How to project your phone display on your computer?

Sorry, I don't have the answer for this question but after some aimless google searches, I decided to see if you all have an answer to this pertinent question. After using the program SMSDiary and finding its interface exceptionally useful, an idea came to mind. I would like to see if its possible to output the phone display onto the computer directly. This way, as text messages come through, they will appear immediately on the phone screen without needing to open the inbox. This can be useful if you use the phone to receive information from various sources. If it is possible for this to be outputted onto a computer screen, it could then be projected for example on a wall and people can see the texts as they come through.

Anyway, if you have an idea how the phone display can be outputted onto the computer screen (no, PC Suite does not do this) please reply to this post. Appreciate your help. Happy New Year to you all! Also let us know how your phone served your New Years Eve needs :)

Blessed Christmas

To all the readers out there, have a blessed Christmas and make the most of the Holiday season to find out the true meaning of Christmas. Don't spend all your time playing with your Nokia E65 :)

When New Isn't Better - Nokia E65 Firmware 4.0633.74.0

There have been many comments on the Nokia Discussion board about the new firmware offering for the Nokia E65 4.0633.74.0 which have left this author a little concerned about whether or not to upgrade.

The improved featers in 4.0633.74.0 are:

1. Security- Improvements to platform security
2. VOIP- Interoperability improvements with Avaya server
3. WLAN
   - Improvements to EAP-PEAP settings
   - Improvements to roaming
4. Other Updates- Operator name database updated, Operator settings database updated, Time zones update for Venezuela, Slovenian character encoding improvements

Problems that have been mentioned in the forums associated with 4.0633.74.0 include:

- Backlight of the numeric keypad no longer works
- Annoying popup message on top of standby screen with ‘Show’ and ‘Exit’ options
- Significant battery drain
- Lost contacts (but this can be fixed by downloading this Nokia Contact Transfer)

I've decided not to upgrade my firmware as the risk doesnt seem to counter the potential problems.

It will be interesting to hear from you all whether:
1. You have decided to upgrade
2. Whether you notice any worthwhile changes not mentioned above

Sometimes its just a matter of minimizing screens

Now this problem may only be related to Nokia PC Suite 7.1.18.0

I have a problem sometimes when I disconnect the phone from the USB cable and when I connect it back again, the PC Suite does not recognise that the connection has been established. The phone (bless his heart) realises that PC Suite has been activated, but the computer doesn't. When I open the PC Suite, it doesn't show that there is a connection.

Guess what the solution is? Minimise all your windows with *WINDOWS BUTTON*+M and you will see a little dialog box that is causing all your problems... looks a little like this:


Once you click the tick, the connection resumes normally. It could be related to the Nokia Communication manager 2.0 which has been trying to install a Group DS application on my phone without any success.. if anyone has any ideas to add to this, please leave a comment. I hope that this post has helped someone anyway.

Upgrade or not? Nokia PC Suite 7.1.18.0

Yet another upgrade has been available online for the Nokia E65 and other Nokia phones that use the Nokia PC Suite. This time the changes seem to be quite worth the download! 

- Nokia Communications Center has gone from 1.0 to 2.0 which now includes 

1. Editting Group Contacts (enables you to sms many people in one go)
   
2. Editting Calendar in a very easy to use format

This seems to be the biggest change for the new Nokia PC Suite for the Nokia E65. For other phones such as the N96 and E71 you may notice more changes in the Nokia PC suite such as low battery indicator now available as well as the option to turn off these notifications on the PC suite if you want to conserve battery life on your phone. 

There have been some users online complaining of problems when upgrading to 7.1.18.0 but I have not noticed these problems. If you have or you would like to come to the rescue of Nokia PC suite developers click on the link below to add your suggestions and thoughts.

Google Maps Street View now on S60 Nokia Phones

We have talked about it before.. but months later, Google has finally released it.
You can now get street view on the newest version of Google Maps for Mobile 2.3.0.9. Download it here

http://www.google.com/mobile/default/maps.html
or just go to Google.com/gmm on your mobile phone.

This will work on all E series and N series Nokias.

33min Tour of Nokia Test Centre

Last post, we had a look at a recent visit to a Nokia test centre. This is where they put phones under extreme heat, cold, pressure etc to see if they are 'worthy' of being called a Nokia handset.

Some interesting statistics mentioned on All About Symbian:

• "Kevin Smith, Rob Johnson and their team 'break' around 2000 production handsets PER MODEL tested. Staggering.
  
• Each model has to pass over 200 different mechanical tests.
  
• Temperature testing takes place from -40 Centigrade to +85 Centigrade, a 135 degree range!
  
• The slow-motion camera used to film the drop tests runs at 100,000 frames per second, 2000 times faster than TV...
  
• Nokia test phone keys, d-pads and other moving parts up to a million times. Each, i.e. per physical phone."

If you have 33 minutes to spare during your lunch hour, have a look at an extended version of the tour conducted by Nokia of their test facilities.

How do they make a Nokia Phone?

We have all wondered it. How do they test Nokia Phones? Below is a tour at a Nokia test facility to give you a sense of the tender love given to each mobile phone you hold in your hand.


Nokia's Handset Test Laboratory from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

Fastest SMS Viewer? Combining Inbox and Sent together

Do you wish that you could open your SMS inbox and view it as a conversation with your Sent sms messages? Have a look at this program called SMS Diary. It claims to be the fastest SMS and MMS viewer in the world. I've bought my own copy after being very impressed with the smooth scrolling interface and cutting down the time taken to open up my inbox to read a new message from 4 seconds to 1 second. This program deals with one of the biggest gripes with the Nokia E65 being very laggy or slow. Try it out and if you like it, pay $US9 at www.smsdiary.eu to get a license key.

Leo's Nokia E65 in "Body of Lies"

You're a mobile geek if you watch a movie and when you see a mobile phone, you get excited that they are using the same phone as you. In Ridley Scott's movie "Body of Lies" with Russell Crowe and Leonardo DiCaprio, Leonardo is seen chasing the Muslim terrorists with a Nokia E65 keeping him connected to the director of the CIA. The movie looks at a CIA operative trying to penetrate a Muslim terrorist organisation with the help (and obstruction) of the CIA director and the complications that come with international politics.

Also starring in this movie are a few other Nokia phones and to show it was not an exclusive product placement, there was also a clear shot of a Blackberry as well and a Samsung(?) mobile to blow up the building at the beginning of the movie. Have a look next time but don't forget to enjoy the movie :) What other movies have you seen starring the Nokia E65 or other phones?

Feed your Unwanted Presentations to Nokia's Marketing Team

As a way of drawing attention to Nokia's E series' siblings E71 and E66, they have created a website called The Unloader which encourages you to upload a document that is causing you stress and anxiety at work and watching it get destroyed (in a choice of three different ways). Here's one I prepared earlier:

McDonalds Free WIFI - What you need to know

As mentioned in an earlier post, free wireless internet is coming to McDonalds stores in Australia. At My E65 we look at the nitty-gritty of these things so here are some questions you may be wondering.

What's the limit?
There is a 50Mb per session download restriction at the moment. This is clearly displayed on the redirect page that is presented after you accept the T&Cs and counts down your remaining allowance. This includes uploads and downloads.

How long can I idle?
10 minutes then you just need to go through the terms and conditions again.

Time limit?
None at the moment.

Where is Free McDonalds WIFI available currently?
20 locations in Sydney currently. See the map here

Looking ahead:
• NSW/ACT Mid October Late November
• VIC/TAS Late November Late December
• QLD/NT Late December Late January
• SA/WA Late January Late February

How will I know when my McDonalds is enabled?
There will be a blue sign or something like that nice and obvious in the store to let you know. Don't worry, they really do want you to know and this will become apparent.

