Well it's been 2 days since I've started using a Symbian S40 phone, specifically the Nokia 6126. I am using it as a backup phone until I can get my N73 fixed, hopefully soon. I'm dying here! This post is about a few things I've noticed that S40 has and S60 doesn't. Of course S40 doesn't even touch S60, which is obviously better.

The first thing I'd like to say is how much I miss having a S60 phone. This is like torture! I am realizing how much S60 converges with my life. Accessing email and the web is a pain on S40. The browser is crap compared to the S60. I personally am not liking the interface too much, and the biggest killer for me is the lack of multitasking. The ability to multitask is one of the main reasons I love my Nokia N73. I can't believe Symbian didn't implement multitasking into S40. Who cares if it's not meant to be a smartphone. Hell, even my girlfriends Sony Ericsson can do this (and well). In todays world, the ability to do more things at once is how you get ahead. Switching from the calculator and back to the internet should be no problem. Maybe they don't want it to compete with S60, who knows.

And for good things. Things that Series 60 needs to learn from Series 40.

1. Timed Profiles - I never even new this feature existed on phones. Say your going into a movie theater. Set your profile to silent for 3 hours, and after the time it will automatically switch back to the previous. This can come in handy for meetings, work, visiting family, going on a date, etc. Such a basic function should be included in Series 60 "smartphones".

2. Tons of shortcuts in Series 40 - If you use "Active Standby" on your N95, you are limited to 6 applications across the screen, and two softkeys. In S40, you can have your active standby, right and left softkey, and all four directional keys act as shortcuts. How they do this is you can assign a directional button to highlight your active standby menu, then scroll left and right to get to your favorite application. Example: For my directional buttons, I have left as the browser, right as the calculator, up to activate active standby menu, and down for the phonebook. Then my right softkey starts a new text message. Now heres where it gets even better! S40 has a "Go To" menu shortcut. Using my left softkey, a small list of more of my favorite applications and functions pops up on the screen, fully customizable. Below the Active Standby application menu you can also add a "quick note" feature so that you can jot something down on the fly, as well as start a countdown timer. Why doesn't Series 60 give this functionality? Or do they? Am I missing something here?

3. Timer and Stopwatch - I can't remember if the N95 had these applications built in, but not on my Nokia N73. Weird. Maybe Symbian did this on purpose to get 3rd party developers involved?

4. Sending a text message to "recently used" - This is a big one for me. When you are selecting who you want to send a text to, you have an option of viewing the "recently used" contacts. This is very similar to a "most used". There are only a few people I text on a constant basis, so having them pop up on a list like this makes things so much faster than having to scroll through my whole phonebook. I've talked about the 3rd party S60 application called TextQuick (click here for the review) which gives you a list of your most texted people in order of how often they are texted. This is extremely valuable for texting on the fly and I wish Series 60 had this built in.

That's all I can find for now. If there are other features that S40 has over S60, let me know. I'm sure there aren't many more.

Other than that, Series 40 has nothing over Series 60. The lack of 3rd party applications is huge. I think S40 only takes java applications, which if you follow this blog you'll know I hate. After playing with my girlfriends Sony Ericsson W580i for a few hours, I've came do the conclusion that their firmware is much more sleek, intuitive, and cleaner than Series 40.

I would probably never use this application, but Symbian Guru (not Ricky) has released a freeware java application for keeping track of your Google Finance Stock program. I'm sure a huge amount of S60 users will get some use out of this application, since most S60 devices are considered smartphones and business phones. Below are the features...

General information:

My Portfolio is a free Series 60 v3 finances application that updates your Google Finance portfolio in the real time on your mobile. You get the most needed information from your own portfolio displayed, such as: company name; symbol, last price and percent change.

All other data about your portfolio units is also available, exactly as you can get it online.

There is an auto refresh option available: My Portfolio will be automatically refreshed with the updated data every set period of time. Please note: the auto refresh function will work only if the My Portfolio application is open.

You can also get the history of every unit in your portfolio, based on time period defined by you.

Key Features:

* Real time update of Google portfolio data
* All Google Finance data overview with one click on your mobile
* Auto refresh function
* History of every portfolio item
* Freeware application

Click here to get My Portfolio for S60.

Source: AllAboutSymbian.com

A few days ago I got an email from Nokia saying they are purchasing the software company Trolltech, which specializes in mobile and desktop applications. This is great news for us S60 users since this will only help us mesh our desktop and mobile experience.

Below are a few quotes from the press release.

"The acquisition of Trolltech will enable Nokia to accelerate its cross-platform software strategy for mobile devices and desktop applications, and develop its Internet services business. With Trolltech, Nokia and third party developers will be able to develop applications that work in the Internet, across Nokia's device portfolio and on PCs. Nokia's software strategy for devices is based on cross-platform development environments, layers of software that run across operating systems, enabling the development of applications across the Nokia device range. Examples of current cross-platform layers are Web runtime, Flash, Java and Open C."

