Symbian in Motion

Quick Clicks #3

Nokia USA is now offering the N75 and N76 via their flagship stores and distributors. Someone in Nokia’s marketing department must have really paid attention the various rants about Nokia’s marketing tactics in the US (such as mine from last week) because Nokia finally brings their RAZR copy to the “land of the RAZR” and all we hear about it is a blurb on engadget. Where the hell is a ‘rolleyes’ emoticon when you need one?

Why is the 5300 still featured on the Nokia USA homepage? Why isn’t the N76 even on the site yet? Why does the Nseries site still say that the N76 is “not currently available in my area”? Despite the fact that the price point is too high at $500, the N76 could have some great success in the US over time if anyone ever finds out about it…
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Olly posted part three of his N800 in Day to Day Use series and this installment focuses on the GUI. I’ve never laid hands on the N800 and I know precious little about it, or about the Hildon UI that the N800 uses. One very intuitive feature that I learned about from olly’s post though is the fact that the GUI components like menu lists, virtual keyboards, etc automatically adjust in size according to what you use to physically access them (stylus or fingers). I love it!

A stylus has a fine point that can touch smaller items that are close together:

Fingers are larger and blunt so users will have an easier time touching larger items that have more space between them:

I generally stay away from touch screen devices so I don’t know how common this feature might be. What I do know is that it most definitely should be standard feature of all touch screen UIs.
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The Palm Foleo was announced recently and to be perfectly blunt, I don’t care. Great - so now I can converge my two devices (smartphone and laptop) into… two devices.

I already have three laptops and they are each about 3,000 times more versatile than the Foleo. My Sony Vaio is smaller and thinner than the Foleo and it has a sleep mode that takes about 30 seconds to wake up from. I’m busy just like everyone else but I would rather wait the 30 seconds - and be able to do anything I want with a PC rather than just web, email, image viewing and a few other functions.
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Jott is an awesome service that I wrote about a while ago that allows you to call into the service and speak a message that is automatically transcribed and delivered via email or SMS to yourself or to a contact. Another similar service that I’ve been toying with recently is Pinger.

Pinger is a free service that allows you to dial into a number and send a voice message to yourself or a contact. A notifications is then delivered to the recipient via SMS with a link to a phone number that he or she can call to hear your message, and then forward it or reply to it. Hmm… I like Jott better.
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I received an email this morning from Twitter containing a few announcements. Here is an excerpt from that email:

We noticed a whole bunch of Twitter-ers adopting a new way to
communicate specifically to individuals in a public way by adding
an @ symbol before a username like this: “@biz thinking I’ll get a
soy latte too!” To make this experience a bit better, we added a
few features to support this behavior.

- The Replies Tab will display an archive of @replies
- @Replies are followed by an ‘in reply to’ link for context
- @username automatically links the username to the profile

Although using the “@” symbol to represent a reply is by no means a “new way to
communicate specifically to individuals in a public way”, I love a company that watches what their customers are doing and shapes new features around their usage patterns. Bravo Twitter! It’s only a matter of time before Google buys you…
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Last month Grand Central released a mobile site that allows users to listen to voicemails, view contacts and logs, change calls and settings, and more!

Definitely check it out at http://m.grandcentral.com.
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Something possibly worth checking out is the new (poorly named) app by SPlus called Best XP Theme 3rd. This app requires Adobe Flash Lite 2.1 to run, and basically gives you an XP-Style interface to replace your active standby screen. The Dpad controls the mouse which is used to click around and make selections. Like Smart Settings, it is fully configurable in terms of accessible apps - you can add any apps you like to the standby screen (represented with icons) or the menu as seen below.

The wallpaper and ‘theme’ of the app can be changed. A few wallpapers are included but I’m pretty sure you can add your own. Settings are accessed from the “control panel” and the app is exited by clicking on “turn off”. To quote SPlus’ feature list:

-View and launch all programs in your phone.
-Manage category and programs on start menu&Desktop. (Desktop programs change available for full version only)
-Desktop icon change able.(full version only)
-Wallpaper skins change able
-analog/digital clock,Battery,Signal level.
-View&Launch with Favourite list of latest programs usage.( full version only)
-Automatic generate all programs list.
-Easy to defined&launch with programs categories.
-User name&Picture id.
-Support s60 3rd 176×208,352×416,240×320,320×240 screen size.

It’s a very cool concept (great use of Flash Lite) and a good start but the reason I’m not giving a full review is that this app is quite buggy on my N80. I get an error each time I access the menu and when the app is in standby the clock and signal/battery icons fall out of place and sit clumped in the bottom right-hand corner. Those are just a few of the bugs I’ve found. If you’re interested I would definitely download the demo version (demo is QVGA only, full purchase provides versions for all resolutions) before buying.

UPDATE: It appears as though you cannot dial a number to make an outgoing call while this app is running. This means that calls can only be completed to your contacts. Yikes!

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