So what's going on here? Nokia recently released a new email application called Nokia Email which is supposed to rival competitors such as Blackberry. Using a different technology than the built-in email client, Nokia Email really is a great tool - when it works.
So far it has been working just fine on my Nokia N82, email arrives extremely fast - sometimes faster than my Gmail browser window in Firefox. Nokia Email works with just about any email server that allows IMAP or POP access, not including corporate email and hotmail.
There is one thing that is making me ticked off however. Where is the Nokia Email version for the N82?
When I go to the email.nokia.com website to download the application, here is the screen I see (minus the question mark)...
I wonder what's going on here? Why no N82 love? I'm using the N95 version and it seems to be working fine, but I'm sure it can be working even better with a N82 version. Maybe consume less RAM and battery. My guess is maybe, for some reason, Nokia just doesn't have a N82 in the building to test this new application on. Who knows?
Granted Nokia Email is still in beta so we can't complain THAT much since it's not a final release. At least Nokia allows us to test out their applications before they are final.
I wrote up a full review of the latest Nokia Email beta release over at Symbian-Addict. Click here to read it.
Go to email.nokia.com to try it yourself.
Have you already tried this new application? What are your thoughts compared to other email solutions on your Nokia N82.
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
Nokia Email Application (beta) - Works Great But No N82 Love?
Monday, September 22, 2008
Theme Factor - Huge Contest Sponsored by Symbian Planet - Tons Of Free Themes For Us!
I got an email last week from the fellas at SymbianPlanet.net. They decided to start their first theme competition called "Theme Factor". Basically all the top theme masters from Italy were invited to create their absolute best themes and see if they can win the competition. The contest has been going on for a few weeks and finally the final judging has been completed.
I was graciously invited to be on the panel of judges which included Ricky from Symbian Guru, Gerry from Nokia Addict, plus others. We rated each of the 21 top themes sent to us for Style, Technicality, Subject, and Originality.
The winning theme has not been posted yet, but for now you can check out some of themes that were entered in the competition and download your favorites. If you have the time you can probably spend about 30 minutes going through all of these themes.
Check out some of my favorite themes from the competition, all of which look great on my Nokia N82...
The entire Symbian-Planet website is written in Italian, so you can use this link to start browsing through all the pages with themes translated in English.
Stay tuned so you can see the results of the competition.
What was your favorite theme master?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Free N82 Theme: Devil Blue By Travis
Lately I've been checking out more themes by artists other than my usual favorites Pizero, Babi, and Taieb. This clean and extremely customized blue was made by Travis, a great up and coming theme master.
Check out Devil Blue By Travis...
Click here to download this free Nokia N82 theme.
I've always thought that dark backgrounds and bright text colors colors look great against the N82. I hardly ever install white background colored themes on my phones, which is why you probably never see any showcased here.
If any of you are dying to find some great light colored themes for your N82 let me know and I'll dig some up.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Introducing NuevaSync: The Absolute Best Way To Sync Your N82 And Google Calendar Over The Air
First off I'd like to say I've been a huge fan of CalSyncS60 for awhile now. It's still in the beta phase and still has minor glitches. You can't really schedule your updates or always have it synced 24/7. I've also noticed sometimes dates are off between my N82 and Google Calendar. So what else are we to do?
Warning: your gonna hit a roadblock if your already using Mail For Exchange for your email solution. I don't think there is a way to add more than one account in Mail For Exchange. If I am wrong, please someone correct me. If you aren't using Mail For Exchange already then you have no problem. Keep reading...
I am happy to bring you news of NuevaSync. I just discovered this service the other day when I spent hours trying to find a way to use Mail For Exchange as a direct solution for my Gmail account. I'm not happy with the built in email client on my N82 or any of the 3rd party applications available. Low and behold I came across NuevaSync...
NuevaSync right now is only a solution for your Google Calendar. Using the Exchange Sync Protocol, NuevaSync allows direct, over-the-air, native synchronization of certain smart phones and PDA devices with public PIM, and calendaring services including Google Calendar. For this to work on the Nokia N82 you obviously need to have the Mail For Exchange installed and running in the background.
I've been using this new service for a few days just to ensure that it works smoothly. So far it is working like a dream. All my N82's calendar entries are syncing perfectly with my Google Calendar in the background without me even noticing. The Mail For Exchange application has many options of when to sync and how often. I can add or delete calendar entries from my Google Calendar page or my Nokia N82 and the changes will show up on both ends.
