Searching for More Phone Apps

As I get fed up finding that the Symbian s60 (3rd ed) operating system has programs that do not run unless you have a specific Nokia phone, I went looking elsewhere.

If the mobile phone OS can't cut the mustard, why not use the layers above it?

My Nokia 6220 Classic has Flash Lite installed, and after 2 years (article from Sept 2006), there should be a lot of apps for this cross-platform system. Must'n't there be?

I must be missing something. Lots of people have mobile phone. Many have Nokia mobile phones. Many of the Nokia phones have the Symbian OS.

The software is all over the place and poorly advertised (i.e. not at all). If Nokia wanted to push a store similar to Apple's App Store, they'd have a large market in their grasp.

With the current economic crisis, I'm surprised that they are so blasé about this. Heck, when I got the Nokia 6220 Classic, it wasn't even listed within their software pages. It is one thing for a company like Adobe not to mention it (yes, it does come with Flash Lite pre-installed), but silly for Nokia not to.

Perhaps this shows something about the company itself? A market where only the hardware matters. I certainly see how poor the texting interface is on the 6220 in comparison with that of the K800i. The same is true of the camera interface.

It will be interesting to see what happens in the market over the next 17 months. Will battery technology have moved on? Will 3g be available outside the urban sprawl so that mobiles can access the 'cloud' when needed? Will there be anything useful developed from geo-apps? Will we be merely throwing sheep?

Nokia 6220 "classic"

I spent last night downloading software from Nokia's "app store" and then finding that most was demo ("free to try" means just that). I found download.com's mobile software better for finding appropriate software for the Symbian s60 (the operating system used).

This morning I went through software uninstalling most as the programs wouldn't run on my phone.

I can't find decent blogging software. Tried "CellSpin" this morning (having seen it last night), but I'm not keen on it. It requires a Net connection when writing. Think I'll stick with emailing to the blog and Flickr. The screen can be rotated (it doesn't do this automatically) and so the web can be read easily, and easier than I did on the c902.

Official Nokia site

Cnet's review of Nokia 6220 "classic"

I have downloaded Google Maps and changed the customisable side "my own key" to open that. Photo shows GoogleMaps, the location is picked up from the cell's network (the GPS didn't work indoors), so has an accuracy of 1.8km.

A 4gig SDHC is on order, and I'll need to get a new case for the phone (though it fits into the K800 bodyglove with some extra space). All sounds and photos from Sony Ericsson's phone ported across last night.

Nokia 6220 Classic Menu

Software listing. Having followed the advice from SymbianGuru's 3-part article, I arranged software into various folders, and then re-arranged them on the screen of easy access. However, when I copied the supplied 1 gig SDHC on to the newly arrived (from Play.com) 4 gig SDHC, some of the programs installed on the card refused to swap over. So this list is really for my benefit as I'll now have to go and re-install the files.

Internet

Search. Download. Web. Share Online. WidSets. My Nokia. Music Store. Opera Mini. Spodtronic

Applications

My Own (Empty). Recorder. Camera. Games (Marble). Translation (LastMinute.com: Italian, Spanish, German, French). PanoMan. ScrnSnapS60. Location Tagger. CellSpin.

Nav

Maps. GoogleMaps. GPS Data. Landmarks. Sports Tracker.

Office

Converter. Calendar. Quickoffice. Calculator. Active Notes. Dictionary. Adobe PDF. Notes. WorldMate. Enhanced Calculator.

Media

Podcasting. Radio. RealPlayer. Msg Reader. Nokia Audiobook Player.

System

Help (Tutorial. Welcome. Help). Archive (Print Online. PTT). Y-Browser. Log.

Settings

Sett Wizard. Profiles. Voice Comm. Themes. Phone Sett. Connectivity. Speed Dial. Data Mgr. Speech. Call mailbox. Conn Mgr.

I like the phone, and think I might actually buy the Opera browser when the trial period ends. Unless FireFox port a version to the S60 Symbian language before then. I was out with relatives last night, and used the BBC Sports live feed to keep them informed of the Andy Murray tennis match. It was gibberish to me, but meant something to them. Until a cousin found there was a 5 minute delay in the report, and got round it by nipping to the pub next-door to the restaurant. Sneaker-net is alive and well.

And finally, I switched the camera's location detector off on Wednesday, even though I had left it with only the option of picking up the location of the phone from the network rather than the battery-draining GPS system. By Saturday night, I was down to 3 bars of energy (from 7), despite 'normal' usage plus Internet. A more reasonable battery life than I had experience on Monday and Tuesday. Signal strength has been good, far better than the returned Sony Ericsson c902.

