quality of builtin apps
i’ve used symbian 60 since a nokia 3650 when it was first released and overall am very happy with the system.
however after recently getting an e61 i was glad to see a text editor and a spreadsheet had been added as standard. something my psion had back in 94 has now made it to the phone world. i have only one question. did anybody in nokia try these before releasing them?
text editor
- i have created 3-4 files on the phone and of these 2 went corrupt and refused to be opened again. using internal and external memory made no difference.
- the text editor has 2 formats doc and txt. all i can say is txt is as no txt file i have ever seen before as it appears to be unicode with 2 bytes per character and unreadable in any other format without some radical conversion.
- i was hoping to use the editor to write simple html (.htm, .html) and python files (.py) but these cannot be opened as they are hidden from the file browser with no way to change the extensions of files listed.
spreadsheet
- when i copy a formula to a cell, it doesn’t change the values of the location. this has to be done manually. normally if you copy a formula into the row below it’s current location it changes the row.
- you cannot copy a formula to a range of cells.
i have checked to see if my phone was running am old firmware but it says that it’s up to date.
I agree with you that the Office application aren’t as good as they should be.
A lot of my .doc can’t be opened and the same with some .xls files.
Also the opening of the documents can be terrible slow and using Excel is a pain in the #%@$Sssss! This is definitely a point scored for Windows Mobile which had a very good implantation of the Office suite.
Wouter
wouterk | 1:49 am on the 20th of November, 2006
corruption is rife, and the fonts are *too* squarish. Horrible implementation
I suspect you know what i mean. I love the phone but the office apps are tough love
Steve Ng | 5:11 pm on the 20th of November, 2006
i’ve thought about this a bit more. the word processor may be salvagable. if i write a small python app to strip the extra nonsense out of the txt format and turn it into a real txt, htm or py file then i could live with it.
at the very least it is a motivation to learn python. i’m playing with the filebrowser.py sample to see if i can modify it to do this in a sensible way. i will have a file that i edit in document called for example tmydoc.txt when i select it with my modded app it will copy it to mydoc.txt and strip the extra characters. this will leave the editable copy and a version that i can use anywhere else. i will use the first character to decide what extension to use for the altered copy of the file. fingers crossed i can get this to work.
as for the spread sheet. i heard today that on other phones the spreadsheet has this same behaviour but that if you use the pen button (used for cut, copy, paste functions on symbian) the copy works correctly. of course the e61 doesn’t have such a button. sigh!
i thought for text editing just switching back to easyedit but while cut/copy works paste crashes the app due to a known bug in 1.0610.04.04 which will probably affect any other freeware text editor i can get my hands on.
and of course i hoped for a bug fix with the latest firmware but vodafone in their infinite wisdom haven’t released this yet here in ireland. might be the last time i buy vodafone.
as for windows mobile. at my job place i have 3-4 lying about that have come into my possession. i have yet to see somebody stick with one for more than 3 months. they all seem to have terrible flaws that make the e61 look like a model of perfection.
xda, disconnecting the call when person puts the phone to their ear. unable to directly use a number in the phone book.
xda ii, software on this seemed to crash more than the other pocket pcs. loved the design ‘feature’ that called up the camera when i picked up the unit which took 15-20 seconds to get rid of. of course the e61 has a useless voice record button in the same place!
jasjar, battery life that makes a butterfly look like an old timer. terrible keyboard.
2-3 other generic models. crashing to the point no data was ever stored on them. and 2 left handed pdas (it’s been a while since i even picked one up). what gives, are all designers of pocketpcs left handed? what about 90% of the population who are right handed.
for me windows in all its guises has always been representitive of the 90/90 rule. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninety-ninety_rule
it just seems to eat time getting little things done. after every reset on pocket pc/windows mobile i have to cut and paste an appointment. what gives? was once not enough? has any body at ms ever used a pocketpc? did they not find this irritating. my personal best was 10 resets in one hour working with bluetooth. very annoying was that appointment!
moylan | 4:17 pm on the 20th of November, 2006
I have had similar problems saving:
1. Word Documents as .doc files.
2. Excel documents telling me that it is not supported.
I still cannot solve getting around 1 without saving as .txt file and losing all formats.
As far as 2 is concerned, i have found that it is possible to save file as a .xlt, which, strangely allows the file to be saved. Copy and pasting is certainly really annoying as you have to cut and paste each cell - one by one.
Chaudrey | 1:21 pm on the 20th of November, 2006
Oh thank God someone else is having these problems with the Nokia E61. My main gripe is that the spreadsheet (which on my Psion Series 5 I use ALL THE TIME) is not only SLWO but practically unsuable if you have large formulae (See the comment that started all this re: values not being automatically updated when you cut and paste a formula and not being able to paste to more than one cell). What on earth are thes epeople thinkning? If you put an app like a spreadhseet on a unit then you MUST make sure it can be used as a spreadsheet! I ONLY bought this thing as I need a replacement for my Psion and thought that combined with a a ‘phone would be perfect. I did some research and all the reviews raved about it. Typically I doubt the reveiwers actually bothered to try to anything substantial with the apps. I’m VERY disappointed with the unit but am now locked into an 18 month deal.
Fed Up with Nokia E61 | 5:57 am on the 20th of November, 2006
I am with the Fed Up.
This phone is total suckage.
Slow, unwieldy apps, with next to no configurability.
Just look at the absolute basics: the contacts list CANNOT be sorted (or even display) the company name.
I mean this is a 2007 “smart” phone.
Imagine you have 500+ contacts, 80% numbers you have to call once every 3 months, being only there because when you need to call “Joe in Finance of Corporation A” you need him handy in your phone (that is the reason for a fancy phone directory, no?).
And now you got 20 Smiths listed all together, with no indiciation where they belong.
Was this phone designed for buinessmen as they claim? I do not think so, it is a retarded toy meant to be look “cool” on display and perheaps being useful to some kid who has his girlfirends and close family in it.
Its all an ILLUSION of business phone functionality, a paper-thin facade meant to lure you into buying the thing and then … who the hell cares, they got your money.
There is something seriously wrong with this entire mobile phone industry that they can get away with this.
Pissed off user | 2:55 pm on the 20th of November, 2006