gHacks technology news » nokia n73 http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Mon, 23 Nov 2009 22:22:46 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Nokia N97 http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/02/nokia-n97/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/02/nokia-n97/#comments Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:18:39 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=8670 My current cell phone contract runs out in six months and I’m currently looking for options. One of the options is the new Nokia N97 cell phone which was announced at Nokia World in Barcelona. The cell phone will be the successor of the Nokia N96 which is currently Nokia’s flagship product for business users.

Nokia managers call it the Facebook phone. The reason is obvious. Nokia is gearing for the social networking and multimedia crowd as much as it tried to improve the business aspects of the phone.

The main features that make it interesting in my case are the full QWERTY keyboard, the WiFi support and the 640×360 screen. It does come with additional features like GPS, flash lite 3.0, tri-band HSDPA 3G, a 5 Megapixel camera or 32 Gigabytes of memory which will appeal to many users.

nokia n97

No word yet on the important battery component but Nokia is claiming that the cell phone is capable of 36 hours of continuous music playback. A video of the new Nokia N97 was published on Youtube that is showcasing some of its features.

A few factors will help me make the decision. The first and most important factor in my opinion is the responsiveness of the cell phone. The Nokia N73 for example is sluggish and slow. The keyboard should be good enough for the occasional article in an Internet Cafe or at a Wifi hotspot. Lastly the battery should last long enough to survive a workday without recharging. The current suggested price tag without contract is around 550€ ($695).

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/12/02/nokia-n97/feed/ 26 How to update a Nokia Mobile Phone http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/30/how-to-update-a-nokia-mobile-phone/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/30/how-to-update-a-nokia-mobile-phone/#comments Thu, 29 Nov 2007 22:09:29 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/30/how-to-update-a-nokia-mobile-phone/ Nokia has created a great software that makes it really easy to update your Nokia mobile phone. You are probably wondering why you should update the phone if everything is working as intended. This is actually a good question and I can’t answer it for the phone that you are using.

Generally speaking a firmware update can add new functions and features to your mobile phone, can make it faster, update software so that you can run advanced applications or fix security holes. I’m not sure if there is an official Nokia website that lists release notes for current and previous firmwares of Nokia phones – I was not able to find it if it exists.

This means it is not really possible to determine the new features and improvements of the new firmware version. The only information about firmware updates was that they will improve performance and functionality. The update will update the operating system of your phone which includes applications like the Calendar, the Messenger and the Contact List.

Please note that it is not possible to downgrade the firmware of your Nokia phone once it was updated. Some applications and games from third-party developers might need to be installed again after updating the phone firmware. I suggest you take a look at the extensive FAQ on the Nokia website.

How to update a Nokia a Nokia Mobile Phone:

1. Download the Nokia PC Suite and backup all of the files on your phone

To do that simply start the Nokia PC Suite application and click on the Backup button. Make sure you save everything on that phone. This might take a while if you have lots of personal files like images or music stored on the phone. The files will be transfered with the Nokia Content Copier software.

Backup the contents in the Nokia phone as well. You find that option in Tools > Memory.

2. Download and install the Nokia Software Updater application which will be used to update the firmware of the Nokia phone. Please note that you have to use this software and can’t use the Nokia PC Suite to update the mobile phone.

Make sure you connect the charger to your phone before you start the process because a failed update can brick your Nokia phone.

The update that I was downloading had a size of nearly 80 Megabytes and upgraded the firmware of my Nokia N73 Music Edition (RM-133) from 3.0638.0.0.30 to 4.0736.3.2.1 which I would consider a huge version leap.

The benefits:

I can’t really tell what has been changed but the phone does seem a little bit more responsive. The only new application that did not seem there before is a Anti-Virus application. There is probably more and some definitely have been updated but I can’t really tell without the release notes.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/11/30/how-to-update-a-nokia-mobile-phone/feed/ 5 How to reduce mobile phone bandwidth costs http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/22/how-to-reduce-mobile-phone-bandwidth-costs/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/22/how-to-reduce-mobile-phone-bandwidth-costs/#comments Wed, 22 Aug 2007 06:11:41 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/22/how-to-reduce-mobile-phone-bandwidth-costs/ Reducing the bandwidth costs of my mobile phone is one of my top priorities in this month. You might remember that I used my Nokia N73 as a modem to go online during my summer vacation which did cost me more than $400 for just a few hours of going online and writing articles. It was quite a shock that I was charged this much because I did ask O2 support how much it would cost me and they gave me a different answer at that time.

I decided to order a 200 Megabyte package for €10 after finding out about the bill which is enough to check for emails and write the occasional article. Bandwidth on the other hand is still a huge problem, just take a look at the size of some of the websites out there, they sometimes have a size of 100+ Kilobytes just for the homepage.

