“क्या आप मुझे अपनी डायरी मिल्क का एक छोटा सा पीस दे सकते हैं? “
“क्या में आपको जानता हूँ? “
“नहीं.”
“तो?”
“मेरी माँ कहती है कि कोई भी शुभ काम करने से पहले कुछ मीठा खा लेना चाहिए.”
*gives piece*
…
“वैसे तुम कौनसा शुभ काम करने जा रहे हो?”
“मैं सोच रहा था कि आपका सर फोड़ दूँ.”
*
This because
a) It’s getting to me
b) I’m using this:
Ever tried sending an installation file over Bluetooth, and got this message?
Still thinking that you can’t send such files over Bluetooth?
Now you can!
Nokia has a strict policy of sending installation files (such as .jar / .sis / .sisx) over Bluetooth. This is understandable, as some applications have been paid for, or some may even contain viruses (my old N72 has been infected with CommWarrior in the past). CommWarrior was one of the first known mobile viruses targeted at S60 mobile devices and spread over Bluetooth and MMS.
Now CommWarrior did use an ingenious method to transfer the .sis file itself over Bluetooth. It is not impossible, as even trusted and popular applications such as Lonely Cat Games’ SmartMovie have done it in their older versions. I have no idea how to transfer them directly, but there exists a trick so simple and brilliant, that you will laugh at the mere simplicity of it and curse yourself for not discovering it earlier. It requires no third-party software at all. Keep in mind, though that this trick works only on Symbian Series 60 devices. I have tested it successfully on the N72 (S60 2nd Edition FP3), the E63 (S60 3rd Edition FP1) and the E72 (S60 5th Edition FP2). For some reason, it does not work on S60 3rd Edition devices, the non-FP ones (such as the N73).
Right, so you have to understand the principles first. Basically, the Symbian platform allows the exchange of only certain types of files on over Bluetooth. The most important one (which we’ll use here) is music files. You know, that standard .mp3 ones. The reason you can exchange songs easily is because even if you bought a song, it is likely to be DRM protected anyway, and the receiver cannot play it unless he has the certificate on his phone as well. But the primary use of Bluetooth today is still to exchange (non DRM-protected) songs, because everyone on this planet likes songs. This is what we can exploit.
Step 1: Open the File Manager and locate the installation file you want to send.
Step 2: Press the left softkey (Options) and chose Rename.
Step 3: With the help of the joystick, navigate to the end of the filename and rename the .jar / .sis / .sisx part to .mp3. Hit the center button (or the softkey which corresponds to OK).
You will get a message that changing file extensions may bring about devastating problems, some of which include a) another Roland Emmerich movie; b) Rakhi Sawant deciding to have lunch with you; and c) the answer may no longer be forty-two (OMG!).
Step 4: Send the file normally over Bluetooth. Do all that usual stuff–check whether Bluetooth is enabled on the receiver’s device, and it’s not “hidden” and it’s in range, et cetera. (Fun fact: Did you know that the call button also doubles up as a shortcut for easy access to the send menu?)
Step 5: Here’s the fun part. The recipient’s device will have a notification that a message has been received (you know the drill).
Now when you open the “song”, Symbian’s Music Player will open up and refuse to play the file, claiming it to be “corrupted”.
But what happens next, is the most important part. You will actually have the option to save the darn file on to your memory card!. Why is that awesome? You’ll see.
Step 6: Close the player and delete the “song” from the Inbox (if you wish to). Open the File Manager and navigate to Attachments in the Phone Memory/ Memory Card (depends on where you saved the file in step 5). The folder may vary in older Symbian versions (it is Music in S60 2nd Edition devices).
Step 7: You’ll find that file there, with a tiny musical note beside it.
Hit the left softkey (Options) and rename it.
Navigate to the end of the file name, delete the .mp3 part, and rename it to .jar / .sis / .sisx whatever the extension was before.
Click OK, and…
… you can open the file, and begin installation normally.
