Remotely Display a Symbian Mobile Phone Screen on Your PC

PhoneScreen is an extremely useful presentation tool for Symbian Smartphones that allows you to remotely display your device screen on a Windows-based PC screen. Keep reading to learn more about how it works and its main features.

Overview and Main Features

PhoneScreen allows you to display your Symbian mobile phone screen on a Windows-based PC. I doubt that a normal user would acknowledge the usability of this application but it is definitely an extremely useful and necessary tool for business users who need to exhibit their mobile phone screen on a big PC screen during presentations and demonstrations.
The application constitutes two components; one is to be installed on your Symbian device and the other component should be installed on a Windows-based PC. These two devices should then be connected to each other by using either a Bluetooth or a Wi-Fi or even a GPRS/3G connection.
The app supports full-screen demonstration mode and allows you to view your device screen in its natural screen resolution, supporting both portrait and landscape modes. It also allows you to connect multiple mobile phones at the same time and gives you the freedom to place your phone at a distance ranging up to 30 feet from your PC. It even lets you view your actual phone skin on the PC screen while giving a presentation.
PhoneScreen is developed by Devlex Industries and can be purchased from their website. A trial version includes PC setup component along with a .SIS setup loader for mobile phone and can be downloaded from developer’s website.
The application is compatible with Windows XP or Windows Vista and can be installed on all Symbian Smartphones operating on S60 3rd edition platform. It also has native support for Microsoft, Widcomm and Toshiba Bluetooth modules and can also be used on Smartphones with Wi-Fi or GPRS/3G support.

Examining PhoneScreen

After completing payment details, I downloaded the setup file which is approximately 5.23 MB in size. Running this setup file on your desktop PC will install the PC component during which time it will ask you to install the phone component if your device is already connected to your PC via a Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or GPRS/3G connection. The phone component can also be manually installed later if your device is not connected to your desktop PC or if you are facing Connection problems.
PhoneScreen Dialog Box
After the installation is complete, you will notice a PhoneScreen icon in your system tray, clicking on which will display a dialog box used for changing Bluetooth settings. Here, users should note that their PC’s Bluetooth mode should be set to ‘Discoverable’ mode so that the Bluetooth on your phone can easily locate and establish a connection. Similarly, your phone (WiFi and 3G enabled) should be properly connected to your desktop PC via a WiFi or 3G connection. I faced some minor connection problems while establishing a Bluetooth connection but I got past these by following the user manual which clearly explains every aspect of the programs connection settings.
Main Screen

Once connected I opened application on my phone by navigating to Main Menu → Applications → PhoneScreen which guided me to its main screen where I could connect or disconnect the connection between my phone and PC so that my phone screen can be displayed on PC’s screen.
Settings Menu
Then I navigated to ‘Settings’ tab where I could configure connection settings. The connection tab allows you to select the type of connection you want to establish between your phone and desktop PC. This can either be a Bluetooth Wi-Fi or GPRS/3G connection.
I chose to connect through a Bluetooth connection, saved my settings and started the connection. Now I could see my phone screen on my PC’s screen exactly in the same manner, the only difference being that now it was much bigger.

Final Verdict

PhoneScreen is an excellent piece of software and has proven to be very useful for business people while giving presentations or demonstrations. There is no doubt that the application works exactly as advertised by the developer but it is also a fact that connection settings are not easy to configure and it takes a lot of time and sweat if you are using a Bluetooth module other than the one supported by the application.
It took me almost two hours to configure the connection settings and I had to follow the user manual several times to do this in a proper way. Since I could not find a Wi-Fi enabled device, I cannot say much about establishing a Wi-Fi connection. Also I discovered that using the Bluetooth option had a drastic effect on my phone’s battery life and you have to be very careful that your phone is fully charged while giving a presentation to your clients.
Other than that, I think that this application is quite reasonably priced at $19.95, considering the fact that it becomes an essential tool for business users who own Symbian smartphones and give presentations on the road or at the last minute.

Twitter on Your Symbian Phone

This article inspects, dissects and serves up a roundup of mobile Twitter for Symbian clients; some of which are good and some of which aren’t so good.

Twitter

TwitterTwitter is a minimalistic social networking utility. It asks the simple question – What are you doing? – expecting an answer in 140 characters. The concept has captured the imaginations of thousands of people, who constantly update their answers throughout the day.
However, exciting and interesting tweets, as the responses are called, do not occur when in front of a computer, but when someone is out and about. Updating them immediately makes Twitter an exciting phenomenon. This is where mobile Twitter clients come into the picture, as they use data connections not SMSes to update Twitter accounts.

1. Twim
Rating Good

Twim is a lightweight Twitter client that mimics the website version quite faithfully. Any Twitter aficionado will recognize the various tabs in an instant: it has archive, replies and recent tabs. The menu is very simple, with an option to update the status and a settings option. The program is fast and easy to use. Some of the drawbacks are - there is no counter for the characters, and foreign language support is dicey. Additionally, until the latest release, there was no way of refreshing the timeline without shutting down and starting up the application manually, which was tedious. The client will work on most phones, as it is Java-based. It is free as well, as it has been developed by an enthusiast not an organization.