Test from nokia 6220

Test from nokia 6220, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

Test message From newly arrived nokia 6220 handset. Getting used to the different keyboard layout. Photo resized on phone before emailed out to flickr.

Unlimited Rice Pudding

In the caravan last night, looking at the weather forecast via my mobile phone, and showing videos of my niece singing Abba songs whilst she’s hidden under a table (I have a feeling that she’s going to hate that cutesy clip in years to come), I wondered why I hadn’t hooked up the notebook via the mobile phone to the Net. Simple reason – I hadn’t needed to.

So there was a task for me whilst Mr Ramsay was having a time of it sorting out a Mexican. I new I could use the Nokia 6220c as a mobile dial-up modem, but went in search of a way to use it with my O2 mobile phone contract (unlimited data transfer) rather than via my home broadband connection.

It turns out that there is a button on the Nokia Suite that allows this. So I downloaded it on to the phone’s memory card, as Nokia had, thankfully, included the whole install file instead of just a wee install stub. I left the phone working on that 35mb download overnight and recharged the battery in the morning (handy USB phone cable just plugs into notebook).

In the morning, I use bluetooth to transfer the file across to the notebook. I haven’t really used bluetooth too much, but was impressed by the transfer rate. A simple install, bish bash bosh and a button-press, and I can see the weather forecast for the Minch on XC-Weather without having to strain my eyes.

It is an awful lot easier to use than pinking out messages on the phone’s keyboard, or trying to read messages on the wee screen, or browsing a forum without the aid of tabs. At 115kbps, I wonder if it can handle the BBC iPlayer. Mitch Benn (6,589 followers)(S. Fry 398,220 followers; B Obama 21,398; Fred MacAulay 98) twittered on Thursday that the old gang were back together again. As the caravan walls are paper thin, I’d better get the headphones out and stifle my guffaws.

A few minutes later, and the little swirly thing goes round, the connection resets itself, and – for some reason as yet unknown – the headphone socket is ignored and the sounds come out of the speakers; I think I’ll close the iPlayer page down, and wait for the Saturday repeat on the car radio.

Now … I’m off to find out what the issue is with the headphone socket that wasn’t there before. Typical computer problem that. Find one solution, and it causes a separate problem – I bet it has something to do with bluetooth. Hmm, maybe it is using the phone as a speaker and was playing back through that. Well, it keeps my brain ticking over as the sound of breathing comes from various close relatives, over the sound of the river and the crows outside.

At beach with 6220

At beach with 6220, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

Took some comparative photos with the nokia 6220 classic and figured out some focussing issues with the zoom.
I switched the geotagging feature on flickr and downloaded the additional program from nokia last night, but the phone comes with the feature anyway. Back at the car, i switched off the gps before closing the tagging program and locked the applications running. I had to switch the phone off and on again. Still, it is fun to learn there idiocyncracies.

--added later--

The focus on the camera requires a gentle touch, especially when zoomed in. After an experiment, it seems that the focus when in "landscape" mode doesn't kick in as the focus is set on infinity, but I'll need to experiment more. Two photos below, one with the full optical zoom. I didn't bother with the digital zoom, as I can do that with the software.

And if you go to the Flickr pages (click on the image), there's a geotag been added by the system for the latter two images. I wonder if it was because they weren't edited. Personally, I'd be happy (or happier) with the data being picked up off the network instead of the GPS. The system was useful in that it backdated the images when the satellites had locked in to my phone. Sadly, there is no easy kill-switch for the GPS ... and now the "positioning" menu (where the options are) has disappeared from the easy to remember Settings -> Phone Settings -> General.

WHW AAR

Or should that be “after in-action report”? I know it wasn’t the Yukon, and only 47.5  miles (which should make it half-way up a 95 mile track). I also spent money in the locality for the extra days instead of in Canada, or giving up and bugging out to paint figures and watch tv. What I used to do, was spend a few days tidying the flat and some days planning the rest of the teaching block. A relaxing time. But I wasn’t achieving much.

I was asked if I was giving up, seeing as I don’t have the time for major Canadian-style expeditions, I was emphatic that I was merely seeing the last few days as throwing up problems to be solved. Some were gear-related, but many were me-related, physical and mental.

