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 notice recently if you go to http://touch.facebook.com using your Symbian Anna Web browser, you’ll experience a new Facebook Touch experience.

2. Previously, visiting the same URL will present the basic Facebook mobile website.

3. Now, there are more than just simple access to status updates, and inboxes. There are more functions and the user interface is also refined and more touch friendly.

4. I am not a heavy Facebook user. But it’s good to see Facebook implementing something as a standard accross all mobile smart platforms. The decision to use HTML5 as the framework is very welcomed. You can be read some mumbo-jumbos about it HERE.

5. Previously, iOS and Android devices receive the most advanced Facebook mobile experience while Symbian only have the option to use the most basic Facebook mobile interface.

6. I believe the current iteration is standard across all mobile smart platforms? No?

7. It’s true that at the moment, there are many ways to access Facebook using Symbian devices. Among them are :
- Gravity
- Facial
- fMobi
- Borg
- Nokia Social
- Kasvopus

8. And with this enhanced Facebook Touch also available for Symbian, it makes us Symbian users feel great again.

9. How about you? Have you experienced the new Facebook Touch at http://touch.facebook.com?

10. Enjoy these screenshots!

- Asri al-Baker
- for i-Symbian.Com
- October 12th 2011

1. Nokia Social app is an example of a very poor app design using technology that should have not been included in the first place. Say whateer you want but I really believe it is a bad app and Nokia could do better.

2. Nokia updated the Ovi Store app on Symbian^3 and Anna devices. It’s got the name changed to Nokia Store too. And it’s using Qt-Quick Components. Bringing in more user friendly UI and up-to-date functionalities.

3. I guess it’s a matter of time before Nokia announced a new Social app for all it’s Symbian^3, Anna, and Belle smartphones. I really believe Nokia is cooking something on that front because they did deliver a usable and better Social apps (Facebook and Twitter) on MeeGo Harmattan (Nokia N9).

4. On Nokia Conversations, there’s a new blogpost telling readers about the design story behind Symbian Belle. You can read the post here : http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/10/10/understanding-symbian-belle-exclusive-design-video-documentary/.

5. They showed a video, which is cool. And if you jump to minute 2.35 in the video, you can see it shows Symbian Belle homescreen with two rows of icons symbolising Twitter and Facebook. I never seen any Symbian Homescreen widgets that looked like that before. Could they be the new Homescreen widgets for the new Nokia Social app for Symbian? Written in QML?

6. Anyway, here is the video :

- Asri al-Baker
- For i-Symbian.Com
- October 11th 2011 (I wished I could fly….)

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.

*** the above photo is unrelated to this post at all

1. I dont know whether you guys noticed this or not but apparently, Symbian Anna’s kinetic scrolling performance is worst than Symbian^3.

2. On Symbian^3, the kinetic scrolling works and feels faster. You can scroll in a long list with ease. It doesn’t stop frequently. You can flick your finger or thumb in all over the OS with ease.

3. However, since I updated my Symbian^3 smartphones to Symbian Anna, I feel it’s kinetic scrolling performance is slower and it stops frequently. Dunno why…

4. Many will say it’s not a big deal, it doesn’t matter, but for me, having a really fast kinetic scrolling does help in enhancing the user experience. I dont want to do a lot of flicking and I want a fast kinetic scrolling everywhere in my Symbian smartphones to go to the place I want faster.

5. I dig deep into Google and found a solution, a mod to be exact, which turbo-boosts Symbian Anna’s kinetic scrolling. It was developed by Ancelad. From what I read, it also works on Symbian^3.

6. This mod is unsigned. You need to know the workaround on how to sign unsigned Symbian app. Do ask Uncle Google

7. I’ve recorded a video for you guys to see how different my E7 with the mod installed to my N8 which does not have the mod yet. Both with Symbian Anna.

8. Notice how fast the kinetic scrolling is on the E7? With just a flick, the list scrolls from top or bottom vice versa without stopping. You can do another flick to make it go faster.

9. On the N8, without the mod, the kinetic scrolling needs continuous flicking and is jerky.

10. You can experience this yourself by installing this file :

Mediafire : Kinetic Scrolling Improvement for Anna by Ancelad.

