If you were a World Expert on Something... what would it be?

How does the internet work? Everyone in the world contributes what they know to a collection of information. This is how expert blogs start and how this blog came about as well. Some people enjoy tinkering with clocks. Other people like studying human behaviour. Still other people enjoy composing music. If you are not contributing to the Internet with your skills, maybe you have not thought carefully what skills or tendencies you have. 

I have had an idea for a while about combining a few experts into one blog website.. and I would like to know if you have an area of expertise and willing to join this idea. This is particularly aiming at those who have not yet set up a blog on what they think they can contribute to the global knowledge database that is the Internet. 

Some may be experts 

• in cars
• fixing home appliances
• keeping things clean
• organising life
• finding shortcuts 
• writing music
• designng software
• coming up with ideas for software
• exploring all the possible applications of a phone / appliance (that's where MyE65 fits in)
• marketing techniques
• finding the cheapest way to get something done

If you have an area, leave a short comment and your email address if you would like to join the new experts blog or send me an email: mye65blog [at] gmail.com The blog will be aimed at average professionals such as yourselves that may not have time to figure out all the bits and pieces of an area in their life but love to know the tips and tricks in life.  Think it can happen?

Optus Prepaid customers - price increase alert

Standard Pre-Paid rate increases as of 3 March 2009. Includes any credit already on the account from what I can see.

Basically:

Billing Increments: Calls will be charged in 1 minute blocks instead of 30 second blocks.

SMS Rates: 25c to Optus/Boost Pre-paid. Increase to 29c for all other Australian numbers.

MMS Rates: Decrease to the equivalent SMS rate.

National & international Flagfall: Increase to 35c

International: Calls to NZ; HK; USA; UK; and Singapore: .97c per minute. All others: $1.63 per minute.

It is unsure whether this will apply to just new pre-paid customers or existing ones as well. 

Nokia E55 to offer 1 month standby batttery life

Nokia has recently annouced the release of the Nokia E55 and E75. Scrolling through the announcement, one major highlight for the E55 is a boast of one month battery life on standby mode! Other features seem to be quite similar to the E71 and E63 offerings that are currently available - probably because these releases seem to be coming too closely behind the other E series releases. This indicates that Nokia is trying to make sure business and executive (if there's a difference) users have no excuse for not finding an E series phone that suits their needs. See more about these two new phones here.

Who visits MyE65 anyway?

We had a post a while ago about where everyone comes from and what they do. Here is a list of what you guys are up to out there in the real world. For those that have recently joined MyE65, leave a comment here and tell us who you are. If there was one thing that you would be a world expert in, what would it be? 

• IT exec @ Buenos Aires, Argentina
• Pharmacist and Symbian blogger, Beirut, Lebanon.
• Manager-North Borneo
• Student Economics at Leuven, Belgium
• Memory researcher, St Louis, USA (though I am an expat and only recently moved here from Leeds, UK)
• IT student in Paris, France.
• IT Program Manager, Lake of Garda, Italy
• Electrical engineering, Taiwan
• E65 user.Biomedical student@republic polytechnic.Singapore.20yrs old.
• Work in IT in Fredrikstad, Norway.
• Northern Ontario Canada
• Accountant - Great Grimsby, UK
• Saludos desde Cádiz, España
• Hi from Cádiz, Spain.
• Saludos desde Cádiz, España
• Registered Nurse - Manila, Philippineso
• Lawyer, Madrid
• Software architect in Oslo, Norway.
• Computer science student at Manila, Philippines.
• Small Business Owner, Pune, India.
• Bussiness Program Manager @ Chihuahua, Mexico.
• Sarawak, Malaysia (borneo). 
• Vancouver Canada : ) accountant
• IT Consultant (ex RSA) now the Netherlands.
• Got my E65 for 2 months now and proud of it! ;)
• it and psychology student, web designer... mexico city
• Sales executive for a telecommunications company, Dominican Republic
• Softwaredeveloper from northern Germany :)
• Kenya, Software developer
• Adhesives Technologist, Farnborough UK
• external auditor, 23 y/o, Cebu, Philippines =)
• military, signal, Lisbon, Portugal ;)
• PR Exec, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I love my E65 hehe
• Information Systems student/Computer Scientist, Osnabrück, Germany.
• IT Exec @ TropicalWeb , Maputo, Mozambique
• South of Africa
• Industrial engineering student from Burgos, Spain.
• Cop moroccan,connecticut
• Classified Resseller - Lisbon (Portugal) E65 Owner
• IT what else ? Paris area, France
• former PalmPilot user and developer
• Student, Ricardo, Lisbon - Portugal
• Accountant, Perth Australia
• Just saying Hi from Brasov, Romania.
• Cacak, Serbia. Fiberoptic Network Consultant
• Project manager in public administration.Zagreb, Croatia, Europe. I just love my E65!
• Melbourne, Australia
• @ Quito-Ecuador
• Product Manager in Melbourne, Australia.
• Zichen-Zussen-Bolder , Belgium
• A finance student - Karachi, Pakistan.
• pastor - South Africa
• Assist. prof. (Bridges & Tunnels) Saint-Petersburg, Russia
• Infosec professional, Bangalore, India.
• Database developer, Kingston upon Thames, England
• Sw Development Manager, Portugal

