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Calendaring and PIM on the E61

The main (maybe only real) disappointment with the Nokia E61 is the built in PIM functions are pretty weak. Sure you get a calendar and Task manager, but they are not anything like the built-in stuff you find on a Palm – which is my gadget heritage. Today there are no quality released versions of applications to fill this gap, but there are two betas (one open and one closed) in process which will certainly be competing for the GTD of the E61set.

I’ve installed Aquacalendar 5 beta today and it’s considerably better than the current release version 4.1. I’m looking forward to tracking the progress here…

There’s also the pending open beta of Papyrus. This had actually initially caught my eye – especially based on having tried the current version of Aquacalendar.

It’s hard to say who will win and I’m sure what will follow as these apps are released will be something similar to the Agendus vs. Datebk debates many have witnessed on Palm threads. My guess is that both will do what you need, but handle things in different ways based on the philosophy of the developers. Either way, mobile productivity is about to get much better.

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Nokia’s Living Room Streamer

Just caught this on PVRWire…

Nokia has been rumored on the T3.co.uk website to be launching a living room video streaming device.

According to unnamed source on T3 the device will be based on the Nokia’s Audio Gateway and will use WiFi to stream video stored on your cell phone.

That certainly sounds like a waste of time to me. Why would you want to stream low quality video on your cell phone to your network enabled PVR or PC? I’m suspecting, or at least hoping there is something a little more to this.
[PVR Wire]

I think it’s actually pretty clear. Nokia is competing very directly with Apple as noted by T3. The N-Series devices are getting quite powerful and in daily use are great as personal, 1-2 foot type units. If you add-in a connection back in the living room you get a 10 foot shared experience. I’m not thinking there’s much of a unique UI to this (yet) it’s more in how and with whom you share content collected through the phone. The N93 can record DVD quality video and has a TV out function. The N95 can also record video in DVD quality, but also has a 5 megapixel camera and supports UPnP which means once it’s connected on your home network, you might not have to even connect a dongle in order to view content in a shared environment through whatever this device becomes.

When I own the N95 (predicting I will…) I can definitely see adding this second unit as a complement for sharing. I’m sure there will be other N-Series or related products that can also stream to this either with out without wires. Just like the iPod, if you have Gigs of information in a small form factor, you’ll want that to become the central component source for what you watch and listen to – especially at home.

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Nokia’s pending music service…

This certainly sounds interesting …

If you connect the dots, Nokia is putting together the pieces for one of the industry’s most ambitious mobile music offers, though the Ngage disaster still probably sends shudders through their corridors. On the content side, Nokia has recruited 40 independent and influential music stores worldwide (including Fat Beats in New York, Pure Groove in Chicago, Monza Records in Tokyo and Hard Wax in Berlin) and David Bowie to “keep music enthusiasts in touch with the latest tracks and help them discover new artists”. Users of Nokia’s Music Recommender service (available in beta in November) can register to receive an instant playlist of 30 second samples tailored specifically to their tastes and purchase the tracks they like, the company says. [MocoNews.net]

More, including Audio can be found here.

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Sirius Internet Radio Launches

Orbitcast reports on the launchh of Sirius Internet Radio, which I really like in theory. What I don’t like is the Windows Media Player requirement which makes the interface on the Mac a total kludge.

You have to use Safari (no firefox) and you have to run the browser and an external media player… You also get ZERO track information about the currently playing station which is one of the nicer bits about Sirius.

I wonder what it would take for some sort of iTunes authentication. I know they are allegedly working with Yahoo on the Stilleto so I suppose Yahoo authentication is more likely which would be cool too actually if it just worked.

