Eseries

Not sure exactly when Google Maps for Mobile hit the big Two Dot Oh but the most recent version of Google Maps for Mobile for Symbian S60 3rd edition devices, such as the Nokia Eseries, is version 2.03 2.05.

If you haven't tried the new version of Google Maps you should! (just go to www.google.com/gmm on your browser to download the new version)

One new features of 2.0 is the "My Location" feature.

The "My Location" uses information from mobile towers near you to approximate your location on the map. Naturally, it's not as accurate as GPS but if you don't have GPS and want to know your location it is very handy.

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UPDATED below the fold 

Wow - I am very, very impressed! I have just taken Nokia Sports Tracker Beta for a quick spin and this new service, functionality and strategic direction has left me speechless.

Let's start with a recap. Nokia Sports Tracker was released in March this year. It was released as stand alone application to be used with a Nokia device with built in GPS or with an external GPS receiver. I covered this excellent application many times on the blog. 

The application tracks a variety of sports activities and measures the distance, speed, time etc and present the data in form of a workout sunnary. The data could be exported and used with a map application to track your activities. From the very start I was impressed by the application and the passion and dedication displayed by the team of people behind the application.

They were quick to listen to feedback and released new versions and new features with an impressive speed. However, for the past few months it's been rather quiet from the Nokia Sports Tracker team.

Now I understand. They have been hard at work perfecting the next logical step - exactly aligned with Nokia's Ovi annoucement - services!

Nokia Sports Tracker Beta is the name of the online service (graciously free of charge- thanks for that Nokia) for the Nokia Sports Tracker application.

Some of the highlights of the service:

• Store and display your activities online
• View detailed data such as speed, distance etc
• Integrated with Google Maps: "satellite" or "map" view.
• Upload geotagged photos of your activities
• "Live Sharing" of activities
• BEAUTIFUL web design UI & functionality
• Absolutely free (no subscription)

You start with creating a free user account either from Nokia Sports Tracker Beta or directly from the application which can be dowloaded from here.

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UPDATED WITH LIST OF CHANGES BELOW THE FOLD: 

There is a new firmware available for Nokia E61i. There is nothing about the firmware on Nokia's device software update page yet, but the software is available when using Nokia Software Updater. The new firwmare version is 2.0633.65.01  

It is important to note that availability of new device firmware depends on a number of factors. Region, language and of course carrier version are variables that influence when new firmware is available.

My Nokia E61i is a non-carrier branded version, the unlocked plain version, and when I tried NSU there was new software available.

Here are a few changes that I have noticed. Please feel free to point out more changes that you have come across:

Predictive text input:

This one is strange. This feature shows up but I couldn't get it to work. Has anyone been able to enable this? I really like the idea of having predictive text as a feature even on a QWERTY device.

Improvements to calendar layout:

The calendar can now display the week number or the week dates in the month view.

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Rack this one up under "I didn't need it but I just wanted to have it" category. Blame it on the great design, the moment I laid my eyes on the Nokia LD-4W, Bluetooth GPS Module I knew I just had to have it!

Given that I already have the the predecessor Nokia LD-3W, which is working great, buying the LD-4W was a bit of stretch.

But I caved in and bought it - great industrial design pushed me over the edge.

The Nokia LD-4W is significantly thinner and lighter than the previous model. The LD-3W was by no mean large or heavy but the LD-4W is tiny in comparison. It weighs less than half of the LD-3W and is half as thin.

Functionality wise, the LD-4W matches or surpass that of its predecessor.

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This week it is time to exclusively highlight ICEman - another accomplished theme designer with many great theme designs under his name.

Wind (default icons) by ICEman

(also available with customized icons)

Nseries4 by ICEman

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As first reported by Symbian-Guru a while back ago, Nokia launched a pink and a purple Nokia E65. Matching these colors, the recently released firmware upgrade for Nokia E65 includes two unique themes for the Nokia E65, Dots Pink and Dots Purple.

As far as I know, the themes are currently not available for download. They are only available on the new Nokia E65 firmware. (more…)

As many of you already know - I am absolutely addicted to push email. Although I tend to try out various push email solutions on my Nokia Eseries devices I always come back to Mail For Exchange.

