The Nokia Blog

Nokia Internet Tablet Top 8 Applications

Matthew Stevens — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 05:00:07 +0000

Since acquiring the Nokia N810 there are a few applications that make the device that much more useful; in some cases they make it a killer device. Most of these applications are available on OS2008 Chinook and Diablo repositories. If you haven’t yet upgraded to Diablo, I highly recommend it. With a few exceptions most of the key applications have been updated to Diablo: as a precaution double check your critical applications before making the switch at the Maemo Garage.

Claws-mail. Despite the inclusion of Modest in Diablo, Claws-mail remains the best and most powerful email client for Maemo. The inclusion of filters, RSS reader, Tray Icon and a few other plug-ins make it the first application installed on my N810. Email is a must have on any mobile device and while I could get by using Modest, Claws-mail puts it to shame. Now if only Maemo allowed users to select their default applications life would be truly grand indeed.

Pidgin. You can’t have a mobile device without talking about Instant Messaging (IM). This is usually the second application I install on my Tablet. With support for nearly everything IM network known to man, Pidgin is very robust and easy to use. I particularly love the meta-contacts feature (creating a combined contact for friends with logins on a multitude of networks). Pidgin also has a number of great plug-ins you may find useful, such as LED notification. Linux users will feel right at home with Pidgin on Maemo, as it is nearly identical in every way.

Xournal. My newest favorite application that as quickly earned a fond place in my heart. I love its simplicity and yet the powerful features it offers. Xournal truly is a pen and paper replacement.

Maemo WordPy. Maybe not a must install for all users, its one handy application for anyone using Wordpress or Blogger. With included support for Flickr upload and inclusion into posts WordPy is a handy application for veteran and new bloggers a like. Given the portability of the Internet Tablet, this is one application any blogger will find useful. Drafts can only be saved locally if planning to re-edit later as it does lack the ability to access any posts already published or saved online but this one of the few draw backs. Another great addition to this application would be a spell checker. The small keys on the N810 lend themselves to easy and frequent typos if not careful, as I will testify.

Mauku. Mauku is a must for users of Jaiku. The recent update has the added benefit of gestures making navigating simpler including access URLs, both Jaiku and Internet. Twitter fans will be jealous of this application. If you want to try the latest and greatest of Mauku change the Innologies Package Repository components field from user to unstable (this is at your own risk).

Large Status Clock. As the name implies it is a clock for the status bar. There are a few settings that make it unique to typical clock applications such as the ability to change color as a preset alarm nears. Large Status clock fills one of the obvious voids in the Internet Tablet OS.

LoadApplet. This is the Task Manager of the Internet Tablet world with the added benefit of being able to take screenshots (all the screenshots seen here and Flickr are taken using LoadApplet).

OMWeather. Other Maemo Weather is a great applet that sits right on the desktop that it highly customizable for any number of cities around the world. Admittedly I have had some issues with this application from time to time which may or may not relate to the weather data but nothing a uninstall, reinstall and reboot hasn’t fixed. Despite these hiccups I do enjoy the ease of use for the most current weather data.

Others

There are a few other applications that I use but more for fun than anything e.g. Countdown Home. The best advise I can give you is to check the Maemo Garage or browse the Application Manager for that application that is going make the Internet Tablet that much better. Don’t be afraid to play, you can always flash should things go horribly wrong. Best of luck and happy application hunting.

What Are Your Favorite Apps?

We’d like to know your favorite applications for the Nokia Internet Tablet. Let us know your top applications in the comments below or write a blog post and send linkback or pingback!

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Featured App: Psiloc Connect For Auto-switching WiFi and Phone Network

Mark Guim — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:30:45 +0000

Another must-have application I recommend for the Nokia S60 phones is Psiloc Connect. It creates an access point that connects to your existing wifi connection before it uses the phone network to get on the internet. You save money if you don’t have unlimited data and you don’t have to worry about switching between access points.

The Setup

The application is pretty much self-explanatory after running it. In fact, you only need to run it once, and forget about it. Select the option Connect via 3G/GSM if WLAN is not available, and then select the access point to your phone network. That’s it.

Psiloc Connect application and the S60 Browser settings.

What’s left to do is selecting the Psiloc Connect access point in your browser or other applications that need to go online. From now on, you won’t need to change access points when you are out of range from the wireless router.

Where to Get

You can download and try it out for free for 10 days at the Psiloc shop. If you like it, then buy it for $16 USD or 10 euros.

