+ Thoughts: Google Android vs. Nokia S60!

16 January 2008

Google Android vs. Nokia S60
What would it take to build a better mobile phone?

Google Android vs. Nokia Series 60I’ve just finished my daily tour over the numerous blogs, sites and forums that I read frequently with a very interesting find and I thought I’d share it with you all and share my thoughts on it as well.

As you may or may not have already known, few moths ago Google has cut off the months and months of the endless gossip and blog posts about the GPhone with a new mobile platform based on the Linux named as Android.

Android is developed by Google and others under the umbrella of the „Open Handset Alliance.“ The platform is based on Linux and other open-source elements and offer a complete set of phone components, including an operating system, middleware stack, customizable user interface as well as applications.

There is no doubt that even without a long awaited gPhone, Android is fascinating in its own way and same as Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android have caused the mobile industry to open up to new ideas and new ways of the operating.

The CEO of Symbian Nigel Clifford said said at a Tokyo news conference when asked about Google’s new phone platform he’s already spoilt for choice with Linux-based cell phone platforms and that Google’s Android software appears to be just another to add to the list.

Google’s androidAlthough I also wasn’t that much impressed with the Android and although my first reaction was something like “What, no GPhone?” I tend to disagree with Mr. Clifford.

Android is undoubtedly much more than just another Linux platform, and there is no doubt that Google and its Android will be among Symbian’s the most serious competitors.

From other hand of the incredible high Symbian’s global percent in the global handsets market share and also because of the size of Nokia itself I don’t see a large impact on the Series 60 position especially if Nokia continues with providing innovative hardware solutions supported with the improved S60 UI that is under heavy development.

Google’s android

Anyway, here is the interesting find from the begging of the article:

Ivan Kuznetsov that works as a Software Asset Manager in Nokia has published an article about Google’s Android and its impact on the currently leading Smartphone platform. Ivan’s comparison is undoubtedly interesting and objective overview of the current situation on the smartphone scene and definitely worth reading.

In conclusion he says:

Android is a new guy on the block, and it is not all roses. It still has to survive the harsh reality of hardware products manufactuing world and maintaining API compatibility between versions and devices in order to establish itself as a real platform. Because of the Apache license used for Android SDK “applications designed to be compatible with Google’s platform could be made incompatible with a particular device, by a handset vendor who removes core Android APIs and replaces them with their own closed source alternative“.

Integration with the real hardware can bring more surprises than anticipated by a company with software background. So I wouldn’t count on seeing first Android devices earlier than Christmas 08.

Google got many things right and made a very good start. Android looks quite promising, and Google seems to be quite serious about making it world leading mobile platform. At the same time Nokia has an established platform, a huge base of S60 devices already on the market and talented S60 R&D team. Year 2008 promises to be very interesting.

So just go there and have a nice reading… .. . .

Google’s android
Source: Ivan Kuznetsov     Author: Apoc

EasyEdit – Mobile text editor

13 January 2008

EasyEdit – Mobile text editor
that is designed to be intuitive and flexible

EasyEditEasyEdit is an intuitive, friendly and very simple text editor for S60 phones developed in Python with a lot of useful features.

Sure every S60 phone is equipped with text editor but EasyEdit is quite better solution than the build in Notes application because it allows you to edit most of the existing text based files directly on your mobile phone.

Also it has the build in file browser, full search support with find/replace (case sensitive) functionality, possibility to change screen and font size, supports multiple encodings including ASCII & UTF-8 and much, much more.

You can create and edit INI-files, any kind of configuration files actually; you can even tweak Python scripts and many more non formatted files wherever you are.

Although it is very simple and has the very limited functionality it is still great and essential tool for the freaks on the go and after all it will cost you nothing so you should give it a try

EasyEdit current features:

* File browser for opening/saving and more.
* Maintains a list of recently opened/saved files.
* Cut/Copy/Paste.
* Change screen size and font.
* Settings are restored when the program is reopened.
* Set encoding of files read from/written to disk.
* Search within a file.
* Including search for a string forwards/backwards and finding a given line in a file.

