Series 60

One of the many uses of a smartphone is the ability to screen calls – automagically. Want to stop all unknown callers from ringing through? Want to ignore a relentless ex-girlfriend who won’t let up? Well, it’s quite easy to do. Let’s compare the most popular blacklist/whitelist call blocking applications for Symbian S60 devices.

This list is organized by my top selections based on features, price and power.

First:

Epocware’s Handy Blacklist – $24.95

It’s a very ‘no-mess-no-fuss’ blocker that uses a black list to divert calls.

You can immediately activate the blocking software, even with an empty list. It won’t block any calls – however if you explicitly decline a call, the software will ask if you’d  like to add to a rejected list which is a very nice feature however it worked spontaneously and did not always give me the option to add the number.

In terms of the ability to set numbers to block, there’s the normal that you’d expect. Recent Calls will load your call log and show all incoming and outgoing calls that are saved.

The ‘Contacts’ option will show all your contacts and gives you the ability to select multiple entries AND groups (if you have any set).

You can also manually enter a phone number or block all unknown and private numbers.

Packing the ability to display a transparent status icon on the Active Standby screen, you  can easily see if your divert options are on.

The icon is painted a bit low, but it’s there nonetheless. One bug I found, was when I had enabled the AS indicator – the home/menu button on my E71 no longer worked for short presses – disabling it solved this.

You can also set the log of rejected calls and view it on the main screen second tab and setup a dialog to ask if you want to add a decling call to the reject list, but again, this does not always seem to work.

Good

Starts invisibly and has extremely small memory usage.

Ability to easily pull call logs and contacts, almost immediately without lag.

Active Standby icon that only shows when the blocker is active.

Bad

Active Standby icon is not dynamic and it’s incorrectly drawn with transparency.

Rejecting a contact does not always prompt addition to rejection list.

Pricey

Thoughts

It’s great. It’s very low-footprint and I do not notice it running at all.  An incoming call will be silenced, without your device being notified via ring or vibe, the screen will temporarily show an incoming call – and then automatically disconnect it. It’s pricey for mobile software, however it does sit in the middle area with software up in the $40 range and ones as low as *free* (Melon Mobile Easy Reject).

Second:

MelonMobile/WebGate Advanced Blocker – $39.90

WebGate has a few releases of software that has the ability to divert and filter calls; Advanced Blocked, Easy Reject, Easy Busy, Easy Mute. A bit of a disjoint here – with numerous applications that provide the same thing, but differ in features and prices.

Advanced Blocker seems to roll all these into one. It features the ability to import from the phonebook, phone log, manual input and group/wildcard input – which is an extremely nice feature (you can write off a whole area code if you want!). The preferences setting has the AS icon setting.

Importing from the phonebook is instantaneous while the phone log takes around 20 seconds to pull the information. You can import SMS and Call entries and full groups.

When manually entering a number, you can enter a wildcard and drop off any number with the defined pattern – GREAT feature if you want to stop a whole city block from calling you.

This release also features an ActiveStandby icon, however it does not draw transparency properly – this seems to be a thing with a lot of S60 applications, let’s chalk it up to linkable libraries within the platform and not to the authors of these fine applications.

The dynamic icon will change depending if the software has rejected a call or not. Static will simply display when the blocking software is active – and no indicator, well that’s obvious. Again, notice the black box around the icon, which is very visible when using a theme that does not have a dark background, pretty ugly.

Good

Extremely feature filled, powerful yet simple to use and configure.

Rules upon rules that you can set.

Great AS status icon that changes – keeping you informed of what’s going on.

Great wildcard functionality for including number patterns.

Bad

Phone log takes abnormally long to import, might be due to polling the SMS database.

Price. There’s really no market for software at such a high price. Chop it in half, maybe.

Thoughts

Great software, very full and well rounded with features. Extremely easy to set rules and filters and extremely powerful yet has a well-thought out way to provide the user with the ability to harness it. It’s a real shame that the AS icon doesn’t include transparency, but the application looks nice through out the screens and has nice representative icons.

Third:

SBSH’s WhiteList – $9.95

While this does not reject set numbers, it’s a new release from SBSH that will setup a list of accepted calls and then reject all other calls. Very simple, very straight-forward and concise. The main screen shows a dynamic switch indicating the state of your divert list.

From here, you can import Contacts to the single whitelist. The contacts are displayed with checkboxes which allows you to select multiple entries or the option of selecting any groups you may have set up. 

In conjunction with whitelisting your entire contact list, you can specify what to do when filtering a call – which does include filter an SMS.

You can also view and clear your whitelist log and there is even an option for a Skype alias.

Good

Very straight-forward and simple to understand.

Lowest price out of the 4 options.

Can filter SMS.

Bad

No ActiveStandby icon

Inconsistent capitalization, lack of punctuation throughout the UI and help. It feels like the application was poorly translated – and not created in english.

The “Get More!” listing in the menu. The app was already purchased. Save your advertisement for those who aren’t using your products.

