E71Blog.com

Many of you jumped on the E71 bandwagon for cheap, curtesy of AT&T and their E71x. Unfortunately, while you got a newer version of S60 3rd Edition, you were also ‘blessed’ with a boatload of bloatware, including game demos and other junk. Through normal methods, you can’t uninstall any of this, which is a darn shame.

Luckily, there’s a way for you to actually delete it from your phone, using a bit of behind-the-scenes trickery. First , though, you’ll need to download and install X-Plore, which is free, from LonelyCatGames. This file browser allows you a bit more access than the default one already installed on your phone. Once installed, open X-Plore and press Menu, Tools, Configuration. Now, check the box next to anything that says, ‘Show’.

Now, go back to the main screen of X-Plore, where it lists your drives (should show C:, D:, E:, and Z:) Navigate to Z:/system/data/midp2/preinstall, and you’ll find a whole list of files, which should all correspond to the various bloatware apps. Here’s a handy list:

• an529-piranha-js179.jar (AT&T Navigator)
• app-prod-where-E71.jar (Where)
• BrainChallengeVol2DEMONokiaE71EN… (Brain Challenge)
• DEMOCollapseUnitedStatesNOKIAE71… (Collapse)
• mall.jar (MEdia Mall 2.0)
• MobileBanking.jar (Mobile Banking)
• MobiTVNokiaE71ATTTrialen… (MobiTV)
• MobiVJNokiaE71ATTTrialen… (MobiVJ)
• Monopoly.jar (Monopoly)
• MusicID4.0.2Nokiaxxx (MusicID/Shazam)
• mycast5demoacte71.jar (My-Cast Weather)
• remixNokiaE71x.jar (ReMix)
• wikimobile.jar (WikiMobile)
• wpt2attnoke71… (WPT Hold Em 2)
• wvim5en-USes… (Instant Messenger)
• XM-RadioNokiaE71ATTTrial… (XM Radio)
• ypcpiranha_submit.jar (Yellow Pages)

To remove an application (you’ll need to do this one-by-one), highlight the file, then press the left softkey. Navigate to File, Open By System, and it will start to install the application. When it asks where you want to install it, choose your memory card, and let it install there. Once you’ve done that with all of the apps that you want to remove, simply remove the memory card from your phone and format it using your computer.

Now you can enjoy your E71x without having to hassle with all of AT&T’s bloatware! You should also notice a small increase in internal storage, as well.

[via NokiaExperts]

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One of the concerns that I hear repeated often is, ‘What happens if someone finds or steals my phone?’ The concern is definitely valid – we store all sorts of confidential information on our phones, and if someone were to gain access to our phones, they would likely have more information than we would like them to have. No worries, though, the Nokia E71 provides a built-in feature to remotely lock down the device, so that prying eyes cannot access your contacts, calendar, or anything else.

To set this up, you’ll need to go into the Tools folder, and open Settings. From there, open ‘General’, and scroll down to ‘Security’. Click once more to open ‘Phone and SIM card’, and scroll down to ‘Allow remote lock’. When you change this to ‘Yes’, you’ll be asked a series of questions:

First, you’ll need to specify a secret message. This is a word that you will send to your phone, from another phone, in the case that it’s stolen. This should be something unique, that you will remember. You will then be asked to re-enter the same word, for verification.

After that, you will be asked to enter the 5-digit security code (which is 12345). You can change this to a new, custom security code by choosing ‘Lock Code’ above the ‘Allow Remote Lock’ field. This can be any number, and will be the only way to unlock the device, so don’t pick anything obvious, such as 12345 or something. If the thief can guess it, then it was useless.

Once setup is complete, you are secure. In the case that your phone is lost or stolen, simply send an SMS from any phone to your phone, with your secret word in it to lock the phone down. Whoever has your phone will be unable to do *anything* on the phone until they have correctly entered the 5 digit security code to unlock the phone. This code will also be required if they power the phone off, or change the SIM card – there’s no way for them to get around it, so your information is safe.

Of course, this does not help you get your phone back, but at least your private information will be safe.

