My 10th post

Ah, finally my 10th post. I hope all of you reading have enjoyed my previous posts. One thing I hope readers would do is to leave some comments if you have any questions concerning the games or software I have reviewed. Apart from that, I would like to hear from the readers what you like or dislike about the blog, changes I should perform and also whether there are any specific software or games you want me to review.

Thanks for reading!


Instead of a game or software review for the E90, today I shall be reviewing a PC software, Imagenomic Noiseware which really helps in removing noise from photos taken with the E90.

Software Download
The application can be downloaded here

There are several versions available for download including a community version which is free to use.

My Review
Since the advent of camera phones people have taken photos. And since then, there has been noise in our photos whether we like it or not. There are several reasons why we get noise in our photos. I'm no camera expert but this is what I think: they could range from the underpowered flash, low sensitivity of the camera sensor or other reasons. But whatever the reason, there is a software available to us now to reduce the noise in our pictures.



If you see from the two images above, the 2nd one has less noise after using the application. You might need to open both the pictures in full screen to notice the difference. Once, you do, you can see that the 2nd picture looks better but is a little bit blur compared to the 1st. Although it has become blur in order to reduce noise, it still looks good and if you print the photo out, I believe it would be better than the one with noise.

I hope everyone would give it a try as it can do wonders for certain photos. I have tested this on some Sony Ericsson K750i pictures also and they turned out pretty good. I think this software can really help on night photos since those are usually the ones with the most noise.

Note: I spent almost an hour trying to take photos with a lot of noise in it while still using the default settings of the camera (Which means I didn't purposely turn off the flash or set it to night mode). But it was quite hard to take a picture with lots of noise.


Another audio and video application review for the E90. This time I shall be reviewing Sebastian Jedruszkiewicz's emTube, my most used video downloading application (I use this more than Nokia Podcasting now). The application allows you stream and download videos from YouTube and play your own flash video files in your phone. I shall also compare it with a mobile website, vTap, which allows you to stream or download videos from YouTube and other sites.

Software Download
The application can be downloaded here

It is freeware, so go on and download it!

My Review
When I first got my E90 I was expecting the browser to support Flash sites such as YouTube. But sadly, there isn't support for it just yet. Then, when Flash Lite 3 was announced, I was hoping that it could play flash video files through the default flash player. But, again, it couldn't. Fortunately, emTube was created and this allowed for streaming and downloading videos from YouTube as well as watching all those flash videos I downloaded. Before, emTube was out, I also stumbled upon a mobile website, vTap which gave me similar streaming and downloading capabilities.


Let me first start by comparing emTube and vTap with the YouTube website.




As you can see above, emTube has exactly the same search results as the YouTube site but vTap only has certain similar results.



Here we have featured videos. The results on emTube are different than those on YouTube.



Here are the most viewed videos, and like the featured videos, the results are different.



Above we have emTube playing the video Nokia E90 by teknomag while vTap offers the option to stream or download the video. emTube streams the video in .flv format while vTap converts the video into .3gp format. After loading the full video, emTube allows you to save the video onto your phone. As for vTap, to download the video you would need to choose which quality you want to save it in.

Here are some pros and cons for both emTube and vTap, based on my opinion:

emTube

  • Pros
    • Can stream and then save a video into your phone
    • Does not require any conversion of YouTube videos
    • Can be used as an .flv player
  • Cons
    • Cannot download multiple files at once
    • It lags a bit for certain videos

vTap

  • Pros
    • Can download multiple files at once (Since it's using the browser)
    • Can choose quality of video
    • Can stream/download from other sites such as Daily Motion, CNN, etc
  • Cons
    • The file is converted into .3gp format (Some quality loss)
    • Cannot stream and then save file into phone

Although both have pros and cons, I don't see why we can't use them both since they are both free to use.

Reviewed Version - v1.06

*Update*
v1.08 - A new version of emTube is out which reduces the lag in videos but in this version, video upscaling has been disabled which means that we can't zoom videos.

v1.10 - Another update and this time some bugs have been fixed (though I didn't notice any while using the previous versions), you can search for restricted content and you can play FLV files generated by the Super conversion program. It's too bad that video upscaling is still disabled, and I find some videos to have out of sync audio.


