Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

 

 

Iconic Music Slider Key for unique sliding user interface access to music

Crystal clear Hi-Fi audio enabled by dedicated audio chip

3G for fast downloads and video calls

3.2 megapixel camera with autofocus and dual LED flash

Fun applications to stay connected and explore Web 2.0

Operating Frequency

Quadband GSM 850/900/1800/1900 MHz

Dualband WCDMA 850/2100 MHz

Dimensions

Volume: 75 cc

Weight: 111 g

Length: 98.5 mm

Width: 48.5 mm

Thickness: 17 mm

Display

2.2’’QVGA, 240 x 320 pixels, 16 million colors display

Active display area: 33.5 x 44.7 mm

Ambient light sensor to optimize display brightness and power consumption

User Interface

S 40 user interface, 3rd edition

5-way navi key, two soft keys, send and end keys

Side volume keys with zoom functionality

2-way spring loaded Music Slider music key

Organic user interface

Active standby screen

Context dependent Music Slider light

Nokia sensor

Imaging

Integrated VGA 3.2 megapixel camera with auto focus and up to 8x digital zoom

Sequential shots

Dedicated 2-step captre key

Macroshot, landscape mode

Image Formats Support: JPEG, GIF

Secondary QCIF camera for video calling (15 fps)

Video: Video recording, streaming and playback in VGA, QVGA and QCIF formats with sound

Video recording in VGA (15 fps), QCIF (30 fps) with 4x smooth zoom in H.263 and MPEG-4 in .3gp format

Video streaming in QVGA (15 fps) for H.263 and MPEG-4, QCIF (15 fps) for H.264

Video playback in QVGA (30 fps), VGA (15 fps) and QCIF (15 fps)

Multimedia

Visual Radio*: Listen to music and interact with your favorite radio stations

Find out what song is playing, who sings it, and other artist information

Enter contests and answer surveys, vote for your favorite songs

Download the songs you buy direct to your phone

Playback for the following video formats: H.263, H.264, MPEG-4

Stereo FM Radio**

Integrated music player for MP3, MP4, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+, AMR-NB and WMA formats

DAC33 Audio chip for better audio and longer playback

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

*To check the availability and cost of the service, contact your network operator or service provider

**Stereo sound can only be heard with a compatible stereo headset

Memory Functions

20 MB built-in memory

Options to expand with microSD card

Messaging

Messaging

Multimedia messaging: MMS for creating, receiving, editing, and sending videos and pictures with AMR voice clips

Email: Supports SMTP, POP3, IMAP4, and APOP protocols. Support for attachments (view jpeg, 3gp, MP3, .ppt, .doc, excel, and .pdf files)

Text messaging: Supports concatenated SMS, picture messaging, SMS distribution list

Audio messaging: Record your own voice message and send to compatible devices

Instant Messaging and Presence-enhanced contacts 

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Java™ Applications

Java™ MIDP 2.0

Over-the-air (OTA) download of Java™–based applications

 Ringing Tones

64–chord polyphonic ringing tones

 Connectivity

Bluetooth 2.0

Local / remote over-the-air (OTA) synchronization with SyncML

Local synchronization with PC using Nokia PC Suite

Micro USB connector with USB 2.0 Full Speed

2.5 mm AV connector

 Browsing

WAP* 2.0 xHTML browser

*Please note that this service is operator dependent 

Data Transfer

EDGE Release 4: Class B, multislot class 31

GPRS: Class B and C, multislot class 31

CSD (Circuit-Switched Data)

*Please note that these services require network support

Call Management

SAIC (single antenna interference cancellation) to help avoid network interference – fewer dropped calls

Push to talk over Cellular (PoC)*

Push to talk over Cellular (PoC)*

Push to talk over cellular network without a key

*Please note that this service is operator dependent

Digital Services

Over-the-air (OTA) downloading and uploading of content and applications

FOTA: Firmware update over the air

 Voice Features

Voice dialing

Voice commands 

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic

Voice recorder

Integrated handsfree speaker

 Personal Information Management (PIM)

Alarm clock

Analog/digital clock

Contacts

Calendar

 Calculator 

Other Features

Yahoo Go!

