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

I Will Never Sing Jingle Bells The Ordinary Way Again!

I was at the hospital today for 4 empty hours of stormy weather. Thank God there was some WiFi in the library, so I got to try emTube and Mobitubia. I was first firing up emTube, thinking what type of video I would look for, when I remembered that the best videos I had seen on youtube were those of Jeff Dunham. If you don't know him, just search for his videos. He's an AMAZING ventriloquist, one like you've never seen and I have pretty much memorized all his scenes so far (favorite characters: Peanut and Achmed).

So I searched for Jeff Dunham and found a new video I hadn't seen before, called Achmed's Jingle Bombs and you bet I watched it. Took it a couple of minutes to load on the hospital's WiFi and I was ready to roll. All I can say is that I had the Bose on, and being that those are noise-canceling, I was laughing too hard to even notice it, in the library! Well, enough words, here you go: (btw if you don't know the first video by Achmed, watch it here so you can follow this one better :p)

Ok, Now I'll never sing Jingle Bells the ordinary way, again!

This Is Nature by Chaos Inc

It has been a while since I have posted about themes here on Dotsisx, but I know that a great part of the traffic I get is due to themes so I won't let you down very often. Here I present to you This Is Nature, a theme by Chaos Inc or Ishtiaq Saddam, as I have grown to know him, a talented theme maker from Bangladesh (yes, we're out of Italy now). Just look at the screenshots taken from the N95 8GB and judge by yourself. I won't say a word.

If I could only describe how shiny that green leaf appears on the screen! Kudos Ishtiaq, looking for more of your work!

Handango Free App Friday, We'll Miss Ya!

Normally when I fire up my computer on a friday, the first thing I do is check Handango's Free App Friday offering. I have a Nokia, a WM device running StyleTap so amongst Handago's offerings, I've beneficiated from many cool free apps, for Symbian, WM and Palm.

Today, instead of a new app, I was greated by a "New Year, New Deal$" message. The fun is over. To tell you the truth I was pretty much expecting something like this, they seriously couldn't go at it for months, but it was nice while it lasted.

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!

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.

Skyscape on S60 - Pinch me!

Thanks to Mark for posting a comment on the I'm Outraged - part 2 post, I now know that Skyscape have released an agent for S60 3rd devices! I haven't checked Skyscape's website for a couple of weeks now and this is what I get for doing so. I almost missed the news! Lesson learned.

If you've been on this blog long enough you would know that my MAIN ache with Symbian was the unavailability of professional medical applications. Well now I believe my prayers have been answered or Santa got my letter, which proves I was a good girl this year, Skyscape decided to go for S60 after all. There ARE now and will be dedicated medical apps on Symbian, no need to wait for StyleTap or Net60 implementations. I can't tell you how excited I am! I have now to cross fingers for Epocrates and Lexicomp to follow their path.

The installation process seems a little bit complicated, but at this point, I couldn't care any less. Anything is better than having to put up with the WM madness! Just 2 days ago my Qtek 9100 decided to no longer launch any software installed on the memory card (only solution: format) and I was so bumped that less than 12 hours ago I was telling Ricky litterally (thank you conversation logs):

"If only there were med apps on S60! I wouldn't even get 100 meters close to a WM device, would invent some sort of WM repellent"

Now picture a red angry outraged emoticon, shaking his head and taping it with his hands. Point made.

N95 8GB coming from WOM World - HELP NEEDED!

They say when it rains, it pours. Well it seems that this saying is true. I am leading a hectic rythm of life now and to top that, In the next days, I will be getting an N95 8GB from WOM World! Hoorray!

Remember when I was deserately trying to trial an N95 8GB? Well, I shot them an email and they answered, but silly Gmail, the reply ended up in my Spam folder and it isn't until this saturday, 23 days later, that I noticed I had an email in Spam. A quick look at it and it was their approval! Thank God I didn't wait more than 30 days to check my Spam, Gmail would've erased it by then.

