5800 XpressMusic - Review

Yep, i buyed the first S60 touch device by nokia... i've been using it for a couple days, so lets talk about the goods and the bads: The goods:

• The screen is perhaps the best screen i ever saw in a mobile device, a little smaller than iphone but with increased resolution, it has an awesome constrast and bright (i use it with bright on lower settings).
• The battery looks like it gives what it promises, i used it for 2 days on a intensive kinda way and it is still kicking
• The performance doesn't make it the fastest device, i won't recomend it for 3d games, but it is quite fast on most of the tasks, reproducing video with 640x368@25fps without trouble.
• Connectivity tests were flawlessly, Wi-Fi wizard configuration is quite intuitive, bluetooth sincronization with hands-free headset was easy, trully a nice experience on this point, helping all this browser is really good rendering pages very similar to desktop way, flash lite 3.0 is a nice think as it supports flash 8 videos and animations.
• The GPS works quite well ... Nokia Maps and Google Maps (google maps works really well on this device!) provide a nice interface and worked quite smoothly.
• Multimedia features are quite nice, video, music, radio and images are presented/rendered nicely, the interface on these aplications was quite well made.

The bads:

• The interface while fast (except for auto-rotate in internet browser) it's not the most intuitive thing, sometimes you need to tap to select and to tap again to confirm, requiring a double tap, this usually happens in dropdown-like menus. There are also some gliches in browser and with mini-QWERTY keyboard (not that bad). Also in landscape mode the top bar of the browser (equivalent to the title bar and status bar of the desktop merged) is freaking huge the could save that area to the page and provide a bar identical to the one in portrait mode...
• Lacks pre-loaded software, you can however download a bunch of free stuff in a aplication very similar to app store, some are trully free like QuickOffice (only for read documents not to edit), others are trials... the worst thing is that Adobe Reader 2.5 LE is TRIAL!!! I mean with all that bunch of pdf's that exist on the internet a pdf reader is quite handy but to not make it free when non-touch versions are free is freaking bad...
• OS is not that open as most of people may think by look at nokia foruns, installing some applications may prove near to impossible (certificates are a pain), adding to that, the tools provided to development are beta or bug filled. The device is still 'green' require a some extra time to enable development of aplications worth the effort.

In the end is a nice device, lacks a bit in software support, but i read that firmware updates are arriving to correct some stuff (available in Asia). During the usage of this device i found some nice stuff that you may like if you have one of these:

• Game Boy Color Emulator MeBoy - A freaking good java aplication that works pretty well with the touch interface provided by the phone to java aplications.
• Google Maps -You know what this is ...
• Handbreak - You WILL need this to watch your videos on the phone, SUPER is also a nice alternative.
• Well .... this - I didn't tested all of them... lol

That's all ... enjoy ^__^

JS, Base64, png's...

And now for something totally diferent: PNG JS Encoder Have fun >:D PS: Sorry if this makes you're browser crash .... it's supposed to run well on any decent browser and to show an color pick like image....

Firefox 3: Add-ons

O firefox tem milhares de add-ons disponiveis, alguns são lixo, mas outros são insubstituiveis, assim deixo aqui a minha lista de add-ons favoritos, alguns deles já mencionados anteriormente, deixo também umas dicas de utilização deles:

• Downthemall (leia-se down them all e não down the mall) - gestor de downloads, permite aceleração através de multi-part até 10 ligações (pode acelerar até uma maximo teorico de 10x). Permite ainda criar batches de downloads, fazendo a tarefa de tirar ficheiros numerados algo trivial.
• Firebug (e FireCookie) - Indispensavel para quem desenvolve paginas relativamente complexas, permite debug e alteração do HTML DOM, visualização dos pedidos HTML GET e POST (e com isso é possivel ver os links para os ficheiros de video usados nas aplicações flash - aka.: youtube - ou chamadas de XML de aplicações AJAX), possui ainda uma consola onde é possivel correr comandos JS, e permite a edição de HTML, CSS e script de uma pagina carregada, em conjunto com o firecookie permite ainda a rapida visualização dos cookies de uma pagina.
• GreaseMonkey - Se o firebug é optimo para ver tudo o que uma pagina tem, o greasemonkey é optimo para alterar de forma automatica tudo o que uma pagina tem. Permite a utilização de scripts em JS para editar o conteudo de paginas carregadas, alterar estilos, adicionar informação, automatizar tarefas, tudo é possivel com este add-on.
• Classic Compact Theme e Classic Compact Options - Para quem quer o máximo de area disponivel sem sacrificar a usabilidade, a interface superior do meu firefox ocupa apenas 41 pixeis com o menu ficheiro e menu de tabs incluidos, mais 17 pixeis para a barra de estado, o que significa uma area util de 1280x727 para visualização da pagina no meu portatil com um ecrã de 1280x800 - batendo assim o google chrome (1276x722)!

Existem outros add-ons que são bastante uteis, o Ad Block Plus, é um a destacar, mas como as paginas que visito raramente têm pop-ups ou ads intrusivos optei por não usa-lo (ele 'papa' um bocado o cpu quando uma pagina carrega).

Blog layout

I really hate doing layouts... but i did it because my posts are a bit ..... freaking huge sometimes... well, the sidebar is off-screen in IE7 so bare with it - or just use Firefox, Opera, Safari, Konqueror or Chrome that works properly. Yep IE is nasty... but that you should knew it already...

