WorldMate

Getting ready for my trip I found WorldMate, a nice software for mobiles to keep your travel info ordered. I tested the trial period with information about flights (schedule, alerts and status) and it’s really good. Now the trial period is over but there are some free useful options like currency converter, weather forecast, world clocks and Day/Night map. The first two can be updated using Internet. My favourite option is World Weather, just to be ready for showers.

This software is available for different mobiles, including Nokia N95 of course. You can download the latest version in m.mobimate.com

The Replacement Syndrome

When you replace something – e.g. an old machine - for a new better one, something really weird happens, the old one start to fail unexpectedly. I call this the “Replacement Syndrome”. Some examples of my life:

• When I bought my N95, my Palm Zire 71 rebooted twice without my intervention and started to fail in synchronize.
• My PC started to have problems after I bought my laptop. I had performed some backups ‘just in case’ while I was trying to fix everything. Then something totally unexpected happened, the secondary hard disk broke down. Luckily the backup was enough to save my data.
• At work, many times when we already bought a server to replace an old one, the old one got a virus, broke down, reboot without reason, had a hardware failure, etc.

Maybe it’s just coincidence, but it’s a funny one!

P.S.- Don’t forget to have a plan B.

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El Síndrome del Reemplazo

Cuando se reemplaza algo, por ejemplo, una vieja máquina, por otro nuevo y mejor, algo realmente extraño ocurre, el antiguo inesperadamente comienza a fallar. A eso lo llamo "El síndrome del reemplazo". Algunos ejemplos de mi vida:

• Cuando compré el N95, mi Palm Zire 71 se reinició dos veces sin hacerle nada y empezó a fallar la sincronización de datos.
• Mi PC comenzó a tener problemas después de que compré mi laptop. Yo había realizado algunas copias de seguridad "por si acaso", mientras estaba tratando de arreglar todo. Entonces sucedió algo totalmente inesperado, el disco duro secundario se averió. Afortunadamente, la copia de seguridad fue suficiente para guardar mis datos.
• En el trabajo, muchas veces cuando ya hemos comprado un servidor para sustituir a uno viejo, el viejo contrajo un virus, se malogró, se reinició sin razón, tuvo una falla de hardware, etc.

Quizás son sólo coincidencias, pero es curioso.

P.S. - No se olviden de tener un plan B.

My 8GB MicroSD died (Part VI – Maybe Final)

I wrote to my provider and answered me with bad news. They did not receive my MicroSD yet. I think it is time to close this topic and just start to find a new one. 

At the moment, I am looking for a Class 6 8GB MicroSD. Also I am looking for an extra battery for my sister’s video camera.

I am sad. No comments.

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Mi 8GB MicroSD ha muerto (Parte VI - Quizá Final)

Escribí a mi proveedor y me respondió con malas noticias. No han recibido mi MicroSD todavía. Creo que es hora de cerrar este tema y empezar a encontrar una nueva. 

Por el momento, estoy buscando una Clase 6 8GB MicroSD. También estoy buscando una batería extra para mi hermana de la cámara de vídeo. 

Estoy triste. Sin comentarios.

Nokia N97

This is my new goal about smart phones: Nokia N97. This model has everything I want and more, including all the nice stuff that iPhone has but without the things I hate. Also, it has something that every PDA needs: the touch screen. That’s the thing I really miss from my previous PDA (Palm Zire 71).

I’m patiently waiting. Here is a promo video.

Brain Challenge vol 2: Stress Management

Days ago I got “Brain Challenge vol 2: Stress Management” by Gameloft and I spent my free time with it. Comparing both versions, some changes include a new girl who looks more scientist and a new skill, focus. Also counts we a test called “Stress test”, with 5 fixed tests but with an extra degree of difficult compared with the normal ones. 

Results in this version are displayed different. I miss the all-in-one chart with all the progress, but it has a bar chart to show the final status of the five skills. Here my status:

Business English Pod

Business English Pod  (www.businessenglishpod.com) is a website with a lot of helpful tips to develop soft skills and manage social relationships. This site provides a variety of resources, like videos (m4v format and uploaded in YouTube), audio in MP3 format (podcast) and e-Books in PDF. My favourite one is the podcast; I get those using iTunes and Podcasting from Nokia to listen them on the road. Very recommended.

Brain Challenge – Status (I did it!)

