Oct 31, 2010
Oct 30, 2010
OVI app wizard (strange and discriminatory) quality criteria
Few weeks ago, during a rainy week end, I discovered OVI wizard, a powerful and flexible tool for non-professional developers. Output of this wizard from Nokia store is an RSS / Atom feed reader for mobile devices. If the user own a site, as for example a blog, which feed content or comments that OVI app wizard is the solution to mobilize it.
Shortly, the customer only choose colors, icon, write the description for so called application, choose the language and finally submit his work to OVI store for where these will be available for users all over the world. Simply and efficient. Moreover, Nokia has in place a quality review, as final step before reader (called application) to be really submitted into the store. Excellent idea ! Improved quality will make customer happy. And willingness even to spend money in store !
But what is behind this quality check ?
I set up two app for two different blogs I manage. First, for Mobile Art, this one. I choose colors, icon, description ... and language. English. Because, as you can see, all titles and posts are in English. Even this is not my native language. And choose a global distribution for my application. It passed through OVI quality check, release into store and globally distributed. In only two weeks get more than 5,000 downloads all over the world - according with OVI wizard statistics. Site traffic from Symbian OS get on first place versus different Windows versions and flavours.
Then, one week ago, I made some small changes to the viewer. In fact only one. I added an RSS generated by comments made on blog by visitors. Nothing else, nothing special. I re-submit the app to quality check before the up-date to be released into the store.
I had a big surprise receiving the resolution from quality team. The submitted app was rejected on quality control. Reason - mismatch between selected language of the reader (application) and site content. Indeed, some of the comments made by visitors on the blog are in my native language. Romanian. And I choose language app to be English. Don't forget that we are talking here about a photo blog ! Something for admiring not reading. The same resolution came few days after for my persoanl blog. Which indeed is in Romanian.
I edit the app, choose my native language as reader language and few steps ahead I get a again an unpleasant surprise. Based on my language choice distribution of the app in OVI cannot be globally anymore. Is limited on three countries where Nokia assume to be Romanians communities. Moldavia, Hungary and Romania. No more globally ! No update available for over 5,000 which already downloaded the app from OVI !
I sent an e-mail to OVI wizard support explaining that large Romanian communities are in Spain, Italy, Germany, US and Canada. Tell them that UE is an concept to break barriers between countries and far away from granting permissions based on such subjective reason as native language. Tell them that such distribution criteria make me feel discriminated. Their (very fast) answer was a positive one. Yes, we will submit your application for quality review ... Few days later it appear indeed into OVI store.
But the story is far to have an happy end. I've made some changes in both my app again. First of all I've noticed that for my personal blog distribution is still limited even after Nokia answer. On those three countries ... And Mobile Art ... was rejected again on quality check. For same language mismatch reason. On comments ! Some are in Romanian. I write back to Nokia. This time no answer.
Discrimination ? Corporation unable to handle properly the customer care mechanism ? Unproper quality criteria in place and customer feedback not correctly processed and considered ? Yes, all of them in the same place, under the same name and good idea - OVI App Wizard !
Shortly, the customer only choose colors, icon, write the description for so called application, choose the language and finally submit his work to OVI store for where these will be available for users all over the world. Simply and efficient. Moreover, Nokia has in place a quality review, as final step before reader (called application) to be really submitted into the store. Excellent idea ! Improved quality will make customer happy. And willingness even to spend money in store !
But what is behind this quality check ?
I set up two app for two different blogs I manage. First, for Mobile Art, this one. I choose colors, icon, description ... and language. English. Because, as you can see, all titles and posts are in English. Even this is not my native language. And choose a global distribution for my application. It passed through OVI quality check, release into store and globally distributed. In only two weeks get more than 5,000 downloads all over the world - according with OVI wizard statistics. Site traffic from Symbian OS get on first place versus different Windows versions and flavours.
Then, one week ago, I made some small changes to the viewer. In fact only one. I added an RSS generated by comments made on blog by visitors. Nothing else, nothing special. I re-submit the app to quality check before the up-date to be released into the store.
