N – Night and day, I dream about it since it’s announced.

O – Of course I feel this is going to be the greatest Nokia event in years.

K – Kuala Lumpur to London. 12 hours flight. 6,557 miles/ 10,552 kilometres!

I – I cant wait to be the among the first to see Nokia’s awesomenesss.

A – A year of waiting has passed since last year’s Nokia World.

W - What would I do if I go there? A lot. I want to document all the moments from leaving the house to the flight, to the events, to the people…

O – Oh… Dont forget the developer session. It will give me some edges in this competitive space.

R – Rest? Relax? What do you mean? It’s the BIGGEST TWO DAYS for a Nokia fan! Not a second will be wasted!

L – London. The megacity. Nokia Maps will be utilised to the max! It will be my guide and companion.

D – Did I say it will be one of the defining moments in my life?

* The entire text above was typed on a Nokia E7.
** According to LibreOffice, total amount of words above is 179.

- Asri al-Baker
- For SymbianKu.Com
- October 15th 2011!

1. I dont know about you guys, but I’m really excited to meet Belle in person.

2. Belle is the new Symbian experience every Symbian fans have been waiting for ages.

3. Historically speaking, during the days of Symbian Foundation (R.I.P.), we should receive Symbian^4 sometimes early this year but everything went downhill for the Foundation. And the development process for Symbian has been disturbed. “There is a disturbance in the force“…

4. Belle is not Symbian^4. Belle is something else. Symbian^4 as what the Foundation planned, is dead, and buried together with the Foundation.

5. But the spirit and essence of Symbian^4 lives on. For example, during the Foundation days, the discussion about Symbian^4 directs to a UI revamp that will make use of a new set of toolbar at the bottom of the screen, with icons, for faster navigation and accessing apps’ functions without digging into “Options”. And Belle has this toolbar.

7. I will attend Nokia Malaysia’s Symbian Belle preview session for bloggers tomorrow. I have a lot of reasons to be excited and I cant wait to meet Belle myself.

8. If you have questions regarding Belle, ask me at twitter ok (@asrialbaker)

9. Oh, by the way. Nokia 700 and Nokia 701 are already available in Malaysian market. The prices are RM1130 for Nokia 701 and RM1025 for Nokia 700.

2. Option 1 : Using the stock Symbian Web or Opera Mobile, or Opera Mini, you can access your Google Plus account using http://m.google.com/+. BUT, this URL will open the basic version. And sometimes the pages are not displayed very well.

3. True. You can use the basic version of mobile Google Plus but the basic page is too… well… Like the name suggests, basic…

4. Option 2 : is using Opera Mobile or Opera Mini to visit the HTML5 mobile version of Google Plus but the layout is effed up.

5. Option 3 : is to use the latest Opera Mobile 11, change the user agent to Desktop, go to http://plus.google.com. This opens the full desktop website of Google Plus with all bells and whistles. It’s very heavy on RAM and clunky to navigate on mobile.

6. Option 4 : designed for HTML5 enabled advanced mobile web browsers. It offers a better Google Plus mobile experience because it offers more than just basic html.

7. The full URL for this HTML5 version of Google Plus for mobile is https://m.google.com/app/plus/?force=1

8. Try typing that URL on your Symbian touch smartphone on the alphanumeric virtual keypad. Your brain wil pull a stunt and synchronising your thumb is painful.

9. Therefore, for all Symbian touch users all over the world, I developed this Widget launcher. Go download this Zip file, extract the “sweetgplus.wgz” file inside it and install. There will be an icon called sweetGplus in your Application folder.

Here is how it looked like :

10. Do take note that Google Plus is a new service and it requires registration before you can use it.

11. If you like what I do, and want to see more cool WebApps for Symbian, send me some PayPal love will ya!

Download the file HERE!

- Asri al-Baker
- For i-Symbian.Com
- July 21st 2011

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If you like what we do, please help us to maintain the Independent Symbian Blog.

With it’s huge 4 inch screen and best-in-class hardware QWERTY keyboard, can we use Nokia E7 as a mobile blogging tool? Lets find out.

By installing some apps, it can be used to write short blogpost while on the move. However, at the moment, only WordPress has developed it’s dedicated blogging app to Symbian. If you are using Blogger or Typepad, you’re out of luck.

- WordPress Beta app (To get the latest version, always visit the official developer website at http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org. At the moment (March 2011), version 0.87 is the latest one)
- Best Screensnap (Very useful tool for blogger. It is free and can be downloaded from Ovi Store)

However, WordPress Beta app does have some shortcomings. It’s not feature complete and some functions might not work at the moment. The biggest flaw in my opinion is the lack of Copy and Paste support in this app. It might have something to do with Qt, which this app was developed on.

Putting the lack of Copy and Paste aside, WordPress Beta app is actually a joy to use. It feels very WordPress-sy .

Attaching photos and screenshots is also supported. Which will make posting short blogpost look more complete.