Features to come:

* Find and replace.
* Cut/Copy using „ABC“ button text selection. This is already implemented by the operating system as well as the clipboard functionality included in the „Edit“ menu.
* (?) Line-numbers displayed in status bar
* Since it’s quite difficult to obtain keypresses from a text() object, I think this will have to be implemented in a separate thread that updates the staus/title bar… appuifw cannot be accessed from a separate thread!
* A proper „help“.

 

Source: symbian-freak.com
Author: Appoc’

Hacking the NSU…

This tutorial will show you how to modify your firmware and tell you everything necessary you need to know about it.

!!! I do not take responsibility for any damages or malfunctions !!!
If anything goes wrong, you can go to Nokia Service Center and tell them your update failed.
They will recover your phone.First of all, download the tools at the bottom of this post.

You need to do a backup of all your data stored in the phone memory (disc C:) because C: will be formatted during the flashing process.
Use Nokia PC Suite or make a backup using the memory card application. Both methods work.

Next you need to get NokiaSoftware Updater (NSU) from Nokia. It will look if there are updates available for your mobile and will allow you to reinstall your current firmware.
Grab it here hxxp://europe.nokia.com/A4579163 .

Start NSU, click Start, connect your phone to the computer (select ‘PC Suite’ if it asks you) and click Next.

It will recognize your phone and look for updates. Press the checkbox and continue.

NSU will start downloading the firmware files from Nokia’s server and update your phone.

After the process is completed, you will find some firmware files stored in

Quote

C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Date\Nokia\Nokia Service Layer\A\nsl_service_module_00001\vpls\www.dsut.online.nokia.com.oti.caresuite\Products\rm-92

Most probably the path differs according to each phone model. You should be able to find it though.

You need the .fpsx file. Its about 45MB and its name structure is: <model>_<version>-…<localization>….fpsx
If you have an up-to-date N80, the filename will look like this n80_5.0719.0.2-prd_western_c00_cc.fpsx

Open the file in WinHex or any other hex editor.

Press Ctrl+F, enter AllowUnsigned, select ‘ASCII/Code Page’ in the dropdown box and press OK

The first search result is pretty useless.. just some filenames and random strings.
Press F3 to get to the next one.

Now you see the content of swipolicy.ini in front of you. The blue marked part in the image shows this file.

The content may differ from firmware to firmware but you will see where the text ends and where the encrypted code starts.
Maybe you will not even find this part in your firmware at all….

Now select the content -> rightclick -> Edit -> Copy Block -> Into New File -> Save as content.txt (for example)

Use your favourite text editor (I recommend Notepad++ .. look below) to change the file but remember to keep the filesize!

You will need to remove some lines. So I recommend to take a look on this page which explain you the contents of swipolicy.ini
hxxp://www.symbian.com/developer/techlib/v9.2docs/doc_source/ToolsAndUtilities/Installing-ref/swipolicy.html

Here is an example of a working swipolicy file .. before and after .. both 536 bytes :

Quote from: BEFORE

AllowUnsigned = false
MandatePolicies = false
MandateCodeSigningExtension = false
Oid = 1.2.3.4.5.6
Oid = 2.3.4.5.6.7
DRMEnabled = true
DRMIntent = 3
OcspMandatory = false
OcspEnabled = true
AllowGrantUserCapabilities = true
AllowOrphanedOverwrite = true
UserCapabilities = NetworkServices LocalServices ReadUserData WriteUserData UserEnvironment
AllowPackagePropagate = true
SISCompatibleIfNoTargetDevices = false
RunWaitTimeoutSeconds = 600
AllowRunOnInstallUninstall = false
DeletePreinstalledFilesOnUninstall = true

Quote from: AFTER

AllowUnsigned = true
MandatePolicies = false
MandateCodeSigningExtension = false
Oid = 1.2.3.4.5.6
Oid = 2.3.4.5.6.7
OcspMandatory = false
OcspEnabled = true
AllowGrantUserCapabilities = true
AllowOrphanedOverwrite = true
UserCapabilities = AllFiles TCB DRM DiskAdmin NetworkServices LocalServices ReadUserData WriteUserData ReadDeviceData WriteDeviceData UserEnvironment PowerMgmt MultimediaDD TrustedUI ProtServ NetworkControl SwEvent Location SurroundingsDD CommDD
AllowPackagePropagate = true

I highly doubt that you will need all the capabilities listed there, this is only a possible example.
The most interesting should be AllFiles – it enables you to view the hidden system folders. Assumed you’ve got a compatible file browser.
You can also change AllowUnsigned to true. Should be self-explainable.

