Still, her contacts were on the Nokia and needed to be moved to the iPhone. Since her new iPhone uses micro-SIM cards, the Nokia's full size SIM could not (easily) be removed and moved to the iPhone. Software was our hope.

Google provides synchronization with mobile devices using the Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync protocol. To achieve that, the Nokia is expected to have Nokia's Mail for Exchange application installed. The Nokia had version 3.0.0.0 of Mail for Exchange (MfE) and sadly failed to sync no matter how many times I tried. Ironically, Nokia has a Sync application that works with their Ovi Contacts website. Sadly, Ovi Contacts does not appear to have an export capability for the contacts it holds. 

So how do you do it?

My N95-8GB came with a software application on the CD called Nokia Nseries PC Suite. I believe it is similar to the Nokia PC Suite distributed today. I installed the application on my PC (no Mac version, sadly) and connected my phone. I started the application, which detected my device. I then clicked the tools button, and finally 'Nokia PC Sync'. PC Sync will then ask you if you wanted to synchronize your phone's calendar and contacts with Outlook, Outlook Express (which relies on Windows' Address Book installed on any Windows XP and newer machine) or variations of Lotus Notes. I chose Outlook Express as I do not have Outlook installed. The application then proceeded to ask me which address book to export to and then once confirmed, the application synced. 

Once synced, I disconnected the phone from the computer and opened Address Book. The application immediately showed the new contacts imported from the phone. Under the File menu, Address Book has the ability to Export. Select 'Other Address Book' and then select 'Text File (Comma Separated Values)'. Pick a location on your computer and Address Book will create a .csv file there.
Update (8/19/2010): Apparently Windows Address Book on Windows XP, at least, does not export mobile numbers in its export function. To achieve this feat you need to install Windows Live Mail. Windows Live Mail required me to uninstall a previous version of the Windows Live Essentials suite I had already but after doing that, it installed fine. Windows Live Mail comes with what apparently became Windows 7's address book – Windows Live Contacts. Windows Live Contacts, in turn, reads Windows Address Book's files but is able to let you export the correct fields – most importantly, mobile phone number.

To do that, open Windows Live Mail and select 'Contacts' from the application bar on the bottom left hand side. The contacts window will open. Now, press ALT+M or click the menus button. Select 'Export' and 'Comma Separated Values (.CSV)' from the sub-menu. A window will pop up asking you for a file name and location for the exported contacts file. Select one and click 'Next >'. You will now have the option to select what fields or contact attributes you would like to export. Scroll down the list and make sure that the 'Mobile Phone' field is checked. Click 'Finish' and the application will create the CSV file you need in order to import your contacts to Gmail.

Finally, go to Gmail and log into your account. Click 'Contacts' from the menu on the left. Your contact list will appear. On the contact list menu, click 'More Actions' and then 'Import…'. A popup will ask you to select a .csv file. Select the one you created with the Address Book application and click the 'Import' button. Google will read the file and voila – your contacts will be part of your Gmail account. This account can in turn run synchronized with your iPhone. 

Yes, the iPhone camera is far from perfect. While the touchscreen is a phenomenal interface for setting the focal point for a photo, I would love having a photo timer or a way to reliably take self-photos without fumbling for the touchscreen photo button. Yet the iPhone’s photo apps make it so much better.

For about $10 (if you buy them on sale periods) these apps give you phenomenal versatility. The following is a not comprehensive review of the apps I bought and love.

PhotoGene
This app is a basic photo editor with the functionality you would most likely need and then some. This includes trim and rotate, contrast and saturation, basic filters, frames and title insertion. Very useful.

Pano
I love panorama photography. Getting full landscapes in a photo always gives you a much stronger impact and memory of the moment you were there. Pano is a straightforward tool that makes panoramic photos happen. You choose landscape or portrait orientation and start snapping photos from left to right. Overlap is simplified through a ghost image of the last photo you shot that is superimposed on the current view. Saved in full size as a total of its constituent shots, no skimpy resize. Love it!

CameraBag
This one is more of a play on photos that need extra help moving them from just bad to artistic. You can choose from 8 effect bundles to apply to your photo, including Lomo-like, 60s and 70s camera effects and others. Lots of fun mutilating iPhone camera mishaps or just any photo.
Fun.

TiltShift Generator
TiltShift photos make real photos look like they were actually toy or model images. For the real thing you could plunk hundreds of dollars for a tilt shift lens. There are also Photoshop tutorials on faking it and now there’s an iPhone app. It teaches you how to use its settings, tweaking photos to get the macimum effect. Well designed use of the touchscreen and plenty fun to use.

Which ones do you recommend?

The key enabler for this ability is a piece of software from Nokia called ‘Share Online‘. In essence it allows you to upload photos and videos to Flickr, or Nokia’s Ovi server or to any other service out there that offers a simple XML file with definitions. It is a great application that turns the phone into a veritable news agency. It has a few kinks, specifically the inability to upload more than 6 files at a time or schedule an upload when one is taking place.

I have seen several updates from Nokia discussing a new version of this wonderful application but oddly enough my phone, still among the strongest out there, was not on the list of supported devices. More digging around brought me to this message on the application’s discussion board, originating from a person on Nokia’s development team:

Hi MKR10001 and speedgrapher,

Unfortunately, the designers of Share Online took a dependency upon a feature of S60 v3 fp2 back in
version 3.1 of Share Online, and this has meant that no subsequent version can run on v3 fp1 devices.

