This post is a bit overdue.. its been in notes mode since September. I guess most people who wanted an E71 already have one by now, but I’ll give you a few thoughts on my new toy.
I love it. Best phone I’ve ever had.
Weird how a week before you can get the E71 nobody in the mobile phone market has a clue what you are talking about.. you get the signature George Bush confused look when you ask about an ETA.. and then suddenly it’s advertised everywhere from the airport to girly magazines. The GSM companies really need to have better comms with their resellers.
Before we start, I had an E61 before this, so I’m going to compare these. Let’s see..
The best feature of this phone is the QWERTY keypad and the Notes application. I use this everyday. It’s my augmented memory. Keep notes on the phone, process to text and todo list once a week. In fact it has two Notes applications, which is handy to keep those long term notes like bank details, PO box details etc.
You’ll notice the E71 keypad does not have the usual alphabet dialing hints.. try dial 0861 AMOBIA
The keypad is smaller than the E61, but I think I can type faster on the E71 because of the shape of the keys. Better feedback.
The screen is smaller, but works well. Good rez, brightness and contrast.
It sucks that you have to hold down 3 keys to do Ctrl-C.. not fun when you use Emacs style editors.
It general it’s a much better design than the E61, solid feel, nice size, good looks, rugged. I’ve dropped it twice (actually Mia dropped it once), no problem.
Good battery life.. I get 3 - 4 days, sometimes 5. The GPS sucks battery.. as you would expect.
It boots up a lot faster than the E61. Very nice.
Camera is a bit crap.. but functional. Kinda handy that it has a macro mode (press T).
The UI is guru friendly, not user that friendly, bit strange at times. Especially when you want to configure a SIP account on get your Bluetooth car kit to pair.
GPS-nav works well. The voice guide is pretty cool. Speaker phone speaker is at the top of the phone, handy when you are driving with the phone in your shirt pocket. Works well if you receive calls while in maps mode.
GPS-nav works well with a Bluetooth car kit.. but it gets annoying when your music keeps being interrupted.
I found that the calendar syncing works well with my Mac. One snag was that there seems to be a max character length for event descriptions.
Would be cool if it had a torch.
All the rest of the toys are there.. it’s really an office away from the office, mobile phone, sip phone, car phone, ssh client, watch, camera, calendar, alarm clock, wifi, web browser, podcast player, fashion accessory, thing to play with when people get boring etc..
I think the E71 is the anti-iPhone.. it assumes it has a smart person driving it. It’s geeky and fun to explore. You can spend a lot of time trying all the features and playing with the config until it’s just the way you want it. I’m talking weeks.. if you tend to over-focus on these kind of things like some people. (Not Me!, never)
I like the idea that it’s an open platform.. and it has a SIP client.
This phone may be intimidating for a first time E series user. You have to grin when you see the Sea Point koogirls with this phone.. they can’t be using 5% of the features.
I overheard somebody saying: “the HTC is the best converged phone.. it does everything equally crap!”
The E71 is not perfect, but everything works well. It has my vote for the best phone on the market today.
I (finally) took an Audi R8 for a spin. Brilliant weather. Insanely fun.
It was a white V8 4.2l FSI R-tronic.. which you can pick up for just over 1.4 bars.
The first thing you notice is the clean and solid design. It feels like sports car.. but it’s very much a luxury German auto mobile inside. All the toys included.
It’s a little too small to get laid IN it, but you get laid the minute you get out of it! — Crazy People
The R-tronic gearbox in sports mode is just crazy. The rev counter climbs about as fast as the grin on your face grows… it just does not want to drive slow.
You can feel this car leap through its gears.. just noisy enough. Handling is perfect. Like a space ship.. maybe too perfect.
I’m guessing the manual model will be more fun, but you need to have a car like this for at least a week to know its limits.
Yes, it turns heads, it’s pure thrill, a car for the pure pleasure seeker.
Week 43. Cape Town in the Summertime. Wish you were here.. (to all the London friends)
Monday, Jamaica Me Crazy R29 burger, babies don’t sleep this good.. yeah, Sunday was a bit rowdy.
Tuesday, gym, swim, bumped into Rob and Sarah, watched Choke at the Labia.. it was OK.
Wednesday, Cape Town’s finest taxi service, Wakami with Cath and Parri, Andy cooked a nice dinner.
Thursday, Clifton 4th at 4pm, Camps Bay walk, trail run at the foot of Signal Hill, drinks at Asoka.. try the Porn Star Martini, attempted to finish watching Seven, but fell asleep again.
Friday, 9 (Mickey Mouse) holes at the River Club with Parri, lunch with Jono, fetched Meebs, a bit of shopping with Cath, nice drive to Betty’s, home made gourmet burgers for supper.
Saturday, a relaxed windy day in Betty’s, nice dinner with a big group of cool people, Cath made an awesome Pavlova.
Sunday, early morning beach walk with Mia, day with my mom, Stellenbosch botanical garden, Beads, walk (and a swim for Meebs) at the Eerste Rivier bridge, seared tuna and Hartenberg Chardonnay ‘06 at Fishmonger.
“Everyone knows, anything goes” — RHCP
Interesting how you can instinctively tell that some people will make good parents.