What can't I access?
Peer-to-Peer downloads like torrents. McDonalds also does not want you to access porn or other socially unacceptable and immoral content. There will be people working on providing safe family access to the McDonalds Internet. Terms and conditions will be there for you to read (if you choose).

Finally and most importantly, will it work on My E65?
I don't live in Sydney so I can't find out for you. Perhaps someone already has? Should be able to anyway.

The extended version of this FAQ can be found here.

Who are you? Nokia E65 users from around the world

Recent visitors to MyE65. Are you on here?

I've decided to repost this entry from earlier this year to find out more about our current users. At MyE65, it is always amazing to see the different countries logging on to this website. From London to Singapore, Bangkok to Sydney, Atlanta to Lisbon... for today's post let's find out a little more about YOU. Leave a comment to this post, and tell us what city/country/island you are from, and what you work as or what do you study? If you are known or famous for something (maybe you own a website?), let's hear it.. Click on "suggestions from you" below.

Nokia targets business people with the E series of which the Nokia E65 belongs so we'd like to find out whether you are who Nokia thinks you are... you can post a reply anonymously. It only takes two minutes!

What makes E71 the Best Smartphone?

The Nokia E71 has received rave reviews from sites like Cnet scoring an editor review of 9.5/10 and selected as the top of the top in Wired online and on C|net as well. It is part of the next generation of E-series phones coming out at the same time as the Nokia E66 which could be said as the non-QWERTY version of the Nokia E71.

So how is the Nokia E71? It is firstly a very, very nice looking phone. Though the phone is a little wide, it is surprisingly thin. The E71 comes packed with the usual - GPS, 3.0 megapixel camera with LED flash, HSDPA (fast internet), excellent resolution with 16 million colours, wireless internet, bluetooth etc. You can get the whole list of specs here at the Nokia E71 page.

What makes E71 stand out? Firstly, its very professional looking. It has the blinking new sms / email / missed call notification which also comes with the E66. The GPS feature is very good when combined with Google Maps or Nokia Sports Tracker. The menus and functions are easy to navigate as with all Nokia phones. There is also the feature of having your SMS read out to you. You can also hold down certain buttons to select a different option to one which you just press the button so each button can be used to access two options.

What doesn't the E71 have? You can't turn it over to silence the phone or tap-to-silence feature which is available in the Nokia E66. It doesn't have the auto-rotation of display but with the E71 aimed at executives and professionals, it doesnt really need it.

So E71 or E66? It really depends on how much you want a QWERTY keyboard on your phone. I came to the conclusion that I would rather have the E66 because texting is a pain with a QWERTY keyboard. ALso, I like the predictive text which can make typing a message faster (for me). Also I find it quite annoying sometimes to have to press shift to access numbers on the QWERTY keyboard. However, other people may do a lot of word processing which they would rather have the E71. The buttons on the E71 are very small but easy to press and nicely designed.

Current Nokia E71 Users: Many of the Tips and tricks here at MyE65 also apply to the Nokia E71 so use the search on the right to find what you're looking for today.

NEW Nokia PC Suite 7.0.9.2

The new PC Suite for Nokia is available for download now. What has been improved in this new release will be posted here later but for those more eager to explore the new release, you can download it here and report your feedback in the comments below.

Download Nokia 7.0.9.2 here and remember to share your thoughts and experience later. Did it meet your expectations? What else could they have done? Any problems in the installation? Should other people bother?

Your feedback may go back to the Nokia software development team.

Optus takes IOUs from Pre-Paid Customers

Optus has just started to offer Pre-paid customers who have less than $1.50 in their account an extra $3 emergency credit rather than requiring them to top up straight away. When the user recharges next, the $3 will be deducted from the credit.

How do you get the $3 emergency credit from optus? Text "IOU" to the number 468 and $3 will be added to your account.

Conditions:
* Only available if your credit is less than $1.50.
* Your $3 expires in 3 days
* SMS is free
* Only applies to optus customers (obviously)

Gmail 2.0 Explains Mysterious Vibrations

Have you ever had the experience that you could swear you heard your phone ring or vibrate only to discover there were no missed calls or new sms? Perhaps its your newly installed Gmail 2.0 for Mobile. I've noticed that there is one feature of Gmail people don't seem to mention on other review sites, its the "notify of new mail" function hidden in the settings for Gmail. The unexplained vibrations could be your phone telling you that you have new gmail waiting. Of course this will only work if you leave GMAIL on.

So how do you leave Gmail running in the background on your phone? Press the HOME or MENU key to get back to the menu. Do not press the hang up button or else you exit Gmail.

How to pick your own mobile phone number in Australia

An interesting thing i noticed in Dick Smith Electronics the other day is that Virgin sells pairs of sim cards for $2. This marketing promotion is to encourage you to buy a sim for you and a friend, even with the two sim card envelopes addressed to you and the other one addressed to your friend.

The interesting thing is that the pre-allocated mobile numbers are consecutive numbers for example:

0449 751 000 and
0449 751 001

This may only be applicable to Australian users but just something to keep in mind if you are picky about having phone numbers that are easy to remember and you would choose the phone numbers based on that. If you know how you can select your own number in your home country, share your strategy here.

If you dont like Virgin Mobile, you could probably buy those sim cards, load up some credit and then port the numbers over to your preferred carrier.

For some Optus and Telstra resellers, they will take out their pre-paid numbers in their shop and allow you to choose the number that you want.

What? Gmail 2.0 Still Can't Save Attachment?

I've looked. You still cannot save attachments with Gmail for Mobile 2.0. The GoogleMobile and Official Google Blog both don't say anything about this but one wonders why attachments has been a deliberate omission in the Gmail applications.

One possible problem is the introduction of viruses when you can save files to your mobile. Excel and Word files can be viewed but not very well on the Gmail application. It would be easier if one could save (and then potentially edit) documents using QuickOffice. The only way of doing this is to ensure that you have another email application such as a webmail which you can access on your phone other than Gmail to download your attachments.

If we can get some response to the Google engineers, it would be good but for now just consider that they have our best interests in mind.

A Nokia Look at Gmail Mobile 2.0

A new version of GMAIL for Mobile has just been released. The Official Google Blog claims that the new Gmail application for symbian is faster and more able to work offline.

Well I've tried it with an E71 and it is certainly faster. Loading messages is faster and the application allows you to scroll through a message faster than before by holding down the scroll down button on your Nokia.

The only new menu item I noticed was the Mobile Drafts which enables you to compose an email even when you are offline (say, in an aeroplane or something). However, with Nokia's cut and paste features, it isn't that much of a new thing as we could type an email out in the notes and then copy and paste it to google later. Nevertheless, its a new feature.

The other thing of great use is the support of multiple GMAIL accounts. You can use the menu to toggle between accounts as many of us now have multiple GMAIL accounts for various uses.

If you want to read more about the new GMAIL application, go to Google Mobile's post on the new application or have a look at the video below.

Why NES? Discoverable, Easy Setup, Predictable Price

We've just come out of an online meeting with Andrew Mahon, Nokia Email Service's (NES) product manager and Davis Fields who works with feedback to NES. The Nokia Email Service, has recently come out of Nokia testing labs and into the world of great expectations. With BlackBerry curiously eyeing its new rival, NES was described by Mr Fields as discoverable - "people don't even know that their phones can get email, even though it's been on the phone for years"

Another cool feature is the "ease of setup". I only had to put in my email address and password and the rest of the information was found by Nokia. Many people using emails dont know what POP3 and SMTP and IMAP means. The Nokia Email Service enables users to get up and running in seconds.

