Nokia N96 App Review – Virtual Radio

Name: VirtualRadio (VRadio) v101(0)

Description: Web radio station player.

Summary: The N96 comes with a built-in web radio player that you can access via your music folder. I have always had problems getting it to stream over my O2 network.

Sometimes the buffering fails, sometimes it connects and plays, but it will always cut out after 30 seconds or so, even with a strong 3G signal. If I am lucky, it will come back on for around a minute and then disappear altogether.

I have tried many a station and always get the same results. However, when this application is used over Wi-Fi it is faultless. It connects very quickly and you can even add your favourite stations into it. When I try to connect to a station I have added via my network, I always get the error ‘unable to connect to station’.

So, when I came across Virtual Radio I thought I would give it a stab. The free version comes with a small amount of advertising, but that really isn’t an issue. The layout is very simple and consists of only 4 options:

• Play
• Stop
• Channel groups
• Channels

All the stations are pre-defined and unfortunately you can’t add your own, although the website does offer you the option to apply for it to be added. There are plenty of stations and genres to choose from, so finding something to suite your musical taste shouldn’t be a problem. According to the website, they have only chosen stations with a low bandwidth (32kbps) to optimise user experience. Unfortunately, anyone who knows about audio quality in kbps will know that 32 isn’t going to sound like BBC Radio 1, and it doesn’t! The quality of sound is reduced, but the streams are listenable and load fast.

Just when I thought I had found the answer to my web audio streaming, the same thing starts to happen as the built in streamer. The constant ‘cutting out’ every minute or so makes it unusable. Of course, there is always the possibility of sinister goings on at o2. They blatantly admit that streaming isn’t supported in their web packages due to their fair usage policy. But then again, YouTube streaming works fine so the jury is out on this one!

If it wasn’t for the interruptions in sound then I would use this application, even with the reduction in sound quality. As it stands, for me, it’s not usable. It would be useful for other N96 users to test this application and discuss their findings over at the forum here

Rating: 5/10 (because it cuts out for me). 7/10 If you can get it to work!

Download: VirtualRadio

Nokia N96 App Review – Google Maps

Name: Google Maps

Description: maps, world viewer, locator.

Summary: This is the fastest Google Maps application yet released. I personally love this application and find it very entertaining when you’re connected to the net, but this is basically Google Earth with a few new features.

It can also work as a GPS system which it connects to with either Wi-Fi or GPS. It can tell you everything from the number of your local shop, directions there your own location, your friends location and even traffic.

This is a free application but you have to get Google to send you a link to download here

Overall: I think that this is one of the best applications and it’s free…what more could you want?! I would also like to point out something called Latitude – Latitude will find the positions of your friends and family, so if you’re a concerned parent or just a jealous boyfriend, always know where your loved-ones are.

If you have any problem or anything else you want to add about Google Maps, please feel free to write a post about it in the forum.

Nokia N96 app review – Battery Manager

Name: Battery Manager

Description: Utility,Miscellaneous

Summary: These phones use so much power to take calls, display pictures, run games and play music – which is great when you’re at home or in the car, but what about when you’re out, do you want all these features to consume your battery when you really want a phone to make calls?

Well here’s an application to help: battery manager will turn on when our phone reaches a certain battery level. This gives you an extra hour or two to make calls listen to music and just keep in contact with others. It’s such a pain if your phone turns off when you’re not done with it, why not just have an application to reduce the consumption on your phone?

You can set it to nearly all basic Profiles at any Battery State, you also can have multiple actions, like switch off Bluetooth at a certain time, and change Profile at another. To change the alarm just change “C:\Battery-Manager\alert.wav” with any sound you want to.

This application is free but it is quite complicated to install, check this installation note:

Installation Notes:
Before installing Battery Manager, install “xprofile_3rd_110_unsigned.SIS” & “blues_3rd_1_0_0_unsigned.SIS” to your phone memory, both attached in this Download! Then install “BatteryManager_v1_5_0_unsigned.sis” also to your phone memory.

Overall: This is a great application installation mite be a bit long but I’m sure that one day your phone will turn off and you’ll just wish had this application better safe than sorry.

Download Here

Nokia N96 Game Review – Marble Maze

Title: Marble Maze v1.170(2) by Cahoona Games

Objective: Marble Maze is a Labyrinth game which uses the built in accelerometer to guide your ball to the target. Yet again, it was unplayable on the N96 before now because of the new coding present in its accelerometer. This has been a serious downfall with the N96. We have all had to wait very patiently for the games and applications using the accelerometer to be re-written, but they are coming… Slowly!

Summary: I had played this on a friends iPhone ages ago and thought it was impressive, so I was very glad to hear that a version for the N96 was now released. It’s a simple game and that’s just the way I like them! I’m not much of a gamer and being very ‘old skool’ I like my games with only one way to go and not with a thousand different options to confuse the hell out me!

It’s highly addictive and can be very frustrating if you find yourself being stuck on a particular level. All you need to do is navigate your ball around the maze by tilting your phone, avoiding the holes, and get it to the chequered flag. The game then moves to the next level and as you progress, the levels get increasingly harder. The time taken to complete each level is recorded, so there is also the option of trying to do it in the quickest time possible.

Read more

Solution to slowness in the Nokia N96

Here is one of the possible solutions for the slowness some of you are getting in the Nokia N96 device. Simply follow the steps shown by dmgamer3 in the N96 Forum:

Go to Menu > Tools > Setting > general > Personalization > Themes > general > Option >theme effects > off

Following all this steps you will get your Nokia N96 really much more faster. Do you know other things you can do to make N96 faster? Post them here!

