Dear Readers,

1. I am writing this as a plea to all of you who are interested in assisting and helping me out with my projects, financially.

2. In the last couple of months, I’ve spent some considerable amount of time learning Qt development and I have prepared some applications to be made available. I cant spill the beans yet at the moment The time will come…

3. However, at the moment, my work machine is an underpowered Lenovo S10-2 netbook which becomes slower and as about to die in the coming months. It crashes around ten times, EVERYDAY!

4. I have some fund to buy a new workhorse but it’s insufficient at the moment.

5. You can assist me with the following method :

- Buy my Symbian stuff from Ovi Store
- Donate to my PayPal (click the PayPal banner below or the “Donate to us” button on the sidebar)

6. I am targetting one thousand dollars (USD1000) to get a proper workmachine and also some devices to do real world tests. In my hand, I have now around six hundred dollars (USD600). It took me eight months to save that six hundred bucks and to reach one thousand, another six months maybe…

7. I will be eternally grateful to those who are willing to help me. And for others, your support to i-symbian.com over these years (almost ten years!) is also important.

8. Please spread the words.

Yours sincerely,

Asri al-Baker
Kuala Lumpur,
Malaysia

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. Knowing that Nokia/Symbian devices are also using an internet browser based on WebKit, I thought, maybe I could try…

3. With my limited HTML skill, I wrote this very simple WRT Widget to launch Gmail iPhone web interface on Nokia/Symbian built-in Web browser, without the need to enter the long URL. Just click on the icon and the page will be opened. It’s just a shortcut to the correct Gmail GP (Grand-prix : the codename for Google iPhone interface) URL.

4. It is compatible with WRT enabled devices only (S60 3rd Edition FP1, S60 3rd Edition FP2, S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3). The screenshots below was taken from Nokia N8.

5. If you use supported Symbian devices from Samsung or Sony Ericsson, you can tell us whether it works or not

Enjoy! Oh!… It’s free… as in air, and seawater

Instruction :

1. Download the ZIP file from : Our Download Page

2. Please extract the ZIP file, there’s a “Gmail.wgz” file inside. Transfer it to your device and install.

2. On Nokia N8, and other Symbian^3 devices, a software simply called Email is included to manage emails. While it may be enough for normal users to check emails once in a few minutes (it does not do push email, by the way), it does not fulfill my needs. It’s slow, takes forever to download attachments and 1001 other reasons that put me off from using it.

3. I searched, researched and tried a couple of solutions to get real mobile email, with push, such as (among others) :
- Profimail (great software but not for me and it’s pricey)
- System Seven (RAM hungry)
- Gmail J2ME client (it’s Java…)
- RoadSync from Dataviz (doesnt even run on Nokia N8)

4. Finally, headache after headache, I choose Mobile Documents developed by Visiarc. It has everything I need for an excellent mobile email client.

5. It offers push email with a different approach. It handles attachments very well. It accepts multiple email accounts and it is reliable.

6. I will talk more about Mobile Documents in the upcoming weeks. For now, enjoy some screenshots of Mobile Documents running on my Nokia N8. More information about it at http://www.mobiledocuments.com.

7. Oh… I have been informed by Peter Lindgren that an optimised version of Mobile Documents for Symbian^3 devices is coming our way very soon with some enhancements onboard. Cant wait

8. Have you used Mobile Documents? What do you think about it? Do you like it?

- Asri al-Baker, November 15th 2010

Documents are streamed, progressively downloaded while it is viewed. Below, a DOC page is rendered in landscape mode on Nokia N8. Notice how the half of the page is readable, while the other half is being processed.

If you dont want to view the page layout, you can strip all page contents, leaving only raw text to be dislayed, for easy readability, as shown below.

A couple of Mobile Documents related videos :

Visiarc’s “Mobile Documents” for S60 – exclusive from Mobile Industry Review on Vimeo.

1. Nokia Betalabs just announced yesterday, the availability of Swype Beta for Symbian^1.

2. While many people are excited about it, I cant help myself to be a little bit of “WTF”?…

3. I mean, come on!… Swype is not better than the existing stock qwerty in Symbian^1! And in some ways, as far as I can see, it sucks…!

4. While swiping fingers on top of a virtual keyboard may look cool and may feel cool, in REAL LIFE situation, it SUCKS!

5. It sucks when being used one handedly. You need to stay or sit standstill. You have to look at the screen all the time. And the keys on the virtual keyboard is no bigger from the stock qwerty. Did I mention that our thumbs blocks the qwerty when using Swype, making it pointless and making us play the “guess-what’s-the-next-alphabet-to-swype” game?

6. Dont get me started on how hard it is to use Swype for other languages, non-english especially. Yeah, it can learn and we can type abbreviations, or non-english words. But what’s the point of having a SWYPE text input if we still need to do TYPE? You get me or not?

7. I dont hate Swype. Infact, I love the fact that there are alternatives to the awful text entry method on the current Symbian devices (the other alternative is Dayhand Keyboard). But I dont feel that Swype is going to revolutionise entering texts anytime soon.

