If you’ve been waiting for the Layout Planner Pro beta I’m happy to announce it’s ready for user consumption. Please visit LayoutPlanner.com to request access to the beta program and create a user account. In about 24 hours (if faster if I can get to it) you’ll be given access to the download area where you can grab Windows and Macintosh versions.

In a previous post I mentioned the Gizmo Project SIP configuration for my Nokia E61. It turns out this is wholely unnecessary because Gizmo provides a downloadable Symbian application to perform the configuration for you.

Read about GizmoVOIP.com using your computer’s browser then point your E61 here to download the application. Although the web site says this is for the N80 I had no problems installing it on my E61. All I needed to provide was my Gizmo username and password - the rest is automatic. No more manual entry of SIP and Internet Telephone configuration.

Gizmo on the E61 works well although it appears to freeze the phone every so often as a call is attempted. This a major flaw and I’m guessing an issue with Nokia’s implementation of SIP or interaction with router’s handling of NAT.

Airbus A380 made a visit to LAX and although I didn’t catch the landing I was in the area during the celebration. The plane was clearly visible from Imperial Highway, directly south of the airport, near the Flying Chef building. I couldn’t park my car and get out but I was poised at a stop light and got a good glimpse of the A380.

Alone, as it was, it didn’t appear too large from wingtip to wingtip. Where you can tell this is a super-jumbo is the thick, double-decker, fuselage. This is a tall and wide plane, make no mistake.

If nothing else, this passenger aircraft marks a historic event in aviation by Airbus. Hopefully LAX’s $50M runway expansion and upgrade will be worth it.

I’ve owned the Nokia E61 since it first arrived. Probably a bad idea since any Revision 1.0 product has issues but fortunately the hardware has been solid. It’s the firmware (and OS) which has needed improvement.

Although the version 3.06x firmware has been around since last year I finally got around to installing it. I decided to go with a clean install which means no “restoring from backup” and get wonky bits hanging out there. In contrast to user reports at All About Symbian and My-Symbian, the upgrade went flawlessly.

It’s only been a few days but the noticable improvements:

• Speed improvement: the device is a little faster overall
• Faster browser: renders pages faster and downloads faster via EDGE and wi-fi
• VoIP works: Gizmo Project’s SIP configuration works flawlessly; it’s nice to see standards in action unlike Skype
• Contacts: looking up a contact is super-fast unlike previous versions where you could come back five minutes later and it’s still trying to open

That’s a short list but the last three improvements are significant in my opinion.

Imagine my surprise when I opened iSync (after upgrading to 10.4.9) to find that my nova media iSync plug-ins weren’t compatible. This is good news, actually, as it means that popular Nokia smartphones (i.e.: E61, N73, N93) now have native support in iSync.

Since my E61 is on the list of newly supported devices I no longer need nova media’s excellent plug-in but if it weren’t for them I couldn’t have synced for the last year. If your phone isn’t on the latest iSync compatibility list then swing by nova media’s site and grab yourself a copy.