Warning Again: If you want to readon you might want to make a sandwich and put on some tunes because this might take awhile. There are a handful of steps to take if you don't already use Mail For Exchange. Oh and make sure you first backup both of your calendars just in case something goes wrong.
Setting Up NuevaSync On Your Nokia Device
Follow these steps to setup NuevaSync on your Nokia N82 or any S60 3rd Edition smartphone that can use the Mail For Exchange application. This includes the Nokia N96, N95, N82, N81, N78, N77, N76, N75, N73, E90, E71, E71, E66, E65, E62, E61, E60, E51, E50, 6620, 6124.
1. Sign Up. Point your browser to https://www.nuevasync.com/. Go to the Signup page and make your account. Here you will make your own username and password, do not your Google account's information (yet). Wait for your confirmation email and then login to NuevaSync.
2. Grand Access. After logging in you will see the Status & Setup page. Here you will notice four different options to sync (Calendar, Contacts, Email, & Tasks). Right now only Calendar and Contacts are possible. I haven't yet tried out Contacts. Under actions click the "setup" link. The next page is where you'll type in your Google account email address and ask Google to give account access to NuevaSync. Make sure you click "Grant Access". Note: You can deny access anytime after granting access if you no longer want to use NuevaSync.
3. Verify A Connection. After granting access you will be taken back to the Status & Setup page. You should see a green light next to the Calendar row. Click that to verify your Google Calendar is able to sync with NuevaSync servers. Note: Only the calendars you create will sync because they are writeable. Other Calendars like Holidays and Weather will not sync.
4. Download & Install Mail For Exchange. Click the link "need help configuring your phone". You'll notice there is no help for Symbian S60 users. This is why I have made these instructions for you.
Now is where Mail For Exchange comes in. Go to this link to download Mail For Exchange for the Nokia N82 if you don't already have it.
5. Mail For Exchange and NuevaSync settings.
Connection Tab
Exchange Server: www.nuevasync.com
Secure Connection: Yes
Default Port: Yes
Credentials Tab
Username: your NuevaSync username
Password: your NuevaSync password
Domain: nuevasync.com
Sync Content Tab
Synchronise Calendar: Yes
Everything else: No
In Case Of Conflict: I put "Server Wins"
Sync Schedule
Set these options to whatever you want. You can create a Peak Time and an Off-Peak Time, including days and hours. My Peak Schedule is "Every 4 hours", Monday-Friday 8am-5pm. My Off Peak Schedule is the other two days "Every 12 hours". If you want you can leave these settings to "Always On" or "Manual".
Any other settings can be tweaked to your liking. After you save your Profile you should see "Connecting" and "Syncing Calendar" under Current Status. If you see an error message than you have done something wrong and you must go back and look closely at your settings.
When your finished you can close Mail For Exchange and it will work in the background. I don't even think you will see the application in your task list, but I assure you that it is still there and working.
If I left anything out please let me know. It takes a bit of work to set this up but once you get it, it works flawlessly.
Troubleshooting
Right now there is not much support from NuevaSync for Nokia S60 phones. You can check out this page to see what they can do. If anything you can email them directly and they will help you out. They also have a blog where you can stay up to date on all the latest information about NuevaSync.
What About Email?
Oh me oh my. Being able to sync my Nokia N82 and Gmail via Mail For Exchange is my ultimate dream, and NuevaSync is working hard to make it come true. I hope they come up with something soon because I'm getting really ancy for this functionality. In my opinion this will be the best email solution available for Gmail and Nokia S60 handsets if they get it to work. I will be keeping a close eye on this to let you know when they enable this feature.
Problems & Other Information
One huge problem is that your gonna hit a roadblock if your already using Mail For Exchange for your email solution. I don't think there is a way to add more than one account in Mail For Exchange. If I am wrong, please someone correct me. If you are not using Mail For Exchange already then you have no problem.
Be sure to remember that this uses a data connection or Wifi. I'm not sure how much data is being transferred when you sync your two calendars so you might want to try and keep track of that if you don't have unlimited data. I'm sure it can't use that much if you only do a manual sync once per day.
Let me know if you guys have any questions or comments about NuevaSync and your Nokia device. Does this make a good solution for you or is this too complicated.
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Nokia Developing A New Enhanced Calculator For The N82 - Download Now
One of the weird quirks about Nseries phones like the Nokia N82 has been how crappy and weak the calculator is. As many of you here at the blog already know, Calcium Calculator is one of the first applications installed on my device to replace the built in calculator.
Nokia is finally realizing they need something new. Introducing Enhanced Calculator for S60.
