ForumNokia.mobi

ForumNokia(FN) has come out with http://forumnokia.mobi
So now you can know about nokia news/devices, FN events on the move.

Nothing developer centric right now like the discussion boards but probably those things may come.

5700 XpressMusic games

The support pages for the 5700 XpressMusic has the following two games for download:

Highroller Casino
Golf Tour

Both of them are java games, so maybe they will work on other devices too.
Apart from these there is Snakes available for download too.

Get these here.

E90 launched in India

Ciol reports E90's launch in India.

Full article here.

First Look: Nokia 6120 classic

All About Symbian has unboxing pics of the 6120 classic. Nice looking small phone with S60 3rd Ed FP1.



Check it out here.

India iPhone distributors

Todays Times of India reports, HCL and Wipro to be iPhone distributers in India.

"Noida-based HCL Infosystems and Bangalore-based Wipro Technologies are close to becoming the exclusive Indian distributors of the iPhone. Analysts are expecting 1-3 million handsets to hit the shelves on Friday."

Full article here.

Get your MOBS

MOBS is a SMS group service. You can make a keyword like "MYGROUP", once done ask your group members to add themselves to this group. So suppose 10-15 of your friends join this group then you can send a message to all group members by just one SMS. Not only you any member who has joined "MYGROUP" can send messages to the group.
Its fun.
Know more here.

PS: Only for Indian residents.

Vote for TAJ MAHAL

Guys our TAJ MAHAL needs to be in the 7 wonders. Please vote, its only 9 days left now.
Vote NOW.

OR
Just click on the link below and click send.

VOTE FOR TAJ

NSeries DJ Mixer

Its all over the internet, the DJ Mixer app for the Nseries. But no one has actually seen it.
Reason, the links don't work, I mean you are supposed to enter the name/email/cell no and an SMS should arrive. Which never happens :(
There is a way around SMS "Nseries DJ Mixer" to 5555. Even did that, in response got a link which again was the same as above.

May be it'll start working in a few days.

Here are the links:
Nfusion
DJ

Read more about the DJ Mixer:

"Once downloaded, 'DJ Mixer' helps users record and remix sounds/songs, and create their very own sound tracks. According to Nokia Nseries, 'DJ Mixer' is all about becoming a DJ on-the-go." link

"The DJ Mixer application allows Nokia Nseries users to record songs on their mobile phones and create their own style of music by remixing them with their favorite tracks." link

E90 : Nokia India

The E90 support page is now up on Nokia India site. Somewhere I read that the phone will be out in December, but the support page suggests that it may be out in a few months.
Sites have reported a launch party in Jakarta. So, may be the phone will launch here in a couple of months. It all depends upon the Nokia India marketing ppl, no one can actually predict when they release phones unless it actually comes from them. Anyways lots of people waiting for it here, hope it comes out soon ;)

Btw, the phone will be available in two colors mocca and red. All the while I thought that the color was black but its actually mocca.

N95 : Google trends for Nokia N95

In one of my recent posts I mentioned that all the N95 hype has now become lull. I wasn't wrong. Just searched for "nokia n95" in "Google Trends" and found a descending graph. The image along side shows trends in India alone, but even if "All regions" is selected the graph is not that impressive.
So where's the trend shifting to? Check out the graph for "nokia E90" for India.

FWD>>FWD>> : Nokia Facts

This is a nice forward I received from my friend Sumit:

• The ringtone "Nokia tune" is actually based on a 19th century guitar work named "Gran Vals" by Spanish musician Francisco Tárrega. The Nokia Tune was originally named "Grande Valse" on Nokia phones but was changed to "Nokia Tune" around 1998 when it became so well known that people referred to it as the "Nokia Tune."
• The "Special" tone available to users of Nokia phones when receiving SMS (text messages) is actually Morse code for "SMS". Similarly, the "Ascending" SMS tone is Morse code for "Connecting People," Nokia's slogan. The "Standard" SMS tone is Morse code for "M" (Message).

There are many more of these, I've put them here.

Cool links

Just stumbled upon these cool links:

• 15mp photos with a 5mp N95
• Smooth YouTube on your N800
• Nintendo and Apple to partner on games for iPhone
  

Mobile Web Server(MWS)

Finally I joined the MWS bandwagon, got the domain http://avinashrathod.mymobilesite.net

Installed the app and got everything in place. Gr8, now my E61 is a web server and its serving pages. Also made some configurations, added my wife as a user, edited permissions for the guest account, etc..

But still don't have any clue as to what do I do with it next. Definitely I am overwhelmed by what technology can do, just confused about what to do with it . Also, 3G's not here yet nor WIFI is everywhere so most of the time the webserver will be offline :(.

Dunno what others are doing with it.

N95 : Is it in your pocket?

