TamsS60 – the Symbian Blog

Accelerometers were introduced to the S60 platform a few years ago – a lack of standard accessor APIs unfortunately limited the number of available products. Resco’s Bubbles is an implementation of the now-classic accelerometer controlled marble maze – can it stack up?

Resco was dead-serious about motion control: level picking is accomplished by tilting the device:

Bubbles adds a little twist to the classic concept. Each ball has a number and must be picked up in sequence – hitting a wrong ball is an invitation for another attempt:

Crazy mazes like the ones below make this straight-forward concept, um, difficult:

Bombs are straightforward: touch em and they blast everything around:

Skull icons invite you to take another stab at the level:

Arrows fire your ball in a direction:

While pills distort your controls:

Users can calibrate the neutral position by hand:

This review looked at Resco Bubbles on a Nokia N96. The program needs 1207KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card. Unfortunately, device compatibility is somewhat limited (quote from Resco):

* Nokia 5730 XpressMusic
* Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
* Nokia 6210 Navigator
* Nokia 6720 classic
* Nokia E55
* Nokia E75
* Nokia N79
* Nokia N82
* Nokia N85
* Nokia N86
* Nokia N95
* Nokia N96

It should work on E66 and samsung INNOV8/Omnia HD also, but E66 requires sis file to be signed (looks like the only one device which requires capability to work with sensor) and on samsungs there is problem with screen rotation.

So – try it on your accelerometer-equipped phone and let us know how it goes!

Three words: Resco Bubbles rocks. If you like “marble” games, definitely give Resco Bubbles a pop. It is absolutely excellent and will definitely keep you entertained for a long time. The price of 15$ is ok…

AstraWare’s My Little Tank franchise is now more than tw years old – it originally debuted on the Palm OS, but was recently ported to a variety of other platforms including S60. A review of the Palm OS version can be found here…this review will look at the differences!

The flexible “battlefield” praised in the Palm OS version remains – your tank still gets to duke it out in a variety of areas which can be “terraformed” by shooting around:

Unfortunately, the missions still have but three tasks: protect base, kill tanks and destroy buildings:

The pixel effects are still there. Unfortunately, technology moved on: this means that they are no longer as impressive as they were two years ago:

We criticized the stupid AI found in the Palm version of the game – rest assured that AstraWare improved this significantly. Some of the early levels are extremely tough…I never made it to the first save point and always had to start again at level zero:

The game does a great job at explaining itself – when playing for the first time, pop-ups with useful information are displayed frequently:

A thorough online help system is also included:

This review looked at My Little Tank version 1.10 on a Nokia N96. The program needs 1705KB of RAM and can be installed onto external memory. It copes well with screen rotation:

In the end, AstraWare did a pretty good job sprucing up the gameplay while porting. The game is is fun, but also quite challenging due to the lack of “save points”. However, the core complaint of repetitive gameplay remains… However: the low price of just 10$ voids any discussion – if the game’s concept sounds attractive, get it in the TamsShop ASAP!

Controlling mobile phone games via device motion is not a new idea: as soon as camera phones became available, developers used the cameras for motion detection and moving crosshairs.

Ninja Strike is a Japan-themed game that puts you into the role of a ninja who must throw shuriken to free his “sensei”(aka teacher):

The game mechanics are rather simple. The arm at the bottom of the screen is moved around at a fixed speed (you can NOT influence the movement!!!), and you hit fire whenever you think that an enemy is “in range”:

Advancing from level to level is easy – all you need to do is survive and score an increasing number of kills:

At later levels, colorful enemies appear on the screen. Shooting them allows you to access a variety of special abilities like multiple shuriken or a “laser targeting sight”. Unfortunately, powerups expire rather quickly (indicated via the diamond at the bottom of the screen):

After having survived a few levels, enemies start to attack. You need to press the 5 key in time in order to block off attacks – the maximum time you can block is very limited, and the blocking process itself is annoyingly slow.

The plot and new game elements are explained in short “text slides” between the levels:

Finally: the camera interaction is limited to firing off shuriken. Performing a throwing motion in front of the camera fires off one shot – this has worked pretty well on my Nokia N71.

This review looked at version 1.04 of the game on a Nokia N71. Ninja Strike needs 4135KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card.

In the end, Ninja Strike is a very weird game – as the movement of the “hand” can not be controlled, the game is both an action game and a reaction tester. The motion control was rather unimpressive and is best left disabled. If the concept sounds appealing, get the free trial – the full version of the game costs and can be purchased at ClickGamer’s for 7 Euros (as of this writing).

Our friends at HP’s have recently provided the TamsPPC team with a sample of an OfficeJet 470 (we had to return it – don’t worry ). Having such a box in-house of course makes me curious to find out which gadget prints the best…surprisingly, the winner is my good ole’ N71.