Nokia Catalogs Version 4.1

Flash Lite player version 2.1.1

User interface themes and ring tone pack

Flight mode: All transmission-related activities turned off

Sales Package Contents

Nokia 5610 XpressMusic phone

Nokia Battery BP-5M

Nokia Travel Charger AC-4

Nokia Wired Headset HS-45 with AD-56 (remote control)

Nokia Micro USB Cable CA-101

Nokia 512MB microSD card MU-28

User Guide

 Power Management

* Operation times vary depending on the network and usage

 Cutting-edge, media-centric design with 2.2″ scratch-resistant window 
]]> http://imrozbaig.wordpress.com/2008/10/15/technical-specifications-of-nokia-5610-xpressmusic-in-india/feed/ 0 imrozbaig Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Nokia 5610 XpressMusic Nokia 5610 XpressMusic http://imrozbaig.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/nokia-5800-xpressmusic/ http://imrozbaig.wordpress.com/2008/10/14/nokia-5800-xpressmusic/#comments Mon, 13 Oct 2008 19:53:25 +0000 imrozbaig http://imrozbaig.com/?p=90 ]]>

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

The debate is will it be able to fight iphone in India. Reviews from around the world are mixed. I would Attempt to make a comparison later, may be next month, since its still; early days for both the  gadgets.

Nokia  launched the latest “iPhone killer” in India, its first touchscreen mobile phone, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, which is expected to give Apple Inc.’s iconic iPhone a run for its money.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

 

 

The feature-packed phone, said D. Shivakumar, managing director, Nokia India, is a better converged device than Apple’s iPhone 3G. “What iPhone did was to bring the touch element to a multimedia converged device. Since we are already the leader in converged devices in India, Nokia 5800 will be a revolutionary launch from our stable,” he said.

 

Unlike the iPhone which comes with a 2-megapixel camera, Nokia 5800 is equipped with a 3.2-megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss lens, LED flash and video capability.

While the phone’s virtual QWERTY keyboard is ideal for text messaging, email and instant messaging, the WiFi, 3G, GPRS, dual-band WCDMA, HSDPA, WLAN (802.11 b/g) and HSCSD support ensures wireless access to the internet.

The Symbian 60-based phone is capable of playing audio and video files in multiple formats and for the music or movie buffs, this is a boon as it comes with a whopping 8GB microSD card (note: 5800 has built-in 128MB memory) and for those who want more, an optional 16GB card.

In addition, the phone has a crystal clear 3.2-inch display and a tilt sensor (similar to Apple’s accelerometer) and an in-built A-GPS receiver with voice navigation.

Other features include virtual keypad with stylus input support, Bluetooth 2.0, handwriting recognition software, FM radio, built-in surround sound stereo speakers with eight-band graphic equalizer, Nokia Maps, haptic touch technology, Mobile Transfer Protocol support, and TV out – video cable included – that allows streaming of multimedia.

According to tech analysts, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic wins hands down in several departments, including:

[1] A battery which is removable and has a better and longer life

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

[2] A better camera. Nokia has 3.2-megapixel camera with video recording capability as compared to iPhone’s basic 2-megapixel camera

[3] A better screen resolution. Nokia’s display screen is smaller than the iPhone (3.2-inch as against 3.5-inch) but the the resolution is better on the Nokia 5800 with 640×360 pixels against 480×320 pixels for the iPhone

[4] MMS support

[5] Adobe Flash support (Apple claims that Flash may slow down browsing on iPhone and hence the device does not support Flash)

 The new Nokia 5800 XpressMusic handset certainly looks like an iPhone. Same rounded corners, similar screen, and of course software operated with the touch of a finger. But don’t—repeat, don’t—call it an iPhone killer. With 40% of the global handset market, Nokia (NOK) is not in the business of copying puny rivals such as Apple (AAPL). Rather, Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia’s executive vice-president for markets, calls the 5800 a “youth-oriented multimedia product made very affordable to the target audience of heavy music consumers.”

Maybe a better description of the 5800 would be iPhone triangulator. No, the handset launched on Oct. 2 in London is not aimed directly at the hard-core iPhone crowd. But the 5800 does indicate how Nokia hopes to ensure that Apple remains a niche player in the global handset market. Nokia will try to smother Apple and other rivals with a range of touch products, aiming to peel away different target groups.

