I came across this list of shortcuts for the Nokia E71 recently. It has some useful notes especially pressing ‘T’ to focus the camera, even though Nokia list “autofocus” as a feature of the camera. This improves the quality of the camera somewhat but the images are still nowhere near good enough.

I read Getting Things Done by David Allen last summer after owning the book for nearly 3 years and I’ve been trying to adopt the principles outlined in the book since then, not very well I might add!

As part of my New Year’s resolutions I’d like to improve my adoption of the GTD methodology and will no doubt re-read the book (as it suggests) or even grab an audio version of it. I’ve also become a member of the GTD group on Facebook and started following a couple of GTD focused blogs in the hope these will improve my understanding of the basic principles and provide a few helpful tips along the way.

I came across this video clip the other day (via DIGTD) that helped me visualise some of the items outlined in the GTD book.

The first book I’ve started reading this year, as one of my New Year resolutions, is Gordon Ramsay’s Playing with Fire the follow up to his autobiography Humble Pie. Playing with Fire focuses purely on his business ventures and associated events.

Humble Pie was a fascinating read for someone who enjoys watching pretty much all of the TV programmes Gordon Ramsay is involved with. Although I’m quite a fan of autobiographies in general anyway.  I’m about half way through this book already and just like the first I’m finding it hard to put down!

I needed a Google Talk client on my mobile a while ago and discovered Fring, they provide a Symbian client (as well as other platforms) that allows you to connect to most of the IM networks (Google Talk, MSN, AIM, ICQ, Y! & Skype) as well as providing free VoIP calls to other Fring users at least.

I’ve been using it on my Nokia E71 quite a bit, it’s a pretty good mobile IM client although your friends seem to get ads with every message you send. The VoIP side works pretty well too, even spoke to someone while they were down in South America!

Bit late with this post seeing as we’ve just entered 2009 and the regular NFL season is now over but I thought I’d post it anyway! Here are my photos from the NFL International Series 2008 game between the San Diego Chargers & New Orleans Saints at Wembley, my first ever life NFL game.

I was very happy with the result of the game (in case you didn’t watch it the Saints won!) it was a great game to watch overall, plenty of high powered offense on show although it was a shame Reggie Bush couldn’t make the game due to injury. The atmosphere at the game was excellent, I was bit worried about this but I was proved wrong in the end. The view from our seats was better than I expected too, I wasn’t too sure whether we’d be able to follow the game but we could make everything out very well. It’s a completely different experience as you get to see how every part of the play develops rather than just following what the TV cameras choose. Having said that I still watched the game again when I got home in case I missed anything!

Apart from it being my first ever live NFL game It was also my first time to Wembley, although it took bloody ages to build it is a fantastic venue! Roll on 2009 and the Patriots v Buccaneers!

Happy New Year to everyone, hope you all have a great 2009! I’ve not really thought about any new year resolutions yet so here goes:

• Exercise at least once a week – I used to go to the gym at least twice a week!
• Read at least 6 books in 2009 – 1 every 2 two months should achievable
• Release 1 personal project to the world – service/web app/something!
• Improve my adoption of the GTD methodology

I’ve had my Nokia E71 for nearly 3 months now and overall I’m extremely pleased with it.

Looks

FIrst off it looks gorgeous (the black version anyway, the white version looks a bit cheap to me) and feels great in your hand, it has a good solid feel to it.

I’m sad to say this but it really shows how bad the Nokia N95 was when it comes to looks. Although updating the look & feel of the Nseries seems to be Nokia’s goal at the moment, the N96 & N85 both sport the same similar design.

Keyboard

It’s a decent weight (not to heavy) and has a great texture to the back of it that improves your grip. The QWERTY keyboard looks very small at first but each key has a slightly raised curve to it that makes it surprisingly easy to use.

Theme/Icons

The themes/icons provided are pretty bad really, the first thing you should do is install the Eseries E71 theme – it’s the default Eseries theme with the Flahorn Icon Pack included (icons based on those available in S60v3).  I know the Eseries is targeted at business users but they can appreciate eye candy too! The default icon pack is bloody awful if you ask me!

GPS

The on board GPS locks on a heck of a lot quicker than my old N95 used, I double checked this against a co-wokers N95 too. The E71 seems to leave the GPS device on after it’s first locked on to reduce the time it takes to lock on in future.

Battery

The battery life is absolutely excellent. My E71 is typically used for calls/texts, browsing at home using wifi, e-mail using Nokia’s push beta service and occasionally as a data modem for my laptop and it usually lasts 4-5 days without needing a charge. I tend not to use the 3G network as the coverage can be hit and miss up here in North Wales, but it’s not a huge drain on the battery life. If what I said about the GPS is correct I assume this is a benefit of the excellent battery the E71 has.