Not to my delight, this application is being made in Java rather than the great .sis version that should be standard for all Nokia made applications. But they are using a version of the calculator from older Nokia S40 phones, which is why it is simply being ported over to S60 using Java. I guess they didn't want to start from scratch. So what does a Java version mean? Well the startup time is slightly slower than a .sis application. Other than that there isn't much difference.
So then what does this new Nokia calculator bring to the table?
Better Basics
First off it's easier to use basic functions like add, subtract, multiply, and divide. It works the same way as Calcium. Each d-pad directional button serves as one of those functions. This is much better as apposed scrolling around for the plus sign in the default calculator application.
Scientific Calculator
Functions like Cos, Sin, Log, Ln, square root, and a few others I don't know. It's about time that a free scientific calculator is available for the N82.
Loan Calculator
I like this one the best as I'm currently searching for a new "used" car. Mine is crapping out and hogs too much gas. Here you can input the months, interest, loan amount, and monthly installment. Whichever one field is missing will be calculated when all the others are filled out. Very handy.
Check out some screenshots...
Like all new Nokia applications, it will first have to pass through Beta Labs. This means it's still in the early testing phase and you have the opportunity to try it out. Any problems you find or things you want improved be sure to tell them at their comments section. It's great that Nokia allows this.
The developer of Enhanced Calculator says,The original application was made for certain devices with certain screen sizes. So, I have made changes mainly to the UI of the application. Currently there are some limitations in using this application. It runs properly only in devices with QVGA screen (240×320 or 320×240 pixels), in other cases you should get an error message and the application will be closed. I have tested this in several S60 3rd Edition, 3rd Edition FP1 and 3rd Edition FP2 devices, those with QVGA screen should be ok for this application. However, if you have any problems with the application, post your comments here!
Click here to download Enhanced Calculator.
Personally this won't replace Calcium Calculator for my everyday use, but will come in handy for those more complicated equations. Not to mention the loan part of it will be a godsend.
Enjoy!
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
N82 Freeware: T9 Nav - Search Contacts, Apps, Etc. From Your Standby Screen With T9 Input
Once in awhile one of those applications came along that make you say - "damn, what the hell took so long for this". You know what I mean right? The functions that should already be party of our Nokia N82's but they're not. Thanks to this article from Vaibhav Sharma from The Symbian Blog I recently discovered T9 Nav beta. This application for the N82 and all S60 phones is one of those apps that adds so much convenience with such amazing simplicity.
What does T9 Nav do? Basically it allows you to search Contacts, Bookmarks, Calendar Entries, Applications, & Media Files with T9 input from your N82's standby screen, similar to how Jbak Taskman works except for it uses real T9. As you type each letter you start getting real time results which is quickly narrowed down based on what you've type. Once you see what you want you can simply scroll to that item and decide what to do with it. If it's an app or game you can launch it, same with calendar entries, bookmarks, and media files. If it's a contact that your looking for than you can just hit the green call button for a quick call or hit options to send a message.
I've only had this application installed on my Nokia N82 for a day and have already eliminated the Contacts shortcut on my standby screen. Accessing contacts using T9 Nav is ten times faster.
Keep in mind this application is still in beta and may have bugs. For instance I can't find the Music Player launcher. Also it seems that all text input on my N82 has a slight lag now. It's something I can deal with given the functionality T9 Nav brings. I'm sure all these problems will be worked out in future releases.
For more screenshots of T9 Nav beta for S60 phones click here.
OR
To download the application click here.
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
Mobbler + N82 = Last.fm On The Go, And It's Free!
Ok I'll be honest. I've heard plenty about Last.fm but I never gave it a try. I always use Pandora.com for all my internet radio streaming needs when I'm at my computer. I've always wanted a solution to Pandora on my N82 but have never got it. Today I saw this post over at Symbian In Motion and decided to give both Last.fm and this new S60 Last.fm scrobbler application called Mobbler a try. Wow am I impressed.
I've been using Last.fm all day now informing it of all the music I like and it has already came up with tons of more bands/artists that suit my tastes. When I launch Mobbler from my N82 and sign into my Last.fm account I get only streaming music that is related to my tastes. Or say I go out on a limb and feel like hearing some hip-hop (which I don't listen to often) it will find random hip hop artists that relate to the artist I typed in.
In order to use Mobbler you must have a Last.fm account. When you launch the application you will need to first login. Then hit Options > Start A New Station and you can go by artist, tag (genre), user, personal, recommended, & loved tracks. If you first learn Last.fm on the computer you will better understand how it works.
