How-To: Super Nintendo/Nintendo/Genesis Games On Your Nokia Phone

Written by jon on 6:54 AM

If you've been craving the obsolete games of yesteryear, you'll be happy to learn that there are several programs that let you play old console games on your Nokia cell phone (called emulators). Actually, you can run these programs on most Symbian phones, but compatibility is always an issue with non-Nokias.

So here's a little breakdown of the emulator scene...

A Side Note About Controls

Let's face it - cell phone keypads don't exactly make the greatest controllers out there. To remedy this, you'll need to either change the default configurations, or buy a bluetooth gamepad controller.

These things have dropped down in price significantly, but the downside is you'll get less battery life since it requires bluetooth.

With that in mind, let's get to it!

Super Nintendo

Ah, one of the greatest systems to grace the gaming world. If you're expecting full speed SNES games with sound, you're going to have to look elsewhere (like investing in a REAL portable console). So far, the only known Super Nintendo emulator is called VSun. (you've probably also heard me mention it a couple of times before) The speed isn't bad. Without sound, many Super Nintendo games run at about 25 fps (frames per second). With sound, expect something like 10-15 fps. Bottom line: if you don't mind losing the oofs, unhhhs, and other grunts from Street Fighter 2, you should be satisfied. Bigger games like Chrono Trigger run fairly well too.

VSun is available as a trial on the Vampent web site. Vampent is the company that makes many of these emulators. Unforrtunately they're based in China, they tend not to update their emulators (considering most of their emulators aren't really finished), and generally they suck at customer support.

I bought vSun thinking that it would only get better - but I haven't seen any updates since I've bought it so...yeah. I don't recommend buying their emulators. Trust me, if you look hard enough you can find it "somewhere else."

Nintendo

There's a couple decent Nintendo emulators. Vampent again takes the #1 spot with their vNes emulator. This is a practically perfect emulator with full speed and excellent sound. I really can't complain - before I got my N90 I used to pass the time attempting to play Contra on my Nokia 6260 (which is one of the worst phones to play games on emulator-wise) . Sadly, I couldn't even pass the third level...

Other emulators include YewNES and NesGam, but vNes is clearly superior to both.

Sega Genesis

I've never liked the Genesis system. Mostly because it was a crappy version of SNES with horrible colors and horrible sound yet it was so POPULAR. Good thing everyone agrees with me - there's only one emulator and it's sort of in an alpha stage. It's called PicoDrive, and if you can't respect the system, respect the creator - the original programmer was the same guy who made the Capcom CPS2 FinalBurn emulator.

Sound is horrific when it actually does work (and most of the time it doesn't), but PicoDrive plays pretty well without it.

There are a couple Original GameBoy, GameBoy Color, and GameBoy Advance emulators out there too. Note: they're all made by our infamous Vampent. (check out vBoy and vBag)

Installation

Here's what you need to start playing:

  • Data cable, IR/Bluetooth connection, or Memory Card Reader
  • The emulator software
  • Rom files

If you download a trial version or buy it or you just buy it off the mean streets of Chinatown, you're going to have a .sis file. A .sis file is similar to a PC .exe file - it's a Symbian executable install file.

You'll need either a USB data cable, infra-red or Bluetooth adapter, or my personal favorite, USB card reader/writer. Data cables are too proprietary and Bluetooth and IR are just plain SLOW. I would opt for the USB reader. Newegg.com has some cheap ones, or you can buy a SanDisk for a little less than $20 bucks at a local Best Buy. If you have a Symbian phone, you'll need a decent sized memory card anyway for mp3s or games or what not.

Once you get the .sis files transferred (any directory is fine, I usually put it in an APPS or OTHER folder), run File Manager on your phone (for Nokia cell phones) or the equivalent and select the .sis file in the appropriate directory. Your phone will probably tell you that the software is untrusted or something silmilar, just say yes to the prompt.

Now that you've got the software installed, you'll need some rom files. These are the console games themselves in their simplest form.

