Nokia N96 Game Review – Crimson Fields

Name: Crimson Fields,

Description: Turn based tactical war game,

Summary:I know gaming isn’t every one’s cup of tea and I can see why with most games available are all action games and fast paced button pressing ect.., but what happened to games like chess and space invaders. Crimson Fields is one these games for the more mature n96 users not for anyone looking for a quick game. The game is based on a war zone with a whole range of different units and with different terrains that and clever AI that will pose a formidable challenge. The game in a whole feels like it was ported from the PC because all the controls are done with a mouse that you control with the directional pad which is good sometimes and annoying other times. One of the big pluses with this game is the amount of game-play not only that but you can also play games with people over the Internet or because its turn based, over e-mail.

Overview: The game reacts with a bit of a stutter but normally sorts itself out after a bit of time and some times the screen has a bit of a fit when you rotate it but again it sorts itself out. Another thing I should say is how amazed I was with the AI and the amount of levels you get manly because this game is free. So I would check it out if I was you and for anyone who doesn’t really like this type of game I would suggest you try this game out and just play the tutorial and see what your think. Read more

Nokia N96 App Review – Nokia Step Counter

Name: Nokia Step Counter (beta) v0.25

Description: Counts your steps and gives corresponding statistics

Summary: This is a nice little application. It looks great and is easy to use. Like the title says, it counts your steps and breaks them down into the following statistics:

Energy (calories burnt)
Distance
Time
Amount of steps

The above are displayed in the first screen. You can then scroll up or down to the other 2 screens which are: A line graph that displays amount of steps on the vertical axis and the time they were recorded on the horizontal axis. And lastly, a bar chart that highlights the intensity of the steps and the time they were recorded.

If you run the step counter each day, your statistics are recorded in the diary calendar where you can view your information for each day the application was used. There is a progress option that summarises your total step count and your daily step count. It also displays stats of energy used and distance.

This application can be set to start at boot time if you wanted to record your steps every day and will run in the background. You can also set a step target and change how the stats are measured i.e. Metric, Imperial or Nautical.

Lastly, in the user menu, you can enter your age, gender, height, weight and step length. This information, I assume, will be used to calculate your energy (calorie) burning.

The whole thing works using the accelerometer. With your phone in your pocket, it will count the amount of steps you take by using the motion of your thigh. Clever stuff.

If you couldn’t give a stuff about calorie burning, exercise and health, then this application is not for you, but you could use it to measure distances you have walked or run if you felt the urge! It’s not something that I’ll have running everyday but it is an interesting application, especially for fitness people.

   

Rating: 8/10

Forum discussion:  Applications – Nokia Step Counter

Download: Nokia Step Counter

Enjoy!

Nokia N96 App Review – cClock

Name:  cClock v1.21

Description:  Power saver that displays the time and other selected information

Summary:  cClock is a popular application. Many people like to use their phones for the time, and cClock enables this without having to press any buttons. Once selected as the power saver, it will display the information you have selected as soon as it kicks in. There are tons of options to tweak the information displayed and then options to change the appearance of them, far too many to mention in fact, but include:

 Time, Date,  Battery,  Signal and Events.

Once you change an option you can preview it easily through ‘options’ which saves you having to wait for it to kick in to see what your change looks like. One option I do like is having the battery and signal displayed in percentage as opposed to bars.

Also included is a stop watch. Very simple to use if you ever need one. I will now be able to time my boiled eggs to perfection!

  

Rating:  7/10 Great idea, but I would like to see more fonts included. I wont be swapping this application for my Tag Heur though!

Forum discussion: Applications – cClock

Download:  cClock

Enjoy!

 

Nokia N96 App Review – Health Calculator

Name: Health Calculator v1.0

Description: Calculates BMI (Body Mass Index) & BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate)

Summary: Health is a big issue these days, and most people struggle to understand exactly how to lose weight or gain muscle. Now, I’m not about to write an article on how to do that, but this little application will give you a very basic idea about your current weight.

What it does is calculate 2 things for you. Firstly, it gives you your BMI (Body Mass Index) and secondly, your BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate). BMI is a calculation that uses your weight and height to determine if you are overweight. The BMI weight ranges, as set out by the World Health Organisation (WHO), are outlined below.

• If your BMI is less than 18.4, you’re underweight for your height.
• If your BMI is between 18.5 and 24.9, you’re an ideal weight for your height.
• If your BMI is between 25 and 29.9, you’re over the ideal weight for your height.
• If your BMI is between 30 and 39.9, you’re obese.
• If your BMI is over 40, you’re very obese.

The above information isn’t on the application which is a shame as the numbers you get might not mean much to people, although it will summarise and tell you if you are overweight etc.

You use energy no matter what you’re doing, even when sleeping, so the BMR calculator will calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR); the number of calories you would burn if you stayed in bed all day! You need to burn off the calories you take in to stay the same weight, burn more to lose weight or if you take in more than you burn off you will gain weight.

I’ve provided this information to complement the application so that the numbers you get will mean something. As a guide, men take in 2500 calories per day and women 2000.

If you weight train and have a muscular physique, then the BMI calculation is not going to be accurate because it can’t take muscle mass into consideration.  I’m going to use that as the basis for me being on the verge of overweight according to my results in the screenshots!  Muscle weighs more than fat.

You can use this for your own benefit or test it out on others to either encourage a healthier lifestyle or simply for taking the Mick!

Rating: 6/10. This calculation is nothing new and can be found all over the web, but it’s handy to have one on your phone! More information on the meanings of the calculations should be included in the application but at least I have explained it for you!

Forum discussion: Applications – Health Calculator

Download: Health Calculator

Enjoy!

Nokia N96 App Review- Total Recall

Name: Total recall

Description: Call Recorder

Summary: This is probably the easiest, most friendly conversation/extended recorder utility ever.

It doesn’t beep when it starts and will record for as long as you have memory, it can also send the recorded clip automatically to anyone via SMS or MMS. This application will auto-start but won’t really affect your phone’s performance, and all clips are cleverly made and easily sent to anywhere. However, make sure you change the settings before you start using it.

If you are thinking that you don’t need a call recorder, which is reasonable, you probably have never needed one. I’ll tell a little story about one: “Me, my girlfriend and mate of mine where going to this party now we are all a little drunk, and we are going to a place quite far away, anyway my mate calls a taxi and we all go there but when we arrive at this wrong place, and the taxi driver was going to leave but my friend had recoded the conversation, proving that we said the right place and he had taken us to the wrong place” and from then on I record any important call I make.

Overview: This app is a free ad-based version so you will have to view an ad when you receive a call but it’s free -  download here.

If you have any problem or issues with Total Recall then please feel free to leave a comment at the Applications forum!

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 – 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!

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