I just read the about this blog page that I wrote last November. It said:

This weblog is dedicated to apps running on Nokia’s S60 based devices. So I will be talking about Nokia apps, especially the ones we have developed, but also about interesting 3rd party stuff you can find out there.

Now, please tell me should I keep it this way, or should we focus the discussion strictly on S60 applications?

Simon Judge makes a really good point in Mobile Phone Development: (bold added)

Many commentaries on User Experience recite what it’s like to use such and such a phone, application or service. In practice, the most challenging part is actually setup rather than typical use.

So true.

Let me repeat: the most challenging part is actually setup rather than typical use.

Everybody, say: the most challenging part is actually setup rather than typical use.

Pip Coburn has written a book about the same subject: The Change Function: Why Some Technologies Take Off and Others Crash and Burn. Well worth a read. If you don't have time or money to read the book, go at least and read Pip's free ChangeThis manifesto Non-Geeks are Not Morons: The Change Function Model for Adopting Technology.

Here's the highlight:

The total pain of adoption = money + time + effort + all the hassle.

Dear S60 developers: plese make your stuff easy to take into use. Lower the total pain of adoption.

A couple of weeks ago, I got bored using early protos, and decided to order a commercial S60 device.

Today, the postman brought me a present:

Yay!!! :D

For me, Nokia N73 is currently the best Nokia device out there. If you don't believe it, check out what infoSync World and Dan say.

After wrapping up the package, here are the first ten steps what I did:

1. Screenshot - installed Antony's Screenshot app
2. Data Transfer - transferred the data from my old Nokia 3250 (contacts, calendar entries, gallery files, notes, recent calls, text messages, bookmarks, Nokia folder) using the built-in Data Transfer application. Thanks to the Data Transfer app, I could continue using the old device in parallel and keep the devices in synch. But I'll probably ditch my buggy old proto.
3. Quick settings - Internet, WAP, and MMS access points get configured automatically, but for setting my email accounts, I used the built-in Setting Wizard. Bonus link: How do I enable POP for Gmail
4. Quick personalization
- set the annoying keypad tones off
- changed the theme to zen-white and pumped up the brightness (Tools => Settings => Phone => Display => Light sensor), and set the light time-out to maximum.
- changed the ringing tone to 3D ringing tone
- personalized the Active Standby screen
5. PC Suite - synched my data using PC suite. It worked beautifully.
6. RSS - subscribed to my top-10 favorite RSS feeds, or "Web feeds" as the S60 browser calls them. Tried Darla's trick for adding the feed URLs, but it didn't work the way I thought.
7. Built-in apps - played around with the built-in applications. There were 48 of them. Made me think. Again.
8. Add-on apps directly from phone - tried to buy a couple of S60 applications using Nokia Catalogs aka. Nokia Content Discoverer aka. Preminet. For some reason, it didn't work. All I get is "File Corrupted". I wonder if I should call someone...
9. Add-on apps via PC - installed a few freeware apps, including Y-Browser while waiting for FExplorer port for S60 3rd Edition
10. Synch music with iTunes or WMP 10 - went home to set my Nokia N73 to synch music and podcasts with iTunes on my home computer. Here is how you can do it. If you prefer Windows Media Player 10, read this instead.

Wow. Once again, I realize how far we have travelled with S60. And I sincerely feel that we are on the right track.

Thank you all for your improvement suggestions!

I'll keep the thread open for a couple of days, before I write the summary for Nokia people - and for you, my friends. Some of your wishes have already been implemented, some are not feasible or not worth the trouble, but some are in my opinion worth considering. We (= Nokia) probably won't do everything you suggest, but in some cases, you just might be in luck ;-)

Once again, thank you.

In my last post Analyzing the feedback for Nokia devices based on S60 3rd Edition, James asked how you could send improvement suggestions for Nokia, and I promised to devote a thread to it. Let's narrow the scope here to the built-in S60 apps, because it is the only area I have any direct influence on.

What are the 3 things you would change about built-in S60 applications?

What should we add? What should we remove? What should we change? Please list three wishes maximum.
---
Note: as always, Nokia is free to implement or not to implement whatever you suggest here. There is no official process whatsoever how your comments could turn into real improvements in Nokia products, but I promise to do my best. At least a hundred or so Nokia people are listening...

My boss asked me to analyze the market feedback for the S60 3rd Edition devices that Nokia has launched so far. I'm supposed to send a summary, including suggested improvement actions, to everybody in my unit here in Nokia. Most importantly, we'll try to improve our built-in applications based on the feedback.

Now, you'll find below the initial list of product reviews I'm going to analyze. Are there any good reviews that I should add to the list?

Somebody asked me about OpenOffice/ OpenDocument support for Nokia S60 devices. If you are interested, check out the free beta of Mobile Office by Odendahl SEPT-solutions.

Max, the guy behind Mobile Office, is really eager to hear your feedback. What do you think about the app?

