Android 2.1 on X10 Mini

I recently got Android 2.1 up and running on my X10 Mini. Although it isn't yet available for Indian X10 Mini owners but through the instructions at XDA-Developers forums, I became one lucky Indian to have the Eclair on my phone!
If you are still running the old 1.6 firmware, you can upgrade to 2.1 easily. There are two techniques. One is to directly flash a firmware into your phone, and other is to make SE Update Service believe that your phone belongs to a place where 2.1 has already been rolled out and then SE Update Service application will put new firmware onto your phone.

The first method

The second method

For the first method to work, you must have Java(at least JRE) installed in your system. To check, just open a command prompt and type java and press enter. If you get some large output, that means java is installed and working. If you get "Java is not recognized as a.........." that means Java isn't installed. Go here and get Java for your OS and install it.

In the second method, you need a rooted phone. Rooting a phone can be done by two techniques. I'll tell you the second one because thats the easiest and even non-engineerig background people will be able to do it without ease! You just need to install an application called UniversalAndRoot on your phone, launch it and tap Root!!!! Thats all!!! After the rooting, you need to install RootExplorer on your phone. Then overwrite the build.prop file in your phone's system directory with the one downloaded from here . After that turn off your phone and turn it on. You will get an error that some application has crashed. Now again turn it off. Launch SE Update Service on your computer and follow the instructions. Your computer must be connected to a high speed internet. In the step when it instructs you to release the back key, don't release it. You will see the New Software Available prompt, release the back button and install the software.

Whats new in the new firmware?


The social phonebook
This is my favourite feature in the new firmware. Your contacts' profile photos from their facebook profiles are displayed when they call you or when you call them. Also, you can see their twitter and facebook status updates right in the contacts. To link any of your phone contacts with his/her facebook/twitter profile go here otherwise if the contact has same first name and last name on facebook, his/her profile will be automatically linked to your phonebook's contact entry.

Double tap to zoom
In the browser now you can zoom to a specific part of the webpage by double tapping. Also its nice when you double tap and the text columns adjust automatically to make reading easier. You can download Dolphin Browser HD from the Android Market to have an still better experience. Dolphin Browser HD has a plugins API and several plugins have been developed for it. For example web2pdf plugin can convert whole webpage to a pdf file.

Live wallpapers
Now you can have animated wallpapers on your phone. I installed the Aquarium live wallpaper and it is very beautiful. There are several more good live wallpapers available for free download from the market to spice up your phone.

Video recording with continuous autofocus
The new firmware makes your phone capable of VGA@30fps video recording with continuous autofocus, which is a big plus.

Skype
Skype is available for Android 2.1 but it isn't supported on X10 Mini. I installed it but it used to crash whenever I tapped any contact's name to call.

Minor changes in interface
There are several minor changes in the interface. The blue ambience has gone deeper blue. The lock screen has changed. The call receive/reject screen slider has changed. It looked confusing for me at first when I got the first call. I was confused which way should I drag the slider to receive the call. Finally I went with my intuition and dragged the slider to the right to receive the call. Dragging to the left rejects the call.
The settings menu entries have got icons beside them. The wakeup key has changed. The middle key should now be used to wake the phone up, instead of any of the three keys.

Album issue
The album has gone damn slow at initial launch. You need to wait patiently till all the thumbnails are generated. Anyways, after loading the thumbnails it regains its elegance and is fast as ever.

I have discovered some more great apps that you should try:
PowerAmp: The best music player for Android
RockPlayer: Play all video formats on your phone
TapaTalk: It can let you browse and post in any TapaTalk enabled forum.
iReader: It can view chm files(the compiled help manuals of windows)
Call Recorder: You can record any calls
Android Notifier: Get notified on your pc about any incoming calls or SMSes when your phone isn't in your direct sight.
goChat: Facebook chat on your phone
Recordoid: Record voices
Wyse Pocket Cloud: A VNC client. You can control your Windows or Linux or even Mac computer from your phone directly as if you are using your PC, on your phone
Camera Zoom FX: Its a good replacement for the inbuilt camera

For downloading more and more apps visit this page To be able to download anything you must be registered there. You should also register and keep visiting xda-developers forums x10 mini zone

Solution to Android's Ad-Hoc WiFi issue

I own a Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini(Also known as E10i). It runs Android OS 1.6 Donut. Android doesn't let you connect your phone to an ad-hoc(i.e. computer to computer) WiFi network for browsing internet. Only infrastructure networks are supported. So, if you have a wired internet connection in your laptop or desktop PC, you can't share that to your Android phone through WiFi. You need to purchase a WiFi router/access point to do so. But now, you can do that at absolutely no cost!!! Without purchasing any hardware!!!! Read on...

Today I came across a freeware application for Windows 7, that turns your Windows 7 computer into a WiFi Access Point!!!! It emulates a WiFi router through Software!!!! And my problem is solved!!!! Now I can share my laptop's wired internet connection to my Android phone. Here is a 2-step guide to setting up everything.

