Tips and Tricks for Nokia Phones 2

Storing and Retrieving Phone Book Entries Numerically

Applies to: 6190

Some people just can't seem to get to used to the idea that Nokia phones allow only alphabetic access to the entries in the phone book. These people prefer to store all their phone book entries into a known location, and then to speed dial from that location. The following procedure outlines how you can set up your 6190 phone to work in just that manner.

The first thing you need to know is that the 6190 phone does allow you to randomly access the entries in the phone book. Just enter the location you want and then press the # key. So far so good, but how do you store entries into the locations you want? It may seem impossible, since the phone decides where new entries go. A little lateral thinking however, goes a long way here.

Step 1: Clear all your phone book entries. I know, this is a pain if you already have lots of them entered. However, this is a once-only thing, so you'll never have to perform this step again.

Step 2: Fill the phone with bogus entries, but name them strategically so they tell you where they are stored. I strongly recommend "zz" followed the location. The use of "zz" ensures that the bogus entries appear at the end of your alphabetically sorted names, but ahead of any of your special names beginning with non-alpha characters. You know which location the phone will store the entry, since it puts all new entries into memory from the first location on up. Start with zz1, then zz2, and so on to zz100.

Step 3: Edit the bogus entry at the location you want to use. For example, say you wanted to store Environment Canada's weather recording number at location 93 ("W", "E"). Find the bogus entry called zz93, then edit the name and number appropriately. When you are finished, choose the "Save" option (not the "Save New" option). To dial this phone book entry, press 9, 3, #, TALK.

Repeat step 3 any time you have a new entry to put in your phone book. To delete an entry, just edit it back to the bogus entry for the location.

Another 10 Speed Dial Numbers

Applies to: 6190

I like Nokia's idea of having the speed dial numbers on keys 2 through 8 re-assignable, but that doesn't really give all that many. There must be a way to get some more speed dial numbers that are easily accessible with just a few keystrokes. Further down this document you'll find out how to access your phone book by location (by entering the location number and then pressing the # key). If we could somehow FORCE a particular entry into locations 1 through 9, then we could dial them with just three keystrokes. For example, 1, #, TALK.

The 6190 always stores a new entry at the next available location, so once you have more than 10 entries in your phone book, you know those first 10 are already filled. Here is how you put what you want into any location in the phone that is already occupied. For our example, we will change the contents of location 5.

First recall the existing entry in location 5 by pressing 5#. This will display ONLY the phone number stored in this location. Figure out whose phone number this is, and make a note of it. Now recall that location by name and choose the edit option. Change the name and phone number to what you want stored in location 5. The new information will take the place of the old information in location 5. All that's left to do now is re-enter the phone book entry you have displaced. Do this in the normal way. We can now dial this new entry by simply pressing 5, #, TALK.

You can repeat this procedure for each of the memory locations you wish to "force" to a particular entry.

Meaningful Message Addresses

Applies to: All GSM Phones

As you may already know, voice mail notifications are sent as text messages. These messages are identified as coming from fake phone numbers that are 2- to 4-digits in length. Wouldn't it be nice to have more meaningful address tag for these messages, such as "Voice Mail" or "VM Notify". Well you can, and it's really quite easy.

Nokia phones match message return phone number with entries in your Phone Book. All you have do is create a phone book entry with the phone numbers equivalent to the odd digits that these message come from. When messages arrive from these internal locations, they will be displayed on your "Inbox" list as the names given to the associated Phone Book entry.

This idea also works with other odd addresses sent by the network.