How would you like a few more 'applications' for your smartphone? Well, one of the knock-on effects of the Apple iPhone is the number of (mainly American) coders that are using its Safari web browser as a thin client for applets (small applications that run inside the browser). And while it may not have the multi-touch screen or sheer size of the iPhone screen, Nokia’s latest browser is perfectly capable of running many of these applets – after all, it is based on the same WebCore components as the iPhone's Safari.
You do need to be aware of some issues when running these 'apps'. Firstly, the browser screen is smaller, so use the ‘#’ shortcut to reduce the magnification to 75%. This will allow everything to be on the one screen. Also, the mouse pointer that S60 uses will duplicate your finger but sometimes will force the app to scroll away at the right or bottom edge. No worries, just scroll it back again.
The second is that unless you have a flat rate data plan, or are using Wi-fi, these applets will talk to their servers a lot, so be aware of the bandwidth you are using. Right then, on with five of the iPhone applets that I’ve been enjoying on my N95!