The fellas at Google Maps just announced they are bringing the popular street view to mobile phones. This allows you to zoom in and the actual street and buildings that you are looking for. It comes in handy especially when you've never seen the business and don't know what side of the street it's on.

Right now this feature is only available for Blackberry phones and Java enabled phones. According to Google,

"The newest Google Maps for mobile is available now for BlackBerry and many Java-enabled phones. To download it to your phone, visit google.com/gmm from your phone's web browser or on the desktop. We're working on bringing all these new features to other platforms as well, so stay tuned."

I can't wait to see this on my N82 and E71.

Check out the video demo of the new street view feature in action on a Blackberry...



Sorry Nokia, but Google Maps is blowing you out of the water. Of course this app is useless for those that don't have a data plan with their carrier, so you'd have to stick with Nokia Maps.

More from Google:

Today we're launching a new version of Google Maps for mobile with the same street-level imagery available on desktop. Wondering if the restaurant in your search results is the one you're thinking of? Just click "Street View" after your search to see the storefront. Unsure about a complicated intersection in your directions? Use Street View to see a photo, so there's no mistaking your turn. You can also launch Street View from any address where we have photography, or simply by clicking on the map and selecting "Street View". You can browse Street View overlaid on the map or in full screen, rotate your view to see more of your surroundings, and move along the street.

I'll keep you guys updated to let you know when this becomes available for S60 devices.

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This new S60 freeware application called T9 Nav has really done wonders for efficiency and my Nokia N82. T9 Nav (beta) allows you to search for applications, contacts, bookmarks, themes, etc. from your active standby screen just by typing. Best part is it uses T9 input making it fast and simple. It's similar to the popular application called SkyeQuiKey, except this new application is free.



Keep in mind the application is still in the beta testing phase as you might see some bugs. For instance I can't seem to pull up the music player using this application. I'm gonna warn you: It slows down your phone slightly when typing in any application. It kind of adds a delay when starting a new text message, etc. I've already contacted the developers about this issue and I hope they are working hard to get this fixed.

The functionality this application brings is what should have already been standard on Nokia smartphones like the N82 and N95. Ever since I installed this application I haven't found a need for a contacts shortcut on my standby screen so I got rid of it.

For more screenshots of T9 Nav beta for S60 phones click here.

OR

To download the application click here.

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A pal over at Howard Forums brought it to our attention that today only you can buy Quickoffice Premier 5.0 for only $1. This has to be one of the best application deals I've ever seen. Pretty much the best $1 I've ever spent.

If you didn't know Quickoffice Premiere allows you to:

Quickoffice Premier 5.0 is the FIRST and ONLY mobile solution to support Microsoft Office 2007® on S60 3rd Edition devices. Enjoy all of the great features of Quickoffice Premier 4.5 + the ability to edit and create new Microsoft Office 2007 documents on your device. Unlock the full potential of your smartphone and turn your device into a powerful mobile office. Quickoffice preserves documents during editing preventing document corruption and loss of formatting.

Key Features
Complete Editing of Word®, Excel® and PowerPoint® files
Advanced Editing of text, lists, tables, style, and formatting
View documents in multiple views
Performance optimizations for handling documents
ZoomView™ lets you pick the display size that’s best for you
Support For complex formulas
Complete graphical editing
Advanced email integration with Mail for Exchange 2.0
Free spell check dictionaries available in multiple languages
Add images to Word and PowerPoint documents

Supports the following file formats; DOCX, DOC, XLSX, XLSM, XLS, PPT, PPS & TXT
Microsoft Office version support; 97, 2000, XP, 2003, & 2007
Compatible with all S60 3rd Edition Devices

So what are you waiting for? I just bought mine and everything went smoothly. You can use Paypal or a credit card and you must give them your IMEI number.

Click here for the link.

Thanks again to Paracha from Hofo.

