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Issue: 4ContentsEditorial � Sophie EDITORIAL � Read Carefully � by Sophie You may have noticed some unusual items in the last issue. For those of you who didn�t spot it the Navi was an April Fools. There weren�t too many people fooled, but there were one or two requests for pictures and more information, some from those who should have known better! Richard also slipped a couple of fools into the software sections. Seti@Phone was a figment of his imagination as was MiniCPS � Symbian may be advanced and powerful, but it is not quite there yet! The Seti@Phone announcement created some interest around the web and seems to have been picked up by one or two news sites. More details on the Your Symbian / All About Symbian Pub Meet are now available on the AAS website: http://www.allaboutsymbian.com/site/pub.php. The meet will take place the day before the Symbian Exposium, and we hope than many of the delegates to the Exposium will be at the meet � it should be a Symbian hotspot for the evening. There�s going to be plenty of prizes on offer for those who attend too. Talking of the Exposium � the next issue is due just before things kick off so you can expect a quick preview of what will be happening. The following issue will of course have a report of some of the highlights from the Exposium. I won�t be there (still in the South Atlantic), but several of our writers will be (like me, look for the kilt � Ewan). If there�s any specific questions you want addressed or want to know about please let us know � [email protected]. Your Symbian seems to be growing quickly. There�s now more than 7,200 readers. Please pass this issue on to any of your friends if you think they will enjoy it. Thanks and so long for now, Sophie
SOFTWARE ROUNDUP � by Richard Your phone can tell you a lot of things. If you want to know the time, you can look at your phone and it will tell you, just like that, because there it is, on your screen! Great! It will even tell you what the date is if you ask it nicely. Something that's really handy is if someone phones you it will tell you who it is that's phoning you - so if it's that annoying git who just wants to tell you why their life sucks, you can hang up before they get onto why the world owes them a favour! Heck, your phone can even tell you that you're sad if you can scroll from the top of your contacts list right down to the very bottom in three clicks! But now, thanks to a free application from a talented chap called David Carson, your phone can tell you your IP address! You can download it from http://www.my-symbian.com (search for IP View) and enhance your geek factor tenfold! However, if you're ever looking for a biscuit and can't find one, rest assured that I know who has it. It's a company called Kalaxi (http://www.kalaxi.com) who took the biscuit when they made their claim regarding Rainbow, a very addictive Java game that involves lining up coloured blocks. It is a tad expensive but you're bound to get lots of hours of fun and frolics out of it. Anyway, back to the claim... What is this claim? Am I being harsh? Judge for yourself when you read that this game is a game you could die for. Hmmmmm. It�s a good game, but if I'm thinking twice about paying $12.95 for it, I hardly think I'm going to be willing to put my existence on the line. You can download a trial from http://www.handango.com. But don't worry, not all software is expensive, and not all free software is poor (see above). Take for example two excellent examples of free software. The first is FileExplorer by Dominique Hugo (http://users.skynet.be/domi/fexplorer.htm). Far from being a poor man's File Explorer, this is an application designed by the users! Dominique has been releasing version after version on All About Symbian for some time now and has been taking on board suggestions by users. So, Version 1.08 Final has been released and offers more features than you could shake a fiver at... And since it's free, you don't even need that fiver! The next free application is another example of how one person's passion can bring joy to many. Pie Cafe (http://www.piecafe.demon.co.uk/) has been writing software for Epoc family machines since the Psion Series 3 and has been feeding the children ever since. Anybody who owns a Nokia 92x0 and has a passing interest in astronomy needs to know about Solun' ( http://www.piecafe.demon.co.uk/jsolun.htm ), a free astronomy application which provides sky charts, interactive 3D Orerry models, world map, moon phase, Galilean Moons, Saturns rings and so much more (unlike the medical software I mentioned some editions ago, I actually know what some of these things are ;0-). Outstanding, informative, educational... And they're just the bad points! So imagine my shock pleasure at finding a version for Series60 phones! Solun'-u is a 'Petite Planetarium' for Java enabled mobiles, but a version for Series60 devices is available, taking advantage of the extra power that they pack. It hardly takes up any space (Space! Geddit!? Har! Har!) and is free. Crash bang wallop, what a package, what a useful tool! Sure, it's been out since February, but I just had to mention it! Go on, you know you want it -> http://www.piecafe.demon.co.uk/usolun.htm. Slap it on yer phone and let us explore the universe together! Busy executive project planner types out there may be interested to know that Twiddlebit Software (http://www.twiddlebit.com/) have updated their excellent Plan6 planning software. It's compatible with Microsoft Project and certainly packs in quite some features. If you're looking for a way to manage contacts on your 92x0 machine, you may find a use for Butler. It allows you to store more than the usual amount of data for contacts and it is fully searchable. However, you may want to be sure that you really need this package since it's not cheap at $39. If it is what you need to organise your social and business life, send 'em your pennies and they'll send you the Butler (get it from http://www.handango.com/ since the home page http://www.best-buy-software.se is rather bare at the moment). Would there be anything else sir? Not now, thank you Jeeves. You may retire to your quarters. Laters dudes and dudettes!
