symarctic.com/beta

Thank you all alpha and beta testers!

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:25:22 GMT

Thank you all Symabook alpha and beta testers for your comments and ideas. The beta test phase of Symabook has ended and Symabook 1.0 will be released soon.

Stay tuned for the first product release of Symabook!

- Symabook Team

Symabook Beta 0.50.1

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 10:29:02 GMT

Thank you all Symabook alpha and beta testers for your comments and ideas. The beta test phase of Symabook has ended and Symabook 1.0 will be released soon.

We are just little bit short of Symabook 1.0 release! We have made a new build for 0.50 beta version of Symabook. The new version will expire at the end of February 2010.

Check out the Beta download page and stay tuned for 1.0 release!

Symabook - Friends Connected Everywhere

Using ExtGPS with Android SDK

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:44:52 GMT

Here's a little tip for those of you who use different kind of GPS enabled software development tools. You can use ExtGPS to provide live GPS information for your development purposes.

On Android development kit, there is a special text based protocol over TCP port 5554 which can set the GPS position used for Android applications. ExtGPS (and any other GPS) can easily be setup to feed emulator with live GPS data. Well, at least if you are on a UNIX based system.

On OSX, to use live ExtGPS data with Android emulator, just connect ExtGPS normally (there's instructions link on the right navbar). Start Android emulator and run this command line on shell (single line):

cat /dev/tty.E90-SymarcticExtGPS | sed -e 's/^/geo nmea /g' | telnet localhost 5554

On Windows, it might be possible to get same results by creating a BT serial port and using PuTTY's plink command to read the serial port, but there's no built-in sed command to format the data...

Symabook Beta Release

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:24:12 GMT

Thank you all Symabook alpha and beta testers for your comments and ideas. The beta test phase of Symabook has ended and Symabook 1.0 will be released soon.

Congratulations to all S60 3rd Editioners! Symabook now supports your phone. We pushed the S60 3rd Edition to its limits but we succeed to deliver the most compelling user interface to the platform so far. Symabook beta offers the best mobile user experience for the Facebook.

We did not forget the S60 5th Edition users either. There are new features and improved stability for that platform as well.

Check the Symabook Beta Release

Symabook - Friends Connected Everywhere

Symabook Alpha test phase has been closed!

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 07:31:49 GMT

Thank you all, who has been testing our Alpha releases of Symabook application. Your comments and ideas has been great support to our development team.

Currently we are pushing to the Beta release with S60 3.x support for 320x240 and 240x320 screen resolutions. For the S60 5th Edition users, the Beta release will include some new features and improved stability. Stay tuned for updates!

- Symabook Team

Symabook Alpha feedback

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 11:16:18 GMT

We have received feedback from the users of Symabook Alpha. Thank you all for the feedback! We are addressing issues reported to us. We have had some nice reviews also:
- App Preview: Symabook � �Best user interface seen on the N97 ever!�
- Nokia 5800 App Review: Symabook Alpha by Symarctic Solutions.

There is also video displaying the Symabook Alpha on Samsung Omnia HD. Symabook section starts from the middle of the video.

Symabook early technology preview released

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 20:14:50 GMT

This is early technology preview video of our upcoming Symabook application. Symabook is Facebook Platform application for S60 5th Edition and later for S60 3rd Edition mobile phones. Symabook features user interface that is not seen before in S60 devices. Available soon from http://www.symarctic.com/beta If you have any comments or feedback please contact us info [at] symarctic.com.

We work hard to add more features and polish existing ones. We are striving for alpha phase of the application soon. If you are interested on alpha release of the application please drop us a line at symabook [at] symarctic.com

ExtGPS Platforms

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 09:40:50 GMT

Symarctic ExtGPS is created in somewhat platform independent way. Originally, it was only created in Nokia S60 devices in mind, but it should work on other platforms which provide MIDP 2.0 API, JSR-82 Blueooth API and JSR-179 Location API.

However, there are some differences in some platform implementations. It looks like SonyEricsson has decided that the Location API's NMEA data provides only satellite information, not the actual location info. I mailed to SonyEricsson about this last year, but I never got any response.

Also, Nokia has released also Series 40 6th Edition devices equipped with GPS. At least these "feature phone" models support the required APIs:

Nokia 6700 classic
Nokia 6260 slide
Nokia 3710 fold

If anyone has tested ExtGPS on these new handsets, please post your experiences in comments!

Nokia N95 Positioning � How to establish a GPS connection efficiently

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:05:34 GMT

I was looking for information about E90's GPS antenna position, but instead I found this interesting document: N95_GPS_Connection_Guide_en.pdf

It doesn't really tell me any real new information, but I think it can be useful for some of the N95 users. Here's a quote from the document, how to create optimal receiving conditions:

The GPS receiver is located in the bottom of the device. When using the
receiver, slide the numeric keypad open, and hold the device at an angle of
about 45 degrees (as shown in the picture), with an unobstructed view of
the sky. Do not cover the numeric keypad with
your hand.

I wonder how the keyboard is supposed to be used if you cannot cover it with your hands - maybe it's for voice- and mind controlled GPS applications ;)

HOWTO: Connecting ExtGPS to Mac OS X Leopard 10.5

Symarctic Solutions Oy — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 06:52:21 GMT

Several users have asked how the Bluetooth setup process goes for OS X Leopard -here's how!

Make sure ExtGPS is runnning on the phone. Open Bluetooth panel from System Preferences. If you have not yet paired your phone, press the plus (+) button, otherwise you can click on the asterisk (*) and select Edit Serial Ports.

Now the OSX connects to the phone and searches for new services. The serial ports screen typically has DUN service already setup by the Bluetooth wizard, now just click plus button to add new serial port. In my case, the first click adds ExtGPS port and all the settings are correct automatically:

Now ExtGPS is ready to be used, just use the given port name in your application.