Ever since the emergence, and subsequent rise in popularity, of iOS and Android powered handsets, Nokia have seen their reputation plummet.

While at one time Nokia handsets were the mobile phones to be seen with, in recent years they’ve struggled to keep up with the innovations offered by iOS and Android. In spite of this, Nokia have retained a hardcore group of fans who are always keen to see what the Finnish manufacturer comes out with next. This is due, in part, to Nokia’s commitment to release smartphones aimed at users who don’t want to fork out £500 plus for an iOS or Android handset. The C5-03 is their latest entry level offering.

The C5-03 is a larger handset that Nokia users may be used to, but still weighs considerably less than the majority of touchscreen smartphones (93g). The sturdy plastic case comes in stylish grey, blue or green, which is sure to please the fashion-conscious mobile phone owner. The case also houses an impressive 5 megapixel camera; an improvement on that of its predecessor. There’s also a Micro SD memory card slot for an extra 16GB or storage and, most notably, an accelerometer, allowing for the playing of modern mobile phone games like Doodle Jump.

The C5-03 comes preloaded with a variety of social networking apps, including Facebook, Twitter, My Space and Friendster. One feature that sets it apart from other similarly-priced smartphones is the inclusion of Ovi Maps. This excellent app uses GPS to provide turn by turn voice navigation whether you are driving or walking. Its inbuilt accelerometer also means a digital compass can be used to further aid users’ journeys.

The Nokia C5-03 is a solid and reliable phone, and is a great choice for someone looking to make their first step into the smartphone world. If you want some more information on this or any other Nokia phone visit http://www.phones4u.co.uk/.

Snake Deluxe 2 from CrasySoft

As we are just releasing the forum, we decided to make a contest: The person who posts the most in the forum until 5th July, will win a Snake Deluxe 2 game. A good way to start posting is by answering tenorplayer23 who has some questions regarding the Nokia E71 vs Nokia E71x. See this quote below:

1) My first question is – WHAT can the E71x do on the AT&T network that the unlocked E71 NAM can’t? What are the most significant advantages of using the E71 NAM on the AT&T network. I see reference to being able to take advantage of 3G system speeds with the E71x. Not with the E71 NAM???

2) There is a great deal of discussion about which “data or PDA” plan to use with either phone on AT&T, as well as, the use of Wifi, which both phones have. Having looked at AT&T pricing, I see the $15 difference. However, I’m not sure what each plan variant gives you exactly “what” with the E71x and E71, respectively. Can you clarify?

3) And, subsequently, how does Wifi affect the choice of one or the other of these plans? I understand that you can use Wifi with the phone in hotspots (or on a home wireless network, for that matter).

4) EMAIL: I understand that you can access web based mail via the internet obtained by accessing Wifi or through the repective AT&T plan. For email from my ISP POP3 account (or corporate exchange, but more importantly, the former) how do the E71x and E71 NAM with the respective AT&T data plans work? Claification of this will probably also clarify data plan selection AND influence the financial decision about which phone to purchase.

5) Finally, since I have had CDMA phones for a long time, how does the actual discussion with AT&T go to obtain the requisite SIM card and month to month phone pla, if you have the unlocked Nokia E71 NAM, to get the optimum use of the phone with their network capabilities?

If you could help with clarifications with these specific questions, I’d greatly appreciate it. Their not intuitive necessarily to a relatively experienced user.

You can reply here to this Forum topic. Feel free to post everything in the forum regarding the Nokia e71 and E71x!

Via: Nokia Mobile

Other differences is that the GPS of the E71x probably will be locked to ATT and Nokia Maps might not be there, anyway, the Nokia E71x will be available starting 24th of March for $199.00 us. [Via: NokiaMobileBlog]

Nokia E71

Here is a little article I wrote when I received my E71, Hope you enjoy it!

I opened it very anxiously and finally the great E71, winner of the ”Phone Of The Year” and ”Best Smartphone Of The Year” was in my hands. My expectations for the device were very high, I expected a mind blowing and very impressive S60-powered smartphone. Here are my first impressions as well as my after-24 hours of usage thoughts.

Before unpacking the box I examined it very carefully, it is half of a normal NSeries box and only brings 7 days of free navigation with Nokia Maps, opposed to the generous 3-6 months NSeries phones usually bring.

