Background:
In about 2005/2006 I decided to try and move as much as I could onto a new device.
I bought the Nokia 9500 Communicator and tried to move as many activities as possible onto the device.
It's been great! On this page I hope to outline where I am, how I got there and where to get what you need.
The Nokia 9500 is an excellent
piece of hardware, a little large for most folks tastes. The 9300 is
smaller and I gather it now has the one feature that really sold the
9500 to me... WiFi.
The 9500 runs the Symbian Series 80 operating system. Which is good and solid, I've had very few problems with it, however, S80 is the black sheep of the Symbian family and S60 is much more popular and as such there is much more software for S60 compared to S80. Also there are fewer poeple developing for S80, but there is a goodly number of applications out there.
So...
I wanted to move as much of my life as possible onto my device, and this page is a guide to what I have used to make this all pretty much possible. Writing this page is a good way for me to summarise what I have done and may just help others. So on with the show...
CASE:
Okay, Steve Lichfields site has a great review of cases, definately recommend his site for all things 9500 related. In this case however I went against the grain and got the Covertec case.
Very pleased I did, I broke the belt clip after a couple of days (my own silly fault), I emailed them asking how to buy a new one. Within less than 2 hours I had an email from them saying that a new clip was in the post!
Excellent Service!
APPLICATIONS:
AutoMail (Freeware)
To quote Steve's site AutoMail "automates email retrieval on the Nokia Communicator. As the device stands, you have to manually initiate 'retrieve e-mail' and then go off and make a cup of tea while it all actually happens. The idea of Automail is to have this happen automatically every so often, even with the clamshell closed, so that all you have to do is open your Communicator whenever convenient and see what's waiting."
Personally I don't find the manual download that bad, so I don't use this software but it is a great piece of code and I have used it in the past and happily recommend it to anyone.
eBook (Freeware)
I use this all the time, I read electronic books all the time and having them on your phone is terrific. Written by Simon Quinn, eBook was shareware but is now freeware, the registration code is available on the website. Shame Simon is not developing it anymore as it has a few rough edges (mainly that some HTML code does not get parsed nicely. eBook is much better than the MobiReader client IMHO.
So download eBook and then download some classics from project gutenberg.
AgileMessenger (Commercial)
Agile messenger is a instant messaging client which connects you to multiple networks. MSN, AIM, Y!, Jabber, etc. You can either pay monthly or a one of of 19.95 euros. Very much worth it, I havn't come across a better IM client.
Worth keeping track of how much you use it if not using WiFi as GPRS bills can rack up :-)
eProfiles (Commercial)
Extended Profiles Pro, from psiloc, is the first of three applications I have from Psiloc. They cost abou 20 euros each but are great. eProfiles allows you to have different settings which can automatically change. In my case a work setting that features quiet ring tones that are serious and it then switches to more silly MP3 based ring tones at 5:30pm automatically.
Extended Recorder (Commercial)
Also from PsiLoc, extended recorder adds functionality to the voice recorder built into the 9500. So I can start recording by a simple key press on the outside keypad. Very handy when I needed it. To be frank I don't use it so much now days.
Google Maps (Freeware)
I mainly used this before I invested in Tom Tom, but I still have it there and it is great. It brings the power of Google Maps to your mobile, you can get a map and directions from A-B etc. Search and all that good stuff, try it, you'll like it.
Hotspot Finder (Commercial)
The 9500 has a terrific feature in the 802.11 wireless. But how to tell when there is a hotspot you can use? This si what this application does. One feature missing is telling me if the hotspot is WEP/WPA/Open.
Metro (Freeware)
Metro is a great public transportation guide. It covers almost all PDA formats and about 365 cities at last count. I use it to navigate the London Underground. I put in the name of the station I am at, the name of the station I need to get to and Voila! Metro tells me what trains to catch. Brilliant!
OPL (Freeware)
THE programming language for symbian devices, get it, try it, love it!
Passwords (Freeware)
Written by Ian Chapple via freepoc.org, this is a fantastic cetral store for all those web passwords etc you need. They are stored in encrypted format and it is a really smooth application that I like a lot.
Perl (freeware)
The programming language. I don't use it very much, very well or very often, but I should. OPL is more popular on Symbian.
Tom Tom (Commercial)
The ultimate accesory for my mobile, with a small GPS receiver I get satelite navigation on my Mobile. I use this all the time and can barely drive without it. How did we survice without GPS?
Why carry around a seperate GPS navigation device when you can carry a mobile with GPS? Terrific! (Did I mention the John Cleese voice?)
