Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

ABBY Foto Translate was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS 9.4.

Installation

Installation is simply via the Nokia Application Installer available in the Nokia PC Suite. You get different .sis files for different languages.

First View

ABBY Foto Translate, as the name suggests, instantly translates words captured on your S60 Symbian camera phone into the desired language. The concept of snapping a few foreign words and getting their meaning immediately is very exciting. Lets see how well this ambitious idea has been implemented for daily use.

Main Review

ABBY Foto Translate, is a very simple-to-use application. The use case is for a typical globe trotter, who needs a quick translation of road signs, restaurant menus,  news paper headlines, business card and so on. When the visitor in a foreign city needs to translate a magazine article or an instruction manual, he would approach a professional translator for this job. ABBY Foto Translate uses ABBY’s award-winning optical character recognition (OCR) technology for converting images of words into text and mobile dictionary software.

I used the French –> English translator version for my tests. When ABBY Foto Translate is started, it opens the camera view finder with its own interface. You just point the view finder to a block of text and press the on-screen camera button or the hardware camera button.

Remember to have the text appears horizontally on the screen and is parallel to the guiding line, that’s visible on the view finder within ABBY Foto Translate application. The application expects the camera to have auto-focus because it automatically focusses on the word you point to and takes an image.

If the camera’s focus is poor or blocked, ABBY Foto Translate, points this out so that you can adjust the distance of the text from the camera and point it correctly. In the image below, you can also see guiding line which should be parallel to the text.

ABBY Foto Translate not just captures a single word you point at, but all the words that fall within the view finder of the camera. Each word in the captured text is treated as an independent block which is character-recognized and translated for the user. After the image capture and processing is done, you can select any of the words in the captured text to get the translation. As long as ABBY Foto Translate has successfully captured that word as a complete block, you will get the  translation perfectly.

I learnt, after may trials, that I should keep the camera at the right distance to capture enough words for translation, but not too far away from the text that ABBY Foto Translate fails to pick words correctly and as unique blocks. When the camera is kept too far away, a whole paragraph is recognized as a single block and fails to be translated. See examples in the images below.

Handling

Making sure the camera’s guiding line is parallel to the text and the text is horizontal on the screen is a little cumbersome and it will take many attempts to get it right. Otherwise, its very simple to use.

Weaknesses

Many a time, I observed that ABBY Foto Translate didn’t capture the block with precision. Many long words were captured as incomplete blocks and the dictionary failed to return a translation. For e.g., in the image below, the word I wanted to look up was “nous”, but ABBY Foto Translate has blocked the letter S and has given a vague translation! But this is did not happen often. Most of the time, I got the whole words blocked and were translated correctly.

Conclusion

ABBYY Foto Translate is worth a look. It will surprise you by the accuracy and the detailed dictionary it points you to. Its fast too. ANNYY Foto Translate is available for Symbian OS S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition (v9.1/9.2/9.3/9.4) in English, German and Russian languages. You obviously need a camera, and ABBY recommends a minimum of 2 MP with autofocus for best results.

ABBY Foto Translate is available for 8 languages and doesn’t need an internet connection or mobile network connection is required.

You can download a trial or purchase it here.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

Koinup, the virtual world social network, has introduced 3D Wallpapers to adorn your Symbian home screen but with a difference. The 3D Wallpapers application is the 1^stmobile application entirely dedicated to “avatar art” i.e., screen shots of virtual worlds like Second Life, World of Warcraft, Aion, Avatars, breathtaking 3d art and virtual Landscape photography images.

The 3D Wallpapers users will have the chance to browse and pick selected collections of avatar artworks created by 3D artists, and hundreds of amazing videogame and virtual world screenshots, fantasy artworks and fanart.

The purpose of 3D Wallpapers is to raise awareness about a new generation of artists that use 3D and virtual worlds as their own canvas. “Virtual worlds influence the way we perceive reality, by changing our aesthetic taste” says Edoardo Turelli, Koinup co-founder and CTO.

