My top 10 Symbian S60 applications

1. Google Maps
The latest version of Google Apps lets you find directions (though not entirely accurate). The AGPS is not a very big hog on your GPRS bills (thanks to the ability to switch to a raw map view). Latitude is one more feature that lets you share your location (and your friends location) on 1 place. Layers are another addition to Google Maps recently where you can add layers of your choice in terms of Terrains, Wikipedia, 3D buildings, etc

Was taken by me when I was on my way to my Leh trip  http://twitpic.com/8khjb

2. Fring
This application is a no-nonsense all-protocol chat application. Supports AIM, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and a few more. It also lets you make VOIP calls and status updates to Facebook and Twitter. My personal favorite

Alternative – Nimbuzz

3. JBTaskman
This is a very simple task manager for your S60 phone. Gives you the control over your phone. Task startup rules, task switching, phone info, etc. A MUST have for every geek who owns an S60 phone

4. Screenshot
Very simple application that just takes a screenshot of the current display on your phone. It is a little tricky to set up the Screenshot key since my E71 does not have a dedicated camera button. I use the backspace button to take the screenshots, open JBTaskman and kill the Screenshot application process. Simple !

Apologies for the retarded GIF image

5. RSeven
Something that I was looking for to avoid the very buggy and incredibly bloaty Nokia PC Suite. This one lets you take a backup of all your SMS, contacts, call log, images, sound files, etc to their website. Their website then displays a sweet timeline of when the stuff was saved/arrived on your phone.

6. Swim
Another very simple application that automates the sync application on your S60 phone. The timings are quite tricky and they are relative. If you set the schedule to ‘Every 12 hours’, it means that from the point you select that option, Swim will automatically load up and Sync your phone. I have set it to ‘Sync every 12 hours‘ at 1.15 am/pm (thats the time I am usually home for lunch or sleeping)

7. Traveler
Lets you keep track of the temperature in your city and the wind conditions. Also supports currency exchange rate updates which are downloaded from the server. A very annoying bug is that this applications always asks me to update my city and timezone when I start it up. I stay in Mumbai, but whenever I start the application, the city gets reset to ‘Delhi’.

8. iON Battery Timer
Ok, this HAS to be the awesomest little utility EVER. It displays the juice left in your battery and the sweetest thing is that it tells you the time in which your battery will run out. And trust me, it is bloody accurate ! $10 per IMEI. TOTALLY worth it. You can install a trial version for 7 days and check it out. It’s BRILLIANT!

Capree.iON.BatteryTimer.v1.02.S60v3.SymbianOS9.x.Unsigned

9. Opera Mini
This section will hold the super ups of Opera Mini 5 Beta. Installed it yesterday and trust me, Opera has failed to disappoint. I mean, how can they have tabbed browsing on a mobile browser ? Very slick interface and very smooth animation. These small things really DO matter. Touchscreen S60 device owners will truly enjoy this application. A couple of negatives (though this is a beta version) has to be the lack of Opera Link (syncing all your bookmarks, passwords, history, etc) across browsers (I have Opera 10 as my primary browser, so this helps). The dictionary on my E71 also can not be used in this application. I am sure the Opera developers will be implementing it in the final version. It is awesomely fast (thanks to the Opera proxy servers) and is incredibly light on your GPRS bills. Watch out since this browser will definitely start a revolution in mobile browsing.

Opera Mini 5 Beta running on Nokia E71

10. IRRemote
Ok, this app is an on-and-off for me. Most of the times I cant find the TV remote or I am too lazy to get up and bring it myself. Solution ? Kick start this application and you can literally control your TV ! Channels, volume, presets, EVERYTHING. Also supports ACs, DVD Players, Hi-Fi systems, Radios, etc

Freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x

Lots of users request information for applications (apps) which are freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x.

I will be reviewing the freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x. 5 freeware applications would be discussed in each post. The posts will be tagged as freeware. Though some of the applications might not work with Nokia E71x but most of them should. If an application does not work on Nokia E71x may I request you to please leave a comments on this post.

  Opera Mini 5

Download

With this new version Opera Mini has become a “must install” even though the default browser in Nokia E71 is a huge improvement if compared to the earlier browsers in the E-series of Nokia. Some of the features of Opera Mini 5 are

• tabbed browsing
• speed dial with Thumbnails
• copy/paste text on a page
• password manager
• built for speed
• power scrolling
• sync Bookmarks
• save web pages for later and
• a new powerful user interface (UI)

To know more please read a review post of Opera Mini 5 beta

 Google Maps

Download or visit google.com/gmm on your phone

With a host of new features added to Google Maps for mobile Google Maps is an another application which one should have installed on your Nokia E71 or E71x.