So, I am sorry to tell you, that Share Online 4.3 will not be available for fp1 devices.

I appologize on behalf of Nokia. In the future, we are going to make a greater effort to make more thoughtful architectural decisions so that we don’t automatically exclude existing customers this way.

Thanks,
Larry
PM, Ovi Share Clients
Nokia US

For the uninitiated, the N95 runs Nokia’s Symbian Series 60 operating system version 3, with feature pack 1, or ‘fp1′. If you did not get it so far, like the multitude of N95 users, we are virtually screwed. While on a single application, in this marketplace where Nokia is under virtual siege at the smartphone level, do they really want to alienate its dedicated clients? Apparently, they do not care enough. Let’s move the next piece of plastic instead of enhance the experience on this really expensive phone you bought.

Really not great.

Another thing that is weird is that Nokia is so trigger happy to release updates to their suite of software applications that you end up downloading something new at least twice a week. If these were quick updates or monumental improvements, it would have been great, but these are tiny incremental changes that are barely noticeable. Applications still crash, applications still run slow.

A common bone of contention across applications and services is usability: did Nokia ever put their applications in front of users to test if they get what needs to be done and heck, what can be done? The applications look great. Nokia has its own distinct and elegant look and feel that can match Apple’s brushed steel style. But when it comes to simplicity – they are far from competitive even with open source products. Nokia Photos and Nokia Music, just do not make too much sense to me. Maybe they are geared for European audiences, but how difficult would it be to make photo print ordering work for the US or disabling the Nokia music store for countries it does not work in?

Finally – Nokia is trying to do really good things with its online Ovi sites. Ignoring the fact that you need separate logins to some Ovi services despite the same name, two things drive me crazy even in these generally good directions:

1. You cannot get an RSS feed of your images. You can only embed a Flash widget in your blog (the Facebook app stopped working but really, who cares?)
2. Ovi offers an awesome idea. Truly huge: calendar and contact repository for free. That means you can synchronize all phones, contact and calendar applications with the service, supposedly, with this single source. This can kill Microsoft Exchange or .mac if they try hard enough and make it work. But count on Nokia to blow this chance too. To synchronize you have to have a synchronization profile set up on your phone. You are supposed to get the profile via SMS/MMS when you sign up for the service. That does not work and there is no way that a somewhat savvy user like me can set the service up manually. Again, what the f- does Nokia’s Quality Assurance team do? Do they even exist?

I think Nokia is pretty much losing the relevance battle. The N97 looks great, but nothing more than a finer quality product than an HTC keyboard phone. Running the Symbian S60 OS puts it immediately at a speed and experience advantage to the iPhone, and worse yet, to its own great variant of Linux that runs on the N810 device, Meamo.

They will keep on making cheap bits of plastic, sell them to the third world and eek a profit there. 40% of the world market, but the less exciting and desirable 40% for sure.

In essence, all that is necessary is to take out the SIM card from your old AT&T phone and pop it into the N95. Still, to take advantage of it to the fullest extent, and for me that means a mobile photo studio with immediate uploads to Facebook and Share on Ovi, you need broadband. The N95 is great with WiFi connectivity that puts my truly awful Lenovo T61p laptop’s to shame. But on the go, you need 3G and AT&T has it. The upside, though, is that you can apparently spring for the cheapest of their mobile plans, the $15/month (MEdia Net Unlimited) as it does not count as a PDA (no QWERTY keyboard). For the money, you get unlimited data connectivity which with the N95-8GB means – tethering.

In other words, the N95 can be used as your cellular network broadband modem for your laptop. Connectivity is a snap using a USB cable and the dedicated program provided in the Nokia PC Suite. While I would not recommend running BitTorrent off of it so as not to raise the ire of AT&T, you will get a very impressive (for a phone) 3.5G 460Kb/s speed. It already saved a couple of sales meetings for me where wired and wireless connections were impossible to use. This being a Symbian phone, once you are done with your connection, you better reboot the phone as it will go into a weird state – not that it would tell you about it. Phone calls were not made or received. In short – just reboot. Oh, and the battery gets drained very quickly so play it safe and lug around the phone’s charger.

That said, tethering (or MMS…) is impossible with an iPhone. I take my joyful bit and run with them…

I plan to share on this blog moments from my life with this otherwise amazing device. I should have read the manual. I intend to. I am a busy guy so sometimes I will clearly should have RTFM.

Today’s tidbit – downloadable videos: I stumbled across the video service download capability of the phone in its Video Center application. You can tell the phone which services you want to get updates on available

e content from – using a special website the phone connects to. Once selected, the phone fetches recent videos available, probably from an RSS feed. The video downloads very quickly – a 1 minute long video downloads in about 1.5 minutes. The quality is great.

Once you’re done watching, though, and we’re talking about a device with 8GB of memory but no way to expand on that memory, there is NO way to delete the video you have just viewed. There is also no information about whether that video will be deleted automatically. If you read the help file, that is easily accessible, it tell you that the video is saved to another section of the video center, ‘My Videos’. It’s a relief to know that. But why? Why can I not just delete the video right there from the list of videos in which it appears? Does not make sense.