Lost Without The N810

Yes that header pretty much describes my situation. The N810 has been a life saver for me. As a student, an intern, a blogger, a writer, a gadget-lover, I pretty much have zero free seconds during the course of a day: there's always something to do. Since the N810 arrived, I've had a series of derangements in my daily schedule: between the laptop charger that went dead for a week, the frequent electricity blackouts and the courses re-scheduling that left me at uni for hours with nothing to do, you can pretty much see how my usually organized life became a mess in no time.

You can not think of how many times I thanked God that the N810 was here to save me from these situations. But most importantly, the N810 has been invaluable for me in one particular aspect: my thesis.

I am preparing a thesis for my pharmacy diploma this year. It's about the applications of biotechnologies in the medical sciences field. This involves a LOT of information checking, web surfing, writing, analyzing and the likes. But the most important aspect of it is article reading. We usually have one source for our articles: Pubmed, and 99% if not 100% of all articles are found in pdf format.

Now normally, I would be stuck in front of my computer endlessly; normally, I would be totting my laptop around everywhere I go to keep working on the thesis. Not when the N810 is around. I am capable of putting a huge amount of books in pdf format, as well as all my articles (and saved web pages) on one device, and carrying it with me. I can read while lying in bed, while waiting for my bread to toast or while boiling my milk in the morning.

One particular thing I have been highly enjoying though, is going walking. Sports were an essential part of my life, until I got tendinitis and my schedules became hectic. Enter the N810. Ever since I got it and found out that there was a built-in PDF reader in it, I knew that I would use it to bring back exercise into my life. I now go in the morning and do slow'ish (my foot still hurts) but steady walks of around 3 hours, while reading my medical articles. PDF Reader in full screen mode on the 4.13" beauty is nothing short of the desktop Adobe experience. The transflective screen makes it also a lot easier to use the device outside when it's sunny. Plus it's small and light and easy to carry on, especially by using the built-in stand to hold the device, something I found myself doing unconsciously just to find that ThoughtFix thought of it too.

I also use the Notes program to write down excerpts and thoughts following each article, which I then send to my PC, open and copy paste into my thesis.doc file. If I need some explanation of a medical term, I open Garnet VM and use my medical dictionaries in Mobipocket to check it out.

If that's not productive mobility, I don't know what is!

N81 8GB - Final Words & BOSE

The N81 8GB Special Edition with Bose Quiet Comort 3 headphones has been here for 2 weeks now and I am a little reluctant towards the thought of having to pack it up tonight. I didn't want to just review the device, because many people have done so in the past months, and I couldn't basically add a thing to the extensive posts that were made. I tried to have a practical approach to it and it was all covered on Symbian-Guru.

The N81 8GB must be one of the most controversial devices Nokia has released in the last months. While many have hated the cheap plastic finish and the 2MP cam, many have also liked the overall style and the dedicated gaming keys of the device. I belong to both categories, but the latter is more prevalent for me and given that I can't go on anymore with Symbian blogging having a Nokia 3250, the N81 8GB seems like the next logical step. It's one of the best and cheapest phones right now on the market (around 250$ for a second-hand one), it has N-Gage, WiFi, ultimate music capabilities and no need to pay more for an external memory card. I am seriously thinking about getting one, but holding a little back to see what comes from Nokia in the next days (MWC and all).

In all cases, packing this baby up tonight will hurt like crazy, because even if I end up getting the N81, I will never have the Bose QC3 headphones again, and believe me, this by itself is a major problematic. I have found the Bose QC3 coupled with the N81 to be utterly useful in 4 scenarios.

1 - Studying partner : I had a couple of finals this week. Being a study-hater and having more than one distraction available, I couldn't get myself started. Eventually, one day before the exam, I opened the books and decided I'd study with tunes. I wired the QC3 to the N81 on the lowest volume and I can't express how great of an experience that was. I didn't sleep (something I usually do after reading some pages), I didn't feel distracted, and time flew by without me wining about the hundreds of paragraphs to memorize. I gotta admit that the Bose would be a nice partner, especially in May-June when I have my Probatoires exams (12 exams of all the major topics we have covered in Pharmacy during the last 3 years).

2 - Ultimate Bus Trip companion : the N81 came with me on a bus trip we had to Benta Pharmaceutical Industries this Friday. With street noises and on-bus conversation topics being more than one reason that would've made other headphones crazy, the noise cancelling QC3 shone. Just clip them on, close your eyes and it's like no one is around you!

3 - Politics Escapology : my mother needed the pc and internet connection one day. While being installed in my room, she turned the TV on and chose some political talk-show. I hate those! Basically, it's a lot of trash and it ends up with everyone sticking to their beliefs, and the viewer having learnt nothing new. In order to avoid listening to that crap, I got my lethal mix: Bose + N81 and there I was, on some other planet.

4 - Sleeping lullaby : For the past week that I have had the Bose, I have enjoyed going to sleep listening to them many many days. I'd partially wake up a couple of minutes later, take them off, and dive right back into my dreams.

Along with random music listening, you understand now why I will miss the Bose QC3. Ah *snif* *noisy breath*

N81 - The Perfect Storm Companion

Today was the stormiest day I have seen in years (or in my entire life) here in Beirut. My hospital training was done at noon, and my 2:30 pm course was delayed to 4:30, so I had pretty much 4 hours to kill. Freakin Excitin! Being that my laptop wasn't with me, I went to the hospital library, the only place where you can get some free computers and a decent WiFi connection. I fired YouTube (that's what health specialists do in the hospital libraries :p). That's when I noticed something was wrong, the page didn't load fully and I got some sort of javascript and flash missing message (very hip computers).

That was it for me. 4 hours of emptiness I thought. Not really. I had the N81, the good loyal companion. Took it out of my pocket, took the Bose headphones out of my bag, connected and pressed play. There I was. Better. Much better. Then I fired OfficeSuite and used it to write down a post to be posted later on. That was one hour. 3 more to go.

With music still on, I fired up the gallery and saw the pictures I had taken of my patient's file for one of the case study reports I am due to finish this Friday. Using the N81's screen, it took me a while to zoom/browse through every picture, but it was still doable and I was able to skim through the patient's admission reason, his lab results, medications, medical history,... and the likes. While reading the case (ie browsing through the pictures), I had to check some medical facts, so I launched mobireader and used the Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine (a 9Mb ebook equivalent of a 2-3kg weighing book) as well as the A2Z drug facts and Taber's Cyclopedic Medical Dictionary, to get my information. Notice, I was in a hospital's library, full of medical books, yet the N81 did it for me: I stayed lazily on my chair and enjoyed the power in my hand.

Now that got me through another 80-90 minutes, so I had still an hour and a half to kill. Thinking what else I could do (with Europe - The Final Countdown playing on the Bose). I remembered there was WiFi around and decided to check my email, catch on some RSS and do some testing with emTube and MobiTubia. Being done with the first 2 in less than 20 minutes, I opened emTube and started looking for Jeff Dunham, he never fails to make me laugh. I stumbled upon Achmed's Jingle Bombss video, and that was a 10 minutes or replay, replay, replay, till I almost dropped on the floor from laughter. I decided to save the video, to later show it to my friend, another huge fan of Achmed.

That's when I noticed the 4 hours were done, and I hadn't felt bored for one second! Amazing! I packed my stuff and headed outside to see it was SNOWING! In Beirut! Snowing! And I didn't have an umbrella! Too bad the N81 didn't serve as an emergency umbrella... that's when you notice your do-it-all gadget still lacks some functionality... A friend of mine was nice enough to share hers with me, and dropped me next to my car.

