Skype have finally launched an official Skype application for S60 3rd Edition. The limited beta application runs on all S60 3rd Edition devices and can be downloaded here.
Just like the desktop version if you can call your sykpe contacts, write IMs, sent files and much more. It looks and works pretty good. Skype for Symbian works over Wifi or 3G data connection. We recommend having a unlimited data plan when using 3G connection.

Skype for Symbian supports:

• Free Skype-to-Skype calling
• Call phones with Skype credits or subscription
• Receive calls on your Online Number
• Instant Messaging
• Group conversations
• File sending and receiving

The Nokia Beta Labs really stand for funny, useful and inoviate applications. Now they introduced Nokia Magnifier. It uses your phone camera as a magnifier to improve the readability of fine prints such as billings or bookpages. Nokia Magnifier has a built in stabilizer to reduce the effects of a shaky hand and negative filter enabling users to switch from light to dark backgrounds improving readability. By using the existing camera technology, users can also snap a picture of the enhanced image for later reference. Of course this application is free for download. However, it doesn’t work on the new S60 Feature Pack 2 devices devices but only on devices like the N95, N82 or the E90.

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.

The Nokia N96 is not even mainstream yet but got a new firmware. This new firmware is the first update for this very new device which originally comes with the firmware v10.065. The new firmware is version 11.018 and there’s no changelog yet.

Source: p@sco

My favorite YouTube gets a new update. MobiTubia just hits 1.80 Build 2 and brings a lot of changes and improvements. Unfortunately is v1.8 Bult 2 just available for donators.

MobiTubia 1.80 Build 2 Changelog

• Change Font Style for 352×416 and 800×352 screen size
• Change Application’s Icon
• Change Some Menu Icons
• Change Splash Screen
• Splash Screen has timer now
• Change whole Video Playing method
• Unicode characters supported for searching
• Language Support: Thai
• Send Saved Clip to another device via Bluetooth and IR
• Add “Sort by” feature in Search menu
• Fixed: Change for YouTube new system

Source: Symbian60

To get all the power out of your N95 8GB, you need applications. Without any applications on your Nseries device it´s only a mobile phone with office and multimedia abilities. But if you want a real Multimedia Computer, that you can carry around with you in your pocket, you need to have applications on it.

Today I´ve made list with my personal top-ten, must-have applications for the Nokia N95 8GB:

1. Opera Mini

2. X-plore

3. Handy Taskman

4. Screenshot

5. rotateMe 2.0

6. Office Suite

7. Nokia Sports Tracker

8. Nokia Internet Radio

9. Nokia Maps 2.0

10. Mr. Lock

(*click on the screenshots to download)

Most of the applications are freeware, but you also have to pay for some. If you miss an application, then leave a comment and tell me why I should add it to my top ten applications. If you can’t get enough from 3rd party application you should jump over to ‘‘Freeware Downloads‘‘ where you can find a lot more applications

Of course you can use these applications on every S60 3rd phone.

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.

S60 smartphones have become little computers. Using CpuMonitor you can check now the CPU graph, CPU and FreeRAM just like on your real Computer. CPUMonitor is a simple freeware application you can download here.

Source: Symbian-freak

MobiTubia, the YouTube Client developed by Sittiphol Phanvalai, just hits version 1.76 build 4. The freeware application can be downloaded here.

Changes:

- Fixed: “Video Not Found” error
- Change Splash Screen Image
- Reduce SIS file size to 175 KB

Finally, MobiTubia is available for the public. After a long trial period, everybody with a suitable phone can download MobiTubia, a great YouTube client. I’ve already took a brief look at MobiTubia and I have to say that it’s a kick ass application.

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

I think all of you know the problem of losing all applications after updating the firmware. You have to install each application once again which takes a long time. However, now Vaibhav over at The Symbian Blog, has found a great freeware application called InstFast. It reinstalls the applications after a firmware update. Therefore you have to place the sis, sisx and jar files in a folder and InstFast will install them. However, you have to sign the application with your developer certificate before installation. Unfortunately you have to change your phone´s date back to a point before 31.12.07, otherwise the application won´t work.

Source: The Symbian Blog

We have already reported about two YouTube Clients offering the whole YouTube content on your device. Now Sebastian Jedruszkiewicz has released the first version of emTube. It runs pretty good on my N95 and N82. This great software is a freeware, but if you like it, you are welcome to donate it. So, jump over to download it or to donate.

Source: The Symbian Blog

Nokia Multimedia Transfer 1.2 Beta for Mac is now available for free download.

What’s new:
* Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard is now supported
* Improved Nokia Device Browser with folder view
* Ability to customise the transcoding of files in iTunes and iPhoto transfers
* Performance of iTunes and iPhoto transfers with a large number of files has been improved
* Many bug fixes and minor improvements

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

Two weeks ago Nokia Beta Labs launched a really cool software called Device Status (here more information). However, now  they launched also the sis version for users without Windows based PCs. Jump over to download the exe or the sis.

Source:  blogs.s60.com

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

A new application has been released from Nokia Beta Labs. Device Status collect important data from your phone and PC and shows all important details like IMEI or FW. Rafe from Allaboutsymbian already tested it. Jump over to read his article or download the app here.

Overview

Nokia Device Status is a self-diagnosis tool that allows you to collect detailed system information both from your PC and your S60 device. Your current device configuration and phone settings are presented in a detailed summary, which you can use to determine the exact cause, if you run into problems.

With Nokia Device Status, you can save all the collected information to a file, and you can send the file to customer care services for closer inspection and analysis.

