The Nokia Guide

The Future is FOTA… again?!

In the “15 things I’ve wondered about the Nseries,” which I wrote 2 days ago, I asked myself what happened to FOTA and why isn’t it used anymore? Apparently it is still used, but not as often and not on as many handsets as we would think.  Some 6120 user for example pointed it out that they had performed such an update. But wasn’t FOTA (Firmware-Over-The-Air) supposed to be this big feature on S60 Feature Pack 1 devices? It seems like more S60 3^rd edition devices (Non-Feature Pack 1) devices supported and actually use this feature than the actual FP1 devices themselves. Think of the N80, N80IE and N73, all supporting and even frequently updating via FOTA.

Nokia seems to be making a new attempt at using FOTA by releasing the FOTA-only software version 11.043 for the FP2-based N78. The N78 update will not be available through the Nokia Software Updater application, but is available directly through the Nokia N78 and improves the stability with Bluetooth (headsets and car kits) and music (playback over a long time and content refresh). It will also include optimized Camera performance and Naviscroll sensitivity improvements, requiring a 2MB download. Nokia informs that “To get this software through your Nokia N78, click Menu > Tools > Utilities > Device Manager. Select Options > Check for updates and follow the on-screen prompts. Remember that you can also use Wi-Fi to download the update.”

After such a long time tt’s great to see Nokia using FOTA on a recent device such as the N78, but in my opinion the user should have options and in this case releasing a FOTA-only update to me seems like a big No-No.

In other FOTA news, Nokia has released OS2008 Feature Upgrade v. 4.2008.23-14 for the Nseries’ line of Internet Tablet. The great thing about this update is that again further OS updates will be made available over-the-air. User will automatically get notifications about the availability of OS updates in the status bar when new updates are provided or by manually checking this from the Application manager. Worth noting however is that again this will only work over WLAN connections, while updates via PC are apparently just being left out.

This to me seems like a case of giving more options to the user and to me leaving out updates via the PC seems like a not so good idea. So basically we would like FOTA, but we would love to keep updates via the PC.

What do you think? Should Nokia completely remove the option of updating via the PC?

15 things I’ve wondered about the Nseries

1. If the Eseries stands for Enterprise, than what does the “Nseries” stand for?

2. Why doesn’t the Nseries include USB charging?

3. Why wasn’t Nokia able to make a stylish and feature packed phone (N76 doesn’t count)?

4. Why does the N95 8GB with no upgradeable memory, exposed camera and lower Image Quality (when compared the N95) is considered an upgrade?

5. Why doesn’t screen auto-rotation work when the device is turned to the left?

6. Why doesn’t the Nseries Internet Tablets include phone functionality?

7. What will happen when all the numbers are used?

8. Why is the SportsTracker name used, when in fact it could be used for more than that?

9. Why are the icons being moved around with every new phone or even firmware?

10. What happened to FOTA and why isn’t it used anymore?

11. Why aren’t detailed lists provided with every new firmware?

12. Why isn’t firmware updates cached in case I want to reinstall them?

13. Why was the Video editor TRULY removed on the N95 8GB and N82?

14. If the N93 had such a great keypad, than why are newer keypads getting worse? (N82, N78)

15. In Nokia Search, why can’t I send the file I just found?

Add Sync ‘n charge via USB to your N95 8GB: Proporta USB Sync-Charge Cradle

It’s no secret that Nseries device have an obvious limitation: No re-charging via the now universal micro- and miniUSB connections. This problems also ties in with the need to include a desk holder in the Nseries packages that’s also able to charge the device and perform the usual data transfer and sync duties via PC Suite or your Media Player. Nokia does offer the universal Desk Stand DT-13, up till now only the N91 has been blessed with the included DT-10 desk stand and before we forget the Nokia Phone Holder NK007044. As for USB charging, Nokia does offer the Charger via USB port CA-100, but again this solution only offers charging via USB , but no data transfer and sync. Until Nokia offers such a solution and includes it in the package, Proporta comes to the rescue with their dynamic duo...