Roms for emulators come in the following file formats:

SNES - .smc
Genesis - .sms, .smd
Nintendo - .nes

You can find these files using your favorite P2P sharing program or on various rom sites around the web.

Certain emulators use certain directories for rom files. Vampent creates their own directory (aptly named Vampent) in the root directory of wherever it was installed. Just put the correct rom files in the correct rom folders (for vSun I think it's the sfcroms folder).

Now go to your application menu and run the emulator

No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Unlocking the Nokia 6030 Phone via DCT4 Calculator

Written by jon on 6:51 AM

Here's a handy dandy set of instructions on how to unlock that Nokia 6030 phone you have lying around.

We'll be using the NokiaFREE Unlock Codes Calculator program for the unlock.

First download The Nokia Unlock Codes Calculator v3.10.

Save it, open it up, and run setup. Install wherever!

Load up the Nokia Unlock Codes Calculator program.

The first thing you need to do is go to options! Go to options and check off the "Expert Mode" box located in the second box. This will open up some more options for you.

Now let's get started with the fun stuff. Type in *#06# on your 6030 (or look under the battery) to get your IMEI and enter it in the correct box.

Enter U.S.A. for the next box, and then CINGULAR - Pacific Bell Wireless in the box after that.

MCC+MNC should read 31017000.

Make sure the box under MCC+MNC reads ASIC 2, and change the V2 option to ONE.

Double check your numbers and click calculate!

You should have a series of unlock codes for the Nokia 6030 in the right hand box. They look like this:

#pw+xxx xxx xxx xxx xxx+x# (note: x = some number)

Enter this on your 6030 using the # and * keys where necessary. For the p's, the w's, and the +'s press the * key.

After you hit the final # key your Nokia 6030 should say "Phone Restriction Off" and you're done! Congrats!

No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Videos and Movies on Your Nokia Cell Phone

Written by jon on 6:49 AM

Nokia Cell Phone Videos and Movies: A Short Guide Using SmartMovie

Today's how-to: how to get divx/avi/movie file onto your Nokia cell phone! Symbian OS required.

The first (and only) program you'll need is called SmartMovie. Designed by Lonely Cat Games, SmartMovie doesn't have much of an equal for the smartphone video market...


You can download a demo from the website that lets you use the program with some little annoyances - the word "Demo" on the top of the screen and some greyed out images.

Once you download the SmartMovie software, you'll also need a codec. Codecs contain encoding and decoding routines that uncompress video on-the-fly (while you're watching it). All 3.10 and above versions of SmartMovie support 2 codecs: CoreMP4 and XviD.

The SmartMovie software contains the phone executable and the Windows software that lets you compress movies to fit on your Nokia cell phone.

Run the setup.exe file to install the SmartMovie converter onto your pc. Once it's installed, run the program!

Inside SmartMovie

The first thing you'll want to do is open up the Preferences menu on the menu bar. Here you'll get a nice little box with a couple options on it - the most important option you need is the "Target device type and screen" box. Click on the selection box and choose the correct screen size/device type (for N90 it would be "Series60 high-res 352x416"). Then click close.

Now that you're done messing with settings, it's time to open up your video clip file. Click open or do a File->Open and browse to your video clip file which should be in divx, xvid, or in some other common readable format.

SmartMovie Settings

This is what you could call the bread and butter of SmartMovie. Also the biggest pain in the *beep* as everything is trial and error: you'll have to experiment with various settings to find the best combination of codec and codec options for your Nokia cell phone.

I usually uncheck the "Reduce Frames" checkbox, change the encoder to "XviD Encoder," and set the bitrate to 512 kbps. It works well for lower resolution Nokia cell phones such as the Nokia 6260. However, Nseries phones that have higher resolution screens require a bit more processing power because you need to decompress a larger image (which slows things down). So you'll need to lower the bitrate to probably something like 256 or 320 kbps. I haven't found a good combination for my N90 phone that I'm happy with yet but I'll update this as I test out some more stuff. (I still have yet to test out the CoreMP4 encoder)

On the other hand, Lonely Cat Games recommends checking the "Reduce Frames" checkbox and setting the framerate to something lower like 160 kbps. It's entirely up to you.