"The technology landscape evolves and, for Nokia, software plays a major role in our growth strategy for devices, PCs and the integration with the Internet. We continue to focus on areas where we can differentiate and add more value. Common cross-platform layers on top of our software platforms attract innovation and enable Web 2.0 technologies in the mobile space," said Kai Öistämö, Executive Vice President, Devices, Nokia. "Trolltech's deep understanding of open source software and its strong technology assets will enable both Nokia and others to innovate on our device platforms while reducing time-to-market. This acquisition will also further increase the competitiveness of S60 and Series 40."

Click here to read the full article.

I haven't tried this theme out yet, but from the screenshots it looks like one damn creative theme for your S60 phone. I'm usually not into white/bright themes, but this one just looks slick. And the icon pack looks even better. I am so missing my N73! Going from S60 to S40 sucks!

Anybody have a bricked N73 they wanna donate/sell to me for cheap? I just need it for parts!

Ooops! Forgot to add the link. Get it from www.nokiasymbianthemes.com (the site goes down occasionally.)

Well since my Nokia N73 has a broken lcd screen, I was forced to get a backup phone. I wanted to give Symbian S40 a try, so I got a free Nokia 6126 from AT&T. It's a very simple phone with basic features. Yes Europeans, a 2 year contract gets you a cheap basic phone. I've seen some advertisements for a free Nokia N82 with a 2 year upgrade. That just boggles my mind.

Anyways, I decided I'll do a small review of this phone and my experience with the S40 platform. One of the main things I'll be looking out for are basic features that are missing in S60. I've already found a few and I've only had the phone for an hour. It seems that maybe with S60 Symbian is just too focused on the "smart" aspect of it, leaving out the simple.

If anyone has experience with S40 and knows of any cool tips or tricks please let me know. I'm already missing my 3rd party applications. Hopefully I can get my LCD replaced soon on my N73. In the meantime I'll be posting a little about this phone, while keeping you guys (and gals) up to day with the news and rumblings of the S60 & Nokia world.

Now to get some sleep after a long (not really) 2am-8am shift at the docks. Oh and check back later today or tomorrow for some more details about the future of S60 3rd Edition and Feature Pack 2.

Thanks to Phoneboy, I just read some news over at Howard Forums about a new mobile browser for Symbian S60 devices that brings you a true desktop browser experience. Skyfire will use the same idea as Opera Mini, in which it a backend proxy server to process the website to work on your Nokia phone. It will feature full flash support for websites such as Youtube and Espn.com. The latest Nokia N95 8gb firmware update already gives browser flash support, but people still run into out of memory errors. Hopefully this new 3rd party browser can solve that problem. I think it's great that Nokia will have new competition with 3rd party web browsers, it will only push them to make the built-in one better. Best thing is this application will be FREE!

Even better is I'm hearing that this will work on older models such as the Nokia N73, but don't quote me on that. If that is the case, Skyfire can possibly become one of the most popular S60 applications.

The picture to the left is a screenshot of Skyfire Browser on a Nokia N95. I dropped a screenshot I found over the Nokia N95 8gb screen using Photoshop. I'm not sure that there is even an actual beta version being tested right now.




I actually found a video of Skyfire mobile browser being tested on a Windows Mobile device. See below...it looks absolutely amazing.


This application is slated to be released for S60 sometime this quarter. Click here for the original article at Phoneboy's blog.

I've mentioned Emtube before, and I think I've posted about it awhile back ago. The developer has made strides of improvements since the last time I tried it. After playing with the new version for about a week now, I can say that emTube is the best way to watch Youtube videos on your Nokia N95 or any S60 phone. Of course a 3g connection would be great, but I've been getting decent results with an Edge connection.

Here are the official features of emTube...

emTube is an application for Symbian S60 3rd edition phones that allows you to:

Search and browse videos on YouTube. Download selected videos onto your phone. Stream FlashVideo files directly from YouTube. Play local FlashVideo files. Other features: - Audio and position control during playback. - Normal and full screen (portrait and landscape mode) video playback. - Ability to use built in accelerometer to rotate video between portrait/landscape mode.

Here are a few screenshots of emTube running on my phone:



Some of my favorite features are real full screen mode, option to download video, and pre-load so you don't get buffering. And a reader in my previous thread about the new Youtube application reminded my that this application doesn't need to be signed. Great news for many S60 users.

emTube is freeware, but of course donations are encouraged. And this application is definitely worth a donation.

Click here to download the file directly or click here to check out the official emTube website.

I just came across this website called Nokia Symbian Themes. This guy makes some seriously cool looking themes and they are all free. The website is just as slick as the themes. He also has some free applications and trial applications to try out.

This Crimson theme makes my phone look like its on fire, burning like the sun. It also has custom icons, which are ok, but I'd prefer the standard icons instead of these.

Here is another theme to give to your lover for valentines day...


Go to www.nokiasymbianthemes.com to get your free S60 themes today.

