Nokia Image Exchange Experimental

Starting to use Image Exchange

1. How can I register for the service, I don't seem to be able to create an account at your Web-site?

Nokia Image Exchange registration is done from the mobile phone. First, download the application from http://imageexchange.nokia.com and install it to your compatible phone. The first time you start the application, it asks if you want to enable the online features and have an account created for you. If you choose to do so, the account is automatically created. Your initial user name is your mobile phone number and an automatically generated password. You can check your username and the initial password from the application's Options menu under "Account Information"->"Web login". If you choose not to enable the online features, you can always do that later by selecting "Go online" from the Options menu.

When you first login to the Nokia Image Exchange Web site using the automatically generated username and password, you are required to associate your account with an existing Nokia account. Later on, you will be able to login to the Web site with your Nokia account. For now, Nokia Image Exchange requires an account that is created a mobile phone.

2. Which phones are supported?

S60 client: N95 (all versions), N85, N82 N81 (all models), E71, N76, N78 and Nokia 5320 XpressMusic. Nokia Image Exchange should also work on many other 3.1 and 3.2 S60 devices.

Java client: all Nokia S40 phones.

Devices known not to work or have issues: N96, E90, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

Web service is tested with Firefox, Safari and Internet Explorer 7. Google Chrome and Opera 9 seem to work. At the time being, Internet Explorer 6 is not supported.

3. Which operators are supported?

Due to the SMS based registration scheme of Nokia Image Exchange, the operator support is not global. See if your operator is listed here. If not, then unfortunately for the time being the online features of Nokia Image Exchange will not work for you. We hope to introduce a revised registration scheme soon.

4. How do I create a username for me?

When you enable the online features on your phone during the registration, an account is created with your phone number in the international format (+358xxxxxxxxx) as the default username. In addition, an initial password is generated and stored to your phone. You can check the account information via the Options menu under "Account information"->"Web login".

When you first login to the Nokia Image Exchange Web site using your phone number as your username and an automatically generated password, you are required to associate your account with an existing Nokia account. Later on, you will be able to login to the Web site with your Nokia account.

5. Are all my images really automatically uploaded to Image Exchange service?

Nokia Image Exchange is a standalone gallery and does not require network connectivity if advanced features are not needed. Enabling online features allows you to select whether you wish to automatically upload images to the server or manually by selecting each image separately.

Notice that in the automatic mode images are uploaded to the server in the background even when the Nokia Image Exchange application is not running. You have to disconnect the application using the Options menu if you do not want to back up your images automatically. Even if you reboot the phone, a background process will start automatically to track and upload new images if the application was connected before the reboot.

6. There are very few functions under options-menu, how can I share and comment the images, etc.?

Image Exchange application user interface is designed so that the frequently used menu items are invoked by pressing the center button of the joystick. Only some less commonly used functions like settings, etc. are under the more traditional S60 left-softkey options-menu.

7. What are the images that appear under "People"-menu

People-menu contains images from your friends. There can be two types of images under people menu. Images that somebody has explicitly shared with you and images that your friends have published. ("Friends" are persons who's phone numbers are in your phonebook and who have respectively your phone number in their phonebooks)

8. Why can I share to only some of the people in my contacts?

Only the contact entries that are already Nokia Image Exchange users will be shown to you when using "Share->Share to contacts" option. If you want to share with other people, you can use "Send->MMS" or "Send->SMS" options. "Send->SMS" sends a link to an image that is suitable for viewing with a mobile phone browser.

From your Nokia Image Exchange Web-site you can also share your images by sending links to them via email.

9. How do I know if the image is shared to me or if it's public for everybody to see?

Shared images have the "group"-icon and public images the "world"-icon in their info label. You can also see when commenting if the image is public or not. It is good to keep in mind, though, that even shared images may be shared with several people and they will also be able to see and respond to your comments.

10. Can I upload images from a PC?

Yes. You can upload images from a PC to your account with Image Exchange Web-interface. Images uploaded from PC will be added to your collection and additionally a low-resolution version (10-15k) is pushed and stored into your mobile Image Exchange application as well.

11. Can I move my images to a PC?

Yes. You can download your images to a PC from the Image Exchange Web-interface.