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Today I was checking out one of my favorite technology blogs called Lifehacker and came across an extremely useful article. I have yet to find a good language translation application for my Symbian S60 powered Nokia N82. I'm sure an application like this exists and if anyone knows of one please let me know. Until then I will be using this web application which is a simple website made for the iPhone. Knowing that the S60 Web Browser and the iPhone's browser are powered by similar technology I decided to give this a shot. Cool thing is this website works with most mobile phones so you can spread the word about this to your non-S60 friends. Not sure that the interface will look as clean though.

Go to m.mikebrittain.com from your phone's browser and you'll be presented with the following screenshots. I typed in "What's for dinner" in English and asked for the results in Spanish.





The translator currently supports 11 languages and lets you translate to and from English, Russian, French, Portuguese, Korean, Japanese, Dutch, German, Spanish, Italian and Chinese. No signup or login is necessary.

On newer Nokia phones with Symbian S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and 2 you can make this bookmark into a shortcut on your standby screen for fast access. This is a great tool for those who are always traveling to other countries and want to try to speak in other languages.

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Today I got the honor of testing out a new application coming to S60 handsets called Smart Settings by MobiFun Software. This application was actually a big hit for s40 users, but is just barely making it's way to S60. This application is still in beta and should be released in March.

What does Smart Settings for S60 do? Basically it provides three major functions.

1. Auto Lock options. You can tell the phone to auto lock only in certain profiles. Set the auto lock period, set the phone to lock on any screen or just the standby screen, and set the auto lock exceptions for certain applications.

For example, I have a profile called Car. I keep my phone on a mount that sites in the middle console, facing me. Volume is all the way up, and the lock is set to off. This way I can easily access the functions of my phone like calling, maps, or reading a text (when I'm sitting at a read light of course). I also usually set my auto lock application exceptions only for the Music Player. Handy for when the phone is sitting at my desk when I'm at work and jamming the tunes. No need to fiddle with a lock when it's just chilling there on the desk.

2. Easy Unlock. Here you can change your lock combo buttons. Instead of the standard lock combos, you can change it to whatever is more comfortable for you. You can change the locks and unlocks to separate combos which is pretty cool.

3. Start Menu. You can make your left or right softkeys into a start menu, sorta like the start menu in windows. Push the softkey you choose for this application, and a small window pops up with up to ten shortcuts that you select to any applications installed on the phone. Each application is numbered, so if you have "settings" as your fourth shortcut, then you just have to push five on your keypad instead of scrolling all the way down to it. This I guess would be handy only for candybars since you don't have a slider to worry about. You can easily change the order of your applications as well.

I'm happy to report that I haven't found any bugs while using this application, but I'll keep you updated if I do. This will for sure become one of the must have applications installed on your N95 or any S60 3rd Edition phone.

How many of you are looking forward to this?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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This is a shortcut that I just discovered yesterday while playing around with a Nokia N95. I'm sure this works for most of the newer devices, not sure about the older ones like the Nokia N73.

Normally when you push the multimedia key you get a circular array of icons that are shortcuts to Web, Music, Gallery, Lifeblog, etc. I never used this shortcut since I already have web, music, gallery shortcuts on my standby screen. The thing I never realized was you can change all of these shortcuts to other applications that you choose. Holy crap batman! So I removed all the default ones and set my own. This gives you a handful of applications just a click away. Kind of like a quick start menu.

Some of you may have already knew about this shortcut, but I've never seen it nor have I seen it talked about around the web. And of course I never read the instruction manual.

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I'm always looking for ways to access my currently open applications faster. I hate having to hold down the menu key for a few seconds to see what applications are currently open.

Well I just realized that if you have an application open in the background that also just so happens to be one of your active standby shortcuts, you can just scroll over to that application and click the icon just like if you were to launch it normally from the standby screen. This quickly switches to whatever you were doing in the application when you last minimized it. Like I said this is only a minor thing since it's only handy for your active standby shortcuts, but it can save some time if you already have one or some of those applications open in the background.

Example is right now I have Slick Instant Messenger, Google Maps, & an email I'm working on open in the background. From my standby screen, I can just scroll to any one of those icons and it comes to the front instantly. Just a little faster than holding down the menu button to get your list of open applications.

Many of you know that Best Taskman has a quick switcher key that works like "alt-tab" on a pc, but some people don't prefer to use that application, and it also is having problems working on the Nokia N95.