I opened it, and as I expected, the E71 was right in the middle. The box brings the USB Cable, the starting CD, the instructions, and manuals, which in my opinion, as a mobile expert, they are quite boring. But in the box there were two things you normally don’t find on a NSeries box, a fine leather pouch and a little leather strap. I realized that it does not bring a memory card, not even a small 512MB one. Anyway, 2GB microSD memory cards are inexpensive so I don’t find it a problem, but I would like to see a longer period of free navigation with Nokia Maps included. After examining the box I proceeded to insert the big battery into the slim body of the E71.

I noticed that the power button is red, a weird colour in a grey steel phone. I pressed it and the phone vibrated, and started-up in an impressive short time. The stand-by screen looks nice, not as naked as in the N95. I looked for the S60 Menu button and I got surprised when I found there is none, it is replaced by a key with a ”Home” symbol which has the exact same function. Then I looked through the menus and found horrible icons, they are grey in colour and are not in 3D shape. In my opinion, those grey icons make the E71 look as if it were still under development and had an early beta OS, but I will not change them since the people that designed them know more about this than me. I believe they are not in 3D because they make the screen look smaller.

The D-Pad is very responsive, and a back light called ”Breathing Light” shines every 10 seconds as if the E71 was breathing, I find the breathing light a very elegant and sophisticated touch. There are key shortcuts for E-mail, Calendar and Contacts. A complete QWERTY keyboard is included, which seems to be comfortable, but only time will tell. There is a voice command and up-down buttons on the right side of the E71.

While navigating through the menus, I felt that the E71 is a bit faster than the N82 or N95, it is very responsive to commands and there are no lags. The E71 is a S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1 phone, so it is supposed to look almost the same as the N82 or N95 which also run Feature Pack 1, but there are some special features from the ESeries line. To name a few, the E71 lets the user search contacts in the stand-by screen just by typing the contacts name, it also has three special boxes for MMS, SMS and E-Mails under the ”Search” line. I noticed the E71 has the screen completely off when in stand-by mode, while other S60 devices show a blue line with the current profile as well as the time and date.

After unboxing it I left it plugged, the next day I wanted to trial it and see how it performs.

I knew the E71 had a 2.5mm port, and as I had the E90 before, I have 2 different adapters to the 3.5mm port. The first one did not work but the second one did, but it is too big for the E71. I decided I was going to use the headset that came in the box. I started the music player and I noticed it is exactly the same as in the N95 8GB. I plugged the headset and started playing music. Soon after I stopped, I realized that those headphones offer a very poor experience as I am used to high-definition noise-cancellation headphones. I did not like the music department on the E71, adapters are just not convenient and there are no 2.5mm decent headsets. It does not bring a memory card so it is pretty difficult to experience music on a ESeries device, I really don’t blame the E71 because I understand it is not designed to offer music capabilities, but 3.5mm jacks would be really nice on ESeries devices.

Since I did not have music I started browsing the web, the standard browser is the same as in the N82 or N95 8GB but gives a sensation of a more stable and fast browsing experience. I wanted to write a long post to try the keyboard, I started and found myself writing very fast for the first time. I had a E62 and used to type with two hands, on the E71 it is not possible because is less wide and there is not enough space. I think there should be a small tutorial showing how is the user supposed to type according to the design of the keyboard. I typed with one hand and after the first letters, I liked the keyboard, I typed the post without looking at the screen and when I finished I did not found any mistakes, so the keyboard is pretty good, being my first time.

Then I tried the card reader, I thought it would be a useless application that works only 20% of the times, but after actually trying it, I was completely speechless, the E71 recognized every character correctly and positioned it on the correct spot. The E71 has Auto-Focus, but I noticed it is almost fixed for long distance and it is mainly there for close-up pictures. Compared to the N82, the E71 can take closer pictures between its focus range.

Although the N82 has a bigger display than the E71, the natural landscape position makes it look much bigger than the N82′s screen. The same happens with the E62 and N95 8GB, they have the same screen but the landscape display on the E62 makes the N95 8GB screen seem smaller. The E71 display is satisfactory, very crisp and sharp, size is on the limit, although would like to see a 2.5” screen.

So far the E71 proved to be a great device, build quality captivates everybody, BlackBerrys look like toys compared to the metallic E71, the design of the device is brilliant, has very elegant shapes and its features are ahead of many other devices.