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One of my favorite internet radio stations ever is from SomaFM, and it’s called Secret Agent. If you haven’t listened to it, you totally should – it’s great for vegging out after a long day of blogging. Previously, it was possible to stream Secret Agent through the Nokia Internet Radio application, but you had to painstakingly enter the URL in manually, which sucked, majorly.

However, now, you can simply search the Nokia Internet Radio directory for Soma.FM and get quick access to all of their awesome stations, including Secret Agent, Groove Salad, and others. When you open Internet Radio, simply go to “Search”, then type in ’somafm’ to get the full listing. You can then press Options – Add to Favorites to allow quick access next time you want to listen to the station. I’ve added all of the SomaFM stations to my Favorites, so that they’re always right there.

If you enjoy SomaFM, you can also donate to them here.

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Since letting you know about the black housing on CNN.cn, I’ve had a number of you guys wondering how in the world to disassemble your phone so that you can change the housing. While I haven’t been able to find a video demo, I did come across this great walkthrough thread on HowardForums, with a few photographs to help you figure it out.

Thankfully, the E71 is basically held together with 4 screws, reportedly the Torx 5.5 size. I was able to pick up a small screwdriver set for $20 at Home Depot that has a number of different sizes in there. Once you remove these screws, you’ll need to GENTLY pry the front fascia off the phone. To do this, use a plastic credit card or other thin plastic object – don’t use anything metal.

If any of you try this, please put together a video, so that we can have a proper walkthrough.

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So, the more recent E71 firmwares made hacking a chore, which is frustrating. However, there is another option – just get a certificate for your phone. Personally, I think this option is a bit better, since it maintains the security that Symbian Signed was designed to offer, but eliminates the headache, since you get to control what is installed. However, you’ll need to request a certificate for your specific phone’s IMEI. Here’s how:

First up, you need to create an account at OPDA.cn, which you can do here. The Nokia Blog put together this easy-t0-read screenshot to help you figure out what all the Chinese means:

After that, click here to request your certificate. In the first box, you enter your IMEI. You can find this by pressing *#06# on your phone. The second box needs to be a random 11-digit number that starts with 13, 15, or 18. Try 18649825783. Click the button at the end, and then you need to wait for them to generate your certificate. This can take anywhere from 10 to 24 hours. You can check on this page here. When both the .cer and the .key are available, download them both to your computer.

You now need to get SignSis, which is an application that makes it really easy to sign your applications. Simply enter your IMEI in the first field, and locate the .cer and .key files in the next fields. The Key number can remain 012345. There are a few user settings, and then you simply specify the unsigned application on your computer and click “Sign Sis!” It’s just that easy.

You can use this to sign MagicKey for your E71, which I covered previously. I’ll also be covering a few more unsigned applications, now that we have an easy and firmware-proof way to get them installed.

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The Nokia E71 uses a brand-new email setup wizard to connect to a number of different web-based email services, such as Yahoo!, Gmail, and even Hotmail. Unfortunately, up until recently Hotmail did not offer POP3 service, and thus, this wizard on your Nokia E71 thinks it’s still not possible. The result is a mostly-useless link in your browser to the mobile Hotmail site – not exactly what you were hoping for. Luckily, though, there’s a way to get around this, and use Hotmail with the default email client on your Nokia E71.

The trick was posted by Dotsisx at Symbian-Guru, and involves simply tricking the wizard into letting you enter your own settings. First, open the New Email wizard by going to your messaging inbox and choosing the New Mailbox option. When the wizard asks you to enter your email address, you need to put in a fake email, something like bob@bob.com or other. You can enter your real password, though, if you like. After this, the email wizard will try to setup the account. Once it’s done, simply go to Options – Settings – Advanced Settings. You’ll see settings for both incoming and outgoing connections. You’ll need to open both of these, change the email to your actual email address, and make sure your password is correct.

Here, you can also set a default access point, as well as any other user settings you may want, such as a signature or automatic retrieval. Note that you’ll need to input the following settings, too:

# Incoming Mail Server: pop3.live.com
# Security: SSL/TLS
# Outgoing Mail Server: smtp.live.com
# Security: SSL/TLS
# Port Number: 25

That’s it! You can now check your Hotmail POP3 email with the email client in your Nokia E71.

