Fring

Another nice application I am using in my N80 Internet Edition is Fring.

Fring is an applications that lets you use VoIP to call other people (normally, free if you call another VoIP client, and with some money cost if you call a fixed or mobile phone line -see my previous post about voipcheap.com-), lets you detect online presence of your pals and works on either cellular and wireless networks (I do not like Jaiku because of its lack of WiFi support, although it seems to be a great software after the few things I tried before I decided to stop paying for traffic).

It is great to be connected to google talk and be able to either chat or call your gtalk contacts.

They are improving their tool little by little, and next step should be (IMHO) more support of Skype network. It is good to have SkypeOut support (although, having VoIP support and having so many VoIP operators cheaper than skype... what do we need it for?). That better support would be the capability to call or chat with Skype contacts as we can do with google talk contacts.

Another nice improvement would be to import contacts from the agenda in the same way they are in the agenda and not generating a new entry for each different phone number or internet phone identifier of each contact. It is ugly and it is disabled in my phone.

I rather have VoIP activated via S60 3rd edition integrated client, which lets me treat VoIP just like regular calls, and then be online using Fring in google talk, MSN and Skype(SkypeOut only, what a pity)... when I have a free WiFi network close to me.

Btw, and talking about Jaiku, they say it is a clone for Twitter (which I have used as a reader in a Widset widget). I am giving it a try to see it it supports WiFi).

Google Adsense

By the way, I am trying Google Adsense. I obviously will not get rich, I just want to see how it works.

Anyway, if the number of people reading my blog remains the same, I will hardly get to know :-)

VoIP

One of the things that I like the most in N80 Internet Edition is its VoIP capabilities. I first started using the Gizmo client available in Nokia catalogs for free, but it does not make friend with the configuration of additional VoIP services. So I uninstalled it and manually configured voipcheap.com. It is really great to call Spanish landlines (and a lot of fixed phone lines in the world) for free or send SMS for 0.05 € to any place in the world.

It is much much cheaper than Skype (and it is based on SIP) so... I do love it! For some mobile phones in Spain, it is even cheaper than regular SMS calling.

Next step: I downloaded FON Wi-Fi client and... :-)

We'll keep reporting.

Back!

Well, after long without any post being published... here I am on the road again! This has been a quite problematic Easter because of my health so it has not been quite the holidays which were meant to be.

Staying in bed for that long made me remember that I had completely abandoned this blog, so it is due time for me to publish stuff again.

January, February and March have got me busy preparing new projects at work and working on the existing ones. In the meantime, I have gotten involved more and more in W3C MWI's Mobile Web Best Practices and Device Description working groups.

I shall speak about all those things in more depth in the future.

Ah, I finally turned my N80 -that the warehouse where I bought it had imported illegally (as I noticed when I upgraded the firmware and lost Spanish language support)- into an N80 Internet Edition. I have tried VoIP and talked to some Spanish fixed lines thanks to voipcheap.com, and also Nokia Maps (the rocking maps and navigation tool that Nokia has given to us all their users for free!).

Enough for today, because my family deserves all the time after having me in bed for the last two days. BRB!

More bugs

A popular web site dedicated to online bets shows this information for NBA games this morning:



I had not seen a NaN in the web for ages and it reminds me my first bugs in software programmed in C when studying first courses of computers sciences :-)

Besides, the 1X2 signs are useful for football games where both teams can tie the match, but not in basketball games since several years ago (and I think that it was never allowed in NBA games).

Unforgivable bug

Some days ago, I closed and opened again S60 3rd edition web browser and it stopped working. I get nothing but a message saying "Web: Already in use" since then. It seems to be a problem quite often found in this browser. The only fix found seems to be a "hard reset" of the phone or a firmware upgrade. I hope Nokia works on it in future versions of the browser.

As I won't update firmware until I manage to force a version including support for Spanish language (see this post to know why), I cannot fix it with the latter option. And, dear friends at Nokia, I cannot hard reset everytime that an application gets corrupted.

I will try to seek for any file playing the role of a lock by using Y-Browser or SExplorer. Anyway, I do not feel confident to succeed, taking into account that no one else seems to get it working again but by using any of both previously commented methods.

Mobile thieves

Have you ever tried to get software, ringtones, themes and so on via SMS for your mobile phone? Have you then realized it did not work for your phone? I was watching weather forecast this afternoon in Antena 3 TV and the weather guy started offering a weather forecast tool for mobile phones. You can get it by just sending a word to a phone number. I had already heard of those companies sending stuff after a chain of SMS asking for the brand and model of your phone but... I had only 6€ left charged in my pre-paid card and I was in the mood to try how serious Antena 3 is.

Previously, I had read that each message cost 1€ and something (I could not read the whole number thanks to the small font used to inform about such an important thing). Well, not much to lose anyway.

After sending the first message, I received an SMS telling me to respond sending a new SMS containing the brand of my mobile phone :-)

I sent it and afterwards I was told to send the exact model of my mobile phone. The answer was that the software was not available for my phone.

The application looked like a JavaME app as it was shoen on TV. There are ways to make Java applications for mobile phones regardless of screen size. My N80 supports every JavaME API needed to communicate with a server and get weather information. There are nice tools to help you to serve the same application to different MID devices (J2ME Polish is one of them). Besides, all the "complex" information could be asked in one single message :-) and the cost of the SMS might be lower if your phone is not supported.

What really worries me is not me losing some few euros (I knew the big chances to fail but I decided to play)... it is those kind of behaviours supported by important companies and stopping people from using their mobile phones for more than voice calls.

I need a firmware update

Yes, but not in my N80 or any other gadget I own.

My car (Citroen C4) stopped working last friday. No response to remote control to open door. Anti-theft system reported not to be working by the boot-up diagnose system. When trying to kickstart the engine, it wanted to but looked like no fuel was injected.

2nd key was kindly sent to me by my father and, although diagnose system stopped reporting the problem with anti-theft system, the engine could not be put to work.

Over 1 hour and a half waiting for the assistance and the guy fixed it quickly. He explained to me what he had done: remove one of the terminals of the battery and connect it again after some seconds.

Does it sound to you? When it freezes, just push reset button :-)

Any firmware upgrade fixing this bug? ;-) I was told that first Ford Focus cars managed to consume almost a 20% less by upgrading firmware.

It was all so easy when cars were just mechanic stuff. I hope that so much electronic is for good ;-)