Nokia N97 Fanatics » N97 Freeware

New Beta: Get Missed Calls, Messages, & Calendar Entries In One Homescreen Widget With Nokia Notifications

Mike Macias — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 19:41:09 +0000

This is something I’ve been wanting for awhile on my Nokia N97. A less intrusive notification when a new call, sms, or voicemail comes through and I miss it. As you know right now we get a popup on the homescreen that blocks out part of our screen real estate. Most of the time I ignore missed calls until later so it is irritating to have to push “exit” to get rid of that notification and see the rest of my screen. Nokia Beta Labs just released a widget for us to test out that keeps all this information in one place on our homescreen without intruding or blocking other widgets. They are calling it Nokia Notifications.

Check out their description:

Today we are releasing a new beta for a short trial. Nokia Notifications gathers missed calls, voicemails, messages, and missed calendar alarms and presents them in one list for you to manage at your convenience. Adding the widget to your homescreen removes the need to acknowledge individual notifications that may otherwise get in the way of doing other actions on your device.

Sounds cool, right? So far I’m loving it because it gives as much information as possible. If I have only 1 new SMS then it shows a clip of the text along with the contact image. If I have multiple notifications like missed calls, SMS, and voicemails, those are listed on the 3 available lines. If there are too many to list then you can tap the widget and get a popup showing all your notifications. Here you can also clear them out or filter by type. Very smart! Check out my screenshots:

Download: Click here to visit the Nokia Notifications page and try it out yourself!

Ovi Maps beta 3.04 graduates, ready for Nokia N97 primetime!

Mike Macias — Fri, 21 May 2010 02:03:25 +0000

I’ve been telling you guys to check out Ovi Maps beta for awhile now. Some of you were a little hesitant to try a beta application, but now you have no choice. It’s time to upgrade to the latest official version of Ovi Maps, available right now at Nokia.com/Maps or in your “Software Updater” application on your N97.

What’s New

If you haven’t tried any versions of the beta then you’ll probably notice some of these updates more than those who have been keeping up with every beta version like myself. Nokia says it’s “faster, better, more personal”. Check out the updates:

Faster

Every day, over 80% of you that are using Ovi Maps in online mode find your position on the map. Now we made it faster and more accurate: our engineers optimized the process of acquiring the location and added Wi-Fi positioning in the mix. Now you can locate yourself faster and more precisely, no matter if you are in a mall, on the street surrounded by skyscrapers or driving on an open highway. Wi-Fi positioning is a work in progress and it will get better and better as more people use it.

The second major change done under the hood was related to graphics performance when zooming in and out of maps, panning and tilting.

Better

Every day, more than 50% of you using Ovi Maps in online mode search for places and addresses. And during these months we worked hard to make sure that we increase the number of places that can be found. And we are happy to tell you that today we have more points of interest that you can find across the globe, consolidated from NAVTEQ, Lonely Planet, Michelin, local Yellow pages companies like Telegate in Germany, Cityvox in France, Yell in Spain and Yellow Pages in Turkey.

And what I really love… Own Voice:

With Own Voice, you can now make Drive navigation your own. Record your personal voice commands or ask a friend, your kids or your better half. And if you want, you can share it with the world. Your voice can help millions of people find their way. Isn’t this cool? Your voice on millions and millions of Nokia devices.

You can also discover and use what others have created. Since launching 2 weeks ago, over 4000 voice packs were shared by you with the world via Own Voice.

Navigation has never been this personal or fun for that matter. Just head to ovi.com/ownvoice to get started.

Complete? I’d say so!

Free driving directions, custom voices, better POI search, offline maps, social media location sharing, weather, movie times, events, etc. etc. I would say Ovi Maps is finally a complete package.

Download Ovi Maps

Go to nokia.com/maps to get the new Ovi Maps release. You can also find it in the “Software Updater” application on your N97.