Been thinking about Cape Town after reading a Cape Times article, it basically said Cape Town has become a global city with lots of lots of inequality.. because of a number of trends and many capetonians pushing and engineering it to be a first world city. I guess it can be a city of wild mood swings.. with a lot of pressure to get with the program and keep up the social calendar. The price you pay for being able to stroll down to Clifton on a random afternoon.
Feel like I’m living a bit of an inverse Jerry Maguire story in the time of shake and bake families.
Idea of the week:
“Nothing worth having comes without a risk” — Choke, Anjelica Huston
For those who are new to this blog, this is my weekly list of diary entries, random ideas and general self absorbed rants.. because I can.
“Vanity is definitely my favorite sin.” — The Devil’s Advocate
Monday, a visit to Christo’s office to chat about our party invite design, burger at Da Vinci’s, try the Brussels burger with caramelised pear.
Tuesday, meeting at the Westin Grand hotel, drinks at Neigborhood bar with Parri and Cath.
Wednesday, Lions Head walk for a bit of a tan, took an R8 for a spin (finally).. insanely fun, tea with Tim at Melissa’s in Constantia, flight to Jozi, sushi with the infamous Thomas.
Thursday, Joburg, early morning run in Bryanston, ISPA media breakfast at Piccolo Mondo.. Nelson Mandela square, cruised around the Sandton malls a bit, killing time at the airport.. felt a bit like Roger Wilco in Space Quest 4. Met Thomas at Vida before my flight home.
Friday, got a new car.. it has four seats.. goodbye frog-mobile. Dinner at home with Mia and friends.
Saturday, Elgin organic market with the Web2 geeks, Georg and Mia, Grabouw Country Club visit, took Mia to see her grandma and play on the beach.
Sunday, Lions Head walk with Jules, Nikki and Ben, a braai at home.. yum, Glen Beach and the Camps Bay strip with Georg, Andy and Parri. Project Mayhem.
Music the great communicator.
Sweet talk but don’t intimidate her.
Can’t stop the gods from engineering.
This life is more than ordinary.
Can I get 2 maybe even 3 of these.
This life is more than just a read thru.
– RHCP, Can’t Stop
Wednesday, swim at the Long Street baths with Andy.. the place sure has character, Teraco Cape Town site visit, chaired the ISPA INX working group meeting, off to Stellenbosch to chair an Amobia meeting, burger at Cognito.
Thursday, gym, swim, took a day off.. bit of a metrosexual day, haircut and manicure at Mooi, scalp massage while listening to Abba.. *grin*, (sorry B), they have cupcakes and wine, then tea at Mango-OMC, took the ladies a box of Cassis Pastisserie creations, an Am I Collective visit, a quick Neotel meeting, facial at Elements, run in the foresty areas at the foot of Signal Hill, wholesome veggie dinner, Asoka, Extreme Hotel.. which could be a nice bar if you could get some service there.
Try Malibu and Peartizer. Try a few drops of Tabasco and Malibu in a shot glass.
Friday, gym, power plate (seems to tone facial muscles more than anything else, hehe), 1km swim, took a walk down to Daily Deli to have brunch with somebody really cool, test drove a GTI DSG, then an A4 cab, Mia time, had some fun with a voting system (for a good cause), popped on to IRC for the first time in about 3 years, a friend had a DUI incident so Georg had to go bail him out the next day.
Saturday, gym, swim with Mia, Sinn’s ice cream, braai with friends on the deck at home, took Mia to the Spring Tide (jail bait) festival on Camps Bay beach wearing her new rocker chick t-shirt. Watched JacSharp play. Cocktails with Jules, Nicola and Ben at Caprice. Mia says she wants to be rock star.
Sunday, Tamboerskloof park swings visit, braai at home, had a bit of a moment when Mia climbed up a cupboard and swallowed a whole Barocca Calmag, she later threw up on her mom, Rafiki’s to plan our housewarming, it’s going to be a big one, watched Seven again.
Somebody asked me on Friday if I’m changing or if I’m returning to my natural state.. interesting question, “I changed by not changing at all” — Pearl Jam, vs.
Idea of the week..
The making of a good compilation tape is a very subtle art. Many Dos and Don’ts. First of all you’re using some one else’s poetry to express how you feel. This is a delicate thing.”
The making of a great compilation tape is hard to do and takes ages longer than it might seem. You gotta kick off with a killer, to grab attention. Then you got to take it up a notch, but you don’t wanna blow your wad, so then you got to cool it off a notch. There are a lot of rules. Anyway… I’ve started to make a tape… in my head…
– High Fidelity
I was introduced to the local game at Carlisle’s in Vredehoek last night. It’s called: Nails. Good fun.
You’ll find a big chunk of wood at the back (past the bar) with a few people standing around it. The object of the game is to drive your nail into the log before the other guys do. The catch is that you have to use the wrong side of the hammer.. the narrow/sharp side. The hammer must be at your side when you start your swing. The hammer gets passed around the log, one hit per player per turn..
The last guy to drive in his nail (flush) buys a round of drinks.
Simple.. yeah, but it’s not that easy. Go try it. I kicked butt (first to drive in my nail).
Ahh, the joys of bachelorhood and public holidays.
This is Joe's blog. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
At the moment I seem to write weekly bullet lists on what keeps me busy.. also, geeky things, music, fast cars, telecoms, technology and the politics of technology.
Getting there (swimmingly) is all the fun -- The Zen Frog.
