Mountaintop

Last Thursday I went to Griffith Park.


N8 | Rocket trail and Hollywood sign

I headed to Griffith Observatory to watch a rocket launch. The launch wasn't much to see. The rocket had a bit of trail before disappearing into space.




N8 | Views from the top of Mount Hollywood

Since I gained a ton of weight over the holidays, I went for a hike. My headphones took four or five times to get paired up with my phone properly. I walked to the top of Mount Hollywood and took some photos.


N8 | Flowers with Glendale in the background

After leaving the peak, I took a trail that headed east. I took this photo of some flowers on the way. I thought I would end up at the bird sanctuary but I ended up at a golf course. Eventually I made my way back to the Griffith Observatory parking lot.

After two hours with endomondo running and connected to my bluetooth headphones, the N8 was down to 2 bars. You can check out my course here

First day with the N8

The Nokia N8 arrived from the fine folks at WOM World Nokia last Friday. I spent the afternoon on the trails at the Griffith Observatory.


N8 | Griffith Observatory

After filling up the battery, the N8 lasted about 7 hours with an hour of Ovi Maps, and hour of hiking and a couple of hours of downloading and watching videos.

I was impressed with the multitasking abilities of the N8. It ran both Sportstracker and Endomondo without any problems while also running Gravity and taking pics. I find it strange that Sportstracker says I did 2.63 miles while Endomondo says 2.40 miles.

You can check out my Endomondo log here.

You can check out my Sportstracker log here.

Full set from the hike here on flickr.

Work and Play with the E72 and the E73 Mode

a while back, I was invited by the fine folks at WOM World Nokia to attend an E73 Mode event down in Sunset Beach. The event was a lot of fun. I went kayaking and jet skiing in a 3 piece suit. There was lots of new people to meet, food and booze to consume and some great swag in the form of towels and hats. I also got to trial an E73 Mode.


N97 | E72 vs E73

The E73 has some neat tricks that its E72 counterpart doesn't have. It supports T-Mobile's Hotspot at Home and let's you make calls if your place has bad reception. My favorite is a simple option for the right soft key. The Lock Keys option makes it super simple to lock the keypad. This year at Comic Con, I accidentally called 911 on the E72 I was using. Lock Keys would have come in handy then.

Speaking of keys, the E73's button layout is much easier to use than the E72. The buttons are nice and big and less susceptible to an errant press. Unlike the E72, the call and end buttons are colored on the E73. I do prefer the color choices on the E72. The d-pad is much improved on the E73, it is much more thumb friendly.

Both the E72 and E73 feature amazing battery life. When I took the E72 to Comic Con, it lasted all day with Gravity and email running with high frequency updates.

Since I never got around to unlocking the E73, I was stuck with a prepaid card with less than $3 in credit. I mainly used the E73 as a GPS device. I drove around LA with Ovi Maps without needing to keep it plugged into a charger. I could never do this with my N97. The battery efficiency has really advanced forward on the E73. I went hiking a few times and tracked my progress with Endomondo and the E73 had no problems picking up signal even in offline mode.

Of the two, I think the E73 makes the better upgrade from an E71. I really enjoyed using it.

Endomondo Workout #2 in Studio City

Yesterday I went to Fryman Canyon Park in Studio City. The trail starts on Mulholland Drive and goes downhill. I was only .1 miles into the trail when it became to hard to navigate due to overgrown brush. Thus, I ended up with a short workout found here on Endomondo.

I drove around to the bottom of the hills to Willacre Park. I restarted my day's hike on Endomondo. Unfortunately, my N97 crashed .64 miles into my hike. I didn't notice this until 40 minutes after wards. That was disappointing. I finished the trail's downhill portion and recorded it here.

I recorded this video in the parking lot afterwards


Last week I had a manual crash when I opened Gravity. This week was a random crash. Hopefully next week won't have a crash.

Endomondo Workout in Encino

Encino Hike

I used Endomondo for the first time today. I went to Encino and hiked to the Nike Missile Silo site. This site was built in the 60s in order to shoot down Russian jets. Its been decommissioned for years and is part of a park now. The trail to the site is about 1 mile long.

The first part of workout is here. Second part of workout is here.

This is a video I shot from the tower missiles would have launched from.


Endomondo vs Sportstracker

I used both Endomondo and the new Sportstracker.
I had my N97 hooked up with an external GPS.

Sportstracker was much faster in getting a signal. Endomondo would take what seemed like an eternity to get a signal lock.

Endomondo has a simple layout and more excersise options. Sportstracker has more details on the screen and has support for a heart rate monitor. Both handled crashes well.

I love how Endomondo updates twitter and facebook after a workout. This is a really cool feature and tips the scale in its favor for me.