And Nokia will launch the products simultaneously around the world, exploiting a distribution system that neither Apple nor any other competitor can match. The 5800 can handle 60 different languages covering 90% of humanity and will be in shops all over the globe, including the U.S., before the end of the year, Nokia says.

Musical Bonus

As Vanjoki points out, the 5800 is designed for young folks whose lives revolve around music. The $407 price tag, before taxes and subsidies, is more than a third below that of an unsubsidized iPhone. And the 5800 will be available from a range of telcos, in contrast to the iPhone, which is officially available only from select providers such as O2 (TEF) in Britain or T-Mobile (DT) in Germany.

Perhaps the most important feature of the 5800, though, isn’t hardware but the built-in music collection. Beginning next year, the phone will feature Nokia’s Comes With Music service—a year’s worth of downloads from a catalog that includes all four major labels and 4 million songs (BusinessWeek.com, 9/2/08). It may be the music, more than the device, that’s really aimed at Apple. Anyone who buys a 5800, with a massive selection of music embedded in the price, is unlikely to pay for the same music on iTunes.

So how does the 5800 compare with the iPhone? It’s more sophisticated in some ways, less so in others. The more compact 5800 has a one-finger touch screen, in contrast to the iPhone, whose surface can handle input from two fingers simultaneously. The iPhone’s two-finger interface lets users do cool things, such as easily shrink or expand images on the screen. On the other hand, the 5800, unlike the iPhone, has a screen that vibrates ever so gently when you touch it, providing subtle confirmation that the device is responding to your command.

Sophisticated Insides

The 5800′s inner workings also are more advanced. (Saying such things always generates hate mail from iPhone fans.) It’s a fact that Nokia has much more experience than Apple—or anybody else, for that matter—in packing an astonishing number of radios and other electronics into a small package and making everything work reliably.

The 5800 has a better camera, including a Carl Zeiss lens. Its Internet browser can handle Flash files, which the iPhone can’t. And it has built-in GPS navigation (as do the newest iPhones). Since Nokia hasn’t yet released test versions of the 5800, it’s impossible to say which is better. But given how much effort Nokia has put into navigation (it’s already the world’s largest maker of GPS devices), it will be a surprise if the new phone doesn’t turn out to be more precise and better at snagging a satellite signal than the iPhone. Nokia will include an introductory subscription to voice navigation in the price. “It’s increasingly about the combination of services that come with the product,” Vanjoki says.

The 5800 should be seen as Nokia’s first attack on the touch screen phone market. A real challenger to iPhone will come some time in the next few months, when the Finns unveil an Nseries device with a touch screen. The top-of-the-line Nseries handsets are the ones that most appeal to the same tech connoisseurs who have made the iPhone such a phenomenon. Vanjoki might let you get away with calling that product an iPhone killer. 

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic

Specifications>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Physical features, power and memory

Size

• Form: Classic with full touch user interface
• Dimensions: 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm
• Weight: 109 g
• Volume: 83 cc
• Touch user interface optimised for one-hand use with tactile feedback

Display and 3D

• Main display
  - Size: 3.2″
  - Resolution: 640 x 360 pixels (nHD)
  - Up to 16 million colours
  - aspect ratio 16:9
  - automatic orientation sensor (Accelerometer) for display rotation
• 3D image engine

Keys and input method

• Stylus, plectrum and finger touch support for text input and user interface control (alphanumeric keypad, full and mini qwerty keyboard, handwriting recognition, full screen handwriting for Chinese language)
• Dedicated Media Bar touch key for access to music, gallery, share on-line, Video Centre and web browser
• Voice commands
• Physical keys for application launch key (menu key), send & end, power, camera, lock, volume up & down

Colors and covers

• Available in-box colours:
  - Red
  - Blue
  - Black
  Available colours may vary per region.

