That has to be the longest title on S60 INFO yet. I apologize, but I could not find a shorter way to express this.
EyeSight's EyePlay for S60 allows you to control gameplay by moving your hand in front of your phone's camera. It can apparently work with both the 'normal' camera and the front one (put there presumably for video calls, if anyone uses that). This is not something available to end-users, it is meant for game producers.
What is more interesting is that they seem to also have developed this technology for controlling other things such as the music player on your S60 device. This is not unheard of, Sony Ericsson have recently released a phone that has such a feature, but it's nice to know that this might be coming to S60 as well. Hopefully the phone-controlling part will be released as an app available for end-users.
See for yourself:
Control your S60 phone by performing hand gestures in front of its camera(s)
Theme Magic: shake it to change it!
Ok, so maybe this accelerometer-apps developing frenzy has gone a little bit too far. The 'cool' factor is still there, though.
What is it this time?
Shake your phone to change the theme!
Beta 1 has been released to the public. It is, however, more of a proof of concept, since it lacks a 'Settings' menu altogether. Right now, that feature is only available in the Beta version destined for the donators.
DOWNLOAD the public Beta here.
Please note that the app is unsigned, but can be signed using OpenSigned Online.
[Source: P@sco's Symbian Blog]
The Top 4 File Managers for S60 all receive updates
Y-Browser, FExplorer, ActiveFile and X-plore are definitely the best known and best performing file managers for S60. They are all free and at least one of them is a must-have on any S60 device.
Download the latest versions:
Y-Browser 0.88 (signed) - make sure you also download and install all additional plugins for best performance
X-plore 1.21 (signed)
ActiveFile 1.27.19 (unsigned but can be signed using OpenSigned Online)
FExplorer 1.18 (unsigned but can be signed using OpenSigned Online).
My personal favourite has always been Y-Browser, with ActiveFile coming in as second. Users of Total Commander on the PC should definitely try ActiveFile, since it features a similar 'two-pane view'.
Besides download links, you can also find additional details about each app's features by clicking on the links above.
'Comes with Music' comes with choice
The Financial Times is reporting that Nokia is talking to all the major labels about its Comes with Music service.
The first label on board was Universal (which have since announced other similar cooperations), then EMI was rumored to be negotiating with Nokia, and now Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia's EVP in charge of Marketing, clearly states that they are indeed talking to all major labels and a few indie labels.
Good news. I hope they move fast. Otherwise, Apple might implement a similar model in iTunes, and then the hype will all be theirs.
What is this supposed to be?
Basically, when you'd buy certain (not yet known) Nokia phones, they would come with a one-year free subscription to, well, music. That means that during that year you can legally download all you want for free, and what's more interesting is that you'll be able to keep what you've downloaded, the tracks won't simply 'vanish'. After the year is up, you can still buy tracks from the Nokia Music Store, or buy another Comes with Music phone to get another one-year subscription...and so on.
[Source: Symbian Freak]
Guru Wedding
Ricky Cadden, a.k.a. The Symbian Guru, is getting married to Christina Dalton on Saturday, March 29th (which is...today!).
Now being the Symbian Guru that he is, it goes without saying that this won't be an ordinary marriage. With the help of 4 (four!) Nokia N82s, the marriage will be streamed live to Flixwagon. Which, by the way, is an amazing service that lets you, well, do live streaming from your S60 phone.
Full details are available here.
The wedding will start at 7 pm CST (click here to see what that will be in your time zone), but the streaming will start a couple of hours earlier, so anyone can witness the preparations too.
To view the stream(s), go to FlixWagon.com/Wedding.
I can only say this to Ricky and Christina: Congratulations and have a wonderful life together!
Nokia N810: Video
I use Core Player to watch videos on my N95, because of codec support. It plays a lot of different formats. Not all yet, but all I need. Using it, I don't convert videos, I just copy them to my memory card and watch. This method does mean that a lot of frames will be skipped, but for comedy shows (what I mostly watch on my mobile devices), it doesn't matter that much. The audio and video are at least in sync.
Don't get me wrong, the default Real Player is fine too. If you convert your videos in, say, H.264 format, the quality is astonishing. However, I normally can't be bothered with converting anything into anything. The 15 or so minutes that it takes to convert an XviD into an H.264 for a 22 minute show seem way too much for me. This time is what I normally achieve with Alloksoft's converter (I've tried many, and this is one of the best in my opinion).
Okay. I've introduced you to my mobile-video-viewing habits.
Enter the N810.
One of the first things that I thought of (I've mentioned this before) when I first saw both the N800 and the N810 was: "wow, that screen would make for perfect video viewing!". You see, these tablets have a screen with 800x480 resolution, which is way more than your usual smartphone resolution of 320x240. Other than HD videos, no video is encoded at a resolution higher than this. So obviously I think "I'll throw some unconverted .avi XviD videos at it".
Which is the first thing I did.
Didn't work. I've tried Media Player, MPlayer, Canola and Media Box. Not one would play.
Ok, I think, time for some converting. So I Google "tablet video converter" and come across a Beta software from Nokia's own BetaLabs, called Internet Tablet Video Converter (ITVC). I download. I install. I start it. Nice UI. I go to settings, which are few. Good for a normal user, doesn't seem too complicated.
But wait, what is this? Even the "best" setting has a resolution of only 400x240! Anyway, I stick with "better" and convert.
30 MINUTES LATER the video was converted. I barely stopped myself from cancelling the process a couple of times. I have no patience. Such things should "just work", not make me wait minutes and minutes. Oh, did I mention the video I was converting was 22 minutes long? Yup.
The result? It was ok. It played rather smoothly (the keyword here being rather). I was however able to count the pixels. A little bit of research later (definitely not something an average Joe would do, but I just couldn't bear not knowing) I found out that, indeed, 400x240 is the highest resolution officially supported. You can try higher resolutions, but trust me, it ain't worth it.
WHY?
Actually, rationally speaking, I think I understand why. The processor surely can't handle higher resolutions...but wait! The processor in my N95 can! I may be wrong, but to my knowledge the clock frequency on both is more or less the same. So then what's up with this?
And it wasn't over. I had a 2-in-1 episode of Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations (which was aired years ago, but I never got a chance to watch it). So I open ITVC again, keep the "better" video quality setting, and hit "Convert". This was a 723MB .avi XviD file. The running time is about 1 hour and 45 minutes. Why am I writing this? Because converting it took (get ready for this) ... 1 HOUR AND 35 MINUTES! I had set a new record!
Here is a bit of the result (forgive the video recording quality):
No, no, no. Last time I ever did that. Now one might argue that my computer might be to blame here, but...
The resulting video was 320x240 (since it was in 4:3 format). I proceeded to convert the same video in Alloksoft's converter. Encoding: H.264, "high" video setting, 96 kbps audio, 320x240 resolution. 50 minutes. Now that's a big difference! Which, to tell you the truth, makes absolutely no sense to me.
Problem is, the Alloksoft converter, as well as many others, does not have a 400x240 resolution to choose from. So for 4:3 videos all is fine, since the maximum height is 240 pixels, it is common sense that the width will be 320, but with 16:9 videos, who knows... Oh, and by the way, 400x240 is not 16:9, it's actually 15:9. Confused? That's exactly my point.
I don't know whether or not this is an issue with the ITVC, although it does seems that way.
The real problem here is how messy getting videos to the tablet really is. Maybe the average consumer will google for conversion software. Maybe. Then he or she will install ITVC and...what if the experience is as bad as mine was? I can't imagine any normal person spending a total of more than two hours (copying time included) to get a movie onto the tablet. Let me rephrase that: would you spend more time getting the video on the tablet than it takes to actually watch it?
And the obvious solution of the day is...
Codec support. Actual codec support. Fine, I'll get used to viewing videos at half the screen's resolution. But I really want at least .avi XviD support, if not DivX. And I'd like the ITVC to convert videos to XviD, or leave them with that codec, and only change the resolution. And do that fast.
Maemo is open source. XviD is open source. What is the problem then?
I am aware that there may be workarounds for what I've described above. However, keep in mind that I'm trying to keep an average consumer's perspective on things. Now the average consumer is not that person who would spend hours and hours reading hundreds of forum posts to get around these issues.
Video players
I've tried all of them. UI-wise, the clear winner is Canola2. The wonderful UI does come at a RAM cost, so don't think of running Canola and the Web browser, for example, at the same time. Also, keep in mind that Canola is a work in progress (currently at Beta7), and the final release will definitely be more polished.
The default Media Player is good too. The UI is finger-centric and the converted videos play fine. Canola does, however, have additional features all grouped in one UI: podcasting, Internet Radio and YouTube.
Functionality-wise, if I may even use that word, MPlayer seems to be the best. It at least attempted to play the XviD I threw at it. Didn't succeed, but it was the only one that even bothered to try. The UI however is a disaster. No on-screen controls, there are apparently some keyboard shortcuts, but I have no clue what they are.
YouTube
The built-in browser supports Flash, which means that sites such as YouTube will supposedly behave as they do on your computer. I have not tried it, though. I will for other Flash video sites, but for YouTube, I find Canola's YouTube plugin to be almost perfect. Very finger-friendly interface, fast searching, a little lag before the video starts, but then none whatsoever. It plays fullscreen too.
Also for YouTube playback without actually visiting the YouTube site are UKTube and mYTube. Haven't had a chance to try any of these yet, but, in theory at least, both should provide a better searching and playing experience than you'd get by using the Web browser.
Is the N810 a consumer-friendly device? NO and YES.
Not for getting videos on it. It is decent at actually playing videos (including Internet videos).
More pictures
More pictures of the N810 will gradually be available on this Share on Ovi channel. When there are new pics up, the posts about the N810 will also have an embedded slideshow of the channel. Such as this one:
Hacking and quacking
Read this, if you haven't already.
I would not have bothered with this "news", had it not sparked heated arguments (like we need any more of those) in the blogosphere.
First of all, the word. "Hacked". Really? Why not "jailbroken"? Oh, I see, that is trademarked and to be used only for Divine products.
So is Symbian 9.2 or S60v3 FP1 hacked?
NO.
A FEW DIRECTORIES. A few directories were jailbroken. That means that there was no previous method of accessing them. And now there is. These are the directories that hold an important part of your device's 'kitchen', so to speak. So if you use the method described on Symbian Freak, you'll get access to those directories. That's it.
I, unlike others, understand why Symbian Freak have used the term "hacked". To create hype and drive traffic to their site. Is that bad? I don't know. Is Apple's shoving of Safari up your throat bad?
I don't even care. Would I have posted such news had I 'invented' the 'method'? Definitely. I would not have used "hacked" to describe it, though.
So back to me not caring. I don't. I do not want access to those folders. I don't care what goes on inside them. I have bricked my N95 once in a way a lot easier to accomplish. That is, I didn't do anything special. It just didn't want to boot anymore. I know how frustrating that experience was, and am not planning on taking such risks again.
Point is: I am a geek. Not an uber-geek (whatever the correct spelling for that is). Doing this is certainly not appealing to average consumers. It's not even appealing, I would say, to geeks. The only group that find this even remotely interesting are the uber-geeks. Fine. Let them see those directories. Maybe that will spark genius ideas that some day will be implemented in the OS. Who knows? As for this opening the door for viruses, grow up all! Steve Litchfield explained this better than I could.
Why am I writing this post?
Because I am sick of the Echelon-like scanning that mainstream news blogs do. See, there isn't much time to properly read (or, God forbid, understand) something, since you absolutely have to be the first (of such mainstream sites, obviously) to report something. So you scan for keywords. "Hacked" is a very strong such keyword. You read it, then write "news" posts. Based on one word. Cool!
