Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

SPB Weather 1.00 was installed on a Nokia 5800, a Symbian 9.4, S60 5th edition device.

Installation

SPB Weather comes as a .sis files and can be installed using the Nokia Application Installer.

First View

SPB Weather takes away the drudgery of having to use the never ending hierarchical-menu-driven S60 interface and replaces it with a UI refresh that brings a renewed hope for S60 touch.

Read on.

Main Review

The whole 3.2″ screen of the Nokia 5800 is dedicated to displaying the weather of a single city. This means a great amount of weather information can be gathered in a single view! The screen real estate is divided into three parts. The top part of the screen, [or the left side, in landscape mode], shows a graphic, the day’s weather in a large font and a smaller weather list for Morning, Day and Evening on the side.

The middle part of the screen, which is the largest, displays the weather for the next 4 days with a graphic and the high and low for that day.

The third part of the screen, has the controls for the configuration settings button, weather update button, 3D Globe button and the exit button.

The main screen also shows when the weather was updated last. You can refresh the weather by just touching the weather update button.

Touching the city on the screen, brings up additional weather info – Humidity, Pressure, Wind speed, etc. Touching the return arrow on the right takes you back to the main screen for the city.

Touching the day’s weather forecast brings up additional details for that day. For each day, the weather for Night, Morning, Day and Evening is displayed, with humidity, wind speed and a graphic.

In the landscape, mode, only the weather for Night and Morning can be displayed, so you can use kinetic scrolling to scroll down to view the weather for Day and Evening.

The return arrow is implemented uniformly in all screens to take you back to the main screen. All new screens are brought up with cool animations that’s pleasing to the eye but doesn’t mar the experience by being slow or too long to distract the user.

Even if 10 cities are configured, navigation is very easy. Just by pushing the screen left or right brings up a new screen with the weather for the next city, just like navigating a photo album.

The 3D Globe button animates a globe that can display information about the Cities, Clouds, Sky, Temperature and Rains for the cities configured. Touching the play button animates the globe.

A zoom in/ zoom out option is available that appears when you touch the screen, almost like the Ovi Maps zoom function. The animation is quite realistic, like the weather channel.

The configuration settings, still opens up the S60 menu structure, to add new cities and set other options, like automatic schedule update, units to use for display – Celsius or Fahrenheit, etc.

Adding a new city is a simple operation. SPB Weather supports over 10,000 cities all over the world. Each city in the list is prefixed with the country’s name in short. This is better than have to select a city in two passes – first the country and then the city.  There is also an option to select the city by GPS.

Handling

With photo album-like navigation, kinetic scrolling, large touch buttons and limited dependency on S60’s hierarchical menu-structure for only the initial setup, greatly improves navigation.

Usually frequent operations like weather update, exit, etc are hidden in the a menu structure, thus making it cumbersome to update the weather quickly. SPB have changed the approach and this makes the user experience delightful.

Here’s a video demonstration of SPB Weather from the developers of the program.

Weaknesses

I didn’t find any weaknesses in SPB Weather.

Conclusion

There are so many weather forecast reporting applications out there for S60 on Symbian OS but SPB Weather is the first one that actually makes the weather report rather interesting. SPB have shown that you can actually bring cool animation, one-touch access to most functions and present a great user experience on the S60 UI.

For the functional simplicity in using the touch interface, great display, innovative features and accurate weather reporting, SPB Weather is a must have and I’ll give it 4 of 5. SPB Weather can be purchased or downloaded for a trial here.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

SBSH Whitelist, as the name suggests lets you create a golden whitelist of contacts from whom you want to receive calls and messages for your S60 5th edition devices.

The application state can be turned On/Off so you have the flexibility to set a very strict whitelist and turn it on only when absolutely necessary. On the other hand, if you have a very select Contact list (which is unlikely ) you can turn on SBSH Whitelist to allow only calls and messages from Contacts in your address book.

SBSH Whitelist gives you the option to choose from 4 options – Reject all incoming events, Reject calls only and allow SMS, Mute calls/reject sms or Silent calls only.

It worked efficiently, occupying less than 1 megabyte of RAM when its running in the background.

Download

SBSH Whitelist can be downloaded here for trial or or can be purchased at $9.95.

