all things me

Via Nokia Nseries blog I found the theme “Pearl Black” which is a step in the right direction (that is, it isn’t BLUE!).

It’s a black version of the default theme I was using at the very beginning. The background is a little silly but it’ll do. Check out the music player:

I also tested out a theme by Babi, Only Black v2, but it is very black (looked really good,though).

I’ve seen a really cool purple theme on N95. I wonder if it’s available somewhere…

Update: And the search goes on…

Kooky Phone is quite nice, too. It won the theme competition at e61life. There’s a full and light version. I installed the light version because it uses the default icons. A bit of blue there, but very refreshing nevertheless:

A few links that may interest you if you’re looking for themes

• Mobile Themes (requires registering to download)
• 4urMobilePhone (requires registering to download)
• Mobile9 (no registering but limited download)

Writing a blog post on your mobile while your computer is 6 metres away.

Today I’ve been mobile surfing a lot and as I was thinking of turning on the computer and checking my Uni mail, I couldn’t be bothered! So here I am, thumbing away. Let’s see if I manage to upload a screenshot of this…

OK, can’t do that. I’ll have to upload the picture when I’m on the computer tomorrow. I wonder if there is a mobile-able blogging interface…

Here it is!

The 2 Gb memory card arrived today! I’m in the process of moving some nice music on it using PC Suite’s Music Manager. It’s not the best of programs, because it forgets all the songs it was supposed to transfer if something goes wrong, but it converts the songs conveniently to a correct format.

Quite funny to see how the number of pictures that still can be taken jumped from about 60 to over 2600. Very doubtful that I’d ever have even 60 photos (who knows) but why buy too little space when you can get plenty instead.

My computer isn’t liking the conversion process… It starts humming crazily around file number 5 (in queue) even though the CPU usage is not 100% and then calms down after a while. Could it be because the application starts converting the next file while transferring the previous one?

I invited myself to open a Google mail account (“Minna, Minna has invited you to open a Google mail account”), created a new account, and set it to allow POP usage. Then I took up on setting up the phone.

“Neat, a settings wizard!” I thought. I ended up using a Gmail account because Gmail was in the list of available providers. (Didn’t help though, but at least Gmail has good spam filtering.) I selected the outgoing server, email address, username, password… Then I fetched my mail. It worked. When I tried sending an email to thank Minna (that is, me) for the invite, the phone got stuck on “connecting to Gmail…” Then I thought, “well then, I guess I need to use the operator’s outgoing mail.” I set the outgoing server and encryptions, ports, things like that, and left the username/password empty (I don’t have a username/password. Unless they mean the un/pw for admin interface for the phone subscription which is not mandatory to register to). Then I tried sending the mail but it kept asking me for un/pw. Oookay.

Luckily I decided to google “email settings nokia n73” and found “Push E-mail (sort of) on Nokia N80 and N73” at Alex’s space. I would’ve commented and thanked for the instructions, but the comments were closed. Perhaps this thank-you will reach him.

I followed the instructions #2 and got very close to the solution. I only had to define port and security settings for incoming and outgoing mail, and then — like magic — the mail that was stuck in the outbox suddenly disappeared into the ether and travelled to my main Gmail account.

Long story short, now I have a working email account for my mobile phone!
Why do I need an email on my phone? I don’t know…

Update: I didn’t remember reading Anthony Pranata’s instructions on setting up a Gmail. There you can find screen shots of the process.

Update on November 25. Added a bit about the game selection and joystick…

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Today the package subscription finally started working and I can start using my phone for real. I’ve had a chance to play with it offline so this is what I think about it at the moment.

I think I should mention that this is my first S60 phone; my previous phones, Nokia 3210, 3330 and 6101 have been Series 40. (If that’s all gibberish, Forum Nokia has a nicely presented Device Specification section. Those two 3xxx phones I’ve had aren’t included, though.)

You navigate with a joystick that is located between the call start/end keys and the softkeys. It is quite easy to get used to the joystick even though at first it felt very weird. Pushing up is a little bit awkward still. Some have reported that the joystick has broken off — let’s hope that won’t happen to me. It does feel a bit flimsy, true, but I’m not planning on manhandling my phone.

