lewisroberts.com

Take a look at this screenshot of Nokia’s Dialler on the N97. See anything missing? Yes, 10 out of 10, letters. you know, a, b, c etc etc.

Now normally, when you’re dialling a phone number, that isn’t a huge issue but if you live in America where they say things like “Dial 1-800 GOFORIT to get your new 6-pack ab cruncher system!” Or like in the UK where you have to deal with endless Interactive Voice Response systems that ask you to type in a letter from a password you set up when you were twelve, it makes life a little difficult when you’ve got no freakin’ letters on the dialler!

That’s not to say that Nokia don’t have it available on the system as per this screenshot.

Nokia, my friends, put the letters back on the dialler when you’re in a phone call – pretty please? Guessing just isn’t working for me.

-Lewis

Store

It won’t be a particularly extensive review, suffice to say that the Ovi store needs a hell of a lot of work before it can even be considered competition for Apple’s App Store.

The bad news for Nokia is that they encouraged the development and distribution of applications for the S60 platform but ignored any requirement (except the Symbian Signed certification process) to maintain control or any library of applications that became available for their devices. The resulting plethora of websites providing a better distribution platform and a bigger number of applications for the S60 platform than Ovi Store will make it nigh on impossible for Nokia to regain control and be the first point of call for applications on the S60 platform.

As a result of the lack of planning around application distribution on the S60 platform and the unmitigated success of Apple’s App Store, Nokia introduced the Ovi store in a rush, and it shows. They’re clearly aiming for a slice of Apple’s success but until they get the Ovi store past the current (in my opinion) Alpha stages of development, they’re not going to get much of it.

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Just browsing my RSS feed and wondered who they heck the BBC were batting on about so I thought I’d take a quick look at the article on BBC News then spotted the picture’s title. They produce the program but can’t even get the title correct. Hilarious.

-Lewis

Oof, looks like the rush to get hold of Windows 7 from Microsoft has killed their online store. A visit to the store yields an apologetic welcome:

Dear Customer,
Thank you for visiting the Microsoft Store.

Due to the eagerly anticipated Windows 7 pre-order offer we’re experiencing a higher level of demand on our website than usual. This means you can’t access the site right now and we’re sorry about that. We’ll be back up and running as soon as we can so please try again soon to get your hands on a copy of Windows 7!

We look forward to seeing you again.

The Microsoft Store Team

Let’s hope they get that sorted soon or Amazon will be the one reaping the rewards!

It’s definitely going to be the XP of the new generation of Microsoft OSs. I was fortunate enough to be on the beta test team for XP and I’m as impressed with Windows 7 as I was with XP so I’ve just ordered from Amazon after being very highly impressed with the Release Candidate.

-Lewis

My prayers have been answered and the firmware update for the UK version (0585162) model handset has been released and is now available via Nokia Software Updater application. Having tried using Firmware Over The Air, the update was not available but NSU and the screenshot above confirms its availability (at least for handset model 0585162 which is the generic UK black Nokia N97)

My update went smoothly enough as per the screenshot below and there was no need to restore any settings after the update completed.

I’ll let you all know how things go with the new firmware as soon as I’ve had a good tinker.

-Lewis

I’ve got to say this..

One simple fact: our boys are out in Afghanistan dying. They’re giving their lives for a war that this government chose to become part of. These same boys and their leadership are telling our ignorant government that they are short of equipment, it is outdated and  just not up to the job.

The government have the audacity to completely deny there is a shortage of equipment in Afghanistan and say things like “more helicopters won’t remove the risk“. No, more helicopters won’t remove the risk, but they’ll make it less risky to go out on operations down the same road day after day you ignorant bastards and I’m yet to hear of an IED taking out a helicopter. That kind of hiding behind words utterly infurates me and who ever voted these retards in to power needs to seriously reconsider their vote next time.

We’ve got Chinooks that are sitting in a hangar doing NOTHING when they could be saving our boys’ lives. Get them fitted out as they need to be and get them in to operation for god sake! More troop carrier helicopters means our boys can move in and out of operations quicker and more safely, when injuries occur there are more helicopters for evacuation and a better chance that we can actually make an impact in an otherwise unwinnable war.

Oi, Labour, let the Generals run the war and they’ll get it finished. You won’t be re-elected anyway so just shut your mouths, do like the Americans and give our boys what they need to get the job done. I would happily pay more tax if I knew the money would go on equipment for our lads that are laying their lives on the line day after day. Seriously, I’ve absolutely had it with this government.

- (a very angry) Lewis

After a recent upgrade to Windows 7 RC1 and during my normal rebuild procedure I re-installed Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom 2.4 and performed all the usual processes for patching and bringing them up to Adobe Photoshop 10.0.1.

After having taken a few photos I returned to my PC and, using Lightroom, I imported the photographs to my PC and began to develop them and have a good tinker before I exported to Photoshop for editing and additional refinements. So I right click the image, go to Edit In and choose Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS3…

Photoshop fires up and… not a lot happens. No image loaded and upon revisiting Lightroom I was presented with an error:

The file could not be edited because Adobe Photoshop CS3 could not be launched.

Err, well you launched it pal…

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In a word…grr.

The blogosphere lit up like a Christmas tree last week with the announcement and release of ver 11 firmware for the Nokia N97. Purported to fix a whole host of bugs and irritating “features” that shipped with the original firmware ver 10.

As soon as I heard about the update I checked the phone – nothing. I downloaded the Software Updater application – nothing. I’ve so far been trying for a week to get the latest firmware and, you guess it – nothing.

Seriously Nokia, are you taking the piste? You normally release for Europe first and then North America but for some reason this time you’ve left the UK out in the cold! How long will we have to suffer ver 10 firmware? Hmm? HMM?

-Lewis

UPDATE: Nokia has now released the firmware for the UK market.