archaeologist, tech geek, cornishman
Phones
Official Skype for Symbian S60 native client
Dec 14th
At long last, Skype have released an official Skype for Symbian client.
I have it installed on my Nokia E71 and it works well. So far I have only two issues with it: when I lose 3G reception (which happens frequently where I live), despite having a preferred access point defined in the software, the client prompts you to choose an alternate AP. Now, if this happens while your phone is in your pocket, you aren’t going to see this message, and you aren’t going to be online. If you happen to go back into an area with reception, the client neither clears the access point prompt nor reconnects. This needs to be fixed.
The second is that the vibrating alert doesn’t seem to work. If my E71 is set to use the general profile, a normal Skype sound is played upon receiving an instant message or rings for an incoming call. Switch your phone to silent (where the vibrating alert kicks in for SMS and incoming calls) Skype doesn’t trigger a vibrating alert.
Now that I’ve got the negatives out the way (it’s been a long day) the client is excellent. File transfers, properly respected privacy settings (finally!) and most of the other basic features (minus video calling) of a desktop client. It makes Skype a viable solution for me once more when I am out of the house (the one thing the 3Skypephone did very well was Skype presence and calling). I gave up with Fring and Nimbuzz as they interfered with my privacy settings, setting my desktop client back to calls and messages from contacts only, and it was annoying to remember to check them each time.
I have used the Symbian Skype client via both 3G and Wifi and placed test calls, both with adequate call quality. I have conducted a few text chats and this works well enough. In theory I could take a photo and send it to a chat recipient whilst out and about (something I liked about Fring), or have them send you a Word document etc. A minor quibble is that while text chatting you just start typing to bring up the text entry box. The trouble is, that first character simply invokes the box, and isn’t entered into it, meaning that you have to double-type the first letter of the first word of a new chat message. Not the end of the world, but it’d be nice to see that smoothed out, so you can just start typing a response naturally.
I’ll be using it extensively over the next few days and I’ll keep an eye on things like battery life to see how quickly it drains if Skype is run full-time. As I type, I have had the client running for 6 hours, and 2 bars have gone from the fully charged battery indicator. In theory, if I don’t use the phone much, I could get 18 hours out of it. We shall see.
To conclude, this is good news for the millions of Symbian S60 users out there, especially those of us with unlimited or generous 3G data packages or access to Wifi. No more having to use Skype credit at mobile rates to receive calls (a very welcome bonus). All is good. Let’s hope that the beta program gives Skype lots of feedback (do use their Skype for Symbian forum to let them know of any problems) and hopefully we’ll all end up with a more robust Skype solution with better battery performance.
Fingers crossed.
The LG KC910 “Renoir”
Jun 11th
Recently, my contract with 3 UK came up for renewal. Since I’m a frequent Skype user, I decided to stay with them and sign up for another 18 months. Despite loving my Nokia E71, a number of phones were offered to me free with my new contract. I plumped for the LG KC910 “Renoir” purely for its abilities as a camera – if I’m heading somewhere for the weekend, I can just take one device with me if I feel like it.
I’ve had it for a couple of weeks now, and, generally, I’m getting along with it.
The camera is just superb. The 8 megapixel camera is as good as any point and shoot, and the movie recording feature works wonderfully – my favourite setting being 640×384 widescreen – the video is crisp and colours well-defined. I’m very happy with the imaging functions, and that’s remarkable given how picky I am.
The video quality isn’t bad in low light either. Here’s a video taken at dusk, overlooking a river, with some bats playing over the surface of the water:
Bats on the River Avon from Tom Goskar on Vimeo.
The rest of the phone, well, after the E71, isn’t much to write home about. The interface is a bit clunky, the browser is passable, and the Java implementation is rubbish. But, it does the job – I can make and receive calls, and stab at the screen to send texts. I would *hate* to use it for Skype chat – the interface is just hideous – but making and receiving Skype calls works well.
I’m having trouble setting up my email too, which is annoying. It receives email fine, but sending an email with a photo attachment simply doesn’t work. This is doubly annoying, as it means that I can’t send photos to Posterous, Twitpic, Flickr, etc via email. I hope that I’ll work out how to fix it, or I’ll have to contact LG to see if they can help.
Still, the camera came with an 8GB MicroSD card which is easily accessible via a flap on the side of the phone, so it’s easy to take it out, pop into an adaptor and transfer to my Mac. I managed to upload a photo to Flickr via the web browser, but it’s a fiddly process.
So what about build quality? It’s quite a chunky phone, made entirely from plastic, which is a stark contrast from the metal solidity of the E71. But it doesn’t creak or bend, and is nonetheless sturdy feeling for a plastic phone. The touchscreen is plastic, so prone to scratches, and is resistive rather than capacitive, so you need to press firmly (but not too hard) to register a ‘click’. You can of course see the touchscreen yield under your finger in the right light.
All round, it’s not bad. If I’m using my E71, I miss the KC910’s camera – but if I’m using the KC910, I miss the elegance of the E71, and it’s great physical keyboard. Any on-screen keyboard is a pile of rubbish compared to the iPhone’s implementation, in my humble opinion, this LG’s included.
Expect more opinions as I play more with the Renoir (especially if I fix the sending email attachments problem).
