S60 Open to new features

I need to take a break from reading RSS feeds and watching the news and perhaps even talking to people for the next few days. (I say I need to, but I probably won't...) Anyway, I hope you've had a good chuckle or two from watching these videos for the past week, as I have. This is the final installment, about the ability to use your own music as custom ringtones, .... or maybe not... see for yourself :)

Downloadable clip in mp4 format (QVGA MPEG-4 @ 30fps, stereo AAC @ 48kHz).

- iCarol. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

[ Via: Symbian-Guru, IntoMobile ]

Hey, iPhone gets to take a trip! How cool is that? Oh, the owner isn't coming along? That doesn't make sense...

I love to travel too, but I'd prefer if my gadgets scale the Great Wall with me than without me.

Downloadable clip in mp4 format (QVGA MPEG-4 @ 30fps, stereo AAC @ 48kHz).

Grand finale in less than 12 hours! And I'll bet we'll be seeing and hearing more about the iPhone, if that's possible...

- 卡露儿.

[ Via: IntoMobile, Symbian-Guru ]

Let's take a commercial break from the, um, "commercials". Here we have a comparison between Nokia and Apple of a different sort: Who is greener?

The Greenpeace Guide to Greener Electronics is currently in its fourth edition. It is a ranking of the top 14 manufacturers on their use of harmful chemicals and electronic waste recycling.

Nokia has been a consistent top performer, clinching the top spots in the first two roundups, and falling behind only Lenovo in the third. Greenpeace says: "Nokia is on top because they've already phased out PVC, and met or exceeded a wide set of benchmarks we've laid down to reduce the amount and toxicity of electronic waste piling up in Asia and Africa."

Apple, on the other hand, was at the very botton in the second and third editions of the guide. It moved up this time "as a result of Steve Job's "Greener Apple" pledge to phase out PVC and other chemicals from their product line." But "loses points for not have a green product on the market and for a weak take back program."

Here's a detailed look on how the companies line up.

It's things like this that make me proud to call myself a Nokian, in addition to the fact that we make some really awesome devices. A company that cares about its consumers and their environment.

That's all for now! We will resume our scheduled programming shortly...

- Carol.

Stefan lost me for a while there when he said "Calamari is good, but you have to find it." Guess I need the GPS function too! (geddit? geddit? ah never mind, I know it's lame...)

Just enjoy the video :)

Downloadable clip in mp4 format (QVGA MPEG-4 @ 30fps, stereo AAC @ 48kHz).

- Carol.

[ Via: Symbian-Guru, IntoMobile ]

The iPhone is not the first cell phone to do a lot of things (we here at S60 MM have a bone to pick about this too, but we'll save that for later!). Our S60 browser has been bringing the full web experience to you via the S60 devices for a while now. Watch what happens when iPhone finds out that it's actually late to the party:

Downloadable clip in mp4 format (QVGA MPEG-4 @ 30fps, stereo AAC @ 48kHz).

- Opera Mini.

[ Via: IntoMobile, Symbian-Guru ]

For those of you who don't understand Finnish (add me to the list, I really only know about 20 words, including counting from one to ten - which in this case is helpful), Jakso kaksi = episode two.

So yesterday we see iPhone agonizing over photo sharing. What about the photos it can capture in the first place?

Downloadable clip in mp4 format (QVGA MPEG-4 @ 30fps, stereo AAC @ 48kHz). Any comments about a vodcast feed? We could possibly have two feeds, one at this quality and another perhaps in 3gp format, QCIF H.263 @ 15fps and AMR-WB audio. I think that would cover most S60 devices?

Hope you're enjoying the "commercials" by Stefan and Ricky :) I know I am!

- Carol.

[ Via: Symbian-Guru, IntoMobile ]

It's hard to avoid reading and hearing about the iPhone these past weeks (or perhaps even past months). You think you'd be spared from all that here on the S60 blogs? Think again!

From co-workers to fellow bloggers to family and friends, everyone seems to have an opinion about the new Apple device and everyone wants to hear what others have to say. Even if the conversation goes something like this: "I'm so sick and tired of hearing about the iPhone. So, what do you think about it?"

What do I think about it? Oh, writing all my thoughts down will be a great way to warm up for my dissertation writing (if I ever get around to that). I will say this though: if nothing else, Apple did a kick ass job in their product marketing. Even I was impressed, and I'm not one who usually buy into the marketing hype.

But let's not have all these wordy paragraphs distract from the main attraction of this post: the first of six installments of "N95 vs iPhone commercials" (parodies of the Mac vs PC ones). These are a joint production by Ricky of Symbian-Guru.com and Stefan from IntoMobile.com. What are they about? Just watch and find out:

Here's a version in mp4 format (QVGA MPEG-4 @ 30fps, stereo AAC @ 48kHz) that you can download and play back on most S60 3rd Edition handsets. Speaking of which, what do ya'll think of a video podcast feed for this blog? Seeing that Kevin and I occasionally embed videos in our posts, would it be convenient if you can download the same videos and play them back on device? If so, please let us know what Nokia S60 devices you use so we can prepare the clips in the format most suited for everyone.