The new features include

• street view (since Street View has gone international it is no more restricted to users in USA)
• request walking directions (in addition to driving and public transit) to get anywhere on foot,
• receive transit alerts from participating public transportation authorities,
• see what other people think of a place by reading reviews directly on your phone
• new interface for smaller learning curve.

Read an earlier post which had a detailed review of Google Maps for Nokia E71

Ovi Maps deserves a mention but personally I would recommend Google Maps over Ovi Maps.

  Mobbler

Download

Mobbler is an application that allows you to stream your channels for Last.fm. Last.fm is a socialmusic website that allows you to specify your favorite type of music then it streams those artists and similar artist to your customized radio stations.

To quote the Mobbler website

Mobbler, Mobile Scrobbler, is a last.fm radio player and scrobbler for Nokia S60 3rd edition smartphones. It allows you to listen to your last.fm radio stations and to scrobble tracks played using the Nokia S60 Music Player. Music player scrobbling can be done both whilst you listen, or queued offline to be submitted later.

 If you have not tried Mobbler give it a try and I would say it is one of the best music application available for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x

 YouTube

Download

YouTube for mobile enables you to convert your phone into a multimedia device. Some of thefeatures of the Youtube application for mobile are

• Browse millions of videos
• Access your YouTube account
• Upload videos
• Keep a tab on the top rated videos on YouTube
• Search for videos on YouTube

 JoikuSpot Light

Download

JoikuSpot Light is an application which turns your Nokia E71 or Nokia E71x into a WiFi HotSpot. Thelight version of the software is free. The light version can handle on http or https traffic. If you want to use VPN, POP, IMAP or secured access then you would have to buy the full version which is available here and costs 4.99 Euros for 6 months usage or 15 Euros for lifetime usage.

Please let the community know your thoughts about these freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x by commenting on the post.

Look out for Freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x Part 2 which would be available in a couple of days.

Useful shortcuts or tricks for your E71 Part II

Some more codes and tricks are

• Copy and Paste

  Lot of users of E71 face this challenge. To select the text press the shift key and use the  arrow keys to select the text. Once the text is selected, press the shift key (if you released it) and press the left selection key to copy the text. Now go to the application where you want to paste the text. Again press the shift key and press the right selection key and the text would be pasted.

• Taskmanager

  Press the home key (long press till you see the desired action on the screen) to bring up the task manager and it will list all the running applications. You can shut off running applications to free up locked memory. 
  

• SMS and MMS delete shortcut

  Use the backspace key to delete SMS and MMS while reading them.

• Quick search on contacts while writing SMS

  To insert the phone number of a contact while writing a SMS take the cursor to the “to” box and then press the center button of the navigation (“Navi Key”) and the address book would come up where you can select the recipients of your message.

• Page Scrolling

  You can scroll a page up or down by using the control button + the up button to scroll up. For scrolling down press the control button (Ctrl) + down.

• IMEI number (unique identification number)

  To get the IMEI of your phone press *#06#

• Software version of your phone

  To know the software version being used on your phone press *#0000#

• Wireless MAC address

  To know the MAC address of your phone (for Wi-Fi) press *#62209526#.

Please let me know if these tricks are useful or not. Depending upon the response I will post some more tricks and tips for the E71 and E71x 

Useful codes, tricks and shortcuts for your E71 Part I

Today I will share some useful shortcuts or tricks that I use with my E71.

• Let the phone read your text messages 
  A long press of the left key, at the top left, will initiate your E71 to read any unread SMS messages that might be there in your Inbox.
• One touch mute You can mute your phone by clicking the key between the up and down volume keys. Pressing the button again would unmute your conversation.
• See the time and date at any time 
  When the phone is in the locked state and the screen is blank, hit the Navi Button to display the time and date in a large font.
• Mark multiple messages or emails 
  Use the shift and Enter key to mark and unmark mails, SMS and Email messages. This shortcut also works for files in the file browser which is present in the office folder. 
  You can also use the shift and navi keys
• In Real Player 
                 Press 'fn' twice then press 2 for full screen 
                 Press and hold 'navi button up' to fast forward 
                 Press and hold 'navi button down' to rewind
• Bluetooth 
  To activate or deactivate blue tooth press and hold the * key
• Changing profiles To switch between general and silent profiles press and hold the # key
• Access browser 
  To access the browser from anywhere in the menu press and hold the 0 key
• Dial 1-800 ANYTHING 
  If you want to dial a 1-800 number where you know only the alphabets of the 1-800 number here is a trick for you dial it easily. 
  Dial 1800, hit Fn, then Shift twice, type the alphabets, and press the Call/Green key to dial. The number will be dialed. Isn't that neat?
• Delete one character a time after the cursor 
  To delete one character at a time after the cursor press the shit and the backspace button.
• Select the text input option 
  Messaging, press Fn (most left bottom button) + Spacebar = gives input option such as turn on/off predictive text, settings, writing language, input method.
• Disconnect all connections 
  Press and hold the end button to close all connections (call, GPRS, Wi-fi, Bluetooth)
• Choose language 
  Shift+Ctr jumps directly to language selection section.

I will be sharing more tips about the E71 in the future posts under the category of E71tricks.

If you have any shortcuts or tricks for the E71 please share them.

How to do a hard reset of Nokia E71

Sometimes, (for example when your phone is too slow), you have to do a hard reset of the phonespecially if you are like those (and me ;-) who like to test all the applications out there on your Nokia E71. Hard set it of  the phone enables you to remove everything you have installed on your phone and the default factory settings are enabled. It is just like reformatting your computer.

Warning

Please back up all the data on your Nokia E71 and the memory card before resetting the phone (if you do not know how to back up your personal data on the Nokia E71 give me a shout). There are lots of caseswhere users have reset their phone and realized later that they have lost all their personal data.

How to do a hard reset of Nokia E71

• Switch on the phone
• While the phone is the standby mode enter this code *#7370#
• The phone would ask for a password, the default password is 12345 unless you have changed it before.
• That is it you are done

But I do not want to loose my personal data

You might want to restore the factory settings of the Nokia E71 but you might not want to loose the personal data on the phone. This can be done by doing a ‘soft reset’.

Warning 
Do not do a soft reset without backing up data on your phone and the memory card as backing your phone data is a good practice even if you are doing a ‘soft reset’

To do a ‘soft reset’

• Switch on the phone
• When the phone on the standby mode enter the code *#7780#
• The factory settings would be restored and there will be no data loss.
• Voila

Alternative method for hard reset of Nokia E71

There is alternate method to do a hard reset is prescribed as well. The steps involve

• Switching off your phone
• Press the *, 3 and the green key on the phone while starting the phone (do not ask me how, because when I tried I could not do it! and if you are successful then you should apply for a prize from Nokia)
• The phone will ask for a password which by default is 12345 if you have not changed it in the past.

I would like to remind readers again to backup their personal data from the phone and the memory card before trying to do a reset of their Nokia E71.

How To Get A Certificate To Sign Unsigned S60 Apps

There are a lot of ‘unsigned’ applications floating around the web, partly because part time developers either do not have the time or money to get their applications signed via the Symbian Signed program. While quite a bit of such applications can be signed via the Open Signed website, some cannot be and quite frankly there are times when we are simply lazy.

For all such reasons it is best to have a developer certificate with which you can sign the files on the phone itself and install without having to bother with any other method. The following tutorial will show you how to get a certificate (generally within three hours) and is much easier than the OPDA method.

HOW TO GET A CERTIFICATE FOR YOUR S60 DEVICE

• Simply visit http://isign.imobile.com.cn and sign up for an account.

• Fill in the required details, use can even use a fake address. Just keep the username and password in mind.

• Follow the directions in the screenshot.

• Now enter your IMEI number.

• The website will display a confirmation.

• Now the wait begins. When I tried, I got my certificate in about 3 hours time. If you are not already logged in, login to see if your certificate is ready.

• If you see a screen like the following, it means your certificate is ready for download.

• Thats it, now simply unzip the file and get signing. There is no need of a Sign Key pass code.

The best part was that I could do all of this lying in bed, right from my N97′s browser. The bottomline being that I got a developer certificate in less that 3 hours without needing a computer. The next step is to sign the application from the phone itself, guide coming soon. So make sure you subscribe via RSS or Twitter.

Thanks Simran!

PS: I or the The Symbian Blog will not be responsible for any damage or liability that results from the use of the above tutorial. Please do so at your own risk.

[UPDATE - The Guide On How To Sign Unsigned Files On A S60 3rd/5th Edition Device Itself is here].