This is the age of true mobility

I’ve been using an S60 smartphone for years now, and the ability to add third party apps is the cornerstone of owning a smartphone. I wrote a “must-have” list a few years back but over time applications changed so this list needed to be redone. Let’s start with applications every phone can use because they are Java based:

• Google Maps for Mobile is the Java based version of the Google Maps site. It allows you to see maps of every corner of the world, satellite images, ask for locations, directions and even traffic reports. It also now supports GPS on a few devices, and is a must have for finding your way on the road.
• Google Mail is the other Google application I use all the time, although for Yahoo! email users you would prefer the Yahoo! Go client. I find these applications very integrated and useful to quickly access your web based mail.
• Opera Mini is the most popular third party browser for phones and is really a nice way to browse the web if your phone doesn’t come with a full featured browser. One of the nice feature of this browser is the Opera proxy which compresses full web sites into a mobile friendly format. Almost all content except Flash and some more complex AJAX sites can be seen with it.

Now to some programs that require a S60 smartphone:

• MWeather is a mobile weather program which uses the Yahoo! API to get forecast. It provides all the basic information on upcoming weather and can be configured to show multiple cities.
• Fring is, out of all the multitude of choices, my favorite IM client currently. It supports MSN, SIP and Skype VOIP calls.
• Nokia Podcasting is the open source software that Nokia developed to allow people to download and synchronize podcasts directly from their smartphones. It works very well, especially if your device supports wi-fi.
• Nokia Internet Radio is another Nokia open source application which allows you to stream radio from your smartphone. It does use alot of data so 3G or wi-fi is recommended.
• ShoZu is a recent project which integrates your handset with various online services like Flickr. You can upload software directly to Flickr as soon as you take it, and that site comes up with more features all the time.
• Metro is a very old application that first came out for original Palm platforms and provides maps and directions for subway systems from many cities around the world.

This site has been live for more than a month, and in that time I’ve had a lot of fun updating it and keeping up to date on the high end mobility news. I also had the time to review the traffic reports from over 10,000 users who came here on which stories people read and what topics are of most interest. It seems my original content such as reviews and editorials are by far more popular than the news items. Based on those findings, and the fact that keeping the news section takes 90% of my time, I’ve decided to remove the news items and keep the content people enjoy reading, and that I enjoy writing.

One feature that is usually found on mobile devices spec sheets is the amount of memory. Unfortunately, there’s often only one type of memory shown, and it’s not always obvious which type it is. In order to know exactly what a handset can support, it’s useful to know the different types of memory that each devices can have.

Asking how much memory a phone has can actually result in multiple, different answers, and to make things harder a lot of web sites confuse the different types. In general, these are the types of memory a phone can have:

• ROM: This is non writable memory, containing the basic operating system of the phone. When you do a hard reset and format the memory of the phone, what’s on the ROM is what stays and why your phone can always be reset to factory settings. The amount of ROM a phone has is irrelevant since you can’t add things to it.

• Flash / internal memory: The amount of internal memory, sometimes called flash memory, is the space inside the phone where programs reside and where you can store messages, contacts and files. It’s usually the number you see when you look at a phone description and it says, for example, that the Nokia 6620 has 12 Megs of memory. If you are trying to save data such as a game on your phone and your phone complains about memory issues, this is probably what it needs.

• RAM: This is the temporary memory used to run programs. It must not be confused with the flash, since it can’t be used to store data. The memory is cleaned every time the phone is turned off. This is very rarely written in descriptions, but it’s very important since it dictates how many programs you can run at once. Some tools can tell you the number, such as FExplorer for S60 phones. The 6620 has 26 Megs. In some devices, built in flash is used for both internal memory and RAM. When trying to run a program, if it complains of memory issues, or closes due to running out of memory, this is what it needs. Note that the operating system itself as well as other running applications use up RAM and it’s often possible to free some more memory by closing applications or sometimes with firmware updates.

• External memory: This is simply the external memory cards that can be added to the phone. Many phones have extension slots now, but you need to be aware of the maximum size they support (512Megs, 1G, 2G, 4G and so on), and also the type (MMC, MSD, MiniSD, MicroSD and so on). There are not a lot of differences between the various types other than physical size and power consumption. Some recent models also introduced some DRM (copy protection) capacities.