LOOKING AT THE MARKET � Selling the Next Best Thing I'm sure there are going to be a few people out there reading this wondering why I'm looking at Nokia and not Symbian (Yep! - Sophie). The reason for this is going to be immediately clear to those in the business (so around 26 readers then - Sophie). I'll discuss Symbian and their place in the big scheme of things in another issue, but for the moment, Nokia is selling the majority of Symbian OS devices, and is seen as a strong driving force. As mentioned last time around, I thought I'd look at the strategy of the two main players in the portable computer market today (Nokia and Microsoft). How exactly are they going to get their device into your pocket rather than the other one? Let's step back a few years and look at the then groundbreaking WAP phone, the Nokia 7110. The big news on this phone was the navi-roller (a sort of track ball that only rolled up and down, plus clicking to select an option), and that, for the first time, the mobile internet was available on a phone. I'm not sure what I had been picking up my email for the 3 years previous to this phone (it was a Psion 3a, and I think they meant WAP was on the phone for the first time - Sophie). The interface was highlighted as being smooth, easy to use and a good extension of the existing menus on older Nokia phones. Now known as NOS (Nokia Operating System) this features on the last generation of phones (such as the teeny 8210 and middle of the road 6210 series). But what's relevant to us here is this... All those 7110 "super advanced only for the top users" features are now par for the course on your average phone. They've slowly become standard. Of course the 7650 is now the top of the range phone, with its own incredibly packed feature list - just as the 7110 once had. A lot of the 7650 interface - called Series 60 - has been slimmed down from it's cousin, the Psion 5mx. It's become a lot easier to use for the 'normal' user (back to the 80/20 rule from last week) while still retaining the power the geeks needs. And it feels very similar to the standard Nokia interface. Nokia have spent years on this slow build-up, to get to the point where the mass market phone is perceived as needing these features. They're almost there, and when the Series 60 devices explode on the market this year, you know that the back door is wide open. The 7650�s were the test bed (and 2 million early adopters made it a highly profitable bed). This year sees the 3650 - a skeleton key if ever there was one. But Nokia's possible killer move is, for the first time, allowing their interface (always considered to be a Nokia strong point) to be licenced by other manufactures. There are already a good number of manufacturers (such as Siemens) lining up to release their own phone built around the Series 60. The $5 licence fee for Series 60 goes straight to Nokia. Add in a similar $5 licence fee to Symbian, multiply by the estimated 10-15 million units to be sold this year and you can see that while 2003 may yet become the year of the Symbian smartphone, it 's quite clearly the year the Bank managers suddenly realise this little British Operating System is quite possibly poised to take over the world. But waiting in the wings is The Biggest Corporate Giant In The World (tm) trying to squeeze itself into the mobile computing market. What is Microsoft doing? Find out at the same bat time, same bat channel, in Issue 5.