Also, if you leave Mobbler running in the background and you play tracks already on your phone from your music player the application will learn the music you like and apply it to your account for future internet radio streaming on your Last.fm account.
Here is how the developer describes Mobbler...
Mobbler, Mobile Scrobbler, is a last.fm radio player and scrobbler for Nokia S60 3rd edition smartphones. It allows you to listen to your last.fm radio stations and to scrobble tracks played using the Nokia S60 Music Player. Music player scrobbling can be done both whilst you listen, or queued offline to be submitted later.
And how it works from their Wiki page...
A track will be scrobbled if you listen to more than either 50% or 4 minutes of it in one go, whichever comes first. The track must also be over 30 seconds long.
If you restart your phone you will also have to restart mobbler to continue scrobbling. It would be nice if mobbler was a startup application, but it is not possible at this time.
A track will be sent to last.fm as 'now playing' only once per listen. If you pause and restart a track it will not resend to last.fm.
If your mobile phone loses it's data connection, mobbler will queue the tracks you listen to. When the data connection becomes active again, mobbler will automatically reconnect and scrobble all the queued tracks in one go.
If you close mobbler without scrobbling the tracks you listened to in that session it will still remember them and scrobble them the next time you open mobbler and connect to last.fm.
The status bar at the top of mobbler will tell you what state mobbler is in. If you are connected and everything is ok, it will tell you how many tracks it has successfully scrobbled so far. If you are not connected, it will tell you how many tracks have been queued and are awaiting submission the next time you connect. If there is a problem with mobbler, it will also tell you there.
If you scrobble tracks using another client before scrobbling tracks queued in mobbler, last.fm may ignore the tracks from mobbler due their spam protection filter. It would be best to scrobble any queued tracks from mobbler before using any other last.fm client.
Right now I can't get it to stream good over an Edge connection. I'm sure with 3g or Wifi it works a lot better. Maybe it's the building I'm in. The application is still farely new and in beta stage so you might find some kinks.
Keep in mind this application uses all data for streaming. It needs a constant data connection, so if you don't have an unlimited data plan be extremely careful.
Click here to download Mobbler and start streaming Last.fm to your Nokia N82 today.
Let me know what you guys think. Do you like it better than Nokia Internet Radio?
Monday, August 4, 2008
My N82 Now Shows Email & Text Message Details On My Standby Screen
Well this may not be the solution everyone is looking for, but it does the trick for me. After playing with an Eseries phone for awhile I've been wanting so bad to have email and text message details show on my N82's active standby screen. I would save me so much time to glance at the screen then put the phone back in my pocket if I see it's not important. The other day I was searching every corner of the net for a solution. After all, Nokia is "Open To Anything" right? So they say. I'm glad to say that a 3rd party developer has finally came up with a solution to one of the most wanted features on Nseries phones.
I finally came across an application called S60Ticker. This application allows me to have my latest unread emails and text messages show up on just my standby screen or any screen. It can show snippets of a text or the full message in a scrolling ticker, and can show the sender and subject of new emails from the default messaging application. It works well with with the theme I'm using or you can specify the colors you want to be used.
This application isn't the perfect solution to what we want but so far it's a damn good one. I know a few people that have tried S60Ticker in the past and didn't like it. So far I haven't ran into any problems.
S60Ticker is freeware unless you want to unlock some other features, you must pay around $9 which I gladly did. Getting the full version really makes the experience much nicer. Oh and it's already Symbian Signed so you don't have to worry about certificate errors or anything like that.
Read My Full Review...
Last night I posted a review of the application over at Symbian-Addict. Click here to check out the full review with more screenshots and details.
Or Just Download The App...
If you don't feel like reading my review and want to dive straight in click here to go to the developer page where you can find the application. There's lots to read so get comfly before you start disecting this application.
Thursday, July 24, 2008
Freeware: Jbak Task Manager Changes The Way I Control My N82
Last week I started playing with the latest version of Jbak Taskman and fell in love with this free S60 task manager application. My previous favorite was Best Taskman but in my opinion Jbak blows it out of the water. To tell you the truth it's realy changed the way I control my Nokia N82.
In order to really enjoy this application you have to take some time setting it up. Once you get everything how you want it like I have you won't be going back to anything else. There are so many different things that can be customized here. I find myself rarely using the S60 menu anymore. Below is a screenshot of how I have Jbak setup on my N82.
