When you first get your new Nseries, the first thing you should do is back up. “Kind of strange” you might be thinking, especially since you haven’t put any of your own content or contacts on it yet. The reason is pretty simple: these devices come with photos, video and programs that usually cannot be downloaded and once you format the memory card or built-in memory (N95 8GB, N81 8GB, N91 8GB, N91) it’s all gone!

Simply plug you phone to your PC in Memory Transfer mode (1).  Browse to where all the folders are located and go to “Edit” and “Select All” and copy all the files (including hidden files or folders) to a safe location.  In the case something goes wrong it’s as easy as just copying these files and folder (including the hidden ones) to the phone by using the same Mass Memory mode.

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The countless emails I received about people losing Panoman on the N82 with no way of getting it back other than buying it, shows that people erase the memory  card or built-in memory and later on regret this due the lack of a proper backup.

The reason why this backup can’t be done using the method provided by PC Suite is because PC Suite backs up files and the not the actual hidden  files or folders. This method insures a bit for bit exact copy restoring the memory card  or built-in memory to the exact state it was out of the box.

Unofficial, but reliable sources have informed The Nokia Guide that the soon-to-be-released 16GB Sandisk microSDHC card was tested and confirmed working with the Nokia N95 (with the right firmware).  Other Nokia phones that were tested and are confirmed to be working with the new 16 GB card include:

Nokia N96 (Totaling 32GB, including the built-in 16 GBs of storage)
Nokia N78
Nokia 6210 Navigator
Nokia 6220 Classic

As it has been expected Sandisk will not release a 12GB microSDHC card and will jump straight from 8 to the new 16GB cards which are expected to be released this summer (Possibly June or July.)

No word yet on the support for the N82, N81, N77, N76 and N75, but if the N95’s support for the newer cards is any indication, things are looking good for these devices, but with the proper firmware support of course. Soon I’m expecting final, pre-release samples of Sandisk’s latest and greatest so stay tuned here at The Nokia Guide. In the mean time you can grab some pretty good deals on the 8GB microSD cards over at Moby Memory.

Need an all-in-one video and audio converter for all your Nseries devices? One of the best out there is Erightsoft’s SUPER converter. Best of all it’s free!

I recently got one of those wireless home monitoring cameras from Linksys, the WVC54GCA. It’s a pretty cost effective way of adding cameras to your house to keep an eye on things. Due to the fact that it’s relatively cheap and wireless you can add several of them without the hassle of network wires. The coolest thing about this system is that you can wirelessly stream live video to just about any browser, while using your home WiFi or accessing it via the Internet while on the go. I’ve been using it as they recommended in the product manual: accessing the live streaming video from the camera through a browsers on my Notebook or Desktop PC. If you happen to be using either one of these it sure is convenient having live streaming video streaming of what is happening around your house. This is helpful for those of you with large properties or maybe you just want to keep an eye on the kids playing outside.

The problem is that when I’m at home I usually move around a lot: one minute I’m watching TV in the living room, the other I’m outside reading the daily news paper and I usually I don’t want to be walking around with my notebook. It’s much more convenient to have something that’s easy to carry, but yet has a big enough screen to show you what’s happening around your home, using the strategically placed home monitoring cameras. This where the N800 steps in. The N800 is portable enough to be carried around, yet has a big enough screen to give you a detailed view as to what is happening. Most importantly the browser is capable of handling the 640×480 streaming video just fine. This is all made possible by the web-based setup and monitoring of the camera. Using the N800’s browser I can change the camera’s settings on the fly and monitor what is going around my home while I’m actually at home or even out and about during your daily commute. Because the system uses ordinary WiFi I can quite easily bookmark the address of several cameras and monitor different areas through different cameras around the house.   I did try to access the web interface on the N95 8GB and while the entire web interface works, the actual video being streamed isn’t displayed. There is a mobile streaming setting, but in the end the N95 8GB just ends up downloading a file that only keeps increasing in size, but the actual video is never displayed. I’ll have to play with the settings a bit to see if I can get it up and running on the N95 8GB.

This is how the interface looks on the PC:

And this is how it looks like on the N800:

A pretty nice and portable way of keeping an eye on things.

Nokia N800 as a Home Monitoring and security tool

For a while the N95 8GB had the exclusive title of being the first and only DNLA certified mobile device.  It was quickly followed by the N82 and now we can add another member of the Nseries family: the N95. They don’t specify whether it’s the classic N95-1, the N95-3 or both. If I had to guess I would say the N95-1, but considering the similarities there shouldn’t be anything technical difficulties impeding them all (including the N96) to get this certification, it just a matter of time. The N95 DNLA certification can be downloaded here.

DLNA-compatible devices serve two different functions: Server, Client or both. "Servers" distribute media such as image, music, or video files, and "clients" receive and play the media. Devices like N95 8GB, N82 and now N95 are classified as a Mobile Media Server, allowing you to make the content available to clients like the Sony PS3 and DNLA printers. If you’re wondering how exactly this certification can be put to use you can see how it can be connected to a Sony Playstation 3 to play music, show pictures and control your media or pretty soon print wirelessly via WIFI using DNLA certified printer.