The first thing I did on my brand new Nokia E51 was to set up my email. I was really impressed with the new email wizard. The set up was a breeze. Here are the screen shots to set up Mail For Exchange on Nokia E51.

For those of you who would like to try free push email I can gladly recommend Mail2Web who provides FREE Microsoft Exchange based email accounts which you of course can use with Mail For Exchange. Read my previous write-up of Mail2Web HERE.

The new email set up wizard has premier placement on the main screen.

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As many of you know, I am a big fan of a personalized, unique look and feel of your Nokia Eseries device. I have several times written about Gmask, the company that will wrap your device in few microns thick plastic film to give it a brand new look.

Mitch had his Nokia E61i Gmasked and writes about it here. Nice looking device Mitch!

The more I use the Nokia E51 the more I like the device~! Here is today's list of features I really appreciate.

A dedicated Voice Key for Mute/Unmute

Sure, this feature was introduced in Nokia E65 but the positioning on the Nokia E51 is better - on the side of the device. Having a dedicated key for Mute/Unmute is big. No more fumbling around when you are on a conference call and quickly need to mute or unmute your device.

Better display of contacts

This is another great improvement. Compare the display of the contacts application to the left (screen shot from a Nokia E60) to the one to the right (Nokia E51). Notice the difference? 

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Those of you tracking the availability of Nokia E51 have probably already seen the reports that the device now is available on eBay. Buy.com and other various outlets.

I received my own device, imported from Europe, yesterday. Rather to post one full review I will post about the device as I use it and discover what I like/dislike.

First up, the main keys. 

It might seem trivial but I think the the redesign icons for the main one touch keys is huge! Replacing the application key with a "home" key makes the end user experience much better. Especially for new users. The new icons are also much cleaner and crisper than the previous icons but there is more to the new icons than meets the eye.

Behind the new icons is a new level of functionality - a distinction between short and long press of all of the four main keys.

Short Press:Takes you to Home Screen or Main Menu

Long Press: Displays list of open applications

Short Press: Takes you to the Contacts application

Long Press: Creates a new contact

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Following up on last week's Friday Themes post, here are Roman Keller's remaining four variation of the "Cubic" theme. A big thanks to Roman! 

Black Cubic 2 by Roman Keller

Green Cubic 2 by Roman Keller

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Nokia Beta Labs doesn't fail to impress. Nokia is continuing to make a number of interesting applications available for early betas. This time the application is Nokia Audiobooks. A mobile application to play back audio books and a PC companion to manage, edit and create audio book content. I have just downloaded the applications but have yet to try it out. However, it looks very promising.

If you don't own any audio books fear not - there are a lot of audio books in the public domain. AudioBooksForFree.Com and LibriVox have many books available for download.

Download the application and try it out. 

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"More of something good is always better" That seems to logic behind a number of photos I have received of stacks and rows of Eseries goodies. 

Rows of Nokia E61i, Chargers, Batteries and Nokia N95.

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Mail For Exchange has left 2.0 behind and reached version 2.1

For those of you who still haven't tried it out - Mail For Exchange is Nokia's implementation of Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync.

With Mail For Exchange you can over the air synchronize your Microsoft Exchange account with your Nokia Eseries and certain Nseries as well.

The new version includes among other things the following enhancements (from the change log):

• Support for new Nokia Nseries devices: N81, N81 8GB, N95 8GB
• Heartbeat interval setting is now configured automatically
• The Company Directory application is now available as a standalone application via its own .SIS file

It also includes a number of bug fixes and other improvements.

If you for some reason only want to install the Company Directory Look-up function you can now do that as a standalone SIS installation. Of course, it is also part of the normal installation of MfE.

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Following up on the previous blog post about issues installing themes, here are some high quality themes from one of my absolute favourite theme designers - Roman Keller.

These themes are part of a set of eight themes. I post four of them this week and four the next week (So you have a reason to come back) ;-) 

Blue Cubic 1 by Roman Keller 

Grey Cubic 1 by Roman Keller

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