I had a big surprise receiving the resolution from quality team. The submitted app was rejected on quality control. Reason - mismatch between selected language of the reader (application) and site content. Indeed, some of the comments made by visitors on the blog are in my native language. Romanian. And I choose language app to be English. Don't forget that we are talking here about a photo blog ! Something for admiring not reading. The same resolution came few days after for my persoanl blog. Which indeed is in Romanian.
I edit the app, choose my native language as reader language and few steps ahead I get a again an unpleasant surprise. Based on my language choice distribution of the app in OVI cannot be globally anymore. Is limited on three countries where Nokia assume to be Romanians communities. Moldavia, Hungary and Romania. No more globally ! No update available for over 5,000 which already downloaded the app from OVI !
I sent an e-mail to OVI wizard support explaining that large Romanian communities are in Spain, Italy, Germany, US and Canada. Tell them that UE is an concept to break barriers between countries and far away from granting permissions based on such subjective reason as native language. Tell them that such distribution criteria make me feel discriminated. Their (very fast) answer was a positive one. Yes, we will submit your application for quality review ... Few days later it appear indeed into OVI store.
But the story is far to have an happy end. I've made some changes in both my app again. First of all I've noticed that for my personal blog distribution is still limited even after Nokia answer. On those three countries ... And Mobile Art ... was rejected again on quality check. For same language mismatch reason. On comments ! Some are in Romanian. I write back to Nokia. This time no answer.
Discrimination ? Corporation unable to handle properly the customer care mechanism ? Unproper quality criteria in place and customer feedback not correctly processed and considered ? Yes, all of them in the same place, under the same name and good idea - OVI App Wizard !
Oct 29, 2010
Oct 28, 2010
Oct 27, 2010
Oct 26, 2010
iPhone 3Gs photo camera review
| # | Category | Feature | Comments, details |
| 1 | Introduction | Facts | Down the road, Apple had an update on June 19, 2009 to their phone devices. Equipped with a faster processor than the other two previous models iPhone 3Gs became rapidly a dream for more and more Apple fans. Pushed by the competition iPhone 3Gs came with a higher resolution camera 3.2Mp compared to previous model which had 2.0Mp. |
| 2 | Body and design | Handling | In your hands as a phone, iPhone is nice: good grip, precise typing, responsive. When it comes to photo camera, holding by two hands it's OK. When holding with one hand it's still OK in case of a regular portrait photo. In case of a landscape photo... handling with one hand is annoying. |
| 3 | Operation and controls | Photo camera | Not that great. No physical button for taking shots. |
| 4 | Menu | Photo camera | On standard iphone photo camera app - there are no settings available. For those that are willing to go deeper on the photo area, on AppStore there are hundreds of apps for better camera control. |
| 5 | Sharing | Share photo content | First time download to computer: nightmare! You have to install iTunes or some other dedicated apps that can be found on the web. Once you have this apps things are getting more easier, but not as easy like for some other phone brands. I have to admit that in terms of sharing your photos by using the phone platform it's one of the greatest experiences: just tap and you can email it, upload it on FaceBook, etc. |
| 6 | Photo camera experience | Point and shoot | Camera resolution is enough for any application, even for printing. For postcard 10x15cm (4x6") for printing at 300dpi there are 2.1Mp needed. With its 3.2Mp, iPhone 3Gs is more than enough even in case of a picture crop. |
| Image quality | For its size, iPhone 3Gs it's a great camera tool. JPEG compression is not that high. The colors are looking good. No significant distortions due to lenses. | ||
| Autofocus | You can tap anywhere on the screen and within a half a second the image is focused in that area. | ||
| Low light conditions | Very noisy. Hard to focus. Not recommended to be used in low light. | ||
| Camera lag | Starting iOS 4: very fast. | ||
