Setting Up PC Suite

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I know there’s a ton of newbies to the S60 world out there, so I put together this quick video for how to sync your S60 device with Nokia’s PC Suite (which you can download for FREE here). Once you install PC Suite, just watch the video and follow the directions. It’s really easy.

I used Bluetooth in the video because that’s what I use on my computer. You can pick up a USB Bluetooth dongle at CompUSA or Fry’s for under $20, just make sure you get one that’s "2.0 + EDR."

You could also use the USB cable that came with your S60 phone. Just plug it in to a USB port on your computer and then plug it into your phone. When it asks what type of connection, choose "PC Suite" and you’re good to go.

If you have any questions, please leave them in the comments below. It’s pretty easy and straight forward, though. Enjoy the video.  

Why I Love the 3.5mm Jack on the N95

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I actually recorded this a while back, but only just got around to editing it. Basically, it shows off the 2 biggest reasons I LOVE the 3.5mm jack built-into the Nokia N95. It’s just awesome.

Any other videos you’d like to see, shoot me an email and I will get right on it. This was recorded with the N73Â

Driving With The Guru Episode 7

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I finally got around to finalizing the lead-in for this, and tossed my logo on to the end, and I’m pretty satisfied. Now the next thing is to get some real content in here. What would you guys like to see in these?

Also, next time I think I’m going to give Viddler a go. If you’re not familiar, check them out at Viddler.com. I like that anyone can add a tag or comment - searchable - to any video. Pretty neat.

RotateMe Updated!

Now that the N95 is out, those with the N80 and N73 still long for that landscape goodness on their mobiles. It was brought several months ago in the form of RotateMe, courtesy of Soueldi with the promise of an update soon. Well, that update has arrived! It’s still an unsigned app, so you’re going to have to follow the directions (it’s real easy, trust me) and then if you have an N80 or N73, you’re well on your way. Note that you must have the most update firmware on your N80 (if you know about it) before you can use this app, and that it currently isn’t compatible with any other S60v3 devices for some reason.

A few updates are a decrease in RAM usage (the previous version was terrible) an a new hotkey (pencil + send (green)) that I’m honestly really excited about!

Here’s the announcement via the newly renamed Symbian In Motion blog.

Spodtronic - Internet Radio on your S60v3!

Symbian-Freak brought the goods today in the form of the announcement of Spodtronic 2.1. Spodtronic is a free application that uses your phone’s internet connection (either GPRS/EDGE or WLAN) to listen to internet radio stations. It’s brought to you by Virgin Media, but has a plethora of stations preset that you can pick from, including selections from Sky.fm and 1.fm and other popular companies.

It installed easily on my N95, and I haven’t tried it yet on my N75 (which I *finally* got back from Nokia, watch this space for the deets). However, I really enjoy how visual the application is. You’ll find browsing for stations a visual adventure. There is a "top stations" list, or you can simply browse, or add your own. Very good, well laid out application, and with a great website, as well, for further personalization.

**Spodtronic is a free application, but as mentioned, uses your mobile device’s data connection. As such, PLEASE make sure that you have an unlimited data bucket before attempting to use the application. Neither I, nor Symbian-Freak, nor Spodtronic can be held responsible if you get a huge bill in the mail from your carrier. **

A Few Thoughts About the N75

As you know, I finally received my replacement Nokia N75 from NokiaUSA the other day, and (hope you’re sitting down for this…) have been using it in place of my N95 for a few days. I really dislike the flip form factor, but the 3G and simultaneous voice/data is hard to argue with, at least for convenience.

I also want to say that currently, for the ~$200 price (with contract) from Cingular, it’s the best S60 device you can buy in America right now, including imports.

However, there’s some big design flaws that I want to point out that absolutely annoy the heck out of me…

New S60 Bloggers

Wow, so three lucky people have joined the S60 Blogging community recently. Yes, there’s a TON of people blogging about S60, but we’re talking about the official blogs.s60.com blogs here. We’ve got three new entrants, two of which I know personally, and one of whom I will meet sooner or later, I’m sure.

