Slashdot Mirror

While ignoring the fact that this is again just another one of those things that were invented to help Americans remain fat and lazy (seriously, can't even get up to change a tv channel?), this device was quite much copied from Nokia's symbian phones.

Even back in the 90's you could control your TV with your Symbian based phone, as they had infrared. I used to do that. It was fun to shut down TV in school classes too. I don't see a need for duplicate device, just use your phone.

What do you expect from an iPod? Play media with a very usable GUI. Anything else? Simple games maybe. They are all included. It works perfect so it crushed their enemies, made them irrelevant.

Apple thought Symbian using, theme changing, 3rd party software downloading/buying 40% Smart Phone market majority will see the fruit logo and magically convert to iPhone.

It was a horrible mistake at least in Europe.

You can see Symbian user maniacally downloading/trying/buying things but make no mistake, they are very afraid of hacking anything on device, even resident legal programs which acts like hacking things gets the boot.

Look at just one companies offerings for Symbian devices: http://shop.psiloc.com/en/ Almost none of them are possible on iPhone with such EULA. As a serious company, will they teach how to break EULA/Warranty of another commercial company and also ask money for it? I didn't even mention the huge J2ME Universe.

My Nokia E65 Symbian phone automatically changes profile based on where I am and it has a $20 universal remote, it is also used as a Skype/Multi IM client (Fring) that I gave up the computer based ones for it. Now, as an Apple Desktop user, I will see the iPhone, throw away this thing and buy iPhone to be part of 10M people. Yea, right.

Apple execs should have spent more time in Europe, especially watching how Nokia/Sony Ericsson or even J2ME phones are used.

• allow you to use any song from your collection as a ringtone.
• allow you to share content-be it tones, music, pictures or video-over wifi/bluetooth with other devices/smartphone users.
• Let you simply use that entire 8 GB storage as a portable drive and copy whatever stuff u want onto it.(can it?)
• allow you to use any operator you like without having to be shackled to AT&T
• allow you to use any 3rd party application WITHOUT having to hack the firmware or do anything out of the ordinary.

• allow you to use any song from your collection as a ringtone.
• allow you to share content-be it tones, music, pictures or video-over wifi/bluetooth with other devices/smartphone users.
• Let you simply use that entire 8 GB storage as a portable drive and copy whatever stuff u want onto it.(can it?)
• allow you to use any operator you like without having to be shackled to AT&T
• allow you to use any 3rd party application WITHOUT having to hack the firmware or do anything out of the ordinary.

As you are from Poland, you forgot that iPhone will lack the innovative stuff made by http://www.psiloc.com/ like companies.

I was setting my Nokia 7650 (S60) profile based on my cell location back in 2002 or something thanks to their products.

The situation with phone DRM is terrible. Phone that we buy actually belongs to the operator. It betrades our interests for the operator profit. In addition to your example of applications copy protection, I can give few others.

For example, there is no justification for the price of an SMS. Data wise it's equal to less than a second of the conversation, yet it costs unproportionally more. Another one: the phone always tracks its Cell ID. But it's impossible to develop an application which will access this data for the benefit of the owner, for example reminds you something when you return home. This http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?action=ShowArticl eItem&ida=154 should be possible on all phones. But not occasionally, it's impossible to read Cell ID in java. Another example can be the strange (but very useful for operators) difference in WAP and TCPIP price. Here in Israel, there is a GPRS plan which includes unlimited WAP and only 5MB of TCPIP traffic. It's because of the closed platform nobody can tunnel all traffic through the WAP. Imagine if ISP would set different prices for the web and for the email access.

I wish the best luck to any effort to stop this nonsense. Cellular operators should not make the most of their profit from giving us back what was possible from the beginning.

There is this also http://shop.psiloc.com/en/Application,65575,Mobile +Mouse. I tried this as a demo at least 9 months ago, it did work, but it wasn't the best mouse I've ever used.

If you have a Symbian series 60/80/UIQ, there is "Psiloc extended profiles (Pro)" which changes your phone profile based on time etc.

http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?id=156

More interestingly, there is (excellent) innovation by them, named "Where I am" which integrates to this product or used stand-alone

http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?id=169

It reads the specific "cell information" and switches to profiles, gives messages, do stuff (can even turn off phone!) based on that.

