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mBrain Software has released version 1.75 of Pdf+ (for UIQ 3.x smartphones), the leading PDF reader for Symbian smartphones. Pdf+ (for UIQ 3.x smartphones) is available in two editions, Pdf+ Basic and Pdf+ Standard.
- Pdf+ Basic offers basic functionality. Users can view all pages, go to any page, search for strings, set the zoom level, full screen and landscape mode and reflow the text. Chinese and Japanese PDF files are fully supported. Email attachments and PDF files downloaded from the Web can be read as well.
Pdf+ Standard offers in addition bookmark support, following of links, opening of websites, sending Emails and dialing phone numbers. Full support for password-protected PDF files is available in this version too.
It is possible to upgrade from Pdf+ Basic to Pdf+ Standard, by installing Pdf+ Standard Upgrade.
All editions of Pdf+ support shortcuts for quick access to often-used commands.
For owners of the SonyEricsson UIQ 3.x smartphones with Pdf+ in ROM, such as the P990, the M600 and the P1, a special, and free, distribution is available that will install Pdf+ Standard on their device.
Full details are available on the website http://www.mBrainSoftware.com/UIQ_3x/Pdf/Pdf.htm.
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One of the unique features of UIQ when you put it alongside other current Symbian devices is, of course, the touch screen support – and it’s always interesting to look at applications that take advantage of this. Because there’s no way that a simple and useful application like Scribbler would be even half as useful on S60 as it is on Sony Ericsson's UIQ smartphones. Scribbler is an infinite roll of digital paper. Rather than the paged approach that the built in Notes application uses, there is one ‘page’ for you to take your notes on. When you reach the bottom of the screen, it automatically scrolls up the contents, and you keep on writing. Hit the bottom, it scrolls up again. It’s very simple, and very easy.
That’s also the case with the writing mechanism. There’s no use for the keypad, there’s no text prediction or handwriting to text here. What you sketch out with the stylus, be it a shopping list, some long division, or a map of where the nearest taxi rank to your hotel is; that’s what you see on the screen.
Moving around this strip of ‘digital tape’ is also easy. The side scroll wheel acts exactly as you would expect it, scrolling through the tape. There are also icons along the base of the screen that allows you to ‘zoom out’ from your tape and see it metaphorically cut into smaller strips (five of them over the width of the screen). Tap on one of sections and be taken to that point in the strip, while the scroll wheel advances along the line of strips.
These buttons also deal with formatting options for your digital ink, including the size of the nib, the colour, and the ability to act as an eraser. All these are push buttons, with graphical menus for tapping if required. It’s quick to access and change what you need; important in an app like Scribbler.
Yes, Scribbler can be a bit slow scrolling through a massive tape – so while everything on one tape is attractive you can easily save off a Scribbler file for archiving purposes. I also like the fact that as well as a specific file type, you can export the tape as a bitmap image for viewing on any other suitable platform.
Scribbler is a very basic application and isn’t going to win any awards for in-depth functionality, but that belies the point. This is one of the fastest ways on my P990 to take a note without ploughing through a bundle of bells and whistles that look nice but slow you down... Sure I need to go back and deal with it later, either actioning the content or filing it correctly as a task, proper note or calendar details, but when you just gotta get something recorded, I don’t see a faster way on my handset. So for that alone, it gets a strong recommendation.
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related software and services. The new members are ArcSoft Inc., CleNET Technologies, Fring, Google, iSkoot and Mobica.
"The UIQ Alliance Partner Program expands the options for our customers to choose applications and services that work well with UIQ. This accelerates time to market when creating new mobile phones", says Elisabet Melin, VP Marketing at UIQ Technology. "We are very pleased to welcome our new partners into the UIQ Alliance Partner Program and look forward to a good cooperation."
