One of the major letdowns of the new devices in the Eseries line, like the Nokia E52, E55 and E72 is the lack of two main software that many of you use constantly: Podcasts and Internet Radio. I’ve covered the vanishing of important applications from the factory firmware of several Nokia Symbian handsets, but until someone fixes these issues, we have to resort to finding solutions for problems that needn’t exist in the first place… Oh the joys of being a Symbian fanatic!
Back to my topic, thanks to some commenters who pointed it quite a few times, I was able to get back Internet Radio and a similar functionality to Podcasts on my Nokia E52. It should also work on the E55 and E72.
1. Internet Radio
It’s as simple as going to the official Nokia Internet Radio download page and choosing specifically the version for the 6120 Classic, if you can’t find it, here is the direct download link on our servers. After installation, you simply go to the Radio application on your phone and launch it in order to get a choice between the FM Radio and the Internet Radio.
It works like a charm, allowing you to stream stations, browse the top stations or the full directory, and add the radios you like to your favorites.
Credits go to WizzMob for figuring it out, and a big thanks to @alsiladka for helping me unearth it.
2.Podcasts
A great podcatcher from the Symbian UIQ days, Escarpod by Bergamot, has been ported to S60. You can download the alpha version here (which you need to sign with a certificate using our guide), and try it out. It’s not superb by any means, and it doesn’t have oustanding options, heck it doesn’t even have actual titles for its 5 different panes, but it works nonetheless.
Escarpod comes with 5 different views: Now Playing, Podcasts on the phone, Downloader, Podcast feeds and AudioBooks. You can add a podcast’s HTML address in the Podcast feeds section, or import an OPML file, then you can browse through the latest episodes from each podcast. A great feature from Escarpod is the ability to view podcast cover art as well as episode details, in addition to pausing and resuming downloads through the Downloader. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to find a setting that allows me to schedule Escarpod to check for new episodes and download them automatically, like the regular built-in Podcasting does.
I’m not much of a Podcast fanatic, but I know that Escarpod should help you cover the basics until we make enough noise so that Nokia adds Podcasting back into the E52, E55 and E72’s firmware.
Do you own a Nokia E52, E55 or E72? If so, do you sorely miss these two features and were you able to get Internet Radio back using the trick posted above? What about podcasts, does Escarpod do the job for you, or is Nokia’s home baked Podcasting application a better option?
