Step 1: Get the memory card out of the phone as quickly as possible

Either shut the phone down and pull the card, or use the super-secret combo hidden within the profile-switching shortcut to have the phone un-mount the card.

Step 2: Obtain a USB memory card reader

I’ve needed a reason to buy one of these for a long time. Good thing I had a gift card left from the holidays. I went with a Dynex gazillion-to-one card reader, not for it’s technical superiority, but because it was the only thing the shop nearby had.

Step 3: Stick the memory card into the reader, and plug the reader into your Linux box

Mine happens to run Ubuntu at the moment, but the results will likely be similar on other distros.

Step 4: sudo apt-get install testdisk

Testdisk “was primarily designed to help recover lost data storage partitions…” and includes a utility called “PhotoRec“, which is what you want.

Step 5: Run photorec

PhotoRec is a data recovery tool designed specifically for recovering files from digital camera media. It supports a number of file-system formats, including the FAT format that Symbian OS uses on it’s memory cards. PhotoRec is a text-based, terminal application, but it does the job perfectly.

Select the mounted memory card from the list of drives (which should be easy to spot given how small memory cards are relative to modern hard drives), and send it scanning. PhotoRec can be told to look for specific file types (you want JPG’s, in this case), but by default it will look for just about any media file format that you’re likely to have on your phone. Files will be recovered and written to a local directory.

Step 6: Sigh in relief when you see your beloved cat pictures returned to you

PhotoRec isn’t going to restore the images to the memory card’s file system such that the phone can see them again, but you’ll have the pictures on your Linux box now, and can copy them back over if you choose to. The naming scheme will be different, but that’s an acceptable compromise.

The Nokia 770 and N800 have always faced an up-hill battle with market adoption given their lack of GSM/CDMA support. “Is it a phone?” is one of the first questions people ask when they see me using one these devices. Saying “No, it’s a web tablet” only brings a look of confusion. Thankfully, the latest software releases, wider market recognition of UMPC‘s, and the iPhone release, have had a huge impact on the perception of the N800.

The Internet Tablet OS 2007 edition 4.2007.26-8 upgrade (released earlier this month) brought Skype support to the N800. While perhaps playing second fiddle to a Flash upgrade that makes YouTube work better, adding Skype greatly improves the likelyhood of using the N800 as a portable VoIP device. However, even more significant is the recent Internet Communications Software Update for N800. This update adds SIP support to the N800 for VoIP calls — a feature that turned my N800 into my new desk-phone at work.

At Optaros, we use Asterisk to run our phone infrastructure. There are the occasional physical SIP phones in conference rooms, but in general, we use soft-phones running on our laptops to make and receive calls. The downside here is portability. Even using WIFI, a laptop doesn’t make the best cordless phone. But an N800 does. The N800 is actually quite nice as a cordless phone; and with WIFI available in the office, at home, and at nearly every business in Austin, my phone extension can now be routed to my Nokia device and be available almost everywhere.

It may take awhile for the market to notice this, but Nokia is quietly taking the top-spot in mobile linux and VoIP hardware know-how. The Nokia linux tablets aren’t quite ready for the general consumer (in terms of usability), and the marketing messages aren’t there yet either — but the R&D is, and the technology will be ready to drop-in and rock the mobile-phone world as soon as the strategy dictates.

“Ubuntu 7.10 will be the first Ubuntu release to offer a complete mobile and embedded edition built with the Hildon user interface components” (developed by Nokia for the Maemo platform.)

Now that’s interesting. Could it be that we’ll see Ubuntu Mobile booting on Nokia N800′s? It’s certainly a possibility — and one that could bring a larger breadth of software to Nokia’s mobile Linux tablets.

