my Life, my S60 and my Ubuntu

Nokia N97

2008-12-02T12:19:00.003+02:00

Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N97, the world's most advanced mobile computer, which will transform the way people connect to the Internet and to each other. Designed for the needs of Internet-savvy consumers, the Nokia N97 combines a large 3.5" touch display with a full QWERTY keyboard, providing an 'always open' window to favorite social networking sites and Internet destinations. Nokia's flagship Nseries device introduces leading technology - including multiple sensors, memory, processing power and connection speeds - for people to create a personal Internet and share their 'social location.'

The Nokia N97 introduces the concept of 'social location'. With integrated A-GPS sensors and an electronic compass, the Nokia N97 mobile computer intuitively understands where it is. The Nokia N97 makes it easy to update social networks automatically with real-time information, giving approved friends the ability to update their 'status' and share their 'social location' as well as related pictures or videos.

The home screen of the Nokia N97 mobile computer features the people, content and media that matter the most. Friends, social networks and news are available by simply touching the home screen. The 16:9 widescreen display can be fully personalized with frequently updated widgets of favorite web services and social networking sites. The Nokia N97 is also perfectly suited for browsing the web, streaming Flash videos or playing games. Both the physical QWERTY and virtual touch input ensure efficiency in blogging, chatting, posting, sending texts or emailing.

The Nokia N97 supports up to 48 GB of storage, including 32 GB of on-board memory, expandable with a 16 GB microSD card for music, media and more. This is complemented by excellent music capabilities, full support for the Nokia Music Store and continuous playback time of up to 1.5 days. The Nokia N97 also has a 5-Megapixel camera with high-quality Carl Zeiss optics, 16:9 and DVD quality video capture, and support for services like Share on Ovi for immediate sharing over HSDPA and WLAN.

The Nokia N97 is expected to begin shipping in the first half of 2009 at an estimated retail price of EUR 550 before taxes or subsidies.

Nokia Strikes with the Nokia N97

2008-12-02T12:12:00.000+02:00

I've been away for a while, but such and event can't be easily ignored

Coming up, photos and features

Intrepid Ibex it out!!

2008-11-02T21:07:00.000+02:00

The new version of Ubuntu is out! v8.10 Interpid Ibex it out. Can't wait to upgrade!

Check out the features here

A very good use for the Calendar

2008-10-21T11:59:00.001+02:00

I used to have my uni schedule on my phone as a jpg picture. Everytime I wanted to check my schedule, I popped up the gallery, opened the picture and kept zooming in till my desired slot. This usually took much time. I thought, there must be an application out there that facilitates the job.. Calendar!

I actually never use S60 Calendar. I dunno if it's because I have a very good memory or don't have much to do much in life. However I found out that with Nokia's Calendar you can enter all of your schedule data once, under the meeting template, then make it repeat weekly. What makes it easier is the stand-by screen. Suppose you have a Computer Science Lecture that you need to know its place. Just get your phone out of your pocket and look at it:

12:00, 2:00 Computer Sc. Lec, H4

Changing automatically, I love that magic part! Unfortunately I can't post any screenshots right now as my screen got fried yesterday (again!).

Change Java games Resolution

2008-10-03T09:54:00.003+02:00

The good thing about Java games is that they're run on any phone that supports java. The only annoying problem is that they don't have a dynamic resolution. For example a game that runs on Nokia N95 will run on N80 on probably half of its screen as N80 has a higher resolution. However, there is always a workaround, a pretty old that I thought to bring it up for people who didn't know:

1. Using an archiver such as WinRAR, open the jar file.

2. Once you have opened the jar, you will see a folder called 'META-INF'. Open this folder.3.

3. In the META-INF folder there will be one file called 'MANIFEST.MF'. Drag this file onto your desktop and open it in notepad.

4. Now you must know 2 things to edit the file. First, you must know the original resolution of the game. Ususally this information can be found on the author's website. Second, you must know the resolution of your screen. Then type the following two lines at the end of the text in the MANIFEST.MF file:

Nokia-MIDlet-Original-Display-Size: www,xxx
Nokia-MIDlet-Target-Display-Size: yyy,zzz

In the example above 'www,xxx' represents the original resolution of the game. 'yyy,zzz' represents the resolution of your phone's display.
In the picture example below, the original game resolution is 176x208 and the target resolution of my screen (N80) is 352x416.5.

5. Now save the changes in the MANIFEST.MF file and drag it back into the META-INF folder in your jar file to overwrite the old one.

6. That's it! Now install the jar to your phone and enjoy your full screen game... Thanks to mobile 9

OR You can do it the EASY way :P

Download Nokia Screen Resolution Changer and it'll do all the work for you ;)

Here is also a list of different screen resolutions.