Download

3D Wallpapers can be downloaded in the Ovi Store. I installed 3D Wallpapers on my Nokia 5800, a S60 5th edition device running Symbian OS 9.4.

Conclusion

Koinup gives a refreshing new look to wallpapers and has a collection of hundreds of images in the 3D and  fantasy art categories. The images are of the correct resolution for your mobile’s screen. The wallpapers used in this review is only a small sample of the hundreds of wallpapers you can get for your mobile device. Its definitely worth a look.

Mini Review

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

How would you like to escape from a boring conversation group or from some who just can’t stop talking incessantly without realizing the emergency you may have? While such situations should be handled by a firm response without the aid of an external agent, sometimes, ByeByeCaller from ThinkChange does come in handy.

When ByByeCaller is started, you get the message “There will be a fake incoming call in 10 second(s), Activate?”. When you press “Yes”, 10 seconds later you get an incoming call that rings long enough for you to disentangle yourself from the situation you are in. The Activation Delay can be configured – so that the fake call comes in a few seconds later or sooner.

The Fake Name can be changed too, to something you want – like “the boss” or “the wife” or something that shows how important the call is. The funny thing is you could even configure the Network from which the fake call originates.

But I couldn’t stop the ringing after I activated the fake call. I had to wait for it to die out, which about a few seconds but I would have liked to stop it with the Red button if I wanted to.

Download

ByeByeCaller can be downloaded here for a trial or purchased at $9.95.

Conclusion

ByeByeCaller is worth a look. It might be highly useful for some people and not useful at all for others. The need is very subjective. The application has a simple implementation and good usability. I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Mini Review

Cool Home Screens – nUnLock and FingerPrint from ThinkChange.

nUnLock

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

nUnLock is a cool home screen for your Nokia Symbian S60 5th edition device. It has an iPhone like screen lock with a”Slide to Unlock” option at the bottom of the screen. All notifications are displayed on the home screen See everything you need at first glance: easy-to-read time, month, date and day display and  important indicators of the phone status. The status indicators are phone lock status, radio signal bars and battery level indicator with a + sign if the device is charging. It also displays Bluetooth connectivity but does not display WiFi connections.

nUnLock lets you configure the background image on the screen. If no custom image is provided, it picks a good scenery. Apart from customizing the background image, you can also customize the slider sensitivity, font color of the text on the screen, transparency and various time,date formats. The text “Slide to Unlock” is also customizable.

You can unlock your Nokia phone with one smooth slide of the finger. But you still have to first unlock the screen by pulling down the mechanical lock-unlock ‘lever’ on the side of the Nokia 5800.

Download

nUnLock can be downloaded at ThinkChange’s nUnLock page.

Conclusion

nUnlock is a fine replacement to the home screen which displays of all useful events. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5.

FingerPrint

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

FingerPrint, as the name suggests gives the appearance that you will use your fingerprint to unlock the phone screen and its quite authentic!  You can play the tick with friends and anyone who picks up the phone to play with it. When the FingerPrint screen pops up, you need to touch your finger to the screen to be “scanned” for your identity, there will be vibration and beep sounds during the scan.

It actually works based on the how many times the finger print scanner runs the fake scan on your finger as you keep touching the screen. If you have set the unlock condition to 3, the screen is unlocked after the scanner runs past the finger 3 times. So actually, the phone does not unlock depending on whose finger it is, but on how many beeps or vibrations happened since your finger touch the screen.

Download

FingerPrint can be downloaded at ThinkChange’s FingerPrint page.

Conclusion

FingerPrint works fine as a home screen as well as an application for pranks. Its worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5.

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: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

ABC Color Sheet is an alphabet learning guide for children.  As the name suggests, the application has a grid will all the 26 letters in the alphabet. Your child can pick a letter, associate it with an object and practice writing the patterns using your Symbian S60 5th edition touch device.

On each alphabet, arrow marks adjoining the letters assist the child in tracing the pattern along the alphabet in the correct direction. A wide palette of colors are available and the pencil’s thickness can be varied.