Finally and most mysteriously, our friends at Nokia talked about the "predictable price" that will come with NES - that is, when the price is announced. Currently it is a free service but knowing the way Nokia works, the pricing should be quite affordable as their Music service has recently shown.

I've started trialing NES and its a promising application. If you want to have a go, follow this link and come back later for more Nokia news here.

Shrinking My Location - Google Map for Mobiles

Google has just announced their latest initiative in making Google Map for Mobiles more intelligent in figuring out where you are (without using GPS). We've talked about Google's use of mobile phone towers to find out where you are (in Australia within 1.5km radius) but now it seems that Google will also use the WIFI hotspot that you are connected to, to find out where you are.

Question is... does it work with Nokia E65? I haven't noticed the change but I believe it is only relevant to Blackberry phones (but I could be wrong). Try it out today.. but if it still doesnt work for us, I can say I am so bad at directions that I'm quite content with knowing where I am within 1.5km radius..

McDonalds Free WIFI Internet in Australia!

Keep your eyes open! Free wireless internet is coming to a McDonalds near you! Nokia E65 users and nearly all Nokias now have WIFI access so you may be able to surf on your phone at McDonalds soon. Apparently, McDonalds Australia has announced free wifi to be rolled out progressively and to be complete by March 2009.

Already Telstra offers PAID EXPENSIVE internet at all McDonalds in Australia but I don't know any suckers who are willing to pay the exorbitant rates that they are currently charging. It is a good move by Telstra to give people a taste of what its like to be on a fast network and with McDonalds in 720 locations in Australia, its not going to be hard to get free wifi soon.

Your challenge: As soon as you find a McDonalds store near you offering free wifi, leave a comment here to help your fellow readers know where to get their WIFI fix.

For now, you can go to this post to find a free wifi location in Australia near you.

Why blog Nokia tech tips?

I do it when I look at other people's blogs so you must do it too. I wonder what it is that made the person start or continue the blog that they have? Well, if you are one of the 100+ people who are subscribing to this blog, you've probably wondered why I started MyE65.

First of all I'm a very fussy person and choosing gadgets such as mobile phones can be a painfully slow process. Reading reviews, talking to people, seeing what is coming out in the coming months, figuring out the optimal time to make the purchase without buying too early to get ripped off and buying too late to get something soon becoming irrelevant. When I finally buy a mobile phone, its after a lot of meticulous weighing up of pros and cons. Since I so much time thinking through the purchase, I thought I might as well let other people benefit from what I've learnt. Hence the blog. I bought a Nokia E65 last year and stayed quite happy with my purchase.
Another reason is that I like exploring my gadgets thoroughly so that I know every feature, bug, functionality, tendency and shortcut. Its a simple philosophy - if you paid for it, its wasted if you dont use it to its fullest capacity!

If it took me 20 minutes or two weeks to figure something out about My E65, why not share it so other people can save that time? Its about being a responsible member of the internet community. If I benefit from people's websites about a new digital camera or reviews on books, then I should either do my bit or support those people that are giving me advice. You pay an accountant for financial advice, lawyers for legal advice but everything online is free? Either trade in your skillset or support those bloggers and webmasters out there. Some of you save hours or days from trying to work out something that has been shared here. Maybe it was a problem with Youtube on E65, a problem with GMAIL for mobile that the Nokia site won't necessarily talk about, or maybe you were trying to find a password for your MMC card. If you have benefitted, maybe you can give back something to the internet community by starting a blog about something few people know. Add your blog to the comments below THIS post to show fellow readers how diverse we are here. The filter on shameless self-promotion is lifted for this particular post so promote away.

If you feel like you are already being paid for your skills, maybe as an accountant, plumber, journalist or doctor, maybe your contribution can be in the form of encouragement to the existing internet community in financial or textual form.. we'll talk about that in a later post.

Send to Bluetooth - More Useful than You Think

When you are rushing out of the house or you have a very important document to bring with you the next day, one thing you can do to insure against leaving it home is to bluetooth the file to you. In Microsoft Word as with many other programs, there is a SEND TO option which you can select BLUETOOTH DEVICE. Since the E65 and most Nokia phones now have access to QuickOffice, this means that you can read a document file on your phone and even make changes to it if you have a more recent Nokia phone (which come with the full license for Quick Office).

At your meeting or whatever, you might even decide that referring to the document on your phone is easier than on paper. Maybe in terms of bringing the document in or perhaps in terms of searching for the relevant sections of the document using the search function of the phone. Its almost like bringing your laptop with you. Hopefully with these tips, you can be more effective in using your Nokia E65 or other Nokia phones. Have you got an office hack that you use your phone for? share it in the comments section below.

More to do with your TO DO

One thing you may notice when looking at your E65 phone calendar is that no matter what day it is, the TO-DO list items stay on the current day. This may be annoying when you have a task that you are perpetually putting off but there are some other uses you may not have thought about.

The most obvious thing to use the Todo list is to add things that you are intending to get done later. While it stays on the Todo list, it can never be forgotten - unlike a calendar reminder which you might get reminded and forget about it later. This often happens when the reminder comes at a time that you are doing something else important and you dismiss it "for the time being".

Also for example, let's say you keep a record of your expenses every day. you can use the todo list to list expenses that you are going to add in to your records later on. When you do add your expenses, clear the todo list items that you have recorded.

People who owe you money. No matter what day it is, you can use your mobile phone to remind you who is outstanding using todo lists.

People you have borrowed something off. This is one of those things that one can very easily forget. What else have you used the TO DO list for?

Using Google Maps when you have a GPS dongle with E65

As you have discovered from mindless searching of the user manual and the phone, the Nokia E65 does not come with a GPS. However, to keep you guessing, Nokia included all the GPS programs that you would expect on a Nokia phone if you had GPS. Hence the continual searching for the GPS feature by E65 users. The only way you can get GPS going on your E65 is to buy a dongle. To this day, I am still not sure what is the best and cheapest way to achieve this. If anyone has a GPS enabled Nokia E65, let us know what brand model etc you are using.

Anyway, let's assume for a moment that you have made the GPS dongle purchase or you have a Nokia E66 or Nokia E71... The most exciting use of GPS on a mobile phone is using it in conjunction with Google Maps for Mobile. The downside: Google Maps for Mobile does require a mobile internet connection.

With that out of the way, let's look at the exciting things that are possible with Google Maps for Mobile:

• Search for anything - If you want to find a street, restaurant, park etc there is a better chance you will find it with Google Maps for Mobile than with Nokia Maps. Once you search for the location you want, you can just select "directions to here" and the map will show you instructions for getting there from your current GPS location.
• Watching you move -Its a bit of a geeky thing to be excited about this but just watching the blue dot moving along the street but that is all possible with Google Maps for Mobile.
• Slow internet is still good - As you drive along, the map for the surrounding area is downloaded. This does not require too much data usage and loads up quick enough even on a slow internet connection to be of practical use.

There are many other uses for Google Maps which I will add in to this post at a later date, so bookmark this or come back later..

Nokia E71 GPS Impresses and Excites

Nokia has entered their contender in the QWERTY smartphone market with the slim and and slick Nokia E71. Here is a Nokia E65 user's first impressions of the GPS features that come with the Nokia E71.

GPS - The inclusion of GPS in most smartphones seems to be the rule rather than the exception nowadays and the GPS on the E71 is quite practical although not the most advanced available (in terms of time taken to lock to satellites).

Using Nokia Maps with GPS - Nokia Maps is quite exciting because it enables you to pre-load the map of a whole country into your phone so that you dont need to download the map every time you run it. Nokia Maps also includes some points of interest such as cafes, restaurants, pubs, parks, hospitals etc so that you can search offline for these locations without using any mobile internet.