Ovi Maps (beta) Updated, Quietly Adds “Surfer Dude” And US English Street Names Guidance Voices

Mike Macias — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:03:24 +0000

If you’re an Ovi Maps user and enjoy trying out applications before they are ready for the big time then Nokia Beta Labs is a place you’ll want to check out. They just released a small update for Ovi Maps, version 3.04 to be exact. Here is what has been updated:

- Improved positioning speed and accuracy
- Map zooming with faster speed
- Improved search for cities with zoom out to city level

~~I found an easter egg when setting up my voice navigation!~~ Here is something I missed in a version released a few weeks ago, I didn’t see this mentioned anywhere: New voice guidance files for US English users. We now have “surfer dude“, which I’m curious to try out and US English with street names. Previously they only had UK English with street names. Not sure if other voices have been added since I only look at the English files, but if you find something else new let us know!

Visit Nokia Beta Labs to learn more about Ovi Maps Beta and try it for yourself.

Free N97 Application: Egg Timer Touch Lets You Countdown The Minutes

Mike Macias — Tue, 06 Apr 2010 18:46:51 +0000

Looking for a countdown timer application for your Nokia N97 smartphone? It still baffles me that one doesn’t come preinstalled on Symbian/Nokia phones, but that’s what 3rd party apps are for, right?

Suprisingly there aren’t many options for a simple countdown timer, especially if you need one that’s free. Just the other day however I came across Egg Timer Touch by Offscreen. It’s a very simple app, but extremely handy. I wasn’t able to capture a screenshot of it because somehow the application disables a screenshot from happening.

Warning: If you try to minimize Egg Timer Touch with the red “end” button it will close and you’ll lose your countdown time. Just double-tap the menu key to minimize it.

Click here to download Egg Timer Touch at the Ovi Store or search for “egg timer touch” from your N97’s Ovi Store application.

Control Your Music with Playlist DJ by Syntonetic

MajorDouble7 — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:28:01 +0000

Hello Fanatics!

MajorDouble7 here with a look into the Playlist DJ app currently available for free at the Ovi Store, also known as ‘Moodagent’ on other devices.

I love the idea behind this application. It essentially takes your entire music collection and profiles each track individually so that you can listen to specific playlists depending on your mood.

Here’s a quick explanation on the Moodagent software from their website:

What is profiling?
A: When Playlist DJ (or its Moodagent software) goes to work, massive signal processing analysis creates extremely granular ordered information sets on music tracks that can then be clustered or compared in any number of ways (e.g. by mood, genre, instrument, beat, sound, decade, etc). So every track it encounters has a profile, and because of that you are able to create playlists based on a given mood or other variable. If Playlist DJ does not know your music, it will deep profile the track and get to know it.

What, then, is deep profiling?
Deep profiling is profiling of music that is not recognized by Playlist DJ. If Playlist DJ finds unknown music, it will look deeply at the music file and get to know it. At present we can only deep profile files in the preferred Nokia format, MP3 (not WMA, AAC, M4A or other music files due to the Nokia phone operating system).
What makes deep profiling so smart is that after you have profiled an unknown track, the profile for this track will be available not only to you, but all users of Playlist DJ.

The great news is that Playlist DJ seems to work pretty well. I had several albums worth of music that needed to be deep profiled. When the profiling was complete they all fit right into the category/genre/mood that they belonged.

Some Positives:

Playlist DJ is great for exactly what it claims to do: creating playlists that coincide with your mood or preference. There are four sliders that control what kind of playlist you want to generate. I’ve got a couple of screensnaps to give you an idea:

And here’s another screensnap of what those icons mean:

Just a couple more ’snaps to show you how accurate the sliders are (relying on the fact that you are familiar with the music shown of course):

So Playlist DJ works as advertised. It’s great for those occasions when you want to keep the general ‘feel’ of the music in a particular category.

