Google has released a today screen plugin that makes searching so much faster. Once it is installed, you have the Internet giants search bar directly on your today screen awaiting your every whim.

I have always found the Internet to be a little awkward on hand held devices. This is really going to help me get over my mobile Internet phobia. It is now so simple to find the information I want quickly.

The search bar is available for Windows Mobile and Symbian devices. Simply go to http://mobile.google.com from your device and select “Search (Download)” to install the plugin.

Would you like to control your music player and powerpoint presentations from your phone? If you have a Sony or Nokia phone and a Bluetooth connection, you might be in luck.

JAM SE is a free mobile application for a range of Java enabled mobile phones that will allow you to control your music collection from your phone, using Bluetooth.

You can browse or search your music collection from your phone, as well as having control of the volume, play, skip, repeat and shuffle controls you would expect it to offer.

I use Winamp as my music player as I find it to be be quick and easy to use. This is fortunate as JAM SE currently only works with Winamp or XMMS.

Jam SE is skinnable so you can make it look just right to suit your needs. It runs on both Windows and Linux. It uses the Bemuser program as a backend. I couldn’t figure out what the difference between Bemuser and JAM SE is, but I found out about this via JAM SE, so they get the plug.

JAM SE is a bit of a hassle to install, though on their website there are videos and there is plenty of documentation that should help you through it. You will need to install components on your computer and on your phone and then configure the Bluetooth.

I have tested a number of programs that claim to do similar tasks, in the time of writing this website, but none have worked well enough for me to promote. JAM SE worked great for me straight up on a Nokia N70.

JAM SE is available for free from Sourceforge.

I tend to watch it on the television if it’s available, but more often than not, I’ll have it on the radio in the background while I’m working or doing other things. If neither are available for whatever reason, I can usually rely on Baggy Green (www.baggygreen.com.au), the Australian portal of CricInfo (www.cricinfo.com) – the website for all things cricket.

Thus, to keep me informed, I have television, radio and internet to choose from. That should keep me pretty well covered, right? BUT, what if none of those options are available? In order to get to & from work each day, I spend up to two hours a day travelling on the train – normally a peaceful time for me, as I get some time to read and listen to podcasts. But when there’s a cricket game in progress, anything can happen in that time. Cricket games are long. I have my Sony Ericsson phone, which has a built-in radio (as do most phones these days), but alas – it plays only FM stations, and the only local station which broadcasts the cricket here is in AM. So what can I do?

Fortunately, this year CricInfo have come up with an answer to keep obsessively curious people like myself happy: the free CricInfo MobiCast Java application, which I’ve found runs quite well on my Ericsson. Simply point your phone’s browser to http://ci.plusmo.com. Press ‘Yes’ to confirm the download, and you’re on your way.

Once the MobiCast Java app is installed on your phone, you can access it from your Applications directory. Open it, and you’ll be greeted with a list of international cricket games currently underway. Select ‘View’ for the game you’re interested in, and you’ll be able to read CricInfo’s ball-by-ball commentary, which refreshes automatically about once a minute, so your phone will continually be fed up-to-date information (You can refresh manually if you’re extra compulsive!). The program also features a simplified scorecard showing overall batting & bowling figures, so you can get a bigger picture of the game as it progresses.

At the end of the day, it’s still not the television or radio, but for those lengthy train trips, MobiCast is already proving to be the next best thing, and I for one am now a happy camper. Bring on summer!

(Also visit http://www.cricinfo.com/downloads/ for more cricket- related freebies, including a program which displays desktop alerts).

DivX has become a very popular video format for movies and online videos. Most full length DVD backups are converted to DivX as the file size can be fairly small in comparison to other formats, and it still plays the video in reasonably high quality video and audio.

DivX has released their player to the public for free, only this time it is for mobile devices.

The player itself is very simple and efficient. I installed it on my Windows Mobile device and copied a few Vodcasts onto my phone. The DivX player handled them without any problems. My Ipaq rw6828 is aging a little but still was not troubled by the videos I tested. It is lightweight and it played the videos in full screen mode.

DivX recommends that your device runs at 200Mhz or faster. If your device struggles, the DivX player will drop frames to recover. This is not likely to be picked up by your eyes very easily.

DivX Mobile Player is available for a bunch of Symbian and Windows Mobile devices. This is a great program for showing off how powerful these devices are. You never know, but you may find a time that playing a movie on your phone is a worthwhile thing to do. I wish I had this on long trips in the past. You can only play so much Kevtris.

DivX Mobile Player is available for free from DivX.

Most phones these days have cameras built in, so wouldn’t it be great if we could use the phones we already have as our webcam.

SmartCam answers the call. SmartCam fools your computer into seeing your smartphones camera as a webcam. A Windows client and a mobile client both need to be installed for it to operate. SmartCam works with MSN messenger, Skype, as well as a straight forward capture to file.