Step 1
Download the application Connectify from here and install it. It will prompt you to install a driver, twice. Press Ok, for each prompt.

Step 2
After the installation, you'll see an icon in the system tray which looks like . Click the icon. You'll see a pop up dialog as shown below.

Turn on your laptop's WiFi card if your laptop has a dedicated button to turn it on. Then fill the WiFi Name as anything you like. I filled it MAX. Check the box that says Share Internet. Then in the Mode drop down list, select Access Point, WPA2-PSK. Oh wait!!! Do you see only Ad-hoc open and Ad-hoc WEP? If you see Access Point, WPA2-PSK or you don't see a drop down list at all, means you're lucky. Just click Start Hotspot button, and you're done! For those who aren't lucky, just like me, read on...
What happened to me was that I didn't see the Access Point mode. I thought, my WiFi card doesn't support Access Point mode. I went to the supported card's list at http://connectify.me/docs/supportedcards.html and I could see my card Intel 5100/5300, WiFi Link 1000 BGN listed there. "Then what's the catch?", thought the frustrated me! I noted that the driver version supported was 13.0.0.107. I checked my card's driver version in Device Manager and saw that it was 11.x.x.x. I went to my laptop's manufacturer support site and saw that the latest WiFi driver for my machine was available and it was 13.0.0.107. I also noticed that all other components(like Chipset, Audio, Graphics, Ethernet card etc...) had updated drivers for them. I Downed 'em all and installed.(What's the morale??? Always keep your drivers updated.)
After the re-boot, I could see a Virtual WiFi MiniPort adaptor installed in Network Connections with the name Wireless Network Connection 2.

Then I launched connectify, I didn't see any drop down list in the mode box(screenshot. below). I entered a 8-character WPA2 key and clicked the Start Hotspot button.

It took a while(about 15-20 seconds) to configure and my WiFi hotspot was up and running! My Connectify popup was now with the Status: Running MAX, Mode: Access Point WPA2-PSK. I was a happy man! I turned on my phone's WiFi and connected my phone to MAX easily. I saw my phone's MAC and IP addresses in the Connected Clients list. Even a Sony Ericsson logo was shown there!!!

Using DHCP my phone was assigned the IP address 192.168.2.10. The computer's Software based WiFi router was assigned the IP address as 192.168.2.1. In the system tray, the red mark from Connectify icon was now removed and it was like this


Troubleshooting
Everything was up and runing, still I couldn't browse the web. In he phone, I checked the gateway address and it was fine i.e. 192.168.2.1, that I had already cnfigured in WiFi static.
I went to Network Connections, in my laptop. That can be reached through Network and Sharing Center > Change Adaptor Settings. I right clicked my wired ethernet icon and clicked properties. In the sharing tab Wireless Network Connection was listed as the Home Netowrking Connection. I understood that it must be set to Wireless Network Connection 2 which was the name of the connection that WiFi Miniport Adaptor had. I unchecked the box that said Allow other network users to connect through..... then clicked Ok, and closed the properties window. Then again right clicked my wired internet connection icon, clicked properties and in the Sharing tab checked the box Allow other.... In the Home Networking dropdown I selected Wireless Networking Cnnection 2 and clicked Ok and closed the properties window.

I restarted the hotspot and my phone got connected and I could successfully browse the web on my phone!!!
One of the major issues with the phone that I had pointed in one of my previous posts i.e. http://p97.blogspot.com/2010/08/sony-ericsson-xperia-x10-mini.html , has been solved!!! Go Android go!!!

Sony Ericsson XPERIA X10 Mini

As my old P1i was giving up, behaving somewhat weird, I thought I should get a new phone. I zeroed in on two phones. The SE Elm which would cost me Rs.10800 and the SE XPERIA X10 Mini Pro which was around Rs.16000. As I have to remain connected on the go and should always be ready to read PDFs and PPTs after getting myself admitted to PG, I ruled out Elm which isn't an smartphone and thought of getting an X10 Mini Pro. I hunted 10 shops in Allahabad but didn't find my phone of choice anywhere. Finally I settled onto the hardware keyboard sans version of Mini Pro i.e. Mini. It was available for Rs.14600 in Big Bazar, Rs.15300 in The Mobile Store and Rs.16600 in a local shop. Obviously, I opted for the Big Bazar.

The phone is little cute wonderful sweeeeeetie in my arsenal now. I was non-plussed at its speed. A 600MHz and an onboard 128MB RAM are enough to run the phone perfectly smooth without any apparent lag in UI, unlike the Nokia Symbians which run quite lethargic. The Android is an awesome development in the mobile OS world. Although it is missing some basic functionality at this point of time but still it is the best way to throw your crappy Nokia sluggish Symbian.
I'll start with the negative points first and afterwards move towards the positive points, then I'll provide you some tips(and apps) for the X10 mini and then off course will provide links to download few of the mentioned apps.

