Archive for the 'Gadgets' Category

Zimbra Collaboration Suite 4.0

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on November 12, 2006
in Gadgets, Mac OS X, Mobile, Open Source, Startups, Technology and Venture Capital
. 0 Comments

Previously, I’ve talked about how my Nokia E61 smartphone does not seem to work correctly with the IMAP IDLE support offered by my Dreamhost email server. I contacted Dreamhost support about this, and they tell me that it’s not their fault. It must be a bug in the Nokia E61 IMAP client.

The problem is that the Nokia E61 Email client, when connected to my Dreamhost email server via IMAP, refuses to download new email automatically. I have to specifically ask it to do so. Having grown tired of that, I decided to give Zimbra a try.

The problem with Zimbra is that if you are a Sole Proprietor and only need a single mailbox for your business, trying out Zimbra can be a pretty costly experiment. Lots of the Hosting Partners that support Zimbra charge big setup fees and large monthly fees for Zimbra Mobile support, which I needed for my Nokia E61 to have full access via the Nokia Mail for Exchange (ActiveSync) client.

Having found no love from the Hosting Partners in the US, I moved on to the UK. Simply Mail Solutions offered the full Zimbra Collaboration Suite (ZCS) 4.0 Network Profession Edition with support for Zimbra Mobile and iSync synchronization for my Mac iCal and Address Book contacts. They offer this with $0 setup fee, the ability to purchase just one mailbox, and for the low monthly price of under $8 (US). Competitors in the US were charging setup fees more like $99 and monthly fees of over $20. Simply Mail Solutions won the business.

What was even better was that their customer support was excellent. Keith over at Simply Mail Solutions set up my account and took very good care of me.

If you are looking for Zimbra mailbox support, check these guys out. Tell them I sent you.

I will return later with my reactions to the Zimbra product.

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Entrepreneurs Need To Drink… Part 2

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on October 31, 2006
in Gadgets and Personal
. 1 Comment

Coffee, that is!

We purchased the Capresso MT500 (Model 440.05). I did a long write-up of the process for how we chose the Capresso MT500. Now, the results. Did the Capresso live up to the expectations? Did it brew great coffee?

First, let’s review the core requirements:

  1. Brew temperature of 195+ degrees F (ideal is 195-205 degrees F)
  2. Quality construction
  3. Thermal carafe (with vacuum seal ability)
  4. Automatic timer to start the brew going in the morning
  5. Under $200

So, the key question is pretty simple: Does it make great coffee?

The answer: Yes!

I give the coffee maker 4-out-of-5 Jelly Doughnuts overall. I can recommend this machine if your core requirements match mine. Read on for more!

Here are some actual temperature readings of the water during the brewing process.

First Experiment:

  • Water Temp Used: 101 (warm tap water)
  • Time: 0 min, Temp: 101
  • Time: 2 min, Temp: 186 (measured in basket, no grounds)
  • Time: 3 min, Temp: 197
  • Time: 4 min, Temp: 200
  • Time: 5 min, Temp: 199
  • Time: 6 min, Temp: 201
  • Time: 8 min, Temp: 190 (measured in pot, brewing done)
  • Time: 12 min, Temp: 189
  • Time: 29 min, Temp: 187
  • Time: 51 min, Temp: 184
  • Time: 1 hour 29 min, Temp:181
  • Time: 2 hour 3 min, Temp: 176

So, brewing temperature is in the proper range. But, I stoked it with hot tap water. If I use my cold, filtered water, will the brewing temperatures change? The remaining experiments are done with grounds in the coffee basket.

Second Experiment:

  • Water Temp Used: 74 (cold filtered water)
  • Time: 0 min, Temp: 74
  • Time: 2 min, Temp: 181
  • Time: 3 min, Temp: 191
  • Time: 5 min, Temp: 192
  • Time: 6 min, Temp: 198
  • Time: 8 min, Temp: 185 (measured in pot, brewing done)

So, this was a bit cooler than the first test. Likely because of the two variable changes (started with cold water and brewed with grounds). As you can see, the coffee does get above 195 degrees, but only during the second half of the pot. Still, the coffee was good.

Third Experiment:

  • Water Temp Used: (Very Hot Tap Water, but not measured)
  • Time: 1 min, Temp: 200
  • Time: 2 min, Temp: 202
  • Time: 4 min, Temp: 206
  • Time: 5 min, Temp: 207
  • Time: 6 min, Temp: 190 (measured in pot, brewing done)
  • Time: 3 hr 49 min, Temp: 148
  • Time: 11 hr 15 min, Temp: 93

Not the best scientific method, but there is some data here.

