Symbian in Motion

P@sco’s eagle eye has spotted an updated video from S60 that showcases the upcoming S60 Touch UI. You’ll recognize plenty of the content from the original clip they released, but tons of additional demo footage has been added and we get to see a whole lot more of the UI. Nice. From a visual standpoint plenty is still vanilla S60 but now that more of the UI is visible we can see several nice additions and refinements. Actually, the updated OS is looking pretty sweet. Of concern however, is the part of the video where the woman opens the browser and accesses YouTube. You can see a close up of the YouTube page as the woman drags her finger downward to scroll down (2:06). No, no, no. This is fine if you’re dragging a scrollbar because the scrollbar will be following your finger while page content moves in the opposite direction. It you’re touching the page content itself however, the screen needs to move with your finger and never against it. If you place a piece of paper on a desk and drag it around with your finger, the paper is not going to move away from your body as you drag your finger towards your body. Counterintuitive.

(from my post on BGR)

In my haste to get the video review up yesterday I missed some cool stuff. For your viewing pleasure:

Psiloc’s LBS offering is finally taking shape. While it’s still in early development, features are starting to get flushed out now and the big picture is starting to form. Perhaps most importantly, Locatik has exited closed beta! Users can now go to the website and register or simply go to m.locatik.com to download the latest version and register a new account right from within the app during the setup process. As I’ve said before, I can’t wait to see where Psiloc takes this app.

New features in version 0.97:

• New GPS algorithm implemented - major improvements to battery life
• Messaging feature added -Exchange messages with your friends from within the app (messaging not yet supported on the website)

Also, place support has been added since I last mentioned the app here. You can now go to the Locatik site and add details to your tiks so that all of your friends can see the info you add and the places you mark. If you’re unfamiliar with Locatik, you can check out my earlier mention or just go to the site and check it out.

Kudos to Joikusoft! One of my favorite apps (in fact, it just might be included in the Five Apps series) has just been updated and it is no longer in beta. I’m sure you already know all about this great app so I won’t get into the nuts and bolts of it. Just head on over and download version 2.00. Release notes:

• Landing page works with all operators
• Encryption support with WEP including 128bit key generator
• Battery threshold shutting down the client when battery level is too low
• Default Access point setting
• Support for secure SSH tunnels with Putty
• GPS location with Google Maps integration for extended mapping services at joikuspot.com landing page

JoikuSpot Light Page

If I had a dollar for every time I begged and pleaded for this functionality in S60, well, I could have paid Psiloc to make this app a long time ago…

Psiloc Connect is an app that needs little introduction. Suffice it to say, you need this app. In my opinion, Access Points (AP) are handled very, very poorly by S60. Each app that makes use of a data connection must have its own default AP defined. This is just silly. As done on other OSes, the device should worry about connecting via the fastest available AP and apps should just call to which ever AP is currently active. Period.

Thanks to Psiloc, your S60 3rd handset can now use data as nature intended - intelligently. Psiloc Connect is a utility that you’ll install, configure and then never look at again. Huh? It’s not because you won’t like it, but rather because once configured it will constantly be doing its job with no user intervention whatsoever. In a nutshell, this app will add a new AP to your device called “Psiloc Connect”. Any app using this AP will first attempt to connect to the internet via available WLAN networks. If no WLAN is available, the new AP will automatically drop back to 3G / EDGE / GPRS. Done!

Do you live in a country where data is expensive? No worries, Psiloc Connect is still an app you need. You can configure it to connect via WLAN - and it will look for ALL of your WLAN networks as opposed to just one - and if no WLAN network is available, the app will not connect. No surprise astronomical bills, no worries.

As for battery life, of course using WiFi will affect your time between charges. The app itself is incredibly light-weight though. The Connect daemon only eats up 42KB in fact.

My advice? Head over to the Psiloc Shop and download this app ASAP. Again, this is how S60 should work. That’s the beauty of S60 though, isn’t it? There are so many phenomenal developers like Psiloc who take the bull by the horns, listen to end-users and crank out awesome apps that pick up where S60 left off. Psiloc offers a free trial as with all of its apps but believe me, once you have a taste there’s no way you’ll be able to go a minute without this app.

subscribe to comments made about this post