I am a user of Nokia mobile-phones for several years by now. Actually I had many problems with the build-quality and other issues of all the phones by Nokia I have used. Unfortunately the time has gone by and not much except the features has changed. So I decided to write a post about all the issues I am „enjoying” with the company Nokia.

1.) The build quality

We all know that many Nokia mobile phones have issues with the build quality. Some very significant issues are the wobbly slider of the N95, the internal keyboard of the E90 that touches the huge internal screen and the chrome of the N76 which is peeling off.

2.) Bugs & Firmware updates

Some of the newer models, e.g. the N96, are having many problems with the software. Thus Nokia is releasing firmware updates to improve the general stability of a device but also to fix those bugs. If you don’t want to use a phone full of bugs you need to update your firmware. With a fast internet connection this shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes. The update itself isn’t the problem as you can see, but if you’re updating your phones’ firmware all the userdata and applications on the internal memory will be deleted, which means that you have to reinstall all the applications, setup the device as if it was taken out of the box for the first time, and finally all your messages and so on will be deleted for ever.

3.) Nokia’s service

Since most of the users don’t want buggy, ugly or wobbly phones they’re bringing them to a Nokia Service Center or back where they’ve bought them. There are reports that users have been waiting on their fixed phones to come back for over two months. I also experienced this long waiting-time with my N95-1, I waited three weeks for it to come back.

4.) User experience

Doing everything manually (update your applications, sync your contacts with your memorycard, etc.) can be very annoying after some time. There’s not much eye-candy and so the whole device seems to be made without any „love”.

Suggestions for Nokia on how to make all the things better:

1.) The build quality

The only thing I can say on this topic is: Make better tests with your phones, not only if they can stand crashes, but also if the slider is shaking, if light shines through the gaps or if the chrome peels off after some time.

2.) Bugs & Firmware updates

Look at Apple’s iPhone and you know how firmware updates should be. Installing the update without losing any personal data is the point. The users don’t want to install everything again when they’re updating the firmware.

What about a programme like iTunes? It synchronizes everything with the phone by just one click. All the data is back-uped by just connecting your phone to the computer, loss of important data is almost impossible with this method.

3.) Nokia’s service

Service shouldn’t take much time. This is the service I would like to see at Nokia (this is no dream, other companies can do it. So why should Nokia can’t do it?): 1. Report your problem on a website > 2. Wait until a Nokia employee has checked your problem and decided what to do > 3. get packaging material from Nokia > 4. send the device back to Nokia > 5. Get a new device within 3 workdays.

This is possible! Apple’s support showed it to me when I had problems with my iPod. So come on Nokia, you also can do it!

4.) User experience

As I said in point 2.) before, look at the iPhone. If there are updates available for applications there should be a little information window which says: „New versions of AB and XY are available. Do you want to update?”.As also said before, develop an application like iTunes which does everything you want to do with just one click. Last but not least, build more eye-candy into your Symbian S60 OS.

As you maybe noticed there are many suggestions to copy the simplicity of Apple’s products, but this is not because I’m a Apple-fanboy, I just think that the user experience that comes with their products is the best of all manufacturers.

*#06# displays the IMEI – the serial number – of your phone. On the box of your device there should be the same number on the little sticker on one side of the box.

*#0000# displays the firmware and its date. Additionally there is the type (e.g. RM-159) and the name of your phone. This menu also gives you, if you own a N96, 5800, N85 and some other devices, the chance to update your firmware over the air.

*#92702689# (*#war_anty) displays the “warranty-menu” of your phone. Actually, in S60 it shows the time you spent on calls already.

*#2820# (*#bta_#) displays the bluetooth-address of your device. Every device has another bluetooth-address (works just if it has Bluetooth!).

*#62209526# (*#mac_wlan#) displays the MAC-address of your phone (works just if it has Wireless Lan!).

By pressing 0 (zero) for three seconds on the home-screen you easily can open the web browser.

By pressing the Menu/Home key for three seconds you open the task manager, which shows all opened applications.

Holding # for three seconds on the home screen you change the active profile to silent or back.

In the File manager, Photos application or Gallery you can sent your files really easily by pressing the green-answer key. Once you done that a lists pops up and you can decide whether you want to sent the file via e-mail, Bluetooth, upload it to a service or sent it as a message .

NOTE: The following codes can RESET your phone to the factory settings, all data on it will be deleted!

*#7780# (*#rst_#) does a soft-reset to your phone.

*#7370# (*#res_#) does a hard-reset to your phone.

Actually it could be, that we forgot a code or you now one that we don’t have here. If so, please leave a comment.