Back home!

I know I’ve been a little behind with my post, my apologies for this. I just returned from a trip to Aruba where the local telecom provider Setar invited me for a weeklong event to talk about Nokia’s Nseries and to educate the staff on the many uses of these devices communicating in the local Papiamentu language. Setar on the neighboring island of Aruba is the first Caribbean provider to launch a 3.5G network. It was a fun, action filled week where we covered everything from the Nseries line, S60, Applications, Smartphones and the endless possibilities of these devices.  Having clocked 30 hours (total) of lectures, I will need to hit the beaches to get some rest, but in the end the staff was quite impressed and surprised as to what is possible on these powerful devices. I will be making several trips to Aruba on upcoming events. Happy to be back home and let the posting begin! :)

Proporta Mobile Charger restyled by Ted Baker

The Proporta Mobile Charger has become a de facto standard when it comes to mobile charging. When I reviewed the unit it was clear why it has become the current standard: there just wasn’t much to complain about here. Proporta later on released a smaller and improved version of the charger called the Mobile Device Charger Micro (albeit with a lower a capacity), which I reviewed here.  Recently Proporta released a special edition black version of the Mobile Charger called the “No Ordinary Designer Charger Kit” by Ted Baker.  According to Wikipedia Ted Baker is “is a British clothing retail company, known for applying twists to their products, and has become a UK designer label through word of mouth rather than advertising.  It seems that the updated unit was Styled by Ted Baker London and features a new black and grey look. Hardware-wise the unit is exactly like the original except for the new black and grey look with the Ted Baker sign and a drawstring bag. The unit will sell for as much as the original version, which is around $ 49.95.

If that wasn’t enough they also released the Ted Baker Six Pack which includes all of the above but adds the World AC Power and Car Power Supply (with USB) for $ 59.95.

 

16 GB Sandisk microSD cards to be released in July

I was informed from my sources close to Sandisk that those sought-after 16GB microSD cards are supposed to be available to online stores in about 4 weeks, which should put availability sometime in July. This pushes availability 1 month later as these were supposed to available in June as we hoped. Apparently SanDisk seemed have had few issues lately and due to the large inventory of 8GB cards that needs to be moved, all have lead to the delay of the 16GB cards.

With an impending release of the N96 with its built-16GB of memory and the option of adding microSDHC cards, you could very soon be walking around with devices holding no less than 32GB’s of memory.  Will you be getting the N96 with one of those 16GB Sandisk microSDHC cards?

Update: Some of you have been asking about the 12GB Sandisk microSD cards. It seems Sandisk will completely skip these and go straight for the 16GB models. Looking ahead, 32GB microSD cards should be arriving in the next 12 to 18 months, making it possible for users to carry a total of 48GB of memory in a device like the N96.

Gaming keys work on the N95 8GB…too

As Tzer2 at Allaboutsymbian has pointed out, the N95 does have gaming keys.  He has heard mixed reports about the N95 8GB, but I can confirm that on my N95 8GB (N95-2) with the latest firmware, the gaming keys work in N-Gage. What variant of the N95 do you have and do the gaming keys work in N-Gage?

Nseries vs HSDPA Modem

Recently the local providers of Curacao (UTS) and Aruba (SETAR) have launched the Caribbean’s first UMTS network (including HSDPA). Besides offering just the mobile options, users can also opt for the HSDPA access modem, in this case the Huawei E220 for PC’s and especially Notebook access. The E220 is an all-in-one solution including HSDPA modem, USB mass storage device and virtual CD-ROM device. Opting for the modem means paying the expensive local purchase price or adding an extra fee to the monthly charge. As an official tester for UTS I decided to put the N95 8GB and the Black N82 against the Huawei E220 HSDPA USB modem. Would the Nseries be slower? How long would the batteries last when tethered?