Congratulations! You have successfully sent an installation file over Bluetooth! Now since this method is file-specific by no means, you can use it to send other files as well, such as the .avi ones to be played on SmartMovie. You see, although you can send .avi files over Bluetooth, you won’t be able to save them, as Symbian will not have any default application to run those .avi files. If you still watch movies on your phone in the .mp4 or .3gp format, you don’t deserve to own a phone.Seriously.
Please try this method out, and do tell me if it worked (or didn’t) in the comments section. Also, I would really, really appreciate it if you mention the devices you tested this on.
P.S: Didn’t the first line sound like those TVC Sky Shop commercials?
I really, really needed a new phone. I missed my good-old. gun-metal, chick-magnet Nokia 7610 Supernova, which decided to swim in the washing machine. It was a slider phone, with great features. Most of all, I missed Opera Mini and mobile web. So I got this new phone from HotSpot in Ashok Vihar, about which I will be making a blog post soon (which means “in the next three months”) . Also, if you notice in the pictures which follow, my E63 is red in color. It is how I publicly display my love for Manchester United. And hatred for Chelsea (the E63 is also available in Blue).
Er, this may seem like a long post (it is). So if you want, you can skip to various parts of the review: Design, Camera, Operating System and Software, Security, Connectivity, Music, Battery Life and the final summary.
Nokia E63
Network: 2G and 3G (with UMTS)
Dimensions: 113 x 59 x 18 mm
Weight: 126g
Screen: TFT, 16 Million Colors, 320 x 240 Screen Resolution
Storage Memory: 120MB Internal, 1GB MicroSD card included, Supports upto 16GB
RAM: 128MB
Processor: ARM 11 369 Mhz Processor
Camera: 2MP, 1600 x 1200 resolution
Video Recording: QVGA at 15 frames per second
Wi-Fi: 802.11b/g
Battery: Lithium-Ion 1500 mAh (BP-4L)
Price: Rs 10,500
Once you hold it, you get a nice feeling of power with the E63. The buttons are ergonomically placed, and the spacebar is convenient to use. It also doubles up at a flashlight key! Only problem is the function key and the shift key are at the bottom right corner of the phone, and those with large thumbs will end up pressing both sometimes. The keys are rubbery to feel, which is good. The call buttons are large, and so are the soft keys. The D-pad is also easy to use. Three out of the four one-touch buttons you see can be programmed to do anything (other than cook food), irrespective of what the icons on them suggest. A short press and a long press have different functions. The screen is also quite large with a weird resolution of 320 x 240. This may be a drawback, as you’ll find it hard to search for games and themes (speaking of themes, I did find an excellent brushed-metal theme). On the other hand, the screen is very bright, a treat to watch videos on. The keyboard is really well laid out. A few minutes of practice, and you’re good to go. A problem I faced was the absence of the _underscore_ key, which should be an important part of any business device because of the plain fact that many e-mail addresses contain underscores. It can only be accessed by the Character key, which spawns open a menu.
Moving on the the back of the phone, we see the camera lens, the flash and reflecting mirror. The case is also really easy to remove – the slide that black slider upwards, and tada! The SIM card is a little difficult to push through, though.
On the sides, is a port for a hot-swappable memory card, and a port for connecting the mini-USB cable (which isn’t proprietary).
There’s a navi-light which blinks when you have a new mail, message or missed call.
Camera
The camera is a huge disappointment. I didn’t expect any dSLR-type quality, but the 2 megapixel camera is utterly worthless. It gives mediocre pictures even in very bright sunshine. The flash looks powerful, but the quality of the image itself cannot be improved. Looks like Nokia didn’t think that business guys would need a camera. Video recording is pathetic. Lets just not talk about it.
Operating System and Software
The phone runs Nokia’s very own Symbian OS (3rd Generation) with Feature Pack 1. Symbian OS seamlessly handles all the applications. Multitasking is an added bonus. There are some problems, though. You cannot disable the camera sounds, and even the flash. There is a “Flash Off” option, but doesn’t seem to work.
