Well, this guide is for those who don’t know about it and would like to try the same.

BlackBerry models can utilize from various types of Internet connectivity based on the device’s capability and your connection provider’s support for those capabilities. Usually the most possible connectivity options are GPRS (very slow), EDGE (fast for mobiles), EvDo (very-fast) and 3G (ultra-fast). If you’re lucky enough to have EvDo or 3G in your mobile and your provider supports it, you can utilize broadband speeds from your Mobile to your PC or Laptop.

NOTE #1: Even though many BlackBerry handsets support WiFi / WLAN connectivity, they can’t be used to browse in other PC / Laptops due to incompatibility by the internal Modem of the device. However, in future this might change.

NOTE #2: Though your connection provider may support higher connection speeds with connectivity options such as EvDo or 3G, it is still subject to the availability of coverage in your area. So, sometimes you may fall back to the GPRS or EDGE connectivity due to non-coverage of high speed connections in your area.

To use your BlackBerry modem, first of all you need the following:

• PC / Laptop with Windows Operating System
• BlackBerry Desktop Manager software
• BlackBerry PC Connectivity Cable
• BlackBerry Internet Connection enabled (you can check this by trying to browse any website other than your provider website in the BlackBerry mobile browser)

First step is to ensure you have BlackBerry Desktop Manager installed. If you don’t, please follow the steps below to install it. If you do, skip these steps:

1. Insert the BlackBerry CD into the device and choose the BlackBerry Desktop Manager from the menu
2. If you don’t have the CD, you can download BlackBerry Desktop Manager from the BlackBerry website.
3. Install the software using the Typical configuration. This includes Modem drivers and will install a modem for you automatically.

Second step is to configure the modem for connectivity:

1. Right click My Computer in either Desktop or Start Menu and choose Properties.
2. Choose Hardware tab and choose Device Manager.
3. Expand Modems and right click on the Standard Modem displayed there and choose Properties.
4. Click on the Advanced tab and type the following as per your Provider into the Extra initialization commands box:
   1. +CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”<your-provider-apn>”
   2. Replace <your-provider-apn> with the actual APN of your Provider (you can ask the Customer Care or try to view the Browser TCP/IP settings to get it). For example, for AirTel (India), the APN is: airtelgprs.com which makes the above configuration string as +CGDCONT=1,”IP”,”airtelgprs.com”
5. Click OK and then close both the dialogs.
6. Open Network Connections and create a new Dial-up Internet Connection.
7. Choose the Modem as the above said modem. Type the Phone Number as *99#
8. No need for User Name or Password. Save the connection and create shortcut in desktop (a checkbox to create it automatically will be provided)
9. Now, connect your BlackBerry to your PC or Laptop and double click on the BlackBerry Desktop Manager icon in desktop.
10. After initialization and security verifications (if asked for BlackBerry Password, provide the same) wait until you get the BlackBerry Desktop Manager dialog with no popups and your connected BlackBerry’s ID shown in the left bottom corner of the dialog.
11. Now, double click on the shortcut you created for the connection from the Desktop.
12. Simply click on Dial and voila, you’ll be connected.

There is another simple step possible if you’re using latest BlackBerry Desktop Manager (Version 5.0.1 or more)

If you are using 5.0.1 or later version of BlackBerry Desktop Manager, you can ignore the above said Second steps and follow the below steps instead:

1. Connect your BlackBerry to your PC or Laptop
2. Double click on the BlackBerry Desktop Manager icon from Desktop to start it
3. If any password is asked, provide the same and wait until all operations are done and you get the window with the lower left corner showing your connected BlackBerry’s ID.
4. Select the option IP Modem
5. Click on the Configure button in the left side Connection Settings box
6. Choose your Carrier in the drop down list of Connection Profile. Most providers are supported automatically (including Indian ones. AirTel is under the name Bharti (AirTel) India)
7. If you want, you can select Keep an IP Modem connection open after the BlackBerry Desktop Manager is closed option to close the BlackBerry Manager and continue to use the connection.
8. Click on OK.
9. Now, at the right side Connect to the Internet box, click on Connect.
10. You’ll be connected. You can now close the BlackBerry Desktop Manager (if you selected the checkbox for the same). Otherwise, just minimize it and start browsing. If you keep the BlackBerry Desktop Manager open, you can see the statistics of your connection lively (a cool feature).

