Eseries

Aun was kind enough to send me some pictures of his beautiful Red Nokia E61. Painted in bright red (N-36) using car touch-up paint.

Nice work. Thanks for sharing Aun. 

A lot of people and blogs inspired me to create E-Series.org. Many of them are mentioned in my "Daily Essentials" list of Nokia E61 blogs.  However, many of you are not mentioned. For an example, all of you who frequently drop me a note with questions, suggestions, tips, themes and pictures - *thank you*

One more source of inspiration who is not on my "Daily Essentials" list is my very good, old friend Andrew over at Treonauts. Andrew, more than anyone was the main source of inspiration and support before the blog got started.

Treonauts meets E-Series. Andrew showed me his limited edition Black Tie Treo 650, below, and his new Treo 750v above. Nice but still no Nokia E61

I am about to take off on a journey that quite literary will take me around the globe. Some parts of this trip I am doing for business and some other parts for pleasure. Planning for this trip got me thinking about what the must have travel accessories are for the Nokia E61 user.

I'm a belt AND suspenders kind of guy who likes to have back-ups on back-ups, triple check, bring redundant equipment AND have a contingency plan. I know, call me paranoid.

I will be relying on my Nokia E61 to handle all my personal as well as business email. I will also do some every-day blog chores (approving comments and cleaning out spam) using the device. Needless to say, I also have all the necessary information for my trip on the device and need to use it for the telephony functions as well. In other words - I will be using it a lot during this trip!

The problem is that during this trip I will have infrequent access to AC outlets and when I do have time to charge my device I will encounter different outlets than the North American ones.

So the first item on my must have list is a sturdy world travel AC adaptor. I found one adaptor which also has a USB jack! Something I have never seen before. The design is very clever. The European plug is inside the adaptor itself. Very geeky and very cool. I can use this one adaptor and charge two devices at the same time - thanks to the USB functionality. 

Next on my list are two brand new batteries! This is somewhat of a luxury item since batteries are quite expensive. Also, the battery included with the device has a large capacity but as I mentioned - I cannot possibly run out of juice so it is better to be safe than sorry! With two charged batteries to spare I should be able to keep going for a long time.

Next up is a retractable USB cable. Included in this kit was a "tip" that works with standard Nokia devices. Since the Nokia E61 uses a smaller than usual "tip" I had to buy a "tip" for the "tip". The retractable USB charger can be used to charge the Nokia E61 through the USB plug with the above AC adaptor, a computer or charged with the included car cigarette lighter charger.

One last crucial piece of advice. On my vacation to Europe I left all the chargers and cables in my suitcase. I figured that since they were heavy and I didn't need them on the plane I might as well pack them…

The only problem was that British Airways "lost" my suitcase and didn't find it until 9 days later…

I learnt my lesson. This time my must have travel accessories for the Nokia E61 travels with my hand luggage…

What's on your "must-have" list of travel accessories? Did I forget something?

I thought I'd seen it all after Param sent me the photos of his Voodoo Nokia E61. That was until I received some images of this modded Nokia E61. This work of art takes the previously posted Snake Theme to new levels! Talk about a theme and a modded Nokia going well together! 

Have you modded your Nokia E61? Share with us. 

The Nokia E62 is the first carrrier branded device I have bought for a long time. One of the benefits of buying a carrier branded device is of course the support you get. Something you are not easily entitled to when you buy an unbranded, often grey imported phone. Another benefit is that the device is localized.

I have missed "Vanity Dialling"  (1-800-Go-ACME) on the Nokia E61 so I was pleasantly surprised when I discovered that Vanity Dialling is a feature implemented on the Nokia E62. Just press the "Char" key and the letters. 

Sorry - doesn't work on the Nokia E61

There's been a few posts about Nokia E61 themes this week so I thought we should try something different - but still in on the same topic - wallpapers.

Wallpapers can be used to modify existing themes. Eugene sent me a collection of interesting images that are suitable as wallpapers. Many of them works great with darker themes.

Just copy the images to your device - I put the wallpapers in the "Images" folder. Then open "Themes" and select the theme you want to edit and change Wallpaper to "User defined" and pick the wallpaper you want to use. 

 
Thanks Eugene!

I usually don't write about the same Nokia E62 theme twice but then again this theme is spectacular. The designer, Alexx, has spent a lot of time improving an already great theme. A number of bugs have been fixed, the theme is now 100% vector graphics, fonts have been changed to improve legibility and the theme has gone on a diet. It has dropped from 324 kB to 93 kB! (Impressive loss)

If you haven't tried out the theme I suggest you do so.  If you already have the theme make sure you are using the latest version.

