Software On My 6680

So here is the post I promised earlier. A basic rundown of the basics I have installed on my Nokia 6680. I could not get screenshots of everything, but I think it's the thought that counts, eh?

I won't cover the Nokia pre-installed software, since I have formatted and reinstalled only the things I need. My standby screen (right), is decorated by a theme called Collision, for the purpose of this article.



This is a quick and informative shot of my main menu. Everything here is pretty default, and it work. There really isn't any better word for the camera than "Camera". This shot basically just demonstrates the theme, once again.

I still need to sort the icons, in a better order. This layout just works for me at the moment, and I don't think changing anything here, would gain me any profit.


The games, well, taking screenshots of them is pretty much impossible. So here is my custom games menu.

MRally 3D is a pretty impressive arcade style rally game with relatively nice 3D graphics. I just could not get the sound to work while racing. Or maybe there isn't any?

Micropool. This is one of my favourites. A very impressive looking 3d pool table, and awesome physics. I have played many games in the time I had this installed. I recommend it for time wasting indeed.

Snowboard X by Distinctive games. Another arcade style slalom type game. You can choose extreme difficulty, and slalom through flags pretty fast. I guess I like it.

Truck Tycoon. This is a vertical top view (a la simcity 1) type tycoon where you, well, do Trucks. I can't say much yet, haven't played it that much. But it is nice. Honest, guv.

Nate Adams Freestyle Motocross. This is just Amusing (with capital A). You have to maintain proper balance on the bike, and do wierd stuff. I find the falling off part, amusing as well. This is a side scrolling type of game, but has quite decent graphics, enough to do the trick.

Frozen Bubble. w00t. This is just the best opensource game out there. It must also be the game in which I spend countless hours a week. I really don't like the other bubble games, and since I am used to it on my Linux box, it is just nostalgic and perfect. Get it or die.

Emulators. Who would survive without them?
I don't want to say me yet, this far I'm not having a great time yet. eeMame is just a hassle. The Vampent emu's (pictured) is in my opinion well planned/developed. The only problem is the sound, or maybe it is just me, but while playing ANY games, and pressing any keys, the sound becomes choppy. I also had one crash, where I could not even shutdown my phone. I don't point fingers, this might be my fault, and I haven't uninstalled them for this reason. So maybe when I have time to figure it out, I might say more. But you try it, phones differ, and people need to have NES roms on their phones, it is just proper education.


Now on to the more useful stuff. The "other" software. For the same reason as games, there was also some programs I could not screenshot in the act. But here is a part of my 'Util' menu.

Util has:
Fexplorer
Agile Messenger
CellTrack
PuTTY
TaskSpy
Jbenchmark
SmartMovie
Opera
UltraMP3!
PowerDicttaphone
PeriodTable
ScreenShot

Agile Messenger must be one of the best messenger apps out there. It is also my most used. Agile really did a great job, and by providing it free they are also drawing attention to their other products. AgileMessenger Supports MSN/ICQ/YAHOO/AIM and it easy to work with, has an awesome interface, and 'technically correct' navigation. Don't use anything else.


Here is some screenshots from various other application I have installed.




Fexplorer. The best file manager out there for series 60. It just supports and does everything. It is also way more usefull than Nokia's default (but probably safer Filemanager)

PuTTY. If you need telnet (yikes) or SSH access to a remote machine, then this is it. A port to series 60 of Putty. It's versatile, and awesome. Gets my vote.

TaskSpy. Probably also a 'must-have' if you want to know what is going on, in your phones internals. This is like a series60 replacement for Window's CTRL-ALT-DELETE process manager. It also has the ability to kill/list all running processes, and cpu/mem graphs.

Opera. I won't say this is better than "x" or "y", but it sure as hell is an awesome Browser. I jump back and forth between Opera and the Nokia browser, but I use Opera more. It has what it takes for mobile browsing. I heard Netfront is quite a competitor for Opera, I don't know.

The last few (small? blogspot?) screenshots.

UltraMP3! is supposed to be the awesome player out there, but apart from having great looks and a lot of control, it really doesn't perform that great on my phone.

The next two screenshots is taken from SmartMovie, which IS on the other hand, the best movie player I have come across. It is not free, but it's worth the buck. I have installed the xvid codecs, and started playing one of my Evil Con Carne episodes for the screenshot (General Skarr).

The last picture there, is of CellTrack. This is just something you don't need, but like to have. It shows you the cell you're currently on, strength, batter power, graph, and various other identification information. If you like tracking the cell's you move through, you can even keep pictures of each one.

