TamsS60 - the S60 Blog

The classic PDA/Smartphone platforms are not very multimedia-centric, and thus created a need for multimedia applications. But Series 60 is a multimedia platform AND the Nokia N71 is a multimediacentric phone…is an additional photo viewer really needed? Since I never really liked the native photo viewer(looks cool, but useless), I can answer the question with yes…let’s see if Resco Photo Viewer is as good as its siblings on other platforms are!

Resco Photo Viewer supports two ‘operational modes’ - foldercentric and imagecentric. In foldercentric mode, the program presents you the folder structure like on a PDA - in imagecentric mode, the program shows a seamless list of all images available to the device:

Images can be shown in a variety of modes - big thumbnails, small thumbnails, lists,… . The program dynamically renders thumbnails in the background and uses them to replace the file format icons - well done!

Clicking an image opens it in ‘mini view’. This means that the image gets opened in a ’screen-filling’ zoom level and can’t be zoomed - however, the opening process is blazingly fast.

Hitting # opens an image in zoom mode after a short delay - the image can then be zoomed, flipped and panned freely at a truly amazing speed.

Open images can also be cropped, resized and adjusted in terms of contrast and color - this is useful for preparing files for printing or wireless transmission:

Multiple files can be selected and moved around the file system together:

Last but not least, Resco Photo Viewer also includes an excellent slideshow module. It allows you to present images with an extra twist due to its really cool transition effects - top notch and well done. This video shows a few of the available effects:

This review looked at version 4.43 on a Nokia N71. The program needs about 500k of RAM and was very stable in the whole test period.

Overall, Resco Photo Viewer definitely is worth getting, even if you just use your phone’s camera and don’t really want to look at media on it. The program is really helpful when it comes to traversing folders and finding/sorting images. The image editing and viewing possibilities are excellent - the slideshow module traditionally is excellent at Resco’s, and the other features follow suit. This is a true must have for everyone who uses his phone a lot…the price of 14.95$ at the TamsShop is almost a steal!

The IDE of choice for Symbian (Series 60) development is Nokia’s Carbide.c++ - it ships with a pretty decent wizard that can generate a variety of skeletons. However, creating a command line project and clicking the run button does…nothing. The S60 emulator starts up alright, but the application simply doesn’t get loaded into the emulator.

The reason for this is that the Carbide wizard has set up the target wrong. But fixing this is easy…

Step 1 - open project settings
Go to Run->Run… . A form similar to the one below will be shown:

As you can see, the emulator path is changed to point at a file called eshell.exe in the emulator directory. Save the settings…

Step 2 - launch the program
Now, launch the program in Carbide.c++ as you always would. The emulator will pop up as usual, but will display a command line after a few seconds. In this command line, enter the name of the program(in this case it’s console) to run it and hit enter:

Congratulation - your app should now be up and running!

T-Mobile Austria’s configuration for the Nokia N71 is made available on request. It works…but annoyingly terminates your GPRS/UMTS connection after approximately 5 minutes without data transfer. If you use an application like PuTTY for Symbian, this can become very annoying…but TamsS60 has a solution for you:

Open the Settings application and go into the connection sub-menu:

There, choose Data Call. Set Online time to unlimited…it should look like in the picture below:

With these ‘modifications’ in place, my N71 stays connected happily to a SSH server for hours without any activity - adios, network timeouts!

Both Palm OS and PocketPC users have arranged themselves in user groups…groups of device users that meet up once a month or so to discuss the latest developments in mobile computing.

The recent announcement of the German Senior PUG(parts translated below, full text here) made me think about Symbian communities:

Dear Members,
…

due to changes in the mobile OS space, we now see ourselves forced to open our PalmOS-Exclusive forums to users of other OS’ses….

…from now on, users of Symbian, Windows Mobile and Linux are very welcome to step up and support us….

…our german forum situated at http://www.dritthirn.de has been restructured to also have space for Symbian and Windows Mobile users!

the chairmen of the SPUG
i.V. Thomas “Gojira” Nosutta

Are there any real-life Symbian User Meetings? If you know of any, please let me know!

