Posts Tagged ‘antony pranata’
Quick Recipes on Symbian OS - book
Written by Meraj Chhaya on July 21, 2008 – 4:28 pm
Michael Aubert informed me of his new book, which was written with Jo Stichbury, Tanzim Husain, Alexey Gusev, Jenny Mulholland, Antony Pranata and Jukka Silvennoinen. The two latter Symbian experts were interviewed by us in the past.
The book is targeted at people who know C++ but have never developed for mobile devices. The writers also wanted the book to be accessible to academic staff and university students, to complement the Symbian Academy program.
The book also includes a ‘Getting Started’ chapter and another chapter that describes the essential idioms of Symbian C++. The book closes with an explanation of best practices, tips and tricks, and how to prepare your application for release - taking you from novice cook to cordon bleu chef in under 400 pages!
In simple terms, for a programmer it seems like the perfect book to get started with Symbian, but even for experts this should be a must-have, and a proof of that is the list of experts that compiled it.
Thanks Michael, hope to see more of these soon!
Source: Interview with Aubert and Symbian Developer Network, Symbian Developer Network book description
Tags: Alexey Gusev, antony pranata, Jenny Mulholland, Jo Stichbury, Jukka Silvennoinen, Michael Aubert, Quick Recipes on Symbian OS, Symbian books, Symbian C++ guide, Tanzim Husain
Posted in Symbian OS | Comments
Who blogs best - All applications reviewed!
Written by Meraj Chhaya on March 1, 2008 – 11:09 pm
Many Bloggers such as my friend Jan (ex-N95Blog writer), and Ewan Spence from All About Symbian, have tested and reviewed the famous Wavelog application, and now I test what is actually the best form to blog from your phone, I come across many applications which help me post, upload and edit my articles, and in the end I decide which one I prefer, but I always love to hear what my readers have to say, so don’t forget to leave your comments.
The reason why I chose Wordpress instead of Blogger or Typepad, is because I am familiar with it, and my blog Nokia N96 Blog uses the Open Source version of it.
Wavelog is definitely a handy tool to post articles to Wordpress blogs, unfortunately it is not freeware, and to acquire a licence for it, you will have to pay 10$ US. Without the licence you won’t be able to post in-line images, videos or audio. I’m not sure if video will be uploaded on YouTube, or any other streaming service, I’m not sure if audio will be streamed either, as I did not buy the licence. Wavelog works on both Wordpress and the Open Source version of it, which is crucial for most bloggers who like to have their own fully customizable blog.
I did not know how to set it up, but my friend Jan gladly helped me on the one simple step I was confused about.
The first field is "Post to URL", you should fill it with http://yourdomain.com/xmlrpc.php. After that is Username, and then it’s password.
To start posting, go to File>New and input your post’s title. You can’t just start writing straight away, choose if you want to write down or right. Down is actually on top, unless the field where you are setting is below it. You can also collocate images, videos, and sounds. Deleting of fields isn’t possible.
Unfortunately there is no formatting whatsoever, and the GUI is rather poor, making it an uncomfortable program for beginners. After you are done with the article writing, simply click "Post", select your connection, and your post will be on your blog straight away.
Even though there is a major lack of formatting, this should be by far the fastest way that you can post on your blog, making it a great tool in conferences and press conferences if you wish to inform everyone else before anyone else can, if you know what I mean. At this stage I’m not extremely happy as I haven’t found a complete tool, but let’s head over to Opera Mini and see what it offers us.
With or without images enabled, you can access your Wordpress dashboard just the way you do it on your computer, with extremely reduced costs. This all sounds very good, but it doesn’t work like that.
Click on "Write" and you will be directed to the post editor. Unfortunately none of the formatting commands are there, and you can only edit from "Code" and not "Visual". You can still choose the category, and edit tags, but upload or choosing images is another problem. When clicking on "Browse" images, only the small "Images" window appears, and if you click "Select", the page will loop, making it impossible to post any image. Uploading the image is impossible, as you are not allowed to browse for the file. For now we can conclude that Wavelog is better than Opera Mini for use with Wordpress, as Opera Mini doesn’t facilitate the use of images.
