s60 online theme tool

i've posted a reference or two to astod.com in the past (most recently in the post immediately below), without really doing it justice. there are any number of sites from which s60 themes can be downloaded (as ref'ed in post below), and there is of course the somewhat cumbersome pc-based theme studio application, but astod currently stands alone as a resource for quick and very easy (and online) generation of custom s60 themes - albeit for a price. definitely worth checking out.

later.

the switch to s60 3rd edition...

no doubt that subject line means squat to most folk, but...

...whatever. in any event, i've been way wary of making the switch, waiting for a critical mass of s60 3rd edition applications to emerge beforehand. but, my current phone recently stopped waiting with me so i had no choice but to make the move. gotta say, it's not been bad so far. granted, there's not a lot of free/found-ware out there to trawl through, but it took me less than a day to get the basics up and running.

- s60 3rd edition themes are still scarce, but i grabbed a couple from mobile9. also stopped by astod.com to create my own. while i won't buy one of theirs, i've been willing on ocassion to pony up the $5 bucks for my own design. their online tool is a breeze compared to the pc-based theme studio and they wasted no time retooling for s60 3rd edition.

- on the mobile imaging/blogging/movlogging front, shozu - still my favorite such app (see multiple previous posts) - has a nice s60 3rd edition app and i'm up and running without a hitch.

- in terms of video, the folks at lonelycat offer an evolved s60 3rd edition smartmovie player which (minor amendment to earlier version of this post - i know, that's cheating...) unlike previous version packs key codecs into the app so they don't have to be installed separately on the device.

- as for im'ing, agile messenger - another old favorite - has also put out a s60 3rd edition app. also now up and running.

- and, the folks at google can be thanked for upgrading their mapping / local info app for s60 3rd edition as well (see previous post).

so, that's a start. but still missing some key stuff.

- as yet, no s60 3rd edition app for yahoo!go (previous post), which is a shame since i got used to the push email and won't sign up for the pay service just to get POP mail to my phone - guess i'll be g-mail'ing it for awhile (free is key).

- on the music front, the built-in mp3 (etc.) player on the device is sweet, but i still want my streaming radio (i can't seem to find an s60 3rd edition version of the virgin player i was using but did stumble across an interesting - if beta - alternative here). and. lastly, an s60 3rd edition version of symella is a must...

more later...

the whole clan - bethany 2006

one of the best beach weeks yet. only twelve more months...

beach week winding down...

...gettin' melancholy already. sigh. great week though.

nice snap of 4 of the 8 from the mobile (from the beach). more to follow.

more bitter than sweet...

link at bottom (and here) to walt mossberg review of the new lg "chocolate" music phone from verizon - "an ipod designed by committee" indeed...

aesthetics aside (and i s'pose it looks cute enough), the promise of mobile music is so very real, and yet from rokr (see 9/7/05 post) to chocolate we keep seeing the same sad hobbling of what should be basic yet essential functionality - all in the questionable pursuit of control. the "connected music" product and service offering that ultimately succeeds will feature a simple-to-use device that plays back mp3 - however found - married to an intuitive, open and reasonably priced (e.g. not two bucks a tune) music download service.

stay tuned (as it were)...

Personal Technology -- Personal Technology from The Wall Street Journal.

in the odd event...

...anyone was wondering about the recent silence - i'm in the midst of a mid-summer hiatus, soon to feature sand and surf. later.