Conclusion

SBSH Whitelist is able to fend of worthy competitors for Symbian devices like Best Blacklist and Handy Blacklist, though its a little late to the party.  It does adequately with the limited feature set.

An automatic scheduler that switches on the rules for incoming calls and messages based on calendar events and profile settings would have made a killer app.  But it still has some novel features like blocking skype aliases or messages from specific SMS servers that make it a compelling competitor to the many other similar applications.

SBSH Whitelist is worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

Handy Phoneguard from Epocware was installed on two devices, a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4 and a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device with Symbian OS 9.3.

Installation

Installation is simply via the Nokia Application Installer available in the Nokia PC Suite.

First Look

Handy Phoneguard is yet another security application for S60 Smartphones. We have reviewed 2 security applications in the past, WaveSecure and SecureMe.  Lets see how Handy Phoneguard stacks up.

Main Review

Handy Phoneguard, in addition to securing general access to the Symbian Smartphone, which is a keypad / touch screen lock, also allows the user to secure applications and stored information (contacts, messages, notes, settings, images, videos, etc.) from unauthorized use.

Securing Phone, Data & Applications

Phone security comes with the usual features of screen lock at power on and automatic lock after a configurable number of minutes. The application also locks out immediately, when it goes to the background to avoid misuse.

Both on the Nokia 5800 and the E71, the locked screen displays the number pad for touch typing the password, along with the owner’s name, mobile phone number, email and address, which can be configured in the Owner Info menu in the application.

When you open a protected application, the splash screen is displayed giving owner information, asking for the password.

SMS Alerts and Remote Lock / Wipe

When the SIM card is changed, Handy Phoneguard sends an SMS to the friend’s mobile number with the IMSI of the rogue SIM card.

Now the friend can send an SMS [lock "password" or wipe "password"] to that number to lock out the device or delete your confidential information on the device when remote SMS lock/wipe command is activated.

You also have the IMSI number of the thief with which he can be tracked down with the help of the mobile operator.

Handling

Handy Phoneguard employs just one secured password for all protection functions enabled. This saves the hassle of having to remember many passwords. But it still asks you for the password for accessing each application and data that’s protected. It could get a little annoying for day to day use. The best way is to enable protection for applications and data only when you travel, because the chances of losing the device is higher or when the Smartphone is loaned to someone.

I liked the option to deactivate Phoneguard. This way, you can use it normally and still secure it when the need arises, with just a touch.

When the memory card is protected and you try to access the device via Bluetooth, Windows hanged. I had to hard reboot my desktop and then disable protection for the memory card to access the memory card. This could have been gracefully handled.

Weaknesses

When the phone rings, the caller information is not displayed on the screen.  The Phone application should be allowed to override Phoneguard and let me know who the caller is. I could pick up the call, only because the Nokia 5800 has hardware keys. This won’t be possible for the Nokia 5530, a touch screen phone without any hardware keys.

Some operations like Music Player controls – play, pause, etc., should be allowed access even when the mobile is locked out. When I need to immediately pause play, I don’t want to be unlocking the device first.

Conclusion

Handy Phoneguard can be downloaded here. WaveSecure does not have the option to secure applications or data while SecureMe lets you secure some data but not all that Handy Phoneguard does. I found Handy Phoneguard to have the most useful features and a clean and simple interface. Its a must have and I’ll give it 5 of 5.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

We reviewed SafeWallet 1.1 a few months back. A new version is available with many improved features and support for Symbian S60 5th edition touch devices. Lets see how it is.

SafeWallet lets you create and maintain private information in multiple Wallets and each Wallet can be protected by different passwords. You can create several Folders in each Wallet with each folder carrying many Cards.

In the earlier version, if a Wallet is open and you send the application to the background, it doesn’t auto-lock. The new version locks automatically when its pushed to the background. It also locks up after a few minutes, which can be configured. This is not an issue if if only the application is open but all Wallets are closed.

SafeWallet lets you create custom templates of Cards so that they can be used again later.

The PC Companion now has a quick search panel and windows-like shortcuts that’s very useful. The PC Companion now allows to import a simple CSV file. Now I can see a confirmation from the PC Companion that the sync process has been successful. The lack of it was a weakness which I pointed out in the earlier review.

Single-tap all the way

What I liked most was that the SafeWallet developers have almost eliminated the infamous single tap-double tap issue of S60 5th edition. Every operation within SafeWallet can be achieved with a single click. It took me a while to get used to but I really appreciate this. That’s a great design decision.