The N95 8GB and the Black N82 were able to perform just as fast as the dedicated HSDPA modem, clocking close to the 3.6 Mbit/s limit as indicated by www.speedtest.net  An interesting observation however is that the N82 seemed to disconnect more frequently than the N95 8GB or the HSDPA modem. This could be pure chance, but it also could be that it’s less sensitive at picking up signals. During the course of 3 days, the HSDPA disconnected just 1 time just like the N95 8GB, while the N82 disconnected 5 times.

As for the battery life, the N95 8GB lasted 2 hours and 24 minutes tethered to my laptop, while the N82 lasted 2 hours and 45 minutes before its battery died. The HSDPA modem was USB powered so it could keep going for as long as your Notebook could.

Conclusion

The N95 8GB and N82 work well as HSDPA modems giving you virtually the same performance as a stand-alone HSDPA modems. With the latest Nseries devices you can expect battery life of about 2.5 hours, which by itself isn’t bad, but can’t compete with a USB powered unit like the Huawei E220 in the sense that most notebook can keep going for longer than 2.5 hours. In the case that your notebook is plugged in and you didn’t bring your charger along means that the HSDPA modem could keep going while the the N95 8GB and N82 would be dead in less than 3 hours. Getting the Nokia Nokia Charger via USB port CA-100 should bring the latest Nseries devices on par with a stand-alone HSDPA modem.

CNET reviews the Nokia MD-7

CNET takes a look at Nokia’s Bluetooth Stereo Speakers the MD-7 and informs that they are easy to use and that they offer quality audio performance. On the other side they think that the MD-7 speakers are expensive and their design is somewhat unstable.  In the mean time I’m working on a review for much much larger speakers that will REALY fill a room with sound and bass (Think 8” Subwoofer), so stay tuned….

Nokia PDF document highlighting the differences between the N95, N95 8GB and the N96.

James Powell from the Talk About Nseries blog has found a PDF document highlighting the differences between the N95, N95 8GB and the N96. No surprises here, but analyzing the document reveals a few interesting details. First of all the document indicates that the N96 includes A-GPS, but that it has an improved antenna. Another interesting detail is that they mention that the N96 has “Enhanced Audio Quality.” But it’s still unclear whether they are referring to the Digital Audio Processing for music playback or that audio-recording during movies has been improved. The N96 also appears to have the ability to natively playback WMV and WMV-DRM (finally!) But the most interesting information has got to be the fact that they indicate that the N96 will have an effective transfer rate of about 50 Mbit/s, 10 times faster than the N95 8GB and N95 which is a huge improvement over current devices on the market. It’s something that we’ve been complaining about and I’m glad to see the the official numbers. I do have to say that the real-world transfer on the N95 8GB is more around 0.8 to 1Mbit/s (the document mentions 5Mbit/s) which I think should put the real-world transfer of the N96 more in the 10-15Mbit/s range which is still pretty fast.

The documents can be found here and here.

Benchmark your Nseries with newly released JBenchmark SVG

Kishonti Informatics, the guys behind JBenchmark have released their latest benchmark in the form of JBenchmark SVG.

The new version features:
- Heavy load on animation, DOM access and modification, spline and polygon rendering
- Mapping test
- User Interface simulation
- Font rendering
- Gaming
- Cartoon animation
- SVG load and parse test
- Low level performance tests

What’s cool about the JBenchmark series, including the new JBenchmark SVG, is that you can customize the benchmark by choosing what subtests to include. These subtests are like small test benchmarking your Nseries performing different tests like gaming, cartoon animation etc. and upload the results and compare to other devices.

If you’re interested in more graphic-intensive benchmarking you can always try the Futuremark’s SPMark for Symbian OS or Nokia E3 Tech Demo. The hardware-accelerated Nseries are known to ace these test, but how do they perform in 2D, animation and mapping tests?

What’s the best way of implementing media keys on a Candybar?

