Some Top Applications when you're working abroad

Published by Ewan Spence at 13:41 UTC, May 29th 2010

Here in Norway for Eurovision week (culminating in the final tonight), the last 7 days have been rather hectic for me, but one I always enjoy (others may disagree). Reporting from the Eurovision Song Contest is a great test of mobile connectivity and productivity. So what have I been using at the biggest television show on the planet? I've been finding a number of S60 5th Edition apps invaluable and hope that some of them will help others venturing abroad with their smartphone. Read on for some old favourites and some new additions.

Gravity

It's mentioned in every list of apps you need, but there is a good reason for that. The Twitter client that continues to grow is indispensable, and even with multiple apps and options to interface with Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare and their ilk, Gravity is still the one I turn to.

Ovi Maps and Lonely Planet

With the large number of parties, events, meals, ambassadorial receptions and City Hall ceremonies, I've been bouncing around Oslo for a week now, and most of the time I've had Ovi Maps switched on. Before I left, I added the main locations that I would use via the website (and then syncing these places to the handset). There's something satisfying about hitting “Walk” then “EuroClub” and no need to worry about anything else. Plus the ability to pre-load all the mapping data for Norway (even though I only need Oslo!) means that data costs while roaming are kept as low as possible.

It's the addition of Lonely Planet (and the Michelin Guides as well) that helps. It might not be as good as your own local knowledge but a few clicks and not only do you get information on things to see and do, but also a guide to the city. Tomorrow I'll be hitting the “Getting away” to help me back to the airport.

MaxRoam

Being abroad means you need to be very careful with your data – while there is the option in some countries to pick up a local SIM card, Norwegian networks require a Norwegian social security number (or at least that's what my investigation found) so you can either pick up a roaming data package from your home network if available, or look at a number of third party MVNO solutions such as MaxRoam. As well as multiple incoming phone numbers (so one Sim can have a UK, Norwegian and US number on it, very useful) they also offer data. It's not quite flat rate, but the 75 Euros for 50MB is just about enough for a two week trip.

Data Quota

This is just a quick one, Data Quota offers a graphical look at the built in data counters, but it's a quick, one touch access on the app screen. Invaluable.

Opera Mini

The difference in bandwidth used between the built in Webkit-based browser and Opera's java-based browser is about threefold. Thanks to Opera using a proxy server that compresses data you can get a lot more browsing done for the same cost – and it has a tendency to make it faster as well. With so many press releases and news websites around Eurovision, checking them all is a good idea, be it through RSS on the mobile version of Bloglines (how old school am I?) or just going direct to the page, the browser is a tool you'll always need to have close at hand. Opera Mini makes it economical to use while abroad.

Time Chime

Since reviewing this app, it's been a handy little utility that I've continued to use. With so much going on around the contest, having a mental rule to spend about 15 minutes on each task is fine if you can remember when the time is up. It's far easier to have you phone play a quiet alarm call every quarter-hour.

Comes With Music

Part of me is disappointed in the Comes with Music catalogue. Yes the Eurovision album is there, but is InCulto's 2007 smash album in Lithuania in the store? Nope. I know from a practical sense why they are not there (national borders and music licensing) but it's still puncturing the illusion of the service. What was nice was that even though I was geographically in Norway, I could still download DRM tracks from the UK store. There are some sites (such as the BBC iPlayer) that have a strict location lock.

Where CwM came into its own was finding the counterpoint music to Eurovision – when I needed to clear the musical palette and only some Holst would do (or Chuck Berry). Going online, clicking, and listening asap is still as wonderful and magical as before.

Wordpress Client

What do you say when words aren't enough? Well you take a picture to help out a bit more, or you discuss it with your blog readers. The QT-based Wordpress Client (review link) lets me both create content and moderate both my blog and podcast sites, but also a number of sites that I am helping out with. Rather than use the web interfaces (which you can do, with a bit of scrolling), the client gives an optimised use of the mobile screen, but more importantly it's far easier to use the multimedia on your smartphone when creating posts.

The Eurovision App in the Ovi Store

Can everybody stop sending me the link to this? I love you all for it, though, and it's a good example of the “share with a friend” button in the Ovi Store. As more events become connected through social media I suspect we're going to see more apps like this, where you can share your views in real-time with other fans. Here it's rating the songs and voting (just for fun, mind you) on the potential winners, but it could easily be voting for Man of the Match, which acts should be eliminated in a talent show or what everyone thinks of a fashion disaster. Providing the framework to get a rapidly developed application out to the people who will appreciate it is one reason a central software store like the Ovi Store actually works.

-- Ewan Spence, May 2010.

News Discussion

Quote:

Originally Posted by yade why use Opera mini when you can use the native Opera mobile 10?

I guess because they are two very different apps working in different ways and mini is faster over a restricted connection. Like a cell where a lot of people are connected at the same time.

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