Ok, negative points start first.
1. You can't connect to an ad-hoc WiFi network with android! What a shame!!!! Its not SE's fault, but a missing feature from Android.
2. You can't access internet on a WiFi network that requires you to specify a proxy address and username/password to surf the internet. Again! What a shame!!!! My college's each and every single inch falls in the marvellous WiFi connectivity of the campus but I can't browse the internet through my phone as, a freaking squid proxy server sits between us and the internet, at 172.31.1.3:8080. Anyways, later I found a workaround and was able to surf on my X10 Mini's browser!!! I'll post the thing later.
3. Coming to music player, the music in the bundled earphone is unlistenable. It is bassless and treble full. This is very bad from SE's part, really really bad. SE has been always a leader in mobile music industry with the W550i breaking the records once and others following the similar path. I hadn't expected this level of quality in SE's earphones. Anyways, I pushed in my Walkman's earphone and the quality was perfect. So, the phone isn't the culprit, the bundled earphone is. Actually they have given a 3.5mm jack which apart from earphones, also has an embedded microphone. This is something different from others.
4. You can't create playlists in the music player. Again, this is a no no!!! But well, there are workarounds, especially if you install third party apps.
5. The music player has no equalizer, nor presets for the equalizer settings. So you can't fine tune your music listening experience. Getting Astro Player circumvents this demerit as it has a very good equalizer.
6. The phone doesn't support bluetooth file transfer out of the box, however SE has promised that they will bundle the bluetooth file transfer app in the next firmware update. But you can download the Bluetooth File Transfer app from the Android Market for free and it works very perfectly.
7.  You can't install third party apps on the memory card. Everything goes to the 160MB internal memory. So, you're sure to fall short of some silicon if you are an application/game junkie. I installed 65 third party apps and I am left with around 40MB on my phone memory. Enough for me :)
8. You must have a google account to do many things for example downloading and installing apps from the market.
9. The screen has a low resolution i.e. 240x320
10. The onscreen keyboard is a multitap one instead of QWERTY so typing is slow. But there are third party apps for using onscreen keyboard and the typing becomes perfectly fast with them. SlideKeyboard is one such thing.
11. The battery isn't user replaceable. It is hard coded/wired/embedded under the hood.

Ok ok, lots of criticism by now. So we should now start with the positives and then move to tips and tricks and then continue to some app downloads and then some other relevant info.
1. The User Interface is a marvel. Especially I love the Timescape and the very very fast and responsive interface
2. Most of the android system has been designed very logically and you will love it.
3. The phone has a magnetometer(digital compass) which works perfectly well, although you need a third party app to use it.
4. The phone has location services like geotagging, thanks to the perfect GPS receiver.
5. At 88 grams it is the lightest and smallest smartphone on the planet.
6. Battery backup is good in comparison to the smart phones. Works for two days of normal use for me. Warning: My normal use seems to be heavy use for many people. So if you are someone whose metric for normal use is smaller than mine the you can get your phone to work for 3 days on a single charge with ease.
7. The camera is one of the best 5.0 megapixel cameras in the market. It snaps near digicam pictures in day in good lighting conditions.
8. Although some people say that due to small screen resolution many android apps don't run on it. But this is  false. I've been able to run all android apps from the market, except two.
9. In october the phone's OS will be upgraded to Android 2.1 Eclair

A list of useful apps follows, that you may download from the market.
Some apps can be downloaded from here. Download the archives in your computer and extract them to get the apk files. The password for the archives is blahblah

