What’s installed on my Nokia E71 and why.

As you might have noticed I am very fond of open source or freeware software. I like the community and the development pace of such projects, and of course I am fond of the price. So, before watching another top 10 freeware list, here’s a list from someone who actually used the programs for months or years and uses them on a daily basis:

1. Home screen

e71_homescreen

From left to right:

  1. Fring - freeware messaging and voice utility. It can do SIP, skype and google talk voice and also chat for those and yahoo, msn etc. It’s almost always running on my phone. I also like the fact that it can change connections from wifi to 3g and back automatically.
  2. Web browser - I currently use O3, opera mini and Skyfire, but still my main browser is the default nokia web browser.
  3. Music player - mainly because I listen to bbc, discovery and cnn podcasts.
  4. cCalcPro - it may be a bit old - it was written for the Nokia E61 but still works great for the E71.
  5. Y-Browser - the best free file browser for the symbian phones.
  6. Connection manager - I use it to see the wifi networks around.

On the bottom:

  1. Notes - the default notes app, I keep all kind of stuff there including shopping lists, links, etc.
  2. Camera - I don’t use it very much but still I want it at one button press away.

Main menu organization

I’m not saying that this is the best way to organize your menu, but it’s the way it works for me.

Comm.

  1. Fring - already mentioned
  2. Gmail - it may be a java app but when I want more than just the inbox (for that I use the default mail client) it’s there to use.
  3. Gravity - best twitter client for s60 in my opinion, I used it in trial mode, right now it’s expired and I’m still deciding whether to buy it.
  4. How things change. TweetS60 is a freeware, symbian native twitter client application for Symbian S60. It might not be as feature packed as Gravity but it does the job and it’s free. So it’s bye bye Gravity for me.
  5. o3 - nice webkit browser, I’m thinking that I will use it instead of the default web client pretty soon.
  6. Skyfire - the browser that promised us full desktop experience on our phones. I still doubt that there is a software in the world that can fit a 19"+ experience in 2.5" of screen. Anyways Skyfire is great for big sites when on edge (I don’t get 3g everywhere yet) and is also great for streaming flash sites.
  7. Wordmobi - wordpress and more mobile blogging tool.

Media

  1. Internet radio - great free app from nokia
  2. Podcasting - good tool for downloading podcasts
  3. Youtube - the default Youtube client

Office

  1. Adobe PDF - no description required
  2. cCalcPro - already described
  3. Quickoffice - this is not the default version loaded on the stock E71, I had the luck to catch the Quickoffice 1$ today offer and got the 5 full version.

Gps

  1. Google maps - no description required
  2. Sports tracker - good nokia tool to record your walks, runs, etc

Games

  1. Golf Pro 2 - it’s a free download on the nokia e61 support page
  2. Global racer - it came free with the phone
  3. Solitaires - free with the phone
  4. Snakes - it’s on the nokia website, I don’t remember exactly on what phone support page
  5. Boom letters - interesting but quickly boring

Tools

  1. Barcode - barcode reader.
  2. DEd - great free text editor.
  3. Energy Profiler - nice to see what’s draining your battery.
  4. FreeTimeBox - great tool to sync your phone’s time with NTP, GPS, etc.
  5. FreeUnRAR - unrar decompression tool.
  6. M!Weather - Weather tool
  7. Nokia Magnifier - Interesting app from the nokia beta labs, and it does just that - magnifies !
  8. Swim - It does what the symbian os should have had from the beginning: you define a sync profile, an access point and how often you want it run - that’s it: AUTOMATIC SYNCML.
  9. Zip - unzip tool.
  10. Screenshot - useful for taking screenshots.

System

  1. SC - Smart connect - free for the e series if you use Nokia Download - it allows you to define access points groups on the e71.

Also, not seen in the picture is a folder called Nef. (short for Unused in romanian) where I dumped all the programs that I don’t use or don’t use from the icon - like PTT, contacts, calendar, etc.

In a following article I will show you how, with a few programs my wife’s Nokia 7610 (not the new supernova) is still a modern (even if somewhat slow) smartphone.