Symbian
Sponsored by Zookware
Download free TV Guide style Listings for Palm OS
I got my Nokia 3650 (Symbian Series 60) from AT&T Wireless in May and I was blown away by it. Until then I had been a total Palm devotee, but the 3650 gives you very similar functionality with a great cellphone at a fraction of the price.
Symbian has been popular in
The thing I like about it is that since it came from Nokia, it is a cellphone first with PDA functionality added. The other smartphones tend to be PDAs first with the cellphone functionality as an afterthought. Afterall, about 80% of my usage is the voice functionality. The symbian OS is good, and aside from the small screen and lack of stylus for an input device, it has much the same functionality as Palm. So of course, I was interested in video.
I bought a 128 MB MMC card for about $30. I can store mpeg4 movies (the files use the extension .3gp for 3gpp format) at about 1 MB per minute. So, I can pretty easily store a 2 hour movie. Like the other PDAs, the viewers are not set up for watching videos so there is no support for scene selection. In fact, the players on this device don’t even have fast forward, so you can only watch from the beginning.
Though not directly related to video, I one of the amazing things about the S60 is to use it as a desktop-style web brower. The ability to search Google any time you have your cellphone is amazing. For a great web browser that gives you access to almost any website, download NetFront v31. It is also available on Handango.
Streaming Content
Players
Real Player – comes with the phone, but I recommend buying the PacketVideo Player
PacketVideo Player– I like this one better since it has a full screen mode. On a device with a screen this small, it is a mandatory requirement.
There were some problems after installation with the recognizer causing frequent phone crashing. Just search for the .mdl file (I think that’s the right extension) and delete to fix.
Using the PacketVideo Player and
the encoding tools mentioned here, I was able to
encode a full 90 minute DVD (about 1MB per minute) and easily put it on the
128MB expansion card I got for my phone (which cost just $30). Of the PDAs listed here, this is the cheapest
solution by far and probably has one of the best screens (though a little
small). Not to mention, since this is my
main cellphone, I carry it with me always.
The biggest problem is that there is no fast forward capability so I
need to watch the full 1.5 hours in one sitting—not very practical. Otherwise, this would wins hands-down.
Encoders
PacketVideo’s pvAuthor – encodes mpeg1 format media to .3gp format. This is one of the only encoders I have found for this format. Use any of the methods described in the encoding page to get .mpg format input.