Wap Review - Covering the Mobile Web Since 2004 (via Mowser)

Nokia Belle "Feature Not Available" Sharing Bug Requires a Hard Reset To Fix

Posted on February 17, 2012 by Dennis Bournique

Updating my Nokia N8 to Belle went pretty smoothly. Â I didn't encounter the any of the email sync Â orÂ unresponsiveÂ UI issues that some users are reporting. However I was hit the "Feature Not Available" Sharing Bug. The bug appears when you open an image or video in the Gallery and tap the Share icon. That's supposedÂ to pop up a menu (image, right) that allows you to send the picture or clip to your Twitter timeline or Facebook wall. But when I tapped it I got a delightful "Feature not supported" error (image left_.

The sharing bug is mentioned in an All About Symbian's post listing potential issues that BelleÂ updatersÂ might encounter together with fixes and workarounds for some of them. According to that post, the bug only occurs if you have updated to the 1.4 or 1.5 version of the Nokia Social client. This seems to be the case.Â I did update Social from the Nokia Store immediately after installing Belle and I had the bug. My friend Lenny @THE_TRUTH34Â at Nokia InnovationÂ hasn't updated Social and his sharing works fine.Â Â The Social 1.5 update seems to have disapeared from the Store, further evidence that something wasn't right with it.

There's a thread on the Nokia Support Discussions forum where several people have reported the error. A NokiaÂ employeeÂ has posted "We are currently working on a fix. The fix will be included in the next software version."Another poster claimed that uninstalling Social 1.5 and installing Social 1.3 fixed the problem for him.

The bug annoyed me so I decided to find a fix. Here are the things I tried, none of which helped.

A Soft Reset (hold down power button until phone vibrates 3 times) - this had no effect. Uninstalled Social 1.5 and the Social Installer app - didn't help either Tried to find a copy of Social 1.3. I Searched the Nokia Store, ran Software Update on the phone, ran the Nokia Suite Updater and did a web search for the Social 1.3 client download, but was unable to find a copy anywhere I next tried reinstalling Belle using Nokia Suite. That gave me Social 1.3 but the "Feature not supported" error was still there

Finally, I did a hard reset (Settings > Phone > Phone management > factory settings) and it worked! I now have Social 1.3 and a working Share icon in the Gallery.

If you decide to hard reset your phone please remember that doing so will delete every file, contact, song, app and customization on your phone, Â including everything on E:Mass memory. Â To avoid nasty surprises, Be sure to backup your phone to a physical memory card or using Nokia Suite and then mount the E: drive in mass storage mode and file copy its contents to your PC.

Unless you can find a copy of Social 1.3 somewhere or wait for Nokia's promised fix, the only solution to the Galley sharing issue seems to be a hard reset.

Posted in Nokia | Tagged Nokia Belle, Symbian | Leave a comment

Natural Language Calendar and To-Do List Coolendar's Slick Cross Platform Webapp

Posted on February 15, 2012 by Dennis Bournique

Coolendar is a deceptively simple looking cloud based calendar and to-do list that's very easy and intitive to use. You add entries (Coolendar calls them "Plans") by typing into a single free form field in Coolendar's iPhone or Android native apps or their Webapp.

Coolendar's natural language query processor looks for date or time related cues in entries like "Move the car tomorrow" or "Friday 9AM planning meeting" and makes them calendar entries. Items without dates or times are treated as to-do's.

You can flag entries as Important and mark them as Done. A filter drop down lets you view only entries for Today, Tommorow, This Week or just ones flagged as Important or Done.

Coolendar is well connected. It uses your Google account for authentication and login, but the Coolendar Calendar is independent and is not stored in Google Calendar. If you wish you can sync Coolendar with Google Calendar, Apple ICal or Microsoft Outlook. You can create events using email or Google Chat by sending Â them to a Coolendar account . Coolendar can notify you of impeding events by email or Google Talk. Coolendar's email notifications contain handy links that let you mark the event as complete or delete and reschedule it.

Although it's not mentioned on Coolendar's site, the web app is very mobile aware, the layout and logic adapt to work perfectly in the Android, Symbian and Opera Mobile browsers. It's even functional, if a bit clunky (too large a font and lots of server round trips) in Opera Mini. I suspect it will work in just about any browser that has at least minimal JavaScript support.

Filed in: Wap Review Directory - Mail-IM-Talk-PIM/Productivity and PIM
Ratings: Content Usability
Mobile Link: coolendar.com

Posted in Mobile productivity, Uncategorized | Tagged Calendar, Coolendar, ToDo | Leave a comment

Connect To Social Media Week With The Mobile Webapp

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Dennis Bournique

This week isÂ Social Media Week,Â a semi-annual (FebruaryÂ and September) event for anyone interested in social media. So what is social media? Definitions vary, but to me it's any form ofÂ onlineÂ collaboration and interaction including social networks, blogs, forums, wikis, microblogs, media sharing, online game worlds and much more.

The event is made up of over 1000 presentations, panels, brainstorming sessions, games and parties which are held during the same week in multiple cites around the world. The particular cities vary from year to year. This time around they are Hamburg, Hong Kong, London, Miami, New York,Â Paris, San Francisco, SÃ£o Paulo, Singapore, Tokyo, Toronto and Washington DC.

Most SocialÂ MediaÂ Week events are free toÂ attend,Â thanks to corporate sponsorship by Nokia, Oglivy & Mather, Constant Contact, The Guardian, The Next Web,Â FinancialÂ Times and Livestream.

As you'd expect from an event focused on online interaction, Social Media Week has a website, plus a mobile webapp and native apps for Windows Phone, Symbian,Â Android and iOS.

Being a mobile web guy, I checked out the mobile webapp first. It was created by Mobile Perspectives LLC and can be found atÂ m.socialmediaweek.org. Its main feature is an interactive event schedule for all 12 Social Media Week Feb. 2012 cites.

The event schedules are really nicely done. There's a separate schedule page for each city. The page has tabs across the top to select the day of the week, with the day's events listed below, chronologically down the page. Clicking an event leads to a page with details about the event including description, presenter bios, a map of the venue, and best of all, a Register button.

Most Social Media Week events are free but you do need to register for each one individually. That sounds like a chore but it's really easy with this webapp. Once you log in all you need to do to register for an event is to tap the Register button on the event page. That makes it really easy to register for events on the fly as your schedule evolves. I wish all mobile event apps were as well designed and easy to use as this one.Â The webapp, at least the events schedule part, adapts to work in just about any mobile browser from Safari to Opera Mini to most feature phone browsers.

If your are attending Social Media Week bookmarkÂ m.socialmediaweek.orgÂ on you phone now to keep you in the loop about what's happening now in your city and around the world.

Posted in Events | Tagged SMW, Social Media Week | Leave a comment

What's New In The Nokia Belle Browser

Posted on February 11, 2012 by Dennis Bournique

Nokia Belle comes with a new 7.4 version Â of the Webkit based Nokia browser. Here's a run down of what I've been able to find that's new and improved in latest browser.

Geolocation support. Sites can now use a Web standards compliant Javascript API to request the user's location. When a site makes a location request the browser prompts the user if they wish to allow or deny the request (image above, left). This feature works with many existing sites including local search engine Local.comÂ andÂ restaurantÂ finders fromÂ fonefood, Sonic Drive InÂ andÂ Open Table. It also works with "Nearby" feature in Google+ and with Facebook Check In at touch.facebook.com.

<video> Support The browser nowÂ supportsÂ the HTML5 video tag using the H.264/MPEG-4 format. There's no WebM or Ogg Theora support.

User Interface changes: In Belle (image above, right) there is a new full width action menu at the bottom of the screenÂ with buttons for forward, back, bookmarks, windows and menu. Although the new menu does take up some precious screen real estate, I like having one click access to the Windows menu and Bookmarks.

The new menu bar also fixes a couple of problems with Anna's semi-transparent back and menu buttons (image above, left). The Anna browser's buttons had a tendency toÂ interceptÂ taps intended for links and buttons at the bottom of the page itself. And because the white portion of the buttons wasn't transparent they often covered up text. The new action menu is below andÂ independentÂ of the actual page so it doesn'tÂ interfere with it at all.

Main Menu changes: The main browser menu (image above, right) now has new buttons to display your most visited sites and to go to the RSS feed list.

Text Copy: TheÂ NokiaÂ browser finally lets you copy text from a web page and paste it into a Web form or to another app. To copy text, do a long press on the start of the text you want to copy and drag to the end. I found this feature a bit hard to use compared with the way copying works in the Android,Â iOSÂ and Opera browsers . In the NokiaÂ browser you have to select text in a single move. As soon as you lift your finger a dialog appears asking if you want copy or do a web search using the selected text. Â Other browsers give you grab handles that let youÂ resizeÂ the selection before copying which makes it easier to get precisely the text you want.

There are also some new gestures

Double tap at botton of screen - go to page bottom. Double tap at top of screen Â - go to page top. Long pressing a link now shows a context menu that lets you open the link in a new window or copy theÂ URLÂ to the clipboard.

More HTML5 SupportÂ Thanks to the addition of geolocation and <video> support, the Belle browser scores 157 on HTML5test.com (image above, right). While this is still near the bottom of the back among modern smartphone browsers, it's a signifigant improvement over the Anna Browser's 104 score.

To sum it up, I'm pleasedÂ with the new browser, the UI changes are all positive and the addition of badly needed Geolocation support is an obvious win. Page loading and rendering speeds got a huge boost with the Anna browser and seem about the same in the latest version. Â There is absolutely no reason not to upgrade to Belle, the browser improvements are solid and are just a small piece of the many positive changes Belle brings to legacy Nokia (aka Symbian) smartphones.

Posted in Browsers | Tagged Belle, HTML5, Nokia | 1 Comment