Symbian in Motion

A recurring question that I always seem to face is “what is your favorite S60 app”? People ask me in person, over email, over IM and even on various social networks. I always have an extremely difficult time answering this question because truth be told, there are tons of apps that could be considered “my favorite” at one time or another. It all depends on the circumstance. If I’m lost on my way to a new destination, Garmin Mobile or Nokia Maps is my favorite app because it gets me where I need to be. If I’m getting close to my monthly SMS limit, UniMessaging Pro is my favorite app because it lets me quickly reply to SMS messages via email without losing the train of thought. If I need to rock out then MyStrands Social Player does the job better than any other mobile player I know. And so on…

The beauty of S60 is that there are hundreds if not thousands of apps to accommodate an amazingly wide range of needs. No two people are the same and in a similar vein, no two S60 users are the same. All of this is well and good but of course it’s a cop-out with regards to the question at hand. “What is my favorite app?” The simple answer is I don’t have a single favorite app. What I can offer however, is a list of five apps that I find myself using most consistently. I would go so far as to say that my S60 experience wouldn’t be anywhere near as rich without any one of them. They’re in no particular order and Nokia apps that ship with the phone (Browser, etc) are omitted.

This post ended up being a bit longer than expected so I’ve split it up into three parts that will run one at a time. Today is the part 1 and includes the first of five apps. Tomorrow will include apps two and three, and Friday will have apps four and five.

SkyeQuiKey by Skyestream

Of all the apps on my handset, SkyeQuiKey has probably done the most in terms of changing the way I use my device - for the better. If you’re not familiar with this great app you can read my review but in a nutshell, SkyeQuiKey give you instant access to all of your contacts, applications and bookmarks right from your standby screen. Simply begin typing the name of your desired item (using T9 on 12-key handsets, qwerty on full-keypad handsets) and SkyeQuiKey will instantly appear and drill down your options as you type.

It also tracks popularity so for example; because I am constantly accessing the Jaiku mobile site through SkyeQuiKey, so when I press the 5 key from standby the Jaiku mobile bookmark is right at the top of the list. There is plenty more functionality in there so hit the full review for more detail. I’s a fantastic app though - I can’t even remember the last time I opened a menu or my contact list…

We’re really not sure that this one has any weight to it all, but word is buzzing around the Symbian blogosphere in response to an assertion that S60 may be looking to TAT to help it modernize the UI. The rumors began in a forum and so far there hasn’t been much if any evidence to support this theory, but it would certainly be in line with the direction that S60 needs to go. Not that TAT’s Kastor UI is anything overly special, but this would go a long way in showing us that Nokia does in fact know that the look and movement of S60 is a bit antiquated. If the Kastor UI does make it to the S60 platform in one way or another, expect heavy customization as the UI shown in the screenshots above (and in video below) are hardly reminiscent of Nokia’s look or feel at all. It shows a great deal of potential though; Kastor’s smooth movement and focus on movement and transitions would go a great way to modernize the user’s experience with S60. We have heard that a lot of work has been going into this area of the user experience lately, but only time will tell.

Note that the video in the post linked below is a mash up of the core Kastor UI and parts of TAT’s customized UI framework called Cascades. It is unclear if the rumor encompasses just Kastor or Cascades as well but we assume since the article makes no mention of Cascades, it was included by mistake.

What do you guys think - Can Kastor be made classy enough to be S60-worthy or is it a little to “SE” for your taste?

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(from my post on BGR)

Who doesn’t enjoy a free theme every now and again? As I was debating which commercial themes of mine to share first, I came across the two themes I had made for this blog. For those who didn’t see the post on my no defunct personal blog, I will be distributing all of my commercial themes for free as I no longer wish to create any business for Handango.

Back to the matter at hand, I came across the themes I had created for this blog and decided to give them a quick update. Sorry to non-QVGA device owners as I only had time to update the QVGA versions. These days, that should cover a large majority of SiMo readers. Bear in mind that these themes were made before I started using SVG graphics so they’re big files. Also, they won’t rotate to landscape very well and they definitely won’t look good on a display that isn’t 240 x 320. Caveats aside, enjoy! All download links are mobile-friendly and can be grabbed right from your S60 browser.

Note: Please do not redistribute these themes without linking to this post. Thanks.

EchoZulu Theme (styled after the old SiMo blog desgin. Remember, before the “Name My Blog” contest when SiMo had some insanely long name?)

SiMo Theme (styled after current blog theme)

We had heard from our own sources that the firmware update would be available by the end of this month but since this statement was issued publicly, we’ll run with it. According to a Nokia support forum administrator, N95 NAM (N95-3) owners will soon be able to wipe those tears off of their tired faces. The long-awaited and highly anticipated firmware update is finally going to be issued by Nokia in early June. The following statement is from the Nokia Software Update team:

Nokia is aware of consumers’ demand for a new software release, and our development teams are working to produce the new software as soon as possible. We estimate that the new software should be available early June.

Please note that your mobile service provider, operator, or carrier may not have approved the latest Nokia device firmware available. Nokia produces many different variants of each product (for different countries and languages) and not all variants will have the latest Nokia device firmware. It is our priority to update all variants as quickly as possible, and we apologize for any delay.

To say that the update has taken an incredibly long time would be an amazing understatement. While the official change log is unavailable, we can expect the new firmware to support demand paging, web runtime and all the other goodies that other N95 variants have been enjoying for a while. Sweet.

[Via Symbian-Guru]

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(from my post on BGR)

Thanks to Gerry Moth, a man I’m loving more with each passing minute, I am in the process of trying what looks to be the first functional Last.fm player for S60. It’s called Blastfm and it was built in Python. Sure, it’s not the optimal solution but beggers can’t be choosers! The app is in beta so be kind, but it allows you to stream various Last.fm stations and that is exactly what we’ve been looking for.

The problem - so far I’m not having any luck with it at all on my N95 8GB NAM. The app crashes with a System error (-2) as soon as I hit OK after entering my Last.fm credentials. I’m going to keep trying though because I’ve been waiting for this functionality forever…

Try it out, the download link is in the Nokia Addict post. Also, be sure to pay homage to M3 Solutions for putting this puppy together - if you can get it working! Make sure you read the Nokia Addict post before you try to install it!

UPDATE: Still not working for me guys. I’m giving up for now - let me know how it works out for you!