The Tube is official!

2008-10-02T23:13:00.003+02:00

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (aka Tube) has been officially annouced Today, the second of October as rumored.

"As Nokia's first mass-market device with a touch screen, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic turns a 'user interface' into a 'human interface' by truly putting people first. For eample, we've introduced the Nokia Contacts Bar, which is like a digital RSS feed on your life," said Harlow. "By adding the benefits of touch screen technology to S60, the world's leading smartphone interface, Nokia is taking the familiar and giving it a human touch. We have used touch technology where it really adds value such as the Contacts Bar, Media Bar and clever shortcuts from the homescreen to menu items such as calendar, profiles and clock."

Specs:

Main display
- Size: 3.2"
- Resolution: 640 x 360 pixels (nHD)
- Up to 16 million colours
- aspect ratio 16:9
- automatic orientation sensor (Accelerometer) for display rotation
3D image engine

Dimensions: 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm

Stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and user interface control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini qwerty keyboard, handwriting recognition, full screen handwriting for Chinese language)
Dedicated Media Bar touch key for access to music, gallery, share on-line, Video Centre and web browser
Physical keys for application launch key (menu key), send & end, power, camera, lock, volume up & down

Micro-USB connector, USB 2.0 High Speed
3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
MicroSD card slot, small DC jack, Micro USB cable interface to PC (CA-101), TV out interface (CA-75U)
Bluetooth version 2.0 supports A2DP & AVRCP

BL-5J 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery
Talk time (maximum):
- GSM 8.8 h
- WCDMA 5 h
Standby time (maximum):
- GSM 406.2 h
- WCDMA 400 h
Browsing time with packet data (maximum): 3.4 h
Video playback time (maximum): 5.2 h, Video playback time (maximum, nHD/Mpeg4) 3.4 h, VGA video playback using TV-Out with Stereo BT Headset 3.8 h

Video recording time (maximum): 3.6 h
Video call time (maximum): 3 h
Music playback time (maximum): Up to 35 h
Gaming time (maximum): 5.6 h

MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 16 GB
81 MB internal memory
8GB microSD memory card in-box, expandable up to 16GB

3.2 megapixel camera (2048 x 1536 pixels)
Carl Zeiss optics
3x digital zoom
Autofocus
Dual LED flash

The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available worldwide beginning in the fourth quarter of 2008 for an estimated retail price of 279 EUR before taxes and subsidies. The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic featuring Comes With Music will be available early next year.

Waiting for the real Flagship in 2009 <:o)

Where did your Nokia come from?

2008-09-26T20:48:00.012+02:00

I found this interesting post on myE65 Blog. It says, where did your Nokia come from? Using your phone's IMEI you can determine where it has been assembled. Based on that, is your phone's quality. For example, if your phone crashes continuously, got cracks on it or so, then it's most probably manafuctured in a bad quality factory.

EDIT: The info below is not real, there are actually no factories in Emirates nor Azerbaijan. But you can try this thing just for fun :) Like if there were factories in those places and those 2 numbers in IMEI resembled them, where would your Nokia come from?

Dial *#06# to display your IMEI then,

IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 2 or 2 , 0 this means your cell phone was assembled in Emirates which is very Bad quality
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 8 or 8 , 0 this means your cell phone was manufactured in Germany which is fair quality
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 1 or 1 , 0 this means your cell phone was manufactured in Finland which is very Good
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 0 , 0 this means your cell phone was manufactured in original factory which is the best Mobile Quality
IF the Seventh & Eighth digits are 1 , 3 this means your cell phone was assembled in Azerbaijan which is very Bad quality and also dangerous for your health

I was lucky my phone was manufactured in original factory :) So, What about you? Where did your Nokia come from?

MOHAA on Wine

2008-09-26T17:24:00.002+02:00

Mohaa on Wine is working geat! Didn't know Wine is that powerful. I faced a problem with Gamespy that connection to game server always ends with connection timed out, but that can be resolved by connecting from inside the game not from game spy software itself.

My tendancy to totally remove windows from my computer is increasing day by day :)

Nokia 5800 Leaked photo

2008-09-25T05:30:00.000+02:00

And here are the specs:

Quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900), UMTS 2100, GSM/Edge, HSDPA connectivity
Symbian S60 Taco 5 OS
3.2″ 640×360px, 16M color touchscreen display
3.2mpx autofocus camera with dual LED flash and 30 FPS VGA recording
Built-in A-GPS and Wi-Fi
USB 2.0 and Bluetooth 2.0
3.5mm headphone jack, TV-Out port
150MB of User memory
microSDHC memory card slot (up to 16GB, 8GB memory card in a box)
Dimensions: 111×52x15.5mm
Weight: 109 gr

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (aka Tube) is rumored to be released on the second of October.

