How to Change the Calendar Alarm on the Nokia E61
I have received a number of emails from readers complaining about the awful sound of standard calendar alarm of the Nokia E61.
I have to agree with them. The standard alarm is torture to my ears. Over the last few months I have developed a severe dislike for the alarm and judging by the amount of emails I have received regarding this topic I am not alone. Yes, you could argue that the standard alarm does the trick - get your attention, but to the cost of your sanity.
A few readers also wanted to know whether there is a way to change the alarm or not. I assumed that the way to change the alarm would be in "Settings". After all, the clock's alarm can be changed in the "Settings"
I have to admit that it took quite a while before I found that the way to change from the inhumane standard sound "Alarm 1.mid" is tucked away under the calendar application.
Just go to Settings > Calendar alarm tone to change to your sound of choice.
With some minor changes I can now enjoy Lust For Life as my alarm for calendar appointments.
Perhaps it is just me. Perhaps it is because I am platform switcher that I didn't think of looking for the setting under the application itself. Or perhaps the way to change the sound of all alarms *should be* accessible from "Settings" in "Tools". What do you think?
September 5th, 2006 at 11:59 pm
This is a nice feature, figured it out myself erlier. I still have a wish about calendar appointments:
When you make a calendar appointment with alarm, it reach the time and the alarm goes off. So far so good. I was wondering if there could be a possibility to let the alarm sound for once and then let the reminder be still showing on the screen? Like it is now the alarm is blinking and playing for a while and then go snoozing for some minutes.
My point is: if you have been away for a while and returns to the phone in the snoozing time you won’t see that the alarm has gone off. Have been easier to register the apporintment if the reminder have been showing constantly…
Well, a minor problem but nice with comments
September 6th, 2006 at 3:20 am
Great!
(i’m in the group ot requester…).
And now, how can we change the behavior of the postpone feature:
- default postopone of 1 minute (it should be better to define longer time)
- after 3 postpone you can only close the alert (so the alert is deleted)
Thx again
dex
September 6th, 2006 at 7:40 am
[...] How to Change the Calendar Alarm on the Nokia E61 is a useful tip at E-Series. I still want to know if it’s possible to set alarms for new entries to automatically be ‘on’? Must make a comment about the E-Series blog- probably the best one out there at the moment and very well written. [...]
September 6th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I used “Audacity” (freeware sound mixing app) to create a quick mp3 of a single bell sound. I then, using audacity, added 30 seconds of silence after the chime so…. thankfully I just hear one nice bell sound as it decays and the phone flashes the screen the remainder of the time in blissful silence.
I agree with the above though.
The only thing I don’t like is the ability to snooze for variable periods of time once the reminder hits like on Outlook for example, you have snooze options from one minute to one month!
It would be a great added feature as the alarms can sound at an inopportune moment and even after snoozing it a couple of times it’s gone.
A pop up to snooze for 5 - 10 - 30 - 60 minutes would even be a good start!
Cheers for your bolg mate. Lovin’ my E61. Best all rounder I’ve found so far!
wab
September 6th, 2006 at 3:19 pm
With respect to the blogger, I didn’t think it was rocket science to figure out how to change the calendar alarm. I was able to figure that out almost as soon as I started using the calendar.
I second weareborg’s opinion that the calendar alarm ought to have a Snooze feature. My Sony Clie (Palm desktop) has such a feature, and I have been very slow and reluctant to migrate my calendar entries from Clie to my E61.
Still waiting on Papyrus for E60 phones. Hopefully it will have such a cool feature as a Snooze.
September 7th, 2006 at 2:32 am
I have a question. Has anyone figured out how to make the alarm on by default? Right now whenever I enter something I got to mark the alarm as on. I rarely enter anything in a calendar which i dont want an alarm for, and havent been able to figure out how I can do this. Anyone figure this out?
September 7th, 2006 at 4:56 am
is it possible to keep the clock alarm on at the same time everyday instead of manually setting it everytime after it goes off?
September 7th, 2006 at 12:34 pm
I have to agree some with Machani. Many of these settings are easily found if people just try their phone out some. Its not THAT hard to read the manual or try some menus
God post though, always someone who needs a bit extra help.
To cole; Use Handy Clock or Handy Alarm for that. Costs but its well worth money in my oppinion.
September 7th, 2006 at 12:49 pm
Agree with Daniel. I use Handy alarm for all my repeats like tv show reminders etc. It is worth the money for the program…. but, it should, like the tailored snooze function mentioned above, be part of the standard OS9.1 OS, imho.
** hint hint** for future firmwares to anyone out there!
wab.
September 7th, 2006 at 1:00 pm
Here is a link to the rather hastily made calender alarm I was referring to earlier. There are two files.. one loud (loud!) and one soft, for the calendar alarms with a 30sec delay. Hope someone enjoys them.
http://tinyurl.com/pwm39
wab
September 7th, 2006 at 4:39 pm
Amit Doshi,
There is an Alarm application for you. Here’s the url:
http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/software/item/Alarm_Manager_for_S60_3rd_Edition.php
I have not tried it, but please let us know how it worked if you do decide to try it.
Cheers.
September 10th, 2006 at 10:32 pm
As a long time Psion user and a new Symbian user (E70) I’m quite astounded to see how much they have crippled the PIM functionalities as compared to Epoc. One stingey alarm (that is “non-sticky”), limited snooze options, etc. Who in Symbian makes these stupid decisions?
September 27th, 2006 at 1:45 pm
Has anyone figured out how to change the sound for txt messages and bluetooth messages. That noise is pretty anoying. Can you help me?