Nokia N96 App Review – Nokia Multiscanner

Name: Nokia Multi-scanner

Description: Text scanner

Summary: I have known this nokia application has been out for a while but I just thought it was more of a code reader like the one pre-installed on the N96. Nokia Multiscanner is a great analogue to digital converter and what it converts is text to well digital text i.e typed text. On its own it seems like it would only be useful to people who have to remember text or if you want to use text to send to someone. However if you take a step back and look there is so many little things you can do with Nokia Multiscanner, for one you could copy a book and get your phone to play it back or lets say you keep an address or even if you want to copy a wifi code from the bottom of the router. These are just a few ideas the potential is unlimited.

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Nokia N96 Game Review – FB Twisted

Name: Frozen Bubble Twisted beta 2

Description: Colour matching game

Summary: Most symbian users have heard of Samir but with the new firmware in the n96 all of his previous applications don’t work for us. However that is starting to change FB twisted is a very simple game based on combining 3 bubbles of the same colour, but in stead of pressing left to right all you have to do is twist the phone left and right. The game also has a few other new little features like the more bubbles you poop the bigger the vibration as well as a volume/stereo control. You can also set you own music by putting a file called fbtwisted.mp3 in c :\Data\Others.

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Overview: Well this is a Samir application which means its going to be good. Ok for anyone who is looking for a serous game there is a good few n-gage games out but anyone looking for a bit of fun look no further. This beta is free and I found this version particularly addictive just because you are never sure about your accuracy.

If you have never head of Samir please check out some of his work here.

Download Frozen Bubble Twisted here

If you have any issues with FB Twisted then please feel free to comment in the forum

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 – Phone Locator

Name:  Phone Locator v0.70

Description:  Tracks your phones location and trail using GPS

Summary:  Since my wife’s N96 was stolen on Boxing day, I’ve been on the lookout for ways to trace handsets. Phone locator does just that. It’s an interesting application that was originally made to track the designer’s motorcycle tour around the Alps in 2007. Phone Locator uses your devices GPS to detect its location and uploads the information to the website where you can log in to view it. It also records the trail of the phone and the times the updates were received.

There are plenty of settings on this application that revolve around how the updates are to be sent. Some settings have an impact on battery life because the GPS is always active, but there are options to overcome this:

  

 • Turn on ‘battery saver’! ‘battery saver’ turns off the GPS when the phone is stationary or the GPS signal is too low to get a fix. The GPS is turned back on when the phone connects to a different cell tower. This works best in metropolitan areas where the cells are small.

• Update less frequently! A big drain on the battery is the data context that is used to send data to the server. For example, if the application is set to ‘update every time I move’ it will drain the battery quicker than if it is set to update every 30 minutes.

 

After installation you are directed to the website where you can register your account. You can then log into the website on your pc and see where your phone is currently and where it has been at earlier times. You can choose to be ‘public’ where your location and trails are viewable to others or you can be ‘private’, and your location is only viewable when logged into your account.

Phone locator can be set to run at boot time so you can just forget about it. If you lose your phone, or it is stolen, you are then able to view its location providing a gps signal is or was available. It also runs in the background and doesn’t show up in running applications when closed.

You can also add other phones to your account that have the application installed to view family and friends locations and trails if you so wished.

I hope I never have to use this to try and trace a lost or stolen phone but I have it running just in case!

Please remember that data sent will incur charges to your phone bill unless you have an unlimited data plan with your provider.

Forum Discussion: Applications – Phone Locator

Rating:  9/10

Download: Phone Locator

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.