Task Manager
The applications you see on the left side are my open applications that I'm currently running. I can scroll through any of those and bring them to the forefront or I can simply minimize all applications and get back to my standby screen while everything is still running in the background. If you have certain applications that are always or almost always open like Contacts, Call log, etc. you can choose to hide those from your task list. This will help get rid of the clutter.
Shortcuts
On the right side is a list of shortcuts that I have assigned. Each one is given a number which of course refers to the numbers on your keypad. Any of those can be changed and re-arranged. Besides applications you can also make shortcuts to documents, apps & docs, and selected tasks that might be open on the left side. As you can see my first shortcut is the Menu. This will take me to the root of my normal S60 menu.
You might ask... Why would you need that as a shortcut when you already have the menu button on the N82? Well under Jbak's settings I have changed the Menu button to first take me to the screenshot above instead of the root S60 menu. I could have elected to make it a long-press of the Menu button but I figured why? I can have pretty much best of both worlds right with just a nice easy press. I personally hate having to long press the menu button to see open tasks. Now if I need to get to the S60 Menu I just push one after the menu button. Very simple. There are plenty of options to choose from under Jbak's settings. To get this setup in Jbak go Menu (left softkey) > Settings > Key Menu Settings > In System Keypress > Main Window. Here you will find all the other options as well for the Menu Key settings. Let me know if you'd like to know how I have all my settings.
Application Launcher
Another great feature is the Application Launcher. Once I have Jbak on my screen I can simply press pound and start typing the name of the application or task that I want. There are also a few settings that you can play with for the Application Launcher. The screenshot below shows what comes up when I'm looking for the applicaton "VibrateCall" (I'll tell you more about this application in aother post). As you can see all applications that have the word "call" are shown.
Don't forget if you don't like to use the application launcher you can always go to the S60 menu instead and find your application. All in all I go to my S60 menu maybe once a day now since I have my most useful shortcuts in the Jbak shortcut list. All of those are besides what's already on my Active Standby screen.
Extra Features
Up on top of the application you can see the memory status of all your drives. The first one tells you the RAM, second is your phone memory and third is your memory card. You can also elect to show the time at the bottom of the screen.
When you have an application highlighted you can push Menu and view the Task Info which gives you details of where it's stored and how much Ram the program is using.
Under the Tools option you can see processes, threads, chunks, etc that gives you even more details of what's going on with your phone. Most of that stuff I would never use. Here you can also lock your keypad and reboot your phone. Thats right. Not just turn off your phone and manually turn it back on. This will do the whole process.
Under the Settings option you will see a plethora of things you can tell Jbak to do. You just gotta see it for yourself.
Best of all this application is free and already signed. No need to sign it yourself. Just download the right version and install it.
Click here to download Jbak Taskman for your Nokia N82. The version I'm using is .99 on the bottom of the page. It says "JbakTaskman9_099_SymbianSigned.zip". That's the one to use if you don't want to sign anything. If you already have a hacked N82 or a Symbian Certificate you can download a newer version of the application.
Hope you enjoy this application and if your already using it let me know if you like it.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Freeware: mConnection - Keep Track Of your Data Usage & Connection Speed
I know a good handful of readers here are from countries that don't have good data rates with their carriers. A lot of you don't have the luxury of having unlimited data plans like myself. This application is useless to me, but for many mConnection will become one of your most useful appications installed on your Nokia N82.
What mConnection does is keep track of exactly how much data you use. You can have a small box show on every window of your N82 so your always informed of what amount of data you've used. It also tells you have fast your data connection is.
The following is text taken from the developer's website:How often did you have a low account with a thought in your mind “Ha, with two minutes internet browsing my account would not get empty”. And how often did you have to switch on a preinstalled connection manager to check the amount of megabytes used? How often did you meter a speed of your connection? Think about it - it is uncomfortable, isn’t it? That’s why we have developed a freeware application for Symbian 9 Series 60 devices, which shows the amount of used traffic and current speed of your connection. The application is named mConnection. This program can work with any Access Point of your device.
Information is shown in a popp-up window on-top of the other windows. Current version uses about 300 kb RAM and consumes power about 15 seconds of whole phone work in ICQ.
Application has a lot of different options and functions:
- monitor your current connections;
- show information about your traffic and speed in top op all windows.;
- window placement options;
- window size options;
- window colour options;
- font option;
- text colour option.;
Apparently the upcoming version will offer an option to sort data by each network connection on your mobile in a daily, weekly and monthly view. You will also be set a cost parameter and look at the charges incurred till the current date.
Download mConnection for your Nokia N82.
Keep in mind this application needs to be signed or installed on a hacked phone.
