Since I wrote the post on syncing the cell phone calendars I’ve discovered a few more syncml servers, from reading up on other blogs. Gsmsync is a web based service (although still in beta), where one can sign up, and sync calendar and contacts with the server via syncml. Thereby using the server as interface for the calendar, and backup for contacts. The website looks and functions really well, most of the way, I never recieved the setup sms (until 30 minutes later), so I had to set the settings up by hand. In addition when looking in the documentation it is clear that they are in beta. In time they plan to make it a paid service, but as fare as I could see it is free right now.
ZYB is a service very similar to GSMsync, in the way that they offer a very similar product, calendar and contacts sync via syncml and a nice web interface, for adding appointments and contacts. Contrary to GSMsync their documentation is very good, and it is a free service, which they plan to keep it free, and make their money from selling additional services like outlook integration (I however have a hard time seeing how they will keep users from connecting with Outlook via Funambols free syncml plugin for Outlook).
Of the two ZYB gave the best impression, it worked right out of the box, and even helped the user identify the phone model during the signup, and sending the settings right to the phone. All in all ZYB is in my mind clearly the most consistent solution for syncing the cell phone calendar, making it an best choice for the non-experienced user.
The premises are still, that I’m limited to my Nokia 6610i phone, and the apps which function on that one. Furthermore, there seems to be a significant difference between what the website getjar reports compatible, and what I can’t find compatible (maybe a firmware problem).
I’ve been trying out three applications which I could make work: the hardcore no nonsense email, and the servicebased Flurrymail and Movamail.
Yesterday I was very positive about Simon Judge’s “email”, and I still really like that it takes up so little memory and that it is a fully blown client without the need for signing up for a service. It has however some series limitations. First of all, it does not support html mail. Second I could not make it work with several of my email accounts (including my Gmail), my guess is that this is due to Gmail only accepting encrypted connections. The application serves its purpose, if one can accept these limitations and that the look isn’t “polished”.
Flurrymail is the first of the service based email systems; I covered this in detail yesterday. I will just say that the interface is absolutely excellent. It not only looks, but it seems that everything has been thought through. On signs up very fast with the email address and the password for the email account. I did so with my Gmail account and it worked right away. Adding to this the interface on the phone is very intuitive.
If one goes to the website it is possible to add further email accounts and to news feeds via rss. Yesterday I was very positive about this feature, but I only tried it today. I signed up for my 6-7 favourite feeds, and when I tried it on the phone this morning it turned out that the feeds a shown as emails on the phone. This makes it very hard to find the emails and apparently caused some of my mails to not be loaded to the phone, since I encountered a limit around 60-70 messages. So this is absolutely not a full rss client, I’ve unsubscribed to all the feeds now, and is just using it as a mail client.
Movamail are in some points very similar to Flurrymail, since it is also a service. It just takes a lot longer to sign up, and depending on where you are from in the world it is only free for 60 days. The app looks very well, but I don’t find the control as intuitive as Flurrymail (but this probably differ according to the phone). It is claimed on the website that Movamail is faster than many other apps, I would guess that this should be due to compression, but I do not see this difference in loading times between Movamail and Flurrymail. If any I would say that Flurrymail is the fastest.
After trying the apllications a little more, there is very clear which one I will be using from now on. The limitations in Simon Judge’s email are too big, even though it does count in its favour that it is a complete client. Flurrymail seemed to be the most functional in the interface, both on the website and on my Nokia, and it is free.
That was just my 2 cents let me hear what you have to say.
Within the last year it seems that the number of JAVA applications for cell-phones have exploded. Today it is possible to expand the phone with more games, and the option of checking e-mail, gmail and a lot more.
I’ve tried out just a few of these apps, to see what they could do for a simple phone like my Nokia 6610i, but most of this should be relevant for a large array of phones.
When I first got my phone a few years a go, it seemed that the java capabilities in the phone could only be used for the already built in games, and some simple games and apps which was too expensive in my mind. After becoming aware of websites like getjar.com, it seems to me that this has changed. From getjar and other websites, it is possible to download loads of apps, some free other demos or shareware, to the pc or directly to phone, without expenses other than the bandwidth for downloading.
I’ve tried out a small sample of the apps on my Nokia 6610i, just to get an idea. To keep expenses low I downloaded the applications to the pc and transferred them by infrared connection. This is made pretty easy by the Nokia software; after the connection was made I was automatically asked if I wanted any Java app uploaded to the phone when I selected it for download.
My main priorities were an instant messaging client, as I figured it is probably cheaper than sms and e-mail since it is always nice to have.
Even though Getjar make it possible to only see the apps compatible with your phone, it seemed that half the applications I tried out did not work or was to large a file.
At first I tried out eMSNlite, this turned out to be a real pleasant experience; I was on my messenger account within seconds. I know there is a lot other IM clients out there but for Messenger fans this one seemed to do the trick.
The first mail app I tried was the simple one, a shareware called “Email“. When it is not registered it has a nagging delay screen. What I liked about this app was it no-nonsense simplicity and the low memory usage.
Flurrymail is not just a Java app but a whole service, I must say I was a little skeptic at first, it just seemed to good. The service is free, and once signed up, you can add multiple e-mail accounts and news-feed (RSS) to the subscription. These are accessed through the flurrymail java-app. The website, and the client app for the phone looks very nice and cleans-shaven.
When installing I had the problem, that the file was too big (apparently the phone has a limit on how large the java apps can be), but after signing up I was offered an address, from which I could download it directly to the phone. It refused to work with the first e-mail I gave (even though it should work with pop3 and Imap) but accepted my Gmail. At the time of writing it still has not found my old e-mail (they say it takes some time and the 2000+ mails in the account could be the problem), but it have sent a mail to myself without any problems.
There is however two things which bother me, first of all the privacy issue, I don’t like giving up my cell phone number and e-mail account passwords to an unfamiliar website. Adding to that I can’t figure out how they plan to make money. The second thing which bother me, is that I have a hard time figuring out how much memory it would occupy on the phone, and how much bandwidth it would use especially in this case with a ridiculous amount of unread mail. But if none of these turn out to be a problem this could be really great.
Movamail is another e-mail service which boasted that they save bandwidth by compressing the data. The app worked on the phone but I have not tried setting it up with an account. This also seemed like a really nice service.
All in all there should be really great possibilities for upgrading the old phone. It would be nice to hear from others which have experience with JAVA- apps. So don’t hesitate to make a comment.
I also tried out some games here is the list of compatible Games
Aqualife X: Kingdom of love
Black Metal
Yikiyo
A list of the Java apps I found to be non-compatible with Nokia 6610i
As an update to the previous post, on syncing cell phone calendars, it has been brought to my attention, that newer phones has some further possibilities of syncing with Yahoo and Google Calendars.
Users who prefer the Yahoo, has the possibility to download the Java app Yahoo GO which offer a wide degree of integration with Yahoo, including Calendar, contacts and e-mail. There are however series limitations to the number of phones it works on. Put in another way it only works with Nokia series 60 phones (9 different models all in all).
For Google users the opening of the Calendar API has resulted in the creation of GCALSYNC, a java app which is capable of syncing a cell phone with Google Calendar. However, this app is still in beta and only supports a limited number of phones (and not my Nokia 6610i, but a lot more than Yahoo Go).
If one has an advanced phone this might be a the way to go. Although in my mind a lot more complicated than if everybody could agree on using syncml.