And then it's on to the paranoia.
"Normobs will read this and feel threatened - they are going to buy useless antivirus apps or even worse, try this at home". SO WHAT?
This is being said with an assumption that when the average Joe reads "Symbian" or "S60" he knows what those words mean. Well, good morning everyone: he doesn't. He has absolutely no clue. Ok, so he does know "Nokia". Will the normobs flood Nokia Service Centers asking for, erm, protection? Very good. They should be getting the right answers there. That's what Service Centers are for.
And what is so bad in normobs trying this at home? They risk bricking their devices. Wow, that's so...unseen! Like you can't brick an S60 device in any other way. Let them try, if they're willing to. Let them brick their devices. Let them buy antivirus apps. Why not? It's their own money they're wasting. If Nokia doesn't clearly say the fact that there is no need whatsoever for an antivirus app on S60 devices, furthermore one such app is even available in the Download folder on almost every device...
This was supposed to be news of real interest to maybe a few hundred people worldwide. Because it wasn't left that way, it has turned into a case of hysteria. Bad.
And a note: The discussion on the forum at All About Symbian has again gone from rather civilised to the absurd. Keep in mind, whatever you do, that when you see someone defending paid software (as a concept, I don't mean specific examples) over free software, that person is very likely to be working for a commercial software developer. Otherwise, tell me: if you had to choose between two identical apps, one of which is free, one of which isn't, what would you pick? OR if innovation is taken into account, shouldn't all software fall into only two categories: innovative or not? Not "yes, innovative, but it's freeware, so it's not good" and "maybe it isn't that innovative, but hey, at least I can pay for it". Got it?
As for using the jailbreaking method to run unsigned apps, please, control yourself! Wait. A few days, a few weeks maybe, and all the independent freeware developers will change their apps' code so you'll be able to sign them using Open Signed Online.
The laptop has arrived
Strange day. Exciting, but strange.
I had a few blog posts drafted in my mind. But then the TNT guy woke me up.
He had a package from WOM World. In it, my laptop for the next two weeks.
What am I talking about, you ask? The Nokia N810 Internet Tablet, of course.
I know, I know, lots of people have done this before. There are a lot of reviews across the internets and so on. Even the 'laptop' moniker is not original. People have tried replacing laptops and whatnot with Internet Tablets and accessories (and tethered N95s). And hey, I don't even have a laptop. Nor will I, for the foreseeable future, at least. I don't believe in laptops. Not in most, anyway. I don't believe in anything that says "carry me around" and weighs 3 kgs or more. Portable? Then my TV is portable too, by such standards.
I love the concept of Internet Tablets. Here is something actually portable, with decent screen size and resolution, proper browsing and so on. I even did a test post from it earlier (if your feed reader caught that, sorry, I just couldn't help myself).
The question that is on everyone's mind, though, is "is the N810 a consumer-friendly device?". Like, not for geeks such as myself, but for your 'average Joe'.
This is what I'll try to answer during these weeks. From the moment I first powered it up, I handled it like I never did any gadget before. That is, not like I would, but how I think that 'average Joe' would. I didn't read the manual. I tried to forget almost everything I've read about it in the past months (except the maemo site).
There will be a series of posts on the N810. Each post will have an answer to the bolded question above. Even this one has it. The answers might be different because of the different focus of each post. Finally, after the N810 will be sent back to WOM World, there will be a short post about my definitive answer, after taking everything into account.
I will be writing about the N810 in spite of the fact that it's not an S60 device and therefore in spite of this site's primary focus. Why? Because I think that the coming years will belong to Tablets, MIDs, UMPCs or whatever you'd like to call sub-notebook solutions. Which is why this is important. And parallels can be drawn to S60. Both open operating systems (open source, in the case of maemo, and closed source, but "open to new features", in S60's case), both very customizable, both having loads of apps written for them.
Day 1. After more than 10 hours of playing with it...
Is the N810 a consumer-friendly device?
NO.
Out-of-the-box experience is good if you only plan on browsing, but if you don't it's less than ideal. Details to follow in the next post. Hopefully everything that is not working now will be fixed by then so I can also write about how to make (certain) things work.
The Nokia N95-1 finally gets the v21 firmware update
Oh yes, the time has finally come! I've been waiting for this for a very long time, and so has everyone else that follows the blogosphere, since this version of the software for the N95-1 was first rumored months ago.
The most important new features and improvements that this upgrade brings are:
- Flash video support in the browser (yes, YouTube and the likes now work as they do on the computer)
- Speedier Gallery
- Faster Java runtime, so Java apps start faster
- The Web runtime is included, meaning that widgets that look like ordinary apps are now possible
- Better handling of entering lots of text into web page dialogs
[Source: All About Symbian via Symbian Guru]
The best Nokia ad yet
How did I miss this?
Devin Balentina of The Nokia Guide posted a few details about this amazing ad for the Nokia N82, and that's how I first got to watch it actually. It is by far the best ad for a Nokia phone I've ever seen. The whole story perfectly fits the N82's 'storytelling rediscovered' slogan. This is what all Nokia ads should be like. I sure hope that in the future they will be.
Smartphones Show #55
Steve Litchfield has created another episode of his very well-known series, Smartphones Show.
This episode covers:
- hands-on review of the Samsung i450 ('poor man's N95'?)
- a walkthrough of setting up push GMail
- reflections on the release of Apple's iPhone SDK, AppStore and the future of iPhone gaming
For all the previous episodes, look here. Or subscribe to the Smartphones Show Podcast.
TeaShark - a Webkit based competitor to Opera Mini
TeaShark is a mobile web browser written in Java (requires Java MIDP 2.0 on the phone to work - almost all newer phones have it, smart or 'normal'). It works similarly to Opera Mini, the pages you want to view first go through a TeaShark server which lowers their size, to cut data costs.
