N95 Tips

[sp00k]

Disclaimer...

This site, the contributors to this site and all associated with it, accept no responsibility whatsoever, in any way, shape or form, for anything untoward that may be caused by following the instructions contained herein. The information given is provided as a service to those who choose to use it, you are considered to be entirely responsible for your own actions and by using this site you are deemed to have read and agreed to the foregoing.

N.B. The following 'How To's have all been tested and proved to work as described.

Nokia N95 Tips Menu:
1. How To: Remove & Refit N95 Rear Casing
2. How To: Fix the Wobble On An N95 Slider
3. How To: Fit A Replacement Case To An N95
4. How To: Replace the N95 LCD Screen
5. How To: Install Maps and Run GPS on the N95
6. How To: Use N95 codes + Shortcuts & Tips
7. How To: Delete Themes that Aren't in the App Manager
8. How To: Re-Install A Theme Manually Deleted Or Disappeared
9. How To: Install VoipCheap
10. How To: Install Maps Despite The Error Message
11. How To: Upgrade Firmware and/or De-brand on your N95
12. How To: Install and Set Up SymSMB v2.0
13. How To: Make a Start On Using Carbide Theme Creator
14. How To: Caller ID not working on the N95

[sp00k]

To Remove The N95 Back Cover and Refit It Neatly

Tools Needed: Unbitten fingernails. ;)

Remove the battery and leave off the battery cover. Starting on the side of the N95 that has the camera control buttons, unclip the back cover by running your fingernail along the edge and pulling the cover slightly away from the body of the phone, to break the connection of the three small adhesive pads on each side. When that side of the cover comes free and is partly removed, leave it part-way off...



...repeat the same seal-breaking action on the opposite side of the phone, the back cover will then easily slip off.

Don't touch the adhesive pads, one of the pads can be seen in the top left-hand corner of the casing, inside the edges of the back cover, as when refitting it in reverse order of the above, you need to finally press firmly over the location of the pads (top, bottom & centre on each side), to help re-secure it, otherwise you may find that the casing creaks in use.



N.B. When refitting, try and lift the back cover onto each side of the phone, starting from the jack-socket side this time, so that it contacts cleanly, rather than just pushing down on it to engage the clips. Simply pushing it back on is liable to crease or even dislodge the adhesive pads.

Pics by kind permission of Spyda

[sp00k]

To Stiffen-Up The Loose Slider On An N95-1-2-3 etc!

N.B. This applies To The Basic Slider Mechanism Of All The N95 Series.
(Extra information on applying this to an N95-2 version is available in this thread by GSi-R)

Tools needed:
Torx 0.5 driver.
Adhesive tape... (I find double-sided very thin tape is a lot easier to cut a fine strip from and manoeuvre into place if the paper backing-strip is left on. N.B. it also needs to remain on when fitted.)

Basically this modification consists of compressing the nylon grooved slider-rail by a fraction, which is all that's needed in even the loosest slider.

The nylon moulding with the groove that locates the sliding rail of the top screen is held in place by a metal bracket on each side of the phone. The following instructions detail how to access this bracket, remove it, modify it and replace it.

Firstly you need to remove the back casing of the N95... Instructions on how to do this and also refit it without damage are HERE

Now that you have the casing removed, looking at the right-hand side of the phone as viewed from the front, you'll see a black metal bracket about 2" long, running along the side, just underneath the top sliding section and parallel to it. You'll notice that it's secured by three Torx screws, this plate clamps down on the nylon track moulding and holds it in place.



As a rule, for some reason, only the right-hand side of the N95 slider seems to be the cause of it being loose, so you only need remove this one bracket. After the metal bracket is removed, don't disturb the phone as the top part may come out of the nylon track which although it's easy to refit, is something to be careful of, as it's attached by a flexible-circuit to the lower part of the N95.

All you need to concentrate on at this stage is the metal bracket itself. It has an L-shaped cross-section, designed so that the top part when fitted, overlaps the nylon slide-moulding, pressing down on it and holding it in place. You'll see that by applying a thin layer of tape to the underside of the top section (or ledge) of the bracket, we can compress the nylon slide-moulding by a fraction as we clamp it down.