A couple of months ago, every channel that I switched to had the N95 ad running, every website had the N95 banner flashing & every third person talking about N95. Now it seems, all that has settled down. Ad campaigns, contests etc.. all lull at the moment.
So how actually did the campaigns do, how many got their hands on this beautiful device.
When I hadn't seen/handled the device and just heard about it and seen it's pics , I was like dying to just have a glimpse of it , hold it for once. Then one fine day I got a change to hold it , went through the menu, ran some applications, heard some music and was really ecstatic. The second day the device lay in front of me on my table and I wasn't bothered. Now I want to hold the E90 for once :) .

The truth is I am still very happy with my 6630. The N95 right now is somewhere around Rs 30K, but if I had that much money to spend on a phone today I would use only 20 and buy a E61i. I can spend the rest of the 10K on some vacation.

Coming back to the point, how has the N95 fared in the Indian markets, cant get any stats from anywhere.

News : Lots of mobile related news at CIOL

There is a lot of mobile related news at CIOL today :

• New-look MSN for mobile phones
  
• Ericsson offers push e-mail
  
• India adds 6.5 m mobile users in May
  
• Ericsson wins deals from BSNL
• Yahoo! to expand mobile internet
• Vodafone Fiji, Bharti Telesoft in pact
  

S60.com : SMS Export

From S60 newsletter:

"This month we are offering SMS Export as our exclusive download. This handy application exports SMSs in your Inbox to the destination folder in text format, so that you can easily transfer the exported SMS to PC, PDA or to another phone via Bluetooth/Cable. To download the application, log in to My S60.com and go to the My Exclusives page.

Log in and download the application."

Talkplus S60

Seems like Talkplus is coming to S60.

"Talkplus : Save up to 99% on long distance calls."

Check these links: ipadventres , mobilemessaging2.

Rafeb is delicious

I've added this person "rafeb" in my delicious network, dont know any thing about him/her but one thing's for sure he/she is really an S60/cellphone fanatic. Just have a look at the bookmarks and you will know. At times when I dont come across anything new phone related I just checkout his/her delicious bookmarks. The bookmarks are not just applications but articles,tutorials,news etc..

I hope I could know more about this person.

Check it out.

E61 : Return value :(

I was at Croma (an electronics mall at Juhu) last week. Just doing dome window shopping ;), actually I wanted to have a look at the E61i. It looks gr8, its even slimmer than the E61. I was already impressed with its camera (check this) , now holding the dummy phone (display phone) I just felt like buying it. It was 19K something. I was not actually going to buy it but was just curious how much would it cost if I exchanged my E61. I had some thing like 10-13K in mind considering that E61 is not a very old phone. Any guess how much he said for my E61? 4K , ha haaaaa. I was shocked. Just dont understand how they fix exchange prices, or is it like E61 isn't such a popular phone after all. Doesn't matter , the only thing I miss in the E61 is the camera. But then if I think I will be needing a camera somewhere, I just change the SIM and carry my 6630 there. All my contacts are synchronized by Zyb.

Nokia R&D : Aeon

Check out this cool concept phone on the Nokia R&D page. Its called Aeon.

Nice concepts Nokia.
Read more on engadget.

PC Suite Enterprise Edition :P

I didn't install it.

Q. Why?
A.

RAZR 2 : Crystal Talk

Although Nokia came out with the N76 to kick RAZR's butt , RAZR 2 has come up with atleast one good feature Crystal Talk.

"Motorola’s innovative CrystalTalk™¹ technology on the RAZR² automatically adjusts audio to ensure clear calls even in a noisy environment."

Now that is something every phone should have as a standard, even the Nokia 1100 ;)

Razr2 links: motorola, engadget

BTW, RAZR 2 indeed looks coooool, even when compared with N76.

iPhone tv ads

Check this out.

Getting paid for using your smartphone: Would you do it?

Just stumbled upon this link, it says "Smartphone owners, get CASH for joining the Smart M:Panel today!". Its for the UK and US users only. If it would have been like fill a form something I would have thought of going for it, but instead they want the user to install an app which will run in the background and will send information. Now who will be ready to do that. They could be sending anything.

"Of course! You can make some cold, hard cash! After a simple installation, and verification with the M:Metrics secure server, you will be mailed a money order or check for $15 or £15! After that, you will earn $5 (or £5) every month and get paid in 6 month intervals.

You will also be entered each month into a sweepstakes to win great prizes! Imagine getting a check for $30 and then winning a flat panel TV!"

Even though they say "We take your privacy seriously. Read our privacy policy", I would not got for it.