P.s. In case you are interested how a Palm User Group meeting “looks”, here are a few reports from the vienniese Palm User Group:
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2007/07/06/the-pug-vienna-met-yesterday-4/
http://tamspalm.tamoggemon.com/2007/05/04/the-pug-vienna-met-yesterday-3/

Users of desktop machines usually associate SSH(secure telnet) with an open-source client called PuTTY. The program is reliable, free, quite secure and fast. Recently, the PuTTY for Symbian project announced a port to Series 60 v3 - let’s see how it fares!

Connecting to SSH servers works in a “wizard-like” fashion. The program first asks you which server you wish to “bug”, then asks you about user name and password. A “cache” is available…but PuTTY doesn’t seem to save its settings from session to session…

Once connected to a server, PuTTY offers a variety of fonts and display options including fullscreen mode - here are a few examples:

Data is input via multitap(character table is supported) - however, T9 is not supported.

Special characters can be sent via the menu, pressing the “center” key of your phone acts as Return/Enter.

As for stability, the program works very well for me. However, it has one mayor nuisance…characters get sent to the server only after the multitap delay has passed. Pressing enter before that simply transmits the message as it is…without the last character. The image below should clarify what I mean:

This review looked at a pre-release version of Putty for Symbian on a Nokia N71. The prerelease version identifies itself as r298_20070715 and cannot be installed to a memory card(installer doesn’t offer this option). It has been archived on Tamoggemon.com for your convenience.

Overall, SSH for Series 60 V3 is here - Putty holds it’s promise. Of course, the product still has its quirkies and small nuisances - but it can connect to my SSH box and allows me to chat via IRC for a few minutes. Plus, the program is open-source….what more can you expect?

Thanks to Aquariusoft for letting me use their server as demo platform - their blog is here!

Dear Readers,
sorry for this blog having been so silent - until now. Health and heat waves kept me pinned down…but now, the worst is behind me, and it’s time to kick it hard!

The folks at my distributor MobiHand have worked long and hard to make the TamsShop carry Series 60 applications…and I already have a nice stash of reviews waiting!

If you wish me to write about sth specific, feel free to comment any time! Commenting is free and anonymous!

Nokia’s N71 has recently dropped in price significantly…Amazon sells it for approx 300€, and some austrian stores even wasted their stock of N71’s for just 260€. At this price, a true gadget freak(e.g. me) can’t walk away from this Series 60v3 phone… . Amazon delivered the phone quickly…can the accessories it ships with satisfy?

To be perfectly honest, I consider Nokia’s box one of the ugliest boxes ever produced for a smartphone. It’s teenager-baby-look is a complete disgrace to the N71’s businesslike appearance:

Opening the box immediately reveals the N71, and also shows a “front page” informing the user that the package he holds in his hands contains everything needed to enjoy an N71. If you consider the age of the box, this is revolutionary - at the time the N71 was developed, most boxes didn’t contain any kind of hint to the user. However, nowadays, companies like Palm and HP do better by printing instructions for getting started there:

The machine itself contains a 128MB MiniSD memory card(already in the slot). Battery, charger, data cable and audio stuff are below the separator:

The N71’s headset is a very interesting construction, as it contains a neck strap that allows you to wear it like a necklace. This reduces the strain on the cables and will improve the life span of the headset significantly(more on it later):

3′5 inch head phones can be connected via a special adapter:

Nokia included a huge bunch of literature into the N71’s box. There’s a manual for using the phone, an extra manual for the included applications, a software CD and a few warranty/license papers:

Overall, if one ignores the design faux-pas, Nokia’s accessory bundle is the most complete one I have seen so far. Most companies charge extra for headphone adapters, Nokia includes one. Most companies don’t include memory cards - Nokia does. There’s nothing bad to say here…congratulations to Nokia!

Tune in soon for more on the N71!

After having used and programmed Palm OS handhelds for a long time, moving out to PocketPC was a natural decision – so TamsPPC was founded. But there is a vast world beyond touchscreen based organizers and smartphones – and the lack of the primary input method is an interesting challenge to every user interface designer.

Having used a Siemens SX1 for a long time approx. 2 years ago, looking at the latest developments in the Series 60 market looked like an interesting option. The cheap availability of Nokia’s N71 did the rest – so here is TamsS60.

This blog will look at Series 60 from the perspective of a power user and developer – I hope that you will enjoy it…

As with all other Tamoggemon sites, this site offers free anonymous commenting and lives off your feedback – so go ahead and send your ideas, comments and feedback to Tamog@gmx.at – or post them into a comment box!