How do I speed up my E65?

Just to give you an idea how many people wondering this, could everyone who came from google, please reply with a short comment below? I am quite sure that most E65 users have posed this question. 

Here are some ways to speed up your Nokia E65. 

Applications Don't have unnecessary programs running in the background. For example, I hardly ever use my wireless keyboard but having this program in the background will take up memory as it waits for a connection from my keyboard... so there is no point having it on all the time.

Uninstalling applications that you tried once but never will use again would also help.

Restarts I am not sure whether this will work but generally, if you always have your phone on, your phone may accumulate a lot of "temp" files which slows down the phone. You should make an effort to turn off and turn on your phone every few days. 

Lots of SMS? Someone may want to comment on this but I am quite sure that if you delete your inbox of SMS dating back to 2007, your phone will run much faster with texting. There are programs which will speed up your SMS retrieval such as SMSDiary which was reviewed a few months on here. 

Picture backgrounds Looked great the first few days but after a while, picture backgrounds get a little passe and just use up memory for questionable gain. 

MP3 Ringtones See picture backgrounds. This may also be another way of saving memory, though like the other suggestions above, these are merely suggestions. 

Your experiences? What has helped you speed up your E65?

How to Avoid Data Charges and "Bill Shock"

A major area that users of mobile phones get caught out is the mobile internet costs. Many unwittingly run up huge bills by letting their phone connect to websites without them knowing. In Australia, mobile data rates are very expensive so here are some tips and hacks to stop Optus, Three, Virgin, Vodafone and Telstra from robbing you blind. Many of these tips will also apply to users in other parts of the world.

Unplug your internet. If you have a phone but just dont want to ever accidentally or deliberately use the mobile internet, go  to MENU --> TOOLS / SETTINGS --> CONNECTION --> DESTINATIONS/ACCESS POINTS --> Internet. Delete all the access points. 

Take out Mobile Data Usage insurance. There is no such thing but many of the phone providers have options to add $8 or $5 to get say 25mb data allowance. This means that if your phone accidentally connects to the internet, you have 25MB of free data allowance to "use up". Considering the potential cost of not having such a bolt-on feature added to your plan, this is one way of insuring yourself against data costs.

Complain. Tell your mobile phone provider that you are not happy with their taking advantage of your inability to stop accidental connections to the internet with your phone. 

Be careful how your mobile applications connect to the internet. One example is GMAIL. It can be programmed to only connect to the internet using, say, your WIFI at home. Search on the right for more about this. 

Watch out for the SIM Swap. When you turn off your phone and switch sim cards, sometimes the "default" settings of your phone provider will be reinstated. So if you deleted say an Optus Internet access point, it may suddenly appear again and next time you are using Google Maps, you realise you are boring a hole through your wallet. So when you swap your sim cards around, check your access points. 

Delete internet "shortcuts". Hutchinson 3 are notorious for this. When you get a phone from 3 Australia, you end up with so many keys and shortcuts programmed to take you to an internet website. Reconfigure your shortcuts and keypad shortcuts to make sure your phone doesn't connect to the internet "accidentally". 

Use your free WIFI If you are at home and you have a wireless router, why are you using the mobile internet??? Use your free access points as much as possible. There are plenty of free wifi hotspots around - look up the search on the right with "free wifi" and you will find a google map of some in Australia. 

Download, don't stream When you have access to free internet, download what you want to watch or listen to on your phone and take it with you rather than wait till you are bored on the bus and surf youtube.

Hope those help you curb your mobile internet bill..

The Nokia N85 Looked Good on Paper

Planning an upgrade from MyE65, one phone I have been considering and trialing is the Nokia N85. My initial excitement about the N85 was over the new FM transmitter which is built in to the phone. This allows you to play music on your phone and have it transmit wirelessly to a FM frequency on your car radio. Apart from that, much of the features offered in the N85 are very similar to the N95 and N96.

The body of the N85 is very similar to the N96. Some people don't like the plastic build as it seems quite vulnerable. When the phone vibrates, the loose slide mechanism makes the phone vibrate even louder. Great if you are usually one that misses calls because of the soft vibration but not good for those easily startled. The slider is quite solid.

The keypad is of the sort I don't like. There are some instances when you would like to sms or dial without looking at the pad and the flat keypad makes that quite hard to use. The buttons are a little laborious to operate as Nokia has started to part with the traditional button, working almost with the ipod style hovering and light pressing of buttons. Its hard to say but for some reason, its quite tiresome operating the phone with one hand. SMS warriors may find the keypad quite frustrating as it is easy for fat fingers to press more than they intended.

Speed The Nokia E63, E66, and E71 seem to be faster to operate than the N85. GPS seems to lock and run as well as the Nokia E71, even picking up a signal for the GPS indoors. The camera on the N85 is a powerful 5 megapixel camera, producing photos that are quite clear and impressive.

