Who Needs an iPod with Salling Media Sync?

I had no idea that my stuffy Eseries business handset could also be a kick-ass music player, but thanks to Salling Software’s new Media Sync, it is!

Media Sync's Drop-down Menu

Install Media Sync on your Mac (it’s also available for Windows) and you’ll find a little icon in your title bar for it — this is important, because the app doesn’t show up on the OS X dock when active for some reason…

Media Sync's Main Interface

But once you launch Media Player things get better real quick — as you can see above, each and every one of my iTunes playlists is available to be copied over to my E71. My previous issue with non-protected iTunes Plus tracks on Nokia handsets has magically disappeared; I’m not sure if it’s Media Sync or the improved music player on my phone that’s responsible for that, but no complaints here either way!

In fact, the one audio file type that Media Sync can’t handle is the protected AAC files for sale on the iTunes Music Store, so I made a Smart Playlist containing my top-rated music without DRM. DRM sucks.

Nokia Music Player

And here’s a random track (honest!) playing on my E71. I should note that album artwork is also copied over where available.

Media Sync comes in two flavours: a free download which can be upgraded anytime to a full version with “smart copying” — meaning that your entire music library doesn’t have to be wiped and replaced on your handset every time you connect it.

Given the relatively slow speeds of today’s microSD cards I’ll definitely ante up for the full version of Media Sync, but I’m going to have to get myself a stereo Bluetooth headset first. What’s that? Your iPod doesn’t support stereo Bluetooth? Well, boo-hoo for you…

Getting Started with Eseries

Congrats to fellow Mood Swing member Kevin Hilditch for scoring his very first S60 handset, an unlocked and gently-used E61 courtesy of his missus.

He’s been asking me about apps and such, and since there are undoubtedly other Eseries newbies out there I’d thought I’d present a beginners guide here for all to enjoy!

Note that while some of the stuff I talk about here pertains to the E61 specifically, most of it can be applied to any Eseries (and indeed any S60) handset…

So then, one of the best things about the Eseries line of enterprise-minded handsets is that they come with what’s widely-considered the best battery that Nokia makes — the mighty BP-4L, which will literally go on for days before it needs to be recharged.

Still, the first thing I’d recommend for any new E61 user is to switch their 3G-enabled phone to GSM-only mode, since the 2100 MHz 3G bands in this particular device isn’t compatible with North American carriers:

GSM Mode

The path to get to this setting is (I think) “Menu > Settings > Network > Network Mode”. Turning off UMTS (3G) will prevent your handset from looking for a 3G signal where there is no GSM service — like underground on the TTC, for example — and make that battery last even longer!

Since Kevin’s lucky enough to have the E61 and not the blasphemous E62 with the WiFi stripped out he doesn’t really need a data plan from his carrier. But without one he’ll be charged 5¢ per kilobyte for using Google Maps — therefore I’d recommend Nokia’s own mapping app instead, if for no other reason than the ability to pre-load local map info onto his handset.

It should be noted here that Kevin, like myself, uses a Mac for his desktop computer; fortunately for both of us, Nokia has just today released a Map Loader for OS X!

To connect to Skype I would recommend the excellent fring, and cross my fingers that it’ll work on Kevin’s E61 (I was never actually able to make a Skype call with fring on my E61i). Failing that, the next best thing would probably be iSkoot, which uses the caller’s local GSM network to connect to Skype — so they save on long distance charges at the very least.

As most Nokia fans know the E61 doesn’t have a camera. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t any available media options for this phone. Quite the contrary, in fact! emTube is so good that it easily trumps the iPhone’s YouTube app. The last known version is 1.0.10 and can be downloaded here. While you’re at it, Kevin (and everyone else), you might as well go ahead and sign up for a MOSH account — it’s no iPhone Apps Store but at least everything can be downloaded for free!

For music I can recommend the latest version of Mobbler, a Last.fm client for S60 handsets. Of course, to get the most out it of you also need the iTunes plug-in — You know what? I’ll just let the Last.fm folks explain it themselves.

And finally, what kind of friend would I be if I didn’t provide a link to possibly the best game for S60 mobiles EVAR?!1! And no, it’s not Snake…

Nokia E71: The Camera Revealed

Unimpressed

You’re looking at the very first photo snapped with the Nokia E71 that WOM World loaned me. Yeah, I’m not too impressed either…

Despite the obvious improvement over my E61i (3.2-megapixel auto-focus with LED flash vs. 2.0-megapixel fixed-focus without), the E71’s camera has definitely got some issues.

It’s entirely possible to coax some good results from it under the right conditions — it seems to work best with lots of available light in “auto mode”, where the LED sometimes fires as a fill-flash. This photo of a recent Sunday Brunch was taken at a window-side table in one of my favourite neighbourhood restaurants. And it turned out pretty well, I think.

Try to challenge the camera, though, and you’ll be quickly disappointed. That first photo at the top of this post (the one with the reluctant feline subject) shows some definite issues with white balance in a room lit by a halogen lamp. And this “night mode” portrait of Toronto’s Old City Hall has way too much noise — though to be fair the night mode setting on my E61i isn’t much better.

I myself would be perfectly happy with a better lens capturing to a more sensitive 2-megapixel chip. I’ve yet to print anything bigger than 4 x 6 inches, and even high-end camera phones have noise issues when you blow them up to full resolution. However, I think it’s safe to say that you won’t mistake an E71 photo for one shot with an NSeries camera — have a look at my E71 Flickr Set and see if you agree…

Of course, it’s not all bad news with imaging and the E71. The skinnier form factor means that it, unlike the wider E61i, can be securely gripped by Nokia’s DT-22 mini-tripod. And as far as I know, this is the first Eseries handset with Nokia’s Share Online pre-installed. So you can not only upload to Flickr (or Vox or Ovi) directly from the handset, but you can browse Flickr photos through the same app as well. For me this makes Share Online far more useful than other apps — like the popular ShoZu, for example.

Unfortunately this particular version of Share Online cannot upload to YouTube, and with good reason — just like the E61i the E71 captures video at a paltry 320 x 240 pixels, which means that it gets up-res’d to 640 x 480 for display by pretty much every video-sharing site out there.

Have a look at the video I shot on the E71 below, and note both the motion artifacts and the general softness of static images. For a graduate of a prestigious Canadian Film School this really stings, and in my mind it’s the biggest overall shortcoming of this otherwise excellent handset.

BTW, this is my first-ever attempt at an unboxing video, so you’ll hopefully forgive that I completely forgot about the included battery and botched the location of the guys who sold it to me. Import GSM is actually based out of Philadelphia and shipped me my white E71-2 (with North American 3G) super-quick!