E71 Tip: Ever Need To Call 1-800-WHATEVER? Here's How

I've seen so many people complain that this feature isn't on the E71, but indeed it is. You just gotta read the instruction manual, or follow this blog.



Say you need to dial 1-800-Flowers in case you got yourself into some girlfriend/wifey trouble.

Dial 1800 like normal, then tap the Function button to put it in text mode, let go, and hold down the SHIFT button while typing out FLOWERS. Make sure it's in ALL CAPS or this won't work.

Push the green call button. DONE!

And don't forget a few other tips...

- Holding down * Turns on/off bluetooth.
- Stop unknown data connection: Hold Down Red End Key
- Quick Access to input methods, writing language, etc: Fn + Spacebar
- Launch browser from homescreen: Hold down "0" Zero key.

I know there are a million more shortcuts to remember. This article can serve as a refresher. What are some of your commonly used shortcuts on your Nokia E71?

By the way, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. It's Turkey Day here in the States! Time for a feast.

Update E71 Firmware Safely With These Tips - And How's The New Firmware?

Is this your first time updating Nokia firmware? I know many readers here at the blog are first time S60 users - the E71 being their first Nokia smartphone. Updating to the latest firmware can be a little tricky, but the fellas at E71 Blog have posted a handy guide, showing you steps everyone should take before upgrading to the newest E71 firmware. This will ensure that you don't lose data - because if you didn't know a firmware update will wipe out your entire phone memory.

The methods he shows are using the tools within the device to backup your memory. You can also use Nokia PC Suite with the backup tools, which is the method I prefer.

Click here to check out the article.

Either method you choose - DON'T FORGET TO BACKUP YOUR DATA.

How Is The New Firmware?

If you've been following my last article about the latest E71 firmware you'll see hundreds of comments, with the most recent showing that almost all regions are finally seeing the update.

But still nothing here in North America - for me at least.

For all those who have updated... How is it? Are you satisfied? Is the purple haze now gone from the pictures? Any new problems with the firmware? What are your thoughts?

App Update: Automatic SyncML "Swim" Updated - Crucial Scheduling Bug Fixed

Hi all! Last week I showed all of you a wonderful yet simple new application called Swim that allows you to sync your E71 device to your SyncML setup automacally in the background - without you having to do anything. This means if you have Ovi Calendar, GooSync, ScheduleWorld, Zyb, etc. working on your S60 phone you no longer have to manually sync.

The developer has just released an updated version of Swim, fixing a huge bug that caused the sync to happen every 30 minutes, no matter what intervals you chose. You can specify it to sync every 15 minutes, hour, 4 hours, 12 hours, and Daily.

Best of all - it's free, although donations are encouraged.

Click here to visit the Swim download page where you can get further downloading instructions.

E71 Theme: Red & Blue Wave By Babi, And An Email Icon Tip

Here is a great looking theme I've been using on my Nokia E71 lately. This one comes in red and blue, I've been using the blue. Props to Babi for making such a clean looking theme.



You'll notice in that screenshot the custom icons which I love. However, nobody has seemed to figure out the email icons that show up on the E71 homescreen. Instead of mail icons, the calendar icon is shown on my E71. I absolutely hate that, so I've decided to use this theme with the default icon set of the E71.

Check out the screenshot of below of my E71 homescreen.



My email icons show up as email icons instead of the calendar icon. Sucks that we have to give up the great custom icons by some of these theme makers.

Every theme you download comes with two .sis files. The one that includes something like "def" or "defualt" in the filename will be the one that uses the default icons. Choose that one if you're looking for my setup.

Click here to download this E71 theme.

New E71 Firmware v.110.07.127 Available For The Masses (Not Including North America)

New firmware for the Nokia E71 is finally available for everyone except North American owners. This is horrible news for myself and other E71-2 users. Nokia has done this before with the N95 versions as well. It took months for the NAM users to see an update.

Instead of ranting about why this is, I'll just show you the changelog for the new E71 version 110.07.127 firmware, thanks to Candyman from Howard Forums...

