VoiceQ from SBSH Mobile Software Ltd was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition, FP 1 device.

Installation

Installation can be done via the PC using the Nokia application installer or by downloading the file OTA and installing it on the go. You need to register with SBSH by giving your email address to begin the download.

First View

Why do we need another voice recorder for a Symbian phone? What is VoiceQ going to provide over and above the default application that will make you buy it? Read on.

Main Review

VoiceQ is a solution for users who wish to take notes on the go and don’t have the time or inclination to write it down. But when there are dedicated Voice Recorders available in the market and by default all Symbian mobiles come with a very good voice recorder, why does one need another one?

What makes VoiceQ stand apart is its simplicity in use and email of the voice memo to a desired email id almost instantly. Furthermore, it can do it in just 2 clicks.

VoiceQ expects the messaging application to have one email mailbox setup already to function. Unless the email is setup, VoiceQ cannot email to voice memo to an email address. VoiceQ works only with the built in messaging application and does not work with other email clients like Nokia Messaging, Profimail, etc.

When the application is opened, you get the “Ready” screen where you can click “Record” to begin recording the voice memo. While recording, the screen shows that the “Recording” is in progress. Once voice memo is complete, you can stop recording and you get the option to Email the memo.

All this can be accomplished in two clicks. To facilitate even faster operation, there are 2 options that can be setup. These two options are to start recording the moment VoiceQ is opened and to email immediately after the memo is recorded. With these two option set, you only have to start the application and start talking. VoiceQ will do the rest.

You can insert multiple email addresses by separating them with the ‘;’ character (i.e.: a@aaa.com; b@bbb.com)

VoiceQ uses the same sound file for all of your recordings. Once you start recording, the previous recording is overwritten (but the attachments stay in the e-mail). This will save space on your device while keeping your attached voice notes intact. The idea is that the voice memo does not have to be present in the mobile’s memory card after it has been emailed out.

Each recording is saved to a WAV sound file which can be played in every standard sound player. The encoding is done as PCM audio format, 128 kbps Bit Rate, 16bit Audio sample size, mono (1channel), 8kHz Audio sample rate. This means that the file is pretty small for an audio file (about 1MB = 1 minute). The recording is limited by 10 minutes. This was done as a design decision, because there is not a real point in sending an email with a huge attachment.

Handling

VoiceQ is extremely easy to use. There were no issues in using it.

Weaknesses

The same sound file is overwritten for each voice memo with the assumption that it will always be emailed out immediately. It may so happen that there is no WiFi or GPRS/3G connection at certain regions. In these cases, if the user wants to record multiple voice memos, only the latest will remain and all others will be lost. There should be an option to enable email. If email is not enabled, the sound files should not be overwritten.

Conclusion

At 160 Kilobytes, VoiceQ is a tiny application that delivers what it promises with great simplicity. For the ever traveling businessman, who has to take notes on the go, VoiceQ is a very useful application. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5. You can try a full-featured version of VoiceQ for 12 days or purchase it at $5.95 here.

The keypad auto lock in the default S60 implementation locks the keypad only in the home screen. If any other application or folder is open, say call log or the Music player and you absentmindedly slip the mobile into your pocket, keys may be pressed inadvertently. Sometimes even number are dialed from the recent calls list without your knowledge.

Mr Lock is a simple application that runs in the background and locks the key pad automatically after a specific duration, in which ever application you have open or any folder.

Auto lock can be turned on in all profiles or some specific profiles.  The auto lock period is configurable. I set it at 30 seconds. But you don’t want auto lock to kick in when you are using some applications. For example, I don’t use Fring constantly after logging in. I bring up Fring when I get a new IM and leave it on foreground so that I go back and, say send an  IM a few minutes later. I don’t want to unlock the keypad every time I have to use Fring. Mr. Lock allows you to specify exceptions, i.e. it can be disabled for some applications when they remain on the foreground. Mr. Lock also overrides the default auto lock in S60.

Download

Mr Lock version 1.0 from MobiFunSoft is completely free and works on S60 3rd edition devices.

Conclusion

You get to appreciate the value of Mr. Lock only after using it for a few days. You can stop worrying about remembering to lock the keypad after every call or message. I find it extremely useful. Its good stuff. I’ll give it 4 of 5.

Data Quota is a simple application that measures the amount of GPRS / 3G  packet data your mobile has used for a billing period. It does not consider WiFi data. The billing date can be set and the data usage will be reset at the start of the new billing cycle. The quota allowed can also be configured in Megabytes. The application displays the data sent, data received and the total data used in the billing cycle.