Thoughts

It’s the cheapest application out of the select 4 products. It has the least amount of features but does exactly what it claims to do – and does it extremely well. For the price, when compared to the others and the features and simplicity – this wins.

Forth:

KillerMobile’s BlackBaller – $13.50

A feature packed application with the ability to block SMS, MMS as well as phone calls.  The main screen shows a log of rejected calls and the ability to ‘slide’ over to SMS, MMS logs and then the Settings. I’d prefer having a regular menu under the left soft key ‘Options’. It just makes sense.

Upon reaching the Settings window, you can change the “Smart reject sensor” which can add the caller to a reject list. It worked just as described – but brought up the whole application – which I don’t quite care for, I’m sure you can open API and add it in the background.

All the usual suspects for adding a number to reject are there.

Importing call logs takes long. It actually chewed about 11MB of RAM while doing this and then gave an “Out of Memory” error. I killed the process and re-started it – same thing. I only have about 244 contacts.

BlackBaller has a lot of features, you can create whitelists, you can filter SMS and MMS messages per list and even set an SMS response to be sent for rejected calls. Worked just fine – except there’s no way to differentiate between a mobile and a landline number, an SMS will be sent to the landline number and if your provider charges you for an SMS-to-Voice transcription, you’ll be paying for each one if you enable this. It’s cool, nonetheless.

Also, when creating a new list – by default the Filter Call option is set to NO. You have to go in and change this for each divert list you create – which increases complexity.

Next thing? The Active Standby icon. It sucks. It’s drawn over EVERY application, and it’s buggy. You can see in the above screenshots, it covers the text and there’s no transparency. Also, after rejecting a call – the whole thing went red and stayed like that until a device reboot. Quite annoying.

Good

A lot of features, multiple lists and the ability to filter SMS and MMS.

Can dispatch an SMS reply to a blocked number.

Bad

Confusing and very disconnected UI.

Extremely buggy. From the AS icon, to loading contacts to actually starting up. Sub-par QC going on here.

Features and Settings are hidden deep within sub-menu after menu after ‘tab’.

Thoughts

All in all this application is quite buggy, powerful but extremely convoluted and has a UI and feature-set that is very disconnected. It’s still light-weight and hardly noticeable when running, it also rejects calls very quickly. It wins for features and power, but it’s poorly implemented.

Bottom of the Line

Epocware has extremely good software, I use their entire suite, including Handy Taskman and Handy Calendar. They all have very nice integration, are priced competitively and have great features.

Thanks and please leave any comments, questions or other software review requests.

Have a safe Christmas!

One great feature about many Nokia devices is the infrared capabilities. Many E-Series devices sport it for real estate purposes. The E71 is currently the last Nokia device that I am aware of that still retains IR hardware, all newly announced hardware unfortunately, drop it.

This review will be on Psiloc irRemote which is a piece of software that allows any S60v3 device with an IR module to control a plethora of media devices. The database holds over 1400 codes for devices and it’s very easy to find and use the codes. No more entering in numerical sequences and hoping it works. Simply find your model and presto.

Upon opening the application you’re greeted with a listing of the saved devices and can select one for immediate use.

If you’ve got a fresh installation and need to find a device simply push Options and select Add Device.

You now have a selection that varies by the type of device.

There are many types you can control by scrolling down.

We’re going to search for Sony TV. After selecting TV, we hit Refresh to sync the codes to the online database to ensure we have the most up to date listings.

You can either immediately start typing to find the device or scroll using the dpad. Once you find your model, select it and hit Refresh.

The great thing about the irRemote database is that it is user submitted and ranked. You can see the amount of stars which will indicate if it worked for other users or not. To download and install, simply select it and press in on the dpad.

Select it from the saved devices list and you will be presented with the remote interface which is very straight forward and easy to use.

You control it using the dpad and the numeric keys. If for any reason your device will not send the codes, you can change the interaction mode by heading into Settings.

Here, you can also adjust the Settings for skin, network access prompts and default access point for downloading.

The only issue I have with irRemote, is since the database is community driven, there are many duplicate entries. Some work, others do not. You can rank them so others will know, which is nice. It’s one of the trade-offs of have a user submitted database. A lot more support, but chances for duplicates and errors as the codes are not tested or moderated.

Psiloc irRemote is one of the many reasons I keep my E71 with me instead of using the other rival choices, such as a Blackberry Bold, HTC Hero or Touch Pro 2. I’m never without a remote anymore. Available for purchase at Psiloc Homepage for a time fee of $28.55 and the IR database community site is available here. Also worth mentioning, they have a 10 day free trial version.

I do a lot of text messaging. While I do have a killer plan that includes long distance, I find a lot of the time it only takes a quick text message to get a message across, I can also set up groups that allow me to send a single message to multiple people. How do I keep up with all the messages? For one, I keep all my data backed up. Enter Psiloc’s GSync. It allows you to synchronize SMS and MMS to a Google email address. How useful, since I use a Google Apps Hosted Account. Let’s run through GSync.