Great look at the skies over Southern California this morning, about 10 minutes after a huge downpour. It's nice to get some rain once in awhile. Helps to clean out the dirty smog from LA.

I just caught this article over at IntoMobile.com. Youtube and Google have just released a java app for watching the full Youtube database on your S60 phone. I have a sample video posted below. I just tried out this new application, and my initial opinion is meh. Not bad, not great. I never like java apps because I think they are slow and lack functionality. But at least we have the option right?

This new application loads videos quickly, but they don't come in very clear. Also, you don't have the option to watch in full screen landscape mode which is a huge bummer. I guess this is a good start though, if only they can make a real .sis Symbian application. The interface is slick and I'm actually surprised by how good this java app functions. Right now it's only available for S60 and Sony phones.

I definitely prefer the EmTube application over this one. But the drawback to EmTube is it's unsigned. I guess if you really want a good Youtube experience on your Nokia handset, you'll learn how to sign applications.

Here is a sample video of how to install on a S60 phone:



Click here to download the application or go to Google's website and search for it on your phone.

I posted a few weeks ago about the news of "User Data Preservation" which means when you update your Nokia firmware, you won't lose your settings, applications, contacts and calendar entries. Pretty much nothing should be lost.

Well today the Nokia N82 recieved a small firmware update. The new firmware version is 11.0.117. User data preservation reportedly works well. This is huge news for Nokia enthusiasts and just goes to show that Nokia is listening to their customers.

An official changelog has not been released, but I'm reading that it's mostly crucial bug fixes. This update is currently available for European product codes.

Source: All About Symbian

Cheers to the Nokia N73 still being an awesome phone! Vote in the poll to the left.
I'm just curious to find how many readers still have a Nokia N73 and use it as their primary phone. I know I sure as hell do. This thing still has great specs compared to a lot of other smartphones. The 3.2 megapixel camera is still one of the best cameraphones in the industry. Sure the specs don't match up Nokia's latest Nseries phones, but not everyone can afford one or justify paying $500 for a phone. I personally would buy a Nokia N82 if I had the $$$.

It's great that Nokia has been keeping up with the firmware of the N73, people are reporting faster menus, startup, and more bug fixes. I still have a broken LCD screen on mine and haven't got a chance to get a new one. Really bummed about that. As soon as I get my phone back I'll be updating to the latest firmware. Click here if you haven't gotten it yet. I don't think this will be the last firmware update either. Don't forget Nokia has been promising the release of Ngage for awhile now, and the Nokia N73 is supposed to be one of the devices supported. With the latest Google Maps, the loss of GPS isn't a huge deal for me, since the Nokia N73 still can get my approximate position on the map. Wifi will be missed, but I only really used it once in a great while.

With the price point of $300, the N73 is a bargain right now. I bought mine used for $250 about 7 months ago and it's been a great introduction into the Nokia/Symbian world.

Cheers to the Nokia N73 still being an awesome phone.

And don't forget to vote in the poll in the left column. Thanks!

Nokia loves to promote their Nseries products as "multimedia computers". I'm pretty sure their goal is to have all your non-phone devices wrapped into one. It's just so much easier to carry one device instead of 3 right?

For me, the Nokia N95 can replace everyday general use of a digital camera and camcorder. Automatic upload to photo/social websites using Shozu just makes it that much cooler. For real special events with dark lighting, I can't rely on the N95. I'm hoping that the Nokia N82 can change that. The N95 gives me a gps unit that I've never had, and allows me to not have to replace my broken Ipod. I can't fully allow the N95 to replace my laptop, but for simple reading, browsing, and email, it does replace my laptop. Even watching Youtube on the N95 has been a breeze lately using the new EmTube application, which I'll talk about today or tomorrow.

I just came across a great post by Rita over at the Dotsisx blog (one that I enjoy reading) about all the devices that her Nokia N95 has replaced. I've thought about this before, but when you put it all down on paper (or computer screen) the list is pretty awesome. Everything from dictionaries, medical books, GPS units to digital cameras are all replace by the Nokia N95, plus so much more in Rita's post called Math a la N95 8gb which you can read by clicking here. What a great article. There might be a few things she missed, so be sure to leave her a comment.

The guys at Symbian World have posted a great tutorial about how to change the fonts on your Nokia N95 or any S60 device. I haven't gave it a shot yet, but I'm planning on it. I wonder what would be a crisp clean font to change to? The tutorial is very informative and detailed, you can do this in only 10 steps.

Click here to check learn how to change your S60 fonts.

The website Mobile Entertainment conducted an interview with Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's Executive VP of Multimedia. He talks about the origins and future of the Nseries, as well as success in giving the market what it wants.

My favorite part is when he mentions that there will be a touchscreen device that will still have a keypad for text input and calls. This is great news, since I'm not totally sold on touchscreen text input. There has already been speculation that Nokia will release this type of device, but this further solidifies that we'll get a real keypad with touchscreen.

