All the geeky stuff
Mobile
A look at WordPress 0.5.4
Mar 17th
A new version of Symbian WordPress client was released yesterday.
It is a bit more stable and has got editing features like Bold, italics,
quote
and the ability to add link
With WordPress running I had 33 MB left which is good but I think it can be further improved to consume even less memory. My phone didn’t crash even when I had 2-3 apps running along with WordPress app.
Some problems I faced are -
1. long pressing the keys no longer brings symbol, was this feature there in earlier built? I don’t remember. N97 can type symbols with long press of keys but it’s not working with this app.
2. The app needs to be faster, smoother.
3. switching between landscape and portrait is still not smooth. and the phone is slow for 10 seconds after closing the app.
Some improvements/features needed -
1. Copy/paste please. I cannot write huge/lengthy links.
2. lists?
3. I think stats are coming in the next release.
4. I think adding photos should be made like default photo gallery format. It would be much simpler when we have thousands of photos in gallery.
5. An option to view the post with all the formatting, images and links.
If other beta testers and people who are looking forward to using this app when it’s out of beta can think of some other features that WordPress Symbian app should have, feel free to comment below. I will add it to this list.
Thank You.
Vinitneo
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P.S. I posted the whole thing via the WordPress Symbian app. I only made some chages to images via desktop.
Emailing into Evernote just got better
Mar 17th
I don’t know about Android and iPhone but on Symbian emailing notes, pictures, files to Evernote is much faster than using the WRT widget based Evernote client. I just use the default messaging app to email notes, files, pictures etc. to Evernote, but till now I had no way of managing those notes and files and it just made the proccess more time consuming.
All the notes and files I emailed were saved in default notebook and were not tagged – this causes clutter which so not what Evernote is ment for.
I think Evernote people realised it. Now with the latest improvement you can email note to specific notebook along with tags.
- Use @ for notebook : Use an @ symbol followed by the name of your destination notebook.
- Use # for tags : Use an # symbol followed by the tag or tags you wish to assign. You can have multiple tags, just make sure each one starts with an #.
Example – Subject: trip to florida @travel #expense report – would create a notebook titled trip to florida in my travel notebook tagged expense report.
As of now this works only for existing notebooks and tags only i.e. you cannot create new notebooks and tags with this feature (which is a bummer). In the subject line, always put the note title first, then add any nootbook and tags. This feature won’t work for notebook which has ‘@’ or ‘#’ in the title and tags which has ‘#’ in the title.
You can find your Evernote email address in account info and it’ll look something like this – [username].12345@m.evernote.com
Happy Note-taking! 
(via Evernote Blog)
Browser inside Evernote app
Mar 14th
Evernote is a popular note taking service and it has a symbian client which unfortunately has been in beta for months.
It works just ok, some of the features are missing but the basic stuff is there – you can make a new note, tag them, edit them, sync them etc.
Yesterday I clipped a webpage to read it later, and while I was reading it on evernote app, I clicked on one of the link and was surprised when it displayed the website right inside the app.
I was able to click on the links and go to other sites and even comment on blog posts. There is no address bar so you cannot go to website of your choice or go back or download stuff etc.
But the fact that you can surf a full blown website right inside the app is pretty impressive.
A Symbian Client
Mar 10th
One thing that troubles me is that developers pay attention only to iPhone and Android, Symbian is an afterthought or many a times Symbian is completely ignored, they don’t even acknowledge that there is a mobile platform called Symbian. Now why does Symbian need developers attention? – For completing the service experience. And what is service experience? It means that you should be able to enjoy the service like everyone is.
There are services like Groveshark, LastPass, Paypal, Last.fm, Spotify, Evernote, Dropbox etc. These services have mobile client also which makes life much more easier. But… But… they are not available for Symbian. I pay to use most of these services but I’m not getting the full benefit of it. The number of Symbian users are more than iPhone, Android, Palm and Windows mobile users combined.
These services and developers don’t realize that by embracing Nokia and Symbian they will be getting more new customers. And developing for Symbian is not hard, in fact Symbian gives you more options to choose from when building an app. For developing apps for android, you can use only higher/better version of java on the other hand on Symbian you can use QT, Python, C+ + and Java.
