By the time you are reading this, invitations are already being send out or have already reached various bloggers and other tech media such as the guys from Pocket lint. The title of the invitation “Go Play” seems to indicate what we’ve been expecting for some time now: the possible launch of a new music service by Nokia. With rumors of upcoming music-based phones with dedicated music controls and increased storage capacities we can also expect new phone releases to accompany the music service. The invitation further states: “Come and witness the next stage of the evolution of the internet and mobility” Join us at Nokia: Go Play to see how the latest developments will change the way we all experience and share the things that inspire us.” Thinking about it this could also be a reference to the soon-to-be released Ngage platform or Nokia’s web 2.0 Mosh social site that would include everything from gaming to music. And what about Nokia’s next high-end N95 replacement? Will this also be announced or will it be held back till later in year? More to come…….

In Allaboutsymbian’s Smartphones Show Episode 39 Steve Litchfield talked about this wonderful service called Mobicall. As a Nokia Smartphone user I rely on Microsoft Outlook to backup my contacts, to-do list, appointments ect. But this service is ideal as it’s prefect for those that don’t want to rely on Outlook or people who do use it like me it’s nice to have an online backup accessible from anywhere in the world. Mobical is an over-the-air mobile backup/restore and personal information management service. It allows you to send a copy of your mobile’s personal data: contacts, calendar, notes and tasks to their server, in effect creating a backup copy for safekeeping.
Once you have created the backup, you can also view your data on the Mobical.net web portal from any browser. With their editing tools, you can quickly modify entries, adding new contacts, appointments, etc., or completing the information on your existing entries. The next time you connect your phone, information on all changes made are exchanged. In other words, your phone is updated with all changes made on the web, and vice versa. If the data on your phone is corrupted, you can restore the backup from Mobical.net. Mobical.net is also not limited to one device, you can use any amount of mobiles with the same account.
Give it a try and let me know what you think. You can register at the Mobical website.

Remember the N93 Golf edition? That model was just a normal N93 that included a golf application called Pro Session Golf that enabled you to capture your golf swing, analyze and improve your game by split screen swing comparison and other analysis tools. Sadly it has been confirmed that the N93 GE has been discontinued. Well, it seems Nokia has now quietly released a Pro Session Golf memory card package especially for the N93, N93i and N73. This would in fact give you the same functionality as the N93 Golf edition. But why no N80 or N95 support? I personally don’t see any reason why the N73 should support and the other two. No word on the price yet but the package includes:
-1Gigabyte miniSD memory card
-Preinstalled Pro Session Golf on the memory card
-Nokia Golf instructional DVD by Simon Holmes
-New Titleist Performance Institute Lessons
-Reference Swings by Titleist Performance Institute

More info can be found on the Pro Session Golf site. If you find any news on the price, leave me a comment.

With a mere 950mAH battery no wonder N95 owners are complaining about the battery life. Here’s a great solution that I’m reviewing very soon at Gadgetnutz. The guys from Proporta just send me their Gadget Bag and the USB Mobile Device Charger. The Gadgetbag is a great solution to carry and protect all your devices or accessories. It consists of individual compartments allowing you to keep each of your mobile devices separate or take just the compartment you need. All the sectional areas have a plastic opening, allowing headphones and charging cables to be fed through each section. This added feature allows you to charge your device whilst on the go with the Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger, or listen to your MP3 player whilst it is safely concealed and protected in the bag.

The Proporta USB Mobile Device Charger (USB Rechargeable Battery), charges from any standard USB port and stores an impressive 3400 mAH of power which is about three complete charges for the N95. Perfect for camping trips or when you’re on the road and no mobile charger in sight. It not only works with phones but also any USB powered mobile devices like iPod and digital cameras. You can also use the supplied adapters if your device doesn’t charge via the USB connection.
From my first inspection both the Gadgetbag and USB Mobile Device Charger look and feel well-made. The Gadgetbag is cleverly put together and especially the Mobile Charger will come in handy as I’ve had my N95’s battery die on with no charger to recharge. I will use them a bit more as I just got them and will report more in my final review. Is there something you would like to know or would you like me to include something in the review? Just leave me a comment? In the mean time here are a few pics of these must have accessories!