The E63 comes pre-loaded with some Tetris game called GlobalBloxx. But the games are not important – its the software. You have a licensed version of QuickOffice (with Word, Excel and Powerpoint support). Unfortunately, it doesn’t work with the new Office 07 extentions (*.***x), but reportedly does so with a free update, which is a whopping 6 MB and will set AirTel users back by a whopping thirty-seven bucks. There’s also this superb call manager called Advanced Call Manager, which handles all your calls and rejects the ones you don’t want. It also has an inbuilt answering machine! The E-mail set up wizard is really easy, and you’re hooked up with your mailbox in about five minutes. It supports a large number of e-mail providers and has pre-configured settings for all. You can also key in setting for your e-mail provider if it is not listed. New mail, missed calls, and text message notifications appear on the homescreen itself. So you can see who the message is from without reading it.
You all know how Symbian is. Many feel it is slow and lags dreadfully, but that is because it often doesn’t have any adequate hardware to do well. Symbian ran quite perfectly on my E63 (which has a 369 Mhz processor). But the main problem with all those third-party apps any Symbian user installs (and loves) is that they all need to pass through an application-signing test. Certain functions the app needs to access can be granted easily and any developer can self-sign them. But some of those advanced APIs which software use require mandatory signing. This is done to prevent viruses spreading in your phone and wreaking havoc. But it only turns out to be plain irritating. If you’re a bhakt of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and everything on your phone (except the OS, of course) is pirated, then you’re in for a disappointment. You. Cannot. Install. Those. Cracked. Applications.
Of course, there are ways where you can sign the apps yourself, and they’ll be specific to your IMEI. But zat is hacking, isn’t it? A post on that coming soon. I promise. No! Seriously.
You know Opera Mini? You don’t? And you own a Java-enabled phone? Throw it away.
You know Opera Mini? Good. In my E63, a single press of the spacebar triggered of a series of spaces for no clear reason. So I cannot type properly in Opera Mini. The original Symbian browser is pretty good, but nothing can beat Opera Mini’s eye candy. I have to, unfortunately, switch to the normal text editing mode. However, typing messages and e-mails in Nokia’s inbuilt applications are a treat. Predictive text accurately guesses which word you’re going to type almost every time, saving you much hassle. The spelling correction is superb too, letting you add words to the phone’s dictionary. You can even tell the phone to read you messages in your inbox.
Security
Since a business person (or any of us, for that matter) is concerned about privacy, Nokia has done a decent job of it. You can set the time for an automatic keypad lock or even a phone lock. In case of theft (or pesky people), a predefined SMS sent to your phone will lock it immediately, rendering the user unable to access any data at all. There’s even an encryption feature which will encrypt your memory card and/or phone memory with a key. Surprisingly, however, there isn’t any antivirus bundled! This is surprising, since it is a business phone. And there’s also that Symbian Signed limitation mentioned above.
Connectivity
Call connectivity was good. The call quality was not bad at all, though there was initially some lag while answering calls, but its fixed now. WLAN works pretty well. The OS allows you to use a WLAN access point for any application that demands a web connection. Rejoice, Skype customers! And a special pat-in-the-back to those Fring fans too! I still haven’t tried 3G, though. You know why.
Music
In one word: disappointing. The music quality is seriously not good at all. Symbian’s Music Player tries its best by adding some standard settings such as an equalizer, loudness and stereo widening, but the problem here is the hardware itself. The loudspeaker is not very loud, so you can forget playing your favourite track to your friends and expect them to catch every syllable. I tried Hotel California by Eagles and Stairway To Heaven by Led Zeppelin, both of which have some excellent guitar work. The instruments are not clearly audible over the speaker, though this improves considerably over the bundled earphones. The earphones are decent, but not good enough. They are strictly fro call purposes. However, Nokia has provided a standard 3.5mm jack, so you can use those $400 Bose headsets (yeah, you bought the cheap ones) with the phone.
(A note here. The best music quality in a phone I’ve ever seen is that of the iPhone and Nokia’s N91. Yeah, that old fat phone which is now obsolete.)