You'd think it ended here? Well no! It was snowing in Beirut, and I had to take some pictures and videos. N81 to the rescue! Here are some quick snaps and a video I took while driving, 30 minutes after the storm stopped. You can still see some snow on the sides of the streets.

Click To Play

One Week After The N95 8GB Has Gone - Retro Look

It's been 8 days since I packed the N95 8gb and sent it to the DHL guys. When we receive something new, we are over-excited to try it, we love it, we hate it, we praise it, we criticize it. But we are always, always, impressed by the "new" factor, and don't see the many sides of it. It's like that impulse we have when any new gadget is unveiled to go buy it, never wondering how well it suits our life style and how well it fits in our life. Now, after spending one full week with my 3250, I can look back at the N95 8gb and see all the sides of the story. Mostly I can answer many questions, of which: what features do I mostly miss in the N95 8GB, and what features do I not miss all that much. And most importantly, I can answer the trivial question: Do I want an N95 8GB myself, or should I be looking at something else?

Features I miss the most
1 - Having more than 90MB of free internal memory. The 3250 has 10MB of internal memory, of which 3-4MB are free. This means I can almost never send a song to my device via BT, let alone a video!
2 - The camera. Looking back at all the pictures I took with the N95 8GB, it's almost a torture to use a 2MP cam with no autofocus and no flash.
3 - The 75MB of free RAM. It's not a joke. Having that much free RAM around is perfect for running 10-20 applications in the background and still being able to browse the web.
4 - WiFi. I got used to checking my email, reading some RSS and viewing websites, with only a couple of clicks, without carrying my laptop or having to put up with the nauseating WM internet browser.
5 - The 8GB of memory. I am back to a 3250 with a 128MB microSD card (my 512MB card has some issues). I was using the N95 as a portable storage disk and it was well replacing my iPod. Can't do that now.
6 - The 2.8" screen. You don't know what a blessing it is to have this one! Absolutely love it. Makes everything from web browsing to viewing pictures, videos and documents, and generally just clicking around in the UI an absolute pleasure.
7 - Accelerometer : RotateMe and FlipSilent made my day, got me a couple of wide-open-eyes and laughs, but still, having them on board was a bliss.
8 - The great Music Player. Being able to have everything organized the way i wanted it was a true bliss for a music-addict like me.

Features I do not miss
1 - GPS. I wasn't able to find maps for lebanon, plus I don't need navigation to drive/walk around. I mean I know every road here by heart, so it's nothing I need urgently. Although I imagine if it works out for me, and I am in France next year, GPS will be a must-have, especially the first weeks.
2 - 3G. We don't have 3G here in Lebanon, so I didn't get to try it.
3 - TV-Out: that is a feature you miss if you have something worth showing (pics, vids, docs, games). I don't have anything to show on my 3250, so no I don't miss it all that much.
4 - The not-so-loud speakers. The speakers of the N95 8GB compared in loudness to my 3250, which was announced like 2 years ago. That is unacceptable, especially on a multimedia-centered device.
5 - The earphones. The N95 8GB comes with those 5-10$ earphones, which btw look extremely cheap. I wonder what happened to the in-ear earphones that came with the 3250?! Those were great! Plus they had 3 tips to fit different ear sizes.
6 - The keypad. I still have a lot of grief over the N95 8GB for having those side-raised borders around the keypad. So dumb!
7 - The battery life. I can forget to charge my 3250 for 3-4 consecutive days without having to worry about the battery running dead. Try to do that with the N95 8GB!

Perspectives it changed
I used to think the slider form factor wasn't for me, used to think it wasn't very intuitive and very user-friendly, and that I needed the keys available at all times. Now I don't mind having a slider, in fact I love the form factor. Being able to answer a call just by opening the slider, as well as being able to hide the keys when I don't need them is great. I just wish the weight of the device was better divided in order to make it more comfortable to use it for longer times.

Do I want the N95 8GB?
I truly don't know. I love it and think that it changed the way I deal with things, in so many ways. I would recommend it without a blink to someone looking for a high-end device with a big screen, WiFi and a good camera (I already recommended it to someone and he bought it). Right now, if someone offered to take me to a mobile shop, with every device ever made being on display, and told me to pick ANY device I want to take, I will pick the N95 8GB. It's the closest device to my needs and it has rocked my world.
But music and gaming is also a great part of my everyday life, and I am eagerly waiting to get my hands on the N81 (it should be here this week *crossing fingers*) to see how well it performs regarding those 2 specific aspects. I am crossing fingers to see whether the rumored N96 is true, and whether it lives up to its looks: N95 + N81. That might be the perfect device for me and I would be willing to plunk down some more to get it. I am also looking forward to the touchscreen devices (I am a fan of those) and would like to get my hands on one... Ah too many choices and so little budget...
I want to upgrade phones, I want to buy a new device for myself, but with my current budget (300-350$) I can only get an N73: I have to think about my future and for now, being just a student, this is all I can afford. It's a shame.

So what do you think? Any advice for me? Any recommendations? Anything you would like to add to my list of likes/dislikes of the N95 8GB, if you have it yourself?

Updates on the N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador

I find it rather annoying to post the same writing on Symbian-Guru and here, which is what I was doing with the N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador reports. Well, both blogs take different formats and some html editing and it's hard to keep up so this once, forgive me. I have written 2 new reports on Symbian-Guru, Day 5 which is meant to criticize the not-so-perfect gaming use of the N95 8GB and Day 6, 7 & 8 which focus on the email checking, YouTube viewing and Medical consultant capabilities of the N95 8GB.

I still have 6 more day reports (to make the grand total of 14) to be published in the next 2 days, followed by a wrap-up. I should be sending the N95 8GB back to WOMWorld in the next days, but will be receiving an N81 8GB with Bose Quiet Comfort 3 Headphones, the same Vaibhav and Abul have recently received. I am really excited about it, considering that I still think the N81 is one of the sexiest devices Nokia has ever come up with. I am looking forward to the gaming experience (compared to the N95 8GB) and the music capabilities of the device. I am also interested to see how the shift will go from the N95 8Gb to the N81, what I will miss, what I won't. So expect some coverage on that one too. I will try my best to make the N81 8GB BOSE edition trial as unique as the N95 8GB, but if you have any question, any matter that you'd like me to cover, feel free to fire up. I will try my best to answer it.

3 & 4 - N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador

I admit it, I have been late with the reports, but I've been suffering from a cold episode. Anyway, here is the second report from my daily N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador Mission where I tackle the Music playing capabilities of the N95 8GB, as well as the WiFi connectivity and the browsing experience. You can also check the first report about the camera and the accelerometer.

Day 3 - Music Experience
Is the N95 8GB, with the great onboard memory, the dedicated music keys, the 3.5mm earphone jack and the 2.8"screen, the best Nokia music and video player ever?
It is no secret to people around me that I am a music maniac. It's not that I listen to music every single breathing second, nor that I know every song ever made, but it is that when I say I know a song, then what I mean is that I know the title, the artist, most probably the album and the release year. Having heard the song a couple of times on the radion doesn't account for me as knowing it. That's why organizing music for me is a must, as well as being able to browse by anything that comes to my mind, from artist, album, song title, genre, or anything else. The major letdown I had with my 3250, and many S60 3rd devices actually was the fact that the music was organized in the Gallery, just like pictures and videos. Seriously, this is no way a music lover would want to see his tunes. That's why I was pleasantly surprised with the music experience over the N95 8GB.