Well it’s a great time be a Nokia phone owner, especially if you own a smartphone….I mean multimedia computer. With upcoming releases things will get even better. Reason 1: If you didn’t know yet this coming Q4 (possibly September) Nokia will launch it’s much anticipated N-Gage gaming platform. While there rumors surrounding a possible dedicated gaming phone, this platform will allow quite a few existing smartphones to play games on the platform. It’s almost certain that the N93, N93i and N95 will be able to play all games including Creatures of the Deep, ONE – Who’s Next? I have seen demos of these games and with all of these, especially Creatures of the Deep and ONE the graphics are amazing. The system can be compared to the XBOX live online gaming platform.
On to reason 2. With XpressMusic phones, Music edition phones and the ability to support microSDHC cards it would not come as a surprise that Nokia has plan to release an online music store. With many phones supporting high speed connections you will be able to download them directly from your phone. Beat that iPhone! Rumor has it that it will be launched on the 29th of august.
Reason 3.Nokia has gone all Web 2.0-ish and reason 3 just happens to fall in this category. A soon to-be-released social networking site by Nokia will have according to the Nokia N95 blog the ability to:
- Browse Audio, Images, Applications, Games, Videos and People
- Tag items
- Upload and share all items mentioned in point 1
- Download all items mentioned
-Connect to the mobile community.
This social networking site will be called Nokia Mosh and will also feature a mobile version accessible from you mobile browser.

Reason 4: New phones are expected to be released, including the rumored N81 and N82 phones. I’m also expecting a possible new flagship phone, but this time in the flip-phone form-factor………..

What are you expecting before the end of the year?

While not Symbian S60 or Nokia related I thought I’d share this with you guys. The guys over BlendTec (Yes they are real blender manufacturers) have started a viral video site where users can choose something that will get blended in one of the company’s blenders. This time it’s the iPhone’s turn. In the end all that’s left is a piece of metal and what looks like a black dust. There’s a page where you users are asked to submit a suggestion and why. I just couldn’t help but suggest the N95. It will be interesting to see what comes out of that. If you want to see the N95 or anything else get blended, head on to their suggestion page.

First introduced on the N93, the barcode reader app now comes as standard on the Nokia N93i, N95, E90 and can be installed on the N80. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept you could easily compare them to the barcodes found on many consumer products. Compared to the traditional barcodes they also contain “hidden” data, but their matrix structure can hold a lot more information. These 2D codes are called “barcodes” but a lot of times they also contain elements that look more like squares, but to make it easy on myself I’m just going to call them barcodes. Why are these funny looking figures useful? “You can convert a web address (URL), a phone number, an email address or plain text into a mobile code. After scanning it with your camera phone, you will have instant access to the encoded information straight on the display of your mobile device.” While this is far from a one-click experience, it beats typing URLs, remembering business contacts or long phone numbers or even passwords. You get the idea. While Nokia has been part of the barcode action for quite some time, I didn’t know they actually had a dedicated site that explains the concept and even allows you to create and save your own barcodes. The Nokia Mobile Codes site is part of Nokia’s Beta Labs and can be accessed here.

If you haven’t test your phones bar-tastic capabilities just open the barcode reader app and point the camera to the barcode on the right, what does it say?

Nokia Sensor is a sociable application that allows you to create a profile and let others access it or view those from other people. You can also chat or share file, all of this is done via Bluetooth. Now this app has been update way back in 2005, Nokia what happened? Now that a lot of phones have speedy Bluetooth V2.0 it makes sense to port this app to 3RD edition. It looks good and would come in handy on these new phones. While I’m on the subject, why not add the ability to send files and chat via WIFI? Can you Imagine Nokia Sensor with WIFI and Bluetooth 2.0 support? Can you say killer app? What do you guys think? Those of you with 2nd edition devices can get Nokia Sensor here.

