Russell Beattie

So I'm starting to pare down the apps I'm using on my phone. With the 7650 specifically you really need to choose which apps you use wisely because there's just not enough room to store everything and choose later. So far, here's what I've discovered are the best apps which I have installed on my phone.

First the Symbian Apps:

Yellow FTP is the killer app of my phone. It allows me to upload/download any piece of data I want and was the first app to show me that my handset was a real IP connected computer. I use this app to upload photos to my Moblog directory on my server and to upload/download text files to read on my eBook reader. This really allows me to manage the space on my phone better and is the inspiration behind DotMob. This app cost $25.

Doris Web Browser is great. It's fast and works well with just about any web page I've thrown at it. It doesn't try to mimic the page's design perfectly, it just tries to make the page as readable as possible and works well. I use it to browse Google News when I'm waiting, in a Taxi or in the John. It's not perfect, but compared with the J2ME based WebViewer or the trial of the NetFront Browser, it's the best of the bunch and smaller too. I have high hopes for the next version. This app cost $15.

File Explorer is an amazing app, and it's FREE! It allows you to browse your phone's file system in memory quickly and easily and it allows you to send any file via all the normal routes. It'll also tell you your Phone's IMEI number (which I always forget the key command for:*#06#) and OS version. It's just fast and well done. Did I mention it's free? Kick ass app.

T-Mobile's Video Recorder. You can download this app for free from T-Mobile's German website, but only if you're a customer. It's pretty easy, however, to get it online without much fuss. The app is very cool and very simple. It allows up to 15 second videos (with no sound, sadly) which are stored in industry standard MPEG4 format - this rocks and means I can just upload the .mp4 file to my web server to be viewed by anyone with the latest Quicktime or Real plugin. Compare this to Nokia's new 3650 Video Recorder - which admittedly includes sound - but is stored in some weird proprietary format. Definitely a must have. Check out my moblog for video samples. This app is really great for those moments when you want to catch your kid doing something new (like clapping his hands or taking some faltering steps) but don't have the time or access to your camcorder. It's really amazing and people go WOW when you show them video working from your phone. IMHO this is going to be a killer app and is going to sell A LOT of 3650s which include video out of the box.

ReadM is an eBook reader that I reviewed recently. It's free, small, and is amazingly well done. A MUST have for your Series 60. I keep several eBooks in gzip format on my web server and grab them via FTP when I want something to read and it works perfectly.

Stacker is a memory compression program which automatically compresses/decompresses applications as well as files. It works quite well and depending on the apps you have on your phone, it can really save space. This app cost $10

GoBoy RULES. I just reviewed this app, but with the addition of the save feature, this is now a kick ass app. You should have seen my wife's eyes when I showed her color Tetris DX running on my Nokia. Awesome. Again - I keep a few extra Gameboy ROMs on my FTP server so I can download them and play when I want to. Downside is that the ROMs are normally quite big at around 1 meg for any of the color games. This means you need to clear A LOT of memory out to play. Games I have loaded right now: Tetris DX, and Super Mario World (original). I don't care WHAT Symbian game you point out to me right now, none compare to real Gameboy games - especially ones that I played as a kid. This app, amazingly, is also free.

J2ME Apps:

Solytare is a really well done Solitaire app in Java. I originally got it from Midlet.org. There's not a hell of a lot of good free J2ME stuff that I've found, but this is defintely one of them. Really well done - probably if you weigh its size vs. the amount of time I've played with it, it could be the best of the bunch.

TipicME is a Jabber-based chat app with server-based interfaces to the four main IM apps (AOL, Yahoo, MSN, ICQ). It works and works WELL. I originally purchased another Symbian based chat app, IM+, but TipicME is sooo much more usable because of its well done user interface. And using T9 enables you to really have conversations without any problems at all. I've chatted to people online from taxis, movies, bathrooms, waiting rooms, etc. It's a great app and again, has that WOW factor that opens your mind to what smartphones and Java can do. This app is free - though you do have to sign up online.

Siberian Strike is a game I just downloaded the other day. It's okay and is a nice indicator of the power of Java for mobile games. I don't know how long it'll stick around on my phone now that I have GoBoy, but it's not too big, so it stays for now. This app cost $4.

Honorable Mention:

MGS Karting is a great 3D racing game which I think is very cool and the company includes a free Tetris clone as well in their MGS Magic game center. The shared files are the biggest, and the games themselves are much smaller. It's a shame I can't keep it on my phone since the 3D graphics are really great, but it uses more than 500k and is just too big. This app cost $20.

Interstellar Flames is another nice looking 3D game that I bought after reading about FatHammer (the publishers of the game) and seeing how cheap it was. However, it's not anywhere NEAR as much fun as it needs to be for me to waste over 1 meg of my phone for it. This app cost me $7.

The Rest:

There are other great apps out there too, but these are the ones that I have on my phone and are worth the memory/functionality tradeoff. Neither of the two installed Nokia games made the cut for example, even though they aren't bad and are free. Gone. I need the room for other cool stuff. I really liked playing with Bemused. And I liked the some of the productivity apps like ActiveDesk which puts the calendar and to do list on your front page screen. Screen Saver is great also, I loved having different pics show up on my screen when it's not being used. But again, I just don't have space for this stuff on the phone.

The final app that I bought which is vital for my phone, isn't actually on it. It's the PC File Manager from Epocware. It allows me to browse my phone from my PC - using Bluetooth it works like a charm and is so much faster to use for installs and transferring photos and other files off my phone than any other way. This app should be included with the phone, it's that useful (LISTENING NOKIA?!?!). This app cost me $18.

My biggest disappointment has been the almost $30 I wasted on IM+. You can't download a demo, which should have clued me in, and even though it works, the UI is so bad that it's basically unusable to have any sort of chat conversation.

That's the run down of what I have on my phone right now. To tell you the truth, it fluctuates a bit because I'm always trying new apps as I get hold of them, but these are pretty much the standards. I can't wait to get my hands on a phone with more memory like the Nokia 3650 or even the Siemen's SX1. And also, there are SO many P800 apps being published now that I'm seriously considering switching over to the UIQ camp... One or the other. I just need more memory!

-Russ