It seems to me that the developers have added the code that does the “second tap” where ever the OS needs it, preempting the user from having to do it. But the second tap becomes one too many in one situation. When SafeWallet is open and a you enter a password to open a Wallet, the OK to set the password causes a double tap, I guess and this also opens the first folder inside the Wallet, which is Favorites.  I can live with it

But all is not well with version 1.2.

SafeWallet crashed on me a few times when I was editing a Card. In the edit mode, selecting the option to edit a field caused SafeWallet to crash, consistently. Initially I though it was due to lack of RAM and closed all applications. But the crash persisted. I observed this on both my S60 5th edition device and the S60 3rd edition FP 1 device, a Nokia E71.

Creating custom templates on the mobile is good but I didn’t understand why the card has to be in edit mode to save it as a template. The “Save as Template” option was never available in the read mode.  Though the custom templates were available on the mobile, they were never synced back to the PC Companion.

Finally, I could never edit a Card on the Nokia 5800, the S60 5th device with SafeWallet 1.2!! When I selected a Card and pressed edit, I got into the edit mode but was not able to open up any of the handwriting modes. But on the  E71, I could edit existing Cards and create new Cards.

Every operation inevitably caused the “Loading” page to come up. It was too annoying to observe this page even for minor operations like navigation.

Download

SBSH SafeWallet can be downloaded here.

Conclusion

If you already have SafeWallet, I’d suggest you want until all these issues are fixed before upgrading to version 1.2 even though you get a free upgrade. I didn’t find many improvements to be implemented well.

SafeWallet is ideally suited for kinetic scrolling. Navigation through th Wallet-Folders-Card structure would have been much easier with kinetic scrolling.

With quite a few hiccups, my experience with version 1.2 wasn’t great. This version is worth a look but I’ll wait for the next version. I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

DreamConnect from DreamSpring was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS version 9.4.

Installation

DreamConnect is a native Symbian OS .sis application that’s available upon registration at the website. The application is linked to the IMEI of the device.

First View

There has been no improvements to the S60 contact manager over various feature packs and OS versions despite persistent demands demands from the online community for many improvements like adding support for Categories and so on. Lets see if DreamConnect is a compelling replacement for the native S60 contact manager.

Main Review

Contacts Database

DreamConnect installs itself as a native Symbian application. It provides extra and useful functionality and a different UI but uses the native contacts database of the Symbian OS.

DreamConnect lets you create new contacts and edit existing contacts seamlessly on the contacts database. Therefore the user does not have to worry about managing multiple versions of contact information. For the same reason that DreamConnect uses the underlying contacts database, sync to desktop applications like Outlook is not affected by installing DreamConnect.

At startup, DreamConnect reloads the contacts database for its own use. During all the operations of DreamConnect, you can still continue to use the S60 Contacts application without any interference.  But any change to the contacts using the S60 Contacts will not reflect in DreamConnect until its restarted again so that the latest contacts database is reloaded.

Two applications are installed, DreamConnect and DSVCardApp. DreamConnect is the contacts management application. DSVCardApp is the vCard reader. Existing vCards can be imported onto the S60 mobile and can be viewed.

Two features that stand out are Find and grouping contacts into categories.

Find

The Find function has two features – KeyMatch and Global Find. Just like the desktop search on the S60 E71, the KeyMatch feature you can just starting typing the name of a Contact and DreamConnect shows the contacts that match the search string. The numeric key pad with three alphabets on each key is displayed on the screen and you can just type away. This is very useful and you will get used to searching contacts this way very quickly. The KeyMatch feature beats the current contact search feature on the S60 5th edition, e.g. Nokia 5800, hands down.

The second find feature is the Global Find. Using this feature, you can search any text in the contacts database. I searched for partial phone numbers, addresses, emails, etc. This is a very powerful feature and the user will find it absolutely essential and valuable as the usage increases.

Categories

DreamConnect imports existing categories in Outlook and also lets you create new categories on the mobile. But the most important feature is the sub-categories option where you can file contacts under a parent category. This allows you to create a high-level hierarchy of categories like Business, Personal and within Business, you can create categories for various companies, etc. You can also filter the contacts by categories so that only the contacts belonging to a particular category or sub-category are displayed. And finally you can remove contacts from a category and add it to a different category. The options are enormous.

