Syncing your device is a necessary evil, but would be a lot easier of no cables are involved. Here’s an easy way to do this. The wireless sync allows you to sync your music, videos, pictures, and podcasts from your collection Lumia device.

Connect to wireless connection

1.First step is to connect your Lumia to the same Wi-Fi network as your PC where you have the Zune software installed. Swipe left>Settings>System>Wi-Fi and connect to the network.

Connect to your PC

1.Connect your Lumia via USB Cable to your PC and fire up the Zune software. (While still connected to Wi-Fi)

2.In Zune go to “View Sync Options” and go to Wireless Sync

3.Choose “Setup Wireless Sync”

4.It will now show you the wireless network your Lumia is connected to, verify that it’s the same one as your PC and choose Next.

5.And your done! All you need to know is that it will sync once your Lumia is connected to a power outlet and in range of your wireless network. Optionally you can manually start wireless syncing if your Lumia  isn’t charging.

Do you  have a Nokia Symbian^3 device and you want to get into Podcasting? Of all the things I use my N8 for, Podcasting is probably in the top 5. This guide should help get started with the basics.

1.Get the App

Podcatcher is the application to get when comes to podcasting and started out as the UIQ program called Escarpod.  The application can be downloaded for free at the Forums Nokia projects, but you can also support the developers and buy through OVI Store, this is also a handy to way to re-install the app after you wiped your device clean.

2.Adding podcasts

Before you can listen to your podcasts you must know how to add them in the app. There 3 way to add them:

1.Entering Feed Address: Click the add podcast button (at the bottom  in the middle) and choose “Enter Address”

2.Search for podcast/feed: Click the add podcast button (at the bottom in the middle) and choose: “Search for feed”

3. Import feeds in the form of an OPML file: Option>Import/export feeds>Import feeds

3.The Podcasts

There are many good, tech and mobile related podcast, but I thought I’d get you started with the best Nokia and Windows Phone related podcasts. Here are a few with their feeds:

-All About Symbian Podcast: http://rss.allaboutsymbian.com/media/podcastfeed.xml

-Windows Weekly:

Audio: http://leoville.tv/podcasts/ww.xml

Video (large): http://feeds.twit.tv/ww_video_large

Video (small): http://feeds.twit.tv/ww_video_small

-The Phone Show Chat: http://stevelitchfield.com/sshow/sshowchat.rss

-The Phone Show:

Video:http://stevelitchfield.com/sshow/sshowvga.rss

Audio: http://stevelitchfield.com/sshow/sshowmp3.rss

-Nokia Conversation’s Blogbite: http://feed.podcastmachine.com/podcasts/2453/mp3.rss

-Cnet’s Dialed in:

Audio: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/cnet/dialedin?tag=contentMain%3bcontentAux

Video: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/cnet/dialedinvideo?tag=contentMain%3bcontentAux

Engadget Mobile Podcast: http://mobile.engadget.com/rss-mp3.xml

4.Saving in the cloud

One of the best places to save your podcasts online is http://gpodder.net/ 

When you create an account, this not only allows you to save your podcasts online, but also export all of them in one single OPML file. It also works great with the gPodder windows program or gPodder on the N900, which allow you to sign into your account and sync your podcasts.

For Symbian^3 device just simply download the OPML and transfer this to your phone and than just go to Option>Import/export feeds>Import feeds and look for the OPML file.

5.Sync Podcatcher with gPodder.net

This is an optional step and does about the same as 4.

Once you have your podcast feeds on gPodder.net (and logged-in) go to http://gpodder.net/share/. Here you’ll find the links to your online OPML file. Add &symbian=true#.opml to the OPML URL to get an OPML file for Nokia Podcasting/Podcatcher.

If you’ve followed our guide on How to properly setup and configure Nokia Messaging on the N900, you might have come across this problem. If try to add a Yahoo email to your Nokia Messaging account at http://email.nokia.com it will tell you: “This email address must be added on the phone.”

You can easily add Google Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Ovi Mail, and POP/IMAP email accounts at http://email.nokia.com, but not a Yahoo account. The reason is simple, as a Nokia rep explains: “Yahoo is somewhat special for Nokia Messaging in that you aren’t allowed to add Yahoo email addresses on the email.nokia.com website.  That’s basically due to legal reasons–per our Yahoo contract we need to disable Yahoo support in a few countries (the list is small and includes US embargoed countries like Cuba) and we can’t really tell what country you are in unless you do it from the phone.”