From the interview:

"And will Nokia be developing a touchscreen device?

We already have, with the 7710 and the Tablet. We’ll carry on working on touchscreen technology, but you have to think about it flexibly. There will, for example, be small devices where the touchscreen will be used to access entertainment functions but there will still be a keypad for text input and calls."

Click here to check out the mini interview at Mobile Entertainment.

Source: All About Symbian

Well I just got back from the theaters and damn what a great movie. If you haven't heard about this movie yet, you gotta check it out. Some huge alien monster takes over Manhattan. The main character is using a Nokia N76, and you see a few advertisements for Nokia here and there. Just now I did a quick google search to see if I can find any information on the N76 in Cloverfield, and sure enough James from Nokia Creative caught this in a Cloverfield trailer back in December.

Click here to check out the original post by James at Nokia Creative, and click the image to check out the trailer.

I personally haven't seen the movie Cloverfield yet, but I'm planning on seeing it soon (hopefully tomorrow). I just came across this post by Dr. Tran at Howard Forums. Apparently Nokia/Symbian is helping to promote the movie, and a Nokia handset is used throughout this movie, rumored to be the Nokia N80.

You can scan this barcode below with your Nokia S60 handset to get the theme, thanks to Dr. Tran's blog for the find.

Time to have some fun. As you can tell, it's not really secured the wall properly, yet. I made a backboard for it with wood and carpet from the Home Depot store. My girlfriend's dad got me the dartboard for Xmas! Sweet. Another photo brought to you by the Nokia N95.

Shozu is one of the best free applications available for newer S60 phones. Period. Reason I say "newer" is because it takes up too RAM for my Nokia N73. But I'll get to that later.

What does Shozu do? Well it essentially replaces the built-in Online Share application that comes on S60 phones. You can upload your photos and videos to many popular social sites including Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, Facebook, Blip.tv, Blogger, Kodak Easy Share, and a ton more. An unlimited data plan is highly recommended. You can find a video guide of Shozu at the end of this article.

Shozu is constantly running in the background. If you want, you can set it to automatically upload all the photos and videos you take, or you can have it ask you each time you take one. Personally, I have it set to ask me after each photo I take. If the photo came out good, I just push yes. Your camera then just goes back to normal and you can keep snapping away. Shozu is integrated perfectly into the camera application. All uploads are running in the background so you never have to worry about waiting for files to send to the servers. This is one of the greatest features of Shozu. And of course you can turn off this feature if you don't want it.

Alternatively, you can start the application and select all the photos or videos you want to upload, marking them all at once, and send them to your favorite social site this way. Once you select them all and start the transfer, you can close down the application and the files will transfer in the background. Zero wait time.

Altogether Shozu has 28 destinations to choose from to upload. I've already listed the most popular. You manually setup all the destinations on Shozu's website, then when you log into the application on your phone and let it set itself up, all your destinations will be there ready to go. Basically all the setup takes place on your computers browser, making it easy on you. You can also backup your contacts to Shozu's server if you like.

The downside is this application takes up about 4mb of RAM constantly in the background, even when your not uploading photos. It's just always there. For older versions of Nokia smartphones this can be a problem. I don't use this application on my N73 just for this reason. But the Nokia N95 and N82 has plenty of RAM to run this. Even the original N95, since you get more RAM and demand paging if you upgrade to the latest firmware.

In my opinion, this is what Nokia's Online Share application should be. Of course you can already upload to Flickr, but to me it's a pain compared to Shozu. With Online Share you don't have the option to upload every image or even the option to be asked after you take a photo to upload. You have to go in and manually do it, passing up more great photos you can be taking. If you use Kodak Easy Share Online you know that it's great for ordering your prints. You can tell Shozu to upload to your Kodak account, and when you login from your computer they are already there ready to order. No more worrying about finding your cable.

Here is a Video Shozu Guide for the Nokia N95 that I found on YouTube so you can see how the application works.



To try it yourself, click here to check out Shozu.

I came across this painted on a wall by my house just now. I agree! Save USA jobs. It happens too much that jobs are getting shipping overseas, which in turn will weaken the pocketbooks of the middle class. Funny things you find when taking your N95 along to get a burger.

After using the Nokia BH-501 Stereo Bluetooth Headset for a couple days, I'm glad to say that I'm extremely happy with this product. About 5 months ago I signed up for a program set up by Symbian to be a S60 Ambassador for California. Basically they wanted the ambassadors to show off their Nokia & Symbian products with friends and family, and maybe even strangers. We then would write each situation down and tell Symbian our tales. At the end of the program, they tallied up the amount of stories that each ambassador told and gave out prizes to the first and second place leaders. I was lucky enough to be a second place winner, so they sent me this awesome stereo bluetooth headset. This review will be talking about the Nokia headset mostly, but I will also be comparing it to my Motorola HT-820 which I previously used.

