Last free version of Bluetooth File Transfer Lite, new beta test version of Jbak TaskMan

Bluetooth File Transfer Lite

Bluetooth File Transfer Lite from Medieval Software is a file manager which can send and grab files over bluetooth, similar to an ftp client. In addition, Bluetooth File Transfer Lite can pack and extract files in the zip, tar, jar, nth, and thm compression formats.

Similar to Nokia phones without a pencil key (and in contrast to file managers like X-plore and ActiveFile) you can select and deselect files with the # key in Bluetooth File Transfer Lite.

The built-in text viewer doesn't know how to break lines so they fit on the screen without horizontal scrolling, but the built-in picture viewer has a very smooth zoom function. You can get out of the full screen picture mode by pressing the 1 or 0 key, which is not very clearly indicated in the program.

Bluetooth File Transfer Lite is written in mobile Java, so it takes some time to start on a Symbian phone. You also have to go to the application manager to allow Bluetooth File Transfer Lite to read and write data, or else your phone will pop up a blizzard of security warnings.

Bluetooth File Transfer Lite v.1.41 is free, but Medieval Software plans to ask money for future versions.

• Bluetooth File Transfer Lite from Medieval Software
• Bluetooth File Transfer Lite at GetJar
• Bluetooth File Transfer Lite v.1.41 at Mobile Castle



Jbak TaskMan

There's yet another test version of Jbak TaskMan. This program shows the running tasks on your phone, including hidden tasks that won't show up in Symbian's built-in task manager. Jbak TaskMan also displays memory status, disk usage, and detailed task info. When the program is running, long-pressing the menu button launches Jbak TaskMan instead of Symbian's built-in task manager.

The new test version fixes a few bugs, lets you set the font size in pixels, and the menus appear faster. And now Jbak TaskMan has a flashlight too. When you activate it, your screen turns bright white, but BrightLight and Light Control are better at turning your phone into a torch.

Jbak TaskMan v1.00 R16 is not available from Jbak's own site, but if you want to test it you can get it from Mobile Castle.

• Jbak TaskMan site (latest full version and some test versions)
• Jbak TaskMan v1.00 R16 (test version, unsigned) at Mobile Castle

Python v1.45 is crawling around

Unofficial copies of the new version of Nokia's Symbian S60 port of programming language Python have been running around for a while, and now it's official: Python v1.45 has crawled to Sourceforge.

Here's the official change log:

* Added the possibility to run Python code in threads that weren't started by Python itself, by adding the functions InitializeForeignThread() and FinalizeForeignThread() to the CSPyInterpreter class. For details see the section "Python/C API Extensions" of the API Reference.
* Added timeout support to globalui module.
* The positioning module has been made safe to use from several threads.
* Support for the "description" field has been added to the calendar module.

Yes, I know: this kind of language is not for human consumption. In plain english it boils down to this: Python v1.45 can do things out of the box that used to take a separate package that you had to sign with a developer certifcate. The benefits will emerge in future (versions of) Python programs.

Speaking of Python programs, a couple of useful ones are:

• EasyEdit, a text editor that's easier to use and offers more features than DEdit and LightNotepad.
• Menu Editor, a program to customise menus, icons, and program names for those who've set their copy of Symbian free.
• FreeAir, a scanner to find open Wi-Fi connections.
• StopCall, a blacklist call filter to block phone calls from those you don't want to speak to.
• SIM directory, a shortcut to your SIM contacts for feature pack 1 and feature pack-less S60 3rd ed. phones
• iPhonesque mod, make your Nokia web browser disguise itself as iPhone, Firefox, Internet Explorer, and more.

Pyton itself doesn't do anything except allow you to run Python programs. Python Script Shell lets you control Python. PyFolder displays your Python scripts as icons inside a virtual folder, which saves you a trip to the Python Script Shell menu.

• Python and Python Script Shell at SourceForge
• PyFolder for quick and easy access to your Python scripts

Make your Symbian phone talk to your Linux computer

Nokia is extremely Windows minded. That makes sense, because the market share of both Nokia and Symbian (largest shareholder: Nokia) makes Nokia a sort of Microsoft of the smartphone business, which leaves users of other operating systems out in the cold. Sure, Nokia made a few programs to provide a bit of totally inadequate Mac support, but they've never programmed a single line of code to make your Symbian S60 phone talk to Linux. Sony Ericsson? LG? Motorola? They're as guilty as Nokia.