Click the "Convert" button to start the conversion. For a 1 minute clip on my computer, it takes about 15 seconds.

Once your movie clip is done encoding, transfer it to your Nokia cell phone via any of your favorite methods. I find it a lot easier to just use an MMC card reader or writer and just copy the files to a video directory on the MMC. SmartMovie will scan your entire MMC card anyway so it doesn't matter what folder it's in.

Let's fire up SmartMovie!

Browse to the folder where you installed SmartMovie (if you can't find it, it's probably in a directory called "My Own" and give it a whirl.

Choose the option to "Scan for movie files" and SmartMovie will provide a list of compatible AVI files. Pick your movie and you're golden!

You can change options like brightness, time remaining/elapsed display, and a couple other things in the settings menu.

No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Using Your Nokia Phone as a Modem

Written by jon on 6:47 AM

Originally this was supposed to be a new phone preview, but alas - there are no new phones (other than that rumored e62i which I do have to write about soon, more about that at a later time). So instead I'm going to write up a quick how-to on getting your Nokia phone set up to connect to your laptop.

Tether your phone to your laptop. Not a ball!

Learn to tether your phone to your laptop.

First, you have to make sure that your phone supports some type of data transfer, whether it's GPRS, EDGE, HSDPA/3G or whatever. Every smartphone that Nokia sells (at least the Nseries line) supports some kind of packet data.

Next, you'll need some kind of connectivity between your device and the laptop. Bluetooth and IR (infra-red) both work, but you might want to use a standard USB cable for speed (not to mention saving previous battery life). Infra-red generally sucks, as the IR ports on both devices need to be facing each other and in fairly close proximity. Don't forget to install the Nokia PC Suite if you have a Nokia phone as this is required to get your connection working.

After you've successfully determined that your cell phone will indeed work as a modem, you need to correctly provision your account through your service provider. Cingular, T-mobile, Verizon, etc. Basically this means that you need to have the wireless internet feature applied to your account. Here's a quick rundown with Cingular, my current service provider:

Cingular offers 3 types of wireless internet for different devices (and at drastically different prices too). MEdia Net, Smartphone Connect, and Laptop Connect. The obvious train of thought would be the laptop connect, considering it is by far the most expensive plan of the bunch, would have the most bandwidth available. Not so. To be honest, all three (even the lowly MEdia net plans) allow the same bandwidth usage. HOWEVER, you're "expected" to use only a certain amount of bandwidth depending on your device - and Cingular knows exactly what phone you're using and how much bandwidth you're taking up.

Bottom line for Cingular is if you're looking to download a lot of "stuff," don't get the MEdia Net plan because Cingular has been known to remove customers from the plan without warning (allowable under their Terms of Service). If you're careful or planning on doing only moderate web surfing, you can just get an unlimited MEdia net plan and "tether" it to your laptop as another wireless Internet connection.

Now back to the tutorial. Once you've gotten past this potential obstacle, congratulations! You're pretty much there. All you need to do is connect your phone to the laptop via your own connectivity method (USB cable, Bluetooth, IR, remember?), run the Nokia PC Suite software, select the "Connect to the Internet" option, and finally click CONNECT.

If all goes well, your phone should be providing a wireless connection. One note: you can receive calls while connected to the Internet. However, once you pick up a call (or initiate a call), your connection will be interrupted (put on pause, sort of) until you hang up.

Hopefully this helps out some people who've been having problems trying to get wireless internet on their laptops.


No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Firmware Upgrade Your Nokia N80 to N80ie

Written by jon on 6:45 AM

It took me a good long time getting the firmware update on my stock Nokia N80 phone. Hopefully this will help those poor, pitiful people who are having trouble getting up to speed to the N80 Internet Edition.

