GPS on the Nokia E71

What would have been the purpose of spending my hard-earned Mauritian Rupees towards the latest smartphone if i could not put its features to good use? You betcha. I decided to start making use of the GPS function (although, frankly, Mauritius is such a small place that my intended use of the GPS feature is merely to pose on my buddies). :-)

First things first - I combed through the phone's applications to see if there was something I could use out of the box. There was Nokia Maps 2.0 preloaded, but I found that it only has the major roads in Mauritius. In short, it was useless for me. I then looked online for the famous Google Maps, and to my utter dismay, it was worse than Nokia Maps. This left me with one option - to look for a commercial solution.

Naturally, on the mention of GPS, two names come into mind: Garmin and TOMTOM.

I decided to try Garmin first, as it is supposedly more popular. I looked on garmin.com to see if a) There is software that can be installed on the Nokia E71, b) There are detailed maps available for Mauritius. Both were available - but the Mauritius maps are made by a third party partner for Garmin - called Garmap (www.garmap.com) . I was happy to find that Garmin Mobile XT 5.0 that i quickly downloaded and installed to the gadget. I bought a license and unlocked it right away. I later downloaded and installed the Garmal Indian Ocean Streetmaps v 1.0, unlocked it and lo! I was absolutely ready to navigate!

In summary, I can report that the Garmin solution works well on the Nokia E71, but not perfectly:

• Sometimes, it may take forever to get a satellite lock. When i reboot the phone, it works right after. Another quick hack is to open Google Maps or Nokia Maps first, which takes much shorter to acquire satellite lock, then close it right away (or leave it in the background) and open Garmin Mobile XT. Even with AGPS on, this seems to be my problem, and that of many E71 users out there.
  
• The software must be unlocked for it to detect the internal GPS chip.
• It is not very accurate sometimes. A reboot also fixes this nuance.
• GPS is a battery hog for the E71 - invest in a car charger.
• Garmin Mobile XT is designe really for friving, not walking.

Otherwise, this is agreat gadget. I would recommend it to anyone anytime.

E71 - Finally Here!

So, i finally received my Nokia E71. Extreeeeemely lovely and sexy gadget! In no way does it compare to my previous Moto Q9h - well, in some features. For example, I am already starting to miss the Calender in the q9h. Windows Mobile got the calender perfectly right. I had expected to find the following features, which I still cant see:

• In the message list, ability to select multiple messages on the go, for the purpose of forwarding, deleting or other function.
• Same for e-mail.
• Home screen - ability to display more than 1 upcoming appointment.

The battery life is lovely. 5 days going, and its about to drain now, yet I am a relatively heavy user!

There are already many reviews there, so I wont re-invent the clock. I am a power user, so will update this page regularly with tips, tricks, hacks and tweaks, especially for Linux and OS X Leopard.

Bye-bye Q9h: Hello Nokia E71 or Apple iphone 3G

My Moto Q9h is not even 1 year in my posession, and I cant wait to donate it to some poor soul and get myself a new gadget! I am a fan of qwerty key-pad smartphones, and most importantly, they should not use a stylus. The next logical choice here remains the latest Nokia e71. I am thinking of the iphone 3G too, but it apparently lacks some basic functionality that is available in other gadgets of the same price. (Copy+Paste, Bluetooth file transfer, FM tuner, flash-enables browser, etc).

So, It appears that I remain with no choice but to go Nokia - the E71. I will provide a detailed review once I have it in my paws!

Cisco VPN Client disconnects immediately after VPN session is established while using Huawei E220 modem with OSX

I had quite a bit of trouble getting the Cisco VPN Client working well while connected to the internet on my macbook (OS X 10.5.2) using the Huawei E220 HSDPS/UMTS/GPRS/EDGE modem. The problem is that Huawei supplied quite an erroneous script for OS X (the script is bundled from the huawei-supplied software from www.huawei.com). 

My problem exactly:

1. Connect to the net using the Huawei E220 Successfully.

2. Start the VPN Client, connect, session is properly established.

3 After 2 seconds, the VPN session disconnects.

I did not dig very deep to find out what the problem is (as i have no more hacking time these days) but i decided to use another modem script from Ross Barkman's collection ( http://www.taniwha.org.uk/ ). The script is the "Generic HSDPA" type. 

Download and unzip the script to ~/Library/Modem Scripts/ then in the network preferences, replace the "Huawei Mobile" with "generic HSDPA modem", then in the phone number, replace whatever you have there with the APN for your service provider. This is all, and you are ready to happily and securely work remotely using the Cisco VPN Client.

OS X 10.5.2 Leopard and Motorola Q9h - Update

If you want to surf the internet from your Leopard mac through your Motorola Q9h data connection, this is the information you need. For starters, this guide assumes that you are using the GSM version (not the q9m in the US), and that your data connection is properly setup on your phone, i.e, when you press the "Globe" buytton on your Q9h, you can open opera and surf the internet. Here is the procedure to tether your Motorola Q9h to your Mac running Leopard step by step:

a. Enable Internet Connection Sharing on your Q9h, which will automatically enable bluetooth too - and make sure that the bluetooth PAN option (and not USB) is selected in the internet connection sharing window of the Q9h. Also, in the same window, the right name for your data connection must be given. After verifying these, click "connect". The q9h will go online using either gprs, edge, 3G or HSDPA depending on the available signal. It will then show "waiting for network". This means that it is waiting for another device (your mac) to connect to it.

b. On your mac, enable bluetooth and go to "set up bluetooth device", then select "mobile phone". Follow the next steps to pair your Q9h to the Mac. When you reach the section "connect to the internet using your phone's data connection" and "add network port", select all these. On the next window, just go with the defaults, as they wont matter.

c. Once done, click on the bluetooth icon, go to the name of your phone (or whatever name the mac sees your phone as) and click "connect to name_of_phone)

And that is it!!!

No need for any fancy modem scripts. The q9h freezes if you attempt to use dial-up-networking with any modem scripts. It is a crappy phone to use with a mac. Just use Bluetooth PAN and you will be OK.

Regarding syncing, you must use Mark/Space's "Missing Sync for Windows Mobile" which works well. It is not free unfortunately!

enjoy!