HandyWi fixes bugs

HandyWi finds Wi-Fi access points around you just like Symbian's built-in connection manager does. But HandyWi does more: it displays unlocked access points in a separate tab so you don't have to waste your time trying to find open routers in an unsorted list of open and closed access points.

Network discovery can be set to manual or timed, you can connect to open networks straight from within HandyWi, and access points can be stored as landmarks so you can find them in Google Maps, Nokia Maps, and Nokia Maps successor Ovi Maps.

The latest HandyWi update fixes minor flaws in the user interface. It won't let you tell the program to open the "public" networks tab by default, and just because a network is "public" doesn't mean you can connect to it. It only means it's not locked by WPA or WEP.

If you want a Wi-Fi hotspot finder with more options, try WeFi or Easy Wi-Fi.

• HandyWi

Tame Symbian: send sis/jar/mid files by bluetooth or MMS with ClosedContentListOff, Open4All patch to browse system folders also for Nokia N96

ClosedContentListOff

Symbian's messaging program refuses to send midi (.mid) music files by MMS, because it wrongly believes every midi file is copyrighted. Symbian's file manager won't send midi files by bluetooth, and it won't send .sis and .jar installers either.

ClosedContentListOff lets you get rid of these restrictions. It's a simple patch that runs with ROMPatcher. Just hack your phone, run ClosedContentListOff, and send your files without the draconian censorship-like restrictions that Nokia builds into its phones.

• ClosedContentListOff on Mobile Castle


Open4All

On many new Nokia phones you can't simply switch caps off to give file managers like X-plore and ActiveFile access to system folders like c:\sys\bin.

The Open4All ROMPatcher patch takes care of that. When you let ROMPatcher run the Open4All patch, all your file managers can view, read from, and write to the system folders.

The old Open4All patch works on most hacked phones with ROMPatcher. The Nokia N96 is an exception, but the special Open4All patch for the N96 takes care of that.

Of course your phone has to be hacked and ROMPatcher has to be installed on your phone to make this patch work.

• Open4All (generic and N96 versions)
• Open4All (generic) discussion at Symbian Freak (signup/login required)
• Open4All (Nokia N96) discussion at Symbian Freak (signup/login required)

Music player FolderPlay adds AAC and random play

Symbian S60 music player FolderPlay has been updated often lately. Bugs were fixed, random play sequence ("shuffle play") was added, the program speaks more languages, and FolderPlay now plays AAC files too.

FolderPlay now plays MP3, AAC, WAV, FLAC, APE, AC3, OGG, and other files, but not WMA.

FolderPlay looks like a file manager. If you navigate to a folder with music, it plays all songs in that folder, but subfolders are problem. If you play a folder with songs and subfolders, it only plays the tracks in the first subfolder and ignores the rest.

There are other ways to play music organised by folders. Music Launcher is similar to FolderPlay, but MusicLauncher does it better if you stick with MP3. PowerMP3 and TTPod sort your music by tags and by folder structure, and there's a folder structure workaround for the built-in Symbian music player.

• FolderPlay

Nothing new in new Opera Mini

The latest version of proxy-based data compressing mobile phone web browser Opera Mini comes with a slightly altered set of out-of-the-box bookmarks. Other changes, if any, are under the hood. Video support it in its infancy, there's still no T9 predictive text in the URL entry box, and the option to delete cookies remains hidden all the way down at the bottom of the settings screen.

Most S60 3rd ed. Feature Pack 2 Nokia phones are not listed on the Opera Mini download page. Opera Mini works on these phone models, but if you choose "PC Download" you'll have to get the Generic Version. Make sure to choose the "Advanced MIDP2" option.

If you already have version 4.2 of Opera Mini updating is not worth the trouble. Remember to sync your bookmarks if you do update, because Opera Mini deletes them and it doesn't have an "export bookmarks to file" option.

• Opera Mini
• Opera Mini hidden settings

Opera Mini alternatives: UCWEB and TeaShark.