I'm a little afraid, however, that OpenDocument is used only by a niche community, who are almost religious not to pay for applications...

Duncan Sample has published a list of his favorite free applications for S60 3rd Edition.

In addition, those of you interested in 2D barcodes, check out Duncan's free Firefox plugin Mobile Barcoder, which creates automatically QR Codes for the web page that the reader is currently viewing. I think this should work with Nokia's barcode reader.

Finally!!

Go and check out: http://www.nokia.co.uk/softwareupdate

I'm sure many people, such as Niko, will appreciate this.

Michal Jerz reports at My-Symbian:

Currenty the service only supports Series 60 2.x smartphones (N70, N72, 6630, 6680, 6681/82) but support for S60 3rd Edition phones is coming soon.

You can find more commentary at All About Symbian and Symbian-Freak.

Although the compatibility table is not perfect yet, this is good news. Please spread the word.

Presentation Zen offers, once again, an excellent piece of advice: when designing - well, basically anything - we should clean up the visual clutter.

"[I]f you want people to understand [you] better, then get that stuff off the screen...Clean it up and get it off because it is simply making it more difficult for people to understand what [you are] saying."

I think this applies also to the visual design of S60 apps and themes.

Let's compare the two approaches.

As an example of the one extreme, Darla has nicely consolidated the Nokia 3250 themes:

Taken to the other extreme, take a look at the the white theme from E60 blog or the one from igBase:

Now, let's vote :-)

Bonus links:
How to save memory, run faster and gain a clearer screen.... in 10 seconds!
Microsoft Re-Designs the Ipod Packaging

Martin just published a guide about how to share your 3G connection. Update: link fixed

Thought-provoking experiment, although I'm not yet convinced of the practicality...

ps. don't try this at home, unless you have an unlimited 3G plan

Robert Scoble's blog reading tips:

Yeah, my #1 tip is to learn to use an RSS News Aggregator.

That is my #1 tip for you too.

If you don't know what RSS is, go read this BBC intro or SixApart instructions.

As my own RSS aggregator, I use FeedReader, but there are many good alternatives to choose from. Which one do you use? Or do you still read blogs and websites with browser?

In addition, if you have a S60 3rd Edition device, you can use the built-in RSS reader in the S60 Web Browser. Or you can download a 3rd party app, such as HeadLine or Resco News.

Guilty as charged. I made a couple of jokes at work about this.

But I had no intent to be unkind to Gary Oldman - he rocks!! :-)

Having trouble finding good S60 apps from the clutter of mediocre and bad ones?

Go read AAS favorites for S60 3rd edition.

Excellent list, I would say, although you could add Nokia Podcasting Client (for WLAN enabled devices), one file manager app, and maybe ScreenShot that is a must-have for some of us.

I just updated my blogroll, once again. Now, I selected ruthlessly my personal top-5 favorites in 11 categories:
- My favorite Symbian/S60 sites
- My favorite blogs about Symbian/S60
- My favorite blogs about mobile stuff
- My favorite blogs about technology
- My favorite blogs (vaguely) about business
- My favorite blogs&sites about Flash Lite
- My favorite product review sites
- My favorite Web2.0 (*urgh*) services
- My favorite Finnish technology blogs
- My favorite blogs from people I know
- My favorite blogs about something else

To find my favorites, see the bottom-right corner of this page that says "Links". In addition, you can find there a section called "other interesting stuff". Even though these didn't make it in top-5 in any of the categories, each one of them is worth a read.

Anything I missed?

Funny thing about working in a big company is that sometimes you hear the news from external sources.

Now, Darla and All About Symbian tell me that Python for S60 has an official wiki. If you don't know what I'm talking about, Python for S60 is an open-source port of Python scripting language for S60 devices.

Three cheers for this experiment!!

If this experiment proves fruitful, I guess we could take it to the next level: would you like us to set up an official S60 wiki? As a reference, Motorola has set up a wiki for their Windows Mobile based Q devices. Our hypothetical S60 wiki could be something like it, or something completely different. What do you think?

A couple of days ago, I received an email from Nick, who had problems connecting to AOL Instant Messenger using the built-in S60 IM client in his E61, and Yamigo.

I promised to take a look. Unfortunately, I couldn't connect to Yamigo either - I just get an error message:

"Unable to connect to service. Try again later"

Since I'm now in a hurry to my friend's bachelor party, I'll ask your help. Can you connect to Yamigo? Or is there something wrong with Yamigo or the built-in IM client? Or is there something wrong with me?

Now, gottago. Running. Have a nice weekend!

Uuh-ooh... Two days ago, SixApart proudly announced:

Today we're excited to announce the release of TypePad Mobile, a free application for your Palm, Windows Mobile or Symbian Series 60 smartphone that lets you post photos and entries to your TypePad blogs and photo albums with just a few clicks.

And of course, the blogosphere goes nuts :)
- MobileCrunch: SixApart Launches TypePad Mobile; possibly the best mobile blogging platform?
- Marco Casario: Blog from your S60 with Typepad Mobile
- Darla Mack: Six Apart Announces TypePad Mobile
- ...