WEB ROUND UP � by Jordan ** Symbian Vs Microsoft Smartphone ** A thread on All About Symbian brought up the regular topic of Symbian Vs Microsoft Smartphone. Now bringing up something like this on a site dedicated to either Os has 'flame war' written all over it. But its got me thinking (and checking out the competition). With sales of the SPV remaining in the relatively lowish thousands and the 7650 alone at over a million sold so far, what does Microsoft have to do to 'win the hearts and minds' (at the risk of sounding like George W'ya) of the hardcore Symbian fans and more importantly the future potential 'mass market' buyers. Even a most hardcore Microsoft fans will admit that the Smartphone OS has been at best slow and buggy, not to say Symbian has been without problems. But each have their own plus and minus points here is a quick list of 3 points which I feel are the main points each OS has going for it and what bad points they have comparing the Nokia 7650/3650 and Microsoft Smartphone powered Orange SPV (Which I feel are based at around the same end user) Nokia 7650/3650: Plus Points: Minus Points: Orange SPV: Plus Points: Minus Points: I realise that I am a Symbian user, but it�s not because I hate Microsoft, it is because I genuinely believe the Symbian is the Better OS for my needs. And I also think it is set to take off in a huge way. Microsoft (hereby referred to as "prime liability") still have a lot of work to do to even get close at the moment and recent alleged events surrounding their departure with Sendo hasn�t exactly inspired confidence into their potential business partners. Make sure you visit the Orange stand at Symbian Exposium (Symbian platinum partners for the event) ;-)
Can Symbian make you crazy?�well some of the guys over at My-Symbian certainly are in my books. They have taken it upon themselves to rip apart their P800�s and start soldering all in the name of�erm�.memory? They have successfully created several different �mods� to allow you to use the regular (and cheaper) Sony Memory Stick. It basicly consists of ripping apart a regular memory stick, attaching wires to it and then by either solder or by creating a �dummy� memory stick duo placing all the right parts in the right place of the memory stick slot. Perhaps in time we will see an add-on kit to allow this but for now I�d say keep the soldering iron out of arms way unless you fancy voiding your warranty and damaging your phone.
The Register ran an article at the beginning of this week with some thoughts and rumours regarding the now Open Source OPL development language, which all the Psion users out there should be aware of. Also mentioned some strange mysterious bloke called Ewan Spence, it rings a bell but I can�t quite put my finger on it (me neither must be some nutter � Sophie). http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/68/30135.html Anyway for those who don�t know OPL is a Simple BASIC like development language originally based around the Psion which attracted �hobby� developers like s**t to a stick. If these rumours are true and there is an announcement at the end of the month at Symbian Exposium then I anticipate more applications/games that you could ever imagine or at least fit on your phone. It would be great news to someone like me who wants to take up programming for my device but can�t be arsed learning C++/Java and would prefer to read one of the lovely tutorials which have been appearing as if by magic on All About Symbian for quite sometime now. ** Symbian Diaries / Symbian Open Source Launch ** This week sees the launch of 2 band spanking new sites for you to get involved in. The first being Symbian Diaries, somewhere for you all to waffle on about your latest Symbian project, how many cars you counted on the way home from work�whatever you like. http://www.symbiandiaries.com/ Also launching this week is Symbian Open Source, if you�re a budding developer this is the place for you. It is a web site that offers free web hosting for open-source symbian projects and directory services, be sure to check it out. Jordan: Hey Muffy, do you have anything you want me to add about your new site? http://www.symbianopensource.com
THE NAVI, VAPOURWARE AND TURNING JAPANESE � By Ewan To all of you who want to know who made The Navi, where they could get it, and a hundred and one other details, shame on you. The first Your Symbian issue of April? YS was brought to you by the letters "A," "P," "R," "I," "L," and the number "1?" I can hear thousands of people going "Doh!" right about now. Shame on <the other websites who picked it up> and shame on those who were distracted by our Apps round up where one or two apps don't exist yet either (ah the double bluff worked then? - Richard). But "The Navi" raises a serious point. What is just about believable in a corporate press release this year was seen as fanciful last year and science fiction the year before that. If we look back at The Navi next year it wouldn't surprise me to see it looking old hat... apart from maybe the battery recharging by wanking feature (really how could you lot miss that one - Deckard). Two week after writing the article, I see an announcement that Texas Instruments is integrating components of the 3D Graphics Card system directly onto their next CPU's for the mobile/PDA industry. So it's not all smoke and mirrors... Which leads me to Vapourware. Let's pull out "The Big Book Of CSW-JMU." (Computing Standards We Just Made Up). Vapourware: Something that doesn�t exist now, and more than likely never will, even in the future. In other words, hold the front page, we're promising the Earth and it will be here... soon... Hardware is the biggest culprit here. A quick search of the current Symbian forums turns up a device that�s a Microsoft driven Windows CE device, about half the size of the 7650 (or the Swedish Brick as they describe their leading competitor). But where is it? For a long time the P800 was considered vapourware. It's forerunner, the Sony Ericsson T68 almost single-handedly saved Ericsson's balance sheet while the P800 was developed. Considering the strong rumours of Engineers battling to delay the retail launch of the device (to ensure solid software), and you can understand the rest of the Industry watching the dates slip to early 2003. It's here now, but for a long time the market would have considered you a fool (and a communist) to think you'd every hold one. What about the Morphy One? A promised successor to the HP200lx, it was to be an open hardware PC that would run pretty much anything you throw at it. Or even the oft-mentioned colour screen Psion pocket device. All devices which were (in one way or another) promised to the consumer, failed to materialise, and disappeared almost as rapidly as the fortunes of the parent companies (okay Psion is an unusual case, but it's a hard example to resist). Vapourware is the ultimate in modern age paranoia. I'm not doing something because I know that this company have something much better. What's more likely is the company, having used up the funds it has, needs to generate more interest in a business plan, getting the investors round, and sitting down over a big fat cheque. The quickest way? Announce the device and watch (pray?) that the phone rings with some folding stuff. So while the next best thing is always just around the corner, always be aware it is more than likely never what it seems. You have to buy what suits you today. Not tomorrow, not three months down the line, or next year. If you need it now, get it now. Don't wait. Now, I can almost taste some hot chocolate with my name on it. Can I wait? Nope.