  1. You can dial up the brewing temperature based on the temperature of the water that you use to fill the unit. Personally, since these experiments, I’ve been filling it with the cold, filtered water, and the coffee quality has been very good. If you care, then go ahead and put hotter tap water in before brewing.
  2. The thermal carafe is pretty good, but not great. Coffee is kept hot for a good two hours, but not all day. I don’t think this is the best carafe on the market, but that’s OK. Since it is a vacuum carafe, it keeps the coffee very fresh all day and holds up nicely to being zapped by the microwave (when you need that late-day fix).

Final comments:

  • Construction quality is very good. Yeah, it’s got the usual amounts of plastic, but it has a very solid feel to it. It looks good in the kitchen.
  • We have not had a single problem with leaks that seem to be a problem for just about every thermal carafe coffee maker out there. Never a spill. Not a drop. I think Capresso got it right, which may help me justify the high price tag.
  • The gauge that shows how many “cups” of coffee you are trying to brew is small and on the far right hand side of the unit. This requires you to pour the water with your left hand so that you can see the gauge. Very hard to read.
  • The included gold filter is nice, but causes some fine grounds to slip through into the pot. As a result, we’ve been using the paper filters almost exclusively.
  • Brew time is pretty fast. You can slow it down by pressing the “3-5 cups” button (which may actually help if you are using very cold water).

That’s about it. I’ll keep you posted when/if we start having problems.

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2007 Toyota Prius Qualifies For California HOV Stickers

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on October 30, 2006
in Gadgets and Personal
. 16 Comments

I purchased my 2007 Toyota Prius (yes, it’s White!) on September 28, 2006. I chose the Prius because I wanted a low-emissions vehicle that got great gas mileage and had the quality reputation of Toyota. One month in and I’ve been very happy with my purchase.

One of the side benefits of purchasing a qualifying hybrid is that you can apply for one of the 75,000 stickers that were approved as part of California’s incentive program that allows certain low-emissions vehicle access to the carpool lanes with only a single occupant. However, at the time I purchased my vehicle, the anticipation was that all the stickers had been claimed. No matter. I still purchased the car.

The day after I purchased the car, however, the California Governor signed AB 2600 into law, which added an additional 10,000 stickers to the pool, and extended the HOV-lane access until January 1, 2011. I was pretty confident that I would get an HOV-lane sticker after all.

But, does the 2007 Toyota Prius qualify for the program?

It should, but the AB 2628 approved list of vehicles knew nothing about the 2007 model — it had only been on the market for a week when I bought it. However, that approved list was updated on October 11, 2006, and the 2007 Prius was added. Note that no other 2007 model was added to the list at that time!

In the end, my stickers arrived today, October 30, 2006.

Here’s the timeline:

  • 09/28: Purchased 2007 Toyota Prius
  • 09/29: Called dealer to ask them to expedite DMV license plate registration (required for HOV sticker application)
  • 09/29: Drove up to San Francisco to register for the FasTrak program (required for HOV sticker application for Bay Area residents)
  • 10/03: Dealer called with license plate number
  • 10/03: USPS overnight mailing of HOV lane application packet and $8 check to DMV in Sacramento
  • 10/11: 2007 Prius added to approved vehicle list
  • 10/13: DMV cashed the $8 application fee check
  • 10/21: “Date Issued” of stickers by DMV
  • 10/30: Stickers arrive at home — Sticker #0803XX

I will enjoy my low emissions, my 50mpg, my $3,150 tax credit for 2006, my free city parking in San Jose, my easier commutes, and my quality Toyota.

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AB 2600 Signed

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on October 2, 2006
in Gadgets and Personal
. 1 Comment

I bought my new Prius on Thursday evening, September 28, 2006. Since I purchased it before October 1, I will receive a $3,150 tax credit off of my 2006 income tax. This is a nice benefit, since it doesn’t reduce my taxable income — it actually comes right off my tax bill. Had I purchased after September 30, the tax credit for the Prius would have dropped in half (still nice, but not quite as nice!). Great article at the San Francisco Chronicle.

Another benefit to buying a Prius now was that I could apply for the California Hybrid car stickers that would give me access to the carpool lanes. However, that program was limited to 75,000 cars and at the time I bought the car, the expectation was that I was too late. No worries. The car is still worth it.


