Nokia Beta Labs isn’t just there for the Symbian things in life. As well as pumping out bleeding edge S60 apps at what seems like a rate of twenty or so a day, Nokia have also released experimental PC software - usually novel takes on their synching apps or ways of controlling you phone from the desktop.
Nokias Music is at first glance a bit of a departure, given that it is an iTunes-like music player and organiser that lets you manage your digital music collection and hook up to a wide range of MP3 players. You can knock together playlists and rip CDs directly to connected devices.
Obviously, this primarily intended to e used with Nokia phones like the N81 and N95 but perhaps leaving things open will convince a few people to give a music-oriented smartphone a try - particularly when Nokia rolls out more phone-oriented features like Nokia Music Store integration.
Nokia Music PC Client is a 63MB download for Windows Vista and XP with service pack 2, available here.
Nokia’s Beta Labs seem to be going all out to try different ways of connecting your phone to your PC.
Beta Labs tryouts Nokia Text Messenger, Nokia PC Phone and My Mobile Site Widgets and the original and much-maligned PC Suite have been joined by Nokia Communication Center.
Communication Center is intended to replace four components of PC Suite - Phone Browser, Text Message Editor, Contacts Editor, and Multimedia Factory.
Not everything is working yet, but you can already create andd manage text and multimedia messages, manage contacts and view messages on a timeline.
If Beta Labs gets decent feedback they plan to incorporate the technology in future releases of PC Suite so why not give it a try and let them know what you think?
The official mobile DivX player, DivX Mobile, has received a major update which adds support for DivX’s video on demand service.
DivX Inc. (the company) makes DivX (the video codec) which allows for high-quality video compression with relatively low file sizes. DivX Inc. have launched a VOD service that allows participants to download movies in DivX format from several partner content suppliers.
The mobile version of the client software - which until now only offered playback of locally-stored content - runs on Symbian S60 and UIQ devices. Version v.90 also includes numerous bug fixes.
The app is available free (alongside a windows program that will let you convert other formats to DivX) although you will need to register with the company to be able to download it.
BTProx is a simple app for Windows PCs that lets you take advantage of the most basic function in any Bluetooth session - the ability to detect a device.
Load it up under Windows 2000, XP and Vista with a suitable Bluetooth device - either built in or a USB dongle - and pair your PC with your phone.
BTProx will check to make sure your phone is within range. if it isn’t, it will activate your screensaver to lock your screen or optionally run the program of your choice.
Maybe a bit on the paranoid side if you are sitting at home, but if you work in an open plan office you might wish to conceal the open Pocket Picks RSS feed on your screen when you nip to the loo.
BtProx is free and open source.
There are no shortage of Instant Messaging clients for Windows Mobile and Symbian, and it takes quite a bit to impress us here at Pocket Picks.
Palringo is a new multi-platform IM app for Windows Mobile, Symbian S60 3rd Edition, Windows and Java that might just make the grade.
Palringo supports all the popular IM services (Google Talk, AIM, MSN, etc) as well as its own network. The most significant difference between Palringo and these other services is the addition of Vioce and Picture messaging. Using your phone (or PC) you can take photos or short audio clips and send them to your Palringo contacts. You can also send these through to some of the other supported networks, where they will appear as a web link to the hosted file on Palringo’s server.
If you are a heavy IM user perhaps the most useful feature is the ability to sign in to multiple instances of each service. I use one Google Talk account for work and another for chatting to friends and updating Twitter, etc, and this is a feature I have been waiting for for a long time.
There are still a few rough edges - new IM conversations can end existing ones, for example - but these are being worked on by the Palringo development team.
Palringo is a free download, available here.
Last week we took a look at PC-based mini webserver Miniserver which made it simple to transfer files between a PC and an S60 phone. Two slight problems with Miniserver are that it is Windows-only and it will only allow access to one PC at a time (unless you install copies on several PCs). More seriously, the connection is not password protected or encrypted and so might be open to unscrupulous hackers.
SymSMB tackles the problem from the other end by effectively turning your phone into a small windows networking device. As other operating systems (e.g. Mac OS X and Linux) can also speak the same Windows networking protocol (SMB or ‘Samba’ to its friends) this means you will be able to communicate with non-windows machines as well.
SymSMB is a 3rd Edition S60 app, so you only need to install it on your phone and it will be able to connect to as many other machines as you have passwords for.
Ever wanted to copy a file from your PC onto your phone, but don’t fancy the hassle of connecting via USB and fiddling around with a file manager?
If your phone supports wifi and you have a Windows XP machine, Miniserver could be just what you need.
Miniserver is - as its name might suggest - a mini webserver.
Install it on your PC and tell it the directories that you want to share and then simply use your phone’s wifi connection to browse to a specially-created web page where you can download files from the shared directory to your phone, or vice-versa.
As well as an XP PC you will need a working wifi router that both the PC and phone can connect to. The app will autodetect your PC’s network settings and tell you the address to which you need to point your phone’s browser.
Although the app can be configured to run automatically when your PC starts up, it doesn’t seem to have much in the way of security so I would recommend not sharing any sensitive files and only enabling it when you need to copy a file - at least until that version number climbs a little higher.
A common complaint about Windows Mobile is that, while it gives you a reasonably powerful SmartPhone OS and has much of the functionality of a small laptop, it can be a pain to actually use that functionality via a combination of tiny keypad and stylus unless you have the dainty hands of a preschool child or an elf.
My Mobiler might be the answer. Hook your Windows Mobile (2003, 5 or 6) up to a PC, install the app and you can start manipulating the phone using your full-sized keyboard and mouse and your big sausage fingers.
If you need to cut and paste SMS or contact data or drag ‘n’ drop files between folders on your phone this is a lot more intuitive than using the ActiveSync suite and you might find yourself wishing you could lug the keyboard around with you in your coat pocket.
Nokia have released updates the firmware (the built-in software that runs the phone) to both the N81 and N95 8GB devices.
The N81 update provides improvements to Wi-Fi performance and management, memory handling and camera stability, while the N95 8GB receives bug fixes to Nokia Maps and the integrated web browser.
The updates can be downloaded using the Nokia Software Updater - or at least it can if you have access to a PC running either Windows 2000, XP or Vista. Mac and Linux users are out of luck, as are people who just don’t own a computer.
Aren’t Nokia always telling us that our phones are computers nowadays, anyway? As both phones have wireless internet access and 8 GB of storage, surely it should be possible to download this kind of update straight to the phone without a PC acting as middle-man?
This month has seen the launch of two mobile music services, competing for the ears of the mobile-equipped music fan.
Nokia’s Music Store and Vodafone’s MusicStation both offer DRM-laden music downloads, on a per-track or per-album basis (Music Store) or by paying a fixed monthly fee for unlimited access to their music libraries (Both services).
The two services appear quite similar at first glance - how do they compare?
Continue reading ‘Hands on: Vodafone MusicStation versus Nokia Music Store’
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