Nokia Ovi Suite 2.0 : What PC Suite should have been
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Technology on June 30th, 2009
Nokia users are using Nokia PC Suite since god knows when. It is a software I first used with a Nokia 6600 4 or 5 years back. It looks still the same, except for the updated icons maybe. Nokia was lacking behind Microsoft when it comes to a Mobile phone’s desktop counterpart application. They tried to succeed with Noka Ovi Suite 1.0 which was created in WPF for Windows XP, Vista & Windows 7 but it lacked SMS & Contact Management feature & Instead gave Music, video, photo management instead. Seriously Nokia, a phone is for making calls also.
Recently Nokia released Nokia OVI Suite beta 2.0. This time it is made using Qt Framework due to which it is very slim is size compared to over 200 MB for WPF based Nokia Ovi suite 1.0. Lets not talk about Nokia PC Suite 7.x as UI wise it was garbage. Though it was pretty fast & used to do everything fine. Development in Qt also gives Nokia the ability to port Ovi Suite to Linux & Mac OS. Since Nokia is a device vendor, the best way for them to make money & capture market share is to make there product available on all OS.
Sony Ericsson released SE File Manager & then Media Manager which bought a nice UI & experience. Nokia just one upped them with Ovi Suite 2.0. Things are clearly laid out in the new Ovi Suite.
The home tab has everything you will usually need. It shows a glance at all your contacts, SMS, Pictures & Music on the device. You can also connect the phone to internet for using GPRS/3G on your PC using this Ovi Suite. Nokia is touting Ovi suite as the only connectivity application you will ever need & they are not wrong. It can even update the phone’s firmware, applications from Nokia etc.
I don’t use Outlook anymore but it even supports syncing your contacts & notes, calendars with Outlook or some other colander. You can add contacts using Ovi Suite & it will sync it with the Phone next time when you sync it. I disabled automatic sync because then it takes time to get usable after starting.
SMS is in the form of threaded SMS. Now I am someone who cleans his Sent items folder so its of no use for me. But for those who don’t, its actually good. You can also make smart filters which will sort SMS they way you define. Not just that, you can see SMS by Contacts or a list of all SMS. It also shows the SMS saved in the “My Folder” of SMS application. Though I prefer the old PC suite way in which it used to show SMS saved in folders inside “My Folder” in a tree view. I am filing a bug, hope Nokia is able to incorporate that feature.
You can also use Ovi Suite to sync your Music, but I prefer Windows Media Player for that which automatically converts music to WMA & my Phone as well as PC are in Sync. For some reason Ovi suite doesn’t converts songs, it just copies them as they are.
If you have Ovi Suite connected to your phone via Bluetooth then it shows a notification when there is a new SMS or Call in the system tray too.
From what it seems, Nokia is trying to bring an experience unrivaled by any other Phone manufacturer. They now have there own music store too which makes sense as people are using more & more there phones for there music needs as well as video. Having an all in one Suite like Ovi Suite can make the N Series phones just more user friendly. You can download Ovi Suite 2.0 from Nokia Labs
Real Life > Orkut, Facebook etc etc
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Life on May 29th, 2009
I was going over my Orkut & Facebook profile today, & was thinking whether they even matter in today’s world? Sure Social Networking sites help us in meeting new people, I have myself met many people like that who are now my very good real life friends but here is the thing, they are now my real life friends…isn’t it.
Social Networking sites are no longer in between me & my friends. If I need to talk to them or communication I either use the Phone or IM/E-Mail them. If I want to share some pictures, I upload them on Flickr & share with them. If it is some Presentation Slide, I use SlideShare, if I want to share a Video, I upload them on Youtube or just mail them.
The only benefit of Social networking sites for me is to meet new people, get to know them a bit & then bring the Friendship to real world where it is better to have it. I just don’t like the concept of Online Friendship, it should be bought to real life as soon as possible. Many times I have met some people online on Social networking sites, who are afraid to show themselves in real, specially girls. Now I do understand the security concerns as one of my ex-friend also faced the same problem but simply, unless 2 people talk, they can’t know each other. Anyone can fake on a Computer screen about anything, trust is something only real life can create.
How many of you readers rely on Social Networking sites for communicating with your friends? Sometimes I check my Facebook or Orkut Profile after 5 or 6 days & there are not many updates on my Scrapbook/Wall. The communication is direct with them once we are Real life Friends.
Grafitti : C.P, New Delhi
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Pictures on May 19th, 2009
I am posting this cos I haven’t seen an art like this in Delhi anywhere. This doesn’t count all the wall drawings, posters, ads I see all over the walls of Delhi’s architecture.
