Turning the camera in your Symbian smartphone into a webcam for your Windows PC isn't a totally new concept, but EpocCam Pro promises easier set up and better quality than previous attempts. Pitched as an alternative to an expensive webcam, it does what it claims, although the use case for EpocCam Pro may be limited to those who travel with webcam-less Windows laptops and who want one less gadget in their bag. Read on for my review.
Dropbox is one of the most popular cloud storage solutions out there, and applications for Android and iPhone are much touted features. However, there are various forms of support for Symbian too. Options include Dropbox's mobile website; the upload agents, Pixelpipe and Furtiv, and other miscellaneous workarounds. However, there is also an unofficial Dropbox application, called NDrop, available on the Ovi Store. Read on for an overview of how to access your Dropbox account on Symbian phones and a mini-review of NDrop in particular.
I'm a sucker for webcams - being able to glimpse live views of far-flung places round the world while I'm seated comfortably in my armchair never fails to impress me - even if, in iSpyCams case, the images are small and phone-sized and despite the somewhat dated Java-driven interface. Available for purchase in the Ovi Store, here's my heavily illustrated review.
Forget your social networks and website-based “I’m your best friend” sites, there’s still the humble instant messenger service. Thanks to eBuddy, you have another option to get to your AOL, Yahoo, or Google Talk accounts... you can even include the subset of the social network with MySpace Messenger and Facebook Chat, in the mix of this client that lets you access your IM system from your Symbian handset. But is eBuddy any good?
EchoEcho is a new cross-platform "where are you?" application and service, using SMS as its communications medium, to ensure compatibility with most phones. Reviewing it seemed like a job for Ewan Spence and he dived into with glee. Although he reckons it's "an answer in search of a question", both of us reckon it has potential. Comments welcome, no matter if you think it's a slice of genius or a complete dud!
Do you have a monthly, weekly or even daily data limit on your mobile account? I know I do, which is why we leapt at the appearance of Data Monitor as a utility to help keep track of usage. However, with barely more data-gathering functionality than the built-in Log utility and with an intrusive and hard-to-configure, always-on 'ticker', it seems that Data Monitor isn't ready for the prime time just yet, as you can read in David Gilson's review.
David Gilson reviews the free Pixelpipe Send and Share, the new incarnation of the popular uploading service that works independently of Nokia's Share online and thus works more seamlessly, using a wider range of file types and (presumably) on more devices. It's all win, win, win until David points out a few caveats, including less flexible authentication and a greater need to do some of the set up using your desktop's web browser.
Ewan takes a look at 'a new Internet experience' on his smartphone, in this case Webwag Mobile, from the Nokia Ovi Store. A service aggregator, this experience may well be a new one, but the clunkiness of the user interface and poor use of the information entered means that it's not an experience anyone's likely to enjoy or come back to...
For all the internet connectivity, software, shiny themes and applications, there is something that is eminently wonderful about a physical object. Touchnote, from the London based company of the same name, brings both of those worlds together and Ewan Spence reviews the S60 5th Edition application here, ending up 'thoroughly recommending' it. PS. Look out for Rafe's cute kittens....
Steve Litchfield takes Wikitude, the ambitious augmented reality browser for Symbian (plus iPhone and Android) for a spin in his local area. What sort of things can Wikitude help you find and is the app ready for mass market adoption yet?