Life blog

First impressions: The Future of Memories

I’m halfway through a really cool book on photography called Sharing Digital Photos, the future of memories, by Dane M. Howard.

Dane, a designer at Microsoft, has written a great book that covers many aspects of digital and traditional photography – teaching about how to manage digital photos, tips on how to get the best out of your photos, and even some technical aspects of photography. He manages to do it with a light style, plenty of examples and great photos, and without getting too geeky. He also brings in other photographers to give some pointers, kind of like case studies.

Yes, of course he mentions Microsoft products, but he also mentions some other products. He doesn’t mention Microsoft products so much that you think that’s all he’s doing (though in some parts, he’s just bearable). The book is so well designed and written, and the content is so rich, that it was easy to overlook the product plugs.

The level of the subject matter is for the serious home digital photographer, someone who will devote a considerable amount of time to edit, organize, post, and produce digital photos. That is a bit more elaborate than I think the typical Nokia Lifeblog person would want to do.

While it’s fine and dandy to manually do everything with your photos (as is the non-Lifeblog world, anyway), I don’t think everyone wants to get that involved. I think Lifeblog takes a lot of the drudgery out of organizing and browsing digital images, still leaving room for those who want to do more.

Nokia Lifeblog is traveling to Monaco

We will be at the Nokia Mobility Conference 2004 (NMC) next week 3-4 November. We’ll be showing Nokia Lifeblog and then some, so keep a look out for interesting things.

If you happen to be there, look us up at the Lifeblog booth. Ask for Charlie, if you want to meet up with me. Or say nothing and harass the demo folks.

Tchau!

One more comment on Russ's Synch article

Everyone,

I was thinking more about what I said and realized that I left one thing out.

The PC Suite guys are not stupid. They have been working really hard to get it right. But, one thing I think everyone forgets is that Nokia’s PC Suite team has to support something like 30 new phones a year. Uh, how many new Pocket PCs or Palms or Windows Smartphones come out in a year – I am not even sure if it is 30 for the whole lot?

I know what it’s like to deal with 1 or 2 phone programs, imagine 30. So, it’s understandable if things happen a little slower and so on.

And, since Synch is very important to Lifeblog, we are in constant discussions with the PC Suite team and we are rooting for them to grow successfully.

I’m not trying to cover my tusch here, just wanted to keep the story balanced and give some insight into what the PC Suite guys deal with on a daily basis, even without the comments from all of us.

Tchau,

Charlie

Comment on Russ Beattie's Synch frustrations

If getting things to synch between your phone and PC is important to you (it should be if you use Lifeblog), then add your voice to Syncing! Syncing! Syncing! SYNCING!!!, by Russell Beattie.

Here's my comments I put on his site:

Russ,

Ouch ouch ouch. It pains me, but I love your honesty, and I can't get enough of folks hammering (us) to get the Synch stuff together. I need the change too.

Before I joined Nokia I was a Palm V junkie. I first used it with a Mac – that converted Claris app they used on the Mac for calendaring and stuff was great – and had no problems. I used Documents to Go (Dataviz knows synching) and Adobe’s PDF conduit to have my PDF, Word docs and Excel spreadsheets all nice a pretty waiting for me to edit on my Palm or my Mac. When I joined Nokia I had to move to a PC (ugh!). So I used the Chapura conduit to synch seamlessly (yes, absolutely-f-ing-seamlessly) with Outlook. Oh, I had been given a 9100 at the time, but I was so hooked on the full synch from Palm that I couldn’t change. So I used a 6310 and a Palm V as a combo.

Things improved with the 9210, but I was pining for the simplicity and strength of the Palm-Outlook integration I had.

Once I moved to Series 60, I settled for the simpler stuff of contacts and calendar. It was a pain with everything else, especially notes, which I use a lot (I change phones frequently). Finally, though, notes are now synched in the 7610.

Of course, my schitck is Lifeblog. And synch is so f-ing crucial to Lifeblog; I tremble telling people they have to install PC Suite. It’s no secret how reviled PC Suite is (it’s even krappier now); then why is it still around (there I said it, fire me)? I have this amazing app I’m selling and it’s based on such a weak foundation as PC Suite. Damn, how I wish you and Mac Canter had the full Lifeblog working. I want you guys to love Lifeblog, not hate it or put it aside because you can’t get the damn (PC Suite) synch to work. Argh!