Point number 2 of my recent post: “The 10 reasons why the N82 isn’t perfect ” mentions that something that the N82 lacks are media keys. This got me thinking:  On sliders like the N95 it’s been pretty much solved by doing a dual slide design which houses media keys, but how should these be implemented on a Mono block device like the N82?

1. Slide-out top-mounted media keys: The N95’s slide-out design works perfectly, so why not do the same for a mono block device like the N82? This could be done by having a small slide-out portion at the top of the device.

2. Traditional side-mounted keys: This is probably one of the more traditional ways of adding media keys: placing keys on the sides of the phone. Peter Rullmann from the Humane Computing blog suggests that side-mounted media keys on the mono block devices like the N82, would Not only to control the music player but also to start a voice recording.

3. Sliding front cover. A similar idea was implemented on the N91 and N91 8GB which in fact were candybar devices with a sliding front cover.

4. Stealth keys surrounding the D-pad, which were implemented on the N81 series of devices and soon to be released N96.

In my opinion the raison the etre for candybar devices is having a sturdy and compact devices and having slide-out (point 1) and slide-to-cover solutions like the N91 (point 4) would work well, but would add unnecessary moving parts which candybar lovers are VERY sensitive about. Stealth keys like the N81 don’t work so well as it all has the be pushed into a very tiny space and it also increases the chance of accidentally pressing the wrong keys. Based on this, I would say that tradional side-mounted media keys stay true to what candybars are all about, while still adding the convenience of media control. What do you think is the best way of implementing media keys on a Candybar design like the N82?

Getting a new phone means losing every single purchased N-Gage game!

Over at Allaboutngage there’s a well-written article indicating something that I personally wasn’t aware of: your N-Gage library is locked to the original handset forever. I always thought that my purchased games would somehow be linked to my N-Gage account, but as it turns out getting a new phone means losing every single purchased game! The article goes on suggesting that Nokia should fix by either doing game activation by consulting Nokia's servers or Linking games to a single N-Gage account, and linking that account to a single phone.  Personally, I won’t be making a single purchase until this is sorted. What do you think? How should the N-Gage system deal with game purchases, activation and transfer?

10 reasons why the N82 isn’t perfect

The N82 is in my opinion currently one of the best multimedia-oriented smartphones on the market, doing everything a N95 or N95 8GB can (sans the slider of course)in a more compact, go-anywhere-do everything package that’s also sturdier due to the candybar design. Its design doesn’t scream “smartphone” like the N95, which should allow it to appeal more to the general market. Not bad neither that it has one of the best cameras on any smartphone, including that wonderful Xenon flash and the impressive low-light performance. Despite of all these notable attributes, it’s far from perfect and here are 10 reasons why.

1. No Optical Zoom: The N82 has the aspiration of being and even replacing your digital camera, but lacking Optical zoom means that you’re pretty much stuck with the digital variant,which by now we all know is pretty much useless. Lacking Optical zoom still means that the N82’s plans for digital camera domination will be cut short.

2. No Media keys:  Having a smartphone means doing many things at once. A lot of times, playing music is going to be “one of those things” and the lack of media keys mean constantly having to open the Media Player to control your music, instead of just pressing a single button.

3. Lack of micro-USB charging. Having the ability to charge via USB not only means one cable to take along, but also charging while transferring data, especially during those firmware upgrades or those long first-time music-sync sessions.

4. micro-USB and charger connector Placement. The micro-USB and charger connector should be placed at bottom phone. Both of them get in the way when I’m talking on the phone and charging the device at the same time.

5. Small screen. Ask any N95 user and they tell you that one of the things they miss is the large screen, which does come in handy when viewing videos or pictures. While sliders have the advantage of being able to house larger screen, on the N82 there seems to be a lot of empty space to facilitate this. Making the phone bigger to achieve this would also seem like an understandable compromise.

