Theme: Blue Ray Has Complete Custom Folder Icons For E71

I just came across this really great looking theme by S60 theme artist Blue Ray. This one is called Glow Wave and has some very unique colors. More importantly, this is one of the most complete custom folder icons packs I've seen for newer Eseries phones like the E71 and E66.

Check out how the menu folders looks on my E71...



Complete!

In the Connectivity folder all the icons are custom. In the Office folder most are custom. Communication folder - all custom. Tools folder - almost all.

A few negatives though. Some 3rd party icons are not customized like Calcium, Conversation, Internet Radio, Nokia Email, Mobbler, Gmail, JoikuSpot, Seven, Swim, Shozu. I can live with that.

One thing that still bugs me about every single custom theme I've seen is nobody seems to be able to customize the icons on the homescreen for Nokia Messaging latest emails. They show up with the calendar entry icon.

Example...



Those first three lines are emails, not calendar entries.

Regardless, this is still a great looking theme, and he has some other really nice ones.

Check out Blue Ray's preview of this S60 theme...



Click here to visit the download page and check out more of his themes.

E71 Fanatics Forum Is Live For Testing - Join Today

After getting a ton of "yay" votes to add a forum to this blog for all you E71 fanatics, it's finally here.

I'm launching the forum a little early to see if we are gonna have any kinks to work out as far as the server goes. Consider it in "testing" mode, although I think it will hold up just fine.

The forum software I chose is called bbpress, which is a new venture for me. I chose it because I wanted something clean, simple, and easy to configure. The sign up and posting process should be a breeze for everyone.

Right now we will have three forum sections...

General Help & Tips, S60 Application discussion, and S60 Themes discussion. If I see the need for other sections I'll add them, and feel free to chime in with your thoughts.

If you have any problems as far as the forum goes be sure to add them to my "Welcome" post I created. Keep in mind right now you can't add a signature, images, or get email subscriptions. All of those features are coming soon.

Link: http://forums.e71fanatics.com

E71 Firmware v200.21.118 Available For Some Euro Product Codes

Yet another firmware update is available for the Nokia E71, but right now only certain Euro product codes get it. I haven't even been able to get the last update for my North American E71-2. This means that my E71 is now two firmware updates behind. Instead of making this another firmware ranting post, I'm just gonna give you the details of this new firmware verson v200.21.118.

Gerrymoth over at nokiAAddict.com has brought us this outstanding news for European E71 owners. The changelog he has posted is quite extensive and looks to be worth going through the hassle. Sadly there is no User Data Preservation in this update, so everything in the phone will be wiped out. My N82 has User Data Preservation, everything is left perfectly intact during a firmware update which is great. Hopefully this feature comes to Eseries devices sometime soon, especially since these phones are more business oriented than the Nseries.

Check out the changelog below:

New functionalities in MCU SW version 200.21.118:

- Internet Radio application
- My Nokia application
- 3G power reduction for applications using keep-alive style messaging
- User experience improvements:
- Easy Dialing support for Simplified Chinese language
- Device Lock improvement: Open device lock with LSK + Fn-keys
- One key input method switch for China language
- ‘Mute’ option in Right Soft Key when wired headset / hands free is connected
- ‘Loudspeaker’ option in Right Soft Key immediately when phone call is started
- Enlarge characters in Chr-table
- NTLM v1 and v2 support for Intranet Browsing
- New black and red themes

Changes/improvements made to MCU SW version 200.21.118:

General
- Time zones updated
- Improvements to localization
- Localization fixes
- Missing localizations added
- Operator name database updated
- Startup Settings updated
- Certificates updated
- Security updates
- Stability and functionality improvements
- Barcode reader icon changed from 1D icon to 2D icon
- Windows DRM keys are not lost during NSU update from 110.07.127

Qwerty keyboard
- Stability and functionality improvements
- Keyboard mapping corrections

Browser
- Stability and functionality improvements
- Flash Lite improvements

Connectivity
- WLAN stability improvements
- EAP-FAST/TLS stability improved
- WLAN roaming functionality improved
- BT IOP and Dial-up stability improvements

Maps
- Several stability and functionality improvement

Messaging
- Stability and functionality improvements
- Performance improvement

Quickoffice
- Several stability and functionality improvements

VOIP / SIP
- Many stability and functionality improvements

Email
- Mail for Exchange upgraded from version 2.5.5 to 2.7.22
- Improved functionality when sending email via SSL/TLS SMTP server

Mobile dictionary
- Stability improvements
- Improvement for installed languages. Installed language can be removed.

