Open Thinkering

Nokia N95 tips, reviews and software all in one place

• Technology, downloads, forums, games, Nokia N95, reviews, S60, Sat Nav, software, Symbian, tips

Nokia N95

It’s taken me the couple of weeks since I bought one to trawl through blogs, forums, wikis and websites about the Nokia N95. This post is dedicated to putting what I’ve found out so far in one place to help others who have just invested in the little marvel!

Note: I shall be adding to this post as I find out more information, so bookmark it for later. 🙂

Nokia N95 side view

Tips:

  1. Change from your N95 scanning for both UMTS and GSM networks (i.e. ‘Dual mode’) to just GSM) unless you have a very good reason not to. The constant scanning for a UMTS network really affects battery life. Change this setting under Settings/Phone/Network.
  2. Don’t use the red ‘disconnect’ or ‘hangup’ key to exit out of an application. In many apps, this just keeps it in the background, eating up memory and slowing down the OS on your N95.
  3. You can change the shortcuts on the home screen to the apps you use most frequently by going to Settings/General/Personalisation/Standby Mode/Shortcuts.
  4. You can create sub-folders within the Applications folder. This makes it easier to navigate when you have many programs installed. Go to Options/New Folder to do this.
  5. Press and briefly hold the multimedia key (the one next to the camera button) to go to the gallery and do the same for the camera button, or open the camera shutter to go to photo mode.

DivX

Applications:

There’s a plethora of applications for the Symbian S60 platform. Trouble is, not all of them are compatible, or at least play nicely, with v3 of that OS. Here’s a list of some I have found to be worthwhile along with a brief description of what they do:

  • amAze – free GPS software (Java-based)
  • Clock screensaver – replace the tiny one that kicks in by default.
  • DivX Player for Mobile – plays DivX-encoded video. If you have no joy with the link, try P2P…
  • Fring – mobile VoIP – bring together your Skype, MSN, Google Talk, SIP and Twitter contacts!
  • Google Mail – get a GMail application for your N95.
  • MobiReader – read eBooks on the go.
  • Nokia Podcasting – allows you to download podcasts directly to your N95 (via WLAN, GPRS, etc.)
  • Nokia Sports Tracker – much better than Nike+ as it allows you to export your run to Google Earth, see average time, etc.
  • Opera Mini – although the built-in Nokia browser is pretty good, some may prefer this.
  • Screenshot – take screenshots of your N95 to post on blogs, etc.
  • Yahoo! Go – search, find addresses, chat and check email with this free software.
  • Y-Browser – free file manager software

Ducati 3D Extreme

Games:

Some games that work on the N95 aren’t worth playing due to the block graphics and/or small screen real estate. The following can be obtained through various means (some websites are more expensive than others) and work well. The ones marked with an asterisk (*) are my favourites!

  • Ducati 3D Extreme*
  • FIFA Street 2
  • Medal of Honor
  • MiniBlaster
  • Need For Speed Carbon
  • Project Gotham Racing
  • Real Football 2007
  • R-Type
  • SCUMM
  • Sim City
  • Splinter Cell 4*
  • S-Tris
  • Tetris Mania
  • vSun (emulator)
  • Worms Golf (slightly blocky, but worth it!)

N95 Maps

Sat-Nav:

  • The inbuilt Nokia Maps application works reasonably well, but you have to pay to use it for actual turn-by-turn directions. It’s based on Smart2Go software, so you can use their MapLoader to download the maps onto your N95 for the areas you want.
  • Wayfinder 7 works really well but downloads maps on-the-fly, thus eating up data (and therefore money if you’re not on an unlimited data tariff).
  • TomTom have not released a version of their software that works with built-in GPS units as found on the Nokia N95. Therefore, an external bluetooth GPS unit must be used. This works well, but is somewhat redundant.
  • Route66 is other software which which some have reported success. I have not used this so cannot comment on it.

Nokia N95 camera

Reviews:

  • AllAboutSymbian.com have a great multi-part, in-depth review of the Nokia N95.
  • CNET rather scandalously only gave the N95 7 out of 10 in their review.
  • Engadget have a ‘hands-on’ review of the N95.
  • Gizmodo have what they call a ‘long-ass review’ of the N95, but it’s actually shorter than all the above!
  • Softpedia have a review entitled ‘between agony and ecstasy’ which is photo and screenshot-packed.

Nokia N95 (bottom)

Other links:

Photos taken from khedara’s Nokia N95 set @ Flickr