Tips and Tricks for Nokia Phones 8

The 3390 and 5190 only support one date and time per entry.

Faster Voice Mail Access

Applies to: Most Nokia Phones

To access your voice mail you must dial a special number that is stored in the phone. To make life easy, Nokia automatically assigns the voice mail phone number to speed dial 1, so you only need to press and hold the 1 key, or press 1, followed by TALK. However, once you get through to your voice mail, you must enter your password and a pound sign manually. There are two ways you can automate this process. First, you can create a phone book entry called "Messages", and assign it to:

4168221123p5555#

where the "5555" is your password. The "p" is entered by pressing the star key three times in quick succession. This tells the Nokia phone to wait until the call is connected, then pause for 2 seconds before sending the remainder of the code as DTMF tones. This approach works great, but it still requires that you assign the "Message" phone book entries to one of your speed dial numbers, or you have to manually look up the number first.

There must be an easier way, and sure enough there is. Keep the "Messages" phone book entry you just created, but got to Menu 1-3-2 to reassign your voice mailbox number. Unlike the Nokia 2190, in which any characters other than valid digits were not allowed, Nokia phones allow you to enter control codes such the letter "p". You can therefore enter the 4168221123p5555# string as your voice mail number. Now when you press the 1 key, you not only dial into the voice mail, you also get your password dialed automatically too. The bonus for having the "Messages" phone book entry is that the phone identifies the voice mail number as belonging to that phone book entry, and it displays "Messages" as the last dialed phone number (instead of 416-822-1123).

Pre-stored Call Forwarding

Applies to: Most Nokia Phones

Although you can activate or de-activate call forwarding from the menu, you may have numbers to which you commonly forward your phone. Since all supported technologies use code sequences that you can type in from your keyboard, it is possible to create phone book entries that perform various types of call forwarding or unforwarding. For a complete list of codes for the 6190, see GSM Features. The codes for the other phones are DIFFERENT from those for the GSM phone. I do not have a list of other forwarding codes. Sorry.

To make these entries easier to find, put an underscore as the first character in their names. This sorts to the end of your phone book (but before those ones that begin with two less-than symbols). Now when you need to select from a group of call forwarding sequences, you need only press the arrow up key on your phone until you find the one your want. Then press TALK.

Funny Red Panel on Top

Applies to: 6190, 6188, 6185, 6160, 6120

You've all noticed that odd red panel at the top of the phone, and you have probably wondered what it's there for. Well, apparently all other versions of the non-North American 61xx series of GSM phones include an infrared port which allow you to talk to other 61xx phones, and to send messages to your computer or printer. Unfortunately, none of the North American phones has this port. I have personally checked, and the hardware just isn't there.

Just to make sure you are clear on this: THERE IS NO INFRARED HARDWARE UNDER THE RED COVER.

What's the Buzz

Applies to: 6190, 5190, and other models to a lesser degree

Many people have noticed that the 6190 and 5190 (and many of the other 61xx and 51xx series of phones sold in Europe) have a faint buzz that can be heard when you use the phone in very quiet environments. This buzz is actually the sound of the transmitted signal interfering with the audio circuits of the phone. The effects will be less noticeable when you are very close to a site, and more noticeable in weak signal areas. This is because the phone transmits with more power when it needs to, but not when it doesn't.

The sound isn't particularly objectionable, but its presence seems to be normal. If your version of the phone creates a buzz that is quite loud, then yours may be faulty. Otherwise don't be too concerned about it.

P.S. This is clearly a hardware problem, so a future firmware update is highly unlike to change anything in-so-much as the buzz is concerned.

The 3390 doesn't seem to suffer from this.

Ring Volume

Many of your may have already noticed that the level 5 ring volume doesn't always seem to be any louder than level 4. This is because many of the ring tones on the phone use frequencies that the sounder cannot reproduce at high levels. There are however (in the case of the 6190, 6160, and 6120) 5 ring tones that do work properly at level 5, and they are "Mosquito", "City Bird", "Bee", "Chase", and "Etude". In the case of the 6188 and 6185 however, you have 6 tones that work properly at level 5, and they are "Mosquito", "Etude", "Chase", "Robo NIX", "Attraction", and "Polite", If you must use level 5 for any reason, I strongly recommend that you choose one of these rings. They will produce exceptionally loud sounds that can be heard over some of the worst background noise. NOTE: This problem CANNOT be fixed by a firmware upgrade. The only hope of changing this behavior is physically exchange the sounder in your phone with a different one.