On very interesting app for this is layar. So what other application can implement this in a very cool way? Here’s my take, after the break.

1. Multilingual Translator

Would be awesome if we can read any foreign language books by using our mobile phone’s camera, and then the application would translate and override the text visually with your chosen language.

The text can be detected with OCR scan and the translation itself using Google Translate.

2. People finder

Say you are at a bar and you’ve been approach by a stranger. By using your phone’s camera, you can extract information realtime from facebook, twitter and other social network sites. Instant face detection! Now you’ll know if she’s single and joyful, or a sociopath murderer.. Well, not really but you get the picture :p

3. Gaming

How cool would be for us to play Magic The Gathering and have the monster and fight animation displayed on our phone or portable gaming system.

4. Item identification

This idea works really well in museums and wild life recreation sites, how cool would be if we can identify what animals are we seeing in afrika, or what fish are at the pond, what flower are we picking and of course identifying a poison mushroom would be very useful in a stranded island.. That is assuming you have internet connection XD

5. Shopping

You’re walking on a store and you see the TV that you like, you grab your phone, fling the camera and the app finds the cheapest, best offer and discounts available for the product. We can order directly from the app and deliver it right to our house. How convenient would that be

I think that’s all I can think of, got any more ideas?

I’m currently writing this from Wordpress application on Blackberry. I might say that I’m pretty impress so far. It’s quite easy to use and I can manage my posts (including previous posts), pages and comments directly from the app.

I hate the ‘add photo’ feature though because it doesn’t give me the thumbnail view or at least the same view as Blackberry’s default media manager. But then again it’s still in a beta stage. Will be looking forward on using the 1.0 version.

It’s pretty much what I need to mobile blog. Would be cool to use this to write drafts for ruangfreelance.com while on the go.

Will be using this app more often.

And so it kills me to see why Apple wouldn’t support a fairly old model like z710 (like what? a year ago). So off I go and learn to make my own plugin. I’ve seen the iSync’s default phone plugin, how hard can that be?

Well, it’s not that easy either.. I’ve google for about 2 hours and found this and this which is my start of writing z710 plugin. Ok, let me wrap it up from those manuals and articles that I read. Here goes!

First, make a new folder called PhonePlugins on /Users/your_username/Library/ (note: your_username is, well.. your username. Anyway you can also place PhonePlugins in /Library/ but just to be save, let’s put it in the Users Library folder).

Second, copy the closest model you can get from default iSync phone plugin on /Applications/iSync/Contents/Plugins/ ApplePhoneConduit.syncdevice/Contents/Plugins/

For example, I need to make z710, the closest I can get is z530, so I copy that to /Library/your_username/PhonePlugin/ and rename it accordingly. I rename SonyEricsson-Z530.phoneplugin to SonyEricsson-Z710.phoneplugin.

Third, edit the MetaClasses.plist in that folder plugin (find it in Contents/Resources/) and change the name of the phone to your phone. Example, I change all the occurrences of Z530 to Z710.

Save it and you’re done! (Well, you should be )

Now all you have to do is pair your device and add it to iSync. Don’t know how? It’s easy, all you got to do is:

• Turn on your bluetooth
• Tell it to browse/send file(s) to device
• Your phone will want to confirm that your computer wishes to connect
• Click OK on the phone and enter the pairing phrase (just use 1 or any number, as long as you enter the same number on the phone and computer)
• And you’re done pairing!
• Next! Fire up your iSync, and choose Devices > Add Devices. If your homemade plugin worked, then your computer should be able detect the phone and add it

Ok, these process are not without flaw. First of all I haven’t change the device icon (still z530) and I wish to do so but it gives me error when I use my owh .tiff file that I save using Photoshop, so i’m still researching there.

Because of that no icon condition, I don’t want to distribute my code. Well.. since I only find and replace so I guess I’m not that proud either. So just make your own plugin or if you’re that lazy, buy it from this guy.

Hope it helps!

Mig33 beta

This is the first application that I use. I once use it on Sony Ericsson k700i, then w550i and then Nokia 9300i. It doesn’t have any weird quirks on the last 2 phones but it behave strangely on my current 9300i. It doesn’t show all of my online contact, and it crashed quite often. Maybe because of the OS (Symbian) but guess it’s time to find a replacement.

The look and feel is quite simple and straight forward. It has that jittery pixel feel though.. not a fan of that. In overall, this is a very good app for a low-end phones. Not good for High-end because you’ll always hoping to have a better looking application for your better looking phone

This app could work on any Java MIDP 2.0 mobile phones. But I can’t guarantee it to be quirk free in any phone. Besides, it’s still on beta so give it a break. It supports Windows Live, Yahoo and AOL and you need to register to use it. Owh and if you join the community, you can share photos and profile with your friends. I haven’t confirm this since I’m still using the old version but you might wanna give it a try

e-Buddy Mobile beta

Now e-Buddy mobile is a personal favorite of mine and what I’m currently using. It has a beautiful interface with a very responsive functions. It supports Windows Live, Yahoo Messenger and AIM.

I haven’t had a disturbance using this baby and pretty satisfied with the results. It doesn’t require registration so you can IM right away from your phone. It saves your account information so you don’t have to fill it in again and again (gotta love this app).

Moreover, this app can be used in any Java MIDP 2.0 enabled phone that you have (or borrow). I’m using it on my Nokia 9300i and even-though it’s still on beta, it works flawlessly until now. One more thing, it can create a conference! Nice little feature..

Yahoo Mobile Web Messenger (Hm.. rather a long weird name)

If you really don’t want to install any application in your phone, you can use Yahoo Mobile Web Messenger (hm.. still weird even on a second try). Since Yahoo and Windows Live have this coop going on, so you can also use this to add your Windows Live friends. What fun we can have! (or not).

It has the appearance of a website being looked from a mobile browser so what can I say? At least it works on all phones with a web browser installed. Don’t have a Web Browser on your phone? Install Opera Mini and be on your way

The Conclusion

As I’ve said in the above, I’m using eBuddy purely because I love the look and feel of it better than the other. It’s up to you on what application you would want to use. Whatever it is, I hope you can benefit from it as much as I do.