We’ve talked a lot about Nokia Point & Find; it’s a terrific example of how existing sensors can be used with networked data to provide contextually-relevant information without real (e.g. typing) user input.
And now it’s in beta. So first things this morning I install it onto my N95 8GB – their suggested device no less – and find out that it currently only really works for movie posters. So when I go for my run I make a point of heading to the movie theater (4 mile away). There’s probably a whole aside here about how I have not incidentally passed a movie poster in years, what with the multiplexes ripping theaters out of downtown walking districts, but whatever.
It’s indeed a beta. Not like Google’s eternal-beta thing, but it has bugs, uses astonishing amounts of memory, etc. And that’s fine, but… I still don’t get it. Either it’s just straight up broken or there’s something terribly wrong with the design. I guess it could be me, so if you got it to work, tell me exactly how, as their help documentation is a marketing brochure, and doesn’t say how to “just point and get information…”
The short version is that I pointed at several perfectly valid-looking posters, in different orientations, distances, lighting conditions. And nothing happened. Pressing OK jumped to this text-entry search for no clear reason.
It does indeed have some (UI) design issues. It’s not very Nokia, frankly. Odd softkey labels, a non-standard network selector, and the whole first run is baffling, with this signon to what thing, that ends up being a registration screen after all. Back is also both non-Nokia, and terrible, where it takes you to neutral states of the previous screen, instead of the literal back you’d expect.
I have great hopes, but sadly, am still waiting for a lot of these cool integrated apps to appear.