phone to reboot. All my data and applications (including Java) has been preserved so no restore was required. So top marks to the software engineers at Espoo, but still a big boo to Nokia UK for making us wait.

December 2009 UK snow

We took some time in between moving and unpacking to enjoy the snow. Not quite is memorable as the one in February, but still it is pretty nice to have. That is before the snow is compacted into ice making it a hassle to walk on... I had to dig out my walking boots today because of the amount of ice on the pavements.















The last image is via my E55. I have not tested the panorama function extensively before, but it works really well and accurate like my old Sony Ericsson K750i. It is quite slow, but at least you are not required to stitch it yourself later.

Snow!

Such a shame we wouldn't be able to enjoy it as we have already booked the removals for today...

In other news, my partner recently got a Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Symbian touchscreen smartphone as a replacement to her classic 5310 XpressMusic. Despite having only played with it for less than two hours, I actualy like it and would have considered it if it wasn't for the lack of hardware keyboard. Still, it is a steal for £99 on payasyougo as it beats plenty of more expensive touchscreen none-smartphones and smartphones on features. Expect a review once everything's settled.

Moving

Finally. We have sorted the legal bit and we are finally getting our key and moving. It has been a nigthmare dealing with an incompetent conveyancer, but at least (almost) everything's sorted now. The delay has been unbearable - we were supposed to have exchanged and completed by the end of last month! Now we only need to change our filed addresses, sort out the TV license, utility bills, pack the final 20% of junk, hire a removal van, move, unpack, clean, sort out the blinds, get the furniture assembled, get our new phone line and internet connection and whatever other stuff we need to do. Finger's crossed that we would have at least a liveable place to chill out by Christmas Eve. E-mail me for our new address. You can even get us something for our new flat. ;)

Normal blogging will resume once we've settled in. In the meantime follow me for updates.

Video games gift

We've been asked by some close friends about our opinions on video games as Christmas gifts, mainly to the elderly. To be honest, apart from the Brain Training and Professor Layton series on the DS, I can't think of any video games suitable for elderly. I haven't been following the DS scene for some time to be honest, but a cursory glance on DS charts seems to confirm my suspicious that those two series are the only ones worth getting as gifts for the elderly.

As for getting video games to other target audiences, I have a couple of suggestions. SingStar series is always a great gift idea as only the most thick skin person would deny its entertainment value. It is also perfect for post-Christmas and New Year Eve party where booze is readily available. For your average surly teenager I reckon something like Uncharted 2 or Left 4 Dead 2 would be welcomed - provided he/she hasn't already played it. Something newer like Assassin's Creed 2 is probably a safer bet.

For those who likes to play with their (very) young kids, may I suggest EyePet or Rabbids Go Home. They aren't terribly exciting, but will surely entertain those (very) young kids whilst keeping the adults amused (for a while). And finally if you have none-video gaming loft residing (e.g. Bermondsey) friends, then I am sure Wii Sports Resort, the new Zelda, Mario & Sonic or something silly like those overpriced toy guitar games will be appreciated (even if it is silly).

Send Tony Blair to the Hague

Everyday we are hearing more and more of what we have always known, that the (then) US and (current) UK government lied to their people and the world about Iraq. In any case fuck all will come out of this as the report has already been prepared. George Bush, Dick Cheney and their lap dog Tony Blair will never be tried for committing genocide and an illegal war on a sovereign nation based on deceit and made up dossiers. Anybody who thinks otherwise is living in a fucked up dreamland.

The International Court of Justice needs to grow some balls and drag Bush, Cheney, Bliar and their murdering accomplices to the Hague.

Yakuza 3 getting March 2010 Western release

After much persuading, SEGA has finally seen sense and recognise that there is a market here other than silly Sonic gamesl; and decided to bring PS3 exclusive Yakuza 3 to Western markets. A date of March 2010 has been pegged making this month a brilliant one for PS3 owners (In case you missed the memo, God of War III, Gran Turismo 5 and Final Fantasy XIII are being released over here in March as well, and that is after White Knight Chronicles and Heavy Rain the month before). The localisation will feature English subtitles whilst retaining the Japanese voice cast - a good thing in anybody's book (except maybe the BBC who loves butchering Asian films with cheesy voice dubs).

Yakuza 3 follows the brilliant and criminally undersold PS2 exclusives Yakuza and Yakuza 2.

Tell the chancellor to tax bankers' bonuses

The bankers are at it again. The chancellor is considering introducing a windfall tax on bankers' bonuses. Naturally the bankers aren't liking it, and after stealing billions of pounds from UK tax payers and getting away with it, they are attempting to stop the chancellor by claiming 'human right' abuses. More than 5000 of them are expected to receive £1 million in bonuses - tax free, in a year where millions has seen job loses and the treasury plundered to subsidised the very same bankers who destroyed the economy. Please let Mr. Darling know that you approve of the windfall tax on bankers' bonuses in his pre-budget report this week. If he has any balls he would do just that.

Tell the Chancellor to tax bankers' bonuses - email him now.

RBS bankers can fuck off

So the fat cats arseholes that runs RBS are threatening to resign if they can't throw away £2 billion worth of taxpayers money onto their overpaid staff? This is a simple none-issue. If the government has any balls they will sack the bunch of ungrateful bankers with no severance pay (just cite incompetence and theft as reasons for dismissal). Throw out their pension pot as well I say. The taxpayers can have it back instead.

Fucking wankers.

Opera Mini 5 & Mobile 10 beta 2 released for Symbian S60 & Windows Mobile platform

Opera has released the second public beta of Opera Mini 5 for J2ME and Mobile 10 for Symbian S60 (both S60v3 and S60v5) and Windows Mobile platform.

The biggest feature addition with beta 2 is the inclusion of Opera Link - a unique feature that allows users to synchronise their bookmarks and settings (including speed dial) with various other Opera products including their desktop web browser. Users can manage their bookmarks online at the Opera Link website. Also included is a new download manager, which works surprisingly well and allows users to pause and resume multiple downloads. It also seems to perform better and faster with low RAM devices like the N97 Mini.

If you have a compatible mobile you can download the latest versions of Opera Mini 5 beta 2 and Mobile 10 beta 2 from http://m.opera.com/next

Opera Mini 5 beta 2 on a Nokia N97 Mini:









Opera Mobile 10 beta 2 on a Nokia N97 Mini:











Opera Mobile 10 beta 2 on a Nokia E55:





Opera Mini 5 beta 2 on a Nokia E55:

Qt 4.6 released

Nokia has today released the next version of Qt, a C++ cross platform graphical application development toolkit. Qt 4.6 technical preview adds native support for Symbian (including Symbian S60v3 and S60v5) and Maemo 6, as well as Windows 7 and that other platform that nobody except bloggers uses.

Future Symbian releases won't look anything like the video demo above but it will give you an idea of how a Qt (pronounced as 'cute') developed application is expected to perform when it replace S60/Avkon from Symbian^4 onwards. Exciting times ahead for both Symbian and Maemo fans.