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So, as you’ve likely seen, the Nokia E71 NAM has now received this latest firmware update, v200.21.118. As you’ve also likely gathered, it’s only for the 0559585 product code, while the 0569371 product code is languishing behind with the older v100 firmware. Ricky Cadden, the Symbian Guru, quotes his contact as saying that the 0569371 is a country variant, and the 0559585 is the vanilla product code, hence the difference.

If you don’t really care what product code you have, but are frustrated with being stuck with old firmware, worry not – here’s a quick walkthrough on how you can easily change the product code on your Nokia E71 to the 0559585 one, to get timely firmware updates.

Please note that ‘officially’, changing the product code voids your warranty. However, with this tutorial you could easily change it back, should you need any warranty work done, so don’t sweat it. Also, you’ll probably want to start out with a freshly hard reset E71. You can do this by pressing *#7370 from the standby screen. Please note that hard resetting your phone will erase EVERYTHING you have stored on it (your memory card, however, is safe). You should backup any important information before proceeding. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE IF YOU BRICK YOUR PHONE.

Now, you’ll want to download NSS, also known as Nemesis Service Suite. You can get this here: Nemesis Service Suite. You’ll want to install that on your computer before continuing. It should work just fine in either Windows XP or Vista, but I wouldn’t suggest using NSS in a virtual machine, such as VMware or similar.

Here’s the steps:

1. Connect your E71 to your computer with the USB cord, and put it in ‘PC Suite’ mode.

2. Launch NSS, and click on the little magnifying glass in the top right corner of the window. This should find your phone and display some information about it.

3. Now, click on the ‘Phone Info’ button, and wait a minute for it to read your phone’s information. You should now click on the ‘Read’ button to have the various fields filled in with the appropriate information.

4. Now, click on the Product Code entry field, and change it to 0559585, check the ‘Enable’ box, and then click on ‘Write’.

Your product code has now been changed. You can disconnect your phone, and then reconnect and follow steps 1-3 again to verify, if you wish. Now, you can run the regular Nokia Software Update to get the latest firmware for your phone.

You don’t have to worry about forgetting what the original Product Code was for your phone, because it’s printed on the label underneath the battery. Should you need warranty work done, simply follow these steps, but use the old product code instead.

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Vaibhav Sharma, over at The Symbian Blog, has taken advantage of the new year to put together an exhaustive list of tips and tricks for getting the most out of your Nokia E71. Here’s the big ones:

• STICKY FUNCTION KEY – A quick double press on the bottom left ‘function’ key locks it. This is helpful in situations when you need to press a combination of keys or in applications like Gmail which can be controlled via the keypad.

• 1-800-WHATEVER – To dial 1-800-WHATEVER: type 1800, hit Fn, then Shift twice, type WHATEVER, and press the Call/Green key to dial. (The idea is to type in the alphabet mode in CAPITAL letters ONLY). The alphabets will automatically be converted to numbers.

• ONE TOUCH MUTE – You can simply mute a call by press the button between the volume keys present on the right hand side of the phone. Press it again to cancel the mute.

• REMAP THE KEYS – There are times when you feel certain keys on the E71 are being wasted when they could have come in very handy. For example, the volume keys would work wonderfully with the web browser to scroll pages or in your music player and the mute key could work as select. Make that happen.

• TIME & DATE – When the phone is in the locked state and the screen is blank, hit the Navi Button to display the time and date in a large font.

• TEXT MESSAGES – When in the standby mode, hold down left soft key to read out new text messages.

• ASSIGN SHORTCUTS -  If you have a lot of applications installed on your E71, you might want to assign additional shortcuts to different applications by definying a set of keypresses with an application called Cute Keys. Learn how here.

In addition to this, Vaibhav has written out the various keypad shortcuts for different applications. Head on over to The Symbian Blog to get the full list.

