My Favorite S60 Apps (for N70)
Before I list down some of them, I need to point out that these two particular generation of Symbian-based Mobile phones : N70 and N90, uses a slightly different version of Symbian S60 – Symbian S60 v2.
The major difference is that this particular version offers ‘Active Standby’ screen (somewhat similar to MS Windows Mobile) – which shows a few shortcut icons, and your recent calendar items (appointments, memo, anniversary, etc).
So anyways, let’s get on going to the list of my favorite applications.
1. FExplorer (main site | download)
If you search anywhere in various Symbian communities everywhere for the most recommended applications, this one tool will be mentioned over and over. This is basically a multi-function file manager for your phone. You can manage your files, take screenshots, send them over MMS/Bluetooth/Email with only a few clicks, and offers a tool to compress the content of your memory card to make space for more stuffs.
2. Various alternative screensavers.
My N70 comes with only three default screensavers – one is the N70 ad (which is useless), an option to put your own text as a screensaver (not really useful), and the slightly enhanced version of the standard Nokia’s clock screensaver. However, there’s one very annoying problem with this only useful screensaver – the text is small! Given the fact that screensavers always run while the phone’s backlight is off, reading the time and status icons can be troublesome if not impossible. So after looking around the forums and various community sites, I’ve come across a few that grabs my attention:
- ClockSaver – My Favorite! (Screenshot A | Screenshot B | Download)
Very nice (and huge) screensaver – check out the Screenshots. This one even comes with various fonts and sizes!
- VaScrSaverColor (Screenshot | Download)
Slightly bigger than then default, can be customized a bit
- LargeTime (Screenshot | Download)
This has to be the largest screensaver I’ve ever seen for this phone. However, I’m not attracted to it for some reason.
3. Opera Mobile (main site | download)
Some N70 comes with this pre-installed, and for some strange reason mine didn’t, even though it have the latest firmware. So anyways, grab this piece of excellent mobile browser. (For those using diferent phones, you can try getting Opera Mini instead – works on most color phones, even the non-symbian ones. Only 99kB download)
4. Oggplay 1.69 (main site | download)
Oggplay, as some of us can guess, is a media player capable of playing Ogg Audio format in addition to the already enabled Mp3, Mp4, Wav and MIDI. Some might ask ‘Why bother with this when the phone can already play Mp3s?’. Yeah these people could be right. Why I install it then? From my experience of mobile music, Ogg files that are encoded at 64kbps in stereo sounds as good as mp3 at 128kbps. This means half of the file size! Yeah, more rooms for other things, or more rooms for more songs. This player is skinnable too, adds to the finishing touch.
So far these are the only apps that I am very comfortable with. I have loads more that are installed and pending my taste report :p. This list will be updated from time to time!
QuickTip: How do I install the softwares on my phone?
The simplest way is to use the bundled Nokia PC Suite. Connect your phone to your PC with either Bluetooth or Cable, and launch the ‘Nokia Application Installer’. Browse to your downloaded Symbian Installers (usually they have .sis at the end of their name), and install it using the tool.
Once you’ve done this on the PC, it will ask you to ‘Please finish the installation on the phone’. On the phone, usually a few questions will pop up asking whether you really want to install the app, and where to install it. Once the installation is done, you can start using the app by browsing to the ‘My Own’ section in the Menu.
Hope this helps!
