Live E71 Battery Test Today: Heavy Usage! Follow The Updates On Twitter

Happy Friday everyone! I'm going to be using the power of Twitter today to keep my nearly 1,000 followers updated with a real-time battery test, putting my Nokia E71 under heavy data usage. I want to see how long the battery can last with a constant connection to my favorite social networks, email, and everyday contacts. As you can see in the picture to the left the Nokia E71 battery is a monster next to other mobile device batteries like the Nokia N82. Ever since I started using the E71 I've really not been able to trust other devices just because of the unreliable battery life.

Here is what will be running ALL DAY:

- Nokia Messaging for email. I send/recieve 30+ emails a day. Get it at http://email.nokia.com/

- Slick Instant Messenger. Staying connected with my Gtalk, Yahoo, and AIM chat buddies. http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=slick

- Gravity. Best Twitter application for the E71. I will be checking/following tweeting with 3 different accounts. Busy day! Read about it.

Besides that I will use my E71 like normal. Probably send/recieve around 20-30 text messages. About 20-30 minutes worth of calls. Maybe 20 minutes of internet usage. Not sure if I'll be able to listen to music yet. All of these test will be done over the AT&T 3g network with my unlocked E71-2.

I'll be updating my battery level throughout the day LIVE along with my application/phone usage on Twitter and in the comments below.

Follow me on twitter @e71fanatics or just keep checking the comments. If you have any suggestions or proposals for testing apps and battery life let me know.

If you haven't already, check out my E71 battery tips I wrote up awhile back ago.

Nokia Here And Now Updated For E71: Weather & Local Events

Article by Timi Cantisano

I'm the kind of person that likes to do things but isn't very well connected when it comes to obtaining information about the events going on around me. Usually I end up hearing about it after it has already passed or its to late to make plans for it. With a little help from an application from Nokia Beta Labs called "Here and Now" I wont have that trouble anymore.

Here and Now is an application that was released about a month ago for S60 FP2 devices and has been recently been updated for FP1. That means E71 users can finally start testing this application. Don't be afraid about the warning you see during installation, the application is compatible and will work. So will this application be able to keep me in the know about events in my area? Lets find out! The application installed quickly and does not require any setup from the user. Simply open the application and it will greet you with the weather for your current location.

IMG_2374

If you scroll to the right the events tab can be accessed. While this sounds great, in reality it seems to only work half as well. A majority of the time the weather is quick to appear on the screen, but sometimes the user is left hanging without any information. While I tried many different locations I wasn't able to receive information about local events. I could be that there really weren't any local events or that since it is a beta the system wasn't fully active.
IMG_2375

Video by Nokia Beta Labs:



Whatever the reason we will have to see what the final version has to offer. Personally I think that this application would work a lot better if it was displayed on the home screen. That way it would display the information such as weather and events directly on first glance rather than going through menus and initializing the application. I hope that the events tab will be full the next time I open access this application. If you had a different experience don't hesitate to comment I'd love to hear what you guys experienced on this application.

Download Link

Timi Cantisano is a long time mobile phone user and S60/Nokia fan. You can read more of his articles at his personal phone website at Phoneomenon.com. Keep checking back for more contributions to this site by Timi.

Ovi App Store Now Available For Nokia E71

Wipe it out. Clear it out. Make room! Your E71’s phone memory needs some extra space!

Screenshot0021If you haven’t heard about the Ovi Store, it’s supposed to be Nokia’s solution to a one place stop to get E71 applications, widgets, ringtones, movies, and themes. Nima from the E71 Fanatics forum has already alerted us about this new announcement! Many new E71 and Symbian users have always asked me “why don’t we have an app store like the iPhone”? It seems Nokia was a little slow on this idea, but they finally came to their senses and the Ovi Store was created. Thankfully Nokia released the Ovi Store when they say they would – in the month of May. Congrats to Nokia for getting this out on time, hopefully it’s populated with enough applications to make us all happy.

