E71 Firmware Update Buzz - Anybody Here Updated Yet?

I've been getting lots of emails and seeing lots of buzz about the latest firmware update for the Nokia E71. I personally don't have this update available to me and I know alot of you guys don't either, but I'm wondering if there are any readers here that did get the update. Apparently there really isn't anything BIG in the upcoming firmware, but I really can't speculate since I haven't experienced it and don't know anybody that has. I'm sure it will be mostly bug fixes. In case you missed it, I posted an article over a month ago highlighting some of the things that need fixing - we'll see if we get any of those.

Thoughts?

E71 & GPS Tip: Enable Assisted GPS To Get A Faster Lock

I got a email the other day from reader Nick showing me a tip to get a faster GPS lock on my E71. I personally already had this setting enabled, but he mentioned to me that his Nokia E71 came shipped without the A-GPS setting enabled. I think it may depend on if you bought your phone from a carrier or unlocked - regardless it's worth it to check your device.

Here are the steps to enable A-GPS on the E71...

Tools > Settings > General > Positioning > Positioning Server > Your Access Point.

Also, be sure to make sure Assisted GPS is checked under "Positioning Methods".

Keep in mind this will use some internet data when search for a GPS satellite so make sure you have a data plan with your carrier.

Nick mentioned to me that before he changed these settings it took his E71 sometimes 20 minutes to lock onto a satellite. Now it takes him 5-60 seconds. He is using Vodafone UK for his carrier.

Personally here in the USA on the AT&T network I am able to lock onto a satellite using A-GPS in 5-10 seconds, and like I said my phone came shipped with this already enabled.

Hopefully this solves your problem if your having GPS problems with your E71. Thanks again to Nick for the email tip.

Gmail Application Updated To v2.0 - Multiple Accounts On Your E71



I'm just giving all the Gmail lovers a heads up that the J2ME E71 application has been updated to version 2.0 with some significant improvements. Multiple accounts is now supported which is a huge plus, and also being able to work offline is possible. This Gmail application I think should be considered a "must-have" application for all Gmail/E71 users.


Check out some of the updates below...

- Overall performance improvement: You should experience significant raw speed improvement, smoother scrolling, and no freezing.

- Multiple accounts management: If you have both a Gmail and Google Apps email account, you can easily switch between them quickly. You will no longer have to use two different mobile apps to access personal and work emails.

- Multiple mobile email drafts: You can save multiple email drafts in your mobile phone, so that you can pick and choose what you would like to send later.

- Powerful shortcut keys: If you have a QWERTY phone, you can use shortcut keys. Hit 'z' to undo, 'k' to go to a newer conversation, and 'j' to go to an older conversation. See Menu/Help in the app for more shortcuts.

- Basic offline support: Can't get a signal? Not a problem. You can compose and read your most recent emails even when there is no signal. Also, any outgoing messages will be saved in the outbox on your phone and sent automatically when you're back in coverage.

A Gmail engineer says,

Our focus for this version was to make the experience faster and more reliable. We rearchitected the entire client to push all the processing to the background, greatly improve the client-side caching scheme and optimize every bottleneck piece of code we came across.

Check out a video released by Google of the application working on the Blackberry, keep in mind it works exactly the same on the Nokia E71...



Personally, I don't use this for my Gmail needs. I use the Nokia Email (beta) Service, but I keep this Gmail application on my E71 all the time just in case I need to do a deep search for an email or get a certain contact that I don't have on my E71. Not to mention you can view labels and star emails. This application is also great for those who don't need true push email on their phone but want to be able to have access to your Gmail account(s).

Go to m.google.com/mail on your mobile browser to download the new Gmail for mobile for your phone. If you already have Gmail installed be sure to remove the version you have before installing this new version?

Do you use this mobile Gmail application, or simply rely on another solution to retrieve your Google Mail.

Uhh Ohhh, Blackberry Storm To Rival Nokia E71?

You may say I live under a rock, but this is my first time hearing about the Blackberry Storm. I first got wind when I was browsing the net, looking for the best E71 rivals. Low and behold I came across this article about the new Blackberry touchscreen hero.

Here's what Warren from dialaphone had to say about it,
The Storm has only furthered the more creative approach taken by Blackberry by delving into the currently very competitive touchscreen market in which manufacturers are all vying for the crown of iPhone killer.

iPhone killer? What about E71 killer? I think not. Not everyone wants touchscreen. Most E71 users have the E71 because they love having real buttons. I personally think a combination of real buttons and a touchscreen would be great, but neither the Storm nor the E71 gives us this functionality.

Lets see some of the specs of the new Blackberry Storm...