T9 Nav :: another must have app!

2008-09-24T15:36:00.001+02:00

T9 Nav is a mobile search application that lets you find anything on your phone by just typing in the first few letters of whatever you’re looking for.

7	3	2	5	=	Real Player
r	e	a	l	=	Real Player
2	6	9		=	Amy Winehouse / download
a	m	y		=	Amy Winehouse / download

T9 Nav starts working right from the home screen of your phone. As soon as you press a number, it starts looking for anything on your device that matches the numbers or the letters on that key.
So if you press “2” it finds any contacts, calendar items, ringtones, applications, bookmarked websites or anything else beginning with 2, a, b or c.
As you press more keys it continues to refine the results. When you see what you want in the list, just click on it and it will take you there.

You can find things by multiple names.
For instance:

T9 Nav will take you to the clock setting on your phone whether you type in “time”, “clock” or “alarm”.
You can find a contact by typing the first name “John”, the last name “Smith” or the phone number.
You can find music by a particular artist by typing in the first name, i.e., “Alicia”, the last name, i.e., “Keys”, or the name of an album or a song by that artist.

This app is just awesome!! Get the most out of it before it expires at the end of October..

Advice

2008-09-23T08:56:00.002+02:00

Never let a day pass when you've fought with a friend and have not had things sorted out yet. Even if you think they're wrong, someone has to take the initiative, and it might as well be you..

MOSH, OVI country ban?!!

2008-09-22T17:52:00.001+02:00

Why the hell did Nokia block MOSH for Egypt? Can anyone explain this?! First it's Ovi then MOSH. At least OVI from the start was not available to Egypt, why did they suddenly block MOSH?!

About N78's FM Transmitter ban

2008-09-22T12:41:00.001+02:00

As I said before, there are some stupid laws in some countries such as GPS banning and now FM transmission ban. France, Greece, Hong kong, India, Ireland and Italy all ban FM transmitters, so inorder to get the N78 inside there, they had to leave the transmitters outside. However, the guys over their are lucky because this actually turned out to be just a software modification, but the hardware is still their. So by a little work around you can get your Transimtter up!

Google for any allowed country product code then fire up NSS, change your code, do a software update via NSU and you're there ;)
However, the phone still has GPS and is not entering Egypt! great :S

[via SF]

This is the best Internet provider in Egypt

2008-09-20T23:15:00.002+02:00

When it comes to Internet, you've got to choose carefully your provider. This is what I did two years ago when I signed up for the most reliable Broadband provider in Egypt; Link Dsl.. or is it? At first they make feel how good life is. They simply take care of everything from the installation on the phone line till a visit by a technical worker to configure your router and computers. Everything should be setup and functioning in just 1 week, but this wasn't the case for me.

Two months! I waited two months till I got my connection working. Every couple of days calling customer support to hear the same words, "there are no free slots, and we are upgrading our system to accept new customers". For 2 freakin months I've been hearing the same words! During that period I received this SMS:

Dear client apologies on the delay of your DSL installation & so you're granted Free connection time=our delay yet promising the DSL activation within 2 weeks

Two weeks huh? Then why the lady on the phone always said within 2 days. However, it also had not been activated after 2 weeks, but rather, after more than a month! Let's leave this period of frustration and jump to the "after activation part".

So, DSL got activated, I plugged in my router, sync led started to flash then... nothing. I grabbed my phone dialed customer service to find out that they had a problem with 3Com routers! WTF?! So I was to either rent an extra router or enjoy my free period of a DSL I can't connect to. Brilliant! Of course I wouldn't let this happen so I rent the extra router. I setup everything, and at last I got my DSL working, until exactly four months had passed.

I got shocked by a very high bill I received that month, so I called my "FRIENDS" at customer support to find out that they're trying to charge me for the 59 days free period they granted me. After a lot of arguing for many days, and visiting them many times, all got sorted out and I was not charged, thankfully.

Recently I upgraded my speed from 512 kbps to 2mbps and of course things can never go smooth. I'm experiencing a terrible download speed! While my download rate is supposed to average at 200 kb/s, it hardly tops at 40 with an average of probably 25 kb/s and that is certainly not 2mb DSL. Of course it was time to shoot that damn support another call. What I hate most about those calls is how the person answering you uses extreme noob instructions, actually I can't blame them, I'm sure they face extremely computer retarted customers everyday. Anyway, the guy was trying by any means to prove that the problem is with my computer not the service. Trying to prove that I had a virus or spyware slowing my Internet down. Or maybe someone got into my wireless ap. Finally he was convinced and forwarded my case to the technical staff to work out. I should call them by tomorrow to check up on the progress.

