Guide for using Google as online sync service for Nokia E6

As one of online sync service providers, Google support many sync protocols and couple of them also supported by Nokia E6, but for this guide we’ll use ActiveSync protocol since it provide a fluent way (push) to sync your data. Granted not all feature supported in Symbian^3 devices, but Google does a great service for those features that supported.

The outcome for this guide is to have a synchronized contact, email and calendar between Google and Nokia E6, which mean any changes on your contact, email and calendar on Nokia E6, will reflect on Google and vice versa. Please note that only main calendar will be synced with Nokia E6 also group contact is not supported.

Before we start, make sure to backup contact and calendar data both on Nokia E6 and Gmail. Also since the initial sync involved moving large data between Google and Nokia E6, I’m suggesting that you use WIFI connection for faster transfer, or unlimited data plan.

First step we do is preparing data on Gmail and Nokia E6 for sync process:

• Login to Gmail then select contact, you’ll see a “My Contacts” and “Other Contacts” label. All contacts in “My Contacts” will be synced with Nokia E6. To avoid many sync conflict we’ll move all contacts in this label to “Other Contacts”. To do this,  select all contacts in “My Contacts”, click “Groups” button and uncheck “My Contacts”.
• Go to contacts on Nokia E6, mark all your contacts then select “Option”, “Copy Business card to”, choose drive “E:” or “F:”.
• Make sure the calendar time zone in Gmail and Nokia E6 are the same.
• If the calendar that intended to use is Nokia E6 calendar then you’ll need to sync with Outlook or Outlook Express with Ovi Suite (Windows) or iSync (OSX) first, then export as ics from Outlook or iCal, otherwise skip to the next step.

Second step is configuring Mail for Exchange in Nokia E6:

• Open email client on Nokia E6, choose “Mail for Exchange”, and enter your Gmail user name and password also your email address, leave “domain” input empty.
• Choose “Next” then enter m.google.com as “Mail for Exchange server”
• Choose “Next” then accept and store certificate permanently when prompted.
• Choose “OK” on warning prompt then select “Contact” and “Calendar” as data to sync, choose “Next”, “Remove from Nokia E6” and initial sync will begin.

After initial sync, the third step is managing synced data:

• Go to contacts on Nokia E6, it should  be empty by now, populate it with backup by choosing “Option” then “Copy Business card from” and select drive which the backup are.
• On contact, select “My Card” and enter your personal information. Make sure you enter Gmail address in “Email” field to link this contact as your profile in Gmail.
• Force sync on Nokia E6, go to “Mail”, “Mail for Exchange”, “Option” then “Send and receive”, this will take a while to complete depend on number of contacts and your connection speed.
• Gmail provided a convenient way to managing your contact, we’ll take advantage of that. Select “My Contacts” you’ll see your Nokia E6 contacts are there including contact’s picture if any, now move Gmail contacts that in “Other Contacts” by select all contacts in “Other Contacts”,  click “Groups” and check “My Contacts” then go to “My Contacts” and click “More”, “Find & merge duplicates” to merge your Nokia E6 contacts and Gmail contacts.
• If you make backup of calendar in ics file earlier you’ll need to restore it to Gmail since we’ll be using “Mail for Exchange” calendar instead “Personal” calendar in Nokia E6. To do this, go to “Calendar” in Gmail, click pull down menu on “Other calendars” and choose “Import calendar”. Choose ics file that you’ve created earlier and import it to main calendar.
• Force sync again.

By now you should had your contacts, calendar and email on Nokia E6 sync fluently (push) with your Gmail account. You might want to adjust setting of Mail for Exchange to your liking, go to Nokia site for further info

Hope this useful,

Free online sync services for Nokia E6 or Symbian^3 devices : Quick comparison

Just got my self a new Nokia E6-00, since it came with wifi capability and unlimited data plan from my provider, I decided to take its data sync to the cloud like everybody else these days.

Here's a quick round-up of free online sync service that play nice with Nokia E6 or other Symbian^3 devices :

Features	Google	Windows Live	Ovi	My Funambol
Sync Client	Mail for Exchange	Mail for Exchange	Nokia Email	Funambol sync client *
Email sync	Push	Push	Pull	Not supported
Contact sync	Push	Push **	Pull	Pull
Calendar sync	Push	Push	Pull	Pull
Task sync	Not supported	Push	Pull	Pull
Notes sync	Not supported	Not supported	Pull	Pull
*	Not built-in
**	No contact picture

As you can see, Nokia as handset maker provide service with complete feature, but unfortunately the feature that provided wasn’t on par with other online services implementation such as Google or Windows Live.

2011 Indonesian Public Holidays Calendar

As usual like the previous year, just import it to iCal.