So if your one of those power users like me who love to mult-task, this may help a bit.

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Nokia Beta Labs is at it again. I wake up this morning and find that they have a new application called Nokia PC Phone. It allows you to call, text, and manage your contacts from the web browser. I'm going to test it out within the hour and write up a short follow up review about it. Right off the bat, I can see myself using this all the time to text message people from my work computer instead of pulling out my phone. Plus, you have a full keyboard to type out those long texts. I'm not sure that I would use this for calling, or even how it works.

Here is the overview from Nokia:

"Nokia PC Phone is an experimental service that gives you a possibility to use your mobile phone with your Web Browser.

You can call, text and manage contacts from your phone.

You can communicate by using Nokia PC Phone with your friends and family even though they don't have the Nokia PC Phone themselves. Your friends are not able to tell the difference whether you are using the Nokia PC Phone or not, because your calls and text messages are actually made from your own Nokia phone."

Oh and one more thing. It currently only works with Firefox, which I absolutely love. Support for Internet Explorer will be coming soon, but I'll have nothing to do with that.

For now, go check it out at Nokia Beta Labs.

Update: It seems that you need a usb cable connected to your phone, or bluetooth. I won't have either until this evening, so I may not be able to review this till tonight.

I can't test it out right now, but so far the page looks really clean and it's something that I would probably keep open all day when I'm at a computer. I have the software installed on my computer, and no it doesn't include PC Suite. This is something totally separate from PC Suite.

Few known issues I found on the net:

- Internet Explorer 7 is not yet supported
- Text messages sent with Nokia PC Phone are not stored with certain Series 40 phone models
- Disconnect/reconnect cable with certain older models does not work reliable
- The date of call log entries do not always obey correct time zone difference
- Support for Series 60 phones is preliminary (only Series 60 3.0 Feature Pack 1 with USB are supported)
- SMS recipient selection from dropdown menu or contacts is not working; to send an SMS type the number or
select the recipient using the "Options" button from Messages or Calls tab
- Some times "You are calling to" dialogue adds two extra characters to the end of the phone number;
delete them before dialing
- "Send Text Message" button in the Contacts tab (that is used to send SMS to several recipients) does not work
- "Send Text Message" button in the Contact Details does not work

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Here is the post I've been promising you guys for awhile. I had a long weekend, moving sucks. So thats why I couldn't get this post up sooner. Anyways, below is a huge list of shortcuts for most Nokia S60 3rd Edition phones. Some people say that the "silent profile" shortcut doesn't work with some versions of the Nokia N73, it seems to work fine on mine. If you have anymore shortcuts that aren't listed please share.

Generic Shortcuts

1. To get the Task Manager

To close a running application you can press and hold the Menu button until all the running task can be seen. Then to close an application highlight it and then press the key

2. To switch to Silent profile

This shortcut is very handy. Press and hold the ( ‘0′ key) until the profile changes to Silent. To switch back to normal, press and hold again

3. To select multiple items

In file browser, address book, gallery or anywhere, when you need to select multiple items hold edit key while pressing

To select many files / items press and hold then, (while holding down edit ) move key to the desired direction until the required files are selected.

To remove the selected files /items press

4. Launching the music player

Press and hold the multimedia key until the music player shows up

5. Launching the Browser

Press and hold the 0 key until you see the browser window

6. To get the list of last dialed numbers

press the Call key. Select a number and then again press the Call key to dial that number

7. To get to the Voice Mail Box

Press and hold the ‘1′ key . If voice mail box is not defined, it will ask you to define one.

8. Speed dialing

You can set the keys 2-9 for speed dialing. Press and hold the key until it starts dialing. To define speed dials, press and hold an unused number. It will ask you to select a number.

For eg: press and hold the key 2 . If a speed dial is not assigned to this number it will ask you to assign a number for this key. If it is already defined, it will start dialing that number

When working with Text

9. To turn predictive mode on or off

quickly press # key twice.

