There are a few problems with the Symbian environment... some of which are the reasons for me deciding to try something new...
- Closed development - Only Nokia and a few selected partners have access to the core of the operating system, and ONLY nokia is able to release OS changes and upgrades. So if there's a bug, you have to wait till Nokia fixes the problem, which as was the case with my N95, Nokia will ignore you for 6 months while working on the update...
- Limited access - only certain parts of the operating system can be access or changed. So true flexibility is not permitted, you can only access certain parts of the OS's inner workings and only change some things. While it's more than enough for the average user, power users would like more access.
- Proprietary access - If you want to sync the phone to your pc, you're going to need to use Nokia / provider software. So you're once again limited to the features and abilities they choose to give you.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Useful Application for the Symbian Environment
Here are some applications that no self respecting Symbian user should be without...
Most of these apps are either free or low-cost, but some of them aren't so cheap... but worth it...
FExplorer - A file manager application for the phone, which is much better than the default file browser on the phone. You need to sign the application with your phone's IMEI number to allow it to access your phone, but it's a simple process.
FlipSilent - This program is amazingly useful if your phone has a motion sensor, you're going into a meeting or somewhere that you don't want to be disturbed by your phone, simply flip your phone over, and put it down, face-fown and the application puts your phone into silent mode. Can also be used to snooze or stop your alarm or silence / reject a call with the same gesture.
Handy Profiles - This program uses rules that you set up to change the profile (Ring tone, Sms tone, Volume & Vibration). So you can automatically change the profile of your phone based on the time of day or calendar entries. It also supports changing profiles based on which cell you are in, allowing different profiles for home and work.
Handy Taskman - This program replaces the built-in task manager with more features. Also shows the available resources: RAM, Phone memory usage and SD card memory usage.
SMS & MMS Diary - Symbian phones allow for unlimited sms & mms storage, as long as there's free space you can store messages, so your phone will fill up eventually. There is no native way to store these messages anywhere but in your phone, but this application can back them up to HTML / Plain Text files allowing you to store your messages.
Garmin Mobile XT - This application allows your GPS-enabled (or connected to bluetooth GPS receiver) cellphone to act almost exactly just like a true Garmin device...
There are lots more applications out there, some are very useful and some have excellent gimmick potential, from blocking calls from certain people to using the phone's IR transmitter to turn off any TV you point it at...
Most of them you can find with a simple google search or by checking out some of the forums....
Most of these apps are either free or low-cost, but some of them aren't so cheap... but worth it...
FExplorer - A file manager application for the phone, which is much better than the default file browser on the phone. You need to sign the application with your phone's IMEI number to allow it to access your phone, but it's a simple process.
FlipSilent - This program is amazingly useful if your phone has a motion sensor, you're going into a meeting or somewhere that you don't want to be disturbed by your phone, simply flip your phone over, and put it down, face-fown and the application puts your phone into silent mode. Can also be used to snooze or stop your alarm or silence / reject a call with the same gesture.
Handy Profiles - This program uses rules that you set up to change the profile (Ring tone, Sms tone, Volume & Vibration). So you can automatically change the profile of your phone based on the time of day or calendar entries. It also supports changing profiles based on which cell you are in, allowing different profiles for home and work.
Handy Taskman - This program replaces the built-in task manager with more features. Also shows the available resources: RAM, Phone memory usage and SD card memory usage.
SMS & MMS Diary - Symbian phones allow for unlimited sms & mms storage, as long as there's free space you can store messages, so your phone will fill up eventually. There is no native way to store these messages anywhere but in your phone, but this application can back them up to HTML / Plain Text files allowing you to store your messages.
Garmin Mobile XT - This application allows your GPS-enabled (or connected to bluetooth GPS receiver) cellphone to act almost exactly just like a true Garmin device...
There are lots more applications out there, some are very useful and some have excellent gimmick potential, from blocking calls from certain people to using the phone's IR transmitter to turn off any TV you point it at...
Most of them you can find with a simple google search or by checking out some of the forums....
Why Symbian
Symbian is a lovely mobile operating system, it has many great features over it's JAVA and custom made predecessors...
Symbian also supports adding games and applications, either in Native Symbian or Java, to allow you do to a lot more with you phone...
So now with the included support for SD(HC) cards, you can turn your phone into a portable music (and movie) player... and with the right software, you can easily rival Apple's iPod...
- Dedicated resources
- Pre-Emptive multi tasking
- Simple Threading
- Page Swapping (Virtual Memory, sort of)
Symbian also supports adding games and applications, either in Native Symbian or Java, to allow you do to a lot more with you phone...
So now with the included support for SD(HC) cards, you can turn your phone into a portable music (and movie) player... and with the right software, you can easily rival Apple's iPod...
Firstly... Why...
A few years ago I was a die-hard Nokia fan, proudly shouting the name of Nokia above all others...
Things have changed since then... Don't get me wrong, Nokia still makes totally awesome phones, and their new line up looks pretty damn impressive... but, after using the Symbian OS for the past 4 and a bit years, it's not as awesome as Nokia and their partners claim... There are still a LOT of limits that simply cannot be gotten around and having only one source for updates and technical improvments means, as with what happened with my N95, if they accidentally introduce a bug into the rom, you could be stuck with it for MONTHS (6 of them in my case)...
So my friend got a Windows Mobile phone and let me play with it... and yeah, I LIKED IT...
So I looked into it, and discovered that the Windows Mobile platform is INFINITELY more flexible and, as they say on the forums, if you don't like it, CHANGE IT!
I will delve into more detail on both side of the fence...
Things have changed since then... Don't get me wrong, Nokia still makes totally awesome phones, and their new line up looks pretty damn impressive... but, after using the Symbian OS for the past 4 and a bit years, it's not as awesome as Nokia and their partners claim... There are still a LOT of limits that simply cannot be gotten around and having only one source for updates and technical improvments means, as with what happened with my N95, if they accidentally introduce a bug into the rom, you could be stuck with it for MONTHS (6 of them in my case)...
So my friend got a Windows Mobile phone and let me play with it... and yeah, I LIKED IT...
So I looked into it, and discovered that the Windows Mobile platform is INFINITELY more flexible and, as they say on the forums, if you don't like it, CHANGE IT!
I will delve into more detail on both side of the fence...
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