Download

Dataquota has been created by hugovk and the latest version 0.1.5 is available at the Google Code home page for dataquota.

Conclusion

Its a Must Have for mobile internet subscribers who do not have unlimited data plans but plans where they are charged on per-Megabyte usage. I’ll give it 5 of 5 for its great utility value and simplicity of use.

P.S. This is a new category called Mini Review which gives us the opportunity to introduce our readers to more applications. These applications are not big enough to warrant a full review with all headings and images but are nevertheless hopefully useful to you. Let us know how you like the idea of Mini Reviews in the comments!

MeCanto was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device.

Installation

The MeCanto solution consists of two applications, one for the S60 device (now only available for 3rd edition) and a PC Client desktop application. I installed the PC Client on a Windows XP SP2. You also need to create an account with MeCanto on the web.

First View

There are different music solutions for the mobile. Mobbler streams msuic from Last.fm. Audials uses multi-various plug-ins to crawl the web and download music to your device. There is a new solution from MeCanto, which is a service for storing your music collection online and enabling access to it from anywhere. Read on.

Main Review

MeCanto streams all of your personal music collection from the cloud to your S60 device. To start with, you need to create a MeCanto web account  and then install the MeCanto client application on the desktop. Once you have logged in to your MeCanto web account from the MeCanto desktop application, it asks for the location of your music collection on your desktop. This collection is now uploaded to your MeCanto web account.

Then you can begin using the mobile application to listen to music. The sequence of operations to setup MeCanto is as follows:

Create Web Account –> Install Application on Desktop and S60 Mobile –> Identify Music Collection on Desktop –> Start listening to music on S60 Mobile.

But it doesn’t mean you have to wait for all of your 15 Gb of music to upload to your MeCanto account online to start listening to music. The good part is that you can start listening to your music collection on your S60 mobile device almost instantly. After you have identified the music collection on your desktop, the MeCanto web account is immediately populated with the details of your music collection. MeCanto smartly streams music from your Desktop to your mobile via the web until the upload is complete. The intermediate stream sequence is Desktop –> MeCanto Web Account –> S60 Mobile Device.

Those files that are uploaded are streamed from the web and those files that are on the desktop are streamed from the desktop. As a user, you don’t have to care about the difference.

As and when you add new music to your collection, its uploaded automatically to your MeCanto web account. If you want to listen to a song that’s not yet uploaded and your desktop application is turned off, you get an error message.

You can also specify your iTunes collection and files will be picked up from the iTunes Music folder. On the web account, you can create playlists that are made available on the mobile too. MeCanto has the options to Shuffle and Repeat tracks. You can also configure the upload speed limit. 10 Kbps is the default speed limit.

You cannot play music from your web account at the same time you are playing tracks on the mobile device. I got the message “Your account is being used by another computer (or phone), you have been logged  out”.

With MeCanto, I didn’t have to worry about memory space on my mobile, which is great. I can listen to all of my music collection if I have an unlimited 3G plan or a WiFi connection.

Handling

MeCanto is very easy to use. You just have to configure/setup your web account,  desktop and the mobile device the first time and you are set to go on a long road trip. MeCanto just takes up around 2 Megabytes while you are playing music. I had no problems multitasking with other applications like Nokia Messaging and Gravity.

MeCanto obviously doesn’t support uploading DRM files because they cannot be streamed to the mobile. If I purchased music via iTunes or Nokia Comes With Music, I shouldn’t bother with MeCanto.

MeCanto is vaguely similar “Files on Ovi”. Files on Ovi lets you access your desktop from your mobile via an SSL connection. MeCanto monitors the music folders on your desktop, uploads them to a server and provides access to these files to you. Both ways you are handing over control of your desktop to a third party vendor and that could be a security risk.

Weaknesses

Whether I created playlists or not, the MeCanto music player on my mobile device just could not do continuous play, i.e., play the next track after finishing the current one. After playing a track, it always stopped. I had to manually select the next song to play. That was a real pain.

I would like to know which songs have been uploaded and which are not yet on the web. So some play and some don’t when my desktop application is closed. There should be a flag against each song indicating whether its being streamed from my desktop or from MeCanto’s web servers.

The security risk of allowing Mecanto accessing my desktop may put off many people. My desktop is too precious and it is vulnerable to attacks when its accessible by a third party application. But then, that’s the service model.

