The Nokia Guide

OVI Suite adds DNLA (UPnP)-based Home Media Server capabilities

Just recently I decided to move from PC Suite to the new OVI Suite. OVI Suites sports a few features that PC Suite lacks and a hidden one that I recently found out about are the DNLA (UPnP)-based Home Media Server capabilities. This basically comes down to using your UPnP based device, in this case either the N95, N95 8GB, N82, N78, N96 and probably the N85 and N79 to share and control your media among your PC, notebook or other UPnP devices. All of this is wirelessly done via WLAN. Previously Nokia recommended the Home Media Server by SimpleCenter as a separate add-on, but this functionality is now finally fully integrated into OVI Suite. With this added functionality OVI suite with its online services is quickly becoming a very impressive all-in-one solution. In case you don’t have OVI Suite and are still using PC Suite, you could always use the Nokia recommended SimpleCenter software or Windows Media Player 11.

To access the feature in OVI suite, go to Tools and select “Home Media Server.” Here you can select the folders you want to share or turn media sharing OFF altogether. The latest version of OVI suite can be downloaded right here.

 

Remove EXIF data from images with Photo Detagger

As geotagging and GPS devices becomes more popular there’s the increasing need to share our location with others. Privacy is one aspect that many of us tend to forget. What happens if you don’t want share the location of the image you’ve taken last week. As always there’s a PC solution and of course a mobile one, which in this case comes in the form of Tea Vui Huang's Photo Detagger. Photo Detagger is a Java app that can completely wipe the EXIF data included with digital images. The process even reduces the size of the JPEG photos by about 3-5 KBytes as well. If you worried about losing the original image you’ll be happy to know that the The detagged photos will be saved to the "Images" folder of the microSD card with a "-001" suffix, preserving the original one. Photo Detagger can be found here.

Panoman version 3 released

Panoman is not unkown to us here at the Nokia Guide as we covered it during the launch of the N82 back in Novemeber 2007 .  The guys behind Panoman have released an updated version 3 that’s compatible with basically every S60 3^RD edition equipped Nokia device. This should come as good news for all of you who emailed me about not getting this app included with your N82 and this should give you N95 users the chance to try this out. Panoman basically allows you to take a series of pictures and and automatically stitch them together creating a single panoramic image. Panoman 3 brings a host of new features, adressing one of the most commonly asked for feature: support for higher resolutions! With support for higher megapixels this could bring a twist to contenders for the Nokia Creative monthly awards of the great and beautiful images posted on the Flickr N95 User Group.

Panoman 3 has also improved stitching quality quite dramatically and exposure differences between adjacent frames are smoothly blended. Other new features include:

- Exposure correction: PanoMan can automatically correct
- White balance: you can alter the balancing according whether it is sunny or cloudy
- Sound: play a sound with every frame captured
- Storage: store images on the phone or memory card

If your a N82 user with Panoman 2 and would like to update to the new version, or maybe you’re a N95 owner and want to try it out? Head on to the Panoman page and get your copy. I’m getting my copy this week, so expect a review pretty soon.

Just in case your N82 doesn’t have Panoman …

If you remember, I talked about Panoman just after the launch of the N82, basically an application that allows you to take a series of pictures and later on stitch them together creating a single panoramic image. Well it seems that many people who got the N82 didn’t get this application preinstalled. I have a strong suspicion that it only came installed with APAC (Asia-Pacific) versions of the N82. Why would user with APAC devices get the program and not the others?  Seeing the countless emails I got from N82 users who didn’t get this program, The Nokia Guide comes to the rescue! I have a habit of creating an image of the memory card of my Nseries devices before I actually use them, this allows me to restore the device with content and all to exact factory conditions. In this case even if your N82 did come with Panoman, formatting the memory card completely deletes this program, with no way of getting it back. Doing a firmware update or reinstall won’t help either as the program comes installed on the card and not in the firmware. To give your N82 the Panoman treatment just backup your memory card and format it. After your done connect your N82 in “Mass Storage” mode to your PC and copy the content of the image to the card. Voila! Panoman should now be installed on your device.

Software has been removed due request from Panoman.

InsFast: Batch installer for S60 3rd edition

This has got to be one of the most useful and definitely one of the top 10 apps for 2007. After being spoiled with NokMote, Emtube and RotateMe we can now add Insfast to the list! One of the most annoying and time-consuming tasks on these Nokia S60 devices is having to reinstall every single app after a firmware upgrade or hard reset. If that wasn’t enough you’ll have to deal with several security warnings and popups. InsFast is a type of batch installer that solves this by allowing you place all the .sis, .sisx, .jar or jad installation files and it will take care of the rest. It’s a not a “set it and forget” solution as you’ll will still have to deal with a few popups and security warnings, but these are much less than you would usually get and in the end you’ll have your programs installed and ready for action! How cool is that?! One thing I would advice is to place the installation files in the memory location (card of phone memory) where you would want the program to be installed. So it would make sense to group your apps into two groups: those to be installed in the memory card (or built-in memory in the case of the N95 8GB, N91, N91 8GB and N81 8GB) or phone memory. After that, all you’ll need to do is point InsFast to the desired location. One word of warning is that the file is not signed, so you’ll need to sign it to install. Does anyone know if this will uninstall unsigned files and make them work without signing them?

Download insfast.zip

Via: Symbian-Freak

Image Courtesy of: Symbian-Freak

Handy screen saver with extra large numbers and icons for all variants of the N95

Howardforums member HOCKEY has created one of the coolest screensavers for the N95 8GB. There’s also a version specifically made for the N95-1 and N95-3.  It uses large icons and numbers to display the time, missed calls, Bluetooth status and received SMS/MMS messages. For this to work you’ll need a shareware app called tyscrsaver.  Instructions for installation and copying of the TY1.mbm can be found in the note  included with the app. And lastly you’ll need TY1.mbm for each version of the N95, one for the N95 8GB and one if you have the N95-1 or N95-3. For this to work you’ll need sign the .SIS file to your phones IMEI/Serial number via the Symbian Signed Website and then get your Device Certification file. This will allow you install TYScrsaver and then you’ll get the directory on your phone to place the custom TY1.mbm file. The Symbian Signed site can be found here. This is going to take a little extra work, but you’ll agree that the end result is pretty usefull and looks really cool, especially on the N95 8GB. Special thanks to HOCKEY.

Orb and updated PC Suite available for download.

Nokia’s “Download Software” (software for the PC) has been getting new additions and totals more then 15 apps! So I wasn’t surprised when the Orb software showed up on that page. Orb lets you access your music, photos, and videos stored on your PC from a compatible Nokia device. With Orb, you can also get access to your home webcam on your Nokia device. Nokia also released an updated version of their PC Suite now at version 6.84. What has been changed? They have added some enhance to improve performance and stability and it now notifies you when new add-on applications are available. But to me the most important feature added is the ability sync files and folders! The Orb software can be found here and the update PC suite can be found here.