Anyway all works well in a perfect world, and if my math is correct, the N95 8GB will still be here for Christmas :) What a nice gift? Heh?

So, since I always have a weird approach to everything, I am putting these 2 weeks of trial for a good use and going for something other than reviewing the N95 8GB... Well, I might eventually review it in the end, but for now I have something else in mind. This is where you readers kick in. I would love each and every one of you, if you have time, to answer these questions:

1 - What are the top 10 uses of the N95? (top 5 if you can't think of 10, but I am sure you could easily come up with 20 and even 30)
2 - Pick 1 application you think I should download to the N95 in these categories (preferably freeware): web browser, instant messenger, rss reader, gps navigation, photo sharing, online communities, mail catcher.
3 - Name 10 more (other than the ones you just cited in question 2) great applications (preferably freeware) that run great on the N95 / are designed for it.
4 - If you had to pick ONLY ONE feature by which to describe the N95, what would it be?
5 - Name 10 mobile websites that run well on the N95 and that I should check on it.

Please answer these if you have an N95 or any other S60 3rd device with connectivity features. Also feel free to answer as many as you can or with as much (I picked 10 as a number, but you can give me 7, 8 or even 5 exemples to each question). These will be a lot of help for me, because my current device doesn't have any sort of GPS features, wifi or connectivity. So I am less into software that require these features and I could use some advice.

Voice in you asnwers as soon as you can. For me, I should probably set my mind to getting a router for my ADSL connection now. I won't be wasting the N95's wireless capabilities by spending just a couple of minutes everyday on the university's slow WLAN network!

Thoughts on Comes With Music

I had jotted down some notes but as crazy as I am now, I ended up dumping the document in the recycle bin and emptying it the second after, just to realize a moment from then that i had deleated my article. I will try to repost as much as I can of it.

If you are here, then you probably know many S60 blogs/sites and you probably know that Nokia announced on Tuesday during their first day on the Nokia World expo a new service called Comes With Music.

My point behind that 1 page article I had written was to say that Comes With Music is every music and Nokia lover dream come true. Ricky (from Symbian-Guru) has posted today his thoughts on the whole matter, and I totally agree with him. It will introduce customers to the Nokia Music Store, to your device's music capabilities and to new artists and bands. It is also beneficial for the music industry since they'd be getting money from people who usuallu pirate the songs. I know it's a paid service and that the songs will be DRM'd and that it will launch in almost a half a year and that only Universal is on it now, but all those limitations get erased in my point of view.

Honestly I wouldn't mind popping in 50-100$ more on a device to get all-I-can-eat music for free from major labels for a year. I wouldn't mind the DRM either if the device had a 3.5mm headphone jack, a couple of music dedicated keys, a great battery life and some 8GB memory. And those are the specifications of almost all music-aimed devices by Nokia. I wouldn't also mind not being able to sync the music with my iPod or my laptop, because after all I don't take the laptop everywhere and I would easily let go of my iPod. I already carry the Qtek, the 3250 and the iPod. One less gadget in my bag would be great!

These are my main thoughts, you might disagree but I am sticking to the idea that it's one of the greatest ideas Nokia has ever had. The ordinary Mike wouldn't try to see what his device holds, he just uses it for sms, calls, pictures and ringtones. But when you tell him he can have his music for free, directly on the device, for one year, ordinary Mike won't be able to refuse the temptation of "free". He will do everything to set his connection to work, he will buy a wireless router for his house, he will search for hotspots all over the country, in order to access his "free" music. While using his connection, he will start wondering if he could IM or check his Facebook account on his device and he will therefore discover browsing and installing applications, and then Bam! Welcome to the real world of Symbian!

Papyrus today's freebie on Handango!

Hurry on before the day is over, Handango's free app friday today is a symbian legend: Papyrus, the great powerful calendar solution, a value of 19.95$ !!! Click here to go get it.

Manage your busy life with Papyrus and your mobile phone. Papyrus is a robust time management solution for Symbian series 60 devices. Papyrus offers smart views and powerful tools to manage and keep track of your schedule and tasks. This is how your Symbian 60 is supposed to act!