Nokia said in a press release this morning:

Today, Ovi Store by Nokia is available globally to an estimated 50 million Nokia device owners across more than 50 Nokia devices including the forthcoming flagship device, the Nokia N97. Customers can visit store.ovi.com through their Nokia device browser to immediately begin downloading, personalizing and making their devices smarter and more fun with applications, games, videos, podcasts, productivity tools, web and location-based services and much more.

"Ovi Store is open for business and we've stocked the shelves with both local and global content for a broad range of Nokia devices," said Tero Ojanperä, Executive Vice President, Nokia Services. "Ovi Store makes shopping for content and applications easy and fun for feature phone and smartphone owners alike."

Download & Install

Screenshot0019

To download and install the Ovi Store application go to your Download! app which is already on your phone. There you will see the Ovi Store and you must download, install, and reboot. You will then find the Ovi Store application in the Installations folder, where all your other apps are stored. The first time you fire up the application it takes a few minutes to be populated. I actually had to close the app and try it again because the first time nothing loaded. Hopefully this only happens once.

What’s Inside?

I personally haven’t had much time to check out the Ovi Store. I’ve come across a few “free” apps that ended up being 14 day trials. That can’t be happening. Free means free. Right?

What I’ve downloaded so far:

AP News – Looks kind of cool. It scrolls fast and it’s free. Wish there was some way to read articles full screen.

WorldMate 2009 – It’s an app for travelers, but also includes weather. I’m trying it out right now. Free!

I' still don’t see a Facebook app for the E71. I think Nokia will release that after the N97 begins shipping.

Ovi Store For The E71x

I’m not 100% on this, but from reading the press release it seems you guys might have to wait.

"AT&T looks forward to introducing Ovi Store for our customers later this year," said David Christopher, chief marketing officer, AT&T Mobility and Consumer Markets. "AT&T has a reputation for providing the most customer choice of content and applications and offering Ovi Store is in line with that strategy."

I’m in the United States on AT&T but my E71 is unlocked so Ovi Store seems to be working fine. If you’re an E71x user let us know what happens when you go to http://store.ovi.com from your handset.

Have You Browsed The Ovi Store?

Have you jumped into the Ovi Store yet on your E71? If you find anything good, please share!

*note: the Ovi Store is experience high traffic volumes because of the launch and you might see some network errors the first day or so. Link

Nokia N97 Available For Preorder Now!

n97widgets

I know many of you are hesitant to drop your workhorse Nokia E71 for the hot new N97. There is also a big handful of you who are extremely interested in Nokia’s latest flagship device. The combination of qwerty, touchscreen, large high resolution display, 3.5mm audio jack, and of course the 32gb build in hard drive are all factors that make us say “wow” when checking out the N97 specs.

The release of the Nokia N97 is right around the corner. You can preorder the N97 for around $600 bucks right now at Amazon.com if your one of those that need to be the first to get the hottest new toys.

n97amazon1

More than likely I’ll end up picking up the N97 for my fiancé and borrowing it from her once in awhile to show off to friends. Will it replace my E71? Probably not. The size and form factor of the E71 is near perfect, and the N97 will be a lot bigger and more chunky.

Click here to visit the Nokia N97 preorder page.

Check out Nokia’s latest N97 commercial:

Are you interested in the Nokia N97? Will you be jumping ship or picking it up to compliment your E71? I'd love to hear some of your thoughts about the N97.

Light E71 Themes: Three Of My Favorites

I normally enjoy dark colored themes on my Nokia E71, but recently I came across a few light colored themes that really caught my eye. I’m not sure why I’ve always been a fan of dark themes – maybe because I’m a huge N82 fan. For those of you that have the Nokia N82 you know that the screen is very dim and light colored themes look washed out. The bright screen of the Nokia E71 really transformed my feeling about light Symbian themes.

Enough rambling. Lets just cut to the chase. I actually have 3 E71 and E71x Themes to show you today, starting with my favorite theme master tehk7.

Qi by Tehk7

Some of you may already have this theme installed on your phone since it’s been out for a week and lots of you follow him already. This is the theme that really transformed my thinking about light vs. dark colored themes. Note: If you’ve downloaded this theme last week, tehk recently updated it with a few changes and bug fixes.