Opera 10

*stares* http://www.opera.com/browser/next/

DownThemAll

In the post below, i talked about DownThemAll as an extension for Firefox, well... now i will explain what i like on it:

• Context menu's integration on firefox;
• Reg Ex download filter for both embebed and linked contents of a page;
• Batch Download (this one could be improved);
• Download Accelerator (if server supports it);
• Pause support (if server supports it);
• Auto rename option;
• Queueing options;

About batch download: I think it could be taken to the next level by adding variables to the sintax, my idea? An example below: Imagine you have several images in a server, they are organized in years folders like this: .../2007/2007-01-01-001.jpg .../2007/2007-01-01-002.jpg .../2008/2008-01-10-001.jpg .../2008/2008-02-23-001.jpg Or some similar organization. Now you wish to download them all to your computer, you don't have FTP access or similar, only HTTP, with DownThemAll you could say: .../[2006:2008]/[2006:2008]-[01:12]-[01:31]-[001:030].jpg This raises a problem... first batch tag and second should have the same value, but this way such propriety is lost, thus increasing the size of download list with files that don't exist for sure. The solution? Add some extra syntax, nothing very complex, just something like this: .../[$1=2006:2008]/[$1]-[01:12]-[01:31]-[001:030].jpg I think this enhancement would be awesome, well... if any DownThemAll developer sees this: "Add it to your TODO list!" The first solution will generate a list with 100440 files to download! The proposed solution generates a list with 33480 files... a third! Of course this could be applied in many ways (and enhanced even further with math formulas and conditionals), but this sample explains it quite well i think. PS: Woot! 2nd post today!

Browser's War!

Edit: Portuguese: Desculpem não ter isto em português ... mas é pra toda a gente entender ^__^; So... you know (or not) that there are many browsers out there, and now FF3! Here goes my review over them: IE4 (yes, it is still used!): Very very old, if you have it, you may consider buy a new computer. Quite insecure, it is used on WM2003 and prior for handheld devices (not as insecure in those when compared to desktop versions). It's very light and lack many functionalities on modern browsers. IE5.5 (quite old, i actually have it on my oldest computer): If you're using this old one you should update it ... really... you may say it is identical to version 6, but ... it isn't. IE6 (you know it): We all know it, is slugish but kinda light (well it lack many features). IE7 (shiny!): Completely new, shiny buttons to match Windows Vista look and feel, tabs were the major inovation, but since it still has activeX controls support (well at least you have some extra security) i really don't like it, make a mistake and you'll have nice spyware/adware popup's every minute or so... Firefox 2: Still my favorite, i'm just waiting for some crucial extentions to be supported on version 3, it has some memory leaks (i have lot's of ram so i rarely notice it), but the support for extensions is quite awesome. My favorite extensions are: Firebug, FireCookie, GreaseMonkey, ABP (AdBlock Plus) and DownThemAll. With those i can automate and fully control my browsing experience (stop ad's, mess with running JS, run my own JS, mess with cookies, make batch downloads and speed up my downloads) Firefox 3: Awesome, lighter, safer and more stable than the previous versions, i just miss Firebug on it, currently is the browser i use. Edit: FireBug Beta works pretty well ^__^ Opera 9.5: Ok... a friend told me opera has been updated, so i went check, it looks quite good, i may say it's the fastest browser that you can have, their widgets are not as productive as the one found in Firefox, but download manager, torrent support, irc and other advanced features that are quite rare, make serious damage in competition. On development side, i really like Dev Tools (until firefox 3 has firebug avaliable) Safari: Mac users... you guys are really lucky, your OS features a really nice (light, fast and safe) browser. I don't have much more to say because the windows version has quite some issues (last time i update it, it stop working :( ). Konkeror: Well... same as safari... but applied to KDE users :p Conclusion:

• If you use IE7 ... please change to opera, you will thank me;
• If you develop websites, you may have to use all of them (to check compatibility), but Firebug really helps so FF2 is the choice for you (and make sure you check everything on IE);
• If you use a Linux distro... any browser is good :p quite likely you use Konkeror or Firefox already (i don't think you can use IE - Emulation is not the answer, ok?);
• Mac users, your browser is nice, but test firefox 3 or Opera 9.5, see what you like more;
• If you want to do everything with you're browser, well ... Opera 9.5 might be the right choice, firefox does what Opera does and more, but each extension makes it heavier.

By the way, according to may personal experience the fastest JS interpreter belongs to Opera 9.5, followed by Safari and Konqueror, then Firefox 2 (i'm not sure about version 3), and the really sluggish browser is IE... and most of the time it doesn't support most of advanced features of modern browsers! On HTML/CSS support, Opera, Firefox and Safari (Konqueror is like safari i believe) are awesome. An example? If you use embebed base64 images on CSS or HTML, they will work fine, on IE you can forget! Same goes to Canvas tag, rounded borders, PNG's with alpha channel (IE7 supports this one now i believe), and others. If you develop webpages you know what problem is to make things work in IE.... (and you are already aware of all the problems it carries) IE has it's own interpretation of HTML/CSS/DOM that goes (many times) against W3C specifications and other entities that specify internet stuff, so i ask you to stop using IE and make life easier to Web developers/designers, thank you in advance. :3