Thoughts

This application should have been already built in with our Nokia phones. It’s a shame we have to spend extra and rely on a third-party company to do it the right way. Uh oh… I’m going to mention the iPhone again. When I use my girlfriend’s iPhone, I don’t have to bother with another application to handle my connections. If I’m at home, it’ll use the wifi connection. If I’m outside, it’ll use the network. Thankfully Psiloc came out with this application to cover Nokia’s shortcoming.

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Vlog: Qik Tip - Streamed Videos Are Saved in the Gallery

Ninong Brown — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 05:00:20 +0000

Have you ever recorded a live video stream via Qik that you also wanted to upload on Facebook? Don’t want to have to download the video off the Qik website on your laptop or your phone? Can’t install the live player on your site? Well, upgrade to the new version and see what’s what. The streamed videos are now also accessible through the gallery. Autosave FTW!

Note: Embedded flash video below might not be visible in your RSS readers.

Hopefully Mark and I were able to provide you with some useful information, or at least made you laugh.

My advice, upgrade to the new version of Qik and start uploading your videos to Facebook and other sites as well. It’s not overtly profound, but it will make your video uploading time shorter and easier.

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How To: Change ‘0′ Shortcut to Bluetooth On/Off On Nseries

Mark Guim — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 15:11:00 +0000

Bluetooth can be turned on/off by pressing the * key on some Eseries devices like the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71. This shortcut is not available on the Nseries phones. By hacking your Nseries S60 phone, there’s a patch that lets you change the ‘0′ shortcut that usually opens the web browser. I’ve changed it to open the bluetooth menu on my Nokia N95 8GB. By turning on bluetooth only when you need it, you can save battery life and prevent unwanted file transfers.

Prerequsites

The first thing you need is a hacked Nokia S60 phone. You can find out how to do this by reading How To Hack Your S60 Phone guide.

The instructions below include editing the original ChangeBrowserOnKey.rmp patch by FCA00000 and uploading it to your phone. The modified code is then shown afterwards for the bluetooth shortcut. If you don’t want to read about the modification, just scroll all the way down for the end result. Note: The code’s formatting might not appear properly on RSS readers.

All I did was change the code so that the bluetooth menu opens. You can change it to anything you want as long as you know the application’s UID code.

Original Code by FCA0000

Below is the original code from FCA00000. Unmodified, pressing 0 will open Opera Mini if you have that installed. Continue reading below to change it to bluetooth instead. Notice that lines starting with ‘;’ are comments.

; *** ChangeBrowserOnKey0 1.0 ***
; *** Change Browser On Key '0' ***
; Author: fca00000 , fca00000-at-yahoo-dot-es
; Date: 2008.06.01
; Firmware: tested on N80 v 5.0719.02 . Might work on preFP1+FP1
;
; When phone is in the StandBy screen, pressing key '0' opens the default browser.
; With this patch, you can open any other application.
; You need to know its UID. Then, swap bytes to little-indian to get xxDIUxxx. In other words: 0x12345678 becomes 78563412
; For example:
; FExplorer UID = 0xE00012DF therefore xxDIUxxx=DF1200E0
; Calculator UID = 0x10005902 therefore xxDIUxxx=02590010
; OperaMini UID = 0x101D3166 therefore xxDIUxxx=66311D10 In this case, be aware that it takes some time (5 seconds) to open.
;
; then, the patch becomes:
; SnR:sys\bin\phone.exe:398D00100000000000000000:xxDIUxxx0000000000000000
; SnR:sys\bin\phone.exe:398D00100100000035000000:xxDIUxxx0100000035000000
; As far as I know, nothing is broken. But I decline all responsability, of course.
; Anyway, here it is. Enjoy
; end of ChangeBrowserOnKey0
SnR:sys\bin\phone.exe:398D00100000000000000000:66311D100000000000000000
SnR:sys\bin\phone.exe:398D00100100000035000000:66311D100100000035000000

Modified Code For Bluetooth

Below is the code for bluetooth shortcut. Since the The UID for bluetooth menu is 10005951, convert it to little-endian which results in 51590010. See how the conversion is done? You convert ABCDEFGH to GHEFCDAB. The only modifications done are in the last two lines of the original code.