Camera
- Camera image improvements & slow capture correction with certain HW’s
- Stability improvements

Music player
- General functionality and stability improvements

Java
- Update for CLDC-HI (Sun 1.1.1s Java VM)

Device encryption
- Device encryption functionality and stability improvements

Switch application
- Application updates and stability improvements

I've got confirmations from a few people that this is available for RM-346 EURO versions of the E71. Who knows how long it will take for this firmware to reach my E71-2, I still haven't got the old one.

Be sure to backup your data on the device before the update.

Let us know if you find it for your product code, and how good the changes are. I'm curious to know if the dark theme problem has been fixed in the Contacts application.

Props to nokiAAdict.com for all this info. Check out that site for great tips and tricks from an enthusiastic E71 owner.

This Site Needs A Forum - What Do Ya Say?

I've recieved a few requests to for me to create an official E71 Fanatics Forum.

It would be a place where you can all post and discuss things, with a lot more structure than the commenting system we use right now.

This would also be the new place for the E71 help section, since our current one is becoming too cluttered and busy for me to keep up. This E71 forum would allow all of you to help eachother out with various problems and questions regarding your Nokia smartphone.

Vote In The Poll In The Right Column!

If I get enough positive feedback, I'll get working on one asap.

Remember this will only work with your participation. And from the amount of comments this blog gets, I'm sure this won't be a problem.

Thoughts?

A Big "Ooops" In Recent Nokia Email Version, Access Point Fix Coming Soon

Ok Ok. I know many of you were livid when you found out the latest version of Nokia Email (now called Nokia Messaging) did not include a way for you to change your data access points. Personally this didn't affect me since always use the same one, but for those high with data rates need the option to select a WLAN connection.

E71 Fanatic "GriNinja" commented here the other day about an official statement made by the Nokia Messaging Team:

A few answers for the time being -
1. Access point selection is coming back in an upcoming patch. We made a big mistake on this (it wasn’t an arbitrary decision, we’re exploring better ways to switch between APNs as well). Apologies for any problems this may have caused. Here’s one workaround for the time being:
- during client setup (in the E-Mail setup program which runs after receiving the text message), set the connection as default. this will mean that the email client will take the system default connection.
- to swap to 3G data or other wifi connection: open the browser (or other application that needs to go OTA). if you have set data connection to “always ask”, the S60 will ask you what connection you would like to use…select (for example) 3G.
- close browser and connection.
- email client will now automatically connect to the last data connection.

This is encouraging news and it's great to see that they hear your voices. For now you can use the tips he gave until the issue gets resolved in the next update.

Here are a few other problems they are working on...

2. We’re going through and fixing issues with the “500: Failure - Unrecognized SSL message, plaintext connection?”. One of the changes we made in this release was to use your mail provider’s SMTP server to send out emails (so they always appear in your webmail sent email). That change caused problems for some users. We’re actively fixing them. We did a large patch on Friday that resolved most of these issues, but if you’re experiencing that problem, please send an email to support@nokiamessaging.com

3. If you’re getting connection error messages, try this: Log into email.nokia.com using your email address and password you signed up with, choose “edit settings” on either of your email addresses, change the password (just put back in your email password, don’t actually change it). Go back to the main page of the website and choose “install” and re-send the installation SMS to your phone.

We ARE reading your comments here, emails you send to nokiaemail [at] nokia.com, and blog and forum posts around the internet. Your feedback is valuable, and while any problems you’re experiencing with Nokia Messaging are understandably frustrating, we’re working to resolve them for you. The fixes that we make today will result in a much better final product as we continue to improve Nokia Messaging.

Where are these comments being posted? Over at the official S60 blog. Click here for the article where you can see the comments and updates by Davis Fields.

If you are having any other issues, it's best to go to that link and make your voice heard.

