Smartphone Show, London & an N95
As readers of this site will know Tuesday saw the start of the Symbian Smartphone Show in London. Being a huge fan of Symbian phones, I thought that I’d take a trip up to our nations Capital to check out what was new.
Living in Somerset I thought that I’d make the most of the trip, take my other-half and stay overnight and see if we could squeeze in a few sights while we there..
Tuesday started with an 8am coach pick-up in Taunton, after a couple more pick-ups we were soon sailing down the M4 to London.. N95 to hand (of course!) I was merrily Jaiku‘ing and surfing to pass the 3 1/2 hour journey.. One thing that I did download and install was the new version of Nokia Mobile Web Server (More about that in a later post).
As we started to approach London, I noticed something interesting:
I was getting a 3.5G (HSDPA) signal from my mobile service provide 3UK! How cool is that! Whoo faster internet access on my N95 - yeah!
Arriving at Hammersmith Bus Station shortly before 12pm we then had to get across town to the ExCel Exhibition Centre using the tube. Not being very familiar with where anything is in London, I came prepared with a neat little S60 application called Merto. All I had to do was enter the start and end locations and it told me what tube to catch and where to get off and change. It’s very simple - but worked so well. I used it all the time to get around in London - I didn’t have try and figure out one of those tube maps once!
Three tubes later and we were at the Show by 1pm!
Oddly the battery on my N95 completely died about 30 minutes after I arrived at the show - I’m not sure what caused it to drain so fast. It was fully charged that morning - It had only lost 2 bars at 11:34am when the screen shot showing 3.5G (above) was taken. Two hours later it was dead! I can only think that the 3.5G signal had something to do with it? I was hoping to get some video while at the show but sadly only managed one more picture:
The Smartphone show itself was good - I managed to have a quick play with the new N95 8GB.. sadly I didn’t have time for any of the scheduled talks though.. I did think it was a little odd that Nokia didn’t have a presence there apart from Forum Nokia, especially when Motorola, Samsung & Sony Ericsson did. Seems strange when they have such a big interest in Symbian? Was hoping that some fellow Jaiku’ers might have been there - but as my battery had died I was communication-less. 
After a re-charge for myself and my N95 back at the hotel (which luckily was next door to the Smartphone Show) it was time to head back into the centre to get to the Lord of the Rings Stage Show that we had pre-booked. Again I used Metro to get us back to Trafalgar Square where it advised that we could walk to the show. One slight problem was that we had no idea where Drury Lane was in relation to Trafalgar Square. With N95 to hand I loaded up the New Google Maps for Symbian and waiting as it tried to figure out where we were… I waited and waited… and….. gave up - I’d forgotten how bad the GPS was on the N95 without the newly added A-GPS feature… So I loaded up Nokia Maps.. hoping that things would be better…. Unfortunately that didn’t behave itself either - it crashed twice when searching… By now we were getting very frustrated as time was ticking and technology just wasn’t working!
After deciding to at least start walking, I managed to pick up a signal while carefully trying not to advertise that I have a shiny expensive sat-nav phone in my hand and draw the attentions of some mugger! 
Long story shot - i had to stop and ask the doorman of another theatre where to go… he kindly gave me a map.. Sometimes you just cant beat the old fashioned way!
With just enough time to grab some food from the cafe across the road - we made it just in time for the show. And what a great show it was!
Wednesday was spent roaming around London to take in some sights before our coach trip back home at 7pm. After checking out of the hotel we hopped back onto the tube and for some unknown reason decided to get off at Waterloo.. after deciding this wasn’t where we really wanted to get off - we decided to head off on foot to the river. After heading in the wrong direction for a bit, we corrected ourselves and heading down the right road, we happened across a very familiar face - Graham Norton, who was out walking two dogs. I would love to have taken a picture - but by the time that I got my N95, opened the shutter, waited for the camera app to start and then for it to focus - the moment had gone! As much as I love my N95 - it really is crap at being able to take quick photos!
With more wandering around by mid-afternoon we arrived at Buckingham Palace - and noticed that a crowd was forming at the entrance to the far right of the Palace. On arrival Police motorbikes swooped out to stop traffic and then out pulled a car with The Queen.. talk about timing! Luckily this time I already had my phone out and had been taking some pictures so was able to quickly switch to video (I love the whooping from the excited tourists next to me!):
All-in-all it had been a great whirlwind stop in London.. with two good celebrity spottings. Two Queens in a day eh? Who’d have though it?
Always great when I read about we West Country Bumpkins experiences in the Big Smoke.
Quite funny reading about the Maps issue and getting the Camera to work. By the time I get my Camera ready Mrs Wavey has reeled off half a dozen perfectly framed shots.
Never tried Metro, is it a free app?
At least you had a good time despite the N95 cockups. Would have been nice to meet you at the show since i frequent your blog via the rss feed.
My N95 only lasted till the end of the first day with just enough juice left to guide me to the s60 party via google maps gps. Luckily i was able to get a quick lock on, but as i got to the door the N95 gave its final beep and died in my hands. The party was great by the way.
I also used metro, but not a standalone app like yours, it was a link from the download app that led to the TFL mobile website where i could plan my journey. It worked, but it seems your version is neater and easier to navigate.
Nice celebrity spotting. I live in London, but i have yet to see the queen.
Again it would have been good to meet you. Good show.
Waveydavey001 - Yes Metro is a free app you can get it from http://nanika.net/Metro/ - It also has tube info for other undergrounds around the world…
Barry - I wanted to go to the AAS Pub Meet and the S60 party, but due to the small window that I had in London I wasn’t able to get to either.. maybe next time?