Another important function of this app is the Comments moderation. If you are using the default WordPress commenting system and want to manage readers’ comments easily, this app is for you. Comments can be easily approved, deleted and viewed. And if you think some of the comments are spam, you can mark them as spams.

In all honesty, Nokia E7 can be used to manage WordPress blogs, but not for writing long post with multiple embedded media. It is also useful to quickly approve comments.

If you are using WordPress, the combination of Nokia E7 and WordPress Betaapp for Symbian will help you manage your blog easily on the road.

Asri al-Baker
For i-Symbian.Com
March 20th, 2011

1. One of the assignments for me to complete in the Maxis10 program is to invite a fellow blogger to write something about the E7.

2. A good friend of mine, Nazley, agreed to write his piece. So, I met him last week and lend him the E7 for a couple of days.

3. Nazley is not a newbie in the blogging and gadget world. He is one of the few folks behind http://www.palmx.org, one of the most active Palm usergroups in Malaysia in the early 2000s.

4. He’s also a busy man and has his heart on gadgets. Other than phones, digital camera and computer-related stuff, he’s also into bicycle-riding. More about this at http://nazleypixblog.wordpress.com/

5. Anyway, his close-to-one-thousand words summary of the Nokia E7 can be found at : http://nazley.wordpress.com/2011/03/20/a-couple-of-days-with-the-nokia-e7/

6. And to make this more special, all the words were written (err… typed) on the Nokia N8 using Quickoffice application. The photos too, were taken using his Nokia N8.

7. Here are some examples of his words about the Nokia E7 :

When inserting a SIM to check out the phone functions for the first time, I liked the design of the SIM tray. I just need to pull out the whole SIM tray, place the SIM card and push it all back in. I was impressed with the ease to insert the SIM. However, on second thought, if the SIM drawer did not latch properly and fall off, I’d lose the SIM drawer as well as my SIM card. So, it is harder to insert or remove SIM card on the N8, but I like the mechanism better, because if at all I lose the cover, the SIM is still locked in the “bay” with a spring mechanism. Or, under the phone’s battery like most other phone. It’s almost impossible to lose the SIM unless you lose the phone as well.

8. Thank you Nazley for spending some time and wrote about the Nokia E7!

Asri al-Baker
For i-Symbian.Com
March 20th 2011

1. In my blogpost dated November 28th 2010, entitled “Funny Things About Qt for Symbian^3″, I mentioned something about Ovi Store 2.0 installation failure :-

“10. But that is not all…

12. Even with the correct Qt 4.6.4 installed, you will never be able to install Ovi Store 2.0 after a factory-reset on Symbian^3 devices. The ONLY way to get Ovi Store 2.0 back is via reflashing from your nearest Nokia Service Center. Or using Navifirm and Phoenix to reflash. How did I know? I HAVE TRIED

2. Ovi Store 2.0 installation failure will happen to you if you do “three-fingers-salute” i.e. the “real” hard reset i.e. the “real” format. Not soft-reset, not user data deletion. Not *#7370#.

3. Three-fingers-salute is by pressing the following combination on your Symbian^3 smartphones :
- Menu button
- Camera button
- Volume down
- All of the above must be pressed together, and then, press the Power button.

4. But. Today, February 26th 2011. I felt I need some adventure. And I decided to give my N8 a treatment it deserves and went to apply this procedure. I know, I wont be able to use Ovi Store on it. But that is not a big deal to me because I kept a number of SIS/SISX files inside the microSD card, which I can use to install all my favourite apps later.

5. And the journey begins! 1, 2,… 3,… Boom!

6. Wiped out all data inside my N8. Phew….

7. After the process, I switched on the N8, blablabla… and the first thing I did was to check SW Update. Lo and Behold!!! Ovi Store is there to be downloaded. The size of the file is 15 MB but hey! I’m on unlimited data plan so it’s nothing!

8. Downloaded it, took a couple of minutes. After installing Ovi Store downloaded from SW Update, it prompts me that there is an update, and asked me whether I want to install it or not. Yes please…

9. So, another few minutes and the latest Ovi Store is now installed. I wont use it that much but for completeness sake and also once in a while, I just want to know what’s new, I use it.

10. Thank you Nokia for finally making it possible to install Ovi Store 2.0 on Nokia N8 after hard-reset, WITHOUT the need to use Phoenix, or bringing it to the nearest Nokia Service Centre. \

Cheers!

*** Some weird thing happen to my WordPress. I cant upload files to my server. Can someone assist?…

Asri al-Baker, February 27th 2011

2. Nowadays, unlimited internet plans on mobiles is so common. Even WiFi is included as standard in all Symbian smartphones. So, synching contacts database WITHOUT the need to use PC is achievable.

3. I use Google Apps for Domains under i-Symbian.Com and my main contacts list is using Google Contacts. It’s the master list. Meaning, I edit and keep all my contacts updated in Google Contacts.

4. There are many ways to sync Google Contacts to Symbian smartphones, sans PC, among them are :
- Using Mail for Exchange (Exchange ActiveSync Protocol)
- Use any compatible 3rd party SyncML providers such as GooSync, Memotoo, and a bunch of others. Mostly paid services.