From the press release:
ArcSoft Inc. is a software developer of multimedia technologies and applications across desktop and embedded platforms. Working closely with major OEM manufacturers, ArcSoft offers a full line of imaging and video solutions that enhance the features, performance, and user experience of mobile phones, digital cameras, optical drives, personal computers, and consumer electronics devices. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] CIeNET Technologies is an outsourcing service company based in China. They are telecommunication and embedded system experts in mobile devices, value-added services, base stations, billing and customer care, and network management. CIeNET is one of the fastest growing outsourcing service companies in China. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] fring™ is a mobile internet community giving service that enables users to make free mobile calls, live chat and interact with other fringsters™ and their favorite online communities & services, all while on the go. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] Google's innovative search technologies connect millions of people around the world with information every day. One of Google's aims is to develop products and services that are specifically designed for mobile devices and for local markets. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] iSkoot is dedicated to enabling mobile Internet voice and chat services. iSkoot software enables users to load their buddy lists, view presence information, make and receive push-of-a-button Internet calls, and enjoy live chat all on their mobile handsets. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] Mobica specializes in providing consultancy, project and engineering services on Symbian and UIQ platforms, from base porting and core platform development, through to innovative applications, UI design and connectivity solutions. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
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ArcSoft, CleNET Technologies, fring™, Google, i-skoot and Mobica are new partners in the UIQ Alliance Partner Program. The agreements basically mean that UIQ Technology will support the partner companies in their development of mobile applications and services on UIQ and Symbian OS for future product releases. The new partners are given access to UIQ roadmap updates, joint marketing, technical support and also have the option to receive early access to UIQ releases.
That is the first paragraph [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] and I can’t reword it any better than that, make sure you check it out to get a better sense of what each of these 6 companies do. What does Google have in store is beyond me and aren’t there competing interests due to Android?
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More cool applications have appeared for UIQ 3 users in the last couple of days. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] and [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...] are among them and, today, Bunch Launch has just been annnouced by CellphoneSoft. Basically, Bunch Launch is a utility to bring your UIQ 3 smartphone to a desired state, with all your apps running, in one go.
Bunch Launch can start up several applications at once. The purpose of the program is to quickly bring the phone to the desired state. Using Bunch Launch you can define groups of programs that are all executed automatically in fast sequence. Details of execution, like timing and notifications, can be set for each group separately.
Major features:
Start multiple applications at once.
Save time by bringing the phone quickly to the desired state.
Several independent groups of processed programs.
Configurable timing, confirmations and messages.
Memory maximization feature.
You can read the documentation of this new UIQ 3 app [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]. Bunch Launch is compatible with all UIQ 3 smartphones both touchscreen and non-touchscreen.
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The W960, as a music device, has the bone of contention that all devices have, you need to get your music onto them. Sony Ericsson bundle their brand new Media Manger application with the W960 to deal with this, along with a number of other features that lift this out of the ‘utility’ pile into something… well, something that sits a little bit awkwardly at the side of the room. Installing the Media Manager is pretty easy – after popping in the CD enclosed with the W960, there’s a rather prominent icon with ‘Install’ underneath it. The process does take some time, as it does involve also placing Quicktime on your machine if it is not already present, and a forced registration of your details with Sony Ericsson before you can start.
Media Manager From The Top
For those of you with a music collection on your PC, on first installing, Media Manager started scuttling round my hard drive to build up a list of all the media it could find. A long process (roughly 15 minutes on my laptop’s 80GB hard drive) but after this was completed, you’re taken into the main application (it only happens on first running, subsequently opening the application jumps straight to the main screen).
So the core of the application is a split screen view, with your PC's contents on the top, and the W960's on the bottom, and you can switch between various ‘media types’ with the tabs at the top. These are Music on your PC, CD Music, Pictures, Video, RSS, PC Transfer and Settings.
All of these are available bar Video, for which you’ll need to purchase Media Manager Pro from Sony Ericsson – this seems a bit of a cheat, after you’ve spent your money on a video capable smartphone – it’s also a similar trick to what Sony did with the PSP, making users buy all the media transfer software beyond basic USB Mass Storage connectivity. So if you want to check this out, then it’s another $10 direct to Sony Ericsson. (It's also not necessary, as the W960 will play standard MP4 clips and there are many free MP4 encoders -Ed)
Managing Digital Music
After the time Media Manager takes to index your media, I was hoping for a big searchable list of all my music tracks, with all the info tags read, and able to be sorted by artist, track name, or album., Unfortunately this was not to be.
