Nokia mobile phones are amongst the most popular in the world – 62% of Orange users own one. But are you getting the most out of yours?
There’s so much more to owning a Nokia phone than talking and texting? Have you tried MMS or sending an email? Did you know that you can use an N-series phone as a sat-nav? Or that you can update your Facebook profile on a Series 40 phone and watch TV clips on Orange World?
You can do all these things and more with your Nokia phone. Grab your phone and try the following:
Two things all Nokia users should do
Whatever Nokia handset you own, there are two things that you can do right now to get more from your phone.
Back up and synchronise your phone
Installing the Nokia PC Suite is a must. Why? Because you can use it to copy calendar information from Outlook, securely back up your phone contacts, manage files on your phone and install new software (like games and utilities).
Got a Mac? No problem. Nokia offers two separate applications for Apple owners – iSync (for synchronising contact and calendar info) and Nokia Multimedia transfer (for managing music, photos, games and other data). You can find them both online at: http://europe.nokia.com/mac.
Join ‘My Nokia’ (it’s free!)
Sign up for My Nokia (formerly Club Nokia) and you’ll receive regular tips and tricks for your Nokia phone by SMS and/or email, such as: “ever lost yourself in your mobile menu? You can escape at any time by pressing the red Disconnect button”.
You can also sign up for the Nokia Connections newsletter to receive Nokia news, offers and exclusive competitions. You can also register for My Nokia Backup. This enables you to synchronise and store your Calendar, Contacts, To-dos and Notes securely on the web. Put your name down for My Nokia membership at: http://europe.nokia.com/clubnokia.
5 things all N-series users should do
Nokia’s N-series phones represent the cutting edge of mobile technology. The phone you hold in your hand is a mini computer – a digital camera, games machine, music/video player and sat-nav system all in one pocketable device.
The Symbian S60 software glues all this cleverness together, providing an open mobile platform that is easy-to-use and extraordinarily versatile. Hundreds of extra applications are now available for N-series phones, including: IM clients, games, microblogging software, weather apps and RSS readers. Your Nokia phone can do more than you ever imagined. So why not try the following:
Use your phone as a sat-nav
Nokia Maps comes pre-installed on most N-series phones, enabling you to use your phone as a portable sat-nav system. Find your current position on a map, then use your phone to search for places of interest nearby or to give you turn-by-turn directions to a destination.
Like running? Download ‘Sports Tracker’ for free and track your speed, distance and calorie burn as you jog. If you haven’t got Nokia Maps on your phone or need to update the software, you can find it at: http://www.nokia.co.uk/maps/download.
Discover the online world of ‘Ovi’
Ovi (www.ovi.com) is Nokia’s new online portal, which combines a number of different functions – web-based calendar/contact synchronisation (like My Nokia), Nokia Maps, photo and video sharing. Or you can use Ovi’s Anytime Files service to access documents on your PC remotely via your phone.
The Nokia Music Store is also part of the Ovi experience. The software that powers Nokia Music Store downloads is PC-only at this time. It can be downloaded from http://music.nokia.co.uk.
Share your photos and videos online
When you’ve signed up to Nokia’s Ovi website, you can use the ShareOnline application on your phone to share your photos as you travel. Give it a try.
Ovi offers free and unlimited storage for your photos and video you can also send them by email to friends or publish them on your social network profile. In fact, N-series phones are ideal for social networking. You can blog on the go with Moblog:UK or Twitter anywhere with Twibble. Browse and download applications at www.nseries.com.
Listen to free music on Last.fm
Have you tried mobbler? It’s an Internet radio player for Symbian phones that enables you to listen to Last.fm radio stations or to custom-build a playlist based on an artist or genre. Find it at: http://code.google.com/p/mobbler/.
Turn your phone into a Wi-Fi hotspot
Yes, really. Sign up for a Joikuspot account and you can turn your 3G phone into a secure mobile WLAN hot spot. It’s ideal for connecting a laptop, netbook or iPod touch to the Internet when you don’t have access to fixed Wi-Fi. The Light version is a free download at www.joiku.com. The Premium version supports VPN access and can be purchased at www.joikushop.com.
5 things all Series 40 devices can do
Don’t own an N-series phone? No matter. You can also do much more with Nokia’s Series 40 phones (I.e. the Nokia 6500 Slide, the Nokia 6220, the Nokia 6300) than texting and talking. For example, did you know that you can…
Poke a friend on Facebook
Orange makes it easy to log onto your favourite social network. Having signed agreements with MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, you can easily access the big three via the Orange World portal. There is also support for Skyrock, Pikeo, Flirtomatic, DailyMotion and Meetic communities.
Install a new game
The popularity of mobile gaming is on the up and the Nokia Software Market (www.softwaremarket.nokia.com) is the perfect place to grab a new game for your phone. Specify the type of handset you own and then choose from games that include gem-puzzler DiamondMine, Super Tetris and Sudoku Monster.
Widgetise your web browsing
Rather than access Internet info via a web browser, the web widgets at www.widsets.com enable you to pull your favourite web content straight to your phone. Top-rated widgets on the site currently include: Wikipedia, Friendster, AccuWeather, Facebook, Flickr and YouTube.
Change your wallpaper/screen saver
You don’t have to stick with the default wallpaper and screensavers that come supplied on your Nokia phone. Head on over to www.softwaremarket.nokia.com, tell the site what handset you own, and choose ‘themes’ to browse through hundreds of new wallpaper graphics and screensavers.
This article was originally written for Orange.