Free 7 Day Navigation License from Nokia

If you have a GPS enabled phone (such as Nokia E71 and Nokia E90), get your free trial of the Nokia spoken navigations by following this link here. This will allow you to consider whether or not the 30 day or 1 year subscription is worth the money. With GPS modules dropping in price around the world now, I would imagine that Nokia should be considering dropping the price of their subscription to voice navigation.

As for what the trial is like, I've started on the navigation trial and so far it is quite an experience. It is easy to use with the Nokia E90 large screen and if you make a wrong turn, the voice navigation adjusts by planning a new route without berating you for taking the wrong turn.

The voice navigation from Nokia does not say street names, only announcing a turn around 250m before the turn and then "Turn left now" when the turn approaches.

Can you use another sim card whilst subscribed to voice navigation on another sim card?

No. Whilst you are using the navigation, you are unable to change SIM cards as the phone will no longer recognise that the voice navigation is activated. This i guess prevents people from registering for perpetual free trials using different sim cards. I am not sure if this is the case for the 30 day or 1 year subscription. I am also not sure whether you can put the sim card which IS registered into another GPS enabled phone device and run the voice navigation.

However, you can probably use the same phone for two or three 7-day trials using different Mobile numbers to activate the 7 day trial. That makes sense because if you sold your Nokia E71 on the internet to someone else, they should also be able to get a free trial as well. 

Can a phone share GPS from another phone?

This may be a strange question but as you may know, there are quite a few phones such as the Nokia E65 and E63 that come out on the market GPS-ready which makes a person think that GPS is available on the phone. What it really means is that the phone can connect to a GPS receiver and operate a GPS.

So the question a Nokia E65 or E63 phone user would inevitably ask is, can i connect via bluetooth my phone to a phone with GPS enabled such as a Nokia E71 or Nokia E90 and utilise its GPS receiver? No, that's not possible - I've tried and failed with that idea. Hopefully this post will save you from endlessly wondering about this question.

Nokia E71 the Blackberry killer - whats inside

Here is a list of features/specifications of the Nokia E71 and I've bolded things that to me, are significant for someone looking for a new phone and considering the E71. I'll highlight things that you may not realise comes with the E71 or makes E71 a good choice. There is a proper review of the E71 here as well.