; *** Change Browser On Key '0' to Bluetooth ***
SnR:sys\bin\phone.exe:398D00100000000000000000:515900100000000000000000
SnR:sys\bin\phone.exe:398D00100100000035000000:515900100100000035000000

Copy and paste this code to a new text file and make sure to save it with a .rmp extension.
Transfer it over to the E:/patches folder. Create it if it is not already there.
Enable it on ROMPatcher (see: How to Hack S60 phones) and set it to autorun so you won’t need to reactivate it after reboot.

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Nokia E71 Review Part I: The Physical

Mark Guim — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 16:11:56 +0000

After two weeks with the Nokia E71, I have prepared the first part of the review for this phone. I’ll talk about the physical aspects of the Nokia E71. A lot of people will be considering this phone because of the QWERTY keypad, slick shape and 3G compatibility in North America, but interested buyers need to consider if they can do with the multimedia features not up to par with Nseries phones.

First Impressions

I always show off the phones I have to my friends and family. The Nokia E71 looks really good according to whoever I show it to. The main keywords that get mentioned are, “shiny” and “thin.” On the Boy Genius Report’s Nokia E71 review, they wrote that the Nokia E71 could be one of the sexiest damn phones they’ve seen in a very long time.

Build Quality. The Nokia E71 feels good to hold. It does not look or feel cheap at all. The battery cover takes up most of the space on the back and is made of stainless steel instead of plasticky material we are all used to. The front surface is smooth with rounded corners, while that shiny material is striking to the eyes.

To get nit-picky, I notice a space between the screen and keyboard, leaking light out that is noticeable in the dark.

Light leaking between display and keypad on Nokia E71.

Color. I am playing with the grey steel version of the Nokia E71. A white version is available, but I have not had a chance to see one in person. I love how the black keypad flow with the shiny steel color on the front, and then seamlessly flush with some sort of a hard see-through plastic or glass on top of the display. Yes, the Nokia E71 is sexy-shiny! take a look at All About Symbian’s Nokia E71 review with the white version.

Display

The Nokia E71’s screen is 2.36 inches compared to 2.8 on the Nokia N95 8GB and 2.4 on the Nokia N82 although having the same 320×240 resolution. You can check my Nokia E71 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia N82 Screen Size Comparison for a closer look.

Nokia N95 8GB vs Nokia E71 vs Nokia N82.

Even with the smaller screen, web browsing is actually more convenient on the Nokia E71 than on the Nokia N95 8GB because the display is already in landscape mode having a wider view. With the Nokia N95 8GB, you have tilt to the side or open the slider, and then have to put it back to portrait mode to login or search websites.

It’s barely noticeable but the screen on the Nokia E71 is not as bright as the Nokia N95 8GB. However, the images are sharp and I have no complaints in this area.

Buttons

I’ve been a long time numeric keypad user on my phones, but now I see what I’ve been missing. Qwerty on the Nokia E71 makes it so much easier and faster to write emails, text messages, or fill out forms on websites. Common characters like the question mark (?) and the @ sign are accessible to one press instead of pressing the shift button first on our regular pc keyboards.

Great keypads. They keypads are great, but not perfect. People with bigger fingers might accidentally press the wrong buttons, but I did not have any problems with it. The buttons are raised so that if you run a finger from side to side, you can easily distinguish buttons. For the phone’s size and weight, I think Nokia did an excellent job on the qwerty keypad. Cnet UK agrees on their Nokia E71 review by saying, “E71’s keypad is one of the best Qwerty keypads we’ve ever laid fingers on.”

Side buttons. On the side, there are three buttons: dedicated record button, and the volume control. If you press and hold the record button on the main display, voice dialing gets activated and you can say a contact to to dial. On the Nseries phones without the dedicated button, you need to press and hold the right soft key.

Power. The power is the only button on top of the Nokia E71. There’s nothing special worth mentioning here. You use to turn on/off the phone, as well as change profiles to silent, normal, outdoor,etc.

Speakers

I’m impressed with the loudspeaker on the Nokia E71. Try playing a movie on maximum volume on the Nokia E71 and you’ll find it too loud! That is actually a good thing! The handset speaker is normal during phone calls (yes it can make calls). Increasing the max volume a little bit would be better, but it’s not a big deal. The Nokia E71 review by My-Symbian agrees that the speaker is “very loud and clear.”

The Nokia E71’s speaker is loud and clear.

Connections

There are two rubber flap doors on the left side of the Nokia E71 covering the micro USB and microSD ports. They seem to do a great job locking and staying in place. There’s also an infrared port for those who want to use it to transfer files with other compatible devices.