6. Speaker placement. The N82’s speakers work great when held horizontally, but try playing your tunes while holding the device vertically and you’ll quickly realize how your hands actually cover the speakers. The placement of the speakers on the N95  works a lot better, but a combination of both should work best.

7. Slow USB transfer. Based on these simple test here, it shows that the transfer speed on the N82 is painfully slow. You could always take out the memory card and use a card reader, but that would defeat the all-in-one purpose, wouldn’t it?

8.Lack of optical Image Stabilizer (IS): Adding Optical zoom means more chances of getting blurry shaky images, adding IS should help a lot.

9. No QWERTY. Not only business devices should equal QWERTY. A N82 with a side-mounted slide-out QWERTY keyboard would be killer.

10. No Flashlight: One thing I liked about the N93 was the fact that you could use the flash as a flashlight and just like the upcoming N96 you could use it during the video recording.

N78 support page up, available in weeks

For those of you waiting for the N78, it seems that wait might soon be over as the N78 support page is now up on the Nokia Europe site. If you’ve followed previous Nseries devices before, you’d know that the support page going up usually means that the product should become available in about 2 to 3 weeks. In the mean head on over to the N78 support page where you’ll find demo’s, tips & tricks, software etc.

Tip of the day: Improve your N95’s speaker performance

The N95 and N95 8GB are the loudest in the Nseries when it comes to stereo speaker performance.  For this reason many of tend to forget the portable speaker and just use the N95 series of devices to fill a room with our favorite tunes.  Here’s a little tip that just might help making the experience a little bit better. For a long time Home Theater enthusiasts have been using a room’s walls and corners to aid in optimizing the sound produced by speakers and subwoofers. In the case of subwoofers it’s sometimes recommended to place them in the corner to effectively increase the output.  In the case of bipole or dipole speakers the walls again play a great role as to how the sound will be affected.  Applying these techniques makes the already impressive sound output on the N95 series even better.

Next time you want to share your music with other in a room, just place the N95 standing upright on a flat surface in front of wall or even closed windows. This will effectively help to better spread the sound and slightly increase the volume. The effect is even more dramatic when the N95 is placed in a corner. Corner placement also seems to enhance the deeper tones of a song. Try playing your favorite tunes while standing in the middle of a room, now place the device in front of a wall or corner. Hear the difference?

Is Cloud Computing the future of the Nseries, Symbian and S60?

In basic terms Cloud Computing refers to the notion of running applications and services in real-time, even your storage from somewhere in the “clouds”, with such a “cloud” being massive computer servers linked through an internal corporate network or the public Internet .Many believe that this is where the PC is heading and with current  Nseries being categorized as multimedia computers, it doesn’t take much to realize that the same could be done on our mobile devices. With this in mind, can you imagine future Nseries devices with applications, storage or even the entire operating system stored not locally but in the “clouds.” Logically a dependable, constant and fast connection would be critical, but it’s not something that can’t be done with current technology. Such a system could have many benefits that include greater computing efficiency, accessibility of data and applications from anywhere or any phone. Lose your phone and it’s just a matter of disabling your account on that phone and enabling all your settings, apps and operating system on a new one. No worries with Software or firmware updates as these would automatically be applied once runned.

Other benefits that you could think of include cheaper devices, due to the fact that most of the “computing” is done by the servers, self-healing in the sense that in case of failure, there will be a hot backup instance of the application ready to take over without disruption. You could even think of having virtual desktops, or in our case stand-by screens or better yet, several virtual operating systems running at the same time, all handled by the servers. This would do away with having to worry about signing applications or even installing them, the application would immediately be there on a rent-to-use or pay-once-to-use models.  When it comes to storage it would come down to how much space do you need with no traditional memory cards to worry with.  Taking an 8GB microSD card on a trip and worrying that it might fill up could be a thing of the past.

What do you think? Is Cloud Computing the future?

