Eseries

Let me publicly profess how much I admire the two geniuses behind the free calculator Calcium. The application is so simple and smart - a real delight to use. It makes me wish that I would have thought of this.

Not only is the application stylish but it provides the best usage of the joystick on the Nokia E61 I have seen so far. While most applications only use the joystick as a means to navigate on the screen Calcium incorporates actions into the joystick! Very clever. Why didn't I think of that…

The application has assigned a joystick movement to each of the four basic arithmetic operations. Moving the joystick up represents addition, down represents subtraction etc.

The application is not as advanced as the built in calculator but much easier to use. My major complaint with the native application is the number of clicks/movements to perform a simple calculation. I dislike math as it is but being forced to move the cursor up, down and sideways makes me really irritated.

Not counting entering the numbers it is a simple 2 clicks/movement procedure to calculate 2.1x 89 = using Calcium. You just  enter 2.1, move the joystick to the right (multiplication) enter 89 and press in the joystick - voila!

However, using the native calculator it takes 6 clicks/movements to perform the same calculation. 

Head over to Mtvoid and take a look at Calcium and their other product - Controlfreak 2.

I created this blog with the goal of writing about all E-Series devices. However, the lion's share of my posts are about the Nokia E61. Luckily, since the E-Series devices all run Symbian S60 3rd edition most of my posts are applicable to all the E-Series devices. However, I can't help but feel that I am not spreading the love among the other E-Series devices. Let me do something about that:

Steve "All-About-Symbian" Litchfield posted an excellent, updated review of the Nokia E70 - well worth reading!

Daniel of e60blog is providing great coverage from a mainly Nokia E60 standpoint.

If you speak Italian, or don't mind guessing the content based on nice pictures, I can recommend a dose of E70 World for a focus on the Nokia E70.

Rene runs a great German blog dedicated to the Nokia E61 - E61 Addicted.

There is nothing wrong with a good one trick pony. S60SpotOn does one thing and it does it well. The application will turn your Nokia E61 into a flash light. It is a free application that will disable the time out function for the backlight screen.

By activating S60SpotOn your device the backlight screen will stay on until you turn off the backlight screen function using S60SpotOn.

You might wonder why you ever would need this but I once used a device as a flash light to find my keys in a dark movie theater. I constantly had to press a key to activate the backlight screen. If I had an application like S60SpotOn on my device I wouldn't have had to continually press a key to keep the light on.

I was browsing around, killing time on Flickr the other day and came across this picture.

Don't know who took the picture but thank you very much!

I want to take this opportunity to say *thank you* to everyone who is coming here, participating in the comment section and sharing your experiences. I also apprecite the feedback from everyone who is contacting me directly. A special thank you goes out to my fellow bloggers listed in my "Daily Essentials" section for their support and encouragement.

It's no secret that I use and like Google Maps for Mobile on my Nokia E61. I have praised the application before and consider it a must have application for the Nokia E61.

However, the application just got better. A whole lot better. The application now provides a new level of interactivity. The application is capable of displaying up to date traffic conditions in about 30 major cities in the US. I hope that number will expand and that support for other countries will follow shortly. But at the present time this is limited to those 30 cities in the US.

The traffic conditions are indicated by color ranging from green (ideal), to yellow (some congestion) and red (heavy traffic). 

Another useful feature is the ability to save addresses and routes (direction between two destinations) as favorites. Very handy if you like me are direction impaired. By pressing "*" the application launches the "Favorites" list and addresses can be assigned to the different slots by looking up a location, looking up a business or setting the location manually.

But the best feature in my opinion is that the application will calculate the expected driving time based on current traffic conditions when using the "Directions" feature. 

The application is available as an over the air download from google.com/gmm. Select Google Maps for a "high-end phone" and the installation will start.

It's a good day today. A very good day. One of my absolute favorite applications has just beed made available for the Nokia E61 and other S60 3rd edition devices such as the rest of the E-Series - Metro.

Metro is a free and indispensable subway guide with maps of hundreds of subway systems all over the world. The list of cities with a subway system that is covered by this application is simply amazing. 

The applicationi is intuitive and feature rich but the main benefit is that it will calculate the route between two points based on user preferences such as shortest route or fewest connections.

 

If you have never used Metro you are in for a very pleasant discovery. This is an application that you will view as a "must have". If you have used Metro - rejoice, it is now available for the Nokia E61. Thank you Frank and Patrice!

I first came across the Salling Clicker back in 2003 when I was using a SE T68 and was dying to find any additional usage of Bluetooth in addition to BT headsets.