Applying the tape to the underside of the top ledge of the bracket is a rather fiddly task, place a very narrow strip of tape, ensuring it fits along the ledge of the clamp without covering any holes and that it doesn't lap over into the right-angle of the clamp. (I actually use thin double-sided self-adhesive tape, leaving the protective paper cover on one side of it... This is much easier to cut and manipulate than normal Sellotape or similar)... Masking tape has also been found to be suitable.



Refitting the now-padded metal clamp forces the nylon bearing-groove to compress and narrow very slightly as the clamp is tightened. So far, this method has worked on 4 N95's, two of which needed a second layer of tape to stiffen the slide action sufficiently.

Two Tips!

1. Use a magnetised Torx driver, the screws are extremely small!

2. When refitting the metal clamp, first hold it loosely in place and locate the screws in the first part of the threads, then jiggle the clamp into its location on the nylon runner... THEN tighten the screws evenly and firmly.

Refit the back cover carefully and you will have a firm slider-action which, if it at first seems to be extremely stiff to operate, will loosen-up very slightly with use.

My own N95-1 (pictured above) was modified in July '07 and has remained with a firm slider-action since then...

[sp00k]

To Fit A New Casing To The N95

N.B. These instructions refer to a specific casing-kit, bought from HERE

!! I can no longer recommend this item !! The black coating of the face-plate is so poorly applied that it can easily be scratched off by a fingernail.

However, as the geneal procedure is the same for any replacement casing, the following instructions are still pertinent to the process.

N.B. The text in blue italics refers to procedures using items that may not be included in the particular parts-set that you are using.

Tools needed:
Torx-5 driver.
Opening-tool or strong, narrow plastic edge... Credit-card or similar.





Starting with the front plate first of all...

1. Remove the four screws from the back of the slider, ensuring that the Torx-5 driver you use is a good fit and not worn in any way as the screw heads are easily damaged. You may find that it takes considerable force to unscrew them as they have threadlock applied to them when factory-fitted. Take care that you support the phone by the frame edge and that you don't put pressure on the LCD when undoing them!

2. Using the plastic unclipping tool, slide it gently down each side of the frame to disengage the two clips in the centre of each side, it doesn't need excessive force to do this if you position the unclipping tool correctly, take care not to bend the clips! Lift off the frame assembly.

3. You now need to remove items from the OEM frame that you've just taken off and refit them to the replacement frame. I found that if this was done in a room at a comfortable temperature and the phone had time to reach that temperature, I was able to release the two components that were held in place by adhesive pads without disturbing the pads, so that the OEM frame could easily be re-used if needed.

4. First remove the most delicate item, the loudspeaker, from the centre top of the casing. Note that there are two tiny spring-contacts top and bottom centre of the speaker, take great care not to damage or distort these. Prising gently from alternate sides top and bottom of the speaker should release it from the adhesive pad that holds it in place without damaging either the speaker or the pad... gently does it! Whilst doing this, I managed to drop the speaker onto the work-surface, so I was unable to be sure that I refitted it the right way around. I doubt that it matters actually but I'd advise you to keep it on one side in such a way that you can refit it with the same orientation. (I may just have been lucky to get it right!)

5. The next item to remove is the plastic housing incorporating the lens for the front-facing camera. Again, gently prising it free should hopefully leave the adhesive pad underneath intact for future use (note that it's located by two small pins, moulded into the frame on each side, so prise it up vertically, don't try and lever it out from just one side!). When it's removed you'll see, to the right of where it's been, a small transparent strip (the window for the light-level-sensor), that is still held by the adhesive. You can leave this in place as the kit includes a new one.