Getting the most out of your Nseries’ camera Part 2: Creating the mood

One of the tips in the first part of Getting the most out of your Nseries’ camera was setting the Flash to “On” during the day. It may seem to conflict with logic, but it actually helped to brighten up the subject and expose more details, even during the day. Today’s tip is exactly the opposite and just like the previous one it might seem to contradict common knowledge, but in certain low- shots it actually helps to turn off the flash. As with most cameras, the Nseries device’s cameras are set at default to fire the flash in low-light conditions. The key to doing this is settings the flash to “Off” instead of the default “Automatic.” Doing so will allow the camera to capture the natural light of the scene, instead of the artificial light from the flash that sometimes can ruin a picture by taken away the “mood.”

The example below is a simple way of showing this: by turning the flash off, the candle’s dramatic and romantic light is captured creating a specific mood. The picture with the flash set to on shows a lot more details, but lacks the romantic light effect.

Getting full use out of UPnP on the Nseries

UPnP was introduced to the Nseries on the N80 and since than has been used on numerous flagship devices, including the N81, N81 8GB, N82, N93, N93i, N95, N95 8GB and upcoming N96. Simply put, UpnP allow you to: copy media files from your PC to your phone or the other way around and display images and video stored on your phone using your PC, all done wirelessly over WiFi. Ewan from Allaboutsymbian has written a must-read on how to get it up and running using the built-in Windows Media Player.

Ewan points out a very big shortcoming of the Windows Media Player software: “While we can browse music via sharing Windows Media Player on our device, without installing a third party plug-in you won't be able to control it from your handset.” This feature has been available from day one on the very first UPnP-enabled device: the N80. The key to using the Nseries device as a wirless remote to control your music via UpnP is getting the right software and in this case I can recommend SimpleCenter, a piece of software that might be familiar to owners of the N80 or N93, as this was included on the install CD and is mentioned on the N80 support page. SimpleCenter comes in a free and paid version, but the basic one should enough for most, including using your phone as a remote. SimpleCenter can be downloaded here.

Tip of the day: keep the screen clean

The N95 8GB has a large 2.8” screen and the bigger the screen, the better the chances are of getting it dirty. There are many ways to smudge your screen, but one of the biggest ways is holding it against your face when talking on the phone.  Next time you’re talking,  just point the bottom part of the phone just slightly away, minimizing the chances of it touching your face and getting smudged. The good part of this is that the earpiece is still held against your ear allowing you to clearly hear the person you’re talking to, but despite the fact that the mic is sligtly farther away, it is sensitive enough to keep up.

First Impression of the N82 Black

It’s no secret that I really like the Nokia N82 and while it has a few shortcomings, it is currently what I believe the closest thing to perfection available on the market today, beating even the mighty N95 and N95 8GB. Not bad neither that it is one of the best, if not the best mobile imaging device, all in a unpretentious compact package in the traditional “can’t-go-wrong” silver.

Giving the N82 a jet-black look just seemed logical and well they did, joining the current white and “warm titanium” (silver for the rest of us) colors. Worth noting however is that with both of these colors, it’s only the back that changes, while the front is exactly the same silver, whereas on the black version the phone is finally completely black. There’s something about the black color on mobile device: so elegant and mysterious at the same time, that makes people that just to go crazy about them and the N82 is no exception. It’s no coincidence that when Nokia set out to create an updated N95 in the form of the N95 8GB they made it completely black. Remember what color they released the music editons of the N70, N73 and the N91 8GB? Or how about N81? For this reason I think Nokia should make it a habit of releasing a black version of their device at launch. They can get as creative as they want with the colors (remember the purple back on the N95?) but not releasing a full black version should almost be made illegal.

When it comes to changes to the software there’s absolutley nothing new except for the fact that it comes right out of the box with firmware v20.0.062.

