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 I've gotten this request a few times lately, so it's time to write it
up here, no? With my 3650 I was pretty experimental - I loaded up just
about everything I found and kept a lot of stuff that may not have done
me a whole hell of a lot of good. With my 6600, however, I've been much
more reserved. For one, I don't have as much money to spend right now
on mobile apps, so some things I'd like to have I need to wait for. And
secondly, not every app that ran on the 3650 runs perfectly on the
6600.
Article by Russel Beattie
Let me say that again for those of you skimming. Nokia 3650 applications may not run correctly on the 6600.
I'd say it's actually a pretty high number of failures actually.
1 out of 4 apps maybe? Including both Java and native apps maybe 50% -
the upgrade to Symbian 7.0s and MIDP 2.0 definitely caused some
breakage. For example, I just tried the new 3GPP Philips Camcorder app
that was *just* released and it dies horrible deaths on the 6600 (which
is a shame) and almost all the Java apps for my 7650 don't work either.
You've been warned.
Okay, with that, I'll list the apps I've got installed and use regularly:
Opera - this
comes with the 6600 in Western Europe and the U.S. and it's definitely
a requirement if you don't get it. I can't figure out why Nokia didn't
just make Opera the default browser instead of messing around with the
"Services" WAP2 browser as well. It supports HTML, XHTML, WAP and more
and on the 6600 is really a great experience to browse the web: fast,
convenient, easy.
FExplore:
Even though the 6600 comes with 2 almost identical apps for finding
files (Gallery and File Mgr.), neither of these apps will allow you to
get to the System files or other local directories considered out of
bounds. This freeware app will allow you to get to all the files on
your phone, as well as provide other functionality like "restart" and
displaying your phone's IMEI number in case you can't remember how to
get to it from the keypad.
Forward: This app
has two very important functions. It'll allow you to foward on *any*
message that's in your Message inbox. That's very cool. And it'll also
allow you to save attachments and other files in your inbox as files,
which is also handy for a variety of reasons.
Wireless IRC:
The best app on the Series 60, this is a chat app which will allow you
to join group chats on IRC servers. It's a shame it's limited to IRC
since it's hands-down the best UI for mobile chatting I've ever seen,
but if you do spend time on IRC (like we do on
irc.freenode.net/#mobitopia) then you'll love this app.
Agile Messenger: This
is another freeware app which will allow you to communicate to the main
Instant Messaging services Yahoo, AIM, MSN and ICQ. It's very good and
the newest version cuts out the middleman-server.
SlovoEd Spanish/English:
I grabbed this months and months ago while I was in Spain and I still
use it frequently. If you live or are going to visit a foreign country
(or know someone who's native language may not be English) this is
really great to have. I had a dictionary on my Palm, and with the
phone's T9 dictionary helping, it's actually faster to look up a word
on my phone.
ReadM:
This is a text reader (and basic MP3 player). It's *great* and free.
I've gone out and downloaded a bunch of text files of eBooks which I
store on my MMC to have around in case I need something to read in a
pinch. It allows you to mark up the text, have book marks, turn the
screen 90 degrees for easier reading, doesn't timeout the backlight and
other features. Definitely a well done app which makes reading on your
phone quite comfortable. Again, I used to read eBooks on my Palm Vx and
the higher resolution of the Series 60 phones make it actually much
more comfortable even thoough the screen may be smaller.
AvantGo: I have to admit I don't
use this app much, but it definitely works a hell of a lot better on
the 6600 with its added RAM memory and storage. If you liked AvantGo on
your Palm, you'll love it on the phone as well.
ScreenTaker:
This is the app to have around if you want to take screen shots of the
apps you have your phone. I'm hoping the author comes out with a new
version as the move to the 6600 made the images it saves more blurry.
But still, it's pretty great. Whenever I discover a new app, I
immediately take shots to show the world. Like I did with the next app:
PuTTY: This is a
*great, great, great* app to have on a connected computing device like
the 6600. It's really the final piece missing to make the phone a
"real" computing device. It's definitely not for newbies, but anyone
who has a web server to maintain or is techie enough to want to log in
remotely to their email via SSH, this app is a must have.
vsHttpd:
This app is more fun to have than actually useful. It's a Very Small
Web Server which you can run on your phone. If you're attached to the
internet via GPRS and your carrier doesn't have you firewalled off
(like most American carriers like AT&T) it'll allow you to serve
files from your phone to any web browser. Pretty cool huh? It's also a
hackish way to get at local files from Java, since if you start up the
vsHttpd app and there's no connection, it'll just start serving files
from 128.0.0.1 (localhost).
Switcher:
This is a great free utility for Symbian devices from a German company
called Knowledge Intelligence AG. It's like a "lite" version of AppMan
that I had trialed a while ago, but have since forgotten about. It'll
allow you to see apps and processes currently running, and allow you to
wack errant programs if need be. It's like a Ctl-Alt-Delete for your
phone. Nice!
