Mobile Hacks

Ten nifty power tips for your cell phone.

If Windows makes your PC tick, ever wonder what makes the soul of your cell phone go pit-a-pat? Well, if you have any of the newish Nokia, LG, Samsung, or Sony Ericsson handsets, chances are that it is a S60--or Series 60--platform phone running the Symbian OS.

S60 is the most popular smartphone platforms on our little Blue Planet at present. It is a multivendor standard for smartphones that supports application development in Java MIDP, C++, and Python. Its bedrock, the Symbian operating system has been designed for mobile devices, and comprises associated libraries for telephony, user interface frameworks, reference implementations of common tools like PIMs and Helix-enabled multimedia players. Symbian is a product of Symbian Software Ltd., a company owned by Nokia, Ericsson, Panasonic, Samsung, and Sony Ericsson. S60 1st edition (S60v1), or its 2nd edition (S60v2) software is not binary compatible with S60 3rd edition (S60v3).

Let’s clear one more ambiguous term while we are at it. A smartphone is an electronic handheld device--usually with a largish colour screen--that incorporates the functionality of a cell phone, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), and/or another information appliance. It allows for additional applications and software to be installed by the user. The "smart" features can comprise anything ranging from an additional interface like a keyboard or a touch screen, or ability to check e-mail, or capture and playback of various types of media.

Now let’s look at some little tips and tricks that can jazz up your workings on a S60 smartphone. But hey, keep in mind functionality can vary from model to model and manufacturer to manufacturer. So if some of these tricks don’t work on you phone, don’t arm yourself with a 12-bore elephant gun and come hunting for my rear.

Easy Digits in Alpha Mode
All of us accustomed to using the T9 mode find it a pain entering numerics while typing out an SMS, especially when it is just two or three stray digits that we want. Next time you want to input number, just press on the relevant numeric keys (0 to 9) for a longish time. This will generate a number entry in the text without at all altering the input mode.

Voice Quickies
You know your voice can be you phone’s command by recording the commands in Voice application residing in the Tools folder. But perhaps what you don’t know is that these voice commands can easily be activated by pressing and holding the right softkey, no matter what shortcut you have preset for this key.

Quick Profile Toggle
On S60 cell phones, you can change your phone’s profile very swiftly by using its Power key a uni-directional scroll and toggle on. Press the Power key quickly 2, 3, or 4 times to get to the desired profile. Hold the key down and the profile you want will be activated.

App Capers
Try pressing the Menu/Application key and then a number between 1 to 9. This will launch the application which coincides with its place on the grid of 9 in the menu layout. Experiment a bit, see what lies where, and then memorise the shortcuts.

Image Control Shortcuts
While viewing images in your phone’s Gallery, you can use these keys as convenient shortcuts rather than diving into the menu each time.

1: Turns image anticlockwise
3: Turn image clockwise
*: Toggle on/off of full screen
5: Zoom in
0: Zoom out

MP3s on the 6600
The Nokia 6600 is an immensely popular mobile. And one of the features sorely lacking in it is the ability to warble to MP3 (as well as WMA and Ogg). But not any more. Here’s a little plugin which will allow you to play MP3s on it:

http://zavenx.googlepages.com/Plugins.sis

Download it and install it. Restart the phone. Copy your 128kbps MP3s (yep, only 128kbps) to the Sounds > Digital folder. That’s it. If you don’t know how to install the download, flame me.

Sssh the Start up Jingle
You’re want to switch on you phone but don’t want the people around you to know that you are doing this. So what you do to suppress the Nokia phone on jingle? Switch it on and immediately press either of the scroll keys (Up/Down) to quell the sound.

Confirming Message Delivery
There are a couple of ways with which you can confirm if your SMS has been received. One is ensuring that Delivery Reports on your phone is enabled. The other method involves typing:

*0#

in your message composition window, before thumbing in your SMS. The moment the recipient receives the message, you will get a receipt. Don’t worry, the he/she will just get the message, not the star-zero-hash stuff.

Diwali Bonus
Here’s a Diwali gift for people who have written to me asking for websites that allow sending free SMS messages in India. I checked it out on various major cell networks and found it working satisfactorily on all except Reliance. The image verification check is a wee bit tedious. But what the heck, it’s free. Use it before the Big Boys have it blocked.
www.atrochatro.com
www.aasma.com