TechnoBlabber

If you don’t already know, the S60 browser is based on WebKit, an open source browser engine – the same engine used by Safari on the iPhone. Thus, many of the ‘web apps’ designed for the iPhone work flawlessly on S60′s Web Browser.

There are numerous websites which contain catalogs of applications (free and paid) to use with your iPhone.

Some notable sites being:

1. iPhoneAppr – Has an optimized interface for use with mobile devices
2. iPhone Widget List
3. iPhone Application List

Out of the 200+ (and increasing) web apps, some are unique and definitely worth bookmarking. But what about web apps for those day-to-day functions: movie show times, weather lookups, search etc. Would you ditch your tried-and-tested bookmarks (those old boring old mobile sites) for the iPhone optimized versions?

I did.

Why? Because iPhone’s web apps enrich the browsing experience! Browsing hasn’t been this much fun in a while. The sites are stylish, lightweight (most of them are) and are far better to look at as compared to normal mobile sites.

For example:

or

Which one would you prefer? goMovies was designed for use with the iPhone and it works flawlessly on my N91. The loading time difference between both pages was about 4 secs on T-Mobile’s EDGE connection and negligible on Wi-Fi.

If you’re an Opera Mini user, fear not! These web apps work flawlessly on the Opera Mini 4.0 beta browser.

Tags:   apps · e-series · n-series · s60 · symbian3 Comments

CotM #84 is up and ready for your viewing/reading pleasure at Mobile Messaging 2.0. As always, it is filled with interesting posts and is a must read for any mobile enthusiast.

My favorites for the week:

• Free Ad-based mobile service by Abhishek Tiwari
• Social networking by Mobile by Scott Smith – The Mobile Technology Weblog

Tags:   CotM · mobile phones · mobile web 2.0No Comments.

The Smartphone Show #39 is up on Steve Litchfield’s website. Steve gives us a hands-on review of the Nokia 6120 S60 multimedia computer and the new SE P1i. He’s also reviewed MobiCal, an online tool to sync your PIM data with any phone supporting Sync-ML.

The 6120 is a phone that I’ve really wanted to play around with. Its small, stylish and with a price point of ~ $300, it will make a great backup S60 phone. Watch the review to see what Steve thinks, and personally, for the price point, I think its a sure winner.

Links to Video: Youtube, Smartphones Show Website

Tags:   mobile phones · s60 · smartphone show · symbianNo Comments.

If you haven’t already seen it, go to the Jealous Computers website to see how frustrated and jealous computers are retaliating against owners of Nokia’s new Multimedia Computers. But as they say,

Prevention is better than cure!

So here are some tips to prevent you from becoming the next featured victim on the Jealous Computers website.

1. Keep your phone safely hidden in your coat/shirt/pant pocket or inside a holster so that it’s not directly visible to prying laptop eyes.
2. Whenever possible, use Bluetooth and maintain a sufficient distance from the laptop to ensure that the laptop is not aggravated when syncing or transferring multimedia content.
3. Do not, under any circumstances, set your Multimedia Computer’s bluetooth name to “My Nokia N95″ or “Nokia N91″ or anything that would reveal its identity to the laptop.
4. Use of data cable should be restricted to large multimedia transfers only! If ever the need for using a data cable arises, make sure your laptop is fastened securely.
5. Make sure your laptop’s iSight/Web Camera is covered or disabled when not in use. If your laptop doesn’t see you playing around with your Multimedia Computer, it won’t get angry!
6. Remember that you are but one, of the 100 million or so S60 users in the world. Take extra precautions, particularly in public areas, such as offices, educational institutions etc.
7. If your laptop has a history of exhibiting violence towards multimedia computers, be sure to attach this label (see image below) to warn others.

   

8. The Healthy Computing Volunteer Group has taken the initiative to help curb these atrocious acts of violence and is providing fliers with essential safety information. Please ensure that these are distributed in your workplace/home. To receive the fliers and warning labels, contact WOM World.

   

If you have more useful tips, please leave a comment so that I can add them to the list. I hope that this message reaches all the innocent and unsuspecting multimedia computer users out there so that they are forewarned.

Tags:   n-series · nokia · s60 · symbian2 Comments

I do a lot of wap browsing on my N91 and I feel that the current bookmarking system isn’t all that great! With over 30+ bookmarks (and that’s very less by other people’s standards), its really annoying that the only way I can scroll is either up or down when selecting bookmarks.

I was trying out the Speed Dial extension for Firefox and in my opinion, functionality like this is should definitely be incorporated into current multimedia computers. There are 12 standard shortcut keys (0-9 and *, #) on a normal keypad and each of them can be assigned to a bookmark of your choice. There should a be visual view for bookmarks allowing you to scroll sideways as well. To put it in a nutshell, if you’ve used Widsets in the past, what I’m envisioning will look pretty similar to it.

Do you think it will enrich the multimedia experience offered by multimedia computers?

A concept image:

Tags:   apps · mobile phones · N95 · s60 · symbianNo Comments.

I generally refrain from posting deals about phones locked to carriers, but I think that deals like these might have their advantages, particularly for adoption of Nokia’s S60 multimedia computers in the United States. I’ve been using S60 handsets for a long time, since the days of the 7650, and I have always tried to create awareness amongst my family, friends and colleagues about the advantages of using smartphones.

Back home in India, it was easier to get people to adopt to S60 phones, since people didn’t mind paying for cell phones. But here in the U.S., its different. People EXPECT free phones from carriers. One of the best ways to get people to adopt smartphones is with deals like these. Sure, they’re locked phones, but if people actually do like smartphones, I think there’s a good chance they will spend on getting an unlocked phone with their next smartphone purchase (The iPhone has, at the very least, shown that people are willing to spend on cell phones, if they want to).

Link to the deal

Tags:   cingular · n-series · n75 · nokiaNo Comments.