This tutorial should also apply to other Nseries phones such as the N93 but I have not tested the method on these devices so try them at your own risk!

Here's the short version of the steps:

1) Install NSS
2) Change Product Code on Phone
3) Backup
4) Install NSU
5) Update Firmware

More in the long entry. And I mean REALLY long.

First, a word about the N80 Internet Edition. Nokia has stated that the N80ie is exactly the same hardware as the "normal" N80 - which means the changes are purely in the firmware and the extra software that's included. Not only that, but a regular firmware update on a stock N80 will produce an N80ie!

Basically, a little rundown of what you'll get with the Internet Edition:

  • VoIP/SIP support (lets you make calls over WLAN)
  • better WLAN support
  • several new internet applications (Search, Download!, Lifeblog)
  • some bug fixes

If you've decided that it's worth the effort to upgrade, then let's begin.

Here's what you need:

Step 0

Do you already have a Nokia N80 Internet Edition? Check to see if you have an Internet folder, or the Internet Tel./Search/Download!/Lifeblog applications already installed, if you do, then you already have an N80ie. You can still skip to step 3 to update your firmware, though.

Step 1

You need to determine whether you have a branded or unbranded N80. This means that if you got your N80 from a phone carrier or provider then you'll need to change the Product Code of the phone to something else - this is due to the fact that the official Nokia updater program does not allow you to update the firmware if it detects a branded N80. Also, if you'd like to change the region of your phone to something else - say, from Europe to APAC, keep following Step 2. Otherwise, If your phone isn't branded and you do not want to change the region, go to Step 3.

Step 2: Turning Your Branded N80 into an Unbranded One

One piece of software that you'll need is Nemesis Service Suite, better known as NSS. This software was made for certain professional unlocking/flashing boxes, but you can use a simple USB cable also. The download link's above there somewhere.

Install NSS. Very straightforward installation, just be on the lookout for two things: first, answer "Virtual USB Device" when the install program asks you what services you'll be using after installation. Next, answer 'NO' when asked if you want to install virtual USB drivers.

Plug in your USB cable into your N80 and select PC Suite mode.

Run the program. You'll see two main icons in the top right corner. Click the top/right-most one:

Step 1: Click the TOP RIGHT icon in Nemesis Service Suite

The program will hum for a bit, and then spit out some jargon about Testing Interfaces and Testing Directories. Ignore this. Click the Phone Info tab that will appear on the top. Now you'll need to click the Read button under the "Production Data Edit" section.

Step 1: Click the Read button under Producton Data Edit

The status bar on the bottom will display "Reading values..." Now this is the critical point. If everything went well, you'll see several values filled into the Product Data Edit fields. If you received an "Error!" message, check out the troubleshooting section (to be added at a future date, like tomorrow).

I'll assume that if you got to this point, there should be a number in the "Product Code:" field. The product code is different for each region, so you need to select the region that you want to convert your N80 firmware to. The choice of region will also affect included languages - if you need support for Chinese characters, for example, choose one of the APAC regions like Hong Kong or Taiwan. Below is the list of Product Codes for each region, and the type of N80 (metallic silver or pearl black). As far as I know the color type has no effect on anything.

N80 Internet Edition Rm-92 APAC (Asian Pacific countries)

0539367 HONG KONG Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539857 TAIWAN Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539858 APAC 1 Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0539859 APAC 1 Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539910 THAILAND Pearl Black Internet Edition
0540588 AUSTRALIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540589 INDIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540654 NEW ZEALAND Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540779 PHILIPPINES Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540782 INDONESIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540783 THAILAND Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540839 APAC 1 Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0540841 THAILAND Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0540843 AUSTRALIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0540845 NEW ZEALAND Pearl Black Internet Edition
0540859 INDONESIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0540860 PHILIPPINES Pearl Black Internet Edition
0540861 INDIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0540862 PHILIPPINES Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0540863 INDIA Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0540864 AUSTRALIA Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0540865 NEW ZEALAND Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0540866 INDONESIA Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0541538 TAIWAN Smooth Stainless Internet Edition
0541542 HONG KONG Smooth Stainless Internet Edition