Screenshots:

screenshot0161

 screenshot0157

Click here for download page.

 

Simply Simple by BigV

I showed off this theme on twitter the other day and many of my E71 followers loved it. This is the first time I’ve seen BigV’s work and I’m sure this won’t be the last. Note: Not optimized for all E71 icons.

Screenshots:

Screenshot0009  Screenshot0013

Two more colors are also available:

SS2

Click here for download page.

 

NG by Babi

Babi has always been one of my Top 5 favorite theme artists. He loves to pay attention to detail and the colors he uses are very unique. Be sure to download the 71 version which customized the contacts, calendar, and folder icons.

Screenshots:

Screenshot0017

 Screenshot0015

Screenshot0016

 Screenshot0018

Click here for download page.

 

There you have it. I hope you enjoy these E71 and E71x themes. If you have any other light colored themes that you like be sure to share them with us.

E71 Ringtones: Get Sounds From the Nokia N97 & E75

Ring, beep, chime, buzz… These are the sounds that our Nokia E71 makes all day to keep us connected to the rest of the world. It may seem like a minor thing but I actually took awhile to get all my sound notifications how I want them on my device. I’m pretty open with the ringtone that I use but my email, sms, chat, twitter, and alarm sounds all needed to be carefully picked. Before I go on about the tones that I use on my smartphone, I’ll show you some new sounds you can throw on your E71.

N97 & E75 Ringtones

nokia_n97 Over at The Symbian Blog, Vaibhav Sharma managed to extra the ringtones from both the Nokia N97 and E75 phones. All the sound files are available to use – everything from the alarm sounds to the random music tones (that I’ve come to hate). I really do enjoy most of the sounds that Nokia phones come with, but the music files they throw in are really bad and cheesy. I usually end up just sticking with the generic Nokia tune, just so everyone knows I’m using a Nokia. I’m actually using a Star Trek version of the Nokia Tune right now. If you want to try the Star Trek Nokia tune visit this article where Jeb has kindly hosted the file.

The files that Vaibhav extracted for us are packaged in a ZIP folder. I couldn’t get the N97 ZIP to open on my E71, but it opens just fine on the computer. Some of the sound files in both packages you’ll recognize as being the same on the E71, but a few are new. Luckily once you open the ZIP you can preview them right on your phone or from your PC using Windows Media Player. I ended up just saving the files on my memory card and renaming them to something like “Message5 E75” so you can differentiate them from the E71’s files.

Click here to download the files at The Symbian Blog, and keep reading to see what tones I use on my E71.

I think I finally got the tones how I want them. For all my notifications I needed them to all sound different, yet I want them discreet so only I know I got a new email and not the entire office.

Mike’s Profile Settings

 Screenshot0007

Ringing tone: Nokia Tune or a mellow mp3 from my library. I usually change this up about once every few weeks just to keep me on my toes.

Ringing type: Ringing. If I put this on ascending I’ll end up missing the call.

Ringing volume: Level 4. The Nokia E71 is damn loud! I have a LOUD profile if I’m in a loud environment, but most of the time Level 4 is good enough.

Message alert tone: Message 5 from the E75 package. I really like this sound since it’s not a beep or blare. Instead it’s some kind of discreet knocking, with almost a wet sound to it. I normally use the Message 4 sound that is like knocking on thin wood, but this E75 sound I enjoy much better.

Email alert tone: Chat alert. Yep, I don’t use one of the generic email tones. I think they are not discreet enough, instead I use the Chat alert file which is just about 1 second long and sounds like a pin drop.

Vibrate: On.
Warning Tones: On.

Other Phone Sounds

Instant Messenger: To connect to Gtalk, Yahoo, AIM, and MSN on my E71 I use Slick Instant Messenger. Now that I mention it, I don’t believe I’ve reviewed that application for you guys yet. Try it out! I just kept the New Message sound the same and turned off all other sounds.

