Symbian in Motion

There’s so much buzz and chatter floating around following yesterday’s fantastic release event that my day could easily be filled just trying to catch up. I’ve gotten through about half of my reader so far and one post really sticks out as being exactly what I wanted to see regarding the effectiveness of the N82’s xenon flash. It’s no mystery that a xenon flash is going to trump a crappy LED flash every day of the week, but it’s one thing to know that and another thing to see it.

Mark Guim of the Nokia blog posted a great video this morning that gives you a first hand taste of exactly what kind of impact a real flash has on picture-taking. Definitely click through and watch it! Here are the resulting images that you can see Mark taking live in the video:

Can you tell which picture was taken by the N95 and which was taken by the N82? ;)

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It’s now official - “the legend is back”. irRemote is likely the most eagerly anticipated S60 3rd app in the history of the platform and it is now available to the general public!

irRemote allows you to control a wide variety of devices using your S60 3rd device. You can download Ir codes from directly within the application, or you can find or build your own code files and upload them to the database using Psiloc’s online wizard. Codes can be downloaded and ranked by all users to assist future users in finding the best possible match for their TV, DVD player, etc.

The app supports just about anything that can take commands via Ir provided you can locate or build the code file. Air conditioners, amplifiers, TVs, VCRs, cable boxes, home theater systems and more. You can control it all using only your S60 3rd device!

Psiloc provides a free trial period as well as an online user guide so that you can get a feel for the app before you make your purchase. The odds are that you already know plenty about the app and that you can’t wait to get your hands on it. If that’s the case just head on over to the Psiloc shop and start enjoying this great app right away!

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If you followed my Symbian Smartphone Show coverage or even checked out my Show Recap, then you must have noticed that one of the apps that i was most excited about was Adaptxt. Simply put, I am not a fan of T9. During my time at the Keypoint booth I watched as they showed me what looked to be an advanced and intuitive replacement for the text entry method of old. After finally getting my hands on Adaptxt for S60, it’s nothing short of fantastic! Nothing is perfect and Adaptxt has a few issues that will need to be ironed out but it is well on its way to becoming a must-have app for S60 3rd devices.

Rather than going through a step by step review of Adaptxt as I would with other apps, lets look at how Adaptxt is different from standard T9 entry on our devices. Just like the first time you picked up a modern mobile and had to learn how to use T9, this app does take a bit of getting used to. The difference between this application and standard T9 however is that while you learn Adaptxt, Adaptxt learns you. Sure T9 can learn new words and if you’re lucky you might even get it to remember and suggest one that you will actually use again, but Adaptxt learns YOU. With every new sentence that you type this app is learning your usage patterns and I’m at the point now where I can sometimes enter full sentences in an SMS window without pressing a single letter! How is that possible you might be wondering? Well lets take a look…

As you can see above Adaptxt not only predicts words as you type them but also predicts subsequent words! The first image above shows the app predicting “This” after I type “th”. Once I select the proper word by scrolling to it (if necessary) and pressing right on the d-pad, Adaptxt predicts the next word before I even start typing it by analyzing and referencing my usage patterns. Above you can see that Adaptxt predicted “is” and “a” before I started typing them, so I just kept pressing right on the d-pad to insert the words. Below is an image of my finished sentence and as you can see Adaptxt has already begun predicting my next line.

Now watch this video that shows what happens when i want to type the sentence above for a second time. I was able to type again practically using only the d-pad!

click here to play video

Granted if I had been using Adaptxt for a longer period of time there would be some more word combinations that it learned and typing that same sentence might have taken a few more key presses to type, but you can see the amount of time and keystrokes that this app can potentially save you. Click on the demo video link at the center of the screen beneath the main graphic on the Adaptxt site for a much better quality video.
Another cool feature is the ability to have Adaptxt learn from a file or an existing email/SMS on your device. Using content that you have typed in the past is an excellent way to accelerate the app’s learning process. You can also use this function to quickly teach the app abbreviations and other words that wouldn’t be included in the dictionary.