Micro-USB. The Nokia E71 connects to your computer through a micro-usb port. It’s not as common as the mini USB, but expect to see more phones use these types of ports. Unfortunately, the USB connection does not allow charging.

MicroSD and MicroSDHC. The Nokia E71 comes with 2GB microSD card. I’m glad Nokia is getting generous about this, since I remembered digital camera companies only provided 256mb or 512mb cards leaving the customers to spend extra for bigger storage. The Nokia E71 should also be able able to support microSDHC cards to expand your storage. Currently, the maximum capacity of cards available is 8GB.

2.5mm jack. You can’t insert your standard earphones on the Nokia E71 so you either have to stick to what Noki gives you with the phone, or get an adapter. Not a dealbreaker, but thumbs down.

Standard 3.5mm earphones will not fit on the Nokia E71

Camera

Protection. The Nokia E71 does not have a camera lens cover and is raised above the rest of the back surface. I wondered why it was designed like this since I thought it will attract scratches to the camera. After a closer look, the raised hump actually protects the camera on flat surfaces. The angle created by the hump slightly raises the camera lens away from the surface.

Image Quality. At the current firmware version, I am disappointed with the 3 megapixel camera on the Nokia E71. Expect to see your object covered with a purple tint. The autofocus is works fine by pressing the ‘T’ button before snapping the picture, but the end result is a letdown considering I had this problem with the original Nokia N95 when it was released more than a year ago. I would have thought that after a year, Nokia can fix the problem. Take a look at a color comparison with the Nokia E71 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs iPhone photos.

Physical Conclusion

The slim design and full QWERTY keypad on the Nokia E71 makes it optimal for messaging on the go. Its great looks puts the icing on the cake. I’m not happy with the camera quality, but many will say they are not buying this phone for the camera.

On the next part of my Nokia E71 review, I’ll cover some of the features and actual user experiences. Make sure to stay up to date by subscribing to the Nokia blog’s feed.

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Whose Picture Results - Nokia E71 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs iPhone

Mark Guim — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:42:27 +0000

I asked readers yesterday to guess which phone took the picture. The guesses were almost unanimous. The Nokia N95 8GB took the best picture while the iPhone suffered from focus and the Nokia E71 added a purple tint to the photo.

Click on the photos to view larger size.

Phone A = Nokia N95 8GB

Phone B = Apple iPhone

Phone C = Nokia E71

Most of the commenters guessed right. I’m really disappointed with the photo on the Nokia E71. I expected better. Please don’t give me that “it’s a business phone and you should be happy there’s even a camera on there” bull$h!t excuse. You had this problem a long time ago with the original Nokia N95-1 and should have fixed it by now. Hopefully Nokia removes the purple tint problem with a firmware update.

Another Nokia E71 vs Nokia N95 8GB Color Comparison

Here’s another look at the color problem on the Nokia E71 by comparing it with the Nokia N95 8GB below. It is so obvious that I don’t even need to ask anyone to guess on this one.

Notice the purple tint on the Nokia E71

Great color on the Nokia N95 8GB

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Guess Whose Picture - Nokia E71 vs Nokia N95 8GB vs iPhone

Mark Guim — Sat, 19 Jul 2008 17:42:44 +0000

I took a picture with the Nokia E71, Nokia N95 8GB, and the iPhone for comparison. They all have different megapixels, but I resized them to all 450 pixels width to even the competition. You can compare how each one handles color. Take a look and let me know which phone corresponds to the photo.

Update: The results have been posted here.

Phone A

Phone B

Phone C

All the photos were taken on automatic mode. Which phones are A, B, or C? Let me know your guesses in the comments below with your reasons and I’ll post the result in a couple of days with their true resolution size. I hope it isn’t too easy?

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Nokia N810 Now Only $299 At TigerDirect, CompUSA, and Amazon

Mark Guim — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 18:15:37 +0000

Heads up! The Nokia N810 is now available at Compusa, Tigerdirect, and Amazon at $299. If you weren’t interested in the N810 before, perhaps the latest OS update might interest you. Advanced users might also want to tinker with Android or Debian Linux on the Internet tablet.

The usual price have been around just less than $400, so this is a good deal. Since three stores (Compusa, Tigerdirect, and Amazon) are offering the N810 at the same price, I’m thinking the price is here to stay. Don’t quote me on that though.