Also, as you drive along a street, the Nokia Map will show you the house numbers as you pass each house. You will no longer have to slow down and risk being rear ended by the car behnd you as you search for the right house. At intersections, you wont need to look for street signs, just look down on your phone and it will show you the street name that you are at.

Is Mobile data required for Nokia GPS operation? Many customers are told (particularly by three representatives in Australia) that the GPS does not work without using mobile data. It just takes a little longer to syncronise with the satellites. This is the difference between assisted GPS and GPS only.

Using Nokia GPS Applications - There are three applications that come with the Nokia E71. GPS Data has three programs within it.

• Navigation allows you to see whether you are travelling North, South, East or West and what speed you are travelling at.
• Position is another program just one right tab across from Navigation. This application allows you to know the Longitude and Latitude of where you are in the world, the accuracy level it is giving you, the altitude above sea level and the speed.
• Trip Distance is the final tab on the right. When you start a trip, it will measure the distance travelled, time taken, your max speed and average speed. These programs can be useful on a holiday when you are traveling around but if you want a program which will allow you to have more fun on foot, try Nokia Sports Tracker (as discussed in an earlier post).

A new blog has started, which will look at hints and tips for the Nokia E71 at http://mye71.blogspot.com Leave a comment there to express your support.

Fitness and Sports Workouts with your GPS Nokia Sports Tracker

This is definitely the most interesting program I have tried on the Nokia E71. This program can be downloaded from the Nokia website. It keeps an automatic work-out or training diary calendar of all your workouts every day. You can choose what type of activity you did (eg running, walking, cycling) and there are options for you to define a few other sporting activities (eg adding in martial arts, soccer, swimming etc).

When you start a workout, the program will map out using GPS the route that you took. You can choose to have your phone alert you for every milestone (or laps) you acheived such as every 1km or 2 miles etc by beeping. The program will record how fast you ran or walked over time and show you a graph of your workout speed. It also records how long your workout went for (you can also pause your workout for whatever reason), how far you traveled, max speed, average speed, max "pace", average "pace and how long you took for each lap. Speed v Distance and Speed v Time is also recorded and graphed out for you.

Trying this program on the E71 was quite amazing! It really helps one to motivate and get into doing more exercise. You can compare your past workouts each day and also export the results to XML or even to Google Earth! You can also replay the route that you took and zoom in on the map that was created by your movements. If you have a GPS enabled Nokia phone, it is definitely worth using Nokia Sports Tracker - free to download on any nokia website.

Add your Sports tracker login name in the comments below.

Gmail as a Phone book for number search

Sometimes a person calls up and you don't know who it is. Their ID does not come up but it doesnt necessarily mean that you don't know this person. One of the fastest ways to look up a number is to email your GMAIL account with any list of mobile phone numbers that you may have. You may belong to a club, church, society or organisation where you can just email yourself the list of phone numbers. When you are in a situation which you want to find out who the mystery caller is, go to your gmail and do a search for the phone number.

So how is this a phone hack? Well, now that we all carry mobile phones which can use gmail applications, all you need to do if you have a data connection is look up the phone or details in your gmail application. Within minutes you can find out who called you or what street number that partywas on. Gmail has opened up so many possiblities for phone users.. there are plenty more. just search GMAIL in the search bar to your right or leave a comment to tell us what you use GMAIL for (other than email).

Transferring SMS messages between phones

It is increasingly popular for people to carry two phones around with them. This leads to the problem of not knowing which phone has an SMS that you are looking for. I am not sure how many people have tried this but let's say you have two phones and you would like to amalgamate your SMS messages into one phone, is it possible? Here are the things I have considered, feel free to add in.

* Backup through PC Suite means that if you restor the backup onto the second phone, won't the existing SMS on that phone get wiped as well? This should only be used when you are transferring to a new phone with no existing contacts and SMS or restoring your contacts etc after a firmware upgrade.

* Transferring via Sync This is a tactic i tried but the two Nokia phones would not sync the SMS messages properly. For some reason, it worked when one phone was empty but after that the two phones refused to sync with each other the SMS messages.. I can see why this would not be very desirable as your friend could easily download ur sms messages to his phone and read it at his leisure.. but is there a way for those legitimate times when you just want to see all your sms in one phone?

Has anyone had a successful transfer of SMS from one phone to another?

Updates on Google Street View and PC Suite

No Google Street View for E65
It seems that the previously announced update to Google Maps for Mobile which includes street view is not available for Symbian 60 3rd Edition phones such as a the Nokia E65. If anyone sees this change, please leave a comment here. Until then, keep your phones pointed to http://www.google.com/gmm and wait for the version to change from 2.2011.

PC Suite Call SMS Notification
I mentioned in a previous post that the Call Notification does not work on the E65 on a bluetooth or cable connection. I have since discovered that the Call Notification feature works perfectly on the E71 Nokia phone... but only on a CABLE connection. When it is plugged in, a pop up on your computer screen will appear telling you that a call is incoming, giving you the options to Accept, Reject or Send Msg. When the call comes through, it also includes the caller's name and phone number, unlike some reports that only the number appears. If an sms comes through, a pop up says "A new message has been received". As I said, and in case you forgot, this feature is not available on the Nokia E65.. only on the E71. It didnt work on the E66 either but that is something I would like someone else to confirm.

Street View for Google Maps now Mobile

As of today, you can get a new version of Google Maps for Mobile which includes Street View! This means that with the new Google Maps, you can see what the street looks like before you even get there. For some cities, the Google Map can use mobile phone towers to calculate more accurately where you are. Just press 0 whilst in Google Maps for Mobile and you will be given an estimate of where you are. If your phone is GPS enabled (E65 does not come with GPS but can connect to a GPS dongle) your exact loication will be shown. 

Below is a video showing what's changed with Google Maps for Mobile. If you have downloaded this new update for Google maps, share your reactions here.. does street view take up too much data?

Download the new Google Maps here

Or point your E65 to this address: http://www.google.com/gmm/GoogleMaps.sisx

Australian TPG Mobile phone plan a show stopper

Have a look at the $59 unlimited plan that TPG mobile has just released for the Australian mobile market. For those in Australia.. let's hear your thoughts.

http://www.tpg.com.au/mobile/plans.html#

5 Things to Think Before you Sync - Outlook Calendar with Nokia

How do you fix it when you have 1000 duplicate calendar entries added to your Microsoft Outlook Calendar by a phone set in the wrong timezone??? No idea? Neither do I, so here is a post about how to ensure that you are not reminded of your 8am meeting at 1:45am as well as 7:45am.

CHECK YOUR PHONE AND PC TIMEZONES
Under the clock options, ensure that both your computer and your phone agree what timezone you are in. Otherwise, if your phone notices that there is no entry at 2am (+5GMT) for your 8am (+11GMT) , it will add another meeting in at 2am. Multiply that by 1000 and you have a problem.

LIMIT YOUR FIRST SYNC
Before you connect your phone to the PC Suite, check your sync options. Allow your phone and PC to sync a small range of dates such as two days before, and two days after. That way if something goes wrong with the sync you can undo it without too much fuss.

REMEMBER SYNC CANT BE UNDONE
There are programs that allow you to remove duplicates but its not easy so just dont rush into doing your first synchronisation.

CHECK YOUR SYNC OPTIONS
If you know that your Microsoft Outlook calendar is always more accurate than its phone brother, then make sure that the sync program is told in the options that when there is a conflict between the two, it will go with the Outlook version of events.

TRY ONE WAY FIRST
If you want to be cautious, how about doing a one way sync first.