The Adaptxt options interface gives you access to settings and stats and even shows you detailed info about how many keystrokes you’ve saved while using the app! The display settings allow you to tweak things such as the number of words in the suggestion box and the font size of suggestions. You also have access to your user dictionary here and can delete individual words - something else T9 is sorely missing. Lastly, you can toggle autostart as well as enable/disable Adaptxt from within the Options menu.

Adaptxt is still very new on S60 devices - in fact it won’t even be released until later this week. I’ll post an update once the app is officially released of course, but you can also keep your eye on this page. There are some compatibility issues with third-party applications but I’m hoping they are ironed out quickly. I’ve also had an issue with text boxes in the S60 browser but I’m waiting for some further info. After just under a week with Adaptxt I’m smitten and I’m definitely looking forward to having it replace T9 in every OEM and third-party app on my device. For the time being I’m loving its functionality in the integrated S60 messaging center, SMS Chat and in plenty of other text-hungry apps that won’t be hurting my thumbs ever again!

Note: Initial supported languages include English (US and UK), Finnish, Swedish, French, German, Spanish, Italian with a few others scheduled for the next release.

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Great news just came through from Skyestream - their best-selling app Skyecaller (version 1 reviewed here) has been updated to version 1.03. If you haven’t yet heard of Skyecaller, it’s a wonderful app that provides full screen photo caller ID for incoming/outgoing calls/messages. This new version addresses a variety of bugs and also adds some great new functionality! Let’s have a look at the change log:

• Fixed bug: closes in low memory conditions
• Fixed bug: fails to load large image files (out of memory error)
• Fixed bug: some phones crash on entering image view (e.g. N93) [** should now support N93/N93i]
• Fixed bug: incoming text dialog sometimes overrides SkyeCaller full screen
• Fixed bug: if inbox stored on memory card, sometimes incoming text not detected
• Fixed bug: If current profile “Ringing type” set to “Silent”, then incorrect soft key text displayed (”silent” instead of “reject”)
• Fixed bug: Poor support for landscape/portrait switching
• Added support for backup/restore so that associations may be backed up
• Added alpha blending to full screen image (now actually full screen) - this is the “fade “effect at the bottom
• Updated configuration mechanism
• Added “Download” item to both contacts and image views

The most important item I see in the log above is the new backup/restore functionality which was MUCH needed. If you’re like me then you’re constantly flashing, formatting and finding yourself with new devices so it’s nice to know that setting up Skyecaller will be one less thing to worry about.

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That’s right, the winner of Palringo’s 1,000 Words contest has been chosen! Believe me when I tell you that it was a very difficult selection process. We received so many great entries from everyone who participated and it was extremely hard to agree on a winner. I would like to thank everyone who sent their entries into the contest group. We hope that you guys at as much fun sending in your entries as we did viewing them:

So without further ado, I present to you the winning entry! Now join me in admiring the winner’s photo and then join me in being a bit jealous of the prize… ;)

This pic is just awesome! It was taken at Millenium Park in Chicago and it’s actually a giant LED screen that is part of The Crown Fountain - it spits water right out of the center of the screen! The best part about it is the breakdancers in front of the screen. It’s awesome that this contestant managed to snap the pic right when one of the dancers did a one-handed handstand; kudos Cheryl - everyone loved your entry!

As promised, Cheryl will be receiving a brand-spanking-new Nokia E90 Communicator courtesy of Palringo! Palringo’s app works well on any S60 3rd device but i would imagine it’s especially great on a free E90…

There are also two runners up that I’d like to showcase. While it might not be quite as impressive as the grand prize, each runner up will enjoy free EZ S60 3rd themes for life. :)

(click images below to enlarge)

First runner up:

Looks to me like an awesome state park but I don’t remember exactly where it was taken to be honest. Perhaps the contestant who sent it in can comment below. :)

Second runner up (tie between two photos from the same person):

These photos were taken and IMed from 3,000 feet above the ground in a hot air balloon! Very cool…

So congrats to all the winners and thanks again to all of the contestants! This has been a great contest so a big thanks goes to Palringo as well, and to mobile9.com for supporting it.

The names of the winners have been omitted from this post until they have been contacted for approval.

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