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Go Green With Nokia By Reducing Travel Clutter

Matthew Stevens — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 06:16:23 +0000

This past year I’ve had the opportunity to travel a bit more than I had in recent years, giving me a real opportunity to change the way I’ve travelled in the past. By reducing travel clutter, I’m talking about all that paper your wasting printing travel itineraries, rental car or hotel confirmations and endless other items you might print for your trip. Our Nokia devices actually help us with this.

In recent years there has been a real push to do your part to help the environment. Saving the environment is great but let’s face it many won’t go out of their way to make an impact unless it either benefits them or is easier than the way they use to do things. Here’s a tip that does both.

In my travels nearly every hotel, rental car agency, airline, bus or train I’ve ever used suggest printing your confirmations, itineraries and other miscellaneous items. I’m here to tell you to stop wasting the paper and toner.

Nokia Devices and PDF Documents

First you’ll need to verify your device has a PDF reader. Most if not all S60 devices released in the last year or two has Adobe Acrobat Lite either pre-installed or available for download from Nokia or Adobe. Nokia Internet Tablet uses have Evince available for install, check application manager or Maemo Garage.

Next step is to install some kind of PDF creator. There’s the standard Adobe Acrobat Pro (version 8 or less) or Acrobat Standard (version 9). Wikipedia has a rather comprehensive list of PDF readers, creators and editors; one of these is bound to suit our purpose here.

Now that we have the necessary software, let’s start printing–electronically that is! Print those confirmations, itineraries and other necessary documents. Using whatever method suits you best, transfer those electronic documents to your S60-powered Nokia phones or the N8×0 Internet Tablets.

Email backup. Before our recent vacation, I not only put these documents on my Nokia N810 but also the wife’s Nokia N800. As an emergency back up plan you could even email yourself these documents for safe keeping in Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail or other locations. In a pinch you could gain access to these documents if some unforeseen disaster should befall your beloved devices.

Passport Copy. The uses of PDF isn’t solely limited to these temporary or one time use documents. For years, police have been advocating making photocopies of your entire wall’s contents in case of loss or theft. Going out of the country? Consider scanning your passport ahead of time. In the event your passport is lost, stolen or the victim of some horrible accident, the digital copy could easily be produce as evidence for the local embassy or consulate to help expedite get your safe return home.

Conclusion

When I started considering and looking at the possibilities, they truly started jumping out at me. Before I knew it, I was taking all sorts of documents to work to scan into PDFs on the Xerox machines. I started carrying with me important documents I might need in a pinch: everything from powers of attorney to medical histories. Be sure to take appropriate and prudent security measures with documents sensitive in nature. Even if you don’t plan on carrying around a single document, this method can still be helpful for quick and easy reference at home as well. It’s also convenient knowing I can access all these documents from my Nokia devices.

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Nokia E71 Manual Gives Bad Shortcuts For Nokia Maps

Mark Guim — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:00:57 +0000

I was confused with what button shortcuts to press on the Nokia E71 to center in my location and zooming. On phones with numeric keypads like the Nokia N95 8GB or the Nokia N82, 0 is for centering, while * (asterisk) and # (pound sign) are for zooming. The Nokia E71 manual also says the same thing. However, there are quicker ways to get the same results and these should have been mentioned on the booklet instead.

Nokia E71 Manual. Photo taken with the Nokia E71.

Nokia Maps Shortcuts

Spacebar = Center to your position
Shift = Zoom in
Delete = Zoom out

As an extra tip, pressing Function + 1 lets you quickly change map modes (Map, 3d, satellite, hybrid). I’m not sure if these shortcuts work for another QWERTY phone, the Nokia E90. If you have one, please try and let us know.

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Video: Open To Anything Q&A Session With Nokia Product Manager

Mark Guim — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 20:35:37 +0000

Nokia Product Manager Chanse Arrington answers some questions sent in during the Open To Anything LA. He talks about S60 feature packs, Nokia Download, OTA updates, iPhone price, and more. Check it out.

Highlights

He talks about Merlin on S60 feature pack 2 on 0:42. What’s Merlin?
Go to S60 feature wishes to recommend features on S60.
Go to Nokia Discussion Forums to report Firmware bugs.

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How To: Send Google Earth Location From Computer To Nokia Maps On Phone

Al Pavangkanan — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 05:00:20 +0000

I’ll show you how to get info from Google Earth to Nokia Maps. Part of the reason I needed to do this was finding tickets hidden by Nine Inch Nails around Los Angeles. Read more for the guide and backstory.