Contacts Display

When you open a contact, it is displayed on a white background with all the information clearly shown, including long addresses, email ids, multiple telephone numbers, etc. Its very useful to look up when I am driving and am searching for an address.

I always found that looking up addresses on the native S60 Contacts was not user-friendly to put it mildly. Addresses are entered in different fields like P.O. Box, Street, City, etc and they are also displayed in the same format. if the street name is a long, only a part of it is displayed. You actually have go into the edit mode of a field to view it completely.

Contacts can also be zoomed in and out using the volume keys!! That’s a very thoughtful feature. But I would also like to flip through contacts with a finger swipe on the screen. That would have been a great feature.

URLs and Email links can be invoked from the Contacts Display mode. This is also a very useful feature and is not supported in native S60 Contacts.

Sorting

Contacts can be sorted with more options than just first name and last name. You can sort contacts so that the Company or the Country appears in the list. I personally liked Company, First Name, Last Name option.

vCard

The DSVCardApp application will import vCard in the .vcf format and save them into the contacts database. If you have many contacts stored in this format, this application is very useful.

Handling

With great Find features and various filter-options to display contacts, handling and using DreamConnect was actually a dream.

Weaknesses

While I didn’t find any weaknesses in the current features of DreamConnect, while using it, I observed that a few new features would have made it a dynamite. Here are the features I’d like to see in DreamConnect.

DreamConnect must support Kinetic scrolling. Its still very difficult to browse through the contacts using the scroll bar on the right.

Why doesn’t DreamConnect just simply replace the native S60 Contacts and Log applications? Users will be confused by two different Contacts even if you communicate clearly that they use the same database.

I absolutely must have the ability to flip through contacts with a finger swipe on the screen when in the Display mode, just like flipping through images. The extent of user friendliness of this feature can never be overstated.

Conclusion

After using DreamConnect for just a few days, I must say its a great replacement for the native S60 Contacts. It addresses all the limitations of the native contacts application – adding a good find, adding categories, better display of contact information and various filters. DreamConnect is a must have and I’ll give it 5 of 5. It can be downloaded here after registration.

Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

Psiloc’s World Traveler was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPress Music, a S60 5th edition device running on Symbian OS 9.4.

Installation

World Traveler is a native Symbian application and was installed using the Nokia Application Installer that comes with the PC Suite.

First View

World Traveler is a mobile travel-aid application that has been around for a long time. Recently a new premium plug-in has been introduced, called FLIGHTS. Read on for full review.

Main Review

World Traveler is the Swiss army knife for the frequent traveler. It has 6 different plug-ins, namely Weather, Clocks, Currencies, World Map, FLIGHTS and Travel Plan. Each plug-in is an application by itself. Travel Plan is under development and FLIGHTS is a premium plug-in.

The various components of World Traveler have been elegantly designed to effectively utilize the large 3.2” screen of the Nokia 5800. The lower part of the screen contains the icons for all plug-ins. A single-tap on each icon slides the screen to the selected plug-in and the icon animates and lights up so that you know which plug-in is currently in use.

The left soft key at the bottom, Options is used to setup the plug-ins. It is context-sensitive, which means the options vary and are relevant to the plug-in selected. You can also Hide to the background.

Weather

The Weather is the default plug-in that comes up when you open World Traveler. The weather update interval can be configured to be Manual or every 6, 12 or 24 hours.

The temperature can be set to Celsius or Fahrenheit. The weather can also be displayed on the main screen.

The top of the screen has today’s weather, wind speed and wind pressure and an image of clouds, rain or the sun. Hundreds of cities all over the world are covered in the database and a weather update takes under 5 seconds!

World Clock

The World clock displays 4 clocks in the Analog or Digital format. Along with the time it also lets you know if the time in a city across the world is still (Yesterday) or (Today).

Exchange Rates

The currency converter displays 4 currencies. You can set the update interval to be Manual or Daily, Weekly or Monthly periods. When an update happens, the source of the currency rates is not known. I would like to choose the bank from which the currency rate is determined. Handy Converter lets you choose Bank of Canada, European Central Bank or Russian Central Bank as the source of the rates and I think its is necessary.

Travel Plan

The Travel Plan plug-in is under development and I am looking forward to it.