1. DocumentsToGo(Must-Have)
This cool thing lets you view and edit DOC, PPT, XLS, DOCX, PPTX, XLSX and PDF files very perfectly. This is a must. Download it here, along with the unlocker.
How to install???? Open the menu, tap Settings, then tap Applications. Then tick mark Unknown Sources. Now transfer the .apk files you extracted from the downloaded archive to the memory card's other folder using a data cable. Now disconnect the phone from the computer and in its main menu tap Application Installer. It will search for the .apk file in the card and prompt you to install it.
2. Astro File Manager(Must-have)
Its a very good file manager for android phones.
3. Gesture search(Must-have)
It lets you search for contacts using handwriting recognition. You swipe you finger as if drawing a character with pen, and it will search the contacts list for you
4. Compass
It utilizes your phone's built-in digital magnetometer and shows directions.
5. Photoshop
Wonderful tool for editing images
6. Facebook location updater
It posts your GPS location on facebookwith a link to google map for that location
7. PicSay Pro
Its a wonderful photo editor
8. Seesmic
Its the best twitter client for android.
9. WiFi Analyzer
Its of no use for me ;-( But may be some people will find it very helpful.
10. Yahoo Droid
Yahoo messenger for android
11. Meebo IM
Perfect multiprotocol IM client for Android. You may also try Slick. It is very good.
12. Merriam Webster's Dictionary(Must-have)
Lookup any word meaning. You may also download voice pack for it, the download link for which will be shown to you after you launch it for the first time. The voice pack works perfectly and pronounces the words as you wish.
13. WiFi Static(Must-have)
You can create several WiFi profiles, for example office, home etc. if you are in a non-DHCP network always. Then connect to any network conveniently. Very useful tool for me.
14. Qik
The live video streaming app. For more details visit qik.com
15. Latitude
The google latitude service to find your nearby friends
16. Goggles
The photo search app from google. You can snap pictures of some known items and google will try to identify the image and come up with the info. Good for tourists. They can click monuments and know about them
17. Handcent SMS
It shows nicely your sms messages.
18. AndroZip(Must-have)
The muti format archiver.
19. Barcode scanner(Must-have)
Scan any barcode with your phone's camera and know about the product.
20. Apache file server
 and
WiFi File explorer
essentially let you do the same thing. They make your phone a file server and give you a browser interface so that you can download and upload files from and to the sd card from a computer
21. OfficeSuite
Its an alternatice for Docs2Go but I prefer Docs2Go
22. SMS Speak(Must-have)
It will read out your SMS messages!
23. ES File Explorer, Security Manager and Task Manager
Good phone management applications. Security manager can protect your phone if it is stolen.
24. Google Translate
No need to mention.
25. GPS Status
It tells your latitude and longitude as well as uses your magnetometer to show directions.
26. Accu Weather
Weather report of your city on your X10 Mini
27. K-9 Mail(Must-have)
Excellent mail client. Its a must have app!!!
28. MSN Droid
The MSN messenger for your Android
29. Neoreader
This will let you scan QR codes.
30. Android VNC
The VNC viewer for your android. I didn't test it yet.
31. Net Tools
Basic network tools like ping, IP to host, host to IP lookups etc.
32. Chess
The chess game on your android
33. Infinity
Its a browser that uses smart fit and gets you out of the hassle of scrolling right-left on websites.
34. Logmein
It lets you log in to your PC. I didn't test it yet.
35. Setting Profile(Must-have)
It lets you change profile with just a touch! You can create profiles for meeting, home, office, browsing, college etc and set the values for ringer, vibrator, backlight etc and then when entering one of those areas, change the profile instead of individually changing the settings.
36. Vignette
It lets you frame your camera pictures
37. Blogger Droid
For photo blogging from your phone.
38. System
It lets you view essential system info, like free RAM and processor speed
39. Google Sky(Must-have)
It lets you view the location of astronomical bodies. Its a very good app for astronomical fun.
40. ThickButtons(Must-have)
or SlideItKeyboard
The onscreen QWERTY keyboard instead of the built-in multitap keuboard. They both are good, but I prefer ThickButtons ;)
41. Pixelpipe
One touch multiplatform blogging app
42. Connect Bot
Use SSH from your phone
43. Bluetooth file transfer(Must-have)
Transfer files to and from you phone via bluetooth.
44. Advance lie detector
I don't believe it works! But still you can try it for some fun
45. Search plus
Search content on Bing, Google, WikiPedia, Twitter etc.

Some handy tips
1. How to transfer contacts from your old phone into your android?

Use your old phone's contact backup feature to create a VCF file for your contacts. For example, in SE phones in Contacts>More>Advanced there is an option Backup To MS. Use that. Then copy the vcf file from the memory card to your computer. Now open up google.com/contacts on your PC browser. Click the Import link on the extreme right. Now upload the VCF file.
Next, on your X10 mini. Choose Settings. Scroll down and click Contacts. Wait, you'll see all your contacts soon on the phone.
You must have an active GPRS/EDGE/3G/WiFi connection for this feature to work.

2. How to configure GPRS access?
Menu>Setings>Wireless Controls>Mobile Networks>Access Point Names
Now press the first key, i.e. the first of the three keys on the phone below the touch screen. Tab New APN.
Put the name of APN, for example Virgin Mobile
Put APN as the APN of your service provider, like vinternet.in
If your service provider requires a proxy, then fill it up. Leave other fields blank.

3. Troubleshoot GPRS
Sometimes you may notice that you aren't able to see the E or G signal. Go to the APN setting, scroll down to the bottom and check the APN Type field. If its blank, then its fine else blank it.

4. How to lock your phone from unauthorised use?
Menu>Settings>Security & Location and turn on the Require Pattern field. Now you can create a locking pattern for unlocking your phone sceen when required, instead of typing a secret number as you might have used inyour old phones.

5. How to enable third party on screen keyboard like ThickButtons?
Menu>Settings>Locale and Text. There tick mark ThickButtons. Now come back to messaging or browser or any app that has a text field. There long tap the text field. Long tapping means keep your finger on the field for a few seconds. You'll get a menu, just choose ThickButtons there.

6. Secret codes?

First: Press *#*#4636#*#*  on the dial pad to reveal a secret menu.