Photo courtesy of chrisdigo at flickr.com

So, the morning after I purchased the car, I called the DMV at 916-657-6560 and asked how many stickers remain. Still 1,500 to hand out was the response, but they were going fast — probably gone within the next 4 business days. To try to get one of the last ones, I:

  1. Went to the Toyota dealer and asked them to expedite my license plate registration. They were very helpful and agreed to do so immediately. However, it takes 48 hours for all the computers to talk to each other, even with an electronic submission. Time was running short.
    Check.
  2. I drove my new Hybrid up to San Francisco to get a FasTrak transponder that allows my hybrid to use the carpool lanes (if I get the stickers) when going across one of the 8 Bay Area bridges. This is a required step for Bay Area residents applying to the Hybrid sticker program.
    Check.
  3. Prepared a FedEx envelope for delivery of the Hybrid sticker application (and supporting documents) for delivery to the DMV in hopes of getting one of the last stickers.
    Check.

However, all my last-minute running around may not have mattered…

On Friday, September 29, California Assembly Bill No. 2600 (aka AB 2600) was signed by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. It allows for 10,000 more stickers to be added to the program and for the Hybrid HOV stickers to be valid until January 1, 2011. Nice.

I will still send in my application as soon as I hear from the dealer about my license plate number. And, of course, will keep you all informed.

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A California Garage

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on September 29, 2006
in Gadgets, Motorcycle and Personal
. 5 Comments

I walked into the Toyota dealer yesterday and walked out with a shiny, new 2007 Toyota Prius. It’s white and it’s loaded. Not my color of choice, but they had one on the lot, there was confusion about whether it was a dealer demo model or not and amidst the confusion, I claimed it as mine! The guy next to me put a deposit down and waited 6 weeks for his.

When you buy a car off the lot, you get whatever colors and options that they have. When it’s a hot item, like the Prius in California, you often get no choice at all, even if you place an order in advance. Place a deposit, get a call in 4-8 weeks that says they have a car similar to what you asked for, but not exactly the same, and if you’d be willing to take it or keep waiting. Ah, free markets at work. I love it.

The garage now looks like a California garage:

The Porsche Boxster next to the 2007 Toyota Prius next to the Yamaha FZ1 motorcycle (upper left, behind the fridge). That’s two convertible speedsters and one emission-friendly car. I will let you know how it goes with the white whale. Call me Ishmael.

So, is it still possible to get the California HOV stickers for the hybrid cars that I wrote about here and here? Not likely. This report says that as of September 12, 2006, there were only about 6,000 stickers left to hand out. When I called today, there were only 1,500 stickers left. The very nice lady on the phone at the DMV indicated that there had been discussion about adding 25,000 more stickers to the program, but those talks have seemed to stopped. By the time I get my license plate, they will likely all be gone. That’s OK.

California.

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Nokia E61 Firmware Upgrade Released: Blech

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on September 20, 2006
in Gadgets and Mobile
. 6 Comments

New firmware has been released for my Nokia E61 smartphone. Symbian Freak has a good list of what’s new and changed. And, the best part is that you can upgrade the firmware yourself using their PC Suite and your USB cable. Great instructions located at the E-Series Blog.

My upgrade went smooth. Unfortunately, you have to find a Windows PC in order to do the upgrade. Once that hurdle was complete, I found the upgrade process to be excellent. I backed up my Phone memory to my SD card before the upgrade and restored after the upgrade. You will get most things back, but many applications will still need to be reinstalled.

Unfortunately, the upgrade was not completely satisfying:

  • I still have problems with IMAP email from Dreamhost. When I contacted Dreamhost about the issue, they said that IMAP IDLE works great to Dreamhost from their Treo, so it must be my device. Is anyone else having problems getting push email onto their Nokia E61 from Dreamhost?
  • I have 1828 Contacts on my phone. It now takes 30 seconds to open up a contact to find out their phone number or address. This is really unacceptable.
  • Unfortunately, I now have to press the Blue button to get numbers in applications. While this does make sense at some level, it means that I can’t do single-handed number entry into applications. This used to work great for the Web Browser and Google Maps for Mobile. Now, the usability is very poor. Who wants to use two hands just to access the Web Browser shortcuts? Any way to lock the number pad on a per-application basis?