8. Some said using Swype is faster and easier than the stock keyboard. Yeah?… after 6 months of training that is…

9. One more thing, even with Swype’s intelligent word recognition, I find it cumbersome and unintuitive. And the design… why they have to include that text entry box on top of the qwerty? Why? oh Why?…

10. Or maybe, I’m just an old-school who still prefer hardware qwerty or T9

Cheers!

Asri al-Baker

1. For a blogger, who uses WordPress system, having a dedicated mobile WordPress client is very important.

2. The developers are working hard preparing a Symbian and Maemo version of the popular app which was available for iPhone, Android and Blackberry previously.

3. The latest version for Symbian is numbered 0.71. Compared to the previous versions, this one improves a lot especially the UI.

4. Developed using Qt, and utilising the new QtMobility APIs, this WordPress app is a joy to use and to behold.

5. However, getting Qt onboard is not easy. In order to be able to use WordPress app, you must install the Qt runtime first.

6. Version 0.71 comes with Qt Smart Installer which will automate the download and installation of the necessary Qt components required by the app such as QtMobiliity and QtWebkit. Here is a video by Lucian Tomuta showing how Qt Smart Installer works on Symbian^1 smartphones :

7. If you are more adventerous and would like to explore Qt universe on your Symbian smartphones, you can also install the complete Qt runtime from :

ftp://ftp.qt.nokia.com/qt/symbian/4.6.3/qt_installer.sis

8. With this WordPress app, you can do some WordPressing such as creating new posts or editing existing ones, approving or rejecting comments, view statistics, and more, and all wrapped in a nice clean UI.

9. There are rooms for improvements and clearly, the developers are looking to support future Symbian devices such as the Symbian^3 powered Nokia N8 because it will be pre-installed with Qt and beginning from Symbian^4, Qt will be the application layer for Symbian, replacing Avkon.

10. I hope, the developers can continue improving it, adds functions like adjusting the font display and managing plugins. Which will make the experience more complete.

11. More information and download from :

http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org/2010/07/09/minor-0-7-1-maintenance-release/

- Asri al-Baker

1. I own and maintain 3 self-hosted WordPress blogs. This blog, SymbianKu.Com and MeeGoKu.Com. I choose WordPress for it’s simplicity, elegant and flexibility.

2. On my MacBook, I use an offline blogging client called Ecto. A superb and easy to use software that fulfills my blogging needs.

3. For Symbian S60 3rd Edition, there are some solutions available namely Telewaving’s Wavelog (not free), WordMobi (free, based on Python) and the official WordPress for Nokia client (free, based on Qt).

4. I’ve talked about how WordMobi helps me blogging on the move (HERE and HERE) and personally, it’s the most useful and feature complete WordPress client for S60 3rd Edition at the moment.

5. WordMobi is very stable, doesnt eat RAM like crazy and works brilliant. And I prefer using it for blogging anytime.

6. Another solution for WordPress blogging on Symbian is using an official application developed by the WordPress team. It’s using Qt technology and currently being developed heavily for Nokia Symbian smartphones and Maemo.

7. In order to use it on Symbian smartphones, you have to install Qt runtime or it will not work. You can get the necessary files from :

Qt runtime : Version 4.6.2
WP Client : Version 0.54a Self-signed

8. Although it is designed for touch-screen smartphones, it works on E90 but there’s some usability and stability issues. It crashes randomly, and sometimes it doesnt respond to keypresses. It also freezes when it cant cope with user’s action and to run it smoothly, you need to have plenty of RAM.

9. The design looks familiar. Any WordPress user will feel at home because it looks like the WordPress Admin Panel.

10. You can view and edit posts, comments and pages. But I think, it’s not ready yet to be used to write long and complete posts. It’s useful if you want to view and manage comments or write a short and simple posts.

11. On Nokia E90 Communicator, it works on both screen. But on the external screen, navigation is slower compared to the internal screen.

12. Other than the slowness and non touchsreen related issues, in my opinion, it also needs an offline mode.

13. Everytime I launch it, it will ask me to select Access Point to connect to the internet and I have to reject it by pressing cancel 15 times before can use it offline!

14. An offline function without the annoying prompts will enhance it’s usability even more. There should be an option for users to choose to connect to server for fetching and updating contents or stay offline.

15. The connectivity issue also happens when I toggle from one blog view to another. It will try to establish a connection.

16. Like I said, there are many user scenario where it fits perfectly okay for offline usage. One of them is to write short post or to draft an idea in an area without WiFi or internet coverage.

17. I believe the development team is working very hard to make sure this WordPress for Nokia application easy to use, stable, relevant and functional. And they are almost there.

18. Until it becomes really useful on E90, and optimised for non-touch operations, I am sticking to WordMobi at the moment.

19. But for you who own one of Nokia’s Symbian^1 touchscreen smartphones or N900 (Maemo 5), this is the most elegant solution for your WordPress blogging needs.

20. Visit http://dev.nokia.wordpress.org to follow it’s development. It’s a free open source project and you can also contribute to it’s progress.

- Asri al-Baker

1. Scott Weiss, User Interface Manager of Symbian Foundation has posted an update of the progress for Symbian^4 UI development.

