Chronicles of a Windows Mobile User Gone Symbian: Part 3

[adamz]

It’s great that the Nokia N95 has all of these awesome media features (http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4667), but what about the phone part? How is it at making calls?

Well, it’s pretty simple. When you slide out the keypad in the home screen view, you can dial numbers and then press the call send button like you would on any other phone. However, pressing these number buttons does not offer contact matching options or any kind of call prediction. All it does is enter numeric digits! I guess I’m expecting smartphones to be a little smarter about this. Windows Mobile 6 devices immediately list possible contact matches when typing names or numbers from the Today Screen or phone dialer. With the Nokia N95, instead you have to navigate to the Contacts program, then start typing a name using the numeric keypad (without predictive text)… then press the call send button to make the call. I guess people expect most phones to work that way, but it could be much easier as seen in Windows Mobile 6. I won’t even compare this to trying to find a contact on an iPhone which does not include any kind of contact search capability at all. Okay, maybe I will... on the iPhone you have to tap the phone icon, the contacts button, flick-scroll for five minutes to find the person you’re looking for, tap their name, then tap their number to make the call. All while looking at the screen since there’s no tactile feedback and no way to build motor memory.

Getting back to the Symbian world… this archaic way of calling people might seem like a show-stopper to someone considering switching from Windows Mobile. Fortunately, developers are allowed to create programs for the Symbian OS in order to pick up where Nokia leaves off. Enter SkyeQuiKey! ( http://www.skyestream.com/cart/shopcart_sqk3_main.htm) This little program adds that great predictive dialing feature to Symbian S60 (in addition to a few other great features). All Symbian users should buy this program. It’s a huge improvement for easily calling people in your address book. Thanks to Rita El Khoury of DotSisx ( http://dotsisx.blogspot.com/2007/11/skyequikey-by-skyestream.html) for pointing out this gem to me. Now with that installed, I can slide open the keypad, start typing a name with the keypad (whose buttons I can feel without having to look at them), quickly glance at the screen to make sure I selected the right name, and press the call button.

Now some of you are saying, "I don’t even need to do that. I just use Microsoft Voice Command on Windows Mobile." Well, the N95 does support voice dialing as well as a few other voice commands with no need to train it! That’s right, just like Microsoft’s Voice Command it’s got real voice recognition. It does not seem to be as accurate or as capable out-of-the-box however. I haven’t seen any commands for accessing your calendar, battery level, or controlling the media player. It does create automatic “voice tags” for all of your contacts based on text-to-speech names. So when you press the voice call button on your Bluetooth headset, you’ll hear a sound exactly like Microsoft Voice Command’s sound, then you say the name of the person you want to call. A text-to-speech voice will repeat what you said (hopefully it’s the correct name) and then it will dial that person. I tried saying “No” after the voice confirmation, but it dialed anyway. You can also set up voice commands for launching applications. A few are created by default for changing profiles, toggling Bluetooth, calling voicemail, opening the voice recorder, and launching the camera. The voice activated voice recorder function is quite nice. You can easily record voice memos from your Bluetooth headset. I didn’t expect such a quality voice recognition program to be included with the N95 by default. I really thought it would be just regular voice tags that you have to record for each person. Anyway, that was a great surprise. Does anyone know of some even more feature rich voice command programs for the Symbian S60 3rd Edition devices? Is there any way for it to voice recognize a destination request in the GPS Mapping program?

See also:
Chronicles of a Windows Mobile User Gone Symbian: Part 2 (http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4667)
Chronicles of a Windows Mobile User Gone Symbian: Part 1 ( http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4627)
Nokia N95 in the House! ( http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4563)

[khouryrt]

First of all, glad you liked SkyeQuiKey, it's really a must-have with all its offerings, don't forget it's a fast application launcher, which makes it even more awesome.
Second, I don't know about GPS voice commands, but if you're in the voice app market, you can check VoiceMode by VoiceSignal (http://www.voicesignal.com/solutions/voicemode.php)which allows you speech-to-text sending sms. I am trying it now. It's not that accurate, probably because I'm not native american, and because I have only done the ordinary voice training and not the extensive one on the app itself. Also do check the other apps they offer, I don't know if they are available, I couldn't find a "buy" or "shop" section :S
There's also SpinVox (http://www.spinvox.com/) which also has speech-to-text capabilities for posting to blogs, sending emails, IM,... I haven't tried it myseld so I can't tell you how accurate it is.

[Brandon Miniman]

Can you answer and end calls with the slider?

[adamz]

Opening the slider does answer calls, but closing it does not end calls. I think I would prefer it that way especially when using a bluetooth headset I wouldn't want the call to end when closing the slider and putting it in my pocket. That's something I didn't like about the HTC StarTrek flip phone; closing the flip would end the call even on Bluetooth. Anyway, I didn't see anything in the settings to customize that behavior on the N95.

[JNGold]

Adam,

Wow, this is a great series of articles and I hope there is more to come. I am a seven year vet of Windows Mobile and I am getting the itch for something new and different. I have become increasingly frustrated with WM recently.

I know that the iPhone 2 (hopefully with 3g) and by that time a nice selection of 3rd party applications will be an attractive option for myself, however, I have been giving serious looks at the n95 8gb. I really need to be sure before I plunk down the 700 or so bucks for it.

Please continue the great article. :)

[khouryrt]

I have been an anti-n95 myself (even though I am a Nokia and Symbian addict) ever since it got out. To me, plunking 700-800$ for a device that is slider and not candybar, has GPS and 3G (2 features I won't need in lebanon) is way too much.
But ever since the N95 8GB got out (better battery, more RAM, bigger screen), the announcement of NGage and the discovery of the accelerometer in the N95 (auto rotation with RotateMe v2 (http://www.bysamir.fr/rotateme/), Y-inclinometer (http://mosh.nokia.com/content/3E1BD59369462687E040050AEE043609) and the SPECTACULAR forthcoming Nokmote (http://www.bysamir.fr/nokmote/), which are all free btw) I have been getting that N95 itch.
I WANT IT! Even though it's a slider. Even though it's still not the S60 touch UI. But I can't afford it *sigh*
If you have 700$ laying around somewhere in a trust fund, a hidden safe, or if you have a wealthy relative or if you're in touch with Santa Claus, I would suggest the N95 8GB would be a great investment.

[adamz]

@JNGold - Definitely continue to consider the Nokia N95 8Gb. I'll have some more "Chronicles" posts about the N95 NA version on here and then a big comprehensive review packed with pretty pictures, screen shots, and useful information. One thing to note, the Nokia website and documentation lists that the N95 only supports MicroSD cards up to 2Gb. I put my 6Gb MicroSDHC card in it and it worked just fine. So if removable storage is important, I can verify that MicroSD HC cards will work.
Also, I can't say that it will be less frustrating than Windows Mobile. It will still be frustrating, but in a different way... though at least you'll still have all the best hardware features available in a mobile device. I'm glad you're finding my experience with Symbian from a Windows Mobile perspective to be useful.


@khouryrt - Wow, that Nokmote video was extremely cool! It's kind of like the VueFLO (http://pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4325) stuff on the HTC Advantage (Athena).

[JNGold]

Also, I can't say that it will be less frustrating than Windows Mobile. It will still be frustrating, but in a different way... though at least you'll still have all the best hardware features available in a mobile device. I'm glad you're finding my experience with Symbian from a Windows Mobile perspective to be useful.


From what I have read thusfar, it seems many of your "frustrations" can be solved by adding additional applications to make the n95 "more convienient".

I am wondering if things like getting calls and not being able for the other person to hear me, WM6 showing that a data connection is active when it really isn't, and the various lockups that occur from time to time are present on the Symbian system. How have you found the stability of the device? As you continue to add applications, is the device still "rock solid"?

How about speed and memory management?

TIA!

[adamz]

From what I have read thusfar, it seems many of your "frustrations" can be solved by adding additional applications to make the n95 "more convienient". I am wondering if things like getting calls and not being able for the other person to hear me, WM6 showing that a data connection is active when it really isn't, and the various lockups that occur from time to time are present on the Symbian system. How have you found the stability of the device? As you continue to add applications, is the device still "rock solid"? How about speed and memory management? TIA!


Oh, I've never said anything about it being "rock solid". I've gotten it to crash plenty of times without needing to add too many applications. I've had problems syncing with Outlook 2007 (http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4627), the Nokia Maps application has hung up requiring a battery removal, and the web browser quits itself quite frequently. But the most significant initial frustration is going to be learning the different operating system and subsequently trying to find applications that bring back some of the things you miss. SkyQuicKey and RoadSync are good examples, but still there's other little things like the Symbian menus. On a Windows Mobile device that includes a Qwerty or numeric keyboard, all the menus have identifiers that allow you to quickly activate a command by pressing the corresponding key. No such luck on Symbian S60. You actually have to use the D-pad to scroll through menus and choose the command you want. That may sound like a little thing, but it can be annoying when you're used to carrying out commands so quickly. There's no other keyboard shortcuts either. Then there's no touch screen, so you can't use software based input methods like the extraordinary TouchPal (http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=news&id=4543).

It does seem that shutting off the Javascript and Flash support in the browser increases stability. I'll talk more about the browser in my next Chronicles post. I hear the iPhone's browser has similar problems with crashing.
My Outlook syncing problem was fixed by syncing with Exchange instead, but with Windows Mobile usually I sync my calendar with both my work Exchange account and personal Outlook desktop at home. So that's no longer (reliably) possible.

In terms of speed, it is definitely plenty responsive. It's generally like the TyTN II. Opening emails tends to be a little slower and even shows an "Opening" progress bar. If you run a significant number of applications at the same time, you will notice a slow-down. This is to be expected on anything that can multitask. It doesn't come with a task manager so it's hard to tell what programs are taking up the most resources.

I find it annoying that the IMAP email program can't copy sent messages into the Sent folder on my IMAP server. Instead it's got a "send copy to myself" option. The predictive text implementation is not nearly as advanced as Windows Mobile. With the N95 you have to press a button to see alternate words. On Windows Mobile, the suggested words appear in a list that you can easily see and select. Furthermore, Windows Mobile offers suggested follow up words and phrases thus reducing button presses even more.

A few other things that are different, but I haven't decided if they're good or bad: When you want to connect to the internet it brings up a list of available access points both through the phone's radio and WiFi radio. So you can specifically choose to use WiFi for the web browser, but the GPRS/EDGE/3G connection for your push email. It doesn't automatically use WiFi when WiFi is available like Windows Mobile does. So that seems like an unnecessary complication, but part of me likes having that kind of control.


So I'm seeing a lot of positives and negatives to both platforms and I will probably end up feeling the same about them as I do about Windows and Mac OS X; on average, they're equal.

[khouryrt]

1- For task managing, you can press and hold the menu button (the key with the swirly thing), you get on the left of the screen a little bar with all running applications. You can navigate it via d-pad/center button, or you can keep your finger on the menu button, press it repeatedly to toggle between apps and long-press it again to select the one you want to bring forward. Pressing "c" (the eraser) while one application is highlighted will close the said application.
2- If you're looking for a solution that shows you all running processes, you can also try ActiveFile (http://developer.symbian.com/wiki/display/devtools/ActiveFile) which is a good file manager, but also has a couple of tricks up its sleeve like showing you constantly on the screen a little box with available free RAM (you can hence track and see which apps are more consuming your RAM), can show you running processes, can take screenshots, create a "fake" sms in your inbox/sent items,...
3- In terms of shortcuts, you are absolutely right with the lack of inner shortcuts, like the underlined commands on WM. It sure would make thgs a lot easier if every option in the Options menu had a number for quicker access. Anyway, here are a couple of tricks. I don't know if you know this one, but when you're in the menu (the 12 icons grid), pressing 1 will launch the application on top-left, 2 the application on top-middle, 3 the one on top-right, and so forth, pressing * will launch the application on bottom-left,... I hope you get the pattern. This works with any 12-icon grid menu.
Another trick is using the pen button to select items or text. If you press the pen + center d-pad button, you select an icon, if you futher keep the pen pressed and scroll up and down, it will select all icons you pass by. You can do multiple selections (like a ctrl + click on a windows) ie select 3 consecutive items, then lift your finger up the pen button, then scroll down, then select 2 other items, without the need to press anythg in between. The pen also doubles as a copy/paste tool. In messages or file renaming or any box that needs some text inputing, you can press the pen, scroll to select the text wanted to be copied, then lift your finger off the dpad (while keeping the pen pressed, you will find a Copy appear above the left softbutton), press the left softbutton and your text is copied. You can then go wherever you want to paste your text and click-and-hold pen, you will see Paste above the right softbutton. Click it and you're done. I don't know if you knew these but they sure make life a little bit easier.

One thing I would like to add is that, noting that I came from the Symbian World to the WM World, I was used to all these shortcuts/tricks/... in Symbian and I know how to "pimp" my Nokias to do exactly what I want them to do as quickly as I want them to do it. The major letdown I faced with WM was and still is STABILITY. I know both of them can crash for no reason, both of them can hang for no reason, and if free RAM is running out, thgs will get messy, but and it's a HUGE but: I can leave my Nokia untouched for days and when I pick it up, it will be like I left it. It's not the case with WM. It reboots itself sometimes without me even touching or approaching it (just like that), sometimes it refuses to accept there's a memory card inserted (making me remove and reinsert it), files get deleted without a reason from the memory card. I have experienced these problems ever since I got my Qtek 9100, even after several soft-resets, hard-resets, memory card formats,... Then, for no apparent reason, I had a problem-free month, a whole month with the Qtek running as smooth (even better than my Nokia), and then one day, I forget to recharge it, the juice is over, and what do I find out after I recharge it? All my today-screen items have disappeared! ALL! GONE! They're not even there in the Settings > Today Screen! Are you kidding me? If my Nokia runs out of juice, it just shuts down. No information losses. No problems. That's the main problem of WM in my opinion, and that's the only reason I've NEVER inserted my Sim Card in the Qtek, even though I've had it for 4-5 months now.

[adamz]

There's Rita again with the awesome Symbian tips!! That's a great task switching feature. I never would have found that. I did know about the numbers trick in the applications menu, and the little swirly blue icon that indicates which applications are running is nice as well. That Select/Copy/Paste tip is great too. I was beginning to wonder how to do that.


The Qtek 9100 is an old HTC Wizard (http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&id=710&t=reviews). I had to go through three of those before I got one that was reliable. That was one of the first Windows Mobile 5.0 devices and it was the first to use the TI OMAP processor and chipset. It's difficult to find anyone in the Windows Mobile world who has good things to say about the TI OMAP processors. Did you buy your Qtek 9100 used? Do you know if it's a G2, G3, or G4 model? The problems you're describing sound like hardware issues.

I had one of the first HTC TyTN II's and I had to exchange it because the camera wouldn't work all the time, and the GPS would sometimes never get a fix. It was a hardware defect in the early production unit and my replacement has been working wonderfully. If you're WM device is not coming back to normal after a hard reset, it's probably a hardware problem.

I think the most rock-solid Windows Mobile device I've owned was the i-mate JAM (HTC Magician) (http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=541). Of course the operating system is the ancient Windows Mobile 2003, and I wouldn't trade my TyTN II for it, but it certainly ran good.

Have you done any ROM upgrades on your Wizard? If so and you still have problems, then again it's probably a hardware issue. There are some Windows Mobile 6 ROMs available for the Wizard on xda-developers.com, but they tend to be home brewed.

[Pony99CA]

I don't know about GPS voice commands, but if you're in the voice app market, you can check VoiceMode by VoiceSignal (http://www.voicesignal.com/solutions/voicemode.php)which allows you speech-to-text sending sms. I am trying it now. It's not that accurate, probably because I'm not native american, and because I have only done the ordinary voice training and not the extensive one on the app itself. Also do check the other apps they offer, I don't know if they are available, I couldn't find a "buy" or "shop" section :S
I was searching and found this old post, but thought I'd ask a question. How did you download VoiceMode? As far as I can tell, VoiceSignal sells only to phone OEMs (which is probably why you couldn't find a Buy or Shop section).

FYI, VoiceSignal also provides the voice software on my Motorola Q and Q9m.

Steve