Fully open-source : Neo 1973 launched

A touch screen "Hackers dream box" is out :)

"Another fully open source-based phone has gone on sale, offering developers the chance to build their own mobile Linux applications."

Links:
NewLC
Link2
Link3

Nokia phone + commute time = Writer

This is interesting,

"An IT professional in Italy wrote a science fiction, "Compagni di Viaggo", using Nokia phone."
...
...
"The book, which is believed to be the first book ever written on a cell phone and published, took him 17 weeks to complete."

Thats called utilizing every bit of your time :)
Full story here.

Cool 3rd Edition theme

Check out this cool Vista theme here.
Handango link.

Nokia trends lab

Be a part of the Nokia's mobility experiments. Labs include Film Lab, Music Lab, Photography Lab and Design Lab. Check out the Paris experiment. Next experiment , Ireland on 1st Aug.

More info here.

All praise : iPhone software

I am always on a look out about whats been said in context to iPhone and Symbian, here's the something I found today-

"People talk about how Symbian phones have great software, but I don't think those people get the iPhone. The pocket-sized iPhone is a mini-Mac, and its software outclasses any other mobile operating system I've tried."
.....
.....
"And if the iPhone does take the world by storm, it will be because of that software. None of Apple's competitors in the phone industry – none besides Microsoft, anyway – have a track record of developing world-class operating systems and deploying them on millions of devices. The OSes that we've seen on phones up to this point, including Palm and Symbian, are little competition. Ever seen an animated weather widget on the Symbian OS?"

Full post here.

Symbain Symbian

Didn't quiet understand what went on here , do tell me if you understand it. Some sort of prank or something.

BPL Mobile - Get in the loop : Whats that?

Regarding the BPL Mobile's Ad in todays newspaper I kept thinking about what would it be "Get in the loop", is it a term they are using for CUG (closed user group) or some new SMS service or what. I usually try what ever new service they come up with (I am on BPL). So the first thing I did was went to their web site. Yeah it was there, Get in the loop nice flash which could change to whatever color we select. Thats it, no more information. So I turned to my best friend Google.
Its just,

"BPL Mobile, Mumbai's cellular service provider, has tried to rejuvenate its image through a brand refresh campaign titled 'get in the loop'."

This link tells it all.

Nokia Intrusion Prevention with Sourcefire : Win E61

"Nokia Intrusion Prevention with Sourcefire will provide enterprises with defense-in-depth by analyzing network traffic to discover risks, determine their business impact and take actions to defend the network. This complete network visibility allows companies not only to address existing threats, but to actually prevent some of the attacks that plague them."

This was from a press release dated Aug 29 2006. Now Nokia APAC is promoting IPS by giving away prizes , an E61 and 5 x 4GB pen drives to be precise. Just play the flash game where in you help the admin to install IPS solution to save the day.

Here's the link.

Post v12.0.013

• Interface feels zippier
• Boot up time has reduced.
• Got locked to GPS in my balcony within a minute, tried a lot earlier but never got a lock there.
• Can't say anything about the photo quality, they say its become sharper, but I cant figure much of a difference.
• Its said that camera starts faster now, I think it takes the same time as before.
• A few applications (which I had installed on v11) got installed automatically saving a bit of my time.
• Keypress bug: I think I encountered it or did I actually didn't type it. You see its rare till now , just once in the day (quiet ignorable).
• No applications terminating with an S60 kernel error.

Looks good till now :D

Whats up with Darla Mack

Ever since that 'Yoga for beginners' post (19/07/07) Darla hasn't posted anything. Seems like she's too busy doing yoga or as she feared, she's really stuck in one of the yoga positions :D. Just kiddin Darla. You just took a blog break,hope to read new posts from you soon.

Mobile Pundits humorous side

I never knew Veer sir posts jokes too. Check it out here.

Finally

N95 v12.0.013 upgrade: Odd lucky fellows

Every now and then I get tempted to go for a firmware upgrade from v11 to v12, but I just don't do it because of that annoying key press bug. But I've found that some lucky fellows have upgraded to v12 and have not experienced any bugs as yet. This makes me more tempted to go for that upgrade. The only thing I don't want is me upgrading to v12 and then Nokia coming out with a newer version with the bugs solved. If they come out with it after say a couple of months Its ok but if I upgrade and they come up in a week or so it would really be annoying. Just don't understand what to do :(
So may be in a couple of days I'll post "I've upgraded to v12" or may be not.

iPhone haters

I dont think my title holds good bacause no matter how much of a Symbian fan I am, there is no denying that iPhone is one of the most wanted phones at the moment.