A few more bonuses:

If you are listening to a track in the native Music Player, you can open Playlist DJ and a new playlist will be generated based on the song currently being played.
You can save the generated playlists; they get saved right alongside your other playlists in the native Music Player.
You can search for songs to create a playlist around that particular song; even better, you can search band names or album names, something that cannot be done from the ‘All Songs’ category in the native player.
Although there is no ‘hide’ button, pressing the red ‘end’ button will hide Playlist DJ and your music will play in the background.

Some Negatives:

Although I love the concept of this app, and have used it several times, I have a wish list for the future:

All playlists generated with this app are only 25 songs deep, no more. This means that you have to refresh the list by selecting the option to create ‘Playlist of similar songs’ when you reach the 25th song. Keep in mind that there is no memory of played songs, so if you do create a new playlist to keep the mood going, you may end up with some repeated tracks.
I wish there was more integration with the native player. Actually, I wish that Symbian had something like this app in its native player. When using Playlist DJ, your track/album info doesn’t show up on the homescreen widget. And although Playlist DJ will automatically create a playlist from any song that’s playing in the native player, I have to manually pause the native player and start the song over in Playlist DJ to enjoy a string of similar songs.
I mentioned that the red ‘end’ button will hide Playlist DJ and play the music in the background; obviously that sort of a thing is a must. What I believe also to be a must is the ability to browse your music while a song is playing. Currently, while listening to a song via the DJ app you cannot return to the playlist screen and choose a different mood/tempo to start next after the current song is over. You have to ‘exit’ the player screen to see the playlist slider buttons, which stops the music. Never stop the music!!

The Verdict:

So you can’t really use Playlist DJ for say, a party or something because you’ll soon play through the 25-track playlist it makes. But it’s a great app for the drive home. I’d like to see some of the improvements I mentioned above, but afterall, this is a free app, and I’m sure it works quite perfectly for most people.

Download Playlist DJ from the Ovi Store here.

Until next time, Fanatics,

MD 7

Ovi Maps Voice Navigation Now Free For N97, New Version Available

Mike Macias — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:15:52 +0000

The news about free Ovi Maps navigation for the N97 smartphone is somewhat old, it was announced about four weeks ago. As many of you have already noticed the writers here are a bit behind with the times the past few months. All of us have been extremely busy with things besides blogging, but we assure you that we should be back in business (hopefully) from here on out. Now -- let’s talk about the new Ovi Maps with free turn by turn voice navigation for the Nokia N97.

First off -- I love it. I’ve never enjoyed using Ovi/Nokia Maps in the past, mainly because it was useless since it did the same thing as Google Maps, just not as good. The interface was also slow and a bit clunky But now that you throw voice navigation into the mix, the dynamics are completely changed. I can punch in an address and a nice British woman will tell me how to get there. If you have one of the “fixed” N97s like mine, the GPS is spot on and locks under a minute. I’ve tested this out a lot the past few weeks so that I can give you guys an accurate review. I absolutely love how when I am coming up to a turn, I am warned hundreds of feet before and then told when to turn as I approach the intersection. This makes it nice because you won’t be trying to change lanes at the last second. If you pay attention to the directions or glance at the screen you’ll know ahead of time that the turn is coming up. I even get the speed I am going and the distance before I reach my next turning point. Amazing! If I start to go off track or decide to take a route that I think is faster, Ovi Maps will re-calculate the route to get you the proper directions from your location.

Screenshots

Because you really have to experience it to get a grasp of how cool this really is, I’ll stop the talk and just show you a handful of screenshots.

Dashboard:

Tap “Drive”, this is the screen you get:

If you set your “Home” point, it’s easy to get you home without fiddling around with your address or favorites.

During your route, swipe your finger over the screen for different views:

Weather:

Detailed Weather:

Events Nearby:

More Than Maps

As shown in the screenshots there is more to Ovi Maps than just directions. You can also get movie times under the “Events” sections, see points of interest, weather, and even share your current location on Facebook. The Facebook aspect of Ovi Maps also comes with a homescreen widget, allowing you to share your location with friends.

