We have looked at GeoTagging - tagging your photos with GPS data to mark where they were taken - before on Pocket Picks. The most notable implementation to date on Nokia S60 phones has been Nokia Beta Labs’ own Nokia Location Tagger.
While that was a creditable attempt, its main problem is that it is a standalone application. Nobody is going to come out and claim that the camera software most Nokia phones is anything to write home about, but it is pretty comprehensive and - most importantly - it is what most users are familiar with.
Well done, then, to ADnota GeoTag for S60 3rd Edition phones. Adnota integrates into the existing photo software and adds tags in EXIF format.
The app is freeware and derived from a (shareware) app called Adnota Album - which features a few more tricks and useful tools.
If you use your phone to play MP3 files - either music or recorded ‘dictaphone’ clips - or if you like using music clips as ringtones, then this could be for you.
MP3Cube is a free utility for S60 phones that is basically a scaled-down audio editor, The app lets you chop up MP3 files into smaller chunks (useful for grabbing the intro to a song for use as a ringtone, for example).
MP3Cube also lets you downsample MP3 files - this just means reducing the audio quality of the track to make a smaller file. This is particularly useful for spoken word tracks as the space savings can be significant without losing much in the way of audible quality.
Information about track length, ID3 tags, etc can also be viewed using the app, and it also works as an MP3 player of course.
Because this is running on a low powered smartphone, rather than a desktop PC, things can be a little slow - particularly on longer tracks - but for short editing tasks on the move this is a useful app and worth a download.
Ooh, this is a clever idea. If you use Google Mail you might be impressed by all that lovely storage space (6.5 GB at last count!) but somewhat stuck about what to use it all for.
Well, it’s not likely to make too big a dent, but if you own a S60 3rd Edition mobile and have £9.95 burning a hole in your paypal account you could always spend it on GSync - a new product from Psiloc that lets you archive you SMS and MMS messages to your Google Mail inbox.
The app could barely be simpler to use - it just sits in the background and sends SMS/MMS messages to Google Mail at a specified schedule. Messages appear as emails (obvious, really) and the system makes full use of Google Mail’s ability to group together messages by the same person.
The software can only sync up to 200 messages per day - this appears to be a limit set by Google rather than Psiloc - any extra message are simply queued until the following day, and then uploaded.
But seriously, who gets more than 200 texts a day?
A few weeks ago we took a look at a handy little Nokia Beta Labs product called Text Messenger which displays and manages SMS messages via a couple of Windows desktop widgets.
Useful as it is, Text Messenger only works with Windows Vista.
If you are one of the thousands of Microsoft users who haven’t ‘upgraded’ to their latest OS, we wouldn’t want you to miss out so here is a rather similar bit of software from Psiloc - BlueText.
You will need a PC running Windows XP (or Vista) and some manner of BlueTooth capability through a USB dongle, etc. Once installed, you simply pair the software with you phone and get cracking.
The interface is a bit basic, but clean, and new texts can be read and replied to with the minimum of fuss.
BlueText costs $15 and is available here. One caveat is that the current version only works with Microsoft and Widdcomm BlueTooth drivers.
Playing games on a mobile can be a frustrating experience - N-Gages aside, few phones are built for the the precise controls that any decent action game requires and fat-fingered players won’t know whether they are running or jumping.
Sure, there are specialist game pad add-ons available, but these are not cheap and few but the most dedicated mobile gamers would actually pay for one.
MobiPad lets Wii owners use their magic wands with their UIQ or S60 mobiles.
The app pairs your phone and a Wii controller via Bluetooth and runs on all Symbian OS S60 3rd edition and UIQ3 devices.
In practice, the Wii controller works like as standard ‘Gameboy style’ D-Pad and button combo. The Wii controller’s motion-sensors are supported by MobiPad’s code but the developers are still figuring out what to map it’s controls to on the phone. Perhaps as we see more accelerometer based games appearing this feature might come into its own.
MobiPad is a free download, available here.
Social music site Last.FM uses a process called ‘Audioscrobbling’ to automatically grab data about music you are listening to and upload it to a central database.
Data from ’scrobbled’ tracks is used to build up a profile of your musical taste. Last.FM uses this profile to assemble a personalised streaming music station of similar artists and musical styles.
Asplayer is a Python app that brings this functionality to S60 3rd Edition phones for the first time. It only supports the scrobbling side of the equation at the moment - artist and title data from tracks played on your phone’s media player are uploaded to Last.FM using your internet connection - you will still need to go to the Last.FM website in order to listen to your customised playlist.
Asplayer is available here and requires a copy of Python for S60 and an account with Last.Fm, all available for free.
Pocket Picks takes no responsibility for readers whose musical taste generates streams of 80s hair metal or progressive jazz. You have only yourselves to blame.
Microsoft has signed a deal with Nokia to bring its Silverlight platform to millions of mobile phones. If you are wondering what on earth Silverlight is, it is essentially a browser plugin that enables rich web content such as animation, vector graphics, and audio-video playback.
Allowing the software to run on the Symbian operating system on Nokia mobiles marks an extremely aggressive push for Microsoft into the mobile web space as well as what might be the beginning of the end for watered down, clunky mobile web browsing. The union is also an unlikely consolidation of efforts between two companies that have been competing in various areas of mobile technology.
Continue reading ‘Breaking news: Microsoft and Nokia targeting mobile internet together’
As we may have mentioned, we rather like the old Palm OS devices here at Pocket Picks. Whatever your misgivings about the PDAs themselves, you can’t deny that they had one of the best libraries of freware and shareware pps around - over 20,000 apps at the last count.
StyleTap is a Palm OS emulator that has been available on Windows Mobile for some time, claiming high levels of compatabilty to that lovely library of apps and games and operating a ‘Runs on StyleTap’ certification program that app developers can use to show their compatibilty with StyleTap.
The publishers have just announced plans for a Symbian port and - crucially - a version for the iPhone. Assuming they get it working with the iPhone SDK, this could be a great way to extend the Apple handset’s capabilities.
Syntrax is not the most useful bit of S60 and Windows Mobile software out there, but for a certain type of person - one who likes electronic music, bleepy synthesizers and harbours secret ambitions to perform with The Orb - it is great fun.
Syntrax is a bit like a scaled down version of the PC/Mac synth Rebirth. Wheras Rebirth emulated a variety of real-world analogue synths like the TR-808 and TR-303, Syntrax is more like a ‘tribute’ to analogue synths with its cut-down display and sawn-off sequencer.
It’s pretty powerful for all that. For the cost of a download, you get an 8-track midi-compatible sequencer, synth and a sample editor.
You can build your own tracks from scratch or play with one of the library of presets and example tracks. The only limitation in the version linked here is a lack of Save option - but a free registration will soon take care of that.
VITO Technology are celebrating their 7th birthday by selling all their Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, S60 and UIQ software for $7 a pop.
They seem to have been producing apps t the rate f about ten a day during their 7-year history, with a huge back catalogue of apps. Some of thes, like VITO Audioplayer, have freeware equivalents, but there are some gems.
Some of their better efforts have passed through PocketPicks before, including Pocket PC GPS utility VITO Find Me, S60 dictaphpne VITO AudioNotes and Windows Mobile SMS threader SMS-CHAT.
If you have $7 burning a hole in your account, the offer runs until Feb 26th.
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