10. To insert numbers in character mode

This is a useful shortcut. Press and hold the key until the pressed number appear. For eg: to insert 2 in character mode (normal press will only produce the alphabets associated with it), press and hold the key until ‘2′ is inserted

11.To switch between the letter and number mode

Press and hold

12. To insert common punctuations like . ? , etc

Press key 1 repeatedly until you get the desired character

13 To open the special characters window

Press * key .

14. To insert multiple characters from the special characters window

Pressing will open the characters window. But if you select a character with the Enter key , the window will be closed. To insert multiple characters without closing the window, use key 5

15. Selecting and Copy/Pasting text

Press and hold down the edit key and move the joystick in required direction. Press edit key again to get cut/copy/paste option

In Applications

16. To return to camera from anywhere

If the camera is open and you’re in standby mode or in another application, press and hold the shutter keyuntil you get the camera application

17. To view the last image in gallery

press to view the last image in gallery. Press again to get the gallery view.

18. In Image Editor (Select the image. Then Options -> Edit)

Press to view the image in full screen. Press again to return to normal view

Press and to rotate the image anti clockwise or clockwise respectively

To zoom in or out, press or

19. In Video Editor (Select video -> Options -> Edit -> Cut)

To save the current frame as image, press the edit key

20. In Browser

To go to the end of the page press

To go to the beginning of a page press

To get the bookmarks while browsing press and hold

Closes the current window (if multiple windows opened) - Press

To open bookmark, press

To search for text in the current page, press

To return to previous page -

To list all open windows -

To switch between page overview and zoom mode press

To go to another page

To go to start page

To zoom in and out of the page, use and respectively

source: myn73

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Everyone has different solutions for there Gmail on their S60 phone. Setting up Gmail IMAP with my Nokia N95 or Nokia N73 is pretty simple using the instructions given directly from Google.

How To Setup Gmail On Your S60 Device:

1. Enable IMAP in your Gmail account settings.
2. Select 'Messaging' > 'Options' > 'Settings' > 'E-mail' > 'Mailboxes.'
3. If you have never set up email on your phone before, select 'Yes' to define a new mailbox. If you already have other mailboxes, select 'Options' and then 'New mailbox.'
4. Select 'Start' to begin the setup wizard.
5. Select 'IMAP4' and then 'Next.'
6. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') as the email address and select 'Next.'
   
7. Enter 'imap.gmail.com' as the incoming mail server and select 'Next.'
8. Enter 'smtp.gmail.com' as the outgoing mail server and select 'Next.'
9. Select the appropriate access point and then 'Next.'
10. Enter a descriptive name for the email account mailbox name.
11. Once your mailbox is set up, select it from the email mailbox settings screen.
12. Select 'Connection settings' > 'Incoming e-mail.'
13. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') and password.
14. Select 'SSL/TLS' for your security (ports) and define your port as '993.'
15. Select 'Back.'
16. Select 'Outgoing e-mail.'
17. Enter your Gmail username (including '@gmail.com') and password.
18. Select 'StartTLS' for your security (ports) and define your port as '587.'
19. Select 'Back' and change any other settings according to your preferences.

Link to the official instructions.

Gmail's IMAP vs. POP
The reason why I use Gmail's IMAP service is because it keeps your mail in sync between both devices, unlike POP setup. If I read an email on my phone, it shows as "read" on both my computer and phone. Same goes for the other way around. Check it on my computer, and it shows as "read" on my phone as well. You can set it to check your mail at different intervals, mine is set to 2 hours, unless I'm expecting an important email.

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Pretty soon I'll be making a post with a whole list of shortcuts for Symbian S60 3rd Edition phones. But right now, I'm just going to tell you one handy shortcut for the web browser. It only works on the newer Nseries phones, such as the N81, N82, and N95.

On any webpage, click and hold down the select button for a few seconds. This will pull up a dialog box with five very handy shortcuts.

The first one is the history of your last five viewed pages.

The second shortcut will give you the page overview of the website your on. This comes in handy so you can just scroll around the overview and select the section of the page that you want to view.

The third shortcut is for a quick page refresh.