Some of the apps that I should mention are Gravity, Mobbler, the official WordPress app (early testing stage), TuneWiki, Opera Mini, Opera Mobile, Skyfire, ereader, SmartMovie, Midomi, Nimbuzz, Playlist DJ, Handy Apps, AccuWeather, Symtorrent, snaptu are some of the apps which are very good.
For the last two weeks I’ve been trying sending emails to customer care of various services demanding a Symbian client, telling them the benefits of having a Symbian client and threatening to quit the service if I don’t get a symbian client. ;p
Here are some of the responses I got -
1. Evernote – Evernote does have a Symbian client in the shape of a WRT widget. It is slow and clunky and has not been updated for months and customer service politely said – Sorry, we have no information about our Symbian plans.
2.LastPass – lastpass is a password management service and you get a symbian client with premium service which costs $1 a month. The symbian client is again very clunky and doesn’t work with touchscreen phones — They were concerned about my problem, wanted more information and assured me they will fix it soon.
3.Last.fm – We do have Mobbler and it is better than other clients, even the official ones. I want last.fm to acknowledge and include Mobbler is their official page. — sadly no response so far.
4.Paypal – It has a mobile site which doesn’t come close to the iPhone app experience, and as expected no response from paypal people.
5.Groveshark – The music streaming service have me a nice reply – ” Thank you for the email. We are working on a Symbian mobile version as we speak. However, its in the early stages of development so there’s no release date yet. —- That’s ok, we can wait, as long as there is something in the pipes.
Next I’ll be knocking the doors of Dropbox and many ebook services. So stay tuned.
E72 : A peek into the box and the hardware
Mar 7th
I received Nokia E72 three days ago, thanks to WOMWorld Nokia. This is my first E series device so I’m very excited about using it. The first thing that stuck me was it’s very slim and sexy and it’s gonna turn heads. The cold metal back feels great in my hand. The light sensor in the front panel is very powerful and detects slight change in light and adjusts the screen brightness and QWERTY keypad backlighting.
The volume rockers and dedicated voice command key on right works very well. Voice command key is sunk lower than the volume controls so you are not going to press it accidental. MicroSD card slot and microUSB port are on the left side. On the top we have, as usual, power button and 3.5 mm audio jack. Power jack is at bottom left.
On back there are the speakers (very loud and clear), 5 Mpix camera – There is no cover for camera lens but it’s a tiny bit recessed so it won’t scratch easily. The camera works good according to my initial tests, more on this later. (and) steel battery cover which can also act as mirror. Although it is supposed to be fingerprint resistant mine was picking up fingerprints and smudges but they can be easily cleaned with a cloth. The 1500mAh BP-4L Li-Ion battery is a great performer, N97 also has the same battery and I can safely say that E72 will last for many days with a single charge.
The screen – Landscape 2.36" 16M-color display of QVGA resolution – is crisp and clear but a little small for surfing full blown desktop websites. A higher resolution would have been better. Anyway it has excellent sunlight legibility.
Keypad – This is the first time I’m using a QWERTY keypad and I love it. I’ve been replying to emails, tweeting, and chatting with my Gtalk buddies with absolute ease. One-touch keys makes everything faster, long pressing the one-touch key brings extra functions (I discovered it by accident ;p ) The breathing light looks very good and notifies missed calls and new messages. I am not very satisfied with the Navi key, it’s a little hard to use even in High sensitivity setting. But it works well while using camera. E72 doesn’t have a dedicated camera button, touching the Navi key activates the auto-focus and locks it and a full press captures the image.
In the Box – I know I should have written about the stuff in the box first but I was so excited at receiving the E72, I just played with the handset for few hours before looking into the box.
Let’s start with the box, the box is small and eco friendly, it has the standard charger, a leather case to protect your precious device, a cleaning cloth to wipe that smudges and fingerprints off the steel back, leaflets and manuals, leather lanyard, a good quality earphones and data cable.
I did not understand why data cable was this short, it is ok if I’m going to connect E72 with my laptop but what about when I connect it with my desktop? it’s going to hang like this.
For now I’m using my N97’s data cable to connect E72 to my desktop.
This was part one of my two part review of Nokia E72. In the next part I’ll review the software side of E72 and try to reach at a conclusion.
P.S. Watch out for the N97 vs E72 camera test.
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