Note that if you use iSync with Mac OS X and follow my backup/restore instructions above, iSync will attempt to re-sync all of your Contacts and Calendar entries again. This didn’t cause any serious problems, but you may be presented with conflicts to resolve.

So, it’s a mixed blessing.

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Entrepreneurs Need To Drink…

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 22, 2006
in Gadgets, Personal and Venture Capital
. 6 Comments

Coffee, that is!

Our current coffee pot at home is a Melitta Mill & Brew. It has the following problems:

  1. Doesn’t brew coffee hot enough, so the full flavor is not achieved; it’s blah
  2. Pot is made of glass, so the coffee doesn’t stay hot after brewing
  3. Warmer under the glass pot continues to cook the coffee after brewing, which quickly detracts from the flavor over time
  4. A plastic piece which holds the grinder in place broke off some months ago, but that has not affected the brewing, until…
  5. Another plastic piece broke off that holds the coffee filter in place. I "fixed" it, temporarily, but we knew the time would come to replace it.

So, I spent the day, well, really, almost the whole day on Saturday researching coffee pots. One day of my life consumed in the quest for better coffee. Such as it is. Results of my hard work gladly shared with you below.

Core requirements were:

  1. Brew temperature of 195+ degrees F (ideal is 195-205)
  2. Quality construction
  3. Thermal carafe (with vacuum seal ability)
  4. Automatic timer to start the brew going in the morning
  5. Under $200 (the Melitta can be had for $60, so we were willing to spend more)

Having a grinder was a nice-to-have, but not required. We also didn’t need some fancy $3,000 espresso, cappuccino, latte, fancy-shmancy unit. We just wanted good, basic coffee that brewed at the right temperature and stayed hot for a few hours (while I blog and drink!). For espresso, we would just buy a dedicated espresso machine later. For the other stuff - well, we don’t care.

After reading a ton of reviews, I determined that there was no perfect model. Everything had quality control issues. Also, the addition of the Thermal Carafe apparently causes a number of design problems in these units, resulting in coffee spilling out onto the cabinet and the floor if you don’t place the carafe perfectly back in the unit. This seemed to be universal among all the models. I chose to accept the risk so I can have my coffee hot in the pot and not cooked to crap in the glass.

Under $100, there were two that caught my eye:

  • Zojirushi EC-BD15
    The Zojirushi looks to be the best value. You can find it for $75 on NewEgg. Most of the complaints surround the spilling problem I mentioned above, and the fact that the unit seemed to fail in some way after 9-12 months of service (lots of quality problems). On the plus side, it seems to brew at the (correct) hottest temperatures, and the carafe appears to hold the heat. Ignoring the quality complaints, this appeared to be a really good "value" coffee maker. I was tempted by this one, but chose to pass because of the rampant quality problems and reports of spilling.
  • Cuisinart DTC-975
    The Cuisinart also had plenty of spills reported. I could not get any feel for whether the coffee brewed at the proper temperature. However, the Cuisinart received very high marks for the Thermal Carafe itself - they may have the best one out there. Unfortunately, quality problems plagued the lid on the carafe, making it very hard for folks to line everything up perfectly - spills galore. I felt good about the carafe, but without confirmation of the brew temperature and the quality issues, I decided to pass on this one too.

Above $100, the following didn’t make the cut either:

  • Cuisinart DGB-600 Grind-and-Brew
    This one runs about $148. It does include a coffee grinder, whish would be a nice plus. However, 2 family members already owned it. After talking to them, this one was quickly removed from the list. Doesn’t brew at the right temperature and doesn’t keep the coffee hot. We didn’t hear any spilling complaints.
  • Capresso CoffeeTEAM Therm
    This one runs about $299. Also includes a coffee grinder. However, the grinds are fed into the filter through an elaborate swing-arm motion of the filter basket. It looks cool, sure, but that’s way too many moving parts. And, the reviews confirmed my instinct. Keep it simple, guys. Good reports on coffee quality, however. And, it was well beyond what we wanted to pay. TWIT Review here.
  • Capresso ST600
    This one runs about $230. It’s beautiful looking, no grinder, and a bit beyond our price limit. I would have given it serious consideration, but there just weren’t enough reviews posted to make me comfortable spending that much for a coffee maker. Capresso does seem to know how to brew coffee at the correct temperature, however, so i feel like I would have gotten a decent coffee maker. I just had no way to know. Pass.

So, who won the business?