Second: When phone is in locked state, press a key. You will see the prompt to push the option key to unlock but do NOT unlock the phone.
Next, press the key sequence below in the order provided when the "unlock now" screen is still visible: 
Middle->Right->Right->Middle->Right->Middle->Middle->Right


7. Android Versions
1.5 -> Cupcake
1.6 -> Donut(In X10 Mini)
2.1 -> Eclair
2.2 -> FroYo(Frozen Yoghurt)

P1i - Opera Mobile 9.50 - SMS glitch

After the release of Opera Mobile 9.50 beta 2 Fingertouch, I've been using it a lot on my P1i for browsing for hours. I notice a strange behaviour in my P1i when I've browsed the web for long through it. My phone doesn't notify me of any SMS sent to me. Neither with the tone, nor with the icon in status bar. When I restart the phone, the new SMS is displayed. I wouldn't have noticed if I hadn't turned my phone off one night before going to bed when I was too tired. In the morning when I booted the phone back I got two SMSes that were sent to me three days ago. lol! I generally didn't use to turn the phone off for weeks. Whenever necessary I used to set it in flight mode. But now I do that every night before going to bed.
Well, a probable reason I guess is that the new Opera Mobile is a RAM hog, and when the RAM goes too low while web browsing, the phone shuts down the SMS client process that listens for SMSes, in order to free up some RAM. Whatever may be the exact reason, it should be fixed by Opera.

Opera Mobile Finfertouch for UIQ3

On 6th of this month Opera released the second beta of Opera Mobile9.50 for us UIQ users!!! Contrary to the popular feeling that UIQ is dead and Opera too will ditch it. The new beta is great! I felt some improvement in stability issues and speed in loading large pages. They also changed the logo. Earlier it looked like the power key!! And the best thing of the new beta is the new Fingertouch technology. According to Opera's official blog:

Today we introduce Opera Fingertouch, a technology designed to make interacting with the Web easier and simpler on touch-based devices. Opera Fingertouch provides visual feedback when you hit a Web link, and assists you when you come across multiple links or other selectable elements in close proximity to one another.

Here's a video released by Opera officially about the new jargon:


I tried capturing the screenshot os fingertouch in action on my P1i but it didn't work. The screen capture apps weren't able to capture the display area of the browser. Only the address bar came. I tried two different apps TOSC(the Open Screen Capture) and CS(Capture Screen), but same result. I'm attaching a screenshot anyways.

Sony Ericsson Idou

Freaking hell!!! It boasts of a 12.1 megapixel camera, a 3.5 inch screen with resolution 640x360, a TV tuner and everything else!!! It'll run on the new open source Symbian OS that isn't yet complete. It was previewed by SE at MWC.
The GSMArena page containing its specs is here.
And, here are some pics of this stunning beauty.(Source: gsmarena.com)

YouTube/FLV and Padissimo on P1i

The latest Core Player 1.30 has built in support for streaming youtube videos! And, you can even play FLV videos stored on your memory stick too! Yeah!!! Go get it from imserba forums. For streaming YouTube videos smoothly you need at least 3G or WLAN to be working really fast.

Another cool app has been released by CPS(CellPhoneSoft) for P1i and the like(M600). Ever missed the D-Pad on your P1i? Padissimo fills that void!!! Download and install it from here. Launch it, then just long press 0 to hide the screen d-pad. Now use 2, 4, 6, 8 and 5 keys as d-pad anywhere in menu or web browser. To disable d-pad(especially recommended when you are on opera mini), just long press backspace key.
Enjoy!

SE joins OHA, kicks away Symbian and Windows!!!

Sony Ericsson has joined hands with Open Handset Alliance to design phones based on the Android operating system. Isn't it surprising?? They had shown interest in the Symbian Foundation's open source venture. And after creating a breakthrough device(XPERIA) based on Windows they're saying bye to Windows??? Where is SE going. By the way, at non-java phones they were the best, are the beat and will be the best always!!!
Here is the news taken directly from their site.

December 9, 2008

Sony Ericsson joins Open Handset Alliance™

On December 9, 2008 Sony Ericsson announced the extension of its portfolio strategy to include support for the Open Handset Alliance™, committing to produce an Android™ based phone in due course.

"Sony Ericsson is excited to announce its membership of the Open Handset Alliance and confirm its intention to develop a handset based on the Android platform," said Rikko Sakaguchi, CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson.

"We believe Sony Ericsson can bring a wealth of experience in making consumer focused multimedia handsets with new user experience to the Alliance drawing on the successes of the Walkman™ and Cyber-shot™ sub-brands. Sony Ericsson is a strong supporter of open operating systems and we believe the Open Handset Alliance offers an exciting opportunity for a new and unique user experience only Sony Ericsson can deliver."


Rikko Sakaguchi, CVP and Head of Creation and Development at Sony Ericsson.


