WidSets: More than just RSS

http://www.widsets.com

Cell phones have become the premier device for people to keep connected. And one aspect of keeping connected is to get timely updates of the news and web sites we regularly follow. If RSS reader and/or Twitter were the first things that popped in your mind then you're along the right lines. I personally stick to RSS readers too since almost every web site offers a RSS feed.

While I was going through Nokia's Download! service, I noticed an application that I've heard a lot about but never tried before, WidSets. Widsets is available on almost all Nokia phones as either a Java application for Nokia's mainstream S40 handsets and phones from other manufacturers or as a native S60 application for Nokia's S60 smartphones. It provides a consistent UI and framework for developers to develop online applications called widgets.

For this blog I am reviewing WidSets version 3.1.4 on a Nokia E71. Find out if WidSets is worth trying after the jump.

When you start WidSets it requests access to connect online. Of course you can keep it offline but you'll only be able to see what's cached on your phone the last time you were online and won't get updated content. To quickly tell if you're online or offline, the background of WidSets is black if it's offline and blue if it's online. In a way, offline and online resembles Google Gears and how, just recently, you can browse your Gmail while offline based on what you've previously viewed.


Once WidSets is connected, the workspace background turns blue. I guess it's to say it's daytime. The AccuWeather widget will display the current weather right on the widget button.Without any widgets on your screen when you first start, you'll want to browse through Widset's list of widgets. A quick glance at what's available may lead you to believe it's just another RSS reader since you have Nokia Discussions, Wall Street Journal, Howard Forums, and Wikipedia. And that isn't too far from the truth. Unfortunately most widgets don't give you much functionality and the quality between them vary greatly. So to be fair I'm going to review one of the popular widgets that is a little more than just a news reader and one that you may find useful too.


Browsing through the widgets (left) you can see the popularity of the widget and only the widget title is displayed. You can also search for a particular widget (middle). The detailed view (right) doesn't give you any added information. Click images for larger versions.


The popular Facebook social networking application makes its way onto WidSets and impresses with its features.It's a popular social networking web site that has a native application for almost all smartphones like the Blackberry and iPhone. You may have seen your friends adding the application. It's Facebook and for Nokia handsets it comes in the form of a widget. Unlike most widgets (I'm looking at you, the Howard Forums widget), you can interact with the Facebook widget by logging in. Inside you'll get all your latest notifications, browse through your friends and read their details, browse through photo galleries, update your status, and even upload photos to your own gallery. This is almost everything you can do in the real Facebook web site minus the custom applications. If you were put off by most widgets, I definitely recommend the Facebook widget if you're a Facebook addict.


Browse through your friends and view their details. Browse through photo galleries. Zoom in on any photo. Update your status or even upload a photo. Click images for larger versions.


Most WidSets widgets like Wall Street Journal Online, Howard Forums, and Nokia Discussion are just a newsfeed and do not feature any interactive features like posting comments.Unfortunately, all widgets are contained within the WidSets application so as good as the Facebook widget is, it never feels great as you can't access the widget directly as a shortcut from your home screen. The weather widget is nice that it immediately updates with the current weather when you open Widset, but wouldn't it be even better if the weather widget appeared as a dedicated application and its icon automatically updated based on the weather? You're left continuously clicking back into the WidSets application and that's the weakness. First it takes a few clicks to go into the WidSets application unless you have it on your home screen. Secondly, the UI for WidSets is laid out horizontally while all the widgset icons are horizonatally wide and fairly large. With at most 3 widgets stacked in each column, you can't see all your widgets at once and scrolling doesn't wrap so you'll be scrolling a lot to get to your last and right most widget.

Some really great widgets like Facebook, it's offline capabilities, and wealth of widgets make Widsets a very useful application to add to your phone. Since widgets are designed for mobile devices, all the content are easy to navigate on small screens. Lot of medocre widgets that don't do any more than a RSS reader, a clunky UI that needs a lot of scrolling and provides little detail to the widgets available, and a framework that limits widgets to being within the WidSets application hurt the overall user experience while using Widsets. I recommend giving WidSets a try to see if there are any widgets that interest you and whether your appreciate the WidSets UI layout.

Eric's Software Rating: Worth a try

How S40's UI has changed - 2nd edition to 5th edition

S40 is a platform for mobile phones that run Nokia's proprietary operating system. Most people refer to S40 like an operating system. I will be focussing only on S40's user interface (UI) in this blog entry.

The last S40 phone I got for myself is the Nokia 6230b and it used a modified version of the S40 2nd edition platform. It's modified because it was the first S40 to use a grid for the menu. All future S40s have the option of grid or list for the main menu. My last review, of the Nokia 3555, made me think about how much S40 has progressed since late 2004 against the latest S40 5th edition.

One very observable difference between S40 2nd edition and S40 5th edition is the support for portait screens (128x160 pixels) instead of the old screen screen (128x128 pixels).

I love pictures and they truly say a thousand words. Now let's look at some screen shots (I switched the positions of the 6230b and 3555b a couple times just to make sure you pay attention - ok, I took the photos in two different sittings so I apologize):

Standby Screen (2nd on left, 5th on right):

You can do much more on the 5th's standby screen like control your music player, show calendar updates, and shortcuts to your most used apps.

Menu (2nd on left, 5th on right)

Not much has changed here except you can now see battery life, reception, and other indicators too. You can see these indicators without the phone now in all submenus.

More Icons (5th on left, 2nd on right):

There are some icons beside the text for help. Even though there is more vertical screen space, it hasn't increased the number of menu items on the screen at once.

UI Changes (5th on left, 2nd on right):

The left/right toggle for the 5th edition reduces the number of clicks, somewhat.

Some new icons don't match the rest of the User Interface (UI):

Some menus have an added Save button so some changes are not automatically saved. The icons don't match the look of the rest of the UI.

Real Theme Support (both from 5th edition):

The 2nd edition only support color changes while the 5th edition supports background and color changes. It's pretty neat that S40 will preview the theme after highlighting it.

Calendar (2nd on left, 5th on right):

Things that were good before are the same.

Calculator (2nd on left, 5th on right):

The calculator has undergone a dramatic change from being a simple native app to a complex Java app.

Camera (5th on right, 2nd on left):

Much more controls on the camera application like zoom.

One thing I wish S40 had was a way to switch between an Advanced mode (for users to configure the phone) to a Basic mode. I usually recommend S40 phones to people who want a phone for a phone and a no non-sense phone UI. But with so many available options and customizability like active standby, S40 is starting to become overwhelming for a first time user. I wish there was a way I could set up and customize the phone for the user in Advanced mode then switch it to Basic for them to use. The only other option I can think of is to refer them to emerging market phones but they're hard to come by in North America and/or cost more than carrier subsidized phones.

The new S40 operating system puts up a good fight against Sony Ericsson's phone platform in terms of customizability; but I don't think Nokia's S40 platform is as refined judging by the inconsistencies in the UI look.

Nokia has made great strides to make S40 a highly customizable platform without needing to make it a smart phone operating system. However the introduction of all these options have made S40 a lot more overwhelming for a first time user than previous iterations. I personally like how the new UI works and the additional functionality it provides and I'm sure users will slowly get accustomed to it even if they're a first time user.

You can learn more about the S40 platform at Forum Nokia