How to solve a wifi issue between Nokia 5530 and a Thomson TG787 router

So, my wife bought a Nokia 5530 Xpress Music phone and was very eager to try it, especially the Wifi since she could now connect to Facebook and e-mail at home without having to use my Mac or iPod Touch :-)

However, the experience was not that thrilling since the phone was unable to connect to our our home router (a Thomson TG787 provided by our ADSL provider).

After trying several different configurations (with WEP, WPA, WPA2, without encryption, etc...) and with other gadgets (iPod Touch and Nokia N80 could connect successfully to every configuration) I was very frustrated that I couldn't find a working solution.

At that point I went out and while at a shopping mall I was able to try some public wireless networks and it worked immediately. This increased my frustration to an even more absurd level. Back home, the problem remained.

It was only when, while using some Google-fu, I was able to find this forum post (in Portuguese) that I could finally solve the problem. Even though this post refers to the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, the solution appears to be suitable for the 5530 model as well.

So, basically all you need to do is some Terminal action:

• Open Terminal (on a Mac) or a command window (in Windows)
• Run the following command: telnet 192.168.1.254
• This will give you access to the router, but you have to insert the username (Administrator) and password (the password you defined)
• Once an administration console appears, write: wireless qos config mode=disabled
• Then hit Enter
• After that (it takes a few seconds to compute) write: saveall
• Then hit Enter
• Just exit and you're done

The Nokia 5530 phone was able to connect to the home wireless network... success, finally!

Final note: I don't know exactly if this affects only this type of phones, but my Nokia N80 worked fine without the need to do this hack. Also, I don't know exactly what this hack does to your router so beware. So far, I haven't noticed anything different on all other devices, so I won't reverse it. By the way, if you need to restart your router, this configuration is lost, so you'll need to do it again.

The new N-Gage

The promotion website for the new N-Gage platform is quite awesome. It's a mix of stop-motion movies (where they recreate the most popular Nokia's cellphone game - Snake) with playable web games (like the Human Arkanoid) made of pictures of the characters of the video. It's definitely worth a visit. Interesting note: this all video was made in Portugal.

Future gadgets concepts

We've all seen our share of strange gadgets, which don't seem to have any special purpose other than to make you look like a silly person (as Monty Python would say). But every now and then you get to see some interesting gadgets concepts, such as the Projector/Cellphone and the mini MP3/CD Player.

The future of technology is all about these concepts and it is always entertaining to see where some of these ideas are heading. Check out the following images:

Here's a phone that takes the concept of "hanging up" too seriously:

What about this Nokia phone that looks more like a small sheet of paper?



Feel free to detach your laptop and work at a distance:



And what about this holographic display laptop from Sony Vaio?



Source: Tides.ws

Nokia S60: the iPhone's evil twin

Nokia is not ashamed to say that Apple has done a great job and that the iPhone is a brilliant piece of technology. That is exactly why they picked the best of the iPhone and lift it up a notch (like for example adding a stylus for when the interface is not suitable enough for the fingers to be used).

Check out the demo video below:

Nokia's new "Multimedia Computer": N95

Nokia is pushing the limits of cellphones when it comes to multimedia integration. Not only the new N95 is a full-feature 5 megapixels camera with Carl Zeiss optics lens, it also includes integrated GPS mapping where you can easily view maps of your location (and the entire world) at a street-level zoom.

The basics of the NSeries are also there: access music, emails and advanced web browsing; integration with lifeblog which allows you to instantly upload photos to Flickr and download movies from several sources.

Some more complete (juicy) specifications:

• Up to 160 MB* internal dynamic memory
• Large 2.6" QVGA (240 x 320 pixels) TFT display with ambient light detector and up to 16 million colors
• Play video, music and photos on home media network - compatible TV, stereo and PC over WLAN/UPnP
• Integrated wireless LAN (802.11 b/g)
• Zoom: Digital up to 20x (5 megapixel up to 6x)

How you're gonna pay for that: cash or credit card? Neither, with my cell phone!

I've been dreaming about something like this for a long time now: using the cell phone like a wallet, using its communication features to act as a payment system. This could simplify a lot of the daily shopping :-)

Now, we're getting close to that. Visa, the company with largest payment system in the planet, and Nokia, one of the world's largest cell phone manufacturer, joined forces to launch a global system to turn mobile phones into wallets. Users can pay for groceries and other purchases by swiping a phone over a reader that electronically communicates with a microchip on the phone. But phone owners must confirm the purchase with the push of a button (for security reasons in case your phone gets stollen) and complete the deal.

The wireless standard that will link mobile phones with payment systems in stores and elsewhere will be the Near Field Communication (NFC) chip, which will be hidden under the phone cover and makes contact when swiped over a reader.

Source: Reuters Tech News