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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Sorry to all of my readers for being relatively quiet but I’ve been extremely busy lately and now I’m actually on an anything-but-relaxing vacation. I have a couple of posts in the works but in the meantime I thought I might try to tide you over with a new edition of Quick Clicks. This edition has some very cool news and it’s packed full of great themes so enjoy! :)

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It seems that each time I start straying away from fring, they reel me right back in with new features. The latest version brings some big and much-needed changes that make using fring FAR more enjoyable. Here are the two biggest changes in version 3.23:

Firstly, fring now supports ringtones! If I hear to hear that annoying chime sound one more time I think I might have thrown my phone through a window. The latest build of fring comes with some tones to choose from but more importantly you can choose any compatible tone on your phone.

The other big change in 3.23 is that fring now supports WiFi auto-roaming and AP groups! This means that WLAN users don’t have to bother with adjusting connection settings as they roam from hotspot to hotspot. Also with AP group support users can define a series of access points and fring will automatically search for each one in order until it finds an available AP and connects. Great work fring!

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My favorite calculator - in fact the only calculator that I ever use on my S60 devices - is Calcium by mtvoid. Calcium is an extremely simple calculator that sits behind a sleek interface with very usable controls. mtvoid has recently updated this great app and here’s the change log:

• No more customized versions. Works on all resolutions and includes RPN mode
• Indicator for when there is a value in memory and memory is not lost when restarting the application
• Help information is shown the first time the application is run

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As I’m sure you’ve seen, CoreCodec has finally released a version of their extremely popular CorePlayer app for S60 3rd. The app is a skinnable media player that is compatible with a whole host of audio and video formats. Using this great app you no longer have to worry about converting all of your media to one particular format because as long as it’s not DRM-protected, odds are that CorePlayer will play it. Look for a full review of CorePlayer in the coming weeks here on SiMo.

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Themes!! (all themes are composed mainly of SVG graphics and should work with all screen resolutions)

Dark Teal by Unknown

Brown Theme by Man

Grey Bar II by t7

Nseries 7 by t7

nLight 7 by t7

View by Jack 18

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Big news from Silent Communication came recently with the announcement that France Telecom-owned Orange France is now offering Silent’s innovative communication solution TalkinSilent to their Symbian customers. Rebadged as “réponse discrète,” this great app is now available as a mobile download on the following Orange-branded Nokia models: 6680, N70, 6630, E61, E65, N95 and 6120.

As more carriers begin to recognize the benefits that the TalkinSilent solution provides, hopefully it’s only a matter of time before this useful app is available to all of us! In the meantime, you can download the trial version here and keep emailing your carrier if it’s not already available in your region.
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Mobile IM and MoIP solution fring has recently been updated and now includes ICQ support.

Just as with any other integrated service, to enable ICQ in fring simply go to Options -> Settings -> Configure Services and enter your ICQ detials. If you don’t already use fring, you should check out my review of this great freeware app and then head over to their site and sign up!

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Have you ever had a little jingle in your head that you thought would make a great message alert or ringtone? It probably happens all the time but once you finally get to a PC the odds are pretty good that you’ve forgotten it (if you even have a MIDI editor to create your tone). Thanks to a new app by mBounce you can create melodies on the go right on your S60 3rd device!

MusicBox is a fun little piece of freeware that allows you to create short songs that sound like they’re being played by an old music box. It’s very easy to use and outputs MIDI files that are compatible with just about every modern mobile phone. The app opens to the main editor screen where you use the directional pad to place notes on the three-octave piano roll. As you progress you can play your tune at any time by choosing Options -> Play.

Once your ditty is just the way you want it, MusicBox allows you to save it to any directory on your phone or MMC. You can also send the MIDI output to nearby friends quickly and easily via bluetooth by selecting Options -> Send. No need to deprive your friends that aren’t close by of your masterpiece though! You can easily save your song and then attach the MIDI file to an email or MMS.

