My E71 Battery Life Has Been Stellar. Do You Have Similar Results?

Keep in mind this post is coming from a very happy Nokia N82 user. I love everything about my N82, except for the battery life. My E71 is my work phone, what I use when I know I have a long and busy day ahead of me with the need for constant email and browsing. Of course I still get the please of listening to music on it and killing time with my favorite java games.



But I've never completely relied, or for better words trusted my E71 battery. Mainly because I've had many bad experiences with the N82's battery life. I can't go more than 1 solid work day if I have my email set to "always on" and play hours of music with the N82. Therefore I've always been skeptical about the E71 and make sure to charge it every night.

I recently broke one charger and lost the other. I'm relying on my brother to let me use his charger every few days (who doesn't live with me) until my replacement comes in. This unfortunate experience has actually been a huge eye opener for me as far as battery life goes on my E71.

My Usage
Since yesterday morning I've been pushing the battery hard without a charger. I had push email on for 12 hours. The Seven email application getting my exchange email for work and Nokia Messaging pushing my personal/blog emails in real time. Overall I probably received about 30 emails and sent/replied about 15. In between although I had about an hour worth of calling, 50 sent/received text messages, about 1 hour worth of browsing, 40 minutes of music playback, and 45 minutes of using Google Maps while sitting in traffic. Keep in mind I have 3g turned off unless I'm doing consistent web browsing, this makes a huge impact on battery life. My brightness is turned all the way up.

To my surprise this morning I've only lost two bars. I have more than half a battery left and I plan on pushing the battery life even harder today. If I get below 3 bars tonight I'll probably have to borrow my brother's charger again, and if I have more than 3 I'm going to push it one more day and see how far I get.

Keep Pushing?
Needles to say I'm extremely happy with these results. Today, and perhaps tomorrow will be the true test. My friend who owns a Blackberry Pearl is astonished at the battery life I'm getting, and is so jealous of my sleek E71. It especially ticks him off because I'm getting emails to my work AND personal accounts faster than he did on his Blackberry, and my internet plan is only $14.99/month as apposed to his expensive BB Connect plan he has with AT&T.

One more thing to note is I recently let my dad try out the E71. He doesn't use any data, just wanted to see how it would work out as his "simple phone". The battery lasted him almost six days. He also was in shock at the battery life, as his Samsung Sync doesn't last him more than 2 days.

Similar Results, Or Not So Good?
Obviously this isn't one of those "how to save battery life tips" articles, instead this is about finding the limits of your device.

Are you happy with your battery life? Do you push the limits and don't hold back?

Google Maps Street View For Nokia E71 - A Must Have

The much anticipated update to the Google Maps S60 application has been available for a few weeks now. Street View is officially a reality for the Nokia E71, making Google Maps one of the most desirable applications available.

Most major streets have been photographed at street level and available for viewing on the PC Google Maps website. Check out how the Seal Beach Pier looks on my E71, one of my favorite places to go just miles from my house...



Some other features have been added to this application, according to Google:

Besides Street View, the new version of Google Maps for mobile also has a bunch of other new features: request walking directions (in addition to driving and public transit) to get anywhere on foot, receive transit alerts from participating public transportation authorities, and see what other people think of a place by reading reviews directly on your phone. We've also overhauled the entire user interface to make the app more responsive and easier to use.

Check out this video demo that Google made...



Go to google.com/gmm on your E71 to download Google Maps.

E71 Themes: Steel Black Spectrum, Some Of The Best I've Seen

Hello everyone! Hope you're all having a good weekend. Between all the holiday shopping, holiday parties, my birthday partying, and work - I've found little time to blog. But now that I have the shopping done, and most of the parties done, I can focus on writing again. To kick things off I'll share with you my favorite set of themes that I've recently discovered.

Theme maker AttisX has nailed it on the head with his latest theme pack called Steel Black. The whole pack is called Steel Black Spectrum, and is a rather large file as it includes many color variants, depending on what you want. My favorites is the red variation, although the blue looks great on my E71 as well.

Check out the screenshot below...



And below is how it looks on my E71. Keep in mind I'm using the default icons version, I don't think the custom version has enough icons...







