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Help me pimp my 5800 for a trip to Australia and New Zealand

3 replies · 3,207 views · Started 25 January 2010

Hi guys,

I've just bought a blue 5800 from ebay. It's unlocked but has Vodafone boot up screens.

I bought it 'cos I'm off to Australia in a couple of weeks.

I want to use it for:

Playing music
Checking emails
Sat Nav - car and foot
Voip
Modem for laptop

My previous phone was a trusty 6230i so this is bit of step up for me!

So far I've found I can upgrade the firmware to 31. but not 40. I would consider debranding the phone if this is recommended.

Nimbuzz for Skype looks like an option

Not sure about Nokia maps or Google maps

Anyone have recommendations or threads I should read?

Thanks,
xgarb

To update this thread.. I debranded last night.. no more two second vodafone animation on boot up. I realise I've invalidated the warranty but I feel it's worth it.


I've also hard reset and updated to 40.

Hey,

Music Player: Nokia's music player does the job, however I'm a paid Spotify user so I simply sync my playlists offline now.

Emails: Again, Nokia has MfE and Nokia Messaging there to use, both work fine for me.

Sat Nav: I used to use Google Maps. Now I would highly recommend Ovi Maps because it has navigation for you, and you can load the desired country maps on and not rinse your bill with data charges.

VOIP: I've only used Fring for Skype and it worked fine, although I have heard Nimbuzz is good too.

HTH

Glad to hear you got 40 up and running. If I were going on a long trip / flight, I'd be thinking of grabbing some bbc iplayer content for along the way. Using the "iplayer downloader" (google that) you can grab radio and tv to pc then transfer to phone - avoids the expiry issues of downloading direct to the phone.

I'd also highly recommend scrabble on the 5800 if you like the board game at all -it's a brilliant app. Google 5800 scrabble.

And some games: airport, labyrinth, freecell, checkers, chessboard, disks (connect 4 minus the brand name) - all free to download straight from ovi site.

I've just got into podcasts (years behind, I know). There's something quite relaxing about listening to low-fi chitchat programmes. Current favourite is the engadget.com site's weekly podcast where 3 or 4 of them chat enthusiastically about consumer tech stuff. The flight'd fly by! There's a page on this site about how to use the podcast functions. here.

For modem use: good to have joikuspot - lets you use the 5800 to generate a wi-fi hotspot so you can use laptop without actual cable tethering phone to computer. Advantages are you can place phone where signal is best and you can have more than 1 laptop connected, and it's easier when someone rings you during browsing! It's free unless you need the secure version. I reckon the hotspot is quite local but I suppose if you'd want to use it in an airport / cofffee shop, it may be worth the 7E outlay for the secure version.