3.25" Touchscreen (480 x 360)
Accelorometer
Visual Qwerty keyboard
3.2 Megapixel Camera
Integrated GPS with A-GPS functionality
1GB Onboard memory with MicroSD support
624 MHz Processor
3G
EDGE
Built in Handsfree
Bluetooth
3.5mm Stereo Headphone Jack
Mini-Usb connectivity

Wow! The specs are not too bad.

Another interesting feature is the ease of Social Networking on the Storm. According to this article at Phones 4 U, Facebook and Myspace access will be a breeze...

If you’re a Facebook or MySpace addict and love to update them during the day but don’t always have access to a computer, then the Storm will make your life much simpler! Direct access to your accounts means it’s easy to change your status or add a blog post all from your mobile phone, wherever you are.

You can do all that on the E71 right? Well I'm not sure about myspace, but I know a few 3rd party S60 applications such as Fring and Shozu allow you to update/manage various aspects of your Facebook. But do E71 owners really care about these type of social networking sites? I'm sure some do, but not the majority.

As of right now, to my understanding, this phone will only be available in the USA from Verizon Wireless. I'm not sure about the rest of the world. Someone correct me if I'm wrong.

I'm not sure about the pricing either. With the price of the unlocked E71 dropping fast, would it be worth it to spend almost as much for the Storm AND have to be locked into a 2 year contract with Verizon? Right now you can get the E71 for under $400, if you look hard enough.

What are your thoughts on this? Would you give up real buttons for touchscreen? Would you give up the 3rd party apps and power of S60 and pickup a Blackberry?

E71 Music Application "Mobbler" Gets Updated - Stream Last.fm To Your Phone

If you haven't heard of Last.fm and you love music, then your probably living under a rock. Last.fm is a social music website that allows you to specify your favorite type of music then it streams those artists and similar artist to your customized radio stations. Sometimes you'll get crappy songs and you can ban them and other times you'll find new music you love and "love" them. Using a free application called Mobbler you can stream your Last.fm stations to your E71 for when your sick of your mp3's on the memory card. Here's how the developers describe Mobbler...

Mobbler, Mobile Scrobbler, is a last.fm radio player and scrobbler for Nokia S60 3rd edition smartphones. It allows you to listen to your last.fm radio stations and to scrobble tracks played using the Nokia S60 Music Player. Music player scrobbling can be done both whilst you listen, or queued offline to be submitted later.

I showed all of you this application last month, but thanks to a tip from a reader here at the blog I discovered today that Mobbler has been updated...

0.3.0 - New graphics, bug fixes, and check for updates feature

* The graphics in Mobbler have been updated with help from several Mobbler users (Still needs a Mobbler specific logo and the positions for landscape displays are not finalised)
* Some bugs fixed that were in 0.2.4 like having to enter your username in lowercase, and crashing when there was an error trying to connect
* A check for updates feature has been which will download the latest version of Mobbler through your browser if it is newer than the currently installed version
* Changed so that there is an offline and online mode instead of connecting and disconnecting. This is so Mobbler can remember that you were in online code and try to automatically connect the next time it is started. (Need to allow the user to select a default access point to get this working properly though)

I took some screenshot of Mobbler on my E71 (I'm sure someone will ask me "what theme is that"). Check them out below:

When the song is playing....



Start a new station...



How to start the station...



Ban tracks that you don't like...



Specify the ones you love...



If you've never used Last.fm before than you'll have to go there and create an account to start listening. And like always, make sure you have a data plan with your carrier.

Click here to visit the Mobbler website, or click here to download the latest application directly.

Have any of you tried this out yet? What are your thoughts on the latest version of this great music application?

Files On Ovi - Every E71 Owner Would Love This Service


Ever since I started this blog I haven't had much access to a Windows computer. My hard drive crashed and I had to use Linux Ubuntu for almost half a year. All the PC applications that Nokia makes only work on Windows or Mac, no love for Linux. So I really haven't been able to try out some of the cool features like Files On Ovi.

What Is Files On Ovi?

Basically it allows you to access files on your computer directly on your Nokia E71 when your away from home (or work, if your company allows it). You have to install a "connector" on your computer, and as of right now it's only compatible with Windows. According to Nokia,

With Files, you use your mobile phone to view, download and send the photos, documents and files stored on your personal computer, anytime, anywhere. You can also use any other Internet-connected computer to access your computer's files.

Great thing is you can also use this to view your computers files from any other computer with a data connection, not just your E71.

Right now you can access your files for free if your computer is on and connected to the internet. But if you want to be able to access your files even if your computer is off or disconnected from the internet, you can sign up for a pay-based subscription and have 10gb's of storage. You can try that and get 60 days free.