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After searching in internet for various times and provided with loads of steps that either failed to work or entirely different when you try to execute them, I’ve finally hacked my iPhone 2G to the latest 2.1 Firmware by using the basic methods that are supported and reproducible at any point of time. For the benefit of Info Scraps readers, here is the full step by step guide to unlock your own iPhone 2G to 2.1 Firmware on Windows. Please NOTE that these steps may or may not work for iPhone 3G. Particulary the QuickPwn for Windows version mentioned here was not programmed to work with iPhone 3G according to the developers. So, please use these methods ONLY in iPhone 2G and of course on Windows only. Mac OS X users obviously have better and easier ways to hack the iPhone 2G or 3G which I will write in another post.

1. If you do not already have iTunes 8 or have an older version of iTunes in your PC, first step would be to go to Apple Official iTunes Website to download the latest version appropriate to your Operating System. (NOTE: Windows Vista x64 users like me should ONLY download the 64-bit version mentioned in this Page as using the other version will cause an Warning upon setup)
2. Install the latest version of iTunes into your PC and restart the Computer if asked, otherwise, start the iTunes.
3. Connect your iPhone 2G to the Desk Charger and plug the USB port to the PC. iTunes will automatically start up upon successful connection of iPhone 2G. If it does not, don’t panic, just start iTunes manually and it’ll detect the connected iPhone 2G.
4. Even though the steps mentioned here will not erase your data, I can’t guarantee you if something unwated happens. So, it’s a better idea to backup everything in the iPhone by right clicking on the iPhone button in the left side bar of iTunes and choosing Backup option. Also, make sure you sync all your data to your PC using iTunes before you try updating the firmware.
5. Upon connection, the iTunes will ask you to update your iPhone to latest 2.1 firmware. If it does not ask you, don’t panic, just click on the Update button on the iPhone summary page in iTunes. (NOTE: the version number it says carefully. If by the time you’re reading this post, Apple released yet another update to the iPhone firmware, you might probably be upgrading to a later version than 2.1 firmware for which these steps won’t be effective. So, if the version number you see in the update dialog is bigger than 2.1 firmware, follow alternative steps I’ve mentioned at the bottom of this post to find the 2.1 firmware update to your iPhone 2G)
6. The update process will take some time, leave your iPhone 2G connected. The 2.1 firmware itself is a 230 MB sized file. iTunes will first download this file and then only update your iPhone 2G to this firmware. So, the waiting time will vary depending upon the speed of your internet connection.
7. After the update, your iPhone 2G will restart. Just unplug it from the Desktop Charger while it’s being restarted. This will prevent an nagging message from iTunes that your SIM Card is locked and your iPhone 2G put into restore mode (some rare cases only). If you’re not quick enough or forgot to unplug it while it’s restarting, nothing is lost. Just proceed down the steps. ONLY in case if your iPhone 2G is put into restore mode by your iTunes, you have to follow the alternative steps mentioned at the bottom of this post to get it back to normal mode.
8. Now, you’ll notice that only emergency calls are allowed in your iPhone. Nothing to worry about. This is the locking feature of iPhone 2G and iTunes. Whether you unplugged it from iTunes while restarting or not, it’ll still lock the iPhone 2G as you’re using the latest firmware but not using a genuine SIM Card.
9. Now, visit the iPhone-Dev blog to download the QuickPwn 2.1 for Windows software from there. If you’re NOT familiar with Torrents and was not able to download the official version or the mirror versions mentioned there, you can download my own version here which is the same as the official version (you can verify it by using the SHA1 signature mentioned in that post if you know how to verify file signatures).
10. Now, close your iTunes and plug your iPhone 2G to Desktop Charger and connect the USB Port to PC. If iTunes starts up again, just close it. You wouldn’t need it for unlocking.
