technology

Though Gmail provides a nice J2ME client for accessing email on your mobile device, some of you may prefer to use the IMAP interface, speed being one of the reason. Here is how I configured Gmail IMPAP on my Nokia N95. This may apply for other S60 v3 devices like N80, N73, N82, N93 etc., The instructions should be similar for E-Series devices too.

Go to Messaging -> Options -> Settings -> Email and add a new mailbox. Follow the Wizard. Select IMAP4:

For the email address, add your gmail id. It will be a good idea to copy the email id to your clipboard now as you will be typing it a couple of more times. (Select the text, hold down the pencil key till copy appears on the left soft key).

On the next screen, type imap.gmail.com as your incoming mail server.

For the outgoing mail server, type smtp.gmail.com. For the Access Point, select a predefined one or leave it at “Always ask”. On the next screen, give a name like Gmail etc., This completes the basic settings, but you need to specify the port and security settings also.

Click on the Gmail mailbox and select ‘Connection Settings’. For the username, enter your full email id as in xyz@gmail.com. Type also the password. Scroll below to select Security (ports) and choose SSL/TLS.

Make sure that the Port is set to ‘user defined’ and 993. Repeat all these steps for outgoing mail, but choose the Port as 587. You are done! Go to your main screen of Messaging application, select Gmail and select “Retreive Email” -> New. You can see all the new mails you received in the last 3 days.

Update: As per comments from one of the readers, Chris Moore, you have to select “StartTLS” for your security(ports) settings for outgoing email.

Related: Streaming radio on your Nokia N95

As you may have noticed, NewsGator has made all their previously paid products free! This includes the mobile version of the NewsGator, NetNewsWire and FeedDemon. If you are looking for an RSS reader for your mobile, you can get NewsGator Go, which is available for Windows Mobile, Blackberry and Java enabled mobile phones.

A nice feature of NewsGator products is their ability to sync with the server. Because of this, any feed you read will be marked so in all other NewsGator products you use. This was one reason I always used a web based feed reader. Native feed readers are much faster and responsive on mobile devices.

You can download NewsGator clients for mobile devices from here.

Because of its highly themable nature, it is pretty easy to make Windows XP look like other operating systems. The most popular XP transformation pack is flyakite, which makes your poor old XP installation look like Mac OS X. With the following themes, it is easy to make windows look like Ubuntu, Amiga, OS 9 etc., Here are some of my favorites:

Clearlooks for XP

Imitates the clearlooks default theme of Gnome very well on your XP box! Makes your XP look like Ubuntu. Requires a patched

Amiga OS 4

Nice skin which emulates the look of Amiga OS 4 on Windows XP.

Vista

Yep. If you haven’t upgraded to Microsoft’s latest and greatest operating system, you can get a nearly identical theme with this transformation pack. Replaces almost every element of the desktop. Don’t miss this one!

Here is the promised comparison of the three internet tablets that are currently available in the market. Note that the Sony Mylo featured here is the second generation model, officially announced at the CES.

* - Will update once this information is available.

It is very obvious that Nokia N810 is the undisputed leader in terms of features. As of today, N810 is my recommended device for anyone who wants internet on the go. The distinguished feature on the N810 is the cellular data connectivity using bluetooth. That means, you don’t need to search for a Wi-Fi access point when you need internet connectivity. You will be able to use the device anywhere you get a cellular signal. Another winner on the N810 is the support for Adobe flash 9, the same version that is used in the desktop. Mylo comes with Flashlite 3, which is good enough to render flash videos directly.

Related: Nokia N810 vs iPod Touch vs ASUS EeePC

One enhancement to mobile Google Maps in the recent time has been the support for pseudo GPS. Many people think that this technology may make GPS redundant. That is a pretty short-sighted and rather uninformed comment.

What Google Maps does is uses the cell tower id to indicate your approximate location within a big circle. It can do that and it can do only that. The real application of GPS is to use it for navigation or find the altitude at which you are. The pseudo GPS is really not of much use except for entering your approximate current position, in case you are searching for a route. Also, the resolution of pseudo GPS is anywhere from 50 meters to one kilometer, while that of a GPS receiver is a few meters. Anybody who has used a GPS based navigation system will appreciate the use of a real GPS system.

If you are wondering why I am writing this post at this time, considering that this pseudo GPS has been available for a few months now - the rumored 1.1.3 firmware update for iPhone enables this support.

Not to take any credit away from Google, they also support GPS based identification, in case your mobile has an internal GPS or paired with an external GPS receiver.

The shell applications for Windows Mobile are now mushrooming. This trend is quite noticeable after the introduction of Apple iPhone - It should not come as a surprise because when compared to the modern UI on the iPhone, Windows Mobile provides a decade old, boring and sometimes confusing user interface. But given its extensive programming library, developers have the freedom to create new interfaces that can change the user experience on the Windows Mobile devices. HTC TouchFLO was one of the first and still a popular shell for the WM devices. Others like SPB also have some offerings. While these shells provide a nice way to launch built-in applications, their novelty wears out once the native applications come to the front. Most shells try to enable a finger based navigation, but the lack of consistency becomes apparent when the native applications require you to use the stylus. This severely limits the usability of the shell applications.