The interesting thing is that this browser is based on the Webkit core that Apple's Safari browser and the S60 Browser (as seen in S60v3 Feature Pack 1 devices) also employ. There is no support for Flash yet (but then again, Opera Mini doesn't have that either).
Features
Tabbed browsing with page thumbnails for easy switching between tabs
Jump-to-content and Page Up, Down, Left and Right shortcuts
Color-coded bookmarks and online bookmark management (you can manage your bookmarks on the computer - similar to Opera Link, works with all browsers)
Click and search: freely select text on a webpage (as you would on a computer, by holding the left mouse button). This can only be used for two things as of now: automatically creating a search with the words you select as the search string; and calling a phone number, if that's what you select. This is the most interesting feature in my opinion, and if it will be further developed (read: if you'll be able to do more with what you select) it might prove to be TeaShark's main advantage over the competition.
Other features:
- it remembers your last session and when you start it up again, your browsing and tab history is there as you left it the last time
- find text
- permanent history
- in-line editing (enter text, for example, in a form without launching the phone's default editor)
- dynamic shortcut keys (check what they are at any time by pressing #)
- Auto-complete (for URLs as well as forms).
Download Teashark (120 KB) either by going to wap.teashark.com on your phone's browser or from this download page to get the installation file on your computer.
Nokia Mobile Filmmaking Awards 2008
"Pangea Day taps the power of film to strengthen tolerance and empathy while uniting millions of people to build a better future. Created by award-winning documentary filmmaker Jehane Noujaim in collaboration with the TED Conferences after she won the prestigious TED Prize, Pangea Day's mission is to create a worldwide network of caring and concerned citizens who will make a difference." (from the Press Release)
The word "pangea" comes from Latin, which in turn got it from Greek and broken down (pan+gaia) means "all Earth". This is supposed to be a day that will make people all over the world feel (more) connected, in spite of ongoing wars and conflicts.
Translation?
This is a campaign meant to popularize Share on Ovi and increase brand awareness for Ovi as a whole. But it's not a bad one, despite the precious words.
Ok, so what is it about?
- You can submit a video to enter the competition at ovi.com/pangeaday (contest runs from March 17th to April 15th).
- The video you submit has to be 2 minutes or less and focus on one of the following themes: 'an act of kindness', 'someone inspiring', 'the best part of the day', 'something that makes you smile'.
- Registered Share on Ovi users will then vote the top 5 videos.
- These will be screened during the Pangea Day Broadcast (May 10th), and their creators will be flown to Los Angeles to have their videos reviewed by a panel of professional judges, including Jehane Noujaim, Dave Stewart and others, who will pick one winner just before the screening.
- The winner gets "a mobile filmmaking trip of a lifetime and a production budget to record their trip" (whatever that might mean).
The Pangea Day Broadcast will be 4 hours long and, besides short films, it will also feature VIP guest speakers and special musical guests organized by Nokia and TED.
Sounds like fun! If you're into mobile filmmaking, be sure to give this a try. Consequently, you'll also be giving Share on Ovi a try, and I for one think it's worth it.
For more information on Share on Ovi click here.
Full press release here.
Black N95-1 available on Nokia's Italian online shop
I'm not going to comment on this one, since I really can't make up my mind whether I like it or not. At first glance, the N95 8GB seems to look better, at least in online pics. In hand...who knows?
[Source: P@sco's Symbian Blog]
Updates on Stavros' adventures
I wrote about Stavros before. He is the "Position Art Genius". Actually 'he' is a very amusing and entertaining campaign that Nokia set up. The peak of this campaign took place on March 14th, with the "live event" in Rome.
But wait, there's more!
Steve Litchfield, from All About Symbian has found out that Stavros is going to be on television (ITV 2, UK)! He's got a whole series actually set to debut on April 1st (good choice of date, one might say)!
And he also has a new "tool" to use for his 'masterpieces', the black Nokia N82.
Head over to Stavros' site, intuitively dubbed 'The World is My Canvas', if you haven't already, or if you haven't been there in a while. Guaranteed you'll at least smile. Make that "laugh out loud".
[Sources: All About Symbian and Symbian World]
Bluetooth + WiFi = Love
Forgive the childish title. And the fact that this has been originally reported about a month ago. BUT since it isn't available yet, and probably won't be for some time, I still consider it's worth writing about.
Apparently, the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), the organization that supervises the standard, have finally got this. And they've also come up with a very nifty solution for the above use-case. It's called "alternate MAC/PHY". What does it do? Well, if you're transferring small files, your phone will do that via Bluetooth, as before. But if you're transferring large files, or a large number of files, and both phones have WiFi chips, it will connect using WiFi. And since the maximum speed of the 802.11 standard (WiFi) is a lot higher than that of Bluetooth, you surely get the point...it will take less time.
Brilliant! I wonder why no one has thought of this before.
Full press release here.
[Source: Symbian Web Blog]
Enhance your downloading experience in the S60 Browser
The S60 Browser (as found on 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices) is great for enabling a web browsing experience very close to that on a computer.
Nevertheless, I've had three issues with it.
The first one was the fact that it doesn't feature a download manager with functionality even close to what you'd get on a computer.
The second, its inability to handle downloads of file formats not supported by the phone's software (.RAR comes to mind, but there are others as well).
And the third and most painful for me, the endless need for horizontal scrolling (since it renders pages like you'd see them on a computer and the display resolution in the S60 world is usually 240x320, a lot smaller than your average 1024x768 on a computer, this is logical in a way).
Good news! The first two issues mentioned above can now be fixed! (The scrolling problem remains, I will detail this in a later post on the various browsers available for S60 devices).
Let me explain.
Download Manager
There is a Python-based download manager available for S60, called SmartGET by Albert Gazetdinov. Vaibhav Sharma from The Symbian Blog has tested it before I was able to, and reports it works pretty well. You just need to copy the the link(s) for the stuff you want to download, then paste it/them into SmartGET. There are options to resume, pause, set download times and so on. You can download up to 5 files simultaneously, it features a progress bar and even automatically monitors the clipboard for links (if this works, there's no need to copy and paste links - this option is however available if clipboard monitoring fails somehow).