Like I said peeps I have no use for this. Let me know if you guys like it or not. Oh and the first number is your data used and the second number is your connection speed.
Friday, July 11, 2008
Freeware: Conversation - Get Threaded SMS Messages On Your N82 Similar To Gmail
I can't believe it's taken me this long to talk about the Conversation application by Nokia. It's been out for awhile but I just never got around to using it. Now that I have it installed on my N82 I am addicted. Basically it threads your text messages based to on your contacts. So you can text your contacts back and forth and read it just like you would a conversation in Gmail or on the iPhone. I posted a video below of how it works on my Nokia N82.
As you can see it's not integrated with my messaging application, but instead with Contacts. Conversation adds an new tab to the right of your contacts so you can scroll over and see all your threaded text messages. Right now it's still in beta so hopefully more improvements are coming. It's really a huge bummer that this doesn't replace your built in message application. For instance when you get a new text and push read now it takes you to the built in messaging, not the Conversation application. I find that really annoying. But for starting a new sms message I now go straight into Conversation. You can also make it a shortcut in your active standby or left/right softkey which is really handy if you don't want to go through the Contacts.
Click here to learn more and download Conversation for your Nokia N82. Once again keep in mind it's in beta and you might see bugs. So far I haven't, but if you do go report it to Nokia Beta Labs so they can work on a fix. Download the version under Feature Pack 1, it works just fine. Also make sure you install the "Internet Services Support" file that is on that page.
Let me know what you think and I'm curious to see how many are already using it and if you like it or not.
p.s. - I'll be using video screenshots to review applications from now on. Hopefully you all will enjoy this.
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Hack Your N82, Install Unsigned Applications
Probably one of the most annoying things with the N82 and all S60 handsets is when you need to install an unsigned application. You have to get a certificate from Symbian or try to see if "open signed" will work. It can be a real pain in the ass. Granted Symbian made it this way for our protection, so they say, but I should be able to install any applications I want. If it breaks my phone it's my fault. I'll just do a hard reset.
If your willing to take the plunge and hack your Nokia N82, do so at your own risk.
Today my pal Mark from The Nokia Blog posted a tutorial showing you the steps necessary to setting your N82 free. Follow his exact directions and you shouldn't have a problem. And if you do you can leave him a comment or go to the link he gives where the real Symbian S60 hacking experts hangout. So what are you waiting for, give it a shot.
Mark also mentions a sweet application called MagicKey that allows you to re-map most of the buttons on your Nokia N82. You can now install this if you don't have a certificate from Symbian. I haven't installed MagicKey yetso I really can't speculate on how to use it. I will be installing it in a few days to see what we can come up with.
Maybe some of you have already hacked your Nokia N82. Besides installing unsigned applications, what other benefits do you get? I know we recently talked about the N82 brightness issue being fixed by a few great Symbian hackers, so obviously thats one good use. Oh and sorry for that picture in the article, I just had to do it. Hackers is one of my favorite "cheesy" type movies.
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Accelerometer Games: Space Invaders & Table Soccer aka Foosball
I seriously love games that take advantage of the acceration sensor in the Nokia N82. It brings a whole new dimension to mobile gaming and transforms the simplest games in something I'd play for hours. If playing Foosball (aka Table Soccer) or Space Invaders with the accelerometer sounds fun do you keep reading.
I talked about both of these games over at Symbian-Addict.com last week. Keep in mind both of these games are still in development stages & are not close to being finished.
First up is the popular S60 game AccererInvaders which is a simple Space Invaders clone. There aren't any high scores are saved games here's just launch and play. Great for killing time here & there. See the video below...
Click here to read more and get the latest copy.
The Foosball Table Soccer game is only in the beginning stages of development, but the students who are working on it were nice enough to give us a preview of the game to play around with. Right now theres not much to it. You play with 2 players against one goalie and just keep trying to make shots. Hopefully they develop a full fledged game that has different levels and playing fields. See the video below...
Click here to read more & find the download link.
What other ideas do you have for games & the accelerometer. I've always thought the popular game Block Breakers would be a perfect match for the accelerometer & the N82.
Saturday, June 21, 2008
In A Theater Or Dark Room? Use Your N82 In Stealth With A Theme
The genious theme maker Pizero has created an extremely useful theme that makes your N82 give off the least amount of light possible using no icons or images. Have you ever been sitting in a theater watching a movie or play and recieved a text or email that you knew you had to check? It can be imbarressing taking out your phone and reading it because of the amount of light the phone gives off. It distracts and annoys others trying to enjoy the production. Check out this theme called Stealth By Pizero that helps solve your problem.
