For the past few weeks, I have been toying with my Nokia E71 and the awesome application entitled Magic Key which allows me to remap buttons to different functions, and which I told you how to use and how I set it up on the N82. I had one objective in mind with the E71: make use of the volume and mute keys which are located on the right side of the handset in order to improve my whole experience. I started from the concept of this post I wrote earlier, about the lack of consistency in S60, and the different zoom in and zoom out used across the platform (Gallery, Camera, Web, Nokia Maps…). I also used this great tip from Eduardo over at the E71 blog who had used the volume keys to scroll in the web browser, and took great inspiration from the comments written on that post. Finally, this is what I came up with:
In all applications
- Magic Key setting: original key 242, maps to 182 (read my tutorial on how to use Magic Key)
- This means that the mute button, which is located between the volume keys, and which I never used before, is now set as a Play/Pause button. This is awesome as it allows me to control my music from anywhere on the handset.
In Web, Messaging and Camera
- Magic Key setting: original key 162 maps to 16, original key 163 maps to 17, original key 242 maps to 167.
- These 3 settings mean that the Volume up key now works as an Up arrow, Volume down works as a Down arrow, and the Mute button works as an Ok stroke. In other words, in Web and Messaging, I can now scroll using the volume keys, and select using the center mute button. Perfect. In Camera mode, I can Zoom in and out using the volume keys and capture the image with the center mute key. Brilliant.
In Nokia Maps
- Magic Key setting: original key 162 maps to 18, original key 163 maps to 1, original key 242 maps to 48.
- In better words, the volume up key now works as the Shift, volume down as Backspace, and mute button as the 0. What does it mean? Well that I can now Zoom in and out using the volume keys on the E71, and the mute button takes me back to my current location. Genius.
In Google Maps
- Magic Key setting: original key 162 maps to 51, original key 163 maps to 49, and original key 242 maps to 48.
- The same concept applies as to Nokia Maps, zooming in and out is done with the volume keys (which map to keys 1 and 3 that are usually used by Google Maps) and the mute button brings me back to my current location (maps to key 0).
In Nokia FriendView and Nokia viNe
- Magic Key setting: original key 162 maps to 42, original key 163 maps to 127, original key 242 maps to 50.
- Both FriendView and Nokia viNe use the * and # key for zooming in and out, so these Magic Key settings allow you to use the volume keys for zooming in and out. I also remapped the mute button to the 2 key, which allows me to make a new post or a comment in FriendView, but doesn’t serve any purpose in viNe.
All in all, I think I made the best out of the volume and mute key (the latter by the way I never used on my E71 before). I realize that this is something that a majority of you won’t be interested in doing, but I wanted to share it nonetheless. Here is a video demonstrating how everything works now on my E71:
