Dear Readers,

For more than year writing this blog for you and reading your feedback were great pleasure for me. Unfortunately I need to switch the blog into a “maintenance mode”. What does it mean?

The blog will be still available as a source of useful tips for all Nokia E71 users. I will try to write new posts only if next firmware versions will be available. You can still freely post your comments for existing articles. I will try to keep accepting regularly all meaningful comments, replies or questions. I hope this way the blog will be still alive somehow as active discussion forum for all its readers. If you are also a blogger and you think that current blog’ content may be interesting for your blog readers please mail me, I’d be happy to add you to the blogroll. If you’d like to publish something on the blog as a guest editor please contact me as well.

I still cordially invite you also to join Flickr Nokia E71 Group, which now has over 400 members posting amazing photos taken all over the World with our beloved phone.

So Long and Thanks for all the Fish!

Dexter

radoslaworszewski.com

This is not a political blog, and the described fact is no news at all as it happened in April this year, but as it is summer season I have let myself to write a lighter post. Have you heard that Italian Prime Minister – Silvio Berlusconi put important NATO summit “on hold” because of the phone call? Well depending on point of view it was quite comic or humiliating event, which happened earlier this year in Germany. I’m sure some of you already have seen some videos and pictures from this moment. Have you noticed what kind of phone Mr Berlusconi used that day? I bet it’s E71. Anyone other “famous” people using E71?

Have you ever wanted to see text messages displayed on your glasses or maybe read incoming SMS using your brain power? Well, even if it not yet possible (at least not without being assimilated by the Borg ) there is a very useful and free application, which simply displays next text message content on your display. No action is needed, no button needs to be pressed. You can choose for long the message body is going be to displayed and later of course read and reply the message as usual. I find it very useful during the meeting for example. The application called “SMS Preview” is available for free and requires sending only one message to register it. It can be downloaded directly with your mobile browser from m.smspreview.mobi, with your desktop browser from smspreview.net or from the Ovi Store: store.ovi.com.

Today new software update for E71 has been officially released! New software marked as v300.21.012 is available vie Nokia Software Updater application. Check details here.

Soon I will post some comments. Let me flash my phone first

All Nokia phones users, including E71 owners, can update Nokia PC Suite client to the newest available version described as 7.1.30.8. Updated version’s release notes contain information about stability improvements and Nokia Music component replaces Nokia Music Manager. Check update menu in your current installation or download it directly from PC Suite web page.

PS. Yesterday (Wednesday) next version marked as 7.1.30.9 has been released with comment about stability fixes. Check the newest available version as usual.

Have you checked QuickOffice application installed on E71 lately, or maybe you read AAS regularly? I do both The good news for all E71 users is that you can update default QuickOffice (4.1.37.3 in my case) version 6 – for free. All you need to do is to access updates menu of application and install new one! Great surprise, not only for the owners of E71, but also E51, E52, E55, E63, newest E72, E75 and E90.

Late last year there were some rumors and videos about possible successor of E71, which would be named with the following number – E72. Today this phone has been officially announced. What brings next E series smartphone? Here is a basic comparison against its older brother E71.

Size and mass? E72 is almost the same size as E71, only 2.5 mm wider and 0.1 mm thicker. Additionally E72 is one gram heavier (128g).
Memory? Bigger internal memory (250MB instead of 110 MB), plus support of 16GB memory cards – E71 supports officially cards up to 8 GB.
Connectivity? HSDPA has been accelerated up to 10.2 Mbps instead of 3.6 Mbps, plus HSUPA support (2Mbps)
Photo features? Better camera, 5 Mpix instead of 3.2 Mpix
Battery performance? While E72 has the same battery (1500 mAh) its estimated standby time increased from 408 to 492 hrs in GSM mode, and 12 hrs 30 min instead of 10 hrs 30 minutes of talk time.
Audio? Standard 3,5 mm mini-jack instead of 2 mm one.

Anything new? Of course E71 runs on Symbian S60 3.2, like E71x, which is different from S60 3.1 installed on E71. Official description tells us about FM radio with RDS support, which was missing in E71, nevertheless it was not clear in case of this phone. Anything missing? I regret it doesn’t have FM transmitter, which I find very useful in N97. New phone will be available in three colors: – Zodium black, Metal grey & Topaz brown and should be released in 3Q of 2009. You can find official Nokia E72 specification in here. What’s your opinion?

One of the blog readers – Prashant mailed me just a moment ago that his E71 NAM variant suggested updating Nokia Internet Radio right after it was started. My E71 (European variant) asked a minute ago as well. New version described as 1.16(0). Unfortunately I haven’t found any release notes or change log for this version.

I’m glad to let you know that a photo pool of our flickr group called Nokia E71 has reached 1000 photos! Moreover the group has now 286 members and E71 is ranked as 3rd most popular Nokia cameraphone used by Flickr mobile users! Check the pool in here!

I was going to write a short review on Nokia application called Here and Now, but today I have found interesting review of another free application for E71 and other S60 phones – World Traveler. I think presenting these two pieces of software together and giving a kind of comparison is even better idea.

Here and Now is a set of application and correlated service, which is offered by Nokia Beta Labs. First released version was available for Symbian S60 3.2 devices (I assume including E71x too) only. About two weeks ago it was also prepared for E71 and other S60 3.1 phones. Application is available on the phone from a web browser bookmarks list or directly from your folder with own installations. Instead of GPS it bases on a position given by your cellular network. It displays current weather information, forecast for following hours and more. It can quickly display you a list of cultural and entertainment events organized in your current neighborhood. If you are interested in any of those events it leads you to the browser for more details, including approximate distance. Application and service are still under development, but I already find it very useful, especially if you are “new in town”, or you travel a lot and you simply do not want to too much time spend setting up a list of “your cities”. It seamlessly adapts to your position. It helps you right here, right now.

The other weather-related tool I have installed on my E71 is World Traveler from Psiloc. This tool is much heavier, but definitely offers more features too. Except current weather info and forecast it offers currency table, world clock map and future plug-in manager. One really cool feature is an option to display current temperature and wind speed on your homescreen the same way as tasks are being displayed. If you play for few minutes with settings, including: lists of your cities, time zones and auto-update intervals this might be something you want to place on a bar of your often used shortcuts. Definitely World Traveler ‘look and feel’ is something, which makes the application more mature and attracts the user. Try, play and decide which one you want to use. I have both on my phone.