Stuck in the car with the Nokia 5800

What other title can I put it? I was stuck in the jam to Seremban for more than an hour. When I first reached the Toll, it was already jammed. After the toll, it was OK but towards Nilai, the jam came up again. And this time, we all had to crawl. Nevertheless, the Nokia 5800's Player did make the situation more bearable. So much so, I did not want to "accidentally" drive to the left to block some morons who love to use the emergency lanes to get to their destination faster.

Still, a job is a job and we had to complete the remaining camera before the day is over. This was because the power to the two cameras in the Hall mysteriously go off during certain times of the day. We found out that all the electrical power, even to the sockets were controlled by the main switch in the Hall. So, when the staff switches them off for the day........

A short note about the Nokia 5800. If for any reason you forgot your AD-54 controller, you can plug in a normal pair of 3.5,, jack heaphones. The only problem would be that you cannot use it to control the music being played or even skip it. You will then have to unslide the key lock switch to get to the screen to do that. And, oh, you'l have to use the phone's mic to talk when in a phone conversation. And so, I ordered another AD-45 from eBay, knowing I'd forget or misplace it in the near future. But when you plug in a 3.5mm jack, the 5800 would ask you what funtion you would need, such as headphones, lineout, tv-out or music stand.There is another thing I need to mention. I am not sure if its my headphones or something else but there is an occasional crackle or pops while the music is being played. Memory card access times, maybe? Oh well.........

This is the situation at the Toll plaza. At least the cash lane
is moving well compared to the Touch&Go lane which is
moving quite slowly.

Luckily, I snatched some mini mandarin oranges from the office
on the way to Seremban

There's even a camera man to film the jam. Its no wonder because there
were a lot of activity at the Plaza. Each driver was given a copy of The
Star and (later) some drinks.

I was so surprised about this that I kept on shooting without much
focusing.

And so, I got a copy of they day's Star.

And not only that, later I found out that the man also dropped something
into the car which I was not aware off. Seems that the company "Proviton"
provided the free newspaper and the pills. I did not try the pills as I do not
want to be feeling "different" during work or during driving.

Oho! There is even a news reporter here after the toll as well!

This is the scene nearing Nilai. But once I cleared Seremban,
the jam disappeared.

Two hours later, we managed to get power from another point.
The customer asked me why am I not going back for the CNY.
And I replied that we need to get the cameras all working so
that the place is well taken care off since there would be less
staff. And my Techs asked me why I am not going back too
since I was still working just like last year. And so, I replied,
"I also don't know"

And its time to head home. Look at the jam on the opposite side.
It stretched for Kilometres

OK, this is the way back home and guess what? Its jam free! Hooray!

At 150 metres, turn right.........

As we're going to Seremban (again), I decided to play with the GPS functions. Because Nokia included a 7-day free trial on their GPS guidance software(read voice navigation), I had no choice but to activate it instead of scrolling the GPS map when the red dot goes out of the screen. And so, yes, after a few minutes, I was impressed. Here, we have a map which rotates as you turn so as to make it easier for you to orientate yourself, a nice young British Gentleman voice telling you when and where to turn and lastly, drains the Nokia's batteries faster than you expect.

Which is quiet nice for a while but it sort of gets irritating if you have a long drive and it keeps telling you where and when to turn, etc. The voice guidance, can be set to a few languages but I have not tried Malay (Indonesian) or even French. Following the voice guidance is quite hilarious at some point, for example, where it tells you to turn right on the highway. This is because on the left is a Highway exit. It should have told you to "Keep to the right" instead. But if you ignore the voice, the map is quite accurate.

The main problem now is, after the seven day trial expires, if I want to continue, it would cost me. From some of the website, the costs are either RM42 per month or RM328 for one year. And if I did pay for it, in less than three years, taking in consideration of the Nokia's depreciation, it would have cost too much. So, right now, I am looking for alternatives such as Garmin, Mapking, etc. I am not sure what would happen after the trial runs out. Maybe I can still use the "DRIVE" mode without the voice but its too optimistic. Already, in some forums, there are complains about the charges being too high. I do not mind if the Mobile Phone costs me RM12,000 as this would be pittance but for a RM1,500 phone, this is too expensive. I would be willing to pay RM5.00 because after a few weeks of GPS fun, no one would use the voice function much.

One single charge was enough to last me for about 2 hours of GPS use.
The trip to Seremban was quite accurate but on the way back, there
was not enough power for the phone and so, it shut down. I guess I'll
have to get the Hyundai's cigarette lighter socket fixed. And the
battery's quite hot which means the GPS is sucking it dry because
when the battery is dead, you can still switch it on and it will come
to life for a few seconds before going off. But not the Nokia 5800
When its battery is dead, its dead.