N80 Internet Edition Rm-92 EMEA (Europe)

0539362 ALPS Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540868 ALPS Pearl Black Internet Edition
0542289 BALKANS Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0543252 BALKANS Pearl Black Internet Edition
0541428 BALTIAN Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0541440 BALTIAN Pearl Black Internet Edition
0542808 CIS, BULGARIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542811 CIS, BULGARIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0538301 EURO 1 Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0539363 EURO 1 Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539548 EURO 2 Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0539712 EURO 2 Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539473 EURO 3 Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0544109 EURO 3 Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539646 FRANCE Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0540867 FRANCE Pearl Black Internet Edition
0542814 GREECE, CYPRUS Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542816 GREECE, CYPRUS Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539672 GULF Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542489 GULF Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539673 ISRAEL Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0514757 ISRAEL Pearl Black Internet Edition
0542487 LEBANON Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542488 LEBANON Pearl Black Internet Edition
0514753 MOLDAVIA, BELARUS Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0514755 MOLDAVIA, BELARUS Pearl Black Internet Edition
0514751 ROMANIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0514752 ROMANIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539652 RUSSIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542699 RUSSIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539648 SCANDINAVIA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0541439 SCANDINAVIA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0542490 SOUTH AFRICA Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542525 SOUTH AFRICA Pearl Black Internet Edition
0539897 TURKEY Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0541690 TURKEY Pearl Black Internet Edition
0542703 UKRAINE Patina Bronze Internet Edition
0542810 UKRAINE Pearl Black Internet Edition

A warning here: once you've selected a Product Code and updated the firmware, you won't be able to change it until a newer firmware arrives.

Be sure to copy down the Product Code that's already filled in the field. This is just in case something goes wrong. Once you've chosen a Product Code from the list above, enter it into the box and tick the "Enable" box. Then click Write.

NSS will update the product code on your phone in a matter of seconds. It should be about 1-2 seconds if I remember correctly.

Congratulations, you've finished Step 2!

Step 3

Now it's a cakewalk.

If you want to backup your phone memory contents (which includes Contacts, Calendar entries, etc) you need to install Nokia PC Suite. Install, run, and backup as needed.

Once that's done, install the Nokia Software Updater, run the software and follow the prompts. The software will automatically detect your phone model and the region and after a good long wait will tell you if an update is available. Note! You may need to retry several times before the software finds a compatible firmware!

Finally, follow the prompts to get the firmware loaded on your phone. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR PHONE, USB CABLE, OR ANYTHING NEARBY! Leave the room while waiting for the firmware update to complete. Read a book. Eat a hot dog. Whatever. You do not want to mess something up while upgrading, as this will royally screw up your phone.

After the dust has settled and the NSU has finished updating your phone, you should be in the clear. Congrats, you've just gone through a mind-numbing experience.

Troubleshooting Section - updated May 10, 2007

Here's some problems and solutions that I've found after

Help! I can't get NSS to recognize my Nokia N80!

This seems to be the main problem users are having. NSS is a fickle program, and getting your phone recognized by the program might take some additional steps.

Some things you can try:

  • Change USB ports - Certain USB ports (usually ports located on the front or the top of your pc) might have problems when your N80 is connected. I personally had a problem with NSS not recognizing my phone (it was plugged into the rear, right-hand USB port) until I switched it to the USB port on the left.
  • Uninstall anything Nokia related (PC Suite, Updater, etc), reboot, and then do a fresh install of NSS
  • Make sure you choose the "Virtual USB Port" option when prompted and say "No" when asked if you want to install USB drivers at the end of the installation for NSS
  • If you're verified everything, install NSS on a different computer and try again from there

My N80 is stuck in offline mode!
I had this problem after messing around with the Nokia flashing software. To fix this eternal Offline Mode problem, fire up NSS and click the Phone Info tab on the top of the program. On the bottom right, you should see "Power Mode" and some radio boxes for "Local", "Test", and "Normal" modes. Select "Normal" and click the Change button.