Instango and PowerBoot: Work gr8 for Google gTalk

Instango is a nice J2ME application, I can use my google account with for chatting (gTalk). Have been making most of my traveling time catching up with old friends , since I installed Instango. Tried installing it on 6630 too but I guess it is optimized for E61/E61i. I know it works for Jabber/ICQ/MSN/Yahoo. I've got lots of friends on Yahoo, will comment on it once I get it working for yahoo.
BTW there is a small Symbian app called 'light server' which can be used with the E61/E61i, it has no UI so when the icon is selected nothing happens but the program starts running in the background. So if the light server is running the light blinks.

But for this to happen you have to specifically run this application everytime before instango is run. So I added this application to the startup. How to do that?, simple install PowerBoot which is a signed freeware.
For the non-geeky : Once you click on the "Instangolightserver" icon , start the PowerBoot application, there in the "Running apps" tab select the InstangoLightServer.exe thats it.

Jaiku and twitter

Jaiku is available for S60 2nd as well as 3rd Edition. Had been using it on the 2nd Ed for quiet some time now, but I just installed on the E61 and I have to tell that the 3rd Ed Jaiku app is far far better than the 2nd Ed one. The setup was also quiet easy with the step by step wizard. The look and feel is awesome. In both editions the applications keeps the connection always ON unless its not manually disconnected. That can be quiet an expense to those with some limited data plan.
You can see my Jaiku status in the side bar.

I also have that twitter badge in the side bar a little lower. The only reason its not updated so often is because there is no S60 client for it. I have used m.twitter.com but the site is too slow.

The only time I use Jaiku or Twitter is when I am travelling, that's why my jaikus and twitts are only one of these ( waiting for bus, stuck in traffic, reached office, in train etc..). I mean, I still don't realize what exactly is the full potential of using these services.

Also there is this twitter with facebook thing which I haven't checked as yet.

Bpl Mobile: Doing gr8 , can do better

A few weeks ago I called the BPL Mobile support guys because my signal bars wont go above 2. I had to come out in the balcony and speak. Was really pissed. They told me that this is happening because they are installing new cell sites in the area and I wont have any issues after that day. Indeed the problem vanished and I had full signal as earlier. Since that, I have noticed that my surfing speed has also increased. Earlier it would fluctuate between 3 & 4 kbps but now is is between 6 & 8 kpbs. Atleast all the xhtml sites open like anything. Great going. I know its not great enough as other operator give much faster speeds but still I am happy about it. To check mails and a few sites atleast I dont need to switch on my PC. It takes 2-4 mins for my pc to start up, by that time I already finish checking mails of my two accounts.

BPL Mobile I believe, still does not have EDGE. I hope they come up with it as it would be that feather in their caps.

Twisty issues : 5700 XpressMusic good price but...

I thought 5700 would be priced around 20K but its around 16.5K to 17K. Now thats great8. My best pal Deepen,with all reviews done, went to Alfa shopping center yesterday with two phones in mind, N70ME or 5700. Guess what, he bought the N70ME, said he didnt like the looks of 5700.
In a way he is right who would like a phone that twists, even though its got the latest features (S60 3.1, Symbian 9.2,etc..). He even saved quiet some money. I believe twist is the reason why 3250 also didn't do so well.

BTW, if I had ~ 17K I would have gone for the n73 ;). (or waited a month or so and got n73ME)

Symbian Smartphone Show

The Symbian Smartphone Show website is now up.

"3500 delegates, 120 exhibitors, 60 seminars, 10 keynotes - one show

Don't miss the biggest smartphone event of the year with the opportunity to experience the future of mobile direct from the industry's most forward-thinking players. The world's biggest brands are going mobile and they're doing it first on smartphones. Consumer electronics, Internet, entertainment, commerce and publishing are all going mobile and they need your help to get there."

Check it out here.

BTW its on 16-17 October, Excel Centre, London. Cant go there but atleast I wont forget the date. 16 Oct is my B'day :)

S60 Browser: Wishlist

No doubts that the S60 browser in the E61 is great but there are some options that I would have loved to have. I know that S60 browser is open source so may be some developer reads this and implements this in the future versions of the browser. My wishlist is very small right now I want only two options

• Save target/link As
• Open link in new window

thats it . First option to save some files and the second to save time, because the 'Back' option is quiet time consuming. When I click 'Back' they show nice thumbnails of the previous pages that I've just been through, clicking on one of them loads the entire page again. Firefox's back is great (even Opera's,I mean the PC version, not mobile) you press back and the page does not load from scratch, seems like instantaneous. May be there are some memory constraints that they haven't done it yet, but now phones are becoming faster and with much more memory than earlier.

The newer version of the S60 browser has this Toolbar which comes up for quick options (frequently visited pages,page overview,reload,text search and web feeds), but then I dont understand why I need S60 3rd Ed FP1, why cant it work in the E61. Any ways for more about the S60 browser visit here.
New features also include,
Save for later: Save Web pages for off-line browsing
Flash Lite 2: Plays Flash Lite 2 content within the browser
Favicons: Don’t just save the Web address as bookmark but save it with its icon for easy identification.