Battery Life
This is the big one. The E63 has a standard Li-Ion 1500 mAh BP-4L battery, which supplements the business phone. Businessmen always on the move will need their device always ready, and the E63 does just that with its battery. I had installed iON Batter Timer, and it displayed about two days till the battery discharge, which is quite good. It is definitely made for people on the go. In the real world, the phone managed about eighty hours with full brightness while I was playing Java games, browsing the web on Opera Mini (not on Wi-Fi, though), and listening to music via the bundled earphones.
The E63 is an excellent cheap business phone for those who don’t want to disconnect from the outside world. An ergonomic keyboard, bright screen, excellent battery life and the good ol’ Symbian help as well. Social network fanboys will be addicted too. But if you’re looking for decent music quality or a decent point-and-shoot camera, avoid.
Design: 8
Features: 9 (a mark cut for poor camera and no GPS)
Security: 8 (two marks go down for the absence of an antivirus solution)
Value for Money: 10 (You cannot get such a device at Rs 10, 500!)
Battery Life: 9 (Very Good, but could have been better)
Also, do tell me how the new look is. iNove had become too old.
http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_n91-1154.phpBattery
I’m not Ethan Hunt, CA-101 is NOT a secret code for any Halloween document, nor is this Mission Impossible: 4. It is this:
That is the CA-101. I bought a Nokia 7610 Supernova in November last year, and Nokia never gave a data cable with it. Losers. Why couldn’t they have provided one small cable and increase the price by a mere half-a-thoushand bucks, for a eleven thousand phone?
So I really needed a cable for this phone, as it had a 3.2 megapixel camera, and I wanted to check out the picture quality after transfer. Initially, it did look like it would get a universal mini-USB cable into it, but I was wrong. Thank god I didn’t buy a PlayStation Portable transfer cable.
Practicals ended on Friday the 13th and I thought this was the perfect day to hunt for the cable. I knew I would get it from the Mobile Store in Pitampura. So me and my brother (Adarsh) set out to buy one. I checked it up on Nokia’s official website, and saw that my phone needed a CA-101 type cable.
I chose an eco-friendly and highly economical transport to reach my destination. I cross the road through the subway, and approach the Mobile Store, with a familiar red-coloured banner.
Closed.
Damn. It’s always open whenever I go to Pitampura – enticing me with a display of some of the most gorgeous phones I often dream about.
But now, its closed. But wait! There’s another one! Its small, but it exists! Yay!
I enter the mobile store with a floursih, with an aura of confidence. Let’s get this cable!
Me- “Bhaiya, wo Nokia 7610 Supernova ki data cable de do.”
Shopkeeper- “Sorry, bhai. Woh to hamare paas nahi hoga.”
Adarsh- “To kis se le?”
Shopkeeper- “Wo peeche uncle ki dukan hai, aur aage computer ki. Pata kar lo.”
Meanwhile, Adarsh quietly steals takes a nice glossy looking booklet, giving info about the latest Nokia phones. 7610 Supernova is a “Hot Pick”. Doesn’t mention anywhere that it does not come with a cable.
Sheesh, man! I was positive about finding this at the Mobile Store! But hope is still there. We go to “uncle ki dukan” which is just around the corner. Its a Vodafone store.
Me- “Uncle, woh Nokia 7610 Supernova <flicks phone out> ki data cable mil jaayegi?”
Uncle- “No. Nokia Care mein try kar lo. Kohat Enclave ke paas hai”
Me- “Pakka?”
He glares at me with a look sure enough to defeat a Basilisk, and so me and Adarsh set out. We return to the Mobile Store.
“Aage ek computer ki dukan hai. Koi A-C-C-E; aisee hi koi naam hai. Shayad ass-her hai”
I think it was Acer. Adarsh tells me to try out RPG, which is just nearby. No luck. He recommends Nokia care. We decide to go to “ass-her”, which is indeed – Acer. No luck here too.
“O jee Nokia Cee-ere par try kar lo.”