My Own Impressions
The fact that the Tracks part of the Gallery redirects immediately to the Music Player, without attempting to display the songs itself is great. The fact that the music player has a dedicated Podcast part is awesome. But the great bit is that before I even start a song, I can browse by Artist, Album, Song title, Genre or Composer, and that I can even search those, not only by the first word but the first letters of any word. That's heaven for any music freak. Really Neat. Thank you Nokia! I can also edit ID3 tags, can you top that?
A friend of mine who was seriously getting the N95 8GB asked me to do a little speaker sound comparison for him. So I thought what would be better than comapring it with my own 3250, one of Nokia's loudest phones yet (correct me if I'm wrong). I played the same song with both devices on 100% volume. The 3250 was 1-2% louder, I think due to the fact that it has one speaker with mono sound. The stereo sound on the N95 8GB made it a little less loud, but with greater quality. I also compared the volume to the 5310 MusicXpress, the 6120 and the N73. It came on top of the first two, but par with the N73 (a little surprising result).
Also worth mentioning are the dedicated music playing and volume keys that made the experience a lot nicer. I can seriously consider the N95 8GB a good contender to replace my iPod, actually in the last days, it has replaced the iPod, which is now sitting silently in the drawer, next to my Nokia 3250 and my Qtek 9100. The fact that I can search for a song by typing the first letters, something that no iPod can do without too many finger movements, is a major win.

Now, what were the letdowns?

Sync time. I used iTunes Agent and created a good 5GB playlist on iTunes. I didn't time the transfer process, but I can pretty much say it was more than an hour. Seriously? 5GB?

When I first sync'ed my playlist I realized I had done a mistake in the Smart Playlist itself and set it to select songs by Lowest Rating: I meant Highest Rating. I corrected it and re-synced. The songs that were removed from the Smart Playlist were deleted from the device memory and from All songs in the music player, but when I opened the Artists or Albums section, I would find the corresponding data, but with a "this folder is empty" note in it. Why not simply delete the whole thing? The weird part was that searching for the Artist of the Album on Nokia's standby screen Search plug-in, would return zero results. Anyway after another sync, it seems that the problem has been solved, but I'm not quite sure.

Why the hell can I edit a song details (or ID3) from the song list, but not from the Now Playing screen?

Could they add an option to create smart playlists? And a rating system of any sort?

I was disappointed that it didn't sync album art, I read a trick somewhere that would do it, but was too lazy to try it out.

When I first open the Now Playing screen, if a song is not actually playing, pressing on the dedicated FF or RW won't change the song to the previous or next one. But if I start playing then stop the song, I can FF or RW as much as I want. No such problem with the joypad keys however. Weird. Can anyone tell me if they've had the same?

People's Impressions
The dual-slider surprised a lot of persons around me. Normally when someone is holding the phone and sliding the keypad out, I would say "oh try sliding it the other way", then I would get some "ah"s concerning the dedicated music keys and the auto-rotation of the interface to the landscape mode.
Being able to control music with dedicated keys was the most remarkable feature, because everyone knows what each button does. The 3.5 mm plug got some praise too, many people have suffered from a lost or non-functioning mobile earphone, and explaining that you can plug in any earphone you have made them look at the device in another way.
Also I got a couple of "oh, I can browse by artist, album, genre and playlist, like on the iPod!". But when I added that you can just start typing any word and it'll look for it in each category, without having to scroll through huge lists, I got some good comments.

The less impressive parts were:

The sound being noted as high, but not quite enough. It would've been nice to comapre it to the N81 to see what they both can deliver.

The empty album art. I expect Nokia to do something about it, soon.

Typing to search for a certain song is slow. Takes a while to type each caracter. Improve it please.

Day 4 - WiFi Connectivity & Web Browsing
The greatest part about the N95 8GB is the 2.8" screen. I can't stop feasting my eyes on it. Yes I know it's a matter of resolution and not physical screen size, but man does it feel nice to have such a huge screen on a Symbian device! It makes everything attracting and easy to read.

My Own Impressions
Browsing through my univeristy's WiFi was a blast because of the easy setup: just a matter of clicking the WLAN Network on the standby screen and selecting Start Browsing. Seriously if someone tells me he couldn't get his WLAN to work, I would kill myself, instantly.
It was actually my first experience with the S60 browser (closing my ears to not hear all the "boo"s) and I can say I am fairly impressed. Coming from a girl who uses IE7, that might not sound as a very "creditable comment" but still, I am sure many people will tell you just the same. I instantly found my way around. Pages rendered quite impressingly compared to the desktop experience. I opened Dotsisx, my own blog and got a 100% match. I can not say this about the built-in WM browser.
Google, Gmail, Google Reader, and any page I attempted to visit loaded like a charm. I guess I don't visit sites that are too heavy. I liked the small mouse that appears on the screen to help browse, click links and fill fields. The site map that shows whenever you scroll a lil' bit on the site is a great thought. Visited pages were instantly bookmarked. But it is the Back button that shows snippets of visited pages that really wow'ed me.
Add to that a great screen that makes use of a good resolution to turn out some really easy to see sites, and you've got yourself the perfect web companion.

Overall, the experience was more than favorable and the one bit of annoyance I have with the browsing I have right now is one of connectivity. The device keeps asking me what access point I want to use. I've already picked and connected through WLAN, what access point do you think I want to use? Wap?! Come on! Please Nokia or S60 or both, do something about it. When I pick a connection, let it stick to it and use it everywhere, in any applicationt that needs a web access. PERIOD.

People's Thoughts
I won't go on for hours here. Just copy paste my own impressions. As it was my first experience with the S60 browser, it was also the first experience of many people around me. "Desktop-like quality" is a comment I got quite often, and I applaude Nokia for that. I am sure that with time I will find some problems with the browser. Just not yet.

So this is it for today's report. Stay tuned for more Lebanon Ambassador experiences. Alan left a comment on the first post on Symbian-Guru saying that I took the WOM (Word of Mouth) World experience quite litteraly. I thank him for opening my eyes to that fact, I hadn't noticed it myself. Do you think I can do better with the N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador missions? Do you think there are some other letdowns that I didn't point, some solutions to them or some other great features that I didn't mention? Please leave your comments.

1 & 2 - N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador

This is the first report from my N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador mission, where I spent the first 2 days demonstrating the camera and video recording capabilities of the device as well as the accelerometer goodness.

1 - Camera & Video Recording
When I first found out that the N95 was going to sport a 5MP cam and 640x480 video resolution with 30 fps, I was really impressed. I mean those are specs higher than my stand-alone digital camera. I am not a pro photographer, my main use of a camera is taking quick pictures and videos, now and then, for the memories. I usually didn't mind having a low-quality picture or video as long as the moment I took it in was great. After all, pictures and videos are like a visual diary, they are just here to remind us of great moments in our lives, moments that our lazy memory would erase or blurry. But with the N95 8GB, I am sure that I not only have a way to revive my memories, but also a way to show it and share it with everyone around me. That is the greatest part about it.

