Today, there was a post on JKonTheRun about a product named FoneLink. This is supposed to be a better piece of software for syncing information between a Mac and a Symbian S60 based phone.
As I have both a Mac (actually, a couple of them) and the Nokia E61i, I wanted to give it a run. I grabed the demo version at the webpage. Installation was OSX-smooth as usual, and then I launched the application. And, man, this was a smooth experience. It quickly figured out which was the relevant phone among my bluetooth connections, and started collecting information after my confirmation that this was the right device to collect from. It went stright away making a backup of all the information in the phone, but it is also possible to put the backup procedure into the background to perform other tasks at the same time.
I just mess around in the application for a while. This works really smooth, and seems to be so much nicer than the iSync. If I can get this to sync my Mac and the Phone regularly whenever those are close to each other bluetooth-wise, I think this is a keeper.
For those who like to know such things - the notes in events and todos does not seems to be synced over to the phone with this application either. Have to look more carefully into that (and have not got around to test papyrus yet, as suggested in comments here).
This was just a short notice, I have to go to bed now. More on FoneLink if I buy it!
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Notes on Nokia E61i
A few weeks ago I switched smartphone. The last 6 months I have used the HTC TyTN on a daily basis, and was satisfied with the hardware although I of course have a hard time with the operating system. As I already have written up something on the HTC, I don't want to go into any detail on that. But as you already know, I switched to the Nokia E61i, running the 3rd generation of the S60 system - a old and well proven operating system, but still new to me.
Let us start with the conclusions! The e61i is a solid phone, with a solid operating system. So far I have had to reboot the phone just a couple of times to fix problems with some applications, but not by taking out the battery as I had to do each other day with the TyTN; only third-party applications was locked up and the phone was still functional. So reboot have only been a convenience thing. Other things on the positive side is good messaging functionality, easy access to, and well-functioning wifi system, and great selection of software due to the S60 system. So all in all I am satisfied, and will probably keep it for a while. But read on, there are quite a few things on the negative side as well. For instance, the camera is totally crap.
In the past I have used Windows mobile 5, Sony Ericssons Symbian/UIQ (P800i and M600i), as well as the more regular Sony Ericsson system. While these systems are quite different, the Symbian S60 can be compared to the first two. It is obvious that the S60 have been around for a while, with a lot more bugs nailed out. It feels more solid. Maybe not super-fast all the time, but it does the job. On the negative side, though, there are often too many steps to go through to complete an action. If I want to send an SMS, for instance, I have to go through 5 steps (depending on how you count) on the S60, while on the Sony Ericsson UIQ there are only about 3 steps if you want to send to someone you send to regularly. I haven't done a scientific comparison as I should as a researcher, but in general I feel I have to use more time to perform the same action on the S60 compared to the other two.
On the positive side, you can't get past the large selection of software available for the S60. Maybe comparable to WM5, and far more than what's available for the UIQ. The putty ssh-client is very usable. I also use Fring for Skype/MSN/GTalk and the Gmail application. All work very well. Also, S60 is generally better supported when it comes to sync/desktop access than the other two. While the situation in general is good for all the systems if you use Windows on your computer, the S60 is far better if you are either a linux or osx user like me.
The E61i is light, and it is slim. While the form factor is a bit unusual, it is easy to carry around either in a shirt pocket or in your jacket. I even stick it in the back of my jeans if I have to. But generally I carry it in a Krusell pouch with a belt-clip. As the weight is so low, I hardly recognize it's there.
The display is very good. It's bright in almost any light condition and have better colors than I have had on any phone in the past (and as you know, I have tested quite a few...). While the resolution is not extremely high considering the size of the screen, I have find it to be sufficient for all my needs.
When it comes to the keys, I have to say they are good. The feedback is nice - when I type messages I rarely mistype. As there are many keys on the phone, there are also room for a few shortcuts which helps out with problem I have with to many steps to perform certain actions in the S60 system. But, there is a big downside for me here. It is not comfortable typing on the phone. While the phone is wide for a phone, it is still to small to hold and thumbtype comfortable with my not so very big hands. The TyTN have the keyboard as a slide-out in "landscape" orientation. Hence the keyboard is wider, and much more comfortable. My hands starts aching even when I type moderate sized emails on the E61i, so I rarly do that. Still, if I have to type a message, the system is very capable, and works all the time. So compared to the other smartphones I have used, I have to rate this above them.