You are annoyed of your phone because it has a simlock or is from a provider, so that you can´t update your firmware as soon as the update comes out?

So, in this tutorial I will show you how to change your product code. If you change your provider-product code to a free product code you have a branding-free mobile phone.

At first I want to say, that you shouldn´t change it if you have no knowledge of your device. Only change it if you know what you are doing!

If you make something wrong, you could damage your phone and if you have changed the Product Code you won´t have warranty anymore. So first think exactly about what you´re doing.

!!!IMPORTANT: Don´t make a backup over the integrated backup-function of your phone before changing the PC (Product Code), because after that nothing will work anymore.!!!

For every phone there are different PC´s. You can find them in the internet via google, here is a list of some product codes.

Here an important list of the included languages in the different PC´s:

EURO1: English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese
EURO2: English, French, German, Turkish, Dutch, Italian
EURO3: English, Czech, Slovakian, German, Polish, Hungarian
SCANDINAVIA: English, Finnish, Swedish, Norwegian, Icelandic, Danish
BALTIC: English, German, Estonian, Russian, Latvian, Lithuanian
RUSSIA: English, German, Ukrainian, Russian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Hungarian
BALKANS: English, German, Croatian, Slovenian, Serbian, Greek
ARABIC: English, Arabic, French, Farsi, Urdu
HEBREW: English, Hebrew, Arabian, Russian, Romanian, Spanish
AFRICA: English, Portuguese, German, Italian, French

Let´s start with changing your Product Code… (*click on the screenshots to enlarge them)

1. Download Nemesis Service Suite here.

2. Now install NSS on your computer.

3. You have installed NSS succesfully on your computer? Okay, let´s start with changing your PC.

4. Start NSS, then plug your device into the computer and choose “PC Suite”. Now click on “scan for new device” in the top right corner of NSS.

5. Now NSS should have found your device.

6. Click on “Phone Info”

7. Enter the PC you want on your phone, then mark “Enabled” and click on “Write”.

8. Now you have changed the PC of your phone and you can close NSS.

As you can see it is very easy to change your phones Product Code.

If there are any problems leave a comment.

Now you can use the power of your Nokia S60 device to stream videos live to the internet. Qik is using the capabilities of an N95 (fast Wi-Fi connection and VGA video quality) to stream videos live or with some delay to your own Qik site.

First of all you have to sign up over at Qik. In my case the whole registration took more than 1 day because I received the final text message one or even two days after I received the first text message. Anyway, after you have set up everything you can start to stream your videos straight from your phone. I’ve tested it with my N95 and it works great.

Blogging is nowadays pretty popular – everybody is blogging about everything. Since I’m blogging for Xonio and have to study a lot, I’ve just little sparetime, therefor I’m writing more and more articles on my phone. I don’t post them directly from the phone but I create them on my phone. Here are 3 things, making mobile blogging pretty handy and convenient. By the way, this post was written on an N95 8GB

1. SU-8W

The Nokia SU-8W is a handy but nevertheless a great gadget. Connected to your Nokia smartphone you can write articles just like you’re used it from your computer keyboard at home. Furthermore it’s not only for blogging butfor emailing and other text messages.

2. DT-22

If you’re filming a lot with your phone, for example unboxing videos, interviews, previews or podcasts, you should take a look at the Nokia DT-22 Tripod. It’s the perfect accessory for almost all camera phones and also for normal cameras.

3. Software:
Before you can start writing and publish an article, you need an application you can write with. You have two ways – posting directly from your phone or create it on your phone and post it from your computer.

Write on the phone and post on the computer:

The pre-installed Quick Office version doesn’t allow you to edit or create a file ( Nseries). Therefore you need to upgrade it or to look for another program. I’m using Office Suite which is a great replacement.

Write and publish straight from your phone:

For writing and publishing articles straight from your device you need a client that is suitable for your blog provider. I’ve found for Typepad blogger and Wordpress blogger a suitable application.

Stefan has brought us a pretty cool news. After YouTube clients like MobiTubia and emTube just another client enter the community. YouTube just realeast its own YouTube client for every phone. I tested it on my N95 and it works fine.

Source: Intomobile 

We have already reported about a blogging solution for Wordpress blogger- Wavelog. Now I’ve found a other solution which allows also TypePad blogger post content to their blog. It runs on S60 3rd Edition, Windows Mobile 5, Palm OS, S60 1st and 2nd Edition devices. You can post pictures and also text. Unfortunately I can’t test the software due to I don’t have any TypePad blog. However, if you’re a Typepad blogger you should test this freeware application. Visit the developer’s blog to read more about it

For 3rd Edition

This is a tutorial for podcasting on your Nseries and Eseries device using Nokia’s Podcasting application. Jump over to check out if your phone is supported. You can just watch the tutorialvideo, or read the 4 steps. If you don’t know what podcast is, visit this site to learn more about it.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffBv9seixaU]

1. First of all ensure that you have already the Nokia Podcasting application installed. If you haven’t it, just visit nokia.com/podcasting or open the Download! application to download Podcasting.