Connectors

• Micro-USB connector, USB 2.0 High Speed
• 3.5 mm Nokia AV connector
• MicroSD card slot, small DC jack, Micro USB cable interface to PC (CA-101), TV out interface (CA-75U)

Power

• BL-5J 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery
• Talk time (maximum):
  - GSM 8.8 h
  - WCDMA 5 h
• Standby time (maximum):
  - GSM 406.2 h
  - WCDMA 400 h
• Browsing time with packet data (maximum): 3.4 h
• Video playback time (maximum): 5.2 h, Video playback time (maximum, nHD/Mpeg4) 3.4 h, VGA video playback using TV-Out with Stereo BT Headset 3.8 h
• Video recording time (maximum): 3.6 h
• Video call time (maximum): 3 h
• Music playback time (maximum): Up to 35 h
• Gaming time (maximum): 5.6 h

Memory

• MicroSD memory card slot, hot swappable, max. 16 GB
• 81 MB internal memory
• 8GB microSD memory card in-box, expandable up to 16GB

Communication and navigation

Operating frequency

• WCDMA 900/2100
• GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900
• WCDMA 850/1900 (Latin America and Brazil variant only)
• Automatic switching between GSM bands
• Flight mode

Data network

• CSD
• HSCSD
• GPRS/EDGE class B, multislot class 32, maximum speed 296/177 kbps (DL/UL)
• WCDMA 2100/900 with simultanous voice and packet data, maximum speed PS 384/384 kbps (UL/DL), CS maximum speed 64 kbps
• HSDPA cat 6, maximum speed 3.6 Mbps (DL)
• WLAN IEEE 802.11 b/g (3G version only)
• TCP/IP support

Local connectivity and synchronization

• Bluetooth version 2.0
  - Bluetooth profiles: A2DP & AVRCP
• MTP (Mobile Transfer Protocol) support
• TV out with Nokia Video Connectivity Cable (CA-75U, in-box)
• Support for PC synchronisation with Nokia OVI Suite

Call features

• Integrated hands-free speakerphone
• Number screening for messaging and calls
• Automatic answer with headset or car kit
• Any key answer
• Call waiting, call hold, call divert
• Call timer
• Logging of dialled, received and missed calls
• Automatic redial
• Speed dialling
• Voice dialling: speaker independent dialling and voice commands (SIND)
• Fixed dialling number support
• Vibrating alert (internal), also with tactile feedback
• Side volume keys
• Mute/unmute
• Contacts bar for 4 contacts with images and communication history (SMS, IM, email, web feeds)
• Talking ring tones
• Conference calling with up to 6 participants
• Video calling: up to 3h, QCIF 176 x 144 pixels, low up to 5 fps, normal up to 10 fps, smooth up to 15 fps

Messaging

• SMS
• Multiple SMS deletion
• MMS version 1.3, message size up to 600 kb
• Automatic resizing of images for MMS
• Nokia Xpress audio messaging
• Common inbox for SMS and MMS messages
• Number screening for messaging
• Distribution lists for messaging
• Instant messaging client
• Cell broadcast

E-mail

• Supported protocols: IMAP, POP, SMTP
• Support for e-mail attachments
• OMA e-mail notification support
• Mail for Exchange 2008 in DL client, in 2009 embedded

Web browsing

• Supported markup languages: HTML, XHTML, WML
• Supported protocols: HTTP, WAP, JavaScript
• TCP/IP support
• OSS browser
• Nokia Mobile Search

GPS and navigation

• Integrated GPS for pedestrian and car navigation
• Nokia Maps 2.0 Touch application

You can use this tip to speed up the Start Menu in Windows XP release candidate 1. You can customize the speed of the Start Menu by editing a Registry Key.

1. Click Start, and then click Run.
2. Type Regedit in the box, and then click OK.
3. Expand the menu in the left panel and select the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop folder.
4. Scroll down in the right panel and double click on the MenuShowDelay file.
5. In the Value Data box, change to default value for the menu speed from 400 to a lesser number, such as 1.
6. Click OK.

Caution: Incorrectly editing the registry may severely damage your system. Before making changes to the registry, you should back up any valued data on your computer.

