Symbian in Motion

SHAPE Services S60 3rd Applications, part 3 - RDM+

About a month ago I was on a short holiday without my laptop and one of my colleagues called to ask me a question. Unfortunately, I needed access to a file on my laptop to provide him with an answer so we had to wait until the following Monday to resolve the issue. I realized then that it was time for me to start looking into a Virtual Network Computing (VNC) solution. If you are unfamiliar with VNC, it’s essentially a technology that allows you to remotely access and interact with a computer. That’s right, control your PC from your S60 3rd device!

I went through several different apps on my way to finding my favorite, and I landed on RDM+. This my friends, is an excellent app. RDM+ has tons of functions and it’s extremely easy to set up. Typically when I review an app I try to walk through the setup - at least to an extent - but there are just too many capabilities in RDM+ to cover everything. When I was done walking through the app and taking screenshots for this review, I had about 60 images! Cutting through them was tough as RDM+ has so many useful functions, but I decided to stick to a few basics for the purposes of this review - and I still have 24 screenshots to post!

To start things off, there are two components of RDM+ of course. The first is a server app that gets installed on your PC and the second is a java app that installs on your device. Installation and set up is quite straight forward for both components and there is a good user manual and a getting started guide to help you through any problems. Once you’re through the setup, getting connected is as simple as selecting your PC from your address book (address book = list of available PCs to connect to) and selecting Connect from the options menu.

RDM+ connects very quickly and can utilize GPRS, EDGE, 3G, or WLAN. Now we’re ready to get down to business…

The first function I’ll discuss is the Desktop viewer - which isn’t restricted to just your desktop of course. This basically gives you a visual portal into your PC, complete with a mouse that you can control with your directional pad and even click. Below you can see that when I first log on to my PC it is locked. In order to unlock it, I must send a Ctrl+Alt+Del command which is very simple with RDM+.

Now I can move the mouse and click on the password field in order to enter my password. There is a keyboard function within RDM+ that utilizes the standard S60 3rd text-entry view to input text into any field or open file on your PC.

Once I’ve entered my password (which isn’t really “password” obviously), I’m in! Now I can perform a host of functions, open and operate any app, and zoom in/out. Just as an example, below you can see me quickly open a simple command prompt window.

The other very useful function that I’ll cover in this review is the file browser. RDM+ allows you to fully access and browse the drives on your PC. From there, you can easily copy any files from your PC to any directory on your phone or memory card. Below, you can see that I’ve browsed to a folder on my PC that contains a bunch of freeware S60 3rd apps.

Now that I’ve found the app I was looking for, I can copy it to my device. I simply choose Client to switch from my PC file tree to my device file tree and then I can browse to the destination folder of my choosing.

As I mentioned before there are many, many other things you can do with RDM+. Examples are view/close/kill PC processes, send commands such as Restart/Shut Down to your PC, start/stop system processes, and even view system and hardware info. If you are in the market for a VNC solution I highly recommend that you give RDM+ a try. Of course Shape Services offers a free trial period of seven days so that you can make sure that the app is right for you. If for some reason it isn’t right for you, you make want to have a look at Shape’s two other VNC solutions for S60 3rd: VNC+ and TSMobiles. Each of their VNC solutions offer varied capabilities to suit a wide variety of needs. You can see some basic differences between the apps here.

By the way, I should mention that if you’re thinking that you may have some access problems with VNC due to network security, no worries. My office network sits behind a complex array of security measures and I have no problems whatsoever connecting. I’ll also mention that RDM+ itself is extremely secure, with three security levels and 128-bit encryption that utilizes randomly generated keys.

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Have you ever wished that you had an app on your S60 3rd device that would give you webcam capabilities and integrate quickly and easily with YouTube or your blog? I know a lot of people who have craved such an app for a very long time. Well the wait is over thanks to ComVu!

PocketCaster facilitates live video streaming from your mobile device and is capable of streaming content to several webcast pages, blogs, and social networking sites via GPRS, EDGE, 3G, or WLAN. Capable of streaming live video and video files already on your device/MMC, PocketCaster provides an all-inclusive webcam service - FOR FREE (at least for the time being)!

The configuration details and external webcast site integration is all done through the ComVu website once you’ve registered for an account. Your account is fully accessible from your PC/Mac and your S60 3rd browser by the way. Starting a new webcast on your device is quite simple. The Options button gives you access to the Video Info section where you can input your webcast data such as Title, Author, and Tags.

Then the setup section gives you access to a variety of options including the ability to select whether you would like to stream from live video or a saved video already on your device/MMC.

Steaming live video is a breeze with PocketCaster. Just make sure that “Webcast from file” is set to ‘no’ within the app setup. Then from the home screen click on Options -> Start. Guess what? You’re webcasting!

PocketCaster also has a My Account section that provides several direct links to various pages within your web account. The app interfaces directly with your S60 3rd browser and as long as you don’t clear your cookies you’ll be able to go directly to the relevant webpages without having to log in.

If you don’t have a blog or YouTube account, no need to worry. Your free PocketCaster account also comes with a free webcast page that you can link your friends to whenever you want them to see your live webcasts. ComVu webcast pages can be accessed from any computer or mobile phone with an internet connection.

I have to say that I am very impressed with PocketCaster. A LOT of people have been waiting for an app like this and I think that PocketCaster is even more feature-rich than many would expect - especially from a free service. You should definitely sign up and give it a try yourself. After playing with it for a few days, my only complaint is that there is currently no interface with Wordpress blogs. Rather than show a demo video here via YouTube, maybe Ricky will read this post and give us a little demo on his blog (typepad is fully supported by PocketCaster).

;)

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This post is completely unrelated to S60 3rd (hence the new “Tangents” tag) but for those of you who use MyStrands and ObjectDock, I made a little MyStrands dock icon. It’s just their logo with a tiny shadow effect but feel free to use it if you like it.

Download my MyStrands Dock Icon

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Quite some time ago, I reviewed what is now probably the most popular app of its kind: fring. Since then, you probably know that fring has added MSN to its list of supported services. What you might not know is that fring has just recently released version 3.01, which also supports GSM and SIP calling!

Now you can make calls to any landline/mobile phone over GSM AND via any number of VoIP SIP providers such as VoIPStunt, VoIPCheap, Gizmo and more. What’s more; I’ve made many successful calls through a variety of SIP providers using my EDGE connection! In terms of EDGE vs. WLAN quality, the difference was barely noticeable…

This is huge for fring - which is quickly becoming THE one-stop shop for S60 3rd voice communication and IM. And believe it or not, it’s still free!

:)

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MyStrands now has release version 2.6 of Social Player available for download on their website. It is now compatible with all S60 3rd devices. In case you missed it, you can check out my initial review here. If you are a music fan, I highly recommend that you download version 2.6 and check it out!

UPDATE: If you want to see a nice little demo of Social Player being used on an N95, checkout this YouTube vid.

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