Review: 101 Cool Smartphone Techniques (Book)
Score:
82%
Version Reviewed: Softcover
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101 Cool Smartphone Techniques, written by Dean Andrews, is aimed at Series 60 users. It aims to cover all the Series 60 phones from Nokia, Sendo, Siemens, Panasonic, and others. It seems to be targetted at the US market (cellphones are mentioned), but its content is equally applicable elsewhere. Aside from the promotional Dummies book that was available at the Symbian Expo, this is the first book aimed at users rather than developers. When you consider there are at least 15 million Series 60 devices out there, and increasing all the time, this is some what surprising. Of course this is a reflection of the fact that people are buying Series 60 devices as phones, not as digital assistants. Indeed many may be unaware of just how powerful their phone is.
Acting as a training manual for the uninitiated is what this book does best in many ways - it shows through its various techniques why these are smartphones. For anyone reading this review, you'll already know about the power of your phone, but many people who buy a Series 60 phone do not. First and foremost, this book is for them, because it will teach them the potential of what is sitting in their pocket...
Dean Andrews, the author, works for Nokia in research and development and has previously witten a tips book for Windows 98. He's therefore well placed to write the book. On the whole it shows, the book covers a wide range of topics and is well written in an informal style that will not intimidate the beginner. At the times I did find myself thinking that something should have been added or some of the simpler things given less space, but I think that is inevitable when reading a book on a topic you already know a lot about.
In structure, the book is broken down into 101 techniques over some 300 pages. This means you effectively have 101 how-to's or mini-topics. Topics are arranged by chapter (see below) so that you have a series of topics on messaging, ring tones, imaging, and so on. This works quite well and does give the book a better overall structure. Techniques range from 'Adding an Image to Your Contact to Better See who is Calling You', through 'Launching Applications by Number', and 'Creating E-books and Reading them on Your Cellphone' to 'Viewing and Managing Phone Memory'. As you can see there is a wide range, there is some repetition from phone manuals, but this is not necessarily a bad thing since no one seems reads the manual anyway. The different Series 60 phones are generally handled well, with the author noting where there are differences and where things may or may not work.
There are excellent sections on how to get the most out of the imaging and video capabilities on the phone, good overviews of using the more advanced telephony features, and plenty of references to third party programs.
There are occasions when I would have recommended a third party tool over the Nokia tool. For example the file managing section (and the screenshot technique for that matter) does not reference FExplorer, and the 'Browsing the Web' technique gives Opera 6 lines, mentions NetFront and others not at all, all after having spent seven pages discussing the more limited built-in XHTML browser. There are also some 3rd party tools that, while perhaps innovative, are perhaps of limited interest. I would have had a technique on blogging from the phone (and mentioned tools such as Lifeblog, Azure, and PicoStation) in preference to, say, the sections on Semacode (which I would put in an 'other cool tools' list in a seperate technique). Similarly the instant messaging section could have talked about Agile Messenger, Wireless IRC and the built-in Chat program rather than the commercial IM+.
I think it would have been good to have more on connecting to a computer as this seems to be what people most often have trouble with. It would also have been a chance to mention some of the programs that run on a PC as companions to programs on the phone, such as Epocware's Handy Safe or Mobipocket. Indeed the 'Connecting Your Phone...' section is one of the weaker chapters, parroting phone manuals and not discussing use as a GPRS modem.
I would also have liked to see a web resources section. There are URLs to various software developers and sites throughout the book (although not to AAS – the horror!), but it would have been good to see these collected somewhere with perhaps references to sites where you could get more help, news, reviews and information. There is a web site for the book, which might be a good place for such a list.
Overall though it is hard to fault the book's contents, especially when you consider the target audience. Inevitably with this type of book, with limited space, there are always going to be things people would like to see in the book or would write differently. However, I would definitely recommend the contents as being of interest to any Series 60 smartphone owner.
Unfortunately the production quality of the book leaves something to be desired. The quality of the paper that the book is printed is little better than newsprint – I've seen nicer toilet paper. There also a few areas where the presentation could be improved. For example the list of Series 60 phones at the front of the book. It consists solely of pictures of the phones and they are all in different sizes and orientations, and the end result looks amateurish and messy. You only need to glance at the back of a Symbian Press book to see how it should be done. They have a page for each phone with a standard layout which includes both a photo and standard specifications. The rest of the content is laid out reasonably clearly and in a standard fashion, although there are a few tweaks that could have been made, such as just showing the content of a web page in a cropped screenshot rather than showing the entire browser window. The index is a bit hit and miss but the contents pages is well structured and clear and it is relatively easy to dip into the book if you are looking for something specific.
This book does have a broad target audience, and some of the tips are beyond the casual user. If you are a power user and regular reader of this site, then you will probably find it enjoyable to read but you'll likely be familiar with how to do most things in the book. This is not a book in the style of the O'Reilly Hacks series, for example, it has a broader target audience in mind. It concentrates on guiding the user to make full use of the built-in software (speed dials, managing photos, making conference calls), selected third party software (managing ZIP archives, full screen photo caller id), and using third party services (downloading software, photo services). That does not mean you shouldn't get a copy, I personally enjoy having hard copies of tech books regardless as to whether I might know or be able to find the information on the Internet and power users will find this book useful as a reference. For the most part though, it will be new users and those who want to do a little bit more than voice and text that will get the most out this book.
You can download an excerpt from the book (chapter 1) here. Chapter 1 is possibly the least interesting in the book for anyone who already has a smartphone, but it does at least you an idea of the style and what to expect.
Chapter 1: Buying and Setting Up Your New Smartphone.
Chapter 2: Turbocharging the Way You Make and Take Calls.
Chapter 3: Capturing, Saving, Editing, and Sending Images.
Chapter 4: Buying and Using Ring Tones.
Chapter 5: Increasing Your Productivity.
Chapter 6: Customizing Your Phone.
Chapter 7: Capturing, Editing, and Sending Video.
Chapter 8: Having More Fun with Your Smartphone.
Chapter 9: Connecting Your Phone to Your PC, Laptop, PDA, and Other Devices.
Chapter 10: Securing Your Phone and Data.
Chapter 11: Managing Your Phone’s Resources.
Chapter 12: Mastering Messaging.
Chapter 13: Exploiting Useful Tools.
Chapter 14: Managing Your Time.
Chapter 15: Browsing the Web with Your Phone.
Chapter 16: Gaming.
Chapter 17: Buying and Using Accessories.
Chapter 18: Troubleshooting.
Reviewed by Rafe Blandford at