The other day I tested this service while at work. I was missing a song I recently added to my computer and wanted to hear it on my E71. Remembering that I left my computer on at home, I was able to view my files. Check out the sceenshots below. You'll notice my new Windows computer is called "The Monstor", going along with my 22 inch monitor that I'm loving right now.



Music Files On My Computer


Download Entire Folders At A Time




I downloaded that entire folder and calculated the transfer time at around 22 minutes - not bad at all for 43.9 megabytes. I've decide this should be a "must have" tool on everyone's E71. I've already used it multiple times to pull off excel and word documents from my computer when out and about.

To login you must have a "Nokia Account", which is the same one you use to login to Ovi Calendar & Contacts. This is not the same account as your Share On Ovi account.

Do you live in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, or Australia? If so, you can join the Files On Ovi campaign for S60 Ambassadors. Talk about the service with your friends, family, co-workers, etc and just go back to your S60 account and write up a quick report of each interaction. The more reports you write the more points you get. If your in the Top 50 list for submitted reports you get prizes (bluetooth goodies). Click here to learn more information about the S60 Ambassador campaign for Files On Ovi.

Have you tried Files On Ovi yet?

Click here to get started.

Sports Scores On The E71 - Sometimes "Made For iPhone" Sites Just Work


Have you been looking for a good method of checking sports scores and stats on your Nokia E71? Some may say an application works much better than a website, but on rare occasions this simply isn't the case.

My favorite sports website to view on my S60 device is SportsTap.mobi. Not only is it clean and easy to read/navigate, it's also fast loading and quick thanks to ajax technology.

Check out some of the screenshots...

Here are some hockey scores for the night...



When you click on the game you get the details...



If the game hasn't started you get a preview...



Scroll to the bottom of the page and get more content...



This website can be great for those fantasy sports fanatics trying to get there stats from their E71. Other sports include NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, Futbol, Golf, & Tennis.


If you haven't already noticed, a good handful of "made for iPhone" mobile websites work on S60 phones because they are based on the same type of browser. Upon first going to this website you may notice some errors next to the sports images on the homepage. Once you get to the sport you want you won't see anymore errors at all. For instance, if you go directly to the NFL page, no errors - there only on the frontpage.

Using the "Mode Switcher" on the E71, this Sports Scores website is my right softkey when I get off work and on the weekends. I can easily access this website directly from my E71 standby screen, my left softkey still goes to my Google Reader bookmark.

Let me know if you guys (or gals) enjoy this week, and show us if you have a certain sports website that you enjoy checking on your E71.

E71 Tip: Extensions & Pins For Automated Phone Systems - Specify In Your Contacts

Do you have a contact that requires you to dial a specific pin number or extension every time you call the person? I have at least two or three, including my bank and my girlfriend's work number. Both are commonly used numbers. Now when I dial those numbers the pins and extensions are automatically created by my Nokia E71 using the methods I will show you below...

The screenshot to the right was created by the folks from S60.com, where I originally found this tip.

1. Type the phone number into your S60 device, then insert the letter p, p stands for pause, it will pause the dialing for one second. Need it to pause for three seconds? Simply insert three p's.

2. Next you'll insert the extension or pin ID along any hash marks are stars that are needed.

If needed...

3. (if more than one extension) Finally you'll insert the PIN number followed by the hash mark and push SEND.

4. The number you dialed will look like this: +3585012345678p12345#p6789# - It dials the number, pauses for one seconds, inserts the conference ID, pauses again, then inserts the PIN code.

Your number may be shorter or longer, depending on the automated system your trying to manipulate.

Give it a try and see if it works for you. Hopefully this makes dialing your business contacts much easier, and of course this can be saved in your E71's address book.

Obsessed With Google? Get The Gmail Colors Theme On Your E71

I personally am a huge fan of Gmail. Just about all my email - both work and play is routed to one Gmail address. I am a bit obsessed with Gmail, but not enough to make the colors of my E71 look like my Gmail account. But maybe some of you are.

Gabb has recently created a theme for the Nokia E71 to replicate the Gmail Mobile application available for your phone.

Check out the screenshot...



Click here to download this and other free E71 themes by Gabb.

Stay tuned this week for a few new applications and themes on display here at the blog. It's been a little slow here as I've had a busy weekend and battled a nasty case of food poisoning. I should be getting back on track this week.

Calling All North American E71 Owners: S60 Ambassadors "Maps 2.0 Campaign" Live - Help Spread the Word

Have you heard of S60 Ambassadors? I've touched on it a few times here at the blog, most recently concerning my new job with the S60 Ambassador Marketing Team. A new campaign has been launched for all North American S60 Ambassadors to spread the word in the real world about Nokia Maps 2.0.