NSS reads my N80 information, but the Read Production Data option doesn't do anything!
Can't help you with this....yet. I just experienced this problem on another PC and I'm trying to work it out. Stay tuned!

This troubleshooting guide is a work in progress, so after I get home today I'll see if I can work out some of the problems.

No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Buy a phone off eBay for the lowest price

Written by jon on 6:42 AM

It's a well-known fact that shopping on eBay will (almost always) give you the cheapest/market price for mobile phones.

So here's my list of handy tips that'll help you score any mobile phone - whether it's a Nokia or anything else - for cheaper than what everyone else is paying, not to mention some helpful hints when dealing on the 'bay.

How to buy a phone the nokiaphoneblog way.

How to buy a phone off ebay, the Nokia Phone Blog way!

1. Bid on auctions ending on major holidays. July 4th, New Years, Christmas. Prices tend to be a lot lower on these dates since a good majority of people are out of their homes - which means they're NOT on ebay! Take advantage of this little-known fact, know what phone you want to buy in advance, and go in for the kill. You should be able to pick up at least a 10% (and sometimes as much as 25%) discount with this method.

2. If #1 doesn't apply, never bid on auctions ending at night. In other words, any time from 3pm-11pm PDT (3pm is 6pm EST), since this is when most people are online and have free time. Also, try to bid on auctions ending on Thursday, Fridays, or Saturdays. I believe the absolute best time for buyers is early afternoon on Friday. There are good opportunities to buy during very early morning hours (1am-5am) but auctions rarely end at these times.

3. Research before you buy. Market research, that is. A simple "Completed Items" search will tell you what you need to know - find out the lowest selling prices in the past 30 days and set a maximum target price for yourself somewhere at that level or slightly higher, depending on how much you're willing to spend. When bidding on auctions, don't bid any higher than the price you set.

Always factor in the shipping cost when making estimates for phones - some unscrupulous sellers like to jack up the shipping thinking that they'll make more. That brings us to...

4. Auctions with high shipping rates usually end noticeably lower than auctions with "normal" shipping costs. Personally, my feeling is that seeing ridiculous shipping costs just turns a lot of people off to an auction, regardless of what the actual bid is at.

5. Check out the seller first. When doing an estimate, only look at the auctions with 99% or better feedback sellers. After that, check sellers to make sure they've sold cell phones in the past and have at least 20 positive feedback or higher, depending on your risk tolerance level.

6. Watch out for Buy It Now auctions. These are tricky. Generally Buy It Now auctions are worthless, since sellers intentionally set the prices higher - using the BIN option is more of a convenience than anything. However, very very occasionally you'll find an honest, ignorant (!) seller that set the Buy It Now auction a little too low. To find these, do a search for your phone and check off the "Buy It Now items" box under "Show only...". Then sort by minimum price.

7. Don't pre-order a phone. Ever. "Pre-ordering" a phone is not only expensive and a waste of time, it's not even guaranteed to ship on release date for a number of reasons (you're not dealing with Nokia here!). Case in point: the Nokia N95 was selling for upwards of $1000-1100 bucks a month before it came out. Of course, when the N95 was released the actual phone was available for $750. Sorry, but mobile phones will never be out of stock everywhere unlike certain game consoles.

8. Always pay by credit card. Don't pay by bank transfer or check if you can help it. A credit card lets you do a quick chargeback in case the seller screws you over. You might be able to get your bank to reverse a transfer, but it's a lot more annoying - not to mention that Paypal is generally useless when it comes to this sort of thing. Better to rely on your credit card company's motto of "get the money back first, ask questions later" technique.


