Nokia N96 App Review – Symella

Name: Symella,

Description: Mobile Peer to Peer (p2p),

Summary: The nokia N96 is known as a quite good multimedia phone but one thing that I’m sure people are looking for is a way to download music or other Media for free. Symella is an application that taps into the Gnetella client which is the same one that Limewire uses so you can find nearly anything you want. Symella has been around for a while but it was designed for S60 v2 so it didn’t work that well but now that its been updated it works like a charm. I saw many people complain about the connection but it was fine for me. The search was good and it shows you the results with the highest number of peers first which makes it very easy. The only problem I have with this application is that the connection speed on phone isn’t great and the download speed from p2p aren’t fast so you could spend a good while download a 5 MB item.

Overview: Now p2p is an illegal way to distribute music so I can’t advise you to use Symella for that but it does have its legal use and for that its quite good. In a nut shell Symella works but it does take its time to download anything, if your the kind of person that’s worried about viruses in p2p then there’s no need to worry because there is still no known viruses to symbian. Symella is free and so far looks to be very popular. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – ActiveFile

Name: ActiveFile,

Description: File Manager,

Summary: There are many File Manager for the nokia N96 and recently all the file managers look and do the same thing with the odd difference. ActiveFile is nothing new and to the untrained eye it looks like any other file manager but looks are far from the truth. ActiveFile has all the basics like file viewer, task manager, prosesses, search and sort settings ect.., the list goes on and on but whats really impressive is the amount of different abilities which make this the most versitial file manager. Features that are really help such as a screenshot, fake sms and even battery information that really show that every effort has been made to pack in abilities and you can really see the developer tried his best and came out with a seriously good application and all creadit goes to him.

Overview: First as far as “homemade” applicationd go this has had the most thought and development, I just havn’t seen an application with this amout of ablities ever. Another thing is the developer put in alot of time but still the application is free so its surely the best file manager yet and is perfect for sorting out any files even if you don’t think your phone can read it. I should say there is 3 differnt versions that set the amount of options you get and I’m using the full one because I don’t think theres a point in geting less options so thats the one in the download link. Read more

Nokia N96 Theme Review – Nubes

Name: Nubes

Creator: NaHiD

Summary: As another Sunday comes and goes its time once again for a theme and this time it’s a theme created by a less known creator NaHiD. Nubes is a totally different style of theme, most themes try to be clean and clear but as you can see Nubes is a very out of focus. Nubes which makes the phone quite strange to look at, it’s hard to make up my mind I have lots of mixed feelings about it but I think after a while it will get quite boring. However Nubes has a great redeeming feature and that is its icons which are great and I have never seen icons with this amount of detail. With all considered I think Nubes is a good theme it may not be to everyone’s taste but you still should check it out.

Overview: From the icons alone I think this theme is worth it or you could take them out and use them on a different theme but I don’t like to do that. The whole time I was using this theme I couldn’t help but think NaHiD knew what they where doing so my guess is that in the future they will come up with some really good themes. Of course Nubes is free and you can download either with the icons or with out but you would have to be crazy to want it with out so I won’t put in the link for it. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – Phoneguard

Name: Phoneguard,

Description: Security Manager,

Summary: With the increase of identity theft and other types of theft that’s going on it is becoming more and more important to have some sort of security in place. Another thing that is of concern is with nokia wanting your credit card info so you can download apps directly to your phone but I think that’s just adding to the chances of someone wanting to steal your phone. Phoneguard is an a very powerful application that adds a single password to any sensitive information. Also it has the ability to track your phone via GPS and if it is unreachable you can send an sms to complete wipe the information. Phoneguard has many customisable options so you can get the best use out of it, and if any tries to change the Sim it will lock the phone automatically.

Overview: There are loads of applications that prey on peoples desire for security so they can charge loads for a simple application, so normally I wouldn’t post it but I found a public beta that does all the same. You can see the level of designing is very high but its no way near the cost of the full thing. I have done a bit of checks to find out if it really is a public beta and all my sourses say it is but I still had problems finding a download link so I hope the one I provide is ok. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – Tracker

Name: Tracker,

Description: Desktop Application,

Summary: There are many applications that are designed to make your nokia N96 work like a computer, and some of them work really well making the phone easier and quicker. Tracker is another application that tries  make everything from your call log to all your applications in one handy place. There are no features in Tracker that are new but that doesn’t mean its useless, what tracker can do as well is show you what applications are running through a task manager. Tracker has quite a lot of features that are exactly what you want and where you want it. The only real feature that Tracker doesn’t have is the ability to control your settings but you can’t expect any application to do that.

Overview: In fairness Tracker is everything you want from this type of application and with the amount of shortcuts you can create. The only thing about Tracker is that all these applications are not your menu and in day to day life you will come across features that you just can’t use. Another thing this application isn’t free in fact its $11.99 which is a lot for something this uncreative, but there is a 15 day trial which is good enough to see how you like it. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – Smartlight

Name: Smartlight

Description: Backlight Manager,

Summary: With our nokia N96 I am slowly coming across actions that you can’t customise or can’t customise in the way you want. The only way to fix these is to go though them one at a time and today I’m dealing with the stupidity of the back-light. Smartlight is an application designed control your back-light but it does it in a very smart way, what Smartlight does is keep you back-light on as long as you are using an application but when you exit it goes back to the phones normal setting. The beauty of this application is that it is very small and runs it the background to its completely out of mind letting it do its job perfectly. One trick the creators miss out on is implementing an auto-start function which just adds a bit of hassle, but only a bit.

