My Nokia E90 And I

It's been a long time since I've posted something here.

First of all, I would like to thank rampe and sk0rp for posting their comments.

Now for the sad news, it seems that I don't have enough time to post up anything new.

I've been busy for the past few months and will still be indefinitely.

However, if I do find the time, I will update the previous posts and of course put up some new ones.

Thank you to all for reading!

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.

One more gaming application review... I'll be reviewing softwares in my next few posts. This time we have Quake S60.

Software Download
The application can be downloaded here and best of all, it's free!

The demo .PAK file can be downloaded here. You need to install the game and then copy the .PAK file to your memory card.

My Review
I am sure many gamers have played Quake when it first came out for the PC. Well, luckily for us, now we are able to play it on Symbian S60 phones. The game looks great and plays well on the keyboard. For those with the newest E90 firmware (V 07.40.1.2), the FPU is utilized which makes the game run smoother. The only problem at the moment is that the center navigation button can't be assigned to any action which means we can't use it as the "fire" button.

The internal wide screen is used to its maximum and little screen space is sacrificed when showing the player GUI.




Tips & Tricks
For those that feel the game isn't running as smoothly as expected, there are a few tweaks that can be done.

By creating an autoexec.cfg file, certain commands can be run automatically once the game is started. To create the file, just create a new text document and add in the commands that you want. After that, rename the document to autoexec.cfg and put it into your quake folder (E:\quake1\id1). I found 2 commands that affected the performance of the game as well as the graphics:

Syntax: d_mipcap
Default: 0
Sets the detail level. Values range from 0-3 with 0 giving the highest detail.

Syntax: d_mipscale
Default: 1
Sets how much detail distant objects have. Values range from 0-40 with 0 not bluring distant objects at all. (Uses lots of ram if set to 0)

The commands were obtained from this site

Here are some screen shots with various settings:

For my second review on gaming applications, another of my favorites, Markus Mertama's C2Doom.

Software Download
The core version can be downloaded here

The core version is "game only", by default only a shareware episode is started.

My Review
C2Doom is an application that allows gamers to play games such as Doom I & II or custom games created by others. Once again, with the keyboard and wide screen, the E90 is able to deliver an experience very similar to playing Doom on a computer. The graphics, speed and sound are all very good and exactly the same as on a computer. One exception is that when playing with the E90's internal screen, information such as health, ammo, etc can't be seen unless you want to sacrifice some screen space.



Tips & Tricks
In my opinion, the original controls set for the E90 keyboard don't work so well. Because of that, I reconfigured the keys to play as a normal first person shooter would play.

W = Move forward
X = Move backward
A = Strafe left
D = Strafe right

E = Use

Navigation left = Turn left
Navigation right = Turn right
Navigation center = Fire

The custom key configuration files can be downloaded here


After installing the application, the folder C:\c2doom would be created (E:\c2doom if you chose to install in your memory card). In this folder there would be 2 files, c2doomkeys_itu-t.txt and c2doomkeys_qwerty.txt. Replace c2doomkeys_qwerty.txt with the file I have provided.

Next run the game once and close the application. There would be a new folder created C:\c2doom\doom1. In this folder there would be the file .doomrc. Replace this file with the one I provided.

A reminder to everyone,in my settings I have turned off the sound, so for those that want music and sound, just turn them up in the game menu.

Note: This can't be done with the normal File Manager so I suggest downloading a file explorer application such as Lonely Cat Games X-Plore. There are other file explorers out there, but I prefer X-plore.

Finally, this is the link to a forum where you can download WAD files for those who have the full version of C2Doom.

Reviewed Version - v1.12

To start off my first review, allow me to introduce one of my most favorite applications, Vampent vBagX the GameBoy Advance Emulator.

Software Download
The demo version can be downloaded here

Unregistered version has the full functions except of following limitations:
1. Limited time for playing
2. Cannot save/load

My Review
In my opinion, I think that most Symbian or Java games are too short and have little replay value. Because of this, emulators are very important for those who want to play games on their mobile devices. By downloading Roms (I'm not going to post any download links) and storing them in a memory card, a gamer could literally have hundreds of games at their fingertips. Well, depending on the size of their memory card of course.

The E90 is almost perfect for gaming because of its wide screen display and keyboard. In the past, I have tested this emulator on my N73. The speed was fine but the display was too small for certain games which had a lot of text to read. Apart from that, the controls felt a little cramped when using the keypad. But for the E90, these problems are gone...

Tips & Tricks
For those who are interested, here are some tips for the application settings:


First of all, my recommendation to everyone is to set the game to full screen through Menu -> Graph -> Size. This is to ensure you use your screen to its maximum.



As you can see, there is much difference between the Origin and Full settings.

Next up we have Menu -> Graph -> Output. There are 2 settings here which are Direct and Bitmap. Direct has better speed but I have noticed that the screen gets pushed to the right just a little bit. You will know what I mean when you look at the left side of the screen (Sorry, it can't be shown in the screen shots). By choosing Bitmap, the problem with the screen is fixed but games run at a slower speed.

Last on the menu is Menu -> Graph -> Frameskip. This can help increase the speed of the games by incrementing the number of frames skipped. Through some testing, I found out that 2 is the best number for this setting as it gives good speed while allowing the game to run smoothly.

As for the other settings, they do not affect performance in any way. For me, I usually set the Sound Volume to 0 since the sound in most games can't be fully emulated, which means they sound quite bad.

I hope this helps those of you out there wanting to play games on your E90. If there are any questions, just post them in the comments section.

Reviewed Version - v1.12

*Update*
v1.20 - Vampent has just released a new version of vBagX which provides faster performance as well as better sound support.

v1.25 - Another update and this time, speed has improved even more. Vampent has added an option to adjust the compatibility mode of the application (range from 0 - 3), which allows previous games that didn't work, to be played by adjusting the compatibility. According to Vampent, compatibility mode 3 is slow but I didn't feel much difference on the E90. With sound turned on, the game gets slower though. Apart from that, there's media key support, but it doesn't apply for the E90 and finally a simple cheat file support that requires you to create your own cheat file.