Symbian in Motion

One of my favorite file managers/system utilities is one that I have yet to talk about here on SiMo. ActiveFile by Alie Tan is an incredibly feature-rich freeware utility that first separated itself from other file managers by implementing tabbed browsing. By providing you with two file browser tabs, ActiveFile allows you to easily navigate different directories simultaneously and utilize advanced copy/paste/move functionality. Since Alie first released this great app he has done an excellent job of consistently adding more unique features and also keeping up with competitive apps by adding various functionality that has come to be expected in an s60 file manager.

Among the new functionality in recent builds of this app is a very cool little feature called memory monitor. I have a tremendous number of apps installed on my devices at all times. Beyond that I’m constantly testing beta apps. As such, there are leaks galore on my device and I know I’m not alone. As strict as Symbian Signed guidelines are these days, they still seem to let plenty of apps through with all kinds of issues including memory leaks. Most S60 devices already have enough issues with free RAM so leaks are a VERY big deal.

ActiveFile’s memory monitor provides you with real-time RAM analysis in a small box that will remain in the foreground on all screens. Do you have an app that you think is leaking? Just leave the memory monitor running while you use the questionable app and see how your free RAM looks during and after operation. When an app closes it can take a while for most or all of the occupied memory to be recovered. Even if your free RAM is a bit light after using an app it’s not such a big deal. It’s the apps that release little or no RAM after use, or that continue to occupy more and more RAM during use that you have to watch out for.

To enable the memory monitor, simply choose Start memory monitor from within Options -> Tools as seen above. The default placement is in the top left corner of your screen but this is configurable from within the memory monitor settings. Go to Options -> Settings -> Memory monitor to enter the configuration screen where you’ll find two settings. Mem. monitor location allows you to adjust the placement of the memory monitor box and Mem. monitor sample rate determines the frequency that the memory monitor will be refreshed with your current available RAM.

You now have a great tool in the foreground of any screen that will constantly update with readings of your free RAM.

There are a few issues I have with the current operation of the ActiveFile memory monitor but it’s still a relatively new feature so I’m hoping Alie will work them out in future builds. For one thing, the memory monitor settings revert back to default each time you exit the app. Since I want the monitor top center in most situations this is a bit of a pain for me. Also, I wish that ActiveFile had a Hide option on the right softkey as opposed to Exit (Exit should be within the Options menu only). To reduce ActiveFile to the background as-is you need to press the menu key or perform another function that will auto-reduce the app.

The memory monitor is only one small reason that I enjoy using ActiveFile. I highly recommend that you head over to the ActiveFile page linked above and check it out. On the Attachments tab you’ll find several versions and you should note that to enjoy certain features in ActiveFile (such as screen capture) you’ll need to sign the unsigned version with a developer certificate.

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It’s been a long time coming but I’ve finally had a play with the first RSS reader solution for S60 3rd that does nearly everything I want it to do in terms of providing me with automatically updated content on any screen! A few months ago I wrote a post about a reader that would allow you to scroll feed headlines on any screen on your device. I also noted however, that the reader itself was rather lacking in terms of function and features. I even made a wish back in January and while I did receive a few responses, none of the linked apps does what my wish asked for. Thanks to Mobiz my wish can finally be retired and I’m now a happy camper. :)

Mobiz LiveFeeder is an RSS Aggregator that is relatively feature-rich but more importantly it provides an extremely customizable ticker that scrolls feed headlines and remains in the foreground on any screen. It will scroll the headlines from one feed at a time and you can even manipulate the ticker and step forward/backward through the feeds it scrolls using hotkey shortcuts!

Setting up the app is very simple and the settings are split into three categories. The first is the connections tab where you will configure your desired access point. This tab also allows you to configure the connection timeout length along with the interval that LiveFeeder should use to automatically update your feeds when running.

The second tab contains your ticker configuration and includes settings such as height (normal or small), width (small, medium or wide), theme (includes four different color schemes) and scroll speed. You can also disable the ticker if you’d like to use the app as a standard auto-updating reader, and you can enable or disable hotkeys.

The last tab contains your Other settings which include enabling/disabling images, adjusting the font size of the reader and autostart settings.

Adding a feed to LiveFeeder couldn’t be easier. The Add a New Feed entry in the Options menu will allow you to select from Mobiz’s supplied feed list (via the services browser) or manually add a feed as seen below. Once your feed has been added, simply Hide the app with your desired feed highlighted and you will now see your ticker scrolling the content of your new feed.

Using the hotkey shortcuts you can quickly and easily adjust the size and placement of your ticker to place it exactly where you want it. Remember that while LiveFeeder is open in the background (with the ticker enabled) your ticker will be visible on all screens. I prefer to keep mine on the bottom just above the softkeys but here you can see some examples.

All in all, Mobiz LiveFeeder is an excellent app that suites my needs very well. Now I can scroll my stocks during the day with the feed set to update every 15 minutes and then with a simply hotkey press, switch over to Baseball scores in the evening set to update every hour. As with any app there are certainly some improvements that I would like to see. For example, it seems as though even full RSS feeds are clipped in the main LiveFeeder reader. While the app does allow you to quickly open the full stories in the Services browser, in the interest of time and simplicity I’d like to see them within the reader. It would also be nice if they would add a hotkey to bring the app to the forefront while on any screen Finally, I’d like to see an option to display the ticker only on the standby screen. From time to time it is nice to see my stocks scroll by while browsing the web, listening to internet radio etc but in most cases I really only pay attention to it on the standby screen.

I can’t yet comment on battery usage and in terms of RAM usage ActiveFile reports just over 1MB. I have noticed that LiveFeeder may leak a bit but I haven’t done enough testing to confirm. I am enjoying my free trial of this app however, and I think that I can already tell you it’s going to be a keeper. I definitely recommend that you head over to handango and check it out for yourself. The developer’s website seems to be down otherwise I would link you there, but I’ll update this post when I see it come back up.