My Own Impressions
The picture quality is impressive. I don't print pictures, I don't make posters of them. I just keep them on my computer to view them later, so the 5MP is much more than enough for me: we all know that the laptop screen has a maximum resolution of 1280x800 (with something around 80dpi). The N95 8GB takes pictures with a maximum resolution of 2582 x 1944. Point made. Even if I did want to print out my pictures on a 17x15cm paper, they would come out really good.
The video quality blew me away. Yes I knew I was expecting a similar quality to my stand-alone Kodak digicam (who takes videos with the same resolution and fps), but I was thinking that it wouldn't actually BE the same quality. Well, I was wrong, really wrong. I also made a little comparison with the N73 (352x288 video res with 15fps), which still accounts as one of the best cameraphones out in the market. I took a video my friend had recorded with her N73 and sent it over BT to the N95 8GB. I then recorded one video with the N95 8GB itself. Then, using TV-Out, I played both videos on our 29in flat TV. And the result? Are you actually asking? No way you could compare them. The better resolution on the N95 8GB had a role to play, but the 30fps is the one that made the N95 8GB stand out. The N73 delivered a cameraphone video, expected result, but the N95 8GB delivered a quality as good as my own digicam. Thumbs up Nokia, seriously.
Also, having a dedicated not configurable gallery button was bugging me at first. But after a couple of days with the N95 8GB, I thank the designer team for introducing it.

Now, what didn't impress me all that much?

First of all there's the fact that everytime I popped the TV-Out cable in the N95 and selected TV-Out, the device would reboot. First time I thought it was my mistake, then I noticed it kept happening. So afterwards I had to press Cancel to have the thing working. But when I would disconnect the device from the TV, it would reboot, so it's a lose-lose situation. I guess it's a problem with my unit because I haven't heard anyone complain about it.

Second there's the fact that when I am connected on TV-Out and I take a picture, the preview image isn't the full resolution image, which means that quality on TV-Out looks crappy. I know that not many people would eventually try to take a picture while connected to a TV, but what if they do? They'll think their hand moved or that there's something wrong with the autofocus.

Speaking about autofocus, I noticed that getting the autofocus to work was pretty hard at first. I always ended up taking the picture before the focus was correct. Eventually I got used to it, but still

The gallery is painfully slow to load. I first thought that it was just me because I'm running so many apps in the background. Turns out other people are also complaining about it.

Why the hell can't I use the 1 and 3 buttons to rotate images left and right? Why???

And finally there's the obvious "where the hell is the video editor?", along with "where the hell is Muvee?". I saw Muvee on my friends' N73 and N76, which means it exists for S60 v3 (and fp1) why isn't it on the N95 8GB? Plain stupid!

People's Impressions
What people first notice is the huge lens on the back of the device. I got a lot of "is that a new camera?" questions. Well, I believe that no one would expect to see such a huge lens on the back of a mobile phone.
The other great positive they note is that point and shoot is tremendously easy, just because of the huge screen. They don't have to stare at a small screen to take the picture, they have 2.8in of goodness to feast their eyes on. 2 persons even told me the experience was comparable to their Sony CyberShot digital cameras!
With a TV around, I also demonstrated viewing the pictures and video on TV-Out. The only comment I got was: Wow. People don't know what 5MP or 3MP or 8MP is, they just buy the highest number around. When you say you've got a 5MP cam on a mobile phone, they think about their own 7 or 8MP digicam and tend to think that 5MP is much lower quality. Stretching the picture on a whole 25in or 29in screen shows just how good it is. They are even surprised that it comes with a TV-Out cable! Video playback on TV also got a lot of admiration.

Negative comments I got were about:

the camera button being a little hard to press

night pictures being lower quality

front camera is worthless

zooming takes all the picture quality. I did explain that it was a digital zoom, which doesn't compare in quality to an optical zoom, but hey, the end result remained the same, and that probably was the major letdown for many.

2 - Accelerometer Goodies
We were all mad at Nokia for not mentioning the N95 had a built-in accelerometer, and I still don't understand why they hid it. But thank God, they revealed it eventually! Thanks to Samir Oueldi, the accelerometer has a couple of great uses. I have installed RotateMe and Nokmote on the N95 8GB and leave them running in the background.

My Own Impressions
The accelerometer is pretty darn accurate!
RotateMe is simply the best application in the world. Viewing pictures, watching videos, browsing the web, everything is made ridiculously simple with it. Normally you would see a picture in portrait mode and either use the zoom either slide the screen downwards to reveal the multimedia menu, which rotates the interface to landscape mode. RotateMe simplifies the whole thing. Just physically turn the device and taraaaa! I found it extremely helpful while browsing pages, sometimes you need to enter text, just slide the keypad out, enter your text, either holding the device vertically either horizontally, like you wish. Makes browsing a lot easier. But RotateMe does annoy a little because it sometimes rotates the screen when it's not meant to. Fiddling with the settings got the problem somewhat solved, but after all it is quite fast so i don't mind re-rotating the device myself.
Nokmote doesn't have an adjustable senstivity and reactivity, for the obvious reason that it is still in development. But still having it around while playing Global Race or N-Gage's Asphalt 3 was a very nice experience. At first I spent the whole race time going from wall to wall, now I'm better at it, and I think that after a couple of days, I'll be a real pro at it. Of course Nokmote isn't meant to be used with the device, because you end up twisting it a lot, which makes looking at the screen to see where you are rather difficult. It is meant to be played on TV-Out and that's where it really shines. But it's pretty much impossible to leave it running on the device, because the sensitivity can't be set. I normally leave RotateMe on, but close Nokmote and only open it when in need.

People's Impressions
RotateMe really stood out as the champion of the day. People thought I was pressing a button or doing something, until I handed them the device and said "take it, see for yourself". A lot of nice comments were said. And because the iPhone is just starting to become famous in Lebanon, I heard 3 persons (roughly my age, 22-24) say "oh it's like the iPhone". Yeah the N95 can do that too baby! One comment I got from everyone (and I mean every single one) is "why doesn't it rotate the other way? or upside down?. Funny question. "The device is meant to be used in these 2 configurations only, I would understand wanting to rotate it the other way, but upside down, why would you need it?", answer "it'd be nice". So as you see, it wasn't about functionality, it was about the cool-factor.

I demonstrated Nokmote to a lot of people, who really liked the concept. But the main public I was interested in were my 9 (male) and 10 (female) year old neighbors, as well as my 23 and 20 year old male cousins. I started Asphalt 3, launched Nokmote and connected the N95 8GB to our 29in screen. All of them thought it was impressive. The 9 year old boy, who had just got a PS2 for Christmas said "oh it's like the Wii!" and I couldn't get him off the N95 for 15 minutes. He bumped into a couple of walls at first, then 2 laps later, he was flying like rocket. "What do you think of it, Tony?", poor boy looked at me after I took the N95 out of his hands and said "Cool, really cool, can I play more?". The 10 year old girl played a little bit, but she's not into racing games, I guess if I had some sort of Super Mario running, she would've been swept away. My 23 year old cousin who loves technology a tidbit (he's a mechanical engineer after all), didn't have any trouble adjusting to the play mode, but 3 minutes later, he was tired of twisting the device. My 20 year old cousin who is really into all those racing games was watching his brother not impressed about it, but when he got to play with it he ended up having fun and getting used to the sensitivity in no-time. Other friends that saw it didn't get the chance to experience it with gaming and TV-Out, but just with the gallery, videos and music playing. They were amazed by the concept but found it rather annoying and hard to control. I explained it was still in development.

What do you think of the comments I have been receiving so far? Do you get the same notes with your friends? As far as I can see, the first experiences have been rather good. Stay tuned for more N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador reports. Coming next are music and video playback, wifi and browsing.

