Share Online 3.0 can be uninstalled!

I spotted an interesting item in my App manager after updating my N95's firmware version to v21:

Share Online 3.0 is an uploading tool for your photos and videos that works with Flickr, Share on Ovi and Vox. It enables one-click uploading to any of these (currently supported) services.

Remember, Share Online 3.0 is only an upgrade for N95s, since a
previous version of Share Online comes preinstalled with every N95
firmware. And after upgrading you get, for example, a new line dedicated to Share in
your Active Standby. I personally have used 3.0 since it came out and
am very satisfied, but there were those that installed it just to try
and came to the conclusion that they didn't like it after all. And
sadly, it wouldn't go away except after a full format of the phone or after a firmware upgrade.

Well now it can be uninstalled just like any other app, from within the App manager. I have no idea if this is because the v21 firmware or because of an update to Share Online itself, since the version I installed after my firmware upgrade was the latest one (and presumably more recent than what I had during v20 firmware).

Good news anyway. Having choice is always better than not having any.

SkyeQuiKey has a competitor. Worthy?

Came across this post by Amir on his Mobile Space blog. Immediately saw how similar the app he described, T9 Nav by Nuance, is to SkyeQuiKey by Skyestream, which incidentally I've been using more or less since it came out.

What SkyeQuiKey does

Using a T9-like mechanism

Just press a few keys like you'd be typing on T9, SkyeQuiKey then shows you a list of contacts, applications and bookmarks that contain those characters and possible character combinations. "7593" in the screenshot above stands for "Skye".

It's an addictive app, the sort that you can't imagine living without after having it for a few minutes. It has, however, caused occasional issues, as in randomly deciding not to autostart (obviously in spite of it being set to), and from time to time freezing and thus causing a semi-freeze of my standby screen.

So after reading about T9 Nav, a very similar solution from Nuance (currently available as a free beta on their site, BUT there's no word on whether or not it will still be free after the beta phase has concluded), I decided to install it and do a quick comparison to SkyeQuiKey.

T9 Nav

It scans through a lot more 'stuff' than SkyeQuiKey, namely everything (think Nokia Search everything - Contacts, Settings, Media, which means audio, video and pictures, Bookmarks, Applications and Calendar) except messages, from what I could gather. Now at first sight this might seem to be a great advantage, however, unlike Nokia's Search, you can't turn anything off. It only searches for everything it can search for, and that may be unnecessary at times. Basically the only option you can change in the app right now is whether or not it should start automatically each time your phone is turned on.

Beta, granted. But sadly, beta in the way that the word was used before Google (with Gmail) came and rather redefined it.

First of all, SkyeQuiKey has a "Sort by" option. T9 Nav doesn't and therefore always uses a Last name, First name order which is rather annoying for me.

Oh, and I've experienced some general speed issues with my N95 while it's running. I can assume that this is due to it having to constantly scan and/or monitor pretty much everything that goes on on the phone, and does this in the background. Which brings me back to the fact that you should be able to manually select the categories you're interested in having indexed. Perhaps I'd turn 'Music' off, as I have thousands of songs on my memory card. I don't know, but I know I don't consider the speed compromise worthy.

Because aside from some general decrease in responsiveness that I've seen on my phone, the app itself is rather slow.

It's a good concept, though.

When you press whatever keys you press, you're presented with an initial screen that lists everything it found. But you can filter results by categories (Contacts, Media, Calendar, and so on) via the right and left D-pad keys. Quite resembling Nokia's Search, which however shows categories in a vertical list at its initial screen.

Since you use the left and right D-pad keys to navigate between the initial screen and each category, you sadly can't map these two keys to perform a set action for the contacts it shows, like in SkyeQuiKey. I have 'left' set to Send SMS and 'right' set to view. In T9 Nav, you can naturally press the green key to initiate a call, but for anything else, you have to press Options and then select.

Nice effort, Nuance. Yet sadly quite sluggish at this point.

Anyway, if for some reason you don't like SkyeQuiKey or don't want to pay for it, T9 Nav is an interesting beta alternative.

Fair warning, though: the link below is not direct. You have to enter your details to be able to download. Apparently, you should expect to get a few emails from Nuance requesting feedback on T9 Nav.

