My search for free Push Mail Client for my E71

It was only when I brought recently launched (July 08) Nokia E71, I realised that Nokia has discontinued their support for BlackBerry and there was no BB client available for E71. And in One97 Communications, I was expected to be always accessible on my official emails. And then started my search to find free push client for my mobile.

My initial search on Google showed me few options to access our official emails on Google Apps. The options were Seven, Emoze, Mail For Exchange, Beta Nokia Messaging client, etc. First thing I tried was Mail For Exchange and educated immediately that Google Apps is not Exchanged based or compatible. Then it was the turn of the most promising client Seven. When I downloaded and installed Seven I was very exited and hopefull and after 5 - 6 days and few posting on the Seven mailing group and blogs, I found myself stuck in a no mans land. Every second person on web said Seven is the best and I looked like an idiot.

Then I tried Emoze and there I was exited to see my first push mails on my E71. And there was no stopping and I continued to trust and use Emoze and in between they came up with newer versions and I religiously upgrade the same on my mobile. With one version upgrade rollback I never faced any problem. Yesterday when I upgrade the firmware of my mobile I downloaded latest version of Emoze and i was surprised to find that now it supports only 1 email account and I need to upgrade Pro Version if I need mails from additional accounts.

Althought the cost is approximate Rs 700 per annum, but I decided to start my search again for free push client. This time I decided to use Google's Gmail for mobile Ver 2.0 a access mails. I was easy to get it installed and configure for my both Google App and gmail mails. But it did not take me long to realise that I am not getting any new mail alerts except a brief vibration. I searched everywhere to enable alert and then decided to ask google for an answer and got none. And so I started my search again and Nokia Messaging client was my next option. Although I avoid beta softwares but still decided to give Nokia Messaging client. And since the time my first mail rushed in on my mobile and I am totally impressed by this application. It has a very intelligent & impressive UI and it shows email status details on the mobile main screen. Only issue noticed by me was it s not possible to navigats to previous or next message by pressing NaviKey. Well it is too early to rate this product but overall a good product and shall put a post on the blog if I encounter anything interesting :)

Upgrading my Nokia E71 firmware to V200.21.118

Last night I decided to upgrade firmware of my Nokia E71 to the latest available V200.21.118 when I saw the very long list of changelog posted on few of Nokia / Symbian blogs. The improvement in WLAN, VOIP, Camera, Email functionality was of interest to me.

Well as everyone is aware firmware upgrade of any product is not for weak hearted and it is equally tough for Nokia phones. Before proceeding with firmware upgrade using Nokia Software Updater, you are required to make backup of our mobile data using Nokia PC Suite as all your data is wiped out when you flash the firmware of your mobile. Although all your data gets backup properly, but at the time of restore, PC Suite cannot restore back your most important of all the contact list. And Yes you also end up losing other important data like stored messages, calendar entries, notes etc.

It is a known issue and your only savior is Nokia's own tool 'Nokia_Contact_Transfer.exe'. But it is not so easy to locate this tool on Nokia site and I had to spends one precious night in November 08 just to locate it and all other tools I could lay my hands on were paid products. This tool is cool as it auto detects and shows all backup files stored on your desktop. And it helps you select correct stored backup file and recover / restore all your contacts data from the backup file. And this tool is so fast that you refuse to believe your eyes.

Anyway I am happy that I upgraded E71 and it was really worth the efforts I had to put in. And I do have a story to tell about my upgraded N71 but that will be coming tomorrow.