6. Turning to the new frame... Now for a rather fiddly bit! You will see in the kit, a small adhesive pad, with the centre marked to push out. Leaving the protective paper on it for now, remove the centre piece of the pad... And keep it on one side! When you've done that, Place the pad with the centre portion now removed & paper still on both sides, over the camera-location hole in the top frame. Being absolutely sure that you have it correctly orientated so that it will fit when applied and that the slots cut in it for the pins are in register. NOW you can remove the bottom part of the protective paper and position it, pressing down on the top paper surface to secure it in place. You can now remove the top paper cover, I found the best way to do this was by using a craft-knife or similar, scraping away carefully at the paper, just slightly in from one corner, until it lifted enough to peel it off. Trying to separate it by attempting to peel it back from an edge was a hopeless task!

7. Take the tiny strip of transparent plastic-moulding and place it in the new frame so that the lens part fits into the light-sensor opening, then take the plastic front-camera housing piece that you removed from the original frame and position it over the adhessive pad, ensuring that it slots over the two locating pins... and press down firmly.

8. And now for an even more fiddly bit! The speaker needs to be refitted but as you'll see, there's no adhesive pad supplied to hold it in place. Quite apart from the slight cushioning effect of a pad, it needs to be held in the frame when the frame is refitted, because both the keypad and the LCD are not secured to the base part of the phone and therefore the base needs to be level when refitting the frame by dropping the frame onto the base section. So... If you look at the back cover that came in the kit, you'll see that the chromed speaker grills are already installed in the case, obsuring the slots that the actual outer speaker grills fit into... The ones in the back cover are lightly held in place by adhesive and can be easily removed. Once removed, the adhesive coating on them can be scraped off by a craft-knife and as you do this, it will roll up into a small, sticky tube-shape. You need only two of these tiny sticky blobs, enough to put one top and bottom of where the speaker sticky-pad should be. This is enough to hold the speaker when the frame is inverted to fit it. It also appears to act as sufficient cushioning in place of the proper pad, as I've experienced no problems with the speaker, it still sounds as good as before.
N.B. Instead of scraping adhesive off the fake speaker-grill mouldings and collecting a couple of sticky blobs for the speaker-housing, you may prefer instead to cut strips to suit from the pad centre-section that you removed earlier... You did save it one side as instructed, didn't you? ;)

9. With the Camera-housing, the light-sensor window and the speaker secured, you can replace the frame. Position it carefully as the camera-housing needs to locate over the board-mounted camera and the two tiny spring-contacts on the speaker need to line up with pads on the circuit-board. Then press firmly on the centre of the frame-plate on each side to engage the clips and refit the screws to the back-plate. Tighten these untill they are firm and recessed below the plate surface slightly. Take care not to overtighten them though... Remember that they shouldn't be as tight as they appeared to be when you first removed them... That effect was caused by the threadlock 'glue' on them.

10. Now you can fit the back casing ... Instructions on how to remove it and refit it without damage are HERE.

[sp00k]

To Replace The LCD Screen

Tools needed:
Torx 5+ driver but you can use a standard Torx 5... with care!
Opening-tool or strong, narrow plastic edge... Credit-card or similar.

N.B. Replacement of the broken LCD cost one member only 35GBP at a Nokia Service Centre, so it may be as well to explore that option first of all if possible, as it's slightly cheaper than the DIY solution.

Should you decide to Do It Yourself, the following links and information may help:

EDIT: Please note that according to Nokiaparts (a member & parts-supplier), he states in this thread, that... "Firmware 12.0.013 or later should be used with screen of part number 4850074 , previous firmware models should be using screen of part number 4850998... The part number should be printed on the back of the LCD."

One recommended source of supply for the LCD is here.

The N95 Workshop Manual is available here.

This illustrated Walk-Thru, courtesy of Spyda, is an excellent guide to disassembling and refitting the screen.

These are additional guidelines that may help:

1. When removing the four screws from the back of the slider, make sure that the Torx-driver you use is a good fit and not worn in any way as the screw heads are easily damaged. You may find that it takes considerable force to unscrew them as they have threadlock applied when factory-fitted.