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Today marks the end of the beta period for TextQuick - an excellent utility by Mind-Flip that received tons of buzz during the beta. TextQuick is a fast-loading communications launcher that sorts your contacts according to the amount of messages you’ve exchanged with them. With your most popular contacts at the top of the list you can access them quickly and then press the fire key to automatically open a new SMS message with that contact as the recipient, or press the send key to initiate a voice call. The beta may now have ended but as they say, with every ending comes a new beginning…

Today the first release version of this great app has become available on Handango, and it comes packing a few great new features! The last update incorporated calling features and the release version 1.4 adds some much-needed configuration options to TextQuick.

The After Sending Message field allows you to chose one of three options for TextQuick’s state once a new message has been opened or a call has been placed. The app can come back to the foreground, remain open in the background or exit automatically. The Name Order option allows you to arrange your contacts by first name, last name or last name, first name.

I have to say that I’ve grown completely dependent on this app and can’t imagine my phone without it! It launches quickly, operates smoothly and most importantly it makes your life easier. My advice? Head over to the TextQuick page on handango and check it out. :)

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Mobile Systems, the company that offers my Office app of choice OfficeSuite 4, is also the developer behind a relatively well known app called QuickWrite. QuickWrite is a utility that I shied away from back in my N80 days in favor of T9 but I had always wished that they would integrate the QuickWrite functionality with T9 rather than TAP because it is a very useful app. If you’re not familiar with it, this app pops up a small box as you type containing suggestions (sorted by frequency or alphabetically) that predict words as you type them. So for example - if “ridiculous” is a word that you type often, with this app you can input that word followed by a space in as little as two key-presses as opposed to 11 key-presses. Pretty cool, huh?

With the release of version 2.50 of this great app, QuickWrite now supports full-keyboard devices including the E90. This is excellent news that I’ve been waiting to hear since I first picked up my E61i several months ago. Since the moment I installed it I have been enjoying it thoroughly and getting accustomed to its functionality. It doesn’t take long to get used to but like any other input method it does take some minor habit adjustments before you start using it as smoothly as possible.

The QuickWrite app itself is very simple - the home screen displays a list of available input methods and as you can see above my device is equipped with the default engine (designated above as AknFEP) and the QuickWrite engine. An asterisk notifies you of which engine is currently active and you can easily switch engines by scrolling and pressing the center key on your directional pad.

Within the Options menu your only real concern is the QuickWrite option entry that will lead you to the app options screen. Here you can make changes to the few settings within the app such as the Dictionary (English, German, Dutch, French, Spanish or Italian) and the sort method. As mentioned above, when QuickWrite pops up the suggestions box you can arrange the suggested words by frequency (the number of times you’ve typed them) or alphabetically.

The remaining settings within the app allow you to determine how many letters you type before QuickWrite begins suggesting words (one, two or three letters), the maximum number of suggestions that each box will contain (two through six words) and the number of rows visible in the pop-up box (two, three, four or six rows). Note that it your number of rows is smaller than your maximum number of suggested words you will have to scroll through the box to see all of the suggestions.

The usability of the app is excellent and unobtrusive. As you type, a small pop-up box appears at the end of the last-entered letter and carries your suggestions within. At any time when the box is present you can press up/down to scroll through the recommendations and press the center d-pad key to select a word. A space will automatically be inserted after each selected word so you can just continue typing. You can also just ignore it and keep typing and QuickWrite will not interfere at all.

QuickWrite isn’t restricted to messaging and email apps by the way. You can take advantage of the simplified QuickWrite input method in many apps.

The last thing to note about QuickWrite is that at any time while typing you can press the character key (Chr, bottom right) to open the QuickWrite menu. Here you will have access to several functions including adding words to the dictionary, switching entry mode, adjusting preferences and of course inputing special characters.

I mentioned earlier that there are a few things that you need to get accustomed to with this app. One example is the function key (blue, bottom left). If you want to enter numbers or a special character such as “!” while the QuickWrite pop-up is present, you must first press the shift key to close the suggestion box. Then you can use the function key regularly until the next time you have an open suggestion box. The second notable item is that the current QuickWrite engine does not automatically capitalize the first letter of a new sentence. This annoyed me at first but I was used to it after an hour or so.

My only real complaint at this point is that QuickWrite isn’t automatically enabled on a reboot. I’m still waiting for a response from Mobile System’s support team as to whether this is functionality is planned in future versions or if it is a problem unique to my device, which is entirely possible. I’ll provide an update in the comments section once I receive word.

There is no question in my mind that this is an excellent app and after only a few short days with it I’m already hooked. I would venture to guess that QuickWrite has already cut about 20% of the time it takes me to type a message and I only expect it to be further reduced as I use it more. Mobile Systems provides a seven day free trial period and I highly suggest you take advantage of it!

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Lately I had been noticing a few comments here and there that I hadn’t seen a notification on but I get so many emails every day that I didn’t really think anything of it. Well I had no idea but it turns out that I haven’t been receiving a whole bunch of comment notifications! Some have been coming through fine but apparently many were not. About an hour ago my mailbox was slammed with notification emails dating as far back as July and I just went through them all and replied to as many as I could.

So if you’ve left a comment on one of the posts here and I didn’t respond earlier I deeply apologize and I’ve just poured through them and responded to as many as I could. I’m not sure what the problem was or if it’s still a problem but I’m looking into it and I hope that my inadvertent silence didn’t offend anyone. Thanks again to all of my readers for your continued support and I have some fun things planned and some new toys on their way so I hope you stick around and keep your great comments coming!

-Zach

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