This tweak is for broad band cable connections on stand alone machines with winXP professional version – might work on Home version also. It will probably work with networked machines as well but I haven’t tried it in that configuration. This is for windows XP only, it does not work on win2000.
I use 3 Com cards so I don’t know how it works on others at this point. It does not involve editing the registry. This tweak assumes that you have let winXP create a connection on install for your cable modem/NIC combination and that your connection has tcp/ip – QoS – file and print sharing – and client for microsoft networks , only, installed. It also assumes that winxp will detect your NIC and has in-box drivers for it. If it doesn’t do not try this.
In the “My Network Places” properties (right click on the desktop icon and choose properties), highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose “Advanced” then “Advanced Settings”. Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK

1. From the windows XP cd in the support directory from the support cab, extract the file netcap.exe and place it in a directory on your hard drive or even in the root of your C:\ drive.
2. next, open up a command prompt window and change directories to where you put netcap.exe. then type “netcap/?”. It will list some commands that are available for netcap and a netmon driver will be installed. At the bottom you will see your adapters. You should see two of them if using a 3Com card. One will be for LAN and the other will be for WAN something or other.
3. Next type “netcap/Remove”. This will remove the netmon driver.
4. Open up control panel / system / dev man and look at your network adapters. You should now see two of them and one will have a yellow ! on it. Right click on the one without the yellow ! and choose uninstall. YES! you are uninstalling your network adapter, continue with the uninstall. Do not restart yet.
5. Check your connection properties to make sure that no connection exists. If you get a wizard just cancel out of it.
6. Now re-start the machine.
7. After re-start go to your connection properties again and you should have a new connection called “Local area connection 2″. highlight the connection then at the menu bar choose “Advanced” then “Advanced Settings”. Uncheck the two boxes in the lower half for the bindings for File and Printer sharing and Client for MS networks. Click OK.
8. Choose connection properties and uncheck the “QOS” box
9. Re-start the machine
10. after restart enjoy the increased responsivness of IE, faster page loading, and a connection speed boost.

Why it works, it seems that windows XP, in its zeal to make sure every base is covered installs two seperate versions of the NIC card. One you do not normally see in any properties. Remember the “netcap/?” command above showing two different adapters? The LAN one is the one you see. The invisible one loads everything down and its like your running two separate cards together, sharing a connection among two cards, this method breaks this “bond” and allows the NIC to run un-hindered

1. Start regedit.
2. Navigate to HKEY_CLASSES_ROOTlnkfile.
3. Delete the IsShortcut registry value.
4. You may need to restart Windows XP.

Start, Run and enter GPEDIT.MSC
Computer Configuration > Administrative Templates > Windows Components > Windows Messenger
You can now modify whether it starts initially and/or whether it’s to run at all.
UPDATE: I have recieved some email that say this fix slows down outlook when starting, that is because outlook wants to start messenger when it starts, the easiest and fastest way to disable messenger and still have a quickj starttime with outlook is to rename the exe file, located here c:\program files\messenger\msmsgs.exe, to something other than msmsgs.exe, such as msmsgsnew.exe.

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT/CLSID/{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

and change the name “Recycle Bin” to whatever you want (don’t type any quotes).

1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type ‘systeminfo’. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type ‘systeminfo > info.txt’. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).

2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run… and type ‘gpedit.msc’; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care — some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter ‘rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation’ in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That’s it — just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that’s not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.

4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word ‘hide’ and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.

5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include ‘eventcreate’ and ‘eventtriggers’ for creating and watching system events, ‘typeperf’ for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and ‘schtasks’ for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options — they’re all far too baroque to go into here.

6. XP has IP version 6 support — the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type ‘ipv6 install’ into Run… (it’s OK, it won’t ruin your existing network setup) and then ‘ipv6 /?’ at the command line to find out more. If you don’t know what IPv6 is, don’t worry and don’t bother.

7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using ‘taskkill /pid’ and the task number, or just ‘tskill’ and the process number. Find that out by typing ‘tasklist’, which will also tell you a lot about what’s going on in your system.

8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you’ve got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing ‘regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll’ at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing ‘regsvr32 zipfldr.dll’.

9. XP has ClearType — Microsoft’s anti-aliasing font display technology — but doesn’t have it enabled by default. It’s well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who’s using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum’s real IP address — they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com — and get them to make sure that they’ve got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.

11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As… and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.

12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.

13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run… from the start menu and type ‘control userpasswords2′, which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.

14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options… and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.

15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can’t see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You’ll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.

16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.

17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By… Show In Groups.

18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks — if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn’t, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.

19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.

20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won’t be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004.