I was amazed back then by the ingenuity of the application. For those who have not yet had the pleasure of using the Salling Clicker - it is an application for your mobile device by which you can control applications on your computer. In short, it extends the capabilities of a very powerful remote control of your computer to your Nokia E61, and other devices.

*A great deal* has happened since 2003 and the Salling Clicker is well worth a closer examination. There are a number of alternatives to the Salling Clicker - Control Freak - being one of them but for this blog entry I will focus on Salling Clicker.

Although the native client for Symbian S60 3rd edition is not yet available you can still use the Salling Clicker on your Nokia E61 and other E-Series devices. Being impatient by nature and not being able to wait for the native application I used the Java version for Salling Clicker on Nokia E61 and it worked great.

There are two components to install. An application on your PC or Mac and the Java application for your Nokia E61. The Java application is available as an over the air download from http://wap.salling.com
The set up was easy. I Installed the jave application on my Nokia E61 and the necessary application on both my PC and my Mac. I could connect to both computers and control them without a glitch.

Depending on your computing platform the applications you can control from your Nokia E61 using Salling Clicker will differ slightly. On my PowerBook I could control applications such as iTunes, iPhoto, Mail, PowerPoint Presentations, DVD and QuickTime player etc.

Salling Clicker lets you launch applications and control them from within. But to call the application a "remote control" doesn't give it justice.

The real benefit comes from the information flowing from the application on your Nokia E61 to your computer and back. For an example, after I start playing a CD or playlist on my computer Salling Clicker will display the current track on my Nokia E61.

Another example of this two way communication is the ability to edit playlist from the device or instantly edit track ratings while listening to the songs.

Salling Clicker is also very expendable so if you are interested in writing scripts - the sky is the limit for this application. The application is well worth its price of $23.95.

I don't know that for a fact but I'm pretty sure. I was testing some cool applications on my Nokia E61 and got a bit carried away. Before I knew it I had racked up quite a lot of data traffic. How I like unlimited data plans…

Before you ask - I didn't use the Nokia E61 as a modem.

Petteri Muilu has done us Nokia E61 owners (all E-series devices) a great favor with the creation of his automatic key lock application for the Nokia E61.

Not only is it a great application but it is also free. (Donation accepted, and is encouraged).

The application is simple and elegant. It automatically starts when you turn on your Nokia E61 and runs in the background. You can set the time before the key lock starts from 10 to 240 seconds. 

Setting up the voicemail number is something most of us only do once per device. If you for some reason need to change your voicemail number it can be hard to find the setting.

A friend of mine entered the wrong voicemail number when setting up his Nokia E61 and then spent hours trying to find where to change this. You might think that the settings is part of the general "phone" setting but it is not. The settings is tucked away under "organizer".

Once you find it you can easily change your voicemail number.

As I have mentioned in passing before - I am a switcher. I have used a number of smartphones over the last few years. My past devices of choice have primarily been Treos. I have used a few other devices in between but I've stuck with the Treo more or less since the introduction of the Treo 180.

I am interested in hearing from other "switchers". I expect that there are a quite a few whom like me took the jump from a different device and quite possibly also a different platform. I'd like to put together some information aimed at helping us switchers and make the transition from one device to the Nokia E61 as easy as possible.

I am not interested in hearing how much you miss feature X from product Y but instead how you came up with a solution or a fix. If you miss a feature/application/shortcut from a different device what are you using now? If your favorite application is not yet available for the Nokia E61 what replacement application are you using? What information would have been helpful to know when you made the switch to the Nokia E61. 

Use the contact form and share your tips and ideas with me. 

I'll share an example of something that was an issue for me when I first got my Nokia E61. If you have used Nokia devices for a long time this will seem so trivial to you but if you are new to Symbian and Nokia perhaps you can relate.

I am often on conference calls and have long thought that automatic dialing of DTMF numbers, those extra digits that control pass codes for telephone banking, voicemail etc. have been a God sent. I had no problem setting them up on my previous devices but couldn't figure out how to do it on the Nokia E61. I just wanted to be able to dial a number and then have the DTMF tones dialed automatically.

Naturally, I didn't start reading the manual! Instead I used my combined knowledge and experience from previous devices to try to set it up. Nothing worked! I tried to use comma, punctuation but it didn't work. I also asked a few friends and none of them seem to know it.

Desperate I started reading the manual. Take a look at the below text - it sure as %$#@ didn't help me. I still couldn't figure out how to make the DTMF tones dial *automatically*. I could enter them as part of an address book but couldn't understand how to make them dial directly after the main number. 

Anyhow, I finally figured out, with no thanks to the manual, that I should enter "w" or "p" directly following the number in the address book and then the extra digits. As I mentioned, if you have used Nokia devices before it is the most natural thing but for me it was a big issue. Had I known this when I switched to the Nokia E61 it would have saved me hours.

