Books to fill your head with smartphone info

When I was marketing Series 60 (now called s60), I had always wanted to write a general book on how to get the most out of an s60 smartphone. Well, two books were written (not by me), and I was fortunate to be given some copies for myself (thanks Brian, Michael, and Ari). Here’s my brief overview of the two books.

The first book, ‘101 Cool Smartphone Techniques’, by Dean Andrews, came out earlier this year. It focuses on s60 phones, providing tips for all the phones that were available at the beginning of this year. It is simple in layout, has many screenshots, and seems like an exhaustive tour of all the features of s60 phones. There are some pointers to resources for more info and some troubleshooting tips, too. The material covers topics such as phone basics, tips on how to use the phone more efficiently, customization options, and accessories.

The quality of the tips is really good. The topics are well organized and the tips are easy to follow. I hope that readers are encouraged to explore their phones on their own after being inspired by so many tips. For example, one tip reveals how to select multiple items in a list – a simple, but very useful tip. The author also peppers advice throughout the book, suggesting ways to keep the phone running smoothly, such as managing the memory and security options.

Recommendation: This book is excellent for the beginner, or the person who wants to know what else is available on their phone. I must say, I didn’t discover anything new. But, then again, I’ve explored every nook and cranny in the phone, so I am not representative of the general user. But, if you know someone who has an s60 phone and needs a little guidance, they will certainly learn a lot from this book.

The second book is ‘Nokia Smartphone Hacks, Tips & Tools for Your Smallest Computer’, by Michael Juntao Yuan, and it came out this summer.  The author stretches the traditional meaning of smartphone to include Nokia’s Series 40 (s40?) phones, but that’s OK by me. The book is not so much a cookbook with recipe-style instructions like the ‘101 Techniques’ book, but focuses more on explaining in prose format many interesting things one can do with one of these Nokia ‘smartphones’.

There are 75 cross-indexed hacks, covering topics such as phone basics, connectivity options, data exchange, email and messaging, and web browsing.  While the hacks in general are not what I expected them to be, most of the hacks do focus on the technical aspects of using these phones. For example, there are a bunch of tips on configuring and sniffing things out with Bluetooth on different operating systems.

The hacks also, as the title suggests, dip into some more interesting fun for the technically proficient (that counts me out). For example, there is a hack that shows how to install a mobile gateway on your server that will make it easy to read Gmail with a mobile browser. Or, how about whole hacks on converting DVDs to play on the phone, or how to code cool features in WML.

Recommendation: This book goes deeper into the technology and coding for smartphones than ‘101 Techniques’ does and covers Nokia’s s60 and Series 40 phones. The book is clearly written for someone who wants to do more than just understand how to use the phone. Sounds like the O’Reilly crowd to me.

Summary: Here are two books that cover a wide range of knowledge and tricks about Nokia’s s60 and Series 40 phones. The ‘101 Techniques’ is more of a recipe book for those setting forth for the first time to explore the features on their s60 phone. Users more familiar to s60 might not get enough out of it to justify purchasing it (you likely can Google the more advanced info). The ‘Smartphone Hacks’ book also covers some basics, but is really focused on giving the coding cowboy some ideas and pointers on how to do some nifty things with their phones. Yee-ha!

For more detailed reviews of these books, go over to All About Symbian:
– 101 Cool Smartphone Techniques review by Rafe
– Nokia Smartphone Hacks review by Ewan