The device connected to the OfficeJet via Bluetooth without needing drivers, printing software or anything else – it just connected and started spitting out useful stuff. Click the images below for full page scans:

Calendar
Calendar print-outs arrive in an outlook-like grid. As for the color scheme: it will likely make HP very happy due to the high amount of blue ink used…the design is debatable and cannot be changed:

Contacts
Contact printouts turn out surprisingly well. Notes get truncated weirdly – but the printouts can definitely be given to low-tech folk who need the contact:

Text messages/notes
Text messages and notes share the weird color layout – but turn out usable:

Images
The device seems to insist on placing the images in the center of the page – stretching them across a A4 page is not possible. Nevertheless, the images from the internal 2MP camera can look very usable in 10×15 – my family has received quite a few and likes them very much:

Cutting a long story short: the N71 cannot hide its EPOC roots and does an excellent job handling all kinds of print job. People who have a bluetooth printer will be happy to know this, everybody else should IMHO pass it off as a novelty item. Even though the 470 is transportable and battery-powered, the machine IMHO is WAY to heavy to be transported around all the time. People having two flats will appreciate it, however…

Ever since Tetris became a smash hit on the Nintendo Game Boy, the idea of games based on falling blocks has inspired generations of coders. AstraWare currently trades such a game against email adresses to send newsletters to – can the offer stack up?

Big Box of Blox requires you to sort blocks that fall from the ’skies’. Each block contains three cubes that can be rearranged while the block is in the air:

Blocks can also be moved horizontally and vertically:

Once a group of similar subblocks is established, they disappear:

The game can be played in a variety of modes. Each one contains a few special bricks, but behaves essentially the same otherwise:

This review looked at version 1.00 of the game on a Nokia N71. BBoB can be run from an external memory card and needs 1417KB of memory.

In the end, Big Box of Blox is a somewhat weird Tetris clone. As it is currently (all of July) free (if you are willing to give AstraWare your (disposable) email adress), puzzle game freaks could give the thing a pop. People who prefer action games are better served elsewhere, even though the price of a disposable email adress isn’t high…

The native S60 version of Google Maps has supported the use of real GPS hardware for quite some time. Even though most Nokia handsets include GPS nowadays, what happens if you have a last-gen phone? Find out how my Nokia N71 fared…

The first step to GPS goodness involves an external bluetooth GPS “mouse”. Literally hundreds of different types are available – I chose a Wintec G-Rays 2 for availability and cheapness. Power up the GPS…

Then, start Google Maps. Enable the My Location feature and activate GPS:

If this is the first time that you connect to your GPS mouse, the program will now ask you to choose the corresponding bluetooth device. If you have done so before, the program will look for satellites:

Once enough satellites have been found (can take 30 secs to 30mins, depending on position and receiver); your position will be shown:

While moving around, your position will be updated automatically:

Cutting a long story short: Google Maps with GPS is a pretty useful navigational aid, as there is no need to keep huge data files on your memory card. However, the program lacks quite a few features found in dedicated GPS systems: if you need for a compass, rotating maps or a tachometer, look elsewhere…

Nokia’s Snake SubSonic recently got a very lukewarm review – thus, the team decided to release a free theme compatible with all S60v3 handsets(even with handsets that can’t run the game itself). Does it stack up on a N71?

At first glance, the theme looks stunning:

Unfortunately, the “Settings” app of my N71 didn’t get skinned:

Nokia’s Skinning team made a huge mistake. The gradients do all the way to black – since many system dialog boxes use black fonts, the bottom part of the text becomes unreadable:

The theme takes 3771KB of memory when installed(and is unsigned – apparently, not even the folks at Nokia’s feel a need for app signage). Unfortunately, Nokia provides a zip file only – it can be downloaded here.

In the end, the theme looks lovely – but fails the every-day usability test. The mistake with the gradients is unforgivable even for a freeware theme: sorry, but Nokia definitely can do better.

Arkanoid, the game of paddle+ball+brick, has always been a very popular game ever since Taito made it popular with its famous Arkanoid of DOH series. S60 has had its fair share of Arkanoids over the years…and MobileStream’s Meteor Breakout wants to be the best. But can it stack up?

Meteor’s interface is very well-done. The splash screen takes you to a level selection toggle, where one of the nine available campaigns can be chosen:

After starting a game, one immediately notices the creativity of the game designers. Levels look really cool, and none is similar to the one before it. The engine supports a huge variety of brick types, leading to a very interesting overall gameplay experience:

A variety of powerups is available to spice up the game like in every other Arkanoid clone. For all who are new to Arkanoid, a powerup changes the behavior of the paddle if you touch it.

