Enhancing Your S60 Device: Part I

Let’s be honest, the mobile phone is a godsend. It takes communication to a higher plane on a daily basis. Most of the time we don’t even realize there’s so much more out there in terms of applications and services that we can use to enhance communication. Here are a few applications you can get for free that will help you stay tuned into the net and keep communication alive!

VoIP and Chat Apps
VoIP or Voice over Internet Protocol is, simply put, a way to use your mobile to make calls via your mobile internet service. It also enables users to make cheap international calls to landlines and mobiles by using applications such as Skype or any other Internet voice service (SIP-compatible services) such as SIPNET or EuteliaVoIP from non-SIP enabled handsets.

Chatting is a way to keep in touch with friends and family alike using PC chat applications like GTalk, MSN and Yahoo! Messengers. Yes, it’s become something we do every day. Chatting isn’t merely a social networking solution but also a way to keep in touch with business clients and such.

Fring

Fring is a mobile internet service & community that allows users to stay in touch with almost all the popular social networks (G-Talk, MSN and Yahoo! Messenger and even AOL AIM). It also lets you keep in touch with Skype contacts. Fring allows you to make VoIP calls as well as chat with your IM buddies while on the go. It serves a dual purpose and can be used in areas where Wi-Fi is available (if your phone supports it). This makes the application that much more versatile.

Email is one way to get the message across, but an obviously simpler way is by simply using a chat application. Technology being the way it is, if you have it on your PC it’s almost a given that you can have it on your mobile phone as well. Enter eBuddy Chat, application extraordinaire: it supports GTalk, MSN and Yahoo! Messenger, and they can all be used simultaneously.

Another great VoIP application is Gizmo. It’s free too, but does have a certain limitation. Gizmo only allows VoIP calling and chatting with users who have the same app as well as support for Yahoo!, AOL and GTalk. So here’s another fully functional chat/VoIP application for your S60 mobile.

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Email Applications
Email is as important your mobile, as a means of communication. It’s one of the internet’s biggest killer apps and one of the most reliable forms of reaching a person. Therefore it should come as no surprise that with the advent of data services on mobiles, email would assume vital importance.

7 Networks
While S60 comes with a very robust email client with iMAP support and whatnot, it’s not very user friendly, and users with no technical knowledge can find it quite confusing. It’s enough to put one off using email! However, all’s not lost. 7 Networks, a well-known provider of mobile email solutions, offers a novel solution that allows you to access virtually every major email provider and consolidate various accounts on your mobile phone. If you are technical minded, the client also has full support for iMAP and POP3 servers and can actually fetch the mail in real-time, giving you pushmail… all for free.

While the 7 application is pretty decent and has Gmail support, it’s fairly basic and geared for light users. If you seek a more extended use of the excellent set of features that Gmail offers, look no further than Gmail’s own mobile app. It not only interfaces with Gmail and offers you the same look and feel as the desktop version, but also allows you to search your address list and archived mail. It’s constantly under evolution… who knows what might be added next?

A third way to access Gmail has also become available of late. iMAP support has been enabled on its servers, and with the native support of that protocol on S60 phones, all it takes are a few clicks.

That concludes our list. Please remember that this list is a mere fraction of options available for the S60 platform. If you have one that you’d like to share, head over to our forum and start a new thread there – or just leave a comment.