We decided to purchase the Capresso MT500 (Model 440.05).

Capresso seemed to consistently make good coffee. This unit seemed to have fewer complaints of spills and quality problems (but it certainly did have its share). It runs about $169, so it is certainly not cheap, but it is in our price range. The Thermal Carafe does not appear to be as good as the Zojirushi or the Cuisinart DTC-975, but I think it will be such an upgrade compared to what we have now, that I am not worried.

The coffeegeek site included a nice review on this unit, but the review is a bit dated.

Placed the order on Amazon on Saturday evening. It arrived today. I will do a follow-up report with full stats on brewing temperature and carafe thermal capabilities.

Venture Capital Note: The process of finding and reading user-generated product reviews is really painful and time consuming. Nobody has found a way to build a great social networking site around reviews which attract, rate, build a reviewer’s reputation, and rewards them for their contributions. Or, a site that aggregates the reviews of the hundreds of shopping sites with proprietary review engines. Add a note in the comments if you think I should try and comment on a better review engine for consumer products.

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Nokia E61 and iSync

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 17, 2006
in Gadgets and Mac OS X
. 8 Comments

I’ve had quite a few people write to me in response to my post about the Nokia E61 Smartphone. Some have asked how I got it to work with iSync on my Apple Mac OS X system. Here’s what I did. It works for me, but you should exercise extreme caution whenever mucking with stuff like this (up-to-date backups of everything, etc).

I am running Mac OS X 10.4.7 with iSync 2.3.

  1. Take a look at this post
  2. If you don’t speak German, it basically is telling you to download this link
  3. Within that download you will see:
  4. If you still don’t speak German, you should:

    1. Quit from iSync
    2. Drag the Orange folder to the Red folder and drop it
    3. Start up iSync
    4. Add your device, as usual

This will put the "mactomster.phoneplugin" folder into the /Applications/iSync.app/Contents/PlugIns/ ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/PlugIns directory for you. iSync should then be able to find your Nokia E61, including a lovely icon matching the device.

This may also work for the Nokia 3250, Nokia 5500, Nokia 6130, Nokia 6233, Nokia 6234, Nokie E50, Nokia E60, Nokia E70, Nokia E71, Nokia E72, Nokia E73, Nokia N80, Nokia N91, Nokia N92, Nokia N93 as well.

I have no idea what will happen when iSync 2.4 comes out or OS X 10.4.8 is released. You are on your own! Please add comments here to clarify any of the instructions.

Many thanks to Tom’s Website for Symbian and Apple.

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Nokia E61 Screenshot & Golfing?

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 4, 2006
in Gadgets, Golfing, Mobile and Software
. 0 Comments

Found on my favorite blog about the Nokia E61, E-Series, is a pointer to a free program to capture screenshots of the smartphone to a file. Get the program here. Note that for the Nokia E61, the default key combination to take a snapshot is <Shift><OK>, which is really <Shift><Click> (with the “mouse”).

Unfortunately for you, the reader, this means that you will have to put up with the silly screenshots from my device, like this one:

That’s a shot of the free Golf Pro 2 application supplied from the Nokia web site. Enjoy!

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Nokia E61 Smartphone

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 1, 2006
in Gadgets, Mac OS X, Mobile and Venture Capital
. 5 Comments

This morning, I’ve got some business on Sand Hill Road. 3000 Sand Hill Road in Menlo Park, to be exact. Entrepreneurs know this address well, as there is a large clump of VC’s in the circle here, spread among four buildings, and it’s pretty hard to miss this cluster when doing your VC roadshow.

I’m having breakfast at the Sundeck Restaurant (smack dab in the center of the circle) and the place certainly is a magnet for the VC power breakfast. Today I recognize a GP from Mohr Davidow Ventures, but this blog is no place for name-dropping. MDV (who funded 2 of my startups) is actually on the opposite side of Sand Hill Road, but the eats at the Sundeck are pretty good, and the view/vibe is nice. The tables are covered in brown paper, and ample pencils are supplied at the table, alongside the salt and pepper, for back-of-the-envelope calculations and impromptu architecture diagrams. Certainly appropriate for the environment.

However, my trusty Apple Powerbook laptop fails to find a wireless Internet signal. That is not appropriate for the environment. I thought this place, of all the places in the world, would certainly have a strong WiFi signal for the VC elite to enjoy while chowing down and passing WiFi-enabled geek devices around the table. Enter my new phone, the Nokia E61, to the rescue.