First up is the one I don’t know, Kevin Korpi, based in Tokyo, Japan and on the Multimedia Team. Kevin’s first post is a great one on using animated screensavers in Feature Pack 1 devices (such as the N95 and N76). You can view more info about Kevin on the S60 About Page.

Next up is Carol Chen, based here in beautiful Dallas/Fort Worth, TX. I had the sheer pleasure of meeting Carol, along with Stefan and KrazyKritter and his wife from HowardForums for dinner a few nights ago. It was a fun-filled evening and I’m looking forward to doing it again soon. Carol’s first post was some awesome tips and tricks for using your S60 Multimedia handset. Be sure to check it out, even I learned some things!

Finally, we have Phoneboy. I met Phoneboy online via my all-out rant against Nokia’s US "presence", and since then I’ve enjoyed talking to him online and reading his blog. He really knows his Nokias, and will be focusing his S60 blogging efforts on "Extreme Convergence" over on Phil’s See Into S60 blog. Don’t dare miss any of Phoneboy’s posts if you love to get the most out of your handsets.

So that’s it, those are the new S60 bloggers. I love seeing this, Nokia and S60 encouraging their employees to maintain more and more communication with the community. It’s just awesome. And these guys (and girl) know their stuff and will have plenty to contribute.

Firmware Updates - How Do You Keep Up?

I was browsing through my RSS reader the other day and came across this awesome rant by S60 blogging newcomer, Jake at S60tv.com. He’s frustrated with the Firmware Update Alerts that are part of the new PC Suite. Apparently, the only way to find out if there is an update is to plug your phone in and check. For most people, this isn’t likely to happen all that often.

I personally find out about them via blogs like Darla Mack and Symbian-Freak, or on Howardforums.com. Sometimes I’ll get it word-of-mouth, but not often. However, what about the general consumer that Nokia and S60 really want? The person who probably doesn’t know what an online forum is, much less who Darla Mack or Symbian-Freak are. How are they supposed to find out about firmware updates? Personally, I think my phone should tell me.

I wonder if it would be possible for Nokia to send out an SMS to a phone that’s tailored to that phone’s model or product code? For that matter, would the person know what to do if they got such a message? I think this is something that Nokia and S60 seriously need to look into, especially considering the number of firmware updates that Nokia S60 devices get following their launch. My N95 has already gotten one, and there’s rumor of another major update coming in the next few weeks.

What do you think? How do you find out about new firmware updates for your mobile device? Do you have any ideas for how Nokia should handle this?

Fritter - Fringing Twits?

Fring has announced a new addition today, Twitter implemented directly into your Fring application! You don’t need to re-install the app, just go to Configuration - Add Services and there’s Twitter. Sign in and tweet tweet tweet!

If you’re not familiar, Fring is one of the most popular MOIP (Mobile VOIP) applications for S60 devices, integrating MSN, Gtalk, Skype, Fring, SIP clients, and now Twitter into one easy to use application. You can either conduct a voice call through Fring (for Fringing FREE!) or use the built-in chat feature. Fring works over any data connection, so really you could use Fring on a spare Wi-Fi-enabled S60 device and not even need a SIM card!

Twitter, if you’re not familiar with that, either (WTF?) is a micro-blogging tool, for lack of better terminology. There’s a TON of debate on the net right now as to whether it’s useful or not, but personally, I like it. It’s more social than anything else, like a giant chat room where you determine who’s allowed to join your "room", and then you can participate either via SMS, IM, or Web. There’s also a TON of different 3rd party apps and services to use Twitter with. You can view my current Twitter status over there on the sidebar, as well.

Nokia Experience Beta Now Launched

The N-series Arena Vox has just announced the launch of a new site aimed towards Scandinavia called "Nokia Experience Beta." There’s three different sites, one for Sweden, Denmark, and Norway. Once inside, the site is designed to be a central point for which you can discover different services available for S60 Multimedia Computers, when it’s from Nokia or not.

