Yet another application has graduated from the Nokia Beta Labs, this time it’s the Nseries PC Suite. This poor piece of desktop software has had ups and downs since it was first introduced. Optimized for the Nseries (obviously), the Nseries PC Suite uses Microsoft’s .NET as the base platform and facilitates the conversations taking place between your phone and your computer.
The only complaint that I hold still is that it’s currently only available as a web download. That means to get the .exe you only have an 8.8MB download, but then the actual installation requires an internet connection as it downloads each individual ‘piece’ of itself. Rather frustrating, also, if and when you decide to remove the application from your computer, there are 6-7 different applications to remove in the control panel.
Aside from that, I’ve actually been enjoying the latest version of the Nseries PC Suite. I decided to switch from the vanilla PC Suite a few days ago and have been pleasantly surprised with the stability and new features. I’m currently using Nseries PC Suite with Windows XP SP2, for the record.
The best new feature is the inclusion of Nokia Photos, which replaces the old ‘Image Store’ application, as well as Lifeblog, so it seems. The best part of this is that now, when you sync pictures and videos from your phone to your desktop, they’re no longer both stored lumped together in a folder in your My Photos folder! Videos are appropriately placed in their own folder within your My Videos folder in Windows XP, and pictures in their own folders within My Photos. I really love that, as it makes it so much easier to keep track of where things are at when it comes time to edit. There is also a handy ‘web upload’ button on the Nokia Photos app, though there’s not currently an easy way to setup Ovi with this. I’ve got an email in to try to change that.
The Nokia Music Manager still sucks, completely. It takes FOREVER to recognize my N95-3, regardless of what ‘mode’ I connect in, and it takes even longer than that to try to transfer songs. I’m still slightly impatiently waiting for Nokia to introduce the slick new desktop music organizer application I was shown at the Go Play event nearly 9 months ago.
The Nokia Video Manager is also included with this new release, and it’s gotten slightly better. I’ve yet to allow it to convert a full movie, so I’ll try to test that out and report any interesting findings.
In any case, I would give the latest iteration of Nokia’s Nseries PC Suite my full approval (which doesn’t really mean anything, I suppose). I’m using it happily, and don’t find anything but updates in the abilities and features that I use. Congratulations, Nseries PC Suite team!