STAFF INTRODUCTION � Hayden Hello, my name is Hayden, I'm 21, and a Taurus. I've been an author for YS since issue 3. Damn that feels like a whole 2 weeks ago, and should be a regular submitter. Many people will recognise my writing style as SwitchBlade, posting rants and raves on AAS. For those who may care, my first introduction to "Symbian" came with a Psion Organiser my mate had, and us buggering about writing OPL apps for it. Later on other friends got Series 3 and 5 Psions with their nice big screens, keyboards and pretty clamshell design. I finally got into the sphere of PDAs, about 18 months back when I acquired a 9210 from a friend (many thanks Insomniac - there you go I got you a shout in mate). A search then began, for software, information, reviews, and people. That search culminated at a website called AllAboutER6 (now called All About Symbian), where I found the beginnings of what I was after. After finding the site in November 2001, I quickly became a top poster and then in April 2002 I volunteered to help out with the running of the site in any way I could. This involved posting news articles, rambles, opinions, doing reviews of software, and ultimately culminated in me joining the Your Symbian project to lend my inimitable writing style to the talents of the other authors. As well as working on stuff in the Symbian field, I also wrote some articles in various places on BeOS related subjects and also submitted some articles to the Hugi disk magazine. In my writing I try not to hide behind being nice to people, it's all to easy to find that in being nice you don't tell the truth. I aim to post the truth as I see it, and in many cases the truth is varied by position and opinion. In every article I write you'll see a glance into the world I work and live in and how I like things set up around me. Be it as an Application, a device, or my mad visions for the future, I aim to bring you the information in the way that I enjoy and should hopefully make People laugh in places, coz there's nothing better than a happy reader. Well that should about wrap it up, Sophie gave me a word target and I've had to pad it out with rubbish to get there but hell, it's just like the rest of my articles. So till I write again, be excellent to each other, and get all your mates to subscribe to YS.
