It started 2002, my first year here @ USC, Scott and the 1st years (now graduates) where into the Nokia 3650 model. Scott had suggested at times during the 511 and elsewhere that all the IMD students ought to have them.
I didn’t pick mine up until late June of 2003, back then t-mobile seemed to have a good selection of current devices, and I got the 3650 for $199.00. It arrived shortly there after; this was my first real mobile media device; my phones before that where of the bland realms of early 2G technologies. I used the address books and made phones calls in that Dialectic LCD world of greens and grayish blacks, no more accept the occasional log access.
The 3650 quickly brought me to a new land. I was ripping A/V representations of life in the blur as it passed me by. I didn’t have a car then, so as I rode the Metro transit system around town and I’d glean from the experience.
Then at home I’d mix the experience on my Mac using a rudimentary tool like i-Movie.
My Lifelog database grew daily, I felt more involved with life, and had a keen sense of my agency within the world; the constant gleaning helped me to test the borders of my interaction with the great system that is totality.
Eventually it grew buggy and I dissatisfied with it’s audio/video quality; my creative burst died down, as I settled into the realities of a first generation smart phone. Smart, I would say, was not the word for it.
I tecnholusted and waited, as I saw new models sprout from Nokia, the series 60 was tempting.
Meantime, this past spring I began to hear about Flash Lite, a mobile version of Macromedia’s Flash that has so dominated multimedia web-development in recent years. I had been a junkie for so long I felt like it was destiny.
It was then after I saw my content on a mobile device for the first time that I realized that the next year of my life or more would be dedicated to exploring rich mobile media and it’s future potential.
I got a call from JAMDAT mobile to do some QA Testing for them. It was there I got to see the true state of mobile media; it was in the gutter rolling in piss poor content pushed by buzz-laden lackeys. I knew I needed to do something about it.
I read more Blog entries than I can remember trying to evaluate a new device, all just as buggy. It wasn’t until the 6670 showed it’s head that people began to talk about the bugs finally being resolved and by then I was completely broke.
The there was the 6680. All the reviews I could find were written in praise, but what need do I have for two way video calls? Sounds cool, but I felt a feature that is a little premature. So I went the Nokia 6682, basically the 6680 without the front mounted 640x480 camera for video calls.
What a glorious device, the OS runs wonderfully, Almost seamless. It’s increased performance and quality is awesome. I hope it to will act as it predecessor, as an activator in my life, a tool for expression, research, and socialization; bringing me closer to my dream of a portable total media device that can record all of my varied expressions and experiences.
Nokia 3650:
32-bit ARM RISC processor
Processor speed: not disclosed by manufacturer.
4MB RAM built-in
GSM/GPRS 900/1800/1900
Bluetooth v1.0
Symbian 6.0 (Series 60)
4.59 Ounces
5.10 Inches
WAP 1.0
TFT color LCD, 12 bit, 4096 colors.
176 x 208 Screen Res
Flash Lite 1.1 compatiable
Nokia 6682:
220 MHz CPU
10MB RAM built-in
GSM/GPRS/EDGE 850/1800/1900
Bluetooth v1.2
Symbian 8.0 (Series 60)
WAP 2.0
1.3 megapixel (1280 x 960 pixels) camera
4.62 Ounces
4.28 Inches
TFT color LCD, 16bit, 262,000 colors
176 x 208 Screen Res
Flash Lite 2.0 Compatiable]]>