The collapsed folder view on the left side of the screen illustrates how Sony Ericsson think Media Manager will be used – so you’ll need to be comfortable with navigating a directory structure. Open up these directories and you’ll eventually get to a folder that has music files in it – and the info grabbed from the tags in the music files will be on display for Artist and Album, but strangely not the track name – you see the file name, which isn’t always the same.
Remind me again why I spent all that time letting you index the files and I still have to plough through a mix and mash of files and folders? It’s a little bit frustrating.
Searching for specific tracks is about the only saving grace for this part of Music Manager – thanks to the indexing it’s lightning fast as you start to type in the find box, and it narrows the results down with every keypress – and, unlike on the W960 itself, you can search for strings in the middle of a name (so 'CH' will pick up Voodoo Chile). It doesn’t make up for the previous flaws, but it does make them easier to live with.
Transferring Your Music
You drag it from the top screen (be it digital music, CD, or an RSS feed item) to the bottom – i.e. PC to phone, and it gets put in the right place on your phone. If you prefer a big arrow button to press, you have that as well. No holding lists, no intermediate boxes, just ‘boom’ it’s over. Simple.
One little tweak is available for music files – if you want to change the bit-rate (and hence have a smaller file size) during the transfer, there’s a dropdown on the PC box at the top right to over-ride the default rate you have requested in the settings.
Ripping Your CDs
Much like the transfer of files, this has been kept as simple as possible. Pop the CD into the tray and the display will call up a similar view to the digital music view, i.e. title, artists and album name. These are worked out using the Gracenotes CDDB lookup system, an online index of music. The list of tracks on the CD can be manipulated and transferred in the same way as other digital music – the ripping and converting of the music is done when you start the transfer with a drag and drop or one-click move.
Pictures
Media Manager also provides a simple interface to move your pictures from your W960 – and this is where the choice of a file based system, as opposed to one of music playlists helps. Because the directory system which is sometimes awkward for music proves to be perfect for transferring pictures from the phone into your PC’s file system; with the added bonus of clear thumbnails on both the PC and mobile side.
RSS and Podcasts
RSS also makes its first appearance in the PC client, and as far as I’m aware, it’s the first time RSS and Podcast ‘sync’ has appeared on a client side piece of software since iTunes. It’s very rough and ready – you’ll still need to manually transfer the files over from the PC to the W960, but you can set up your favourite feeds, either one at a time, or by importing an OPML list of your favourite RSS feeds.
You can toggle the settings to check for new podcasts, from 'every hour' up to 'once a day' – or you can leave it on manual update to grab files when you are in the mood.
Like the initial ethos of the application, this is the simplest way possible to bring podcasts into the W960 – there’s no podcast category on the W960, so you’ll have to find them as you would any other track. Hopefully this is going to be cured in later firmware updates.
Remember The Focus
Rafe’s pointed out that what Sony Ericsson have here is very similar to the Disc2Phone software that was bundled with the W950 – it relied on the folder metaphor as well, with a screen in the middle listing what was about to transfer, and then the contents of the device on the right – a simple three column layout that was easy to understand. So why did I love that and not get on so well with this?
I’m pretty sure it’s because of the targeting of the application. Disc2Phone was a simple, one-shot utility to facilitate getting your music onto the W950 – it was optimised for getting over folders of music. Music Manager (and the clue here is the word ‘manager’) adds in a lot more features (RSS, video and pictures, which we’ll look at next) and expands the scope of the application away from the tight focus of Disc2Phone. Yet this sprawl of functions isn’t matched by more features or options. It’s Sony Ericcson's way or the highway.
