Symbian in Motion

Great news for everyone out there enjoying their time with the great messaging utility TextQuick! Mind-Flip has just released the third build of the TextQuick beta with a few fixes and a new feature that brings TextQuick closer still to being your comms home-base…

That’s right, you can now use TextQuick to initiate calls as well as SMS messages. :)

Head on over to the Mind-Flip site and update your beta and don’t forget to thank Mind-Flip for this awesome open beta by providing your much-needed feedback to the developer directly or below in the comments. Enjoy!

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As Psiloc gets ready to celebrate their 10-year anniversary next week (happy anniversary Psiloc!) they have been quite busy lately updating some apps and have even managed to find the time to release some new ones. Anna at Psiloc is one of my favorite people to receive emails from because each time I see her name in my inbox I know that there is a great new app that I have to check out! Well earlier this week her name popped up and inside her email was the news that MiniGPS has been released for S60 3rd devices. Woo Hoo!

Many of you likely remember MiniGPS from earlier Symbian variants but if not it’s a very useful app that is definitely worth looking at. MiniGPS automatically performs one or several preset functions based on your location. Using MiniGPS, your arrival at or departure from a specific location will trigger certain events such as sending an SMS or changing your device’s profile or theme. The app uses cell tower data to identify your location and even logs your movement as your device communicates with different towers.

MiniGPS is set up very logically which makes using it a pleasure. It is always running in the background but occupies a very small amount of RAM and battery life so N95 users need not worry. The main screen (pictured above) displays the name of your current location provided it has been previously stored. It also shows the amount of teaching time remaining when MiniGPS is learning a new location, and we’ll cover that shortly.

The first of the two settings tabs is the Events tab. Here you will define the various events that MiniGPS will perform as you enter or exit your desired locations. Adding a new event is quite simple and takes only a few moments to do. Once on the Add event screen you can designate an Event type (Send SMS, Run alarm, Change profile, Change BT or Change theme), set the event to active when you enter or exit the configured destination, define the location and edit the details of the event type.

The next tab over is the Locations tab. Here, you can use the settings to define your current location and add it to the Locations list. First you enter a name for the location and then (with the new entry highlighted) choose Teach Location from the Options menu. This will be the amount of time that MiniGPS tracks cell changes and associates each tracked cell with your new location.

The last of four tabs is the Log. On this screen you’ll find a history of your movements from cell to cell that are stored (with a presumed entry limit) until you clear them.

There is an endless amount of possibilities with MiniGPS. So far I’ve used it for several alarms such as reminding myself to make a phone call as soon as I arrived at work. Tonight actually, MiniGPS will automatically send my buddy an SMS letting him know to join me as soon as I arrive at our favorite bar so I can get right to business and not worry about putting my glass down to call or text him. There are tons of possible applications for this great app and the functionality it enables.

Psiloc provides users with a lengthy 10-day trial so that so that you can do a fair amount of playing before you commit to a purchase. Three lucky readers won’t have to worry about this decision however, as Psiloc will generously provide a free license code to the first three readers to post a comment here! No need to to post your email address publicly, please just ensure that you enter a valid email address in the appropriate field above the comment box.

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UCFLY has just released a native S60 3rd version of their UCWEB Browser in English. Competing with the Services browser and Opera of old, UCWEB is a WAP/mobile site browser with some interesting functionality but a long way to go in terms of interface and usability. For more info you can check out UCFLY’s site (linked page is translated to English by Google).

There is some cool functionality to be found within UCWEB. For example, you can store web pages for offline browsing in UHTM or TXT format - in theory at least. I experienced a lot of crashes when I tried to take advantage of this feature.

The other big feature that this new browser touts is the ability to open multiple pages which is something that the S60 browser is sorely missing. Unlike saving pages, I had no problems opening multiple pages and moving back and forth between them. In the screen shot below you can see in the top left corner that I’m viewing open page 4 of 4.