Well, you see, we were in a fix. Mom had given us about six hundred bucks to get the cable and snack about. Now we had no cable, had no clue where we would find it, and we were hungry. Very hungry.
If we eat something here and go to Kohat Enclave and get the cable, fine. But if we eat, and don’t find the cable in Kohat Enclave, we’d in trouble. Deep trouble. It would hurt our ego, and my parents would never trust me for going out and getting something expensive. I tried to find out Nokia Care’s number, but Opera Mini did not render Nokia’s store locator site. Even Google search didn’t help, as I was low on battery, and Opera Mini drains it like I drain ginger beer. Yes. Beer.
Finally, Adarsh advised me to take a risk and eat. Then we’d go to Kohat Enclave via Metro (which is a road cross away), and try at Nokia Care. His arguement was that three people had recommended it, so certainly there would be some chance. I must admit it was right, but I knew he was doing it to eat something. Bad boy.
We ate dahi bhallas at good old and not-so-economical-now BTW.
BTW is associated with discerning consumers for Tikki, Bhalla Papri, Gole Gappe etc. The success journey began years back when Mr. Satiram Yadav thought of starting this business realizing the weekness of Indian women for the delicious taste of Tikki and Bhalla Papri.
And oh BTW, did you know BTW has its own site? It would be cool enough if BTW had its own Wikipedia page, BTW. And oh BTW, you can also order BTW stuff online!
After a snack, we rush to Metro, catch a train and off to… Keshav Puram. Adarsh’s mistake. Wrong platform. So we rush back to the other platform and this time end up at Kohat Enclave. We reach the Nokia Care centre, which (thankfully) has the cable! We were told it was new cable, and so its availability in the market was sparse.
Yay! We returned home, and tested the cable. It worked. Cool, eh?
Mobile Internet can never be free. Face it. All those methods on the web are a waste of time, and will never work, unless you are an expert hacker.
Here it is! [P.S: Work only for Airtel Prepaid]
1] In the home screen/standby mode, type *567*1# and call.
2] In the message you get, you will be informed about the activation of Mobile Office, which charges you 30 paise/50KB, rather than the regular 30 paise/20KB.
3] Hit OK, or Answer, or whatever, and reply 1 in the Service Command Editor.
4] You’ll be notified that Mobile Office will be activated in the next 1 hour, but it hardly takes a minute, when you wil receive the settings. Save them, and make them the default ones.
5] Download Opera Mini, and run it with Mobile Office. It works wonders. Awesome speed, cheap internet!
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi
Director: Aditya Chopra
Cast: Shah Rukh Khan [Surinder Sahni]
Anushka Sharma [Taani]
Vinay Pathak [Bobby]
Aditya Chopra returns to direction after nearly eight years, to uphold the glory and magic of the Yash Raj Banner. Yash Raj’s most recent films, including Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai, Dil To Pagal Hai, Mohabbatein, Saathiya, Neal n’ Nikki, Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, Laaga Chunari Mein Daag, Aaja Nachle, Tashan, Thoda Pyaar Thoda Magic and Roadside Romeo have bombed at the box office, and they turned to SRK, the “King Khan”, and also Aditya Chopra, to some extent, to save them some face.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi starts off as a narrative of an middle-aged, middle-class guy Surinder Sahni [played by Shah Rukh Khan] who works for Punjab Power, an electricity company. Rab di sau, he is completely devoid of love in his life. By Rab’s grace, he goes to his school teacher’s daugher’s Taani’s [played by Anuskha Sharma] marriage, and just like Rab as Rab wanted it, he fell instantly in love with her. Unfortunately, her fiance dies due to a road accident on that ill-fated day of her marriage, and out of Rab’s will, Taani’s father too suffers a severe heart attack, and has a last wish before going to Rab, that he gets his daughter Taani married to Surinder, the best match for her.
See how it feels? The word Rab, which translates into God, is used exactly eighteen times in the entire film. Try suing me if the number is wrong. I haven’t included the songs or the background music. Rab is spoken five times within the initial one-hundred-and-seventy-two seconds. Irritating? The film’s just begun.
Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi is about this clumsy dork Surinder Sahni. The character is potrayed effortlessly by SRK, acting superbly in every scene. There’s not a single moment when you want to take your eyes off him. Living in a large kothi near the amazing Golden Temple in Amritsar (which looks absolutely stunning and gleams in the sun, excellent camera work!), Surinder is a middle-class guy who agrees to marry Taani, as her fiance dies on the day of her marriage. He wants to see Taani happy and gleeful like before, unlike her current mood of sadness and gloom. There are moments when Surinder wants to place some signs of love for Taani, but stops himself, reminding himself about her tragedy. There is this awesome scene when his Transcend 4GB Slider Pen Drive is inserted in his Compaq laptop running Office 2007 on Windows XP, and Taani turns up. In his excitement and clumsiness, he stands up, forgetting that the pen drive was strung to his neck, and thus overturning his lappie. Only SRK can pull of such an expression with extreme perfection.
So when she asks him about joining Dancing Jodi (Mumbai ki bahut badi dancing cumpanee), he agrees immediately. Taking his sidekick Bobby’s help (played superbly by Vinay Pathak), he transforms himself into a metrosexual guy Raj, as he wants to see Taani in her original naachti phudakti style, as she was before marriage. Kyunki yeh kahani Rab (and Aditya Chopra) likh rahe hain, he becomes her dance partner for a competition Dancing Jodi.
What follows is confusion and drama, when Surinder tries to hide Raj from Taani. She eventually falls in love with Raj, as she begins to see Rab in him, and is in a dilemma, whether to run away with her lover, or stay with her boring husband, oblivious of the fact that both are the same persons. Meanwhile Bobby urges Surinder to reveal the truth about Raj’s identity, but he Surinder refrains from doing so, as he wants to see whom Taani really loves. There are some emotional moments, some cliched scenes, and some boring segments, but Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi has a fair amount of well-choreographed foot-tapping numbers. There is this song called Hum Hain Rahi Pyaar Ke Phir Milenge Chalte Chalte, the line SRK often repeats in the movie, which uses lyrics from songs of Raj Kapoor, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna and Rishi Kapoor (yes, in that same order!) to create a medley under a tune of their own. The effects is quite good, and I liked it, though it did look strange. There is also this juvenile bike scene, where Taani does some Dhoom action with Raj sitting behind, to chase another Jodi which picked up a fight with them. Quite funny!
Finally, when Taani has become ready to run away with Raj on the final day of the competition, she begins to see Rab in Surinder, and decides against it. The climax is absolutely stupid, when Taani realises that she has been fooled, as both Raj is Surinder in actuality.
Anushka Sharma acts pretty well, but her poorly written role makes her unable to outshine Shah Rukh Khan’s brilliance in playing Surinder. Vinay Pathak is absolutely outstanding, and potrays is character of a sidekick and barber fantastically. Hats off to him! However, the script is flawed and the story doesn’t know where its going. Although I would not recommend spending lots of money on this film, do watch it in a multiplex if you must, so that you have a comfortable chair to relax on, during the boring parts of the movie.
Plot: 2
Acting: 4
Cinematography: 3
Music: 3
Direction: 3
Gameloft released Asphalt 4 Elite Racing recently, after Asphalt 3. Since Gameloft is the best in mobile gaming, Asphalt 2 Urban GT was awesome. But Asphalt 3 was a huge disappointment. I didn’t have much expectations from Asphalt 4 Elite Racing, but oh boy was I wrong. Here are the main features of the game, which are enough to bowl you over:
Asphalt 4: Elite Racing is a vast improvement over its precedessor, Asphalt 3. The graphics are better, the racing is nicer, the difficultly level has gone down slighltly and the rides are pretty good. The races are fun, and there is an urge to unlock new cars and cities to race in. But unfortunately, other than the cities and the cars, there is no major change in the game. When Asphalt 3 released, it had different game modes such as Cash Attack, Cop Chase, etc. which lacked in Asphalt 2. But there are no new ones in Asphalt 4. They are the same, but are still a treat to play. There are lesser bugs, which were innumerable in Asphalt 3. But in the end, the racing experience is enjoyable. The races do become sluggish and boring after completing about the half the game, but nevertheless, it is a good experience. Although more improvements could have been done to make the game more exciting, Asphalt 4 is obviously the best racing game on the mobile I’ve ever played.