Backstory

One of my favorite bands is Nine Inch Nails. Later this summer they start the Lights in the Sky tour. In June, they also put up a .kml file to be used with Google Earth. There’s info about installation on their flickr page below.

NIN tour Viewed in Google Earth

The .kml file is connected to a server. On July 4th at 2PM, Nine Inch nails updated the .kml file. Around 6PM, someone noticed something strange in the KML file. A question mark was placed in Burbank. The only info said “Under a Rock”. I inputted the street name into Nokia Maps and drove to the location. I couldn’t get the exact location, so I had to navigate by eye when I got nearby. I found nothing there. I found out later in the night someone got there about 10 minutes before me.

Someone found the tickets before me.

On July 8, another question mark showed in Griffith Park. The clue said “in the pipe”. I didn’t find out about this one until it was long too late. It took two hours to be found.

On July 12 at 4:15pm, another question mark popped, this time it was near Anaheim. The clue said “Campsite of Anza”. This place was 50 miles away. I figured I had 1 hour to get there, so I hopped in the car and drove. I didn’t get there until 5:40. Someone got there before me again.

I didn’t have my N82 with me that day (I sent it out for repairs). I could have routed myself around the traffic with Google Maps and found the exact location with Nokia Maps a little quicker if I did.

This whole ordeal made me wonder, how do I get info from Google Earth to Nokia Maps. In the past, The Nokia Blog has covered Google Maps to Nokia Maps and Phone to Phone location sending, but not Google earth to phone.

Steps

Start off in Google Earth. Select your location and save it. Be sure to save as .kml and not .kmz.
Next, go to this website: http://poiconvert.free.fr/
For the source format, select .kml
Next upload your file.
Finally, select your output format. You can choose formats for TomTom (.ov2), Garmin (.asc) and Nokia Maps (.lmx). I can’t test TomTom or Garmin, so I’ll talk about Nokia Maps.
Send the .lmx file to your phone. I sent the file with bluetooth for ease of use. You can also plug in the USB cable and then transfer the file, then open it with a file explorer. You can also email the file to yourself as an attached file.
Open the .lmx file and Nokia Maps will start up and find the location.

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Face The Task Limited Edition Nokia N96 - The Nokia Blog Style

Mark Guim — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:01:46 +0000

Remember the limited edition Nokia N96 I told you about to help red pandas? Well I was just told that I have a customized page on the Face The Task site. LOL a lady’s voice greets me by what my old college buddies called me, Mackarus. The Nokia N96 then rises from the special box with The Nokia Blog logo on the screen. What a surprise!

Customized The Nokia Blog limited edition Nokia N96 page

As a reminder, you may not know that there are certain limited ‘windows’ when people are able to order the Nokia N96, and these only come along every so often. The third opportunity for people to get their hands on the special edition of the device is at 14:33 CET tomorrow (Wednesday).

Will I be buying one? No… I can’t afford it so I entered the competition to try and win one!

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Video: Two-Hand Texting and No-Hands Riding a Motorcycle

Mark Guim — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 13:51:21 +0000

You just have to see this clip. A guy was found texting on his cell phone while lying down on his motorcycle and maneuvering through the streets. I thought I’ve seen it all when a woman was swerving on the highway because she was putting make-up on, but this guy definitely takes the trophy.

I’m not sure if this is a viral ad for the motorcycle, but that is just unbelievable.

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How To: Send Locations From Google Maps on Computer To Nokia Maps On Phone

Mark Guim — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 16:41:09 +0000

Before I travel to an unfamiliar place, I usually look up the address on Google Maps on my computer. With Map 2 Nokia created by Justin Hourigan, I can send the location of that place to my Nokia phone that have Nokia Maps. I’ll show you how simple it is.

Not only can we send locations from phone to phone with friends, but now we can also send locations computer to phone.

Steps

Go to Google Maps on your computer and find the place you are looking for.
Center in to the location by double clicking on it.
Click on the “Link to this page” link
Copy the link from the “Paste link in email or IM” box
Go to http://map2nokia.appspot.com/
Paste the link into “Google Maps URL” box and type a title and description accordingly.
Press the “create .lmx” button to create and download the file.
Bluetooth or email the .lmx file to your phone.
Open the .lmx file and select options -> show on map.
Done! You can save the location so that you can start navigating when you’re ready.

This works great on GPS-enabled phones like Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N78, Nokia E71 and more coming soon. Justin states on the site that he is still debugging it, so contact him at justin [at] scaryideas.com if you encounter any errors.

