NokiaBetaLabs

N97 initial findings

Review for Nokia Messaging for Social Networks Beta

02-09-2009 11:34

Unlike Ovi lifecasting connection to facebook was no problem. Posting a picture from the camera was easy. Checking messages, status updates, making comments on posts, liking posts. It all seems to be there and works well. Better than the facebook app for the N97 in my opinion and its only a beta

Well done guys. Keep up the excellent work

One slight issue - Exit and option buttons are small in landscape mode and is difficult to hit accurately. May need to enlarge them

NEWS FEED seems to be stuck at 12.30pm and does not update and I have tried the refresh option. ANY IDEAS?

Comments

Submitted by guyver2077 on 02-09-2009 16:39.

I agree, Much more functionality than the current facebook app. (Will this replace that eventually?)

Can even be put on the homescreen as a widget.

Submitted by TheBlueNile on 02-09-2009 17:22.

It does not log in in my N97. Just keeps rolling the columns.... and while writing this, the lifecasting app has similar problem. It can't log in on my Nokia account.

Submitted by guyver2077 on 02-09-2009 19:27.

i am able to log in just fine.. i

When i try to updat emy status- the "uploading status" screen just scrolls on forever. It does not seem to go through.

Submitted by jjklee on 02-09-2009 20:01.

Very cool, just need to wait for the Friend's list and Request functionality to work. One thing I prefer Ovi Lifecast over NM SMB is that location is a hyperlink and I don't have issues opening the hyperlink on my macbook in Firefox. In NM SMB, the address shows and when you click on it, I get a browser error message because I am using Firefox. I don't have the issue with Safari.

Submitted by guyver2077 on 02-09-2009 20:39.

Ok. So i was able to successfully update my status and with a picture. When i tried again now though it just stays on the "please wait".

Also please add the " add location" feature to the post w/picture attachment. Currently you can only add location to the regular text status updates.

Submitted by Camodog on 02-09-2009 20:57.

My facebook works very fine. I am very happy for it, but that's not the problem. The problem is that when i choose applications on my phone, there is ny app called "share photos". I can't delete it and I don't want to share all my private photos.. It shows all pics from my phone and my facebook profile. Does someone else have this app? And can someone help me? Thanks!

Submitted by mattleech on 03-09-2009 02:36.

Initially the widget on my homescreen worked perfectly, it connected to facebook and I was able to scroll through the messages. Since then the top message says "Last updated Wed Sep 2 21:15:47 2009 Refresh now?". If I tap the widget it displays "updating", then "fail". Tapping the widget again loads the Communities application which connects and updates fine.

Submitted by prachris on 04-09-2009 05:43.

get an error message : the client failed to connect to gateway . i was able to connect once then it hangs on my N97.

Submitted by marky_towers on 15-10-2009 16:02.

Looks promising - nice UI.

I do get a message "Failed to retrieve new feed items when I launch into the Facebook community. Had this a few times now - it only grabbed the feeds once.

Failed to update my status when I tried to post.

Widget just says updating and doesn't launch the app when clicked.

I like the idea of adding my location to posts if I choose to (I wouldn't want to do that every time so nice implementation).

I love the ability to click on the location tab to check in Nokia Maps, but it seems to just launch the maps app and then maps dies.

Great thinking on the Interface design - that's a really important aspect that is far to often over looked.

I'm not sure now what the point of the Ovi Life casting application is - would it not be better to use the Lifecasting teams skills to further develop this solution rather than create another parallel solution?

Submitted by SeanMcClelland on 15-10-2009 20:21.

Hi Marky,

I am hoping those failure messages will be going away soon. I think the server guys recently figured out what was causing at least some of those issues.

Also it sounds like your Homescreen widget got into a bad state. Are you running the proper N97 firmware (12.x)? Ive seen problems like that when different firmwares were used.

Any connections with Ovi Life casting are out of my domain, so sorry I don't know any news on that subject.

Submitted by andyruckley on 19-10-2009 21:31.

I used it once and it was a great app (much better than the FB one that comes with the N97) but now cant use it all. The login window just freezes after I put my login and password details in. very annoying !

Dont know what else to do ! might re-install it see if that makes a difference.

Submitted by SeanMcClelland on 19-10-2009 22:42.

Hi Andy,

If you wait 45 seconds the login screen should come back saying it was unable to connect to the server. What I would suggest is that once it says it could not connect to the server try again. There was a known bug about first login failing that is probably occurring. If you still have problems after that then follow these steps:
From the file browser (Applications-Office-File browser) Open up C:\communities-log\urpTrace.txt. You can either send the file to your computer or just view it directly in the file browser application. Search for the word "fail" and then look at the errInfo:. It will probably say something like "Operation timed out after 45000 milliseconds..." Either way, let me know what it says.

Submitted by nrbrhn on 22-10-2009 08:03.

N97 well basically it does not want to log onto certain hotspots. on my home wifi network it works flawlessly. on others, it has extremely erratic behaviour.

but seriously where's that popup asking for a connection / destination when there's no online connection.

Submitted by SeanMcClelland on 22-10-2009 22:28.

Hi nrbrhn,

I agree with you and entered a bug on this a little while ago. To be honest with all the other work going on I am not sure this is going to make it into a beta anytime soon. I will see what I can do about that.