11. Extract the QuickPwn21-1.zip file you’ve downloaded from Step 8 to your convenient location. You’ll find a README.txt file and QuickPwn.exe file. Double click on the QuickPwn.exe to execute it. (NOTE: If you’re using Windows XP and is not having .NET Framework 2.0 installed in your machine, you must first install it before using QuickPwn 2.1 on your PC. You can download the .NET Framework 2.0 from Microsoft Website for x86 if you’re using 32-bit Windows XP/Vista or x64 if you’re 64-bit Windows XP/Vista)
12. QuickPwn should detect your iPhone connected. If it’s not automatically detecting, just click on the blue right arrow button to make it detect your connected iPhone. Once detected, select the right phone (iPhone 2G) from the displayed options.
13. QuickPwn will now ask you to choose the firmware file which is installed in your iPhone 2G. If you followed my Step 4 above for updating your iPhone, you can find the latest firmware downloaded by iTunes at: %APPDATA%\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates\iPhone1,1_2.1_5F136_Restore.ipsw
    (NOTE 1: APPDATA% means the Application Data folder of your Windows installation, to find it, just go to Start -> Run and type %APPDATA%. It will show you the correct folder where Application Data is available.)
    If you followed the alternative steps mentioned at the bottom of this post to update your iPhone 2G to 2.1 firmware, you’ll have to select the file you used to update.
14. If the file you selected matches with the firmware installed in the connected iPhone 2G, QuickPwn will show you a green check mark to indicate successful file selection. Click the blue right arrow button to continue.
15. Now, you’ll be given options to unlock your iPhone 2G. There will be four options as: Cydia, Installer, Unlock iPhone and Custom Boot Logo. You’ll have to select Cydia and Unlock iPhone (MUST). If you want an third party applications installer apart from the Apple AppStore which will be installed for you already in 2.1 firmware, you can select the Installer also. If you want the boot time Apple logo shown by iPhone to be something else which is cool, you can select the Custom Boot Logo (Just remember that choosing this option adds an extra step which will ask you to choose the custom logos for Boot and Restore modes which is NOT covered in this guide)
16. Now QuickPwn will open a new to show you that it’s ready to start the Pwning process. Click Go.
17. Now QuickPwn will do a series of steps and shows you actions to perform in the list of items in the Window which are highlighted in black when in progress.
18. These steps include, Switching off your iPhone after connecting to Desk Charger and USB Port to PC. Holding down the Power and Home in the manner being asked to put your iPhone in DFU mode (which is the Restore mode helping QuickPwn to install a custom built firmware in your iPhone)
19. Just do as it says exactly with the seconds count it shows. Please be careful about this process as it’s highly important. Also, make sure you’re connected to an unconnected power source so that to ensure your PC didn’t turned off while this process is being carried on which might cause a severe damage to your iPhone which may or may not be reversible.
20. At the last operation, you’ll still be holding the Home button. Don’t release this button until you see your iPhone saying Loading Ramdisk in it’s screen.
21. Just to clarify things for beginners, Power button is the small switch on top of the iPhone and the Home Button is the only round button available in the front side of your iPhone.
22. Wait patiently until the entire Jailbraking operations completes. It might take at least 10 to 15 minutes to complete the whole operation. It might be long also depending on your PC configurations.
23. Once all the 8 different processes were done, you’ll finally see a message in the QuickPwn window saying “You iPhone 2G seems to be jailbroken. You can now use the device.” or something like that. Wait to ensure your iPhone also finished it’s processes (sometimes QuickPwn finishes its processes quickly while iPhone is still loading and running multiple processes). Once everything is done at both end, you’ll see your iPhone restarting.
24. That’s it! You’ve now fully jailbroken (unlocked) iPhone 2G with latest 2.1 firmware at your hands. Enjoy. Please provide me comments here if you’re facing any problems or issues.