World Map

The World Map plug-in is more of an educational application that displays the city you select on the globe. It also shows your home city.

FLIGHTS

The new feature in World Traveler is FLIGHTS. FLIGHTS lets you search by flight number or by location (city, airport or country) and allows you to save search results, check the status of your flights anytime and be automatically alerted to changes in real-time.

Handling

World Traveler is very easy to use. I had no problems getting used to the interface.

But when I have to select a city or country from a long list using the scroll bar on the 5800 is extremly un-user-friendly. Kinetic scrolling is the way forward for such use cases. But its not an issue with Psiloc anyway. I have to mention it because the overall experience of using the application is impacted negatively, even though only a little bit.

Updates for each plug-in can be downloaded independently. Individual plug-ins can be disabled or uninstalled.

Weaknesses

You are asked to select the Access Point for connecting to the internet every time an update happens. World Traveler couldn’t automatically detect a WiFi client. I had to connect to a WiFi access point before World Traveler could detect it and ask if it could connect to the internet using the WiFi AP. Default access point selection and automatic switch to WiFi are features that will definitely delight customers.

Conclusion

World Traveler is available in 18 different languages other than English.  The Plug-in architecture allows easy modular updates to individual plug-ins by World Traveler and allows the addition of new applications easily. Except the FLIGHTS plug-in, all others are free to use. You can try out FLIGHTS for a few days before it is disabled. With an elegant and colorful interface, zippy operation and multiple applications in one package, World Traveler is a Must-Have application. I will give it 5 of 5. World Traveler can be downloaded here.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

Privus Mobile is a mobile caller id service. Its the world’s first cross-carrier caller id application that shows the caller id of a caller who is not in your contact list on your mobile. I installed Privus Mobile on my Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition, FP 1 device.

Privus Mobile uses a collection of caller information databases around the world and displays the information of a caller (not in your contact list) on your mobile. Additionally, when Privus retrieves the caller id information, the application will provide you with the option to instantly save the information to your contacts list so you have it permanently.

Using the application, you create an account and register your mobile number and name with Privus Mobile’s servers. If you choose not to register, Privus will not use the account information for anything other than billing/registering the device. If you do select that box and opt for Privus to include your submitted information in its database, Privus will compare your submitted information with their databases to ensure its accuracy and if everything checks out it will incorporate it into its database. It’s also not required for the people calling you to have Privus Mobile installed for you to receive the caller’s information.

Its useful to auto-start Privus Mobile when the mobile boots up so its always available. Privus Mobile uses the internet connection on the phone for communicating with the servers, so you need to have GPRS/3G always on.

Here is a video of how Privus Mobile works.

Download

Privus Mobile can be installed on your mobile by downloading the link to the desktop and using the Application Installer or by sending the link to your mobile. On the Privus Mobile download page you have to pick the Country, Carrier and Manufacturer and download the specific application that’s compatible with the device.

And when you select your phone, make sure to select the device that supports your carrier or the phone that doesn’t have a carrier labeled next to it as some of the downloads with carriers next to them will have that carrier’s country code already in the registration fields.

Conclusion

Privus Mobile is a handy application to use and its worth a look. I couldn’t try it out to the best possible extent because I am India and Privus Mobile is not supported here.

Privus Mobile’s giveaway

To celebrate the launch of Privus Mobile on S60, Privus Mobile is giving away an E71 for free on its site. Of course, no purchase is necessary. People just have to go on the site and sign up for their chance to win. The contest entry page is at http://www.privusmobile.info/idugiveaway/ and the entries are accepted until August 28 2009. The full details are listed on their page.

Review Conditions

WaveSecure from tenCube was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS version 9.4.

Installation

The WaveSecure binary file can be downloaded at m.wavesecure.com. It can also be downloaded at the WaveSecure website or you can get the download link via SMS to any country anywhere in the world. At about 850 kb, the installation goes to the phone memory by default. Its a relief that you don’t have keep track of newer versions or different installer versions for different devices. At m.wavesecure.com, your device is automatically detected and the right version is automatically downloaded.

First View

Securing your smart phone, which has become a single device for all purposes is of paramount importance. We have already reviewed a similar product, SecureMe that provides similar functionality. Lets see how WaveSecure measures up.