2. Now install and run Podcasting.

3. Before you can start enjoying some podcast, you have to subscribe to some podcast using the search function or select some from Directories.

4. If you found some podcast somewhere else (e.g podcast.net), just copy the URL, go to Podacast /New podcast and insert the URL of the RSS feed. Now you can enjoy the world of video and audio podcast on your mobile device.

Here a tip, if you have a URL on your computer and you want to copy it to your phone, just create a barcode and scan it with your phone using the barcode reader. This is really easy and fast.

Here are some great podacast, every S60 geek needs on his phone:

Voice of S60

Chatting with the Guru

Smartphones Show

AAS Podcast

Driving with the Guru

Opera has launched a new version of Opera Mini. Opera Mini Beta 3 is totally free. Just point your browser to : mini.opera.com/beta

Changes since Opera Mini 4 beta 2

• Added Link support
• Added Speed Dials
• Added RSS feed support
• Added shortcut *+0 for feeds
• Added shortcuts for speed dials (*+[speed dial number])
• Added function to ask the transcoders for the title and favicon of a new bookmark or speed dial
• Stylus devices can now scroll shortcut help overlays
• Changed “Fit to width” to “Mobile view”
• Changed “Autozoom” to “Show overview”
• Low, medium and high image quality setting
• Images fit better to the screen (no panning)
• Improved BiDi support
• Page position and scaling is now preserved after reload of page
• Stylus devices without pointer motion events should be able to scroll anyway, just not in realtime
• Faked transcoding progress when using feeds
• Show numbers in ordered lists
• Improved stylesheet handling
• Focus highlight now looks inactive when loading
• New and improved server side cookie handling

Source: Dailymobile

Slick is a messenger application for S60 3rd edition, S60, UIQ 3.0 and UIQ devices. It allows you to chat with your friends connected though various online messaging applications.
Currently it is still in development, and alpha version is available for free for public testing.

Features:

• Supported protocols:
  ICQ, Yahoo, AIM, MSN
• Text messaging
• Emoticons
• Alerts – sound, backlight, vibration, notify window displaying number of new messages
• Group and buddy management (add, delete, rename)
• Message history
• Downloading files sent as links
• More features to be added

However, in the moment I prefer Windows Live Messenger (MSN Client) because with the Windowns Live Messenger you can change your appearance like your name or your personal message. Besides you can sent files via Windows Live Messenger but I think that in the final version will this and a lot other usefull features be added.

The new Google Maps version is now available. It works now natively on S60 and also uses the internal GPS of the N95, E90 or 6110. This application shows you maps and also satellite pictures of the whole world. Just test it on your own.  Point your mobilebrowser to http://www.google.com/gmm

Source: Intomobile

The guys at Orange in UK have found a great way to charge your phone without electricity. All you need is wind – nothing more. The Mobile Wind Charger does not only help mother-earth it even saves you a lot money. So, if you’re living in country where you have only a bit sun but a lot wind, than is the Mobile Wind Charger the perfect charger for you. There is no information of release or price.

Source:Gadgets-reviews

External link:
The guys at Orange in UK have found a great way to charge your phone without electricity.

Do you love to relax in your bed and listen to music? Than you maybe know the problem to stand up to switch the song. Wouldn’t it be great to have a remote control for the PC? Here is it, Salling Clicker. Salling Clicker runs more than 300 devices and on every Nseries.You can download it for free here. You have to install it on your PC and than on your phone. It’s working via Bluetooth or via W-Lan. With Salling Clicker you can control iTunes,Winamp,Windows Media Player and Powerpoint.

DOWNLOAD

[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=1xjBNdZJBe0]

So let the battle begin:

N91:

There are only minimal waves in the bass and tonic-area which provide for a beefy play back.

5700:

Up to the early waste in the bass, is the sound really linear.

Verdict:
Both phones are great musicphones, have a good user interface and have a lot space for music. Like in the two other test the N91 wins this time again. The sound quality is a little bit better but the quality of the 5700 is good, too. No matter which phone you chose, you have a good S60 musicphone.

Krisse over Allaboutsymbian has put together a great review putting in which Krisse compares S40 and S60. Jump over to see who the fight won.

Source: Allaboutsymbian

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KjTvRLjLtMk]

 Source:Allaboutsymbian