Symbian in Motion

Ahh the age of technology. The days of annoying photographers and coffee table wedding albums with pasted sepia photographs are long gone. In their place; digital cameras, live streaming video and S60.

Mr. Ricky Cadden of Symbian-Guru, MobileBurn and most recently S60 is getting married today and his guest list is comprised of tens of thousands of people. No, he isn’t having an ostentatious celebrity event in a massive arena. Ricky is having a ceremony and reception powered by technology. Guest photos will be uploaded instantly to Flickr using ShoZu, attendee perspectives will be micro-blogged to Jaiku and live video will be streaming in real-time thanks to four Nokia N82 handsets, the Flixwagon app / service and a special page set up on Flixwagon’s site.

The N82 is billed as a storytelling device and today it will be pushed to the limits in order to tell one hell of a story. I’ll be attending the old fashioned way - in person - but I wonder if my experience will be any more “real” than that of the virtual guests. If you think about it, I will likely miss out on a great number of experiences that online followers will be able to enjoy as I only have one set of eyes and one vantage point. Virtual guests will see and hear things through the eyes of two, four, maybe even 10 people at a time. Using Jaiku they can interact with several guests simultaneously and watch as images pop up in Flickr feeds. Using Flixwagon they can comment live during a video stream and their comments will be seen instantly on the screens of guests operating the N82s

So if you’re a fan of Symbian-Guru, MobileBurn or just a passer-by with a penchant for technology, and you want some amazing insight into this very special day in the life of a well-respected Symbian blogger - you don’t need an invitation or a plain ticket. All you need is an internet connection, a computer and a web browser. “Times they are ‘a changing.”

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Ok, ok… I get it! People want more Taieb! I’ve gotten a bunch of emails since the last SiMo themes post and they all ask for the same thing: More Taieb. Consider it done. All themes are 100% SVG, 100% free and 100% awesome. Every download includes a version with Taieb’s icons and a version that uses the default icons. Enjoy.

Night Shade by Taieb

White Noise by Taieb

Mountains by Taieb

Dark Blue by Taieb

Equalizer Series by Taieb (green, black, red, blue and pink - each with and without icons - 7.3MB file)

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Y-Browser, our favourite 3rd party file manager that does so much more has been updated by Dr Jukka to version 0.88. The update includes amongst other things bug fixes, layout changes and improved support and stability for Feature Pack 2 devices.

The main list of changes included in this version are:

- Lots of layout change fixes
- Some bug fixes to improve stability (Especially with FP2 devices)
- File modified time changed from UTC to local time
- Added Command short cut accelerators to the menu items
- Edit-Mark, menu has now two additional options: Mark with wild card & inverse selection
- File association settings added
- Plug-in manager added
- Email folders shown now as well (with Mail folders plug-in)

If you need more info on what Y-Browser does and the benefits of it, check out the review on Symbian in Motion by Zach.

The good news is that the application is signed and ready for installation, which is great in the current climate of Symbian Signed being such a mess. Head on over to the Dr Jukka website to get the additional plugins as desired.

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After my initial post on the Nokia N82 it has been a while since my promised update and my comparison of the camera capabilities of the N82 versus the N95. Apologies as I have been very busy with a few matters. I’m sure you’ve all read and have been keeping update with the crazy Stavros and his mission to create the greatest art ever. Now have you asked yourselves why he is doing it using the Nokia N82? I mean why not the N95? It also has a 5 Mega Pixel camera and as most of his journey is during daylight, the Xenon flash will not be a factor. So why the N82? Is it a Nokia PR stunt? Yes, it would seem at face value, it is to promote the N82’s capabilities and good reason too.

You have to realise on paper yes the only difference between the N95’s and the N82’s camera is the flash, but in reality and looking into it in more detail there are some other differences between the handsets that make the N82 ideal and on the whole a lot better than the N95. For one the GPS seems to lock on a lot quicker than the N95, the camera is quicker to respond and adjusts to light and the scene quicker than the N95, in lowlight the N95 obviously doesn’t compare against the N82, but there are also other issues to consider when taking a picture; colour, saturation, white balance and exposure, all these are not mentioned anywhere in the specs sheets. Hence this is why I always insist on hand testing a device before making judgement on it, obviously there are handsets which are just plainly not good enough and don’t deserve the time, but when comparing fine details like these it is essential. So the N82 does all these things better than the N95 but you wouldn’t know about it unless someone told you or you found out by trialling the devices themselves.

If you are still not sure what I’m on about or plain just don’t believe me I have taken a few comparison shots in different conditions to compare the differences between these two devices, my Casio Exilim also jumped in too, just to make it more fun (it is also a 5 Mega Pixel camera). So how do they all compare?

Bright sunlight, very good conditions, neither camera’s should have any problem capturing a good picture, which is what we get. But notice the difference in contrast and saturation the N82 has in comparison to the N95. The N82’s light sensor is much better at auto adjusting to bright light due to the support of the Xenon flash, which would be useless if the camera didn’t have the ability to adapt. Obviously the Casio Exilim wins due to the distinct sharpness of the picture but it IS a proper camera.

Casio Exilim

Nokia N82

Nokia N95

Moving on to some close up shots using the macro mode and flash, it is even more evident to see the N95’s lack of support for bright light and a weak flash. The N82’s does very well in this instance, almost even capturing a better picture than the Casio Exilim to a certain extent.

Casio Exilim

Nokia N82

Nokia N95

I’ll leave you with one more example on how the software behind the camera also is key to what it can achieve, it’s not necessarily the hardware itself. Pictures are both taken in night mode with no flash, and with just the lights from the chandelier. Notice how the N95 struggles to capture the light and any details in comparison to the N82.

Nokia N82

Nokia N95

I have created a set on Flickr with all the different comparison shots unedited to give an example on the differences between these two 5 Mega Pixel camera’s. Head on over to the set to compare and see for yourselves.

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I just got an email letting me know that the latest Widsets beta is now available to the public with some nice new functionality. This is something that I’ve been waiting for actually, as it has been quite a while since I last tried the app / service. I have to admit that I was less than pleased with versions past. Using the app on my N80IE and E61i, I found it to be very slow and it even caused several reboots in the few times I tried to battle through the bogging. Now that Nokia has rained down a few new handsets with more RAM, more processing power and more overall S60 goodness, I’m anxious to give Widsets another go.

If you’ve yet to give Widsets a go, think of it as a widget launching pad. Yes, it is a java app unfortunately but the concept is cool. You start online on the Widsets site where you can search, select and even create your own widgets. Creating a widget is extremely simple, after all they’re simply based on RSS feeds. Once you’ve selected the widgets that interest you, a simple click will bounce them over to your mobile profile and they will automatically appear and sync the next time you launch the app on your mobile. The 2.0 beta version introduces some new functionality that is definitely worth checking out. Namely, widgets can now perform actions such as initiating calls or launching the browser without exiting the Widsets app.

There is one problem right off the bat however. Despite the fact that the SiMo widget has over 9,300 users making it far and away one of the most popular Symbian-centric widgets available, it’s nowhere to be found on the beta site. I also haven’t seen it featured on the Widsets homepage a single time while plenty of less popular Symbian widgets are featured all the time. Granted it still bears the old colors and title from before we switched the name of the blog, but Widsets users still seem to enjoy it (thanks to all who are reading this in Widsets)! Maybe someone on the Widsets team will read this and have a change of heart.

In any event, if you love your Widsets and don’t mind being without the SiMo widget definitely head over to the beta site and give it a go. They appreciate your feedback very much so don’t be shy!

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