Hook's 5800 questions.

8 replies · 3,637 views · Started 21 March 2009

Hooksym 21 Mar 2009, 00:39

Hi, I'm Hook (most places, the name was taken here) 😉

I'm currently a Palm TX user but am looking at possible moving to Symbian S60 and particularly the 5800. One reason is an impressive feature set for a reasonable unlocked price. In general, I really don't need a smartphone, I need a PDA. I use PAYG lightly because I spend about 10 hours a day with no cell reception so a contract is about as useful to me as sand delivery in a desert. So I want something that functions well as a stand alone device or with wifi.

I would consider something like the N95 as the price is beginning to drop (though I'd really like to stay around $400, but the screen is just too tiny. The screen on the 5800 is about the lower end of what I would consider, size and resolution wise. I'd love to wait for the N97, but it is going to be waaay to expensive for me, I'm sure.

So, as they occur to me, I'd like to try to pick your brains here for info. I'm a newbie-- I have no experience at all with Symbian. Be gentle. 😊 I will try to read manuals and search for answers. Some of my questions will be about Symbian, but I'm posting in this forum because I am currently really focused on the 5800.

My first question: How careful to I have to be about compatibility of third party apps for s60. I notice there are many versions-- are newer versions backwards compatible. For example, since I use ereader on my TX, I'd love to have it for my Nokia. On the Symbian page at ereader.com (forum won't let me post link :rolleyes😊 they have many s60 versions, but I have no idea how I would know for sure if these are appropriate for the 5800 (which probaby didn't exist the last time that page was updated). This is just an example. In general, how do you know?

I need to answer this question in order to figure out what apps are available if I choose to go Symbian.

TheUndertaker 21 Mar 2009, 16:04

i do know that there's an app called STYLETAP that emulates palm applications on the 5800, and i tried a few, some of them worked quite well. other than that, multimedia apps are plenty and released often. It is still a very new os so it will take time for some nice apps to surface, but i'm sure that this OS is definitely the next big thing in the symbian dev scene.

as for compatibility of older apps, almost any java app will probably work with the phone, using the virtual keypad ofcourse. older s60v3 apps may work or may not work. it all depends. as for ereader, there isn't any version exclusively available for s60v5, but they might soon release a compatible version, if the application is being updated regularly.

Hooksym 21 Mar 2009, 20:31

TheUndertaker wrote:i do know that there's an app called STYLETAP that emulates palm applications on the 5800, and i tried a few, some of them worked quite well. other than that, multimedia apps are plenty and released often. It is still a very new os so it will take time for some nice apps to surface, but i'm sure that this OS is definitely the next big thing in the symbian dev scene.
as for compatibility of older apps, almost any java app will probably work with the phone, using the virtual keypad ofcourse. older s60v3 apps may work or may not work. it all depends. as for ereader, there isn't any version exclusively available for s60v5, but they might soon release a compatible version, if the application is being updated regularly.

Thanks for the reply. I had forgotten Styletap has a Symbian version. However, when I move to a new platform, I'm going to dive into that new platform rather than trying to hang onto my old one. I will be grateful if there are a couple a very favorite apps that run natively --I think I can still use SplashID-- but Garnet is dead, time to move on. I'll have the TX around if I need it.

The symbian versions stuff confuses me a bit, but I suppose i shouldn't try unraveling that kind of stuff when I don't have the device yet. These things always becomes easier when you are dealing with reality rather than abstractions.