Nokia Designs Phone that Detects Lightning

"According to the patent application, the Nokia system would use two adjacent radio channels to detect the atmospheric disturbances, allowing the phone to provide its owner with as much as 10 minutes warning before a thunderstorm actually becomes visible at the user's location."

Cool, but can Nokia come up with something like

"What would be my wife's reaction if I say 'something xyz' to her?", :D

Full story here.

Mobile Phone Sales up 14%, Nokia Leading

Yeah, Nokia leads the pack. And why not, Nokia's phones are well built, easy to operate, can be found in a price range starting from 2K, got good resell value than its competitors.

Cheers :)

"Nokia sold close to 92 million mobile phones in the first quarter of 2007 (see Table 1) which resulted in a 35.7 percent market share worldwide, a 1.8 percentage point growth compared to the same period in 2006. Nokia’s sales were driven by its multimedia portfolio, which in the quarter accounted for around 8 million units sold into the channel. Nokia’s mid-tier range, which was strengthened at the end of 2006 with the 5200 and 5300, welcomed the addition of the Nokia 6300. The enterprise market looked promising during the first quarter, when close to 1 million Eseries devices were sold into the channel. Gartner expects Nokia will continue to take advantage of Motorola’s weakness in the quarters to come and maintain its solid performance as its portfolio expands with some interesting new additions such as the 2630 and the Navigator."

Read full story here.

Apple says iPhone to go on sale June 29

Now iPhone is one phone that I will keep track of , just want to know how it fares in comparison to S60. Have read mixed reactions/reviews till now, but would like to read more reviews once people own it. Nothing like I am not an Apple fan, iPod and their Macs are adorable as well as very good products which have rocked the market. Hope it's in the Indian market soon.

Lets see what happens with iPhone.

Full story here.
Also check this photo gallery.

Remove mem. card

I know that a faster way to switch profiles is to press the power button and choose one of the profiles, but I noticed this option "Remove mem. card" for the first time on E61. Also this link seems interesting "My E61 forgetes about its mem card", worth reading for those who have mem card issues.

We 2 completed 2 today

Hi,
Its my 2nd wedding anniversary today, June 3. And thanks to God, today is Sunday.
So no PC, mobile for the rest of the day. See ya later.

Nokia jumps to No 4 as most trusted brand

Rajiv Banerjee, Times news network writes -

"Three years ago, one wouldn’t have seen a mention of a mobile phone in the listings of India’s Most Trusted Brands. While Brand Equity’s annual survey has included handset brands since 2004, they were relegated to the bottom of the rankings. But three years is a long time, especially in a country that’s played host to one of the world’s most successful telecom revolutions. And this year, Nokia enters the Top 10, indeed the Top 5, displacing a bunch of venerable brands to claim the No 4 position."

"From a rank of No 71 in 2004, Nokia moved to No 44 in 2005. The brand, which has become synonymous with the rise of mobile telephony in the country, is now reaping the rewards of investing over a long time horizon. In some sense, one could consider Nokia’s rise indicative of “FMCGisation” of the mobile handset market."

Full stroy here.

Mobile security threats

David Haskin, ComputerWorld writes -

"Conditions are right for mobile security threats to start overwhelming businesses and consumers in North America."

"Most malware and other threats to mobile users have been written for devices based on the Symbian operating system. That's because, for now, it is the dominant mobile platform worldwide, according to numerous market-share studies. However, Symbian has yet to become popular in North America, where Palm Inc. once dominated and Windows Mobile and Research In Motion Ltd.'s BlackBerry are widely used."

Read full stroy here.

Nokias Gizmo: S60 version of Skype

Where is the Symbian version of Skype? - Darla Mack

Are Carriers Delaying The S60 Mobile Version Of Skype? - Stephen Wellman

Will Gizmo become the Skype of the S60 smartphone world? - Stephen Wellman

Read more here.

Download Gizmo here.

Moto RIZR with Saskens app

I knew that Sasken was up with something related to Symbian, they recruited one of my friend in their Symbian dev team. Even I got mails from consultants.

Here's what they have been doing:

"Motorola in its bid to provide a better experience to its consumers will now use a multimedia software developed by Sasken in its new Symbian UIQ platform-based cell phones."

"Sasken’s new application on Motorola’s new phone acts as the core to the video and photo capture applications. Sasken’s multimedia application suite is a range of multimedia applications such as media browser, media capture and media player along with codecs for handset manufacturers. Sasken also has a similar tie-up with NTT DoCoMo phones developed by Panasonic, launched in April this year, but that is limited to Japan. "

Full story here.