The Standby Screen

 

Ever since the Active Standby Menu came out in the Nokia 6680/6681 I have been a great fan of this implementation. It started with 5 shortcuts to applications and the calender display. Slowly it graduated to showing the current music track. Next came the current FM station and so on.

Today the N95 Standby screen pictured above, incorporates 6 shortcuts, calender, To-Do, Memo, Search, Music Track info, FM Station and the WiFi Indicator.

I personally prefer clean themes and as a result hardly ever need the screen to be blank for a wallpaper and really like optimum usage of the screen’s real estate. I’m also glad that the message preview a.k.a. the E-Series has not been incorporated into the N-Series, this is because you never know when a message you do not want others to see pops up in the display!

Moreover I just wanted to put up these pictures in PiZero’s Gold Theme, so the post! 😉

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New N95 Firmware Thoughts

 

The new firmware has received rave reviews all over the internet and it clearly deserves it! I’ve also taken the plunge and upgraded although it meant playing with my product code. Nokia please in the future release the firmware for all product codes simultaneously, at least the generic ones!

In this post I will attempt to compare the new firmware to my earlier N95 Future Firmware Requirements post. What is great to see is that almost all essentials have been incorporated and some bonuses too. Here’s a rundown:

Nokia PC Suite Version 6.85 Released

 

Nokia PC Suite has been updated to 6.85 and with the updated has come quite an ovehaul and is available from the PC Suite page. The new UI looks great and here’s a rundown of some of the new featues it brings. I’ve been beta testing it for the past few weeks and must say I find this even better than the Nseries PC Suite!

WiFi Without Routers on Windows XP

Gaurav from the N95 Community on Orkut has posted this short guide to help have the benefits of a wifi router without actually having it on Windows XP. Jamal Abid had previously written a similar guide for Windows Vista.

User N95 v20.0.015 Firmware Changelog!

Update: Leaked ‘official’ changelog is here.

Frank Mehta from over at the Symbian-Freak Forums has posted this amazingly detailed changelog as he sees it on the N95 after updating.

The major additions apart from the ones listed here are:

– Video Ringtones!

– Faster Gallery

– Much Faster Bootup Time

However, one bone of contention seems to be the camera. The speed has increased but the quality gone down?! Today being my Birthday this was the best present from Nokia but the camera part scares me! Sahil Mohanty from the N95 Community on Orkut also has similar thoughts about the camera quality taking a hit! Log below:

New Firmware For The N95 Classic – v20.0.015

 

Update: User Changelog here.

Finally! The latest and perhaps most awaited firmware for the N95 is here, as a result of which it has hit v20.0.015. The firmware as usual brings us some bug fixes and improvements, but this time the improvement is huge! It includes demand paging, 30MB plus free RAM after booting, speedier operation, N-Gage support, faster camera software, integrated Search, modified Welcome apps and then some more and yes, the keypress bug is gone. Below is somewhat of a changelog.

‘Real’ Youtube & More On The New N95 Firmware!

 

Update: The New Firmware is out. 

The new Nokia N95 firmware v21 is generationg a lot of hype. The new firmware is suppossed to bring:

– Demand Paging
– Close to 30 MB free RAM on bootup
– Ngage Platform Support
– Integrated Search (On the Standby Screen)
– You Tube Playback directly from the browser! (More Info Here)
– New N95 8GB like Icons
– Grid view in the Camera options
– Music Store and Podcasts in a new Music Folder
– Camera Activation with the Capture button (Useful for the front cam)
– A new lease of life for the N95!

I personally can’t wait! For screenshots and more look here and here.

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The Perfect Pair

I’ve had the N95 and the N800 with me for weeks now and there is almost nothing the two can’t do in tandem. In all likelihood no one will own an internet tablet in isolation and most likely will have a smartphone at hand. If that smartphone turns out to be an N95 we have the perfect match. Here’s why:

Future N95 Firmware Requirements

 

It has been a while since the N95 has seen a firmware upgrade and I’m anxious to see what will be in store. But here are some issues which IMO Nokia must address and some which will be a bonus if done.

irRemote Available Now!

Everybody’s favourite application the irRemote is finally available now for S60 v3 infrared equipped phones.

irRemote turns your phone into a universal remote control and allows us to operate audio and video equipment using one device – Symbian operated smartphone with infrared port.

It’s simple and intuitive. Just select the device from the list and control it using your phone’s keypad. The database of supported devices is stored online and you can download new codes directly from the irRemote. You can extend the list of supported devices by uploading codes for them through an online wizard.

This application is great fun to play with, however when it comes to practical feasibility it takes a backseat as the phone has poor ir range. Still i’ve had great fun in malls, shops etc playing around with people’s TV’s, music systems etc on my old 6600. Will get this application, if nothing else, for old time’s sake!

Click Here to Download (A 10 Day Trial)!