I like the menu structure very much. It’s nice when there’s only a few options, the submenu pops on top of the main menu.

(I’m using the default Nokia theme for the moment. I’ll have to look for a nicer, less blue, one.)

Also a nice feature is the tabbed menu. In many submenus e.g. Settings I can go to the next selection of settings by moving the joystick left or right.

The Active standby screen is heaven-sent! It shows the calendar, to-do list, currently playing radio channel or music track and probably much more. On my old phone I used calendar and other memo features, but only way to be reminded of the events was an alarm which I never use. Now I see current (a week ahead?) calendar entries right away!

(Yeah, I know there aren’t any calendar entries for this week. That doesn’t mean I don’t have any plans. Well, yeah it does, personally, but I have lots of work plans )

On the screen there is also a customisable list of six shortcuts.

Media key gives 4 more slots to customise shortcuts. I’ve chosen to have shortcuts to multimedia applications but it’s not restricted what you can have there. There is one grief with the Media key, though: it makes a sound when the view opens. I haven’t found any way to silence it except to use Silent profile.

There is only one game pre-installed. In some nooks of the world people get also Sudoku in addition to the Snake that is installed on my phone. Whyyyyy oh whyyyy can’t we have Sudoku installed? I could do without the weird 3D Snake (nothing beats the Snake II that was on e.g. Nokia 3330) but I love Sudoku!

The world clock is also a fancy feature. I’m sure I wouldn’t find it useful if I didn’t have a trip to Australia to look forward to…

A great tip was given by Harri in a comment on S60.com Blogs » S60 User Experience. He told that he uses a camera (digital or phone cam) for taking notes of for example timetables. Well, I took a photo of the timetable for buses from work. Now I only have to remember that I have the timetable easily available.

A great shortcut is that by pressing # you can switch between silent and default profile.

On the N73 support page there is an SMS Accelerator application and “it is recommended that you install this application to prevent slowness in SMS sending.” I sent my first SMS today and it left very swiftly so I’ll just have to wait and see what this alleged slowness is.

I’ve had a bit of a ‘Scuse me? moment. There are “My Folders” for messages but I haven’t yet figured out how to move messages to them (or anywhere for that matter). Today I finally received SMSs in my inbox so I can try if it really is difficult or I just didn’t have any moveable messages. (I could only move old messages to drafts so I think I’ll leave them on my computer and not move them to my new phone at all.)

Today I went shopping and bought the Music Headset of HS-20+AD-41. The AD-41 audio adapter has a 3.5mm plug for headphones so I can use any pair I like, but the HS-20 earphones are pretty good too. It has 3 (pairs of) ear pieces in different sizes and the smallest is actually small unlike with Koss’s Plug. It fits in my unnaturally small ear (or ear canal) very nicely. Now I only need to get a 1 Gb or 2 Gb memory card to get some music on the road. Before that I can always listen to the radio.

I also ordered my preferred Robbie ringtone (I’m not going to say what it is because I don’t want to hear it from any other phone than Mine! ) so I’d say this phone is all set.

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Screenshot application: Screenshot for Symbian OS (S60)

Some nice links
Nokia Nseries
S60 Blogs
S60 Tips

All S60/Nokia website tips are welcomed

Tomorrow I can finally start using my new phone! It’s SIM locked so I’ve had to wait for the new subscription to start working. I suppose I’ve had to wait this long because they’re moving it from a different provider. Quite odd that it takes so long because already on Monday someone from the current/ex provider called me asking why I was changing. I told him I bought a package deal and he said, quite sourly, that I’ll be stuck with it for the next 2 years (not with those words but I got the gist). I should’ve told him that ‘maybe so, but boy do I have a fancy phone now’.
[edit Oct 17] Actually, there is apparently a one-week “reconsideration period”. Therefore, I had to wait. [/edit]

I’m planning on buying protective film for the screen (if it seems like it won’t leave horrible sticky patches when removed) and headphones (I’d like the HS-20+AD-41 if it’s available) tomorrow before the lecture. Now they had at looong last (the shop opened in August) added the opening hours for Nokia store so if I get to the city around 9 am I’ll have plenty of time to shop.