I actually tried out this theme the other day when I got to see the movie screening of "Get Smart" with Steve Carrel in Hollywood. It was a hilarious movie if anyones interested. I changed my theme to Stealth and put my brightness all the way to the lowest setting. I recieved about 3-4 texts and a few emails during the movie and check them without my girlfriend sitting next to me being bothered. Usually I get an elbow to the ribs if I try this with any other theme.
Well done Pizero! Hats off to you. No more bruises.
About the theme variations...
1 - Stealth - Very dark theme with Basic functions - No icons / Nokia default icons versions included
2 - Full Stealth - Very dark theme - No clock - only battery and connection indicators - less functions enabled - No icons / Nokia default icons versions included
Click here to read more and download Stealth By Pizero.
Friday, June 20, 2008
Quick Update: EmTube Works Again: Watch Youtube On Your N82
This is probably one of my shortest posts ever. Just want to let the EmTube fans that apparently the application is connecting to Youtube just fine and and is once again usable. Thanks to Finest Fones Blog.
Mr-X says it's working on the Nokia N95 8gb, so it should work just fine on our N82's as well. A few people from Howard Forums are reporting that it works with their N82. If not, just keep using Mobitubia (my favorite way to watch Youtube).
Click here to download Emtube on your N8 2.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Must-Have Applications On My N82. What Are Yours?
I have a nice collection of Symbian S60 applications on my Nokia N82. Some are must-haves, others are just there for rare use, but will be needed. I'm curious to see what other N82 users have installed. Check out my list of applications...
Here is a rundown of all the must-haves with a short description, in no particular order. Click the link to see articles about each application where you will also find a download link.
Google Maps. I can't leave home without it. Literally. I get the great privilege of fighting Los Angeles area traffic on a daily basis. Nothing comes in more handy than Google Map's traffic conditions. With the latest release you can now save favorites for quick reference to certain locations. Also your 'Places' are imported to Nokia Maps automatically, and vice versa. Nice job Google! Free
Calcium Calculator. Nothing scientific here. Basic calculations are all this simple little applications does. And somehow does it 10 times better than the built in S60 calculator! Free
CalSyncS60. Keep your Google Calendar and phone calendar on the same page. Warning: It's still a little buggy, in the beta phase. Free
Screenshot. Take screenshots of any screen on your phone. Free
Themes Icon. Get an icon to take you to your theme settings. I put this in my root menu. This is much easier than digging into your phone settings just to change your theme.
Y-Browser. Get a real file browser on your phone. Does ten times more than the built in file browser.
Slick IM. I have to say this instant messanger beats the hell out of some commercial applications. Google Talk, AIM, Yahoo, MSN, Jabber, are all supported. A message alert shows up next to the battery on your homescreen when you have a new message. The colors and sounds are all customizable. I simply love this application. Watch out for the battery life though, it kills it if you leave it running all day. Free
Mobitubia. My one-stop solution for everything Youtube. You have the full Youtube library, with the ability to create favorites and save clips to your memory card. It loads pretty fast even over an Edge connection. Free
Nokia Internet Radio. Talk radio, classical, jazz, rock, blues, rap, whatever gets you dancin is here. A great application for streaming internet radio to your N82. Also works great over Edge! Free
Shozu. Take alot of photos? Upload alot of photos? Have lots of destinations. This applications is for you. Facebook, Flickr, Blogger, Ovi, Wordpress, Youtube (yes videos), Blip.tv, Picasa, and many more are all supported. Send your photos to multiple destinations all at once if you'd like. Free
Sports Tracker. Great for recording GPS locations, tracking your place in the world, recording steps, distances, altitude, photos & videos, etc. I recently went on a hike and can now see my entire route. Free
Opera Mini. Great alternative to the Web Browser. If I'm to do some real heaving internet browsing, I always pop open Opera Mini. The websites load faster and I love the interface. One of the only non S60 native applications I use. This one is java. Free
Symella Peer To Peer. Once in awhile I just need to hear that song or get a certain file. Use Symella S60 to see if a fellow p2p user my let you borrow it. Free
Active Notes. The regular Notes application but ten times better. Gotta check it out. Free
Flixwagon. Stream live video to your Flixwagon account where others can see and leave comments. I love this service.
Thats all I can think of for now. I'll try to add to this article every month or so to keep you all updated.
I'm extremely curious to see what everyone has installed on your Nokia N82's. Do you enjoy any of these applications that I use? Any good recommendations? I'm all ears.