Finally, I am a big user of track metadata like playcount, rating, track last played, etc and create smart playlists based on these metadata. While MeCanto lets me upload these playlists online, when I listen to music streamed from the MeCanto servers, these metadata are not updated. That’s a big weakness, for me but may not be important for many music listeners.

Conclusion

There are many music-on-the-cloud sevices around. You can take your pick – Audials, MeCanto, Mobbler – all of them are different in their own way but serve the purpose of listening to music on your mobile on the go. I liked MeCanto’s concept and it has been implemented quite well. But I’ll stick to my iTunes library and iPod for now. Its definitely worth a look and I’ll give it 3 of 5. Download MeCanto here.

M1 from immmooo was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device.

Installation

Installation is straightforward. M1 comes as a .sis file and the Nokia Application Installer can be used to install M1. When installing to S60 3rd phones, you may have to disable online certificate check: tools-> App.mgr.-> options-> settings: software installation(all), online certif.check(off). This will help you to solve the ‘certificate error’ pop-up.

First View

The developers of MyPhone, the iPhone shell for S60 have come up with a new Android shell for S60!

The Android shell, called M1 typically provides the UI of the HTC G1,that runs the Android OS by Google. The UI includes the Android’s desktop and icons. We have also reviewed MyPhone here at BestofSymbian.

Main Review

M1 functions as a normal S60 application and can be found in the task manager. Ideally it should start automatically at boot time and completely replace the S60 shell. Better yet, it should replace the Home Key functionality on my E71 such that when it is pressed, M1 opens. Alternatively, like Handy Shell, M1 could have provided the functionality to toggle M1, the menu and the Home Screen using the Red End Key.

The main M1 Desktop has 5 shortcuts and more could be added or removed by opening up the options menu using the left soft key. Just like the Android G1, three Desktops are available. Shortcuts can be added to anyone of the 3 Desktops. To add new shortcuts, just press the left or right soft key and a menu slides up.

I like the big analog clock on the idle screen. The screen lock is authentic Android and looks great.

M1 offers 29 icons in the pull up menu, which can also be added to M1’s Desktop. Unlike the MyPhone where the icons can be accessed using the keys on the keyboard, M1 only supports access using the D-Pad. And the icons in the pull up menu cannot be rearranged. The are arranged in alphabetical order and they can’t be moved around, for instance, to have the most useful applications on top of the heap. But one might argue that’s what the desktop is for, to keep shortcuts and have the pull up menu contain all icons in a standardized manner. I say, just give the flexibility. MyPhone allows moving icons around so I expect the same functionality in M1 too.

M1 also didn’t allow me to add icons for non native applications. So I couldn’t access new applications I installed via M1. I only have to exit M1 and go to the S60 navigation structure for accessing installed applications. MyPhone lets me add icons for new applications.

The dialer is eye candy but not efficient. Its designed for a touch screen and having the same design on a non-touch screen phone is not very usable.

The profile status is not displayed on M1’s Desktop. Similarly, missed calls, new emails, messages and notifications are not displayed on M1’s Desktop.

The Screenlock has the authentic G1 look. It actually disables the native auto lock feature in S60. Therefore unlock can be done just be pressing the OK key in the D-Pad. When I used Mr.Lock, an auto lock application, the keypad was locked in addition to the screen being locked by M1.

Handling

Transitions across screens, scrolling down the shortcut menu, etc was smooth. The overall experience of using M1 is very pleasant.  M1 also provides a help for reference.

Weaknesses

M1’s inability to add new icons for custom applications prevented me from adopting it as a full replacement for the native home screen. Also, easy toggling between the the native home screen and M1 should be available, instead of having to open it from the ‘Installations’ folder. Notifications are not displayed on the desktop, which means I have to exit the application and check out the native Home Screen for missed calls, messages, etc.

Conclusion

While M1 works ok on my E71, it is best suited for an S60 touch device. Someday I would like to play with it on a 5800 or N97 and discover how it functions. But the M1 Desktop is not ready yet to fully replace the Home Screen. Having said that, M1 is polished and shows promise. This is only the first version and I anticipate big updates in later versions. The first version is worth a look. Registration of the license for M1 is via the mobile. When the applications is purchased, the IMEI is recorded and M1 on the is activiated via the GPRS/3G/WiFi connection. whe Its available here for trail or purchase. I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Starts With WordSearch from ZingMagic was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition, FP1 device.

Installation

Starts with WordSearch Its available in the Ovi Store. I picked it for the 3rd edition FP1 device. The Ovi Store sends the download link to the mobile for download of the application.