Another thing to keep in mind is that my phone DOES NOT have the latest firmware. I've heard from all of you that dark themes do not look right in the Contacts menu, making it unreadable with the latest firmware. I haven't verified this is the case with this theme, maybe one of you can.

Link: http://axthemes.extra.hu/new.html

The Steel Black Spectrum link is the one that includes all the colors, or you can just download the Steel Black original which is just the red, like the one I use.

Enjoy! Let me know if you like them, and stay tuned for a S60 holiday theme post.

Nokia Email - Out Of Beta, Lots Of New Features & Enhancements


If your a fan of Nokia Email and Gmail then you should be happy to hear that the latest release, no longer a beta release, is optimized for slightly Google and now includes Yahoo Mail. I'm extremely happy to hear about some of the latest features, but really bummed to hear that a few still missing. Keep reading for the details...

New Features:
  • Support for Yahoo! Mail
  • Support for more Nokia S60 phones
  • Support for up to ten email addresses
  • Support for subfolders for IMAP email accounts
  • Support for Google Apps hosted email and other vanity domain email addresses
  • Flagged messages will automatically become starred messages in Gmail
  • More intuitive inbox navigation via a discoverable control bar
  • Faster opening of inbox
  • Sent email will be synced to your webmail’s sent folder for all email addresses
Improvements For Gmail

I have to say that I'm loving this new version so far, tested with my Gmail. It's a lot better with battery life, and the application runs a little faster. The server is definitely pulling my mail faster and keep the mail in sync much better. Gmail Labels are shown as folders, which are also synced perfectly with Gmail. Emails in can be moved to folders, and will reflect your actual Gmail account. To enable imap folders, you must do this from your account settings at email.nokia.com. Also, you can flag a message and it will add a star in Gmail, and stars with show with flags. Not to mention a slick Gmail logo is added to your inbox. I don't have any screenshots as of right now, so your just gonna have to try it out yourself.

Downfalls?

Html support is still missing, although Davis Fields from the development team assures us that it's almost ready:
I want to acknowledge specifically the omission of HTML in this release – we have spent plenty of time figuring out the best way to implement HTML and we are close to delivering it, but not in this release. It’s an important feature to us.
I have faith that this feature will be coming soon. What else? I'm hoping that support for exchange email will come, and even calendar sync. If we can get this puppy to sync our Google/Outlook calendars that would be a huge win.

Live In India or Southeast Asia? Become A S60 Ambassador & Join The Nokia Messaging Campaign

If you've followed my blog for a few months you already know that I work for Nokia on the S60 Ambassador Team. Right now there is a campaign going on to promote Nokia Messaging, and it's exclusive for India and Southeast Asia. Become an ambassador and join the campaign.

What does the S60 Ambassador Program entail?
You already talk about your E71right? I love showing mine off. Just remember these discussions and submit a report about it. The more reports you submit the more points you get. Myself and Stefan read all the reports you write and give out the points. At the end of each campaign there are prizes given out. If you win "Report Of The Week", you get a loaner E71 for 2 months to allow another family member or friend use. If you're in the top 10% at the end of the campaign you get a stereo headset. Not bad right? Go to http://ambassadors.s60.com and join!

Have you tried out Nokia Email, I mean Nokia MESSAGING! The latest version is definitely worth a try. If you have any questions or need help setting this up, be free to leave a comment below.

Download: http://email.nokia.com

What Is The True Cost Of Using A-GPS On Your Nokia E71?

If you remember about a month ago I gave a tip for getting a better and faster GPS lock on your Nokia E71. The trick was to simply ensure that Assisted GPS (A-GPS) was enabled in the settings. Basically this uses the data connection to connect to the nearest cell towers and help to quickly gather information about your approximate location, hence the term assisted. But many of you had concerns about data costs on your carrier and your country. For most in North America we are lucky enough to have decent data rates, for instance I pay $15usd a month for unlimited data and 200 sms messages. But others aren't so fortunate.

Does the cost of using A-GPS outweigh the benefits? It all depends on the numbers right? See an explanation below...

Edwin, a reader here at E71 Fanatics, graciously emailed me some screenshots and information he gathered to share with all of you about this topic.