Complements existing Open OS strategy
Membership of the Open Handset Alliance will complement our existing Open OS strategy which is based on the Symbian and Windows Mobile® platforms. Android is a complete, open mobile phone software stack that enables Sony Ericsson to provide the best user experience with all the latest technologies available on the Internet.
Visit the Open Handset Alliance website>>

Developer support
This announcement confirms that Sony Ericsson is joining the Open Handset Alliance and that we have begun development on this platform. It is still early in the process, and we cannot yet reveal any information about any future SDK from Sony Ericsson.

Built-in IM client

Most new(old ones too) data capable phones have a built in IM client. In SE java phones, it is there in Messging menu with the name My Friends. Most of the people don't know how to use it. Although Java apps like Nimbuzz, Mxit, EQO, e-buddy and Mig33 are better performers at speed but for the occasional user, nothing beats My Friends. You just need to go to yamigo.com and register there. You'll get all setup instructions there itself. If you're stuck midway then do ask me here.
I'm busy now a days so blogging is getting little attention. Hope, I give much of myself to this blog after semester exams end. Bye bye:)

Built-in phone mail client configuration

So, you purchased a shiny new cellphone and flaunting its camera and navigation and browser and music player and other features. Contented with that only?? Don't be!! There are lots more inside which probably you don't know how to use. This post delves into one such feature which is found on almost all phones that have data connectivity i.e. GPRS, EDGE, 3G, HSDPA viz. the built in e-mail client.
For configuration instructions, I'm referring here Sony Ericsson phones. Configuration on other brands is similar too.
Ok, so lets start. SE phones can be broadly classified into two categories based on the software. The popular and mass seller among the two is their Java phones. All the K, C, T, Z series phones fall in this category. Most W series phones too fall in this category. W950 and W960 are the exceptions. The other category of their phones are the Smart Phones running Symbian OS. P and G series phones fall in this category. The configuration is quite similar on both types of phones. For coherency, I'm taking the Java phones in consideration. And, I'm taking GMail as your mail provider. Before doing all that is below, login to your gmail from your computer and enable POP and e-mail forwarding in settings. Also enable IMAP.
Now, on your phone open Menu-Messaging-Email-Accounts-New Account.
Enter your name, email address in the text boxes. In the username box enter in this format username@gmail.com and in password box enter your password. Choose Connection Type as IMAP4. Enter the server address as imap.gmail.com and SMTP server as smtp.gmail.com. Enable SSL in IMAP settings. In SMTP settings enable SSL as well as SMTP authentication and enter your username and password. Set the Connect using field to your default data(gprs/3g) account. Save the settings. You're done!!! Now open Inbox and in More click Send & Receive. Wait till the phone connects to google's servers and downloads your mails. It may take some time depending upon your connection speed and no. of mails in your inbox. To compose a mail use the Write new option in email menu. If you're stuck somewhere then do ask me with the details here by posting a comment. For newbies this may occur as I've written all of this thinking that you're a bit experienced with your phone.
In P series phones, all of this is pretty similar. In Messging tap More-Email accounts. There create new. IMAP and SMTP configuration settings are to be done in Inbox and Outbox tabs.
That was all for today. I'll come up with configuring your phone's IM client in the next post.

Ozone for UIQ3

And finally, what I was waiting for my P1i is out!!! Yes, the bestestestest mobile web browser for the UIQ3 platform is out!! It is called Ozone and can be downloaded from their site http://www.o3mobi.com/
Before Ozone, we the forgotten UIQ users had only 3 native options apart from the java based rocker Opera Mini viz. the built in Opera 8.65, @Web and Opera Mobile 9.5 beta. The 1st one is too crappy and renders pages weirdly. Especially I hate the automatic link highlighting and text highlighting with a contrasting colour on some themes in Opera 8.65. Then came @Web, based on Apple Webkit engine promising big things. But, it fell like a dead monkey. It is pretty medicore at UI, features, user friendliness and more. Then the biggest fuss maker for WM phones, landed to UIQ - Opera Mobile 9.50. But, it sucks at speed and stability. And it is pretty heavy on resources. I remember once while surfing through Opera Mobile I had opened heavy sites on four tabs and it had eaten up the whole 75MB free RAM of my phone. I got a call but could not receive it because of no RAM!!! I had to take out battery to reset. Damn you Opera!!!!
And finally today I read about Ozone on UIQblog.com. Downloaded and installed it right away. The peculiar thing is that it identifies itself as Apple iPhone's user agent. So, I directly opened Orkut on it to experience the iPhone version of Orkut on it. And guess what? It rocks!!! It rules!!! Although P1 has a resolution of 240*320 and iPhone has a hefty VGA screen, but Orkut looked pretty on P1. I had to scroll horizontally, but it was a nice experience. Google guys have designed Orkut for iPhone pretty intuitively and aesthetically appealing and later sprinkled decent user friendliness on it.
Earlier I was jealous of Nokia fanboys having better browser(Safari) on their Symbian 9 series phones. But now Ozone comes to the rescue and it beats Safari as well as Opera Mobile hands down!
My verdict on Ozone: The best mobile browser ever made for Symbian OS.
Plusses: very stable, fast, intuitive, user friendly, fast page rendering, low on resources, free
Cons: Its an alpha version!, seems to fail to load Orkut's desktop version