So how can you add this to your Nokia Messaging Account using the N900?

1.Making sure you have an active internet connection. Go into the N900’s Email program. Here you should see your Nokia Messaging account. Do not select it.

2.Select the drop down menu “E-mail” and choose “Edit Accounts.” Here you should be able to see Nokia Messaging.

3.Select it and choose “Mailboxes”

4.Select Add new mailbox.

5.Choose your Region and under Service Provider choose”Nokia Messaging” and click next.

6.Instead of entering your Nokia Messaging details, enter you Yahoo email and password.

7.Now Choose: “Add this  address to account”  I did notice that after adding my Yahoo mail, the phone freezes. You may need to restart your device at this point.

8.Go back to the N900’s built-in Email application, where you should see the Nokia Messaging account. Do not select it, but choose the drop down menu “E-mail” at the top and choose “Edit accounts” Select Nokia Messaging and choose “Delete.”

9.From the drop-down menu ‘E-mail” select “New Account”. Follow the steps to choose your Region and under “Service Provider” choose “Nokia Messaging.”

10.Enter your Nokia Messaging email and password. (The email and password you first used to sign up with Nokia Messaging). Activate your account and you’re done!

11.Yahoo email should now magically appear on the N900 and at http://email.nokia.com.

Another great feature introduced with the PR1.2 update for the N900 is Facebook Chat. A lot of people seem to have a bit of trouble login into the service due to the username. The service asks for your username in the form of x@chat.facebook.com. The problems comes from the fact that many think your suppose to use the email that you used to sign up with Facebook.

To get this to work, you should login into Facebook on your desktop and  go to Account>Account Settings>Username. The username given here is the one to be used to log into Facebook Chat on the N900 and NOT your email.

Skype Video calling is perhaps one of the coolest features of the N900 and is currently the only smartphone that can do this. This feature was introduced with the PR1.2 update. Here’s how to do it.

1.Be sure to setup your Skype account by going to Settings> VoIP and IM Accounts. Select “New” and choose “Skype” and follow the steps.

2.Once your Skype account is setup, set your Availability to “Online.”

3.Go to Contacts and choose a contact that is online and that has Skype Video setup on their N900 or PC. For the PC it’s very important that they have the latest version of Skype, otherwise it won’t work.

4.Choose Skype video call.

5.If you initiate the video call from the N900, the person will be able to see you. The person on the PC will need to press the camera icon to be able to see them. You can always toggle video on/off by pressing the camera icon on both sides. The same can be done when calling from N900 to N900.

OVI Sync can be a life saver, but Nokia has yet to add support for the N900. While PC Suite does support the N900, it is sometimes a hit-or-miss situation. Luckily the N900 does come with built-in backup for your contacts.

Backup

Go to Contacts and choose: Export>Next and choose whether you want to backup “All Contacts” or a specific list of contacts  by choosing “Selected Contacts.”

You can choose the file format: either vCard 2.1 or 3.0 will do just fine.

On the next you can name the folder and location of where your contacts will be stored. And you’re done! Backup of your contacts works best when you have 1 or more copies stored some place other than your N900. In case you loose your device or if it gets damaged, you’re contacts will be stored somewhere else. A good example would storing a copy up in the clouds using a service such Microsoft’s Live Skydrive or Google Docs and a copy on a physical media such a thumbdrive or CD.

Restore

Restoring your contacts is just as easy. Go back to Contacts and choose: Get contacts>Import contacts.

You can choose “Import contacts” if you want to import specific contacts or “Import contacts folder” when you want to import all you contacts in one go.

The best deals on TV WALL BRACKETS

If you’re like me, you’ve subscribed to several podcasts and probably you own several devices. Entering the Feed URL of several Podcasts on device is a time consuming process, now imagine doing the same thing for several devices. Here’s a handy trick to keep your Podcasts subscriptions up in the clouds, so they’ll be available from just about anywhere.

Step 1: The best way to do this, is by using Google Reader. If you don’t have an account yet, what are you waiting for, it’s free!

Step 2: Once in Google Reader make sure you have a Feed URL. In our example we’ll use the Buzz Out Loud feed: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/cnet/buzzoutloud?format=xml

Go to “Add Subscription” at the top left part of the screen and paste the Feed and when you’re down click “Add”

Step 3: Click on the Feed you’ve just added, in our example “Buzz out Loud” and go to “Feed Settings” Now choose “New Folder” and call it anything you like Podcasts.