So let me know what your tips and advice are for people switching to the Nokia E61. 

The talented Roman Keller has created another Apple inspired theme for the Nokia E61 - "Blue Smile" featured below. You can see more themes here.

In an earlier post I wrote about using BlackBerry on the Nokia E61. This time the turn has come to ActiveSync on the Nokia E61, or as it is called - Mail for Exchange.

Just as with BlackBerry the installation of Mail for Exchange is a true cakewalk. However, since there is no equivalent of the BlackBerry Connect Desktop Application the set up felt a tad bit quicker and easier.

As soon as the application is installed on the device you create a synchronization profile that controls what and when you synchronize.  

You are asked to set-up your preferred network connection, password, user name, servers, synchronized content and the synchronization schedule and that is it. The whole set-up including installing the application took less than 10 minutes.

As soon as my profile was set-up I could immediately initialize the first synchronization of contacts, calendar and email. A few minutes later my device was up to date and Mail for Exchange running in the background.

 
Because both BlackBerry Connect and Mail for Exchange (ActiveSync) use the native Nokia E61 email client as the foundation the look and feel of the two email solutions are more or less identical.

I have written about the black Nokia E70 before. A few days ago my friend showed me his Silver Nokia E70 so I took some comparison shots of the Black and Silver Nokia E70. I don't know which I like the most - Black or Silver? Perhaps I should get both

Here are a few select themes for the Nokia E61 and the Nokia E62 following up on the original “Pimp Your Nokia E61 With Themes” post. If you have made some themes and want me to list them here or want to suggest other themes to add, please drop me a note.

Download: Nokia Intellisync Theme

Summer Sky by PTWS

White Abstract by PTWS

Plastic (with customized icons) by Valery

Plastic (with standard icons) by Valery

I wish I were a Mac (with customized icons) by Valery

I wish I were a Mac (with standard icons) by Valery

E61 Red Manadarine by teddymustopo

AOM by teddymustopo

Golden Eye by teddymustopo

Blue Wave by teddymustopo (the below themes by teddymustopo are available here)

Green Wave by teddymustopo

WhiteAndRed by teddymustopo

WhiteBlueTheme by teddymustopo

All the above files from teddymustopo are available for download in one package here

Nokia N73 Music Edition

Dark Stripes Li by nehvada

Nokia N95_1 by www.mobile-reviews.de

Nokia N95_2 by www.mobile-reviews.de

N95_E61 by Kiwi

BMW Z8 Maniac by Beemer

Black Is Nice 2 with customised icons By Valery

Black Is Nice 2 without customised icons By Valery

Under The Tree by Babi

Blue_Red By Babi

Autumn By PTWS

MacOSX By Maverick

Mac_intosh by Mobile Reviews

Drop_TDM by Mobile Reviews

Nokia Violet by Babi

New Glamour by Babi

Winter Moon By Babi

iPod Shuffle by Roman Keller

Retro N by PTWS

Win XP by PTWS

Twister By PTWS

Black Nokia by PTWS

Hot Sun by Daniel

Dandelion by Daniel

Squares by Feras (Squares for Nokia E50 240×320)

Halloween by Ueli

Tribal by Daniel

Onion by D3

Snail by D3

Missing Skype by Beemer

Unexpected by Valery

Skype by Beemer

Tribal by Daniel

Unexpected by Valery

Profi Theme by Beemer

Kooky Phone Standard (with customized icons)

Kooky Phone Light (without customized icons) by Valery

Green Dots By Feras

Horizon by Feras

Inferno By Kerem

Croatia By D3

Rose by D3

Cat by D3

GreenSnake by XAMoN

Turquois by S60.com

Warcraft_Portal By D3 (the below three themes are available for download here)

Warcraft_NE_D3 By D3 (DL see above)

Warcraft_D3 By D3 (DL see above)

Lamppu by Eero

Glassopia by 3D (All themes from D3 are available for download in one package

RoboticEye by 3D (DL link - see above)

Cataclysm by 3D (DL link - see above)

Abyss by 3D (DL link - see above)

The Dark Theme by alexandr3

Pearl Black by Alexx

Fire By ?

igBase by I.G.

Tree By ?

OrangeBlue By Pfleuger

Aqua Blue By Roman Keller

Dark Sky By Toaster

BlueDream By Roman Keller

Blue Smile By Roman Keller

City By Daniel

White by Daniel

MacGraphite_N71 by ?

Day and Night by ? (DL link below)

Vista By? (DL link below)

Theme14 by? (DL link below)

Summer By ? (DL link below)

Flowers by ? (DL link below)

The above five themes Day and Night, Vista, Theme14, Summer and Flowers are available for download here.