Alternative Steps (for different scenarios)

If your iTunes is latest than 8.0 and shows a different version than 2.1 firmware in the update dialog:

1. Download iPhone 2G 2.1 Firmware from Apple Website
2. If you’re facing problems or the above link is not working, you can Download My version here which is the same.
3. Connect your iPhone 2G to the Desk Charger and plug the USB Port to PC. If iTunes is not already started, start it manually and it should detect and show an iPhone button in the left side bar.
4. If iTunes asks for updating, just click Cancel and also choose the Don’t ask me again check box if it’s available so that iTunes will not nag you asking to update again and again.
5. Hold down the Shift key and choose the Restore button in the iPhone Summary page in iTunes.
6. It’ll open a File Open dialog where you should locate the firmware you’ve downloaded above.
7. Wait patiently until the full restoring is done. It’ll take some time depending on your PC configuration.
8. Once the restore is done, follow the Steps mentioned in the beginning of this post starting from Step 7

iPhone entered into DFU Mode/Restore mode and showing iTunes logo with a USB Cable display no matter whatever you tried to do with it.

1. First and the easy method, Just hold down the Power Button and Home Button together for 10 seconds until the screen goes completely blank. Release both buttons and make sure iPhone does not restart again into restore mode (Sometimes this happens if you’re either too quick or too late to release both Home and Power buttons. If it happens try again and again.)
2. After successful blank screen, you can press and hold Power Button for 2-3 seconds to power up your device and it’ll go to the Normal mode (It might still display iTunes logo but there will be a display of Carrier and a slider with Emergency Calls Only shown in different languages. In this case, it simply means that the SIM card is Locked but you’re in Normal mode)
3. If doing manually frustrated you and you were never successful, download ZiPhone 3.0 from ZiPhone Blog or from here in Info Scraps if the ZiPhone Blog download is not working.
4. Double click on the downloaded ZiPhoneWin-3.0.exe file. It will ask you where to extract the files, Extract it to Desktop (default location) or to C:\Ziphone or wherever is your convenience place.
5. Double click on the ZiPhoneGUI.exe in the extracted folder to start this. (NOTE: If you don’t have .NET Framework 2.0 installed in your PC, follow the instructions in Step 11 in main guide above)
6. Once started, click on the “Click to show advanced features” button in the Advanced Features area.
7. Click on the Normal Mode button in the Change phone mode area under Advanced Features area. This will take some time and puts your iPhone into Normal mode and accessible to QuickPwn.
8. This is also an easy way to switch between various modes like Restore, DFU and Normal.

If any other problems, let me know and I will try to solve them as much as possible by providing detailed instructions here.

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But before we feel unfortunate, we can count on certain portable devices other than the so called mobile. I’m not denying the fact that mobile devices are beginning to accommodate more crisp and clear videos. Yet, the viewing area is such smaller that it will make a pain in your neck if you truly watch a full-length movie in your mobile device.

This is where the portable multimedia devices came as a saviour. They offer nice, crystal clear, crisp and bright video viewing capabilities with reasonably good video size to accommodate. Here, there’s absolutely no compromise. But, a Portable DVD Player with TV Tuner to watch TV’s also is more than a dream come true. That’s exactly what I found in Digital Framez – A website which was dedicated to Digital Photo Frames and now also offers Portable 10 inch DVD Players.

I’ve got the pleasure of reviewing their flagship 10.4″ Portable DVD Player with DivX Support and TV Tuner inbuilt. It offers many features that are quite awesome to have in a portable multimedia device. It has the high quality 10.4″ (26.4cm) LCD Screen with 4:3 aspect ratio. You can play not only DVD’s but also CD’s for your pleasure. It supports MP3 for Audio, MP4, VCD, DivX and MPEG4 for Video and JPEG for Pictures. It comprises a Video Player, Audio Player and Picture Slideshow in one device.

To my relief they’ve included a rechargeable lithium-ion Battery that can last up to 4 hours. Enough to watch two full-length movies. The built-in stereo speakers provides excellent Dolby Digital sound with another nice technology up its sleeve, the anti-shock suspension system.