5. Google actually offers SyncML to sync Google Contacts to Symbian smartphones for free. But for Contacts only. Not for Calendar. You can refer to the instruction at Google Mobile. But the instruction is a bit outdated.

6. I am actually quite disappointed with the implementation of Exchange ActiveSync in the new Symbian^3 via Mail for Exchange. I dont know whose fault was it. Whether Google’s or Nokia’s but I experienced some duplicates and deleted contacts if I use Mail for Exchange to sync my Google Contacts to my Nokia N8 directly. And I found that Mail for Exchange drains more battery if used, even if the sync interval is set at only once in every twelve hours.

7. Hence, I choose to try this SyncML method and I found my Nokia N8 battery life improves when Mail for Exchange is not used AT ALL!!!.

8. And the SyncML method here, is not that bad! It pulls all my Google Contacts with all details including contacts notes and thumbnails.

9. Here are the instruction, for Symbian^3 devices which is also can be used for older Symbian^1 devices (But there maybe some changes in the interface here and there and some functions may not be available in the older devices).

10. Your experience may vary. I am not saying this is the best method to sync Google Contacts to your Symbian smartphone but it is the one that I use at the moment, which gives me no headache at all. Good Luck!

DISCLAIMER : I am not responsible should you experience contacts duplicates, deleted contacts, or worst, your Symbian smartphone explode when you attempt to sync your Google Contacts using this method. At the time of writing, it works perfect for me. The best way to do it is when your contacts database inside your Symbian smartphone is empty e.g. new phone or after a factory reset This is not for the faint-hearted. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

1. In your Symbian^3 samrtphones, go to Settings – Connectivity, and select Data Transfer.

2. Inside Data Transfer, select Sync.

3. Press Options, and select New Sync Profile.

4. Bla bla bla… Select Start.

5. Give a name to this new profile. I put Google. You can put whatever name that you desire. Something that can be understood easily.

6. In Server Version, select 1.2. Why? I dont know…

7. In this one, select Contacts only. The other options are irrelevant.

8. In Contacts database, type contacts (please type EXACTLY like shown in the screenshot. No CAPITAL letters.

9. Data bearer, select Internet.

10. Host address. Type exactly like shown : https://m.google.com/syncml. Note the https.

11. In Server ID, type Google. Use capital “G”.

12. Username. Your Google username. It’s your full Gmail or Google Apps email address.

13. Password. It’s self explanatory… anyway, your Gmail / Google Apps password.

14. Blablabla… Your new SyncML profile has been created. Press Yes to activate it.

16. You will be brought back to the main Sync page. Now, you can configure to sync automatically. If you prefer, you can also sync manually. If you want automatic sync, press Options and select Automatic Sync.

17. In here, define which sync profile and data that you want to use as automatic, as well as the sync interval and the time to sync automatically.

18. You can also choose to sync manually.

19. When it is synching, you can see a little sync icon at the notification bar.

20. It is also possible to view the log after successful synchronisation.

21. This is a notification of the next scheduled synchronisation.

Asri al-Baker, January 5th 2011.

1. Mobile Documents, the alternative Email client for Symbian, which, in my opinion, is not just another regular email client, it’s a WORK OF ART.

2. A few days ago, Visiarc announced it’s cooperation with Nokia Betalabs to host Mobile Documents in Betalabs’ website, to access more potential users and to collect more feedbacks.

3. At the same time, Visiarc also announced a new version of Mobile Documents, optimised for Symbian^3 devices. You can download the new version (0.9.19) from Nokia Betalabs at the link in the above paragraph.

4. I’ve used Mobile Documents for a couple of months now, and I am a fan! Honestly, it’s not perfect, has some bugs and needs overhaul in the UI department. However, I stand by the concept and I share Visiarc’s vision of a powerful mobile email solution. Mobile Documents cannot be taken lightly, it’s the signs of more beautiful and powerful things in the future.

5. To understand and dig deep into the vision, I interviewed Peter Lindgren, CEO of Visiarc, via email somewhere in November 2010. And I am honoured for his answers. Text interview is a traditional i-Symbian.Com feature which we love to do since aeons ago. Among others, we have interviewed Steve Litchfield, Sander Van Der Wal, and aso Malcolm Lithgow (to name a few) over the years.

6. Text interview is easier to digest, you can re-read many times, you can stop reading anytime you want and you can skip to any particular topic in the interview if you want.

7. I hope you enjoy reading this interview as much as I wrote it It’s a looong interview, so take a cup of coffee and enjoy!

8. Oh! And there’s a nice little surprise at the end of this interview

Introduction
———-

1. Hi Peter. How is it over there?

Hi Asri. Winter is approaching and we already have had our fair share of snow storms. Being this far north, close to the polar circle, days are short and nights are long and black. It’s nice but very different from what you have. I actually visited Malaysia a month ago, very nice, but thirty hot and humid degrees is perhaps a bit too far at the other end.