On the hardware side, it was obvioulsy given the black color, but overall the same shade of black is not used: the front and back use the darkest shade of black, while the sides, call and end buttons use a lighter, almost dark grey color, but this difference can only be spotted in day light. The material with the lighter shade of black has this matte grippy feel to, something similar to the back of the N95 8GB.  This makes the black N82 a lot less slippery when compared to the other colors and adds a suprising amount of extra grip. The front uses a piano-like finish, whereas the back has a different looking anf feeling glossy effect that seems to have been created by putting a clear coating on top.

 

A noticeable imprvement comes from the keypad buttons and the D-pad itself. The silver N82 had a very wobbly D-pad, now it seems that it has been improved on the black version as it feels a lot more solid. The keys themselves feel positively different: they seem a lot more solid and have much improved audible and tactile feel to them.

The black N82 is not all perfect: One dissapointment comes from the back-lit keypad that has the same strange light-yellowish color to it that doesn’t do jutice to the black the look. Comparing it to the N95 8GB, it shows that the latter uses more of pure-white back-lit keys that looks a lot better. Another missed opportunity comes from the fact that they could have added a light to the D-pad like on the N81. And lastly comparing the black N82 to the N95 8GB reveals that screen auto-rotation reacts way too slow on the N82, while it on the N95 8GB it works just fine. And why doesn’t the black N82’s screen auto-rotation work on the stand-by screen? It does it on the N95 8GB, so the same should be done with the black N82.

Join Maps with Photography: Urbanista Diaries for all!

Remember The Urbanista Diaries? Basically a blogger global relay race where one blogger is dropped off somewhere in the world where he or she encounters challenges along the way. The bloggers than had to use the N82 + Sports Tracker combo to document and share the experience as well as using it as a tool to find his or her way to the next blogger who will continue the journey. A few key parts to the Urbanista Diaries has been the N82 + Sports Tracker which helped to pin-point your location using the N82’s built-in GPS and Sports Tracker that recorded all of this in real-time and later uploads it to the web. We can’t forget about the full-size map on the Urbanista site and of course the Urbanista Widget, which displayed your route and pictures on an interactive map. Personally I found the widget handy s you could easily place it on your site or blog and your readers keep track of your location.

Nokia has now released this widget to all, allowing you to customize the look and place it not only on your site or blog, but also on your profile in various social media sites. But the biggest change however is that this time you don’t follow The Urbanist Dairists, but anyone with a Sports Tracker account. You can choose among 20 different colors and even give the widget a name. You are asked to enter the Sports Tracker username you’d like to follow and currently you can choose between Facebook or Blogger widgets. But where is the Wordpress, Typepad and MySpace support? And wouldn’t it be cool if they could create an app specifically for Nseries devices? Or how about a Vista Side Bar Gadget? These are what I think are essential things that they kind of forgot about and I hope they add them fast. The final result can be seen here on the left, with our own customized The Nokia Guide Widget.

Despite the lack of support for Typepad, I used the Blogger app and that worked just fine. Despite these small shortcomings, the addition of having a customizable widget as an add-on to Sports Tracker is excellent idea showing the different evolutionary directions Location-aware application are going. This should be a fun way of keeping track of what friends and family are doing, but also a great way to share your travels or even your daily routine with others. The Widget can be downloaded right here.

Tip of the day: Open Podcasts with the Music Player

I love podcasts. I listen to them every single day! In a previous post here I had talked about them and how to get the most out of them.  Fact is however that some podcasts are long and I do mean long. I’m talking about 2 hours long and in some cases you can’t listen to them all the way through. In my case I listen to these long podcasts in chunks of 30minutes or less with the usual pause in between. I used to just open these podcasts with the Nokia Podcasting app, but in some cases where I would accidentally close the app or had to restart the phone I would be left wondering where I was. With the latest devices things have gotten a lot easier as the Music Player divides your tunes from your podcasts. Better yet, in the case that you need to close the Music player, it will remember where you left of. So next time, download your podcasts with the Podcasting app, but play them with the Music Player!