AND: the version currently available is set to expire on July 31st. However, should common sense prevail, by that time either another beta version should be available, or perhaps even the final version. You will undoubtedly be notified of such by email.

I for one will go back to using SkyeQuiKey but I sure will keep an eye on future T9 Nav versions. Should it get new customization options, I'll definitely give it another try and post my findings.

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JBak TaskMan review: don't call yourself a 'power user' if you don't have it installed!

You're like me. An 'enthusiast', a 'geek', a 'power user'. Scrolling through your App Manager is painful, due to the insane length of its list of apps.

All's well then.

A great while ago you cried in pain every time you used the integrated S60 task manager. Because you knew, since BC, what a long press on the Menu key does. And because what it did was simply not enough for you.

You were happy when alternatives to the, erm, let's just say...basic, task manager in S60 arrived. You immediately tested all of them. And then settled for Handy Taskman. A mighty app indeed. Probably the first you install on a new S60 device.

Till now.

JBak Taskman

It's what will make you forget Handy Taskman exists and wonder why you kept paying for it with each new phone you got.

JBak Taskman has all the functionality of Handy Taskman, in a more user-friendly design (more on that throughout the review). And it's freeware. And yes, it's Symbian Signed! (download link at the end of this post)


So here's the review/walkthrough in all its glory.

This is what shows up when you do a long press on the Menu key after you've installed JBak Taskman.

On the left pane are the running apps. The right pane is Quick Launch, an application launcher, very similar to that of Handy Taskman. However, in Handy Taskman that's not available right away, you have to click 'right' on the D-pad to be able to see it. JBak's solution handles screen real-estate in a much better manner in my opinion. Naturally, toggling between the panes is done via 'left' and 'right' keys on the D-pad respectively, but the fact that the App launcher is there for everyone to see in the initial app window is a big win design-wise in my book.

The upper part shows available space on the phone memory, the memory card and free RAM. This part can be turned on or off to your liking from the (incredibly extensive) settings.

If you wish to kill an app from within JBak Taskman, just press 'C' while it's highlighted. Now, again, depending on what you chose in the Settings, this will either kill the app immediately or ask for a confirmation.

You can launch the apps in the Quick Launch pane either by scrolling to them and clicking the center D-pad key, or, for the first 9 in the list, by just hitting the appropriate number on the keypad (just press '1' for the first one and so on). These are clearly marked to the left of the app's name, as you can see in the screenshots above. Yet another nice touch if you ask me.

The Menu

This is what 'happens' when you go into JBak Taskman's Menu. Now I won't go into details about the more advanced functionality, such as Program rules, Task info and so on. These are very welcome add-ons to the Taskman, however I find myself rarely using any. They are for the 'power users' among 'power users', so to speak. However, if you're interested, drop a line in the comments and I'll do a follow up post detailing everything.

Now back to the menu. Go to and Close app are obvious, since I pressed Menu while a running app was highlighted. Add to launch menu is exactly what it says, it lets you add stuff to the Quick Launch. If you click on it, this is what you'll see:

Another neat touch. If you select Application, the list of your installed apps will show up. You can set this list so that the most recent apps you used are shown first (how to do this is detailed in the "Settings" part of this review).

You can scroll through the list via the D-pad or just enter a few letters. Not necessarily the first letters of the app's name, as you can see from this example:

It searches through the whole names of apps and returns all that contain the letters you wrote. Just click on the app you want to be added and...it's added. Added as the last item in Quick Launch.

Another way to do this is make use of the App launcher list. This shows up whenever you press the '#' key while at JBak Taskman's initial screen. The list of apps is shown again, only this time you can launch any app by clicking the center D-pad key. To add it to the Quick Launch pane go to Menu->Add to launch menu.

If you'd like to move an app up or down in Quick Launch, here's how: highlight the respective app, then go to Menu->Quick Launch:

Then just select 'Move up' or 'Move down':

The Tools menu (Menu->Tools)

A lot of advanced functionality again, as you can see. You can view detailed information about Processes, Threads and Memory Chunks. There's also a very handy Reboot option which does exactly that (you have to confirm first, though). This has been seen in standalone apps but it doesn't hurt for it to be included in JBak Taskman, if you ask me.

The Settings Menu (Menu->Settings)

This actually consists of three separate menus. Undoubtedly the most important is the Program Settings. Here are the available options in this menu:

I'll explain some of the less obvious options.