It is also possible to sign up for so called fair-use flatrates which give you a huge monthly quota (5000+ Megabytes for instance) but those are only available in selected countries at the moment. I’d like to share a few tricks that I use to reduce the traffic and the money that I have to pay monthly for using my mobile phone.

  • SMS: Use a free service like Cellity to reduce SMS costs. You pay a standard rate of €0.07 ($0.10) if the recipient is also using Cellity or €0.09 ($0.12) if he is not. Cellity is only available in selected countries in the moment but will soon go international. All you need to do is to download a small application and install it on your mobile phone to save costs.
  • Downloads: Reducing downloads from your mobile phone can make a huge difference at the end. Instead of downloading those ringtones, games and applications directly from your mobile phone you should consider the option to download them with your computer instead and transfer them to your mobile phone afterwards. You can save huge amounts of money this way if you download content regularly.

    Another option would be if you have a mobile phone with Wi-Fi. Just connect to the Internet using a wireless connection from either your home or a public place and you will not have to pay for that bandwidth.

  • Using your mobile phone as a modem: The idea is to reduce bandwidth by removing unnecessary objects from Internet pages for instance. I decided to get rid of images and multimedia content completely. I did install a tool that checks my pop3 accounts displaying only the mail headers giving me the option to download only the mails that I want to read at that moment.

    You should also make sure that automatic downloads and updates are disabled during that time.

  • Bargain for a better deal: Bargaining is a very effective method to gain a better deal or some bonuses. You could try to get a number of free sms per month from the provider if you either complain about their service or are in the position to renew the contract which is a powerful argument when dealing with your mobile phone company.

What’s your way of dealing with it ? Let me know if you have more tips that reduce the monthly mobile phone bill.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/22/how-to-reduce-mobile-phone-bandwidth-costs/feed/ 2 NOKIA N73 AND THE CASE OF THE BLINKING BLUE LIGHT http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/02/nokia-n73-and-the-case-of-the-blinking-blue-light/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/02/nokia-n73-and-the-case-of-the-blinking-blue-light/#comments Thu, 02 Aug 2007 18:20:31 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/02/nokia-n73-and-the-case-of-the-blinking-blue-light/ I really like my new mobile phone which is a Nokia N73 Music Edition. There is however one disturbing thing and that is a blue light that is blinking whenever my phone is activating sleep mode. Sleep mode is great because it consumes less battery when it is active but that blinking blue light is really getting on my nerves.

I mean, I know when my mobile phone is turned on and just in sleep mode which means that the blinking blue light of the Nokia N73 is completely useless. The problem is that you can turn it off but this also means that you turn of sleep mode which in turn means that your mobile is wasting more battery.

To turn it off you navigate to: Menu -> Tools -> Settings -> Phone -> Display -> SLEEP MODE => off. This sends the blue light and the sleep mode to Nirvana which is probably not such a good idea. An alternative would be to place the phone with the front on the desk to get rid of the light without disabling sleep mode.

I’m not sure why there is no option to turn of the light only and still keep the sleep mode. Nokia, it is time for a firmware update that fixes this problem.

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]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2007/08/02/nokia-n73-and-the-case-of-the-blinking-blue-light/feed/ 20 Going Online with my Nokia N73 http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/08/going-online-with-my-nokia-n73/ http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/08/going-online-with-my-nokia-n73/#comments Sun, 08 Jul 2007 07:13:04 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2007/07/08/going-online-with-my-nokia-n73/ I never before tried to go online using my mobile phone and notebook because I always had the chance to use a wireless connection or LAN network to go online. I identified several obstacles that could prevent me from going online with my N73 and Toshiba notebook.

The first one was that my notebook is running Vista Home Premium and I was not sure if the software that was delivered with the mobile phone could be installed. Fortunately it was not a problem. The second obstacle was the question whether I was able to use the fast UMTS protocol or not.

If UMTS was not supported I would have a bad download rate which would make it nearly impossible to work with. Luckily UMTS was available as well.

All I had to do was to install the Nokia PC Suite, connect my Nokia N73 using the data cable with USB connector and click on connect from within the Pc Suite.

It took only a few seconds and I was online. Download speeds are fine and I’m able to work and write articles for Ghacks. This article is actually written using my mobile phone.

The connection is very reliable and it is a pleasure working this way. The only thing that is not that nice is that I have to pay for every minute that I’m online. I had the chance to purchase a monthly package that would give me a certain transfer rate for free but I was not sure if I would be able to use it at my location.

I’m pleasantly surprised that it was so easy to go online with my mobile phone.

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