How to download youtube video to S60 phone

(tested on Nokia N82)

How to download youtube video to your S60 phone?

I recently was presented with the challenge – I’ve received link to an interesting music video in twitter (I use and recommend Gravity). I could watch it using Operamini or native S60 browser, but downloading it to my phone was a pain. Commonly used sites (like ssyoutube.com, or youtubemp4.com) that help desktop users to download youtube clips, failed to work properly in the phone browsers (and I tried native browser, operamini, o3zone). Sometime they used ajax to show links, sometime they asked you to right click on the link to save file (how the hell can one do this on non-touch Nokia?) The only way that I found to ahieve the desired result, was to use keepvid.com which present simple download links in the resulting page.

If you already know ID of the video that you want to download, then it is pretty easy task, just form the following address in your favourite browser http://keepvid.com/?url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=VIDEO_ID follow it, and press on of the download links (.flv or .mp4). If, you want to get HQ quality, add &fmt=18 to the end of the url.

Now the 2nd obstacle is to get ID of the specific video from tinyurl (or any other link compressor, I guess). If you open tinyurl in your browser, it goes to mobile youtube page. Save bookmark at this moment and open it for editing. Surprisingly, I could not open bookmark address for editing in operamini (probably a bug related to very long address). But it works in the native browser, where you can see VideoID at the end of the address (the XXXXXXX after v= ). Copy it.

Now you can form download url as discussed above, adding to VideoID to

http://keepvid.com/?url=http://youtube.com/watch?v=

You also can save this address among bookmarks for easier use next time.

Now, I am looking for a way to extract audio track from .mp4 video on my phone and making a ringtone out of it. :)

Problem installing Nokia Maps 3 on N82

I was getting error message from Nokia Map Updater, that compatible phone is not found, until I tried to run old version of Nokia Maps (2.x which comes in v31 of firmware) for the first time. After it has started and created some registry settings and own files on the phone, Nokia Map Updater immediately found my handset and proceeded with installation of Nokia Maps 3.

Time to upgrade? Nokia N82 firmware v31

I have been using v20 for  a long time since it was easily unlocked. But my phone recently started to behave erratically, I could not start media gallery anymore. Camera was slow. Everything was slow and it rebooted by itself too often (couple of times a week). I also have 16GB MicroSDHC card and I knew that latest firmware touted better compatibility with large cards. So it was time to go with full format of the phone and the memory card and painfull reinstallation of all programs.

So, here we go. Backup of PIM. Copying of files from card to computer. (that was not easy, the card wouldn’t read in card readers anymore, but using the phone in USB mode, did it). Format the card. *#7370# for hard reset.

I used Nokia Software Updater, and it did it evil thing by upgrading me to v31 and loosing my regional languages in the process. There I was, having now choice between English and Hindu. Instead of Latvian and Russian. Luckily, this isn’t a rare problem. It happens often, because the phone is produced for one country, and has that country’s product code and regional languages are added before shipping only.

This is fixed by changing phones product code to correct region and doing NSU again. Luckily it is easy and free (with caveats about understanding the risks of messing with Nokia firmware using non-Nokia tools). I used guidelines for N95 product code change from thenokiablog and it worked for my N82 too.

Format the card. Hard reset. Format the card again. (just in case, you know).

Here I am now. The phone is much faster even with all the software installed.(I relate it to better support for the large cards). It eats less energy (true, as promised in firmware changelog). It is more stable. (true, not self-initiated reboots anymore). And yes, there are some problems with Opera Mini 4.2 as noted by other users(for me, it manifests in slow response when using My Opera sync). Because of the this, I hope that there is another firmware on the way.

It is not unlocked anymore. Huh. There is a way to do it (mapdrive method) discussed in great detail in many places on the web. But you need to have your own certificate to sign several programs required in the process and I do not have one. It seems that at this moment, our friends in China stopped creating such certificates. Boy, do I want to be in the line when there is a new place creating personal certificates.

Adding torrents to utorrent WebUI via bookmarklet

Background

I have utorrent running on my home server (Vista Ultimate) 24hrs*7day a week and have a variety of methods for connecting to it.

1) Remote Desktop Connection - this microsoft client is available for Linux (Ubuntu 8.10 in my case), OS X (Leopard) and all sorts of Windows.

2) WebUI works from firefox (and I think IE7/8 too) on any platform

3) I also use utorrent mobile java program on my Nokia N82 to connect from anywhere via GPRS to manage bandwidth consumption (pause all, resume all) and specific torrents (pause, stop, resume, remove torrent (and data)).

Until now, I mostly used firefox to find a needed .torrent, download it to my desktop, go into my webui page in firefox and upload .torrent file manually. Now I found a new and a very comfortable bookmarklet, that uses javascript to inject webui command into all .torrent links on a webpage. 

To use it, create a bookmark with any name and fill its URL with the code from utorrent forums

You'll need to edit the code by changing to your host and port (e.g. "mydomain.dyndns.org:8080"). If you don't want to login each time, you can even add your login information (e.g. "username:password@mydomain.dyndns.org:8080").

Now, whenever you are on a webpage containing some .torrent links, click your bookmark, then click the .torrent link that you want. It will automatically (in 4 seconds) direct you to your webui where you will see new .torrent added to your list.