Papyrus can be synchronized with your desktop Outlook using the Nokia PC suite, including items' note/description fields (For Symbian 7 or higher) that are missing when using the default calendar application.

I wish I had a call recorder on my phone!

Today I received an unexpected phone call. I was driving back to my house and shouting whole-heartedly at the lebanese drivers / traffic / policemen when I felt something vibrating near my foot. I looked down and saw a light coming out of my handbag (yes I put it on the floor beneath the seat, near my foot, so if anyone tries to steal something from the car, he doesn't find it). It was my phone. Took it out and looked at the screen, didn't recognize the number, answered. It was a woman, speaking in french. She told me she was part of the Rami Azzam Prize community.

Now why did that name sound familiar?!?! Oh yes, it was a writing contest I participated in a few months ago... in may, yes, in may of this year. Oh yes, it was one crazy month, may. Had my usual pharmacy courses, was taking my masters courses too at the same time, was organizing by myself the student board's orientation and recruitment forum, was keeping Dotsisx alive and was writing the novel for the Rami Azzam Prize. The prize theme was "L'homme, ce damné de l'espérance" or for all of you non-frenchies: "Man, this damned of hope" or something like it. I remember when I first read the topic a lamp lit in my head: I had been wanting to write a story about the Alzheimer disease, from a human point of view, and the theme was just perfect. I had to do it. Crazy May! Ah I remember I was waking up at 6am each day, going for my usual 1 hour walk - the only free time I could find to exercise and I wanted to participate in that contest so badly I wrote 90% of the story on my mobile phone. Yes the 3250! Since my schedule was so hectic, I could only write the novel while doing my morning walks, I used to take the 3250 with me and I did the writing with QuickOffice. Then after a couple of days, I would send the file to my pc, re-read it, correct what had to be corrected, add some sentences, change some or delete some.

So the woman says they are handing out the prizes on Thursday the 6th of december, that's the day after tomorrow. She says they'll be having a small round table and then distribute the 1st and 2nd prizes. Now whether I wasn't one of the winners but they were inviting everyone to participate, or whether they still haven't announced the winners, I don't think she told me. Because I was in the middle of a crazy traffic with horns going out at the frequency of light, I almost missed half of the conversation. Back at home, thinking it over, I believe she didn't specifically tell me who won. But I will never know or will I, well at least not before thursday night. Now I just wish I had a call recorder installed on my mobile to replay that conversation and try to hear what she said. In any case, I will be attending the event on thursday for one main reason: Rami Azzam was a young active lebanese journalist, passionate about poetry and writing, who died in 2003 at the age of 24 from a sudden heart attack. His first and last wish was to help lebanese youth open up and try to build this country on a healthier basis.

Although I am almost sure my mobile-written story won't win a thing, I am quite overwhelmed that I wrote it, especially for this contest. It was the first time I tackle a topic as sensitive as this one and I was surprised by the result. If any french-speaking person reads this blog, you can download it from MOSH: Demain, ca ira mieux. It's 12-13 pages long so don't worry about it taking years to be read.

During a boring pharmacy legislation course (s60 3rd love)

Passionate teacher Mme Jihane Abou Jaoude in white, bored student (Cynthia K) looking at her watch in orange, black bag on the table, roaming Tanios looking at something or nothing, Elie next to him asleep (the black sweater on the lowest left of the pic), interested students (or not) trying to take a couple of notes, and well, me...

...the mobile addict playing with some cool Nokias taken from my surrounding classmates. See from left to right: Cynthia E's N80, Stef's 6120, Yaya's N76 (with a peeled silver front), Racha's N73 and my 3250. Picture taken with Zeina's 3250 music edition (blame the lack of quality on the 2MP). All I can say is that I just noticed that my little surrounding only carries S60 3rd devices and that beside the N80, all devices were bought after my comments and advices. I told Yaya about the N76's silver coating problems and advised her to go for an E65 instead, she went ahead and got the N76 and regretted it the next month. Well beside Yaya, everyone is content with their choices and I'm a happy tech-advisor/friend.