Remember pos. in phone menu simulates a feature found in many recent Samsung phones (which has seen a rather equal amount of praise and loath). When you enter the phone's menu, if this is checked, the last item you have used is highlighted. Normally the highlight is always in the center of the menu grid (corresponding to '5' on the keypad). But suppose last time you used your phone's menu you were in Music->Music Store. With this feature on in JBak Taskman, the next time you press the Menu key on your phone you'll be taken directly there, or wherever you last were.

I personally have this set to "On", as I only go through so many menu folders. It might not appeal to everyone, but I still think it's good to have.

Info panel practically does what the Memory on top does, yet in a bit more detailed manner, however it occupies a lot of screen real-estate. Try this and Memory on top, one of them you'll surely leave "on".

Show menu/desktop/UID/hidden apps refers to whether or not to show these in the 'Running apps' pane. Here again it's a matter of personal choice, but unless you're a developer, I'd leave hidden apps off.

Compact menu refers to the Quick Launch pane and what it does is make more space for the app's name by showing a smaller icon. Recommended.

Close without confirmation I've described at some point above. With this enabled, when you press the 'C' key when a running app is highlighted, that app is immediately killed. The same applies to Delete without confirmation, only that is meant for the Quick Launch pane.

Apps launch settings alter the way the installed applications list shows up and behaves (the one you can go to by pressing '#').

Menu Key Settings

This menu handles the way the Menu (a.k.a. Yin Yang) key behaves on your S60 phone. This alters the key's behavior in JBak Taskman as well as in the whole OS (while JBak Taskman is running in the background, naturally).

Conclusion

DOWNLOAD NOW

JoikuSpot turns your S60 phone into a WiFi hotspot

I know, I know. This has been available for a while now, however only the newest version (1.2), released a few days ago, features WEP encryption. The lack of any kind of encryption in previous versions made me not mention this app before. It just would have felt weird, encouraging you to download an app that creates a totally unprotected WiFi hotspot from your phone's 3G (hopefully), EDGE or GPRS connection. Anyone in your proximity could have connected to the hotspot you created, and easily browse away on your (probably expensive, if you're not in the US) mobile data plan. You being the one to pay the bill. No, no, no. Not me.

Anyway, this is a very interesting idea and it's still under development. Keep in mind that at this time you can only browse on http and https protocols, IMAP and ftp, for example, don't work. Yes there is WEP encryption, but hopefully future versions will also feature WPA (which is a way more advanced encryption standard).

Also with v1.2 came the announcement that in the future there will be two different variations of the software, namely JoikuSpot Light (free) and JoikuSpot Premium (which will not be free and supposedly will have more advanced features).

Click here for more information and to download JoikuSpot Light Beta v1.2

[Source: Symbian Guru]

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Opera Mini 4.1 Beta available

The well known Java-based web browser that is compatible with almost any phone on the planet just got an update, and the world of proxy-based web browsing from your phone just got even more interesting.

Opera Software were the first to release a Java-based web browser for mobile phones that worked through a proxy server. Essentially what that means is that before the site you want to view hits your phone, it first goes through an Opera server, where it is converted so that it will use less of your bandwidth. A lot less, in most cases. This goes up (or down, one might say) to 10% of the original site's size. Which makes such solutions ideal for people on very tight bandwidth limits.

Improvements brought by Opera Mini 4.1 Beta:

• speed - it is now up to 50% faster than 4.0
• autocomplete URLs (now where have I heard that before?)
• immediately find content in page
• save pages
• download and upload is now possible from within Opera Mini (before it would bring up your phone's default browser for such tasks)
  

Here is the video tour of Opera Mini 4.1 Beta:

DOWNLOAD OPERA MINI 4.1 BETA

Opera Mini 4.1 beta will install next to any existing version of Opera Mini on your device and will not overwrite any of your data.

TeaShark, a similar proxy-based Java browser that runs on top of the Webkit core (Opera's solutions use their own, in-house developed core) has also been recently announced. I was planning to do a review of TeaShark Beta, and now it seems that it will turn into a comparison post on the two.

Security concerns
The following is taken from the Opera Mini FAQ page, and it also applies to TeaShark (since the idea of proxy-based browsing is the same):

Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?

