The PhoneBoy Blog

Work, Truphone, Nokia Messaging, RoadSync, and Snowmageddon!

21 Dec 2008

For those of you only follow my blog and don’t follow me on Twitter, I haven’t been saying much here. You might say my attention has been focused elsewhere. I still don’t know who my new employer will be. It is outside of my circle of influence, so I’ve dove head-first into a project related to the divestiture. This is clearly inside my circle of influence, and I’ve made serious headway on it. I may even finish it before whatever deal Nokia makes with the third party closes!

Meanwhile, I just have been completely uninspired in the blogging realm. I read the stuff that comes across my social networks–I haven’t bothered to look in Google Reader for at least a month–and it just seems like more of the same. How many of us are saying the same stuff?

The VoIP industry seems to be touting “lower cost calling” in these tough economic times, which I can’t say I can argue with. For example, the folks from Truphone have managed to make their iPhone application both make and receive calls over WiFi and launched a cheaper calling rate plan that requires a monthly fee. This just seems more of the same, even if it is a message that people are going to want to hear right now.

Other stuff of interest I’ve run across includes the new Nokia Messaging client (formerly Nokia Email). It’s finally usable now that they’ve made it so the client doesn’t jump in your face on startup. It also just seems more polished as well. Runs nice alongside RoadSync on my E71, which I’ve been trying out as well.

RoadSync provides a slightly nicer email interface inside the standard S60 mail interface. I’ve paired it up with the company directory only version of Mail for Exchange, which RoadSync seems to leave out. You have access to the Global Address List inside RoadSync when sending email, but I don’t see a way to search in the Global Address List and add any conatcts found to your phone as a contact.

Finally, of more immediate concern to me is our crazy winter weather here in the Pacific Northwest. After a relatively mild autumn, we started our descent into snowmageddon nearly a week ago. Temps dipped below freezing last weekend and have mostly remained there since. Precipitation has been in the form of snow–something we get around these parts around this time every year, but not to the point where we need roads plowed and sanded. Our municipalities are ill-equipped for this kind of weather, as are local drivers.

Hopefully, I won’t have to go out into the snow on Sunday, as it’s looking like it’s gonna be another nasty day, complete with snow and possibly ice. Depends on what the temperatures end up being, of course.