Fansite of Nokia professional training

Hi guys, it’s been some time since I posted here at Nokia E50 blog but I have a good reason. I’ve been working on my new project called Mobile Tips. It’s going to be a website/newsletter with one goal in mind – help you to get the most out of your mobile phone.

You’ll find there tips on how to use your mobile in a more effective way, reviews of quality software, tips on freeware applications you should install on your phone and much more. So don’t miss this opportunity and subscribe to the Mobile Tips Newsletter right now!

Competition

To support the launch of this website I prepared a competition for you guys. Everyone who subscribes to the newsletter will have a chance to win one of the great prizes, including a brand new Nokia E51 mobile phone! Check out the prizes:

1st prize: Nokia E51 mobile phone with your colour choice
2nd prize: 2 applications of your choice from Handango
3rd prize: Nokia HS-23 Headset
4th prize: 2GB Memory Card
5th prize: 1 application of your choice from Psiloc

It’s easy. Just subscribe to the Mobile Tips Newsletter and I’ll select 5 winners who’ll get the above mentioned prizes. There are no rules except that you can’t subscribe more than once. These who break this rule will be automatically disqualified.

Someone sent me a link to the video which shows how to replace a broken screen on Nokia E50. Check it out, it might come handy

This is something I want to share with you. I usually don’t post these kind of news articles here but this video is really cool. Nokia Research Center and Cambridge Nanoscience Center teamed up and created a concept of a future device. You better watch the video yourself:

What do you think? Can you see it happening during your lifetime?

This is another article from the Quick Tip series. If you have a tip you would like to share with thousands of readers, send it via email to contact@nokiae50.info.

Sending SMS – to quickly send an SMS, press the green Send key (green) instead of going to Options – Send.

Adding Recipient – adding a contact to the To field is faster if you switch the input mode from numeric to alpha (long press # key) and type the required name. After you typed the name, press the Selection key. If the selected contact has more than one number asigned, you’ll be presented with a pop-up window to select the desired number.

Save Draft – quickly save an unfinished message as draft by pressing the End key (red).

Do you have more SMS tips? Share them in the comments!

A couple of days ago I’ve come across an application which lets you restart your mobile. I’ve been dying for this function in the S60 phones. I’m not sure why Nokia hasn’t implemented it yet. The application that does this is called EQ Restart and you can download it for free – download EQ Restart. Before you can install the application you’ll have to sign it. The signing process is quite difficult but there is a great guide available here.

EQ Restart will restart your phone immediately after selecting the icon, no warnings. To take a real advantage of this application I recommend you to place it on your home screen to access it fast (Tools – Settings – Phone – Standby mode – Active standby apps.). As far as I can see EQ Restart bypasses PIN code request which is great – no need to enter it every time you restart your phone.

The only thing I’m missing is a confirmation query – Do you want to restart your phone?. That would make the EQ Restart perfect. Read about the benefits of restarting your phone every now and then.

Download EQ Restart for free!

I created a table with icons that can appear on the screen of your phone. Thanks for the inspiration to papundrum from the Nokia E50 forum. If there are some icons missing, let me know in the comments or via email contact (at) nokiae50.info. Don’t forget to bookmark this page so you can easily return to check the explanation for an icon!

Icons:	Explanation:
	The device is being used in a GSM network. The bar next to the icon indicates the signal strength of the network at your current location. The higher the bar, the stronger the signal.
	You have one or more unread messages in the Inbox folder in Messag..
	The battery charge level. The higher the bar, the stronger the charge in the battery.
	You have received new e-mail in the remote mailbox.
	You have one or more missed phone calls.
	An alarm is active.
	You have selected the silent profile, and the device does not ring for an incoming call or message.
	Bluetooth is active.
	An infrared connection is active. If the indicator blinks, your device is trying to connect to the other device, or the connection has been lost.
	A GPRS packet data connection is available.
	A GPRS packet data connection is active.
	A GPRS packet data connection is on hold.
	An EGPRS packet data connection is available.
	An EGPRS connection is active.
	An EGPRS packet data connection is on hold.
	Your device is connected to a PC with a USB data cable.
	Indicate the phone line that you have selected, if you have subscribed to two phone lines (network service).
	All calls are forwarded to another number.
	A headset is connected to the device.
	The connection to a headset with Bluetooth connectivity has been lost.
	A hands-free car kit is connected to the device.
	A loopset is connected to the device.
	A Text phone is connected to the device.
	Your device is synchronizing.
	You have an ongoing push to talk connection.

Source: Nokia E50 manual

Since I installed Oxford Dictionary on my Nokia E50 I find myself using it almost every day. I read a lot of English books and whenever I come across an English word I don’t understand I open Oxford English Dictionary and find out its meaning. Using a dictionary on a mobile phone is much more comfortable than going to your pc or flipping through the classing book dictionary. That way I learnt many new words and I recommend this application especially to people whose native language is other than English.

Oxford Dictionary is not a cheap thing. It will cost you $39.95 to purchase a full license. However, you can first use the trial version and see if it’s the right thing for you. I’ve been using the trial version for 2 weeks now and it still didn’t ask me to purchase the product. The Oxford Dictionary website doesn’t say how long you can use the trial version but I guess it’s something around 2 – 4 weeks. Anyway, it’s long enough for you to decide if you need the software or not.