A key question has to be is how Media Manager is meant to be used – it’s based very heavily on the folder structure of music on your PC, so the target audience of young professionals is going to be familiar with all the options and will be able to get the best out of the application. It’s just a shame that the application's lofty goals don’t match up to its rather basic capabilities.
Summary
Much as the W960 frustrates me because it just misses being a good, solid, well thought out product, Media Manager does the same. In the lab it may be wonderful, but out in the real world its missing features and technical assumptions of knowledge stop it being anything more than cumbersome and functional. The point of any music managing software is NOT to show me how the hard drive is organised – it’s to make it quick and easy to get to my music, put what I want on the phone, and do it without getting me frustrated. As for part three, there's a lot of smaller music and media functions on the W960, and I'll be looking at them next.
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Sony Ericsson to bundle F-Secure Mobile Security on select smartphones
In a move that seems targeted towards the corporate customers who just can’t dig the idea that a smartphone could be a malware-free device if you use it properly, Sony Ericsson and F-Secure announced a partnership agreement to “deliver mobile security for UIQ.” Under the deal, the Swedish-Japanese handset maker will preload latest version (that’s 3.3 at the moment of this writing) of F-Secure Mobile Security on select smartphones. F-Secure’s solution combines an integrated antivirus and firewall, allowing the suits to sleep better.
Again, it’s worth repeating - nothing bad could happen to you if you’re using any of the latest Symbian-based smartphones — whether it’s Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola or Samsung. All you have to do is read carefully for the security warnings and hit “No” when in doubt. It’s that easy… Full release follows after the jump. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...]
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Boingo Wireless adds support for Sony Ericsson Symbian UIQ smartphones
In an effort to get more people to use their WiFi hotspots, Boingo Wireless has announced support for Sony Ericsson's Symbian UIQ 3 based smartphones. Using a dedicated application, owners of the Sony Ericsson P990i, P1i and W960i will now be able to access the Internet on their mobile phones using any hotspot from Boingo's network. Rates remain the same and are $7.95, €5.95 or £3.95 per month… For more information about Boingo Mobile check out their [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...].
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Fring for UIQ updated to include file-transfer support and language localization
Fring for Sony Ericsson's Symbian UIQ 3 powered smartphones has been updated. The version 3.30 brings several improvements:
File transfer - now you'll be able to send files to your fring and PC buddies (currently MSN only, but more will come shortly)
More languages - fring for UIQ is now available in English, French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Italian, Russian
Chat improvements - chat experience is now closer to PC chat sessions. Still haven't tried this, so I can't confirm it.
Privacy settings are also enhanced. You can choose to show or hide your signature on PC IM clients as well as control mood message and switch them on/off.
Finally, UIQ smartphone users can now change their fringtones.
As always, more information and download instructions are available from [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. Click Here To Register...].
UIQ news
One of the unique features of UIQ when you put it alongside other current Symbian devices is, of course, the touch screen support – and it’s always interesting to look at applications that take advantage of this. Because there’s no way that a simple and useful application like Scribbler would be even half as useful on S60 as it is on Sony Ericsson's UIQ smartphones. 
More cool applications have appeared for UIQ 3 users in the last couple of days. [Only Registered and Activated Users Can See Links. 
The W960, as a music device, has the bone of contention that all devices have, you need to get your music onto them. Sony Ericsson bundle their brand new Media Manger application with the W960 to deal with this, along with a number of other features that lift this out of the ‘utility’ pile into something… well, something that sits a little bit awkwardly at the side of the room.
In a move that seems targeted towards the corporate customers who just can’t dig the idea that a smartphone could be a malware-free device if you use it properly, Sony Ericsson and F-Secure announced a partnership agreement to “deliver mobile security for UIQ.” Under the deal, the Swedish-Japanese handset maker will preload latest version (that’s 3.3 at the moment of this writing) of F-Secure Mobile Security on select smartphones. F-Secure’s solution combines an integrated antivirus and firewall, allowing the suits to sleep better.
Fring for UIQ updated to include file-transfer support and language localization
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