Main Review

To activate WaveSecure on the device, you need to enter user name, a 6-digit PIN and a buddy’s mobile number.  Once activated, you can secure the device and also back up Contacts, SMS, Calendar and Call Logs on the web.  Backup of Media is under development.

To secure the device, the PIN must be entered again. There are several options to secure the phone. You can change or setup the Buddy Notification. You can configure the device to be locked when the SIM is changed. The phone can be locked or wiped clean and the PIN can be changed. Too many options are hidden under the “Secure Phone” menu. The lock option could have been outside, for a single click lock. Because the PIN change menu is under the Secure Phone menu, you are forced to enter the PIN even for other configurations.

There is also a left soft key “Option” using which you can lock the device. The softkey also has options to check for updates or to get a new PIN. The options on left soft key could have been moved to the main menu too.

Backup can be done for each data separately or for all of them. Backup can also be automated. It appeared that I could use only the GPRS connection for backup and restore of the phone data. WiFi couldn’t be used. For large data, this could be a bottle neck.

On the web, WaveSecure allows you to perform all the operations that can be done on the device. In addition, if an unauthorized SIM was used, you could retrieve all the SMS and Call logs and use that information to track the thief.

Handling

Installation and sign-up was very simple and quick. My device was secured within minutes. I liked the feature of tracking the device and locking the device remotely from the web.

WaveSecure cannot be uninstalled without entering the password. This is a good feature and strengthens the security of the mobile device.

The website logged me out after a few minutes of inactivity. I wasn’t sure if it was a security measure or a server overload. I’d prefer to see the login prompt again.

Weaknesses

WiFi was sorely missed. Backup of a small amount of data took a long time over GPRS/Edge.

Wipe out should give me options to wipe only certain data. I don’t have the option of backing up my media, so why should WaveSecure wipe out my media? That was hard to digest.

Conclusion

WaveSecure is a fine solution for securing your device against unauthorized access and prevents loss of data. You could even track down the thief, if you are lucky. It is supported on a wide rage of smart phones from various handsets vendors.

For owners of selected Nokia devices in India, WaveSecure is provided free-of-charge and is pre-installed in the device when its purchased. The device can be activated here.

For others, WaveSecure comes with a 1-day free trial or can be purchased for $21.14 for a 1-year license or for $7.05 for a 90-day license. Its good stuff and I would give it 4 of 5.

Review Conditions

VoiceQ from SBSH Mobile Software Ltd was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition, FP 1 device.

Installation

Installation can be done via the PC using the Nokia application installer or by downloading the file OTA and installing it on the go. You need to register with SBSH by giving your email address to begin the download.

First View

Why do we need another voice recorder for a Symbian phone? What is VoiceQ going to provide over and above the default application that will make you buy it? Read on.

Main Review

VoiceQ is a solution for users who wish to take notes on the go and don’t have the time or inclination to write it down. But when there are dedicated Voice Recorders available in the market and by default all Symbian mobiles come with a very good voice recorder, why does one need another one?

What makes VoiceQ stand apart is its simplicity in use and email of the voice memo to a desired email id almost instantly. Furthermore, it can do it in just 2 clicks.

VoiceQ expects the messaging application to have one email mailbox setup already to function. Unless the email is setup, VoiceQ cannot email to voice memo to an email address. VoiceQ works only with the built in messaging application and does not work with other email clients like Nokia Messaging, Profimail, etc.

When the application is opened, you get the “Ready” screen where you can click “Record” to begin recording the voice memo. While recording, the screen shows that the “Recording” is in progress. Once voice memo is complete, you can stop recording and you get the option to Email the memo.

All this can be accomplished in two clicks. To facilitate even faster operation, there are 2 options that can be setup. These two options are to start recording the moment VoiceQ is opened and to email immediately after the memo is recorded. With these two option set, you only have to start the application and start talking. VoiceQ will do the rest.

You can insert multiple email addresses by separating them with the ‘;’ character (i.e.: a@aaa.com; b@bbb.com)

VoiceQ uses the same sound file for all of your recordings. Once you start recording, the previous recording is overwritten (but the attachments stay in the e-mail). This will save space on your device while keeping your attached voice notes intact. The idea is that the voice memo does not have to be present in the mobile’s memory card after it has been emailed out.