That's it.
I think I covered most of the third party stuff I have on my phone at the moment. Of course, time will tell. I might install more stuff later on, which I will probably blog about.

Until then. Moochos grassy arse.

Reinstalled, Better, Longer, Uncut....

Still playing with my new device (the Nokia 6680 for those who don't read my historical blogs) and still installing and uninstalling new stuff...

As a matter of fact yesterday I decided it's time to be the power-user I am, and format and reinstall everything on my phone from scratch. Well here is what I did:

Backup:

I started by backing up my messages and contacts onto my computer, and writing down the gprs/mms settings, since Vodacom still doesn't have them on their site yet. I saved all the pictures and ringtones and stuff that I liked, and just about everything else I needed to use. Email, nothing to back up, since I still need to set that up.

Format/Hard-reset:

The process of doing this is easy, technically, but you need a firm hand. It involved pressing the green dial button, the '*' button and the '3' button, all at once, then turning the phone on. I had to ask my sister to turn the phone on, since my hands (even after a year of guitaring) can't really reach the power on button, while performing this manouvre. After a few seconds the phone boots up, and it's like new. It asks the pin, the date/time, and all those little things again.

Recover:

Now, the hard part, is configuring all the menus and settings the way I like them. At this stage only the bare Nokia software skeleton is installed. The MMC (64MB) is entirely free. With everything set, including profiles etc, I move on to my pc.

Restore:

I transfer all the data I backed up, back to my phone. Contacts most importantly. I start reinstalling ONLY the software I want that came with the phone. I got these from the Nokia website. Oh, and don't forget Adobe reader, I cannot survive without that.

Installs:

Now, the tedious part. Installing all the themes I liked. This came down to about 5 of the 30+ I have on my PC. Software was easy, I installed a few of the things I like, then A few of the games I like, and voila. Installs done.

Note that I have installed everything on the MMC. This leaves more free space on the device's internal memory, thus more execution potential. For bigger apps, like the emulators and larger games. After all of this, I have only used 24 MB on my MMC, with about 7 MB free on the phone.

This is perfect, an install, which suites me. It even runs fast, I scored second highest on Jbenchmark. Check the site, Im still 2nd. I will try and beat that sometime. In my next blog, Ill try and do a rundown of stuff I have installed on my phone.

PS: Gprs/mobile internet is a dream. I can lie in my bed, and msn, how handy.

Mobility, Winter and Bad Chairs

I will start my piece today with a rant. A rant so pure and sincere, that I even hate writing about it. I have had three chairs, at my computer, in the last year or two, and none of them were cheap. In fact, I hate spending money on chairs. Where ever did you hear about someone paying money for chairs? I guess this is why my back keeps hurting. My third chair, and current one, a typist chair model 2005, is killing me. If you are in the market for a desk chair for your computer, spend alot of money. *tip*

Secondly, I have finished my Linux module studies today, now i just need to get to college in one piece, so I can apply these skills (which I really had for years, and not because of this silly module) on the 'institutions' computer, and benefit by this by recieving marks and a good averages. :)

My Nokia 6680 is 6 days old today, and finally, tommorow the 7 day warranty effect is over. This means I can actually start using my phone, consuming my free minutes, and stop asking people not to call me. Nokia does have (apparently) this warranty where I may not use more than 15 minutes of "usage" on the timers, before 7 days. This is probably just in good will, and to see if something breaks. Not that I am aware of any phones ever breaking because of being in a conversation with someone.

Maybe it's not good will at all. *paranoid*.
If there should be something wrong with the phones amplification module, or other electronics that really actually only get used 'IN' calls, then I wouldn't really know about until the exchange warranty voids, would I. Clever one Nokia...

Nevertheless, I am happy with this, I have in fact never been happier with a techy device, like I am with this smartphone. It's awesome, its sexy, its fast.
And while this blog is turning into a review *gg*, you might as well check out JBenchmark's results page, since I have scored second highest score for my phone there. *evil laugh*. (I am mbvdl obviously)

Software on my Nokia 6680 that work well, and is free, as we speak, is:
CellTrack
JBenchmark3D
TaskSpy
Journey 2 (the game)
jmIrc
OggPlay
Frozen Bubble
Putty
FExplorer
Adobe reader
Opera (not free, but Nice until it expires...)

Ill post some more stuff later on.
I think i need a 128 MB at least MMC card, the current 64 MB feels so limited.

Ok, I guess it is time to go, Need to do some research on J2ME.