Post by email on Wordpress is rather buggy, and I suddenly feel like I’m reviewing Wordpress and not Mobile blogging, but we have to talk about all the services involved in order for the user to fully understand what to choose.
You can use any email client such as Windows Live Mail, GMail Mobile, or even any web-based email service to post to your Wordpress page. I’m not sure how this works with Wordpress.Com as I used the Open Source version as said previously. In my case, you need to know how to setup an email address on your server, its port, and obviously the password and mail server address. When done with that, send an email to whichever address you chose (keep it secret), and go to http://yourdomain.com/wp-mail.php for Wordpress to check the email account. If it receives anything, it shows a notification on the page, posts the email, and deletes it off the inbox. I read somewhere that you can attach an image and it will become an in-line image on the post. According to my tests, you only see code. The email to post functionality is as good as Opera Mini, so this is definitely a no-no.
If you are wondering how to actually upload images and put them manually onto your blog post, there are many applications that allow you to easily upload images, but none will give you direct links.
Let’s look at MOSH, a web based program by Nokia.
The web browser will be initiated and you can upload your image successfully. Only one problem: You don’t know the direct link of the image, so there is no way to incorporate it in your blog post.
Let’s try Share Online 3.0, I got an account with both Flickr (merajchhaya) and Ovi (meraj), and the image upload is more than easy.
Go to gallery or simple press your "Latest gallery item" button, on the image bar, select "Upload to Flickr". Go to Share Online application and get the link:
Guess what: It’s not a direct link.
Now try Ovi. Go to Share Online, select Publish on Ovi, The image will easily be uploaded, and you will get a link, as show in the screenshot, but it won’t be the direct link, so no again to in-line images.
Shozu is considered by many the best image uploader, but that title might not be suitable if a direct link isn’t available, and this is another fail in the quest for a direct link.
With over 30 sites, Shozu allows you to upload to almost anywhere, but that special ingredient that we need is missing.
It seems that there is nothing better than Wavelog…until I show you the moves Sensei thought me.
There is one well known image host that doesn’t fear hot linking and leaching, and that is ImageShack.US, go to that address in your S60 browser, and upload any image you would like.
The options include resizing, send to email address, and many more features to come after you conclude uploading. Forum links, HTML code, and our well desired direct link, which we simply select, and copy to clipboard.
If you don’t like ImageShack, or just like to use what you already paid for, there is always FTP clients, and the best for S60 v3 is SIC FTP.
Operation here is very basic: Get your username, password, port, and ftp server address, Copy an item from your phone memory tab, and paste it in any folder on your server tab.
To get the direct link is even easier. If the folder where you posted is the root of your domain, and the image is image1.jpg, the link should be http://yourdomain.com/image1.jpg. Can it get any easier? The only problem is that it’s your bandwidth and disk space being used.
Now to get it all in your blog, you will use none other than the S60 browser:
The page browsing itself feels more natural than Opera Mini, but don’t forget that it will waste 300kB just for the Post Editor, now it’s a good time to have your HSDPA switched on.
Incorporating images has never been this easy (and time spending), click on the "img" button, a pop-up appears, where you paste the image link which you previously copied to the clipboard or Notes application.
The only problem is that in text formatting, when a button is clicked, the command is executed in the first character of the text field, but you can always cut and paste the commands where you want them to be.
Image upload from this Wordpress page doesn’t work, but categories, tags, and few other options are working 100%.
With the rise of YouTube, everyone vlogs, or atleasts adds some videos to their posts. In my Wordpress, I installed a plugin that if I write httpv instead of http, the browser editor recognises it as a YouTube video.
To upload a video and embed it to your blog, make sure you have the YouTube application, go to Application Manager, and Open the YouTube program in it. Give it Always access to all areas and functions. Go to the YouTube application, and upload a video, make sure you have a YouTube account or a Google Account associated with it. The uploads can take long, and if it takes too long, the application will give a timeout.
When you are done, you don’t get the link so there is no way you can share it. Mobitubia and emTube won’t give you the link either, so you will have to access YouTube on your S60 browser. It will first redirect you to the mobile version, so you will have to manually click on the desktop version link at the bottom of the page. Once you are there, login, and go to My Videos.
Click on the video that you just uploaded, a new page will load. Add this page to your Bookmarks. Now go to your Bookmard list, highlight the one that you just saved, Click Options>Edit bookmark, and copy the address to your clipboard.
