A few days ago, I found out about a new firmware update for the Buffalo Linkstation Live. I was able to download it right away but I postponed updating until I was less busy. Tonight, I finally updated and, aside from a handful of changes (read the details in the release notes), the most significant difference is the BitTorrent client. Instead of the clunky (but functional) client, it is now µTorrent which just happens to be my preferred BitTorrent client. And best of all, it continues the incomplete torrents of the old client. Absolutely great!
Top S60 Applications: My Updated List
I’ve updated my top S60 applications from its previous incarnation.
- Walking Hotspot – Turns your phone into a wireless router and share your HSDPA signal (if you get one). I found it easier to use than Joikuspot
- Opera Mobile – A niftier mobile browser than even Opera Mini. It is standalone so it requires more memory and processing power. Can match any desktop browser in handling complex websites.
- Fring – reach out and talk to your friend via you can interact with friends on all your favourite social networks Skype, MSN Messenger, Google Talk, ICQ, SIP, Twitter, Yahoo!, AIM, and more!
- YouTube – Watch YouTube videos on your mobile phone. You need a fast network connection though.
- Google Maps – Turns your phone into a navigation device complete with map. It even shows your location with GPS or without (via cell site)! How cool is that?
- Nokia Messaging for Email – You can configure your email to check Ovi Mail, Yahoo Mail, GMail, HotMail, and POP, and IMAP. And you can view your email in HTML glory!
- Google Sync plus Mail for Exchange – allows you to sync your Google contacts and calendar with your phone contacts and calendar. No tasks syncing, unfortunately.
Nokia Messaging On The E51
One gripe I have with the Nokia E51’s built-in email client is that it doesn’t display HTML. Nor does the GMail mobile client. I’ve heard about the downloadable Nokia Messaging app which is already built-in to newer Nokia handsets but I’ve put off downloading it until now.
To get it, you’ll need to go to the Nokia Messaging website and create an account. You can use your GMail account to jump start account creation. Once you have an account, you provide your phone number, select your phone model, and a download link to the Nokia Messaging app for your phone is sent via SMS. Click the link, download, and install.
There are a few more things that you might have to configure:
- Go to Tools->Settings->General->E-mail key setting. Set E-mail key to Nokia Messaging email.
- Go toTools->Settings->General->Personalisation->Standby mode->Active standby plug-ins. Uncheck the Default e-mail notif. and Act. standby mailbox plug-ins.
- Set Tools->Settings->General->Personalisation->Standby mode->One-touch keys->Messaging key. Set both short press and Long press to “Default setting”
New email will now appear on the standby screen. A short press on the messaging key will get you to the Inbox and a long press take you to Compose screen. And you can view your email in HTML glory!
Cloud Computing With The Nokia E51
New hardware, especially new phones, may come and go but the cloud (they should just have called it the matrix) is definitely here to stay. The way to go then is having your data in the cloud. However, setting up and using my Nokia E51 to access the cloud wasn’t so straightforward, so I’m listing down some tips that might help.
Browser – the traditional way of accessing the Internet. The E51’s built-in browser is capable enough but if you want full access to Web 2.0, you’ll need Opera Mobile. Unfortunately, there’s no way to make it the default browser.
Mail – forget about the “e”, traditional mail is dead. I use GMail for my personal mail.You can use the E51’s built-in mail client which can be easily configured for GMail and is quite functional. But it’s sometimes it’s a bit kludgy so you might want to use the the GMail mobile client.
Contacts, Calendar, and Tasks – I try to use the Google address book as my definitive contact list and calendar. To sync the E51 with them, you need to install Nokia Mail for Exchange and set it up with Google Sync. No Tasks syncing unfortunately.
Instant Messaging – Fring allows you to connect to your contacts in Skype®, MSN Messenger®, Google Talk™, ICQ, Yahoo!™, AIM®, etc.
VOIP – Fring allows you to make SIP, Skype®, Google Talk™ calls or even its own fring VOIP service. Less charges by your telco service provider.
Social Networking – other than the browser, you can also directly access Facebook and Twitter via Fring.
Photos – todo
Music – todo
Videos – todo
Games – I have Assassin’s Creed on my E51! It’s just a 2D side-scroller though :P Looks like gaming still has some way to go before phones can go massively multiplayer online games. But you have quite a few choices of mini-games, including some online ones.
Hope this helps! Let me know if you have problems and I’ll be glad to help.
PS3 Optical Digital Audio Cable
Finally got an optical digital audio cable aka TOSLINK cable to connect the PS3 to my budget audio receiver, a Samsung HT-Z320 home theater. Supposedly this should give me 5.1 audio. I plugged in the cable and configured the PS3 sound settings->audio output settings. I selected optical digital as the connector and selected Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1, AAC, PCM 2.0 44.1KHz, and PCM 2.0 48KHz (selected by default, can’t be deselected) output formats.
But for some reason, some movies had no sound. On thing I noticed is that these movies all have AAC audio. I checked the specifications of the HT-Z320 and indeed it doesn’t mention AAC. Just DTS and Dolby Digital. Well, like I said, it’s a budget audio receiver. So I unselected AAC on the PS3 and tried playing the movies again. Voila! I now have audio!
What happened is that since AAC is not checked, the PS3 automatically converted the AAC data to PCM 2.0. And from PCM 2.0, the HT-Z320 can convert it to 5.1 audio via Pro Logic II. Not as good as true AAC 5.1 I’m sure. But certainly less expensive which is fine enough with me.