Each recording is saved to a WAV sound file which can be played in every standard sound player. The encoding is done as PCM audio format, 128 kbps Bit Rate, 16bit Audio sample size, mono (1channel), 8kHz Audio sample rate. This means that the file is pretty small for an audio file (about 1MB = 1 minute). The recording is limited by 10 minutes. This was done as a design decision, because there is not a real point in sending an email with a huge attachment.

Handling

VoiceQ is extremely easy to use. There were no issues in using it.

Weaknesses

The same sound file is overwritten for each voice memo with the assumption that it will always be emailed out immediately. It may so happen that there is no WiFi or GPRS/3G connection at certain regions. In these cases, if the user wants to record multiple voice memos, only the latest will remain and all others will be lost. There should be an option to enable email. If email is not enabled, the sound files should not be overwritten.

Conclusion

At 160 Kilobytes, VoiceQ is a tiny application that delivers what it promises with great simplicity. For the ever traveling businessman, who has to take notes on the go, VoiceQ is a very useful application. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5. You can try a full-featured version of VoiceQ for 12 days or purchase it at $5.95 here.

Review Conditions

SPB Wallet was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device. The desktop application was installed on a Windows XP SP 2 OS.

Installation

The setup.exe installs both the desktop app and the symbian application on the mobile too. There is also an option to install the .sis file on the mobile independently. The registration of license key can be done on the mobile. SBP Wallet  installs a tool bar for IE and Firefox. More about it later in the review.

First View

SBP Wallet is yet another application that stores all your passwords and other personal information on your s60 device in a secure manner. We have already reviewed SBSH Safe Wallet here. Lets see how this measures up.

Main Review

Desktop application

At first run of the application on the desktop, you will be asked to create a new wallet or open an existing one or sync. You should select the location of the ‘wallet’, which stores your personal information. The wallet has a proprietary file format, .swl. But the wallet can also be exported to a text format. A password is mandatory for a wallet and is expected when a new wallet is created. The strength of the password is verified by the application.

I was using SBSH SafeWallet before and I wanted to import all my personal information from SBSH SafeWallet into SPB Wallet. I exported the wallet as a txt file from SBSH SafeWallet. SPB Wallet is designed for easy migration from other Secure Information Managers. You can import data from other applications like eWallet, FlexWallet, CodeWallet, Handy Safe, etc. There is also support to import CSV files. But SBSH SafeWallet is not supported. So even when I exported the contents of SHSB Safe Wallet to a text file, SPB Wallet couldn’t import it successfully. Eventually I had to update my Handy Safe database, export the data as a text file from Handy Safe and then import it into SPB Wallet. I wish there was support for importing of data from SBSH Safewallet.

Importing a text file created out of HandySafe was a breeze. For every card, I could specify the template that should be used in SPB Wallet or just allow it to choose the defaults.

With a SPB Wallet tool bar integrated with IE and Firefox, creating new Cards is very simple. Just enter the login details on a website and click “Capture Card” and the contents are stored as a new Card in SPB Wallet. When you get back to the site, just click “Fill Page” and the login details is just filled up. This is a very good feature.

Mobile Device

On the mobile after the sync the wallet (.swl file) is placed in an obscure location that is not known to the user. I wouldn’t bother where the wallet is placed except that when I open the app on my device, it wants to know the location of the wallet. I really don’t care. That’s the job of the application. So I searched for .wpl files and found that it was in E:\Data\Others\My Wallet.swl. When I create a new wallet on the mobile device, I am asked the location where the wallet should be placed. The user should not be bothered with this detail.

When nearly 60 templates available, you can store any personal information when the right context. SPB Wallet saves so much time because of the rich set of templates.

Handling

SPB Wallet is very easy to use both on the device and the desktop. There is a “Most Used Cards” menu that is good for a quick reference. The Find option is amazing. It shows results as you type. I typed a common password I use and it showed up in more than 15 Cards. I must change it soon! There are some themes and colors for the logon button. Not very exciting but there has been attempt to liven up things for the user!

Weaknesses

I didn’t find many. I don’t want to be bothered about the location of the wallet on my mobile device, not the first time and definitely not every time I open SPB Wallet on the device. It really puts me off. Just display all the wallets on the device and ask for the password when I open it!!

Conclusion

SPB Wallet is a feature rich and well designed secure information manager for your s60 devices. Its can be downloaded here for a trial or purchase. Its worth a look and I will give it 3 of 5.