2. Can you introduce yourself? The longer the better?

I’m Peter Lindgren, the CEO and Co-founder of VISIARC. We’ve set out to mobilize email and are actively developing Mobile Documents, a cloud-boosted push mail service. For a bit more than a decade I’ve been pushing the envelope as an entrepreneur in Internet software development, marketing and sales in different companies. By training I have my Master of Science degree and Post-Graduate studies in Marketing and Management. But my greatest interest has always been art and design, graphical design especially. Luckily, I still can be hands-on engaged in the user interaction and interface design process, to make sure we don’t compromise the user experience. A profound interest in usability is something that we all share. When not on the job, I try to live an active life and depending on the season I enjoy different winter or water sports. Especially I love traveling in and near tropical waters. I’m also fortunate that in the sense that doing what we do on a global scale brings travel opportunities all over the world.

3. What does your schedule look like today? Business travels? Meetings?

Today is Sunday and my day off. Obviously my professional and personal life is a blur. I don’t mind. If you mostly do things that you are passionate about, then what does an unbalanced life look like?

4. Anything interesting coming from Visiarc in the very near future?

Yes there is. Expect interesting stuff around the shift between November and December (2010).

5. Lets start the interview shall we?

Of course.

Visiarc
—–

1. You (Visiarc) have won various awards throughout the years. How do you feel about being at the forefront of innovation?

Receiving recognitions for your innovations is very rewarding. Only user feedback means more. We are where we like to be right now. From experience, we know that being too far ahead is painful – likely just as painful or even worse than being left behind. In my world, there’s no shortage of innovative ideas and disruptive concepts.

2. How long have you established Visiarc? Have you achieved your targets that you envisioned for Visiarc since the beginning? Can you tell us a bit about it’s history?

We started out building and launching our first mobile cloud back in fall 2002. That was early, early as in a time when a brick (Nokia 9210 Communicator) was a leading and really the first smartphone. Cloud wasn’t even coined. From that perspective we’re kind of pioneers in the mobility space. That was way too early, but now I think time is catching up. Just two years ago, what we’re trying to do was too radical. In three years time, what we do will be a totally “given”. What I refer to is of course mobile apps that reach out into the cloud to add most of its value. Nokia started talking about it three years ago, powerful servers in the cloud, fast networks and smart phones. A couple of years ago Microsoft adopted this strategy, Software + Service. This year Google says mobile first. Of course, I say…

3. How many people in your team? Do you have offices outside Sweden?

We’re just eight people today, a really small but tight team. VISIARC is a private company and just as you say, we’re based in Sweden. But today, in the networked Internet era, you don’t necessarily need more to start a global mobile cloud business, any online business for that matter. Yet, we do. But that’s just more a consequence of the scope and reach of our business concept and vision.

4. What does Visiarc mean? Is it a Viking word?

VISIARC is a totally man-made word that means nothing anywhere, but has the one increasingly important characteristic – being globally unique – so that any search hit leads to you, and only you. Just try google, we’re alone and on the top of the world at zero cost.

Actually it has a meaning too. The first part “visi” refers to visualization, a key concept, viewing of emails, attachments and documents. “Arc” is a common feature but also refers to a bridge. Bridges bring people closer together, just as messaging and email. If you take a look at the logo the “A” and “V” are the same, two stylized eyes looking in each respective opposite direction. That provides a 360 degree view, representing both our focus on viewing as well as our global scope. Sorry, no heritage to the vikings to be found.

5. What is the mission and vision of Visiarc?

Mission, well I’m not sure we’ve headed out on any holy mission, but we want to make things more convenient and not necessarily just a little at a time. I like our vision – to spread the rich messaging tool we’re building to every person on this earth for free – to give everyone a first-class Internet voice. Our Freemium subscription based model will make that possible. Free email will be free with us – any document, any email, any attachment, on any device, from any source, on any network, anywhere, anytime – instantly & securely – to and from anyone. I guess if we succeed, Mobile Documents will soon become a household name in the global village.

Mobile Documents
—————

1. Can you share with us the background for Mobile Documents? How did the idea come into the picture and why?

Email as we know it is older than the web and is basically still the same as back in the 70s and 80s. Yet we’ve seen no innovation in email since push mail, and that’s ten years ago. Take anything else mobile that is ten years old and compare to today (phones, laptops, navigators, web browsers etc) and you will conclude they are as different as day and night. Email though remains the same. Traditional email is not only dated, it’s outdated.

Everyone uses email and everyone is taking it so much for granted. Revolutionary thoughts and changes are and has simply been overlooked, since “we all know what email is”. Who asks what could email be?. We did and we also asked ourselves how can we create something that is radically different? And even if the answer means a disruptive solution, can we make it a plug-and-play technology to fit the present, the legacy? Simply, to really mobilize email, a drastically different approach is what is required, a cloud-boosted approach.

Then why email? Well, email is dominant. For a fact, it’s the most popular and fastest growing mobile Internet activity. It’s not mobile first, it’s mobile mail first. Mobile mail is 4x larger than #2 and #3. A whopping 42% of the time spent on mobile Internet in the US is email, up from 36% last year according to Nielsen . #3 is social media (Twitter/Facebook) and it grew only from 8% to 10% last year, 3x slower than email! Email usage is increasing every year, and we are the sole company to address the root cause of the #1 problem with mobile mail.