Here is how the test worked out:

1. Reset the Packet Data log to zero.
2. Turned off AGPS on the phone.
3. Tested the satellite signals - very low. Took almost 20 - 25sec to lock on in open skys, a couple of minutes if in my car.
4. Turned on AGPS - signal strength became optimal.
5. Checked the Packet Data log - sent 1.15kb and received 4.18kb for the use.
6. Tried several times, the data remained the same whilst in the same cell.
7. If based on the data rate of the Telco I am using at MYR 0.05ct per Kb (peak), it's about 5c per pop. Probably more if you are roaming as you navigate. (the last is unconfirmed).

Screenshots:







Over at his blog, Edwin conludes...

I also checked that whilst in the same phone cell, no matter how many times, you use it, there is not additional data usage only onces. So I believe, if you had AGPS turned on whilst navigating, each time, you travelled from one cell to another and there is a need to lock on to a new cell, there would be a data exchange like the one seen above so, it can get quite expensive at 0.05 cts a pop (peak).

Click here to read his full article where you can get a lot more detail and even ask questions if need be. Thanks again Edwin for the information!

Is using A-GPS worth it for you? Have you done similar tests with similar results?

Nokia Surprises The World - Announces First Nseries Qwerty Device - Nokia N97


Nokia made waves early this morning by announcing their top secret flagship device, the Nokia N97. This marks the first time a Nseries device will have a full Qwerty keypad, the first Nseries with S60 touch 5th edition, and the largest internal memory on a device - ever! I'm not sure sure about the "ever" part, but I know for sure that with an expandable microSDHC slot that can hold up to 32gb, this Nokia powerhouse will be able to handle a whopping 64gb memory, that's more than my computer's hard driver. Props to Nokia for creating a truly state of the art device. Check out some pictures and video that I've gathered...











This also marks one of the rare times when Nokia announces a device before and rumors or pictures are leaked on the internet. Even people within the company didn't know about the amazing specs. And boy has the hype really exploded about the Nokia N97. Andrew from Dial-a-Phone had this to say about the upcoming Nseries touchscreen...

No one expected the 5800 Tube to be the only touchscreen handset Nokia released, but we did expect to wait a while longer before their high-range effort was revealed!Take a good look at the pictures, see the OS in all its glory in the video and start counting down the days until release, which is said to be the middle of 2009, as you’re looking at the mobile phone event of the coming year.

So what are the specs of the Nokia N97? Keep reading and be amazed...

  • S60 Touch 9.5 OS
  • 3.5″ nHD Screen (640×360)
  • Haptic Feedback
  • Slideout QWERTY (!)
  • Dimensions - 117.2 x 55.3 x 15.9
  • Weight 150g
  • 5MP Camera with Dual Led Flash - with sliding lens cover
  • 32 GB Onboard Memory with microSD slot = 48GB currently.
  • N-Gage Touch
  • 1500mah Battery
  • COMPASS
  • Customizable Home Screen with Widgets (RSS, Weather, Facebook, Ovi)
  • 400 hours of standby time
  • 320-400 (3G/GSM) hours of talk time
  • 4.5 hours of video playback and over 37 hours of audio playback
  • The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.
  • AGPS
  • HSDPA
  • WIFI
  • 3.5mm Jack
  • TV-out
  • No stylus built into the phone, but one will be included in the box.


Not only that, but Rita from Symbian-Guru.com has mentioned something new. The standby screen is now fully customizable...
"It has support for customized widgets on the standby screen. The operator, date and profile seem to be standard, but you can add to them application shortcuts, an Ovi widget, weather, email, calendar, RSS feeds, a quick 4-contact link like the Contact Bar on the 5800 XpressMusic, a Friendster, Facebook, MySpace widgets, with any 5 of these available at the same time. You can move these around, remove the ones you don’t want, create your own widgets."

I personally am extremely excited about this device. Where does this leave the E-Series? That's a great question, as previously the E-series offered the full Qwerty and email features on the homescreen that the Nseries could not. This has all changed with the Nokia N97. Surely Nokia has something up their sleeve for the E-series, we shall see.

What are your thoughts on the new N97?

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