Size
Form: Monoblock with full keyboard
Dimensions: 114 x 57 x 10 mm
Weight: 127 g
Volume: 66 ml
Full keyboard
High quality QVGA display
Display and 3D
Size: 2.36"
Resolution: 320 x 240 pixels (QVGA)
Up to 16 million colours
TFT active matrix (QVGA)
Two customisable home screen modes
Email
Easy email set-up
Support for Active Sync for Microsoft Exchange via Mail for Exchange
Supported protocols: IMAP4, Microsoft ActiveSync, POP3, SMTP
Support for email attachments
IMAP IDLE support
Support for Nokia Intellisync Wireless Email
Integrated Nokia Mobile VPN
Keys and input methods
Full keyboard
Dedicated one-touch keys: Home, calendar, contacts, and email
Speaker dependent and speaker independent voice dialling
Intelligent input with auto-completion, auto-correction, auto-punctuation, and learning capability
Accelerated scrolling with NaviTMKey
Notification light in NaviTMKey
colours and covers
Available in-box colours:
- Grey steel
Connectors
Micro-USB connector, full-speed
2.5 mm Nokia AV connector
Power
BP-4L 1500 mAh Li-Po standard battery
Talk time:
- GSM up to 10 h 30 min
- WCDMA up to 4 h 30 min
Standby time:
- GSM up to 17 days
- WCDMA up to 20 days
- WLAN idle up to 166 hours
Music playback time (maximum): 18 h
Memory
microSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 8 GB
Approximately 110 MB internal dynamic memory
Operating frequency
E71-1 Quad-band EGSM 850/900/1800/1900, WCDMA 900/2100 HSDPA
Offline mode
Data network
CSD
HSCSD
GPRS class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 100/60 kbps (DL/UL)
EDGE class A, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177.6 kbps (DL/UL)
WCDMA 900/2100 or 850/1900 or 850/2100, maximum speed 384/384 kbps (DL/UL)
HSDPA class 6, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps/384 kbps (DL/UL)
WLAN IEEE 802.11b/g
WLAN Security: WEP, 802.1X, WPA, WPA2
TCP/IP support
Nokia PC Internet Access (capability to serve as a data modem)
IETF SIP and 3GPP
Local connectivity and synchronisation
Infrared, maximum speed 115 kbps
Bluetooth version 2.0 with Enhanced Data Rate
- Bluetooth profiles: DUN, OPP, FTP, HFP, GOEP, HSP, BIP, RSAP, GAVDP, AVRCP, A2DP
MTP (Multimedia Transfer Protocol) support
Bluetooth (Bluetooth Serial Port Profile. BT SPP)
Infrared
File
Network (Raw). Direct TCP/IP socket connection to any specified port (a.k.a HP JetDirectTM).
Network (LPR). Line Printer Daemon protocol (RFC1179).
Support for local and remote SyncML synchronisation, iSync, Intellisync, ActiveSync

Call features
Integrated handsfree speakerphone
Automatic answer with headset or car kit
Any key answer
Call waiting, call hold, call divert
Call timer
Logging of dialed, received and missed calls
Automatic redial and fallback
Speed dialing
Speaker dependent and speaker independent voice dialing (SDND, SIND)
Fixed dialing number support
Vibrating alert (internal)
Side volume keys
Mute key
Contacts with images
Conference calling
Push to talk
VoIP
Messaging
SMS
Multiple SMS deletion
Text-to-speech message reader
MMS
Distribution lists for messaging
Instant messaging with Presence-enhanced contacts
Cell broadcast
Security features
Device lock
Remote lock (see this post)
Data encryption for both phone memory and microSD card
Mobile VPN
Web browsing
Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML, MP, WML, CSS
Supported protocols: HTTP, WAP 2.0
TCP/IP support
Nokia browser
- JavaScript version 1.3 and 1.5
- Mini Map
Nokia Mobile Search
Nokia PC Internet Access (capability to serve as a data modem)
GPS and navigation (see this post)
Integrated A-GPS
Nokia Maps application
Photography
3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels)
Autofocus
LED flash
Image formats: JPEG/EXIF
CMOS sensor
4 x digital zoom
Focal length: 3.8 mm
Focus range: 10 cm to infinity
Macro focus: 10-60 cm
Flash modes: Automatic, On, Red-eye, Off
Flash operating range: 1 m
White balance modes: automatic, sunny, incandescent, fluorescent
Centre weighted auto exposure; exposure compensation: +2 ~ -2EV at 0.7 step
Capture modes: still, sequence, self-timer, video
Scene modes: auto, user defined, close-up, portrait, landscape, night, night portrait
Colour tone modes: normal, sepia, black & white, negative
Full-screen viewfinder with grid
Active toolbar
Share photos with Share on Ovi
Video
Main camera
640 x 480 at 22 fps
320 x 240 (QVGA) at 30/15 fps
176 x 144 at 15 fps (QCIF)
Digital video zoom
Front camera
- Video recording at up to 128 x 96 pixels (QCIF) and up to 15 fps
- Up to 2x digital video zoom
Video recording file formats: .mp4, .3gp; codecs: H.263, MPEG-4 VSP
Audio recording formats: AMR
Video white balance modes: automatic, sunny, incandescent, fluorescent
Scene modes: automatic, night
Colour tone modes: normal, sepia, black & white, negative
Clip length (maximum): 1 h
RealPlayer
Video playback file formats: .mp4, .3gp; codecs: H.263, H.264 ,Real Video and MPEG-4
Video streaming: .3gp, .rm, mp4
Customisable video ring tones
Music and audio playback
Music player
Media player
Nokia Music Manager
Nokia Music Store support
Music playback file formats: .mp3, .wma, .aac, AAC+, eAAC+
Audio streaming formats: .rm, .eAAC+
FM radio 87.5-108 MHz
Visual Radio support. Read more: www.visualradio.com
2.5 mm Nokia AV connector (wish it was a 3.5mm normal headphones jack)
Nokia Podcasting support
Customisable ring tones
Synchronise music with Windows Media Player
NaviTM wheel support
Voice Aid
Voice and audio recording
Voice commands
Speaker dependent and speaker independent voice dialling (SDND, SIND)
Voice recorder
Audio recording formats: AMR-WB, AMR-NB
Speech codecs: FR, EFR, HRO/1, AMR-HR, and AMR-FR
Text-to-speech
Personalisation: profiles, themes, ring tones
Customisable home screen content in Business and Personal modes
Customisable profiles
Customisable ring tones
Customisable video ring tones
Support for talking ring tones
Customisable themes
Software platform and user interface
S60 3.1 Edition, Eseries
Symbian Os 9.2
Two home screen modes with customisable active standby views
Voice commands
Personal information management (PIM): contacts, clock, calendar etc.
Advanced contacts database: multiple number and e-mail details per contact, contacts with images
Support for assigning images to contacts
Support for contact groups
Closed user group support
Fixed Dialling Number support
Clock: analogue and digital
Alarm clock with ring tones
Reminders
Calculator with advanced functions
Calendar with week and month view
Converter
Active Notes
To-do list
PIM information viewable during call
Applications
JavaTM MIDP 2.0
Flash Lite 3.0
Chat and instant messaging
Nokia browser
- JavaScript version 1.3 and 1.5
- Mini Map
Dictionary
Quickoffice (Quickword, Quickpoint, Quicksheet) (see this post)
PDF Viewer
ZIP Manager
Download!
File Manager
Nokia Search
Nokia Maps (can install new maps from nokia.com)
Adding more applications:
- Use the Download! client
- Over-the-air (OTA) downloads

