There is a cool new application for your mobile/cellphone called “trutap“. which allows you to send group messages, SMS and email from your mobile phone for free.

It is very similar to EQO Mobile & Slick which also allow you to chat to friends on IM (e.g. MSN, Gtalk, Yahoo etc) and post to blogs, photo-sharing accounts and social networks - all from your mobile phone.

What makes “trutap” stand out from the other applications is it’s ability to allow one to use Facebook chat on your mobile.

There is a new version of Gmail for Symbian & RIM phones or phones supporting J2ME. Version 2.0 is available at http://m.google.com/mail

It looks good and they have added extra support for multiple accounts, so one is able to switch to other email addresses. Extremely useful if you have more than one mail address.

There is also offline support which is great if you are on a train writing an email and about to send, when suddenly you are going through a tunnel or in an area with no reception. The email gets saved in your Outbox, and when you have signal again, the email is sent automatically.

Did you know Gmail has it’s own blog. Check it out, it’s very good.

Damn, I can’t believe I can put a 16GB micro SDHC memory card in my original Nokia N95. There seems no reason now for me to upgrade my phone. It just shows you how smart this little phone is even if it came out over eighteen months ago.

The price of memory especially in the SDHC department has come down so much over the past year. I think I paid £80 for my 6GB twelve months ago, and now the 16GB sells for £50. (Insane)…

Here is a mobile phone compatibility chart from mymemory.co.uk just in case you buy the memory card and discover it does not work in your phone.

There is a new firmware out for the Nokia N95. I had a bit fun yesterday after I upgraded to V30.0.015. For some reason or other it conflicted with a trial application called “Handy Shell“.

I was unable to remove the Handy Shell application, and every time I started the phone it would just lock up with a message “Phone start-up failed. Contact the retailer“. Did a search on Google, and found a whole lot of solutions, which didn’t work for me. After a couple of Q&A on the Nokia Forum, I decided to re-install the firmware, which fortunately fixed the problem, but I was unable to use my latest backup. Actually I think the latest backup contained the Handy Shell application, which was the root of the problem.

Don’t get me wrong, the Handy Shell application is brilliant, although it came out before V30, so perhaps it does not like the new firmware changes. I don’t know, but my phone is back to it’s former glory, faster than before, and has a few extra features namely (as seen on Nokia Addict dot com).

- Maps 2.0
- Nokia Search 4.0 with google plugin
- Share on OVI added
- Comes with music extension
- Mosh & OVI bookmarks added to browser.

Changes/Improvements include:
- Download! application updated (v3.1.50)
- New basline for Startup settings
- New baseline/upgrade to music Player
- Baseline update for Flashlite3
- Current consumption improvements
- New basline for VOIP
- General error corrections

There is this great new application called Mobbler, that allows you to login to LastFM account on your mobile and to stream music. The set up is pretty basic and it worked very well provided there was signal.

I tried it out on the train this morning, and it was not as reliable as I had hoped. Once it loses connection, you have to manually reconnect. (Lets hope this gets changed in newer versions as it is a right pain if your phone is buried in your pocket).

Overall I like where they are going with this application and would highly recommend using it!

Note: you need to have an account on LastFM before trying to use this application. You can sign up here.

If you log into LastFM on the web, you’ll notice they have updated your library, which is very cool.

Before using Nokia Map Loader v. 2.0.2 one needs to install Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, which is roughly a 60MB download. Once this is done, the installation is straight forward. The look and feel is very similar to all the Nokia Applications.

Once Nokia Map Loader is opened and you have connected your Nokia to it via USB cable or Bluetooth the application checks your phone and tells you if there is new map data available to download (very cool).

I don’t know about you, but I use the Internet a lot on my Nokia N95. Getting around London has been made a lot easier by using Google Maps on my mobile. They have just updated their awesome software to version 2.2, which boasts new features such as ‘public transport timetables in 60 cities worldwide, faster search results, star ratings for businesses and other user-generated content’.

Watch some Google Geek talk about the new features.

It’s almost 18 months since I got the Nokia N95, and it’s been an incredible smart phone. There was no phone that came close to it’s features, functionality, awesome camera etc, not even the new crappy iPhone 3G could match it (and they are boasting all the features the N95 had for ages as New Features on their phone - Jokers aren’t they?) Ha Ha.

Up until the 24th of July 2008 that is!    Samsung have released the INNOV8 smart phone that has everything the N95 has and a lot more and will surely beat the new Nokia N96. In fact it makes that N96 look silly. (not sure what Nokia were thinking when they made this phone).

Take a look at these features:

Double the network speed at HSDPA 7.2Mbps.
Latest OS version from Symbian.
8MP camera, with image stabilizer.
Bigger battery at 1200mAh.
An lense cover that opens and closes automatically.
16GB flash drive + SHDC up to 16GB.

Awesome features, but my one concern which they have not menioned yet is the power adapter and the USB connection. Jo has the Samsung D800 and it has a Custom USB and power adapter, not the universal USB connector. That to me is annoying. It means having to carry around the cables.

< ![endif]–> Lets hope it’s not the case.

For now this is definitely my next phone, unless Nokia release a similar phone, with similar features. This will happen, but when?

We took a 5 hour drive down to Cornwall on Thursday avoiding the motorways but not the speed cameras. We were on a mission to prove that a free application ‘Speedcam‘ for various Nokia mobiles was up to the task of warning us when a speed camera was present.

Speedcam used in conjunction with Nokia Maps 2.0 or on it’s own, was more than up to the task. As it is a separate application it runs in the background using the GPS in the phone. When a camera comes in range or is at the designated GPS co-ordinates it sounds an alarm similar to a siren, which to be honest nearly caused me to have a heart attack, when I first heard it. It will definitely wake you up as well if you have nodded off. Very effective in deed.

Coming home we had a mix of motorway, A roads and B roads and again the application worked brilliantly.

BTW: There are no speed camera on the the south circular of the A25 (the road running in parallel to the M25). Not that I was speeding.

For a more detailed review of this Speed Camera Warning System called Speedcam, click on the link. My Nokia N95 is the first edition (v1) with the latest firmware update.

One thing to note. The Speedcam application is free, be it a little tricky to install but if one follows the authors instructions you’ll be fine. You also need to download a “database of speed camera locations”, which will cost you £17 for a year subscription from Pocket GPS World. Personally I think it’s money well spent considering the very minimum you are likely to be fined if caught speeding is £68 + 3 points off your licence. Also once you have paid, you are entitled to unlimited database downloads and not just for the UK camera locations. There are plenty of other countries. You can also download POI (Point of Interest) locations and there are over 318 000. (e.g. accommadation, attractions, shops, eateries, holiday destinations etc).

I would highly recommend this application. In fact if you download the software from the author, please give the guy a donation.

The cheeky bastards!!!! I refer to Microsoft and T-Mobile, who are my mobile service provider. MSN Live is free on every computer, yet if you want to install it on a mobile, then you have to fork our £1.50 - They must be having a laugh! T-Mobile have an even bigger cheek, considering I am already paying for Web n’ Walk, which is 24/7 Internet on my phone. How is a phone with 24/7 broadband different to a computer? We live in the age of technology, yet scum bag companies like T-Mobile think they can rip us off with even more pointless costs.