| White balance | Auto all the time. On bright sun the pictures are a little bit red. Dedicated WB settings for sunlight, fluorescent, cloudy are desired. | ||
| Exposure, Metering, Dynamics | Due to matrix metering overall dynamics perceived by end user is lowered. For even lighted subjects, the pictures are looking OK. Exposure compensation would have been nice also. When tap for focus, the camera is adjusting overall exposure for right exposure in focus area. In case of bright areas due to low sensor dynamic it cannot adjust good enough and that area remains overexposed. | ||
| 7 | Battery life | Consumption | For day to day usage, there is no significant decrease in battery life. |
| 8 | Conclusion | Pros | Simple to use as a point and shot camera. Camera shortcut easy to find. Accessing the picture library very facile. Geotagging, orientation sensor |
| Cons | Noise in low light condition, no aperture control, no exposure time control, no WB control, no dedicated camera button | ||
| The final word | Considering all the advantages that iPhone as a phone has, you can live with all the missing features - no aperture control, no WB, no shutter speed control - and you can still make really nice pictures. You can install some post processing tools and the pictures will look even better! | ||
| 9 | General specifications | Dimensions | 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 |
| Weight | 135 grams | ||
| Storage | 8GB, 16GB, 32GB | ||
| Display size | 3.5 inches | ||
| Display pixel dimensions | 480 x 320 (HVGA) | ||
| Display resolution | 163 ppi | ||
| Display type | LCD (Color TFT/TFD) | ||
| Display touch | Multi touch, capacitive | ||
| Body material | Plastic, metal - glossy finish | ||
| 10 | Photo specifications | Sensor type | CMOS |
| Sensor dimensions | Unknown | ||
| Sensor resolution | 3.2 megapixels | ||
| Lens diameter | Unknown | ||
| Optical zoom | No | ||
| Photo mode | Yes | ||
| Movie mode | Yes | ||
| Flash | No | ||
| Metering modes | Auto | ||
| Focus modes | Autofocus, Manual focus - tap to focus | ||
| Macro | Yes, up to 10cm | ||
| File formats | JPG | ||
| Exposure compensation | No | ||
| Exposure | Auto | ||
| ISO sensitivity | Unknown | ||
| White balance | Auto | ||
| Image dimensions | 2048 x 1536 | ||
| Image quality | predefined | ||
| Orientation sensor | Yes | ||
| Photo file size | ~1.2MB | ||
| Geotagging | Yes |
Oct 25, 2010
N96
After N95 I used N96 for about six months. According to Nokia there are no differences between cameras on 95 and 96 models, so, at least theoretically, pictures came with same quality. But as user experience I find out one annoying thing on this device.
This is related with the push (click) button. I found it to be too short. Not much, maybe 1 mm or even less. But enough to make the user to hold the phone by using more his left hand.When click button is pushed there are chances to move all the device and picture to came out blurry. It took me a while to find a way to hold it still for good pictures but I my impression was that it require more attention on this versus N95.
I use N96 only with v20 firmware. This led to blurry pictures on "close up" scenes. Few days ago I updated it to v30 and I noticed real improvements on camera output quality.
Overall, 95 and 96 were, in my opinion, the start point for a mini-revolution on camera-phone. I get nice pictures with both of them and had that customer experience which made me continue on this road.
Next step was N97. Some words about my user experience with his camera in following days.
This is related with the push (click) button. I found it to be too short. Not much, maybe 1 mm or even less. But enough to make the user to hold the phone by using more his left hand.When click button is pushed there are chances to move all the device and picture to came out blurry. It took me a while to find a way to hold it still for good pictures but I my impression was that it require more attention on this versus N95.
I use N96 only with v20 firmware. This led to blurry pictures on "close up" scenes. Few days ago I updated it to v30 and I noticed real improvements on camera output quality.
Overall, 95 and 96 were, in my opinion, the start point for a mini-revolution on camera-phone. I get nice pictures with both of them and had that customer experience which made me continue on this road.
Next step was N97. Some words about my user experience with his camera in following days.
Oct 24, 2010
Oct 23, 2010
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