• SIM: A SIM card is the little card used in GSM phones to store your phone number and contact information. These cards also have memory that can be used to store information. Usually it’s limited to contacts and sometimes a small amount of messages. The memory size can be tiny, such as 64KBytes, but it can be useful to transfer contact lists between phones.

When shopping for a phone, especially a smartphone, it’s important to have all the numbers. For example, a Nokia N80 has less free RAM than a N73, and will have more problems running multiple applications, even if both are modern smartphones. It’s important to check for these numbers in specs sheets or reviews to know if the phone will meet your needs, and then you’ll be sure to never run out of memory.

The first iPhone third party web application has apparently been made. It’s called OneTrip and is a shopping cart application. The most interesting thing however, is that it works in Safari (both the Mac and Windows version), but it also works on the S60 browser, although the display can sometimes have glitches depending on the device. However it does not work in Firefox or other non-Safari based browsers.

OneTrip allows you to select items from a list of typical grocery products, or to type in your own items. Then you can return to that list and see what you need to buy, and even mark the items as already bought.

So this may actually be a good thing for Nokia and other smartphone manufacturers, since we all know a bunch of iPhone web apps will pop up in the coming months, and if they all work on the S60 browser, that means they are really web apps for a variety of devices. Of course, the issues with web apps remain, such as the fact that all personal data has to be stored on the remote server, data usage costs and the fact that they all become moot when the connection drops.

Steve Jobs talked to developers today at WWDC 2007 about the iPhone and what developers would be able to do with it. In the past, he said Apple intends to control the device completely to ensure the “security” of the handset by not allowing third party applications. Since then, he was vague saying they were trying to find a way to bring more software in.

Today, he finally put the hammer down and said developers will have to use a web API to get into the iPhone. Basically, using the built-in Safari browser, users will have to access online services that use AJAX and web standards. Jobs said: “And so you can write amazing Web 2.0 and AJAX apps that look and behave exactly like apps on the iPhone, and these apps can integrate perfectly with iPhone services.” So there you have it, the only installed software will be what Apple ships.

And that basically ends the myth about whether or not the iPhone is a smartphone. The core feature of a smartphone is it’s ability to add software. The web may allow for a lot of flexibility, but that uses data, costs money, is restricted to the web browser, and all goes away when the connection drops. The iPhone may be a great phone, but without that third party community of developers, it will never be a true smartphone.

It’s easy to fall in for an advertisement claiming you can get a state-of-the-art phone for $99, or sometimes even free. It feels even better when you go see a dealer and they tell you they can get you a contract for only $20 a month. The surprise usually comes when you get the first bill after a month, and the amount is quite a bit more expensive. Unexpected contract charges is the number one complaint from cellphone users. This is not to say contracts are all evil, in fact most cellphone users in North America are using contracts, although they are less common in other parts of the world. Lets see what pitfalls to avoid with contracts and prepaid, and which choice is best for which customers.

The way providers work is simple. They get a deal with a phone manufacturer to get a phone branded with their name. They customize the phone, then they sell the phone through their dealers at various prices. They sell it at the full price if you intend to go with prepaid, or they will give you big rebates if you agree to sign a contract, since they know they will make more money from you during the contract time. For example, the Nokia 5300 from Rogers Wireless will cost you $229 if you buy the phone without contract. If you agree to a 1 year contract, it will cost $179. $129 on 2 years, and $79 on 3 years. So as you can see the rebate can be big.

When looking at the actual monthly fee, the biggest difference is the included features and the unexpected fees. With prepaid, you go out every month and buy a prepaid card (or call in to add money with a credit card, or online) and the money you spend is what you get as far as airtime. There are no added fees, and there’s several features included. For example with Rogers Wireless, you can buy a $10 card and get 30 minutes of airtime, with call display and voice mail included. For a contract, a $20 plan will give you 150 airtime minutes. However to get the voicemail and call display you need to add $10. Plus, contracts add a $6.95 monthly access fee, and $0.50 911 fee. This means the $20 contract will actually costs you $37.45, plus taxes. You still get more airtime for the amount, but you have to be careful about such hidden fees.

The story is the same for all providers. For example on Verizon Wireless, their prepaid service includes voice mail and call display. Their plans also include both, however their lowest individual contracts start at $39 for 450 minutes, plus fees, taxes and surcharges. One thing to note is that most providers allow you to use any phone you may own with prepaid. Others will only sell you a few phones for prepaid, especially CDMA providers.