- Carol.

[ Via: IntoMobile, Symbian-Guru ]

One of the things that I enjoy doing to pass the time on my train commute to work is watching Diggnation and other Revision3 Vidcasts. I usually download the Vidcasts over WiFi using the S60 Podcasting application on the Nokia N93i. Diggnation is a video podcast that discusses some of the weekly top stories from the social news website Digg.com, hence the name Diggnation. The hosts of the show Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht have great chemistry together and keep the show entertaining by debating and often making jokes about the stories they cover.

Recently Diggnation reached the 100 episode milestone! Congratulations guys and looking forward to watching many more episodes in the future. Below are 2 photos of Diggnation episode 100 playing on the Nokia N93i and N95.

(Click on the image to view a larger image.)

(Click on the image to view a larger image.)

Here's how you can download and watch Diggnation and other Revision3 Vidcasts on your N93i or N95.
Step 1. Install the S60 Podcasting application. It's available from Nokia.com/podcasting
Step 2. Open the Podcasting application and open the Podcasts folder. Press Options and choose New podcast then enter the Netcast RSS feed, in this case the Diggnation feed is http://revision3.com/diggnation/feed/quicktime-small
Note: When asked what access point you want to connect to I recommend selecting a nearby WiFi network, unless you have an unlimited cellular Data plan. The reason for this is because the Netcasts tend to be fairly large files and you wouldn't want to get a large phone bill from these downloads.
Step 3. Select Diggnation and you'll see a long list of available episodes.
Step 4. Highlight and select an episode that you want to watch. A message asking, "Content can not be played on the device. Continue?" will appear. You can press Yes since most of the Revision3 "Qucktime Small" Vidcasts are playable on your N93i/N95. As a slightly technical explanation, the reason why the Podcasting app thinks the video is not supported is because the MIME Type returned from the Revision3 server is video/x-m4v and that is not in the list of supported MIME types. However the video is actually H.264 video codec and AAC audio codec that is supported on N93i and N95.
Step 5. Wait for the episode to download. When it has completed downloading you can select the video directly from the Podcasting application to play it. The Netcasts are saved by default on your Memory Card under the directory 'Podcasts' -> 'Other'.

As an alternative if you don't want to download directly with your N93i/N95 or a WiFi network isn't nearby you could also download them on a computer then copy them to your N93i or N95 for watching at your leisure.
Remember only S60 devices that have H.264 video playback support can play these Vidcasts. The Nokia N93i and N95 have H.264 support.

Now that you know how to download the videos here are some other Revision3 Vidcasts to enjoy watching and the Netcast RSS feeds for them.
- Systm - RSS Feed: http://revision3.com/systm/feed/quicktime-small
Systm is a Vidcast that shows you and explains how technology works.
- InDigital - RSS Feed: http://revision3.com/indigital/feed/quicktime-small
InDigital is a tech gadget review show.
- Web Drifter - RSS Feed: http://revision3.com/webdrifter/feed/quicktime-small
Web Drifter features wacky web related humor. The show is hosted by Martin Sargent.

If you enjoyed this entry or found it useful then Digg it!

What videos do you like to watch on your S60 device? Do you have a favorite video site that you'd like to recommend to others?

Jaiku is one of the latest and best S60 applications around today. Some people describe it as Presence others describe it as a Mini-blog. However you choose to describe it there is definitely something wonderfully interesting and fun about Jaiku.
Note: If you're already familiar with Jaiku and just want to know our Jaiku names mine is LonelyBob.jaiku.com and Carol's is Cybette.jaiku.com. Feel free to add us to your contacts.

Jaiku has become so popular that a party was recently held in San Fransisco, California. The creators of Jaiku flew all the way from Finland (Jaiku's home) to California for the event. It was hosted by the Chief TWiT himself, Leo Laporte. For those of you unfamiliar with Leo, he is the creator of the very popular and highly entertaining TWiT Netcast Network (TWiT = This Week in Tech). I listen to several of Leo's weekly Netcasts on a Nokia N93i during my commute to work including: TWiT, Net@Nite, FLOSS Weekly (that hasn't been so weekly lately), and the newest member of the bunch Jumping Monkeys. A compilation of photos from the Jaiku/TWiT event are posted on TWiT's Vox blog.
(I chose the title of this blog entry after the Jaiku party, herring was served at the event.)