Costs and Connectivity

12. How expensive it is to use Image Exchange?

If used as a standalone gallery, Nokia Image Exchange does not generate costs. The registration process does send an SMS and connects briefly to network, but that is not mandatory.

Nokia Image Exchange backs up images to the Web service for storage and sharing. The amount of data traffic generated by Nokia Image Exchange mostly depends on the amount of uploaded pictures. The uploading can happen either manually or automatically. Uploading one image taken with a 5-megapixel camera typically generates a little over 1 MB of data.

If you do not have a flat-fee cellular data plan or use a Wi-Fi connection but still want to use the online features of Nokia Image Exchange, please make sure that you understand the cost structure of you data plan.

13. Can I use Image Exchange without data connection?

Yes, you can. If you do not enable the online features and you keep the application disconnected, it works as nice image gallery application for browsing your own images. We expect that many people like Nokia Image Exchange even without the online features. So don't hesitate to try it out!

14. Can I use Image Exchange via Wi-Fi connection?

Yes. You can set the default connection to be a Wi-Fi connection in the mobile application settings.

15. How do I know how much data is being transferred?

You can check the amount of transferred data from the Options menu under Account information->Transfer info. You can also see the number of images still to be uploaded in the upper right-hand corner of the application's main screen. If you want to stop the uploading, just select Disconnect from the Options menu. If you wish to select which images are uploaded, set Options->Settings->Image back-up to "Manual". New users are requested to select upload method upon the first run of Nokia Image Exchange.

16. What happens when I'm roaming?

Cellular data costs can be very high when travelling outside your home country. That is why Nokia Image Exchange disconnects by default when you are roaming in a foreign network. Switching manually back to the online mode when roaming is possible but can only be recommended for people who are fully aware of how high the roaming data costs are in the country, where they are travelling. Note also that roaming prices may be different for different operators.

17. How much battery power Image Exchange uses?

When you start using Nokia Image Exchange and enable the online features for the first time, all images on your mobile phone will be automatically backed up (uploaded) to Nokia Image Exchange Web service. Depending on the amount of images you have on your mobile phone, this can take a long time and also consume considerable amount of battery power.

In addition. after uploading the images Nokia Image Exchange maintains an always-on data connection when used in the online mode. This should not normally consume a lot of battery power. You may notice a 10-20% decrease in operating time of you mobile phone. If you are worried about the battery consumption you can disconnect the mobile application. Notice that closing the Nokia Image Exchange application does not switch the always-on connection off. You have to explicitly select Disconnect from the Options menu before closing it.

Advanced Usage

18. How can I zoom and pan the images?

"*"-key is zoom-in and "#" zoom-out. Some phones like N95 have additionally special zoom/volume keys on their side, these can also be used for zooming. Panning happens with the cursor-keys.

19. Are there any other shortcut keys?

A very handy shortcut for checking title & description and comments of the images is to press "0" repeatedly.
"Pen"-key can be used to turn the image info label on and off.
C-key deletes own images.
Image can be rotated with keys "1" and "3".

20. What if I want to change my phone?

Changing to use Image Exchange on a new phone is easy. Just download and install Image Exchange to your new phone. Your Image Exchange account is tied to your phone number. As long as you keep the same phone number Image Exchange will automatically pair your new phone with your existing account when you enable the online features.

21. Can I use several phones at the same time?

Image Exchange account can currently be tied only to one phone number and one phone at a time. Using multiple phones with the same account is not supported currently.

22. What if I have to change my phone number?

Switching a phone number tied to your Image Exchange account is currently not supported. If you change your phone number you have to create a new Image Exchange account. You can transfer your images to a new account in two ways. If your images are on your mobile phone they will be uploaded to your new account automatically. Alternatively you can first download your images to a PC from Image Exchange's Web-interface and then upload them again to your new account. Unfortunately you will lose metadata like image titles, descriptions and comments in both cases.