First week at SlideShare ends
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Life on May 15th, 2009
Today marks the end of my first official week of work in SlideShare, New Delhi. Its going good so far. Since I took a home close to office, traveling isn’t much of a problem & I can even walk from office to home, considering its 5 KM from my home.
I haven’t finished setteling down in New Delhi yet. Most of my cloths, stuff isn’t here yet & we still have to buy a dustbin & another water bucket. I hope a trip to Amar Colony Market will solve these problems, over the weekend. I might have to go to Lucknow over the weekend next month to get my bike to New Delhi. Spending Rs 25-30 everyday one way on traveling is costly.
The first day I joined SliedShare I was told to give an Inaugeral speech on “How can geeks score girls”. Well, the team here is good, helpful & helps in learning a lot…. but comon, I am sure everyone is well versed in this area already. Oh! & we got 3 Saurav here including me, so we are having an Identity Crisis here. When Boss calls from Saurav, its confusing who he is calling. I told them to call me “GX” but then GX is not a professional name (it never was)… so I m still trying to figure out nick name. “Rake” might work out too.
First 2 days were used in configuring my workstation here only. I hope I will soon get a bigger LCD Monitor as reading text on a CRT is giving me headache as I am not habitual to CRT anymore. I might also get a laptop from SlideShare as my primary machine.
I started learning HTML, XHTML & CSS using W3schools & htmldog by the guidence of our Tech Lead, Kapil Mohan. He teaches good. I am not giving my ideas of UI here yet as that I would prefer to give after 1 or 2 months only.
I will be bringing my workstation here only after 3 months. Till then I will work on my phone only. It was a good decision to buy Nokia N79, it no less then a small PC itself.
Today is the weekend at SlideShare, but my week never ends.
Time to leave Infranix I.T Solutions
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Life on May 1st, 2009
This is to inform everyone that I am leaving for Delhi & will be working with Slideshere, New Delhi office now under the supervision of Amit Ranjan & Kapil Mohan from May 2009 onwards.
I will be out of touch of internet for some days till I am able to get a new SIM. I won’t be taking my PC with me so the only way of communication will be my new number & will be accessing internet through my Phone & GPRS.
I needed this job, needed a reason & way to get out of Lucknow again. This time I hope I won’t do the mistakes I did last time & life will be better. Compared to the last time when I was working in Delhi, I know about Web 2.0 , about 100% more which my work speaks.
I am over the relationship crap now. The emotions switch is off. I lost some people but gained few people too. Divy Prakash was right, there is no point crying for someone who treats you like shit, leave him/her & move on, I did & I sure found better people.
Its like a new beginning with new people, new job, new relationships which I am more serious about this time as being a Casanova will spoil my name only in the long run.
It was a pleasure working at Infranix with the fellow member & the team.
New Blog theme
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Life, Web Portfolio on April 23rd, 2009
I am using the “Japan Style” theme for wordpress from quite some time. But wanted to go for something else so for a change I decided to go with Fusion theme. It white & not too designer, I am still keeping this theme under consideration. How is it? Please leave your comments whether this theme is good or the previous theme was better.
MCon Outdoor Advertising : Amalgamation of 3D & 2D in Web Designing.
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in 3D Portfolio, Web Portfolio on April 21st, 2009
Few days ago I was given the job to design the website of a Mumbai based Outdoor advertising which was to be made all in Flash. Now, Flash takes lots of time to load but also gives us some interactivity which isn’t possible in JavaScript.
I made the concept for MCons by looking at one of my old 3ds Max renders of Urban Colony. I went with a 3d Perspective & made real boards on which ads are shown outside our home.
This is how the modified design of MCons would look like.
When the user clicks on the mailbox, it opens a slide out animation for this contact form.
We are also told to add cat & dog animation as they are the company’s trademark which will be added by Flash. My fellow ex-colleague at Infranix are working on it.
This is my last work in Infranix. Next work is going to be for SlideShare.
Destination Holiday
Posted by Saurav Srivastava in Web Portfolio on April 20th, 2009
Destination Holiday is a Travel Agency in Lucknow. For there website, they wanted a design which was is something like a paper brochure. They wanted something which they can simply tell the user to print & it will still look good.
I started with a Paper Texture background which I later reduced a bit. At the homepage all you get is thumbnails of various place’s pictures where destination Holiday provides service & touring etc. When you mouse over any thumbnail a Tooltip opens which has some information about that place as shown in the screenshot. The tooltip is made using JavaScript
Once clicked, another page opens with information regarding the place using simple accordian. This Place content page is under revision right now which might change if the client gives further feedback.
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