The fourth allows you to type text, and find it on the page your viewing. Very handy if your just looking for a certain word or topic.

And the fifth shortcut shows you the rss feeds that you can subscribe to on that page, and easily click the one your want and subscribe to it in your built-in rss feed reader.

Update: I found a Nokia video on YouTube with more shortcuts for the Web Browser.

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Some of you may have noticed a lag on loading the application you have assigned to the left softkey on your S60 3rd Edition Nokia. It's not the application itself that lags, its the key. If you haven't noticed, try it. The reason for this is it allows a few seconds to manually lock the phone. Like on my Nokia N95, pushing the left softkey, then the right softkey, locks my phone. So your best bet is to use the right softkey for your most used application. I used to think it was just lag in my messaging application, but that is not the case. Hopefully this comes in handy for some of you.

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There is finally an application that gives you details of your battery usage. This should come in handy to figure out which applications are draining your battery if left open. It was originally used only by developers, but now is available for the public to check out. The idea is to put more pressure on developers to make applications that don't consume so much battery.

Tommi from the Beta Labs Blog says:
"Yet, I wonder: are 3rd party application developers really motivated to measure and improve their power consumption? After all, if the battery runs out quickly, Nokia gets the blame - not the developer. But what if power users and loud-voiced bloggers started using this app, increasingly giving public pressure for the developers of applications that prove to be the worst power-hogs?"

I should note he's not just talking about third party developers, but also nokia developers. To me, it's kind of confusing, I haven't really tried to figure out how to read the data. I'll look into it more tonight. I know this will come in handy for those who love to make battery comparisons.

Click here to go to the download page and try it out yourself.

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Ok so I installed Adaptxt yesterday, which I talked about a few weeks ago before it was released. After using it for a day, I am really starting to love it, and find that it's saving me a ton of keystrokes. Over time, it learns what you talk about a lot, or words or phrases you say, and it offers them to you as your typing. Like at my job, I'm pretty much on call. I'm always texting my buddies "do you think we'll work tonight?". With Adaptxt, as soon as I start typing "do you", it offers me to complete the rest of the sentence, or I can just go word by word. I find it extremely accurate and easy to use. There is also an area in the application called Statistics, and it's showing me that Adaptxt is saving me 46% on keystrokes, almost half. Thats pretty good, especially since I've only been using it for a day, and it gets even better over time.

It can be disabled quickly as well, not as quickly as I like, but it's not a painful task. I've found a few applications that it doesn't work with, like Google Maps and Palringo Instant Messenger. It's a real bummer Adaptxt doesn't work with Palringo, that would be perfect, especially for those long conversations.

The best thing to do is use the "learn" tool for the first day or two whenever typing a long message. If you do that, it learns your habits faster and you'll have a better time typing out a similar message next time. The learning only takes a few seconds.

Here is a video sample of the Adaptxt I found doing a quick search on youtube:


As you can see, it saved the user a ton of keystrokes.

Here are a few videos made by Adaptxt:





You can also find a handful of videos made by Adaptxt showing off the application by clicking here.

Check out Adaptxt at their official website. You can get a free 7 day trial, then if you like it, purchase it for $20. Not too bad, especially since this is becoming one of my most used applications.

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When I got my Nokia N73, which is also my first Symbian device, the first thing that bugged me was how long it takes to get a text message started. You have to first click Messaging, then New Message, then Text Message, then click the To area and bring up the phonebook, the scroll to select the person you want. Way too much.

Well, the guys from Mind Flip came up with an application called TextQuick. Basicly, with one click, you get a list of your most "texted" contacts, and you just select the one you want, and start typing your message just like you would in the regular messaging application. The look and feel is exactly the same. It saves you a lot of clicking and scrolling. And if the contact your trying to text isn't on your popular list, just scroll or start typing the name, and it will show up. Also, if you hit the green call button, it allows you to call the contact instead of sending a text. So essentially its a CallQuick application also.

I find this application to be one of the most used 3rd party apps I have, and keep it as my right softkey as you can see to the left. For only $10, you can't go wrong.

Head over to Handango's website to purchase this extremely essential S60 text messaging application.

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