While this all sounds very good, being a SourceForge hosted project that is still very young, SmartCam has some limitations. It only works over Bluetooth, which is exactly what I wanted, but it may limit some users. It is designed for Symbian S60, Series 2 & 3 devices, although it does run on a Java platform; so it may work on other devices.

SmartCam worked for me on a Nokia N70. I had no success with Windows Mobile, however it has not been designed to run on this platform as yet. It was designed for XP, and I had no problems running SmartCam in Vista.

It is a little fiddly to get up and running. The mobile versions need to be installed from the Windows installation folder. Once you read the Read Me file, and get the hang of how it works, you should be fine. SmartCam fulfilled my needs, and I recommend you give this one a go.

(Update: 26/9/07) To stop the popups for each new frame on your phone, go into your tools folder and select your application manager.
Go down to jSmartCam, select options, and Suite Settings.
Change Connectivity to Always allowed
Change Multimedia to Ask First Time.
For more information, check out the read-me file in the installation folder.

Available for free from SourceForge.net

While there are not really many practical reasons for doing this, it is free, easy, and fun to play with.

I think about a school classroom, where teenagers are texting each other messages in class, each time clocking up 15c on their phone bill. As they are in close range to each other, there is no need for this to cost money. If both their phones are fitted with Bluetooth, they are able to use this technology to send the notes for free.

This article will show you how to send messages and files from one phone to another over a short range for free, using Bluetooth technology. We can also send files such as ring tones, images and other audio files to one another using the same method. No additional software is required to make this work.

This article will show:

• A message/file sent from a Nokia N70 to a Windows Vista PC running Outlook 2007.
• A message/file sent from a Nokia N70 to a HP Ipaq rw6828
• A message/file sent from a HP Ipaq rw6828 to a Nokia N70

This should be possible on just about any Bluetooth enabled phone. The menus will be different, but the idea will be the same.

Bluetooth has a minimum range of 10 metres, but many newer devices have Bluetooth 2.0 installed which allows for a range of 100 metres. Either way you look at it, 10 metres is plenty of distance for most meeting rooms and classrooms. Using an early Bluetooth version, I have never struggled to reach 20 metres when there has been a clear line of sight.

File formats:

As different devices support different file types, you may find that some phones cannot view what you send them.  For example, A standard Windows mobile note file is in pwi format, and this is not viewable on a Symbian phone, so it is best to send the message as a txt file.

I have had success sending the following file types:

• Images: jpg, gif, png
• Audio: wav, mp3, mid
• Text: txt, doc

While you are able to send just about any type of file you want successfully, if the other end cannot view the file, you are wasting your time.

Also worth noting is the size of the file. Bluetooth is a slow medium for sending files. While a txt file is small and will show up in seconds, an image file is much larger and can take many minutes. 

Sending and receiving a message from a Windows Mobile device:
(I will be using an HP Ipaq rw6828)

You are able to make text messages in many programs on a Windows Mobile Device but your best bet is to use Word Mobile as you will have the option to send the message as either a doc file or a txt file.

Once you have written the message you want to send:

Tap “Menu”

Tap “File”

Tap “Beam” 

Your device will now scan the local area for Bluetooth devices in range.

Select the device you want to. As you can see here, I have the option to send it to a Nokia N70 or my Desktop.

Tap “Tap to send”

You will see your device sending the message, and it will say “Done” when the send is complete.

You can send just about any type of file.

When you are in “File Explorer”, hold down on any file and select “Beam File”. You will be prompted with the same screen as above.

It’s that easy.

If you are using a Windows Mobile Device and you receive a message or file from someone else, you will get the option to accept or reject the message. 

The message or file can be found in your devices “My Documents” folder.

Sending and receiving a message from a Symbian OS device:
(I will be using a Nokia N70)

The Symbian OS is nice to work with when playing around with messages. The notes program sends messages in txt format, which is the ideal format for other devices to view.

Open up “Notes” and create your message.

Select “Options”

Select “Send”

Select “Via Bluetooth”

Your phone will do a scan of the local area and list the compatible devices. Select which one you would like to send it to and press “Send”.

You will then see the message being sent.

Another great thing about the Symbian OS receiving files and messages, is that it comes up in your inbox as a normal message. The only difference is that the icon is the Bluetooth icon instead of an envelope.

It is just as nice as sending a standard sms, apart from the fact that it is free.

Sending files is easy as well. You can do this from the File Manager or the Gallery. Choose the image and select the same “Send” options as above. It is clear that this was meant to be a well used function of our devices, we just don’t use it enough.

Sending a message to a PC:

PC’s are a little more fussy about which files they can receive. The documents will show up in your notes component of Outlook. You are able to send images and music around too. I have found it to be a bit hit and miss. I have had success with various file formats, but it was unreliable for me.

There are less reasons for sending files and messages to a PC as you are likely to be able to set up a pairing, and have a direct link to send files in bulk.