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SmartConnect

In the Download! application on your Nokia E71, you’ll likely find an application called SmartConnect. This is a brilliant application that Nokia has hooked us E71 owners up with for free that makes it easy to setup Access Point priority groups! However, the installation is a bit tricky, so here’s what to do:

First up, you want to go into your Application Manager, options, settings, and make sure the ‘online certificate checking’ is set to ‘on’. This will allow the SmartConnect application to check to verify that you have an E71 and that you should get the app for free. This is a very important step – if you don’t allow it to check for a license, the application will install, but whenever you try to use the access point, you’ll get a nasty message that it’s not licensed.

Now, after the installation, you’ll be prompted to reboot your phone, and then you can setup your access points. This is especially cool if you have multiple WiFi networks (work, home, etc), as you can give them a priority, followed by your cellular data connection, if they’re not found. You can name your new SmartConnect access point anything you’d like, and it will show up as an access point to all of your applications.

In real life, when you go to use that access point, say in the browser, the SmartConnect application will try the different access points that you have configured, in the order you’ve placed them. That means, it can try all of your WiFi hotspots before automatically falling back to cellular, without needing you to prompt it repeatedly! Brilliant.

NOTE: If you installed the application and are still having the ‘No License’ issue, you need to uninstall the application, and then open your File Browser. Navigate to the drive that you installed the application to (either phone memory or your memory card) and find the ‘Other’ folder. Inside, there should be a ‘Birdstep’ folder – delete that. Now, reboot your phone, go into the Download! app, click options – refresh content. Make sure that you’ve enabled online certificate checking, and then you can reinstall SmartConnect from your Download! app, and it should automatically ask if it can get online to verify your certificate.

Enjoy the new simplified access point feature, now!

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One of the things that I wish about my E71 is that the volume keys could pull double-duty to scroll in the web browser. It would make browsing long webpages so much better! Well, I’m glad to let you know that, since we’ve learned how to install unsigned applications, this is now possible! Indeed, using an application called MagicKey, you can remap any button on your E71 (and other S60 phones) to behave like another button. Note that MagicKey can only duplicate buttons, it cannot remap a button to a new application.

You can download MagicKey here, and unfortunately, it doesn’t work with OpenSigned, so you’ll need to have performed the hack (detailed here) to be able to install it.

Once you’ve installed MagicKey, simply open the application. The first screen that you’re presented with is the App List. From this screen, you can either add a keymap to the ‘All Apps’ list, or you can specify a certain application, such as the web browser. To add, press Options, Add, and then scroll through the list to find the Web application. You should now see this screen:

Now, press ‘right’ on the d-pad to swap to the KeyMap List tab. This is where you’ll create a set of keymaps, and assign that set to the Web app that you just setup. Again, press Options, Add to create a new one, and you can name it whatever you like – I used ‘Webkeymap’. Now, click on your newly created Keymap, and then click ‘Add Key Pair’.

This is where it gets tricky, so pay attention. You should see a box asking for the original key. First, you need to press the ‘Send’ key, which will add ‘999′ to the box. Now you can click on whatever button you want to remap. To remap the volume keys to scroll, you need to press the Send key, followed by the volume up key. You should see ‘162′ in the box. Press OK, and you get another box asking for the Maps To: key. Again, press the Send button first, followed, this time, by the d-pad ‘up’, to get ‘16′ in the box. Now press OK.

Repeat the process again, this time with the volume down and d-pad down keys. If you really want to have the best experience, I recommend also mapping the voice memo button to the center d-pad, so you can scroll and click, all from the side there. To do this, follow the steps above, but press the voice memo/center d-pad buttons.

Once you’ve created your KeyMaps, your screen should look like the one below. If it doesn’t, erase them and do it again, making sure that you’ve got them in the right order. Now, click ‘back’ (right softkey) to get back to the first screen. With the ‘Web’ app highlighted, press options, and go to ‘Choose Map’. Pick your newly created ‘Webkeymap’. Now, again, click ‘Options, but this time, choose ‘Start on boot.’ This way, everytime you turn your phone on, the keymap will be reloaded.

That’s it! Now, you can easily open your web browser and scroll up and down using the volume keys on the side, and click on links using the voice memo key! How much better is that, and what’s more, your volume keys revert to their original function when you exit the web! It’s brilliant!

What other keymap combinations can you come up with?

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