The variety of powerups is astonishing. For example, there are two different ’shoot’ powerups and three ball modifiers – more than I ever saw before:

Meteor’s levels are spiced up with enemies that can be destroyed by hitting them a few times with a ball. Some enemies survive more than one hit, and some of them even fire back:

Last but not least, the game has excellent sound effects. Unfortunately, the excellent background music seen in the Palm OS version was removed due to space constraints – mobile-stream is ready to reimplement it if sufficient demand turns up.

This review looked at version 1.4 of Meteor on a Nokia N71. The game was stable in the testing period, it needs 1848KB of memory and can be run from an external memory card.

Overall, congratulations to MobileStream. Meteor Breakout is the new king of Arkanoid clones for the S60. The game has extremely interesting gameplay and looks damn cool – a must have for every Arkanoid lover with an S60 phone…

Meteor costs 14.95$ in the TamsPalm store. Use the discount code ARKANOIDNOW to get 20% off the price for a week!

As expected, a WiMax version of the N810 internet tablet has debuted – here is a stock image of the box:

The color of the device was changed to black – that’s all that can be discerned from the outside. On the inside, nothing seems changed either except for the addition of WiMax – and a operating system update that also is available for the N800 and N810:

Also being introduced with the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition is the newest Internet Tablet operating system. This new upgraded OS2008 introduces useful new features to the platform, including an enhanced e-mail client, support for Chinese character rendering in the browser and RSS feeds and Seamless Software Update functionality to eliminate manual software updates, making periodic updates of the operating system quick and easy. While standard on the Nokia N810 WiMAX Edition, current owners of Nokia N810 and N800 Internet Tablets with earlier operating systems will be able to upgrade their device to the revised operating system for free during the second quarter of 2008.

P.S. The folks at Engadget have a few hands-on shots…

On my dual-screen workstation, I permanently have task manager open in order to show me how much of my CPU capacity is being used. With S60 being a multitasking OS, compiling similar numbers should be ultra-easy…but my task manager’s programmer apparently didn’t find it worth the effort. Can CpuMonitor satisfy me?

Once the application is started, it starts to draw a chart showing CPU and RAM usage. Unfortunately, the time base cannot be changed:

The image below shows Resco Neeews starting up and updating a few feeds. Interestingly, the program does not show free but rather used memory – a higher line means less free memory:

Last but not least, the application also shows the CPU type and its frequency:

This review looked at version 1.10 of the program on a Nokia N71. It needs 73KB of memory and can be installed onto an external memory card. The program’s Chinese homepage(you can’t find anything here) is here, version 1.10 can be downloaded from tamoggemon.com for your convenience.

In the end, CpuMonitor is an absolute must-have for every power user. If you don’t have this cool bit of freeware on your phone right now, get it from the link above. What are you waiting for?

Use the discount code CHEAPWRITE3 in the TamsShop for a 20% rebate on the list price!
Entering texts on devices with MultiTap keyboards has always been a royal pain in the butt – even the oh-so-famous T9 utility cannot change much about this. MobileSystem’s QuickWrite plans to do something different in order to speed up your typing – instead of forcing you to enter a full word and then guess what you meant, their application lets you enter the first letters and tries to guess the rest. Can it stack up?

After installing the application, you are presented with a slightly confusing screen asking you to choose a “text engine”. A text engine is a special “driver program” that converts key presses into characters – AknFEP is the default S60 one, while QuickWrite is MobiSystem’s improved version:

Once QuickWrite is the active text engine, various settings can be configured in a fashion similar to the various Settings panels of the operating systems:

QuickWrite can be enabled/disabled via the Shift key(#) – if it is enabled, three horizontal lines are shown next to the input mode indicator:

Here’s an example of the program in use:

After having tested QuickWrite in the Note Pad, I decided to torture it a bit with Opera – no issues whatsoever. Entering long URL’s and other stuff not contained in the dictionary is no problem whatsoever – you just keep on typing and ignore the suggestion box:

This review looked at QuickWrite v2.50 on a Nokia N71. The program needs approximately 2MB of RAM and CAN NOT be installed onto an external memory card.

In the end, QuickWrite is a true must-have for every MultiTap-keyboarded device. While the price of 30$ before our discount looks a bit hefty, rest assured that it is worth every penny if you enter a lot of text. Save yourself time and frustration – get the free trial and see if you can live without it(hint: you can’t).

When I began testing the N71’s LED flash, I was very disappointed with its range. However, further testing has made me think about using it as a torch – a feature that some Samsung phones have had years ago. Since Nokia omitted that feature from the N71, I was full of hope that NiceLight helps…but can it?