No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full web browser such as Opera Mobile.

Opera Mini uses a transcoder server to translate HTML/CSS/JavaScript into a more compact format. It will also shrink any images to fit the screen of your handset. This translation step makes Opera Mini fast, small, and also very cheap to use. To be able to do this translation, the Opera Mini server needs to have access to the unencrypted version of the web page. Therefore no end-to-end encryption between the client and the remote web server is possible.

Can Opera Software see my passwords and credit card numbers in clear text? What is the encryption good for then?

The encryption is introduced to protect the communication from any third party between the client (the browser on your handset) and the Opera Mini transcoder server. If you do not trust Opera Software, make sure you do not use our application to enter any kind of sensitive information.

[UPDATE for S60v3 users]

To turn off the annoying Allow application to connect? prompts, go to App. Manager->Opera Mini 4.1, click on it, then click on Open (or Suite settings, the option depends on your firmware version), then click on Network access and select Always allowed. Press OK (left soft key), then Back (right soft key).

At this time, this seems to be the only Java app for which such a setting is possible. In N95-1 firmware v.20, at least.

[Update source: Daily Mobile]

Theme Magic: shake it to change it!

Ok, so maybe this accelerometer-apps developing frenzy has gone a little bit too far. The 'cool' factor is still there, though.

What is it this time?
Shake your phone to change the theme!

Beta 1 has been released to the public. It is, however, more of a proof of concept, since it lacks a 'Settings' menu altogether. Right now, that feature is only available in the Beta version destined for the donators.

DOWNLOAD the public Beta here.

Please note that the app is unsigned, but can be signed using OpenSigned Online.

[Source: P@sco's Symbian Blog]

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The Top 4 File Managers for S60 all receive updates

Y-Browser, FExplorer, ActiveFile and X-plore are definitely the best known and best performing file managers for S60. They are all free and at least one of them is a must-have on any S60 device.

Download the latest versions:

Y-Browser 0.88 (signed) - make sure you also download and install all additional plugins for best performance

X-plore 1.21 (signed)

ActiveFile 1.27.19 (unsigned but can be signed using OpenSigned Online)

FExplorer 1.18 (unsigned but can be signed using OpenSigned Online).

My personal favourite has always been Y-Browser, with ActiveFile coming in as second. Users of Total Commander on the PC should definitely try ActiveFile, since it features a similar 'two-pane view'.

Besides download links, you can also find additional details about each app's features by clicking on the links above.

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TeaShark - a Webkit based competitor to Opera Mini

A few hours ago, the first beta version of the TeaShark browser has been made available.

TeaShark is a mobile web browser written in Java (requires Java MIDP 2.0 on the phone to work - almost all newer phones have it, smart or 'normal'). It works similarly to Opera Mini, the pages you want to view first go through a TeaShark server which lowers their size, to cut data costs.



The interesting thing is that this browser is based on the Webkit core that Apple's Safari browser and the S60 Browser (as seen in S60v3 Feature Pack 1 devices) also employ. There is no support for Flash yet (but then again, Opera Mini doesn't have that either).


Features

Tabbed browsing with page thumbnails for easy switching between tabs



Jump-to-content and Page Up, Down, Left and Right shortcuts



Color-coded bookmarks and online bookmark management (you can manage your bookmarks on the computer - similar to Opera Link, works with all browsers)



Click and search: freely select text on a webpage (as you would on a computer, by holding the left mouse button). This can only be used for two things as of now: automatically creating a search with the words you select as the search string; and calling a phone number, if that's what you select. This is the most interesting feature in my opinion, and if it will be further developed (read: if you'll be able to do more with what you select) it might prove to be TeaShark's main advantage over the competition.



Other features:

• it remembers your last session and when you start it up again, your browsing and tab history is there as you left it the last time
• find text
• permanent history
• in-line editing (enter text, for example, in a form without launching the phone's default editor)
• dynamic shortcut keys (check what they are at any time by pressing #)
• Auto-complete (for URLs as well as forms).

I will post a review of TeaShark soon.

Download Teashark (120 KB) either by going to wap.teashark.com on your phone's browser or from this download page to get the installation file on your computer.