Basically it’s going to help Nokia get in touch with their high-end advanced users, and bring all sorts of content to those users’ fingertips. Future site updates will include blogs, voting, and other cool downloads. Hopefully, also, this is something that will soon spread to other countries, such as the U.S.

Venture on over.

Nokia’s US Warranty Service Update

I was all dead set to post the entire transcript of what happened with my N75 here. However, I think merely saying that it took 24 days without any update other than "we’re working on it" to get a replacement unit. I was in touch with regular Customer Care, several people WAY higher up, and eventually Nokia’s Executive Resolution Center before finally getting anything done. 24 days. Think about that.

Had I merely waited another 2 weeks when Cingular launched it, I could have called their Xchange By Mail warranty service and had a new unit in my hands within 24 hrs. Yeah, that’s right. Cingular will overnight me a replacement, and simply include a return label, EVEN A PIECE OF TAPE to send my defective unit back.

N800 Faceplate Removal Instructions

As you know, a while back I was able to get my hands on a few spare N800 faceplates, and took advantage of the opportunity to create my first ever camoflaged mobile device. Many of you wanted to know how easy it was to remove the faceplate, and I promised a walkthrough as soon as possible.

Well, possible is today! It’s hard to explain, but Texrat, of InternetTabletTalk.com has a pretty detailed walkthrough…

Vote for the Symbian-Guru Camo N76

You may remember a while back I announced the N-series N76 Design Contest. Basically, you can submit a design that you think the Nokia N76 would look good in, and then the popular designs would be posted online and voted on. The top ten designers will get an N76 bearing their custom design shipped to them absolutely free.

Sounds awesome, so I spent the better part of a Saturday morning learning Photoshop and came up with the Camo N76. I have no idea what my obsession with camoflaged devices is, but I like them. And I hope that you like it too. Here’s the banner, and the link. Please go vote for the Camo N76. I wish I could say that I would use the N76 as a giveaway if I won, but honestly, I want it. I will, however, vow to offer up something of equal value and coolness, should I win. Perhaps a regular N76.

Also, don’t forget to check out the Camo E61 that Ed at E-series.org found on Galen’s site. A little more subtle, but definitely a REALLY nice look. Good job, Galen!

The Next Big Thing in Mobile: Browser Extensibility

(Cross-Posted from http://ollywomp.us/)

I was reading a post this morning over at Ari Jaaksi’s Blog (Ari is
the head of development for the Nokia Internet Tablet platform among
other things), entitled "Mobile Web is Dead",
and it got me to thinking about something. Ari is essentially arguing
that the idea of a ‘mobile web’, i.e. wap sites and wml formatted data
for small screens, is going the way of the dodo. As mobile browsers
have become more sophisticated (thanks in large part to the efforts of
folks like Opera, with their great mobile browser), the ‘real web’ has become more and more accessible.

While I have no argument with Ari’s core claim here, I do have to
ask the question: how are companies like Nokia going to help bridge the
gap between the mobile web and the full web? If mobile web is truly
dying and we are moving more towards the full web on mobile devices,
then there needs to be some enabling technology to make the transition
smoother. Personally, I think the answer is going to be browser
extensibility.

Updated N95 Thoughts

At the suggestion of several commenters (thanks, as always) I uninstalled ShoZu from my Nokia N95 and did a hard reset (I like to clean things up every now and again) and let me tell you - this phone is now stable, doesn’t freeze or reboot randomly, and has MUCH better memory management.

I was going to go point-by-point through my previous post, but quickly noted that nearly every issue that I had was solved merely by removing ShoZu from my device. It’s sad, really, because the functionality that ShoZu provides is something that should (and could, easily) be built-in to the phone: instant upload, without my intervention. Why is it so difficult? Why does the built-in Web Upload feature assume I want to upload multiple pictures in a blog post-type format? Why can I only upload 6 at a time? Doesn’t that annoy anyone else?