And Remember to keep the filesize, you can add some spaces in Notepad++ until it fits.

When you are done editing, save it as a new file named as content_new.txt (for example)
Again.. check the filesize to be sure. Move your mouse over the file to see a popup saying 536 bytes (in this case).

Open Apatcher and write a command line according to this form:

Quote

replace:<content>:<content_new>

…where <content> and <content_new> are the hex values of each text file.

To get the hex values, open the according text file in WinHex, press Ctrl+A and Ctrl+Shift+C.

It should look like this:

Basically, your patch is ready. You can save it for later use if you want, don’t close Apatcher. Now it needs to be applied the firmware file.

Unfortunately NSU will download the firmware files each time you want to flash your phone and transfer them directly without confirmation.
Thats no problem though because you can patch the fpsx file while its finished and the others are downloading.
That will be ~20MB and not much time for people with fast internet connections.
Get NetLimiter (look below) to slowdown NSU if you want.

So.. start NSU, let it download the files and check the folder to see when the fpsx is done.
Quickly switch to Apatcher and press the ‘Apply patch for file’ button (remember to switch file type to ‘All files’ afterwards) and select the fpsx file.

When its done, you will see some text at the log window below:

Quote

Replaced set 1 to 01DA7244H
All DONE!

Now you can lean back and watch NSU flash your phone. The process will take ~15-20 minutes and does not require your interaction.

Congratulations! You’re done!

Now you can use ActiveFile (look below) to test your new capabilities or read this tutorial (will follow soon) how to give the AllFiles capability to your favourite file browser.

—————-

Optional Tools:
WinHex
NetLimiter

Source: symbian-mobiles.eu
Author: K3nny

Wavelog : Post directly to Your blog from your S60 !

Wavelog blogging client application developed for S60 phones allows posting of the content as text, image, audio or video, to a Web log (blog) directly from the mobile phone using any type of available network (mobile phone or Wi-Fi network)

The application allows saving the work for later posting in the case there is no available network or to allow selection of a network with larger up-link bandwidth (faster posting) or lower cost (for example a free Wi-Fi HotSpot compared to a mobile phone network).

Wavelog has been developed and tested on Nokia N95 mobile phones posting to the WordPress publishing system, both hosted on the wordpress.com and the current stable release available from wordpress.org and hosted with different hosting providers.

Wavelog does not restrict users to a specific blog hosting provider, social network or an intermediate content aggregation. It permits a complete freedom for choosing blog hosting provider or even installing own blog publishing system on the Internet, extranet, intranet, or a local area network. It is designed for performance, scalability and reliability, so it is coded in C++ programming language as a native Symbian OS*** application. Wavelog does not use any form of usage tracking for targeted advertisement or direct marketing purposes.

See it in action !

So, visit their site after 14 January 2008 to get a free trial of Wavelog!

Source: http://symbian-applications.blogspot.com
Author: SlipKoRnSaad

Latest Firmware Update For Nokia N73

We have already reported that Nokia has released a new minor firmware version for Nokia N73 but it was only available for APAC (Asian-Pacific) region and that it should be available worldwide soon.Well, we have right and firmware is now available for the most of the generic product codes and I truly hope that it will be available soon for the branded phones as well.

Anyway, thanks to the report over at our forum section, the latest firmware version (4.0750.31.2.1) brings a radical changes in memory usage!!!

Actually now it is more than obviously that the latest firmware version includes the demand paging which result winch much more free RAM memory and remarkable speed improvement.

While the older software has only 16 MB of free RAM after the fresh boot up new firmware is capable to release up to 20 MB and to boot up phone much faster, 41 against the 54 sec on the older firmware.

Previously we have reported that there are some unconfirmed reports about remarkable improvements in camera part but unfortunately thanks to this latest and very reliable report it seems that it is not the case and that photo quality basically remains the same.

However inplementingdemand paging is the really huge and important addition and it is highly suggestible to update the phone as soon as possible, just hope that the N73 classic will get update and demand paging soon.

If you have something more top say about the latest update please join the discussion nd tell us what you thin about!?!!

Source: SF forum Author: Hmmm ft. Apoc’