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AutoLock v1.1

A new version of AutoLock has been released (didn’t notice before). With its inactivity timer down to 10 seconds, it makes a great tool for any 3rd Ed. user.[e61life]

While I have not had any phantom dials, I decided to still use this excellent piece of freeware…

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Rebtel – globally local VOIP for your mobile

I stumbled into Rebtel last night while scanning some feeds before bed and think it’s a very cool idea. They assign a local number to you and your calling party in each of your local countries and then you simply call that local number (using your unlimited local calling from your phone plan) and Rebtel flips the call to VOIP and then switches it back over in the respective local international market. While this is not for everyone, if you know someone overseas, this is a great way to still maintain the use of your existing phone system, but save massively on international calls. It’s much easier to explain to a parent or grandparent as well as you do not need a computer to make a call – you simply call a new number for your friend.

Andy notes they’ve just raised some serious cash …

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Nokia E61 VOIP via Gizmo

One of the very cool things about the Nokia E61 is that right out of the box it can handle SIP VOIP calls. Setting this up was surprisingly easy, though manual in nature. To start, you’ll need a SIP phone number which fortunately for Gizmo Project users is already ready for you …Here’s how to get it done:

1. First find your SIP phone number …

2. Then follow these excellent directions from the Project Gizmo support forum.

You will need to replace the XXXXXXX with your actual SIP number. I was pretty dense about things at first myself, but if you enter that you’ll then be able to get the Internet calling option rocking on the E61.

I am pretty sure that NAT causes an issue with older firmware on the E61 but it seems to work for me just fine with the latest update.

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Smartroaming on the E61

The Nokia E61 has very rapidly become my favorite device. It’s got a great (if a tad stiff) keyboard, connectivity galore, tons of memory for apps and a fantastic web browser! There’s a great feature built in which let’s you set up access groups, which means you can define a sort-through order for connections to assure for example that a WIFI access point is checked before cellular data. Many apps can take advantage of this but for some reason a few like Mail for Exchange cannot.

As I was browsing the Nokia support forums for other users who may have noticed this slight inconvenience, I found a note suggesting a browse through the catalogs (the built in download library) app for the Smartroaming app. As it turns out this is the very same application, I can previously noted with my N91, but had forgotten about… Birdstep Smartroaming solves the problem by allowing you to configure a stack of connection options (or multiple sets) which show up as single access points so any app can access them. Based on your preferences you can be assured that your device is cruising at high speed.

I’ll have to run through this for a bit while the demo is still open to be sure before purchase, but so far it’s quite excellent. Moving through Exchange and IMAP email is vastly improved on WIFI. I’m sure there’s a nice battery tax to pay, but I charge at night, in the car and even at my desk at work so it’s not going to kill me to run the battery a bit harder in the day.

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Rocking the mobile tech

I received a Nokia E61 this week and will definitely post more on how much I am loving it but for now let me just say – well done!

i am posting this on the train from the amazing Nokia (webkit) browser and can’t believe how good the overall experience really can be from a small device.

i did not really do much river of news reading before but that’s´quite handy as well.

more to come…

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Showtime!

Getting ready… Clearly Apple is getting things set for a big day in the ITMS. I just checked in to see if I could track something down and it’s down. This seems like a big deal as it’s still hours until the event at 1pm EST and things don’t usually shut down in Apple Stores until right prior.

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Apple files patent for multi-function handheld device

iLounge points to a most exciting new patent application from Apple. There’s no saying when or if this will come to market, but consider me pre-ordered!

A new Apple patent application published today by the US Patent & Trademark Office details a “multi-functional handheld device” that has the ability to quickly switch between multiple operating modes. The patent, which was filed in March, describes a device with a touch sensitive screen covering the entire front of the unit and the ability to switch between functionalities such as PDA, cell phone, music player, video player, game player, digital camera, GPS, handtop, and remote control.

“Before a particular device functionality can be used, it typically must be selected for use,” a portion of the filing reads. “The selection can come in a variety of forms. For example, the selection may be made via a main menu that includes soft buttons or icons that, when selected, activate the device functionality associated with the soft button. During activation, the GUI for that particular device is brought into view on the display and the software associated with the device is installed, loaded or activated. From that point on, the multi-functional device operates like the selected device.”

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