Nokia has graciously developed a suite of desktop applications for their huge line of phones. After eventually finding all the updates for the N95 I’ve been able to get their Lifeblog application working quite nicely.

First of all don’t bother with the install CD, this is out of date and a hassle to update. Instead download and install Nokia PC Suite from Nokia’s website. Once you’ve done that run the Nokia Series Update Manager:

This will update all the available software for Nokia PC Suite on your computer. This is the only way I’ve been able to find an up to date version of Lifeblog since all of Nokia’s websites are pushing Nokia Photos (which sucks).

Once Lifeblog is installed browse to the photos tab and open it. I’ve had very limited luck with Nokia Photos and Lifeblog is MUCH more responsive and easy to use. Plus I don’t want a multimedia manager, just a posting tool.

When you plug in your phone (or activate Bluetooth) both PC Suite and Lifeblog will recognize your phone. Lifeblog will popup asking you if you would like to automatically sync the phone. Hit yes.

Here is my view of Lifeblog. When you sync with your phone it automatically retrieves the text messages, photos, and videos you have and places them in chronological order. You can zoom in and out. As you can see I shot some test photos and sent a bunch of texts, then the next day I went to the Edmonton car show and sent some more texts.

Double clicking on any item brings up a full screen view of it. Photos fill the screen and provide you with different options in the Properties dialogue.

From this dialogue you can set the description, time/date, and the content and location tags. As well you can view the resolution, size, camera type, and whether the flash was fired or not by hitting the more button.

You can also batch edit items in Lifeblog by selecting multiple items and right-clicking.

The icon bar on the top has the most used actions:

From left to right you can Sync to and from Phone, Export to Burn with Adobe Premier Elements, Delete Item, Email Item, Print, Post to Web, and Flip.

Flipping an item displays any extra meta info in the main view and it useful for quickly viewing location information.

You can flip multiple items at once and the animation is polished and smooth.

Lifeblog also has a Tag Manager which lets you manage and sort by all the tags that you have defined. The manager also gives you a synopsis of how many type of items you have. You can also check off items that you want to hide.

Post to Web is a great capability that Nokia has both on it’s phones and in Lifeblog. Nokia has a partnership with Flickr to provide quick uploading for their services. It’s relatively easy to set up. The one phone uploader only works if you’ve updated your Share Online software for the phone which you can install through PC Suite, but it’s beyond the scope of this review.

http://flickr.com/tools/lifeblog has all the setup instructions you need for adding a new photostream to your Lifeblog. You can also set up a WordPress Lifeblog poster but so far I have had limited success.

When posting to web you can edit the individual photo details and add a description before uploading. If you aren’t interested in messing around with the Flickr uploader or spending a lot of actual time on Flickr (which I find slow and cumbersome) this works well.

You can also Import from PC by right clicking anywhere in the timeline. This allows you to add other photos or text files from your computer. It places them in the timeline based on their date created but it can be changed later.

You can also transfer items from Lifeblog to your phone but personally I find it cumbersome. To do this you need to import items into your timeline and then drag them to the To Phone tab, and then sync.

Realistically you would be better off using the drag and drop area that PC Suite has, and it lets you copy any file format.

Finishing thoughts: I really like the snazzy look and feel of Lifeblog. It’s intuitive enough for a beginner to use but don’t go looking for a photo manager. You can’t create folders or group items into albums. It works great as a nice snap shot of your life through the eyes of your phone and is great for posting a bunch of photos online.

If Nokia could improve one thing it would be to improve blog support. Right now there is a very limited number of services that work in cahoots with Lifeblog.

Personal note: This post was used as my first test of Windows Live Writer. This is also my first real “review”. Please comment on the structure, language, etc. and tell me what you liked and didn’t like.

The Aston Martin V8 Vantage roadster (or so I think, there was no sign). Either way, Aston Martin makes the classiest cars in the world.