I will make the story on the camera supplied in this phone very short. Nokia had some left overs on the shelf. They put it into the E61i. Period. It's too crappy. To be honest, though, I am not sure whether it is the camera it self, or the totally crappy, horrible post processing done in the phone after a picture is captured. It seems that they sharpen every image beyond any reasonable imagination, and bump the saturation as well. Does not look good at all.
The Nokia E61i is equipped with Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G/UMTS, Edge, gprs. A lot of connectivity. From time to time I am not sure which one of these is being used. Probably this is just some details in the S60 symbian system I have to figure out. An example: I open the E-mail application, and connect to my IMAP account on wireless lan in my house. I leave this running in the background, and open the webbrowser to check something. In this case I have recognized that the webbrowser from time to time use either the UMTS or the Edge connection instead of the wifi, althought wifi is already connected. I can not explain what is going on, and whether the fault is mine or Nokias. Maybe I am even mistaken... At least, there are things to be sorted out here.
The conclusion was already given above, so I stop here.
In other news, I have start looking for a replacement for my Fujitsu Siemens P1510 (which I write this on). I am looking at either the oqo O2, or some of the newer UMPCs. Fujitsu Siemens is also out with a small thingy. But I'm not in a hurry on this.
Also, I will travel to WWDC'07 and then USENIX'07 (in San Francisco and Santa Clara, respectively) in mid-june. If someone want to meet up and discuss Qtpfsgui on Mac, small devices, have a flickr-meetup, or something else - please drop me a comment!
Take care.
Let us start with the conclusions! The e61i is a solid phone, with a solid operating system. So far I have had to reboot the phone just a couple of times to fix problems with some applications, but not by taking out the battery as I had to do each other day with the TyTN; only third-party applications was locked up and the phone was still functional. So reboot have only been a convenience thing. Other things on the positive side is good messaging functionality, easy access to, and well-functioning wifi system, and great selection of software due to the S60 system. So all in all I am satisfied, and will probably keep it for a while. But read on, there are quite a few things on the negative side as well. For instance, the camera is totally crap.
The S60 system
In the past I have used Windows mobile 5, Sony Ericssons Symbian/UIQ (P800i and M600i), as well as the more regular Sony Ericsson system. While these systems are quite different, the Symbian S60 can be compared to the first two. It is obvious that the S60 have been around for a while, with a lot more bugs nailed out. It feels more solid. Maybe not super-fast all the time, but it does the job. On the negative side, though, there are often too many steps to go through to complete an action. If I want to send an SMS, for instance, I have to go through 5 steps (depending on how you count) on the S60, while on the Sony Ericsson UIQ there are only about 3 steps if you want to send to someone you send to regularly. I haven't done a scientific comparison as I should as a researcher, but in general I feel I have to use more time to perform the same action on the S60 compared to the other two.
On the positive side, you can't get past the large selection of software available for the S60. Maybe comparable to WM5, and far more than what's available for the UIQ. The putty ssh-client is very usable. I also use Fring for Skype/MSN/GTalk and the Gmail application. All work very well. Also, S60 is generally better supported when it comes to sync/desktop access than the other two. While the situation in general is good for all the systems if you use Windows on your computer, the S60 is far better if you are either a linux or osx user like me.
The E61i hardware
The E61i is light, and it is slim. While the form factor is a bit unusual, it is easy to carry around either in a shirt pocket or in your jacket. I even stick it in the back of my jeans if I have to. But generally I carry it in a Krusell pouch with a belt-clip. As the weight is so low, I hardly recognize it's there.
The display is very good. It's bright in almost any light condition and have better colors than I have had on any phone in the past (and as you know, I have tested quite a few...). While the resolution is not extremely high considering the size of the screen, I have find it to be sufficient for all my needs.
When it comes to the keys, I have to say they are good. The feedback is nice - when I type messages I rarely mistype. As there are many keys on the phone, there are also room for a few shortcuts which helps out with problem I have with to many steps to perform certain actions in the S60 system. But, there is a big downside for me here. It is not comfortable typing on the phone. While the phone is wide for a phone, it is still to small to hold and thumbtype comfortable with my not so very big hands. The TyTN have the keyboard as a slide-out in "landscape" orientation. Hence the keyboard is wider, and much more comfortable. My hands starts aching even when I type moderate sized emails on the E61i, so I rarly do that. Still, if I have to type a message, the system is very capable, and works all the time. So compared to the other smartphones I have used, I have to rate this above them.
