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I found a new game recently, and it happens to run great on the Nokia E71. It’s called Tankzors, and while it is a Java game, it’s incredibly cool, and really addictive. It’s pretty simply, really: you drive around (you’re a tank) and blow stuff up. You sometimes have to blow up other tanks, and other times you have to blow up walls or other obstacles. Along the way you can pick up powerups, which can give you better guns or strong shields, too.

The gameplay consists of a series of missions, each one adding something different to the mix. Since most of the game is played using only the d-pad and the left and right softkeys, it works pretty well playing on the E71. Of course, the regular number keys offer shortcuts to various actions, but overall, it’s a pretty easy game.

You can download Tankzors here for free, or you can just visit wap.tankzors.com from your phone. There’s also a map editing tool available, if you’re a bit more technical-minded and want to make your own maps.

Nokia Friend View

Earlier this week, Nokia launched a killer new service called Friend View through its Beta Labs site. Nokia Friend View consists of a desktop website and a mobile client and allows you to visualize yourself and your friends on a map, facilitating meetups quite nicely. Friend View also allows you to post status updates, which your friends can comment on, creating a mobile social location-based microblogging service that’s really fun to use!

You’ll need to have a Nokia Account, which is the same username and password you currently use for Nokia Chat, Sync on Ovi, and Files on Ovi. However, unfortunately, your buddy list from Nokia Chat is not carried over to FriendView, so you’re forced to re-find all of your contacts.You can check things out in ‘What’s Up’ view, which shows a little window with the latest status messages from you and your contacts.

Overall, I’m rather impressed with Nokia Friend View on my Nokia E71. I’ve not used the application enough to be able to comment on battery usage, but with Friend View maintaining an active data connection and using a combination of GPS and Network-based location, I can imagine you’ll notice a slight hit.

What do you think of this new service?

Most of you are probably rather disappointed with the gaming on your Nokia E71. Since it’s not supported by N-Gage, and the landscape screen orientation makes finding good java games slightly difficult, I thought you’d be rather excited to find out that Quake is now available for your Nokia E71!

That’s right, the age-old classic indeed runs on the Nokia E71, as you can see in this video below.

To install, you can follow the directions found here.

Mobbler

Mobbler has been updated, and now features the ability to both love and ban tracks, as well as the typical scrobbling and whatnot. The Symbian-Guru is a huge fan of Mobbler, and he’s converted me, as well. You will need a free Last.FM account, which you can get here.

Basically, Last.FM keeps track of what you listen to across various devices and places, and then uses that to recommend new music to you, and connect you with other people with similar music tastes. There’s also a great custom station option, which allows you to either type in an artist or a tag and get a streaming radio station customized around that artist/tag. Brilliant.

As you’re listening, you can mark a track as ‘loved’, in which Last.FM keeps it in a special station that you can access by paying a subscription (you get other benefits, too). You can also ‘ban’ a track, informing Last.FM that you dislike it, and not to play it ever again. If you simply aren’t into a track at that moment, you can just skip it, without having to mark it as banned.

The latest update to Mobbler allows you to use your phone’s volume keys to adjust the audio volume, and works great, even over EDGE.

You can download Mobbler here, and set yourself up with a Last.FM account here.

Also, if you’re into a specific station, the Nokia Internet Radio application has been updated with a special version for the E71, you can download that 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.

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.

This is a one-day 24-hour sale (sorry, I’m a few hours late to let you know) that QuickOffice is offering. QuickOffice Premier v5.0 is the latest version of the full office suite for your Nokia E71. The handset comes with the application preinstalled, but it’s only the viewer portion, and not the latest v5.0.

Typically priced around $70, QuickOffice Premier v5.0 is currently $1 today, July 22nd, only. This application allows you to view, edit, and create new Word, Excel, and PowerPoint documents, directly on your Nokia E71. This version also fully supports the new Office document files (.docx, .xlsx, and .pptx). You can create a document on your PC, transfer it to your phone, edit it, and then re-open it on your PC without losing any formatting or graphics or anything.

It’s really the best solution for someone who uses Office documents constantly. Click here to get in on the deal, while it lasts.

Thanks to the Truphone blog, I’ve confirmed that the Nokia E71 hasn’t a problem in the world allowing you to use Truphone for SIP calling around this globe. Truphone uses your phone’s WiFi or 3G data connection to place SIP calls (kinda like VOIP) at a much cheaper rate than your regular plan minutes, specifically when calling internationally. Calls to other Truphone customers are free, though.

Note that when you install Truphone, you’ll get a popup message stating ‘Application not compatible with phone,’ asking if you’d like to continue anyways. It’s reportedly safe to say ‘yes’, and rock on through the installation. The team at Truphone hopes to have an update to address this notification available soon.

You can sign up for your free Truphone account here.

Since the E71s are beginning to be available in random parts of the world, I figured now is a good time to start covering the different applications you can download to get even more usage and abilities from your new smartphone. The E71 is an S60 3rd Edition-based handset - knowing that will help you figure out what applications you can install.

The first up is one that just popped up on my radar thanks to Symbian-Guru. It’s called PhoneWallet v2.0, and there’s a great review (with screenshots) here. Basically, PhoneWallet allows you to safely store all kinds of information on your phone, password protected. There are a series of preset folders, each of which contain a group of pieces of information, such as your drivers license number in the ‘Cars’ folder.

The best part is that you can reorganize these folders, add information, and even change the various icons used in the application. It’s extremely customisable, so that you can easily store and find the exact information that you need.

There are 2 other handy features related to securing your information. The first is an autolock feature that can lock the application if you send it to the background. You can also set a timed autolock, so that the application requires you to re-enter your password after a specific period of time. The second is a backup/restore feature which enables you to keep a copy of your information stored in an encrypted file. This makes it easy to get everything recovered in the case that you lose your phone, it gets stolen, or you have to reset it for whatever reason.

Symbian-Guru has the app available in his store for $12, which is a pretty good deal, in my opinion. You can read his full-on review here.

As we continue to receive more information from the Nokia E71 launch, the events page shows this quick video which showcases the updated Calendar application, which will be built-in on the new Eseries QWERTY machine.

The new calendar view splits the screen a bit, with the month view on the left. On the right, when you select a specific day, you’ll see the day’s events and appointments in a chronological view. I think it looks very nice, but also seems to be something that Papyrus already offers.

Here’s the video:

Which do you prefer? Do you think that this new calendar will be able to replace Papyrus for power users, or will Papyrus remain on top?

[Photo courtesy of AllAboutSymbian]