Missing applications on S60 5th Edition
Q. Having upgraded from a Nokia N95 to a 5800 XpressMusic, I've been very happy with the extra functionality and that lovely large screen. However, quite a few of the utilities that I'd grown to depend on in the N95 seem to have disappeared. Specifically Sync, N-Gage, Search, Connection Manager, GPS Data, Wireless Keyboard and Memory (Backup). Whew, quite a long list, actually. Can any of these be downloaded separately?
Q. I've got almost 1000 songs loaded on my Nokia smartphone, whose mass memory is now about 75% full. Music is played fine, but getting to a particular track is very slow when its name doesn't come near the start or end of the alphabet. Browsing by artist sometimes speeds things up, but many of my (legally) ripped CDs are 'Various Artists', so I'm stuck. What music utilities are there to help speed up finding particular songs?
Why is the size of the firmware update different
Q. Why is the size of the firmware update through the phone itself (Over The Air) around a few MB (at most), while Ovi Suite says the update is well over 100MB?
How can I upgrade my Ovi Store client to the latest version?
Q. How can I upgrade my Ovi Store client to the latest version?
Q. I've been syncing my Symbian smartphone happily to my Mac for over a month, yet all of a sudden the iSync has started failing, with error: “[Nokia N97 mini] Connection to the phone failed. Please make sure that your phone is turned on.” I'm tech savvy and have tried power cycling both phone and Mac. What's next?
Greyed out download in Ovi Store
Q. Nokia's Ovi Store application seems to have got itself confused, it's showing the 'Download' buttons for some freeware applications (that I'd tried in the past) greyed out – so I'm unable to try them again.
Pay-as-you-go data now more expensive
Q. I use a Vodafone pay as you go SIM card with my Nokia smartphone and until recently I've been very happy. I only use mobile data sparingly, grabbing email every now and then and hardly using Web over 3G. And in the last few months, my SIM credit has been draining far faster than it used to. Do you think it's something I've installed?
Q. I have a Psion Series 5 and am very happy with it, but I want to update to something newer. How can I convert my data files into a more modern device?
Q. How can I back up everything on my Symbian smartphone? Not just data, but every application, every license key, and so on?
Q. Help! I've bought a Nokia N96 and, after inserting my memory card, Music player's now giving me 'System error' when I try and refresh my music library. My card has all sorts of useful files on it, can I solve the problem without formatting it?
How do I recalibrate my touchscreen?
Q. How do I recalibrate the touchscreen on my smartphone? Some of the taps get mis-registered!
My phone remembers too much about me!
Q. I'm worried about securing my sensitive data on my Symbian phone should it be lost. I've got the really personal stuff in Handy Safe Pro, but I'm talking here about about auto-logins for Gmail and web forums (both using login data from previous sessions). I'm also worried about securing notes and downloaded emails.
Q. Somewhat weirdly, on my Nokia smartphone, Google's YouTube client has started misbehaving. It used to work fine, but now just terminates almost immediately. I've tried reinstalling, to no avail. Help!
Massive FM transmitter interference
Q. When driving, Why can't I use the FM transmitter in my Symbian phone while it's being charged via the cigarette lighter lead?
Q. I'm pretty sure that Assisted GPS is set up properly, and yet my Nokia still sometimes takes up to ten minutes to get a GPS satellite lock. Is it faulty?
Q. I'm generally quite happy with Ovi Maps on my new Nokia N97 mini – I downloaded the new v3.0 and it's proved superbly reliable. But I'm not happy with all the distances being in metric. I know Finland wouldn't know their inches from their miles, but is there any hope?
Q. When I go to Photos on my new N97 it shows the icon of one picture I took a few weeks ago (all others have all been transferred off onto my PC). However, when I tap the icon to open it, I get the broken image icon and a 'General system error' when I try to delete it. The picture isn't visible in Windows Explorer when my phone is connected to my PC. How do I remove the broken image completely?
On a phone, what is an EDoF 'full focus' camera?
Q. I see the new Nokia E55 and E52 have an EdoF camera. What is EdoF?
Adaptor woes, changing headphones on the Nokia E71
Q. I'm new to Symbian phones, but really loving my Nokia E71. I think it is a thing of beauty and probably the greatest phone I have ever owned. I have one slight niggle though, the provided headset hurts my ears. I got a 2.5mm to 3.5mm adapter and bought a high quality stereo headset with a 3.5mm 4 pole jack. But the phone won't recognise it as a headset, though music plays OK. How can I use the headset for calls as well?
Deleting confidential files for good
Q. Is there a way to permanently delete information on my S60 phone? I have had several confidential documents and want to be able to electronically shred them after use, such that they can't later be recovered.
Q. On my Nokia E90, I've upgraded to new firmware and seem to have disabled the ability to change the screen brightness on the internal screen. It is considerably darker than the external screen (which I am still able to change). I think it has been set to minimum illumination by default. Is this a deliberate measure in order to prolong battery life or a bug?
Why do I still need a mains charger?
Q. With my new Nokia N85 now using USB charging, why do I still need a mains charger? This phone came with both!
Q. Help! I'm getting utterly fed up with all the security warnings in Web on my Nokia smartphone. For example, “You are leaving a secure page. Continue?”. Over and over again. Talk about living in a nanny state! Is there a way to upgrade Web so that it doesn't keep nagging me?
Q. My Nokia N97 (mini) sits happily open, angled nicely on my desk. I'd like it to act as a desk clock, i.e. keep its screen on, showing the current time. Power isn't a problem, as I usually have it plugged into a microUSB lead.
Messaging data won't stay on my mass memory and keeps switching back to C:
Q. I keep setting built-in messaging apps to use my mass memory for their data and they keep switching back. Why do they do this?
Q. For a premium camera and camcorder smartphone, the Nokia N86 8MP (in my case) is proving disappointing – low light photos are blurred and not much better than those from other phones!
Maps Booster makes my position fix worse!
Q. On my Nokia, I've been experimenting with Maps Booster. Having bought and installed it, I've found that it makes the accuracy of my phone's location fix worse, not better! What could be wrong?
Printing from a Nokia Nseries phone to a photo printer
Q. How can I print photos from my Nokia Nseries to my photo printer?
Q. On my Nokia E75, I'd like the same word correction and completion aids as on my friend's E71. How exactly do I turn these on?
Q. Why do all the recent Nseries phones from Nokia make blurry videos?
Steve Litchfield, AAS, 25 August 2010