Current UIQ browser scores out of 100(My opinion)
1. Opera Mini 4.2 - 99
2. Opera Mini Mod 2.06 - 95
3. Opera Mini Official 3.2 - 94
4. Opera Mini Mod 3.x - 93
5. Ozone 0.9 - 87(Native UIQ app)
6. Opera Mobile 9.50 - 81(Native UIQ app)
7. @Web 2.0 - 65(Native UIQ app)
8. Opera Mobile 8.65 - 54(Built in)
9. Tea Shark - less than 40(failed)
10. UCWeb - less than 30(failed)

Please note: This is my opinion based on the browsing experience on my favourite sites on my P1i that I use regularly. It doesn't have any connection with any other individual, company, site, platform, phone. And the opinion can differ user wise. Please don't flame me with comments if your opinion differs. You stay happy with your opinion and me with mine :)

Best UIQ3 Apps(Part-2)

Well, so lets proceed with the second part of Best UIQ apps.

QFlashLight(must have)
This is a torch app. Works best on P1i, this app can turn on both the LEDs at once and the brightest torch app available.

Swiss Manager
This is the Swiss army knife for your UIQ device. It has a nice Task Manager, File manager, System Info page and lots more. Though cool, I don't use it much.

The Open Screen Capture
As the name suggests, it is an open sourcse screenshot program.

LCG X-Plore(must have)
One of the best apps available for any smart phone!! It has virtually everything built inside!!! It is a file manager, video player, music player, zip/rar extractor, doc viewer, hex editor and lots more!! A must have for all UIQ users.

Abakus
Its a cool and handy calculator app for your UIQ phone. Scientific and Engineering modes are there apart from the basic mode.

BestCrypto
This app can be used to protect your private pics, sounds and everything by encrypting and password protecting them.

DocumentsToGo Word/Slide/Sheet(must have)
These three programs are your replacement for any office suite! Apart from viewing any of your office documents, you can edit them as well. And the latest version even supports the latest docx(Office 2007 format). Its an another must have app.

Foxit Reader
Though new, but its a very good alternative for the built in PDF+. It lets you view PDF files just as they appear in your computer. But the app lacks fullscreen view and some more needed features. Well, they should be available soon, as the developers put more of them inside.

MobileFTPd
This app can turn your UIQ smart phone into an FTP server. So you can access your phone files remotely from any part of the earth.

StickIt
This app can stick your notes to the standby screen so you keep getting reminded of your notes whenever you have a look at your phone.

WorldMate
This one is for travel junkies, those who keep roaming around the world. It can help you plan your travel better.

Torch
Although it can't light the LEDs as bright as QFlashLight, but it is handy when you don't need lots of light. Get it from swmail's site.

With this I end this post. Enjoy your UIQ3 device :)

Best UIQ3 Apps

As you might be knowing, I'm the owner of a Sony Ericsson P1i which runs on UIQ3 which in turn runs on top of Symbian OS 9.1; I am dedicating this blog post to the apps I use on my phone. I am not providing any link here to download the apps, you should give some pain to your fingers and google for the apps.

Oh wait..... Don't get disappointed. You can get all the apps full and cracked at imserba forums thats http://www.imserba.com/forum/. If you've ever used a Nokia S60 phone then you might be knowing about many of these apps. Some apps have been supplied with a direct download page link here. Others can be found from imserba. Ok, so lets start:


Agile Messenger
This is an IM app so you can hook your phone to ICQ, MSN. AOL, Yahoo! and GTalk messengers in one go and simultaneously. Works very good.

Blogger
This app, you can get from the SE's Fun & Download site. This is the same Blogger app's UIQ version which you might have seen on Cyber-shot phones that feature mobile blogging.

Core Player(must have)
This is a killer app for UIQ phones!!! Makes your phone a true multimedia device. It support lots of audio, video and pic formats but I mainly use it for playing videos with extension AVI, MPG, DAT, MPEG, MOV. It supports following filetypes: aac, asf, aif, avc, bmp, flac, amr, awb, h264, jpg, jpeg, m3u, mka, mkv, midi, mid, mp1, mp2, mp3, mpa, mpeg, mpg, mpv, m1v, m4v, mp4, mov, 3gp, m4a, m4b, k3g, mc, mpc, nsv, ogg, ogm, pls, png, spx, tif, tiff, ts, m2ts, avi, divx, gvi, xvid, wv, wma, asx, wmx, wvx, wax, wav, rmp

Fring
This too is an IM app, but supports VoIP calls so you can talk to your gtalk, yahoo friends directly if the phone is hooked to net through WiFi. Download it to your phone from m.fring.com

Google Maps
Google have released finally the native UIQ version of Google Maps with satellite view, traffic info and lots more. Get it from Google Maps site or the UIQ site.

