Avinash Rathod : Mobilecentric

Ovi Store a disappointment

2011-06-12T13:38:00.001+05:30

I really started to hate Ovi Store since they tied up with Reliance. I dont want to switch to Reliance, so now I cannot buy any applications not even with a credit card (if there is a way to do it with a card do tell me).

For about a month I had to see the above screen while operator(Reliance) billing was being put in place.

The new client 2.08.042 I recently installed seems buggy, scrolling through the list shows blank entries, you scroll and just when you think that you've seen an interesting application and stop scrolling the rows go blank

The worst thing , I don't know if this is because of QT version conflicts, when I try to install some application the installation never ends. I mean the download completes the screen shows installing but it never ends and when I try to quit Ovi Store I get :

'Wait for the current installation to complete before exiting', ultimately I just kill the app from the task manager.

Desperately waiting for Symbian Anna, hope things get fixed up in one single bundle.

Ovi Store 2.08.042 now available

2011-06-10T16:18:00.000+05:30

N8 : Switching profile also changes the theme :Fixed

2011-01-22T16:29:00.002+05:30

E51 is the only device with which I can take a video, so the video quality is bad. But I noticed that when I change the profile the theme is also changed on my N8, strange.

Fix: This happened because of Nokia Situations which I had installed a couple of days earlier.

Finally I get Midnight theme on my N8

2010-12-31T12:31:00.000+05:30

One of the first things that I did on my N8 was 'SW update' application. Out of the three updates one failed and it was the Midnight theme. It would always show up when I did a refresh but would never install.

I installed Ovi Suite 3 today and did a Software Update check. The theme was listed and at last now I've the Midnight theme on my N8.

I've seen a lot of posts regarding the 'SW update' issue with Midnight theme, so go ahead download Ovi Suite 3 to get the Midnight theme ;)

N8 and E7 pics

2010-12-25T15:44:00.000+05:30

Bye Bye N95

2010-12-07T14:33:00.001+05:30

After living for 3+ years with the N95, which I won as a Wiki Contributor of the Month on Forum Nokia, I've finally bought a new phone.
A couple of weeks ago my N95's screen would go blank (lights go off) when I opened the slider.
And now slider open or closed the lights remain off (actually very dim).
Having spent 3000 Rs already for a body change and 800 Rs for a new battery, I decided its time to give my good old N95 some rest.
I now have a new phone and the pic below tells it all ;)

Will post more.

nokia.co.in - See phones with prices

2010-04-24T21:54:00.000+05:30

Bikers love Nokia Nseries

2009-12-11T18:43:00.003+05:30

Its been around 4 months now I've just been biking and reading all about bike maintenance and all. As I said in my earlier post I am now mostly on bike forums and blogs. One fine day this blog post made me feel happy.

N95 : NOT CHARGING message

2009-12-10T12:30:00.002+05:30

Had never seen this on any phone yet. All of a sudden my N95 started showing this message whenever I would plug in the charger. Have been using this charger all the time. Tried another charger but the same message. Restarted , same thing again. Switched the phone off pluged in the charger and the charging bars appeared. Started the phone after a few minutes and had to enter the date and time , but charging continued.
Googled for the same message and saw that most of the E61 users have faced similar problem but it was an issue with their chargers. Some voltage related thing. But just don't understand why it showed up on my phone :(

In search of a new N95 body - Part 3

2009-11-29T11:05:00.003+05:30

Finally it looks as good as new. It was in such a bad condition even the Nokia Care guy gave me a wierd look ;)
The makeover cost me 3000 Rs. My slider was already good but it would have cost me 1000 Rs more to get it changed too. The battery had swollen up, changed to a new one for 800 Rs.
BTW if you want to know if your battery is proper or not then just give it a spin on a flat surface , if it rotates more than once then its time to change it. This is what the Nokia Care guys do for checking. Mine was so swollen that I could not even close the battery lid properly. Anyways I am happy with my phone now. A fake cover costs 450 Rs but lasts no more than 5-6 months and feels very very plastiky.

My N95 8GB's volume keys and camera key are no longer working. Got a quote of 500-800 Rs. Spent too much this month, will give it some other time. BTW these pics were clicked with my N95 8G with the timer activated ;)

Pics of fake cover here.
Pics before fake cover here.

Perhaps the best "My Nokia" tip

2009-09-13T13:25:00.003+05:30

Very handy this:

BTW to start "My Nokia" services on your phone just click the "My Nokia" icon in Applications

Why so busy?