Snowed In 6 by ClickGamer - Free game for Xmas!

It's FREE-zing! Celebrate Xmas 2007 with Clickgamer.com’s new DEEP FREEZE game. Download this free game and help us combat climate change.

Help us reach 1,000,000 downloads before 15th January 2008 and clickgamer will donate USD 10,000 to a non-profit climate change organisation. Let's 'play' our little part in stopping global climate change this winter!

Well, it's good someone is thinking ecologically. I, myself, have been finding myself thinking very frequently about planetary damage, everytime I throw something in the garbage, like batteries, broken electronics, paper, it's too bad there is no recycling programs in Lebanon or I would be the first to adopt it.

Anyway, back to the game, Snowed-In is a nice bejeweled-like game and it is made free from Nov 15th 2007 to Jan 15th 2008. What's more, it's available for every platform you can think of: PPC, Smartphone, S60, S80, S90, UIQ and desktop PC!

To get it, simply go to Snowed-In 6's page on Clickgamer, pick your platform and click on the TRY icon next to it. After you download and install it on your device, go to this registering page and write the 16-digit code that you can find on the "Register" menu of the game (on the device). Tap your email, choose your platform, click "Generate" and you instantly get the unlocking key!

I desperately want to trial an N95 8GB!

When the N95 was first announced, I was still blogging over on Vox and I expressed myself a couple of times about it, with my main opinion being: I'm not that enthusiastic. My main 3 reasons were that it was a slider and I'm a candybar lover, it has GPS and 3G 2 features I would definetely not need in Lebanon, because, well, they are unavailable. Meaning I would be plunking down 700$-800$ for a lot of things I wouldn't use. I further rested assured with the multiple reports about the lacking battery, the RAM issues, the violet cam pics,... many bugs that made me feel less stupid about refusing to join the cult of those swearing by the N95 as the best phone ever built.

When the N95 8GB was announced, I was glad Nokia listened to customers and fixed the reported issues, but I was still confortable in my denial position. But day after day, review after review, I found my decision softening, and well now, you read the title of this post: I DESPERATELY WANT TO TRIAL AN N95 8GB!

I can't help it, I have been counting the reasons that made me change my mind and they are too many: black color, N-Gage, new multimedia menu, the newly discovered Accelerometer (with the amazing forthcoming Nokmote), more juice, enough RAM to run an old PC, availability of Nokia Conversation for FP1 devices,... What's not to like? Moreover, every review I read stated that the N95 is the closest phone to perfection, ever built. In fact the only thing it lacks, in my opinion is the forthcoming touch UI. Think about it, the most hardened and stubborn anti-N95 enthusiast falling head over toes in love with the 8GB version. That's too much, 'ight?

So today my friend, who has a little fuse problem with her N73, asked me to come with her to the mobile shop. I went and, as always, popped a couple of questions about pricing and availability, held a couple of devices in my hand, and here I found:
- New N95-1 : around 500$ (I still am not falling for it)
- Used N95-1 : 430$
- New N81 : around 550$ (extremely sexy phone, but too shiny on the material and fingerprint magnet)
- New unlocked iPhone 8GB : 640$. I actually held it in my hand, but the battery was dead so I couldn't experience the iPhone mania. Well, from the looks of it, it's dead sexy, but a symbian addict won't go iPhoning over nothing but looks and a couple of animated transitions.
- New N95 8GB : around 700$... there wasn't one, so I'm still aching to hold one in my hands, yeah I'm THAT addicted now. 700$ !!! And yet, I'm this close to selling all my geeky gear (iPod 30GB video + Qtek 9100 + Nokia 3250) to get this baby! How crazy is that? Yet, there's that voice of reason that reminds me that I'm saving a couple of bucks because I'm applying to go to France next fall, for a Masters and a PhD [I'm a pharmacist to remind you]. Studies come first, and I have to compromise.