For data, fees usually change between plans and prepaid. For example on Rogers Wireless, there are data packs that can be added to a contract and provides free data usage including a small download size. You can spend $7 per month for 1 MB of download, with $0.02 per KB after that. On prepaid, it will cost you $0.05 per web page, regardless of the size. So for data usage, prepaid will be a much better choice in this case.

The general rule is that plans will usually be the best choice for people using their phones a lot for voice calls. You can get a large number of airtime minutes for a lower price than if you used prepaid. However, with a plan, you usually need to pay for each additional feature, plus there’s often hidden fees. Also if you don’t keep track of how much you use your phone, you will end up with a big surprise at the next bill. Remember that if you want to cancel your plan before the term is over, you will be charged a very large early cancellation fee. Also most plans will require a credit check, and a lot of personal information, which is not required for prepaid.

Prepaid is usually better for low voice usage, for people wanting an emergency phone, or for those who want to keep control of their service. There’s often features that you get for free on prepaid, and there is no hidden fee. If you want to pay the least amount per month this is the way to go. However remember you will not get access to the rebates on phones so you will pay the phone full price, and you won’t get a lot of airtime for your money. Also note that providers will usually let you switch your prepaid service to a contract should you wish to, for free or for a little fee. The final advice really, is to investigate fully before deciding anything, because each provider has a very large small-print page.

Symbian-Freak has a quick comparison of the Nokia N95, N93 and the Sony F707 Digicam. The main question being, can the latest 5MPx smartphone do as good as a 5 years old Sony digital camera. They post comparison shots and come to the conclusion that no, the digital camera still comes out on top.

The thing to remember is that the quality of a picture is not only based on the amount of megapixels. It’s based also on the lenses and on the software that processes the raw image, as well as the compression of the resulting JPEG file. The N95 has good lenses, but Sony is known to make very good cameras. Also being a phone, the processing is done by some rather new software running on top of a smartphone operating system, while the Sony is an actual camera.

Still, if you take a look at some recent Flickr photos taken by phones, the quality is still very good for web shots and medium sized photos. For many people who don’t need the best quality photos, a recent camera phone is enough.

Installing third party applications and games is a big part of smartphones and even many normal cell phones. Yet many people don’t do it, either because they don’t know how, or they only use their provider’s options. Here I’ll attempt to describe what it takes to add software to your device and the ways to do it.

The first thing to find out is what your device supports, and then how to get the software on the phone. Java is the universal language in mobile phones. Most phones support Java applets, and most applications are thus Java based. There are some devices who do not support them, such as most BREW devices which are CDMA phones on providers such as Verizon or Sprint in the US. Also some Windows Mobile devices don’t come with Java support but that can be downloaded from Microsoft.

On top of Java, smartphones have the particularity of using a real operating system, and being able to run native applications made for their system. Windows Mobile, Symbian, Blackberry and Palm are the most popular devices. One particularity to be careful about for native systems is the version used. For example a Symbian S60v3 application will not run on S60v2 or on Symbian UIQ.

Once you’ve found out which types of applications your device supports, then you need to figure out how to transfer the application on the device, or if you can at all. If you have a locked device that came from a cellular provider, it may be locked preventing you to install third party software. The reason they sometimes do this is to make sure you only buy software through their online store and thus get more money from you.

Now that you know you can install applications, you have a couple of options on how to transfer the file. You can use Bluetooth, a USB cable or over the air (OTA). If your phone supports Bluetooth, and you have a laptop or a USB Bluetooth dongle, then that is the easiest way. You can make a connection with the computer and beam the file over using the PC client software. If the device or computer doesn’t support Bluetooth, you can get a USB cable and use the manufacturer’s software to transfer the file. Note that this can be a much harder option, and varies considerably between manufacturers. Also some manufacturers don’t make their client software freely available.

If local transfer modes fail, you can always install it directly from the phone as long as you have mobile web access. Note that this will cost you data usage unless you have an unlimited data plan. Simply go to the web site containing the application you want, or save the file on your computer then upload it to one of the many free online hosting sites, then download it from the phone mobile browser. The device should detect it and offer you to install.

Finding out how to install third party software can be tricky at first but is very easy once you know how. A last piece of advice would be to not download from untrusted sites, as it may contain viruses or pirated software. Here is a list of some popular software sites:

• GetJar - Free and commercial Java software
• Handango - Commercial software for Palm, Symbian, Blackberry and WM
• PocketGear - Commercial Windows Mobile software
• All About Symbian - Free and commercial Symbian software

Note: This is a repost from July 2006 of my N73 review, updated for the latest firmware.