I'm going to first start off with the specs:

Nokia BH 501 Stereo Bluetooth Headset Specifications
Weight - 2.4 ounces
Type - Behind the neck, foldable
Buttons - On/Off, Answer/End, Volume, Voice Dialing
Charger - Same as Nokia phones
Bluetooth Profiles - Headset Profile (HSP), Hands Free Profile (HFP), Advanced Audio Distribution Profile (A2DP)
Transmission Length - 30ft
Run Time - Approx. 11 hours
Standby Time - 150 hours

As you can see this heaset is no joke. The specs are on par with most bluetooth headsets.

Sound Quality
When I first fired up these puppies I was pretty let down by the sound quality. It sounded weak with no bass. But then I read the instruction booklet and realized that you need to fully charge the headset before you first start using them. DUH! Thats what I get for getting too hasty. Once I got them fully charged, I was very pleased with the sound of the music. It's not the greatest, but it definitely competes with wired headphones. You get a full, rich sound with good treble and mids. The bass is a little lacking though, but this may be partly because of the weak bass that the Nokia N95 puts out. Actually I have to be honest and say that the Motorola stereo bluetooth headset I have gives you better bass. As far as volume goes, these headphones are plenty loud for me. I wear them while I'm working in the office at my day job and my co-workers have to pretty much yell to get my attention, which I enjoy since they spend all day annoying me. The call quality is also very good. The caller comes in crystal clear, and I haven't had any problems with people hearing me, even with speaking in a low voice which I have to do at work. The caller doesn't even realize I'm using a bluetooth headset. Overall I'd give the sound quality a rating of 8/10.


Build Quality & The Comfort Factor
I realized that the build quality and comfort is extremely important when decided which bluetooth headset to purchase. The Nokia BH-501's are extremely comfortable. I actually have a pretty good sized head, and they still don't get uncomfortable after hours of use. I always have a hard time with behind the head style headphones because I feel like they are squeezing my head. Surprisingly these don't squeeze my head, yet they manage to stay on without feeling loose. Each earphone has a soft material so that it feels good against your ears. The construction of the band that connects each headphone is made of a rubbery flexible material, very good I think instead of having something more that I've seen on so many headsets. The outside of the earphones are made of plastic, and kind of cheap feeling. I think they could have done a better job of using a harder plastic. But you never know. Maybe this is they best Nokia could've done while keeping the headset light and compact. Speaking of light, damn these are light! Weighing in at just 64 grams, this makes a huge difference when it comes to comfort. My Motorola's weigh 100 grams. No wonder why I was constantly getting headaches and sore ears. The Nokia BH-501's are also foldable, making them easier to throw in your jacket pocket or a backpack. I used these babies for about 3 hours straight today and didn't get any discomfort. Maybe it's because I'm so used to wearing the Motorola bricks on my ears.

Buttons & Functions
This is an area where the headset comes out a loser. You have three buttons. Volume up, volume down, and the power/answer button. I'm so used to have a play/pause button, as well as previous and next track. I was bummed out to find that those features didn't come on this headset. The buttons are slightly hard to push and aren't positioned too well. The volume buttons are spaced far apart, I'd rather have them closer together. If you press the answer button when your not on a call or someone isn't called, you get the voice dialing feature that's built into your S60 headset, and it actually works really good. I though for sure the headset would have a hard time picking up what I'm trying to say, but it doesn't. This just proves how good the microphone is.


Overall this headset does a very good job. The sound and build quality is very good. It's lacking in the buttons and functions area, but I can learn to live with that. I also tested these out with video and movies on my Nokia N95 and it works flawlessly. Pretty much any sound you would normally get through your phones speakers comes through the headphones. I decided that I'm going to keep these and sell the Motorolas. The comfort is what puts it over the top for me. I can see myself using these way more often, instead of just when I'm desperate for music and willing to sacrifice sore ears. And thanks again Symbian for giving me the chance to win this awesome product. If anyone has any questions or would like to share their experience with this product leave a comment.

Had to get this picture of the sun setting down behind San Pedro and Palos Verdes while on my way to my 2nd job at the docks. Thanks Nokia N95.

I took this shot with my Nokia N95 while leaving to break a few weeks ago. You can see that blue crane beam setting down a 40 foot steel container onto a truck to be taken to a warehouse. Everything is HUGE and dangerous on the docks at the LA & Long Beach Ports. My buddy is standing there to keep in contact with the crane operator and make sure he's setting it down properly and safely onto the chassis.

Right now there are three different versions of the Nokia N95, and soon to be four. This can get a little confusing for buyers looking to pick one up, especially if they don't keep up with the latest Nokia products or are just getting into these amazing devices. Of course the fourth Nokia N95 version will be the 8gb USA version, with US 3g bands and a larger 2.8" screen, which is supposed to be released in a month.

Well Jonny Bruha of S60 Howard Forums fame has put together a nice little post called The Nokia N95 Variation Guide For Noobs, outlining each current version and it's features/differences between the others. And of course you have pictures of each phone to go along with it.