Vaibhav has uploaded SmartGET to his Mosh account, you can get it from there.
If you don't have Python installed, download it from here and install it before SmartGET.
[Source: The Symbian Blog]
Downloading files that are not natively supported by S60
Suppose you get an email with a .RAR file attached. Normally, you wouldn't be able to download it, since the OS doesn't natively support opening files with that extension. But, again Vaibhav Sharma of The Symbian Blog has found a solution (described to him by a reader of his blog) to overcome this limitation. Since there are 3rd party apps that can handle a lot more file formats than the OS natively supports (the X-plore file manager by LCG, for example, supports .RAR archives), this is very handy.
There is a catch however, in order for the 'trick' to work, you'll need both X-plore (which is free) and Core Player 1.2 (which is not, and sadly there is no trial version either; however it is, in my opinion, the best video player for S60, so if you don't mind taking my word for it, go ahead and buy it).
Click here for the very detailed tutorial that Vaibhav wrote. Note that although he uses a .RAR file in the tutorial, the same can be done for ANY file format.
Also of note is the fact that the same can be achieved in an even simpler way by using another Web Browser, such as Opera Mobile. It isn't free, but there is an extended trial period available (with full functionality) and right now it is the browser I use most of the time. It features an integrated download manager (not quite as advanced as SmartGET, but a lot better than the one found in the S60 Browser, and can download any file, regardless of the extension.
[Source: The Symbian Blog]
The black Nokia N82 has been officially announced. And it really is a beauty
Nokia have finally announced the "black beauty", as I like to call it. No 8 GB of memory included, unlike other black editions of Nseries phones, however it will hit the market with a different firmware than what is currently seen on the 'silver' N82. Geotagging will be built into the phone's software. This will probably come to the other editions of the N82 as well, via software update.
The expected price is 400 Euros (interestingly, that's 50 Euros less than the original N82), before taxes and subsidies, and apparently it will be seen on the market very soon.
Sexy!
Full press release here.
Full specs here.
And here's the first commercial/presentation video.
The guy whose voice is used certainly would not be a winner in any word-per-minute competitions (if such things even exist). Anyway, this is a nice video, but I definitely would not say it makes a great ad.
N95-1 Firmware v21.0.016: Waiting for Godot?
News of the 21.0.016 version of the firmware for the N95-1 (that's the first N95 released) have been floating around the nets even since before anyone knew about v20.0.015 (which has been made available months ago!).
In the last few days, the buzz about this new update has been louder than ever. Symbian Freak have had the changelog for a while now. That's the first time ever when the changelog is available before the actual software hits!
It's being reported that v21 is now available at Nokia Service Centers (wherever those are). However, still no sign of it in the Nokia Software Updater (NSU). Yet. I'm pretty sure it will pop up very soon. However, this is another first. Software updates (or firmware updates, if that sounds better) have traditionally been available in NSU first, and in the following days they would also have them in Nokia Service Centers.
Yawn.
Could we please get this thing in the NSU already?
The new features that this update brings are Flash Lite 3 (read: embedded Flash video, a.k.a. YouTube and the likes, playable from the browser, like you do on the PC) and Widgets RunTime (yet another medium you can use to create apps for S60 devices in). It also naturally features a lot of bugfixes and various minor improvements. As I said, Symbian Freak have the full changelog.
Upgrading your current S60 phone to FP2-like functionality
Kirollos Fares, from The N95 Blog (soon-to-be NSeriesblog.com) has come up with a very interesting idea: paid upgrades for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (FP2) should be made available. Ricky Cadden, the Symbian Guru, is also pondering on this.
Here's my take (please read Kirollos' and Ricky's opinions before reading the rest of this post).
Deep down in my heart (!) I fully agree with Kirollos' points. A comparison with Windows Mobile quickly came to mind while reading his post. This has been something I've been thinking about for a very long time. Good thing when someone manages to post what's on many people's minds.
Anyway, I'm obviously a fan of his idea. The megapixel race seems to have come to a halt (there are lots of manufacturers who are yet to release 5 MP camera-packing phones), and generally the hardware in smartphones seems to have reached a point where further innovation isn't that obvious (except for, maybe, higher-resolution displays, Nokia!). Therefore, and also as a direct effect of the iPhone craze, the focus this year (at least) seems to be software, more than hardware.
Several-years-old Windows Mobile devices, released with the 5.0 version of the OS, are one by one getting updated to the current 6.0 variant. So why shouldn't S60 devices benefit from the same treatment?
Actually, they do. As much as I would like to have my N95 upgraded to FP2, I'm trying to remain realistic and therefore I honestly think this won't happen.
But look at the new features that FP2 brings. Some of them are available for FP1 devices (if not even for those running the original S60 3rd Edition) as standalone apps that upgrade FP1's functionality. Think Internet Radio, Maps 2.0, Search, Nokia Location Tagger, Print Online, Share Online 3.0. These were apps that were first released as Beta versions for FP1 devices, surely to test their functionality before integrating them into FP2, but the point is even the 'polished' (final versions) apps are or will be available for download for FP1 devices.
The missing things are:
- Access Point grouping (this one does hurt a lot)
- the "eye-candy" additions (the lack of which power users will most likely not feel)
- the new Active Standby (BUT if full customization of the Active Standby Plugins is still not implemented into FP2, this isn't such a big loss)
- the ability to set multiple pictures as wallpaper or screensaver (ehm...if anyone cares, this can also be done on older devices, via 3rd party apps nevertheless)
- timed ("expiring") Profiles (but the 3rd party apps for Profile timing are still well ahead, functionality-wise, than what will be included in FP2)
- RDS support in Visual Radio (not something I care much for)
- the new Photo app which replaces the Gallery (I find these two to be very similar, anyway)
- Remote Drive (sure, a great feature - but it's also available via a 3rd party app for FP1 devices)
- USB speed (this hurts as well)
- Full screen Caller ID (also available as a 3rd party app).