Overview: In theory this application is going to drain your battery but there is a little trick and that is turning the back-light display down to 5 seconds. So when ever you finish using an application the back-light turns off very quickly but when your using an application it will stay on forever. I like Smartlight, I find it annoying when my back light goes off while I’m doing something and Smartlight just takes all that way. Now Smartlight isn’t free but it’s not expensive only $8 or 5 euro but it has a trial that seems unlimited so that’s is a good one to download. ( sorry about the lack of screenshots but it’s hard to take a pic of a light going on and off) Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – Loudspeaker

Name: Loudspeaker,

Description: Hands Free Call Manager

Summary: In most countries talking on your nokia N96 while driving is illegal unless you are talking using hands-free. With most hands-free kits you normally need some bluetooth headset but that’s just another annoyance, this is where Loudspeaker steps in. Loudspeaker will automatically answer your nokia N96 after a set amount of time and depending on what profile you are on. There are custom sounds that you can apply for both starting a call and ending a call. Loudspeaker is designed so that it will answer only while your driving with out the use of any extra hardware. If you combine Loudspeaker with best Profiles you will end up with a very usable application, but I’m a bit stunned that Loudspeaker doesn’t implement something like it anyway.

Overview: Loudspeaker is an application that can only make something easy a bit easier and charges $9.99  to do it. If this application could turn its self on and off when your in a car then it would be great but to make it possible you will need to buy two application, it’s silly. I find this application pretty useless but others mite find it more suited to them but I can’t see the point. I really tried to find something good about this application but I can’t find anything worth while at all. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – Handwave

Name: Handwave,

Description: Touchless Interface,

Summary: By now Handwave should be quite well known since its been out about as long as the nokia N96 but it wasn’t compatible with the FP2 camera framework. Handwave has now been updated to beta 2 which means that now it will work with the nokia N96. Handwave uses your secondary camera to detect movement and depending if you move from left to right or right to left it controls your arrow keys. Handwave is still a beta so you will have to adjust the sensitivity and zoom to find the best setting. Its has very limited functionality but with the right setup you can have a lot of fun with your friends. As far as creators go this is made by probably the greatest freelance creators Samir who first created applications like Nokmote, Xdancer and a few others and he has a application called shake me and more coming soon which look good.

Overview: I bought handwave for my old N95 so I didn’t feel the need to bother going to him to download it for my N96 incase there was a problem and I had to donate again. I’m rather happy I didn’t pay because the directions don’t go left and right they go up and down which doesn’t help that much, but if you change you menu shortcuts so they run certain applications it has the same functionality. The really big thing that’s missing from the application is the ability to select which defeats the purpose of this application. If you do what this unique application you will have to donate money, not much just what you think the application is worth. I bet given a bit of time this will be a must have application but in the mean time there promises to be a few more interface control applications that look good. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – NetworkAcc

Name: NetworkAcc

Description: Network Connections Accelerator

Summary: With the new OVI store controlling all the applications that we download for the nokia N96 with the stupid “download from device only” setup it seems clever to have a way of improving your download speed. NetworkAcc is an application created by the same people who created Memory-Up to speed up download speed. NetworkAcc is a very professional application giving you the power to improve the network speed of any connection from any carriers, and on some speed tests it did have a slight improvement but it was very variable. The thing that is a real worry is that there is no trial and it cost $9.99 so its a tough call whether to buy, maybe if you wait for a week or two they will come out with a trial.

Overview: I was only able to try this because my friend has it on his phone, so I hope you’ll forgive me for using another sites screenshots. However when I used it I could feel it being faster at loading pages but I don’t think I will ever buy this application, so waiting for a trial that’s hopefully coming. Otherwise I don’t have any complaints and it covers more connection types than I thought it could. Read more

Nokia N96 Theme Review – Insomnia

Name: Insomnia

Creator: Xavier

Summary: As it’s a Sunday my theme this week is Xavier’s latest theme Insomnia. Simplicity is a key in good themes, too plain it becomes bland and too busy it becomes very messy and unclear. Insomnia had a great mix both plain and simple with quite vibrant colour. The icons are nice and add a lot to the colour to the whole feel of the theme. If I had a gun to my head the only thing I would complain about is the background when you are writing a text. Even that isn’t any real problem, Insomnia is an awesome theme and is really lively and makes your nokia N96 look like it has much more depth.

Overview: I know most of my themes are from the same creators and I was looking for another creator but then t came down to it the was just no better theme. As all of our themes Insomnia is free so its always worth a check and if you don’t like the icons then you can install that version which is in the downloaded folder. In the end of the day this is a really nice theme and one of the most flawless. Read more

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