Twitter: I’ve already showed you guys Gravity. If you update to the latest version you can now have Twitter notification sounds on your E71. In this app I have Reply sounds and Message sounds turned on. For Reply I use the beep.rng file and for messages I use beeptwice.rng. Both of which are at level 6.

Alarm: Clock 2 from N97 package. This is nice! Try it out, it’s very soothing and great to wake up to.

Calendar: Default tone.

Conclusion

That’s just about all the sounds that my Nokia E71 makes. I’m curious to see if any of you have a similar setup on your E71. Do you like any of the new ringtones that from the E75/N97?

I’m looking forward to the comments on this one!

E71 As A Home Appliance Remote Control: Possibility Becomes Reality

What if you can use your Nokia E71 as a wireless remote control? Not just a tv remote - but also for controlling lights, the stereo, air conditioner, etc. The possibility to do this is actually much closer than you think. This is just a quick post showing off a new application AND control box created by one of my favorite S60 developers named Sittiphol Phanvilai. The new system is called NeuRoom and just might be a breakthrough in home entertainment for the average joe. Sittiphol developed this using his Nokia 5800, but there is no reason why this shouldn't work with any Symbian S60 device.

Sittiphol says,

It's the home appliance control system via Nokia 5800. Actually I have been used it for 2 months already but I just have time to make the video presentation yesterday. It's so useful. Honestly, I like it so much and I strongly believe that wireless home electronic appliance control system via mobile phone will be necessary thing in the near future for sure. Everything has been described in video, let's see it.

And here is the video demonstration…

 

I’m very glad to see that it uses bluetooth which is obviously accessible to everyone.

Would you find this technology useful? Would you be willing to purchase this setup for your living room or bedroom? I think it would definitely be an awesome gadget to have.

Want to learn more? Click here to visit Sittiphol’s blog.

E71x Tips And Tricks To Make The Overall Experience Better

e71 If you are a new Nokia E71x user you probably got from AT&T for a great price, however you might be a little frustrated when trying to get help with your new device. The unlocked Nokia E71 is one of the Finnish giant’s most popular phones ever, so you should find a ton of links and tutorials about the E71 around the web, including this site of course. Almost all aspects of the unlocked E71 should also apply to the E71x but I know that AT&T had a huge hand in watering down the device and getting rid of a few crucial features and components that make an unlocked Symbian S60 phone extremely powerful. That’s not to say with a few tweaks here and there and even some handy 3rd party applications you can’t get something to work properly. It’s just a matter of asking around to see if anyone has any ideas. I know many of you are old blackberry users and some even completely new to smartphones, so there will be a learning curve that might take some time.

Many applications and themes for the E71x can be found here at the E71 Fanatics community, and in the coming weeks I’ll be writing up some really simple “how-to” articles for covering all the basics of the E71x and E71 unlocked of course. Some steps might show up a little bit differently on the E71x since it’s a newer version of S60 3rd Edition. But regardless the settings should be there and fairly easy to find. Don’t forget that if you Google search something like “e71 themes” or “e71 tips”, your results should also work just fine for the E71x.

A Good Place To Start

For now you can check out this great write-up by the fellas over at NokiaExperts.com. They made a handy article dedicated to getting you started with the E71x with a list of some must-have applications and settings, many of which I use on my device. Heck even unlocked E71 owners can find it useful. Matthew Miller also shows you how to re-organize the ATT spam riddled menu so that you can clean up some of the junk. And to make you feel a little better he goes on to say that the E71x IS worth $99, which I happen to agree with. Click here to read his article and be sure to bookmark both of our sites.

Are You A Nokia E71x User?

If you are then let us know. Be sure to introduce yourself and feel free to ask any questions. You can also visit our lively forums to get some E71x help and remember to come with a sense of humor and a little patience. Everyone who posts there is always down to help.

And for all E71 users… stay tuned because I have some really cool stuff coming up!