First View

Starts With WordSearch is one of the many board games from ZingMagic found on Ovi Store. Lets see how it is.

Main Review

Starts With WordSearch has just one game play – locate words in a grid of letters. There are 20 categories, which means there are 20 different sets of words, starting with various alphabets. Your skill is measured by how quickly you can find all the words in the grid. There is a timer that measures time taken to complete the grid.

There are 3 levels, Hard, Medium and Easy. In the Hard level, words can be formed backwards, left to right and right or left diagonal across the board. In easier levels, words are arranged simply from top to bottom or left to right.

The grid sizes can be Small, Medium and Large. I prefer the Small grid because it fits well to my screen. The Large grid makes the letters too small and its not very easy on the eyes.

When you find a word, select the first letter and just move the D-Pad left or right for each letter in the word. For e.g. even if the word is constructed downward-right-diagonally, a right press on the D-Pad will move it down right-diagonal.

Statistics give you feedback on your progress. Basically you play against yourself and improve the time in finding all words in the grid.

Handling

It took me a while to find out that the next letter in the word should not be pressed by I should just scroll down using the D-Pad until the word is complete. There is no help to guide the player.

Weaknesses

The only problem I found was that if I made a mistake, like pressing two letters one after the other, there is no turning back. I might as well abandon the game and start over. Would have been nice to just add a minute for a mistake and let me undo the mistake and complete the game.

Conclusion

Starts With WordSearch is an engaging game and improves your vocabulary. Its free on the Ovi Store and is a teaser for similar premium games from ZingMagic like Word Search Nature, Word Search Geography, Word Search Hobbies, Word Search Food & Drink, Word Search Deluxe, Word Search Alphabet. They are all priced at 2-3 Euros and are good time pass, as they say. I’ll give it 3 of 5.

Spb TV v1.0 from Spb Softwarehouse was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device.

Installation

Installation of the sis file is simple, using the Nokia application installer.

First View

I was very skeptical about watching TV on a mobile. There is a lot of hype about IPTV but it just did not take off. It required high amount of bandwidth and must be delivered with certain levels of Quality of Service (QoS) and reliability to become a viable alternative to cable television. Its typically the cellular operators who advertise and provide IPTV service to mobile subscribers. I was curious to find out what Spb TV had to offer.

Main Review

Spb TV has integrated live streaming feeds of various TV channels on the Internet, whether they are free or premium, to the mobile for a one-time cost of the application you have to purchase. So its subscription-free.

It is not really IPTV as defined by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU-T) but Spb TV have used their proprietary telecom network infrastructure (more below) to deliver video content at 300 Kbps and you get to watch real live TV on the mobile which is absolutely great. To their credit, Spb TV don’t call it IPTV but officially calls this a mobile TV application.  Spb TV is best viewed over high-speed WiFi or HSDPA since its very data intensive. I used only WiFi for all my testing.

There are 105 channels from more than 17 countries being streamed live in several languages and there should be something for everyone.

The channel preview is well done, which changes the thumbnails used in the preview frequently from the latest streams available.

You can also preview other channels, while watching a particular channel. The preview appears in the Picture-in-picture mode.

A TV Guide is available for all the channels and you can set an alarm to view a particular channel on a certain date and time.

The volume can be controlled on screen or using the hardware buttons on my E71. For the onscreen control of volume, the D-Pad can be used. It took me a while to find the onscreen control for other features like brightness control, picture in picture, etc. I later found that pressing the “Enter” Key brought up the onscreen menu.

The mobile TV service from Spb TV is not just about having an application on the mobile pick up live videos from the Internet. The Spb TV solution requires a full blown network infrastructure that you can see below.

Videos from each channel is retrieved and hosted by Spb TV Transcoding Servers that feed the data to Spb TV Re-streaming Servers that stream data using the RTSP protocol at 300 Kbps per channel. An Spb Authorization Server is used for authenticating users. The Spb TV Thumbnail server caches latest frames of each channel viewed and displays that over the channel during Picture-in-Picture view or when you browse through the channels. There is a separate Spb TV Guide Server that is updated periodically with the latest TV information.

Handling

Channel browsing and Picture-in-Picture were great to use and gave an experience that’s close to that of watching real TV.

I could select only a subset of channels that I want to have in my main screen for browsing and the TV guide’s alarm functionality is a very nice feature.

