S60 Open to new features

Click Here to see a walkthrough demo of Nokia Podcasting
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http://www.devicescape.com

I just found out about this sweet little app and am posting the info before we've tested it on all the compatible devices. But it seems to work great on both N95 and N95 8GB, so I'm sharing it right away.

Devicescape.com works like a charm for all my "personal" WiFis APs … I setup the APs on the devicescape website and configured all my N95 Internet apps (Podcasting, Browser, etc.) to use the "Devicescape" access point by default. Whenever an app needs a connection, it auto-magically connects to the currently available WiFi - no fiddling around with settings anymore, no "Always ask"needed. Very neat ;)

Apparently it also works with commercial WiFis that require a login, but I haven't tried that, yet.

How do you do it?

1. Install the Devicescape application (http://www.devicescape.com) on the N95

2. Create an account on the devicescape website and add all the WiFis that you want to use to your profile (incl. WEP/WPA key settings, etc.)

3. Setup the Podcasting application to use the "Devicescape" access point by default

4. Now every time Podcasting needs a Internet connection it will automatically connect to the currently available WiFi network, without you having to change the settings or selecting the access point manually. This works for manual or automatic downloads.

This is especially helpful for Podcasts which have links to their website from their RSS to view/add comments or when a text enclosure requires the user to connect to a browser to view.

5. Of course, the "Devicescape" access point is available for all applications in the phone (Nokia Music Store, Browser, Maps, eMail, VoIP,, etc.)

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P.S.
I just got a comment asking if anyone is moderating this site. I get notified of every comment as its posted and often will send a personal email if there is a specific question. (as well as delete SPAM. You know who you are!) But since the scope of this blog isnt as a support site, there are some comments which are just forwarded to the development teams to evaluate the feedback for future development or bug fixes.

Just wanted to let you know that Big Brother is still watching, even if we dont always have something new to post.

Click Here to see a walkthrough demo of Nokia Podcasting
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Some podcasters are wondering why the "Content may not play on your device" warning is popping up for normal audio files. Our development team gives the answers:

The determining factor for whether or not the podcasting app displays this warning is actually not the file extension, but the mime type that is provided in the enclosure tag. (We only use the file extension for display on the UI.)

Whatever content you use, just make sure you provide a MIME type that is supported in our phones.

A complete list of Browser MIME types in Nokia GSM Devices can be found here:
http://www.forum.nokia.com/info/sw.nokia.com/id/444aa596-38d4-473c-81ed-657da920d163/Browser_MIME_Types_in_Nokia_GSM_Devices_v1_8_en.pdf.html
(look in Chapter 7 for S60 3rd edition).

One exception to this is MP4 (video and audio mp4 content). Because MP4 is a container format and we have no idea if the content within the MP4 container will be played correctly, for audio/mp4 or video/mp4 content we display the warning "might not display properly" and don't auto-download these episodes.

If your audio show is in aac format, the best MIME type would be "audio/aac" - that doesn't display any warnings.

And when creating an audio podcast specifically for a mobile audience, I would recommend to use AAC (or better yet, eAAC+) because of the smaller filesize and/or better quality at the same file size, compared to MP3.

The Nokia Music Manager from the Nokia PC Suite (download here) is able to convert your mp3 files into eAAC+.

NOTE: If you want your video podcast optimized for mobile (size, playback compatibility and no warning), use the format 3gp. (Most compatible devices are able to play frames per second (fps), newer devices like N95, N81, N93, etc can play 30 fps)

HACK!
OK....I realize you shouldnt need a workaround, but if you know your video format is compatible with the Nokia devices and you want to make sure the warning message doesnt come up, here is a way to "cheat".

If you have an MP4 video file in a format that for sure plays on our devices, you can set file extension to ".mpeg" and the mime type in the enclosure to "video/3gpp" to avoid that warning message and to allow auto-downloads ;) ... a bit hacky, but works nicely. Please note that the .mpeg extension is important, too.

Here's an example entry from an RSS feed:

More hints to help you get the most out of managing your Podcasts on the Nokia Podcasting app:

Subscribe to GOOGLE Calendar in Nokia Podcasting

You can now subscribe to your Google calendar (http://calendar.google.com) in the Nokia Podcasting application.

Log into Google Calendar. From the Google calendar, select:
Calendar Settings, Calendar Details.

Add the XML link under “Private Address” as a Podcast in the Nokia Podcasting application. (From the Nokia Podcasting app under PODCASTSS, click OPTIONS>NEW PODCAST and type in the RSS)

Simple, huh?

This is not only a nice feature for you, but its also a way for other family members, friends, or carpoolers keep track of who is where at what time. Thanks Google!

Continuing our series of hints to help you get the most out of managing your Podcasts on the Nokia Podcasting app:

Get your own personalized search result feed.

www.podzinger.com

1. Go to www.podzinger.com. Enter your search topic. (For example "N95". Or "Veronica+Mars") and choose if you want results for "Audio", "Video", or "Both".

2. When the results are returned, click on the llittle orange“RSS” icon
in the results page.

3. You will be shown a URL. In the Nokia Podcasting application, go to PODCASTS>OPTIONS>NEW PODCAST and type in that URL to subscribe to episodes which feature your key word.

4. Every time you update that feed, you’ll get the latest episodes which contain your search term.

Me love this long time... This feature lets me know when someone is podcasting an episode about things I am interested in. It also allows me to get individual episodes about the topics I want to hear about without having to subscribe/ unsubscribe to a full show. VERY cool feature from the folks at Podzinger.com.

Try it out and use the COMMENTS section to let us know what you think.

One of the things heavy users are asking for is a better way to manage their subscribed feeds. Until we get those features into our code, here is the first part of a series about some killer alternatives which should make your mobile podcasting experiences even better.

www.podnova.com

Setup all your favourite podcasts online. Its a little bit of work to get this setup and typing your new RSS or OPML into the Nokia Podcasting client, but once you do it...it rocks.

a. Sign in and Log in.

b. Add the URLs of your favourite RSS feeds. (or import your favourite OPML) The latest episodes of these feeds will now be ready to listen on the PC in one player. Cool! But we're not done yet.

c. Scroll down and find links to three different feeds:
i. A RSS feed with the newest episode per subscription
ii. A RSS feed with the episodes that you seperately added to 'PodNova podcast episodes for [your username]'
iii. An OPML feed with all episodes from all your subscriptions

d. Open your Nokia Podcasting app on your device. Open PODCASTING. Choose "OPTIONS". Choose "NEW PODCAST".

Type in that monster URL from the first RSS link that you see on your Podnova page. (This is the not so fun part. but its worth it.)

e. Now, you will get an updated Feed called "Podcasts for (Your Name)". This will put all the latest episodes of your favourtie podcasts into one feed.

One they are there, open the feed and use "OPTIONS" , then "MARK" or "MARK ALL" to manually choose which episodes to download.

Try it out and let us know what you think.

(PodNova is not afflicated with Nokia. The solutions just happens to work pretty great with Nokia Podcasting. Since Valentines Day is coming up, we want to share the love.)