This is today. We identified this development to come several years ago, and solving this problem is what drives us.

2. Mobile Documents, in a way, is competing against Nokia’s own solution called Nokia Messaging Email which also does push email. What is the most important feature of Mobile Documents that distingush it from other competing products out there?

That’s easy. Mobile Documents offers mobile documents. Nokia Messaging doesn’t. There are other differences as well. Nokia is taking its messaging closer to the social networking space while were concentrating on the last mobile frontier in email, managing the steady stream of ever-increasingly larger attachments and documents ending up in mailboxes. In a way this also makes Mobile Documents more professionally and business oriented than the more personal and social path Nokia Messaging is following. Last but not least, Mobile Documents will not be free, it’ll be freemium.

3. Email 2.0 can be seen a lot in Mobile Documents’ product sheets and marketing materials, can you share with us what is Email 2.0? Are we still in Email 1.0 now?

Mobile Documents represents a paradigm shift in email, that is also why we talk about Email 2.0. Ask yourself, ask your peers or ask any mobile email user what the major problem with mobile mail is. The answer is heavy attachments. When asking users how they deal with such heavy attachments they will tell you they don’t. They don’t deal with them at all on the phone, but they do that back in front of the computer, at home or in the office. Not very mobile, right?

Simply Email 1.0, it can’t do mobile documents, it can download only. Email 2.0 offers an entire toolbox to manage emails, attachments and documents – and we’re the only company to address this the #1 problem associated with the most popular mobile Internet activity. There are two key mobile concepts that Email 2.0 address; (1) remote viewing/reading and (2) remote handling/sending/managing emails, attachments and documents – instantly and without the need to download first.

Mobile Documents offers value to everyone in the mobile ecosystem. The user gets a better user experience and can do things easily that is basically not possible to do with traditional email – saving time and bandwidth. Companies can save 60-80% on roaming charges and receive a higher productivity and increased level of security with no documents in the field. Carriers/MNOs are offered multiple advantages. A fact is that one single optical fiber is about 250,000 time more capable than an entire 4G LTE phone cell, to be shared among all users. That means the air will always be crowded. With Email 2.0 (attachments today clog up networks across the globe, just ask) operators can deliver a better Quality of Service. Collaborating with VISIARC there are even more benefits to be reaped for an operator.

We’re used to do email on our computers. But the world is changing. There are today a little more than 1 billion PCs. Already there are more people with a smartphone. We’re entering a mobile age. Soon the majority of the global population and in particular the young will have a smartphone, but far from all a PC. And soon every single one will have Internet and email. In spring 2009, Nokia asked people with web mail if they wanted to mobilize their email. 78% said yes, but 10% had mobilized their email. Over the next couple of years we’ll go from a low penetration with a very few to a high penetration with a majority of the world population to have mobile mail. What will they opt for, probably email that is designed with mobility in mind, Mail 2.0.

4. Designwise, currently, Mobile Documents on Symbian does not look very attractive compared to the Android version. What enhancements can we expect to be implemented to the Symbian version in the near future? Will we see a more unified & professional user experience in Mobile Documents across all platforms?

I wouldn’t go so far as calling it unattractive. We’ve adopted a clean uncluttered minimalistic approach in line with the general look-and-feel and behavior that is standard on Symbian. We want our app to look and behave like everything else because that benefits our users.

Thank you, pleased to hear that you like the Android look. On Symbian you should expect enhancements in the unique key aspects of Mobile Documents, and quite soon. Soon after, you can also expect general enhancements based on user feedback. Correct, we’re also in the process of unifying and harmonizing the various platforms feature-wise. Yet, interaction-wise each app will stay true to respective platform behaviors.

5. How long did it take for Visiarc to develop Mobile Documents? From idea & concept to actual software running on real devices. How’s the
response from Symbian users?

We’ve been working pretty much full-time for three years now, from prototype to where we are today.

The response has been overwhelming. At first we asked ourselves, will anyone download? will they like it? Yes, they did! And yes, they do. We’re still in beta and there are a few fundamental features we don’t yet have that’ll be released shortly, still we receive mostly very positive reviews. I’m quite excited about that considering the relatively early stage we’re at yet.

6. Empowering users to do more with their email attachments seems to be the philosophy behind Mobile Documents. In your opinion, how connected devices (e.g. smartphones) can be fully utilised? For work and personal?

In the smartphone era of today, users expect nothing less than the same user experience they get from an app downloaded for personal use from an app store as they demand for an enterprise app. The software companies that don’t recognize that will meet the same destiny as the dinosaurs. And I agree, you’re absolutely right. We want people too, from one intuitive place, be able to manage their personal and professional life. That’s one reason why we’ll offer personal free email for free so that it can sit next to your work email. Because that’s how people live their lives, they need to manage both their personal and professional lives at the same time.