I also had good experiences with downloading files and with other basic functionality. UCWEB is a bit slow though since it downloads pages and then effectively stops data flow until the next time data transfer is needed. You can set it to refresh at user-defined time intervals but that can really slow you down.

Other notes:

• Scrolling through long pages or pages with a lot of links is a huge PIA
• There are some keyboard shortcuts such as scroll and back, but not for some core functions that really need shortcuts
• I couldn’t get the app to auto-connect, regardless of the Access Point I designated under settings
• Occupies a lot of RAM
• Lots of crashes!

Some major work is still needed to make this app a usable browser but the vision is clearly there. Even with all of the problems I still like it more than the Opera WAP browser and even the S60 Services browser for that matter. I wish I spoke Chinese so that I could submit some bug reports myself, but I’m anxious to see future versions of this little app once the bug reports start flowing in and UCWEB is cleaned up a bit.

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UPDATE: Sorry I missed this initially, but UCWEB is not solely for WAP/mobile sites. It can do full web as well, supposedly. I say supposedly because the setting is there, but I still can’t get it to load any full web pages after adjusting it.

To enable full web, go to Menu -> Settings -> Browser (tab) and change “Browser type” to “WEB browser first”.

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Welcome to another stop on the turbulent train ride that is Symbian. I try not to post too many rants on this blog because I don’t want to become one of “those guys”, but the current state of Symbian - and the direction Symbian is moving in - has me a bit worried.

We’ve all noticed some changes in Symbian Signed over the past month or so. At first, it seemed that they were planning to restrict developer certificates only to developers. Then after a public outcry they changed the message on their homepage and have since restored all existing accounts, with automated new-account registration expected to be restored sometime soon. Let’s stop for a moment and think about WHY we need developer certificates in the first place…

I don’t what to get into too much detail here so to make a long story short, Symbian Signed does not treat small developers well. When small developers submit freeware applications it can take MONTHS for the approval and signing to take place. There are also many restrictions on the capabilities granted to freeware applications so if a developer wants to add certain restricted capabilities to an app - even an app they would have offered for free - they have to pay hundreds of dollars to Symbian Signed and application testing houses in order to enable this functionality. The developer then of course cannot offer the app for free because they have to recoup this money somehow.

As you can see by looking at many of the applications that I’ve reviewed here on SiMo, it is much easier and cheaper for a developer to simply release their app unsigned and rely on the user to sign it with their own unrestricted developer certificate. This however has several draw-backs:

1. Limited reach - Many end-users have trouble obtaining and using developer certificates.
2. Security - Users get so used to signing their own apps that they’ll sign and install anything they come across.
3. Limited delivery channels - A signed freeware app can be posted just about anywhere, but the big distribution houses like handango would likely reject unsigned apps.

So let’s say that a small developer concedes and decides to pay all of the fees and get their app signed. Well if they are offering a small utility like some of the apps I’ve reviewed here recently, they can only charge so much for it. The developer will have to sell so many copies of their app just to break even that it’s no longer worth their time and effort.
For a first-hand account of these trials and tribulations from the eyes of a developer, have a look at these posts on the Mind-Flip blog:

Death of the Bedroom Coder Part 1 and Part 2

Beyond these issues, something that is even a bit more alarming to me is the fact that I’ve noticed that functionality provided by several third-party developers is now being offered as OEM functionality in FP1 devices or as free apps offered directly by Nokia! Woh there, that’s just bad business for a provider of an open platform. Scary stuff…

While I love my S60 devices and I wouldn’t trade my E61i for anything currently on the market, I worry about where Symbian is going. In my humble opinion, Symbian is leaps and bounds beyond Windows Mobile in terms of usability and capability but looking at the sheer volume of available WinMob apps compared to S60 3rd - I’m saddened to think about all of the lost potential. Some of the brightest programmers in the Symbian world will continue to be thwarted and deterred if Symbian Signed policies don’t change. That is bad news for small developers, and bad news for end-users like you and me.