2. Using a plastic unclipping tool, or a stiff narrow plastic edge, such as a credit-card, slide it gently down each side of the frame to disengage the two clips in the centre of each side, it doesn't need excessive force to do this if you position it correctly, take care not to bend the clips! Lift off the frame assembly.

3. When replacing the frame, position it carefully as the camera-housing needs to locate over the board-mounted camera and the two tiny spring-contacts on the speaker need to line up with pads on the circuit-board. Then press firmly on the centre of the frame-plate on each side to engage the clips and refit the screws to the back-plate. Take care that you support the phone by the frame edge so that you don't put pressure on the new LCD when refitting the screws! Tighten them until they are firm and recessed below the plate surface slightly. Don't overtighten them though... Remember that they shouldn't be as tight as they appeared to be when you first removed them... That effect was caused by the threadlock 'glue' on them.

Before you take a Hammer & Chisel to your phone, you may care to watch these videos...

Nokia N95 Lower Block PART 1 - Disassembly


Nokia N95 Lower Block PART 2 - Assembly


Nokia N95 Upper Block Disassembly Assembly

N.B. If you find this article useful and wish to thank Spyda for his efforts go here

Please DON'T Click The Thanks Button In This Post!

[sp00k]

Installing Maps & Running GPS on the N95

Author: Salada2k

First of all, make sure you have the latest version of Nokia Map Loader. It's much faster than the first version. Then run the Nokia Maps software in your phone once, with the sd card inserted. Then, connect your N95 to the PC in Mass Storage mode, or insert your micro sd card into a compatible reader and download the maps you require.

If you have problems downloading the maps to your phone, then go here.

Once you've done that, it might be useful to run Nokia Software Updater, and ensure you are running firmware v12.0.0.13, as it includes A-GPS (Assisted GPS), which uses your N95's net connection to obtain faster satellite lock-on times for GPS. It's an awesome addition, and if you're serious about GPS, it's a must. On that note, if you're serious about your N95, just get v12 anyway.

1. Access Points. If you have an unlimited data plan, always use your GPRS or HSDPA connection, change the setting inside the maps program. The connection will be used for the following:

- Downloading maps sections that you haven't already downloaded via the maps program.
- Accessing (many) extra POI's that do not come with the default maps.
- Resolving 7-digit postcodes like in England, otherwise you'll only get a maximum of 5 digits. Or is it 4?
- Downloading navigational voices (you can do this in the new map loader program, however)
- Resolving address searches for which you do not have map data (e.g. other country)

Some of these things are useful to have on the move, making a WiFi access point an inconvenient option. Although, you can obviously change that setting whenever you want to. Bear in mind however, that for using Assisted GPS (A-GPS - a nice update we all got in firmware version 12) you will need to use a 3G/EDGE/GPRS connection to use it, WiFi is not supported. This is configured under Tools > Settings > General > Positioning > Positioning Server. Choose the connection you wish to use with A-GPS there. Each A-GPS server request is approximately 5KB of data, not a lot even for those who pay by the KB.

2. There are no 'default maps'. All maps are downloaded via Map Loader or over-the-air as I explained above. It is worth updating them regularly, as map companies that Nokia use are updating the data regularly. This holds true even more so when using (paid) navigation, as navigational routing information is stored in the map data itself. This is good if you have navigational problems, i.e. you are told to turn left into a brick wall, or a deep lake, as you can rest assured this problem will eventually be resolved with an update to the mapping data, (or a lawsuit!)

3. The mapping program and the maps are free. Nokia make money by charging you for navigation. After all, they bought out an established German based mapping company called Smart2Go, and they have to make money back on that somehow. Don't forget, they make the program and the maps free for a lot of Symbian based Nokia Phones, not to mention even Windows Mobile. You can of course have it map you out a route from A to B, and 'track' you all the way there. It won't alter the orientation of the screen, that's one of things that you pay for with navigation, and also you pay to get the spoken turn-by-turn directions.

That's all you need to get started.

N.B. If you find this article useful and wish to thank Salada2K for his efforts go here

Please DON'T Click The Thanks Button In This Post!