2009-09-02T13:30:00.004+05:30

Q. Why I haven't been posting so long:
Ans . Office Work

Q. Why I won't be posting as I used to earlier
Ans.
1. Office Work
2. My New Bike ;) -- Yamaha Fazer 150cc

Will be spending most of the time away from my computer now. All of a sudden I am no longer on mobile forums and blogs, instead I keep reading xbhp, bikeadvice, etc... I am now BikeCentric ;)

Is the Nokia N97 overpriced?

2009-06-25T19:24:00.006+05:30

Well I don't have any intention of buying the N97 or any phone that goes above Rs 15000. I'd rather wait for the phone prices to come down if such a phone is on my wish list. I've read on a lot of forums/sites that the N97 is overpriced. I know its got an amazing form factor, USB charging, GPS, touch screen, etc... also the E90 still costs ~ Rs 33000 , so may be the price (~35000) is just right.

Just put a poll to find out what others have to say. So do vote (poll on top of the page) and leave a comment if any.

Hands on with the Nokia N97

2009-06-25T12:14:00.009+05:30

I spent a few minutes with the N97 . Its a beautiful device, large screen , good QWERTY, USB charging, NGage, etc...

A few pics taken from my N958G (couldn't keep my clicking hand stable , will let you know why in my next post)

The N97 launched in Mumbai

2009-06-18T19:36:00.005+05:30

Here it is , the Nokia N97 finally launched in Mumbai.
I'm sure I'll get to see many of those soon in the 'First Class' train compartment while I travel, been seeing a lot of 5800's lately. Sites and blogs have been populated with every detail of hardware and application reviews of the N97. No one complains about anything crashing as its known that its a production firmware the device is running on. But here are some of the early owners , a lil disappointed with crashing issues

DiBo
All About Symbian (first commentor on the post)
Video link showing the crash

Am sure issues will be resolved with a couple of firmware updates, same happened with the N95 earlier.

Price : ~ 35000
Vodafone Offer:

As part of the tie-up, on purchase of the N97 Vodafone customers will receive an exclusive free data plan over 3 months for browsing internet services.

The offer will be valid for all Vodafone customers at all Vodafone stores retailing Nokia devices, all Nokia branded retail outlets as well as multi-brand stores in nine cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad and Jaipur.

More info here.

Nokia - Most trusted - Again

2009-06-17T12:10:00.002+05:30

Nokia continues to be 'The Most Trusted Brand' yet again in India.

Links:
2008 :
Nokia conversations
Economic times

2009:
Economic times

Win an N85 on Tech2

2009-06-02T13:40:00.004+05:30

Answer a simple NGage related question here and 2 people can win an N85.

Zombify yourself

2009-05-22T14:03:00.003+05:30

Killing zombies = real fun.
Imagine what it would be : Being zombified + winning a trip to Japan + an N96 ;)

The site/contest seems like some promotion for resident evil on Ngage. I haven't gone through the TOC of this contest and I really don't care about it (the contest), I just wanted to see how do I look as a Zombie.

Just log on to zombisingles.com and get urself zombified.

Interesting comments

2009-05-14T16:36:00.003+05:30

Sometimes comments on posts are more interesting than the post itself ;)

Is Nokia losing it? : This guy 'dextroz' in 10 mins made a comment which is twice the size of the actual post and still its interesting.

The case of iPhone is Strong : This is a really well written post and would make any reader go ga-ga about the iPhone. But wait, just go thru the comments and your thoughts might again change.

In search of a new N95 body - Part 2

2009-04-15T10:46:00.004+05:30

Finally a new fascia/body for my wife's N95. It cost me 450 Rs. The feel is nowhere near the original and even my wife does not like it so much, but its better than carrying the taped one. Got it replaced from a shop close to my office. I guess I will have to eventually give it to 'Nokia Care' for the original part but just don't get enough time to do so.

Goodies from S60.com

2009-04-02T00:33:00.004+05:30

I signed in for the NGage Level2 Ambassador program at S60.com some time ago. Was supposed to share my NGage experiences with friends/colleagues and submit their reactions on S60.com. I haven't done my part yet but still I've got a box full of goodies from the S60 guys.

A torch,pen,coaster,USB fan,4 port USB hub, writing pad, charms, a small S60 clip for the ear phone wire, comics and a 4GB micro SD card along with a small card reader. This is the second time I've got an S60 gift pack, the first time it was a T-Shirt , writing pads, 2 pens, mouse pads,lanyards,stickers etc...

That's not all,registering and signing in for a S60.com newsletter gives you access to exclusive S60 application every month. If not free for all they do give out early bird licences.

I think I should now do my bit and start submitting reports.

5800 : Close application from task list

2009-03-30T00:39:00.006+05:30

There's no 'C' key on the 5800. I felt the need for it when the Gmail application would simply refuse to come in the foreground. But I knew if there's a taskbar then there's surely a way to kill/close the application from there, after all its a Symbian phone. Just a few seconds of touching I figured out that a long press on the app icon of the task list reveals a small menu with'Open' and 'Exit' options.