YS LETTERS PAGE � edited by Ewan Dear Sophie, What have I done? It�s not as if I haven�t been a dedicated Features writer. Nor is it the Backstops causing problems (people love them, I know). It�s not even the fact I prefer Trios to a certain other brand of chocolate biscuit. So why the Z80A do I have to edit yet another letter page for Your Symbian??? People love Your Symbian, but beyond �we like the magazine� there�s only ever a few in-depth letters that make any sense. But we�re not running Symbian User here, I can�t fend of a million requests for Hex Code listings or Technical Support� and even if we were the support issues are asking about full duplex audio transmission on a non-default carrier. I can only explain Sim locking so many times before I want to take my Sim and sharpen the edges on my wrists. Look at what I have to work with for this issue. Pacharan decides to launch a well reasoned argument about why we should switch to an html based email, so we can do formatting, pictures, proper headlines and loads of other things. Yet not one other letter even mentions it. Is he mad? Maybe he the sane one and everyone else is off their trolley? Or is Pacharan a she? Can I find anything to get my teeth into? Debarrys wants a find feature on his phone. He points out Palm have had one for years that searches over every app in the machine. Could YS help him find something? What about the classy slogan competition we started. Lots of YS T-shirts as prizes. Were there any entries? Nope. Was it difficult? Nope. I really worry I�m loosing a grip on the letters page I�m going forward in time to see if the situation improves. On the night I arrive, you�ll be shot at by Terrorist penguins. Please take whatever steps to prevent this happening. Your Friend,
BACKSTOP � All for one, and one for all!!! � By Hayden All for one, and one for all!!! No longer just the cry of the fabled three musketeers, but now the cry of the electronics industry. For example, you have been able to by stereo systems for years that have CD, cassette, radio and vinyl playback all in one unit, you can now buy televisions with digital decoders, VHS recorder and DVD player all in one unit. You can buy electric cookers with a built in microwave, and games consoles with built in CD and DVD video playback. Now the mobile telephone is getting the treatment, yeah we all know about smartphones and their amazing uses but what's the need of them. Integrated appliances are one of the most oft pushed "new" things, take 2 or more things, like a printer, a fax and a photocopier, and stick them all together in one box, the 3in1 fax machine. The idea behind this is to save the end user both space and money. Do you get the same quality in an "all in one" as in separates? This is debatable, in the case of a fridge freezer or cooker then yes, in the case of a television or stereo the answer is no. As anyone would have noticed, in order to sell more smartphones, companies are adding more and more features to the list of things that their product can do. The smartphone is a combination of a PDA and mobile phone, and now items like an mp3 player, a radio tuner, video camera are being integrated into this device. Obviously this �berphone lacks some of the features expected in the separate devices. The video quality is on a par with a webcam but eats the space, similar with the still camera, mp3 player is in mono (although stereo units are hitting the streets), the PDA isn't as fully featured as a real one, and the radio tuner, well that is as good as a walkman's one. Now, most people I know have all in one systems for their stereos, some for their VCR, but I'm on separates for everything, personally I like to select the various devices for the sound quality. Similarly I was looking for a series 5mx to go with my Nokia 6210 as a PDA/phone combo, until I got the offer of a 9210. The reason I bought was that the 9210 was a fully fledged PDA with a telephone on the top side that had all the features that my 6210 had. Now the Sony Ericsson P800 is about which is a full PDA with pen input as opposed to keyboard. Now a smartphone is the in between stage, it can be a PDA, but lacks the refining features that make a PDA most useful which is mostly the method of input. Here is where we get to the stage where the integrated mobile phone can be seen as a jack of all trades yet a master of none. T9 input will let you send texts, short e-mails, and help web browsing. Unfortunately you can't sensibly write an essay, or take notes in lectures or meetings, or create spreadsheets with ease, these are all common uses of a PDA due to their ease of use to carry and small size making them preferable to carrying a full laptop. As for the phone, the other main use, a lot of people complain that the size and shapes make the devices unwieldy for use as a phone. As standard phones get smaller and slimmer, people don't want to spend out on an all-singing device if it's not going to fit easily in the palm of the hand with buttons stupidly small. Personally I find the size of the 9210 to be perfect, smaller than a landline handset, but big enough for your hand and to be a usable device, such as to write this document on. As for their musical uses, I feel th at these devices don't achieve similar audio qualities to a normal Walkman, though if Sony really had much input the P800 should sound great (who want's to loan me one to try? No-one, bah!). For the foreseeable future, a competent device will not shrink to the size people want for a phone, and if it did it would require an intuitive fast input method and a small screen clear enough to display plenty of data. So will an all-in-one, become one for all? Possibly but certainly not yet as some people need the extra features, an others don't want any and like tiny size. The 9210 is so far the best design idea and although under powered compared to the P800 it shouldn't be long until Nokia get their fingers out and give it a decent make over, which is getting long overdue.
CONCLUSION AND FEEDBACK And that�s issue 4. I hope you�ve enjoyed reading and if you have any feedback... Let me know what you think! A short email to [email protected] with what you liked, what you didn't like, and what you would change, would go a long way to making a better magazine. -- Sophie
COPYRIGHT AND NOTES Your Symbian was brought to you by the letters "Y" and "S" and the Copyright (c) Your Symbian 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be coped in any form without written permission. Some trademarks are referred to in this publication; these are for information purposes only. All trademarks remain the property of their respective owners. The views expressed within are not necessarily the view of Your Symbian, but rather the individual authors. And gay men don�t have the monopoly on being camp. |