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I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much hype surrounding a bluetooth headset - either before or after its launch. We’ve all seen the demo video on Aliph’s site or on YouTube and heard the hoards of praise…

“It’s the most amazing headset ever!”

“I use it in the middle of the block in New York City and it’s crystal clear!”

“I used mine on an airplane while waiting to take off and it was like I was sitting next to the person on the other end of the line!”

“The Jawbone cured my leprosy!”

It has been my experience that most of the time when a device has this much hype surrounding it, it tends to disappoint the more serious users at least until the second or third update/generation is released (iPhone?). Personally, I tend to stay away from products that are dubbed as the next messiah because I’m usually left with little more than bad impressions and lighter pockets. Despite all of that however, I somehow let all of the hype and praise get to me and I ordered a Jawbone earlier this week. Once again, the tech-dork inside me beat out the (much weaker) experienced and sensible consumer.

After less than one day of use I decided that I’ve gathered enough information to make my initial post on this little dynamo. Is it the greatest thing since sliced bread? No. Does it live up to all of the hype? Possibly. Will it cure your leprosy? Definitely not. Is it far and away the best bluetooth headset that I have ever used? Most certainly, YES.

To be perfectly honest I was blown away after using the Jawbone just one time. In my car at high speeds on the highway, my Nokia BH-800 had a lot of trouble getting loud enough for me to hear well. To its credit, callers on the other end were able to understand me well but because I could barely hear them - all they had to understand was me saying, “What? Huh? What was that?”

So I got into my car this morning and headed off to the office. Once I reached the major highway that I take each day I placed a call with my shiny new Jawbone. My initial reaction was pretty positive - the voice on the other end was loud and clear (at about 50% volume on my E61i) and they could hear me clearly. Oh, but that was before I engaged the Jawbone’s magical noise cancellation.

I held the noise cancellation button for a few seconds and the result was really nothing short of amazing. The demo video on the Aliph site is not an exaggeration - at all. Road and background noise disappeared from my right ear and the caller on the other end noticed it right away as did I. I may as well have been sitting in a library as far as he was concerned. The difference is not just noticeable, it’s spectacular.

How does the Jawbone do it? I’ve heard from reliable sources that Aliph’s noise cancellation technology is derived from a proprietary mixture of fairy dust and angels’ breath, but that is yet to be confirmed. What matters to me is that it works - and it works damn well.

But of course nothing is perfect so here are my preliminary pros and cons:

PROS

• Audio quality and clarity with noise cancellation engaged.
• Audio quality and clarity without noise cancellation engaged (even without noise cancellation it’s impressive).
• Weight - Very light and comfortable.
• Fit - Includes several in-ear fittings and over-ear fittings to accommodate a wide range of users.
• Wearability/Design - The design of the over-ear fitting mechanism is such that it swivels away from the body of the Jawbone when not on your ear. This makes it very easy to put on with one hand and also provides the slightest bit of tension (you do not even feel it) against your head to keep the headset snug while being worn.

CONS

• Size - I wouldn’t call the Jawbone ‘large’ but compared to most modern bluetooth headsets it’s a bit husky.
• Charger - The wall charger/USB cable (one in the same, like Apple) is WAAAAAY too short, the connection to the device is proprietary and there is no included car charger. Aliph’s online Jawbone store doesn’t even offer a car charger separately.
• Style - Of course this is a matter of preference but I don’t like the look of the Jawbone at all. I prefer understated and sleek.
• No dedicated volume buttons.

So would I recommend the Jawbone? It would be hard not to. The technology and implementation are superb and the price point is not outrageous at all. The MSRP is US$120 but you can find more reasonable pricing from online retailers such as amazon.com and ecost.com (where I got mine, thanks glas). There are plenty of headsets on the market that cost more and deliver far less. If you are currently looking for a new bluetooth headset, the search should end right here.

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