This is my first impressions after playing with my new Nokia N73 for a few days. I’m using one that came from Hong Kong, and supports GSM 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 and UMTS 2100. Note that being in Canada, we don’t have 3G quite yet and even if we did it wouldn’t be the right frequency.

Original firmware information: V 2.0628.0.0.1 10-07-2006 RM-133 N73 (11)
Updated firmware: 3.0704.1.0.1

The box
The box I got came with: the phone, an asia-type charger, a data cable, a headset, a 128M MiniSD card, a user manual, a driver CD and a charger converter to use the older chargers. In the package was also a plug converter for the asian charger. Note that all the applications were installed on the phone, except for Sudoku, a dictionary and a series of extra DRMed ringtones which can’t be played without buying them, which I didn’t do.

The phone
Size wise, the phone is smaller than it may appear in pictures. I’m going from a Nokia 6620 to a N73 so its visibly smaller. The build seems solid too, and the camera slide is nice as well. the screen is as bright and nice as others have reported already.

The memory card door is something others have commented on. While it’s true that a solid metal door would have been better, I think this is a very good door compared to other phones I’ve seen, and it’s not too hard to open once you figure out how.

It uses a standard pop-port which means any compatible accessories work with it. It uses the smaller charger port, I’m not sure why since there would have been space to put the older type.

The stereo speakers are nice and loud, much more so than my 6620 which really wasn’t loud enough. When using the headset or making a call with the normal phone speaker, the volume seemed in line with the 6620.

The phone also supports IR which I don’t really have a use for, and Bluetooth which is what I use with the PC Suite program.

As far as stability goes, the lag to browse menus and open applications is still visible like any S60, but it’s much less than my 6620 had. In the 2 days I’ve been playing with, the main problems it has is in the camera and gallery. Applications can be used in multi task but if you use the Web application, or if you open big files (I tried to open a 3 megs PDF) then you’ll start seeing those Out of memory messages. In normal use, you can easily have Contacts, Calendar and the music player up at once.

The camera
The main camera is 3.2MPx and takes 2048×1536 jpeg images by default. It is way better than the old VGA one on my old phone. I don’t have a digital camera to compare it with, but Flickr already has tons of N73 shots here.

When I slide the door open, the camera application takes about 3 seconds to open, which isn’t perfect but it’s not bad. When I take a picture, the lag is less than 1 second which is very good.

The camera app has 2 sets of settings. There’s the main settings which define where pictures are stored and such, which are saved. Then there’s the ‘active toolbar’ on the right of the screen which define the scene, exposure, white balance, self-timer, flash mode and so on. These are on the default setting when you start the camera and you need to change them. You can define sets for these settings, but you still starts in ‘auto’. This is one minor issue, since if for example you wanted flash to be always off unless you specify otherwise, I haven’t found a way to do that.

After taking pictures, you can edit them in the picture editing program, which I think is great. You can crop, resize, add text, change brightness, red eye and so on. Most phones and even cameras don’t have that built in. Videos work in the same way and it’s very simple to switch from picture to video mode. With videos you can also create a ‘muvee’ which is basically a video with sounds, pictures and text.

The gallery works in landscape mode and this is something some people don’t like. Also by default the gallery loads the last picture taken, as well as every image and video on the phone. This is somewhat weird to me since who would want to view everything in a mixed order. There is a way to view things in a much more sane way, with albums. You can add pictures to an album, and by going to Options -> View albums you can view your pictures categorized. I wish there was a way to go there directly instead of going by the gallery but I haven’t found if it’s possible.

Pictures and videos are stored automatically on the phone, and you can send them in the usual ways by MMS, bluetooth, e-mail, print them and so on. One interesting thing they added is the possibility to send them to your Flickr account or Lifeblog directly.

Calls
I haven’t made a lot of calls yet but so far the RF is fine. I had no problem using both the loudspeaker and the normal one. All the usual S60 settings are there and there’s nothing special to say about the N73.

Web browser
The phone comes with 2 different icons for web browsing. Services is the normal WAP browser, and Web is the new Nokia web browser. Some people don’t like it, but I love browsing the web this way. You basically see the whole page as it would be seen on a PC screen, and you move in the page with the joystick. The browser supports all the basic web features such as javascript, cookies, cache and so on. It also has a special Feeds folder in the bookmarks for RSS feeds.

