Symbian in Motion

All I can say is thank you, SEVEN. Since taking delivery of an N78 a while back, it has really been growing on me. At the same time, I never take it out of my house. Why? For one reason and one reason alone in fact: email. Among the many things I use a mobile phone for, email is very much at the top of the list.

Nokia’s OEM S60 email app has always been pretty bad and as far as my experience goes, it has never been worse than it is in my N78. IMAP idle simply will not stay connected. EVER. This means that I have to poll every X minutes. Since the email app won’t keep my connection alive, when I do get a new email notification I have to click on the new email at which point the N78 has to reconnect, download the message body and then open it. If I take too long reading an email the connection is dropped again and I have to go through the same thing all over again to read the next new message.

I get anywhere between 30 and 60 new emails on an average weekday and busy days can get well over 100. As such, the email issues on the N78 make it impossibly unusable. The solution I use (and love) on other s60 handsets is SEVEN’s beta email app but as of now it does not support FP2 due to changes made to active plugin support. Whatever the case may be, SEVEN has just almost-officially announced that it will release a new client this week or next week with FP2 support. Awesome.

If you are an email user and you don’t currently use SEVEN’s app, I can’t recommend it enough. If you’re already a SEVEN user with an FP2 device, keep your eye on the forum.

Nokia’s upcoming 6212 Classic handset was press-released yesterday and while the overall specs might not knock you out of your seat, the presence of Near Field Communication (NFC) couldn’t be more exciting. With a Q3 release, the 6212 won’t be the first NFC-equipped device but it will likely be the first to be widely marketed by a top company. What is NFC? The press release illustrates usage cases well:

Near Field Communication is designed for intuitive, simple and safe interaction between electronic devices. By tapping an NFC-enabled tag, consumers can receive new content such as weblinks, audio files or contact data directly to their phone. They can activate a profile in their handset or open applications such as FM radio or web browser. Photos and videos can be easily shared by tapping another NFC-capable phone and pairing with a Bluetooth NFC-enabled device, like the new NFC variant of the Nokia BH-210 headset, happens with just one touch.

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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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This is just a quick note as some of you may have missed the update on the original post. The limit of three entries per person has been lifted from the contest rules! This means that you can submit photo IM entries to the symbian in motion group on Palringo as many times as you want! The more the merrier. Make sure you submit quality entries though because Palringo will award the winner of the 1,000 Words contest a free Nokia E90 Communicator!

Also, here’s a quick clarification on how to register with Palringo, download and install the app, and join my group:

Register with Palringo

Creating your free account with Palringo is simple - They have what is possibly the quickest and easiest registration process I’ve ever seen.

• Go to the Sign Up page on www.palringo.com.
• Enter your email address, desired password, location (country) and platform.
• Click the Submit button and you’re done!

Download Palringo

Of course you’ll need to install the app before you’re ready to get rolling.

• Once you’re signed in click on the Download tab to go to the download page.
• Choose from the three versions according to your platform: Microsoft Windows PC, Windows Mobile or Symbian (9.x).
• Click the appropriate Download button and then install the app as you would any other (if Symbian, send it to your phone using your PC Suite).

Join my Palringo Group

Now all you have to do is join my Palringo group and you’re ready to submit your photo IM entries!

• From within the menu in Palringo go to Groups -> Join Group.
• Type “symbian in motion” (no quotes) and press OK.

You are now registered, installed and joined up! All that’s left to do is find an interesting place that you use Palringo and snap a pic! The contest ends on October 31 so make sure you get all of your entries in before then. Remeber to be creative - oh and the toilet pic has already been done… ;)

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I reviewed Jaiku Mobile earlier this week and promised that I would post once it became available to the public. Well the wait is over! Yesterday the announcement was made on the Jaikido Blog that version 0.80 is now available for download.

I’m already starting to see more green presence lights on my client and I couldn’t be happier for the wonderful team behind Jaiku or the users that make up my favorite SoNet. :)

Download the Jaiku Mobile client

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