Hope these tips help you to keep yourself from sinking while you're syncing. And if anyone has been in this situation... you've made a mess of your calendar with a dodgy sync, please feel free to share how you got out of it. YOu dont need to login, just post as anonymous in the SUGGESTIONS link below.

E71 Trial - What would an E65 user think?

Just a quick update from here. There has not been any posts on this blog recently as I am trialling a Nokia E71, the QWERTY smartphone that has received excellent reviews from around the internet.. so what would an E65 user think of the E71? Stay tuned.

Where did your Nokia come from?

Apparently... the serial number on your mobile phone (also known as the IMEI number) can tell you where your nokia phone was assembled. The Nokia E65 has had rave reviews and rotten reviews and part of the reason is possibly because of the quality of phone based on the batch in which it was produced. Here's the theory, let us know where your E65 falls and whether you have been happy with its performance (ie no cracked screen, continuous crashes, etc).

• IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 2 or 2 , 0 this means your cell phone was assembled in Emirates which is very Bad quality
• IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 8 or 8 , 0 this means your cell phone was manufactured in Germany which is fair quality
• IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 1 or 1 , 0 this means your cell phone was manufactured in Finland which is very Good
• IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 0 this means your cell phone was manufactured in original factory which is the best Mobile Quality
• IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 1 , 3 this means your cell phone was assembled in Azerbaijan which is very Bad quality and also dangerous for your health

For me, my phone has a 01 as 7th,8th numbers and that means according to the theory it was assembled in Finland and of good quality. I have been very happy with the phone so for the theory, we're one from one. What about you? To check what IMEI number your Nokia phone is, press *#06#.

E65 user experiences with PC Suite

So you've gained some valuable insights about how to use your Nokia E65 from this site. Now, its time you helped us solve a mystery... does the new PC suite really work?

I have not upgraded my E65 to the latest firmware but have been using the latest PC suite. Both on Vista and XP, with different bluetooth dongles, I can no longer send SMS properly with PC suite so I thought maybe it would be interesting for all of you to share your most recent experiences with PC suite. Also, none of the three computers which I have PC suite installed on different operating systems and dongles allows me to sync my images now either. Is it a bug or the lack of firmware upgrade or both?

Make sure you specify which firmware you are using, which operating system (XP, Vista, Mac) and which version of PC suite you are operating with.

What's new in Nokia PC Suite 7.0.8.2 Update

The Nokia PC Suite 7.0.8.2 has just been made available. Nothing seems to have changed. Perhaps with the display of SMS on the front panel, you can now right click it to forward, reply etc to the sms rather than opening it first and then choosing to forward or reply. If anyone sees any other changes / updates, leave a comment here.

No changelog can be found online at the moment. It seems like it is to fix up some stability problems for example refreshing the Inbox on the communications center sometimes gives rise to the program crashing. That seems to have been fixed.

Beijing Olympics Mobile results

If you are looking for the results for an Olympics Event at Beijing's games, look no further than the following mobile pages.

Google's mobile phone enabled Olympics results website
www.google.com/m/summergames

The Official Beijing Olympics website does
wap.beijing2008.cn

NBC Olympics mobile coverage
mobile.nbcolympics.com

BBC Olympics mobile coverage
news.bbc.co.uk/mobile/bbc_sport/olympicsport/

For the record, Usain Bolt from Jamaica has set new world records in both 100m and 200m men's sprints.

Gmail Mobile - Does it really "autorefresh"?

The newest release of GMAIL for Mobiles 1.50.1193, one of the features claims that it will automatically refresh your inbox. After searching high and low on the gmail application for my E65, I couldn't find such a feature. Then I checked Google mail's help center and found this:

Does the Gmail for mobile application support auto-refresh?

Your inbox will automatically refresh each time you send a message. If you'd like to refresh your inbox more frequently, you'll need to do it manually.

So technically, it doesn't support auto refresh as you may be imagining. Anyway, no harm done because you are only saving seconds by having to press refresh manually and gmail for mobile doesn't alert you when you have new mail anyway.

C the "Under-Rated" Delete Key

Short tip: Cancel. You never thought cancel could do so much but with the Nokia E65, this under-rated key has been given more power in the E65. Did you know that you can use the cancel key to:

• Delete messages straight after you read them
• Delete messages in the inbox
• Uninstall an application from the application list
• Delete files in the file manager
• Close down a program that has hung
  

Another one keystroke saver for those that appreciate even the smallest shortcuts.

Google Maps 2.2 finally supports the E65

As mentioned earlier, Google Maps for Mobile 2.2 now enables you to search for directions to get to a destination using buses, trains and other forms of public transport. This of course only applies to cities that have been mapped by Google Transit (see http://www.google.com/transit to see if your city is covered). When you select DIRECTIONS, press the right button to get to the Public Transport tab. Enter your current location and your destination and Google Maps will show you where to catch the nearest bus. You can also specify what time frame you would like to arrive or leave by and the results will be adjusted to give you the best public transport option available.

From the Google Mobile site, they have the following to say about other new features in 2.2. Star-ratings for businesses will help you get a feel for what other people think, your search results show up faster than ever, and user-generated content will now surface in your search results -- opening up a whole new world of geo content on your phone. Look for the blue result markers when you search for "ruins in london," for example.

Now that its available to the Nokia E65 and other Symbian 60 devices, head over to http://m.google.com/gmm and download Google Maps for Mobile 2.2.

Google Maps 2.2 on Nokia E65

I've just tried installing onto my E65 the new Google Maps supposedly 2.2 (but 2.02 when I am installing it). After installing and tryingto run the program, a blank screen flashes on and then closes, bringing me back to the stand by screen for the E65. Go to www.google.com/gmm and install the new Google Maps. If you are a Nokia user (in particular if you are an E65 user) leave a comment here and let us know whether you were more successful than we were...

Edit: I uninstalled the old Google maps and went to m.google.com/maps to try install from there and it worked. So if people are having difficulty, try delete the old version of Google maps and/or try downloading from this address via your phone. More about Google Maps 2.2 later..

Tip: E65 Faster Data Transfers via Cable

I am sure most E65 users were glad to know that the E65 came with a data cable to connect the phone to any PC via a USB port. This means that we can transfer files faster than using bluetooth. However, every time that you connect your phone to the computer, the phone always asks us whether we want to connect to DATA TRANSFER or PC SUITE. Sure, you havent thought twice about this prompter. However... do you really need to be asked every time? I personally hardly ever use the DATA TRANSFER option.

In your phone under the menu CONNECTIVITY --> DATA CABLE you can choose to get your phone to connect via PC suite every time rather than being prompted. Likewise you can choose to make it default to DATA TRANSFER if that is what you only use your data cable. It may not seem like much but to the sanguines out there, that's one unnecessary key stroke eliminated!

New Nokia E66 Where class meets pragmatism and GPS

After a week of trialling the Nokia E66, here are a few other features that stand out for me. Note: All these have been stumbled upon while playing with the phone without reading the manual so there is much more to be discovered with more time. As Mike C said about the E65, the E66 is also a work horse: reliable and equipped with the features you want and the ease of getting to them quickly. For the average business person, this smartphone allows you to answer a call without the embarrassment of looking like you're talking into a brick. That is, if you choose to answer the call rather than just turning the phone over or tapping it.

GPS - The GPS takes minutes rather than seconds to find enough satellites to give you a co-ordinate and you need to be out in the open. However, once you have a lock, using the Nokia GPS software or even better, Google maps, is a lot of fun. Other than the usual applications of GPS, you could use it when you go jogging to see how far and how fast you ran.