One interesting thing is loading web pages is much faster on the N73 than it was on my 6620, using the same SIM card from the same location. I don’t know if the 6620 supported a slower type of EDGE but it’s visibly faster.

Applications
Another nice thing about this phone is the vast amount of applications that come bundled in.

The phone has the usual Messaging application. It allows the sending and receiving of MMS, SMS and e-mail, as well as creating mailboxes to communicate with various mail servers. One thing I noticed that is different than my old phone is the mail setup wizard which makes the creation of new mailboxes less confusing. Also the inbox can display each headers using 2 lines which shows more information in the listing.

The Music Player has a very basic interface but it’s pretty nice. When you open it, it scans the device for music. If you want to add music to it later, you have to make it scan again. You can access play lists and such from there.

Real Player is a common one for all S60 phones, and other than a new splash screen it’s pretty much always the same thing.

Flash Player is built in, I think mainly because Nokia wanted to add a nice looking tutorial. The tutorial shows in a very graphical yet basic way what the phone can do. There’s no other flash file included but if you look around the web there’s various flash files that are made for the mobile flash player.

The visual FM radio is quite nice too, and works like any normal FM radio tuner, with support for visual stations too. Using the included headset I had no problem listening to local stations.

The clock is exactly like the one on my 6620, except that it includes a ‘world clock’ which is basically just a list of various cities. It would have been nice to include a world map with timezones and such, instead of just a list.

The calendar also includes standard features you find on other phones, and with Active Standby, it’s so nice to at last be able to see calendar entries for the day on the standby screen, which my 6620 couldn’t do.

They also included office tools such as Quickoffice to view MS Office documents and Adobe Reader to view PDFs. I only tried Adobe Reader and it displayed the documents fine, but will run out of memory if you try to view anything remotely big.

There’s also built in IM, which I haven’t managed to setup right.

Lastly there’s a chinese-english dictionary, and an icon to download an Anti-virus program which I didn’t do.

Conclusion
It’s the best smartphone for multimedia purposes, and if you don’t need wi-fi, then the N73 is really the best choice.

The main qualities are:

• The screen
• The battery life
• The camera quality
• Built in applications.

The bad points include:

• The camera and gallery freezes and out of memory errors
• The lack of wi-fi
• The thickness of the phone

Total score: 9/10

MocoNews reports that the US cellular providers reached over $5 billion in revenues purely from the services sector in Q1 2007. This includes application downloads, ring tones, and other data uses. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the cash cow of the industry.

Ever wonder why Verizon disables Bluetooth for file transfers on phones? Why Sprint would threaten Google for providing a free Java mapping application? Or why phones who support wi-fi suddenly get their VOIP capabilities disabled? It’s all done for a single reason: To protect the cash cow.

Providers do a lot to try and get people to sign up with them. There are cell phone ads everywhere, more than most other industries other than perhaps cars. They literally give you phones too. All that to get you to sign up for a 2 or 3 years contract, and start filling up the cow. Once locked in, with your crippled phone and legal obligation to stay with them, they nickel and dime all they can. A single ring tone, wallpaper, picture transfer, will cost you. Even worse, now some providers push unwanted ads on devices. And that’s how they make their money. And they do make money.

The crazy thing is that it doesn’t have to be this way. The choice is always the same: Pay more now, but save a lot later; or get a free phone, and be stuck paying through the roof for years. Paying $200, $300 and sometimes up to $750 for a phone right away may seem like a large investment, and it is. But be sure of one thing, every cent the cell phone providers subsidize from a phone, they make back over the contract period. The unbranded phone will allow you to transfer those MP3 ring tones over Bluetooth, will have VOIP available (if the phone supports wi-fi or 3G) and will allow you to pick whatever wallpaper you want without paying your provider each time you change your mind.

I don’t know about you, but I think the cow is big enough. With my unlocked device, and pre-paid card, I pay $10 a month and only pay when I actually browse the Internet, and even then I often use wi-fi in which case I pay nothing. I can use VOIP and not have to pay a dime for calls either. And of course I can change wallpaper, and upload any MP3 that I own to use as a ring tone by using Bluetooth without cashing in either.

Now I do have to say pre-paid isn’t for everyone, and someone who needs to do a large amount of calls each month outside of any wi-fi coverage is probably better served with a contract plan, but there is something to be said for owning a device that isn’t telling you what you can and can’t do with it.