Starting from the ground up:

Feet - Problems

Feet were wet and I had problems caused by that. My feet end up like prunes, and I get more blisters as there are more edges rubbing against socks. Other parts of the feet developed red sores. I treated them at night, drying them off, puncturing large blisters and letting them breath after applying germolene, sometimes applying second skin. In the morning I would tape up blisters and some of the bigger sores. I had foot-talc in a small bottle and put on dry socks.

Feet - Solutions

Try and get used to Sealskinz socks, maybe with liner. I found they gave me blisters, so didn’t use them.

Get feet toughened up and acclimatised.

Learn more about foot-care. I’ll be ordering “Fixing your feet”

Footwear – Problems

Water got into socks. I’m not sure how. The Scarpa ZG65’s are lined with XCR, and I clean and waterproof them before setting out.

Possibilities – Water gets in through proofing or failed lining. Water gets in via the cuff of the boot as streams in spate or walking through mud. Water getting under Paramo trousers (which didn’t fail).

Footwear – Solutions

Test how water got into boot and solve problem.

Purchase short ankle gaiters. I noticed that Paramo advertise a pair that will “protect against water drainage from trouser hems.” (source) I will order a pair.

Baselayer – Problems

Chafing at the upper leg. Every time I stepped out it was painful. Every time me foot hit the ground, it was painful. Repeat with other leg. At 1 mile an hour, that was a lot of pain.

Baselayer – Solutions

Get new pair of merino shreddies.

Get some BodyGlide or similar.

Phone Charger – Problem

When battery got low on Nokia 6220c phone, it needed a mains charge across it. Before that, the Tekkeon charger worked, and then it didn’t. I noticed coming back on the train, that the input charge kept dropping, and reckon that the long, slender “Nokia Slim” connector is too wobbly.

Phone Charger – Solution

I’m looking at chargers. I saw a pull-cord one in Blacks in Fort William, and thought that the similar charger for the “one laptop per child” and thought something like that would be more efficient, so will go and hunt one down.

SleepMat – Problem

The sleepmat lives against the back of my pack. It got wet.

SleepMat – Solution

Does anyone make a suitable dry-sack? I’ll just use a rubble-sack from the supermarket, I think.

Trek rate – Problem

I was down to 1 mph. This was when road walking on day 2, as well as later. Although down to pains as mentioned above, I need to get used to walking along. Last time, it was all novel to me. This was my second Way, and third Long Distance Trek. I found a lot of it dull (loch on the left, woods on the right). This doesn’t bode well for morale.

Trek rate – Solution

Get the stepping machine out of the airing cupboard and get some exercise. I lost 4kg. 8 pounds, in a few days. Stop comfort eating, especially at lunchtime.

Club Night

A close-up taken with the Nokia 6220c phone’s 5mp camera (with flash). Do I care what applications the iPhone 3g has, when the camera on it cannot approach that on the Nokia (at the moment)? I can guess that it will change, but such it the marketplace in mobile phone technology. And we users can only benefit.

Long live the Digital Revolution.

28mm WW1 figures painted by Hugh. Wall by Games Workshop. Ruined church by Hovels.

Snaps with Nokia 6220 Classic

I still have the Nokia 6220's camera to get to grips with, having just found more settings in the extended camera toolbar (white balance, ISO, etc). Here's a couple of shots taken on my way to the shops.

Outside HMT.

Looking back at the once Triple Kirk.

Full sized images are up on Flickr if anyone wants to see them. I have switched on the geotagging feature, which meant that every time the camera was used, the GPS system fired up to source the location. It seems to stay on too. Also, no location information was uploaded to Flickr. Having to manually switch off the GPS became a nuisance, so I've switched it back to using the phone's network to obtain the location.

I'll leave the GPS system for when I need detailed satnav.

Happy Birthday, Google Inc

Google is 10 years old today. Well, the Inc part is. Even the question, "when is Google's birthday" is met with this official answer:

The exact date when we celebrate our birthday has moved around over the years, depending on when people feel like having cake. (source)

Hence the "Inc" part.

To say they shook up the search engine market is an understatement. Unlike JFK's murder, I can remember where I was when I first heard about "Google". I was a fan of Alta Vista at the time, and used Yahoo! as a way to drill-down to find information. A comparison of results showed that Google returned more accurate results. Nowadays I have to bite back the phrase "Google for more information" and tell students to "use a search engine to find more information".

