http://www.salling.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=6018

I’m out of town this week (scheduled since way back), and as I am not able to handle the full load of email support (over 3G/UMTS) that usually comes with a full release/announce cycle, I’m “sneaking” this out for the benefit of you early-adopters out there. Enjoy!

All browsing goes through Opera’s compressing web proxy. A web page which would normally be a one megabyte download from a regular browser is typically compressed to about one tenth the size. This browser will let you browse the real web, and on a tiny “dumb” phone, no less.

The new version takes more than a few ideas from Nokia’s “minimap” S60 browser, and I really like it! See this link for a demo and this one for a tongue-in-cheek jab at Apple’s iPhone.

Then go check it out for yourself on your mobile phone. I’m really impressed Opera’s work on this one!

Edit: here’s a simulator, allowing you to try the browser from your computer.

The reason for this inconvenience is that platform security in Symbian 9.x prevents applications from automatically starting unless Symbian Signed. Now you might ask: why isn’t Salling Clicker Symbian Signed? The reason is that for our type of application this would be rather costly and time consuming. I’ve decided, for now at least, that Symbian Signed is not worth it.

The good news is that Wireless Labs just released a free Symbian Signed app (for S60 3rd Edition only, not UIQ3 unfortunately), PowerBoot, that lets you automatically launch any executable on your phone when the phone starts.

(Certifying freeware doesn’t cost anything, and as PowerBoot does only one thing it’s not likely Wireless Labs will need to revise it and have it re-certified in the future. For us, certifying is a more painful affair)

If you want to try this, configure PowerBoot to automatically launch E:\sys\bin\ClickerSvr.exe (change the drive letter depending on phone model and where you installed Salling Clicker). I’ve tested this with a Nokia N95, and it seems to work perfectly. Salling Clicker on my Mac can now connect to the phone after it’s been restarted without me having to launch the Salling Clicker UI client on the phone.

Enjoy!

A few days ago, the remote control application Salling Clicker was updated to version 3.5. We spoke with the developer about the new version and the future.

First question. What feature in 3.5 are you most exited about?
The Wifi-support. The customers seem to like it too. I think Clicker 3.5 is a great reason to get a WiFi-enabled phone, and there’s now a bunch of models to choose from.

Clicker has been available for Windows for a while now. How’s it doing?
So far, I’ve been very pleased with how we’re doing on the Windows platform, and I have high hopes for the new version. We’re now supporting all Bluetooth stacks: Microsoft, Toshiba, IVT, and Broadcom. Without requiring configuration of COM ports. We’ve also added support for Bonjour (but we call it “zero configuration” for trademark reasons).

Can a license key for Mac be used in the Windows version?
Nope. The Windows and Mac licenses are sold separately. They can be bought in a bundle at a 25% discount, however. Quite a few customers pick up the bundle; not sure if they take the opportunity to buy for a colleague with Windows/Mac, or if they’re hardcore Boot Camp users.

How has the release of 3.5 been? Successful?
It’s gone really well. I’m happy. We’ll follow up with a number of smaller releases now.

Exciting. Bug fixes?
I’ve got a couple of new features up the sleeve. A cooler iTunes controller is in the works. It’ll be a fairly massive update to the controller, actually. Better support for podcasts, audio books, shared libraries, and more.

Sounds nice. Are you also going to support more devices?
Always. Most certainly the new Motorola RIZR Z8, based on UIQ 3.1, will be added to the support list.

What are the chances for Clicker on the iPhone?
I’m taking a wait-and-see approach to the iPhone. Without support for (real) 3rd-party applications, it’ll be difficult.

Will you be going to (Apple’s) WWDC this year?
The way things look now, no. Not this year.

Thanks for the interview, and best of luck with your business!

Again, I connected Salling Clicker 3.5 (non-public beta) via WiFi to my computer and went to bed. As with the P990, in the morning I was able to pick up the N95 and control iTunes right away. Here’s the shocker, though, considering the N95 has been pretty much slammed in many reviews for its battery life (or rather its lack thereof):

The battery indicator showed no signs of drainage (all bars were lit)! I suspect Nokia chose to give the N95’s battery indicator a rather aggressive “curve” (by which I mean that it will stay high for quite some time and then drop quickly). Still, I find it pretty darn impressive that we were able to stay attached to the WiFi network for eight hours without noticeable power drain.

I’ve been using the N95 for about a week now, and it’s a really quite a fun device. I hope to find the time to write a post about my experiences later. Stay tuned.

(Dave asked if the 3G-radio was on during this test: yes it was)

I ran the test overnight (for about six hours) with a Sony Ericsson P990i phone, and I’m happy to report that the connection didn’t go stale; I was able to pick up the phone and control iTunes right away. What really impressed me, though, was how much battery life there was left in this phone.

This is in spite of the phone being connected via WiFi for 6 hours! I didn’t take any battery capacity percentage readouts either before or after the test, but the graphical meter on the phone’s display appears to have moved just a little bit over to the left. I was kind of expecting a nearly drained battery after such an extended connection time.

During this test, there was minimal traffic on the network. I wasn’t actually controlling anything with Salling Clicker. But, this type of “idle” connectivity is still useful; had I been listening to really loud music in iTunes, for instance, Salling Clicker would have automatically paused the music, and I would have been able to hear the phone.

It’s pretty obvious that WiFi chipsets have gone a pretty long way from where they were just a few years ago. During heavy use, I’d still expect power drainage to be significant, however. I don’t know how other phones perform quite yet, but I’ll probably try this with some other new phones.

Lots of stuff have happened since the 3.0.1 release of Salling Clicker. A number of smartphones models based on Symbian 9+ have been released (or announced) by Nokia, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola(!). The Broadcom folks appear to have lost their grip on the Bluetooth stack market for Windows (for better or for worse—as a result we’ve seen the rise of stacks from Toshiba and IVT/BlueSoleil). An increasing number of phones now come with built in WiFi capabilities. Windows Vista was finally released and Mac OS X 10.5 “Leopard” and Windows Mobile 6 appear to be just around the corner.

These are all things that need to be addressed in an application like Salling Clicker. In addition, there are features to add. Lots of work but I have a feeling something might be ready for release pretty soon now…

Check out the whole list here (Salling Clicker at place 86):

http://pcworld.com/reviews/article/0,aid,125706,pg,13,00.asp

Meanwhile, we’re working on a follow-up version. There’s some really cool stuff in there that I’m dying to share with you when it’s ready!

Anyhow, a recent post on the Make blog pointed me to an interesting contraption known only as the “iTunes Speaker Thingy”:

Dale writes “This is an enclosure which holds and powers an Airport Express and a set of attached speakers to wirelessly stream music from iTunes. It also incorporates a Palm T|X which acts as an LCD wirelessly remote for iTunes using the Salling Clicker remote control software. The setup provides a nice set of compact wireless speakers for any spot with AC power that’s in Wi-Fi range of your home network.”

“This is really frustrating for our users, because things don’t work in a mysterious (and ungrammatical) way. And it’s frustrating for us, because it makes us look bad, incompetent and/or lazy. Honestly, we’re not.”

I have had similar experiences and feel for Dave in this situation. Bugs and shortcomings in software out of our control have the potential of making our products look bad, frustrate customers, and cause quite a lot of otherwise not required support work.

Dave, by the way, is the hardest working indy-developer I know, and I can highly recommend his SuperDuper! to those who need a disk cloning tool. Check it out; it’s good stuff.