N95 8GB unboxing & trial plans

The powerhouse arrived yesterday, courtesy of the WOMWorld team, a little bit late for Christmas, but I consider it a great holiday surprise. It's a shame they didn't create a new series for the N95, like a P95 as in Powerhouse95, or a U95 as in UFO95, or an O95 as in the obvious Oh-My-Goodness-Does-Such-A-Thing-Even-Exist95. Yes the device has its flaws, yes it's not perfect, but on the actual market it's one of the rare devices that can claim to live up to the "Perfect Device" title.

Here are the unboxing pictures. I wanted to record a video but my camera battery was close to dead. Then I thought I'd make a video out of the unboxing pictures, but my computer kept shutting down everytime I opened Windows Movie Maker. So you'll have to watch the unboxing pictures in a Flickr slideshow and try to imagine the "All I Want For Christmas" song as a soundtrack. That's the closest it can get to an unboxing video.



Now for the good part: What can you expect me to cover in these 2 weeks of N95 8GB trial? Well, I won't do it the ordinary way. Normally bloggers receive a device, review every aspect of it: hardware, software, battery, RAM, camera, music,...

Well this won't be the case with me. I am starting my own iteration of S60 New York and California Ambassadors and I'm calling it N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador.

Why?

I thought that a device as powerful as the N95 8GB doesn't always wind up in the right hands that can show what N-Series combined with S60 3rd and Nokia can deliver as an overall experience. I also thought that I'd be too selfish to keep all those wonders to myself.

What?

N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador consists of a 14-day 14-feature demonstration. Basically I will have the N95 8GB with me all the time, and every day I will have one new feature to demonstrate to everyone I run into: friends, family, neighbors, classmates,... just about everyone I know (or don't know, for all I care). I had previously asked readers here for opinions about the main uses of the N95 and the best applications to try on it, and I came up with this list of features to demonstrate (in no particular order):
1 - Camera shooting & Video recording
2 - WiFi connectivity, web browsing, instant messaging & mail checking
3 - Music & Video playing
4 - Accelerometer : RotateMe, LightSabre & NokMote (hopefully ShutUp)
5 - Controlling TV & Stereo with Psiloc irRemote
6 - GPS & Nokia Maps or Google Maps
7 - Nokia Music Store
8 - NGage (hopefully)
9 - Mobile Web Server
10 - Podcasts & Internet Radio
11 - Medical Consultant
12 - Uploading pictures to Flickr
13 - Catching RSS feeds
14 - Watching YouTube videos

Other features that may make it to the list are Widsets, Download!, Gizmo, Wikipedia, Photo Tagging, Fring, Nokia Channels & MOSH. Too much to try and so little time.

How?

As I said, I will demonstrate one feature per day. I will then present my own notes of the feature as well as people's impressions, questions, suggestions and remarks. I will then post a recap every 2-3 days.

And else?

Depending on how much free time I have, I am also planning:
- an evolution of S60 3rd post: comparison between the first S60 3rd device, the Nokia 3250, and one of the last S60 3rd devices, the N95 8GB
- a comparison with Windows Mobile, when it comes to connectivity, web browsing, rss and podcast catching.
- an actual review of the device (hardware, battery, memory, software,...)
- other random posts.

Final Word

That is about it. It is my first trial, and with a device as capable as the N95 8GB, I knew it had to be special. The N95 8GB Lebanon Ambassador started today, with the camera and video recording demonstration. I will get into details later, but so far so good. If you have any suggestions of something I should try on the N95 8GB, a new way to use the device, a new application I should try, a new feature I should demonstrate, please do leave your suggestions. I am a newbie in the N-Series world and I could use some advice. If you also have any questions about the device, please ask. I will try to get to them in my final review. Now if you'll excuse me, I'll go dive right back into the N95 goodness!

N95 8GB Is In Da House!

Ha yeah! As you read, the N95 8GB just arrived. I have unboxing pictures and a couple first impressions and all that, but ya gonna have to wait... For some reason my computer keeps shutting down when I open Windows Movie Maker to try and make a video out of the unboxing pictures. Argh!!! And no, I won't just upload the pictures! *frown*

Anyway, follow the full coverage here on Dotsisx and on Symbian-Guru in the next 2 weeks. There's plenty to cover, little time and a final exam coming up.

One sentence to sum up the experience so far:
I'm gonna miss this sucker when it goes back home and I'm left with my 3250 :'(

Review - Sony MDR-Q68

A couple of days ago, I got the MDR-Q68 Clip-On Headphones from Sony. I had been looking at several options of retractable headphones and earphones, because let's face it, I am not good with wires. Cord cluster is something I totally hate and I don't know why but everytime I pick my earphones from my bag, pocket or table, I find at least 2 or 3 knots. So I thought retractable was the way to go. I eventually ended up wondering whether to get the MDR-Q68 or the MDR-KE30 Bud Style earphones, but since I already have my white iPod earphones, I thought headphones would be a great change.

The MDR-Q68 come in 4 different color shades: white and pink, black and blue, black and red, all black. Normally all-black would've been the best option, but they were made out of a similar material to the N81, which meant fingerprint and grease magnet. Black and blue looked totally cool, but it's Xmas, heck, I got the black and red that also looked extremely nice.

As you can see from the images above, there is one button on each headphone. One retracts the cord between the two headphones, and one retracts the 3.5mm cord.

The MDR-Q68 are comfortable to wear, not too light, not too heavy. They just feel right around the ear, and I could easily wear them for 2 hours without feeling disturbed. The black hangers are adjustable and can really fit any ear shape.

I am not a sound expert, but I do listen to music on a daily basis (1 to 2 hours a day). I compared the sound quality of the MDR-Q68 to the earphones that came with my Nokia 3250, my iPod earphones and several others that I had in my tech drawer. All I can tell is that they sounded as good as the others, and they can deliver really high sound volumes. They are not noise-cancelling or extreme quality, but they sound really good for the casual listener.

For 30$, the MDR-Q68 aren't cheap but don't cost an aweful much. They are extremely stylish, feel perfect around the ear, are small, easy to carry, relieve you from wire and cord cluster, sound nice. I would most definitely recommend them to the casual music listener, looking for a nice retractable replacement for their earphones. The white and pink ones are the lady killers (trust me), the black and blue ones will have many music lovers sigh.

Salling Clicker Gets Reviewed

Jaime Rivera from PocketNow.com has just put up a 2-page review of Salling Clicker. I have been using Salling for quite a while now and just simply loving it. In a couple of words, it remote controls your PC, using your phone and a BT or WiFi connection. Make sure to check the review for all the screenshots they have posted to see what this treasure looks like. I'll just add a couple of things:

- you have to buy Salling Clicker once, no matter what device you use. Because you only register the PC client. Then you can download the mobile client to one or a hundred devices, they are free and they work. There are S60 3rd clients, WM clients, Java clients,... more than 300 devices are supported so it's an extremely nice deal.

- BT connection works like a charm. I usually have the PC client autostarting with Windows, and then when I need to use it, I just pick my phone, turn BT on and then launch Clicker and connect. Takes 5 seconds all-in-all. I do agree with Jaime that getting connected on WM is slower and less intuitive than on Nokia, but hey, their loss!

- It works this well even on the Toshiba BT stack (which is quite weird and doesn't work with most apps)

- The iTunes controlling is just Awesome. You can search for a song from the device (search by artist, genre, album, song name), you can browse full playlists and launch whichever you want, you can view album art.

- There are all sorts of PC notifications when you pause, forward, skip or rewind a song. But the greatest one is when you get a phone call and see the caller number or name on the PC. Brilliant.

You can check out Jaime's review here or catch the official website here.