I will make the story on the camera supplied in this phone very short. Nokia had some left overs on the shelf. They put it into the E61i. Period. It's too crappy. To be honest, though, I am not sure whether it is the camera it self, or the totally crappy, horrible post processing done in the phone after a picture is captured. It seems that they sharpen every image beyond any reasonable imagination, and bump the saturation as well. Does not look good at all.
Other thoughts
The Nokia E61i is equipped with Wifi, Bluetooth, 3G/UMTS, Edge, gprs. A lot of connectivity. From time to time I am not sure which one of these is being used. Probably this is just some details in the S60 symbian system I have to figure out. An example: I open the E-mail application, and connect to my IMAP account on wireless lan in my house. I leave this running in the background, and open the webbrowser to check something. In this case I have recognized that the webbrowser from time to time use either the UMTS or the Edge connection instead of the wifi, althought wifi is already connected. I can not explain what is going on, and whether the fault is mine or Nokias. Maybe I am even mistaken... At least, there are things to be sorted out here.
The conclusion was already given above, so I stop here.
In other news, I have start looking for a replacement for my Fujitsu Siemens P1510 (which I write this on). I am looking at either the oqo O2, or some of the newer UMPCs. Fujitsu Siemens is also out with a small thingy. But I'm not in a hurry on this.
Also, I will travel to WWDC'07 and then USENIX'07 (in San Francisco and Santa Clara, respectively) in mid-june. If someone want to meet up and discuss Qtpfsgui on Mac, small devices, have a flickr-meetup, or something else - please drop me a comment!
Take care.
Sunday, May 20, 2007
New version of qtpfsgui!
Hi folks, it's been a while. I haven't had to much intersting to blog about lately. I have been busy doing other things instead, like cutting down trees in my garden, compiling software, chopping trees, fixing brakes on my car, more garden stuff, on so on... Anyway:
The 1.8.8 version of qtpfsgui for Mac is out, and I have compiled a version for Mac tonight. You get it in the regular place, our at sourceforge. New with this version on OSX is that the Documentation from the Help menu in the program should work, even if you put the application bundle somewhere else than in /Applications. Giuseppe is also working on internationalization, and I have tried to get this to work on OSX as well. How sucessfully that attempt is remains to be seen. I work on Norwegian translation, by the way, but that is far from finialized.
The last few releases, I have created a package which includes the necessary Qt libs. I have not got any feedback on this, and I really do not know if it is of any use to anybody. I can continue preparing that kind of image, but I don't see the point spending that extra time if no one use it. So, the release I have created this time requires that you already have Qt installed, or that you head our to Trolltech, and grab the Qt libs there. If you want me to continue creating the image with qtpfsgui and Qt bundled, please tell me to do so!
Please, go to sourceforge and grab the new qtpfsgui!
Take care!
The 1.8.8 version of qtpfsgui for Mac is out, and I have compiled a version for Mac tonight. You get it in the regular place, our at sourceforge. New with this version on OSX is that the Documentation from the Help menu in the program should work, even if you put the application bundle somewhere else than in /Applications. Giuseppe is also working on internationalization, and I have tried to get this to work on OSX as well. How sucessfully that attempt is remains to be seen. I work on Norwegian translation, by the way, but that is far from finialized.
The last few releases, I have created a package which includes the necessary Qt libs. I have not got any feedback on this, and I really do not know if it is of any use to anybody. I can continue preparing that kind of image, but I don't see the point spending that extra time if no one use it. So, the release I have created this time requires that you already have Qt installed, or that you head our to Trolltech, and grab the Qt libs there. If you want me to continue creating the image with qtpfsgui and Qt bundled, please tell me to do so!
Please, go to sourceforge and grab the new qtpfsgui!
Take care!
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
Nice to know - MacOSX
The print subsytem on MacOSX is simply CUPS!
For a long time I have had one simply, but nagging issue with my Mac computers - printing from the command line. But it hasn't bothered my enough to actually solve the problem. Today, however, one of our Mac converts (or at least wannabies) entered my office with the intention of insulting the Mac. He started like "I want to run acroread from the command line," remember, his background is Linux. No problem I said, you just use open -a AdobeReader.app. No, no, he goes, I just want to process some PDFs into postscript. Why do you want to do that - the Mac handle pdf quite well? And the reason was that, because we didn't knew how to print from the command line, he send jobs to printers through a Linux server. And the Linux server needs postscript.