So, I must conclude that, in a way, paid upgrades for FP2 functionality are already here.
To enhance your FP1 (or older, in some cases) device's functionality to almost-FP2-level, you have to download a bunch of freely available apps from Nokia, and/or pay for the 3rd party apps that bring some of this functionality.
Please note that in the "missing things" list I linked to the 3rd party applications that I consider to be the best on the market in their respective fields. Naturally, competition does exist in the S60 developers' world, thus many more choices are available.
When Customer Care... cares!
James Whatley, of SpinVox fame, who has a weekly editorial on SMS Text News, has recently encountered a rather interesting Customer Support/Care issue (even if I think "Customer Support" is more widely used, I very much wanted to use "Customer Care" in the title, I guess the why is obvious, however I will refer to it as "CS" in this post from now on).
The whole saga is brilliantly described in his initial post, and the follow-up to that.
Make sure you read his posts before continuing to read this piece, since I'm going to give you my personal take on the extremely rapid response he got.
Now this has created heated arguments across the web, and especially on Jaiku (where Mr. Whatley lives, more or less). The thing on everyone's mind seems to be (well, after congratulating him for having it fixed so quickly) that if this would have happened to a normal user, to someone not able to reach thousands of people through a mobile-related site, things would have been totally different.
I do, in a way, agree with these assertions.
BUT.
This has always been the case with most multi-national, multi-million-dollar-making corporations. At some point, the company becomes so huge that certain things start not to work as they should. Add to that the growing trend of outsourcing, and trouble will definitely make its way into the customers' lives sooner rather than later. The many many rules that all employees of such a corporation must follow (even in the CS field) usually have the stupid effect that the the CS people you talk to are like robots. They keep repeating the same thing(s) over and over again (even if , for example, they're talking about a device that simply does not exist), flexibility of thought seems to be lost completely.
I think it's safe to say we've all had our issues with our operators. And in certain cases, while trying to fix those issues by a call to CS, we've ended up wasting lots of time and not actually being able to fix anything.
So. Yes it's true. Had it been the average Joe complaining to Vodafone, and not James Whatley, he definitely would not have received a new device within hours. But that's not the point. What James Whatley's posts did, besides making someone from Vodafone call him a few hours later to get things fixed, was make Vodafone aware of the issue. Something an average Joe could probably not have done even if he called CS a hundred times.
And this is only to the benefit of the average Joe. It is highly likely that the right people at Vodafone now know of that particular issue, and will do all that they can to fix it. So when average Joe has the same problem, things will work out smoothly, the way they should have when Mr. Whatley called CS the first time.
It's a clear win-win situation, in my opinion. And it only proves the power that bloggers now have. I wish more and more bloggers would do exactly what James Whatley did, complain out in the open, so that stupid issues like this get fixed as soon as possible. Information is everything, and corporations seem to be learning that traditional sources of information, while still powerful, are beginning to fade out. Subjective journalism (which is what blogging is, according to me at least) is here to stay. If you are a blogger, go ahead, post whatever bothers you with such corporations and their products or services. Even if they don't immediately do anything about it, at least you'll be sure that they know. And trust me, if they care at all about their brand, they will do something. Otherwise, their competition will surely step in. Look, Mr. Whatley is now sticking with Vodafone, whereas had they not fixed that mess, he probably wouldn't have.
That's what I call a PR win for Vodafone, and a great win for all their customers.
By the way, if you live in the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, South Africa or Spain, do give SpinVox a try. You'll become addicted in no time. I won't tell you what it's all about yet (a detailed post is on the way), all you need to know is on their website. It's one of those things that will make you ask yourself how you've been able to live without it.
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 Preview
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (FP2) is the newest iteration of the S60 operating system (OS). It will come installed on probably all Nokia S60 phones that are to be released from this point on. The phones that Nokia announced during the Mobile World Congress (the N96, the N78, the 6210 Navigator and the 6220 Classic) in Barcelona in February also run this version of the OS. It is expected that the other S60 licensees will release FP2 devices this year, however none have yet been announced.
This is a preview of FP2, focusing only on the changes that it brings compared to FP1 (the version running on such devices as the Nokia N95, N95 8GB, N82, N81, 6120 Classic, E90, E51, Samsung G810, i450, i550, i560, LG KT 610, and probably more). This preview is based on the very detailed and comprehensive review of FP2 that Eldar Murtazin from Mobile Review has written. I will post a true review as soon as I get my hands on a device running this version of the OS.
Initial thoughts
This is an evolution of previous iterations, and not a substantially changed product. It will come to the market after quite a long time of it being in development and brings certain improvements that the FP1devices' users have anxiously been waiting for.
More eye-candy
This is nothing functional, it's just that transition effects and some more advanced animations (based on the theme that is used) are now available. This is certainly meant to bring S60 devices to mass-market adoption, as after the iPhone launch, the whole industry has been focusing on creating beautiful user interfaces. Don't expect dramatic changes, though. These are minor enhancements focused on the "eye-candy" aspect. Good to have, nevertheless, although probably not quite a selling point for users of previous S60 versions. Perhaps new users will find S60 more visually appealing this way.
Three Softkey captions
This is also something that doesn't add new functionality. However it does bring existing functionality a little bit more to the foreground. It follows recent trends (S40 has this, Sony Ericsson's A200 as well) in the feature-phone world.
Basically, the function of the center D-pad key is also marked on the screen, as are those of the left and right softkeys. Even if this functionality, for the center D-pad key, is mostly "OK" or "Select", this should improve out-of-the box experience for normobs.