One of the things that makes Jaiku so great is how well the mobile Jaiku application integrates with the standard S60 applications.
- Works with your existing Address Book/Contacts. Thus you can make calls and send messages right from the Jaiku mobile client.
- Keeps track of where you are using the cellular network. So when you travel and you have the Jaiku client online it updates your Jaiku account automatically based on information from the cellular network.
- Shows the Profile that your S60 device is in. So when you see your friend is in Meeting profile you know they probably don't want to be disturbed by your call.
- Optionally share your Calendar. Your friends can see what your plans are. You can choose to show the actual details of the calendar, show the meeting times as busy, or don't share your calendar at all.
- Also you can allow the client to scan for nearby bluetooth devices. The client keeps track of what Bluetooth devices are nearby and shows the total number of devices on your Jaiku account. Also you can associate the Bluetooth devices that belong to your friends with your friends and the client will show a tally of how many friends are nearby if you choose to enable this feature.

Not only are Carol and myself using Jaiku but several of the other S60 bloggers also use it. You can find MRKTNGman Jouni's Jaiku account here. Phil's Jaiku account is appropriately named S60 Online. Johanna, that blogs on Smartphonin' has her Jaiku account here. I think Tommi also occasionally uses Jaiku, but I'm not sure what his account name is.

What do you think of Jaiku?

This weekend I had the opportunity to attend the Japan Firefox Developers Conference in Tokyo. One of the interesting presentations related to mobiles was a new Mozilla Labs project named Joey. Joey is a Firefox extension/add-on, a server, and a Java client for mobiles is being worked on. The idea is to pass data from Firefox to your mobile.

Currently you can add Youtube videos with the Firefox extension to your Joey account and the Flash videos will be converted/transcoded to 3GP format so that they can be watched on your mobile. I had some problems accessing the page from either browser on N93i but the 3GP videos can be downloaded to a computer then copied to your mobile. Joey is in development by Mozilla and is OpenSource thus you can poke through the sourcecode if you are interested.

More info about Joey is available on the Mozilla Labs page below:
http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/05/introducing-joey/

For the longest time, when family and friends ask me where they can get the "cool Nokia phones" that I work with in the United States, I have to tell them to do a search on Ebay, or try online stores based in Europe and Asia. It was frustrating that there were no local stores (whether online or brick-and-mortar) that carried the latest and greatest of what Nokia has to offer.

With the introduction of the Nokia Flagship Stores, things are moving in the right direction. However, so far there are only two (in Chicago and New York respectively), and so it is still limited. I haven't even had the chance to visit either of the stores! Some devices are also available on the Nokia USA site, but perhaps because it's not widely viewed as an ecommerce site, I doubt the sales volume there is much to write home about. (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

Last month, Symbian Guru Ricky posted some information about a potential partnership between Nokia and Dell/Gateway. That was an exciting piece of news. And now we have confirmation from IntoMobile's Stefan that the devices are alive and kicking on Dell's retail site! Let's have a look what's available:

• Nokia E61 for $383.40
• Nokia E61i for $423.77
• Nokia N80 Internet Edition for $447.78
• Nokia N95 for $736.53

I checked out Gateway's website and found only this, hopefully more will be added soon:

• Nokia N80 Internet Edition for $499.99

Besides these high-end S60 devices, both sites also have the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet, as well as a wide selection of accessories for sale.

It is important to note that all these devices are unlocked, so you are not bound by any contracts nor restricted to a specific service provider. For example when you travel abroad, you can pop out your T-Mobile / AT&T / Cingular SIM and get a prepaid SIM at your destination to avoid paying exorbitant roaming charges. You wouldn't be able to do that with a locked phone.

Last but definitely not least, I hope this bodes well for dealing with warranty issues in the United States!

- Carol.

Happy Sunday to you all!

Looks like mobile version of YouTube has gone live. As a techie I was excited to see how they have implemented it, and here's how it looks like:
- 3GP/RTSP streaming video (no downloads)
- video codec H.263, audio codec AMR-NB
- video bitrate ~34kbps

So they have clearly went with the lowest common denominator strategy and there seems to be no adaptation based on the mobile terminal. These days when mainstream S60 devices have MPEG-4/AVC, better audio and 3G/WLAN it's a bit disappointing but maybe this is just the first version of the service.

It's Friday so it's a good day to blog about Mini Friday. Mini Friday is a game made by Sulake that is a mobile version of Habbo Hotel. For those of you that have not played or have not heard of Habbo Hotel, it is a game that takes place in a massively multiplayer virtual world.

In the game you create your own character where lots of customization is possible from your hair down to your shoes. In Mini Friday there are several rooms that you can visit where you can chat, hang out, and dance with other players. The graphics in the game are mostly made up of cute colorful 2D sprites. I occasionally play Mini Friday on my Nokia N93i. If you see a character wearing all green named LonelyBob feel free to say Hi. It's interesting to meet people on Mini Friday from all over the world.

Mini Friday is available for S60 3rd Edition and also 2nd Edition devices. Check it out, and let me know what you think in the comments!