ABC Color  Sheet lets you send the alphabets as images via Bluetooth, text or email and also share them online. The alphabets can also bet set as wallpapers.

The eraser is very small dot and erasing text written on the alphabet is a real pain. You can see in the picture below how difficult it is to erase text written on the alphabet. Besides, there is no option to clean up all that’s scribbled on the alphabets. They don’t go away even when the application is closed.

Download

ABC Color Sheet for S60 devices is available in the Ovi store for 3 Euros. You can get the URL via SMS to your mobile to download it. The Ovi store application automatically installs the application after purchase.

Conclusion

ABC Color Sheet is a basic application for practicing patterns. But the poor eraser and not being able to clean up the graffiti on the alphabets is annoying. a simple feedback  mechanism would engage children more. Its worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

We recently reviewed a music application from Impetus. Here is another one. JalTarang is an ancient Indian musical instrument. Literally Jaltarang means “waves in water” indicating motion of sound created with the aid of water. Bowls made of China numbering around sixteen are normally used. Bowls for notes of lower octave are large while those for notes of higher octaves are smaller in size. Water is poured into the bowls and the pitch is changed by adjusting the volume of water. The number of bowls depends on the melody being played. The JalTarang from Impetus Technologies was installed on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an S60 5th edition device with Symbian OS version 9.4.

The JalTarang uses 7 bowls of increasing size. Each bowl has a different sound.  The application’s response is very similar to the Drummer application. I noticed only a very minor lag between a tap on a bowl and the actual sound.

A tap on a bowl animates it giving a  visual feedback that the instrument has been touched.

A pre-recorded sound clip is available that is animated with a baton tapping the bowls in sync with the music played. You can also record your own music and play it back. But the recording cannot be saved for later use.

Download

JalTarang is available in the Ovi store. You can get the URL via SMS to your mobile to download it. The Ovi store application automatically installs the application after purchase.

Conclusion

JalTarang is a fun application to play with and a nice way to kill time. JalTarang is worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

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

Installation

Drummer is available in the Ovi store and you can get a URL via SMS to download it. The Ovi store application automatically installs the application after purchase.

First View

The potential of a handheld touch screen device is enormous. Developers come up innovative designs to use the touch screen. Music applications on the Nokia 5800 is one such innovation that is of high entertainment value. Read on.

Main Review

The Drummer is a simple application that contains a Drum Set or Drum Kit with seven components, a Bass Drum, two Toms, a Floor Tom, a Snare Drum and two cymbals, one Crash Cymbal and one Hi-Hat Cymbal. This is a standard collection of drum kit components that are used in Rock and Jazz music.

The application is quite responsive and I only noticed a very minor lag between a tap on a drum and the actual sound. But the application is not able respond fast enough to the speed of thumbs. If I went fast with my thumbs, the application misses a few beats. Of course, I never expect it to respond to the speed of my wrists with drum sticks on real drums.

A tap on a drum or a cymbal animates it giving a  visual feedback that the instrument has been touched. The Hi-Hat and the Crash Cymbals also animate when touched.

The Drummer application has a Record and Play option using which you can record a music. A pre-recorded piece of music is also available that demonstrates the capabilities of Drummer.

Handling

Drummer is very simple and easy to use.

Weaknesses

Responsiveness to taps could be improved.

Conclusion

Drummer is a fun application to play with and a nice way to kill time. Its more of a demonstration of the capabilities of touch screen phones. Even Nokia introduced free music applications including a drummer when the Nokia 5800 XPress Music was introduced. Drummer is worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5. Download Drummer at the Ovi Store.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Mini Review

We have already reviewed M1 v1.0 for S60 3rd edition devices. Here is a mini review of the M1 for the S60 5th edition mobile devices.

M1 for the s60 5th edition devices doesn’t bring any new features to the table when compared to the version for the s60 3rd edition. But the drag and drop of application icons to the M1 desktop has been implemented very well.

Its very easy to move and delete icons on the desktop using the finger or the stylus. They fit into an invisible grid on the desktop and emulate the Android UI quite closely. To delete icons, just drag them to the bottom of the M1 desktop and a trash icon appears to which the icon can be dumped.