Features

Oxford Dictionary (or Concise Oxford English Dictionary) consists of 240 000 words and phrases. This is a huge database but despite its size, the dictionary works like a snap. Speed is a crucial factor in these kind of applications. User usually doesn’t want to wait for the search results more than 2 – 3 seconds.

The starting screen of the dictionary is basically a list of words with a search bar at the bottom. The matching words are highlighted as you type. Once you find the correct word you click on it and the page with definitions opens right away. The great thing is that you can further navigate to any word on the page; put focus on it with a cursor and press the center push button. Check the screenshots below to get a better image of the functionality:

Concise Oxford English Dictionary has some extra features that make it even more powerful tool. If you launch the options you’ll see:

• History – your last 15 searches are saved in History for better accessibility
• WildCard Search – this is a usual wildcard search; you can enter the star sign (*) if you are not sure whether a certain letter is part of the word or not (e.g. analy*e – could be analyse or analyze)
• Direction – if you have more modules in the dictionary you can select in which direction they should be used (e.g. English – Russian or Russian – English); at the moment Russian is the only extra language that Oxford Dictionary offers
• Flash cards – this is a very interesting feature; you can add any word to the Quiz and later run the Quiz to see how many of the words you went through you still remember
• Virtual Keyboard – I’m not sure what’s the real use of this feature

Settings

In the settings you can setup the sound volume, font size, full screen, translation from clipboard and auto-update interval. Quite rich setting options compared to some other 3rd party applications. Especially font size option can be really useful for people who have problems recognizing small letters.

That’s pretty much it. I hope this review will encourage you to download and try this great application. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments below.

I’m really happy that the messageboard has taken off and many of you have been participating in the discussion. You shared lots of knowledge with others, answered many questions coming from new or experienced users. Thanks to everyone who participated, it would be quiet around here without you.

I went through every topic on the messageboard and compiled a list of the most popular/interesting questions and replies. Check it out, you might find answers to some of your questions.

Top Readers’ Tips in 2007

Q: Is there any way to listen to FM radio on the Nokia E50?
A: Check out Nokia HS-2R or install Radio Bee.

Q: How can I create screenshots of the current display with my E50?
A: Try Antony’s Screenshot for Symbian or ScreenSnapS60.

Q: How do I customize a home screen?
A: Go to Tools – Settings – Phone – Standby Mode – Active Standby Apps. (this is where you can change the 6 icon that are displayed on your home screen. If you are using a mailbox, you can select Active Standby Mailbox

Q: How can I update to the latest firmware?
A: Check out this article How To Update Your Nokia Phone Software

Q: Any tips on how to use my E50 as a webcam on the PC?
A: There’s a software called Mobiola that can do that.

Q: Anyone having problems sending E50 SMS text messages? Takes over a minute to send a small one.
A: Try SMS Accelerator. It should speed things up.

Q: I have successfully connected my E50 with my Gmail account but it seems to be downloading “All Mail” rather than just my “Inbox” so I cancelled the operation. Anyone know how I limit it to the half-dozen or so emails in the “Inbox” rather than the hundreds in “All Mail”?
A: Yeah, there’s a way: Menu->Messaging->Press “Options” (left soft key)->Settings->E-Mail->Select your inbox from the inboxes list (I´ll assume it’s called “Gmail”)->Retrieval Settings. There you can set max email size, and how many emails from the inbox. For example, if you select “30”, the 30 newest emails will be retrieved.

Q: Is there any way to change the T9 language from within the browser? I usually do SMS in spanish and internet in english, so I change often.
A: Yes, you can select the T9 language by pressing the edit key which is located on the right side of your phone (the button with a small pencil on it).

Q: The Q8310 had the excellent feature that auto-silenced the ringtone when there was an appointment in the calender. Is this possible on the E50?
A: E50 can’t switch profiles based on the calendar events but I recommend you Best Profiles application.

Q: I’m going to sell my phone. How to wipe all personal data?
A: Just type in *#7370# and follow the instructions. That erases everything personal from your phone. Don’t forget to format the MicroSD card afterwards.

One of the readers, Roger, sent me a couple of pictures made with his Nokia E50. I selected one which I want to share with you. What strikes me is that a simple E50 camera is capable of producing a photo with rich colours.

Do you have some photos you would like to share with others? Send them to contact (at) nokiae50.info.

A couple of students from the Technical University of Tampere (Finland) came up with an interesting idea – play games on the building via mobile phone. The whole happening took place next to the Nokia offices. I’ve been there and with me about a thousand of other people who thought this was an amazing idea. If you have no clue what I’m talking about, check out these videos:

The whole game is controlled through mobile phone over WLAN or Bluetooth. If you are interested in more technical details, check out the official website of the project:

The windows of D-staircase function as individual pixels by setting LED lights inside the apartments. The light of each window is controlled with a software running on a PC and a DMX light controller. With 9 (width) x 11 (height) pixels the graphics platform is able to project both still and moving graphics