To make things worse for Linux users, PC Suite doesn't work under WINE.

There are ways to close the communication gap a little. Wammu is like a kind of bare bones PC Suite for Linux. Unfortunately most of its features don't work with new Symbian phones.
• Wammu (front-end to Gammu)

KMobileTools and gnokii are older attempts at mimicking PC Suite functions. KMobileTools uses the Gammu engine (you're better off with Wammu), gnokii only works with old versions of Symbian, not with S60 3rd ed. or UIQ.
• KMobileTools
• gnokii

Phone Manager may turn into a Linux PC Suite, but in its current state it can only send SMSs from your computer through your phone:
• Phone Manager

Joomla! is a site with tricks to transfer files from your Nokia to your Linux computer and back, use your Nokia as a modem, and more. But prepare for lots of typing on the command line.
• Joomla!

Smoking Linux has a tutorial that explains how to transfer files from your Linux computer to your phone memory. Lots of command line typing.
• smihael

Windows users can synchronise their phone with Outlook. But who wants to use outlook anyway when you can sync your phone with Mozilla Thunderbird on your Linux box?
• bluZync: synchronise your phone with Thunderbird over bluetooth
• bluZync user forum (you may need this, because bluZync doesn't work just right out of the box and their FAQ is not ready yet)

Tuxmobil.org has a list of Linux programs for older Nokias.
• TuxMobil

There's no Linux version of Nokia Map Loader, but there's a Nokia Map Loader Alternative that works on Linux (and on any other operating system too!):
• Nokia Map Loader Alternative

New Nokia Photo Browser is faster, SilentPhoto may silence your camera, cam idle activity patch extends camera timeout to 10 minutes

Nokia Photo Browser

Symbian's built-in photo viewer is not a good picture browser, especially if you have a Nokia with the horrible "carousel" photo viewer. But Resco Photo Viewer is expensive and free alternatives Panda Image Browser and To The Point lack many features.

Nokia Photo Browser from Nokia Beta Labs is better than Symbian's built-in photo viewer, but the picture viewer from Resco is much better.

Nokia Photo Browser displays your pictures in a grid through which you can scroll with all sorts of 3D effects and other eye candy. It does face recognition too, but only on high contrast frontal shots, not on photos en profil.

The main flaw of Nokia Photo Browser was the long time it needed to generate thumbnail preview images: upon first launch the program needed ages to make thumbnail pictures. Thumbnail preview generation in the new version of Nokia Photo Browser is much, much, much faster than in the previous edition.

Other flaws of Nokia Photo Browser remain unrepaired. When you've scrolled to the last image of your collection, scrolling further will not take you back to the first picture. And "Image Info" still doesn't display Exif data, but only the file name and the date the picture was shot. The user interface is in landscape mode, without an option to turn it into portrait view.

For every picture on your phone Nokia Photo Browser generates three preview images which together take 50 kb or even more. If you have many pictures on your built-in phone memory or memory card, the previews can make you run out of storage space. When you uninstall Nokia Photo Browser it leaves the preview images behind in a jungle of hidden folders. To reclaim your storage space you need to launch a file manager like Y-Browser, X-plore, or Active Fileand delete all folders called _PAlbTN. Nokia's built-in file manager will tell you that those folders are empty, but they're not.

• Nokia Photo Browser


SilentPhoto

SilentPhoto runs in the background and automatically puts your phone in "silent mode" when you launch the camera. When you switch the camera off, your phone goes back to the previous (non-silent) mode.

Silent mode often suppresses the annoying shutter sound of your phone camera. But beware: with some Nokia product codes (a sort of region codes) your camera makes noise even if your phone is in silent mode. Fortunately there are many other ways to make your camera quiet, so if SilentPhoto doesn't work on your phone you can silence your camera anyway.

• SilentPhoto on Symbian Freak (links to file farm ziddu)
• SilentPhoto on Mobile Castle (with direct download link)
• the camera sound label with many methods to mke your camera silent


cam idle activity patch

Switch on your phone camera, wait for the opportunity to shoot that perfect shot...

...and miss it because your phone camera has gone into standby mode!