But still iPhone haters will surely enjoy this video, actually it (the video) has been around for a long time but seeing that the N95 Vs iPhone debate is still a hot topic I am just posting the link.

Check it out here.

EXIF, Geotagging : Whats that?

The N95 technical specifications says:
Mobile Photography
* Image resolution: up to 5 megapixel: (2592 x 1944 pixels)
* Still image file format: JPEG/EXIF
* Auto focus
......
......

Whats that EXIF?

EXIF :
"EXIF stands for Exchangeable Image File Format, and is a standard for storing interchange information in image files, especially those using JPEG compression. Most digital cameras now use the EXIF format. The format is part of the DCF standard created by JEITA to encourage interoperability between imaging devices."

What I understood is that, it is some extra information which can be included with JPEG files. Location is one such information which can be added with the JPEG files and following the EXIF standard we are making it easy enough to be inter operable across wide range of devices.

Simply speaking Geotagging is adding location tags with the photos we click.

I was able to get a GPS lock when I was going to my relatives place from Bandra to Andheri. This was the first time I used GPS while travelling. It followed me all the way on Western Express Highway, though sometimes it strayed to some other places I was having fun wondering about, me connected to satellites :D . I've even taken some snapshots and uploaded using Shozu.

After googling for applications that could geotag pics , Shozu was one of them. Since I already had it installed I didnt search for any other application. But what I found was that Shozu is not actually putting any location information in the JPEG files , instead it just sends the location as a tag. I am only 75% sure of it because I have still got to install some software that could actually read files with EXIF format. One more thing I found out was that Flickr offers Maps too. So you can view your geotagged pics on the Map. I Shozu-ed my geotagged pics to Flickr hoping that these will come up on the Map, but they didn't. Got to figure out why.

But sure EXIF , Geotagging , GPS pretty new things to me and fascinating too. Will find out all about it soon.

Nokia shortcuts

I wanted to send some 5 pics from my phone to my friends. It was pretty much annoying to go to Options->Mark/Unmark->Mark for each pic. Wish there was a shortcut key for mark/unmark. I know this is easy with any file explorer like YBrowser and FExplorer but then there are no thumbnails only filenames :(
I tried out all keys but nothing. Found out a few other things in the process. It was pretty surprising to see Darla Mack's post that many do not know that pressing zero thrice when editing takes you to a new line, so I'm just putting these shortcuts down in case it is still not known.

Call END (red) key: Earlier when in any application pressing this key would send the application to the background, now it simply exits/closes the application. The only way to send an application to background is to press the Menu key.

Call ACCEPT (green) key: Can also be used as the 'Send' key. When in messaging no need to go to options and then press send, just use the green key. When in gallery pressing this key pops up the Send dialog with via Bluetooth,via multimedia etc...

# : A long press on this key on the idle screen toggles between General/Silent.

A long press on any key from a to z will type the number on that key.

To switch from alpha mode to numeric in an editor long press #.

A long press on the multimedia key on N95 brings up Media player.

The button next to camera click button brings up the last clicked pic.

To bring up the number stored in the SIM at the nth position press n+#.

For a full stop just press 1.

Do comment if you know more shortcuts.

Widgetop : iN95

Just point your N95's browser to http://m.widgetop.com

Moto no no , Nokia yes yes

This is a nice article on BusinessWeek : Why Nokia Is Leaving Moto in the Dust

"Pop singer Alicia Keys and Ramkishen Pyarelal, proprieter of a Mumbai tea stall, may not have a lot in common. But they both carry Nokia mobile phones. If you want to know why Motorola (MOT) is in such trouble these days, the celebrity and the Indian street merchant provide a big part of the answer."
...
...
"Maybe the iPhone will be very successful," says Martin Garner, director of wireless intelligence for London market researcher Ovum. "Does that knock Nokia off its perch? I don't think so."

Read this 2 page article here.

N95 : Finally the v12 changelog

Symbian-Freak has published this exhaustive v12.0.013 changelog

Check it out here.

I am still on V11 and have no intentions of upgrading to V12 even after going through that all good points changelog.
Will upgrade once that keypress bug is removed. Every site with a mention of the firmware upgrade have said that the keypress bug is the most annoying. Would have surely tried out V12 if NSU had a rollback option. Right now pretty happy with V11, would have been even happier if the battery could hold on longer. I usually dont carry the charger to my office and then I don't like asking everyone for the thin pin charger.

