12 tips for Symbian smartphones

Sticky Function key
Did you know that on the Nokia E71 and E63, a quick double press on the bottom left function key locks it, so that every subsequent keypress is ‘functioned’? The concept is similar to CAPS lock and can be handy when having to input complicated combinations of characters.

Back to a traditional home screen
When you get the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the default ‘Home screen’ has four customisable contact slots. These work up to a point, though filling in a contact’s RSS feeds is fiddly. But if you’re hankering after a traditional ‘shortcuts’-based screen then head for ‘Settings>Personal>Home screen>Home screen theme and change it back!

Turning contacts search back on again
If the contact quick-searching feature on your Nokia E71 or E63 home screens ever stops working, it’ll be because you turned it off by accident. Yet the setting to turn this on again isn’t obvious. Start typing on the home screen and then, and only then, hit ‘Options’, where you’ll see ‘Contact search on’ (or ‘off’).

The really quick menu
The ‘Options’ menu is prominent in all S60 applications, of course. But don’t forget that you can save time and keypresses in most situations by simply pressing in the d-pad. With an item highlighted, the most common Options actions are presented immediately.

More than 10 saved radio stations
In Radio on each S60 phone, did you know that you can save more than ten presets? To ‘save stations’ on two-digit slots (i.e. 10 and over), quickly press the first digit followed by a ‘press and hold’ on the second digit. You’ll then be prompted for a text name, as usual.

No application menus needed
On the Nokia E71 and E63, the hardware buttons and twin (‘mode’) standby screens mean that you can avoid the S60 app menus completely if you choose your standby applications carefully. See the long ‘Tools>Settings>General>Personalisation>Home screen>Mode settings>Home screen>Application shortcuts’. Phew!

Kill data!
We’ve all been there. An application on our S60 phone has gone online and we’re not 100% sure which one’s still clocking up the bytes. Rather than shut everything down manually, one by one, go to the standby screen and press and hold the ‘Red’ (hangup) button. This will offer to kill any active 3G data connections.

Words by Steve Litchfield. Originally published in Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine.

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