If you are using Vista, right clicking in your Bluetooth task tray will give you the option to send and receive files. Ensure that you have set your computer to receive files before sending it from another device.

Conclusion:

This technology opens us up to all sorts of options with people near to us. A very useful task you can do, is pass e-business cards around to people nearby at the end of a meeting. They will have your phone number in their phone and they won’t have to find the physical paper version of your card. You will always be close at hand for them.

As time goes on, we will be able to make greater use of this technology as more services become available. It is good to get in the habit of utilising it now, as it will grow. Show your colleagues that you are tech savvy, it’s not hard, it just looks clever.

I hope you have enjoyed this article. Please stick around and check out some other articles at Inspect My Gadget. 

To change it.

Press the application button

Open up tools

Select profiles

You are able to have a different ring tone for each profile. Open the profile that you would like to change the tone of. In this case we will use the “General” profile.

Select general and select personalised.

Select “Ringing Tone, line 1”

Here you will see a list of ring tones on your phone. Select whichever one you would like to use.

If you would like to use your own ring tone, use your Nokia PC suite to copy your favourite song onto either the internal memory or the memory card. Place it in the “Sound Clips\Tones” folder and your phone will recognise the new file, making it selectable when you want to change your tone. There are a whole heap of supported formats including mp3, so play around and get it just as you would like.

Adobe has made their Adobe reader software available for free to Symbian, Windows Mobile and Palm devices.

This will let you view PDF files anywhere and anytime. You are even able to fill out forms and return them to the sender on the run.

If you don’t view a lot of PDF files, this is still worth putting on your device as a “Just in case” application. You never know when you might need it.

There are a number of other free PDF readers available, a couple that can even create PDF files from your device. I have not tested these out but Adobe is where the PDF started so I use this and trust it, it does the job.

It is nice and easy to install. Simply run the installer and follow the prompts.

Get it from Adobe.

Many of Sierra’s adventure games and LucasFilm games were designed with this system, meaning they can be played using SCUMMVM. All we need to do is copy the relevant data files across to our device and SCUMMVM will decode and run it, just like you would see on a desktop computer.

After the “Abandonware: What’s all that about?” article I put up on the site a few days ago, I got thinking that I could legally download some of these games, for free, and run them on my Windows Mobile Device.

I used to love playing many of the Sierra games as I was growing up. I can play them all again, at my own convenience, as they will always be with me on my phone. Even though they are 10–20 years old, they are much more enjoyable than what most Windows Mobile games offer us.

The games were released at a time when our desktop computers had similar power to the Pocket PC’s of today, making our devices a perfect tool for playing these games.

I tried out “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” and “Beneath a Steel Sky” and both worked flawlessly. The graphics look great on a Pocket PC at full screen and the sound is also fantastic. Both of the screenshots were taken on my Ipaq rw6828.

1. To get it all running on your device, download SCUMMVM from scummvm.org.
2. Pick the download which is suitable for your device.
   Copy the SCUMMVM to your device.
1. Ensure your device is connected to your computer via Activesync or WMDC.
2. Unzip your download
3. Right click on the SCUMMVM folder on your computer and select copy
4. Open ActiveSync, select Explore.
5. Navigate to some free space on your device, probably your storage card, right click and select “paste”
3. Find a supported game using abandonia.com and scummvm.org
1. Check out SCUMMVM for a list of compatible games
2. Many are available from Abandonia
3. Download the game
4. Unzip the game
5. Copy it to the same location as you copied SCUMMVM
4. Navigate to SCUMMVM on your device.
5. Select “Add New”
6. Point SCUMMVM to the folder you copied the game to
7. SCUMMVM should then find the game, all you need to do then is select your game out of the list and select start.

I hope you have had success in getting this up and running on your device. If you are still having problems, have a good look around the SCUMMVM website as there is plenty of support available. Once you have successfully installed one game, you will find the next much easier.

The games are all quite long and well suited to Pocket PC’s. Ideal for train trips or a boring meeting.

I downloaded and installed Opera Mini on my Nokia N70. It was a great improvement over the built in web browser that came with the phone. I was amazed at how many phones were supported. This is a must have if you search the web on you phone.

I then delved into upgrading the browser on my HP Ipaq 6828. For Windows Mobile 5 devices, you will want to install Opera Mobile.

Opera Mobile loads a standard site and formats it so that it will look good on a tiny screen. It does not by default load up the mobile version of a page.

You can see how Inspect My Gadget shows up in the screenshot to the right. Pages are quite readable as both text and images are shown at a reasonable size.

There are many more functions available over IE mobile, such as full screen view and multiple windows.

I noticed that the latest beta of Opera Mobile 8.65 Beta is only valid until October 1^st. I hope this means that we get a full fledged version on that day.

Download Opera Mini or Opera Mobile from the Opera Website and follow the links. This is a freebie.