Here is what Jonny has to say in the post:

These new posts from confused S60 first-timers are getting really redundant, so I think it's time for a quick reference guide for people to read before mashing that New Thread button. Hopefully, this will clear up a lot of the confusion from people having a hard time finding information about these three phones.

Bear in mind, all variations of the N95 have a standard set of features that do not change from model to model (5mp camera, GPS, WLAN, etc.,). This chart is not all inclusive to every feature of each variation, but only to those features that separate them from one another.

Click here to check out the rest of the post to get a description of the differences of each phone. Thanks Jonny Bruha & Howard Forums for the great post.

I am a California S60 Ambassador and won a gift from them in a little contest they had for California residents. I'll be posting a review about these Nokia stereo bluetooth headphones as soon as I get them charged. Just got this in the mail today. Stay tuned.

There are a few different ways to get your Gmail inbox on your N95 or any other S60 device. I've been dying to see a .sis version of a Gmail application, similar to what Google did for us with Google Maps. The difference between a native Symbian .sis application and a java application is astonishing. The speed, response, scrolling, load time, is all so much better as a native S60 application. But I have heard nothing of Google creating a Symbian Gmail application for us. So for now we only have a few options.

Option 1 is to use Gmail's java application. This application is great for non s60 smartphones, but can't take full advantage of a Symbian platform. From the time I launch the application to the time the application loads, it takes about 23 seconds to get itself fully loaded and retrieve my mail. That's just ridiculous. Once it's loaded however, you get almost all the options you have while using Gmail in a real browser. The application runs smooth and fast, although just doesn't seem as good as a native Symbian application. I have to give it to Google though, they created a great application for basic phones.

The next option is to setup your built in email application to be used with Gmail and IMAP, just like I talked about in this old post. Setting up Gmail isn't that hard using the email wizard that comes with your S60 phone. Once it's all set up, you can tell your email application to check for new mail anywhere from always on to every 6 hours. This can really come in handy. When you have new mail, the phone alerts you like it would a text message. You can then view your subject line and have the option to read it. If you decide to read your mail, your phone will then have to re-connect to Gmail. Doing this takes anywhere from 15-60 seconds depending on how updated your mailbox is. If you haven't check your mail for awhile, this process can take up to a minute or more to match your phone's email application with your Gmail account. I started to get really annoyed with this method.

The last option is one that I just started using. You can access your Gmail account via the Web Browser. Gmail's mobile email interface used to look ugly and was too simple. I noticed recently that they've updated the interface and give you more options to work with. On the newer S60 phones like the N95 and N82 you can assign one of your bookmarks as an active standby shortcut. I decided to give this a shot and made this my left softkey. If your using an older model Nokia you can make Gmail your homepage and this will load when you first click the Web Browser application. From the time I launch this shortcut the Gmail page loads in under 10 seconds. And that's on an Edge connection, not 3g. You are then presented with a simple interface, similar to the desktop version. Each email has a check box that you can mark. Afterwards you scroll to the bottom of the page and have the "more actions" box. You can move to inbox, mark as read, mark as unread, and add or remove stars. You can also report spam, archive, and delete. Pretty much everything you can do with the desktop version. Below that you get compose mail, inbox, sent mail, all mail, spam, contacts. You can click "more" and choose labels to show as well. You can also search all your contacts, something that is lacking when using the built in email application. This method I think so far is the best to use with Gmail, as long as you have a good, fast, internet connection. Like I said, running this option on an Edge connection is fast enough for me, and still keeps your Gmail perfectly in sync across your phone and computer.

Hopefully Google keeps updating there mobile Gmail interface like they have for the iPhone. I would really like them to tie in all there applications into one nice mobile page including Google Reader, Calendar, and Picasa. I think they will keep giving us updates and new features. Just make sure if you use any of these methods you have an unlimited data plan or be prepared to get a lot of charges. The first option I gave is probably the best for data consumption, but don't quote me on that.

Of course there are other 3rd party applications you can use to get your Gmail, one of my favorites is Emoze. I just don't like the amount of RAM that it takes up, especially if you leave these applications open.

Are there any other options that I'm missing? I'll be posting some screenshots of these methods tonight when I have some extra time.

For now, if you haven't already, check out this link to see Google's Mobile Gmail page.

Updating to your latest firmware and losing all of your applications and settings is one of the most annoying things that happens with our S60 phones. I've seen more complaints about this subject than any other topic. Well now Symbian is looking to fix that. They are calling it User Data Preservation.

According to their official S60 Multimedia Blog, the Nokia N82 will be the first phone to get this support:

"One of the most common complaints about updating a devices firmware is that your settings and applications that you had installed are gone. I agree and in order to improve this situation with the Nokia N82 some changes were made as to how your data is stored so that when you update with Nokia Software Updater to the latest firmware your settings and applications will still be available! The N82 is the first Nseries device to implement User Data Preservation."