Yes, Mobile Documents is about empowering people, get more done on the go, instantly. Conceptually I don’t believe that we will or want to be carrying every single data file with us. Instead what we want is ways to gain mobile access to any of our files, regardless if it sits in my Google Docs or corporate mailbox. And that’s what we’re doing, starting to mobilize email, attachments and documents. Unless data files die, there is unlimited value that we can bring about, philosophically talking.

7. Other than the regular office files (doc, ppt, pdf etc), do you have future plan to support more file formats? Multimedia files maybe? Or how about ZIP/RAR file support where users can click on a ZIP attachment and Mobile Documents will extract the contents serverside allowing the contents to be viewed?

Indeed, very good suggestions. Let me put it this way. Doing most stuff in the cloud, neither is there any limit in what kind of operations, functions or manipulations we can do, nor is there any limit on the number of file types and formats we can support.

8. In Mobile Documents, viewing files are done by rendering them serverside, nothing is downloaded locally. How this is achieved? Do you develop the technology yourself? What is it called? You patent it? What is Cherrypicking?

First, we leave all the heavy stuff in the cloud server-side where we do all heavy-lifting. We open up attachments and documents there, render and on demand stream the bits and pieces that the users wants. We use the mobile network. This makes everything instant and it saves time and bandwidth. It requires minimal effort of the mobile phone since the smaller the screen the less information needs to be sent. This also means that all limited resources on the phone (CPU and storage) can be dedicated to maximize user experience (unlike opening, parsing, drawing etc). Plus, no downloaded documents means no documents that can be lost or stolen.

Second, traditional email requires users to download the entire email and attachments. Mobile Documents allows the user to manage the email and attachments without a download. Simply, like a shopping cart a user can collect and add attachments to new email without downloading, from any email sent or received in any account or even from other remote document sources in the cloud. Press send and it’s sent. Instantly. Since nothing resides on the local phone but are visual representations, everything regardless of actual size becomes light as a feather and instant. This we label Remote Attachment Management and Cherry Picking technologies – the core of Email 2.0. Basically we shortcut the unnecessary – download, find, add and send – loop that cost nothing but time and a lot of money if you’re roaming.

Yes, the underpinning key technologies of Mobile Documents are patent pending.

9. You also provide a web interface for users to manage their Mobile Documents’ accounts and their documents. What is your highest priority in ensuring users confidentiality and documents’ security? Are they encrypted?

Nothing is more important than to preserve our users security and privacy. Mobile Documents is secure. All connections between the mobile app and our cloud is secure. Even when users set up new email accounts, we always try to help finding the encrypted settings as long as the primary email provider allows secure connections, but not all do. We use strong 128-bit bank-level encryption over SSL.

Like most Internet services, we use a password based security model (no hardware crypto device). The length of the password then becomes critical. From this perspective Mobile Documents offers a nice security aspect. We offer the PIN. For example, a long twelve character password with a mix of numbers, small and large cap letters and alphanumeric characters on a mobile is just plain awkward. Such attempts are futile. Either users will disable password protection or change the password to a short easy insecure one, or simply stop using the app. With Mobile Documents you only input the long awkward password once. Then you create a PIN. The long password is not stored on the smartphone but a secure cookie that allows the user to login with the short convenient PIN code. Should the phone get lost or stolen the user simply logs in on the web interface and change password. The cookie then becomes invalid instantly. So even if the thief would know the PIN, it doesn’t allow access to Mobile Documents any longer. And with no emails or documents on the device there’s little to be lost, more than the actual device of course. To reset a password is also the main function of the web interface.

10. Can you share your future plans for Mobile Documents? Will you add features such as adding attachments to outgoing email from device, or adding eye-candy such as transition effects and cute icons? Will it be free forever? Ever?

Right away I can tell you that adding attachments from the local device is the single most asked for feature. It’ll be released soon too. There are a few new icons in the pipe. If they’re cute or not, I wouldn’t know. We will keep Mobile Documents free as in freemium after the beta period too.

Business Model
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1. You offer Mobile Documents for free? Why?

Our vision is to bring Mobile Documents to every relevant mobile phone and we don’t want to discriminate any platform, device or network. We believe the next generation email should be free. If everyone can use Mobile Documents that benefits us in many ways as well. I simply see no reason to not let it be free.

2. Where does the money come from? As a business entity, how do you leverage your offerings?

We’ve financed it out of our own pockets and we still do. We have received some seed funding and loans though.

As soon as Mobile Documents becomes the best mobile mail, a premium version will be offered for advanced users on a subscription basis. These advanced users will leverage and pay for the free usage. People that don’t use email much will receive the Mobile Documents benefits for free.

One cool thing is that since we’re not a software company per se but rather subscription based, one user can have one or ten smartphones with Mobile documents all in sync at no extra cost.

3. Is Visiarc also involved in other businesses? Such as?

We’ve done a fair share of mobile development for other mobile companies over the years. Being on the cutting edge and working with R&D pre-release software, I can just say that I respect the signed NDAs.