Preload Your Maps

Be sure to preload all the maps you need onto the mass storage drive. I technically could have put the entire United States of America on my phone, but there is no need for that. I loaded up the entire west coast and Nevada. It’s just nice to know that I can go anywhere and have Maps in my pocket, and won’t need to rely on a data connection like I would with Google Maps. Everything loads much faster when maps are preloaded. Use the Maps Loader program to install maps.

Road Trip!

Check out this cheesy, yet very informative video made by Nokia showing how useful Ovi Maps is in the car.

Nokia N97 In The Car

It really helps to have a good setup in your car to allow you to easily see your N97 and tap something on the screen without having to reach far. I recently bought an awesome car holder for the N97 on Amazon.com. It’s called the Accessory Power FlexSmart Car Mount System for SmartPhones -- Cutting Edge FM Transmitter and Charger with DC Surge Protection and Stabilized Flex-Neck. I’ll be reviewing it for you guys really soon. It’s perfect for my needs, and even charges my phone. My N97 is now my main source of music, navigation, and communication inside my car. Of course make sure to keep your eyes on the road and use caution at all times.

Download Ovi Maps

Go to this link for more details and download options. Also check the Software Updater application, you might find it there.

New Beta Version: I am currently testing out a newer version released by Nokia Beta Labs. It offers a few updates and better performance. Click here to try it yourself. Steve Litchfield from All About Symbian reviewed this new beta version. Read it here.

Have you tried out this latest version of Ovi Maps with free voice navigation? Let us know how you like it and what improvements you’d like to see in future versions.

Catch Up With Updates To The Google Maps Application: Sync Favorites, Maps & Add Layers

Mike Macias — Sat, 09 Jan 2010 04:04:59 +0000

It’s been awhile since I mentioned the Google Maps application that I use so often on my N97. Since that time it’s received some huge updates that I’ve been meaning to share with you N97 Fanatics! Almost on a daily basis I open it up to search for a gas station, local pub, bank, or a place to buy flowers. At the same time I get the phone number, directions, reviews, etc. It’s really astonishing. I even save my favorite places for later viewing and use.

I don’t only use Google Maps on my smartphone. I also use the powerful web application on my computer to find all the same places. What if you can sync those places, directions, maps, etc. between computer and N97? Well if you haven’t updated to the latest version in awhile, then you’re really missing out.

From the Google Mobile Blog:

Google Maps for mobile has long allowed you to add stars on a map to mark your favorite places. You may have noticed a few months ago that Google Maps for desktop browsers introduced the ability to star places as well. Unfortunately, there was no way to keep these starred places in sync with Google Maps on your phone. With today’s release of Google Maps for mobile 3.3 on Windows Mobile and Symbian phones, you’ll now be able to keep the starred places on your phone and on your computer completely synchronized. It’s like magic, but magic that you can use.

Awesome right? That’s not it. Check out the new “layers” feature that I mentioned in the title.

Quote from blog post:

Just as the world itself can be viewed through many lenses, the latest version of Google Maps for mobile allows you to view many layers of information on your map at the same time. Layers make it easier and more useful to find and interact with geographic content, like public transit, traffic (with incidents!), local search results, Latitude friend locations, Wikipedia and more. You can also see your own My Maps content as a layer on Google Maps for mobile. And finally, multiple layers can be combined at the same time to give you a content-rich view of what’s around you.

If you haven’t already tried out Google Maps you need to! I hardly ever fire up Ovi Maps anymore.

Visit this link for more information.

Memory Reorganizer Helps To Clear Up Space On Your C: Drive Instantly

Mike Macias — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:47:43 +0000

Is the C: drive on your N97 being crunched for space? Thankfully Nokia released a software update that quickly reorganizes some system files and throws them on the mass storage drive. The update can be found in the Software Update application along with a few other updates that you might want to install.

Once you install the update all you need to do is run it from the Apps folder. The process took about 10 seconds for me and then the app removes itself when the task is completed. I managed to recover about 6mb of space on my C: drive. That doesn’t sound like much but it helps considering I was already down to about 11mb remaining.