Pointui, a group of developers, have created a new shell application for windows mobile. This shell installs a home screen which has a finger based slide navigation that provides appointments, weather and a nice pair of digital and analog clocks on the screen. What impressed me most was the fluid animation on the screen when you scroll the content and flip the pages. It is very well implemented and the look and feel is extremely professional. The icons on the bottom of the screen represent the four commonly used applications. Touching the bottom slides a launch screen for all the other applications that are installed on the handset. For the first time, I could see that the Pointui developers have replaced the official title bar on Windows Mobile with their own, which provides easier access to the Home (instead of the typical start menu of WinMo) and also provides battery status and a clock. The misleading 'X' mark, which Microsoft still persists with, is replaced with a more intuitive '-' which aptly denotes minimize. You can watch a YouTube video of Pointui in action here.

The problem starts once the native applications are launched - you no longer have the freedom to use your fingers, but you have to fall back on using the stylus. The same old Windows Mobile applications start presenting themselves in all their glory. You forget that a nice little shell launched this clumsy application. This is where the developers need to look beyond the standard Windows applications. For example, using the POOM API (Pocket Outlook Object Model), the developers of Pointui could have created replacement applications for Contacts and Tasks. This would have enhanced the user experience even further as the new applications could blend very well within the shell, thus providing a consistent user interface. Pointui did a good job with the call history list - they can think about extending this further to other applications which can be replaced using the APIs provided by Windows Mobile. A good possibility is the complete PIM suite.

Proliferation of new shells also send out a clear message to Microsoft: It is time to retire the current UI on Windows Mobile. Rumors point to a reworked interface for Windows Mobile 7, which is good news, but you can expect new devices only next year, which is a long time in the technology industry.

Related: Can Microsoft get it right with the next version of Windows Mobile?

Most people were disappointed when iPod Touch came out without bluetooth support. Lack of BT support meant that you cannot dial out from a mobile phone and use the data connection to browse the internet on the excellent Safari browser on the Touch. If you are using a Windows Mobile device, there is a ray of hope. Using a simple tool called WMWiFiRouter, you can convert your Wi-Fi enabled Windows Mobile device into a router and can share its GPRS/EDGE/3G/HSDPA/EVDO connection with a number of other devices which have a Wi-Fi connection!! It is pretty simple and straightforward to setup. Just make sure that you have WM5 with AKU3.3 or above or WM6. Once WMWiFiRouter is setup, you can detect this WiFi access point on your iPod Touch and connect to it.

Keep an eye on your battery. Better to keep it charged while you are running this, as AdHoc Wi-Fi connections are a drain on the battery.

Now, if only I had such a wonderful tool for my Nokia N95.

Update: Hmmm. Wish all my other prayers are also answered this fast! A new application called JoikuSpot helps convert your handset into an S60 access point. Now all you need is an iPod Touch + S60 phone to get the ultimate mobile browsing experience.

[via Mr. Mobile]

If your web pages are taking too much time to load or pages are timing out, chances are that your ISP has a crappy DNS server. This is especially true of some Indian ISPs like BSNL. In case you are suffering from such a problem, you can reconfigure your router to use the OpenDNS servers. All you have to do is type in the following two IP addresses for the DNS server in your Wi-Fi or LAN router:

208.67.222.222
208.67.220.220

Apart from providing a faster DNS, OpenDNS also provides you automatic typo corrections. For example, if you type www.jaganath.ner instead of www.jaganath.net, OpenDNS automatically redirects you to the correct URL. It is also a safer way to browse for your grandma because it filters many phishing websites. So go ahead and change your DNS server entries even if you are not facing any problems from your ISP at this time.

Now that Nokia has updated its internet tablet to N810, it is time to have a relook at one of the earlier posts in this website. The N810 is a hefty update to the earlier version -  bringing in a redesigned front, a GPS navigation system, a QWERTY keyboard, a faster processor and many other software improvements. The refresh on the front makes the device look much smaller than the N800.

With the inclusion of GPS and QWERTY keyboard, it now becomes very difficult to compare the iPod touch with this new device. The N810 now is not only a PDA and a media player, it is also a PND (Personal Navigation Device) and a very capable UMPC. It now makes more sense to compare this device with the ASUS EeePC than a media player with a browser like the iPod.

The built in Opera browser of N800 has been replaced with a new one which uses the firefox rendering code. (On a side note, this is where Nokia's inconsistencies come to the fore. They chose Safari(webkit) as the base for the s60 browser, but have used Gecko for the N810. It may be because with Gecko, they have a Linux port to start with, but in case of S60, they had to start pretty from scratch). Other improvements include Skype and Gizmo, which come preinstalled.

Anyone looking at buying the ASUS EeePC should give the N810 a very serious look. While much more compact than the eeePC, the N810 packs more with the inclusion of the onboard GPS navigation system. The EeePC has an upperhand interms of software because of the inclusion of an office suite. If you are not going to do much of wordprocessing and use only email, then the N810 becomes your automatic choice.