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How To: Use Nokia Maps To Send Current Location To Your Friends

Mark Guim — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 22:40:54 +0000

You can show your friends where you are on Nokia Maps if they also have Maps on their Nokia phone. The interface is not as pretty as it should be, but it gets it done. Have a lot of friends nearby with the latest Nokia phones? Meeting up is easy. Read the how to.

Steps For The Sender

Open Nokia Maps and wait until your location is found.
Press the center key -> send. There are several ways to send locations, but I found multimedia text (mms) the most convenient.
The MMS will automatically insert the address of your location in the message but you can edit as shown on the image below. Nokia Maps will not be able to display anything using the text alone. The MMS attaches an object/file that your friend needs to open so that Nokia Maps can display your location.

Sending location by MMS on Nokia E71

Steps For The Receiver

Open the message and select options -> objects.
Click on the .lmx file to see the address info in text.
Click options again, then “Show on map” to see the location on Nokia Maps.
From here, you can choose to navigate by walking or driving to meet up!

Receiving location by MMS on Nokia E71

Recommendation

As a user, I think it would be better if my inbox automatically recognizes the the .lmx file and give the option of showing the location straight from the message. Having to click options -> object -> options -> show on map is a little redundant. I recommend a link at the bottom of message with “Show on map.” That’s one click compared to 4 clicks.

Thanks to Ricky Cadden from Symbian-Guru for helping me out with this topic!

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Vlog: Nokia E71 Video Sample Asks Why People Are Lining Up At The NY 5th Ave Apple Store

Mark Guim — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 02:07:33 +0000

To show you a Nokia E71 video sample, I went to the Apple Store and asked the first guy on line the iPhone 3G why he has been waiting almost a week. He’s there with a group with good cause and also break a Guinness World Record. Check it out.

Video formats: Maximum resolution, Mobile, Youtube

The line was not as long as I thought. There were probably 15-20 people there and most of them are part of the Waiting For Apples group (explained in the video). Nokia should contact them about breaking their own record and wait in line for the Nokia N96 when it comes out.

Nokia E71 Video Quality

As you can see, the video quality on the Nokia E71 is not even close to the Nokia N95 or Nokia N82. The color is pretty bad and the frame rate is slower. The Nokia E71 captures video at 640×480 with 15FPS, half the capability of 30FPS on the Nokia N95 and N82. At least its got video recording unlike the iPhone…

So which of you Nokia fanatics are getting the iPhone 3G. Come on, fess up!

Interested in getting the phones mentioned above? Check out the lowest prices for the Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia E71, Nokia N82, and Apple iPhone on Fonegrabber.

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Face The Task Of Getting The Special Edition Nokia N96

Mark Guim — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 17:06:22 +0000

A new site for the Nokia N96 surfaced yesterday. Face The Task is going to release 96 individually numbered, special edition Nokia N96 on Friday 11am, CET. The bad: $759 euros. The good: proceeds from all sales of the Nokia N96 bought this way will also be donated to charity. If you can’t afford it, try winning it in their competition.

Face The Task does a good job showing the features of the Nokia N96. There are six main features summarized in text and then shown in video how it is used shortly afterwards. You need to try it out yourself to see what I mean. There’s an incentive to watch all six videos: you can’t enter the competition without viewing them all!

Watch all videos to enter competition.

The limited edition Nokia N96 comes in a decorated ash tree box with unique numbering on the inside cover, silk cover, 8GB microSD, and leaflet about the WWF project to save the red pandas in Nepal.

While I like the charity part of this limited edition Nokia N96, I’m not so sure about the exclusivity of this phone. To my understanding, only the box is numbered… not the phone. Will the color of the phone be at least different from what’s going to come out to the general public? Donors and winners will not even get the phone earlier than anyone in their country.

Kobe Bryant with Limited Edition Nike Hyperdunk

Take a look at what Nike recently did. They released a limited “Back To The Future” Nike Hyperdunk earlier this month. The general colorway comes out later this month, but Nike decided to release a limited amount of the special colorway much earlier than the public release and then even have Kobe Bryant autograph the first 10 sold. Doesn’t that feel much more “special” or “limited” than what Nokia is doing with the Nokia N96?

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How To: Hack S60 Nokia Phones

Mark Guim — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 02:46:38 +0000

This guide will be referenced to many times in the future, so I am posting the instructions to hacking your S60 Nokia phones now. Hacking your S60 phone will let you install unsigned applications without a hassle and even apply some patches if you like. It’s much easier than I thought!