Some people are also reporting more free RAM. I haven’t noticed this in my case, but the smartphone does seem a little more stable.

I’m curious to see how much space is recovered from everybody else’s Nokia N97 C: drive.

OpenVideoHub: Another Mobile Streaming Media Solution For The N97?

Timi Cantisano — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 15:50:42 +0000

Update: This application is now Symbian signed and doesn’t require a certificate or hack by end users.

What’s a great media device like the N97 without a program to enjoy streaming media. With the recently released v2.0 update I have been using the N97 more and more. While the OviStore does have a couple of applications for viewing streaming media (YouTube, Xenozu, and others) it looks like those applications will easily be replaced by an all-in-one solution. While still in its infant stages I think if properly developed Open Video Hub will be one of the top streaming video clients available for S60. *Be warned to install Open Video Hub you will have to self sign this software*

What can Open Video Hub do?

It can play media from 3 top media streaming sites (MetaCafe, Youtube, DailyMotion) and download from one (MetaCafe).

Features:

While streaming applications are nothing new, Open Video Hub is unique in that it combines the most popular media streaming sites into one application. Not only can you stream content but you can also upload video to Youtube/DailyMotion and download content from MetaCafe.

Search
Upload video
New videos
Featured
Top Rated
Most viewed
Transfer Manager (used for keeping track of downloads)
Saved videos
Favorites

Picture courtesy of Open Video Hub.

Note: While the picture does display downloading capabilities from YouTube it was not present in the build I downloaded.

How does it work?

The interface is simple and works well with the N97. The initial start up screen is a bit confusing since it asks you to log in to an account. Which I tried but wasn’t successful. Once I was able to skip past that I was on my way to searching for clips on YouTube, MetaCafe, and DailyMotion. You can set a default streaming site as preference and switch between each site at will. It will automatically query the site you have transitioned to with immediate results. A nice touch is that the application supports kinetic scrolling.

Open Video Hub has two interesting adjustments that can be made to make the streaming experience a tad more enjoyable. One is the option to stream at a higher quality (which is called extended), the second is the ability to change the view from normal, wide, and zoom. While its debatable that the quality does actually increase I wasn’t able to detect it. I tried streaming a couple different HD clips from YouTube.

A few negatives:

MetaCafe would query searches but I could not get one video to play or download.
DailyMotion and Youtube worked well but did not have a download option.
Uploading would constantly crash, I never got to upload to DailyMotion or Youtube.
Accelerometer is not consistent. Initially I could never get it to work (I thought perhaps the feature was missing), than when I randomly opened the application the next time around I had full accelerometer support. I think partially the reason for this is that the N97 can change to horizontal orientation by having the screen open. I believe this causes some issues.
The application does crash frequently. Just writing the review I had the application crash on me multiple times of the course of 15 minutes.
The application opens in portrait mode regardless of orientation.
The application is currently unsigned

Final Thoughts:

While I tend not to use streaming media applications on a daily basis (videos and internet just kill the N97 while on simultaneously) its nice to have an application like Open Video Hub that has ability to pull from three separate streaming sources and the ability to upload (I couldn’t get it work, but its there). Like I mentioned earlier the application is still in its infant state and it shows great promise. I can only hope that the developers take community feedback and release future builds with these improvements and eventually have a fully signed version available.

Open Video Hub Main Site: http://www.openvideohub.com/

Open Video Hub Forums: http://openvideohub.com/forum/

Free Nokia N97 Application: Calc Touch – A Calculator Alternative

Mike Macias — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 21:52:01 +0000

Looking for an alternative to the built in calculator on the Nokia N97? I wanted something a little more finger friendly and came across Calc Touch in the Ovi Store. It’s nothing revolutionary, just a little more useable for quick calculations. For longer & more complex calculations I recommend using the built-in calculator since it shows a few more lines.

Best of all Calc Touch is a free app for your Nokia smartphone.

Click here to see this app in the Ovi Store.