Motorola and Carnagie has no access to these pages I assume ;)

If you have a Symbian series 60/80/UIQ, there is "Psiloc extended profiles (Pro)" which changes your phone profile based on time etc.

http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?id=156

More interestingly, there is (excellent) innovation by them, named "Where I am" which integrates to this product or used stand-alone

http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?id=169

It reads the specific "cell information" and switches to profiles, gives messages, do stuff (can even turn off phone!) based on that.

Motorola and Carnagie has no access to these pages I assume ;)

This sounds very similar to Psiloc's miniGPS, except with the addition of additional sources and a location database.

http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?action=ShowArticl eItem&ida=154

The resolution from a single GSM tower seems to be within a mile or two. You can use it to trigger actions on your phone when you get in a certain area. If phones were capable of tracking signal strengths of other towers (I assume they do in order to be able to handoff) you could do this much more accurately. Mapping that into coordinates is fairly tough however, which would make Intel's database very useful. It would probably be far easier to pay the cell carriers for their tower location/code databases though.

've been waiting for *years* for a cell phone manufacturer to do the OBVIOUS and add a remote control function to a cell phone

they do !,its just you need a decent phone thats all, this is a IR Remote Control for the sonyericsson p800/900 phones, but iam sure any symbian phone with IR can do it, supports loads of devices too

enjoy

Opera can be installed and run on my 7650 phone from 2002 (or 3?)

It has 2 mb of memory. Yes, 2 mb. You can't add anything too.(sigh) If you push a bit as using excellent tools like sdoubler from http://www.psiloc.com/ , you may even use Realplayer or Agile Messenger same time.

This must be the real reason

They already have an IR tranceiver on them, it was the precursor to Bluetooth. All you need is the right bit of software to turn it into a universal remote.

http://www.psiloc.com/index.html?action=ShowArticl eItem&ida=152

There's even one of those folding keyboards with bluetooth coming out that I'd love to buy next for it.

And if that's not enough, how about all the neat Symbian programs you can buy for it, like turning it into the ultimate universal remote control

And the camera in it feeds my addiction to mobog.com.

Anyhoo, sucker cost me $420. Someone made some coin on it.

I've owned a few PDAs including a Casio E100, E110, and a Dell Axim. Junk basically, and using imap or pop with pocket outlook is ultra painful. Too big and that resulted in me never carrying the thing. To get wireless internet access through the thing was another hassle.

This (nokia 6600 phone) puppy is just the right size for me.

At the time I bought it here in the UK it was one of the cheapest smartphones available at only 100 pounds (about 170 dollars I guess). I liked that it was flexible as you could add a wide range of software to it. Also since it does so much it makes a wonderful tool/entertainment system that I always carry with me, something thats' very useful for passing the time as I commute on the train. With a 256mb MMC there's a lot you can do with it.

I Currently use my NGage for the following.

Watch Movies - SmartMovie
- Great piece of software. I can also convert my home movies for showing friends/family wherever I am.

Games
MicroPool
- Great 1/2 player pool game. Good GFX/sound

Sky Force
- Scrolling shooter (like Raptor) with GREAT gfx/sound - especialy for a handheld

IM - AgileMessenger
- IM (MSN/Yahoo/AIM/ICQ/Jabber/QQ) on your phone. Works great and good for keeping in touch wherever you are.

Email (built in)
- A great addition/compliment to using IM as well. I mostly use it for posting to my blog @ blogger.com automaticaly from my phone. Good for instant updates for my family.

Sound/Call recorder - eRocorder
- Allows me to record phone calls and use my phone as a dictaphone. I use it for recarding my son's new words so my extended family can hear them.

FTP - YFTP
- Good for posting recorded soundclips or pictures to my website.

EBooks - Mobipocket
- Useful if your're bored. Also uses less battery than playing games. I also have a version of the KJV bible with Greek/Hebrew dictionary and concordance. You can also export word/excel files to be read with this app.

C64 Emulation - Frodo
- Play some old classics. Good sound emulation as well.

MP3 playback (built in)
- Good playback. Stereo (so better than other phones) but limited storage compared with (more expensive) dedicated players)

Radio (built in)
- Also in Stereo.

PIM (built in)
- I have over 200 contacts and I can store most of their contact information, including notes/photo's if I want.