No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Speed Up Your Nokia N95 or S60 Phone

Written by jon on 6:35 AM

Let's face it: Symbian ain't exactly the fastest OS in existence. In fact, it can get pretty damn slow. So, direct from the Nokia Phone Blog, are some handy tips to fine-tune your Nokia N95 (or any other S60 phone) for speed without going completely insane.

How to speed up your Nokia N95 phone.

Learn some fascinating new methods to speed up your Nokia S60 phone.

  1. Set your log duration to 1 day. Works wonders! Normally, the call log list defaults to 30 days, but that's completely unnecessary, at least from our speed point of view.

    The method: Open up the Log application, hit options (left softkey), and select the Settings option. Change the Log duration to (optimally) 1 day, or you can try 10 days. Either way, it should give you a noticeable speed increase.

    Enter the Log application's Options menu.

    Select the Settings option..

    Change the log duration to 1 day.



  2. Use the Edit key to select multiple entries. Here's a little known tip that I found out quite accidentally: when browsing a list of markable items, hold down the Edit key and use the directional keys to mark (check) multiple items quick and easily. Really handy when you want to delete a lot of text messages, for example, or when you want to add pictures to an album. Unfortunately, due to the way it was programmed, the Edit key doesn't individually mark an item when pressed once - you need to keep it held down and just use the arrow keys to select items.

    Use the Edit Key to select multiple items in a list.

  3. Use keypad shortcuts when browsing the Menu. Whether your Menu is in grid or list mode, you can use the numerical keypad to quickly jump to an item. It's easy to see with the grid option enabled - each key corresponds to the item that's on the menu (12 items, 12 keys). So if you wanted to open the application in the bottom right corner, just hit the # (pound) key. Note that accessing menu items with this method actually executes the application or folder, instead of just selecting the item.

    On a similar note, some phones have Icon Animation on by default - this adds a 3D "twisting" effect to your Theme icons. It doesn't work with custom application icons, and is generally pretty useless. Turn it off by hitting the menu key -> Options -> Icon Animation.

    Turn off Icon Animations in menus for a little speed-up.

  4. Go through text messages faster with Nokia Conversation. Conversation is an interface extension cooked up in Nokia's Beta labs that lets you read text messages by sender, instead of some huge jumbo list of texts. Another benefit: you can also delete by sender, which is great for cutting people out of your life!

    Once you've installed the Nokia Contacts Support Services Package and Nokia Conversation, you can access the extension by going to Contacts and hitting the
    right arrow key.

    Download Nokia Conversation

  5. Keypad shortcuts work on the Clock application too. This will probably save you a grand total of one, maybe two keystrokes. In the pre-installed Clock application, typing in a number key at the default screen creates a new Alarm with the hour already filled in.

    That's all.

  6. The multimedia menu: disable everything. There's a wealth of useless options when it comes to the Multimedia Menu. Custom background images, imgae effects, "menu sounds", and start-up animation. Shut everything off for maximum speed. The background image option should be set to Graphics -> Themes, which should just display the current theme's default background instead of loading another one.

    Honestly though, the multimedia menu always seems to be one of the slowest things ever.

    Turn off all the options relating to the Multimedia Menu.

  7. Finally, keep your phone's firmware updated! All right, that was a cheap one. But seriously, sometimes Nokia actually improves the user interface a bit - take the latest N95 firmware, for example, which speeds up the Gallery by removing the mean bug that caused the gallery menu to appear for a second or two before (slowly) sliding off the screen.

Got some good tips on saving time with your Nokia N95, S60, or Symbian phone? Share them in the comments section!



No Comment comment | Posted in »  

How-To: Get MP3 Album Art on Your Nokia N95 (or S60 phone)

Written by jon on 6:31 AM

I've been wrangling with the N95 Music Player application for the better part of a night, trying to get album art, or those little JPEG files that you can embed into an MP3 file's ID3 tags, working with a foolproof method. Whether you're copying MP3 files to your device for the first time, or just making some sense out of the Music Player's screwy-ness when updating, this mini-tutorial should clear up any problems.