This is a cool comparison of the iPhone 3G [2008] vs the Stone [50,000 BC].
It really was a close contest, but the stone managed to win in the end (its way cheaper).
iPhone vs Stone
Get over the iPhone now. The Symbian OS is probably the best ever OS released for any mobile phone. No wonder Nokia is the leader in the Mobile Phone market in the world – most of their phones run Symbian in it. However, there are some tricks and tips to get the most out of your Nokia phone.
1) Know Your Firmware Version
Dial *#0000# to know your firmware version. Knowing the firmware version of your phone helps you to update the firmware regularly, which means less crashes and better performance. Nokia periodically releases firmware updates, which you can download via their website. This also gives details about the date the phone was manufactured.
2) Know Your IMEI
The IMEI is like a personal identification number of the phone, which can be used to determine the manufacturing location. Many times, the IMEI is also used in keygens for generating keys for various useful apps 
3) Pump Up Your Battery
Go to Settings and keep the screen brightness minimum, make the screen-saver and backlight time the least, and also switch your Bluetooth off. If you have the latest Nseries phone like the N96, turn WLAN scanning off.
Avoid switching your phone on and off repeatedly. Doing this will eat up battery. Also avoid frequent charging. Batteries have limited charge cycles. Each charge cycle is basically an input and removal of AC current (from your charger). So let the phone battery run down completely and then charge; disconnect only when you see the battery full signal.
4) Preserve Memory
You might be low on memory quite a number of times. Try reducing the image quality. In Camera, click options and settings. Reduce the image quality. You shouldn’t do this if you have a 2 Megapixel camera or lesser. Pics at 0.8 Megapixel become unclear. Do this if you have a 3.2 or 5 Megapixel camera.
Installing apps over Bluetooth saves a great deal of memory.
Clearing the Web Browser cache removes junk stuff from the phone.
5) Bluejacking
Bluejacking is a hacking over Bluetooth. Here’s a method to fool a nearby person. Make a contact by the name “You have been bluejacked” without any number. Save it, send it by Bluetooth and the recipient will be clueless about where the message came from.
6) Shortcuts
Call key opens Log.
Holding Menu key opens Task Manager, where you can kill unnecessary/unresponsive tasks by pressing <C>.
Holding 0 opens the in-built web browser.
In phones running Symbian 3rd Edition (like Nokia N73), holding the music key open radio.
7) The Pencil Key
Most of you are unaware about it’s miraculous use. Hold the pencil key and move right with the D-Pad or joystick and you select text. Pressing it lets you cut, copy or paste it!
Holding the pencil key and booting the phone leads to faster start-ups
8) Crash and Burn
If your phone crashes, remove the memory card and hold *, Call and # and then switch the phone on. This will restore original factory settings. Now format your memory card using an external memory card reader which plugs into the USB port of your PC.
So that’s it folks! Comment if you liked, or didn’t!
When I first heard about the N96 being termed as the Next Generation Phone by Nokia itself, I knew it had to be extraordinary. I finally laid my hands on this special phone, even before it was released in the stores. Though I haven’t got any pictures to prove it 
Nokia N96
Nokia decided to do a world launch in India so as to retain its monopoly in the mobile phone market and not let the Apple take over with the much-awaited iPhone 3G.
When I saw the N96, my first words were “You gotta be kidding me. This is the N81!” Of course all of you will agree that it bears resemblance with the N81 8 GB, but when I actually explored the features, I was blown away.
