Unlocked Nokia E63 Bargain $149 Shipped

What if I told you that for $149, you can have a pretty darn good smartphone w/ 3G US, WiFi and GPS support along with a full QWERTY keyboard. I'll even toss in the good name of Nokia along with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support, quad-band world phone, 18 day standby and has the look to impress in your next boardroom meeting?

Take your pick, $149 after a $50 rebate. Free Shipping included!

Nokia E63 Ruby Red or Nokia E63 Ultra Marine Blue

AT&T Data Network Down in NYC? 05-17-2008

I've been having trouble accessing my MediaNet data network using Nokia N95-3 all morning. At first I thought it was because I was tampering with the WiFi/3G setting with Fring last night. But it doesn't look to be the case. Since then, I've done the following:

1. Reset the Nokia Factory Setting (Tool/Setting/General/Factory Setting with default code 1-2-3-4-5) - still has no internet connection
2. Soft Reset the phone by typing in *#7370# unlock code 1-2-3-4-5 - still has no internet connection
3. At this point, the phone is back to barebone factory OS setting, no applications impacting what-so-ever...
4. I called AT&T support, and they were very good about troubleshooting for me. Today, the lady rep registered my unlocked phone's IMEI to their system to match with my SIM. They checked out my account and everything looks fine as well as gone through a process called "provisioning" to ensure I have all the settings. Just before she past to off to "tech support" team, I was disconnected.
5. Thinking it might be due to the 3G network down, I switched my phone into EDGE network only, and problem persists.

Prior to being disconnected, there are some known technical issues around NY area, says the rep. I am hoping that is the reason why I am having so much trouble... however, my iPhone's EDGE data seems to be uneffected.

I am at lost for words and solutions.

Nokia N95-4 8GB 3G US NAM $511Shipped?

I can't verify if this is a legitimate US Version (UMTS 850/1900?) of the Black Nokia N95 8GB, but Dell's website says it is. According to TechBargains.com, the price of this phone dropped by $140, plus you can cash in a coupon for $128 off. This is a pretty insane deal for a brand new released 8GB N95-4.

Important Update: I just verified that THIS IS NOT US 3G supported, unlike what Dell claims to be. According to Dell, the manufacturer number is 002D2Q8, and according to Buy.com, its WCDMA 2100. This is European and Asian 3G spec (aka. N95-2)

Important Update 2: According to the folks at Howard Forum, some have called Dell and confirmed this is indeed a US 3.5G N95-4 8GB NAM... somehow they didn't update the Part ID number. I am confused and a little tempted...

Update: While this $511 is no longer available, Amazon.com is now carrying this phone US-version for $579 shipped. See my update here.

Yahoo Go 3.0 Beta Review on Nokia N95

Couple days ago, I wrote about Yahoo Go 3.0 Beta being available. I took the time to install it on my Nokia N95 and here is my review:

Installation: Simple. The hardest part is to type in the hard to remember URL into your mobile broswer (get.go.yahoo.com). I would recommend an easier URL like yaho.com/go. My 3G data downloaded the 99K file in less than 10 seconds and installation took place in less than 45 seconds when I chose to install on the phone memory.

Application: Not bad. This application is designed to encompass a suite of "web-widgets". (including: Y! News, Mail, Finance, Sports, Flickr, Weather, Entertainment, Local, etc.). It also has the option to download three additional widgets for MTV News, eBay and MySpace. I played around with most of the programs and they are up to the basic tasks. Althouh having the widgets inside an application felt less robust than its true potential. Not sure if this is a bad software design or too demanding for the N95's already pushed CPU (ARM 11 333MHz). I can see myself relying on the eBay widget to check on my auction listings as it would offer a better mobile eBay experience for me compared to the browser option.

Overall verdict is that I give props to Yahoo for rolling all of its core services into one nifty application/widget pack. The main page carousal has a great widgety feel to it. I still believe that the future of mobile will be relying heavily on powerful and robust apps or widgets. If Yahoo can improve the speed and efficiency of the program (much like iPhone's default widgets), we may have a serious contender here.

Yahoo does offer another URL for iPhone or WM5/6 and S60 devices that is web-based. The URL is beta.m.yahoo.com. This is an update to its original Mobile homepage, the look and feel is much like Google's mobile homepage.

Gmail IMAP on S60 3rd Edition Nokia N95

A while back, when I was the proud owner of a AT&T 8525, I’ve written a story on my dislike for Gmail’s IMAP services on a Windows Mobile 6 device. I won’t go into the complaints here, feel free to take a look.

Today, I will report from the other side of the pond, how successful Gmail IMAP works on a S60 powered Nokia N95-3. Following the trusty instructions at Symbian Addict, I successfully setup the Gmail account to my mailboxes. Here are the my mobile experience on the S60 vs WM6 using IMAP:

• S60 asks how many email to download (I have it at 20) whereas WM6 has a default quantity
• S60 downloads email header only and successfully retrieves the messages upon clicking
• S60 email retrival is much faster, it feels like it just goes for that individual email whereas
WM6 is attempting to download the entire batch each time you hit send and receive.
• WM6 will often return blank email messages and require hit “send and receive” again to
download
• WM6 will still retrieve blank messages upon the previous instruction

I am very happy with Gmail IMAP on the Nokia N95-3.