My ONLY gripe is that the NGage does not have a built in camera. As to sidetalking I find it more comfortable than most normal phones and I could'nt care less what people think it looks like. At least not when I have a phone/mp3 player/radio/PDA/games console built into one device.

I'm glad that Nokia are addressing some of the critisms of the current device, but they've removed some of the features I bought it for (radio / stereo MP3 playback / USB). I would'nt buy the QD version for that reason. If they're procucing a cut down version I'd also like to see one with the USB/radio/stereo output back in. Add a camera and an IR port as well and I'll buy one tomorrow.

I use my Nokia 3650 to control my sony car stereo , my G4 tower at work, and as soon as I find a suitable app - my home, fedora core 1, computer (someone point me in the right direction?). Hopefully, eventually I will write an application to control the temperature of my toaster.

Somebody mentioned this in passing, but didn't provide much information about it.

It's called miniGPS, and it's written by Psiloc. They make plenty of other goodies for S60 phones, so check them out.

But it's not 'real' GPS, and only lets you know what tower you connect through. As another poster mentioned, the 3650 doesn't have GPS, and E911 is not the same thing.

But miniGPS is quite cool.

Somebody mentioned this in passing, but didn't provide much information about it.

It's called miniGPS, and it's written by Psiloc. They make plenty of other goodies for S60 phones, so check them out.

But it's not 'real' GPS, and only lets you know what tower you connect through. As another poster mentioned, the 3650 doesn't have GPS, and E911 is not the same thing.

But miniGPS is quite cool.

I don't know whether it's around in the US, but my Nokia 6600 manages all that and more. You can install/uninstall applications, write them with the free SDK from Nokia and test them on their emulator.

It's got a full-blown Symbian multi-tasking OS, and you might even be able to do what you want with MiniGPS. It cost me the equivalent of about $180, with contract.

The important thing for me is that MAME runs on it. :-)

I read reports of this online.. checked some 3650 forums.. and within a few hours I was running sonic-N and puyo pop..

Limitations on the 3650 include the 4mb of internal memory, 1mb or so which is taken by the phone, but apps like Psiloc System Tools let you enable a 'flight mode' which requires you remove the SIM card, and lets you reboot with the telephone app disabled, providing more RAM available to the game.

While this is a bit sloppy, powering down, removing case, battery and SIM, there is another option, booting the phone in safe mode, by holding the 'pencil' key on restart.
This keeps your phone 'app' running, but disables extras that steal RAM on startup, like screensaver.

I have ROM's for 8 games, but I still am on my stock 16mb MMC card, so the larger games, over 3mb file size, wont fit.. need double the size at least, plus all my pics, contacts, and REGULAR GAMES, to unpack and install. new 128mb coming from eBay, so I can copy Tony Hawk over and see!

And as one sig file said.. 'My 3650 can play N-gage games, can your N-gage take pictures?'

But what is the point of such an application if you cannot get the values to input? Or do they mean that any Capable Geek should know that?

There is a wonderful little program, rather misleadingly named MiniGPS, which can tell you the Area ID, Cell ID and signal strength, measured in dBm, for any Series60 gsm phone (like my Nokia 3650 :). What makes this program Truly Nifty is that it can switch my profile to "not-at-work" when i am at home, and "at-work" when i'm there. Good stuff. All i now need to do is register the program... or just code my own ;)

• ~llaurén

I owned 7650 for quite some time now. It is great, if a bit bulky, phone. My only gripe is, that it does not support Bluetooth audio (no wireless headset support). 3650 supports this, supports movie capture and has somewhat enhanced J2ME support. Also 7650 has tons of software available:
As a bit of shameless self promotion, here is a game our company developed.
You also get obligatory IR control software and some other stuff here
You can get really nice & open source bluetooth remote controler here. There is other cool stuff like miniGPS, which gives you option to customize some options, depending on which base station you are currently connected.
Rant: Also, for anybody developing for nokia using J2ME - this is probably the most buggy implementation I have seen. For example, if you called Sound.setGain(byte) it crashed, no matter what the input was (this is a confirmed bug), and this is not isolated case. I really can't understand how somebody can get through QA when one of the public functions in interface that has 10 or so items doesn't work at all. *sigh*