NiceLight’s menu is very simple. You click the desired choice, and get a screen announcing what the phone does:

Keeping the screen backlight up was a no-brainer – but the program’s developers apparently had a different perception of the meaning of camera LED. For them, camera LED means the useless red thingy that lights up whenever the N71 is filming:

As an added bonus, the product also contains a ‘night clock’ mode. It keeps the backlight on(at a configurable level) and displays a clock. While this can be useful for some, I recommend everyone with insomnia or other sleep problems to refrain from using it:

This review looked at version 1.0 of NiceLight on a Nokia N71. The program needs whooping 506 KB of memory and can luckily be run from an external memory card.

In the end, I am a very disappointed with. The white flash LED of my N71 can emit significantly brighter and stronger light bursts than the small red video LED used by NiceLight. The program basically is a night clock combined with a program that keeps the backlight on permanently(which is decently useful on my N71, but can probably also be achieved by pressing a key repeatedly). Get the free trial to find out if the app is worth its asking price of 9$…

Back in the age of the Siemens SX1, file managers for S60 devices were dime a dozen. When S60v3 came along, many manufacturers stopped to maintain their applications due to Symbian refusing to certify file managers for the ‘allfiles’ capability giving access to system folders. Lonely Cat Games’s X-plore is one of the few file managers still around – can it beat Nokia’s included one?

After starting up X-plore for the first time, the product displays its tree view interface. Unlike Nokia’s included file manager, X-plore always shows the full directory tree….a big plus:

Most ‘advanced’ operations are launched from the main menu accessible with the left soft key:

X-plore truly excels at handling zip archives. Zip archives are treated as ‘folders’ – and can be created easily on the go:

The program can also search for files(it always searches the contents of the currently selected folder):

An unique concept called ‘Favorite folders’ allows you to define folders that you frequently use. You can then visit them via the menu – without having to traverse the entire file system:

Incoming files can be analyzed by using the ‘messaging’ option:

Hidden/System files can be masked or shown:

Last but not least, the program features Lonely Cat’s classic scalable user interface – changing the size of the font affects the whole application:

This review looked at version 1.20 of X-plore on a Nokia N71. The program needs 416KB of memory and can be installed to an external memory card.

In the end, X-plore is an excellent file manager and can be considered a must-have for power users. The zip support alone is worth the small price of 10€; the additional features and excellent UI make managing files pleasant. Get this app now – you will not regret it!

A recent data-theft incident made me start to think about safety on mobile devices…our small computerized helpers contain tons of personal data. Palm OS/Windows Mobile devices can lock themselves; but S60 can not – can Advanced Device Locks fix this?

Advanced Device Locks is modeled like a Settings panel- the various modules can be toggled on and off here. Scrolling to the left allows you to configure the numeric unlock code:

Autolock locks the phone after some idle time – the time can be set in multiples of one minute using the menu:

The lock screen is very well-done; it covers up all on-screen data. As Advanced Device Locks supports numeric unlock codes only, unlocking the phone is painless even on a t9 multitap phone:

Last but not least, Application-level locks can be used to protect specific apps from unauthorized use. For example, the bluetooth and IRDA applets can be ‘protected” so that the master password is needed in order to access them(even if the phone is unlocked):

This review looked at v1.06(67) of Advanced Device Locks on a Nokia N71. The program needs 108KB of RAM and must be installed into phone memory for security reasons.

Overall, Advanced Device Locks is the king of automatic locking programs for S60 phones – and it’s the one I use. The program is small, stable and does an excellent job at keeping your phone’s data safe(even the data currently on screen) – if you have important data on your phone, use the discount code SAVEME to get 20% off this must-have title in the TamsShop!

As the cost per SMS has begun to droop lower and lower, SMS spam starts to become a significant problem for many users. Webgate’s SMS Spam Manager promises to be a spam filter for your S60 phone’s short messaging service inbox – can it stack up?

The Active Mode toggle allows you to configure he filter mode. The program can accept or block all incoming messages. Additionally, it can accept SMS only from people in the phonebook – or use a filter list:

Filters can be set up using the Rules tab. Filters can target specific phone numbers, number ranges(e.g. no calls from Zimbabwe for me) or specific text passages in the message body(e.g. no SMS from the ex for me):

SMS Spam Manager can lock itself as a “system service’, and can automatically start whenever your phone is powered up. Additionally, it can display a small icon whenever it is active:

Incoming spam messages are absorbed silently – they can be analyzed in the log tab. False positives can be moved to the inbox manually:

This review looked at version 1.05(70) of SMS Spam Manager on a Nokia N71. The program needs 121KB of RAM and can be installed onto a memory card.

In the end, WebGate’s SMS Spam Manager is a killer tool against all kinds of SMS spam. Should your phone ever come under attack, get this application by all means. The price of 10$ is a small fee to pay for total peace of mind…