TamsS60 – the Symbian Blog

Even though the Hundredth-monkey effect has been proven to be wrong multiple times, followers of Forum Nokia likely thought about it quite a bit recently – tens of developers suddenly wondered how to implement background music loops using MP3 files. I eventually got it up and running – but had to use low-quality WAV files in the process…

The Chinese news service wanwann.com now claims to have created a solution of its own:

…
Well, here provides a solution to you, that you can decode your mp3 to raw music datas, and then mixing then play(by using a single streamming player) these decoded raw datas. However, this solution is an opensource project which is licenced under the GPL licence, please agree to the license before you use the sourcecodes.
…

Further information on this solution can be found at the URL below – keep in mind that I have not tested this:
http://www.wanwann.com/2010/02/21/symbian-s60-mp3-decoding-sound-mixing-solution/

P.S. My non-GPL solution with WAV files based on a Nokia example drops shortly…

As quite a few of you are visiting the Tamoggemon Content network from a Windows-powered desktop or notebook, I felt like sharing this with all of you.

Microsoft has just warned that the End-of-Support time for Windows XP SP2 and the initial release of Windows Vista is nearing:

If you currently use one of the above-mentioned operating systems, you will no longer receive updates and patches after the specified dates. Fortunately, the solution is easy: install the latest service pack…

P.S. Windows 2000 heads: your EOL time is in July…irregardless of the service pack you use!

If you would have asked me about tetaphobia a few weeks ago, I would have flipped you the finger. Carbide 2.4 tought me better, and Mike Trujillo has just replied to my articles.

His reply contains material which I consider of common interest – here goes:

Tam,

Thank for flagging this. Please be sure to log any bugs in Bugzilla and send the bug numbers to me.

Here are known issues that I think are fixed/being fixed.

* Update site – early reports from users who had problems updating from v2.3 to v2.4. I believe this was isolated and now works.

* New WINSCW compiler. For most users this compiler is fine. Some older DLL in AVKON apps don’t work with the old compiler so you need to revert to the old compiler. We don’t think this will affect community users but if it does please log a bug.

* Qt – Qt build and project system is different than Symbian. v2.5 should have some usability improvements with Qt awareness in Carbide. I know that we have problems when the .PRO file is touched.

Version 2.5 is nearly done – you can take a look at:

http://tools.ext.nokia.com/download/dev_build.php

/Mike Trujillo
Product Mgr – Carbide.c++

Big thanks to Mike for talking back!

FierceWireless got their hands onto two short videos showing Symbian^4’s concept GUI in action.

The videos themselves don’t show much of interest – they especially ignore landscape mode, which always was an area where S60v5 fared especially bad:

Not much to add as of this writing – more on that in a few months…

The first bug most developers will stumble upon is one related to the Qt integration – Forum Nokia claims that it has been improved in Carbide 2.4.

Unfortunately, the improvement means that you must now manage your .pro file by hand. When adding a file to the project, a screen like the one below spells doom. It means that the resource you just added to the project will be ignored by the compiler:

Fortunately, finding a solution is simple. Right-click the .pro file and select Open with -> Text editor. Then look at the structure below to familiarize yourself with how such a file is structured:
TEMPLATE = app
TARGET = QtTypeGun
QT += core \
gui
HEADERS += QtStatsCharForm.h \
QtStatsTimeForm.h \
..
QtGameWinnerForm.h
SOURCES += QtStatsCharForm.cpp \
QtNextPlayerForm.cpp \
...
QtGameWinnerForm.cpp
FORMS += QtStatsCharForm.ui \
QtStatsTimeForm.ui \
...
QtNextPlayerForm.ui
RESOURCES += images.qrc
symbian: {
TARGET.UID3 = 0x2002E49F
LIBS += -lcone \
-leikcore \
-lefsrv \
...
-lcentralrepository
myFiles.sources = rsc\*.wav
DEPLOYMENT += myFiles
}


In general, a .pro file is made up of lists which are “connected by /’s at the end of each line – adding an element of your own is simple. When adding a form, keep in mind that you must add all three files: the .h, the .cpp and the .ui!