Where are you? Google Maps 3.0 Tells Everyone

It's releases like this one that make us all excited about Google! And yes it does work with Nokia E65.

What is the most common question asked over the phone or text? "Where are you?" The latest instalment of Google Maps with Google Latitude answers this question before you even need to ask by broadcasting your location and the location of your friends to each other on Google Maps!! Yes, finally!! We have all wondered how cool it would be if we could see where everyone was at one time.

For example, if a group of your friends go to a concert and you want to know where everyone is at any one time, you can have everyone opt into Google Latitude and broadcast their location to everyone else.

If you are meeting your friend for dinner, you can see how far they are and when they are within 100m they won't need to call you to find precisely where you are.

Google Maps goes one step further than social networks online can go with this one. There is no need to twitter your location or update your status on Facebook. Google Latitude will update everyone (that you want to update) with your location (or your "fake" location if you want to lie). The official Google Mobile blog has more to say about this release here or the Google blog here. For now, we'll continue to explore this new feature and add more comments later.

Notebooks, Netbooks and the Nokia E90 Communicator

In this post, we'll look at the Nokia E90 Communicator to see what it offers Nokia E65 users considering a new phone. At first glance, the phone doesn't look too impressive, with a cover design like that of the first generation Nokia phones. Perhaps its a trick played by the Nokia designers as your impression of the phone quickly changes when it opens up into a slick-looking QWERTY keyboard layout, like its superior, Nokia E71, but with a big, clear screen dwarfing all other smartphone screens.

The phone has GPS and bluetooth with the GPS working especially well on the large 800 x 352 pixels screen. We took this on a road trip and the GPS worked really well. We were however quietly hoping we had the voice navigation to trial.

The camera is 3.2 megapixels which is quite reasonable. It also has a flash and auto focus. As an E65 user, the E90's main appeal was the GPS and the large screen. The size of the phone is a little too bulky, requiring a second thought when considering whether to bring it along or not. Unlike some phones now, it does come with an FM radio but this comes with the usual pain of requiring a headset to use it.

The wireless LAN accessibility and the wide screen enabled me to surf the net at home when I couldnt be bothered turning on the computer. In my opinion, the E90 is too big to be a phone and too small to be a notebook or netbook. However there are many execs and professionals that may disagree with this conclusion as the E90 does launch one of the biggest screens that Nokia has ever put into a mobile phone.. communicator. Tricks and tips for the Nokia E65 as listed on this blog also work for the E90 Communicator so have a browse around if you came to this blog with a Nokia E90 in hand.