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And now for some free themes! :)

Linee by niimai

Orange by ice man

White Waves by Jendell

Orange & Black by zukzuk

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It’s been quite some time since my last Quick Clicks entry but I have a bunch of things to tell you about and not enough time to dedicate to individual posts. Are the days getting shorter or is it just me?
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Skyestream has a lot of exciting things in the pipeline that we’ll all be seeing an enjoying soon. In the meantime they have just released an updated version of their extremely popular app Skyecaller PRO. Version 1.01 addresses several issues and adds some excellent functionality such as backup/restore (woo hoo!) and it now runs as a system app so it won’t crash in low-memory situations.

Chage log for version 1.01:

• Improved handling of large image sizes (no more “out of memory” error)
• Does not close unnecessarily in low memory conditions
• Scans sub-folders for content (videos/images/sounds)
• Fixed bug: SkyeCaller PRO closes when entering the “Images” view
• Fixed bug: incoming messages are not detected if user’s Inbox is stored on the memory card
• Better handling of key-lock state
• Video thumbnails are displayed if available
• Better support for landscape/portrait on incoming/outgoing call/message
• Icons displayed in contrasting colour to the background colour
• Supported added for renamed and user profiles
• Fixed bug where incoming calls from private numbers were not detected
• Support added for backup and restore

Head over to the Skyestream online shop to upgrade your existing copy or save 10% on your Skyecaller PRO purchase if you haven’t already purchased it.
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Anthony Pranata has announced that he will no longer be developing his essential S60 app, Screenshot. This is a direct result of the train wreck that is Symbian Signed. I’ve spoken about it here and you’ve read about it on plenty of other blogs, but maybe this will help drive the message home. Symbian is losing developers because Symbian Signed can’t get their act together!

Read Anthony’s post about it here and I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. As bloggers such as myself have been speculating, we can now see that Symbian Signed is becoming cancerous and killing off the very elements that have enhanced the Symbian platform for so long. While Symbian Signed does everything in its power to increase Windows Mobile’s global market share amongst savvy users, we need to collectively think of a way to address this matter because we’ve already seen that it’s not going to be solved internally.
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As a result of Symbian Signed’s counterproductive policies, we’ll continue to see more and more unsigned apps floating around the internet. BT Switch is the latest example I’ve come across and I’m very happy that I did. I couldn’t even locate the author’s name, but this is a simple utility that toggles your bluetooth status just by clicking on the app. There’s no UI and no pesky confirmations - just on and off.

There are a few apps that can toggle your bluetooth on and off such as one of my favorite apps NStarter, but BT Switch is particularly handy for me because I like having bluetooth assigned to my Own key. Now I can easily toggle BT on and off with one press of my own key on any screen. Woo hoo! The app itself was compiled without an icon but you’ll find an excellent icon by boroda1 (also unsigned) in the archive.

Please note that this app is unsigned. You must sign it yourself before you can install it (please don’t post here asking me to sign it) using this guide or similar.

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An app that I’ve mentioned in passing a few times here on SiMo but have never given a dedicated review to is PowerBoot by Wireless Labs Technologies. PowerBoot is a very handy freeware app that allows you to autostart any app on your device. This really comes in handy for those apps that don’t include autostart functionality. Just one example of this app’s usefulness: add BT Switch to PowerBoot’s startup list and your bluetooth will be enabled each time you boot your phone!

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Finally, here are some great themes for you to enjoy:

Black Innovation Theme by p@sco

This is a terrific black theme with an icon set that I actually enjoy! There’s also a default icon version for the memory conscious. P@sco’s latest theme plays with contrasts, uses nice simple graphics and even mimics the reflected digital clock numbers found in Psiloc’s Reflect theme.

Themes by Luca136

The very talented themer Luca136 now has his own site where he showcases some of his themes. His themes are bright and fun with excellent graphics that look great on your device.

MacOS by adonisdemon

Available for both QVGA Portrait and QVGA Landscape devices, the MacOS theme uses great colors and original graphics. Perfect for all you Mac enthusiasts out there.

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How apropos! This 79th edition of the Carnival is hosted over on the Route 79 blog where Jag has done a wonderful job of compiling the best of mobile blogging from the past week. There are tons of great articles packed in this week that will surely keep you busy so enjoy!

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