Reading SMS by holding down top left selection key while driving or something will have the phone read out your SMS, telling you who sen

Blinking notification of new sms and missed call. For those that may have noticed, I slipped this into my previous post about the new Nokia E66 after I had posted the review so its worth mentioning again. When your phone is on standby, you can choose to make the breathing light pulse urgently when you have received a call/sms. If you wake up in the middle of the night, you can tell immediately by looking at your phone that you have a missed call / new message.

New menu updates shown in the menu system by a round dot. For example, if you install a new application, the application option in the menu will show a new dot to signify that there is something new there.


Share Online options - Ovi, Flickr and Vox have their own links so that you can upload photos you took from your phone straight into one of those websites.

Radio is back For those that still listen to the radio, you will be glad to know the E66 brings back the radio but of course you still need your headset.

Multiple alarms! We talked in an earlier post that for the E65 we need to fill our calendar with alarms in order to have multiple alarms. Nokia has responded with the introduction of multiple alarms so you can have alarms for weekdays only, Saturdays or whatever. However, you still cant choose which alarm tone to use for each individual alarm. So you cant set alarms for Lunch that shout "Lunch time!!!" and another alarm for 23:00 that says "Go to bed!"

NEW! Predictive text for phone numbers? yeah... i just stumbled onto this one. When this feature is turned on, You can press 32843 (DAVID in predictive text mode) on the standby screen and all the Davids in your address book show up. Then press up and select the David you want to call. Nokia has saved us the need to go into the address book :) One keystroke saved!

Nevertheless I have somewhat against you...

Where's the pencil? After giving the iphone so much grief about not being able to cut and paste, it seems like I can't locate the cut and paste feature on the E66! The pencil button which E65 users would know is for copying and pasting, was on the right hand side of the E65. Perhaps someone who reads manuals can answer this one.. EDIT: thanks Rita.. the pencil is now the # key held down (see comments)

If you missed our first look at the Nokia E66's breathing, tapping and rotating features, it can be found here.

What the 3G iPhone Doesn't Have vs Nokia E65 (part 2)

Buying an iPhone is like going to the movies and paying half price but only getting to see the trailers. Apart from its advances in touch screen technology and innovation in manufacturing hype, the iPhone charges users to be introduced to a monopoly market of Apple branded products. It is hoped you would start buying songs, movies and TV shows from iTunes, iPhone applications from the apple iStore, wireless headsets to enjoy your music and who knows, the bitten apple might even convince you to get a matching colour iMac or iBook. Even better, upgrade your iphone to the next model coming out in a few months time, which may make baby steps towards being comparable to similar smartphones on the market.

If accessorising is your thing, then the following features that the iPhone doesn't have won't concern you.

Voice dialling I already mentioned in the previous post that one of the most celebrated features of the iphone (touch screen) is also its downfall, but equally amazing is that they have not made the effort to enable voice dialling on the iphone - something that comes standard on the Nokia E65.

The Toy Camera There is nothing funnier than hearing media organisations seemingly reading out of the Apple media release about the features on the iPhone. The camera resolution is a poultry 2 megapixels which is less than half that of the Nokia N95 and the same as the Nokia E65 (though released two years after the E65). On top of that, it has no zoom, can't take videos and don't even think about taking photos at night because there is no flash. I think the Nokia 6230 in 2003 was able to take videos and zoom. Flash comes standard with all N-series and most other Nokias.

What's MMS? Well, maybe in a few years time you will hear about MMS capability on the iphone. For the rest of us, its the ability to send pictures and videos over the network to your friend for only 2x the cost of a SMS. Iphones have no MMS capability. Again, this feature was out in 2003 with Nokias and of course with the E65.

Disabled Bluetooth capability How's this for annoying? Bluetooth technology allows phones to wirelessley connect to other phones, computers, advertising promotions etc (see this link for bluetooth capabilities in the E65) has been installed on iPhones ... but you can only connect to audio headsets. Correct me if I'm wrong.. this means that the iphone cannot receive contacts from another phone via bluetooth?

Predictive text Perhaps designers of the iphone thought users would only watch videos and listen to itunes downloaded music. It was mentioned before that you cutting and pasting is impossible on iphone but also the predictive text feature is hard to escape from when the words you want to use are not there.

Limited access to Online Videos etc You hear a lot about iphone enabled websites coming up to meet the demand of iphone users but for some reason we didn't hear such a response to other smartphones. This is partly because iphone does not include a flash player and therefore a lot of online content such as those provided by Australia's Optus network, Telstra and Vodafone actually do not work on the iphone but do work on the Nokia E65 and other Nokia phones. An analyst has suggested in a recent article that Apple's strategy could be to force users to buy content from iTunes instead.

One thing I especially object to is the continual use of "Jesus phone" as a reference to the iPhone. Since when did marketing involve blasphemy, especially with such a low-features product such as the iphone? Those in true search for salvation should go here instead.

Part one of this post can be found here:Warning about iEnvy

First impressions of the Nokia E66

Does your phone 'breathe'? Does it know which way is up? Introducing, the Nokia E66, which is not yet available in Australia. It is Nokia's latest tribute to the crowd favourite, the Nokia E65. At MyE65, we will have the opportunity to get our hands on some of Nokia's latest instalments and today we play with one of Australia's only Nokia E66 handsets. The idea of this post is not to do a complete review... there are plenty of websites that do that. I'll give you the gut reaction of a E65 user to the phone and spend less time on the technical details (though sometimes I can't help it).

First of all, what does it look like? Rather than put up a lousy picture of the phone, have a look at it here from the Nokia site. First impressions..

The phone design looks very clean and polished and with a stylish back cover. However, the E65 slider is much more solid and defined than the E66. The slider on the E66 is similar to the old 6280 sliders and they had a reputation for weakening over time. It is slightly lighter than the E65. The keypad is better than the E65's which took some getting used to, to figure out where the keys were.

In the excitement of trying to get this phone to work, I found it took me a while to figure out how to open the back and get the battery in! Refusing to check the manual, I pulled, twisted, fingered, slid and finally relented and pulled out the manual. Apparently you need to squeeze the sides and the cover will pop up a little like the bonnet of a car. Just like any good gadget, it keeps you guessing.

All is forgiven when you look at some of what's new with the E66. Let's look specifically at what makes this phone E-class.

After opening the box, one of the first things that will put a smile to your face browsing the features is how you can silence your E66. When the phone rings, tap it twice while its in your pocket, or turn it over and the phone switches to silent mode!

The introduction of the accelerometer in the phone means that you can rotate the phone 90 degrees and the display will rotate for you. You can then view a photo in landscape mode, browse the internet, watch videos or just read and sms with the phone on its side.

The phone has an optional "breathing" light which pulses subtlely in the dark, not bright enough to annoy you while you are trying to sleep but bright enough to help you find your phone in a dark room or your car. This breathing light becomes a more urgent pulse when you have received a missed call or an sms. That way, a quick look at your phone at night will tell you whether you received a missed call without blinding you.

Pressing down the main button when the phone is unlocked allows you to see the time without the phone turning on all the LEDs. Again, this will prevent you being blinded by your phone in the middle of the night if you just want to check the time.

There is more to be said but that will do for now. Meanwhile, I'll try get this A-GPS working....

Edit: more on E66 can be found here

Communications Centre Broken? PC Suite 7.0.7.0 on closer inspection

I’ve tried sending SMS with the new Nokia Communications Centre that comes with Nokia PC Suite 7.0.7.0.

Using Bluetooth. I tried to send an SMS but it didn't work. Sometimes the failure will result in the sms being put into the SENT folder and other times it isn’t – even though it has not actually been sent successfully. Wonder whether anyone else has come across this problem. Once the message fails to send, all your sms messages that was visible in the other window suddenly disappear and the computer can’t open up the list of SMS messages unless the program is terminated and restarted. This did not happen with the previous version of PC suite. Also, it seems that the “Incoming Call notification” which is meant to be a new feature in 7.0.7.0 is only available to a limited number of phone models of which I am starting to conclude does not include the E65. Perhaps we should eagerly await PC Suite 7.0.7.1?