Nokia N96 app review – DivX Mobile Player

Name: DivX Mobile Player

Description: video player

Summary: The DivX Mobile Player has been around for a while now yet it is still one of the best movie players out. The key to this applications success is in the name “DivX”, as you probably know this is a very popular digital video format.

DivX is also very good quality and able to compress the file without much loss of quality. Since size doesn’t matter to us when we have 16GB laying around to play,  it also supports AVI and MPEG which in my case would be the majority of  video formats that I would work with it.

This application is very simple to use and it will automatically scan your phone for compatible videos. Many will argue that it doesn’t support that many formats but I think that they are missing the point of this application. The point is to watch movies which were designed for not all little recorded clips and received videos so why support them.

DivX Player’s party piece is that its able to organize your media by sorting files by name, file size and duration. There are loads of settings to mess around with, like the brightness, contrast, color saturation, and it allows you to play around with the soundtracks.

Overall: Well, personally I love it, it’s always one of the first applications I install. If you’re still not convinced, then how about this: It’s free, so give it ago!

Rating: 9/10

Nokia N96 App Review – ShakeSMS

Name: ShakeSMS v1.04

Description: Enables you to view a new text message by simply shaking your device, as opposed to pressing buttons.

Summary: ShakeSMS is another in the series of applications being made compatible for the N96 and other newer devices.

Its purpose is simple and effective, making it even quicker to view an incoming text message. Simply shaking the phone will unlock it and open the message. Another shake and the phone will go back to the previous screen and lock again.

Once you have read your message you can also set the application to reply or delete a message by tilting it in the selected direction. You can also set it to do nothing if you so wish.

Here are some of the options available:

• Sensitivity
• Shake-New SMS (view SMS & Unlock or View SMS only)
• Screen Left, Right, Forward & Back gives you the choice of – Reply SMS, Back & Lock, Delete SMS, SMS list, Do Nothing
• Autostart (Yes, No & Hide)

Quite a nifty application but I wouldn’t say it is a must-have.

ShakeSMS is freeware but does require signing.

Rating: 7/10

Download: ShakeSMS v1.04

Enjoy!

Nokia N96 App Review – FlipSilent

Name: FlipSilent v1.06

Description: Turns incoming sounds silent by turning the phone on its face.

Summary: Slowly, these older accelerometer-based applications are having their codes re-written for compatibility with the the new S60 sensor framework which is present in newer devices such as the N96.

FlipSilent is a popular application that mutes ring tones and alarms on your phone by simply turning it on its face.  There is no need to press any buttons or use the slider to make this work, simply turning it on its face will mute the ring tone or alarm. When you turn it back over, the previous profile will be returned, or not, depending on your set-up.

There are various settings to get it running for your preference, including:

• FlipOver-Profile (changes your profile to the selected once flipped)
• FlipOver-Call (either mutes or hangs up the call once flipped)
• FlipOver-Alarm (turns the alarm to snooze or stops it)
• FlipBack-Profile (selects the required profile once the phone is turned back over)
• AutoStart (important feature of selecting whether or not to have the application start automatically when the phone is booted up)

If you decide to have this on all the time you need to make sure you never place your phone face down or have it face down on your thigh in your pocket when sitting at your desk!  If you do, you will not hear any incoming calls or alarms!

FlipSilent is freeware but does require signing.

Rating: 8/10 – Very handy

Download: FlipSilent v1.06

Enjoy!

Nokia N96 App Review – Light Control

Name: Light Control v1.30

Description: Controls device keypad, screen and LED lights

Summary: Light Control does exactly what it says on the tin, controls lights!   Designed for saving power and helping you find things in the dark!

I consider this a very handy application that allows you to control every aspect of your devices illuminations. The main functions include:

• Primary screen on & off
• Brightness
• Primary keyboard lights on & off
• Secondary keyboard lights on & off
• Light timeout
• Flashlight

I use this application frequently but mainly for the flashlight. The other functions are purely for power saving. The flashlight has 3 options:

• Use flash lamp (switches on the duel LED lights of the N96 to make a powerful torch)
• Switch on (turns the main screen into pure white light)
• SOS (gives an SOS signal using the main screen!)

Whilst this application comes highly recommended there are some improvements that could be made. Mainly, I would like to see a shortcut for accessing the flashlight. As it stands you have to launch the application, got to options, scroll to flashlight then select one of the 3 options.

The application must be running in the background for it to take effect and requires you to start it up when needed.  Light control is free but does require signing.

Rating: 8/10

Download Light Control v 1.33

Enjoy!

Nokia N96 App: Mobile Antivirus

We all have anti virus software for our computers, but what about our phones?

Mobile Internet has taken off with the advent of Wi-Fi, but are phones at risk to all PC viruses? Well, the short answer is that phones are at risk, as phones contain lot’s of sensitive information, and “hackers” are always trying to get this information.

So what can we do? Well, first while online try avoiding unfamiliar links and emails, but you’re never going to be completely safe unless you install anti-virus software. Some PC anti-virus software have mobile counterparts and I tested the highest rated one – Kaspersky Anti-Virus – and the lowest rated one – NetQin Anti-virus for S60 – to see how they compare.

Both worked fine and happily they found no viruses, and were quick and easy to use, however, Kasrpersky seemed more secure, and I guess the biggest difference is that NetQin won’t connect using Wi-Fi, which Kasrpersky can.

Cost wise there’s quite a difference between them:

Kaspersky costs £14.00 here;

Whereas Netqin is free

Overall, I’m sure both these application work against viruses the same, but if security is needed then i would recommend Kaspersky mobile security.

If you are looking just to keep peace of mind, get NetQin.

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