Upon installation, a customized and self-explanatory icon shows up.

After selecting it, the application will open up giving you an information/status window.

This shows you the next sync date and time, the current status and the last sync and if it was completed successfully or not.

In the options window, keeping it simple, there are few options.

You can force a synchronize, do a full sync, interrupt a sync that is taking place or adjust the settings. The settings allow you to change your Google account, the connection details and the SMS/MMS rules.

For connection, you have a few of the regular S60 options including the Access Point to use, re-using existing sockets or sync when roaming. This is also where you can set the schedule for synchronizing. There are a few options to select from here.

Once you’ve select the time, you have to force a manual sync in order to set the interval. I set a note for 3 AM sync. So at 3 AM I had to manually sync in order for it to sync again at 3 AM after that. A little annoying, but only a one time issue.

When you start to sync, it will format your messages as viewable by HTML or not, depends on the rule you set.

GSync will also create a separate label named “SMS” or “MMS” and pre-label all messages synchronized.

It will login…

Sending the messages, it will display how many have been completed and how many are left.

And lastly, all the messages will be automagically marked as “Read”, so they don’t all appear as unread messages. This is a very nice touch.

Final thoughts:

Now, there some limitations to GSync due to Google. Only 250 emails per day are allowed. This might be an issue for the first sync if you have over 250 messages in your Inbox. They will automatically be split over 24 hours until the mailbox is in sync with your device.

I never notice this application running, especially since it is set to synch while I am sleeping. It has a very small footprint. I do however end-up with the emails sitting in my Inbox, this is an issue with Google Mail and not the application.

Psiloc also has XSync which can sync to any mailbox, while GSync is solely for Google Accounts. Get it @ http://shop.psiloc.com

Here’s a review of Handy Shell 3.02 and Handy Weather 6.05 running on the E71 with original factory firmware v100.07.76. I only include the versions and firmware release because there are a few niggles I have with it, that stop me from using it daily which may be fixed on newer versions. Anyways, let’s go!

After an install of Handy Weather and Handy Shell, configuration and executing – which is rather long I might add, you are presented with a new screen.

Lots of information compared to Active Standby. Let’s break it down;

These are the plugins you can manipulate.

You can move them up and down and set the order. You can customize which applications are show in your shortcuts and what is launched when you select one of the plugins.

In addition to the 5 shortcuts on the main screen, you have an ‘Applications’ page. Pushing the right soft key will move you to a new page and display 12 applications that you can select and execute.

You can pick from every third party application that you have installed to your device and has an proper menu entry accessible as regular. To quickly change an item, simply select it and push your backspace button.

You’ll see a blank space, select it and you will be prompted for a new entry that is searchable. Neato.

Click on the right soft key will take you to your ‘Contacts’ page. You have 12 contacts just like the previous one, changing contacts is a breeze. Pictures show up if you have any stored. Nice touch.

From here you can select a contact by using the d-pad. Pushing the center d-pad button will bring up a menu to Dial or Create Message, while directly pushing the Green Call key will initiate a call to the default number stored.

You also have the ability to disable these pages should you not want to see Contacts or Applications.

You can also set key behaviors for Active Standby and Handy Shell. These are annoying. There is no way to completely shut Handy Shell down without uninstalling it.

One of the reasons I liked Handy Shell, was the ability to view a FULL incoming text message directly from the main screen…

AND the ability to mark it as read by pressing the backspace key. The same goes for incoming e-mails.

Now for the bugs/issues I had with it.

1). It took ridiculously long to initialize my device after a reboot.

2). While it has a very small footprint, my device feels a tad slower with it running.

3). I can’t background sending a text message with Conversation, and return to the main shell screen. I can with Active Standby.

If those things changed, I would be using it. The only thing I can recommend or hope for in future changes would be;

1). More plugin customization. Especially with listing what is shown in the “Phone ind./settings” section. More plugins as well, one for Music Player should have been included.

2). A page for Gallery/Pictures. More pages for applications and contacts if wanted. The ability to switch pages by “edging” the cursor. When at the end of the plugin row, moving left or right will move left or right into the next page.

3). The ability to show more depth of upcoming appointments. Let’s see a week in advance – I have a feeling this is a restriction of S60.

So, there you have it. Is it worth $44.95 for the suite? I wouldn’t recommend is as it currently sits, once they add the ability to set multiple pages and more customizations to the plugins, it will definitely be worth investing some money in.

I got a couple cases for the E71 recently, so I’ll post up a few shots and thoughts about them sometime this week. I have a Krussell zippered case which I cut up, a white silicone and a black hard soft touch case. I don’t use any of them. I like the feel of the E71 with the invisibleSHIELD.

Here’s a link to read my report on the S60 blog site. Dubbed the best report. Ever. Yeee.

S60 Living

I also plan to change the template for the site so there will some downtime in the next coming days/weeks/months/whatever while it’s designed.