Later the Google toolbar kicked in. Placing a simple search facility into whatever browser I was using. They didn't clutter it up with adverts and the like. Their tenet was rumoured to be "build it first and then figure a way to make money from it". AdSense came in, placing adverts at the side of the search results. Easy to ignore if you weren't looking to buy things.

When the Usenet groups was forced to look for a new home, Google came to the rescue, and so discussion groups became Google Groups. Large email storage and shared documents, Google Earth, their labs facility which allowed you to see and beta test facilities. The movies site which then fed into the purchase of YouTube.

Google Maps and Earth allow people to look for local facilities in a non-text environment. With GPS being added to mobile phones, it wasn't a surprise to see a version of Google Maps available for my Nokia 6220 Classic. Although the phone has its own Nokia Maps, it isn't as good as Google Maps. Less fuss means a happier customer.

After the problems with S60 programs being written for specific mobile phones, defeating the purpose of having a standard operating system, I'd guess that Google Android wouldn't suffer from that problem. It might release more creative use of mobile phones.

Chrome - their new browser. No, not their "new" browser, but their first browser. As they are so integrated in to the Web, again I have to remind myself that this only their first browser.

If you want to see where things might be in the near future, have a look at Kevin Kelly's "Predicting the next 5,000 days of the web". You can bet Google will be near the centre of it all. Will "Google" become synonymous with the naffly-named "Cloud"? Only time will tell.

Christmas illuminations

Christmas illuminations, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

There is a lighted christmas tree, but it only appears from behind the lorry when the wind catches it. So strong on the deck that i can bearly stay balanced while keeping the camera-phone steady. Some youngsters drinking in the quiet lounge, thereby making it a nonquiet lounge, so defeating reason why they came to this end of boat in first place. Like tourists descending on an area to see its unspoilt beauty. Hey ho. Jotting notes for a new wargames campaign i hope to run in the new year. Finding that opera mini 4.2 is failing to connect me to internet when the nokia safari browser is okay. I didn't have this issue with 4.1, so i'll need to look into this when i get home.

Beach Front Development

As it takes so long to get to Bennachie, and with the price of petrol being what it is, I decided to walk up to the mouth of the River Don and back (maplink). A couple of hours trek, watching the waves and people go by. 2 1/2 miles there and back, and more experimenting with the camera on the Nokia 6220 Classic mobile phone.

I reckon the camera on the Sony Ericsson K800i was better than it. Certainly a better interface, but the 5 mega-pixel camera holds a lot of promise. I'm just getting tired with having to use the "automatic" feature to get the best from the new phone-camera. The focus on the "landscape" view is poor in comparison.

It must be Tyndrum

It is Wednesday, so it must be Tyndrum (pron: tine-drum). I can no longer call this "WHW 5.1211" as my West Highland Way ended at Crianlarich yesterday about 20 minutes after the last train for 6 hours had departed. A taxi carried me to the "By The Way" lodgings and that was it. Half-way, or thereabouts.

My mobile is battery-dead, and no amount of AA power across it is shifting it. As it is on the 'Nokia slim' connection, Mick's kindly offer of his mains charger would not fit it. Next time I pack the 3-prong plug.

When my feet get wet, they wrinkkle like prunes, and walking in the wet of Sunday and Monday gave me a dose of foot sores and blisters. Dried kit at the Beinglas campsite (wigwammed it), and listened to the radio (one earpiece in) on Tuesday, but my pace was barely over 1mph, so I decided at the A82 underpass to call it quits.

"Any fool can be uncomfortable" were the prophetic words that echoes in my ears. On Radio 4, there was a good story about the woman who cycled in Northern France, but couldn't mend a puncture, so spend a lot of time pushing her bike around looking for assistance - I empathised with her. It is the journey, not the destination.

But it doesn't help the fact that I have a few days in the West Highlands to look forward to as an accidental tourist. The high life of Tyndrum, the cracking facilities at the "By the Way" hostel, and the bus out tomorrow to Fort William for a couple of days until my train ticket becomes valid, and I head for home. Foot sore and fancy-free

It is Saturday

I wondered why the phone's alarm didn't go off this morning, so i checked the settings. The alarm was accurate, but the phone thought it was Saturday. You see, I had switched it off on Friday night and back on on Sunday morning to conserve battery life.

'Classic'! But not in the way that Nokia meant when they called this phone the 6220 Classic.