Using Cable. Following the Bluetooth experiment, I tried again with a cable connection to the laptop. The SMSes went out ok. Also, a while after an SMS is received, a small speech bubble appears over the nokia icon in the system tray that says "A New Message has been Received". This will happen even if the Communcations Centre is not open (but the PC suite is and the phone is connected). However, even using the cable, the notification of an incoming call does not appear.

If you have tried the new PC Suite, share your experience here. Do you get incoming call notification? Does bluetooth connectivity with PC Suite also send your program crashing? Do you also get the Microsoft Vista "blue circle of death?".

3 or 4 Good Reasons to Download PC Suite 7.0.7.0!

I have downloaded the new Nokia PC Suite 7.0.7.0. The release notes state that the following features are now available with PC Suite.

• Create, edit, and send contacts and messages with a single easy-to-use application
• Be informed of incoming calls and new messages received on your computer!
• Add new entries into your device calendar in the main window of Nokia PC Suite
• Get Nokia Video Manager installed together with Nokia PC Suite

Download this update here and add your comments below. Some of the features that I have explored include:

1. Add Calendar Entries Now you can update your calendar entries by right clicking on the date and selecting NEW MEETING.

2. New Contacts Organiser The new Nokia Communications Centre is quite a useful means of organising your address book and messages etc. Your address book loads very quickly and the window also shows you how many contacts you have in your address book. Right clicking any of the entries gives you options to EDIT, SEND, DELETE or COPY the contact.

3. Memory Bar Also added is the ability to see the amount of memory avaiable on your phone and your memory card just by hovering your mouse over a memory bar to the left of your phone icon. The worst thing is not realising you have 900k left in your memory and you try to take a once-in-a-lifetime video of a celebrity in your town only to have your video finish with "insufficient memory to continue".

4. Notifying of new calls/messages? I couldn't find in the program where or how you could be notified of incoming calls and new messages as claimed in the release notes. I tried calling my phone but nothing showed up on the PC suite. Neither did an sms sent to my phone show up until I pressed F5 to refresh the SMS list.

If you haven't already downloaded this new PC Suite for your computer, this is certainly an update worth upgrading to. Just hope someone can explain how to make this PC suite show me who's calling me...

5 Things You Didn't Know (or Forgot) About Your Nokia Web Browser

1. Auto-bookmarking: I've had the phone for almost a year and never noticed that in the bookmarks, there is a sub-folder called "Auto-bookmarks". As far as I can tell, your browser works out your most visited websites and puts the links in this folder. So if you want to get to a website that you often visit quickly, perhaps try looking in the auto-bookmarks folder. If this folder is empty, you will probably need to go to OPTIONS --> SETTINGS --> AUTO-BOOKMARKS to turn on this feature.

2. Full-screen browsing. OK so it doesnt make THAT much difference but since you are in the OPTIONS --> SETTINGS at the moment, have a look at changing your SCREEN SIZE to FULL-SCREEN. When you go back to your browser, you will notice that OPTIONS and BACK no longer appear on the bottom of your screen, giving your browsing experience a cleaner look. Again, I didn't notice this feature till recently.

3. Zooming in and Out. As mentioned in an earlier post, there is the option of zooming in and zooming out of a webpage whilst browsing by pressing * to zoom in and # to zoom out. You will be surprised how high resolution your phone is when you zoom out and still can read the text even though the text is so smal. You can also press 8 to show an extreme zoom out of the page and then when you select a section of the page you would like to see, press 8 again to zoom back in.

4. BACK. If you bought Microsoft Vista for the WIN+TAB option (try it if you don't know what I'm talking about), then you will love Nokia's web browser's BACK button. Pressing the right selection key when viewing a website will enable you to switch back to a website/screen that you were previously on.

5. Easily Forgotten Shortcut keys. I admit, if you read the manual you probably could know all these things but who reads manuals nowadays anyway? In fact, there was probably a time in your use of the E65 that you knew these shortcuts in your head but you've forgotten them. They are very handy so here is a list of the shortcuts you can use when surfing the net on your E65.

• Press 1 for bookmarks.
• Press 2 to search for keywords in the current page.
• Press 3 to go to the previous page.
• Press 5 to show all open windows.
• Press 9 to enter a new web address.
• Press 0 to go to your homepage.

Nokia Tips You Bet No One Knows...

Found a nifty tip for the Nokia E65? Think you're the only one who knows? Leave a comment here and share it with your fellow power users of the E65... If you are not sure whether its been covered on this blog, use the search bar on your right. Even if it is covered, feel free to share it anyway.

Nokia E65 - Your Computer's New Remote Control via Bluetooth or WIFI

I mentioned earlier that Apple Iphone's bluetooth is severely restricted to audio headset use. They can get away with this because to many people out there, bluetooth is what you might get when you eat overly coloured fairy floss. Bluetooth is actually the ability for your phone to communicate with another device wirelessly such as a printer, computer, PDA or another phone. You could use bluetooth to send a contact, calendar entry, print job, file etc. I recently tried out a program called Salling Clicker. I was completely hooked when I realised that with this program's use of the bluetooth technology on Nokia phones, I can:


- Automatically lock my computer when I walk away from it.
- Control my computer's media player with my phone (change track, browse files, pause, play etc).
- See on my computer screen what number is calling my mobile phone
- Control a Powerpoint presentation
- View the next slide for the Powerpoint presentation
- Show a countdown of how long I have left for my presentation
- Move my mouse around on your screen from my mobile
- Shut down my computer from my phone
- Automatically pause my music coming from my computer while I answer a call
- Mute computer volume and then unmute when I hang up

AND Control all the above via bluetooth OR my wireless network!

The two outstanding features of this program for me is the fact that you can lock your computer by walking out of range of bluetooth from your computer. Once you wander away beyond the bluetooth wireless radius of 10m, the computer senses that it has lost connection with your phone and realises that this means it should lock up. Try do that with your car central locking system!!

The other outstanding feature is that you dont need to use bluetooth to connect your phone to the computer. You can use the wireless network in your house/office and connect to your phone through that! This means that if you have a network set up, and you wander away beyond your 10m radius for bluetooth, you can still shut down your computer or turn up the volume on your computer so that you can hear your music from another room. This program is definitely worth looking at if you are a gadget savvy E65 user that I assume most people are on here.

Bluetooth Hack - Would you like to accept connection?

Do you get annoyed about how every time your phone connects to your computer, you need to say YES I do want to allow my computer to connect to the phone?

There is an easy fix. On your E65, or other Nokia phone, go to MENU --> CONNECT --> BLUETOOTH. Then press across -> to access the "PAIRED DEVICES" tab. Scroll down to the connection to your computer/otherphone/PDA/bluetooth kit that you want to always allow your phone to connect, and go to OPTIONS. Select "Set as authorised" and from now on, you won't be asked whether you would like to accept the connection from your computer. When your phone comes in range with your computer, they'll say hi to each other, update each other on what's been happening with them (sync your calendar, notes, address book, files, pictures or whatever else you want to sync with PC Suite) and send whatever changes you made to your phone or PC to the other - and this will allo happen without bothering you about it. This is how technology has advanced (actually it advanced 4 years ago to make this possible), unless you are an iphone user. The iPhones DO have bluetooth but Apple has made it that they dont allow you to do anything with bluetooth except connect to the wireless headset which you can be certain did not come in the box with the iphone.. but thats another story.