11. Remember, it’s unsigned, you need to sign it first.

- Asri al-Baker
- For i-Symbian.Com
- September 7th 2011

1. I waited eagerly for Symbian Anna. One of it’s promised of many enhancements is the improved Email app. Is it?

2. On all my Symbian^3 smartphones, I did not use the Email app at all. I hate to say that it never worked as good as what Nokia folks believe it is. I use Visiarc’s Mobile Documents. Waaaaaayyyy better than the built-in Nokia Email app.

3. I know. With Symbian Anna, the Email app has been redesigned, restructured, and streamlined. It has slicker interface with excellent inline HTML support and it performs faster than any of it’s previous versions.

4. But in terms of usability, I personally think that it has not been improved at all. Infact, I feel the Email app in Symbian Anna has become worst.

5. For the record, my main email address is using Google Apps. Hence, the configuration is similar to normal Gmail account.

6. The auto-configuration doesn’t work properly with Google Apps. It will set a POP3 email account. This is annoying.

7. Using Mail For Exchange, will set an email account that is very slow in getting emails and I need to pull email manually by using “Send and Receive” command from the menu.

8. Using another method to decline Nokia’s terms and condition, I can get an IMAP account setup inside Email app but similarly like the above, it doesn’t push my emails. I need to get them manually.

9. I have tweaked the settings by going to Advanced settings and change many parameters to my liking but emails are still not pushed.

10. The most annoying and stupid thing about Nokia Email app in my personal opinion is the fact that there is no way to subscribe to email folders (Gmail labels). For example, using Mail for Exchange, if I want to check the contents of the folders, I need to do a lot of clicking.

11. I use some filters in my Google Apps email. When emails arrive, they will be automatically labelled and moved to the defined labels, without going to the Inbox. Hence, I need this to work.

12. But Nokia Email app doesnt allow me to subscribe to any folders under Mail for Exchange. There’s no command to select which folders to be synchronised with my devices.

13. I have used many mobile Email app on many platforms, they allow folder subscription. This is one feature that I think needs to be addressed by Nokia.

14. Another feature that needs to be fixed, in my opinion, is the push function. During my experience with Nokia Email app on Symbian Anna, the push function doesn’t work properly. I always receive my emails on my desktop but they NEVER gets pushed to Email app.

15. Please Nokia, improve the Email app more. It’s 2011 not 1911 you know. An email client that doesnt work properly in your devices doesnt give you a good impression you know…

- For i-Symbian.Com
- September 6th 2011
- Asri al-Baker

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

Donate to us

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

1. I know… I know… It’s been months. We’ve been waiting for months for Symbian Anna to come.

2. Nokia Australia has just released a video, explaining some of the updates and new features inside Symbian Anna.

3. These including (but not limited to) :
- New portrait QWERTY
- New Calendar
- New Web browser
- New iconography
- Yada yada yada…

4. Just watch the video

5. Symbian Anna will be made available for existing Symbian^3 devices during August 2011 (depends on market conditions).

1. Nokia Malaysia organised a special preview session for bloggers on Friday May 27th in Kuala Lumpur.

2. This preview session is intended to show the latest Symbian devices which are the E6 and the X7.

3. Also previewed, was the first glimpse of Symbian Anna. The new Symbian revamp that was scheduled to be shipped with the E6 and X7, and also to be made available to all existing Symbian^3 smartphones (N8, E7, C7, C6-01) in the coming weeks.

Some observations

Calendar

1. I only had a brief moment with Anna, particularly with the X7. And I wasted no time, for 25-30 minutes or so, I digged into X7 user interface and found some interesting tidbits.

The calendar view is improved. In here, calendar entries are displayed. Just like on Symbian^1. Interestingly, it applies for month and week views.

For single day view, time-slots are displayed all the time even on empty days.

The toolbar has been removed. Giving more space for contents. However, this means changing views is harder (Options – Change View…).

Full screen view can be activated by pinching the screen.