2. Tiny Twitter
Rating Average

Tiny Twitter is one of the first mobile Twitter clients to enter the arena, and therefore enjoys a widespread fan following. It is good, but doesn’t have the great user interfaces the others have. It is mostly text-based. The menu has the basic functions, like tweeting and viewing the friends list. The settings are limited to a basic few options, although the application can refresh the timeline automatically. The only thing really wrong with Tiny Twitter is that it needs an overhaul, as there are newer, snazzier clients out.

3. jTwitter
Rating Below Average

jTwitter is a simple application with very basic functionality. It is meant to update Twitter and allow you to view a few updates, without leveraging many of the Twitter functions. The main drawback of jTwitter is the bare interface, although it follows the colour scheme of the original Twitter, it does not pack in any good features. The timeline shows up as a list, and to view a tweet, it needs to be opened. There is too much moving back and forth, making the client annoying to use. This client is good for those people who tweet, even though Twitter is not that big a deal for them.

4. twibble
Rating Excellent

twibble is a truly comprehensive tweeting application, which can access all of the Twitter functions. It has some great features, which I haven’t seen in other clients. For instance, tweets are retrieved automatically, as the program refreshes automatically. twibble has keyboard shortcuts, and the facility to mark a tweet for further reference. All links within the tweets are opened in the phone’s web browser when selected. The level of customization is very good, with themes to change the appearance, and also to set notifications for when a new tweet is retrieved. This client gets my personal vote, hands-down.

Send Scheduled Text Messages on Your Symbian Smartphone


SMS Timer is a powerful messaging tool for Symbian smartphones that allows you to schedule and send text messages to multiple recipients. Keep reading to find out why it's better than the conventional Symbian messaging appn

Overview

SMS Timer provides the highest degree of convenience by allowing you to schedule your text messages so they can be sent later to multiple recipients. The program is also closely integrated with your address book contacts and messaging application so that whenever you compose a text message, the program prompts you as to whether you want to send your message right now or schedule it to be sent at a desired time. The program even allows you to compose a text message with up to 1600 characters that can be sent to 1000 recipients at a time.

SMS Timer is developed by MobiMonster and can be purchased from their website after providing your IMEI number and email address. If you want to try and test application before buying, a download link for a trial version (limited only to sending 5 scheduled text messages) is provided on the description page for the program. The program is compatible with all smartphones operating on Symbian S60 and Windows Mobile platforms and readers are advised to check their device compatibility by clicking here.
After connecting and establishing synchronization between my Symbian smartphone and a desktop computer, I used Nokia PC Suite to install the application on my device.

Examining SMS Timer App

After installing the application on my device, I could schedule my composed text messages easily by opening the inbuilt messaging app and then clicking on → Create new SMS → Send.
Scheduling Messages
This further initialized a pop-up message on my screen asking me whether I wanted to send this message now or schedule it to be sent later at a desired date and time.
Defining Date and Time
Selecting the ‘Schedule’ option guided me to a new screen where I could define the date and time when I wanted this message to be sent to the selected recipients.
Then I pressed the left soft key to select the ‘Save’ option to save this scheduled message on my device.
App's Main Screen
After doing this, I navigated back to my home screen and opened the SMS Timer app by clicking on → Main Menu → Applications → SMS Timer which further directed me to its main menu where I could see a list of all the schedule messages.
Options Menu
Here I could re-schedule my messages by selecting a message and then pressing the main options menu to select the ‘Re-schedule’ option.
This opened the message and I was able to edit the text and also changed the time and date. I could delete any scheduled message by pressing the ‘Delete’ option and I was able to view the status whether the message was scheduled or not by selecting the ‘Status’ option. Here I could also select the ‘Autostart’ option to automatically start the app whenever I restarted my phone. Finally I could delete all the scheduled messages displayed on the list by selecting the ‘Clear all’ option from this menu.

Final Verdict

Before laying my eyes on SMS Timer, I was quite satisfied with the conventional messaging app installed on my Symbian smartphone. After using the trial version of SMS Timer for several days, things were never the same again and I got addicted to the application and finally decided to buy it.
For my personal use it's the most convenient messaging tool available on the market and comes in quite handy if you want to schedule your text messages to be sent at a later date and time.
The user interface is also extremely easy to handle and it will hardly take a few minutes to configure the application according to your convenience.
Most of all, the program is closely integrated with the built-in messaging app and is present as an option while sending a message so that you don't have to open it every time you want to schedule a text message.
Also, its capability to compose a text message with up to 1,600 characters that can be sent to a 1,000 recipients at the same time is simply great and will be deeply appreciated by text messaging fans.
However, I think the application is a bit overpriced, but looking at the convenience and usability it has to offer the price can be overlooked.
Overall, SMS Timer is a great tool for people use text messaging as a primary medium to communicate with family and friends and I highly recommend it to all my readers.

SOURCE: MobiMonster