ActiveFile offline

File manager ActiveFile has some great extras. It's also a task manager, and it can reboot your phone, make screenshots, and make fake messages too. What really sets ActiveFile apart is that it can backup and restore your SMSs.

Unfortunately its website is down. Alietan.com expired on July 30, 2011. Maybe Alie Tan will renew it, maybe he moved on to Android and said goodbye to ActiveFile.

Since legit app sites point to the defunct alietan.com for their downloads, the only way to get the program is from forums of ill repute like iP-mart, noeman.org etc.

Or you can download it from here:

• Active File 1.44.5 (basic and manufacturer capabilities versions) hosted by symbian underground

Nokia Maps on Android, sort of

Android would be much better if it would run Nokia Maps. It doesn't, but maybe that will change?

If your phone runs Froyo or newer, fire up any Android web browser that supports HTML5 (stock browser, Dolphin, etc.) and go to http://maps.nokia.com to get a preview of what Nokia Maps on Android could be like. It also works on iPhones.

If you allow your browser to access your location it will show your position on the map. It can calculate and display routes, together with a rough estimate of how long it will take you to walk or drive from A to B. It also shows public transport lines, and you can search for tourist attractions, bars, restaurants, banks, brothels, etc.

It doesn't do voice navigation (yet?), and you'll need to be online to search for places, calculate routes, and see the map. In its present state you're better off with Google Maps for online navigation or a real (but usually expensive) offline navigation app like Navigon or CoPilot.

But that might change. Maybe we're lucky and the future will bring us a true Android port of one of the few apps that makes me keep my old Nokia as a backup phone. A Symbian emulator might also do the job.

• http://maps.nokia.com

crossposted from android underground

Symbian Signed certificate change kills the HelloOX2 hack for Symbian^3 (and Just HackIt! too)

Update: new hacks for Nokia and SonyEricsson phones with S60v3, S60v5, and Symbian^3. No certificates needed!

Symbian has a long history of hacking methods. Manual hacks, HelloCarbide, HelloOX, HelloOX2, firmware flashing, Just HackIt!

As long as Symbian lives (which won't be long), it will be hacked.

But Nokia keeps trying to stop the hackers from entering the system folders on their own phones, and sometimes they manage to close the doors for a while until the hackers develop a new lock pick. They can't lock you out of your old Symbian S60v3 phone, but they've managed to shut the doors for owners of Symbian^3 phones who didn't get their own developers certificate yet.

The HelloOX team is having problems with the latest version of HelloOX2 (v2.11) because Symbian Signed closed a hole in their certificates. HelloOX2 is back to v2.03 now, which opens Symbian S60v3 but not Symbian^3.

The problem: the new "17 capability" developer certificates generated by Symbian Signed since 27 June 2011 no longer sign HelloOX2 in a way that makes it work on Symbian S^3 phones.

Because HelloOX2 hacks Symbian^3 with code "borrowed" from Just HackIt! they closed the original Symbian^3 hack too.

So if you want to hack your Symbian^3 phone but you didn't get your own developer certificate yet, you'll have to wait until the hackers find a way around Nokia's certificate restriction.

• Just HackIt! by CODeRUS
• HelloOX2 UPDATE: This link is dead. And so is Symbian.

Update: new hacks for Nokia and SonyEricsson phones with S60v3, S60v5, and Symbian^3. No certificates needed!

Got my money back: EU revokes Symbian subsidy

Last year the EU decided to give the makers of Symbian a €11000000 to help Nokia increase its profits.

Not much later Nokia decided to join the dark side (Windows Phone) and dump Symbian.

The EU used Nokia's decision to kill Symbian to revoke the Symbian subsidy. A subsidy that shouldn't have been handed out to begin with.

Now let's hope they won't repeat their mistake. My tax money is NOT meant to subsidise operating systems on commercial products made by commercial enterprises. Not Android, not Windows Phone, not Blackberry, not Symbian.