Now, to carry both phones or risk it and leave the new one at home? I have no idea when the old subscription will stop working. Then again, there is pretty much a non-existing chance that someone would try and call me so I guess it won’t do much harm if my old subscription stops working in the middle of the day. Or, I could just carry the SIM card with me…

The colour is more realistic and the chair does look more comfy. And you know why the picture’s better?

That’s right. I caved in, surrendered, gave up… I bought Nokia N73.

Actually, I did something worse — I got a package deal! I hate package deals. They make people’s lives way too easy. But it allowed me to take the phone home without paying a dime. Sure, I’ll have to pay a whole lotta dimes each month but I figured it’s not a bad deal because in the end, the phone usage (calls and data, I pay for SMSs per message) is not a big part of the monthly fee. And I was planning on changing service providers anyway.

The subscription isn’t working yet because they have to move my number from the current provider but the phone works anyway. It’s good, because now I can play with it and learn it first without having to be afraid that I’m using something that costs a lot.

First impression: I’m loving it!
(I’ll elaborate once I’ve actually used the phone for a while.)

Note to self: Try and postpone buying a memory card until the MU-36 (2GB) is available in Q4/2006. Why wait when you can buy a 2Gb Kingston miniSD right now with less money.

Today I went to the new Nokia Flagship store here in Helsinki. (I wonder if they sell phones there, or only flagships…) — correction, I went there and dragged my sister along. The place was pretty crowded (tomorrow’s the official launch party) so there wasn’t anyone I could’ve started bombing with questions; and we were pretty tired anyway. I searched for the N73, looked at it a little bit, took a tiny brochure, and we left.

The price there was higher than what I’d got as a package deal from somewhere else. I went to ask the price for the phone, a 512Mb/1Gb memory card, and an audio adapter (to be able to use regular earphones) in a store close to work and the price they offered was less than what the phone costs at the Nokia store. (They did offer only 3€ less than the normal price so I’ll have to go in and haggle a little more.)

I don’t know which will happen first: being able to drag myself to the centre again to go in and properly try out the phone (well, University starts soon) or buying the phone.

My newest justification for not feeling too bad about spending so much money: I’m getting a lot of tax refund this year. But you know what, I won’t feel bad at all! I’m gonna love the phone to bits!

As people (or at least I) tend to rant about their crushes, I have to continue. Why am I suddenly so passionate about this gadget?

• It’s Nokia. There is no rationality behind this. Perhaps other brands would have better price–quality ratio, I don’t know, but it has to be Nokia. If for nothing else, Nokias are in general far prettier than any of the other brands (there are some lapses: E61, 6630). Or can you show me a beautiful phone by someone else? (I do know it’s a matter of taste and I can be very stubborn.)
• It’s S60. I’ve been itching to get an S60 phone. They’re like WordPress and Firefox: extensible and customisable.
• Camera. I’m not a regular-camera person. It’s not something I carry around even to functions where I’d need it. I’ve been thinking of getting a digital camera but I’ve been putting it off because I don’t care for cameras. The harsh reality is, however, cameras are useful even if I don’t like being on the flash-side of them.
• Lens cover. My 6101 is all sticky and there’re probably a few layers of fingerprints on the lens.
• Infrared. I don’t know if there are phones that have only Bluetooth and not infrared, but I’ve just bought (and the trouble I had finding it!) an infrared adapter so I don’t want to make it useless so soon. It says in some places that the N73 package includes a datacable so maybe I don’t need the adapter — I’m happy as long as I don’t need to find+buy yet another connection device for my computer.
• Snakes!!! Is it true?! The interactive demo says Snakes is one of the games. Hurraah!

Only minus (without any hands-on experience) is that it isn’t a fold phone.

Now, I’m not telling you to go buy the phone because I don’t want to see one walk past me on the street too often. (That’s the biggest turn-off for 6101 — I see it everywhere!) I’m just desperately trying to justify to myself the stack of money I’m going to lose for it some day… I guess I can indulge for a change? (Don’t remind me that I still have the plane tickets to buy…)

I think it’s love at first sight. I know it’s been only about 6 months since the current one came into my life but I feel this is The One! Ever since I laid my eyes on the attractive exterior nothing else compares. I’m powerless.

I will hold on to my current one for a while to see if this new infatuation develops or if it is only fleeting. Or maybe even something better will come along.