This is great news for Nokia N82 users, and hopefully it will be coming to other devices such as the N95 and N73. Implementing this features shows once again that Nokia & Symbian is listening to their customers. This will only make the update process much more smooth and easy.

Click here to check out the official article from S60.

Not sure of the details, but keep your eyes peeled on the link at Nseries Urbanista. Basically four Nokia bloggers will travel the world, only using their Nokia N82 for navigation, images, blogging, etc. They will be using Sportstracker and Google Maps to track their routes and locations while traveling.

Here is what Devin from The Nokia Guide says about his excursion and the contest:

As part of the Nseries Urbanista event starting this week, there is also going to be a weekly competition. Followers of the journey can guess the location of images, shown on the www.Nseries.com page, taken by each of the Urbanista's during their trips. The weekly winner will be selected at random from the correct answers and will receive a Nokia N82 as their prize. To aid you in this competition there will be a specially created Urbanista Widget to follow the exact progress of the Urbanista’s.

If you want to follow these bloggers and try to win a free Nokia N82, keep watching the widget below or follow this link. According to the Nseries website, the competition starts of January 18th. I'll also have the widget on the left side of this website so check back daily.

Track the bloggers of Nseries Urbinista:

In order to view the Nokia N82: The urbanista diaries you need JavaScript and Flash Player 8+ support

Since Symbian is such a customizable platform, we can always hope for and expect improvements to the software, firmware, and hardware. Nokia is leading the pack in technology on mobile phones, with 5 megapixel cameras, gps, accelerometers, signal performance, and the list goes on. I fully expect Nokia to come out with some great devices this year and Symbian to make strides in the S60 3rd Edition firmware. With that said, I'm going to talk about all the improvements and features that I'd like to see in the harware and firmware. I'll make another post tomorrow about what I'd want most out of 3rd party applications. For now check out my list and leave comments on what you'd want from Nokia & Symbian. I'm sure there is a lot of left out.

The Nokia Side Of Things - Hardware

Well it's no secret that Nokia will be coming out with a touchscreen smartphone this year, it's only a matter of when. With the success of the iPhone, Nokia should be working hard to get this released. I love the idea of touchscreen for applications and menu navigation, but not for text input. I'm hoping they release devices that have a full qwerty keypad as well as touchscreen.

One of the selling points of the iPhone is it's looks. People just see the large screen and slim form factor and are amazed. Nokia's new devices really need to have a screen at least 3 inches wide, with brightness equal to or better than the N95. The thickness of the phone doesn't bother me too much, I'd hope that they don't go thicker than the Nokia N73. I think the N95 is a little too bulky. Of course it needs to have GPS, WiFi, & a 5 megapixel camera with Xenon flash. For me the camera is a crucial part of my phone since I love taking pictures. I won't spend $600-$800 dollars on a phone that doesn't have Xenon flash (which is why I'm saving for a N82). Nokia really needs to make that standard in there high end Nseries devices. The difference in night pictures is just amazing.

I think Nokia learned their lesson on battery life and the original N95. This new phone really needs to have a battery at least 1500mah. The larger screen will take so much more than a smaller screen, obviously. With a larger screen & bigger memory cards, comes more watching movies and tv shows. This will drain the battery more often then on phones with smaller screens, where people aren't likely to spend a lot of time watching movies.

And of course the last thing is US 3g band. Nokia will always release phones for Europe, but I really think Nokia can succeed in the US if they release there phones with US 3g, especially with a touchscreen. Browsing the internet with high speeds and a large screen will be absolutely amazing. I already rarely use my laptop at home, having 3g speeds on my phone will only lesson my laptop use. Downloading music, designing websites and graphics, and browsing flash websites is what I use my computer for. Most of the time I check forums and blogs with my N73, which isn't that much of a pain. Browsing forums and other websites will be great with a 3.2" screen and high data speeds.

The Symbian Side of Things - Firmware

Symbian already has the best smartphone platform available. But like all great things, there is always room for improvement. One thing I'd like to see is a different approach to the standby screen. I would like 3rd party applications to really be able to take advantage of the standby screen, and I would like to control the layout. A small weather dock would be nice, and when I touch it, it takes me to a weather application. I would like a shortcut to show my latest 3 unread emails. I would like a small notification of a new instant message, similar to what the Slick IM application gives you. Maybe a block on the bottom of the screen can have my five latest rss feeds from the built in feed reader that is in the Web application. The possibilities are endless.

A better Task Manager. We already have Handy Taskman to use as a 3rd party task manager. But I would like to see a better built in task manager. One with a quick switch button that allows you to scroll through your open apps, quickly, like the new EQ Alt-Tab 3rd party application. We should already have this functionality built in. I'm talking about a dedicated application switch button, not having to hold down the menu button for two seconds. Actually, I've been reading up on the new Feature Pack 2 which Symbian will have on newer models this year, and it seems as though they are adding a dedicated button for switching applications. I'll talk about this in another post.