Monday, June 9, 2008
Free Game: S-Tris 2, A Copycat Of Tetris
It's well known that the puzzle game Tetris is one of the most popular old school games around. What's better to do when your sitting around with your thumb up your bum?
If you haven't heard you can play Tetris on your Nokia N82 with the S-Tris 2. Check out some of the features...
Features
* Addictive gameplay
* Normal and maniac gameplay modes
* Difficulty increases while playing
* Customizable controls
* Shadow shows where blocks will fall
* On-line highscore submitting
* Minimize function
Click here to download S-Tris for your N82 or click here to see the game's website.
If you'd like a detailed comprehensive review of this Tetris for S60 copycat, check out this article by All About Symbian.
Enjoy the game!
Shozu: Upload Photos & Video To Picasa, Flickr, Youtube, Ovi, Photobucket, Twitter & Many More
I've been a huge fan of Shozu for awhile but have never got around to talking about it here. It's like the Share Online applications times ten. Shozu allows you to upload photos and videos to most popular social networking and media sharing websites. One click uploading and multiple destinations at once are supported with Shozu. You have the option to tie it in with your camera application, allowing it to ask if you want to upload after each photo is taken or automatically upload every photo. What really made me fall in love is they recently added Ovi (I don't use Flickr anymore) as a destination. Check out more destinations...
What destinations are supported?
Flickr, Facebook,Youtube, Twitter, Photobucket, Friendster, Blip.tv, Box, Buzznet, Cellfish, Kodak Easy Share Gallery, Picasa, Blogger, Live Journal, Vox, Wordpress, and more.
Basic Features
Tags, descriptions, titles, comments, feeds, geotagging, and friends photos are all supported by Shozu. You can also add email addresses as destinations for sending photos and videos. Like I said you can upload to multiple destinations at once.
Shozu takes photo sharing with my N82 to the next level. I use it in many different ways. If I am going to share live photos with you here I can set my phone to upload all pictures I take when the setting is on. All this is done in the background, I don't even notice. If I don't want them all to upload, I can tell Shozu you ask me after each picture. Or I can keep those settings off and just upload up to 10mb at once when I am ready to sort through my photos to see which I want to share. Multiple photos can be uploaded at once There are a ton of settings to go customize your experience. It's recommended that you have an unlimited data plan cuz as you can tell a lot of data will be transferred.
I've found that Shozu also handles uploading better than Share Online 3.0 does. If an upload gets interrupted by a call or text message, the upload continues once the connection is available again. Sometimes with Share I have broken downloads and the photos don't upload. Shozu has proved to be very reliable. Also it's great that you can setup all these different accounts from your computer on Shozu's website than have your phone's Shozu application automatically synced so your not sitting there punching in a whole bunch of usernames and passwords on your N82's keypad. It can be a killer.
Check out a video guide below someone made. It's showing Shozu on the Nokia N95. It works the same on the N82. Keep in mind that the version he's using is slightly old, Shozu has recently updated their applications.
Head over to shozu.com now and download this free application.
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Freeware: pyPoziomica - Use Your N82 As A Level
Here is another one of those applications that won't be useful for everyone, but may come in handy for some. Personally I've had it installed on my phone for a while now and only needed to use it once. This is great for those who build things or work in the construction industry. Regardless if you need it or not, it's amazing that the N82 is capable of this...
What pyPoziomica does is convert your Nokia N82 into a level to try and make sure a surface is flat using the built in accelerometer. I've tested it out with a real level and it seems to be dead on. Oh and don't ask me how they came up with that name, no clue.
Check out the video demonstration I found on Youtube, created by the guys at Symbian World...
Before installation, you first need to make sure you have the Python programming language installed, which you can find here. (download the PythonForS60_1_4_3_3rdEd.SIS)
Also make sure you have the Accelerometer Plugin, which you can find here.
CLICK HERE to download the application.
Source: Symbian World
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Google Maps Updated! Now Add Favorites & It's Much Smoother
Hey guys and gals. Just letting you know that Google Maps has been updated and a great new feature has been added. You can now add favorites just like Nokia Maps and even import places that you have saved in Nokia Maps. I wrote about this the other day over at Symbian Addict, but the version had a bug. Today the bug has been fixed and its now safe to download and use. I highly recommend this upgrade. If you want to read more about the newest version of Google Maps for the Nokia N82 click here to check out my article.
Download: www.google.com/gmm
If you've never tried out Google Maps, you might want to check out this article.