2. From the blog, there’s nothing much to report actually. If you are expecting new screenshots or video of the upcoming Symbian^4 UI cncept, you’ll be disappointed.

3. However, Scott did summarize briefly of the contributions and ideas that have been generated as well as the sheer amount of interest from the community who want to see a better Symbian in the future.

4. It has to be noted that Symbian^4 is still under heavy development and it will be a good year or more from now before we can see the actual product on real hardware.

5. There’s also 2 videos showcasing the same Symbian^4 UI concept that have been circulating on the interwebs for some time. They showed the photo gallery and the homescreen.

6. What do you think?

1. There’s no “WOW” Symbian device announced during MWC 2010 2 weeks ago. Well, in my opinion, this year’s MWC is flat, nothing exciting for a Symbian enthusiast. Well. the Vivaz Pro was just a Vivaz with QWERTY… nothing new…

2. While other companies such as Microsoft, unveiled new and cool user interface technology, Symbian users are presented with this video, showing the new Symbian^3 which enhances user experience by eliminating legacy double-tapping, easier connection manager and hardware acceleration. In other words, faaasssttt…

3. In this video, if you look carefully, you will find some new elements of Symbian^3 which are not available in previous Symbian versions such as :
- multiple homescreens with indicators
- when viewing homescreen in landscape, the soft-keys are located at the bottom, not at the side
- Kinetic scrolling at 60 frame per second everywhere
- new music player interface (which reminds me of iPhone’s music player a lot!)
- multi-touch interface (again, reminiscing iPhone)
- visual taskmanager which looks kinda like Palm’s webOS’ taskmanager

4. However, it is still looks like the S60 5th Edition UI aka Symbian^1 which has been around for more than a year now.

5. Yeah, I Know, the Foundation is working hard on the next Symbian releae aka Symbian^4 which will use a new UI but until this time next year 2011, we will have to wait and use this “tired and old-looking UI“.

6. I have shown the video above to many friends, Blackberry and iPhone users and their reactions are as expected. Comments like “Symbian is trying to copy other UIs and it has nothing new”

7. Personally, I’m pumped to see the Symbian^3 UI on a real hardware and the manufacturers like Nokia have committed to bring new Symbian^3 devices by the middle of this year 2010.

8. But at the same time, I am also concerned about a few things that are not revealed in the video (or anywhere else?). Mainly the following :
- text entry : will it still use the stupid full screen text entry editor that I really hate? the one that needs me to click a green tick icon on the top left everytime I finished entering texts? why dont they just implement a useful soft QWERTY like on the iPhone or Android?
- battery/power consumption : with hardware acceleration, capacitive screen and more, I’m worried about the power consumption. Will the new Symbian^3 devices utilise power intelligently and can stand my heavy usage pattern? I mean, it’s pointless if it has the latest and greatest but can stand only a few hours in real life usage…
- RAM management : On paper, Symbian is RAM efficient but manufacturers decided to be stingy and put minimal amount of physical RAM inside Symbian smartphones which limit the devices’ potential. The epic failure of N97 classic for example, is a testimony of how a great device is weakend by the limited amount of RAM.
- Internet browser / Web : The Webkit-based internet browser, is nice but it’s far behind Apple’s and Google’s implementation of Webkit on their mobile devices. It’s slow, doesnt render pages correctly and hard to use. Will Symbian^3 come with a new web-browser that doesnt suck? Or do we still have to rely on 3rd party applications such as Opera Mobile 10?

9. Those are my main concerns regarding Symbian^3 and I have no idea what to expect.

10. If the enhancements in Symbian^3 are about what are shown in the video above, then I’m disappointed because I feel, by looking at it, this should be Symbian^1 since the very beginning when Symbian Foundation took over. This shouldn’t be Symbian^3…

- Asri al-Baker

2. Ewan mentioned about an application called Gig Finder which is using a different UI from the standard Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) UI.

3. For the sake of excitment and testing something new, I installed Gig Finder to take a peek into the so called new Symbian UI elements.

4. Although the application is packaged in SIS, I believe it is a Widget, not a native application.

On the left is Gig Finder, and on the right is the proposed Homescreen UI for Symbian^4

5. Hell yeah! It is indeed different from the stock Symbian^1 user interface which I hate to love it!

6. The UI is modern and has elements of other modern UI in the market. For example, there are 3 icons at the bottom of the screen which is called Toolbar, it is used to access the most accessed (logically) functions.

7. There’s also other elements that will pop out for users to confirm actions. And the pop-up is hanging, i.e. not locked to the bottom of the screen like the existing Symbian^1 UI.

8. For the Options and other menus like Setting of the app, and those that is not accessed frequently, including the Information about the App, the menu is accessible by pressing an icon at the top left corner of the screen.

9. The UI looks good on landscape mode too!

10. The new Symbian^4 UI is not finalised yet. And Symbian just annonounced Symbian^3 as a full open source system. It will be interesting to see what the community will bring to the plate.

11. Bring it on Symbian^4!!!

- Asri al-Baker