Pearl Black by Alexx 

If you are having problems installing the theme read this.

I also want to encourage all theme designers to submit their themes to the Theme Contest. 

First, here is something for the locals.

For all of you trekking up and down the Bay Area using CalTrain here is an electronic CalTrain timetable. It's very simple and is by no means "feature rich" but hey - it's free and it does tell you when the next train to San Jose leaves.

Through a number of drop down menus you select direction, time of travel, start and end point. The application will then present the list of trains available.

The same developer, Grassroot Innovation (what a great name) who created the above CalTrain timetable has also put together a number of trivia/quiz applications.

I tried out two, (they are available as limited demos) World History Trivia and Football Trivia (In hope that it was "soccer" instead of "American Football" - when will I ever learn…)

They are inexpensive, $7.50 each, and will provide some distraction when you are stuck in a meeting

However, applications feel a bit rough around the edges (ex. see below) and could have done with another polish. Try before you buy.

Normally I keep the Nokia E61 themes posts for Fridays but this time I just can't wait. This could possible be the very best theme available for your Nokia E61

Joking aside, D3 was kind enough to create a unique theme for this blog.

E-series.org by D3 

More Nokia E61 & Nokia E62 themes on the theme page. If you are having problems installing the theme and get an error message about "Certificates" read this. There is a very simple solution.

Have you made any cool themes? send them to me so the rest of us can enjoy them.

Thanks D3

We continue our little Nokia E62 exposé with a peek inside the device.

The Nokia E62 has a somewhat different menu layout and slightly different icons.

The "Organizer" folder is combined with the "Office" folder, there is no "Connnect" folder etc. Not big changes but if you are used to the standard layout of the Nokia E61 it takes some time to readjust yourself.

The bundled IM application is from OZ Commmunications and supports the three major (in the US) IM networks, YIM, AIM & MSN.  

The application is easy to use and works pretty well. There are no server settings needed. You only need your username and password, that's it.

This also means that you cannot "share" server settings with the IM client bundled on the Nokia E61. Sorry! I know several of you have asked me for the server settings. It can't be done.

There is one *huge* drawback with the appliccation in my opinion. You can only be signed on to one IM network at the time! In order to go from one IM network to the other you need to first exit the first IM community you logged on to… 

Included on the device, are three themes for the Nokia E62. Those themes are Cingular, Dark Stripes and Steel.

It's not like the multitalented Simon Judge needs an introduction. Many thousands of us regularly read his amazing blog about mobility and mobile application development. His free, SExplorer, file explorer is a must have application and used by many more thousands.

What amazes me is how productive Simon is. I read in Tommi's application blog that Simon has started a new software directory dedicated to S60 3rd edition called Symtopia. That is great for all us users of the E-series devices which runs on S60 3rd edition.  

I know that there are other software directories out there. However, Simon always deliver quality so I have high hopes for Symtopia. Already, it is a very good directory and I expect it to only improve over time.

Another great example of Simon's productivity and stellar quality is the free Dictionary 2.0. A great application if you like me have a hard time speling ;-) 

The application is fast! installs on a memory card or the main phone memory (it takes up about 6 MB). Highly recommended software! 

Thanks Simon! 

Voodoo PC is known for their high-end, high-performance, stunningly beautiful PC.

Param, who has the great fortune of working there, used the same colours used for their unique PC enclosures to create a one of a kind Red Nokia E61. 

Thanks Param! 

If you don't use a push email service such as the BlackBerry Connect on your Nokia E61/E62 it can be hard to track what emails you send from your mobile device. Here is a tip to to get your email acccount outbox in sync. (Something that is very important for business users)

1) set up an email account (for an example e61@xxxx.com) - this is only to be used for receiving messages from the e61.

2) When you send an email from your Nokia E61 BCC, it to the address you have set-up.

3) In outlook (or any other mail program that allows rules) set up a rule that any email sent to the e61 account, (associated with your device), is marked as read and moved to the sent folder.

That way you always keep a record of what you sent.

Thanks for the tip Charles! 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, here is a close-up of the connectors of the Nokia E62. Bye, bye Pop-Port and welcome Mini-USB. I'm also happy to see that the Nokia E62 uses a "standard" headset jack.

Another improvement in my mind is that there is one more customizable key on the Nokia E62 - the "Own" key. This key can be assigned as a shortcut to launch any application.