Step 4: Using the procedure described above you can add as many Podcasts as you like. But the key is to have them all in one folder, in our example the “Podcasts” folder. To do this go to “Manage Feeds” at the lower left corner of the screen. Once there you can add each individual feed to the Folder you like, in our example again the Podcasts Folder.

Step 5: When you entered all the feeds you want and when you’ve added ALL of them to the same folder, go to Import/Export and go to “Export Your subscriptions.” This will create an OPML that you put on your device and open up with the Podcasting app.

Best of all is the fact that if you loose your device, your subscriptions will be safe online. This is also handy if you have multiple devices and you would like all of them to have the same subscribed to the same Podcasts.

The best deals on TV BRACKETS

I had previously talked about how the Nseries could be used to play your old Nintendo classics like Super Mario Bros. and Donkey Kong Country, right here. Now here are the steps to get things up and running and how to optimally run the games which in fact are emulated.

1) First things first. The software needed for this to work is called vSsun, a Super Nintendo Emulator for S60 devices. Yes I know it’s not free, but once you have it; there are literally thousands of games to be had. All those bulky cartridges are replaced with your Nseries device with only the phone’s internal storage being the limiting factor.

2) Search for Super Nintendo SMC ROM files, thousands of these can be found online.

3) Once the program is installed and you have your SMC ROM files, connect your Nseries to your PC or Notebook using the USB cable in “PC Suite mode.” Launch PC Suite and open the File Manager and go to: Phone Memory>Data>Others>Vsun. Here you should see the preinstalled “Color Demo.” Copy as many .SMC ROM files as you like to this location. Alternatively any wireless connection such as Bluetooth can be used.

4) Fire up the vSun app and you will now see a list of all the detected games, select the desired game and click to launch.

5) One launched, the game might look odd or it might even take only half of the screen. Press either the left or right soft key until a menu pops up. Go to Graph and set Size to “Full” and Output to “Bitmap”. If you want audio go to Sound and Switch to “Full” and adjust the volume as needed. Press to right softkey to exit and go to Exit. Restart the game and your good to go.

You can save or load your game by pressing the right softkey and going to “Game” and selecting one of the appropriate slots from 1-5 to where you can save or load your saved game. And lastly if the mobile gaming is just not doing it for you with the small screen, play those classics using the usual way on your TV where the Nseries device is your controller. Or how about a more 2008-ish approach with a Bluetooth keyboard?

It takes a bit to get the whole thing going, but once you do chances are you’ll agree that it’s well worth it. Ah, Mario and Donkey Kong are back!

A big part of the Nseries is imaging. The process of capturing and sharing these images can be done in its entirety without the use of a single PC. Interesting how we dedicate so much time to capturing these images and digitally sharing them with others through email, blogging or online picture sharing sites like Flickr, yet we forget an important part of the chain: Printing. Sometimes I have to wonder if hard copies are dying a slow death and even if these are environmentally responsible, but I guess that will be the topic for some other occasion, but in the mean time I have to admit that there’s something special in actually receiving a hard copy of that Pulitzer Prize winning photo for Feature Photography or a picture of the kids for granny. Just like books, there’s something special about actually having a real hard copy of an image: you can rip it to pieces, draw a moustache on your boss’s picture or just stick it on the wall! In the case you decide to print your next masterpiece or just want to share a copy with others I found out that for something as simple as printing the Nseries devices offer a great deal of possibilities without ever having to touch that evil PC or notebook.

Printing using memory cards. Let’s start with the obvious: Printing using memory cards. For this, devices like the N95 8GB and N81 8GB are left out, but that’s a pretty small part of the Nseries line. Many recent printers, especially those All-in-one models or those compact photo printers accept a myriad of memory card and with devices like the N82 that use swappable cards it’s a matter of directly inserting them or using memory card adapters that convert the memory card used into something that the printer will accept. Most photo printing shops or printing kiosks are happy to accept several memory card types. Memory card adapter can be found here at Moby Memory.