Here it is, 2011 Indonesian Public Holidays ics, just right-click and save-as an ics file.

iSync guide for Nokia 6700c

This guide tested with Nokia 6700c firmware 13.10, Mac OSX 10.6.4 and iSync Plugin version 0.4

Please follow these steps prior syncing your Nokia 6700c with iSync:

• Install iSync plugin.
• Make sure the contacts and calendar that you want to sync are in OSX instead of phone, since we’ll need to clear all contact and calendar entries in phone. Also don’t forget make a backup in address book and iCal.
• Make sure the Timezone on both devices are set correctly. Go to “Preferences” then “Advanced” and tick “Turn on timezone support” in iCal. On your phone, go to “Setting” then “Date and time” and select “Date & time Setting”, you’ll find the option to change the Timezone.
• Sanitize your iCal entries if necessary, if you ever sync the phone before, you might notice that there are entries which subject are in the “<year> <name>” format, eg: “1986 Lindsay Lohan”. These are left over birthday entries from the previous sync, On the next sync these birthday entries are re-created again by phone so it will be duplicated, therefore it is necessary to delete these left over entries in iCal.
• Clear contacts and calendar entries in your phone, got to “Contacts” then “Del. all contacts” to clear contacts. Go to “Organizer”, “Calendar” then “Options” and “Delete notes”, “All Notes” to clear calendar entries.
• Open iSync, if your phone already registered, remove it and add it again to obtain the first sync screen. Select “Erase data on the device then sync” for the first sync, and go for the first sync.
• After the first sync you’ll notice that your phone contact list had been populated with entries from address book, at the moment you phone will scan it’s contact list for birthday entries and generated calendar entry for it. These process takes time, so you better wait a while before performing the second sync.
• After all birthday entries are created properly on your phone, it is time to perform the second sync. After the sync, you’ll notice the “<year> <name>” all day event created in iCal.
• It’s done, have fun managing your days and contacts.

Hope this help,

Get more of Nokia 6700 Classic’s GPS with TrekBuddy

While Ovi map provide good navigation aid, still there’s one feature that I found missing which is the ability to export GPS data log to file. This feature is very useful for outdoor activities such as running, hiking or cycling, you can review your track by importing the log file in to software with map capabilities such as TrailRunner or Google Maps.


Fortunately there are many free application (J2ME) for Nokia 6700 Classic that provided this feature, and in my opinion the best application that provide this feature is TrekBuddy. 


Things that I like from TrekBuddy are:

• It’s free as in gratis, won’t cost you any money.
• Support for exporting GPS data log to GPX or NMEA file format.
• Support for time-zone on generated log file, the log file will play nice with time-zone aware map software.
• Signed midlet, its mean there will be less of annoying security message.

The installation are straight forward: 

• Download the jad and jar file, and copy both files to the same folder in your phone memory card.
• Open the gallery application on your phone, browse to the folder where the files are copied, highlight TrekBuddy and choose “option” then select “Application access” to go to application access menu. Set every available option with either “Ask first time only” or “Always allowed” otherwise they will be asked every time you run TrekBuddy.
• Now TrekBuddy are ready to run, for usage manual and setup please refer to TrekBuddy’s wiki.

Happy Tracking :D

Firmware Version 13.10 for Nokia 6700 Classic

There’s a jump leap in version number with this firmware since the last update, 13.10 compared to 10.60 so I’m expecting a major changes but it turn out that the changes are not much at all, it’s more like an evolution than a revolution. 

First thing to notice is that with this firmware release, there’s a less option for home screen integration, windows live messenger are gone, so does the search, as a matter of fact windows live messenger are completely gone so you’ll need to install it from ovi store if you needed. It seems to me that nokia is trying to get rid of third party services in home screen. These are welcomed changes as long as there a way to add additional services when needed.

Second is that ovi contacts are completely gone, nokia seems to favor the built-in IM than ovi contacts to consolidate its text messaging services, now all text messaging services such as IM, email and SMS could be found under one menu which is Messaging. That’s another welcomed change if only nokia had improve its built-in IM, the current version of IM client always disconnected prior 10 minutes of idle time.

Third is that there’s an update in camera software, with this firmware, text menu on camera automatically rotate as you rotate the phone from portrait mode to landscape mode or vice-versa. Unfortunately there is a glitch that camera button still active even though the phone in locked mode. 

And lastly, ovi maps are updated, also now included free voice guided navigation (in the previous firmware this is a paid feature).

Well, with this firmware it’s clear to me that nokia try consolidate the services the phone provided, get rid of the unnecessary services, it’s a good move, but I’m expect a couple more firmware that will updated or polished whatever services that left behind. 

New firmware updates for Nokia 6700 Classic

The new firmware update for Nokia 6700 Classic are version 10.60, unfortunately there is no information of what is new in this version (the previous firmware version is 10.50).

The most visible changes are in the messaging area, IM and Email got a new user interface, now its more look like the user interface that found at Nokia X3.

The Email now support Nokia Messaging which provide push email support, but this option only available with Nokia Messaging subscription from network operator.

As for IM, in this firmware Nokia also drop support for IMPS servers. IM could not connect to IMPS server anymore, instead it will only support Ovi Chat. So now there are two applications in the phone that support Ovi Chat which is IM and Ovi Contact.

Unfortunately thats all the changes in this firmware update, i was hoping that with this firmware the Nokia 6700 Classic will have newest s40 goodies just like Nokia X3. 

Well, even though there’s not much a new feature in this firmware release, but it’s indicate that Nokia still willing to provide support for this handset, and as a Nokia 6700 Classic owner, I hope that Nokia will continue updating the firmware in the futures.