Go to your post’s page, and paste the YouTube video link there, with the necessary adjustments so that it streams to your post, or you can just copy the embed code, if it doesn’t look funny on your blog. You can change some of these steps, if you wish to upload from your S60 browser, to the desktop version of YouTube, but I prefer the YouTube Mobile client.
Now that I have compared all of them, share your opinion here of which is the best method, I prefer the S60 Browser method. Hopefully soon we will see an improved Wavelog, with all these features.
Tools used:
- Nokia N95
- Wordpress.Org
- Screenshot by Antony Pranata
- Wavelog
- Opera Mini
- Windows Live Mail
- GMail Mobile
- MOSH
- Share Online 3.0
- Flickr
- Ovi
- Shozu
- ImageShack
- SIC FTP
- YouTube
Tags: antony pranata, cnm, eagle-slayor, flickr, gmail, imageshack, meraj, merajnet, mosh, nokia n95, notícias, opera mini, ovi, phone report, screenshot, share online 3.0, shozu, sic ftp, wavelog, windows live mail, Wordpress, youtube
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Interview with the man behind Screenshot, Antony Prananta!
Written by Meraj Chhaya on February 19, 2008 – 4:15 pm

I decided to interview a great man I admire, for developing the application that all us reviewers love, Screenshot. Antony has been in the software business for long, and is and important developer at Nokia.
Good evening Mr Antony Pranata, I am really glad that you accepted my invite. The readers and I are expecting to find out quite a lot about you and your contribution to the Symbian society.
To start, would you care to tell us what which phone was your first?
My first mobile phone was Siemens C25.
When did you acquire this mobile phone, and what was the price (comparing to the prices today)?
I bought my Siemens C25 in August 1999. At that time, I was still living in my home country, Indonesia. The price was around US $135.
What phone are you using at the moment?
I am currently using Nokia N95 8GB.
When did you get into mobile phone programming?
I started into mobile phone programming at the beginning of 2003.
Tags: actualidade, antony pranata, applications, chhaya, cnm, eagle-slayor, informatica, meraj, merajnet, Nokia, notícias, novidades, phone report, S60, screenshot, Symbian OS, tecnologia, telemoveis, uiq
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Meraj’s (must have) Nokia N95 applications! - Part 3
Written by Meraj Chhaya on February 8, 2008 – 10:10 pmOn Previous episodes:
Part 1
Part 2
Well I didn’t write more because I had a test today and my hand is really sore…
In my part 3 of my N95 Must Have Applications I’m going to cover:
- GMail Mobile
- Translator Package
- Google Maps Mobile
- Windows Live Mobile
- Screenshot by Antony Pranata
GMail Mobile Review
This is one of those applications that should be bundled in the phone, and I hope this is the sort of thing that we will see in OS9.2 Feature Pack 2 from Symbian.
GMail Mobile is a Java application so you get it for practically any other phone that supports Java and obviously a colour screen.
Weird thing is that lately the application takes quite long to startup, and I don’t leave it forever on as it constantly updates your emails, which is a good thing if you don’t pay your own bills, which is not my case.
The application even preloads your emails, so while you are reading one of them, the other one is already downloaded to your phone’s memory. The functionality is the same as the computer version, every single option that is
important for an email client is present.
If there are links in your received emails, you can click on them and you will be taken to a mobile version of the website, but when it comes to attachments it’s a disaster, as sometimes I like to save my full resolution images.
The application also works on landscape mode without problems, but the basic option labels are misplaced as the program isn’t really designed for that purpose.
What the developer says:
-
Faster, more Gmail-like user experience
Gmail for mobile devices is fast and easy to use, with the same functions and look and feel as Gmail on the web. Once installed on your mobile device, you’re just a click or two away from the messages in your Gmail inbox.

-
Automatic synchronization
Your Gmail account stays synchronized whether you access it from your PC or your phone. Send an email from your mobile device and you’ll find it in the ‘Sent Mail’ folder on your PC. -
Searching
Gmail for mobile devices allows you to search through your entire Gmail archive in seconds. Simply click on the search menu option and input your query.