When you hold this phone, the first thing you notice is that it’s heavy. But it’s got all the features crammed into it that you really don’t mind. This phone is a revolution in telecommunication devices. The N96 sets new standards for phones to match up to, and I don’t think any phone other than the OMNIA can give the N96 a run for its money.
The N96, according to Nokia, is the “official successor to the N95″. The N95 was intimidating itself, but when one actually worked on it, many minor and major flaws were noticed. It was buggy and excruciatingly slow at times, but the N96 is a great improvement. Check out this page for a huge list of flaws in the N95 and also how to boost it up. I could have written another post on the N95 tips and tricks, but hey, that would be copying.
Back to the review now. The N96 has so many features, that you feel it’s too much. It has 128 MB of RAM as compared to 64 MB, which its predecessor had. So, it’s much faster and the applications boot up at a greater speed than on any Nokia device I’ve ever experienced.
It’s also got a 5 Megapixel Camera with a Carl-Zeiss lens, which even its predecessor possessed. But the Xenon flash is an improvement which can take excellent quality photographs even in the most ridiculous lighting conditions. But a problem is that pictures at this quality mean each picture is more than a megabyte in size, which can eat up your memory. But Nokia’s taken care of that too. This chunky phone comes preloaded with 16 GB Internal Mass Memory and adding an 8 GB memory card, you can upgrade your N96 with 24 GB memory! This means, that you can store more than 20000 images of full quality in your phone. I see this as a great improvement over the N95 Classic as it had only Flash memory.
This phone has also got some small details such as the stand on the lens behind the phone, which enables the user to pop it out and place it on the table for easy video viewing.
The N96 is a dual slide phone, which means that it has numbers on one side and dedicated music buttons on the other. The speaker is loud enough and gives the required booming noise for heavy metal songs like Crawling (by Linkin’ Park) and also provides clarity for soothing instrumental songs like Hotel California (Eagles).
The most impressive part is the video quality, which the camera captures at an amazing 30 frames per second. Also, the phone supports videos in .avi and .flv formats too. I was surprised by the Flash Video format support. It was unexpected, as .flv files are usually ripped YouTube or similar videos, which many companies condemn. Anyway, resolution of .flv files is generally 240×320, which exactly matches the N96 resolution, which means that the videos are top quality.
The battery life has deteriorated. I recollect friends complaining about the terrible N95 battery life, which used to exhaust itself by night. Although the various features might suck the battery, yet Nokia has made a blunder by providing an entirely new and less powerful battery for the N96. There are battery saving techniques such as turning automatic WLAN detection off and decreasing the screen brightness.
The phone also has 3G with HSPDA, which means you can have video conferences, and also access super-fast internet on your phone while engaging in a conversation with another person.
But there are some problems. This phone does not have a single touch sensitive component. Other large players in the market such as the iPhone and OMNIA come with full touch-screen. But considering this problem with an optimistic outlook, it means that the phone would definitely have been more expensive, if Nokia has provided a touch-screen facility.
The phone also lack dedicated game buttons, which are a great asset to the N81; but I do have a feeling that the music keys can be used as game buttons. However, speculation can never, and should never, ever be trusted. It was just a rumour I heard.
But just as I was beginning to feel that these were minor drawbacks, there came a major blow. The N96 has no encrypted e-mail! Since the N96 is seen as an entertainment phone and not a business phone, Nokia must have not have considered encrypted e-mail as a priority. However, I recommend office goers not to use this phone as lack of encrypted e-mail may expose the e-mail contents (including the username and password) to others, which may prove to be quite a danger. [Note: when I consulted a clever-looking Nokia salesperson about this major flaw, he said that "the E-Series is tailor made for business people, not the N-series. The latter is targeted at a younger audience". This answer was quite satisfactory, and therefore, I walked away.]
All in all, the N96 is an amazing phone. My only grudge against it is that it needs to lose some weight and slim up a bit. Although it may seem a bit pricey (Rs 37000 approx.) I must say, it’s worth it. This certainly lives up to the title The God of Phones.
You can visit this site to get a full list of the N96 technical specifications