So what do you like about it? The Nokia N85, being a multimedia device packs a pretty powerful loudspeaker and provides stereo sound output if that is your thing. As mentioned earlier, the FM transmitter turned out to be quite a nifty little inclusion for the N85. If you are a sound critic, the FM transmitter may disappoint but if you are not too fussy and just love the convenience of playing your music over your (and your nearby car's) radio (assuming they are tuned into the right frequency) car / radio system, then the N85 may be an early adopter's choice.

I personally will continue to look for a suitable E65 replacement (though currently my eye is still on the Nokia E71...

There is a lot more that I could have explored about this phone but didn't have time. There are features like linking to your Home network MP3 library and other media related features. If you have played with this phone and found some must mention features, leave a comment.

E63 v E71?? What CNET users say

The battle rages on in many people's minds wondering what phone to upgrade to. I found this review by isaac976 from the CNET website which sums up my observations as well regarding why some may choose to go with Nokia E63 even with the power of the E71.. I'll add comments in brackets where appropriate:

Rating: 9 out of 10 (Spectacular)
Pros: I really give thumbs up to this phone, I feel its even better than the E71
Cons: there is nothing, unless u consider not having GPS as a con, Singapore dont bring this in

Opinion:
Before you go saying why I say this is better than the E71, I have both and I have used both so here is my review on the E63, short and simple

Feeling: very nice hold and feel, its because I compared it to my blackberry curve, nearly the same size but this is longer SLIGHT bit, I didnt like my E71, but its actually the same phone

Battery : dont even mention it, superb battery life, have been downloading app for the new phone using GPRS, have been trying the radio for about 10 mins, tried internet radio etc..etc.. and after like 5 hours with my MSN still turned on.. there is still 3 quarter left. Will load movies in and see how long it will last, I am guessing pretty darn long (yeah longest battery life I've tested except maybe E90.. certainly better than E65 :P)

Camera: impressive better than the E71 which sucks and have that problem of the purple haze tint when you take pic, will upload and see how's the quality turns out (not the best camera I agree)

Keyboard: feel abit plasticky and not really rubber, has that sqeaky feel when fingers move on the keyboard, but I am ok. (its good though)

Why I used this phone to my E71: its because of the 3.5mm jack. I listen to music all the time and watch movies, the E71 has its own proprietry jack and i hate those, and about the GPS, who use's phone gps anyway, go get a real Garmin or TomTom, if budgets the problem there is the local brand call Shinco, works relatively good as well, You will know the difference of using a phone GPS and a Real GPS. Phone GPS is just a gimmick and novelty for those who dont use GPS (GPS is quite useful though.. you don't realise how good it is until u start using it all the time.. but if that isn't your thing.. go for the E63 and its 3.5mm headphone jack)

Read more about the Nokia E63 here.

Two Day Bug - Google Maps keeps asking/forgetting which access points

This is a tip for those with Google Maps and Gmail problems on your Nokia. Some Nokia phones keep asking for access points to be defined, even though you told the program 10 seconds ago which access point. After hounding me for two days whilst trialling a new Nokia phone, the solution is this:

Go to MENU --> TOOLS --> SETTINGS --> CONNECTION --> DESTINATIONS. Go to Options (left selection key) DEFAULT CONNECTION -->  Choose whatever access point you want programs to use by defauly. When you run Google Maps for Mobile after this, it should load the map without problems. 

This solved one of those bugs that you can't just let go until its fixed. Anyone else spent days on this problem? :)

Australian Nokia E63 FREE on $29 cap

If you have come to the conclusion that the best phone for you is a Nokia E series, and you can do without the GPS, the best alternative out there for Australian users is the Nokia E63. Recently it has suffered a price plunge and is now being offered for free on the $29 cap with $150 worth of non-three calls, and $160 of calls to three customers.

Three is also offering Nokia E71 for FREE on the $49 cap, dropping the $10/month handset fee today but if you want 1GB data a month free, get the $69 cap or just add $8 to your $49 cap to get 100mb /month which is sufficient for Google Maps and Gmail use.

As reported in PerthHacks, you can get paid $64 for signing up as well. Find out more here.

If I've saved you $64, maybe you can shout me a coffee by clicking on the donate button, thanks :)

How to STOP the Message Icon Flashing

If you are switching from your E65 to a newer Nokia phone, there is a chance that the message icon will be flashing when you turn on your new phone with your old SIM card in it. 

So how do you stop it flashing? 

In some new Nokia phones, you will discover some long lost SMS messages that were stored in your SIM card many eons ago. Go to your Messages, then Options, then SIM Messages. Open that up and you can copy the messages to My Folder or your inbox. Once you have done this, select MARK ALL and then press c or delete. This will stop the message icon flashing. 

Then you can go to your Inbox or whatever folder you saved the SIM messages in and get your nostalgic fix looking at messages received a long time ago.