Aha, great opportunity to solve the cli printing issue. Now, I know of course that lpr is available. Problem is, though, that if I use that from the commandline, I don't know what the names of the printers are supposed to be - the argument to the -P option. And by default, the printing system thinks everything should go to the printer in Letter format, which does not work very well with our European printers. They want A4. And I know how to change paper size to A4 in the GUI, but this will not be the default anyway. At least not when you print with lpr from the command line, should you be lucky enough to hit the right printer.
I have heard some whispering about the print subsystem just beeing cups in the past. So I just gave it a shoot, typing in http://localhost:631 in my browser. And I just goes wow, wow, wow. Because what I see is just the regular, no-frills, cups admin system. With all the printers listed. And selecting "configure printer", I have the option of changing default paper size. I can even see the names of the printer queues. So, selecting one I like to use, changing the paper size, and then try out lpr -Pprinter file.pdf, and run off to the printer. And what do I see? The file.pdf appears as it should, on A4 paper and everything is just fine.
After clicking around in the cups admin system for a few more minutes, I had the printer I like to use most set as default and the paper size set to A4 for the most important once. I also figured out that I can do a grep on the file /etc/cups/printers.conf to get the list of available printers. Looking at the names, it is quite easy to figure out the mapping from printer to queue name. The grep commando I use is this one:
Hope this of some interest to someone out there in the void!
Take care,
For a long time I have had one simply, but nagging issue with my Mac computers - printing from the command line. But it hasn't bothered my enough to actually solve the problem. Today, however, one of our Mac converts (or at least wannabies) entered my office with the intention of insulting the Mac. He started like "I want to run acroread from the command line," remember, his background is Linux. No problem I said, you just use open -a AdobeReader.app. No, no, he goes, I just want to process some PDFs into postscript. Why do you want to do that - the Mac handle pdf quite well? And the reason was that, because we didn't knew how to print from the command line, he send jobs to printers through a Linux server. And the Linux server needs postscript.
Aha, great opportunity to solve the cli printing issue. Now, I know of course that lpr is available. Problem is, though, that if I use that from the commandline, I don't know what the names of the printers are supposed to be - the argument to the -P option. And by default, the printing system thinks everything should go to the printer in Letter format, which does not work very well with our European printers. They want A4. And I know how to change paper size to A4 in the GUI, but this will not be the default anyway. At least not when you print with lpr from the command line, should you be lucky enough to hit the right printer.
I have heard some whispering about the print subsystem just beeing cups in the past. So I just gave it a shoot, typing in http://localhost:631 in my browser. And I just goes wow, wow, wow. Because what I see is just the regular, no-frills, cups admin system. With all the printers listed. And selecting "configure printer", I have the option of changing default paper size. I can even see the names of the printer queues. So, selecting one I like to use, changing the paper size, and then try out lpr -Pprinter file.pdf, and run off to the printer. And what do I see? The file.pdf appears as it should, on A4 paper and everything is just fine.
After clicking around in the cups admin system for a few more minutes, I had the printer I like to use most set as default and the paper size set to A4 for the most important once. I also figured out that I can do a grep on the file /etc/cups/printers.conf to get the list of available printers. Looking at the names, it is quite easy to figure out the mapping from printer to queue name. The grep commando I use is this one:
sudo grep "<Printer" /etc/cups/printers.conf | awk "{print \$2}" | sed "s/>$//"
Hope this of some interest to someone out there in the void!
Take care,
Monday, May 07, 2007
Qtpfsgui 1.8.7
I have uploaded a couple of new dmg's of qtpfsgui, v. 1.8.7, to sourceforge now. The one named qtpfsgui.1.8.7.dmg contains only the program itself with core libraries. For this to work, you need to install Qt4 from trolltech. The other version, qtpfsgui.1.8.7.qt.dmg, has Qt4 bundled in, but unfortunately I am not sure how well it works. Feedback is welcome!
Take care, and have fun!
Take care, and have fun!
Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Qtpfsgui 1.8.5 with Qt bundled
Seems like there might be a problem with the qtpfsgui image that have Qt libs bundled in. When using the version without Qt bundled, and a full Qt installed, everything works fine. Using the other version (on another Mac without Qt installed globally) everything works fine until I try to save the tonemapped image. Which does not work.
So, for now, go to trolltech and get the full Qt (Get it here!), and use the qtpfsgui 1.8.5 without Qt.
I report back when I have fixed the problem!
So, for now, go to trolltech and get the full Qt (Get it here!), and use the qtpfsgui 1.8.5 without Qt.
I report back when I have fixed the problem!
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