US 3G N95 Reality Distortion Field

The world is all atwitter with news of the new Nokia hansets, including an 8 gig N95 model that actually works on US 3G. I’m looking to upgrade from my European model E61, so of course I’m considering it. I really really don’t want to lose my keyboard however. I’ve even been considering nasty hacks like carrying a handheld bluetooth thumb board with me to use with the phone. It’s obvious that things have gotten out of hand somewhere in my detached musings. Lets take a step back.

One of the things I actually miss about the E61 is the camera. Not so much for taking images that I want to save, but because the optical sensor in a phone is a good way to tie physical objects to online representations. So one of the options instead of going with the N95 is to get an E61i, an update to my current phone that includes a camera. Not a bad option, but also boring. The N95 also has GPS. If it’s anything like trying to use a bluetooth GPS unit with any existing phone software, I expect that besides testing out whatever nav software is built into the phone I will never use it. Just too frustrating and unreliable. Last time I brought my bluetooth GPS and my phone in the car with me to help out in case I got lost I found that the free Nokia software I had downloaded to fool around with would pop up a screen trying to get me to pay pretty much no matter what I asked it to do. And MGMaps was taking so long to pull GPS data from my bluetooth module that I was able to start up standard GMaps and enter in the intersection I was at to find my location before it worked. Location based services are the future though, seriously. This year it’s going to happen. I’m just betting that it has nothing at all do with with GPS or the E911 system, the models around those systems are just too screwed up.

The other major reason to consider this is that I do really want something that’s 3G. Not so much because I use tons of data from my handset itself for which I would feel a real difference between EDGE and 3G, but because I end up with other devices tethered to my phone rather than paying for hotspot access when I’m on the go. Hmm, that’s actually pretty interesting. I do use IM and SSH from my handset very frequently. But how often do I do that when I don’t also have my N800 around? Looking back I would say about 20% of the time. Mostly because I’m almost always at work or home, and there’s some computer with a keyboard within reach. About 15% of that 20% is when I’m in a meeting and I happen to have only my phone with me. So maybe I would be able to give up the full keyboard without too much pain.

Considering it. I probably shouldn’t be, but I’m considering it. It must be like gravity. Put enough tech into a small handheld device and it creates a dimple in the fabric of reality, which manifests as an attractive force for geeks.