An Introduction
Yes, you can change the Album Art on demand with the N95 and any other S60 phone. This is a very bad idea because the application does NOT embed the image in the tags correctly, so you won't see the album art in Windows Media Player, your PSP, or wherever your songs end up.
What You Need: Mp3Tag, Album Art in JPEG format
The first thing you'll need is a good MP3 tagging application. The best one I've used (and the one this tutorial is based on), is Mp3Tag. It's free, easy to use, and it works. Good enough for me.

Embedding Album Art Into the MP3 Files
Skip this part if you're happy with the art already embedded into your music files.
This assumes that the songs are stored on your hard drive, and that you'll be copying them to the phone later. If this is not the case (the files are on the phone, and you're directly editing those with Mp3Tag - MAKE SURE YOU READ THE SECTION "Some Things to Check For BEFORE Running Music Player" AFTERWARDS!
Once Mp3Tag is downloaded and installed, give it a whirl. You'll see a panel on the left with some ID3 tag information, as well as the white main box that lists the MP3s that you want to update.
Open up the folder that has the MP3 files you want to tag with Album Art. Select the files, and drag them into Mp3Tag's main box. Mp3Tag should display some default information (filename, song title, album) which you can change to your liking. Select all of the songs (Ctrl-A or just click and drag), and right click on one of them - then choose the Extended Tags option:



This should bring you into the Tag Editor, which lists the available meta tags for the album as well as the current cover art. If you'd like to add some extra tags (like Genre, Composer, Studio) you can do it here.

At this point you can drag and drop the JPEG image into the box with the record icon in it, like so:




If there's already an image in the box that you're happy with, check to make sure the text underneath says "image/jpeg". NOT "image/png", since the Music Player seems to have problems with PNG files.
[* Looking for cover art? The best place is Google - just do a search for the album in question, and click the Images tab on the top of the page to hit up Google Images. Pick one of the images that has a minimum 120x120 pixel resolution - just remember, the bigger the image, the slower the album art will take to load. Personally I wouldn't go above 500x500. The actual image does take some space in the MP3 file, but it's generally pretty small, around 15-40k.]
Hit OK and wait for Mp3Tag to save the music files. Then upload them to the N95.

Some Things to Check For BEFORE Running Music Player
First, if you are modifying existing files that are already on your phone (either updating them by copying from your hard drive, or using "Mass Storage Mode" via USB and editing the MP3 tags directly, you'll need to make some minor changes. These changes involve renaming either the MP3 file name OR the name of the folder that it resides in. This way, you can fool the brilliant Music Player into thinking it's a completely new file. Otherwise, Mr. Music Player will not recognize your changes and will keep displaying the old MP3 tags!
The best way to do this is just to put all the album songs into a folder with the group's name and the album after it. (ie "Green Day - Dookie") Renaming each file individually isn't a fun prospect.
If you're copying music files to your N95 for the first time, then you don't have to worry about this.

The Final Test: Music Player
Okay, you got this far. Fire up the Music Player software on the N95, and it should give you an ambiguous "Opening" box for a couple of seconds. Hit the Options button (left softkey) and choose Refresh Music Library.

Now browse to your new album, and check to make sure that the album art loads. If everything worked out perfectly, congratulations! (otherwise head down to the troubleshooting section)

Troubleshooting
Duplicate songs in your Music Player: go back to the root/main menu and do another Options -> Refresh Music Library. This happens sometimes after renaming files and the Music Player doesn't refresh the first time around.
Still no album art: Add the album art again but use a different picture this time around. Make sure the picture is a genuine JPEG, not a PNG or GIF or anything else. (AND you must rename the folder or files afterwards)
Do not use the N95's built-in Change Album Art option! It does not add the correct tags to the music files!

No Comment comment | Posted in » ,  
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

RECENT COMMENTS

SUBSCRIBE TO Latest Nokia Mobile
 Subscribe to Latest Nokia Mobile via RSS
Or, subscribe via email:
Find Latest Nokia Mobile :