I know most of the S60 users would have figured that out with some fiddling but I'm sure not all know that getting the above screen shot made me take out my phones battery.

The 'Best Screen Snap'(BSS) application has the camera key as the default screen shot key. Pushing the camera key for the screen shot would put away the small menu. I tried the green key/menu key/volume keys the red key in the BSS settings but it would just say 'Not allowed'. The only key that worked was the keypad toggle key. Cool, now I have the screenshot and you see it up there ;) but a few seconds later the key pad got locked. Now every attempt to unlock would take a screen shot but no unlock. Even switching off the phone requires an unlocked phone. So the only option, I removed the battery.

I quickly did an image search of the N97 key pad to check for the 'C' key. Does not seem to be on it too. But am sure the circled key below will do the trick.

Understanding NGage

2009-03-25T16:14:00.001+05:30

It took me two full version games to understand NGage.

Asphalt 4 Elite and Creatures of the Deep(COD) are keeping me busy these days. Around a month ago I switched back to my N958G. Did a firmware upgrade (v31.0.015) and this time it had the latest NGage installed with a lot of trial games. I activated COD because it's by Infinite Dreams. I've earlier played KRally like anything on my E61 and I knew the graphics on COD will be something to look forward to. COD is a fishing game, catch fish and get points (XP's). The graphics of the game are amazing, the rain, the lightning, etc... You get to fish in Costa-Rica waters and once you have enough XP's you can travel to other destinations. I played this game all the time, unlocked a few items, went to different locations and kept on fishing. What I never understood is 'When does the game end?'.

Some how I got one more activation code. This time I activated Asphalt 4 Elite. Once you have a full version of the game vertical bars show up at the right side of the game listings. The bars indicate how much more you have to play to finish the game. I was two bar's up on COD and kept fishing all the time but the bar remained on two.

Asphalt 4 Elite has a menu which shows "Pickup points". These are stages in the game where you get X Ngage points. So there is a game score, which is $'s, and then there are NGage points. So the bars that are shown alongside the games listings are actually how close are you to achieving 1000 Ngage points. COD does not have a menu to show pick up points, but if you go into the NGage application - My Profile - Click on one of the game in the list there's a tab where you will see the games pick up points.

This answers my question of knowing when does COD finish. So I don't have to just keep fishing, I actually have to finish all the tasks listed in the pickup point list. After this much of knowledge I finished Asphalt 4 Elite. COD is a big game, you have to finish tasks in 4 places and the places themselves are not small. This time the NGage online community came in handy.

Browsing through the forums I came across screenshots where tasks can be finished , actual walkthrough's of games, tips and tricks. Also interesting is that I found one of my friend on the forum and was even able to add him as a friend on the NGage application. So now we can compare our points, discuss games and even play multiplayer games (havent tried it as yet).

Although I activated the games through activation codes I recieved I surely will be buying some of them. The games are not very expensive, I believe they are around 300 Rs (see Oxicash for more details). And looking at the quality of games I've played I don't think the amount is too much. I think I will be buying Prince of Persia.

I'm really enjoying NGage and will always make sure that whatever device I carry it's NGage enabled.

A touchy day for me

2009-03-18T16:13:00.006+05:30

Got an chance to play with 3 touch phones today.
- Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
- HTC Diamond and
- Samsung Omnia SGH-i900

(pics taken from my N95 8G closeup mode )

Had a little brush with the 5800 a couple of months back but it was only for 5 mins. This time the 5800 stays with me for say a couple of weeks, so will be posting my experience with it soon.
Can't say much about the other two phones, had them only for some time, but I must say they were good. The Omnia was Windows Mobile but am surely looking forward to the Symbian one (Omnia HD).

System up and running

2009-03-10T11:41:00.005+05:30

I did manage to get the system for 17.3 thousand INR without bargain from Cassette World , Lamington Road. I always recommend shop for all h/w needs.

The config changed a little:

CPU : AMD Athlon XP2 7750 2.7 GHz 3Mb cache -- what I wanted

HDD : 500 Gb -- Western Digital ( the dealer recommended WD on Seagate)

MBD : M3A78-EM HDMI (is almost the same as Asus M3A-H/HDMI but cheaper)

RAM : 4 Gb 1066MHz G.Skill (wanted only 2 Gb but again recommended by dealer)

Bought everything last Friday and even assembled it- all fine.

Loaded WinXP SP3 - all fine.

Loaded all drivers - no sound. Spent around 15 hrs and finally sound. There's some conflict with WinXP SP3 and HD sound drivers. Had to install this patch first and then loaded the drivers again. All fine now.