]]> http://nokia-e71.net/thoughts-e71/feed/ 1 http://nokia-e71.net/nokia-e71-camera-shots/ http://nokia-e71.net/nokia-e71-camera-shots/#comments Thu, 04 Dec 2008 01:44:07 +0000 Edward Umana http://nokia-e71.net/?p=61 The E71 has a 3.2 Megapixel Camera with Auto-Focus and Flash, the camera takes very good pictures in my opinion, but today I took 3 shots that left me totally amazed when I saw them in my computer. Just wanted to share them with you.

I took the shots with the automatic configurations, just point and shoot.

(For those who don’t know the E71 automatically focuses by pressing  ”T”, Is kind of tricky, It took me a while to discover how to activate the Auto-focus)

I personally use it to make my E71 go according to the day and night, I have two themes, one light colored theme and other with dark colors, the white  theme is automatically activated during the day and the dark theme is automatically activated during the night and the next morning the white theme comes again when the sun is rising.  This is just how I use it, there are many other ways to use it, have you tried it?

To try it download it here:  http://drjukka.com/ThemeScheduler.html

After having the file downloaded to your computer follow this tutorial to sign the application.

Tutorial: How to sign Apps

You will need:

-Computer

-USB Cable, Bluetooth connection between PC/MAC-Device or internet on your Nokia device

-Nokia Device

-The application downloaded in a location you can remember

-3 Minutes

Starting

Download the unsigned application, it is better if it is on the desktop where you can easily find it. After downloading the application point your browser here:

https://www.symbiansigned.com/app/page/public/openSignedOnline.do

Now in your Nokia device press  *#06#  a 15 digit number will appear. Write the 15 digit number on the first box on the page you just opened. Then fill your CORRECT email.

Click on ”Browse” and select the application you want to sign.

Then click on ”Select All” right above ”Compatibility Information”

The type the correct numbers and letters in the box and click on the small box where it says ”Accept Legal Agreement”

Finally click ”Send”

Then two things can happen, the page says ”Success” or or it can say ”Protected UID” and you will not be able to sign the application. If another message pops out just try again and make sure you followed every step above.

Installation

After the Success message you can close that page, then go to your email account and you should have a email from ”DoNotReply” open it and click the link, another ”Success” message will appear.

Then wait a few seconds and you will receive a second message from ”DoNotReply”, this time it has the link to download your SIGNED application.

Then connect your device to your PC, and install the application just how you were doing it when that horrible ”Certificate Error” Message appeared.

]]> http://nokia-e71.net/tutorial-how-to-sign-applications/feed/ 5 http://nokia-e71.net/theme-nokia-e71-elegant-white-theme/ http://nokia-e71.net/theme-nokia-e71-elegant-white-theme/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:02:40 +0000 Edward Umana http://nokia-e71.net/?p=35 The E71 has a really cool feature, the ability to totally change and adapt to the user needs the look of the Interface. The E71 comes with some cool themes pre-installed, but there are many other themes available out there and we at the E71 Blog are dedicated to bring you the best ones and with full compatibility assured, today we will bring you a really cool Original Nokia theme.

The Nseries 3 Theme from the N95 8GB and N82 turned to fit perfectly on the E71, the white color makes the screen look more sharp and big, besides it makes the text look better than with other colors, for example look at the E71′s contacts, even if you have a strong color theme Nokia choose to put a white wallpaper so the users can see better the contacts.

To try the theme just click here and install: nokia-e71-white-theme.sis

The Theme is unsigned, follow this short tutorial to sign the theme:

Tutorial: Sign Applications

If you have any problem juust leave a comment and I will help you!

Update:  Now Skyfire is available WorldWide!!

The ultimate and by far best mobile browser in the mobile scene is the SkyFire web browser.  It was launched in a private beta January this year and only a few people could install it on WinMo devices and then in S60 devices.  But now SkyFire launched a new version, and made it open to everyone who wants to use it for free.

First of all, this browser is not like the built in browser, or Opera Mini, or any other mobile browser. SkyFire is a browser that supports ALL technologies including AJAX, FLASH etc… and can load almost any webpage with full content. In other words the built in browser does around 75% the things of a desktop browser can do, but Skyfire does  98% of the things. Almost any heavy website such as ESPN can be loaded in your E71 in just a few seconds. In my opinion SkyFire is way better than the built in S60 browser because it is faster, offers more content, is easier to use and is more effective, you definitively should try it. Follow this easy steps

To install SkyFire in your E71, just go to www.SkyFire.com directly on your E71 and follow the easy steps, if some weird complication on the installing process comes up we are here to help you!