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Screenshot 3.03 by Antony Pranata can be signed with Open Signed Online

Screenshot is a free program that allows you to take screenshots on your S60 phone. You can capture screenshots and save them to a file in JPEG, PNG, BMP or MBM format. Furthermore, you can customize the shortcut key, file name and delay of capturing. It supports continuous mode that allows you to capture a screenshot every a few seconds. It has been downloaded over 1/4 million times. It has support for 31 languages.



If you're into latest releases, DOWNLOAD Screenshot 3.03 Unsigned and then sign it using the procedure described here.

Or you can DOWNLOAD the signed Screenshot 3.01, if you don't want to sign it yourself.

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cClock 1.19 can be signed with Open Signed Online

One of the most useful apps for S60 3rd Edition (or maybe I should call it a utility), in my opinion, is cClock by Chua Welic.



As you can see from the screenshots above, it is a replacement for the default S60 clock screensaver (which I've always considered way too small to be useful). cClock draws a big clock on your idle screen, and can also, if you configure it to, display other useful information, such as the current profile, the day of the week, the date, Bluetooth state, battery and signal indicators, and a lot more. The full list of features is available here, at the developer's site.

It has a lot of settings, varying from colors used (white on black or black on white), to the size of the text, the periodicity of its movement, and so many others.

I definitely recommend it.

DOWNLOAD HERE.

After you have downloaded, use the procedure described here to sign the app.

After you have installed the signed app on your phone, to activate cClock, go to Settings->General->Personalisation->Themes->Power Saver and choose it. To configure it, go to Settings->General->Personalisation->Themes->Power Saver, only highlight cClock then press Options->Settings.

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CPU Monitor for S60 3rd Edition

Here is a recently released app that does, well, exactly what the title implies. It shows current processor and memory activity, and also draws graphs showing recent usage. If you enjoy always being in the know of what eats up your phone's resources, this is for you.

DOWNLOAD HERE.

[Source: Symbian Freak]

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MobiTubia 1.76 Build 4 released

Some time ago, You Tube changed certain bits of the code that allows access to the site. When this happened, both emTube and MobiTubia (the two best standalone YouTube-player apps for S60 3rd Edition phones) ceased to load videos properly.

I'm glad to report that Sittiphol Phanvilai, the developer of MobiTubia, quickly released an update that fixes these issues.

emTube is still being worked on as of now, I'll definitely post when it receives an update as well.

You can of course use YouTube's own app, but I strongly encourage you not to. The video quality delivered by that app is by far the worst I've seen in such an app. I'm not even going to link to it.

N95 8GB users please read: Firmware version 15 (available for the N95 8GB for quite a while now) brings you the ability to watch YouTube videos in the browser, directly on the YouTube site. Not the mobile (crippled) site, the 'normal' site. Therefore, you don't necessarily need such applications. I would however strongly encourage you to try them out, maybe there will be some aspects you will like more about watching YouTube videos this way as opposed to the browser way.


DOWNLOAD MobiTubia 1.76 Build 4 (scroll down to the Download button)

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Rock'n'Scroll 1.01 Review

As I posted before, Rock'n'Scroll is available starting Friday the 29th of February. There's an updated version (bugfixes only) as of March 5th. Get it by registering on Keynetik's forum.

Here are my thoughts on this piece of software, after extensively using it since its release.

First of all, I must also point you (again) to Bery95's (p)review over at the Symbian Web Blog.

Now let's get started. Once you run the app, this is what you'll see:


Accelerometer Polling describes whether or not the app is using accelerometer feedback. When you don't plan on using it for a while (and your keylock is off), I recommend turning off Accelerometer Polling, as it is a rather battery-intensive feature. You can do this by pressing Pen+C or by pressing Options->Toggle Acc Polling (especially noteworthy for phones that don't feature a Pen key).

Also of note is that the Polling turns itself off when the keylock is on. Sadly though, this version doesn't enable automatic turning back on after the keypad is unlocked, so you'll have to do it manually via the method described above.

The Notifications are indicative messages that show up whenever you use one of the toggles.

Game Mode is by default turned off in portrait mode, and on in landscape mode.

Let me explain: the app auto-rotates the screen based on how you're holding the phone. In portrait orientation, while Game Mode is off, you can use the app to navigate the menu or to make use of any other app by flicking your wrist in the desired direction (up, down, left, right). This mode is thought out especially for menu usage, as it is highly unlikely that a lot of continuous scrolling in one direction would accidentaly take place.