Translator package review: French, German, Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
This is a series of programs that have phrases linked to sounds. The translator is clearly a native from the country in question, it is quite obvious on the Portuguese translation as the lady has a Portuguese accent. Basic translations are covered and it can be extremely helpful if travelling to a foreign country, as everything from Essentials, Travel, Accommodation, Food and Drink, Socializing, Shopping, Medical, Dates and time, Numbers, Emergencies is covered.
Google Maps Mobile review
If it wasn’t for all the data charges, I could have been a big fan of this software. Google Earth with live tracking on your phone, quite an amazing feat, but unfortunately there is no way to fully cache the maps or buy them like that.
Another good feature about Google Maps Mobile for non-N95 users is the My Location, which is sort of A-GPS, it tracks down your location depending to what network towers you are connected to.
But for N95 users is another thing. On the version I use you can set up a route, but it never worked for me really, and the same with Nokia Maps, I can never set or search or a road, I always have to play with either marks or waypoints.
After few tweaks I believe Google Maps could replace Nokia Maps, or perhaps they will only concentrate on their Android platform.
What the developer says:
Real-time traffic — See where the congestion is, and estimate delays in over 30 major US metropolitan areas.
Detailed directions — Whether you plan to walk or drive, your route is displayed on the map itself, together with step-by-step directions.
Integrated search results — Local business locations and contact information appear all in one place, integrated on your map.
Easily movable maps — Interactive maps let you
zoom in or out, and move in all directions so you can orient yourself visually.
Satellite imagery — Get a bird’s eye view of your desired location. (It’s like you’re there, we swear.)
Windows Live Mobile review
Well this isn’t really the name of this bundle of applications, but this great software pack features a Messaging plug-in for Windows Live Mail, a Contact plug-in for your Windows Live Contacts and a simple Instant Messaging client, which has the basic desired functionality from any chat addict.
One curious thing is that Microsoft wanted to charge for the service, or atleast that I heard from many blogs are forums, but I still use it and they never charge me
.
The biggest and perhaps only problem with the application is that it’s way too slow to download emails or get connect to your IM account.
Every mini application is started from the IM client itself, although the Spaces isn’t built in but it takes you to your web browser.
On the IM side, it is feature packed. You can send
images, videos and even audios. You have a satisfying selection of emotions, the chat window is split screen and doesn’t lag at all, the User Interface is simply great. There is still the possibility of group chats, so I really don’t know why this couldn’t be featured as one of the best IMs ever. Of course Agile Messenger is probably the best, but this one isn’t that backwards.
On the Messaging and email side, there is a POP3 like email interface, where you synch headers, and then text and if you want you can download full size attachments.
What the developer says:
Windows Live™ is now available for select web-enabled Nokia devices. You can stay in touch easily using Windows Live Messenger and Hotmail® on the go. Manage Contacts, share photos, and browse the web — all from
a device that fits in your pocket.
Know what’s up
-
See your Windows Live contacts and their online presence
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Send audio messages or digital photos via Windows Live Messenger
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Easily change your Messenger display picture to match your location or mood
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Enjoy quick and easy offline access to Windows Live Hotmail, complete with photos, video, or voice recording
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Upload photos to your Windows Live Space directly from the Nokia Gallery
Screenshot by Antony Pranata
Quite a useful application especially for us reviewers or even common Symbian enthusiasts. You can choose on what format to save pictures, where to save them and even customize the shortcut.
The software can be also used in Pictbridge printing, where web pages cannot be printed, you simply take screenshots and play with the paper so that you can fit quite a few images in it.
What developer says:
Screenshot for Symbian OS is a FREE program to take screenshot on your Symbian OS mobile phones (UIQ or S60). You can capture screenshot and save it to a file in JPEG, PNG, BMP or MBM format. The screenshot can be sent directly to a PC via Bluetooth or infrared and another mobile phone. Furthermore, you can customize the shortcut key, file name and delay of capturing. It supports continuous mode that allows you to capture screenshot every a few seconds.
Tags: actualidade, antony pranata, blog, blogs, chhaya, cnm, curiosidades, diário, eagle-slayor, gmaill mobile, google maps, meraj, merajnet, n95, Nokia, notícias, phone, S60, screenshot, Symbian OS, telemoveis, windows live
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