Anyway, if you have a TypePad blog, I think you want to download this app. I haven't tried it myself, but I've heard that it works beautifully (thanks J-P E!).

I just wonder when they'll learn to say "S60" instead of "Series 60". *Sigh*.

I'm not sure is this list official yet, but I found this page by guessing the link:

You'll find the finalists by clicking the picture/link above. Handango says: "Winners will be announced on September 11, 2006"

What do you think - were the right apps selected as finalists in S60 category?

Two weeks ago, I asked "Should Nokia set up application testing labs?", promising to send your feedback to big managers at Forum Nokia.

I did. And they seemed to like your feedback.

However, it seems that the developers are too scattered around the world, for such application testing labs to be feasible. In fact, Forum Nokia has earlier had Developer Hubs around the world providing testing possibilities for developers. Unfortunately, the costs were too high for both developers and Nokia, and the usage was very low. Therefore the service had to be closed. Bummer.

Good news is that the remote testing looks very promising, although it is still limited for Forum Nokia PRO companies. I don't know if they can scale up this service for wider use or not, but at least they have heard your feedback. Watch this space ;-)

Me and a couple of my Nokia colleagues are thinking about going to the Symbian Smartphone Show.

What about you?

More info: http://www.symbiansmartphoneshow.com/2006/

Last December, I blogged about Flash Lite and predicted that "we will see a tsunami of Flash Lite apps/content in 2006". Ok, maybe it was too early to call the invasion of Flash Lite as a tsunami, but I still think the Flash Lite scene is worth following.

If you haven't played around with Flash Lite yet, go read this Flash Lite Primer for Symbian OS Users. About where to find Flash Lite apps/content, AAS recommends:

One of the first stops should be the All About Symbian Software Listing, but we'll have a look at some of the best picks in the next week or so. If you want to get started now you can download this archive which contains a collection of .swf files. You can also visit Adobe's Flash Lite Exchange (registration required).

All About Symbian says in their Nokia N93 review (part one) many kind words about the TV-Out functionality in Nokia N93, concluding:

"In some ways TV-out is the most compelling function of the N93 and I hope we see it again on future S60 devices."

Yesterday, Tero (the chief architect of my unit) showed me the funny little game Groove Labyrinth for Nokia 5500 Sport. The punch line says:

Steer your marble ball through the 3D-labyrinth and collect all diamonds. Be aware of special items like mines and time credits. Use the built-in sensor or joystick to steer the marble ball.

I'm not a games fanatic, as you probably have noticed, but I kind of liked this one. Quite much, actually. I felt almost like playing the wooden labyrinth game when I was a kid...

However, I started to wonder are there any truly useful purposes for the 3D sensor - but then I remembered Oscar Wilde saying: "all art is quite useless". Hehheh... So now, I'm happily looking forward all kinds of totally useless but funny things that people will create with this 3D sensor. Any wild ideas? (note: posting your ideas here means that Nokia and everybody else are free to use your idea in whatever way they choose)

Ps. my grand challenge is still open: Who can turn Nokia 5500 into a Star Wars light saber?

Steve Litchfield asks: "Why the penny-pinching over RAM?"

I think this is a valid question, although I'm sure the wise men at Nokia have calculated the costs and benefits much better than I ever could.

And maybe, just maybe, some of the designers at Nokia will read this and get the message.

Martin has an interesting idea:

"When traveling in a group, your Nokia N80, E60 or other N- or E-Series phone put in the middle of the table could give Internet access for the notebooks of all people traveling with you."

SmartphoneWare has just released their Best Full Screen Caller for S60 3rd Edition. Of course, it is also available for older S60 devices.

Really nice. I've been wondering why we don't have this feature built-in...

Unfortunately, I don't have pictures about most of my contacts, which discourages me from adopting this app. And honestly, the process of getting the pics and configuring them to the contacts sounds quite troublesome and time-consuming... How about you, have you configured pictures appearing for incoming phonecalls?

Matt "Blackbeltjones" Jones writes:

This is the first time I’ve done such a thing (I think) and as far as I know it’s the first time we’ve done it at Nokia Design, but it seems to have worked for others in the past, so here goes…

We’re looking for a few mind-blowing people to join the team working on user-experience and interaction design for Nokia Nseries [warning - a lot of Flash] and other multimedia goodness.

There are two roles up for grabs at the moment: ...

Cool. I'm interested to hear how this kind of recruiting works, and should we (= other Nokia bloggers) try it too.

I just received an email from Phil:

The annoying comment-cookie problem, where it wouldn't remember your contact details, has been fixed (I think). Try it out and let me know if you're still having problems.

Thanks for your patience, my friends, in writing your contact details over and over again when posting comments.

Thanks for voting. I just wanted to get a rough idea about what kind of people are reading this blog. And to try the voting widget for future polls ;-)