Thanks to my brother Jim, I have acquired a new (to me) Nokia 9500 Communicator. Jim, who is blind, was interested in trying the 9500 out as a possible portable talking computer solution. The Nokia 9500 uses the Symbian Series 80 Operating System and Nuance has created a version of their SpeechPAKS Talks software for use with any phone that uses this or the Series 60 OS. However, it is believed (by me) that Nuance created SpeechPAKS Talks for Series 60 first and then ported it over to Series 80 because there were many features that did not speak, or speak properly on the Nokia 9500. After a few weeks of trial and error with the Nokia 9500 and SpeechPAK Talks, Jim decided to hand it down to me while he waits for his cellular provider to come out with an officially supported Series 60 phone. I have heard great things about SpeechPAK TALKS on the Series 60 phones and would like to commend Nuance for their efforts.
Prior to this manna from heaven I had a been a LOYAL T-Mobile Sidekick user having gone through the original Sidekick, the Sidekick Color and currently, the Sidekick II. When Jim handed me the Nokia 9500, I was very skeptical and almost sad to pull the SIM card from my Sidekick. I still feel guilty for having betrayed my long time and faithful companion. You see, the Sidekick II and its predecessors are incredible devices. I have never used anything so stable and user friendly as the Sidekick. It has a few flaws, such as is cumbersome dialpad and awkward shape for a phone, but what it did, it did very well.
I have been using the Nokia 9500 for about a week now and am impressed with its features and excited about its expandability. For one thing it has over the Sidekick is an ability to add third party software. The 9500 has already allowed me to become a Paperless Geocacher with MobiPocket eBook Reader which allows me to bring Geocache data into the woods with me and not dozens of printed cache pages. The battery life on the 9500 is also far superior to the Sidekick and I can sometimes go 3 days or more without a charge.
I’ll probably switch back and forth between my two phones for quite sometime, or at least until I can figure out a way to comfortably carry around the Nokia 9500 which is about the size of a checkbook and twice as thick.