Dotsisx gets reviewed!

Well, a lot is happening these days and as if that is not enough, Dotsisx (ie this blog) just got reviewed by Tarek of Symbiano-Tek. Last week he started a Friday blog review. Well everyone out there is reviewing devices, applications, games,... but who's reviewing the reviewers? Well, Tarek is. And that is one GREAT idea! It should introduce readers to other blogs, enhance bloggers relations and in a couple of words do some good to the mobile community.

So Dotsisx is this week on Tarek's radar and although the review is shorter than I would love it to be, he is right on with some points:
- The site design is very basic and well, I am working on it, step by step (the banner is the first one)
- The RSS link isn't visible to everyone and i will fix it
- The left column is crowded (but I still prefer it over right and let column templates)
- I get sidetracked often, but I think these sidetracks help readers know the blogger better and identify him as a person, not just a technophile with nothing else going on. Well at least I, for one, prefer sites where bloggers introduce a personal touch.
- I don't post often and that is the major letdown. One reason is the lack of time and the other the lack of material : I don't like to repeat the news on the blogosphere, and if I do, I only do so if I have some personal thoughts about it.

Well thank you Tarek for reviewing Dotsisx and for the good words! I hope Dotsisx remains a good source for your S60 3rd readings ;)

Periodic Table by Markus Goldkamp

Probably this kind of software won't interest the most of you, because of its small target audience, but i can't pass on it cuz it's awesome!

Ever since I got my 3250, i've been searchin for a great periodic table software. I found a flash-based one a couple of months ago, it was good yet not as detailed as i wished it would be.

And then recently I came across Periodic Table by Markus Goldkamp and it's one piece of software i'll never forget to install if i reset my phone (yeah it's that good)!

Like every periodic table, once it is launched, you are presented with the actual table. Clicking right left up and down will browse you through the table. A little preview window with some info is shown below the table. Once you get to the element you are looking for, click it. The table will be minimized and the info part will step up.

You can now scroll right and left to check the basic, physical, thermal and atomic details, up and down to see the info in each of the 4 categories. You won't believe how much you'll find out about each element in this little treasure. From the ultimate atomic mass, melting temperatures and conductivity, to crystal structure, shell structure, electron configuration and much much more. There's even the date and country of discovery!

What i even like more about it is that when you're scrolling through some property like thermal conductivity, you can press # to see the graph with all elements' (represented by atomic mass) thermal conductivities and the element you're browsing (represented by a red point, as you see in the screenshot below, gold has one of the highest constants) to see whether compared to others it's a good conductor or not. Of course you can still scroll while in # mode (through physical, thermal and atomic info but not basic), so you don't have to go back to the normal view to select another constant to check.

The nice part is that electron configuration and 3d crystal structure are also clearly shown.

Pressing # again will take you back to the ordinary view. Also pressing the center button at any moment will bring back the original view with the large periodic table.

As if that's not enough, you can search not only via the periodic table but also alphabetically by pressing the * button at any time. Right and left soft key bring up a Menu and Exit small bar. The Menu is forward with only Online Order, Help, About and Back. You know what Exit does :p

Seriously, if you are in any domain that requires some chemistry knowledge, Periodic Table 2.0 is THE tool you shouldn't miss. I can't recommend it enough as it's fast, easy and contains a lot of information. I can't see any flaw in this software! Oh I should mention that it's JAVA so it must work on almost any phone. Sweet!

SkyeQuiKey by SkyeStream

Even with the new symbian mobiles that have incredible RAM and processors, accessing applications burried deep down in the 3rd or 4th level of the menu takes a couple of seconds and can lead to some "oh where the 'eck did I put that?" screams and indignations. Now, of course, there used to be a solution to access those apps, AppQLaunch, which I have already reviewed over here. But AppQLaunch was only an application quick launcher, it didn't allow quick contact search (which I needed desperately since the Contacts was taking ages to load) nor direct inbox/sent items access, which is a feature I have been dying to have.

And here comes SkyeQuiKey: a solution to both of my problems. I won't review the application here, because Zacharye has already put up a very nice and detailed review on SiMo. What I will do is emphasize on the things I like in it and what are the improvements that would make it a 10/10 for me (it's an 8/10 now, not that much behind!)

What I seriously like about SkyeQuiKey
- It is darn lightening - fast!
- It doesn't slow down the phone. I tried it on my practically full Nokia 3250. I didn't notice any slowing down in phone processes, on the opposite : it made accessing things much much easier and faster.
- Unlike any other app, this one doesn't need to be summoned by any key before it starts searching. Just type a letter from the standby screen and it functions. Very convenient.
- Unlike AppQLaunch where I had to write down the name of the application, letter by letter, SkyeQuiKey functions on a T9-like system. At first it's not that intuitive when you see the numbers in the box but the letters on the selected apps, but after a couple of times, thankfully, it all makes sense.
- As I said, it not only searchs apps but also searchs contacts. If you're like me and the Contacts application on your phone takes ages to launch, then this little piece of software will relieve you from sooo much hassle. Just type the numbers corresponding and send an sms, an email, call,... it's awesome! I didn't know how much time it'd save me until I tried it :)
- Not only it searches contacts by names, but it also searches by companies, which is more than just convenient and is missing from S60's original platform.
- As I stated, it can be used to launch the inbox, drafts, outbox, sent items, which is absolutely phenomenal to me. I have been waiting for this feature for so long, I got sick'n'tired of having to go to my menu/messages/inbox everytime I needed to check something quickly. This is probably the one feature that made me fall in love with SkyeQuiKey. It may not be as essential to you as it is to me, but seriously, try it once and you'll never go to your inbox or sent items through the menu again!
- It can be used to know the name behind an unknown number. Let me explain, say someone asks you: "do you know this number 01234567?". You know it but can't recall who has this number, it's right there in your head but won't come out. What do you do? Normally, you tap the number on your phone and call. If the person is in your contacts then you'll see it in the "calling" bubble. Then you immediately disconnect after you see the name. Right? Well, the beauty of SkyeQuiKey is that you don't have to do that. Just type the number and you'll see the contacts name on your screen. It searches contacts by number too!
- It immediately updates its database. When you create a new contact, it is immediately added to the database, and so is the case with new installed apps/games.

What needs to be fixed
Although I didn't have any drastic let downs with SkyeQuiKey, I experienced a couple of disappointments with the contact search part of the application (the software search and launch was perfect) and here they are:
- Add to Contacts is no longer possible! Suppose you need to add a new number to an existing or new contact. What do you usually do? Type the number then S60 gives you the option to add to a new or existing contact. Well with this software, once you type a new number (one that doesn't exist in your data), you're only presented with the option to call. No more easy add to contact features. Now you'll have to go open Contacts, select add new for new contacts, or browse to the one you want to update and click edit. Not convenient!
- I already said that it allows to search contacts by number. But it still asks for the number after the contact is selected! I guess this one isn't clear enough. Let me explain. Suppose my friend XY has a couple of numbers, one of which is 01234567. I type 01234567 on the screen, it narrows down the search to XY. I choose to send an sms or to call or to send an mms (whatever the shortcut to that action is set), and what does the app do? Ask me for the number! For heaven's sake, I just wrote down 01234567 myself whilst searching, what number do you think I want to sms/call/mms?
- It doesn't import sms defaults. In his review, Zach opened my eyes to one feature I wouldn't have noticed if it wasn't for him. While the app gives you the freedom to chose what operations are performed with the right arrow and left arrow selection, it also comes with 2 other shortcuts: the green-call button which immediately calls the default phone number (if it set for this contact) and the center dpad button which gives you the option to call all the contact's numbers. While these 2 shortcuts are quite handy because of the support for both default and all numbers call, it isn't the case with sms. If I set a certain number to be the default messaging number for a certain person, SkyeQuiKey won't recognize the default and will still ask me what number I would like to send the sms to. I want to have both defaults and all numbers sms. Or at least defaults. Or make it recognize the mobile number immediately as the default sms number. I don't know, but it needs to be fixed!
- When I choose to view a certain contact, it first opens the contact application then waits a second or two then opens the contact's card. The lag time is too long, should be shortened somehow.
- How the hell did they come up with the "SkyeQuiKey" name? Such a horrible unpronouncable name for such a beauty!