What I'm getting to is that if someone reading this blog knows, is in contact, wants, cares,... to get me to trial an N95 8GB for a couple of weeks, I would be the HAPPIEST girl on earth. Anyone? Please???

Net60 Beta Released!

Red Five Labs have just released the beta of their application Net60. If you don't remember Net60, I wrote about it a while ago with the My Madness Makes Sense post, then mentionned it while reporting about StyleTap then corrected some mistakes made about it again here. In case you don't have time to go through it all, Net60 is an S60 3rd application that should allow you to run applications developed under the .NET 1.0 Compact Framework, ie some applications that already run on Windows Mobile.

While I first went jumping off my feet when I first heard about it (because of my legendary rant about Symbian not supporting medical applications), I was quickly brought to the real world after noticing that Net60 only supports .NET 1.0 and not v2 and v3, and also that it will only be restricted to smartphone apps and not all WM apps, because of the lack of a touchscreen on Symbian devices (hopefully this one problem will be solved by next year).

In any case, Net60 should allow more developers to integrate the Symbian sphere, because of the .NET CF support. It also is a nice step in the right direction. The team behind it is really great and enthusiastic. The support they provide is awesome. I have been in contact with one member, Filip Bulovic, for a while now and I can tell from the amazing fast replies to my mails that this company CARES.

Unfortunately, the beta they just released is restricted to registered users of the site who still have to apply a form and wait for approval to get there. But if you're interested in this kind of novelty, hop in, you don't know. I've already applied myself, I wonder if I will be accepted :s but if I don't there's always Filip and I wouldn't mind shouting in his ears for a while!

[Edit: Well my request has been approved for the beta, and instead of me shouting an email to Filip, he's the one who sent me an email! Go figure! Anyway, I'm downloading it as we speak. I don't know if I'll be able to give it a go during this week (a lot of postponned university projects are due soon) but I'll keep you posted.]

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!

LCG Jukebox FREE @ Handango!

So finally, Handango decided to offer an S60 freebie! Wuhuuuu! You most probably know about their Free App Friday project (if you don't read my first report here).

Today's freebie is none other than the top-10 seller Lonely Cat Games' Jukebox, a great music player that plays mp3 and ogg formats, supports lyrics, searches for album art on the net and even displays a mini player on the standby screen!

Priced normally at 24.99$, today is the only day you can get it for 0.00$, yup, exactly! So go ahead and quickly grab it before 11:59 CST! Hurry!

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

Correction about Red Five Labs' Net60

I guess I jumped fast on the wagon and assumed Net60 wouldn't allow users to install windows mobile apps right out-of-the-box on their Symbian. Seems like that's not the case. Filip over at Red Five Labs replied to this post where I praised the StyleTap innovation, and said that some apps for WinMo should work right out of the box with Net60.

One thing I liked about his comment is that I REALLY appreciate developers who care enough about their products to watch out blogs writing about them, even though bloggers of said blogs aren't in any sort of connection with them : I never contacted anyone @ Red Five Labs, yet Filip found my post, which means he was out there looking. This kind of support where developers seek users and not the opposite proves to me that they care, even if their solution isn't out yet!

The other thing I liked is that in 2008 we should have 4 formats compatible with our Nokias *bounce* : symbian, java, palmOS and WinMo. The more the merrier. That means more compatibility and less "i can't decide on a platform, i like both" typical indecisions. I can't think of any platform out there other than Symbian that could allow this sort of versatility! One platform to rule them all! Add to that the touch UI, the amazing hardware packed in Nokias, the new NGage,the Ovi doorway, and you've got yourself more than you can ever dream of. I believe 2008 will be the year everyone will remember in the mobile world, a landmark for innovations, and I believe Nokia will have a lot of roles to play on that scene.

Gosh, I just luv S60! I would like to see another existing touch interface (you know where my thoughts are headed) compete with that. Haha, they're doomed :)

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 :)