E71Blog.com

Andrew Boxall, over at Dial-A-Phone, has reviewed the Nokia E71, looking at every feature and even how it fits in with Nokia’s lineup. Most of the review is also spent comparing the Nokia E71 to the recently launched Apple iPhone 3G, against which it actually fares rather well.

Despite the smaller screen and less intuitive web browsing, Andrew decides that the E71 bests the iPhone 3G in several areas, including the awesome QWERTY keyboard and GPS implementation. What do you think? Have you had a chance to compare directly with the iPhone 3G?

Yes, that’s right, Joel Spolsky is in love with his Nokia E71. Who’s Joel Spolsky? Well, he’s the author of ‘Joel on Software’, and he’s been playing with his Nokia E71 now for a while. Joel’s favorite features by far are the keyboard and overall build quality, which I would have to agree with.

To start out, Joel only had a shortlist of things he wanted in his next phone:

1. He wanted a phone with a decent MP3 player, so as not to have to carry two devices.
2. He wanted to be able to use the phone’s internet connection to get online with his laptop on the train out to the Hamptons (there’s tolerable 3G coverage on AT&T for the first two hours of the trip).
3. He needed great Exchange synchronization, not just an IMAP client. For the last few weeks he’s been desperately trying to get Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero concept working and you need a great Exchange client, not a 1.0 Exchange client.

It seems that the E71 was an excellent choice for Joel. Have you gotten your mitts on the Nokia E71 yet? What things do you love about it, and what drives you nuts? Don’t forget to click over to read Joel’s full thoughts, as he compares it directly to the iPhone 3G in a pretty honest little list.

So, we’ve shown you a handful of fun themes for your new E71, and highlighted a few applications here and there. However, alot of you are reporting issues with installation, so I figured it would be good to put together a walkthrough of sorts.

First, the basics - your Nokia E71 is using S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1. You may also see this written as S60v3 FP1 in some places. This means you can install and use any application written for S60 3rd Edition. These themes and applications usually end with ‘.sisx’ or just ‘.sis’, and can be found all over the internet. My favorite place to get applications, though, is the S60.com website, which has a great Applications directory.

To install these applications and themes, you can simply Bluetooth the file to yourself, or store it on your phone’s memory card, and use the File Explorer application to navigate to the file, and simply click on it to open. Installation will start immediately, and you’re all set!

But wait, what if you get an error? There are 2 reasons you may get an error, with 2 very simple solutions. The first is if your phone is set to restrict the types of applications that can be installed, and the other has to do with the certificate used to sign the application or, more frequently, the theme.

The first thing you should check is to make sure that your phone is set to allow any application to be installed. To do this, you can go into your Installations folder, and open the ‘App Manager’. Now press your left softkey to open the Options menu, and arrow down to ‘Settings’. It’s completely safe for you to change the first option (Software Installation) to ‘All’, instead of ‘Signed Only’. Once you have done this, try to install the application or theme again.

If you are still having issues, it could be due to the expiration date of the certificate used to sign the theme or application. To resolve this, simply go into your Settings and change the date of your phone to 2007. Now, proceed with the installation again, and don’t forget to change your clock back when you’re done!

You should now be able to install nearly any application or theme on your phone without any issues, as long as it is a signed application. Unsigned applications are a bit different, and I’ll cover a workaround for those soon.

One of the biggest ‘wow’ factors of the E71 is the new predictive text feature, the first of its kind on a QWERTY Nokia. I’ve been trying it out on my Nokia E71, and while I was first tempted to disable it, I’ve definitely gotten used to it, and now see it as a very valuable feature. Vaibhav over at The Symbian Blog has put together a great little walkthrough - with screenshots - showing the various aspects of this new feature, to give you an idea.

Also, he’s pitted the E71, with its predictive text, against the Nokia E90, former QWERTY Nokia champion, and the Nokia N78, with its standard numeric keypad and T9 predictive text. He’s done well in documenting the findings scientifically, and I was surprised to see the end results, that’s for sure.

Personally, I think that I’m able to type much faster on the E71 with its predictive text entry, what about you?

The MobileMinistryMagazine.com has gotten ahold of the E71 now, though unfortunately for them, it’s the Euro version, so no 3G goodness. The initial reactions post covers how small the device really is, while noting that the battery is a monstrous 1500mAh powerhouse.

Antoine handed his E71 over to a friend who’s used to the BlackBerry Curve, and the gut reaction from her was ’small yet powerful.’