[sp00k]

N95 Codes - Shortcuts - Tips

Author: Andykn

N95 Codes
*#06# ............ IMEI number (International Mobile Equipment Identity)
*#0000# ......... Firmware version and date, Phone Model and Operator Variant
*#92702689# ... Life timer (W A R 0 A N T Y) - Total time your phone has spent sending and receiving calls.
*#62209526# ... Wireless MAC Address (M A C _ W L A N)
*#2820# .......... Bluetooth MAC address (B T A 0?)

FORMATTING CODES
*#7370# .......... Format phone...[Hard-Reset]
*#7780# .......... Factory Reset
Note:
Format phone restores phone to as if it was out of the box. Retains firmware version and operator Variant changes but wipes all applications you have installed. Does not format the memory card so any apps on there may reinstall once powered back up again.

Factory Reset resets all settings to defaults but keeps any applications you have installed and photos etc. Both need the Security code, which, by default, is 12345.

Another way to format some symbian phones: Power off phone. Press and hold Green, * and 3 and keep them held whilst powering on and for a few seconds after, if kept pressed this formats without asking for Security Code confirmation.

Shortcuts
N95 picture viewer:
2 – Scroll up (when zoomed)
4 – Scroll left (when zoomed)
5 – Zoom in (12.5%/25%/50%)
6 – Scroll right (when zoomed)
8 – Scroll down (when zoomed)
0 – Zoom out

Press the Power button briefly to bring up the list of profiles to select one.

Press and hold (in Standby):
Right selection key: Voice commands
Multimedia Key: Now Playing
1: Voicemail
2-9: shortcuts to address book (you need to set these up first)
0: Web
#: Switches between General and Silent modes - not supported by all Operator Variants (when composing messages will switch between character and number input when held down)

Tips
If your operator does not support normal SMS delivery receipts (like UK O2) put *0# at the beginning of a text message to get a receipt (the recipient will not see it)

12# (etc) in standby will dial the number held in location 12 on your SIM card address book.

When texting using T9 predictive text you can generate smileys by pressing the 1 key twice or three times and modify the smiley using the * key:

Pressing 1 twice :) then * :( > ;) > :* > .. > ., and so on
Pressing 1 three times :-) > :-( > ;-) > :-* > ... and so on.

The 0 key gives you a space, then 0, then a carriage return.

To mark items in a list, for deletion/moving/copying/sending etc., hold down the edit (pencil) button and scroll up or down using the D-Pad to tick the items in quick succession.

To see the time when the keypad is locked without unlocking, just press and release the power button.

You can use * when searching for contacts. D*n brings up Daniel and Dennis.

**********************
The three different types of N95 as of November 2007...

Enter *#0000# if you need to check the version... Model numbers are as follows:

N95-1 RM-159; the original most of us have "5-band (GSM850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA Band I) mobile phone with GPRS, EGPRS, Bluetooth and WLAN" BL-5F battery.

N95-2 RM-320; 8GB with the same 3G as the N95-1. Larger BL-6F battery but no lens cover.

N95-3 RM-160; "US" 3G version with two US WCDMA bands "6-band (GSM850/900/1800/1900 and WCDMA Band II(1900)/V(850)) mobile phone with Bluetooth and WLAN". Larger BL-6F battery but no lens cover.

N.B. If you find this article useful and wish to thank Andykn for his efforts go here

Please DON'T Click The Thanks Button In This Post!

[sp00k]

Deleting Themes that Don't Show in App Manager

Author: Mr G (Our Themes Guru)

You need to hook up your N95 to your PC via the USB lead and access the data transfer mode, and you need to make sure your file explorer can view hidden folders.
You'll find the theme files in a folder named 'Private', in this folder are lots of other folders. Go to the folder named '10207114' and then enter the folder inside called 'Import'
In here are all the themes on your sd card.
You have to open every folder and then look in the skn folder to find the name of the theme as the folders are named by numbers and not the theme itself, if the PC doesn't allow you to open the file then choose to open it with Notepad, then scroll across until you see the name of the theme and usually it'll say the creators name too.
Once you know it's the theme you want to delete then you have to delete the whole folder including the mbm,mif,ini and skn folders.
Job done

N.B. If you find this article useful and wish to thank Mr G for his efforts go here

Please DON'T Click The Thanks Button In This Post!