GoBoy: This is
amazing original Gameboy Color emulator. It works especially well on
the N-Gage and the 6600 which have more RAM than the earlier Series 60
devices. You'll need game ROMs which can be difficult to track down
even on P2P networks, but if are lucky enough to get Tetris or Mario,
you can play the original GBC games with sound perfectly on your phone.
EMame: This is recent
app which will take original game ROMs from old Video Machines and
emulate them on the phone. I haven't actually found any ROMs which I
really want to play, and the interface is a bit clunky, but it's neat
to have. And it's free...
Interstellar Flames:
This is one of the oldest games I bought. It's based on a 3D graphics
engine and looks great to show off to to people who want to see the
functionality to play. Unfortunately it sucks as an actual game... ;-)
But it never required a registration code, so I've moved it from phone
to phone just to have.
Infinite Dreams: Sky Force:
(Note: This app has replaced my original review of Siberian Strike
which didn't actually work on the 6600). Sky Force is a relatively new
shooter game with a great look and control. It's a native S60 app and
the trial works perfectly on the 6600. It's got great action and really
good music/sound effects. Probably one to have on your phone even in
trial form to show off. It costs $9.99 from Handango.
Magic Gaming System Karting:
Karting is just one of the games that plug into the MGS. I haven't
bothered to try to get new serial numbers for my new phone, so I have
it installed just in demo mode which is fun enough, but all the games
(once you pay for them) allow users to play together via Bluetooth.
Card Deck:
I have this installed because it's free online from Nokia, but I have
*no* idea how to play any of the solitaire games that come with it. The
online help isn't much help either. If you have a clue, comments
welcome, because the app looks good, if I only I could figure out the
rules.
Space Impact:
Another freebie from Nokia. Not a particularly compelling game, but
it's cool to demonstrate Bluetooth gaming with another S60 device. I
keep a copy of the .SIS file hanging around on my MMC to send to others
at a moments notice.
Frozen Bubble:
Updated 6/30/2004. I just found this open source bubble-pop clone and
it's great! Great graphics, fun sound, and it starts fast for a quick
game. Best part is that it's free and OPEN so if you're a programmer
you can check out what's going on under the hood. Very Cool.
Also, while I'm on the topic, I should talk about how I organize my
phone as well. I set it up so that at the main screen, the left button
is the Messages and the right is the Camera. This actually may be the
default, but I can't remember. :-) Then in the Grid menu, I move those
icons as well as the Contacts into the "Extras". I don't like or need
more than one way to get to a feature. Contacts is accessed from the
main screen by pressing in the joystick, which is why I don't need that
as well. Then I move the icons I use regularly up to the "first page"
which can hold 9 icons. These are (from top left to bottom right): Log,
Calendar, Gallery, Recorder, Services, Opera, Bluetooth, Profiles,
Video Recorder. They actually could be organized a bit better, but I've
had some of them in the same position for so long now that I've
developmed muscle memory. I'll have to think about that in the next
week as I'm using the phone and pay attention to how many clicks I
need.
Below the first 9 icons, I have the folders. I add 2 new folders called
"Apps" and "Games" which I use to organize the apps I install. I'm sure
you can figure out what goes where. I also have another folder called
"N-Gage", but I won't talk about that. :-)
The last thing I want to say is don't ignore the apps that come
with the phone. I use the included converter quite a bit from
everything like converting meters to feet to figuring out how many cups
in a gallon and euros to the dollar. The Calculator is also a great
apps (much better than it's Windows equivalent, actually...) and the
Recorder is *fantastic* on the road as a way of remembering things to
do. Just create a new voice note and it's put in the Gallery along with
your pictures and video. Very well done, actually. I think you can even
use the sound clips as ringtones, actually, so you could - for example
- record the sound of your son playing and use it as the sound file for
when your wife calls from home.
Speaking of the Gallery, let me slip in a tip here as well: Manage your
photos well. I had over 300+ photos in my Gallery and the time to save
an image started driving me *nuts*. We're talking 10-12 seconds per
picture. I was thinking it was a problem with the new OS and the phone
was going to need a firmware upgrade or something, but it's not that at
all. The more photos you have, the longer it takes to find the last
file name, it seems, and save. Once I copied all the photos off my MMC
the other day, the camera saves in about 3-4 seconds again. It still
seems slower responding that my 3650, but that's *a lot* better than
last week and Disneyland. I was ready to throw the phone into the
waters at It's A Small World it was taking so long to save images.
Okay, that's it. There's probably other apps that I'd have on
my phone if I they 1) Actually worked on the 6600 (like my ETI
Camcorder or the Philips Camcorder) or if they were 2) Portable, since
I don't like the idea of paying for an app twice or 3) Cheaper, I can't
pay $30 an app any more, especially if I can't take it with me when I
upgrade my phone to a newer version.
I hope that helps the new 6600 owners out there.
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