Find Your Car In The Mall Parking Lot With GPS On Your E71

wherescar Dude! Where’s my car? Yes, there’s an app for that – on the Nokia E71 (and E71x, although I’m not gonna say E71x over and over again). About a week back I asked @e71fanatics twitter followers if they’d like to know how they can use their E71 to find their car in a huge parking lot. There’s no need to download any special apps that are JUST for this… what you need should already be installed on your phone. That’s how good the E71 really is. It just needs a little creativity on our part to get this working. Keep reading to see my E71 tip for finding your missing car in the parking lot…

How To Find Your Car Method 1

It’s amazing how easy this really is. Most of you probably already have Google Maps installed on your Nokia E71, right? If not… what are you waiting for? A data plan? Come on get with the times! If you don’t have it already CLICK HERE and then come back when it’s installed.

Back? Ok, check out my screenshots…

 

Screenshot0052 

When you park your car get out and launch Google Maps. If it’s not centered already make sure to press the “0” key to lock into your GPS position. Select that position and choose “Save as a favorite”.

Screenshot0053

As you can see above you can name the spot whatever you want and even choose the category.

Screenshot0054

When you’re all done shopping till you drop simply walk out of the mall or building you are in and fire up Google Maps. You should see the star where your car is parked. If not then go to Options>Favorites and you will see on the map where your car is parked. Thanks to the strong GPS chip inside the E71 you can see where you are standing as you approach the car.

Simple as that!

and if you don’t have an unlimited data plan…

How To Find Your Car Method 2

This second method uses Nokia Maps instead of Google Maps. If you have the maps of your region pre-installed to your memory card than you won’t have to use internet data at all. I can’t get any screenshots right now because for some reason the app doesn’t want to open. Instead of favorites these are called “locations”.

Personally I prefer method one. Google Maps just works much faster and seems to be more precise.

Be sure to share your method if you do something differently. Hopefully this can help everyone out instead of spending 10 minutes trying to find your car.

Nokia E71x Appears on ATT Website; E71x Fanatics Welcome!

About a month back I showed you guys the differences between the Nokia E71x vs. the unlocked E71. While I'm sure I didn't get everything, the main points were covered. Well thanks to Timi Cantisano (not yet announced E71 fanatic writer) we now know the E71x is officially available from AT&T.

Timi Says,
After whats seems like months of leaked pictures, specs, rumors and even someone being able to buy a prototype of the device off of CraigsList! the Nokia E71x has appeared on the ATT Website and is available for purchase. Finally ATT customers will be able to experience a quality mobile device made by Nokia. The Nokia E71x is set at a price of $99.99 after $50 dollar mail-in rebate (with 2 year activation). An amazing price for a great phone. Those looking to buy the device out right will also be glad to know that it will retail for $299.99.


Click here to see the E71x page at AT&T.

E71x Is Only $0.01 From Amazon.com w/ 2 year contract

As always with new phones, Amazon.com is having a great deal on the E71x. You can get it for one penny! with a new 2 year contract or upgrade. I'm not sure about all the stipulations and rules but here are a few details according to Amazon:


Free Activation When You Buy the New Nokia E71x

Purchase the new Nokia E71x and receive an activation-fee credit from AT&T for up to $36 for each qualifying line of service activated on an upgrade or new two-year individual or family plan account purchased from Amazon.com between 12:00 a.m. PDT, May 4, 2009, through 11:59 p.m. PDT, May 18, 2009. This offer is sponsored by AT&T and only applies to the Nokia E71x (does not apply to the unlocked Nokia E71). Offer is valid at Amazon.com only and does not apply to in-store purchases. Valid in the United States and Puerto Rico. Activation-fee credit will appear on your bill and may take up to several billing cycles to appear. Standard early-cancellation fee and other up-front and monthly charges and fees may apply.

Click here to see the deal at E71x deal at Amazon.

Welcome E71x Fanatics


With that said I'd like to welcome E71x Fanatics to this community. If this is your first S60 device it's quite the learning curve, but once you get the hang of it you should have no problem. Here you will find E71x themes and applications, along with tips and tricks. Be sure to check out the forums for the E71 and E71x and don't be scared to ask questions. You can also find help on twitter by following @e71fanatics.

Can't Find What Your Looking For? Do A Search...

Custom Search

The Mobile Fanatics