Camera

Camera quality is awful. I really hope they improve the quality with a firmware update as it’s pretty much unusable as it is. The poor quality was mentioned in a few reviews I read prior to ordering the phone but I didn’t expect it to be as bad as it is, when they said purple they really meant it! While it’s a decent 3.2MP camera the quality is actually worse than my old SE W810i 2MP which is nearly 3 years old now!

Signal Strength

Signal strenth is OK but not as good as the N95 when coverage is poor. I’ve only noticed this as in work coverage is not the best, where as the N95 would have at least 2 bars of signal my E71 struggles to access the network.

UI

The UI is snappy as you’d expect it to be, however it is an improvement when compared to the UI on the N95 but then the N95 UI was pretty slow even with the latest firmware update. Strange considering both the N95 & E71 run the same version of Symbian OS (v9.2) & S60 (FP1)?

Firmware

The quality of the camera and UI speed on the N95 was significantly improved with firmware updates however I had to change the product code to be able to get at those firmware updates from Nokia. My E71 is running firmware 100.07.76 and while there is an update available it’s not yet available to Vodafone UK users. I’ll probably resort to changing the product code on this device too to benefit from the newer updates rather than wait for Vodafone to get round to releasing it! Having said that the initial firmware supplied with the phone has proven to be quite stable, I haven’t come across any major bugs in it myself so far.

Elsewhere

Looking around the Internet the Nokia E71 seems to have had a pretty good year:

• Dialaphone have listed the E71 in their 2008 mobile phone highlights.
• The Tao of Mac has picked the E71 as his phone of the Year.
• Mobile Choice voted the E71 as phone of the year & smartphone of the year.

While I’m on the subject of AVG 8 this one has been bugging me for a while now. If you don’t want AVG 8 LinkScanner putting annoying little green stars next to your web search results then you can disable the LinkScanner component in the AVG UI. However this causes AVG to show you a nice big error icon in the systray area.

I spent ages trying to stop it from doing this when AVG 8 first came out but couldn’t find an option anywhere. Looks like a recent update has resolved this as you can now right click on the LinkScanner component and select the ‘Ignore component state’ option to stop AVG reporting the fact that you’ve disabled it as an error!

For a few days now AVG Anti-Virus Free 8 has been complaining about it’s database being out of date. When I’ve tried manually running the update feature I get the following error:

“Invalid Update Control CTF File”

I finally got round to doing something about this yesterday, I did a quick scan for all .CTF files and found a couple in:

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\avg8\update\download

I deleted the .CTF files in this folder (I left the .BIN files alone) and tried running the update feature again. Ran without a problem this time and downloaded an definitions update fine.

I’ve got no idea how AVG got itself into this state but it was simple to fix. I’m running Windows XP by the way, the location of the files may be different on Windows Vista.

Following on from Andrew’s list of movies I’ve marked the ones I’ve seen. I’ve seen way over the 85, oops!

( ) Rocky Horror Picture Show
(X) Grease
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean
(X) Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest
(X) Boondock Saints – a must see!
(X) Fight Club – a must see!
(X) Starsky and Hutch
(X) Neverending Story
( ) Blazing Saddles
( ) Airplane
Total: 7

( ) The Princess Bride
(X) AnchorMan
( ) Napoleon Dynamite
(X) Labyrinth
(X) Saw
(X) Saw II
(X) White Noise
( ) White Oleander
(X) Anger Management
( ) 50 First Dates
( ) The Princess Diaries
( ) The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement
Total so far: 13

(X) Scream
(X) Scream 2
(X) Scream 3
( ) Scary Movie
( ) Scary Movie 2
( ) Scary Movie 3
( ) Scary Movie 4
(X) American Pie
(X) American Pie 2
(X) American Wedding
( ) American Pie Band Camp
Total so far: 19

(X) Harry Potter 1
(X) Harry Potter 2
(X) Harry Potter 3
(X) Harry Potter 4
(X) Harry Potter 5
(X) Resident Evil 1
(X) Resident Evil 2
(X) The Wedding Singer
( ) Little Black Book
( ) The Village
( ) Lilo & Stitch
Total so far: 27

(X) Finding Nemo
( ) Finding Neverland
(X) Signs
( ) The Grinch
(X) Texas Chainsaw Massacre
( ) Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Beginning
( ) White Chicks
(X) Butterfly Effect
( ) 13 Going on 30
(X) I, Robot
( ) Robots
Total so far: 32

(X) Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story
(X) Universal Soldier
( ) Lemony Snicket: A Series Of Unfortunate Events
(X) Along Came Polly
( ) Deep Impact
( ) KingPin
( ) Never Been Kissed
( ) Meet The Parents
( ) Meet the Fockers
( ) Eight Crazy Nights
( ) Joe Dirt
(X) KING KONG
Total so far: 36

( ) A Cinderella Story
( ) The Terminal
( ) The Lizzie McGuire Movie
( ) Passport to Paris
(X) Dumb & Dumber
( ) Dumber & Dumberer
(X) Final Destination
(X) Final Destination 2
( ) Final Destination 3
( ) Halloween
(X) The Ring
( ) The Ring 2
( ) Surviving X-MAS
(X) Flubber
Total so far: 41

( ) Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
( ) Practical Magic
( ) Chicago
(X) Ghost Ship
( ) From Hell
(X) Hellboy
( ) Secret Window
( ) I Am Sam
(X) The Whole Nine Yards
( ) The Whole Ten Yards
Total so far: 44

(X) The Day After Tomorrow
( ) Child’s Play
( ) Seed of Chucky
( ) Bride of Chucky
(X) Ten Things I Hate About You
( ) Just Married
(X) Gothika
( ) Nightmare on Elm Street
( ) Sixteen Candles
(X) Remember the Titans
(X) Coach Carter
( ) The Grudge
( ) The Grudge 2
(X) The Mask
( ) Son Of The Mask
Total so far: 50

(X) Bad Boys
(X) Bad Boys 2
( ) Joy Ride
(X) Lucky Number Slevin
(X) Ocean’s Eleven
(X) Ocean’s Twelve
(X) Bourne Identity
(X) Bourne Supremecy
( ) Lone Star
( ) Bedazzled
(X) Predator I
(X) Predator II
( ) The Fog
(X) Ice Age
( ) Ice Age 2: The Meltdown
( ) Curious George
Total so far: 60

(X) Independence Day
( ) Cujo
( ) A Bronx Tale
( ) Darkness Falls
( ) Christine
(X) ET
( ) Children of the Corn
( ) My Bosses Daughter
(X) Maid in Manhattan
( ) War of the Worlds
(X) Rush Hour
(X) Rush Hour 2
Total so far: 65

( ) Best Bet
(X) How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
( ) She’s All That
( ) Calendar Girls
( ) Sideways
(X) Mars Attacks
(X) Event Horizon
( ) Ever After
(X) Wizard of Oz
(X) Forrest Gump
(X) Big Trouble in Little China
(X) The Terminator
(X) The Terminator 2
(X) The Terminator 3
Total so far: 74

(X) X-Men
(X) X-2
(X) X-3
(X) Spider-Man
(X) Spider-Man 2
( ) Sky High
( ) Jeepers Creepers
( ) Jeepers Creepers 2
(X) Catch Me If You Can
(X) The Little Mermaid
( ) Freaky Friday
(X) Reign of Fire
( ) The Skulls
(X) Cruel Intentions
( ) Cruel Intentions 2
( ) The Hot Chick
(X) Shrek
(X) Shrek 2
Total so far: 85

(X) Swimfan
( ) Miracle on 34th street
( ) Old School
( ) The Notebook
( ) K-Pax
( ) Krippendorf’s Tribe
( ) A Walk to Remember
( ) Ice Castles
( ) Boogeyman
( ) The 40-year-old Virgin
Total so far: 86

(X) Lord of the Rings Fellowship of the Ring
(X) Lord of the Rings The Two Towers
(X) Lord of the Rings Return Of the King
(X) Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark
(X) Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
(X) Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Total so far: 92

(X) Baseketball
( ) Hostel
( ) Waiting for Guffman
( ) House of 1000 Corpses
( ) Devils Rejects
( ) Elf
(X) Highlander
(X) Mothman Prophecies
(X) American History X
( ) Three
Total so Far: 96

( ) The Jacket
( ) Kung Fu Hustle
( ) Shaolin Soccer
( ) Night Watch
(X) Monsters Inc.
(X) Titanic
(X) Monty Python and the Holy Grail
(X) Shaun Of the Dead
( ) Willard
Total so far: 100

( ) High Tension
( ) Club Dread
(X) Hulk
(X) Dawn Of the Dead
(X) Hook
( ) Chronicles Of Narnia The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe
(X) 28 days later
( ) Orgazmo
( ) Phantasm
(X) Waterworld
Total so far: 105

(X) Kill Bill vol 1
(X) Kill Bill vol 2
(X) Mortal Kombat
( ) Wolf Creek
(X) Kingdom of Heaven
( ) The Hills Have Eyes
( ) I Spit on Your Grave aka the Day of the Woman
( ) The Last House on the Left
( ) Re-Animator
( ) Army of Darkness
Total so far: 109

(X) Star Wars Ep. I The Phantom Menace
(X) Star Wars Ep. II Attack of the Clones
(X) Star Wars Ep. III Revenge of the Sith
(X) Star Wars Ep. IV A New Hope
(X) Star Wars Ep. V The Empire Strikes Back
(X) Star Wars Ep. VI Return of the Jedi
( ) Ewoks Caravan Of Courage
( ) Ewoks The Battle For Endor
Total so far: 115

(X) The Matrix
(X) The Matrix Reloaded
(X) The Matrix Revolutions
( ) Animatrix
( ) Evil Dead
( ) Evil Dead 2
(X) Team America: World Police
(X) Red Dragon
(X) Silence of the Lambs
(X) Hannibal
Total so far: 122

Copy the list, and see how many you’ve seen…