[sp00k]

Restoring A Deleted or Vanished Theme

AUTHOR: Mr G (Our Themes Guru)

Hi all, a lot of people have asked me how to reinstall themes because they disappeared from apps manager and are not in the memory, but can't be reinstalled. Here is a brief tutorial, hope it'll be helpful (and hope my inbox folder will be less full of messages about this subject )

Just a thing: It's a bug of the OS (operating system), not of the themes!!!

It happens because the phone has a log file stored somewhere in c:/private (or in another protected folder). if you want to reinstall a theme you need to use unsis and extract the folder to put into private/10207114/import/

that's the only way i know...

so, let start:

A ) Download Unsis for 3rd Edition HERE
B ) You'll need the usb cable for connecting phone to pc

1. Install unsis to your PC and open it
2. choose "Open SIS" on bottom left
3. choose the theme you want to reinstall
4. click on "Extract"
5. after a few seconds (sometimes more ) it'll be "Completed"
6. you can now close the program
7. go into the PC installation folder (usually C:/Unsis)
8. there should be a folder called "Temp"
9. inside you should find "private"-> "10207114"-> "import"-> "some folders (just one ifyou extracted just one theme) with different names (numbers and letters in most cases)"
10. go inside the folders and search for the one of the theme you are interested in, there'll be 4 files:
a ) NameOfTheFolder.ini
b ) NameOfTheTheme.mbm
c ) NameOfTheTheme.mif
d ) NameOfTheTheme.skn
11. ok? now, leave this folder open and connect phone to pc using the usb cable
12. choose "Mass storage" option. Note: you can also insert memory card into a memory card reader
13. in your phone, find the folder called "private" . If you don't see it, you need to choose the visualization of hidden files and folders
14. in the "private" folder, find "10207114" folder and then "import" folder
15. in "import" there are your themes, here you should find the themes you installed into the memory card
16. don't close this folder but come back to the folder where you extracted the theme with unsis
17. just click "back" so you can see your folder selected into the "import" folder
18. choose all the folder and select "copy"
19. go back to the "import" folder in the phone's memory card
20. right click and "paste" into the "import" folder
21. here we are, now your theme is again in the memory card
22. just restart the phone and check that the theme is in the themes menu list, if it isn't, you'll need to repeat the recovery process.

Many Thanks to P@sco for this tutorial!!!!!

I've been doing this for quite a while now and it works a treat, apologies to all users as I should have put this information up earlier. Also it by-passes the certificate issues that a lot of people are having lately.

N.B. If you find this article useful and wish to thank Mr G for his efforts go here

Please DON'T Click The Thanks Button In This Post!

[sp00k]

Installing VoipCheap and similar VOIP profiles

Author: fldude99

How to manually install the VoipCheap profile:

First, register an account online with VoipCheap. It costs nothing to register and at this stage you don't need to add any money to your account in order to test it out. Once signed in, make sure you SIGN OUT! Only one user can be signed it at a time, so this is important.

Then configure the N95 as follows:

Get to SIP profiles by: menu>tools>settings>connection>SIP settings. Then Options>New SIP profile. Then manually input the following:

Profile name: Voipcheap
Service profile: IETF
Default access point: AP of choice (i.e. Medianet)
PUBLIC USER NAME: sip:<voipcheap acct name>@voipcheap.com
USE COMPRESSION: no
REGISTRATION: When needed
USE SECURITY: no

PROXY SERVER Setting
Proxy server address: sip:sip.voipcheap.com
Realm: voipcheap.com
username: <voipcheap account name>
password: <voipcheap password>
allow loose routing: yes
transport type: UDP, or auto (UDP works for me)
Port: 5060

Registrar Server Setting
Registrar server address: sip:sip.voipcheap.com
Realm: voipcheap.com
username: <voipcheap account name>
password: <voipcheap password>
transport type: UDP, or auto (altho UDP works for me)
Port: 5060

Then go to menu>tools>settings>connection>internet telephone, then options>new profile, and choose your voipcheap sip profile.