Overall, a must buy to those of us, The Gadget Freaks…

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I don’t know how many of you out there know about BlackBerry services. For those who don’t, it’s a Push-Mail service offered by RIM (Research In Motion Ltd) in USA and UK along with cellphone carriers. In India, it’s newly launched with AirTel and Hutch. And as there isn’t many choices of BlackBerry devices so far, they’ve also offered BlackBerry Connect which is a similar service like BlackBerry but allows you to use any Push-Mail enabled mobile device such as Nokia E-series and Windows PDA’s. I’ve been using this BlackBerry Connect service for almost one year now and know it’s advantages and disadvantages. Though, BlackBerry Connect works similar to BlackBerry, it’sn’t just same. It supports only 34KB of attachments against 8MB supported by BlackBerry devices. And, so many other features that belong to the Email are only supported in BlackBerry devices. So, at last, I thought I should go ahead and buy a BlackBerry device. As usual, I always wanted the BEST in range and the newly introduced BlackBerry Curve 8300 is the one I found the BEST.

First of all, there are few unique features that RIM brought into this version of BlackBerry device. This is the FIRST BlackBerry device to boast a whopping 2 MegaPixel camera. Even though RIM already introduced Multimedia Capabilities to it’s BlackBerry Pearl first, this is the device where RIM actually fine tuned it’s multimedia capabilities along with an expandable MicroSD slot which allows upto 2GB extension to the Memory. This is also the only multimedia capability device from BlackBerry series to boast a full QWERTY keyboard (the BlackBerry Pearl uses SureType™ Two Lettered keyboard which has known flaws). This is also the world’s thinnest Smartphone with full QWERTY keyboard. And, what’s more? This is the first BlackBerry Device from RIM which concentrates on outlook styles also.

When I initially bought this one, I have to wait for almost two days (BlackBerry Curve is the highest demanded smartphone from AirTel BlackBerry devices in that time and even now). You all know I use AirTel already and that’s where I bought this. AirTel imports these devices from RIM through third parties and we’ve to buy from them only. After buying, AirTel will give the connection and all settings we need. BlackBerry Curve is not only costly mobile, the service also is costly. So, if you’re really a business people and need Email on the Go very importantly, then, consider buying a BlackBerry device along with connection (mine is Rs.899 Plan which gives unlimited connectivity and email browsing per Month)

When I finally got the device, the first thought to come to me is it’s really worth the wait. It’s simply the coolest BlackBerry device ever designed by RIM and the BEST usability one too. I’ve configured my 8 Email ID’s (BlackBerry supports upto 10 Email IDs per Device) and whoa! It’s simply amazing. The Emails downloaded in blazing fast. BlackBerry Curve is an EDGE device (not a GPRS device as most other smartphones). The EDGE connection is available only in major cities in India and also mostly out doors. The connection was really superb and the Browsing is the BEST experience I’ve ever had on a hand held device. Apple iPhone boasts that it’s the first mobile to have a full-fledged Browser but I should say, BlackBerry is the first smartphone to have a highly capable full-fledged Browser. The Browser allows mobile device mode and desktop mode also. In desktop mode, you actually have a mouse pointer and play around with websites as you will do in Desktop PC. Surely an iPhone beater. Even, iPhone or any other Smartphone I knew so far didn’t contained this feature. This feature is particularly beautiful because BlackBerry has the Track Ball for navigation. Not the silly D Navigation system or Joysticks which are really painful. Once I started using BlackBerry’s Track Ball (I guess they’ve a patent for it, that’s why other mobiles didn’t boast it so long) I found nothing navigates as easy as BlackBerry. You need to get used to the Track Ball of course, but if you used Mouse in Desktop PC (I’m sure most of you do), you will find it extremely easy to handle the Track Ball in BlackBerry.