Nokia v Apple for Media Dominance in Mobile Markets

An interesting article recently came out about Nokia's plans for the future. The intuitive mobile phone deisgners are looking to re-create Nokia into a media company with key alliances to Sony and Universal. Some of the plans include 1 year FREE music mp3 downloads! Watch Nokia's space as this unfolds and remember the name Tero Ojanpera... he may be Nokia's answer to Steve Jobs.

Read more in the article here.

WARNING about Apple iEnvy - What Nokia E65 actually has over iPhone (part 1)

Its iPhone madness around the world, especially Australia which will get its first official bite of the Apple iphone when it is launched on the 11th July. I know anyone can say how much the iphone is better than any other phone so... whilst some E65 users will already be pre-booking their iPhones, I'll dare to mention a few things in which the Nokia E65 beats the iPhone.

Cost Lots has been said about how the iphone is US$199 and how cheap that is but the problem is, the news reporters are just reading from the media release put out by Apple. You actually need to sign up to a data plan with AT&T which doesnt come cheap. In Australia, Optus and Vodafone have not released what plan or prepaid arrangement must come with the iphone. They just want to assume you are an Apple fanboy with no qualms about price. For the E65, although its on its way out, in Australia you can get it free with a $19 cap plan with optus.

Change battery anytime Who would have thought that this would one day be considered a feature but one sad thing about the Apple Iphone is Apple's way of sucking money out of its consumers in every possible way and one of the most ingenious ways is to solder the battery into the iphone to stop you buying a generic battery from China. Instead, when you need to change your battery, you will need to seek out an Apple store to have it changed. Is there a service fee? You bet.

Cut and paste Your Nokia E65 has the side button with the pencil on it, which enables you to copy and paste:
* Website addresses from SMSes
* Phone numbers from your address book
* Notes to SMS
* WEP passwords to your WIFI password request field etc
Believe it or not, while the iPhone can also surf the net, you cant copy and paste! So if I sms you a website where you can see free wifi locations around australia, you will have to type this out: http://mye65.blogspot.com/2008/01/free-wifi-hotspots-around-australia-see.html

iTouch, but I dont want to. You think a touch screen is a good idea? wait till you get KFC all over your screen when someone calls you. Also, we dont know what it is like smsing someone using a touch screen which gives the user no feedback as they call or type. It might sound like a good idea but wait till you try it out.

Like I said earlier, obviously the Nokia E65 cannot compete with the iPhone. E65 came out earlier than iphone, is cheaper and its the Nokia N96 that iPhone is competing with. My points here are that the E65 has some points over the iphone which many people will not be aware of. There are other points I will cover later.

Edit: Part two can be found here

Speaking SMS - All I had to say in 160 characters or less

The following are some tips from Lifehack.org on what you can do to write concisely when preparing an SMS. Since each sms is only 160 characters long, here are some ways you can make your point and still stay within the "limit".

• Every character counts, so use strong verbs and a minimum of adverbs - you just can’t afford to say in two words what you can say in one.
• Avoid "big words". Almost every long word in English has a short, blunt word that means the same thing. Use it instead.
• Forget about breaking your thoughts into two SMS. You have no control over how your SMS will get read or whether they will stay together.
• Write first, then rewrite. It’s hard when you can feel that 160-character limit breathing down your neck. Spill it all out and then trim.
• You can usually cut "that" and "which". "The toy train that my sister got for Christmas" can be "The toy train my sister got for Christmas."
• Take your cue from Spanish (and Obama) and eliminate personal pronouns. "I am going to the Apple store" can be "Going to the Apple Store".
• Write short sentences. They stand out more. You share a page with dozens of posts. Many short sentences looks like something worth reading.
• Use punctuation! Many will tell you to rely on forceful words, not exclamation marks, but when words are limited, punctuation adds impact.
• Be personal. Short SMS are very conversational but you have to remember to let the person know its personal.
• Get to the point. Say what you want me to do and why I should do it. You have no room to build anticipation - cut straight to the chase.

More tips can be found in the original article here

Perth Bus and Train times at your fingertips

Now in your pocket!

The Western Australian city of Perth's public transport provider TransPerth has launched a new service which enables Mobile phone users with access to the internet on their phone to look up the the next service for ANY bus stop, train station, ferry terminal in Perth!! The website is www.136213.mobi.

Did you swipe your SmartRider card and forgot to check the balance? You can check your SmartRider balance on this website too. Just enter the smart rider number in your phone and it will tell you how much you have left to spend. You can even use this website to find out about last minute delays or changes to Transperth services in the News section. Even the name of the website impresses me because 136213 is also their helpline so if you store that website in your phone and you can't access the website, you can't say you don't know what number to call. With this service as well as Google Transit coming online soon, which will enable you to map your public transport route, there will soon be not enough reasons left to drive a car when in Perth. This website is a public transport solution that many other cities around the world should consider. Since your Nokia E65 can freely access any FREE WIFI hotspots publicly available, websites like this are a gem to have stored on your mobile, when you are out. Do you know of any such useful websites? Leave a comment and maybe you can help someone else.

Offering a cake you can't have yet.. Google Mobile Maps 2.2 introducing Public Transport

One thing I hate about public transport is not being able to change your plans without a timetable hanging out of your pocket. Now Perth's joins a list of cities which have bus, train and ferry timetables integrated on Google Transit, an online way to find out the best public transport route from A to B (see http://google.com/transit). Now why is this mentioned on a Nokia E65 blog?

Well, Google has announced that Google Maps for Mobile 2.2 will include the ability to show public transport routes using Google Transit. However, while they have trumpeted the joys of this new feature... its not available at the time of this post for Nokia E65s... but go check www.google.com/gmm on your phone and see if 2.2 has landed yet. If you can download it, come back and leave a comment that its available. This application will mean that if you find yourself in a suburb you dont know, you can use your mobile via Google Maps for Mobile to find a way home. Its convenient and makes public transport that little bit more accessible and... you're doing your bit for the environment going public.

Read more about this new feature at Google's own blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-your-transit-schedules-and.html

Fring 3.35 for better MSN, skype, VOIP, AOL on your Nokia E65

Fring has been upgraded! You can get the latest version for E65 and other Symbian phones by going to www.fring.com with your mobile phone or by downloading it and installing through PC suite.

So what's new?
- Improved stability – with significantly less interruption, logouts, etc
- Made voice quality even better all round
- Added speakerphone for Symbian 9.2
- Enabled file transfer from Yahoo! & Skype so you can now swap music, pics & vids over WiFi or 3G from mobile to mobile and mobile to PC! Its quick, reliable and of course free! No need for MMS, cable, Bluetooth or Infrared.

Got comments about the new FRING? If you are wondering what FRING is, its basically a program that allows you to use MSN, other instant messengers and VOIP (even Skype now!) over a wifi network through your phone! Read more by following the Top 5 Applications link to your right.

Address book Hack: Change your friend's name to something useful

Just a lighthearted post... Did you know that you don't have to name your friend's number by their name? OK that was obvious but you would be surprised how many times someone calls you and you have no idea who they are, yet they are in your phone book. When adding their name, add some details about who they are at the end. If there is someone you don't like, maybe name their number "Don't pick up! Its ___ " Further application could be getting a friend to call you when they want to remind you of something for example, using their office phone, rename it "Picking you up in 5min".

You can also change your name on someone else's phone and maybe call them up later to send them an unusual encouragement or message. Imagine your friend calls you and your phone flashes "God still loves you" or "Don't just look at me, pick me up!"

On a similar note, you can use your address book to store information that is not confidential such as your Virgin loyalty card number or something like that. The first name can be Virgin and the Surname can be your membership number.