However, as interesting as it may be if Nokia adopts Ubuntu, the possibilities for wider Hildon support didn’t hit me until my drive home today. It was one of those obvious moments. I had been using my Nokia N800 while walking to my car, so the touch- and small-screen friendly UI was fresh in my mind. Then I started thinking about my Car PC. It uses a 7″ touch screen and runs Ubuntu (a full distribution, with a UI designed for full-size monitors.) Running Gnome on my cheap, in-car 7″ monitor makes for a pretty lousy experience. Text is hard to read, and everything is too small to click on. However, if this news is right, Ubuntu 7.10 will change all of that. I’ll be able to run Hildon on my Car PC! That’s killer. Imagine having Canola running in-car, sitting on 100GB of multimedia…

Of course, the old-school, “Mobile 1.0″ crowd’s reaction is just as I would expect. Some of the claims make me laugh, so I felt motivated to chime in on the topic. Let’s break down the big three that I’m hearing:

“No SDK means no killer apps.” There are two issues here: (1) That there are ‘killer’ mobile apps that aren’t already included in the iPhone; and (2) That killer apps can’t be built with web technologies. For the first bit, ask yourself what the killer mobile apps are? Number One is voice… Number Two is SMS… Number Three varies, but support for syncing PIM data, taking pictures, listening to music, checking email, and browsing the web, pretty much covers it. For the second part, to assume that killer apps can’t be built with web technologies would require denying the last ten years of Internet development. The Web has changed everything — and it was built with web technologies ;-) Besides, Apple hasn’t commented yet on whether they’re exposing select native API’s via JavaScript.

“No clear revenue stream (for developers and operators) means no developers.” Stop thinking Mobile 1.0. Stop thinking traditional channels. Stop thinking about the Operators and Manufacturers “owning a customer”. Drop all this telcom baggage and start looking at the Web. There are plenty of companies making significant revenue simply because a large number of people have a browser and a data connection to their PCs. If anything, the mobile market becomes more interesting (and potentially more lucrative) when application development is cheap and the legacy mobile bureaucracy is out of the way.

“Developers need low-level access to the hardware.” This actually came up in a recent conversation, and I just about walked away at that point. Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how much of a PITA (and HUGE waste of time) it is to develop high-quality, reliable, usable, native applications on embedded hardware? I do. And I can assure you that you want no part of it. I appreciate the occasional need, and I’m sure Apple can give the John Carmack’s and Google’s of the world a l33t SDK; but if you’re looking to develop innovative, profitable mobile applications, there’s no reason for you to be tracking down memory leaks and hardware bugs. The less time you waste fighting the hardware, the more time you’ll have to launch new software. (If you don’t believe me, compare the rates of software and business model innovation that happens on the Web vs. on mobile phones. Mobile phones have done wonders for flattening the world, but they can’t compare to the Web as an environment for cheap, rapid innovation.)

There’s a lesson in there that I’ll leave as an exercise for the reader.

So far, it’s working quite well on my Nokia N90. The previous mobile browser-based interface to Gmail was ok for emergency use, but this new Java client looks nice enough to actually use.

Thanks Google!

Kevin Sharp (the post’s author, and one of Nokia’s Technical Editors), is looking to help promote Python for S60, but first needs to collect some success stories.

I know there’s a few of you who drop by this blog from time to time that are doing amazing things with PyS60. If you can spare a few minutes to write a response, it would be a great help to the project. Thanks!

(via “Linux Kernel Goes Real-Time” on slashdot)

Software Engineer:

The Software Engineering position will be responsible for development of software analysis tools within an Integrated Development Environment. The candidate will be required to design/develop static analysis models within Python that provide expression parsing and design pattern matching of Symbian OS applications and various UI environments, including UIQ and Series 60. Integration of the analysis tools within a Java based integrated development environment will be required through the development of application plugins. The candidate will be working in a fast paced software development environment that is very customer focused and is able to adapt features to meet customer requirements within planned product release cycles.

A couple thoughts to help interpret the above description:

• You won’t be starting from scratch.
• “A Java based integrated development environment” means Eclipse.
• If you’re not familiar with what the Austin office does, check out the “Creating Carbide.c++ Blog.”

In case the link to the job posting doesn’t work, try starting from the Nokia Careers page, which is either: <http://careers.nokia.com/> or <http://www.nokia.com/careers>.

Take note: If you’re interested in the position, contacting me isn’t the way to go. Follow the link to the job description and click the “Apply” button. Even if you know people in the office, you need to apply online to officially become a candidate.