Bad usability – Nokia Memory card

October 3, 2005 eirikso5 Comments

I was presenting at the stage in the picture last week (no, it’s not me in the picture). During my presentation I have a part about usability, and I could not help mentioning the picture of a horrible example of bad usability hanging behind me. A picture of a Nokia 6630 with a hand that is about to insert a memory card. Marked in red in the picture.

Looking at the closeup, someone could think that the photographer snapped the picture at the wrong moment. The memory card has its back facing towards the user. It should be like the next picture in this post.

The same situation. Looks OK, the front of a phone, the front of a memory card, and a slot on the side of the phone where you are supposed to insert the card. But, no. This is the wrong way to do it. The photographer is not stupid, you are supposed to insert the card with the back facing towards yourself. Why on earth would they put the card reader into the phone that way?

The correct way to insert a memory card in a Nokia 6630 is how it is illustrated in this picture. Because I am interested in technology on a level that is above average people tend to ask me when they have questions. Lately I have had quite a bit of questions regarding the Nokia 6630 and Nokia 6680. Questions regarding music, pictures, podcasts and navigation software on the memory card. I have tried to observe closely, and not one of the persons have tried to insert the card in the correct way on the first try.

Simply because the correct way to insert the card is what most sane people would think of as the wrong way.

And, as a finishing note:
If you insert the card the wrong way, it will lock itself into the slot and you would have to use some kind of tool to get it out. When you get it out you have to insert it the wrong way once more to release the slot and then insert it the right way.

Nokia – why?

Make war, not love!

September 21, 2005 eirikso6 Comments

It’s old news, but a mod for “Grand Theft Auto – San Andreas” expands the game with some extra functionallity that actually lets the character you are playing make love. The game in it’s original state lets your character kill people, deal drugs, steal cars, shoot, knock people out etc.. For the americans, the original functionallity is OK. The game had a rating of “M” (Mature), that means suitable for people of 17 or older.

The odd thing is that the so called “hotcoffee” mod that added the functionallity for making love made the americans go completely mad. They are taking the game off the shelves and have changed the rating to “AO” (Adults Only), that is 18 years and over. The highest level possible.

As the brilliant Maddox states it:

I want to shoot people in the face, bang prostitutes, traffic drugs, steal cars, and terrorize police officers without this filthy smut in my game.

Now, I am reading that the FBI seems to find the war on porn more important than the war on terror.

Mostly I actually like Americans and some important parts of their culture, but this is just completely insane…

A blog in a printed paper – what’s next?

September 16, 2005 eirikso1 Comment

In my post about how abused the term “media center” is I mentioned that the biggest newspaper in Norway has a blog in their printed paper. And, they clearly states that the journalist writing the coloumn is a blogger.

It is amazing how technical terms is misproperly used by the same journalists that hypes stuff up into the skies. There is close to nothing in the definition of a blog that suggests that it is possible to have one in a printed paper. Who on earth are VG adressing when they call their coloumn a blog? The people that knows what a blog is shake their head and call VG stupid. And, how much sense does it make to call it a blog if you adress the people that doesn’t know what a blog is?

Beats me. And confuses the people that tries to learn what this new phenomenon is.

VG – How about adding a podcast to your printed paper as well?

…and then there is all the commercial companies that totally don’t get it as well.

Media Center – A very worn out term

September 7, 2005 eirikso1 Comment

Western Digital, please stop making my work difficult!

I just bought a new external hard drive. It is a USB2/FW 250GIG Western Digital with a built in card reader. I repeat, a hard drive with a card reader.

I am doing lots of presentations and travel around trying to explain new media and technologies for my audience. A Media Center is one of the terms I try to explain these days. Of course it’s difficult to make clear definitions on terms like that, but usually there is a basic explanation somwhere in the simplification of the technology.

For the term “Media Center” that includes something like “…a box that lets you play several different types of media. Usually designed to reside in your living room…”

It’s actually easier to say what types of devices that in no way could be described as a Media Center. And, a hard drive with a card reader is not a Media Center. Still, that’s what Western Digital calls my new hard drive.

Stupid, stupid people. You confuse the consumers. And you make my work difficult.

But – who cares? The biggest newspaper in Norway – “Verdens Gang” has a blog in their printed paper…. Aaaargh!

Did you know..

August 22, 2005 eirikso2 Comments

….that the flowers on the cucumber plant smells wonderful?

Now you know. There will definitely never be any cucumbers on our balcony, but at least we have had the pleasure of some flowers with a very nice fragrance.

And you have also learnt that it is impossible to know what to expect on eirikso.com

Is that a good thing? Will I loose my regular readers if I start to write about stuff that is not about home media technologies?

I guess you’ll speak up if you hate posts like this?

Call and “call” – what’s the difference

August 19, 2005 eiriksoLeave a comment

At some point my MSN Messenger keeps telling me that I can now “Call” for free all over the world. I just started wondering, what’s the difference. If I make a “call” or a plain… call?

A coincidence or are the people over at Engadget a bunch of cheap copycats?

August 18, 2005 eirikso3 Comments

Edit: For the people not reading comments, the brilliant Peter Rojas of Engadget just assured that this is a 100% coincidence. And I believe him. Case closed.

Edit2:
And now the writer of the guide over at Engadget, Barb Dybwad has contacted me as well. No doubt about the fact that we worked on these articles in parallel.

Keep up the good work over at Engadget. A coincidence does not make you copycats. But those pictures where a bit blurry, wheren’t they? 🙂

I posted this how-to on my blog on August 14th. I was quite satisfied with the guide so I sent a message to Engadget notifying them about my post in case they wanted to link to it.

No answer from Engadget, but two days later this article shows up. Dangerously close to mine, but with bad pictures… Maybe a pure coincidence. I shure hope so, taking suggestions from users and just copy them without even mentioning where the original could be found seems too unprofessional for one of my favourite web sites.

Living in Norway

July 14, 2005 eirikso8 Comments

The main reason we can live here at all is the gulf stream. It brings hot water from the Mexican Gulf all the way up along the coast of Norway. Bringing the temperatures up to a resonable level. Still, the difference between summer and winter can be quite remarkable.

Check out the two pictures shot out of my window. One, showing +31 degrees Ceslius (87 F) at the 9th of July 2005. The other one showing -16 degrees Celsius (3.2 F) at the 3rd of February 2005.

One slightly too hot and one slightly too cold. Give me something between -5 and +25 degrees Celsius (23 – 77 F) and I am just fine.

eirikso

Photo, media, technology

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