Best Symbian S60 Nokia E71 Applications (updated 13/4/09)

Congratulations. You’re probably sitting with your Nokia E71 in your hands right now – or you have a different Symbian S60-based telephone, in which case this post will have relevance for you too. This post will for starters cover the applications I have and use with great pleasure on my own Nokia E71 – comments and additions, however, are very welcome!

At the very bottom I have a few requests for applications I’m looking for as well!

So let’s get started!!

Communication:
Email: E71 comes standard with an e-mail client which also includes Nokia’s own mail for exchange. No need for special apps here – the E71 does a fine job as it is already.
UPDATE (13/4/2009): w0nk0 alerted me earlier today to an alternative app for HTML-addicts. The app is ProfiMail from “Lonely Cat games”. I’ve just run a brief test of ProfiMail and see both pros and cons of the application. The main pro seems to be its ability to support HTML email – something that Nokia aficionados have long asked Nokia to do something about. In addition it supports pushmail, but Nokia has similar services with Nokia Messaging for consumers and Mail for Exchange for the business users. And now for some of the cons: Profimail holds many features and offers great flexibility. My experience as a first-time user was that ProfiMail fails to deliver simplified organisation of information. In fact when I didn’t manage to create a connection to my POP3 server via either a wireless LAN or my 3G connection, I uninstalled the application. Good news is they let you try the application before you buy – maybe my experience had more to do with me than with the Lonely Cat. Get ProfiMail here: http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=profimail.

Chat: Nokia loads the E71 with a software called “IM”. I assume it’s supposed to be some sort of instant messaging application. For most people this will not do, and so alternatives are required, such as:

• Nimbuzz (preferred): An excellent chat application that allows communication with contacts on the following networks: Windows Live, Skype, Yahoo!, Facebook, Google Talk, Orkut, AIM, MobileMe, MySpace, ICQ, Twitter (updates), Gadu-gadu, Hyves (Dutch social network), Giovani, Jabber, studiVZ/meinVZ, and schülerVZ. Nimbuzz also allows you to use a bunch of SIP services, and configure your own in case you preferred SIP service isn’t listed. Outbound calls can be done with SIP, SkypeOut or your normal mobile service provider, giving you international calls from your mobile for nearly nothing. Nimbuzz was recently upgraded to version 2.0 and can be found at http://www.nimbuzz.com

Other applications in this category include: Fring (interesting alternative to Nimbuzz), Windows Live, Skype, and Palringo. Like Nimbuzz and Fring, Palringo combines several services in one application. It falls short, though, with no SIP and only Windows Live, YIM, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, Google Talk, Facebook (Alpha), and iChat. Palringo also has a location based service, which I’m not all too sure what to do with…

SMS: Various applications exist to tweak your sms experience. If you must then check Nokia Conversation for threaded sms. Get it here.

• My preference for sms is  a small application from Norwegian Mobile Nordic called SMS Preview. It gives you a 30-60 second preview of any sms as it arrives without the need to press any buttons. Get it for your mobile phone here: http://get.smspreview.mobi.

Call Recording: Yes, you might want to do this now and then for a variety of reasons. In any case there are several applications for this as well. My preference is:

• TotallRecall from KillerMobile software: allowing silent recording either hot-button activated or automatic of any mobile conversation. This application is free to test, and will cost you $13,50 to buy. Get it here.

Web 2.0:

• Blogging: Wordmobi is a WordPress blogging application, which fulfills the most basic needs of the mobile blogger. The most current version 0.7.0 was released in early April 2009. Get the application here. Wordmobi requires installation of Python, which can be found here.
• Twitter: A lot of discussion on this topic was put to rest recently when Mobileways.de released the impressive Gravity client for twitter. Mobileways provides a free trial of their roughly €10 application. It is by far the sleekest Twitter client for Symbian to date and well worth the €10 pricetag. Find it here: http://mobileways.de/products/gravity/gravity/.
• Web 2.0 publishing: CellSpin is a free and easy to use mobile blogging app that lets you blog photos, audio, video, and text to WordPress, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube, Live Journal, MySpace, and more! This very powerful application is like a publishing house on your phone. Publish literally any kind of content from anywhere at any time. Get the application here: http://www.cellspin.net. Alternatives include Shozu, which disappointed in several ways…

GPS and Location-based applications: One of the best things about the Nokia E71 is how the makers managed to put an internal GPS into such a sleek design. Having a GPS opens for location-based services and applications such as maps, navigation, searching for friends’ locations etc. The best application on my E71 are:

• Nokia Sports Tracker: Ideal for walkers, joggers, runners, cyclists of any kind, in short anyone who does distance based sports outside. The GPS will help you track speed, distance, pace, and averages of those + calories burned, put it all in nice graphs, give you a map of where you are/have been training AND share that near-live with anyone who you want to watch where, how fast and how far you’ve trained. Download here: http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/download.do
• Google Maps with Google Latitude: This two in one application evolved from the original Google Maps application which in itself is pretty good. Google Maps lets you see where you are and search for points of interest anywhere. With Latitude, however, Google Maps becomes an entirely different application. Latitude lets your contacts know where you are on a Google Map – or were you were the last time you updated it. Very interesting start of location-based-services from always interesting Google!! Download here: http://m.google.com/maps.
• Alternatively you can use Nokia Friend View, which does more or less the same thing and can be downloaded here. During non-scientific testing Nokia Friend View did seem to load maps much slower than Google Maps. In addition one could imagine many Nokia users going to Nokia Friend View, while many users of anything will use Google Maps. Lost that battle Nokia – on to the next.
  

Media Playing:

Now we’re going to have a closer look at which special applications you might want to get for playing media on your E71. The E71 is an OK media player when you have little other options and you can actually enjoy a movie if you have a pair of headphones with you and some time to kill:

• CorePlayer Mobile: Plays this interesting range of video formats: H.264 (AVC), AVCHD, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 part 2 (ASP), DivX, XviD, WMV*, Theora*, Dirac*, MJPEG, MSVIDEO1. That’s just such an impressive list and I haven’t found comparable applications anywhere. Download it here!!
• YouTube: Now there are some things that CorePlayer Mobile is just OK at. One of those things is Youtube. So the guys at Youtube have developed their own app – the YouTube app. It does a decent job at viewing YouTube videos over any type of internet connection. Only things missing is an overview of your own account and an upload feature. Get the YouTube app here: http://m.google.com/youtube.
• Internet Radio: In one of the most recent firmware updates to firmware 200.x.x.x Nokia included the “internet radio” application in the update. You can tune in to any station in the overview via the internet connection on your phone. Make sure to make a backup of your data before you upgrade to newer firmware.

Various applications:

• Google Translator: Excellent translation tool for your S60-based Nokia. Attempts to determine which language you’re translating from and just allows you to select your target language. Works pretty well and is downloadable here.
• Google Docs: The well-known Google Docs application now with editable documents also on Nokia S60 phones. Find it at http://m.google.com/docs.

The most interesting single application developer seems to be either Nokia or Google. Find all Google applications for S60-based Nokias at http://www.google.com/mobile/nokia_smart/

I am looking for:

• Good Facebook application
• Solid GPS Navigation application
• Comments and additional insight on all of the above applications and application categories.