S60 White by S60

S60 Color by S60

A friend of mine told me that he had a problem using the browser on the Nokia E61 at the same time as he had BlackBerry running on the device. His carrier is Cingular.

The only way he could browse the web was if he first ended the BlackBerry connection and then established a new connection for browsing the web. It worked but was far from ideal as he had to terminate the BlackBerry connection in order to browse the web.

When my friend tried to open a browser he got a "Max. number of connections in use." error. He then tried to use BlackBerry as the access point.

 
The web browser opened and it either returned a "Web: No gateway reply" error or the screen remained blank/white.

However, this problem had an easy solution. When switching the access point from "CINGULAR INTERNET" to the generic "Internet-GPRS" he could user the browser while having the BlackBerry connection open. 

 

The Nokia E61 has a great tool for keeping track of the device's complete communication history - the log files. In the log files you can see detailed information about Recent Calls, Call Duration and Packet Data.

In Recent Calls you can find information about missed and received calls and what numbers you have dialled. You can also dial and manage numbers from the Recent Calls log. You can set the length for which the logs you should be stored.

There is nothing truly unique about these types of logs. They have been a standard feature for quite some time. However, when you are using an advanced device such as the Nokia E61 you will be surprised by the information in the log.

If someone would have asked me to guess how much I have been using the E61 I would have been completely off. Never would I have guessed that I have been on the phone for 22 hours!

What is even more surprising to me is how much data I have been using. Oh boy - am I glad I signed up for an unlimited data package…. phew! Over 40 MB of data.

What is even more surprising is that this is less than 30 days' of usage and I have NOT been using the Nokia E61 as a modem for my computer - I know that can rack up the data pretty quickly. No, this is data I used on the device.

A word of advice - keep an eye on those log files. It's a great device and if you are anything like me you will use it a lot… 

I wrote earlier about the Nokia E61 Flickr Pool. There are some good photos in the Pool, well worth checking out. Someone uploaded the below picture to the Pool.

Quite a few readers have contacted me regarding problems installing applications on their Nokia E61. When installing <insert application name here> they get the following error message “Certificate Error contact the application supplier”. I have previously written about this in the comments section and in the FAQ but it is probably good to highlight it again.

For added protection against “malware” there is rather strict application signing procedure implemented for S60 3rd edition. The device comes with the standard setting to check for proper signatures and will not install applications unless they are correctly signed. Although the intention behind mandatory application signing is good it locks out applications that for some reason are not signed and approved. To accept all applications and solve this issue:Go to Tools > App. mgr > Options > Settings Change “software installation” from “Signed Only” to “All” and “Onlline certic check” to “off”. This will most likely solve your problem regarding installing unsigned application. However, please be aware that you turned off one extra layer of security for the device. Your IT department might not approve of this. I normally don't worry too much about malware or viruses but it is a good role of thumb to only download and install applications from known sources.

Update: I've created a separate post for how to solve the "Certificate Error" on the Nokia E62.

My major reason for getting the Nokia E61 was to use it with corporate email. Since the device supports so many different "corporate" email applications, Visto, Seven, Good, BlackBerry, Mail For Exchange (Microsoft ActiveSync) etc. it seemed like the ultimate email device.

But as I started using it I discovered more and more ways of using the device outside the realm of corporate email. So far I have written about anything *but* email.

However, it is time to focus on corporate email and share some screenshots of one corporate email client - BlackBerry Connect on Nokia E61. This posting is not a review of BlackBerry Connect on Nokia E61 nor a set-up guide. Look at it as a 30,000 feet overview with some screenshots.

The set up can vary from company to company but normally includes getting the BlackBerry software which is installed on the device and a BlackBerry Connect Desktop application that is installed on your PC. Don't forget that you also need to have PC Suite installed.

For me the whole set-up, from when I started installing the BlackBerry on the Nokia E61 until I was completely up and running took less than 15 minutes. That includes the time I spent reading the instructions. Needless to say it was a smooth, flawless transaction.  However, do make sure that your SIM card is enabled for BlackBerry with your carrier. 

The preferences were also easy to set up with options for scheduling of email delivery, automatic retrieval of parts or the whole message etc.

After the installation was complete I turned on my device and I could immediately see my email trickle in. 

I am not sure how it all works but that for me is the beauty of BlackBerry on Nokia E61 - it just worked. I don't want to know the details. I just want to get my email so I can work and not spend energy and time on the logistics of corporate email.

To be continued - Mail for Exchange (Microsoft ActiveSync) on the Nokia E61

More about BlackBerry Connect on Nokia E61 in this post about browsing the web and having the BlackBerry connection active.