No results : 5700 XpressMusic contest

A month ago Nokia-Asia announced the 5700 XpressMusic contest. Here's my post about it. I did play that flash match-the-columns game a lot. It was a race against time game where you have to match some 10 keywords on the left hand side to the description on the RHS (drag and drop).
My friend has got a really good score in it around 2.xx seconds, impressive. Eight winners will be chosen with the least time. The winners were to be announced on 13th or 14th but still nothing from them. That contest url now is redirected to nokia-asia's site and was even down for some time, which made me feel that something must be going on.
Just found this thread. Many people waiting for the results :(.
I hope they declare the winners soon and my friend is one of them (he just dropped his 6630 in water and it doesn't work anymore )

N95/E90: GPS

"How to use GPS?"

I've asked this question on one of the forums and I know many who don't even have a GPS enabled phone (just for knowledge) may have this question in their mind. That is quiet a relevant question as not everyone has access to a GPS receiver. Its the same like once I used to think "How to use Bluetooth?" :). Of course not interested with the intricacy of the technology but just want to know what it does and what to do to make it work.

Other questions like "How much will I be charged if I use it?" , "Do I have to register at some place before using it?", "Is the operator involved in anyway?" were also on my mind.

I'll just tell how I used GPS on N95.
I found two GPS related applications on the phone "GPS data" and "Maps". There may be other application available but not searched as yet. As N95 has the GPS receiver and since this hardware can be accessed with Symbian's API's applications can be developed and the GPS data can be used as one wishes.

One does not get charged to use GPS. Your operator is no way involved when using GPS . If your application uses the operator services like sending sms , using gprs etc.. then you will be charged according to your plan.

"GPS data" application does not need any operator services (it does ask for the access point and transfers something for the first time but never saw it after that). When you start the application it tries connecting to satellites to get your exact location. You should be connected to least 3 satellites. It may take some time to get locked to the satellites. When the app starts a pop up comes saying "Searching for satellites" followed shortly by "Calculating GPS data". Then there's nothing until you are locked, which can take quiet some time. So mean while you can try the "Satellite status" option, which will show the strength of the satellites. The pic along side shows only one satellite as I am indoor right now. So when using GPS remember

• Like all satellite navigation devices, the Nokia N95 may take several minutes to gather the location from the GPS satellites the first time it is used.
• Make sure the Nokia N95 has a clear line of sight to the sky, and that the slider is open - the receiver is located under the keypad.

Once locked use other options like distance between two points etc...

On the other hand "Maps" uses the receiver as well as GPRS. It downloads map of your current location, thats where you get charged.

See its easy.

Check out more about N95 and GPS here.

Note: Using GPS does take a lot of battery :(

Annoying things : N95 in my jeans pocket

The N95 has loads of great features, but I've found a few annoying things.

> The keypad unlocks automatically on opening the slider. Searched every where for any setting to disable it but :( . There's a setting "Lock keys if slide closed" but no setting like "Unlock keys when slide opens".
This keypad unlock on slide open may be a good feature but its bad when I wear my jeans. At times the slider opens up when I move and even the keys get pressed. May be I'll have to buy anti fit jeans or a leather pouch. I hate crystal and silicone cases, the pouch on the belt seems to be a better option. So now the N95 is making me do things its way, its changing what I wear :)

> Just have a look at this thread. My N95 also has that little gap on the sides of the slider. Never even noticed it until I went through that thread. Now every time the keys light up my eyes go straight on that gap. :(

> The battery. It needs to be charged almost every night. I wish there was a battery like those Citizen eco-drives for the N95.

4 days with N95

Day 1:
As soon as I saw that DHL guy heading towards my house I knew it was the N95 coming my way. I've seen a lot of unboxing on other sites, so this was my chance to do it as well. I dont have a Digicam so I grabbed my 6630 while my wife took the parcel. She was equally happy because she knew I always wanted the N95. Took some unboxing snaps, but they were not good enough so posted only one. Its a sand colored beauty. First thing to notice was that the phone vibrates a bit on power up just as the Sony Ericsson's do, never experienced it on any other Nokia.

The firmware version is 11.0.026.
Most of the icons/shortcuts on the Menu were now either under the Tools or Applications folder. Made some new folders and organized the icons. Tested the camera, transferred a song and blasted the speakers, tried out the TVout thing, tested the radio. There were two bars when I powered up the phone which now came to one. So charged it for some time and then spent the rest of the day fiddling with the camera and listening to radio.

