--- 
layout: post
title: Nokia N78 First take and setup
created: 1220128938
categories: 
- Nokia
- S60
- Series 60
- Nokia N78
- N78
- Roland Tanglao
- Dave Olson
- Nokia N80
- N80
- AutoLock
- iSync
- Wireless, Cellular, and Mobile
---
<img src="http://bmannconsulting.com/sites/bmannconsulting.com/files/Picture 17.png" align="left" hspace="10" vspace="10 />
<p><a href="http://uncleweed.net">Dave Olson</a> caved and got an iPhone, so the Nokia N78 he was testing for <a href="http://rolandtanglao.com">Roland</a> has now made its way to me (my previous phone has been the Nokia N80). Thanks to both for making it available to me.</p>

<p>Here is the <a href="http://europe.nokia.com/A4799134">Nokia N78</a> on Nokia's website for full tech specs etc.</p>

<p>First reactions:</p>
<ul>
<li>much slimmer! almost half the height of the N80</li>
<li>not a slider ... I had gotten used to the convenient / easy lock and unlock that the slider activates. Guess I'll be download <a href="http://s60addons.com/autolock/">AutoLock</a> again.</li>
<li>wow, the keypad on this is incredibly annoying! bye bye high speed texting ... I feel like my fat German peasant fingers have to use the edge of my fingernail to use them</li>
<li>speaker and sound is awesome. Regular headphone jack, yay! FM tuner, very cool, I'm going to make a lot of use of this. Dedicated volume buttons, also great. There is much more music functionality to explore here...</li>
<li>comes with FM antenna headset thingie with remote volume and playback controls, as I said, music quality is very good, although the ear plugs are slightly small for my ears</li>
<li>lightly tapping the back button seems to not close the app you are in, but bring you back to the menu. The menu / app switching seems easier, but at the same time confusing. Why not make the funny asterisk symbol the same as the Nokia "menu" button that is on all their phones?</li>
<li>the camera is much fancier -- only slightly more megapixels, but all sorts of autofocus features that make it feel more like a "real" digital camera; the flash is three times the size of the N80's</li>
<li>video much improved -- now at 640x480, with excellent focus and sound quality</li>
<li>USB data connection -- yay! not using standard USB mini connection -- boo!</li>
<li>can the USB connection also do charging? don't know, it did come with a charger</li>
<li>comes with a 2GB even-smaller-format memory card (I've given up on remembering the names for different formats ... I have three or four different "mobile" memory cards, plus SD for my camera...)</li>
<li>there is Share Online which lets you connect to Flickr, Ovi, and some other stuff out of the box. Not quite set up yet.</li>
<li>GPS! Haven't wandered around outside to test yet, but first impression is that it is very slow to get a GPS lock. After installing Google Maps app, the cell tower only location put me in the middle of Howe Sound (I'm on Bowen at the moment) -- I actually still consider that pretty good. Definitely going to be doing more experimenting with this.</li>
</ul>

<p>My other "first reaction" is that it's clear that I've been a Symbian S60 user for a long time: there are certain apps that I always download / setup. I'll be cataloging those in another post, in part for my own use so I can go to one page and quickly download all the apps that I want on every phone. Like my experience in setting up a fresh install / new Mac, this would seem to indicate a certain level of maturity in S60. Or perhaps a clear line of what they will include and won't with the base OS, so there are distinct areas where third party apps flourish.</p>

<p>For those on the Mac, the N78 is not supported by default. You'll need to <a href="http://europe.nokia.com/mac/isync/">download the N78 iSync plugin from Nokia Europe</a> (thanks to <a href="http://craniumology404.blogspot.com/2008/08/nokia-n78-isync-mac.html">Carniumology404 for being the first hit for that</a>).</p>

<p>Back to installing apps...</p>
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