By the way, I am assuming the above settings will also work for VoipBuster if you choose that service.

At this point, you can do one of two things: go to menu>tools>internet tel, where it should "discover services" and show the available wifi connection if there is one. Then choose Options>connect to service. Secondly, you can just input the phone number you want to dial (in international format with the +, country code, etc) then go to options>internet call and the N95 should say "requesting registration", and if not registered, ask if you want to register now. Say yes and it should register to the VoipCheap service or whatever service is defaulted, if you have more than one SIP profile. Remember to choose "internet call" though! If you don't you will be calling using cell minutes and run up a nice bill! You know if it's an internet call when it's dialing you see a little globe under the phone icon. If you don't deposit anything in your voipcheap account you will be cut off after a couple of minutes however. But I find it's the cheapest way to call a cellphone in europe (11c/min to a cell in Italy), so I usually always have a few bucks in the account. And its awesome to call internationally and not even need to pay attention to the clock when calling a landline.


Here's my take on using VOIP on the N95:

One of the features that attracted me to the N95 was the ability to use VOIP. I am in the US and the reason for me to be able to use VOIP is the ability to call internationally on the cheap or free. I can't speak for other countries, but here in the US, I can't see much other reason for VOIP calling, as almost all cell plans are toll free nationwide, and fairly generous with minutes-especially when accumulating AT&T's rollover minutes.

It seems like there are 3 ways to use VOIP on the N95..
-Using an application such as Fring.
-Using an application such as Iskoot or IM+Skype.
-Using the built in SIP

In my opinion, the call quality using Fring renders it fairly useless, except that you can use your Skype account as well as incorporate more than one profile, including a SIP profile. However, my experience with Fring is that the quality is so poor as to render it relatively useless. This may be due to using a software based app.

The Iskoot and IM+Skype apps use a "call back" feature which creates the quality of a good cell call, but of course uses your cell minutes. So unless you're taking advantage of international skype rates, I don't see the use for those applications. If it's a domestic US call, you may as well just call directly as there is no long distance charge anyway.

This brings us to the built in SIP ability of the N95. There is no question in my mind that using the SIP profiles directly is the only way to really use VOIP on the N95. If you have a good wifi connection the quality is excellent. I call to cellphones and landlines in Europe frequently and the call quality is as good as an excellent cell call.

So how to use the SIP profile: I have installed 2 profiles in my phone: Gizmo and VoipCheap. Gizmo is super easy to get going with, as it can be installed directly from the download folder in the N95. What's nice about it is that it installs itself directly into the SIP profiles without having to manually enter anything. The rates for calling international with Gizmo is competitive, but I have found VoipCheap to be better. VoipCheap is one of the Betamax services which includes VoipBuster and others. What they offer is free calling to landlines of many countries when you keep a balance in the account. However there is some difference in which countries are free, depending on the service you use, so you have to look at their website to see which countries are appropriate for you. VoipCheap has countries that they include on their free calling that VoipBuster doesn't so it's an individual thing.

One more little tidbit: If you don't have access to a computer you can actually make a voipcheap call by sending a text to +44 762 480 0947 with the number you want to call in the body of the text msg and it will ring your cell phone as it dials the number. You have to pay a connection fee however, but if you are in a situation where you have to make an international call its very useful. I was in a restaurant one time and had to call someone in Italy and it worked like a charm.

Second tidbit: I've heard of some folks using the british service Truphone, which also installs into the SIP settings but I have also heard of its "intrusiveness" in your phone, causing crashing, rebooting, etc, so I have avoided it. After looking at the features of their service, I don't see the advantage anyway. They are advertising free landline calling until the end of the year if you sign up by 9/30, but voipcheap already offers this.

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