Steps To Hack Nokia S60 Phone

Install freeware X-plore, a file manager from Lonely Cat Games. Run X-Plore, press 0 and check first 4 boxes. Don’t exit.
Install and run HelloCarbide by FCA00000.
Switch to X-plore and check if you can see the contents of C:/sys/. If you can, then you are halfway done. If not, try step 2 again.
Download CapsOnOff.rar by FCA00000.
Copy CProfDriver_SISX.ldd from RAR downloaded above into C:\sys\bin of your phone. You can do this with X-Plore.
Install CapsOn.sisx and CapsOff.sisx. Run CapsOff application to turn on the hack.
Download SIS installer mod for Symbian 9.2 and copy installserver.exe file to c:\sys\bin\ so you can install unsigned applications
Install ROMPatcher by Zorn.
Whenever you need to install an unsigned application or patch your phone, just run the CapsOff application first. CapsOn brings it back to normal state.

If I see any useful patches that interests me, I’ll make sure to mention it. There really isn’t much right now. Take a look at the SF modding forums for new patches. They were the source of these instructions.

Now that you have a hacked Nokia S60 phone, try installing some unsigned applications! I recommend MagicKey for remapping buttons or the latest version of S60 Screenshot v3.03 to take screenshots from your phone.

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How To: Change Back To Smoother Fonts On The North American Nokia N95 8GB Using FontRouter LT

Mark Guim — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 20:18:17 +0000

After the upgrading to the latest firmware v20.2.005 for the North American Nokia N95 8GB, you probably noticed the rougher fonts due to anti-aliasing getting tuned off. There’s no option or settings in our phone for us to change it back, but I’ll show you how to turn it back on by simply installing FontRouter LT.

Anti-aliasing OFF vs ON

All you need to do is install FontRouter LT (I suggest to your memory card). Reboot and you’re done. Others use FontRouter to change the font type on their phones, but I’ll save that for another post.

There’s no icon to access the FontRouter application and there’s no need to change anything. If you’re still curious, you have to access and edit the e:\data\fonts\fontrouter.ini with a file explorer like X-plore. Reboot after making any changes. The setting that forces anti-aliasing is:

More Comparisons

Anti-Alias ON

Anti-Alias OFF

With anti-alias on, texts are more pleasing to read.

This tip also works for other phones with anti-aliasing turned off, but I don’t know which exact models those are. I’m confused why the Nokia N95 8GB’s fonts got altered after the firmware upgrade since I’m sure people like anti-aliasing turned on by default.

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I Entered The Nokia Free Hands Challenge To Win A Nokia N82 and BH-902

Mark Guim — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:03:35 +0000

Nokia just launched the Free Hands Challenge where you can win a Nokia N82 and the Nokia BH-902 bluetooth headset each week. I am not passing on this opportunity, so I’ve already uploaded my video. The challenge itself is to find out what people can do with their hands. My first video is during a cultural show where we demonstrated stickfighting martial arts. We messed up a bit, but check it out.

Video might not be visible in your RSS reader. I’m the one in the red, and Allen is the one who gets the girl.

The most popular video each week wins a prize. Pretty cool! Upload your videos now and also leave the links to your videos in the comments below with a short description to get some more views. Good luck!

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Hacked My S60 Nokia Phone and Removed the Useless Search On The Main Screen… Sort Of

Mark Guim — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 20:58:36 +0000

A topic I haven’t talked about here on the Nokia blog is about hacking S60. I never really understood it or saw the point, but I tried it today to remove that useless search tool on the main display of the Nokia N95 8GB. In essence, hacking your S60-powered phones like the Nokia Nseries and Eseries devices lets you install unsigned applications and apply patches. The bad thing about it is the changes applied by the patch needs to be reapplied every time the phone is restarted.

There’s no option to remove the Search on the active display. I don’t use it and don’t really want it on my main screen. I rather use the Google Search app.

So here are the pictures before and after the hack.

Before:

After

Hack Your S60

Want to hack your S60 Nokia phone? Go to Symbian-Freak’s Modding forums for instructions on hacking S60 and using the ROMPatcher. I have not found any other useful patches other than being able to remove the search from the active display screen. Maybe more useful patches will come out in the future. The changes are gone and need to be reapplied if you restart your phone. Is it worth it? Eh.

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