Park life

Park life, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

I noticed on google maps that the artillery garden was nearby. Sadly this nokia doesn't seem to be built for prolonged net usage, so a quick search and root around outside bagged me this park. It probably isn't the One as i couldn't see any weaponry (excepting the ninja cyclists). A park steeped in history indeed. And maybe this is a photo of that park. Or just some random park in EC1.

Viva glen nevis

Viva glen nevis, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

Yesterday i spent mainly reading old TGO and TAC mags go the hostel. Even found a photo of a mr mcneish sporting what looked like a pair of dungarees, matching baseball cap and sunglasses. Well, bananarama's loss was our gain! And my mental 'to do' list got longer and longer. I also started reading a book from the 1930's, "when the scot smiles" and must get myself a copy.

I caught the first bus out today and hope the lass in the hostel enjoyed her planned walk to the bridge of orchy, or the later bus to fort william too. The bus was buffeted by the wind in a couple of places and hills barely visible.

I recognised the shapes crossing the road as the bus stopped at the kingshouse. As the driver opened the luggage compartment, i heard a voice mentioning my pack (all 3 of us have osprey packs and pacerpoles). They had a fast walk through yesterday, which i look forward to reading more about on their blog. Flooded this morning, and i hope gayle posts the video she showed me of the 'croc' shoe floating by the stove.

Arriving in fort william, we breakfast in a supermarket and my luck strikes again as the store suddenly fails to be able to process card payments. The puddle outside provides entertainment for a wee lass in pink and purple and flowery wellies, and two unicycling lads. In search of a charger, we find that the town has no mobile phone shops. At all. Wow. But, despite my misgivings, woolworths sold a universal charger that included the adapter for my nokia 'slim'. Then a short taxi ride to the glen nevis campsite where we are currently hunkered down in our tents. I've unclipped half of the inner so that i can keep it clean and mudfree (small hope) for sleeping in. Lounging in the tent with an outer jacket as groundsheet. Life is good.

Return to Sender

With a song in my heart, I'm just off the phone to my provider, and I'll be returning the Sony Ericsson c902 tomorrow.

After a couple of days of mediocrity, customising menus and a software upgrade, I gave up on reasons to keep it after it kept dropping signal strength when Darren called me earlier. A call that the K800i had handled with no problem was cracking up, and we were both in our respective urban abodes too, and not mobile. I'd seen the signal strength bars fluctuate from full to nothing when sitting on my desk.

So, I went to the local O2 shoppe and looked at some handsets. My needs were:

• keyboard visible for hot text action.
• 5mp camera with good reviews.
• lens cover to protect lens from scratches.

Amazingly, very few phones met that spec. Of the phones available to me, the Nokia 6220 was the only one. I went home, and looked at the writeup. Apart from build quality and a slightly weaker battery, it compared well with the c902 (here). Plus it is loaded with extras.

This is the last photo I will be taking with the phone as I decant back to the K800 for a few days. I have been with SE for my last 3 phones and my relatives seem to enjoy the cast-offs.

The guns of august

The guns of august, originally uploaded by dimacleod.

Macro setting on nokia 6220 camera. 28mm ww1 late war german figures. I'm still not good at painting, but it is relaxing.

d-1 for iPhone 3G Launch

David Pogue of the New York Times sums up a lot of what I've been thinking since O2 don't want my iCustom.

Having seen the problems that people have been having on the O2 forums, I decided not to bother calling up a different O2 upgrade phone number. I think I want a better camera than the iPhone comes with. I'm getting tempted by the Sony Ericsson C902, or the Nokia N95. For out on the hills, I'm not too keen on having to slide out a keyboard to rattle off a blog post - that way leads to a damaged phone or a missed opportunity.

Snaptu

After some chatter about Twitter at work, I went looking for mobile clients and found Snaptu. It works on my Nokia. Looks smart and caught up with some film news. As to Twitter. Well, not being a fan of chat rooms – I don’t do small talk, breath is too important to waste on worthless chatter. Life moves on, and I’ve just wasted precious heart-beats on the mundane daily life of other mundane folk. Pub, talk, edited highlights, agonising lowlights, set the world to rights – all missing from the inane chatter of SMS text messages.

But it is a tool. Useful in cases. Useless in other cases. It sits there in the toolbox. When I need it for work, I’ll just get the students to use the site as a character-counter, then copy/paste it into an email, or wiki page in Blackboard. Or give them a pen and a Post-it note.

I look forward to seeing what Snaptu offers next. It looks good. Does what it says on the tin. I guess that nothing more is needed from an app that lets you access other apps.