Now you got a look into what we, as Lifeblog, are trying to push through. Synch is crucial to our survival. We are just some frilly photo album without synch.

But, Russ, you need to follow this a bit more. We all keep mentioning synch as a single line feature to automagically help us keep everything in the right places. Synch is damn hard to do right. One to one it works. But add a third device and most models – even the best – fall apart.

There’s still a long way for Synch to go. In addition to synching a device to a PC, you need to synch those to the online storage, subset to other devices (such as these playlists to my phone with smaller space and this whole thing to my iPod), and between device from different manufacturers. And then, there’s synch over BT, the air, or cables. It ain’t that easy to sweep aside.

And I have no idea is SynchML is up to it.

Nonetheless, keep yelling. Everyone, do the same. Squeaky wheel get the oil.

Nokia - Lifeblog FAQ - Ugrading from Beta

I just want to draw attention to the upgrade process with Lifeblog.

Normally there should be no problems. But, for once I am cautious. One, because this is my Life we are talking about. Two, becuase being cautious here is not onerous.

So, as the FAQ says, do a transfer, empty the Favourites, uninstall the Beta apps from the PC and phone, then install Lifeblog 1.0.

Nokia - Lifeblog FAQ

How can I upgrade my Nokia Lifeblog Beta software to Lifeblog 1.0?
First, transfer all your new items off your phone and remove everything from your Favorites. This will reduce the chance of duplicates occurring during the upgrade. Then, all you have to do is uninstall the beta version and then install Nokia Lifeblog 1.0. You won't lose any of the items you have collected when using the beta version.

This is only applicable, of course, for those who ar eusing Lifeblog with the phone AND PC. If you are only using the PC software, then just uninstall the older version of Lifeblog on your PC and then install the new version. No problem.

PS - Do not mix the Beta with the 1.0 version. For that matter, always use the proper Lifeblog pair in your PC and phone.

It's the Story, Stupid

We sometimes have our heads way too far up our something or other thinking about features, technical aspects, and other left brained things. But, lately, we have been trying to demo the software without mentioning the software. We want to focus on the story, because it's all about the Story.

Matt Jones, a multifaceted and super guy, sent me this tidbit, which really set off my 'It's the Story, Stupid' thoughts.

Moi!

I liked this comment from the blog of Imran Ali
http://imran.typepad.com/blog/2004/09/metaphotos.html

"This simple tag unlocked a 'metaphoto' - telling a story weaving together people disconnected in time, space and experience and giving the viewer space to project their own narratives."

/matt

And here's the link to the Sleeping slideshow.
It's so cool.

Another Nokia 7610 review that mentions Nokia Lifeblog

Erik's Weblog : My 7610 Journey

My favorite application is definitely Lifeblog. Version 1.0 has just been released.

I liked it even before I had the phone. That's the main reason I wrote LifeBlogger. The addition of the phone made it even better.

A favourable comment from Gizmodo

There have been some great reviews of Nokia Lifeblog lately, and here's one comment that made us chuckle here in Lifeblog Land.

Gizmodo : Nokia 7610 Reviewed

It seems the 7610 is very much oriented around Nokia's LifeBlog software, which isn't a bad thing, but certainly of note if you're expecting to use it as a business phone—it's just doesn't have the software bent for that.

Five ways to use your Lifeblog

I had forgotten about what I wrote in the help file and wrote this for another purpose internally:

Let your phone be your Life Recorder - your phone does the work of collecting your fun times, Lifeblog automatically does the work of putting it all in order.

Create a video diary of your life - just record it with your phone, Lifeblog keeps it organized.

Keep your phone and digital camera items all in one place - import your digital still photos into Lifeblog, view everything side by side.

Add your touch to your automatic multimedia diary - all because it’s automatic, doesn’t mean you can’t add notes, import graphics files, or give more detail to make it yours.

Watch something change over time - take a picture of it with your phone everyday, label the picture each time, and search for it to reveal the whole progression.