The Screen is an absolute wonder in BlackBerry Curve. It’s stylish, bright, and ultra cool and high quality. Wide Screen gives excellent viewing abilities while browsing and accessing various applications. The full QWERTY keyboard is simply amazing and I really started typing ultra fast within weeks. The 2 MegaPixel Camera is excellent and I was only disgruntled by the BlackBerry’s lack of support for good Camera options (Sony Ericsson is the BEST in this class). It just provides basic Camera options and the quality in outdoor is good. It’s understandable considering BlackBerry is a business device, the Camera options aren’t needed actually. The multimedia capabilities of this BlackBerry is simply amazing. The speaker quality and sound quality are good. Videos are little skeptic though. Picture viewing with it’s zooming capabilities are simply amazing.  This also allows setting wallpapers by zooming small pictures to fit the screen (one of the unique features I found in BlackBerry)

Messaging is the ultimate wonder of BlackBerry Curve. RIM got it clearly right. This is a Business Device and it’s excellent in all Business capabilities. Messaging, Attachment Viewing, Replying, Forwarding everything is simply superb. Also, one of the iPhone’s boasting that it’s the first device to arrange SMS messages in conversation manner is again dusted by BlackBerry. It supports the conversation arrangements for SMS and Email helping you to view past messages sent by the Sender and the messages you replied all in the same screen. The bundled applications are simply very good enough for any Business user.

It also has Google Talk, Yahoo Messenger and it’s own unique BlackBerry Messenger for text messaging. All the IM clients are simply amazing and are surely a Desktop replacements. I always felt like keeping my Laptop in my hand. They really made me think I don’t need my Laptop anymore.

BlackBerry Curve supports the usual connectivities like WLAN, Bluetooth and WiFi. The Bluetooth connectivity was enhanced in BlackBerry to keep away from spammers and virus spreaders. It simply allows you to connect Bluetooth for the relevant file types only and that also from relevant applications only and supports a good acknowledgment system so that you will make sure you will really wanted a bluetooth transfer when it’s done. The miniUSB port for Charging and Data transfer are good. The bundled desktop software for managing BlackBerry device is simply amazing. It supports a wide variety of Email Clients (Outlook, Outlook Express, Eudora, The Bat, Thunderbird etc) natively and supports all kinds of Address Books natively for synchronization. There are excellent desktop management softwares included in the bundled software package CD-ROM.

The being said, on the down-side part, I can’t find much things actually. We can extend our views to more elaborate ways and find that it’s lack of Camera options a down side. Really, I don’t find any other down side in this excellent device.

To know more about BlackBerry Curve visit: http://www.blackberrycurve.com/

Let me know your comments…

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Please suggest the phone to me which can solve my issue?

by Akhil Ahuja

Hi,

Based on your expectations, I can give you three solutions. Please choose the one that seems very significant to you:

Solution #1:

If you’re giving Nokia 6800 to your Father whom seems to be already having good experience using it, it is not hard to find a piece in the Market. It costs around Rs.10,000/- ($247.64) for a Brand New piece which you can find at eBay India.

Solution #2:

If you’re willing to spend good money for your Father, then, you can buy any Nokia Series 60 Phones and buy the Font Magnifier software from Psiloc for Rs.548.64/- ($13.57) which I’ve given as an Answer for Ashwin Chakkravarthy already. This software will help you increase the font at your will.

Solution #3:

This is the most significant solution to your problem. If you need a Basic Model phone which supports big fonts and very clear display, please go ahead and buy Nokia 6070. This mobile supports big fonts and very clear display which makes it the ultimate device for any person with visual impairment. I guess your father will like it very much as it’s easy to hold than the Nokia 6800 and has big buttons too. This mobile costs around Rs.4,500/- ($111.43) for a brand new piece which can be bought from eBay India here.

Hope that helps…

Thanks for using GadgetFreak Answers…

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As of now, this product in India is available ONLY to AirTel Customers as it’s locked to AirTel GSM SIM Cards. Considering the larger growth of AirTel in India and it’s huge consumer database, (including myself as I do hold an AirTel connection) it didn’t came as a minus point. At least, for me.

At first glance itself this device suggested me greatly that it’s not any ordinary Windows Mobile PDA (not even O2). It comes with a revolutionary TouchFLO™ Technology developed exclusively by HTC for this beauty. The technology makes the touch screen distinguish between a Stylus and a Finger and acts differently according to that. You can scroll up and down or side to side with just a flick of your finger on the Screen in most of the applications that comes pre-installed in this device.