Check This Out! The E71 Getting Beaten And Abused - Yet Still Standing!

Warning! This might be a painful site for some of you. If you don't have a strong stomach, I'd suggest you look away. What you will see below is sick and disturbing...







Check out the rest of the gallery in the flash slideshow. It gets much worse. (some rss readers cannot display flash, view full website if you cannot see it below.)



Not a pretty site right? Amazingly the device still turned on after all of this...



Hopefully none of you get this mad at your E71. I know it can be frustrating, which is why I created this site.

Courtesy of the brave souls of mobile.mail.ru (Russian language).

Has your E71 ever been exposed to such torture?

Source: 2dayBlog

Customizing The Nokia E71 Homescreen To Fit Your Needs

One of my favorite things about the Eseries devices is the ability to customize the homescreen. It allows you to be as efficient as possible, giving you fast access to all your necessary applications. And for those who have never owned a Nseries device, be proud that this customization is something the Eseries has over phones like the N95, where homecreen customization is not possible.

First off, we'll take a look at how I have my E71 homescreen configured...



As you can see I have my six application shortcuts across the top. From left to right: Google Maps, Calcium Calculator, Slick IM, Notes, Music Player, Settings. Below that I have notifications for my OWA exchange email which I use the Seven application for, then my personal email which uses Nokia Email, then calendar entries, to-do notes, and search. Then my two shortcuts are Menu and a web bookmark to Google Reader.

What Can Be Configured?

As you can see I don't have WLAN search on my screen. I hardly use WLAN so it's not necessary to be on my homescreen, and normally I take off the Search: Internet and My Content portion as well.

You can also elect to hide or show email inboxes, the calendar shortcut, and t0-do note shorcuts.

To see these options go to Modes > Homescreen Applications > Enabled Applications. You should see the screenshot below, and this is where you control everything.





Notice where it says "Application Shortcuts" in the second screenshot? You can even get rid of the six app shortcuts across the top, if you don't need them for whatever reason. Some people just don't like all the clutter. Here is how that would look...



Or maybe you just want shortcuts and email...



To control which email inbox(s) will show go back one screen and select Email 1 notification, and Email 2 if it applies. Here you can control which inbox shows and how the preview will look. Like I said before I have my Work email as Email 1 which is used by the Seven Email application. The Nokia Email shortcut shows as "Intellisync" in the Enabled Applications setting that I showed you previously.

Needless to say Mode Settings is where you also control your six application shortcuts. Don't forget you can make a web bookmark one of your shortcuts.

Turn Off Active Standby Completely

Lastly, you can turn off all the active standby shortcuts completely. This will allow you to have a blank screen, besides the normal time and notifications. Here the navigational d-pad buttons will serve as shortcuts, similar to most "basic" phones. Up, left, down, and right each do something different.

To enable this go to Settings > General > Personalization > Homescreen > Active. Personally I never use this setting, as I like having all my information on my E71 homescreen.

What is your favorite setting? How do you configure your homescreen?

Your Ultimate Guide To E71 Tips & Tricks

So you just got a Nokia E71 and you're brand new to S60? Or maybe you feel your a polished E71 user like me but sometimes forget about handy shortcuts. I've done a good number of articles in the past for E71 shortcuts but they're kinda scattered around and not all in one place.

Thanks to Vaibhav Sharma from The Symbian Blog, all these tips are now in one neat list. He put together an extensive E71 shortcut & tips post, which can be found by clicking here. Vaibhav even included my "1-800-WHATEVER" tip that I showed you all a few weeks ago.

Especially handy are these Gallery shorcuts that I completely forgot about

• Green Call to send the image.
• Fn + * for full screen.
• Fn + 7 to zoom in. Press twice for the full screen size.
• Fn + 4 to scroll left while in the zoomed image.
• Fn + 5 to zoom in.
• Fn + 3 to rotate right.
• Fn + 2 to scroll up while in the zoomed image.
• Fn + 1 to rotate left.
• Fn + 0 to zoom out.

I'm pretty sure he didn't leave anything off the list, but if so head over there and leave him a comment.

Stay tuned for my upcoming "How To Customize The E71 Homescreen" article, which has been highly requested by many of you.