I cheated a bit. 3 days ago I was at 87% and today I reached 94%! I play two or three times per day, when I have chance. As I achieved my goal of get 80% on each area, I feel free to start looking forward to “Brain Challenge vol 2: Stress Management”.

Here are my charts. Soon I will have all the indicators almost in 100%.

Brain Challenge - Status

I’ve be practicing these days. I must confess that I love challenges. This game caught my attention and part of my free time. My results after 6 days has satisfied my ego and make me start to think about buy the sequel. I started with 47% and now I have 87%. My main area is memory, I reached 100% (supposedly all my potential) and the lowest one is visual. That’s something I can’t understand. I need my visual abilities to achieve the rest, but I don’t have a good score on that.

Does it works? Well, I don’t think I’m smarter but I feel faster to do some activities, specially calculating, which is one of my weak points. Can I achieve 100%? I think is totally possible, but hard to get. At this rhythm, maybe at the end of February I'll get it.

Brain Challenge

Aging is hard. I slowly notice that every day is more difficult to me make simple calculus or remember facts. It’s part of leaving my brain being lazy. 

Train your brain is not difficult; however the lack of time makes it almost impossible. In my researching of a nice way to get fun and become smarter, I was very tempted of buy a Nintendo DS and Brain Age 2, but it’s not a good idea if you’re saving money. Luckily I found a game for N95: Brain Challenge of Gameloft.

This game focus on 4 abilities: logic, math, memory and visual. And each one has 3 activities with skill levels. You can practice every activity or measure your current level. My Achilles heel is logic, here is a sample of Balanced activity, in which you should choose the heaviest thing, but it’s tricky because you should follow the balances and not the shape or the object. This is the heaviest bird I seen in my life.

These are my last results. No bad I think. I’ll try to play every day and see if I can improve my skills.

 

There is also a sequel, Brain Challenge 2: Stress Management, which I’ll get after pass 80% on each ability.

My 8GB MicroSD died (Part V)

I've been busy these days, so I had to ask my dad to put my envelope with my MicroSD in the post office. Now, I can only wait and see if I can get a new one or I should start to search for a 8GB class 6. I’m a bit reluctant to buy a new one. I know myself and if I didn’t think carefully maybe now I would be buying a new one and sending the old one. Luckily the reason was stronger than my whim.

My 8GB MicroSD died (Part IV)

Good news, provider answered and is asking me to send the card back! Well, I expected that without being optimistic. We’re finally agree that the card is broke down. I’ll send it by mail as soon as possible. 

My 8GB MicroSD died (Part III)

I received an answer from my seller. Now we are exchanging e-mails and performing test to the card in order to see if there is something else to do. I’m sure the card is dead but I hope my seller can give me some options. I want my card!

My 8GB MicroSD died (part II)

I could save my info, but not all. As I have another microSD card, I put my info there and now my N95 is working fine. My final touches are re-install some programs.

The previous one is officially dead, as I can’t format it. It’s a HW failure. I wrote an e-mail to the ebay's seller if there is some hope. Also I’m searching for a new one, maybe class 6.

My final status: 

• I lost my data from Wellness Diary. I had to use my previous backup from November and re-import the past entries from Sport Tracker and Step Counter.
  
• I could restore data from Sport Tracker, Step Counter and Mobipocket Reader, but I had to reinstall them.
  

My advise is: take a full backup of the MicroSD time to time. Don’t suffer.

Bad luck is chasing me! My 8GB MicroSD died!

First, my problem with N95 browser, now my little 8GB MicroSD broke down today. I’m trying patiently to rescue all as I can, but cyclic redundancy is failing over and over. Fortunately I performed sync yesterday, but some data (for example Sport Tracker) is not synchronized.

Everything started when I was testing Nokia Download! and installed “Money Manager”. As it was a trial, I proceeded to uninstall it and when I checked some applications disappeared. Also I tried to “update” Sport Tracker using Download!, I think there started the corruption, because I was using the last beta version.

I’m tired now. I’ll continue tomorrow with this rescue mission.

Nokia N95 Problem (part II) – Recovering my apps

I’m continuing with the problem. I can’t recover my apps. I think the problems started when I changed the language of the mobile, sincerely no good idea. Another possible reason was corruption on MicroSD, because later I had problems trying to take the info and put them into my backup card.

