I have had the Nokia 6500 slide for a while now and it is as I would have expected.
But this has quite annoyed me.
For a start, when I synchronise it with Nokia PC Suite it gives me the option to install Nokia Maps. i would like to, even though the mobile has no GPS functionality it would still be nice to search and look at the maps. Any way that is that really, you cant install them on this.


More annoying is the preinstalled TrafficTV app in the phone. on initial boot it looks like a maps app sort of thing and I played with it for a while, but was worried lest I rack up any data costs. I tried deleting it from the phone in case I started playing with it after a few beers, it wouldn’t let me.
Worse was to come, I called Orange Customer Services yesterday on a separate matter and they told me that I had been signed up for a £4 a month contract to TrafficTv, I had made doubly sure that I had not accepted any terms or conditions to that affect. I am super wary of such things these days.
happily they cancelled this dubious obligation on my part and we parted on good terms. I even took up a free 2 month evenings and weekends data offer so felt quite pleased.
To summarise, watch tgose prebundled applications installed on your new mobile phone. They are throwing a lot of money in development of these devices and need to claw it back by increasing average revenue per user……… Sneaky bunch they are.

Well, friends of mine are off to the states ( the Unites Ones ) next month for a few weeks, and had a while to ponder how they would deal with their communications needs whilst over the pond.

They rather sensibly acquired a Pay As You Go American SIM card and then needed a suitable mobile.

Luckily I had a spare Nokia 6230 nokiaing about which is TriBand and unlocked, its talk time is not superb, but they have picked up a car charger from ebay and an American PSU.

They will need to find about networks and call charges I suppose and calling them from Brighton will be expensive so I will forgo that option.

If data charges in the US are as cheap, comparatively , as their fuel charges I guess they will be able to access their email via GPRS as the Nokia 6230 supports this method.

The large storage space of free webmail these days, Gmail or MSN, allows them also to email themselves and store whatever planning documents, maps and information they will need whilst travelling for easy retreival via the web.

The kids, as they do, had been doing my head in on long journeys. In my youth I sat patiently for hours upon end, taking in the scenery and chatting with my parents. This generation is lost without electrical input, it appears; they are like irritating gadgets, always needing a charge, and I can’t be arsed, it is true, to talk for the entire journey (maybe it is evidence of the change in my generation as much as theirs). So I gave in, I bought a portable DVD player, and now have to listen to the soundtrack of Shrek 3 for the whole trip….

Now I am always desperate for some sun and sand, this year the weather has been so dire that a late summer holiday is looking like a necessity.

The school holidays are almost over and I have been looking for a last minute holiday booking. As I am an experienced independent traveller I will happily just book some cheap flights and find a place to stay by myself once I am there.

Lookin, though online at some of the offers available I found many last minute holidays at the Holiday Hypermarket, many of these include self catered apartments and flights. I am wanting to get some Greek Sun on my shoulders, some sand between my toes and some soft rembetika music drifing over the murmuring of the waves on the beach…they have some fantastic deals….

.. All I have to do is to book the holiday, apply for a passport for my eldest and get a sick note so that I can take her out of school on holiday during termtime.