What new features I would love to be added
- Send an sms to a non-contact number ie when I type a new number, give me the option to send an sms to it, not just call it.
- Add more contacts search options, like job titles, nicknames, addresses, emails,... Company is great but a little push forward wouldn't do it any wrong.
- Give me the option to edit contacts, and not just sms/mms/emai/call them or view their contact card.
- Give me the option to uninstall applications or games, not just launch them.
- Let me also assign the green call key and the center button shortcuts.
- More searchable data, like themes or files or inside sms...
- Like the messaging subdivisions quick launch (inbox/sent items/...) I would love to have quick access to Gallery subdivisions and Settings subdivisions, ie Images, Videos, Tracks, Sound clips, Phone, Call, Connection, Date and time,... I suppose it's doable :D

Well in all manners, I believe SkyeStream have a winner in their hands. This amazing piece of software can easily replace so many other applications and works amazingly fast. A couple of adjustments, especially the sms defaults import and reintroducing the "add to contact" would be very welcomed. Other features would make it a perfect wonder. That's my opinion, fair and square, no added sugar, no extra cheese :p

StyleTap - Connecting Peop... ehm Devices

I first read it over @ SlipkornSaad's Symbian 9.1/9.2 applications blog and I couldn't believe it:

Styletap have announced a new emulator that allow users to install and run applications and games meant for Palm Treo devices on Symbian OS 9.x based Nokia S60 v3 Officially called "StyleTap CrossPlatform for Symbian OS", the product is planned for release early in 2008, the software is working now in "alpha" mode – most of the APIs are working, most applications are running well...You can read the full details over here...

We had already heard about Red Five Labs' to-be-released beta of Net60 a couple of days ago, a solution that helps developers produce apps for s60 3rd using .NET compact framework, instead of symbian's SDK, but seriously this one is NOTHING like it! In fact, like Zach from SiMo reported from Red Five Lab's stand @ the Symbian Smartphone Show this week (following my constant nags), Net60 is merely a developer tool, meant to make it easier for developers. It didn't mean a thing to end-users, unless developers decided to use the .NET CF for Symbian Developing. In other words, we were still relying on their good wills *sigh*

[Update about Net60: read the 3rd comment on this post and the correction made here]

On the other hand, the StyleTap concept is totally different and is everything I needed and thought Net60 would promise and deliver. In simple words, it's an application that you install on your device and that allows you to run almost any PalmOS app, without porting, without modification, right out-of-the-box.

Does it work?
Sweet you might say, but does it live up to its expectation? I asked myself the same question, and i got the answer *drum roll, people* YES it does! How did I find out? Ehm, well I would like to say the haughty "I have my sources" but no, that's not it, I've been in the blogging business for only a couple of months and I don't have any source whatsoever. I only have my wits.

How did I test it?
Since StyleTap had already released their product for Windows Mobile, I decided to give it a spin on my Qtek. Downloaded the trial of StyleTap and installed it: piece of cake. The app consists of 2 components: the StyleTap Launcher that installs to the WM and the StyleTap Application Installer that installs on the pc. The latter allows you to choose which installation files (they are in .prc and .pdb for PalmOS) you want installed on your WM. After figuring this out, I went to Skyscape's website and got myself a trial version of Evidence-Based Diagnosis (EDB) for Palm (just coz it was the smallest app I could find :p ). After going through a mere-suicidal state because of Skyscape's installation process (I thought I had to install Palm Desktop Software, which is like ActiveSync for WM, but then figured out a way past it), I managed to grab the .prc and .pdb files, added them on the PC's StyleTap Application Installer, chose to install and grabbed my heart for a couple of seconds. When the process was finished, I ran Start - Programs on the Qtek, and found the EDB in the programs list. Launched it and there it was! Working!!! This emulator is a one good piece of software. In a word: it promises and it delivers!

I just can't express how excited I am. If the process worked for Skyscape's abracadabral installation system, there is no wonder it would work on almost everything else! They already have a list of apps certified to run on StyleTap on their website, Skyscape's solutions aren't on the list but they work. I'm litteraly jumping off my feet here.

What does this mean to the end-user?
I'll explain it in a very easy way. A week ago, a friend of mine specializing in Medical Lab came to me and asked me what device would I suggest he buys. He was very confused between Symbian and Windows Mobile (more specifically iMate JasJam and N95). His point was that the N95 is smaller, nicer, has a great camera, but doesn't have lots of medical capacities which he needs, but does have WiFi so he could search for information online, read PDFs and Office Files so he could put all his info on. On the other hand, the JasJam was bulky, had a horrible camera, but benefited from full support of medical software and had WiFi. First I told him that if he got the N95, he'd be paying for features he'd never use in Lebanon (GPS and 3G) but suggested that if he settled on it, he'd better get the 8GB version or I would kill him. But then I even confused him more by telling him about the love'n'hate relationship I had with my Qtek. He was close to deciding not to invest in anything for the time being.

When I found out about StyleTap (which was like 3hrs ago now), I instantly SMSed him and told him I might have a solution for his problem. After getting it to work, and seeing the result on the Qtek, I SMSed him again and said "it works on Windows Mobile, I don't see why it wouldn't on Symbian".

There you go: StyleTap solved this guy's problem as I'm sure it'll solve many other people's. He is now much more likely to go for the N95. Most medical apps are available for both WM and PalmOS, and most applications in general, available for one platform are also for the other. Which in other words mean: if you have a Palm or a WM and want to switch to Symbian but are afraid of losing some apps (esp the ones you paid for on Palm), you can now do it and benefit from the plethora of features an S60 phone comes with, from cam quality to phone utilities, stability, smaller size and endless software lists.

When?
StyleTap hasn't released their beta yet for Symbian, but stay tuned because I am sure gonna apply for beta testing once it's out (which should be soon if they plan to release the whole thing in Q1 2008).


A final note before I go dancing on the roof again: I first started this post by saying I learned it through SlipkornSaad's blog. I want to mention that this guy is awesome, I don't know how he does it, but he's almost always the first on my RSS to announce new apps or app updates! Definitely worth adding to your rss reader :)

Hat-Trick Freebie by Chua Welic

Usually, when someone says "free" you first think "awesome" then "what's the catch?" then "it sure ain't as great as it sounds". That is the case until you actually try the thing and go "I knew so" or "it's good but not great" or "oh my god, is this truly free?". Rare are the apps that make you reach that 3rd state. Still we won't complain if developers keep on trying ;)

I recently came across 3 great freebies by Chua Welic that made me go to the "is that really free?" state : cClock, cCalc and cCam . Let's proceed step-by-step, shall we?