From the review of Nokia’s LD-4W Bluetooth GPS Module I posted a few days ago it was clear that it’s a superior solution when compared to Nokia’s built-in offerings on the Nseries. The external unit manages to gets a GPS lock in dramatically less time and when it comes to accuracy it again beats the built-in solutions hand down. When the Built-in solution had an accuracy of 27-30m, the LD-4W managed to get numbers in the range of 5-8m. After doing some additional testing it appears that external GPS units like Nokia’s LD-4W have some added benefits.

To test this out I did a fairly simple test: I used my trusty N95 8GB with Nokia’s Sports Tracker in combination with the LD-4W and in the other case I used the built-in GPS receiver. In both cases the phone was fully charged and was not used for anything else but GPS, basically I went out and about and took my N95 8GB with Sports Tracker running in the background. The idea was to see how long it would take before the phone would shut down due to an empty battery. As you may or may not own, Sports Tracker keeps track of the duration of the trip/exercise and has the ability to recover a session from an accidental shutdown. In essence it could show me how long the phone On before it shutdown by itself. To put some extra stress on the device I decided to turn on the always-on option for the display light.

The results I think speak for themselves and make a very strong statement:  Using the N95 8GB with its internal GPS (and the screen light set to always on) the phone managed to stay on fo about 4 hours and 15 seconds before it shutdown. Repeating the same thing, but this time using the LD-4W connected to the N95 8GB via Bluetooth, the phone stayed on for about 6 hours and 30 minutes! In that case the GPS unit still had some juice left to keep on going. Another plus comes from the fact that LD-4W is connected to the phone via Bluetooth, this means that you can put the phone out of harm’s way like in your purse or pocket. In the case of an internal GPS, the phone is the GPS unit and has be positioned in a specific way to get a signal, not to mention the fact that the keypad has to be open. Chances are the phone’s battery will die before the GPS unit, meaning that you could also use it with another phone that may have with you.

Conclusion

Despite the fact that internal GPS units are all the rage these days, where I suspect that convenience plays a big role, external units are still superior, not only for the faster lock on times and higher accuracy, but as I learned they help conserving the internal battery giving you a longer battery life. Having an all-in-one solution like the N95 8GB is definitely convenient, but external units don’t get left far beyond in this regard: they keep your phone out of harm’s way and can be used with other devices like other phones or your laptop. Important benefits indeed if you ask me. What do you prefer internal GPS unit and why?

I will be starting a new section where I put a small, but I hope helpful tip on the site.

Kicking things of is a tip for all the different flavors of the N95. Having trouble connecting or staying connected to a WIFI connection? Flip your N95 or N95 8GB in landscape mode as it appear that in this mode it able to pick up WIFI signals better. From my own observation it appears that in some cases it’s able to detect WIFI connection that in portrait mode would have been missed. In this mode it also appears to hold on longer to those weak WIFI signals

First of all I want to thank everyone who submitted their logos. I must say that I received some great entries and that in the end when it came time to choose a winner it got really difficult. Especially when I couldn’t decide between the last two logos as they were both fantasic! But in the end I just had to go with the one that I felt that really does justice to what “The Nokia Guide” is all about. It was it’s simplicity and direction indicator, similar to one I was using for post about the Urbanista Diaries is what did it for me.

So, without any further ado ladies and gentleman here are our winners:

4^TH Place: Hugo Matos

3rd Place: Rita El Khoury

2^ND Place: Gustokonyan.

And the winner is……James Burland!

Congratulations to the finalists and our winner James, who is now the winner of the 8GB Sandisk microSDHC which was provided by our friends over at Moby Memory.  For everything memory related for your Nokia devices be sure to check out Moby Memory.

The N95 owners can’t complain, they’ve been getting firmware after firmware that brings the first version of the N95 up to up to speed with the same software enhancements  as the N95 8GB. The newest v21.0.016  firmware isn’t as major as the previous one, but packs quite a few important updates and enhancements. Most notably are the Flash Lite 3 which brings full flash support to the browser allowing you to view Flash-based sites like Youtube and Web runtime is included, meaning that standalone widgets are now possible. Other changes include standby-time improvements and improvements to Bluetooth headset interoperability. Steve from AllAboutSymbian is also  reporting about a few extras added in the firmware like:

-Better handling of entering lots of text into web page dialogs

-Speedier Gallery

-Faster Java runtime, so Java apps start faster

Read the rest of this entry »

Ever since I saw the N82 TV Commercial I thought it was one of the nicest and poetic ads I’ve seen in a while. It truly beats everything I have seen before from a stylistic point-of-view, so if you haven’t seen it yet, it can be found here. Apparently it comes from Lowe Worldwide, Singapore and was directed by Mark Molloy of Exit Films, Melbourne. Not sure about the name but I think it’s called “Fairytale”. But what I’ve been really wondering about is the interesting tune playing in the background and who the artist could be.  Sometimes I see these great commercial with a great track playing in the background, but it really is very difficult to find who made it in the case you wanted to get hold of the tack. In this case I did a little searching and found it by chance. This one is called "The Water Jet Cilice" from Fingerlings 3 EP by Andrew Bird.  Great little track, well worth the purchase or download. Just in case you were wondering about that…