Weaknesses

I could spot some audio lag, which results in loss of sync between the video and voice but its very minimal and you’ll get over it in a no time. There was never an issues with the quality of the picture. Typically live streaming video over the web has a lot of buffer delay but Spb TV’s own infrastructure has mitigated this to a considerable extent, thereby greatly improving the TV viewing experience.

Conclusion

I am very impressed with Spb TV. With a 30 day money back, no questions asked, no risk full price refund offer, its a no brainer to check out Spb TV on your Symbian mobile. It available for a trial or purchase for $14.95. Its very good stuff and I’ll give it a 4 of 5.

Audials Mobile sis file version 2.0.40, built on May 22 2009 was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device.

Installation

Installation of the sis file is simple, using the Nokia application installer. Additional plug-ins must be downloaded separately and transferred to the mobile device and the Audials software picks up the plug-ins from a designated location on the phone’s memory.

First View

Audials Mobile is an Internet music “search and download” software from RapidSolutions Software. RapidSolutions Software primarily focuses on developing and marketing the Audials brand. Audials calls itself the is the only software that allows one to download the best MP3 music the Internet has to offer from the newest generation of social radio stations. Lets take it for a spin.

Main Review

Audials crawls all over the Internet for music you are looking for, picks them up from streaming web radio stations and downloads it to your mobile. The basic installation comes with two plug-ins, for Esnips and Garageband. More plug-ins can be found at a very active Search and Record Plug-in Forum that’s available at audials.com. I downloaded the Audials Plug-ins pack, last edited on 17th June 2009 and it supported 4 more sites, projectplaylist, tagoo, wrzuta and Tunefinder.

Plug-ins are in a file format .aplp and installation is simple. Just transfer the plug-ins to the mobile and in Audials, select “Search & Record Plug-in” to Add a new plug-in from the mobile.

All Plug-ins are listed and their ‘cloud state’, i.e. whether they are installed and running is also displayed to the user.

Songs can be searched by entering Artist names or by Genre. There are 15 top level genre and each has many sub genre. For e.g. Rock as a genre has about 10 sub genre like Alternative, Classic Rock, Gothic, etc. I searched various popular artists and found hundreds of tracks for almost every artist.

Files that are already downloaded to the mobile have a “tune’” symbol before them indicating that you already have it. Files being downloaded also have a symbol before them. The download process is called “Recordings”. I guess this is a way to avoid the negative reaction of download music online.

Handling

Audials is very easy to use. I didn’t have any problems getting around it and was using it like a pro in a few minutes.

Weaknesses

I really liked mobbler’s streaming music. I would have liked to hear music streamed to my mobile instead of downloading them to the mobile device. There is more instant gratification in streaming music

Conclusion

Audials is compatible with a nearly eighty S60 devices from Nokia, LG and Samsung. It also supports other mobile platforms.

With more services moving towards the cloud, the notion of downloading music to the desktop will eventually become obsolete. While Audials allows download of tracks, its only a matter of time before they are forced to move to the model of streaming music to the mobile directly, like Mobbler and Last.fm. Audials Mobile has the basic infrastructure in place to make this change smooth and easy. The folks at Audials assured me that its legal to record streaming music from web radios in Germany and many other countries. While Mobbler only connects to Last.fm, with a vibrant forum, Audials offers plug-ins for getting music from various sources, not just Last.fm.

Audials Mobile Trial is available, where you can download a maximum of 2 songs. Audials Mobile Premium, the full version is available for GBP 7.90 and you can get unlimited music downloads. Its good stuff and I’ll give it 4 of 5.

SPB Wallet was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device. The desktop application was installed on a Windows XP SP 2 OS.

Installation

The setup.exe installs both the desktop app and the symbian application on the mobile too. There is also an option to install the .sis file on the mobile independently. The registration of license key can be done on the mobile. SBP Wallet  installs a tool bar for IE and Firefox. More about it later in the review.

First View

SBP Wallet is yet another application that stores all your passwords and other personal information on your s60 device in a secure manner. We have already reviewed SBSH Safe Wallet here. Lets see how this measures up.

Main Review

Desktop application

At first run of the application on the desktop, you will be asked to create a new wallet or open an existing one or sync. You should select the location of the ‘wallet’, which stores your personal information. The wallet has a proprietary file format, .swl. But the wallet can also be exported to a text format. A password is mandatory for a wallet and is expected when a new wallet is created. The strength of the password is verified by the application.