When you hold the phone in landscape position, the screen automatically rotates and Game Mode is turned on. Game Mode doesn't require flicks of the wrist for movement, rather you just (slowly, I suggest) turn the device in the desired direction. This is very useful in, well...games, but also while browsing (more on this later).

There is also the possibility to use Game Mode in portrait orientation and the Flick Mode in landscape orientation. You can always toggle between these two modes by either going to Options->Toggle Game Mode or by simply pressing the Pen key (if your phone has it).

Also regarding Game Mode, it's important to note that the exact position your phone is in when you enter this mode (either by rotating the phone or by toggling it) will then be the 0-degree position, which is the position in which the cursor isn't moving in any direction.

Push/Pull means you can push the phone downward to simulate a press on the center D-pad key ("OK") or pull the phone upward to simulate a press on the right softkey (usually having "Back" assigned to it).
It has been my experience that this feature of Rock'n'Scroll needs a lot more polishing, because it is very difficult to use, and very often I would find myself actually simulating a Pull ("Back" command) instead of the Push I intended. I usually turn this feature off (Options->Toggle Push/Pull) immediately after I start the app.

The single most annoying thing for me yet has been the so-called Dead Zone. This is what renders the Game Mode unusable if you hold your phone at a 90-degree angle to the ground, and also from that to almost a 45-degree angle (a notification shows up telling you that you're in the Dead Zone and you should reposition your device and then try activating Game Mode again).

I really do not understand why this has been implemented and surely wish it will be removed from the final release. Keynetik, I hope you're reading this (and my posts regarding it on your forums)! What's the point of personalizing the 0-degree position, if it can't be any position?

Uses

What is obvious from the beginning, because of the definitions used by Keynetik, is that Game Mode is created for gaming and the Flick Mode for browsing through the menus, using other apps, and so on.

However, what I've been most looking forward to since I heard that Rock'n'Scroll will allow the user to configure the 0-degree angle (but didn't know how much that would be compromised by the Dead Zone) is using the Game Mode for browsing the web. I still find it rather odd that no one else seems to have thought about this usage scenario. To me it seems pretty logical. The S60 browser is the single most scroll-intensive app on my N95. Using the Flick Mode doesn't go quite well for me in this case, since we're not talking some scrolling, we're talking a lot of it.

I only occasionally use the S60 browser since I've tried Opera Mobile (a comparison of web browsers for S60 will follow in a dedicated post), but even there Rock'n'Scroll's Game Mode is really useful.

Opera Mobile spares me the horizontal scrolling (by using its proprietary Small Screen Rendering technology), but there's still a lot of vertical scrolling to take care of. Which instead of repeatedly hitting a key (you can assign any of the numeric keys for "Page Down" functionality) can now be accomplished by just slightly turning my device.

Wonderful! It would be perfect (ok, this is the last time I'm saying it!) if it were not for that silly Dead Zone!

Anyway, don't get me wrong. I love this app and recommend it to anyone interested in having a more user-friendly accelerometer-touting S60 device. What I wrote above about the Dead Zone and the Push/Pull functionality was because, as with any Beta app, feedback (be it good or bad) from the users is always welcome. I certainly hope these issues will be fixed in the final release.

At this point, the app can not automatically start each time you boot up your phone (although a dedicated 'app starter' such as Power Boot can always be used for this. Also, to run the app in the background once you've started it (any use of its features is strictly tied to it running in the background, of course) you'll need to either press the menu key twice (to reach standby) or long-press it to bring up the Task Manager which allows you to switch to another running app.

Please note that this app is unsigned. To be able to install it on your smartphone, you will have to sign it with a valid Developer's Certificate. To find out more about this procedure, contact me by using the form at the bottom of the sidebar of this site.

My previous posts on Rock'n'Scroll can be found here and here.

Rock'n'Scroll Beta 1 for N95 IS available!

I wrote about how I was eagerly expecting this, and here it is!
Well, it's not actually here, it's on KEYnetik's forum. Just register for free and you can download it from the forum. It is unsigned, so it will require signing with a valid developer's certificate before you can install it. And, if you haven't already, you must also install the N95 Accelerometer plugin before installing Rock'n'Scroll (or any other accelerometer-using app, for that matter).