About Image Exchange

23. How does Image Exchange relate to Share on OVI?

Image Exchange is an experimental solution from Nokia Research Center. We aim at the best possible user experience that can be achieved with tight integration of an image gallery application on a mobile phone and the corresponding Web-service. Image Exchange relies heavily on data connections and is intended for people who either have a flat-fee cellular data plan or use the service primarily via Wi-Fi connection. Image exchange also experiments with using contacts information from users' phonebooks for automatic friend pairing. And finally, full Image Exchange experience requires an S60 v3.1 or v3.2 phone. Share on OVI is Nokia's mainstream Image sharing service that doesn't rely on the assumptions mentioned above.

24. How do you figure out my phone number?

When you take Image Exchange into use and enable the online mode for the first time one SMS-message is sent from your phone to our service number. This procedure allows us to automatically detect your phone number and use it as your default account name. Your phone number is also needed so that your friends can easily share images with you by just selecting your name from their phonebook.

25. How and why are you using my contacts information?

Your phone number is used as your default account name and also as your address for sharing images with you. Additionally Image Exchange uploads all the phone numbers in your phonebook to our service database. This is done in order to match you automatically with your friends. You are considered somebody's friend if you both have each other's phone numbers in your phonebooks. Image Exchange service can then automatically push images published by your friends to your mobile phone.

Your contact information will never be revealed to other users or third parties, but may be occasionally used to contact you for some important Image Exchange service related announcements.

26. What about privacy in general?

All images uploaded to Image Exchange service stay private unless you explicitly publish or share them. Your contact information is never revealed to other users or third parties. However your friends ("friends" are persons who's phone numbers are in your phonebook and who have respectively your phone number in their phonebooks) will receive your published images automatically and know that they are from you. So in that sense Image Exchange doesn't support anonymous publishing. (Note that your identity is revealed only to those Image Exchange users that are in your phonebook)

You can find out more about Nokia's privacy policy here: https://account.nokia.com/acct/public/privacyPolicy?serviceId=Ovicom&country=US&lang=en.

27. Are images being moderated?

Nokia Image Exchange does not actively moderate content. However, users of Nokia Image Exchange can report inappropriate content. After two reports have been received about the same image, the image will be unpublished automatically.

Known Issues

Possible connectivity issues

If you are unable to connect to our server, try putting the application offline and back online again. If that does not help, sometimes rebooting the device may help. It is also good to double check that the correct access point is selected.

Everything might be slow when starting to use Image Exchange

Image Exchange uploads all your images to your web account and generates thumbnails out of them. If you have a lot of images, this can take a long time. This is best done while connected to charger and, if possible, to a WiFi network. Image Exchange should be fast once the initial uploading and thumbnail generation has been done.

Counters for data transfer are not accurate

As of now, Image Exchange counts data payload and estimates the size of headers and wrappers. Thus the "Transfer info" is an estimate which should not be fully relied on.

Image ordering may cause errors

In some cases new uploaded images appear far back in private "Latest" section. The "Latest" is ordered by image capture time. Thus when old images (or images with no exif-data) are uploaded they might appear in the middle or end of the collection. Exif-data might be removed or missing, which is rather common with images downloaded from web.

Images are not rotated in web UI to match the device

Web UI does not allow sharing other than sending links via email

Generating zip for web downloads may take a long time

Password recovery requires a valid email address

Password recovery and resetting is currently based on email address. Thus, if you lose your password and your email address has not been set or is incorrect, please contact imex-team@nokia.com and we will help you to change your password.

Counters for new images are not decreased if images are unpublished

People do not disappear from the "People" menu when all their images have been unpublished.

MMS sending requires that MMS access point has been set previously

Thumbnails might be missing for a while

There are rare occasions where image thumbnails are not created immediately. This is currently fixed with a background process which may take a minute or two before the situation is corrected.

Images deleted through other gallery applications do not disappear from Nokia Image Exchange

Nokia Image Exchange uses thumbnails for browsing images. Other gallery applications do not know about these thumbnails and thusly do not remove them when they delete the original images. Original images are deleted from the device, but the thumbnails remain visible in Nokia Image Exchange unless explicitly deleted through it. The originals also remain accessible via the web service till deleted via Nokia Image Exchange as it backs up your images.

Starting to use Image Exchange

Costs and Connectivity

Advanced Usage

About Image Exchange

Known Issues

Starting to use Image Exchange

Costs and Connectivity

Advanced Usage

About Image Exchange

Known Issues

Email Sharing

Image title