4. Other than Mobile Documents, do you develop any other products or solutions?

No we don’t.

5. If it’s possible, can you share your plan for the near future? To ensure user’s confidence in your business?

We’ve been around since the dawn of the first smartphone and we’re still today more alive and kicking than ever. If you like what we do, support us.

As I always say, if there are things you don’t like, let us know so that we can fix them. If you like what we do, please let us know too, because that’s what motivates us.

Want to reach the entire team? Email us at support@mobiledocuments.com, or email me at peter.lindgren@visiarc.com.

Multi-platforms approach
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1. Most of your products are available only for Symbian, why?

Symbian offers the single largest user base and we have always been doing hardcore Symbian development. It was just a natural starting point for us. But we’re platform agnostic. We have a first early beta out on Android market and the next platform is iPhone.

2. What is your opinion on the announcement by Nokia to develop Symbian on it’s own? What will be the impact to software developers and those who build software and services around the Symbian ecosystem?

From a Nokia perspective I just understand. It makes a lot of sense. For Symbian as a platform Nokia was in the driver’s seat of its development already. I don’t really have an opinion.

3. How many Symbian smartphones do you own personally at the moment? Which one is your top favourite Symbian smartphone of all time?

Actually, I don’t know. They’re all in the office. I know that we have Nokia 9210, 7650, 3650, Sony Ericsson P800/P910, Motorola A1000 and many more to the more present E71, N97/mini, N8 and other. I’ve used all these and many more, except the Symbian based Motorolas for obvious reasons if you ever had one.

4. With Nokia’s commitment to Qt for it’s future Symbian smartphone and MeeGo mobile computers, will Mobile Documents also be ported to Qt? By the way, will you make Mobile Documents available for future MeeGo products? Your opinion on Qt?

I like Qt. I look forward to familiarize myself with Qt Quick. Probably, Qt is very underestimated. We’re a small company, but of course, how could Qt not be part of our road map?

5. Recently, you also released Mobile Documents for Android. How’s the response? What’s the difference developing it for Symbian and Android?

6. What’s the most challenging aspect in developing Mobile Documents? Is it the mobile client, or the web interface, or the technology? How do you put everything together?

All! But I must say that without the help of all our beta users we would not have been where we are today. They’ve helped us identifying all the peculiarities and imperfections in the real-world.

A long detour, if you’re not interested in our challenges just move on to the next questions. Mobile Documents today interfaces with almost any type of mail server out there (note. IMAP and Exchange) including all their imperfections, implementations of protocols and configurations. That’s a challenge to connect and stay in sync to push any email as soon as it arrives. Then, these emails are sent by various other servers (SMTP) created by a plethora of different mail clients or scripts – emails that are standards compliant but in reality more or less broken. That’s another challenge. Then add a steady stream of attachments generated by various kinds of native and not so native software saving files in various formats. Some are fine but many are imperfect and other are infected with different viruses that need to be quarantined. That’s yet another challenge. Take all that machinery to push every new email to every single user to allow instant reading, viewing, streaming, cherry picking and other you stat to understand the scope. Then add a rapidly growing number of new users atop of this. That is a massive hurdle that we’ve soon overcome.

In relation, dealing with internal things such as innovative interface design, internal protocol implementations etc becomes less challenging, even though it may take time to perfect.

7. Will you also port Mobile Documents to other mobile platforms? Windows Phone 7? Bada? Blackberry? iOS?

We’re platform agnostic. The mobile mail experience is quite different across all platforms that you mention. The most important aspect to decide if to support a platform or not is if we can add great value to the platform or not, more than just mobilizing attachments and documents. But ultimately, we’ll support every relevant platform including all you mentioned.

8. In the future, these platforms will be more advanced than what they are today. And their built-in email clients will also improve. Where do you position Mobile Documents to stay relevant?

The built-in clients are of course fundamentally our closest competitor. But they can never be what we are, per definition. Unless the built-in client is not only a client but a cloud-boosted push mail service with built-in mobile document capabilities, of course. But then, we’re not standing still and I have both one or two ideas where to take Mobile Documents. Believe me.

9. Of all these mobile platforms, which one, in your opinion, has the potential to be leveraged, and will benefit your company, strategically and financially?

If I just knew…

10. Are you going to license your solutions to other interested parties? OEM manufacturers for example?

We are the sole proprietary owner of all material rights to everything that constitutes Mobile Documents™. The most important aspect is to make our innovations benefit the users. There are many things that can be improved beyond what we can achieve as a third-party developer through working with mobile network operators, hardware manufacturers and others.

Conclusion
———

Please say something to our readers.

Mobile Documents offers cloud-boosted push mail – we’re in beta still – and what we want is your feedback and support. We can’t always deliver everything tomorrow even if we want, being a small company, but we try hard to. Please help us make Mobile Documents the best mobile mail and document sharing experience.