This is the best DSL provider in Egypt.. Wish me.. patience!

Drifting a little

2008-09-14T13:41:00.000+02:00

I recently found myself posting many stuff non related to Symbian/ S60, so I thought why not make it official? Since I still own an N80, and cannot receive any of the new devices from WomWorld as they all have GPS, there won't be much creativity at the symbian side rather than just copying news. So I decided to drift the blog a little to contain also stuff from my Ubuntu Linux distr. (you know guides and stuff) and also my life.

I've also added top links for you to navigate between the type of posts you want to display. Enjoy! :)

S60 ART

2008-08-28T14:19:00.004+03:00

Get Cobalt by Pizero
Get Dreaming by babi

This is real art, Don't you think?

Shazam ID: The amazing music discovery engine

2008-08-26T14:18:00.001+03:00

Yes! Like Mark Guim said, the most amazing application made for S60. How many times have you wondered the name of the song broadcasting on a radio station and never found out. I usually try to grab some lyrics, drop them into google and type 'lyrics' beside them, if I'm lucky enough I might run into the real thing. However, this does not work with trance for example (when there are no lyrics).
I actually tried a year ago a music recognition application, but never worked, (probably a tiny database), but this time it's different! With over 4,000,000 songs database, you have a pretty good chance of finding your music ;) I've made an experiment to determine how good Shazam ID is, and here are the results:

1- 1200 Micrograms: Egypt
2- Opus: Live is Life
3- Ricky Marting: She bangs
4: Linking Park: A place for my head
5: Breaking the Benjamin: Diary of Jane
6: Yanni: Marching Season
7: Nine Inch Nails: Wish
8: Yanni: Within attraction
9: Armin van Buuren ft Nadia Ali: Who's watching

And YES it recongnized the whole 10 tracks! I'm absolutely in love with this app! Try it yourself ;) Download here or here

If installation says expired certificate, just set the Clock date to last January.. Enjoy ;)

Color your life with the new N79

2008-08-26T13:30:00.002+03:00

Nokia today unveiled the Nokia N79, the latest addition to the Nokia Nseries range that combines intelligent and customizable design with a fully-loaded multimedia computer. Behind its sleek exterior, the Nokia N79 is a technology powerhouse. It offers a full range of multimedia experiences including integrated navigation, music with FM transmitter, high-speed connectivity, superior web browsing, at least 10 pre-loaded N-Gage games and an advanced 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics. The Nokia N79 is expected to begin shipping in October 2008, with an estimated retail price of EUR 350, before taxes and subsidies.

Perfect for the style conscious, the Nokia N79 comes with Xpress-on smart covers that are available in five cool colors: Light Sea Blue, Espresso Brown, Olive Green, White and Coral Red. A combination of three of these comes with each Nokia N79.

The convergence of photos, music and navigation in the Nokia N79 combines with high-speed 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi to make it quick and easy to share experiences on websites, blogs or online communities.

The 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics, dual LED flash and video light captures sharp, clear images and video that can be edited immediately, without the need for a PC. Images can also be geotagged to specific locations. What's more, the Nokia N79 comes packaged with a 4 GB microSD memory card that makes it possible to store around 3,000 songs, approximately 2,500 pictures and up to four hours of DVD-quality video clips that can be organized by albums or tags and uploaded directly to Share on Ovi or third party services. The addition of a sliding lens cover helps protect the top-quality lens when not in use.

Ramadan Kareem

2008-08-14T05:51:00.002+03:00

Last year Nokia released a special edition N73 in the Middle East and North Africa markets tailored for the Holy month of Ramadan. It offered a full range of applications that meets the needs of consumers in the Arab world.

The positive feedback focussed the team to release this year an entire collection of free software and Ramadan-related services that will be downloadable globally as well as pre-loaded on a bunch of handsets in the Middle East including the new N78 - throughout August the N70 Music Edition, E51, 3120 Classic, 6500 Slide, 6300 and 2630 will become available with the Ramadan apps pre-loaded. Plus the apps are available to download onto eight other devices including the N95 and N82.

An example of those applications is the Ramadaniat application. It's loaded with heaps of info on fasting and its rules, or the Emsakya app that alerts you with the daily Prayer, Suhour and Iftar times during Ramadan.

A Nokia site dedicated to Ramadan has also been launched, which can be visited at nokia.com/ramadan - it's here that you can download all the apps and extras related to the Holy Month. There is also a Quran reader application, Emsakya, Hajj and Umrah Cards and Mozzaker. All content have been approved by Al Azhar Al Shareef.