The application is implemented as a flash file using Adobe Flash Lite.

Download

M1 touch version can be purchased or downloaded for trial here.

Conclusion

Sometimes I observed that the icons are not visible on the desktop. Even when I drag an icon to the desktop, it remains invisible. The icon panel has icons for non-existent applications too, like Quick Office. M1 for s60 touch is worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Review Conditions

I used gym Technik on a Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, an s60 5th edition mobile device running Symbian version OS 9.4.

Installation

There is no installation file, either in the native .sisx format or a .jar file for using Gym Technik on your mobile. Just go to Gym Technik mobile on your web browser to access your account.

First View

GymTechnik is a free innovative online tool allowing you to use your smartphone as your workout journal when you are at your gym. Read on.

Main Review

Gym Technik maintains a log of all your workout routines on the web which can be updated, viewed and edited from a mobile device using just a browser.

Not surprisingly, you need to create an account to store all your workout information on the web.

The login page prominently displays today’s date and the two main actions you can do on the website, namely Start a Workout, Enter Body Stats or Upload Photos. The settings lets you configure more options that help you customize you login to your convenience.

When you select Start Workout, you are presented with a large list of workouts, which is a subset of pre-built workouts from the Gym Technik Library.

For each workout, there is an image and detailed instructions on how to perform the exercise. In the specific exercise, the number of sets and the weights you will use in that set and be set. You can also enter notes to yourself about each workout in the Workout Notes.

You can also add a new workout to your list by selecting one of the many exercise types that are made available through the web browser. The workout list pops up in a user-friendly menu where you can select the workout for the desired part of the body. After you select a workout, you can also enter the number of sets and can choose to have this workout only for the specific day or permanently in your library.

After the workout is over you can choose to select Save / Back to Workout or End / Workout Summary buttons. Once the workout is completed, a tick appears on the right of the workout to let you know your progress.

When you select End Workout / Summary,  you get a summary of work out.  Notes can be added to the workout that are saved to the workout data on the web.

How do you handle a situation where you cannot do all the sets of a workout at one stretch, or do the workouts in the order you want? A nice feature of GymTechnik is the Start Tracking feature which takes you to the View All Exercises page that has advanced capabilities. This page auto-saves data as the exercises are completed. This page lists all the exercises in a single page and keeps saving the workouts as you enter the data. This is particularly useful when you switch between exercises in a busy gym or need to complete circuit-type workouts.

Handling

All operations on GymTechnik can be accomplished using a mobile device – adding new workouts, logging workouts, update body stats, etc. The desktop website of GymTechnik gives a richer flash based experience to the user.

It is important to remember that the mobile web site is not a dumb HTML page.  It runs scripts to keep track of your entire workout session after you login in. Navigation from one workout to another, entering body stats, etc are all captured as Javascript forms and are linked to your session information. Therefore, you MUST only use the links given in the website for navigation. Every page has a SAVE or CANCEL button and on the top of every page you can see the ‘crumbs’ link with which you can use to navigate across pages. Do not use the BACK button of the mobile browser.

For e.g., when you want to quite a workout, you are asked for confirmation on discarding the script.

Weaknesses

GymTechnik does what it sets out to do very well. Its a sophisticated workout logger, giving the user a plethora of information on workouts, instructions and guides and helps to track the progress on a calendar.

Naturally, there will be a comparison to the Nokia Sports Tracker. But that’s a native Symbian application whereas GymTechnik is a web based application and there are certain limitations that can only be fulfilled by a native application, e.g. GPS.  So these comparisons are not fully justified.

Conclusion

GymTechnik lets you access your workouts at home or at the gym using a full featured website online or using the web browser. The website provides fitness advice, nutrition ideas and health tips in addition to managing your workouts. GymTechnik has also partnered with Oxygenfit to offer workouts for women. The mobile version of Gym Technik, has been well optimized for the mobile’s browser and it is a pleasure to use. Its worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5.