Open Applications
Seasoned S60 users know that a long press on the Menu key brings up the Task Manager, but to those new to S60 this is not quite obvious. Therefore, there is now yet another way to launch the Task Manager. After hitting the left softkey (usually labeled "Options") the first option is "Open Applications". Thus Nokia seems to think normobs will understand the multitasking abilities of their smartphone sooner.
However, I have an issue with this: the name. Open applications. Why not Running applications? "Open" is used a lot as a caption for the now centre softkey (described above). But there the word "Open" means "Start" or "Run" an app. While here the same word is used to describe apps that are already running. Not a good strategy, in my opinion. People might get even more confused by this use of the same term in the menu with two different meanings.
Also of note is that the Task Manager now lists icons horizontally, and apparently there is support for more than one line of apps. Very good stuff for new S60 users, I however will be sticking with 3rd-party Task Managers, as they have loads of options, not just simply switching between apps.
Active Standby
Shortcuts in the Active Standby can now be grouped vertically (they show up on the left), as well as horizontally. When viewed vertically, after selecting a shortcut (just selecting, not actually starting it), more options for that specific utility or app are shown in the rest of the standby space.
Neat, but a lot of people have been looking at the S40 (not a smartphone platform, by the way) Active Standby, where individual plugins (not shortcuts) can be enabled or disabled and moved to the user's liking. Such functionality seems to be missing from FP2, and I sure hope it turns out it is there. Otherwise the Active Standby implementation will be just as crippled as the FP1 version.
This I really do not understand. The whole concept of Active Standby is brilliant if and only if you can throw whatever you want on it. And wherever you want. Aren't smartphone platforms supposed to be all about customization? Strange, strange, strange.
Full Screen Caller ID
This is one of those 'duh' things. More and more I'm beginning to dislike this strategy of leaving things that can easily be found on non-smartphone platforms out of the OS.
Well, thankfully, FP2 brings the amazing feature of Full Screen Caller ID. WOW! The sad part is there still seems to be no Countdown/Timer included in the OS. What is one to do? Shell out ~$10 for a commercial app that does just that. Oh wait, if you're a FP1 user, that's the solution for Full Screen Caller ID as well!
Wallpaper and Screensaver
In both of these you can now set any number of pictures that will be cycled through. Nice touch, another addition based on existing 3rd party apps.
The Menu
The main menu strategy is now that the root menu must not have more than 12 items in it. Therefore, there's more of the folder-in-subfolder thing going on now. Personally, I don't care. I know many other people who have always complained that the menu structure of S60 is not the same on all devices and is also hard to learn by novice users. Again, I don't care. Because there's one thing that everyone should be telling the novice user: unlike other platforms, here, if you don't like how the menu is organized, you can move things around however you like. Whatever suits you best. You can create new folders, sub-folders, and so on, and move apps and utilities wherever you like. Now in my mind, if you can do this, then what importance does how your menu is organized when you first power on the device have? Beyond me. If anything, the "Welcome" app should clearly show how you can do this, and that itself would improve user experience a lot.
Messaging
No more choosing between New Text and New Multimedia message. The phone chooses the format according to what you have inserted (if you've added music or pictures, it will automatically send it as an MMS). Not much to say about this really. Except maybe that Nokia are pushing this "Audio message" thing too far. You now have the option of "Message" (see above) or "Audio message", which is nothing more than an MMS containing something you record on the spot.
Timed Profiles
Another welcome addition, although its functionality is still below par compared to standalone 3rd party apps for this, in that you can set a profile to expire after a certain period of time, but you still can't set a profile to be automatically switched on at a certain time.
Visual Radio has RDS support
Welcome to the 90s! Nokia finally added RDS support for its radio app. This has been missing from previous Nokia offerings because they were trying to push their own Visual Radio technology to the mainstream. Which either didn't go too well, or Nokia understood that giving users the power to choose might be a good thing.
Also of note in the Radio section is that Visual Radio and Internet Radio are now in the same folder. Very nice touch. Needless to say that since this is the case, the Internet Radio app is now included in the OS. That is one of the best apps to come out of Nokia Beta Labs in recent history, and can be downloaded for previous S60 devices here.
Photos
This is what now replaces the Gallery, photo and video-wise. There are quite a few different views, and also a very handy tag cloud feature (like those seen on certain websites). Sorting is done via Captured (all items captured with the device's camera), Months (sorted by month), Albums (by Album), Tags (this is the Tag Cloud - see above) and Downloads (the items not captured with the device's camera). Since GeoTagging is built-in, a Show on Map feature is also present. For handsets with no motion sensor onboard and thus no ability to rotate the picture automatically, the FP2 packs in an option for doing this manually.
Maps
Maps 2.0 is built in. This is (in Beta stage currently) and will also be available for previous devices as a standalone upgrade. I would really like to say more, but unfortunately the map for Romania is very very bad in this app. You can check out Steve Litchfield's review of Maps 2.0 beta over at All About Symbian here. Keep in mind that he reviewed a version that is still under heavy development, so some features will definitely be improved in the final release (that is the one that will also be built into FP2).
Search 4.0
This improves on the functionality of Search 3.0. Basically, from one app, you can search the internet (Google will be the provider), perform local searches (engines are currently different depending on the country you're in, however in the final release I think that it will employ Google's Local Search where that works), and search through anything on the device itself. Just type a few letters and the search is started in real-time, while you type. Very convenient, however I hope that the speed of this app in FP2 will be a lot better than in FP1, where the fact that it takes a few seconds to load and search are making me rarely use it.
Access Point Grouping (Hierarchisation)
This is probably one of the most requested features. Finally it will be available in FP2. You can create an access point group, so the phone will try to connect to the first AP in that group, and if that isn't available, to the second, and so on. Very very handy feature.