Better battery readings. Sometimes I'll be making good use of my phone, and still have 5 bars left, thinking I have plenty to go. Then ten minutes later I look again and I'm down to 2 bars. Totally misleading. It's like the battery meter only checks the battery every 45 minutes or something. Symbian definitely needs to improve this so we don't find ourselves with a dead battery.

I know there is probably I whole bunch I left out so go ahead and leave your wants/suggestions from Nokia and Symbian in 2008.

Thank you Nokia. Last week I talked about how there was a new update coming for the Nokia N73 Music Edition. Well it's finally here. I haven't got a chance to try it out since my phone is awaiting repairs. Apparently this new firmware upgrade brings lots of speed and demand paging to the N73. Great news for owners of this still great phone.

Demand Paging is way Symbian can load programs faster and cut the phone's boot time in half. It also gives you more available RAM to work with, and when a program is loaded it takes up a lot less RAM, allowing you to have more applications and tasks open at one time.

Besides demand paging there have been a few bug fixes in the music player's equalizer. Also this new upgrade gives the new Online Share for uploading photos to your favorite website and I'm seeing reports of the overall speed of the phone, navigating menus etc. is just way faster. If you upgrade for firmware and see and changes not listed here, feel free to leave comment. I'm probably missing a few.

I know many would love to have a charger handy when going on trips and lugging around your laptop, or just for taking to work instead of your regular charger. I never knew this nifty device even existed. I guess you just plug your Nokia N95 or whatever other Nokia phone that has the same type of charger plug into your usb socket and charge away. I couldn't find any reviews on it around the net. I think I'm gonna pick up up to keep at work or for trips. Seems small and not very annoying with a short cord, something you can just grab and throw in your pocket on the way out. Seems as though you can get it for $20 or $30 bucks from Amazon or Target. Search for the product in the product widget in the left column.

Here is the official product details from Nokia:

"This handy USB charger lets you charge your compatible Nokia phone, device, or accessory from the USB port on your laptop or computer. Especially suited to multimedia devices which consume a lot of power. Travel light with the Nokia Charger via USB port CA-100. Nokia Charger via USB port CA-100 is compatible with all phones and accessories with 2mm plug."
Official Product Page

Has anyone had experience with this handy little accessory?

Disclaimer: These are not actual REAL black Nokia N82 photos. These are just photoshops and original N82 photos taken and a weird angle to reflect it's dark surroundings.

I decided, since I cannot wait to see a real black Nokia N82, I'm going to gather all the black looking N82 photos I can find around the web and put them in a nice flickr slideshow for you all. Some of these suck, some are awesome. Feel free to leave a comment with more photos that you find, or if you have a Nokia N82 take some photos of it at weird angles and try to get it to look black, like some of these. Leave a comment if you come up with anything. As time goes on, I'm going to keep adding more that I find around the web.

Here are the photos:

I came across this video yesterday of a video tutorial of the built-in video editor in the Nokia N95. I knew the N95 had a video editor, but I never knew it was this detailed, allowing you to add words, transitions, photos, other video clips, and sound or music. It almost feels like Apple's iMovie program if any of you have ever used it. In a few weeks I'm going to be going to a Los Angeles Kings hockey practice and make a little movie out of the practice, all with the Nokia N95, so I can put my movie skills to work. From the looks of the video below, Nokia N95 video editor is a very stable application, which Nokia should promote more, I didn't even realize the full capabilities of it.

For now, check out this great Nokia N95 Video Editing tutorial by Steve Garfield.

The new EQ Alt Tab application by EQ Soft does exactly what the title says and no more. Using two shortcut keys, you get a small window over whatever application your currently in showing you the other open applications, just like the picture to the left. I've been waiting for this functionality for the Nokia N95 for a long time now. I need an application that will allow me to quick switch between all my open applications. I personally don't like holding down the menu button for 2 seconds to get a list of open applications. Call me lazy. The new EQ Alt Tab application gives you this functionality.

Here are the option settings you get:
Hotkey - Pen + C, Menu, Red, Or Green
Icon Size
Exceptions - Applications that you don't want to show in the window that are open like RotateMe, FlipSilent, etc.

EQ Alt Tab does exactly what I want, except for one thing. I would like the option to assign one key press instead of two. I hardly use the multimedia key on the N95, that would be perfect and is what I use as my quick switcher on my Nokia N73 with Best Taskman, which is also the only other application that gives you this quick switch functionality. Unfortunately Best Taskman doesn't work for the Nokia N95. If not the multimedia key then it would be the Gallery key on the side of the phone, since I hardly use that as well. Just to let you know this application has to be signed. I'm going to be posting a signing guide later today so all of you can start signing your own applications. It's really not that hard once you get the certificate from Symbian. Oh, and this application is FREE.

Click here for the official developer site which is EQ Soft (in Russian).

Click here to download the file.

Source: Daily Mobile

Well the title