Update:  Devices like the N95 8GB, N81 and N82 include the updated Podcasting app version 1.10.1 in the ROM software. The podcasting team is indicating that compared to the older version 1.03 that is currently available for download “There are some minor bug fixes and work done to improve the battery life, but the main value is that the text is now localized to the country languages.” This is handy for those older devices that don’t have the updated app in the ROM. This update should go up this week, so stay tuned.

What happened to FOTA?

Remember FOTA? First introduced with the N80, FOTA or Over-The-Air firmware update, allows your Nseries to  update the firmware directly from the manufacturer’s server using a wireless data connection like Wi-Fi. This is a handy function that allows you update the firmware without ever needing a USB cable and Nokia Software Updater or those visits to the Nokia service centers. On top of that Nokia could offer smaller updates, patching issues as they arise. Newer users would also find it much easier than the NSU solution. Most important of all is the fact that the chances of getting a bricked phone (unusable phone due to failed firmware upgrade) are greatly minimized. While Nokia has made HUGE improvements, making the firmware update via the NSU/USB cable combo almost fail-proof, it’s also a fact that sometimes things still go wrong. That’s where FOTA steps in: it’s a much more convenient and safe solution.

But what happened? Sure, the N80 got a few updates via FOTA and several devices like the N73 got the feature enabled (but never used it), but how many times have you had your phone updated via FOTA lately? Wasn’t this supposed to be one of those big features of S60 3^rd Feature Pack 1? Honestly I had even forgotten that it even existed and it wasn’t until I read the N810 WIMAX edition where they mentioned “Seamless Software Update functionality”, which to me soundws like they’re talking about FOTA. If Nokia is going to introduce this on the Internet Tablets, they should remember that they have this thing called FOTA on their S60 devices and actually use it this time. Better yet, instead of larger updates, they could look at issues users are having in mobile forums and patch them a lot quicker than it would take to do a major update. Do you prefer updating via FOTA, NSU or the good old Nokia service center?

Tip (s) of the day: It’s all about multi-tasking

Wikipedia defines multi-tasking as: the apparent simultaneous performance of two or more tasks by a computer's central processing unit. In this case the “computer” could be any one of the Nseries devices, but as we all know earlier devices were plagued by insufficient and inefficient use of  RAM. They could perform many tasks, but in the end were limited by the available RAM. Luckily, the latest devices like the N95 8GB, N82 and even the N81 have been blessed with tons of RAM. So why not put it to good use?

1)The S60 browser on older devices used  to close by itself when RAM would run out once you loaded one of those RAM hungry pages or when you opened any other application like the Music Player. With the added RAM the latest Nseries phones can tackle the S60 browser in combination with various other open apps and even various browser tabs. But by default there isn’t any setting to allow you to manually open more browser windows.  So Mark from the Nokia blog has come up with a handy tip to trick the the browser into doing this. He suggests that on the newer devices with the updated Multimedia Menu, you could go to the Internet tile and open another browser tabs.  You could repeat this as many time,s adding as many tabs as you like. Pressing #5 in the S60 would bring a list of open pages.

Vaibhav Sharma from the Symbian Blog also has a neat trick to achieve similar results by using the Feed option. He suggests that by subscribing to a feed in the S60 browser and than by opening any post from that feed and selecting the “Full Article” option, this will open the post in a new window. You could then stop the page from loading and proceed to going to any site you want. Again pressing #5 would bring a list of open pages.

2) Many new Nseries users don’t that the Menu key also acts as a “Task Switcher” to switch between open apps. See that button that looks like two snakes? Pressing it toggles between the stand-by screen and applications menu. But by doing a long-press you could open a “Task bar” that shows the list of open apps. You could use Up and Down on the D-pad to browse through these apps or pressing the C-key to close the app you want

3) Once you’ve mastered multi-tasking, why close your apps? If you really want quick access to your application you could leave them running in the background and switch between them using the Menu key. This is especially handy for your email or even the slow Gallery application.