The camera of your Nokia will go to standby mode if it's not used for one minute. In standby mode pushing the camera button will not shoot apicture, but only gets your camera out of standby, and then you have to push the button again to make a picture. By then you may have lost the chance to make that once-in-a-lifetime picture.

But if you have hacked your phone and installed ROMPatcher, you can run a ROMPatcher patch that keeps your phone camera active for 10 minutes instead of one.

This patch only works on phones that use the camera application CamMojave.exe, like the Nokia N78, N82, N95, N96, 6220 Classic. It does NOT work on phones with z:\sys\bin\camcorder.exe, like the Nokia 6120 Classic, 6110 Navigator, N73, N95, E51, E66, E71.

• cam idle activity patch on Symbian Freak (for members only)
• cam idle activity patch (for everybody)

My top 10 Symbian S60 applications

1. Google Maps
The latest version of Google Apps lets you find directions (though not entirely accurate). The AGPS is not a very big hog on your GPRS bills (thanks to the ability to switch to a raw map view). Latitude is one more feature that lets you share your location (and your friends location) on 1 place. Layers are another addition to Google Maps recently where you can add layers of your choice in terms of Terrains, Wikipedia, 3D buildings, etc

Was taken by me when I was on my way to my Leh trip  http://twitpic.com/8khjb

2. Fring
This application is a no-nonsense all-protocol chat application. Supports AIM, GTalk, MSN, Yahoo, ICQ and a few more. It also lets you make VOIP calls and status updates to Facebook and Twitter. My personal favorite

Alternative – Nimbuzz

3. JBTaskman
This is a very simple task manager for your S60 phone. Gives you the control over your phone. Task startup rules, task switching, phone info, etc. A MUST have for every geek who owns an S60 phone

4. Screenshot
Very simple application that just takes a screenshot of the current display on your phone. It is a little tricky to set up the Screenshot key since my E71 does not have a dedicated camera button. I use the backspace button to take the screenshots, open JBTaskman and kill the Screenshot application process. Simple !

Apologies for the retarded GIF image

5. RSeven
Something that I was looking for to avoid the very buggy and incredibly bloaty Nokia PC Suite. This one lets you take a backup of all your SMS, contacts, call log, images, sound files, etc to their website. Their website then displays a sweet timeline of when the stuff was saved/arrived on your phone.

6. Swim
Another very simple application that automates the sync application on your S60 phone. The timings are quite tricky and they are relative. If you set the schedule to ‘Every 12 hours’, it means that from the point you select that option, Swim will automatically load up and Sync your phone. I have set it to ‘Sync every 12 hours‘ at 1.15 am/pm (thats the time I am usually home for lunch or sleeping)

7. Traveler
Lets you keep track of the temperature in your city and the wind conditions. Also supports currency exchange rate updates which are downloaded from the server. A very annoying bug is that this applications always asks me to update my city and timezone when I start it up. I stay in Mumbai, but whenever I start the application, the city gets reset to ‘Delhi’.

8. iON Battery Timer
Ok, this HAS to be the awesomest little utility EVER. It displays the juice left in your battery and the sweetest thing is that it tells you the time in which your battery will run out. And trust me, it is bloody accurate ! $10 per IMEI. TOTALLY worth it. You can install a trial version for 7 days and check it out. It’s BRILLIANT!

Capree.iON.BatteryTimer.v1.02.S60v3.SymbianOS9.x.Unsigned

9. Opera Mini
This section will hold the super ups of Opera Mini 5 Beta. Installed it yesterday and trust me, Opera has failed to disappoint. I mean, how can they have tabbed browsing on a mobile browser ? Very slick interface and very smooth animation. These small things really DO matter. Touchscreen S60 device owners will truly enjoy this application. A couple of negatives (though this is a beta version) has to be the lack of Opera Link (syncing all your bookmarks, passwords, history, etc) across browsers (I have Opera 10 as my primary browser, so this helps). The dictionary on my E71 also can not be used in this application. I am sure the Opera developers will be implementing it in the final version. It is awesomely fast (thanks to the Opera proxy servers) and is incredibly light on your GPRS bills. Watch out since this browser will definitely start a revolution in mobile browsing.