Day 2:
My phone didn't come with an external memory, so I spent the second day hunting for a 2GB MicroSD card. Where ever I went there was no 2GB in stock, everyone was ready to order it. But I could not wait, went to every mobile store I could recall. We walked so much that day that my wife lost some weight , just kidding ;) . Finally at the end of the day I got a 2GB MicrsSd card at a shop which is quiet close to my house. Wanted a Sandisk or Transcend but could get only Kingston. I transferred all my favorite tracks on the card and spent rest of the day listening songs and radio. By night the battery was almost drained.

Day 3:
With the full charged phone I started the day by plugging my computer speaker to the phones headset and listened to the radio while I got ready to go to work. That was about 1/2 hour of radio. Browsed a bit while traveling. Installed Gmail app and removed snakes. Didn't spend much time with the phone in office just listened to radio for about an hour after lunch. By dinner I started getting battery low tones. I believe its all because of the radio so I decided not to use the radio the next day.

Day 4:
Fully charged pone, went to office , saw a lot of sites with not so good reviews about v12 firmware. Spent a lot of time searching for any new N95 app's apart from the regular ones like Antonys screenshot, Y-Browser, etc.. . Found this cool race game , I've posted about it. Surfed for some time on the phone, tried out GPS for the first time , got it working in 5 mins. But no radio for the day. Just ending Day4 with this post and the battery is 2 bars down. So pretty much battery left, will see how long it lasts, will not charge it tonight.


Word:
Cool phone,gr8 screen, faster than any other S60 3rd Ed I've seen by now. Good camera, the pics are really nice. TV out is another good feature. Loud and clear stereo sound. Everything on the phone is good but I would have been happier if the battery life was better.

I am really confused at the moment about the firmware upgrade thing , dont know if I should upgrade to v12 or should wait for v12+.

Global race : N95 game

I wanted a nice game on the N95, I really dont like that new Snakes. The older version 2D was better. Anyways came across this post on WOMworld where this nice race game was mentioned. The game is actually for E90 on the E90 support page but works fine for the N95. Will work on any devices with hardware acceleration. The game reminds me of one RagingThunder race game which I was addicted to on my 6630. The game also has some GPS feature which I haven't tried as yet.

"Global Race is a racing game designed for the Nokia E90 Communicator with innovative GPS features. Global Race is a gut-churning, tire burning racer developed for a broad range of mobile platforms and handheld devices. Race against time and your opponents in this fast paced and exhilarating coin-op style racing game. This game allows you to control over some of the most extreme muscle cars in the world, on a variety of tracks set in different beautifully realized environments. "

Get it here.

PhotoLocker : Exclusive download S60.com

"PhotoLocker helps you to secure your mobile photos, so that others cannot view the locked images without knowing a password."

So login and get it on S60.com

PS:
"Compatible devices: Nokia 3230, Nokia 6260, Nokia 6620, Nokia 6630, Nokia 6670, Nokia 6680, Nokia 6681, Nokia 6682, Nokia 7610, Nokia N70, Nokia N72, Nokia N90"

Just arrived : My N95

I just got my N95 (sand colored) , thanks to ForumNokia. :D
Its my prize for the ForumNokia wiki contributor of the month.

Airtel offering GPS navigation

"Bharti Airtel has launched GPS-based navigation application in collaboration with Wayfinder Systems AB of Sweden.

The application turns any compatible cell phone into a GPS-based navigation system with detailed maps and points-of-interest of a number of cities in India. The navigation system provides users with updated, real-time content and geographical data via the wireless network using EDGE/GPRS. "

"..... coverage details of the following cities - Delhi and NCR (Gurgaon, Faridabad, Noida, Greater Noida, Ghaziabad), Bangalore, Mumbai and Navi Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chandigarh. "

Links:
Indiatimes
CIOL

Got WiFi , use Truphone for FREE

Use Truphone free till 31st Dec 07. Make international calls to 40 countries for free, if you sign up before 30 Sep 07.
Just called my bro in Australia (on his landline) for free.
You can even call GTalk friends on IM, thats also free.

Here's the link.

Be careful, just have a look at the list of countries first , I just called my wife (local call) and India is not in the list , got charged 0.148 $. But that was ok coz as soon as you register they credit your account with 2$.

The OS Wars Are Back

"The Nokia N77, which is coming soon, sounds pretty hot and feature-competitive with the iPhone, but who’s heard of it? Who’s talking about it?"