Ok, so you just got your spanking new S60 smartphone what do you do next? I have to admit that at first it looks a bit daunting; believe me I’ve been there, but it’s not. I have a lot of friends and relatives that have to go through the same process and they usually do just fine once I give them a few pointers here and there. That’s why I decided to write a few tips for those of you that are new to the S60 world. Before I start with the list I have to give my most important advice: Do your research! Read about the subject and try to stay on top of the latest news, you will not only learn more, but you’ll get to know how to use your new toy as best as possible. Most importantly remember to have fun. Here are a few things that you should know to get you started.

1) Know the Menu button: That button with the two figures that looks like two snakes is the Menu button. Pressing it once brings up the “Menu” with all your apps and settings. Now try this: open any program by using the D-pad. Once it’s open don’t exit just yet. Press the Menu again to “minimize” the app. Now choose another app to open. Now here comes the trick: hold down the Menu button in and automatically a bar should appear with open apps. This way you can switch between the open apps without having to close them down. Multi-tasking heaven.

2) Know the Pencil Key: the Pencil key has, well, a pencil on it. You can use it to copy text and later on paste it in another location, just like on your PC. When there is user selectable text, hold the pencil key in and while doing that use the left or right direction on the D-Pad to select the text you want. As soon as you start selecting the text the text will get highlighted and “Copy” will appear. When you’re happy with the selected text, let go of the D-pad (still holding to the pencil key) and choose “Copy” and let go of all buttons. Now go to the area you want to copy the text: hold the pencil key again and both “copy” and “paste” will appear, just select “paste” and the text should appear.

3) Update your phones firmware: When you do this, you are updating the phone operation software (also known as firmware), that is embedded in the read-only memory of the device, including native applications such as the calendar and phonebook. This is similar to the operating system software on your PC. The update consists of improvements to this software, adding new features or fixing bugs. Just make sure you have PC Suite installed, have a full charge on the phone, download and install the Nokia Software Updater. With Nokia Software Updater open, connect the USB cable to the phone and PC and when asked choose: PC Suite Mode. Follow the instructions and whatever you do, don’t disconnect the cable or power down your PC. Fellow blogger Ricky, the Symbian Guru has a great guide on this, have a look here.

4) Add more apps, add more functionality: With S60 you choose what functionality your phone has by getting the apps you want. Just like your PC. There are thousands of free programs; a good place to start is the Howard Forums S60 3rd freeware thread.

5) Get Nokia’s latest apps specifically for your device: Nokia constantly releases new apps for your phone; get them at your phones support page.

6) Download general software from Nokia for your phone or PC.

7) Stay up-to-date with the latest news: There are plenty of sites that have lots of reviews, tips, trick and news. I recommend: Darla Mack, Symbian Guru, Allaboutsymbian, Symbian-Freak, Intomobile, Engadgetmobile and of course the Nokia Guide 

Know your community: There’s an entire community around these S60 devices, know your fellow S60 users and share ideas or just help each other out, a good place to start is the Howard Forums.

9) Read the manual: This one may be obvious but a lot of people I know don’t read the manual. While some things are obvious, chances are you will also probably miss a few things. It’s good that the interface doesn’t change that much with newer phones, less reading when you get a new phone.

What other tips do you guys have? Post them in the comments section.

Yesterday while using the N95 I had the browser and the music app open, before you know it both closed down. While this is obviously a problem due to a shortage of RAM, that’s not really the issue. I can live with the fact that there’s a shortage of RAM, but why does everything need to be closed down all of the sudden? It just doesn’t make any sense for the system to work like that. This is especially annoying when you’re browsing a site or edit a word document, everything is lost and you have to start all over again. If I get an “out of memory” warning and I can continue what I was doing, save my progress or at least get a chance to close an app to free up memory. Firmware updates can never add RAM, but they can sure fix the handling of apps and memory when there’s a shortage of RAM. Just give me a warning, but don’t closedown my app.