Nokia E71 SW releases 110.07.127

This SW release contains
the following new features:
Gimlet 9.2.1.381 (Nokia Email Service version) in user disk; gimlet is visible only in countries where service available, otherwise hidden.
Improved Email Set-up Wizard to check availability of Nokia email service
This is visible only in countries where service available, otherwise hidden.
Mail for Exchange 2.5.5
Maps 2.0 release from wk 30
VoIP baseline from wk 31
Switch4 from wk 32
Startup settings from wk 31
Catalogs 3.1.50 from wk 32
Y drive for WMDRM protection files

Changes/improvements made to
MCU SW version 110.07.127:
Email set-up improvements
Maps 2.0 improvements
Music library refresh function performance improvement
Browser improvements
Bluetooth improvements
Camera improvements

Corrected Items from
MCU SW version 100.07.76
Email for Exchange – Synching improvements
DUT does not connect to BT stereo headset (SEM HBH -DS970) and car kit (SM HCB-120)
Y-drive visible with PC Suite
EAP-FAST authentication improvements
Unable to start maps when memory card is full
Camera - Picture cannot be taken correctly after zooming in max

Nokia has also mentioned this tidbit about the new firmware...

This software release includes a new versions of Mail For Exchange and Nokia Maps. The release also includes a number of performance improvements including camera viewfinder orientation, Mail for Exchange synchronisation and browsing. Please note that if you have encrypted your device or memory card, decrypt it before the software update to avoid possible data loss.

Me being a North American E71 owner can't see this update or try out this new firmware. I'm just going to have to wait it out with all other E71-2 owners.

For everyone else in the world, congrats and be sure to leave us comments with your thoughts on the latest firmware 110.07.127. Sounds like nothing groundbreaking has been added, mostly bug fixes and improvements. Let us know if you find any other goodies not mentioned here.

Nokia Email Service Down Saturday For Upgrades, Including Gmail Love

Just letting you all know that the Nokia Email Service will be down this Saturday. It's not Saturday yet here in my location but I just noticed the service is already down. They experienced a huge number of usage after their last upgrade to the application and realized that they need to be on better and larger servers. So for now your going to have to make due with the built in email application for your needs, or use the Gmail application that I showed you last week.

Here's what Davis Fields from the Nokia Email team had to say...

Hello,

It’s Davis Fields from the Nokia Email service team. Wanted to give you a brief update on a few items, and to thank you for your continued feedback as we continue to work on the next update that you’ll see before the end of the year. A few notes:

• Due to the popularity of the service as well as the increased traffic that’s come as a result of multiple mailbox support, we’re going to be upgrading to a higher bandwidth server cluster. There’s a chance your ISP might take a little while to recognize the DNS changes, in which case you would see an outage of email.nokia.com and email delivery on your device. The occurs at 1:00 am GMT on November 8th, so most will never notice this outage, but wanted to keep you posted.
• I’m pleased to say there’s going to be a lot of added functionality for our Gmail users in the next release, including support for Google Apps hosted domains (as well as other similar personalized domain email solutions). Please continue to submit your email settings if our auto-detection system isn’t correctly working at this link.
• A few other bugs we’ve fixed in between big releases – we’ve resolved an issue some users encountered where Nokia Email asks for your password randomly. There’s a bug where your email stops syncing when you receive a very large attachment that we’re currently looking into, if you delete the offending email from your webmail, it should begin syncing normally again, but we’re obviously working to fix this for future releases.

Keep the feedback coming!

Davis Fields

Source: Nokia Beta Labs

Have a great weekend everybody!

E71 & Ovi Calendar: Sync Automatically With Swim - Includes All SyncML Setups

I've fallen in love with Ovi Calendar Sync and how pefectly my entries stay in sync with my E71. But a huge downfall WAS that you had to manually sync them, instead of schedule or automatic sync.

Thanks to this article I read this morning over at Series60.ca by oddsocks, I have downloaded a new application called Swim that allows you to schedule automatic sync times of Ovi Calendar and all other SyncML calendars you have setup on your E71, such as Zyb or Mobical or ScheduleWorld.

You can have it sync every 15 minutes, hour, four hours, 12 hours, daily, or weekly. I know longer have to worry about adding an entry on the computer and then forgetting to sync via my phone. It's now done automatically.

I have mine set for every four hours since usually don't update my calendar more often than that. This also syncs your Notes and Contacts if you have that enabled in the sync settings. Too bad Ovi Sync doesn't yet support Active Notes.

If you haven't tried Ovi Sync yet then you might want to read this article I wrote a month ago, outlining all my likes and dislikes. The only dislike I had is now fixed!

Download Page: http://code.google.com/p/bergamot/

This application is unsigned and can easily be signed at www.symbiansigned.com. Just look for the "Open Signed" link and follow the very simple instructions. Took me about five minutes.

How do all of you sync your calendars with the Nokia E71. Has Ovi provided a decent enough setup, or do you prefer another method? Hope this application can help you out.