Printing via Bluetooth or Infrared. If you’re the type that doesn’t like wires these solutions just might be perfect for you. Infrared may be less desirable as it’s much slower and requires a direct line-of-sight to work, but the option is there in many Nseries devices and quite a few printers that provide this option like the Canon’s PIXMA iP90v, and PIXMA MP610. Generally, Infrared printer are a lot less easier to find than Bluetooth, which tends to have a longer wireless range and no need to have the devices in a line-of sight, like HP’s Deskjet 460wbt Mobile Printer and Officejet H470wbt Mobile Printer.

In many cases it’s as easy as just sending choosing the selected pictures in Gallery and sending them via Bluetooth or Infrared. Alternatively you can add them to Print Basket in Gallery and it will automatically turn on the Bluetooth connection and start looking for any printers nearby.

Pictbridge printing is done via the standard USB cable. It’s a matter of connecting your Nseries to the Pictbridge-compatible printer and choosing “Image print” once prompted to choose an option on the phone. Pictbridge is by far the most supported option and should come as standard in almost all new printer: ranging from the cheapest to most expensive wide-format printers. No PC required, although you do have to your USB cable with you. Pictbridge-certified printers have this logo to identify them.

Online Print orders. If you don’t want to deal with printers at all there are various online printing services like Nokia’s own Nokia XpressPrint printing service (only for Europe). For this service to work you’ll need to use the application that can be downloaded here. Other big names like Kodak and Snapfish offer mobile friendly online print services that allow you to upload pictures to the services by sending these to a specific email adress.

N95 8GB exclusive: DNLA printing. The N95 8GB is currently the only DNLA capable devices, to be exact it’s categorized by the DNLA-certification as a Mobile Digital Media Server that amongst several things allows DNLA-enabled printers to access and print pictures stored on the N95 8GB, all done via Wifi Doing a quick check on the DNLA website reveals that no DNLA printer is available on the market, but the functionality is already built into the N95 8GB making it quite future proof. As time progresses the DNLA-enabled should start to appear on the market and I’m sure the N95 8GB isn’t going to be the last DNLA-certified device.

Do you prefer to keep your images in the digital world and save some trees? Or do you actually like to print your photos? If so, which of these methods have you tried before? Or what other creative ways have you found to print using your Nseries?

Note:It seems that the N82 is now officially the second DNLA-certified device as it has been added to the list. Thanks to LySquareZ for pointing this out.

Until Nokia’s adds Flash Lite 3 to the S60 browser or if you have an N800 or N810 internet tablet, you’ll have to wait a little bit more to full enjoy Youtube. Sure, currently there are many methods that work like Nokia’s own built-in Video Centre or m.vtap.com in your mobile browser, but most of them require streaming of the media which might not be a good thing when you don’t have coverage like in an airplane or some remote corner of the world. The best solution that works best for me right now is one that doesn’t require data usage and which allows me to keep the video and access it anytime from the gallery. Here are the steps in getting your vids on your Nserie and the great thing is that it’s completely FREE! Just the way we prefer things here at The Nokia Guide.

Step 1: Go to Youtube and get the link of the video you want. Youtube doesn’t allow you to right-click and save their videos so you’ll need a special service for this.

Step 2: Go here to the eRightSoft’s KeepVid service that allows you to extract the Flash video. When you enter the link, make sure to choose Youtube on the right. As you can see this service is very handy and can work with many flash-based sites. Press “Download” and after a few seconds a menu will pop-up with a link to download the video. Give the file an appropriate name followed by .flv. For example: Nokia.flv At this point you can actually playback this Flash Video on your PC with various software programs on the PC, I recommend FLV Player. But we don’t want to stop here, as we want the video to be playable with your Nseries built-in Real Player. When the full version of Flash Lite 3 becomes available you can actually play these FLV files without converting them, but because Real Player can’t play FLV files,  so we’ll have to convert them to something suitable.

Step 3: Conveniently enough the program required to convert Youtube FLV into a format playable on the Nseries is not only free, but also from the same site. It’s called SUPER and can be downloaded here. Now use the SUPER converter to convert your video and send them to your phone. There are many configurations that should work, but I found that the following does the trick pretty nicely: “MP4” in the output container, “H.263” in the Output video codec , “AAC” in the Output Audio Codec, Video scale: 352×288, Video bitrate: 1248 and Audio bitrate: 192. Try to experiment with the different video formats and see what works best for you. I would also like to point out that MP4:H264/AVC should work on the N93, N95, and N82. Did this work for you? Do you have any recommended video configurations?