Using the Nokia 6220 Classic while traveling

"Pool's ok, but it's kinda hot here"

Just before I left for my vacation I published a post describing the mobile vacation kit I would be taking with me.

Now that I have returned from the vacation, this is a sort of follow up post - for what purposes did I actually use my mobile phone(s)? And did I get to use all the stuff I took with me?

The short answer to that last question is yes - I did get to use most of the stuff in my mobile vacation kit. As a more elaborate answer to both questions, I have drawn up a list of all the things I have been using my mobile phones for.

• Making calls (obvious)
• Sending text messages (obvious)
• Recording images and video (obvious) - I have put some vacation snapshots on flickr, videos on "Share On Ovi".
• Listening to music
• Using DivXPlayer Mobile
  • I used DivXPlayer Mobile both on the 6220C and with the 6220C (and N95) hooked up with the TV in our holiday apartment. Mainly to entertain my 2 year old daughter with episodes of "Postman Pat" and "Shaun The Sheep" while waiting in airports and on trains, busses and planes. I did also bring along a full length movie for my teenage daughter.
    

    Waiting in airport.

    Hooked up to TV set in hotel room.

  • TV out is such an awesome and useful feature - especially when traveling ultra light, i.e. no laptop. Just bring the TV out cable and hook up to any screen you happen to find.
• 

  No towns or roads.

  Using Nokia Maps and GPS

  • Using navigation was a bit difficult because map data for Kefalonia only defines the contours of the island - information about towns or roads is currently not included.
  • So you have to be creative - I tried to be by making my "own map", dropping waypoints for towns and other significant locations as I visited them. In this way information is gradually added to the map data - information that tells the location of (and distances between) towns etc.
  • I geotagged images shot with the camera.
  • I dropped waypoints where I parked our rental car so I could find it again - there are a lot of white Fiat Puntos on Kefalonia.
• Playing games - mostly Frozen bubble.
• Browsing the internet
  

  Nokia N95 with iGo bluetooth keyboard

  Close up

  • For this I used my N95 - roaming on 3G/GPRS continues to be ludicrously expensive in the EU - more on that in a later post. I was able to use a WiFi hotspot at the next-door hotel.
  • I moderated comments on this blog.
  • Checked e-mail.
  • Topped up my wife's mobile phone (pay-as-you-go, did not have time to top up before leaving on vacation) using a credit card - with the iGo bluetooth keyboard.
  • Checking train time table from airport, for the journey back home.
  • Writing drafts for this - and other - posts. Again using iGo bluetooth keyboard.

The 6220C can only do portrait fullscreen - not rotated fullscreen.

I could have done loads more things, like answering email, posting new blog entries, responding to comments etc. But I did not - partly because I have a rule about not geeking out too much while being on vacation, partly because I did not think to bring along login information for all the various online services I use. Something I have to remember to bring the next time.

The only grief I actually have is that the Nokia 6220 Classic does not auto-rotate the TV-out signal. Videos and images from the gallery are rotated, but if an application like DivXPlayer Mobile is used, there is no way to rotate the image to full screen. This means it is impossible to use all of the screen real estate.

Since returning home, I have found a way to fix this problem. I have installed RotateMe v1.50 by Oueldi Samir - the 1.5 version is for handsets without accelerometer and works really well with the 6220 Classic.

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Related Posts:

• A bunch of Nokia 6220 Classic images
• Ha, Ha - Nokia 6220 Classic on Monday
• Unboxing Nokia 6220 Classic
• Nokia 6220 Classic sales picking up in Denmark
• Nokia 6220 Classic is gone