If you don't have a certificate, just send an email to rocknscroll[at]keynetik.com, enter your phone's IMEI in the title of your mail, and they'll send you back a signed copy. (You can find out what your IMEI is by typing *#06# on your phone's standby screen)

I could have posted a direct download link for Rock'n'Scroll here, but I do strongly advise you to sign up at the KEYnetik forum, since you'll be able to give your feedback on this app directly to the developers, maybe shaping up future releases (and unlike other developers, they do read and post in the forum).

I can't wait to play with it, and will be posting a review very soon. In the mean time, Symbian Web Blog has a very, very detailed preview (excellent read!).

Why Yahoo Go! 3.0 is rather pointless

Ewan Spence, of AllAboutSymbian, has written a great review on the newest iteration of Yahoo's Go! application for S60. I must say I totally agree with everything he states, and when in an earlier post I was talking about IM apps that come as a bundle of very different services, I was thinking exactly about Yahoo. You do, as Ewan points out, have to be a very heavy Yahoo services user for this app to make even slight sense.

Read the full review at AllAboutSymbian - it's really a good read.

KEYnetik Rock'n'Scroll will redefine the way you use your N95 - starting February 29th!

I know that's a bold statement, but bear with me.
It's been quite a while now since I wanted to first write about this application, and now the news that the first Beta release will be available on February 29th has got me excited at its huge potential again.

After the accelerometer 'craze' started last year, when Nokia made some accelerometer-related APIs available to developers, everyone was focusing their attention on apps that automatically switch your phone's display from portrait to landscape and vice-versa (out of which my personal favourite is Samir's RotateMe).
But then, at some point after doing a lot of work on RotateMe, Samir presented us with a new concept: Nokmote. What you could do (at least in theory) with this app was tilt the phone to suggest movement (either in games or in the menu), very similar to the way the Wiimote works (hence the name). However, to this date, Samir has only released one beta version, which has a very sensitive sensor, that deems it usable only in games (and even there with some attention paid to the way you hold the device).

Since I first heard about the Nokmote concept, I obviously saw its usefulness in games, but, unlike many others apparently, in the browser. Because of the N95's mere QVGA resolution, even if the S60 (Webkit-based) browser renders pages almost exactly as they would be seen on your average computer, a lot of scrolling is needed. And this to me is highly annoying. Up/down scrolling, let's say that's bearable, but left/right as well...takes a way a lot of user-friendliness. (The higher-resolution screen is, for example, one of the reasons that the iPhone's browser, also Webkit-based, is a lot easier to use than the S60 browser - less scrolling is involved).
And to people like me who would like to have to scroll as little as possible, this situation is identical in every other browser available for S60 (Opera's Mobile and Mini, for example - even with Small Screen Rendering enabled, a lot of vertical scrolling is required).

Samir is still working on Nokmote, but, from what I know, focusing more on gameplay (he has actually hinted that Nokmote might support two operating modes in the future - Game and Menu, but nothing yet).

And this is where KEYnetik, Inc. comes in. A month ago, they announced (via their site and a very promising video) Rock'n'Scroll, an app that basically does three things:

• uses sensitive sensor movements when playing games (continuous tilt - also useful while scrolling through large lists such as songs or contacts)
  
• uses less sensitive sensor movements when in the menu or any other app (Flick-mode - requires a flick of the wrist in the desired direction for cursor movement)
  
• rotates the screen automatically from portrait to landscape (a la RotateMe), but with a twist: when the screen is in portrait mode, the default mode is Flick-mode, and when the screen is tilted to landscape orientation, the default mode is Game mode (these modes can also be manually toggled by pressing the Pen key).

Everything this application can do is very well presented in this promotional video from KEYnetik:



What can I say, I can't wait for it to be Friday!
And btw, on Friday the 29th, Rock'n'Scroll Beta1 will be available for download from the KEYnetik forum (you must register for free in order to have access). Being a beta release, the developers will obviously (also) use this forum as a way to get valuable feedback from users.

Because of the recent (neverending) issues with Symbian Signed (that have been documented again and again over the net - just try googling it), the application (the first beta, at least) will be released in an unsigned form and will require signing with a valid developer's certificate before it can be installed.

[Source: Symbian-Freak]