Editing screen is also improved (no screenshot)

File Manager

1. Finally. Selecting multiple files (Mark) is easier. When activated, checkboxes will appear on the left of the filenames. Very easy to mark any files that we want. The menu also dynamically changes when selection begins.

2. Speed is increased, eg. opening large photo.

Web-browser

1. I was impressed with the rendering speed. Definitely better than the old Symbian Web.

2. But the UI is still not to my liking. e.g. Changing tabs/windows is still needs many clicks.

3. Creating new tab/window is supported. But the UI for it is very slow. The closest comparison I can mention is like creating new tab on Skyfire for iPad. Very sloowwww….

Overall impression

1. To be honest, Symbian Anna is a step in the right direction. The most obvious change is the application icons, where they are now standardised and looks cooler. And that’s about it.
2. There are some core application changes like the Web browser, and Photo viewer. But most apps stays the same like on Symbian^3.

3. For Symbian^3 users, the changes are not that noticeable. Particularly it has the same UI. Not really a refresh.

4. The overall speed is increased. Launching apps is faster.

5. The portrait QWERTY is included, users can choose between the alphanumeric keypad or the new portrait QWERTY. But, in my opinion, the new portrait QWERTY keyboard needs some time to get used to. The individual keys are too small for my thumbs.

6. Anna will be shipped with E6 & X7 first. Then only for existing Symbian^3 smartphones via software update.

7. Nokia E6 will be priced at only RM1155 when it reaches Malaysia market in early June 2011. For the X7, the price will be determined later. It will be made available in early July 2011.

8. All in all… cant wait to test it in real life

*** More coverage from Tallboyz who also attended the preview session.

- For i-Symbian.Com
- Asri al-Baker
- May 30th 2011

1. It’s been a while since Symbian apps looked beautiful and function well, making using them a joyful ride. If I remember correctly, Jan Ole’s Gravity is one of those apps which brings some fresh ideas to the world of Symbian apps. But that was like 2 years ago…

2. With the full release of Nokia Qt SDK 1.1 last week, developers can publish their Qt Symbian apps (developed utilising Qt 4.7) in Ovi Store. This include apps that are developed using latest Qt (including QML). Lets leave the technical jargons and see what Qt and QML can do :

Flowd

In my opinion, flowd is the best-looking Qt app for Symbian at the moment. Developed by a Digia, it is a social networking client of http://www.flowd.com that connects to your Facebook and Twitter accounts to follow favourite artistes and celebrities, as well as to check-ins and create locations.

The UI for Flowd for Symbian, is very iPhone-ish but there’s some twists and enhancements done by the team. Makes you feel very easy using it.

For some people, who couldn’t get what Flowd is, you can use this app to create favourite locations that you can visit, add details, add photos and so on.

Flowd for Symbian requires latest Qt and Qtmobility to work. Get it from Ovi Store : http://store.ovi.com/content/118220

Linkedin

For professionals, business and corporate users, Linkedin is their preferred social networking platform and for years, Symbian users have been left behind.

Finally, us Symbian users can experience Linkedin in our Symbian smartphones using a dedicated Linkedin app. It is available for FREE in Ovi Store : http://store.ovi.com/content/121603.

Although it is not as extensive as the Linkedin Web or the mobile client on other platforms, it performs very well, smooth and connects without problem.

If you are a Linkedin user and carry a Symbian^3 smartphone, this is a must.

TwimGo

A Twitter client, developed by Tommi Laukkanen. It’s not as feature rich as Gravity but for a free client, it does offer some great functions.

You can visit the developer’s website to follow the development, because it is being heavily developed and new versions are released.

Get it for free from Ovi Store : http://store.ovi.com/content/103956

Kasvopus

A Facebook client, also developed by Tommi Laukkanen.

If you hate the built-in Social app inside your Symbian^3 smartphones, you must try Kasvopus.

It is not yet feature complete but the basic Facebook functions are there. Heck, it’s so smooth and a joy to use compared to the crap Social app.

Get it for FREE from Ovi Store : http://store.ovi.com/content/120928 or from it’s official website : http://kasvopus.substanceofcode.com/

- @asrialbaker
- May 8th 2011
- For i-Symbian.Com