My great love towards this device is they’ve changed the interface of the boring Windows Mobile to accommodate their own snazzy black colored new interface which is easily controllable using your fingers, just like the iPhone. The old Today Screen has been beautifully replaced with a large Digital Clock, Weather Updates from AccuWeather and an Application Launcher.

Unlike conventional touch-screen PDA phones, this device comes with Surface Mounted Touch Screen (which means the Screen surface is easily blends with the Mobile without even a trace) which makes it easy handed. To call the start menu, you have to swipe your finger from bottom to upwards starting from the HTC Logo which is outside the touch sensitive area. The interface is ultimate user friendly one. Not like the boring Windows Mobile interface, their new interface comes with a 3D Block which you can turn from left to right or vice versa with just a swipe of your finger in that direction. The animations they’ve done on their new interface is superb and all the buttons in the interface are larger enough for finger touch.

The revolutionary TouchFLO™ screen makes it very easy to view larger web pages, scrolling through hundreds of contacts, messages, emails, pictures, movies, songs by just swiping your fingers in the desired direction to scroll them. You can even make the scrolling faster by additional flick of your finger. By placing the finger on top of the screen, you can stop the scrolling. It is all made me feel like as though I’m just flipping through paper sheets in a hand held device.

The usual 5 Way navigation button and Call and End Call buttons are made at the bottom for easy access. I particularly liked the way they’ve given the Call and End Call buttons. They’re not even like buttons, I just felt as though I’ve touched them to work.

Best of all, the Price Tag of this Device in India makes it a absolute steal (Rs. 19,990/-) for such a great mobile which is sure a beater of the iPhone in India. With this much facilities and an excellent quality device like this one, and at the cheaper rate, it’s surely a iPhone beater.

Let me know your comments…

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Dear Hitesh and Chandrashekar,

I don’t know how came two questions are placed on the same context with different mobile numbers and different names of same problem and same description. I guess it’s either one of you who’s so desperate to find the mobile that had you to post in my blog with two different names. Anyways, thinking you’re a genuine reader of The Gadget Freak, I’m answering you here.

First of all, please try to understand that Gadget Freak can only help people by giving answers to their questions. We can never give services like finding stolen mobiles. All we can give is the ways to find mobiles.

You can do two things. One is, you can ask the Idea company to block your SIM Card. The next one is asking them to track down your mobile. For the first one, you just need to provide a letter. For the second one, you need to file a Case with local Police Station and get the FIR of the Case and then with their help try to locate the phone if you remember the IMEI number.

If you don’t have or remember IMEI Number, there is two ways of finding it. If you have the handset, type *#06# and your IMEI Number will be immediately displayed. If you don’t have the handset as in your case, please find your original bill where they would’ve mentioned the IMEI Number (if it’s a genuine purchase).

Hope that helps…

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Hi Ashwin,

Increasing the font sizes in Nokia Series 60 Smart Phones is only possible if the Series 60 is Version 3 interface (Like the N-Series and E-Series)

Psiloc company developed a software named Psiloc Font Magnifier which does exactly the same thing you’re asking for. It helps you to increase / decrease the font sizes on the Series 60 Smartphones. They offer a free trial version of the software which will cost you $13.57 (Rs. 548.64).

Try it…

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• MP3 Players and PMP’s Power Saving Tips (0)

At first when I unwrapped the package, I’ve been presented with the beautiful N95 in it’s pitch black casing. It seems just like Nokia  N80 (the other one from N-Series which is also a slider phone). But when I took a closer look it revealed the efforts Nokia taken to make this mobile ultimate mobile computer device.  The front-side of the mobile is fully dedicated to the large scree. The screen is simply superb. The screen provided excellent contrast, brightness and color depth. And what’s more? The screen has a small light sensor next to the Front VGA Camera which adjusts the brightness levels automatically according to the outside lighting conditions. I should say excellent!