I was using SBSH SafeWallet before and I wanted to import all my personal information from SBSH SafeWallet into SPB Wallet. I exported the wallet as a txt file from SBSH SafeWallet. SPB Wallet is designed for easy migration from other Secure Information Managers. You can import data from other applications like eWallet, FlexWallet, CodeWallet, Handy Safe, etc. There is also support to import CSV files. But SBSH SafeWallet is not supported. So even when I exported the contents of SHSB Safe Wallet to a text file, SPB Wallet couldn’t import it successfully. Eventually I had to update my Handy Safe database, export the data as a text file from Handy Safe and then import it into SPB Wallet. I wish there was support for importing of data from SBSH Safewallet.

Importing a text file created out of HandySafe was a breeze. For every card, I could specify the template that should be used in SPB Wallet or just allow it to choose the defaults.

With a SPB Wallet tool bar integrated with IE and Firefox, creating new Cards is very simple. Just enter the login details on a website and click “Capture Card” and the contents are stored as a new Card in SPB Wallet. When you get back to the site, just click “Fill Page” and the login details is just filled up. This is a very good feature.

Mobile Device

On the mobile after the sync the wallet (.swl file) is placed in an obscure location that is not known to the user. I wouldn’t bother where the wallet is placed except that when I open the app on my device, it wants to know the location of the wallet. I really don’t care. That’s the job of the application. So I searched for .wpl files and found that it was in E:\Data\Others\My Wallet.swl. When I create a new wallet on the mobile device, I am asked the location where the wallet should be placed. The user should not be bothered with this detail.

When nearly 60 templates available, you can store any personal information when the right context. SPB Wallet saves so much time because of the rich set of templates.

Handling

SPB Wallet is very easy to use both on the device and the desktop. There is a “Most Used Cards” menu that is good for a quick reference. The Find option is amazing. It shows results as you type. I typed a common password I use and it showed up in more than 15 Cards. I must change it soon! There are some themes and colors for the logon button. Not very exciting but there has been attempt to liven up things for the user!

Weaknesses

I didn’t find many. I don’t want to be bothered about the location of the wallet on my mobile device, not the first time and definitely not every time I open SPB Wallet on the device. It really puts me off. Just display all the wallets on the device and ask for the password when I open it!!

Conclusion

SPB Wallet is a feature rich and well designed secure information manager for your s60 devices. Its can be downloaded here for a trial or purchase. Its worth a look and I will give it 3 of 5.

Snaptu was installed on a Nokia E71, an S60 3rd edition FP1 device.

Installation

Installation is via the web link http://m.snaptu.com, which guides you through the download and install process or you could give your mobile number at http://snaptu.com/download and you get an SMS link to download the application on to your mobile via the Internet. More and more applications are distributed this way. It totally avoids the need to keep track of updated versions, having a local copy of the .sisx file and so on. The application also has an “upgrade” option that checks for updates on the Internet and automatically updates the new version if available.

First View

I really expected a lot a lot from Nokia’s widisets. It was a great opportunity to bring the web to the mobile in a novel way. But I believe they squandered it because the application was slow and not very user friendly. How does Snaptu measure up? Read on.

Main Review

Snaptu is a directory or mobile applications, all accessible through this installed s60 client. The mobile applications appear as cute iPhone-like icons and each is a mobile-customized version of popular websites designed for easy navigation, single-click access and with mobile-friendly fonts.

Snaptu carries applications for various interests - news sites like Reuters, BBC & The Guardian, social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Sudoku, a fine Dictionary, Cricinfo, Football scores, AccuWeather, a UK box office chart site and a few more!

What I liked about Snaptu was the easy navigation in each application – be it reading articles, following live scores or updating your status in Facebook and Twitter. For e.g., cricinfo.com, the famous cricket website, which has hundreds of articles, live scores and statistics never had a good mobile application for following scores. Navigating cricinfo on the mobile was a big hassle. But Snaptu has captured it all with just 4 categories – Live Scores, Fixtures, Results and News and each like leads to further information. Or take The Guardian, all the news and op-ed categories are listed in the screen and you can navigate further to the category you want.

You can add or remove applications, upgrade Snaptu, change languages. Currently only English and Italian are supported.

Handling

With every piece of information accessible in just one click, the ease of use that Snaptu provides is quite impressive. 

Weaknesses

I can’t find any weaknesses. I only need to see more applications in Snaptu.

Conclusion

Snaptu is mobile web done right. Its all about serving up the right web content in small capsules instead of one having to to navigate numerous links and data hungry web pages.  I’ll give it 5 of 5. Its a must have. Get it now!