Collected data from your PC includes:

• Operating system
• Language of the operating system vs. that of Nokia PC Suite
• Version of Nokia PC Suite currently installed on your PC
• Drivers required to connect your phone to your PC
• Local time zone
• Log files created by Nokia PC Suite
• Regional and language settings

Collected data from your phone includes:

• Device model
• IMEI code of the phone
• Device memory and any available memory card
• Profiles and themes used on the phone
• Locations used to store data on the phone

After installation, you can access the application both from your phone and from your PC.

We are evaluating the possibilities for integrate Nokia Device Status with Nokia customer care, so tell us what you think – all improvement suggestions are warmly welcome!

Installation instructions

Before installation, please remove possible earlier versions from your PC and your phone. Also, make sure that you have Nokia PC Suite (6.84 or newer) or Nokia Nseries PC Suite installed on your PC.

Download the file, launch it from your PC, and follow instructions

Source: Allaboutsymbian

Well the world’s best cross platform mobile browser just got better. YES !!!Opera mini has been updated to BETA 2. To download the browser just visit www.mini.opera.com/beta with your mobile.

12 reasons to love Opera Mini 4 beta

1) It’s fast and it’s revolutionary

Impress your friends and wow yourself with Opera Mini 4 beta as you quickly navigate the entire Internet on the world’s only super fast and free mobile phone browser. Access any site at any time, anywhere, and on almost any phone.

Opera Mini 4 gives you the power of full Internet browsing — all inside of your mobile phone.

2) It really is that easy

When you go to a web page, Opera Mini will show you the overview of the page, then suggest where to begin reading. Then, Opera Mini zooms quickly in on the web page and focuses on the content you want to read.

3) Text and images just fit — less scrolling

Opera Mini dynamically changes the size of text and images, making it more convenient to read, and saving you a lot of unnecessary scrolling!

4) View pages in Landscape mode

Want to view the Web on a wider screen? Just hit * # and flip your phone to the side to enjoy browsing in Landscape mode. Change your default view to landscape by turning “Landscape mode” on inside your Settings menu. (Note that this feature is yet not supported on BlackBerry and some other devices.)

5) Search just multiplied

Now you can search for and access info even quicker on the go. Find whatever you need using Opera Mini’s multi-search Start Page. Several starter search engines, including Yahoo!, are available directly from your Opera Mini Start Page.

6) Create or grab search!

Just like in Opera for your computer, now you can create your own Web search from any search field on the Internet using Opera Mini. Simply click on the search field that you want to grab on a Web page and then choose “Create search” within your menu alternatives. Then you can enjoy making frequent searches without having to type in the site link again.

7) Opera Mini’s got a mouse!

Opera Mini now gives you a virtual mouse, so you can easily scroll in any direction. Move the mouse cursor towards what you want, and then it quickly snaps your view to the link or content.

Become a power scroller

Now you can scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad. Find your way around on the web pages quicker using simple keypad commands. Simply hit 2 to go up, 4 to go left, 6 to go right and 8 to go down. Opera Mini will snap the view to the content. Hitting 5 zooms you in and out.

9) Fast = cheaper browsing

Because Opera Mini 4 quickly delivers the Internet to your phone, this drives the cost of your data bill down. Since Opera Mini loads your requested web pages at over twice the speed of the other mobile browsers on the market, that means you get more content in less time. Since Opera Mini compresses the data before it is delivered, that means less data has to come through. Since less data means less money, you actually pay less to get faster service!

10) Too wide? Just resize!

Opera’s unique “Small Screen Rendering” feature (the function is titled “Fit to width”) lets you better enjoy web pages on the small screen. Fit any web page to width and Opera Mini 4 beta will adjust the page structure on the fly, so you can see more and scroll down a single column. That way you can browse up and down without also having to worry about horizontal scrolling.

11) Keystrokes for quick browsing

While browsing with Opera Mini 4 Beta, you can take control over your viewing options with a few quick keystrokes. Just hit 1 to open the Context Menu, where you can turn on Small Screen Rendering (Fit to width) or reload the page.

Or, before you click on a link, focus the cursor on a link to check where the link will take you. You can then choose whether you want to open the linked page with images turned off. If you choose to browse with the images turned off, you can still choose to load these images in the page you are browsing by selecting “Load images.” You can even load the image in its uncompressed, high-quality, original size by choosing “Open image.”

12) Tools and support for web designers

Because Opera Mini 4 Beta strives to deliver the best web browsing experience possible for every device and medium, we offer great support for web designers who want to make their websites look even better to those browsing with Opera Mini. In this latest beta, we have included all of the cool CSS support that web designers need to make their web pages look pixel perfect on in the mobile web world.

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.

The time of S60 3rd Ed was so good.Creating operator logos was so easy but how about 3rd Ed? Is it possible? Till yesterday it was but today Apoc found a application that make it possible.

Jump over to read the tutorial.

Source: Symbian-freak 

Today a picture of the new bluetooth GPS module appears on the FCC site. There was no details but it looks like the slimmer and lither LD-3W. If you aren’t a N95, 6110 or E90 user, is this bluetooth GPS module the perfect accessories for smart2go, route66 or any other navigationsystem.

Source: Symbian-freak

The lighting-conditions become better and better from top to bottom.

Left site: flash              right site:nightmode            click to enlarge

Verdict
How you can see, it always depends on the light conditional and on the distance to the object. If there is no light you should use the flash. However, don’t go to close to the object because you could over-exposed the object. If there is light you should use the nightmode.

Download
First install WindowsLive.SIS and than dep.sisx.
Please note that I cannot be held responsible for any damage to your data on your phone upon installing this.

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