One of my disappointment upon turning the device on is it’s still a Series 60 interface. I don’t know why Nokia thinks highly of Series 60 interface. I know it’s good and all, but Symbian has long improved now. Anyways, the one thing that drowned this disappointment immediately is the newly boosted up hardware (which is a MUST I should say considering all the N-series mobiles little bit sluggish when it comes to applications) that smoothed the running of applications at last. The processor is TI OMAP 2420 (ARM11 based) @ 332MHz. There is also a 3D Graphics Accelerator (very useful one for Mobiles now). There’s a 64MB SD RAM too for extra smooth operations. This is excellent considering the other Series 60 mobiles which has to rely on the Processor alone. Now, you can guess, the result of this Hardware boost really fastened all applications and menu operations (I think Nokia finally realized their mistake of providing excellent mobiles with sluggish interface).

The dual slider hardware is also very nice one to handle. It activates many functionalities. Slide the mobile up and you will get the keypad for keying, Slide the mobile back to the middle and it automatically locks, Slide the mobile down and the screen automatically switches to landscape mode. The Landscape mode is excellent considering the wide-screen possibilities. It can also be turned on while in normal keying mode. It’s better for videos and browsing internet I can say.

One more advantage of the still Series 60 interface is it’s wide range of software possibilities. It’s also compatible with other N-Series phones which has the same screen resolution (QVGA 320×240) such as Nokia N73 and N93. So, I think expandability of this mobile is under no question.

The inclusion of MiniUSB Port and a standard 3.5mm Port for headphones really makes this device ultra connectible. A decent headphones connected with this device will make sound much more clearer and sharper. The TV-Out is really cool. It provides a vast possibilities of viewing Photographs and Videos in large TV screen and playing around everything in Large screen. The connectivity also includes WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) and usual Bluetooth. The WLAN came particularly very useful as I already have WLAN in my home for my PC and Laptop.

The included 5 Mega Pixel Camera provides ultra sharp images and good quality videos (640×480 @ 30fps). The camera works with phone so much integrated that it becomes the ultimate mobile shooting device when the Camera is turned on. The call clarity and  included speakers are excellent. The Batter lasts up to 1 to 2 days depending on the usage. But, if I watched videos or browsed internet, it came down ultimately to 4 hours which is terrible. I was wondering why Nokia bundled a BL-5F Battery rated at 950mAh while it’s N73 has a BP-6M Battery rated at 1100mAh. They should look into their own models before releasing good models on top of others. I always worried why nobody of the Smart Phone and PDA manufacturers give a much care about Battery Backup which to me is the crucial option to play with.

That being said, the device isn’t exactly as good as it’s advertised in certain areas. Firstly, the inbuilt GPS receiver might have been useful to me if only Nokia included country specific Maps in it.  I need to purchase them separately. I don’t understand how came they price this way up and don’t even supply GPS Maps while other PDA devices of this Price Range comes with Maps. Secondly, the Slider was not so much useful as I thought it would be in the first. Upon continuous usage I felt dreadful when it kept sliding up or down unnecessary moments such as pulling it out from my pocket or pushing it inside my pocket. The particular annoying bit is when it slides, the automatic lock is enabled or disabled (according to the push-in and pull-out scenario) which kept me away from handling incoming calls easily. The slider became very loose after some time and it really annoyed me very much. Thirdly, even though the Camera was excellent, it took about 4 seconds to start up after I opened the sliding lens cover, this is not actually an ultimate mobile shoot device as I though before as this particular slowness will cause you to miss some fast moments and crucial shots. Finally, the price tag of this device doesn’t really justifies the features included and also it is not much to the advertisement that says it will replace my Laptop.

Let me know your comments…

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1. Reduce the LCD screen brightness.
2. If Optical View finder is available, switch off the LCD and use it instead.
3. Keep the image review option set at the shortest time available or better even turn it off.
4. Set the camera to switch itself off when idle, at the shortest interval.
5. Do not indulge in on screen image editing or deleting
6. Make use of flash and zoom only if absolutely necessary.

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