Changing firmware in my smartphone brought me to the issue of data backup. I decided to make some tests in this area.

Generally I found as many as four ways of doing it:
1) backup to memory card
2) backup via PC Suite & Nokia Content Copier
3) data synchronization by SyncML
4) data synchronization by using 'data transfer' (or 'transfer') application installed on two (or more) S60 devices

In my case, I haven't taken the fourth and third option into consideration (only basic data like contacts, calendar entries can be exchanged this way; 3rd option: you need to have access to SyncML server). So, at the beginning I started to test the first solution. And it appears to be a good one - I was very surprised that almost everything was restored and the smartphone looked like before firmware update. Restored items included: all messages, contacts, calendar entries, todos, ..., up to applications' settings e.g. bookmarks, radio FM stations, even last called numbers and documents, themes and J2ME applications; some Symbian applications like 'Nokia maps' have also been restored, but not all - like YBrowser - I'm wondering what is special in YBrowser that prevents it from being restored (lack of backup_registration.xml entry in pkg file or something else?). It's a pity that in this solution you can't choose to restore only specific data/application settings (what I wanted to achieve was to restore only PIM + bookmarks + radio FM stations, rest leaving as default).

Then, I've tested the second solution. Here, you can choose what to restore (but again, you can't restore setting for only chosen applications). For the first time, I've chosen to restore all things, but this lead to device working very slow, so finally I decided to reformat a device and restore everything except 'applications settings' - it worked fine and in the future I'll use this configuration when changing to a new device's firmware. It's interesting that in both cases network mode selection was not restored (I used only 'GSM' mode whereas after restore operation there was 'dual mode' selected).

When we want to use GPS in our mobile devices we have two choices: either to use device with GPS onboard (like N95, E90, 6110 navigator) or to use external bluetooth GPS device. Each choice has some pros and cons. In-built means only one (convergent) device in the pocket, but using more power and having lower sensivity circuit; external - means additional device with its own power supply (plus probably additional charger to take care of!), more sensitive GPS (in addition: accuracy may be increased thanks to WAAS/EGNOS to 1-3m as opposed to the normal 10-15m; there may be included a logger of visited positions), such device will use power for computations and data communication only (for example every 1sec + maintenance of connection).

I'm beginning to wonder which solution is better when we think about power consumption. The answer seems to be simple: mobile device + external GPS, but could you share your experience (maybe someone has made some real tests) on how longer will such configuration work (+30% more time?)

JavaFX is a new family of Java technology-based products that will help content providers create and deploy rich Internet applications (RIA). Available today are the first two JavaFX releases: JavaFX Script and JavaFX Mobile.

• A new scripting language, JavaFX Script gives Java developers the power to quickly create content-rich applications for the widest variety of clients, including mobile devices, set-top boxes, desktops, even Blu-ray discs. Content creators now have a simple way to develop content for any Java Powered consumer device.
• JavaFX Mobile is a complete software system for mobile devices. It is available via OEM licenses to carriers, handset manufacturers, and other companies that want to simplify and accelerate the development of a powerful standardized software system that can be leveraged across a wide range of consumer devices.

(based on the article at http://www.sun.com/featured-articles/2007-0508/javafx/index.jsp?intcmp=hp2007may08_javafx_read)

More information can be found at http://www.sun.com/software/javafx/

Long URLs are difficult to remember and not easy to enter into your mobile device (especially if you don't have QWERTY keyboard like in Nokia E90/E70/E61(i) or external bluetooth keyboard). However, there are various online services that shorten long URLs (for example TinyURL or SnipURL).

Let's check an example: it's not easy to enter without a mistake quite long URL to my Forum Nokia Introduction Page which is: http://www.forum.nokia.com/main/forum_nokia_champion/forum_nokia_champions/Jacek_Wojciechowski.html (99 characters), but it's much easier to enter and remember eg. http://snurl.com/jacekw (23 characters). This way I can save 76 characters in my SMS/MMS message (it's ca. 77% of the original URL!). You can send short URLs in emails without the fear of them being wrapped and as a bonus if your underlying URL changes you can always modify your shortened URL.
Generally you can save much more time if you set a bookmark in your device's browser ;-)

It's my first blog entry, so I'd like to say Hello to everybody interested in mobile technologies!
On this blog I'll post my thoughts on new mobile technologies and development areas.

For the beginning, I've got a small puzzle for you - what message is hidden behind the picture in about section of my blog page?
Who will be the first? And sorry, there'll be no prize ;-)