[DB75]

Understanding Symbian Descriptors

If you've done any Symbian programming then you've most likely dealt with descriptors. Descriptors are Symbian strings and working with them can be extremely cumbersome compared to languages like Java and ActionScript.

At any rate, I stumbled across Jo Stichbury's blog last week. Jo is the author of Symbian OS Explained which I've yet to read but plan on picking up a copy.

I can speak from first hand experience that working with Symbian descriptors can be painful, yet they're staples of pretty much every Symbian application. I've made extensive use of them in the past in applications such as SensorPhone, BlueGPS, and Dashfly Minutes. With that said I don't feel comfortable saying I have a thorough understanding of them. Therefore I will spend many an hour over at Jo's blog:

Descriptors FAQ
Descriptor Tips

Check it out and enjoy!

SensorPhone for Symbian Series 60

I've had this idea about a sensor phone application. The application would serve as a mechanism to retrieve all sorts of information from a mobile device. If you think of your mobile device as a sensor you can see how all sorts of information can be "sensed". This includes:

1. Network Info
2. Location
3. Battery Signal
4. RSSI Signal

to name a few. Given you aren't able to grab this information from any device. That's where the powerful Symbian OS comes into play. I first got my start with Symbian a few years ago when developing an application called Dashfly Minutes.

I came across the idea for "SensorPhone" when realizing the potential of another application I released last year called BlueGPS. I've received all sorts of inquiries about the software as well as a fairly substantial amount of downloads. So I've decided to start developing SensorPhone with the intent of releasing it in the next few feeks.

The software will ultimately tie into SensorLogic's M2M Platform which will allow for all sorts of functionality (more on that in future posts). I work for SensorLogic and you can learn a little more about what we do here. You can see a screen shot below:

I'm working on getting the GPS location stuff worked out which will ultimately pull data from a Bluetooth GPS receiver. That's the Belkin receiver that I use. My ultimate goal is to provide a map interface that shows all sorts of network information based on location. If you have any suggestions then please feel free to post them here. I will post the installer file in the next couple of weeks.