Nokia N95 8GB or N96 Corrupted memory or unable use Data transfer mode?

This post talks about Mass memory issues in Nokia N95 8GB , Nokia N96 and some cases covers N97 also.

The problems can any of the following

* While connecting the N95 8GB phone to PC in Data Transfer mode and trying to access the mass memory, the phone reboots automatically.
* While trying to play/view certain files the phone reboots abruptly again and again.
* Phone says no memory / No space inspite of having enough space.
* Unable to store data in the mass memory of these phones.
* Getting any other error message.

Possible causes :

* Nokia N95 8GB and N96 have flash memory and it can get corrupted in various situations.
– Unplugging the cable in middle of transfer.
– copying corrupted data/virus affected files.
– Removing battery in middle of data operation.
– Trying to play videos/songs stored in phone directly in PC.
– Physical damage (In this case phone has to be returned to Nokia service center)

Solutions :
– Connect to PC in PC suite mode and click backup option in the PC suite to backup all your contacts,calendar entries and Notes etc. If you can copy other content like Pictures and Videos you can back them up manually.
– Go to phone settings and click restore factory settings (This process will clear phone memory not mass memory) , it will reset your phone after restart to original settings and you can restore your settings from your previous backup. During this step the phone will ask for security code (Lock code / unlock code ). The default security / lock /unlock code for Nokia N95 8GB and N96 is 12345. But if you had changed it after buying the phone, you need to enter the correct code. If the phone doesnt accept the code for 2 times, dont try again. As this could lockout your phone.

If the above step doesnt solve your problem then you need to format your mass memory from phone itself (no need to format from Windows).

– Go to Menu –> Tools –> Utilities –> Memory
In the memory click options and select format mass memory. This will format your mass memory and clear any bad sectors or bad bytes in the memory.

If both the above steps doesnt solve your problem, the problem could be a hardware issue, you may need to take it the Nokia service center (Nokia Care).

Reliance Netconnect Broadband and TATA Indicom’s photon should we buy them?

There is a lot of buzz about these two newly launched products from Reliance Infocomm and TATA Indicom, both promises speeds of upto 3.1 Mbps, and both claim this is the fastest broadband plan available in the country. And both claim they are better than any of their nearest rivals, so are all these claims true? Obviously as we know about these two brands not everything is true. Lets see how they fare in their promises.

Speed : 

Though both claim the speeds of upto 3.1 Mbps, TATA Indicom says the speed at anytime can be shared between upto 20 users basically bringing down the Minimum guaranteed speed to 150 Kbps, as same as the normal CDMA plan. . Also they mention the speed depends on time of day, coverage etc.

Atleast TATA Indicom had the coutrtesy to mention contention ratio but Reliance doesnt even mention the minimum guaranteed speed in their website. Even in their comparision chart they have mentioned average speed as 500 Kbps and have mentioned TATA indicom’s avg speed at 400kbps download.

Coverage :

TATA Indicom has extremely poor coverage and is available in Certain parts of Chennai,Bangalore,Mumbai,Jammu and Kashmir and North east. Call TATA Indicom customer care before opting for this as they havent provided any coverage map.

Reliance fares better in this covering 35 cities and covers most part of the cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmadabad etc. Reliance claims to have 4200 towers capable of Wireless broadband and according to Reliance (yes as per reliance comparision chart) TATA Indicom has 300 photon enabled towers.  

So make sure your area is covered before making a jump into wireless broadband.

Truly unlimited ??

Though both these operators have unlimited plans with a price of above Rs.1000 none of them offers true unlimited plans. Both have fair usage policy limiting the usage at 10GB per month. After this 10GB every MB will be charged Rs 2 each. This basically does not allow a high speed connection to its fullest potential. If you stream videos from Youtube or Hulu probably you will fall shortof GB’s  within 10 days. So dont go for these connections till both operators make them “truly unlimited”

Pricing :

Both pricings are on similar lines , Reliance’s nationwide (or 35 cities) access with unlimited costs Rs 1750 whereas Tata’s unlimited (5 cities) costs Rs 1050

Fennec -Firefox for mobile out for Nokia N810 (Beta)

For those who surf the web in their firefox a good news, Mozilla’s community browser Firefox will be soon available for All Symbian devices and Windows mobile devices in the form of Fennec Mobile Browser. Now the Fennec is in Beta and released for Nokia’s Internet device N810.

Fennec - Mobile Firefox logo Full size
Fennec - Mobile Firefox logo Full size

Considering the most of Symbian softwares are released first on N800 and N810, it shouldnt be too long before we get Fennec for other Symbian devices. Mozilla also is developing Fennec for Windows Mobile Platform and would be launched along with Symbian launch.

The below is simplified version of Fennec logo for small screened devices

Fennec Simple Logo - Firefox for mobile

Fennec is poised to be main competitor for Nokia’s S60 3rd version builtin browser Opera Browser and Windows Mobile IE.

Fennec team aims to achieve following features for Fennec in the initial stable release.

1. Faster/Simple and less memory hungry broswer with intuitive mobile UI.
2. Support for all the features of desktop Firefox engine like AJAX meaning ‘FULL’ web browser unlike other mobile browsers. Developers need not worry about writing a separate web page except adapting for the disaplay size.
3. Secure Browser implementation which will mimic its desktop brother.
4. Fully integrated application instead of just browser, aim is to make Fennec fully compatible with other phone feautures like Call,Contacts,Mapping applications and even more.
5. With addons Fennec will act like a mobile platform itself.

The Fennec team is also working on some of the cool touch screen UI proposals which could hit Iphone later but expect Fennec to be available on Nokia N97 much earlier than Apple’s Iphone.