Image Converter
As the name suggests, it can convert any image among various image formats.

LCG Jukebox
For the S60 fans who used it, its available here on UIQ too. But if you didn't know about it then don't use it. The Walkman player is better on P1.

Opera Mini 4.1 & Opera Mobile 9.5(must have)
Both of these are the bestestesttest browsers available for mobile phones. Everyone knows about them. Get the mini from mini.opera.com and the big one from opera.com/products/mobile

Slick
Yet another IM app, but with cool and slick looks. Try it if you're an experimenter.

Digia @Web
A very good browser. It boasts itself as the full finger touch browser and yes thats true!!! You don't need any keypresses for browsing, except for typing URLs and form data. Get it from their site

Yell Radio
A cool internet radio program. Though I don't use it because of my crappy gprs connection.

Tweak Peaks
This app turbocharges your phone to work fast by implementing some POSIX libraries. Also you can change your browser's homepage through it. But, it requires capsSwitch for the latter task. Get it from cellphonesoft.com

Airtel Live TV
Never worked for me after I purchased my P1. Thats because Airtel has shutdown all those channeld. Will run great after 3G starts.

Mobipocket Reader
It enables you to read e-books in PRC format.

CapsSwitch(must have)
This is the hack app for UIQ. It turns off system file protection and much more security restrictions and unlocks access to system folders. Get it from its developer's site http://101swmail010.googlepages.com/uiq3mods

GDesk
A very good app. It replaces that old boring desktop with new great looking designs with icon launchers and menus. Get it from http://gdesk.wetpaint.com/. Their site is weird! It'll take you lots of time to search for the download link. Go search it and know more about it there.

iPhoneLock
A keylock app that works just like the iPhone's keylock. Cool one. But it has some issues if you've turned on the Inactivity Lock in your security settings. Get it from http://iphonelock.kwull.com/download.html



Well, there are lots more apps remaining on my phone that haven't been listed here. I'm now tired of typing, so I'm splitting this venture into two parts. The next set of apps and their functions will be posted when I do the next update of my blog(that should be within 2-3 days).

Hard time for SE

It seems that SE is having a hard time in the market. The sales are decreasing day by day. No doubt SE designs the best phones in the range from Rs.4k onwards but it is now being ruled out of the roost. Nokia as always is dominating due to its craze and people being ignorant that an SE is always better and easier to use than a Nokia. Although Nokia phones are more durable than SE ones but I still prefer an SE because of the ease of use, size and shape. Well, the SE guys have done a great mistake by breaking the relation with UIQ. By the way, SE is loosing in India due to one more reason - the cheap chinese phones which play MP3's as loud as a music system are taking over the market in the range Rs.3k-Rs.10k. Well whatever goes, I'll always be loyal to SE.

Opera Mobile 9.50 beta released for UIQ!

Today on October 20th, 2008 Opera Software after a long wait, have released the first public beta version of its long awaited Web Browser for Symbian OS UIQ3.x platform. Earlier it was available only for Windows Mobile.
According to Opera, following bugs are there:
->The browser sets a new system-wide home-page, which cannot be opened by the embedded Internet browser (Opera 8.65).
->Cursor is not shown when HTML edit fields are partially out of screen.
->No support for landscape screen mode due to a number of system issues with the OpenGL graphical engine.
->Browser plug-ins are disabled by default due to non-existent or incomplete system support for Flash content. They can be enabled by the user for experimental purposes only, via More > Tools > Change settings > Advanced > Allow plug-ins.
->The continuous browser usage experience might be affected by the amount of available phone RAM memory.

As a lucky owner of Sony Ericsson P1i, I got to use their new lil kid. As soon as I came to know about the release I jumped to the Opera Mobile's official download. It was a monstrous 4.14MB!! Yes monstrous because I am using GPRS and it takes an era for downloading 4MB.

I got hold of the browser and was extremely happy to use it. The browser gave me the best experience ever on mobile. I could open the full facebook, and gmail standard view on my phone!!! But alas, due to crappy policies of Orkut its full view isn't available for mobiles. They detect the browser and redirect to the mobile version.

It also comes with the Opera widgets - handy little apps that run in the Opera browser.

So far I'm extremely satisfied with the new app. It changed my perception of web on my phone. The old Opera 8.65 was too crap to be usable. The worst thing that I hated most in it was the automatic link highlighting and mixing up site's CSS with the phone's theme. Digia @Web had come to my rescue but didn't appeal much. And finally Opera 9.5 put an end to my problems and I now can browse the web with ease.

There's an issue with mobile sites on 9.5 though. When you open any XHTML mobile site, it seems to hold the left part of the screen unless you zoom.

For the SE P1i/G700i/G900i/W960i, here is the download link