I replaced my old Motorola V551 mobile phone (antenna sucked) with this new Nokia E61 smartphone earlier this summer. Bought an Unlocked one on eBay for $388. The phone is really built for Europe (with 3G WCDMA frequencies that match Europe - why can’t we all just get along?), but it supports Cingular’s EDGE service - good enough for my needs. It connects to any WiFi (802.11b/g) WLAN as well, and can even switch between WiFi and Cingular’s EDGE network automatically (though it is a bit buggy).

Today, the phone allows me to connect to the Internet from my Powerbook, wirelessly through Bluetooth to the phone, which forwards my packets through the Cingular EDGE network automatically. How did we ever survive without all this technology? :-) Somewhat pokey, but it gets the job done nicely in a pinch, and costs no money with my Unlimited data package from Cingular.

What I like about it:

  • Based on Symbian OS 9.1 S60 3rd Edition (now that’s a mouthful). It’s a real and decent operating system that can multitask real applications. This version has had a number of security enhancements which, unfortunately, broke compatibility with many of the existing Symbian applications. This will be fixed over time, as developers retool for this new version. Be patient.
  • The quality of voice calls is excellent (as you would expect from Nokia) and the antenna/reception is much better than my old phone.
  • Speakerphone works great and I’ve never had anyone complain about the quality heard on their end.
  • Connectivity to many standards, including GSM, IR, USB, Bluetooth, EDGE, EGPRS, GPRS, 802.11, WCDMA, UMTS, Mini-SD, and a partridge in a pear tree.
  • Google Maps for Mobile is awesome on the device.
  • Runs Java J2ME applications great.
  • Has a nice QWERTY keyboard.
  • Includes goodies like support for Blackberry Connect and Microsoft ActiveSync, but I haven’t tried those.
  • The built-in Web Browser is pretty darn good, rendering most every web site I visit correctly. Main complaint is that it doesn’t remember what I have typed into web forms.
  • Synchronizes with the Mac Powerbook perfectly using iSync (after I tweaked a config file on the Mac). Handles Calendar, Tasks, and Address Book.
  • Good expandability through the Mini-SD card allowed me to use a 2GB card to hold lots of MP3 music (which can easily be used for ringtones), documents, and photos.
  • Color screen is bright and perfectly acceptable.
  • Includes basic support for reading AND editing Microsoft Office applications, like Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. They work OK, but you really wouldn’t want to use them unless you really HAD to use them.
  • Adobe Acrobat has a native reader for PDF documents as well. Works great, but I’ve had it barf on large PDF files, so there is some more work to do here.

What I don’t like about it:

  • Using Dreamhost to hold my IMAP email Inbox causes the device’s email application to not get new mail automatically and hang occasionally. Don’t know if this is Dreamhost’s fault or Nokia’s fault.
  • I have 1,800 contacts in my Address Book and sync them all to the phone. As such, the Contacts application takes a long time to bring up an entry. OK. It’s really only about six seconds, but it feels like an eternity when you’re looking for an important number while someone waits on the phone…
  • When receiving calls, the caller-id is sometimes matched to a phone number in my Contacts with the name nicely displayed on the screen, and other times it is not and all I get is the number. It’s very annoying to not know who is calling.
  • Call times are not displayed anywhere while I am on a call. Nor can I find call times listed in their Log application for calls dialed or calls received. I must be missing something, as this is a pretty basic mobile phone feature…
  • Battery life is really good - until you start using WiFi. Keep your charger handy if you intend to use your 802.11 connection frequently.
  • Fonts for the phone numbers in the Contacts application are way too small for my feeble, old eyes. You’ve got the screen space - make the numbers bigger, or the font selectable.
  • It would be nice if the synchronization process could sync my Mac Address Book Groups with the Nokia E61 Contacts Groups.
  • Also, synchronizing All-day Calendar entries look like All-day busy meetings that last from 12:00am-11:59pm on the phone. Not really the same thing.
  • Finally, it doesn’t sync Notes through iSync.

I really like the phone and have been pleased with most aspects of it. Check out the most excellent blog on the Nokia E-Series devices. I just learned about Calcium - A Better Calculator for the Nokia E61 there (thank goodness - the built in one sucks) and this Automatic Key Lock Application.

Cingular will be releasing the Nokia E62 version shortly, which has no WiFi/WLAN or support for European 3G/WCDMA, but does officially support their network.

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