USB Speed
According to the N78 and N96 Product Managers (two devices running FP2 that will be available later this year), the USB transfer speed when connecting the phone in Mass Storage mode will dramatically increase, compared to the speed you can reach with a FP1 device, which is now about 900 KB/s. The Product Managers mentioned a five-time increase, however, in his review of the N78, Eldar Murtazin from Mobile Review notes that the speed achieved was about 2 MB/s. I certainly hope that the device he had for review was a pre-production model and thus this is something that will be improved. 4-5 MB/s would really put the S60 Mass Storage mode on par with standalone card readers.
Remote Drive
In the file manager you can mount remote drives on the network (via WiFi or 3G). That means, for example, that you can share a drive on your computer via WiFi and have access to it on the phone, in the file manager. This is a result of Nokia's aquisition of Avvenu, and provides functionality that is now available for FP1 devices via the 3rd party app SymSMB 2.0 by Telexy Networks. It is praiseworthy that it is included in the OS, if the setup is simple this will clearly be a very used feature.
Print Online and Share Online
These are now both included in the OS, Share Online's version being the latest. These are utilities that make ordering prints for photos or publishing photos or videos to Internet services (such as Flickr and Nokia's own Ovi) very easy.
Preview Conclusion
FP2 will bring a lot of features that have been requested by S60 users for a long time. And it will also be the most user friendly version of S60 ever. It adds a lot of eye-candy (well, a lot compared to previous S60 iterations, anyway) as well.
It is clearly thought out to be the bridge between a 'normal', non-touch interface, and the touch interface that will debut...toward the end of this year hopefully. It is the most mature version of S60 and will make power users happy, while not requiring a steep learning curve for those new to S60.
However it still lacks certain elements that are nowdays found in bog-standard feature phones. Luckily, since it is an open platform after all, these are all available as 3rd party applications.
[Source and Image Source: Mobile Review]
Screenshot 3.03 by Antony Pranata can be signed with Open Signed Online
Screenshot is a free program that allows you to take screenshots on your S60 phone. You can capture screenshots and save them to a file in JPEG, PNG, BMP or MBM format. Furthermore, you can customize the shortcut key, file name and delay of capturing. It supports continuous mode that allows you to capture a screenshot every a few seconds. It has been downloaded over 1/4 million times. It has support for 31 languages.
If you're into latest releases, DOWNLOAD Screenshot 3.03 Unsigned and then sign it using the procedure described here.
Or you can DOWNLOAD the signed Screenshot 3.01, if you don't want to sign it yourself.
cClock 1.19 can be signed with Open Signed Online
One of the most useful apps for S60 3rd Edition (or maybe I should call it a utility), in my opinion, is cClock by Chua Welic.
As you can see from the screenshots above, it is a replacement for the default S60 clock screensaver (which I've always considered way too small to be useful). cClock draws a big clock on your idle screen, and can also, if you configure it to, display other useful information, such as the current profile, the day of the week, the date, Bluetooth state, battery and signal indicators, and a lot more. The full list of features is available here, at the developer's site.
It has a lot of settings, varying from colors used (white on black or black on white), to the size of the text, the periodicity of its movement, and so many others.
I definitely recommend it.
DOWNLOAD HERE.
After you have downloaded, use the procedure described here to sign the app.
After you have installed the signed app on your phone, to activate cClock, go to Settings->General->Personalisation->Themes->Power Saver and choose it. To configure it, go to Settings->General->Personalisation->Themes->Power Saver, only highlight cClock then press Options->Settings.
How to sign applications using Open Signed Online
S60 applications need to be digitally signed before they can be installed on any handset. Most of the applications now available for download are signed, but there are exceptions. There are freeware developers out there that have submitted their apps to Symbian Signed (the service created exactly for the purpose of dealing with signing issues) months or even years ago, and have yet to receive a reply.
This is why the signing of apps by the end-user took off during the last year or so. There are some apps released by their developers as 'unsigned', where the end-user must step in and sign the apps himself/herself. Until February, there was a method of getting a certificate (what you actually need to be able to sign apps offline) around the nets, and those of you who have used that method and got a certificate can still sign apps offline with software such as SignSIS (until the certificate expires).
For those who didn't have the chance to get a certificate or have bought a new phone recently, the only available method of signing apps right now is the new Open Signed Online service. "Open" because you don't have to have a developer ID, "online" because the process is done via a website and email.
Important note: not all the unsigned apps out there can be signed using this method, only the ones that do not have protected UID ranges associated with them. If you don't understand what that is, do not worry, what it means is that there are some modifications to the apps that have to be done by the developers in order for the apps to be ready for signing using this procedure. Most likely, in a few weeks, all of the unsigned apps out there will have been updated accordingly. As soon as updates that allow signing by Open Signed Online are available, I will write about them.
How to use Open Signed Online
- Go to the website
- Complete the form with your phone's IMEI (find out what your IMEI is by typing *#06# on your phone when it's at the home screen) and your email address (Warning! Further communication will take place by email, so this must be a valid email address!)
- Click the Browse button to get the file you wish to sign from your computer's hard drive. Select it.
- At "Capability information", select all
- Enter the security code you see in the image, as above
- Accept the legal agreement
- And click Send
You will then see this message:
Then check your email. You will immediately receive an email with a confirmation link in it. You must click on that link for the procedure to continue. After you have confirmed your email by doing this, the file will be processed.
In a matter of minutes, or, at most, hours, you will receive another email from Symbian Signed, this time with a download link. Follow that link and you can download your signed file.
CPU Monitor for S60 3rd Edition
Here is a recently released app that does, well, exactly what the title implies. It shows current processor and memory activity, and also draws graphs showing recent usage. If you enjoy always being in the know of what eats up your phone's resources, this is for you.
DOWNLOAD HERE.
[Source: Symbian Freak]
The LG KT610 (S60 3rd Edition FP1) is...huge!
Well, that's not the case. All About Symbian report that it's almost as big as the E90. I'm so tempted to say I really don't see a future for this device now. However I won't. Not until I see the price. Maybe LG will decide to pleasantly surprise us with that. It's actually the last thing they could do, so they'd better...
Full specs here.