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There you go… I also asked Peter about giving you, our readers some little present and here it is. The same elegant wallpaper used by Peter to decorate his Nokia N8 in the video above (Betalabs – first video in this interview). Get it here (right-click – download) :

1. Qt (pronounced “cute”) will be the sticking glue to the future of Nokia’s advanced device offerings. It will be the application layer for both the New Symbian and MeeGo in the future.

2. The work has begun and Nokia invested A LOT to ensure Qt will be the preferred method for developers in developing apps for Symbian platform and MeeGo. From the SDK to APIs to app store to training… you name it. Nokia is all out for Qt.

3. This is not an easy job and it will take a lot of money, time, sweat, blood and tears to accomplish.

4. Currently (December 2010), there are not many Symbian Qt apps available yet but they start to appear for users to downlod and install. These apps can be downloaded from the developers’ websites or from Nokia’s Ovi Store.

5. Here are 3 Symbian Qt apps that I use. And I like them a lot because the developers took the time to bring new and fresh user experience and functions in these apps. Away from the traditional Symbian/S60/AVKON UI layer.

6. This is not a definitive list and I may post something else in the future when more Symbian Qt apps are available.

Toshl by ThirdFrameStudios

1. In my opinion, today (Dec 19th 2010), this is the most beautiful Symbian Qt app on the planet anno 2010. PERIOD!

2. Toshl is an expense tracking app, on steroid! It’s strength lies in the ability to sync with Toshl online account where users can see more details and reports of their expenses, and many other functions.

3. The application is free (forever! – yeah!) together with the basic online account. But for those who are serious in tracking their spending, a subscription based Pro account is available for $USD19.95 annually.

4. More information about Toshl at http://toshl.com/

5. Get it from Ovi Store. Highly RECOMMENDED!

Moodagent Playlist DJ by Syntonetic

1. Moodagent is a music player with a twist. It’s main feature is playing music according to user’s mood. The UI is unique and very easy to use. Changing mood can never be easier. You just need to slide the colour bars up or down. Words cant describe how easy this is actually!

2. You can also create playlist directly inside Moodagent following to the mood (Sensual, Tender, Happy, Angry, Tempo) that you just selected.

3. It is free. You can download it from Ovi Store.

4. The official website is at http://www.moodagent.com/

WordPress for Nokia

1. If you are using a Symbian smartphone, writes a blog, and you use WordPress engine for your blog, this is the best app for you at the moment.

2. This app was ported from other platforms to Symbian and the develoers decided to use Qt.

3. Current stable version is 0.86, available from the developer’s website at http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org/. To differentiate the app that’s being heavily developed than the one available from Ovi Store, the developers added the word “Beta”. So if you download and install from here, it will appear as WordPress Beta on your Symbian smartphones.

4. If you download from Ovi Store, it will appear as WordPress only (without Beta) on your Symbian smartphones.

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If you find other Symbian Qt apps that you like, why not write about them in the comments below.

* Tip 1 : If you want to know which app is using Qt in Ovi Store, search for “13 MB”. This is because for Symbian devices prior to Symbian^3, they need to download and install 13 MB Qt components. (thanks @_brendand_ )

** Tip 2 : Try this search on Ovi Store web.

- Asri al-Baker

2. Again, to be honest, the current options to read PDF files on Symbian smartphones (since aeons ago) is pathetic.

3. On other platforms (iOS and Android), reading documents is a joy. For example, GoodReader is a very good documents reader which can read a number of formats.

4. On Symbian, years ago, to deal with common office files (ecept PDF), there was Documents To Go on Series 80, UIQ2 and UIQ3 but it never made itself available for Series 60 (S60) and also the modern Symbian^3. Why? I dont know…

5. Reading PDF on Symbian smartphones is a pain in the ass. I tell you.

6. The only software which I recommend on older Symbian smartphones is mBrainSoftware’s PDF+ which has a function called “Text Reflow”, no other software can read multi-megabytes PDF files on current Symbian smartphones comfortably.

7. Adobe’s implementation of it’s famous PDF Reader is a mess. It’s very slow, always freezes and the UI is not optimised for touchscreens. On Symbian^3 smartphones, it doesnt even support “pinch to zoom” and page rendering is slower than a snail climbing mount Everest!

8. So… What’s the best way to view PDF files on our beloved Symbian smartphones? At the moment, NONE!

9. But AlternateReader is a good option. It’s nowhere as good as other solutions on other platforms but it does the job satisfactorily.

10. Here are among it’s functions :
- Rendering PDF and Djvu documents
- Tap to go to next screen
- Tap to scroll down
- Go to Page
- Zoom in and out
- Full screen mode
- Accessing menu in fullscreen mode by press and hold

11. I have used it since I got my Nokia N8 and it does what it supposed to do. However, sometimes, when opening large documents, it struggles.

12. Get AlternateReader from http://sourceforge.net/projects/alternatedjvu/. It’s FREE! GRATIS! PERCUMA!

*** The file showed in these screenshots is from Tomi Ahonen‘s latest book called “The Insider’s Guide to Mobile”. It is a FREE eBook and can be downloaded from Lulu. If you are interested to know what’s happening in the mobile industry, read this book. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!