Zone Tag is a freeware, location aware mobile application from Yahoo! Research Berkeley which provides seamless Flickr integration and location tagging. You don't need a GPS enabled cell phone in order to use Zone Tag, it identifies the location based on the cell tower your phone is connected to. If you do have GPS then it can be setup to use the GPS coordinates too! Cool! Alternately you can explicitly specify the location under "options" in case you are at a location where no Zone Tag user has been before.
Zone Tag not only suggests tags which are suitable based on the current location but also provides a way to set the privacy level for each photo. In order to use Zone Tag, you need a compatible Motorola/Nokia phone, a Flickr, Yahoo and Zone Tag account and a suitable data plan. Phew! Thats a big list!
In addition Yahoo! Research Berkeley has also developed Zurfer, which shows you photos taken around you and exposes interesting 'local highlights'. Zurfer also gives access to the latest photos from your Flickr friends and allows you to follow recent comments on your photos.
There are quite a few different applications which provide such facilities but Zone Tag and Zurfer seem to be nice applications. For details on the other applications, keep watching this blog :)
Download here zonetag.research.yahoo.com.
Zone Tag = Flickr + location tagging!
Fring - Free voice calls and more...
Fring is a really cool mobile VOIP application which lets you make voice calls, exchange instant messages and get real time presence information about friends, wherever you are.
It currently supports messaging and making calls to your Skype®, MSN® Messenger, Google Talk™ , Twitter and fringsters friends! The application setup is pretty simple. Fring supports EDGE, GPRS, 3G and Wifi and the call quality is decent even on EDGE data connections . The application is available for free from the fring site http://www.fring.com/.
Fring does not require any proprietary hardware or airtime, and works with phones purchased through any mobile operator. Fring also supports SkypeOut and hundreds of SIP-based services such as GizmoProject, VoipCheap, VoipStunt, Free World, even from non-SIP enabled handsets, enabling cheap local and international VoIP calls to contacts’ PCs, mobile phones and landline numbers.
Fring claims to use very little data over the network. The one for symbian phones consumes ~8MB for a 60 min mobile-VOIP call with just 0.05KB fring overhead per instant message and and ~10KB per hour connectivity.
Wwigo- Webcam Wherever I Go
Wwigo is a cool application that lets you use your mobile as a webcam. It consists of two components; one that resides on the mobile and the other on the PC. Not only does it allow you to use your phone in all popular clients such as skype, yahoo messenger, windows live messenger, youtube etc but it also allows you to save the videos taken.
The clarity of the video is comparable to that of a webcam (or sometimes even better!) . Lots of Symbian v2.0 and 3.0 mobile phones are supported. Check if your mobile phone is supported over here.
Nokia mobile maps-Smart2go
Smart2go is a compact programme for your mobile that allows you to load maps from around the world. Discover interesting places with ease, highlight them and get the route.
The interesting thing about this application is that it is not necessary to have a active GPRS connection prior to using the maps. The maps can be loaded directly into the phone from the PC using Maploader. This is quite unlike other applications like MGMaps or Google Maps where an active connection is necessary to view the maps. The application also warns when the user moves to the network of a different network provider and has maps for lots of different places. For a complete list of supported regions, click here.
The application is currently free and supports a fairly limited range of devices. Only the E61, E70, N73, N80 and N93 are currently supported along with Windows Mobile 5.0 based mobile phones. Hopefully a newer release should support other phones as well.
Additional navigation upgrades and guides can be installed to get routes displayed in 2D or 3D along with detailed guides about different cities. These additional features however are not available for free.
Llama - Location based Mobile Application
One of the first location based freeware applications which has earned a place for itself on my phone, Llama, provides a simple interface to perform location based activities.
Llama lets you define events which perform actions based on conditions specified by you. So depending on your settings, it lets you set actions such as changing your profile automatically, displaying a reminder, changing bluetooth settings, or even sending an sms when you enter/exit a particular location (network cell). The actions can also include additional conditions based on time and day and activity associated with that area.
The interface is pretty simple to use, but could use a little improvement. Overall its yet another great application to use. Llama can be downloaded from here.
Now i can easily attend meetings without worrying about my cellphone ringing and waking me from my sleep :)
Mobile applications for Business users
Symbian phones have a huge advantage over other phones as they provide a huge set of third party applications with which we can add a lot of capability to our phones. Unfortunately a large number of mobile users are unaware of what can be achieved using these mobiles.
Most mobiles already come with an integrated Calendar, a To-do list and other simple utilities. Now using a set of freeware applications it is also possible to browse through PDF and document files. Sept Solutions has recently released a freeware symbian application for the opendocument format. The OpenDocument format is an open format for saving and exchanging documents such as presentations, text documents, spreadsheets etc.
note: I have not yet got an opportunity to test this application so watch this space for updates :) or let me know if you are able to use this application successfully.
In addition to this, Adobe has released a freeware PDF reader for mobile phones. It currently supports Palm, Symbian and Pocket PC. Download here.
Applications like these are simple alternatives to commercial software such as QuickOffice.
Watch movies on your mobile
Watching movies on your cell phone is now a lot more easier, thanks to DivX releasing a mobile version of its player.
The player automatically searches for DivX files stored on the mobile phone (this happens only the first time you load the application), if new files are added we need to rescan the file system. It has a facility to fast forward and also control the volume. Full screen mode is also supported and the player has an option to play in landscape or portrait mode.
The application currently doesn't support the "resume" option, so once you close the player you need to fast forward back to the last played location or use the "4" shortcut key to use the "jump to time" feature. Lots of other shortcuts are provided for controlling different features.
The player is currently available for free download from the DivX mobile site. The application is a great freeware alternative to Smart Movie provided by Lonely Cat Games.
The player currently supports Symbian, UIQ, Windows Mobile SmartPhone and Palm.
DivX has also released another application "Discover DivX Mobile" which allows you to subscribe to RSS feeds which notifies you of any new content. The site also provides movie trailers and music videos.
Cool Mobile phone Calculator
Although the Series 60 phones by Nokia come bundled with a calculator, Calcium provides a more efficient interface (not to forget it looks cool too!) to perform the simple mathematical functions like addition,multiplication etc.
Calcium makes use of the joystick and assigns a function to each joystick navigation options (top/left/right/left/center click). That makes it a lot more faster as you don't have to select the option from the menu each time.
In short, Calcium = Simple + Free + Cool :)
SMS Assistant
SMS Assistant is a simple freeware application for Symbian based smart phones. It sends predefined messages automatically to people calling you or sending messages to you. This way you can always focus on your work and at the same time let people know that you are currently unavailable.
The application can be configured so that you can choose to use the service only for specific message types(text messages/multimedia messages) or voice calls. The software can be activated as and when the user needs it and then disable if not required. Currently it is available only for Series 60 and Series 80 mobile phones.
The Series 80 version allows incoming messages to be forwarded to another number and also keeps a log so that the automatic reply will only be sent once to each number.
Mundu : Radio on your mobile!
Mundu Radio provides streaming internet music radio stations to your mobile. As of now it supports Palm, Windows Mobile and Symbian phones. All you need is a data connection (GPRS/CDMA) and you are ready to go!
You can define your own play list and also select the radio stations/ genre. Currently around 50 stations are supported right out of the box. You can also define your own station, all you need is the link to the radio station. The play list/radio station list can also be updated from the web from the "My Mundu" section on the site.
To install Mundu on your cell phone you first need to register at the site (yup, this is necessary and you need it to connect from the phone application) and then download the application for your phone.
Check here to see if your phone is supported. As of now this service is available for free and the only charges are for your data plan provided by your network operator. The amount of bandwidth used depends directly on the songs bit rate (a song @ 128 kbps will require more data usage as compared to @64 kbps).
You might not be able to receive calls when you are using your GPRS connection (this varies from one mobile to another) so check your mobile phone's behavior first (it actually depends on your network operator and your mobile phone).
Guardian :Anti-theft system for mobiles
Guardian is an anti-theft application which enables you to get notified whenever someone changes the sim card on your cell phone. Every time the phone is switched on, Guardian checks the sim and if the authentication fails it sends an sms to a previously set number. If the sim is unauthorized it hides itself and so the new user will not be aware that an sms has actually been sent. The sms sent contains essential details which help track down the phone easily.
It also has a remote control feature whereby one can delete the messages/video/photos simply by sending an sms. However this feature is activated only on donation.
Download Guardian for free.
Essential free Symbian software
Once you have purchased a Symbian based phone, its time to exploit its features to the max. Here is a list of utilities which are available freely.
1) FExplorer: Handy file explorer to browse the content saved on your phone, has lots of features. Check the link for more details.
2) S60Zip: Freeware utility to compress files into zip format. Useful if you tend to store a lot of doc format e-books on your mobile.
3) Forward: A very simple utility to transfer the installation files from the inbox to any folder on your mobile.
4) SymbtChat: Chat with your friends using this application. Works over Bluetooth, the recipient need not have this software installed.
5) Ogg play: Great freeware audio player for the series 60 phone. Supports several formats and skins.
6) Calcium: A nice freeware calculator which moves most of the operations to the joystick hence making it a lot faster.
7) ReadM: e-book reading software with lots of features.
8) JJLKeyLock : For some strange reason most Nokia Series 60 phones do not support auto keypad locking.
9) XXL Screen Saver : Tired of the default screen saver? Install this and get a bigger clock as the screen saver. Also supports skins.
10) Message Saver: Allows the user to save all/selected messages as notes which can be later transferred to the PC.
11) Google Maps: Now you have Google Earth on your mobile too!
12) Yahoo Go : A collection of Yahoo related stuff (messenger, mail, photos etc) right on your mobile.
13) Agile Messenger: Supports AOL, Yahoo, MSN and ICQ.
14) S60Dict: Free offline dictionary.
15) TaskSpy: More like the task manager on windows.
16)MobiPocket Reader: Read ebooks on your mobile. Lots of ebooks available in MobiPocket format.