This just hit my inbox – not much to add:

First of all, yet another shot of the ugliest-ever handset from Nokia:

TMoNews reports the following about it:

…. It’s been whispered to us that the Nokia E73 will make a T-Mobile appearance sometime in June. The force is strong with this whisper so we’re willing to take the gamble and put this one in the rumor but likely category. While we’ve got a few leaked photos, details regarding the specs on the E73 remain a totally mystery, though I’m sure we can expect it to run some form of Symbian.

…

Not much to add for now…

Even though this is likely to make me the most-hated person in the Nokia world, all developers should read this PSA carefully before updating to Carbide.c++ 2.4.

I have just updated to the product, and have to report that it is extremely unreliable and has loads of errors. I will post more about some of them in the next few hours – in the mean time, PLEASE stick to Carbide.c++ 2.3 and Qt 4.6.1…

We’ve already heard our fair share of rumors about Nokia’s C6 – this is said to be a Centro-like, low-end keyboard device running S60v3.

ÜberGizmo now shares the image below, claiming that the device has just passed through the FCC’s testing:

As of now, not much further is known…

When it comes to smartphone market share, the figures from Garnet’s have caused quite a stir in the past – after all, there was a time when the distinction between smartphone and handheld was important. Nowadays, this isn’t as important any more…and with out further ado, we bring to you: the Q4 2009 figures.

First of all, a per-OS table:

And a per-manufacturer table:

Those of you seeking further info can get it via Gartner’s. Their paid report can be accessed below:
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1306513

Both Nokia and Sony Ericsson currently have quite a few handsets in their pipelines. The X6 and the Vivaz can be considered close competitors – which is why I have decided to lump their pre-order availabilities into a single post.

Sony Ericsson Vivaz
The Vivaz seems to have found its first carrier partner – VodaFone UK has just started to take pre-orders:

Nokia X6 16GB
Nokia now takes pre-orders for this handset:

P.S. To all Vivaz and Satio owners reading this: Tamoggemon is ready and willing to provide you with both LocaNote and TouchCalc. However, the products are stuck in QA for more than a month now…

Nokia Research has just unveiled a technology called NRC. It is an ultra-short-range wireless system similar to Bluetooth, but with a significantly faster transfer speed allowing “the transfer of a full album in 10 seconds”. It is intended to be used in stores for content transfers.

The full video is below:

Putting up such “counters” at multiple retailers could help content sales significantly – but could also end up being uncomfortable for store operators, as they would find themselves bombarded by questions from users. So, third party apps may not be the real target…it will thus rather act as a traffic unloader for Comes with Music…

Nokia’s N97 was not bad – the keyboard was an issue, but all of that was dwarfed by the insanely unreliable software. AllAboutSymbian’s Rafe now had the opportunity to sit down with Nokia’s Anssi Vanjoki, who stated that the device was a tremendous success for Nokia in terms of units sold (see our Ovi numbers for more on that).

He also stated that the QA cycle for the N97’s software was “a vicious circle”, but has now been fixed (by testing on Norwegians ). He furthermore stated that the Symbian^3 experience would be “perfect”.

The full video is below:

Long-term followers of Tamoggemon know that the products usually have a minimized interface – this is due to fanatic tap counting in the UI design department. However, tap counting is but part of a successful mobile UI – you usually also need to adhere to common design patterns.

So far, no collection of design patterns for mobile applications has been published in book form. However, the design4mobile wiki is a more than adequate replacement:

Hit the link below to find out more:
http://patterns.design4mobile.com/index.php/Main_Page

Owners of Linux-based routers are in for a “reverse treat” – a botnet called Chuck Norris attacks these devices.

PCWorld reports the following:

…

Once installed in the router’s memory, the bot blocks remote communication ports and begins to scan the network for other vulnerable machines. It is controlled via IRC.

Because the Chuck Norris botnet lives in the router’s RAM, it can be removed with a restart.

…

So: change that default password, folks!