InfoTart

Someone in my extended network on LinkedIn just posed this question, so I took a few minutes to write a response. I wrote a much longer article on this blog not too long ago on this topic:

Setting Up a New Unlocked Smartphone: www.infotart.com/blog/2008/01/05/setting-up-a-new-unlocked-phone/

So here’s my response to the LinkedIn question which I wrote this afternoon:

For me, it also depends on the phone’s operating system. I own several smartphones (either Symbian S60 or UIQ). As a mobile UI designer, I’ve also enjoyed spending time with Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, and Palm devices.

For me, personally, once I get a new phone, I always put all of my contacts on the phone. I use a free service from Zyb (www.zyb.com, now owned by Vodaphone) to sync my contacts to my devices. The device must have SyncML support, which includes most smartphones.

I use Google Calendar to manage my social calendar and I don’t need all of those events on my device’s calendar. The reason is that I set up Google Calendar to send me an SMS by default for all events about 15 min. before starting. (That setting is editable for each individual event.) But if I did want my calendar on my phone, I would use GooSync (www.goosync.com). GooSync also offers to sync your Google contacts.

One of the first things I do with a new phone is put my personal email on the device. I have Gmail, but don’t like the Java-based Gmail application. Instead, most smartphones support linking POP/IMAP accounts like Gmail into the phone’s native email app. That’s what I use with S60 and UIQ phones, and it works great!

Next, I put Google Maps on my phone. The features for Google Maps varies by operating system. It’s very rich on S60 devices, including getting location data from an external GPS receiver via Bluetooth (which is what I have in my car) or via cell tower. Hopefully those features are coming to UIQ soon, as I really missed it on my Sony Ericsson W960 Walkman phone. Google Maps has a few annoying quirks, but it’s free and works great overall.

I really like Fring (www.fring.com) on my WiFi-enabled S60 phone. I like being able to make calls over WiFi, as well as chat with friends on Skype and some other services.

Another good WiFi VOIP app is the Gizmo Project (www.gizmoproject.com), which has excellent integration with S60 phones as a native “Internet Call” service. The Gizmo Project is like Skype’s less famous (and not quite as pretty) cousin, but the VOIP calling features work great.

I love the concept of JoikuSpot Light (www.joiku.com) which turns your S60 phone into a wireless Internet WiFi hotspot! Since I also carry an iPod Touch around, I can enjoy my email and web browsing on a bigger screen on the iPod Touch. The beta version worked only so-so with my Nokia E65, so I’m hoping that the recently released full version will be working better.

Another Internet access utility that I’ve heard lots of great thing about is Psiloc Connect (http://connect.psiloc.com). This handy little utility helps ensure that your WiFi enabled phone connects to WiFi points when they’re available rather than eating up data on your cellular plan. I haven’t tried it yet, but it’s very high on my “next to try” list.