Symby Symbian :)

2008-08-08T05:09:00.003+03:00

Warty Warthog, Hoary Hedgehog, Breezy Badger, Dapper Drake, Edgy Eft, Feisty Fawn, Gutsy Gibbon and Hardy Heron. Seriously how the hell do they come up with those names!! I just love'm. And the upcoming one, V8.10, Intrepid Ibex. Awesome!

Seriously for those who are still afraid to get lost without windows, you should give it a shot on Ubuntu. Just look at my desktop!!

It's obvious I like dark looks :) The looks are very customizable to suit your need. You'll find alternatives for every piece of software on windows. If you're new to Ubuntu, or decided to dumb windows for a while, I'll be happy to answer any questions, and help you out getting things up chillin' ;)

Learn more about Ubuntu

Wonderful view

2008-07-29T18:32:00.002+03:00

Wonderful view from my place in Alexandria

Tube spotted in Batman?

2008-07-29T01:58:00.001+03:00

In The Dark Knight movie, Morgan Freeman was holding a Touch screen Nokia phone, possibly the new 5800 Xpress Music (AKA Tube)

Dark & Colors by Babi.. ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT!!

2008-07-28T20:36:00.001+03:00

Amazing! This is real proffessional work Babi, keep it up!!

Go to download >>>

Internet through phone on Linux - Part 2

2008-07-28T01:34:00.001+03:00

Continuing the last tutorial, how to connect Linux to the Internet through your mobile phone via USB, this part shows you how to do it via Bluetooth. I like Bluetooth and use it all the time. I prefer wireless connectivity in general, even if it drains mobile battery fast.

Bluetooth:

Make sure you have Bluetooth utilities installed. Type in Terminal: sudo apt-get install bluez-gnome bluez-utils
Now we need to find the Bluetooth address of your phone. You can find it either from the phone (*#2820# for Nokia) or by hcitool scan in Terminal
Now to find locate the channel used for Dial up networking for your phone, type sdptool browse 00:12:D2:0A:XX:YY replacing with the address from step 2
Some info will be displayed, scroll until you find Service Name: Dial-Up Networking, the look for channel number below it. Usually it's 2 for Nokia.

This channel number will be used to configure Bluetooth connection. Open /etc/bluetooth/rfcomm.conf with your favorite editor and match this configuration: rfcomm.conf:
rfcomm0 {
bind yes;
device 00:12:D2:0A:XX:YY;
channel 2;
comment "Dial-up networking";
} replacing the blue address with your phone's bluetooth address obtained in step 2

Restart Bluetooth services: sudo /etc/init.d/bluetooth restart
Follow step 6 in USB connection, replacing device name with /dev/rfcomm0
wvdial any time and you're in ;)

Tip: You can setup multiple connection in the wvdial.conf file. Just add [Dialer name] where name is the configuration name on top of every config. To use a certain configuration, use wvdial name, instead of just wvdial.

Enjoy ;)

Thanks to: Ubuntu Community

Internet through phone on Linux

2008-07-27T23:46:00.004+03:00

Connecting to the Internet on windows has always been a piece of cake using Nokia PC Suite. However, on Linux need some playing around to get things to work as there is no PC Suite software. This tutorial will show you how to connect to the Internet through your mobile phone via USB and Bluetooth without use of any software. Tested and working perfectly on Ubuntu Hardy Heron.

1- USB

Connect your phone through USB
Open terminal and type lsusb. This displays connected USB devices.
Find Nokia, beside it there is something like Bus 003 Device 001: ID xxxx:yyyy. xxxx is the vendor ID, yyyy is product ID
Type in Terminal: sudo /sbin/modprobe usbserial vendor=0x(xxxx) product=0x(yyyy) replacing xxxx and yyyy with the correct IDs from step 3
then wvdialconf create
And sudo gedit /etc/wvdial.conf to open the modem configuration file. You'll have to edit the username, password, phone and in most cases add Init3. This is a typical configuration file:

[Dialer Defaults]
Modem = /dev/ttyACM0
Baud = 460800
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ISDN = 0
Modem Type = Analog Modem
Phone = *99#
Username = internet
Password = internet
Init3 = AT+CGDCONT=1,"IP","internet.vodafone.net";
Stupid Mode = 1
Dial Command = ATDT

You only have to edit the info in blue. You can get them either from your phone or contact your operator support to obtain them. Save the file then to connect type wvdial into the terminal, and hit Ctrl+C to disconnect at any time.

Bluetooth >>>>