To solve the problem, I performed a hard reset, used an empty MicroSD and start again installing the apps. I recovered almost everything, and to achieve that it’s important to know where the data of each application is and how to perform a backup-restore. Here some info:

• Step Counter.- Information is storage in a folder called “StepCounter” inside the mobile or in MicroSD. For each workout exists a .dat file, organized in monthly folders. In my case, I had previously “Activity Monitor” and some of the files are directly in the main directory. Copy all the contents, including subfolders and other files.
  
• Sports Tracker.- Information is storage in a folder called “SportsTracker” inside the mobile or in MicroSD. For each workout exists a .dat file, organized in monthly folders. From previous versions, some of the files are directly in the main directory. Copy all the contents, including subfolders and other files.
  
• Wellness diary.- Database is in “\System\data\wfrdb.sq” in SQLite format, in your mobile or in MicroSD. If yours is in your mobile, you need YBrowser to access the file. You copy and paste it.
  
• Landmarks.- I didn’t find out where is storage, but I know how to backup and restore. In “Landmarks” app, select all and then send them to your mail or by Bluetooth. You’ll receive a “.lmx” file, a XML like format from Nokia to save the landmarks. To restore them, copy the file to your MicroSD and open the file in the mobile using File Administrator. Automatically opens an application with an option to save them locally.  
  
• Nokia Maps.- All info is in the folder “cities” in the MicroSD. Copy and paste it.
  
• MobiReader.- Books and annotations are stored in “eBooks” folder. Just copy and paste the contents. Synchronize with your PC if necessary.
  

To prevent lost of information, the most recommendable is storage everything in the MicroSD, configuring every application to use it. Also sync it time to time to prevent data lost. 

I hope this post will be useful.

Nokia N95 Problem - Web browser can’t open

Today I wanted to test a WAP application and I couldn’t open the Web browser of N95. Googling I found these forums:

http://discussions.europe.nokia.com/discussions/board/message?board.id=apps&thread.id=1424
http://discussions.nokia.co.uk/discussions/board/message?board.id=messaging&message.id=4446

After reading, I took a backup using “Nokia Content Copier”, synchronized it with my laptop and took of the MicroSD card. Then I tried these things in this order:

• Update the firmware.- I run “Nokia Software Updater” but I doesn’t have available updates.
• Take the battery out for 10 minutes.- Nope, didn’t work.
• Erase cache.- I installed YBrowser (http://www.drjukka.com/YBrowser.html) and deleted all the contents in c:\cache. It didn’t work.
• Soft reset.- I had some problems remembering my password but I finally did it. Bad news, didn’t work.
• Hard reset.- My last chance... crossing my fingers I typed *#7370#. Success!

After check that web browser is working, I restored the “Nokia Content Copier” backup. Another problem: incompatibility of language. One week ago I changed the language of the mobile just for fun. I should use the last language and perform the restore. At this point everything was ok.

The real problems started when I put back the MicroSD card. Started a crosscheck validation between the mobile and card, and the result was some corruption of applications. I reset it several times, deleted files and perform restores with all combinations possible, and at this moment these applications don’t work and I can’t re-install them according with corruption of files during install:

• Wellness diary
• MSN Messenger
• Step Counter
• Nokia Maps 2.0
• Moving Ball (due to no longer valid application)

I’ll continue working on recovering my main apps. My plan is perform a hard reset, format the MicroSD and start over again. Next step is making a list of applications and find out how to recover my personal info.

New panohead for N95

I finish the adaptor to put N95 in the panohead. The adaptor alone looks like this:

With the N95:


And this is all together:

Nokia Sport Tracker - new version

A new version of Nokia Sport Tracker is available here. The new feature is access to satellite maps, but it doesn’t use Nokia Maps data, instead of that connects to the Sport Tracker service to download the maps. I didn’t test it yet, I hope do it soon.

Technological evolution of my mobiles and PDAs

I always said “I don’t want to have a mobile-PDA because when you run out of battery, you lose 2 devices and not only one”, but I finally put them together. The main reason is, if you look at my mobile and PDA evolution, you can understand that mobiles had to evolve a lot to be good PDAs. Here is my evolution:

My Panohead

I did this panoramic head two years ago, when I were really passionate about 360° panoramic photos. I’m still an enthusiast and I hope doing some soon, but first I want to show mine to inspire others to make their own. I made this with wood, epoxy, nails, nuts and bolds. Here some pictures with my Canon PowerShot A710 IS: