Frozen Bubble: Twisted!

Grab your accelerometer enabled Nokia and chuck away the ice-cream cones boy, Frozen Bubble has just been brought into the 21st century! Samir and his gang are at it again and this time they've created something that's a cross between past and present.

We all know this classic arcade game, how it took over our lives and made us mindlessly shoot coloured balls before... Now it's back, and you can sure as heck count on this game to distract you from your daily routines, entertain you while your girlfriend's doing her shopping, keep you awake at night when you know there's a big test tomorrow..y'know, the usual. ;D

Alright, jokes aside, i haven't tried this version the game yet but I'm not a big fan of accelerometer games. Their always too fiddly to handle, and have limited gameplay. Usually the player only gets to control the direction of the character in accelerometer games. Frozen Bubble is a game that requires precision and i can already imagine how annoying it will be to tilt my phone left and right just to get the right angle, while the people around me think i've gone crazy checking for scratches on my N95.

Nevertheless i am very glad to see Samir and his crew being active again in software development for Symbian s60 devices and he countinues on his line of creativity using the accelerometer and other aspects of mobile phones to make even the simplest application or game seem refreshing again, i salute you, Samir!

Be sure to try the game out for yourself at AikonLab.com, it's free.

Samir Delivers - HandWave Available For Donators!

Ahh, it took Samir 60 days more than her originally promised, but here it is -right in front of us like standing taller and prouder than ever- HandWave. HaveWave is very promising but of course there is still lots of room for improvement.

HandWave is a touchless interface for S60 3rd Editon.

It use your front camera to control your S60 by Hand-Waving.

Usage

Press Back to launch HandWave
Then Hand Wave from left to right, or right to left, to simulate left or right keypress.

Use the viewfinder and check the ambient light for best results.

This beta work only on portrait orientation.

Options

• Hide/Show rectangles: Hide or Show detection rectangles on the viewfinder. These indicators will light on when a movement is detected.
• Sensibility settings:
  • Pixel Sensibility: Set less than 100 in too dark or too lightly conditions.
  • Image Sensibility: Set less than 50 if you are far from your phone.

To-do

• Find the best Sensibility values for each condition (like light or dark environment...)
• Add a ’Far’ or ’Close’ option: This beta is optimized to detect a close hand waving. I made an alpha version working well when you are far from your phone (very great with TV-Out).
• Make it working on all phone orientations.
• Others ideas will come with your tests and feedbacks ;)

HandWave
Uploaded by AikonLab

Today i opened my mail box and i received this:

"Dear Zi,

Please be notified that Telexy Networks, Inc. discontinues further development, support and distribution of SymSMB product line.

Two of Telexy Networks programmers worked full-time for Nokia during SymSMB development. Nokia's employment agreement contains a paragraph stating that "All Proprietary Property which Employee may develop in the course of employment with Company, whether alone or jointly with others, shall be the exclusive property of company...''. Based on this agreement Nokia has demanded all rights for SymSMB.

We offer our sincere apologies to all SymSMB users and those simply interested in the product for any inconvenience. On the other hand, this can be an opportunity for SymSMB technology to be incorporated into all Nokia smartphones and become a differentiating feature of S60 platform. Telexy team is ready to provide any support Nokia may need.

If you like this idea you can share your opinion on our forum: forum.telexy.com

Telexy Networks is currently considering opportunities for new products and business ideas. We are open for discussion (business@telexy.com).

Sincerely yours,
Telexy Networks, Inc."

A few months back we saw Telexy slowly closing down their site, rumours back then were that Telexy got so fed up with users cracking their software they wanted to "handle the matter seriously". They even put that up pn their site if i'm not mistaken.
Anyway, it's now clear what they were up to, so i guess that means we'll be seeing SymSMB functions implemented into future Nseries devices, cool!

Brief Review Of nAlertMe

 

I have just finished testing our this new application from Samir and straight out i can say - I'm impressed!

Despite many attempts to copy his idea, i believe Samir has beaten those Python version of AlertMe, DontTouch and AntiTouch flat out. Perhaps because written in Symbian code instead of Python, Samir's nAlertMe is definitely much more comfortable to use than other previous applications.

In fact, ease of use is only one of the plus sides of this app that impresses me. Samir's creativity really shines in this application. When the phone is locked (alarm activated), it makes a cute "beep" like a car would; and when the alarm is deactivated it makes another. Little details like this really make a difference for users, and in my opinion it adds to the overall user friendliness of this application.

The interface is simple, straight forward, and clean - much like his website AIkonLab. nAlertMe is well configured and requires no messy tinkering, it just works! No flashy graphics or confusing pop-up menus either, just pure fun and functionality out of the box. I think quality developers like Samir who give their work out for free and becoming more and more difficult to find these days, considering how easy Python is to master it seems amatuer developers are all going for python instead of Symbian. So call me old fashioned, but i instantly fell in love with nAlertMe, a true winner.

AikonLab Goes Online

The great wait has finally come to an end. All the controversy and doubts about Samir are suddenly just swept away as AikonLab opens its doors to the world.

The website itself looks promising, simple and sophisticated. Though it is a little slow, probably due to the huge traffic loads flowing its way.

While HandWave, a much anticipated application is yet to be available, a simpler -but equally anticipated- application is now available for download. nAlertMe was Samir's original idea who was copied and developed by the likes of Ahmed Yildrim (Mclightning) and several the developers after him.

Thankfully Samir seems to have made his glorious comeback by releasing a proper .sis application, not the limited Python version that came before him.

Lets have a look at some of the features.

nAlertMe Beta 1 (v 0.1)
nAlertMe is an accelerometer-based freeware application that sounds a loud alarm when any movement is detected.

Usage
Press Options -> Activate alarm.
Then you have few seconds to drop your phone before alarm activation.
To deactivate alarm you must put your phone in defined positions sequences.

To-do
This is a first beta and it need some improvements like:

• User defined deactivation sequence
• User defined alarm sound
• Disable phone switch-off
• ...

Thanks

• Symbian phone users for the idea
• Donators for their support
• Special thanks to P@sco for phones icons
• Andrew Galpin for his help

Screenshots

Be sure to visit AikonLab.com regularly for updates.

If you have any problems with the application or want to voice out your opinions, feel free to post a comment here and i will try my best to assist you.

N95-1 - More Colours Than A Rainbow!

 

Feeling a little down with your N95-1 as newer devices such as the N85 cave in? Don't be!

Why not refresh your N95-1's look with one of the 11 colours now available for the N95 classic? Forget cheap and flimsy fascia's on eBay, these are the real deal. Wrap one of thse OEM covers on your baby and it's be like the day your first got your N95 - all over again!

Possibly the most colourful Nseries device ever, Nokia's decision to further expand the array of colours for the N95-1 just shows how well it's doing, with a wide fan-base and sales still going strong. This is something we have not seen for a long time since XpressOn covers on Nokia devices were out of production, and I'm just dying to get the white and frost green OEM covers for my N95, but it seems that they are only available in certain regions for now.

Check it out for yourself on the official Nseries website.

Video Preview Of My'Sound Beta 3

My'Sound Beta 3 Released for Public!

Wondering how i spent my prize money from the photo competition? Well i donated a small sum to a French Developer known as R4p43l who has been working on a promising new music player called My'Sound! I got an early preview of Beta 2 which was still for donators only, and frankly speaking i was rather disappointed with the application.

After installing it i was just bursting with excitement, only to be greeted by fonts that look like little boxes in the application, like this "E[][][][][]". First thing i did was contact the developer, R4ph43l of course, but he seemed puzzled as hell and denied it was a problem with his application.

Ahh, that's when i realised R4ph43l didn't take into consideration that APAC region phones use APAC fonts with Chinese support, a little different from the Euro region fonts. I'd like to thank bidboy from Symbian Freak for being so helpful and sending me a copy of the Euro fonts and CK for downloading them. What i did was route them with using FontRouter LT to replace the default fonts and poof! My'Sound worked just fine.

Still, compared to the Hype Symbian Freak created about this application, this application will disappoint some users. First of all, even after i talked to R4ph43l about this problem and sent him a copy of the APAC fonts it seems he still hasn't solved the fonts problem in Beta 3. Users with APAC phones of APAC fonts will have the "[][][][][][]" box problem.

Secondly,  it seems as though this "Public" version is no full version. Once you open the application it will pop up asking for a full licence code. Even for donators like me my old code does not work and i had to reactivate my IMEI. Not a problem thanks to R4ph43l's easy reactivation method available on his web site. The trial version does not allow : Mood, Folders, Shake-Me!, Themes, Disable red key and 10s mode. R4ph43l expects a donation of no less than 3€ for a complete version.

The application is rather basic i would say, and you need to have the album art JPEGs ready if you want it to look good. My'Sound, supposedly focused on music itself isn't even able to read the album art embedded in all my music files.  JPEGs of the album art need to be put in the same folder as the song albums for My'Sound to pick them up, a rather troublesome task for users who have their entire song collection chucked on their phones.

The Shake-Me! function is more for showing of than being practical considering it is so sensitive. A slight tilt of the phone changes the tracks and in the real world the only time you'll keep your N95 in a perfectly horizontal manner is when it's on the table. I would take Samir's ShakeMe application and Nokia's built in music player any day of the year compared to My'Sound if i wanted to "shake-to-change" tracks practically.

On a more positive note, i really like the fact that R4ph43l has made several improvements to Beta 3. For instance in beta 2 My'Sound was only able to scan a predefined number of folders in the phone. If you had your music elsewhere in personal folders the application wouldn't be able to pick it up. R4ph43l fixed this problem by incorperating a simple file browser into beta 3 so you can manually select and play music from your personal folders.

My'Sound also has neat little features like gorgeous themes, MoodMe functions, crossfading (which i would really like to see in Nokia's default music player), sleep mode and several other little bells and whistles that make it a promising music player if R4ph43l fixes most of the bugs. It would also be nice if he could add multimedia keys support for devices such as the N95 and N96.

In a nutshell My'Sound isn't really what i expected but there is a promising future for this application. Many improvements need to be made but i'd say this french developer has made a good start to changing the way we look at mobile music players. The thing i like most about My'Sound - .wma support!

Do try out this Python written music player, click on the link below to download.

My'Sound Beta 3 by R4ph43l

..and why not visit R4ph43l's website for more information.

 

Here are more screenshots taken from my phone, there are two other theme, one green and one blue but i did not include them in the screenshots.