Following up is his 2nd post, where he looks at the design, usage, and initial conclusions, after several days of usage. I couldn’t help but notice that Antoine used the term ‘impressive’ repeatedly, showing that Nokia has come from left field to hit the enterprise market head-on with the Nokia E71.

What do you think? Is the E71 just another Nokia, or could it do some real damage to the BlackBerry market share in the U.S. specifically?

The gang over at BoyGeniusReport.com have been reviewing the E71 since before most of us knew we loved it, and the latest installment offers quite a telling comparison. The Nokia E71 is quite possibly one of the hottest QWERTY smartphones to hit the market this year, right there next to the upcoming BlackBerry Bold. Of course, then, it only makes sense to pitch them against each other, to see who the best QWERTY smartphone really is.

Covering every aspect from the screen to the battery life to the keyboard to email, this is definitely one thorough head-to-head comparison. I won’t ruin the results for you, but I will say that the E71 is always the winner in my heart. You can find out the end result for yourself here.

Wow, this is truly some awesome news! Fring is now fully supported on the Nokia E71, bringing you not only great VOIP, but also multi-client IM/voice chat and file transfer! Another recent update to Fring introduced Fring Add-Ons. These are extra services that can provide quite a bit of functionality. Examples include a Gmail notifier, Facebook notifier, and even vTap video content!

Fring currently works with Skype (for chat and Skype-Out calls), MSN Messenger, ICQ, GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo! Messenger, and even Twitter! It’s tough to find fault with Fring, to be honest. You can get more info on Fring here, and get an installation link sent straight to your phone.

One of the common complaints against the Nokia E71, specifically among seasoned S60 vets, is the 2.5mm headset adapter that’s built-in. Only 1mm too small for a standard earphone jack, this presents a problem for E71 lovers, as they must either settle with the poor quality of the bundled headphones, or seek out a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter.

Thanks to Jonathan Greene of Atmaspheric Endeavors (this guy finds all sorts of great stuff!), that search is made easier. It turns out, the JAVOedge 2.5mm to 3.5mm stereo adapter listed on Amazon as being for the Treo works great with the Nokia E71! This little accessory is also cheap, at $4 for a 2-pack, you’ll have a spare adapter to keep in the car or in your travel bag!

Great apologies for the lack of posting. I’ve spent the last several days poring through various forums around the interwebs, desperately seeking themes for the E71 that use the Flahorn Icon Pack, which looks really close to the older S60v3 default icons, instead of these ugly grey things.

I spent the better part of a week installing and uninstalling themes from the Nokia E71, to bring you only themes that I’ve tested and approved. Without further ado, here are 6 themes for your E71 using Flahorn’s AWESOME icon pack.

First up, from ICEman, is basically the default Eseries theme, only with Flahorn Icons. This is the most complete one, as even the GPS and Office folders are changed.

You can download this here.

Another great one is called Symbian OS 9x by k1slenko. Unfortunately, the GPS and Office icons (as will be the case with the remainder of the themes) are not changed. However, if you delete these, and recreate them manually, you’ll be rid of those ugly things once and for all!

You can download this one here.

Next up is the default S60v3 FP2 theme, with the updated icons. This one is straight from P@sco, a great themer who also blogs at jaspp.net.

Download this one here.

Another classy theme is called ‘ilikediswayFP1′ by Dhanu. This one looks really good on the E71, particularly.

You can download this here.

Mauikek B is another theme directly from Flahorn himself. The icons are colored, but designed the same as the others, and it looks really good on the Nokia E71’s display.

You can download this one here.

The last theme I found with the excellent Flahorn icon pack is called Calm, by Ahmed.

You can download this one here.

I also found the Haze by Bandez theme, which looks like the theme shown off in the S60 Touch previews on S60.com. The icons on this look great, too.

You can download this one here.

In case you’re wondering about my menu setup, I used this awesome walkthrough/setup from Symbian-Guru, which works really well and has everything in a logical place.

If you haven’t already setup Nokia Chat on your Nokia E71, you can follow the instructions here to get it. Nokia Chat is an XMPP/Jabber-based chat client that also uses the built-in GPS receiver in your phone to allow you to send your location to friends, making meetups quite easy.

Nokia Chat installs as a tab in the Nokia E71’s phonebook, though, and it can be slightly frustrating trying to access it, particularly with this new tab system in the E71’s enhanced Contacts application. Jonathan Greene, at Atmaspheric Endeavors, has picked up a handy setting that allows you to always open your phonebook with the Nokia Chat tab shown, instead of having to manually click to open.

Once you’ve got Nokia Chat installed, simply open your contacts and go to Options - Settings. There you should be able to swap things around.