Today I shall be reviewing an application from Nokia which is Nokia Podcasting. The application allows you to download audio or video podcasts from their library or from your own links.

Software Download
The application can be downloaded here

It is of course, free to use.

My Review
When I first obtained my Nokia E90, I was looking for an application that allowed me to download videos onto my phone and watch them when I had the time to. Well, within the first few weeks of using this device, I came along Nokia Podcasting.


Before using this application, I was not so interested in podcasts and I rarely went looking for good links or anything. But luckily for me, this application provides a directory of podcasts for me to browse.


As pictured above, the podcast directories are separated into four categories. Since I prefer videos rather than audio, I browsed around the directories looking for good quality video podcasts. Most of those videos can be found under Video -> Video (N93 /N95 Compatible).

One thing I like about the program is the ability to simultaneously download multiple files at once. This means that you can leave the application running in the background to download any files you want. You can even leave your phone plugged into the charger and have it downloading overnight.

Although there is a large library in there, it seems that the directories have not been updated in some time. Apart from that, certain video podcasts are too high in quality that even the E90 cannot handle properly. For example, the National Geographic video podcasts.

For those who like listening to or watching podcasts, this is a must have application. You might find something interesting in the directories or you can use your phone as a mobile podcast downloader. Either way, it's free to download, so give it a try.

Reviewed Version - v1.00.3


My review today will be on Epocware Handy Safe which allows you to store personal information such as credit card information, web logins, etc.

Software Download
The application can be downloaded here

The trial version can be used up to 14 days, so give it a try and you might find it very useful.

My Review
When using my previous Nokia S60 phones, I remembered that there was a wallet application which allows me to store my personal information. But in the Nokia E90, it seems that the application has gone missing. But not to worry, as Handy Safe provides the functionality needed.


The first thing any application like this needs is of course password protection.


Inside there would be 3 default folders to store your information and another folder which stores your custom information types.






These are the default information types and as you can see there are quite a lot. If there's something you want, but isn't there, you can always create your own custom type.

There's not much else I can say, but for those who would like to carry around private information in their phones I would recommend this application as it allows for password protection and it also has a desktop version (I won't be reviewing it though) which allows you to sync information between the PC and phone.

One more thing I find highly useful is that this application can be backed up when you choose to backup phone memory into your memory card or PC. So, for instance, if you format your phone and you restore it through the memory card or PC, the application would be restored along with all your records. This saves a lot of time since you won't have to re-enter all your records again.

Reviewed Version - v5.06


Time for my first software review... Today I'll be reviewing one of my most used applications, which is Lonely Cat Games X-plore, a file manger.

Software Download
The application can be downloaded here

The software is free to use without any limitations, but you would need to purchase the application to remove the nag screen when you start and close the application. It's just about a 3 second wait, so it isn't so bad.

My Review
Although S60 phones already have a built in file manager, there are some missing functionalities. With X-plore, most of these voids are filled.




The first advantage is that X-plore can view system folders in phone memory. As you can see from the screen shots, there are some folders missing when viewing files with the default file manager. The default file manager only shows files within the C:\Data folder while X-plore shows the folders within C:\.


Second, X-plore provides a built-in image and text viewer. The screen shots above shows a .doc file being opened. It is quite fast in opening images and documents even if they are quite large. One thing I like about the text viewer is that it remembers where you last stopped. This means that if you were reading a document until the second page, the next time you open the document with X-plore, it would start from the second page. Documents can also be edited with the text viewer, but don't expect it to have the formatting abilities of Quick Office or other office applications.


Moving on, one nice feature is that the application can be password protected. This means that you can prevent anyone from opening the application unless they have the password. Good for those who don't want others snooping around their files.

Some other features I like with the application are:

  • The ability to send .sis files to other devices (The default file manager can't)
  • The ability to set quick folders (You can jump to specific folders using shortcuts)
  • There are shortcuts assigned to numbers. E.g.
    • 1 - Copy file
    • 2 - Move file
Reviewed Version - v1.13

*Update*
v1.20 - A new version of X-plore is out and it has a basic audio and video player that lets you listen to audio or watch movies from within the application. Apart from that, it can open Word 2007 files.

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