Opera Mini 5 Beta running on Nokia E71

10. IRRemote
Ok, this app is an on-and-off for me. Most of the times I cant find the TV remote or I am too lazy to get up and bring it myself. Solution ? Kick start this application and you can literally control your TV ! Channels, volume, presets, EVERYTHING. Also supports ACs, DVD Players, Hi-Fi systems, Radios, etc

Freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x

Lots of users request information for applications (apps) which are freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x.

I will be reviewing the freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x. 5 freeware applications would be discussed in each post. The posts will be tagged as freeware. Though some of the applications might not work with Nokia E71x but most of them should. If an application does not work on Nokia E71x may I request you to please leave a comments on this post.

  Opera Mini 5

Download

With this new version Opera Mini has become a “must install” even though the default browser in Nokia E71 is a huge improvement if compared to the earlier browsers in the E-series of Nokia. Some of the features of Opera Mini 5 are

• tabbed browsing
• speed dial with Thumbnails
• copy/paste text on a page
• password manager
• built for speed
• power scrolling
• sync Bookmarks
• save web pages for later and
• a new powerful user interface (UI)

To know more please read a review post of Opera Mini 5 beta

 Google Maps

Download or visit google.com/gmm on your phone

With a host of new features added to Google Maps for mobile Google Maps is an another application which one should have installed on your Nokia E71 or E71x.

The new features include

• street view (since Street View has gone international it is no more restricted to users in USA)
• request walking directions (in addition to driving and public transit) to get anywhere on foot,
• receive transit alerts from participating public transportation authorities,
• see what other people think of a place by reading reviews directly on your phone
• new interface for smaller learning curve.

Read an earlier post which had a detailed review of Google Maps for Nokia E71

Ovi Maps deserves a mention but personally I would recommend Google Maps over Ovi Maps.

  Mobbler

Download

Mobbler is an application that allows you to stream your channels for Last.fm. Last.fm is a socialmusic website that allows you to specify your favorite type of music then it streams those artists and similar artist to your customized radio stations.

To quote the Mobbler website

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.

 If you have not tried Mobbler give it a try and I would say it is one of the best music application available for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x

 YouTube

Download

YouTube for mobile enables you to convert your phone into a multimedia device. Some of thefeatures of the Youtube application for mobile are

• Browse millions of videos
• Access your YouTube account
• Upload videos
• Keep a tab on the top rated videos on YouTube
• Search for videos on YouTube

 JoikuSpot Light

Download

JoikuSpot Light is an application which turns your Nokia E71 or Nokia E71x into a WiFi HotSpot. Thelight version of the software is free. The light version can handle on http or https traffic. If you want to use VPN, POP, IMAP or secured access then you would have to buy the full version which is available here and costs 4.99 Euros for 6 months usage or 15 Euros for lifetime usage.

Please let the community know your thoughts about these freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x by commenting on the post.

Look out for Freeware for Nokia E71 and Nokia E71x Part 2 which would be available in a couple of days.

Useful shortcuts or tricks for your E71 Part II

Some more codes and tricks are

• Copy and Paste

  Lot of users of E71 face this challenge. To select the text press the shift key and use the  arrow keys to select the text. Once the text is selected, press the shift key (if you released it) and press the left selection key to copy the text. Now go to the application where you want to paste the text. Again press the shift key and press the right selection key and the text would be pasted.

• Taskmanager

  Press the home key (long press till you see the desired action on the screen) to bring up the task manager and it will list all the running applications. You can shut off running applications to free up locked memory. 
  

• SMS and MMS delete shortcut

  Use the backspace key to delete SMS and MMS while reading them.

• Quick search on contacts while writing SMS

  To insert the phone number of a contact while writing a SMS take the cursor to the “to” box and then press the center button of the navigation (“Navi Key”) and the address book would come up where you can select the recipients of your message.

• Page Scrolling

  You can scroll a page up or down by using the control button + the up button to scroll up. For scrolling down press the control button (Ctrl) + down.

• IMEI number (unique identification number)

  To get the IMEI of your phone press *#06#

• Software version of your phone

  To know the software version being used on your phone press *#0000#

• Wireless MAC address

  To know the MAC address of your phone (for Wi-Fi) press *#62209526#.

Please let me know if these tricks are useful or not. Depending upon the response I will post some more tricks and tips for the E71 and E71x