This is a very nice article , with good comments.

Read it here.

Development for iPhone

"Developers can create Web 2.0 applications that look and behave just like the applications built into iPhone, and provide seamless integration with iPhone applications and services including making a phone call, sending an email, and displaying a location in Google Maps. Third-party applications created using web standards can extend iPhone's capabilities without compromising its reliability or security."

Read more here.

Wiki contrib of the month ForumNokia

I am the ForumNokia Wiki contributor of the month (June 2007). Having my name on the fourm was good enough but will soon be getting a S60 3rd Edition Phone and a t-shirt ;)

So now I have my name on both Symbian.com as well as on ForumNokia :D

My next goal: FroumNokia Champion.

Symbian defends Flexispy sign-off

I'd once posted about a symbian signed malware, here's what I found today

"Symbian has defended its Symbian Signed programme against allegations that it is 'signing off' mobile malware. "

Read more here.

Ek or Lakh?

Cool to see Nokia interested in Indian developers.
This is the first time I've seen ForumNokia promotions, that too India specific. If you are a developer and still dont know about ForumNokia do visit here and register. ForumNokia has lots of tool/SDK's , tutorials , porting guides etc.. for developers. Even companies who want to reach a wide market with Nokia device related product(application) can find a lot of info on ForumNokia.

So if you have mobile applications in mind do register at ForumNokia.

Check it out here.

P.S. : The site even says that you could win N95 (5 nos) ;-)

Toggle profile on E61

Its the same thing, long press on # toggles profile between silent/general. Found it out accidentally.

Even though I had posted this thing some time ago for my 6630, I never tried it on the E61 until today I found it out accidentally.

Aaargghh...

Coming soon : The Open C Challenge

I heard about this contest in April when I went for the ForunNokia OpenC event at Bangalore.
Well Symbian just confirms this news

"Port your application to win a cash prize!

The Symbian Developer Network is excited to announce the forthcoming Open C Challenge! Your challenge, if you choose to accept, is to develop a mobile application by porting existing code into the Nokia Open C environment.
....
....
Sponsored in collaboration with Forum Nokia and Orange Partner, entrants will be judged on innovation, quality, usability, creativity and porting difficulty of their application. Big cash prizes and industry bragging rights are up for grabs:

* $10,000 for the Grand Prize
* $5,000 for the 1st runner-up
* $3,000 for the 2nd runner-up
* $2,000 for the 3rd runner-up

Scheduled to launch in early July, the winners will be announced on October 17th in the Symbian Developer Network Live! arena at the Symbian Smartphone Show in London, UK.
"

Wow $$$$, I love $$$ :-)

Check it out here.

MoMo Mumbai : Mobile Advertising

"The July event of Mobile Monday Mumbai will be held on 16th July. Topic of the event is “Mobile Advertising”. Thanks to GroupM for sponsoring the event and supporting the community. GroupM will host us in their Peninsula Chambers, Lower Parel office in the evening, starting 6.30pm."

More info and registration here.

My Nokia

"My Nokia is a personalized service designed to help you get the most out of your Nokia. Once you register you will soon start receiving regular communications that include tips & tricks specific to your Nokia, great offers, competitions and more."

Register here.

Hip Hip Hurrah

I completed 100 posts today, the previous one the 100th one. Cool.

Technology : Wibree

Some old news but I came across it for the first time,

"Wibree is a new interoperable radio technology for small devices. It can be built into products such as watches, wireless keyboards, gaming and sports sensors, which can then connect to host devices such as mobile phones and personal computers. It is essential the missing link between small devices and mobile devices/personal computers." link

"Nokia introduces Wibree technology as open industry initiative" link

Google it for more info.

Malayala Manorma on your mobile

"Nokia has announced the launch of the industry's first 'Vernacular news portal' with Malayala Manorama, a leading south based publication group and Kerala's largest selling news paper."

Full article here.

Airtel's Instant messenger

I am not on Airtel, but seeing the supported device list it seems like they have launched a Symbian version along with the J2ME version Instant messenger. I may be wrong so if some Airtel subscriber has downloaded it do share your views about it.

Here's the link.

Symbian openness

How open?

• Open to all developers (mobile or not!)
• Open to a thriving ecosystem
• Open to share value
• Open to industry feedback
• Open to share our source code with the world’s leading mobile manufacturers
• Open to carriers around the world

Check out the Symbian innovation here.