Speed test of Sandisk 16GB MicroSDHC (Class 2) with Nokia N82

 

From http://www.thenokiaguide.com/my_weblog/2008/10/a-first-look-at.html

The most important point here is to understand that Class 2/4/6 do not really matter when choosing card for N82, because internal write speed of the latest N-series (with possible exception of N96) is below 1 MB/sec, i.e. below even Class 2 speeds.

Just ordered Sandisk 16GB Micro SDHC card

from MyMemory for 46.99 GBP delivered price.

Nokia N82 disassembly video

For those of N82 owners who just cannot stop. :)

Going to Ukraine

I am going to spend my vacation in Ukraine, and will go there for two weeks starting from this Thursday, 19.6.

I am going by car,  route will be 2000km and will take 2 days driving in each direction. Here are 2 parts of the route.

First part is Riga - Lithuania - Poland. 845km. Plus time lost on Ukrainian border and another 140km in Ukraine to the hotel in Lutsk. I had to plan it in Google Maps. Actual navigation will be with TomTom 6.02 on Nokia N82 (Garmin XT mobile maps as backup).

2nd day will be only 900km. This one was planned in Garmin mapsource. Actual navigation will be by Garmin Mobile XT. (Nokia Maps 2.0 as backup).

There are two options for this day - going through Vinnitsa or going through Zhitomir. Both are same distance and I am trying to obtain more feedback in the excellent (russian speaking) community of autotravellers at AutoUA.

Apart from mentioned programs I still have maps of Ukraine and Ukraine largest cities in YandexMaps cache, SmartcomGPS and of course there is Google Maps mobile and MGMaps, but those require GPRS, which I will only connect when I arrived in Kherson and will buy local SIM card with unlimited GPRS.

1st OpenCoffee meeting in Riga, tomorrow evening

UPDATE!!! Sunset bar is still under reconstruction. New meeting place will be announced today. Stay tuned.

First OpenCoffee in Riga, will take place in Sunset Bar, at 18:00. This is open discussion about Web 2.0 issues, challenges and ideas. It is also a great opportunity to get acquainted with local Web 2.0 crowd. I unfortunately cannot participate this time, but hope to see it online, thanks to Dik who will translate tomorrow meeting using his Nokia N82 and Qik. Link to translation is here. Also embedded into this post below.

N-Gage 2 protection broken

I normally do not care to write about warez, but this is a new milestone in S60 world of gaming. N Gage 2 game protection have been compromised. More info in Russian is here with Asphalt 3D as an example. I did not have time to try it myself yet, but users report that it is working. Not clear if online and multiplayer features work, but I guess they should be, since crack only affect game itself, and works under unmodified N-Gage2 platform.

SVG themes crash Nokia N82 browser?

I have learned to my surprise, that N82 was unstable in web browsing, just after installation of couple of programs and my "favourite" theme. Browser would often close for no apparent reason, more often when in "menu" mode. All of this despite tons of free RAM, etc. So, I started to roll back installed programs until I found a culprit. This was something I would expect the last - a theme! It is hard to believe, I thought that a theme is just a collection of pics and colour definitions, but it seems that SVG theme from PiZero, can cause such a strange instability in N82 browser (in my case that was New Gold SVG theme by PiZero). I doubt it has anything to do with theme itself, more likely some bug in SVG theme rendering engine in firmware.

Removed the theme and my browser is stable again.

My new Nokia N82 Black and iPhone Google Reader

I waited for several months for the black version of N82 to become available and this Monday I finally got one. I am delighted with it. Build quality is superb, despite of what people commented on silver version. Firmware is mature, and there is ton of free RAM to run a dozen of apps at the same time. It is quick too. I usually keep open 2 gmail apps, fring, palringo,and several tabs in browser (google reader, etc.) Today I received a call, and while speaking via bluetooth headset, I opened google maps and checked satellite view of the location that was discussed. All of it without a hitch. It worked really well with my home WiFi connection in parallel with GSM call and bluetooth headset.

Keyboard is a treat too, surprisingly so.

I will not comment on excellent photo and video quality, because many people have done it already. Suffice it to say, that this is the first truly multimedia and multitasking computer from Nokia in the smallest form factor and at affordable pricepoint. Prices have dropped from 600 EUR on launch to 350 EUR now. Way to go, Nokia.

Autorotation is good for comfortable photo viewing. Youtube playback over Wifi connection is perfect.

Coreplayer 1.2 plays anything you can throw at it. Now I only need a 16 or 32 GB card to hold my media.

GPS easily picks up inside my flat, something even my SIRF3 bluetooth module couldn't deliver.

This is also a device that finally can run QuickOffice smoothly and I even splashed on buying 5th version with Office 2007 support.

And finally, S60 browser has enough memory to shine opening several heavy tabs at once.Which leads me to the last point for today - it works really well on iPhone version of Google Reader, making it so easy to follow my feeds. I attached some screenshots of this. Now, you can view post summaries within the same window, and if needed it opens full posts in new tab. I abandoned Opera now. But if the Opera 9.x for S60 will deliver promised improvements, then this phone will replace my Everun UMPC for 99% of my mobile computing needs.

Thank you, Nokia. This is a great device. Now, that my cigar is starting to burn my fingers and cognac glass is empty, I will finish this post, written on Nokia N82, and will go inside. Good night.