YEdit
great text editor
YFTP
FTP client, combined with YEdit, I use it quite a bit to update websites.
The 9500 runs the Symbian Series 80 operating system. Which is good and solid, I've had very few problems with it, however, S80 is the black sheep of the Symbian family and S60 is much more popular and as such there is much more software for S60 compared to S80. Also there are fewer poeple developing for S80, but there is a goodly number of applications out there.
So...
I wanted to move as much of my life as possible onto my device, and this page is a guide to what I have used to make this all pretty much possible. Writing this page is a good way for me to summarise what I have done and may just help others. So on with the show...
CASE:
Okay, Steve Lichfields site has a great review of cases, definately recommend his site for all things 9500 related. In this case however I went against the grain and got the Covertec case.
Very pleased I did, I broke the belt clip after a couple of days (my own silly fault), I emailed them asking how to buy a new one. Within less than 2 hours I had an email from them saying that a new clip was in the post!
Excellent Service!
APPLICATIONS:
AutoMail (Freeware)
To quote Steve's site AutoMail "automates email retrieval on the Nokia Communicator. As the device stands, you have to manually initiate 'retrieve e-mail' and then go off and make a cup of tea while it all actually happens. The idea of Automail is to have this happen automatically every so often, even with the clamshell closed, so that all you have to do is open your Communicator whenever convenient and see what's waiting."
Personally I don't find the manual download that bad, so I don't use this software but it is a great piece of code and I have used it in the past and happily recommend it to anyone.
eBook (Freeware)
I use this all the time, I read electronic books all the time and having them on your phone is terrific. Written by Simon Quinn, eBook was shareware but is now freeware, the registration code is available on the website. Shame Simon is not developing it anymore as it has a few rough edges (mainly that some HTML code does not get parsed nicely. eBook is much better than the MobiReader client IMHO.
So download eBook and then download some classics from project gutenberg.
AgileMessenger (Commercial)
Agile messenger is a instant messaging client which connects you to multiple networks. MSN, AIM, Y!, Jabber, etc. You can either pay monthly or a one of of 19.95 euros. Very much worth it, I havn't come across a better IM client.
Worth keeping track of how much you use it if not using WiFi as GPRS bills can rack up :-)
eProfiles (Commercial)
Extended Profiles Pro, from psiloc, is the first of three applications I have from Psiloc. They cost abou 20 euros each but are great. eProfiles allows you to have different settings which can automatically change. In my case a work setting that features quiet ring tones that are serious and it then switches to more silly MP3 based ring tones at 5:30pm automatically.
Extended Recorder (Commercial)
Also from PsiLoc, extended recorder adds functionality to the voice recorder built into the 9500. So I can start recording by a simple key press on the outside keypad. Very handy when I needed it. To be frank I don't use it so much now days.
Google Maps (Freeware)
I mainly used this before I invested in Tom Tom, but I still have it there and it is great. It brings the power of Google Maps to your mobile, you can get a map and directions from A-B etc. Search and all that good stuff, try it, you'll like it.
Hotspot Finder (Commercial)
The 9500 has a terrific feature in the 802.11 wireless. But how to tell when there is a hotspot you can use? This si what this application does. One feature missing is telling me if the hotspot is WEP/WPA/Open.
Metro (Freeware)
Metro is a great public transportation guide. It covers almost all PDA formats and about 365 cities at last count. I use it to navigate the London Underground. I put in the name of the station I am at, the name of the station I need to get to and Voila! Metro tells me what trains to catch. Brilliant!
OPL (Freeware)
THE programming language for symbian devices, get it, try it, love it!
Passwords (Freeware)
Written by Ian Chapple via freepoc.org, this is a fantastic cetral store for all those web passwords etc you need. They are stored in encrypted format and it is a really smooth application that I like a lot.
Perl (freeware)
The programming language. I don't use it very much, very well or very often, but I should. OPL is more popular on Symbian.
Tom Tom (Commercial)
The ultimate accesory for my mobile, with a small GPS receiver I get satelite navigation on my Mobile. I use this all the time and can barely drive without it. How did we survice without GPS?
Why carry around a seperate GPS navigation device when you can carry a mobile with GPS? Terrific! (Did I mention the John Cleese voice?)
YEdit
great text editor
YFTP
FTP client, combined with YEdit, I use it quite a bit to update websites.
Status:
(16 October 2006) This is an initialattempt, I have
included most of the applications on my device. I shall be adding more
as time permits.