Note: head on over to the official site for the screenshots (I won't post everything here) and to download the apps. And care to donate to keep him going!

cClock
This is a screensaver wide-clock for S60 3rd. Basically instead of that small line on S60's screensaver, you get something so huge I'd almost swear a blind person could see it. Yet this ain't the most amazing part! The app is totally configurable so you can show the date, the day of week, the week number, the network and battery status, indicators for email, sms, missed calls, with numbers count of each event, a chinese calendar and many more, all while being able to adjust the font, size and position of almost everything. Add to that the fact that this little thing doesn't burn your battery power and you've got yourself the First Goal. Way to go Chua!

cCalc
Sure Calcium is a nifty little treasure but it was made for basic math, so for more complex executions, we only had BestCalc to chew on for quite some time now. Not anymore. cCalc doesn't have the good graphics of Calcium or BestCalc, but it does combine the best of both worlds: keypad shortcuts + complex math operations. Users of Calcium will find a known territory with the same directional basic math shortcuts (+ - / x). Math geeks will rejoice over all-you-can-eat sin/cos/ln/e/sqrt/deg/rad/grad... that are only a couple of clicks away. All you have to do is press * repeatedly and the keys will toggle from numbers to math to trigonometry to base to financial. All functions are keypad mapped and once you've got hold of it, you'll be mathing away in milliseconds. It also has a special version with key mapping for the E61's QWERTY! If that's not enough to make you drool, you'll sure do when you find out it has a built-in converter (that's Formula on the right softbutton) with preset conversions from feet to meters, calories to joules, ounces to grams, celsius to fahrenheit,... As if that's not enough, it's totally configurable. Clicking repeatedly on Formula will get you to the converter then the "edit function" then the "edit label" where you can input your own conversion rates and rename the buttons. Add a nice copy/paste trick which is more handy than MR M+ M- and you've got yourself Goal Number Two!


cCam
One thing that always annoys me about my 3250 is the cam shutter sound that tells everyone "A pic has been taken". The 3250 has the ability to snap pictures sideways, which means you can take the pic of someone on your left or right without looking and by pretending you're fiddling with your phone. No one would suspect a thing until the cam shutter goes and you're the only person standing with a phone in your hand. cCam relieves you from the awkwardness of this situation by providing a silent pic snapping solution. I had been waiting for something like that ever since I got my mobile. cCam doesn't come with bells and whistles like the previous apps but it does what it needs to do and it does it well. Hat-Trick to Chua Welic!

And if all of the previous haven't convinced you yet, maybe you will be if you knew that all apps are frequently updated and improved. Be sure to check out Chua Welic's page every now and then. Great additions are always on their way. I'm crossing my fingers for some cCal (calendar) or cCall or cContact apps: all fall within the "cC" naming scheme :p

"Die you 1069" by SMS Spam Manager

For over 2 or 3 months now, I have been frustrated, bothered, angry, and all because of SMS. A certain company keeps on sending me silly and stupid messages in arabic that go mostly on this template: "show your love to your sweetheart with a nice poem, send T3 to 1069", and since I'm neither in love nor in a relationship, it's seriously frustrating. Not that I would actually follow their strategy if I was, but I wouldn't probably be as annoyed as I am now. So a couple of weeks ago, I said (or more likely yelled) "NO MOOOOOORE", hit www.handango.com and typed SMS in the search box. I fell on a couple of results, one of which was SMS Spam Manager by Webgate. Downloaded the trial and here I went. 3 minutes was all it took, from downloading the trial to getting it to work in the background and forgetting about it. Really simple. Really efficient.

SMS Spam Manager runs in the background and can show you an icon on the main screen right below the network coverage, option that can be changed in the preferences.

It presents 3 windows. In the Mode window, you choose your rule setting (allow all, block all, allow phonebook, block blacklist) and you can view how many SMS have been allowed or blocked since the last time you opened the app. In the Rules window, you see all blacklist rules and you can add a new one by telephone number, prefix number and text match. You can't say there is a certain SMS type you can't block with those options! In the Log window, you can read the blocked SMS and delete them.

What I like about SMS Spam Manager is that it does what it needs to do, neetly and very simply. No bells and whistles. The indicator it shows on the main screen lets me check very quickly and make sure it's running. The settings are exactly what you would expect them to be in this kind of application. The autorun option is flawless, no matter how your phone was turned off : battery removal, normal turn off, reboot by an app, crashed then rebooted.

What I hate about it is that it shows in the task manager (long menu keypress) which is annoying. There should be a way to make it invisible, especially when the main screen icon is set on. While they're at it, there should be a way to multiple select items in the log. I'm too picky I guess but it's just to say that no app is perfect ;)

Seriously, if you are flooded by spam SMS, just click through to SMS Spam Manager. I guarantee that in less than 5 minutes, your app will be up and running, and spam will be a thing of the past. Just once in a week, open the app, check the log, delete.

Another useful freebie - Mr Lock

Sure there are several autolock utilities available for S60 3rd devices but none seems talored to meet my demands better than Mr Lock. Developed by Mobifun Soft (the same company that brought Smart Settings), this nice freebie allows you to perform everything you've wanted your autolock to do, hassle-free.

The autolock is dependent on profiles. Meaning you can choose to auto lock in All Profiles, User Defined profiles or No Profile (that's its Disable equivalent). So for instance if you need your phone to autolock at times but not at others when you're working with it, create a General2 profile, but don't include it in the "autolock in" profiles. That way, you can switch to General2 when you feel you need your buttons available at all times.

The other great option is that you choose when your keypad is locked: "only on idle screen" or "in all programs" meaning you can pick your keypad to autolock only when your phone is on standby, a useful setting.

But the greatest setting of all is when you pick "in all programs" since then your are presented with one more line: exceptions. [That feature has been implemented in some other autolock utilities but never functioned well on my 3250, since after a couple of hours/days the phone would start to autolock itself if I pressed a key before the time interval set. I never understood how pressing a key would trigger the autolock, since if I did press a key, it would mean that I'm working on the phone and need the keypad available!] Long parenthesis to say that I've always wanted an exceptions feature in my autolock programs but was so disappointed by the ones available I was even close to not even try Mr Lock. Thank God I did try it, since I found out that the feature functions flawlessly here. I use it for preventing my keypad to lock in mobireader, the music player, the camera (imagine you have a 3250 and the keypad locks when your phone is twisted in camera mode, unlocking can't be done without untwisting the phone)...

The other nice things about it are:
- First, it automatically launches on start-up so once you've made your settings for the first time, you just forget about it.
- Second, it functions as a hidden app and doesn't show up in task managers, somethg I bet we all want because if every background app showed up, we'd have long long lists when we press and hold that Menu key.
- Third, it's a simple interface, yet allows you so many useful settings.

It's also free so I seriously recommend giving it a go. I know that for me, I've found my perfect autolock utility.

P.S: for slider phones, it doesn't allow you to change the lock combination keys, but you can always use the lock “in idle screen” setting.

AppQLaunch - Nice free utility

I just came around this nice freebie while checking my RSS the other day, on the Tech[dot]blog. It's called AppQLaunch and I assume the Q stands for Quick :)

Basically this nice freebie by Yohannes helps you launch some applications quickly by simply typing their name. I know this has been part of Best Taskman and Handy Taskman (if i'm not mistaken) but now you can have this small utility without buying those software (in case you don't need a task manager).

I have AppQLaunch ready on my standby screen, on the left softbutton. When you launch the app for the first time, you need to refresh your applications list, then you can simply type in the name of an application, select it, press it and voilà!

Simple yet efficient. Give this freeware a go! You can check the homesite here, and you can download the app here.