You know that "iPhone" buddy you have? Go show him/her what your Maps program can do that theirs can't. Show them that you can use maps without an outrageous data plan, or any data plan for that matter. Or maybe you have friends/family/coworkers that are new to the smartphone world, or don't understand why you would need GPS & navigation on a phone. Just talk to them about the benefits and then come back to the S60 site and report your stories.

Besides bragging, what are some of the benefits?

"Each Ambassador will get a voucher to try our voice navigation service for 3 months. At the end of the 3 months the 25 most engaged and active Ambassadors will earn rewards. As usual, we'll assign a 2 month loaner phone each week (the E71) to the Ambassador who writes the "Report of the Week."

Not a bad deal right?

To learn more, check out this article.

Anyone can become a S60 Ambassador. Click here to sign up!

Leave a comment below if your already an Ambassador for S60. I'm curious to see how many of you are already on board.

New Nokia Email (beta) Version Coming Tomorrow, Oct. 10 - With Lots Of Updates

This is by far the best news I've heard all day. Gwapz from Mobile World Innovation has informed us that Beta Labs will have a update to the new Nokia Email application. I told you about this new service a few weeks ago, and how impressed I am by it.

Here is a quote taken from the article,

"Beta 3 brings with it wider support for devices, more localization options, better mailbox management and now true synchronization so that everything stays the way it should be! No more randomly re-appearing emails you’re sure you deleted. Another major feature is the addition of support for multiple email addresses so alternate personal emails, or the address you use for newsletters etc can live side by side on your device. The beta stage of trialling Nokia Email Service is totally free for anyone who wants to use it and anyone using the software will be emailed when this period comes to an end."

Alot of those updates are what people here and around the community have been hoping for.

Why try something still in beta?

Well, obviously it's a good way to tell Nokia what you do/don't like about their upcoming applications and services. And believe me I know first hand that they listen and make changes based on your feeback. So don't hold back. There are many ways to communication with them. You can fill out the feedback forms or leave comments on the articles at Nokia Beta Labs.

Check out email.nokia.com tomorrow, October 10th for the beta release number 3 of Nokia Email. I really am starting to think Nokia is hitting the nail on the head with this new email solution for the E71.

Also, be sure to check nokia.com/betalabs where you can read articles about the application and leave comments.

Are any of you excited as I am? Be sure to check out Mobile World Innovation as leave them a comment.

E71 Connection Error When Trying To Make Calls. Any Solutions?

Do you ever try to make a call and it doesn't go through? You get an annoying beep and a "connection error". It mostly happens when I first start up my phone. Sometimes I realize that it's been like that for awhile because I don't get any calls or texts, even though I was expecting one. Then I'd reset the phone and be bombarded with messages. The person would say it went straight to voicemail. This has been so darn frustrating, I'm not sure if I'm the only one. I use the AT&T network in California.

A better solution than restarting your phone is to simply put it in the "offline" profile, which will completely cut off the network, then turn it back to another profile and allow the phone to connect to the network towers again. After that it works fine. Don't know why it does this or what's causing this, but I've have this problem on the N73, N82, N95, and E71. It must be a Nokia thing.

I'm not sure if there is another workaround, if there is let me know. But so far that works for me.

Have you ever had this problem?

Deal Alert: Nokia E71 WHITE North American Edition $421


Hi everone. I've rarely posted about the E71 white edition here at the blog, I'm not even sure how long the white E71 NAM version has been available. But I was searching on Amazon.com today and noticed their selling it for $421 dollars. Not a bad deal considering it comes with the 1 year warranty and the security of hassle free returns from Amazon.



Click here to see this deal.

Don't forget to upgrade your E71 memory to 8gb. Right now you can get the SanDisk 8gb microSD & card reader for about $38. I highly recommend getting the card reader - the file transfers are like 10 times faster than just using the usb cord with the E71.

Do any of you already have the E71 white version? How do you like it so far?

Update: E71 Mail For Exchange Version 2.7 Now Available

Thanks to a tip from a reader "Abhinav" here I've learned that Mail for Exchange has been updated to version 2.7.

Rafe from AllAboutSymbian.com has reported a few updates that come with the new version.

Rafe says,
Updates include support for Exchange Server 2007 Autodiscover (enter your email address and server settings are automatically provisioned), updated mapping of data fields in Contacts and a number of bug fixes. As was recently announced the new version can also now be installed on any Nokia S60 3rd Edition phone.


The Exchange Server 2007 Autodiscover functionality must be enabled and configured by your system administrator. If you are upgrading from an earlier version of Mail for Exchange you will need to perform a full resync in order to take advantage of the new Contact field mapping (middle name, car phone, department, spouse and anniversary).

Click here to get the latest version of Mail For Exchange on your Nokia E71.

Do you use Mail For Exchange for your corporate email?

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