fMobi for Symbian OS.

Platform: Symbian OS 9.4 and above => S60v5 aka Symbian^1, Symbian^3, Anna, Belle, Belle FP1.

Requirements: Qt and all its components, around 4MB disk space.

Price: Indian Rupees 10.00

Availability: Nokia Store

Facebook has become an integral part of the lives of most of us. To tell you the truth, I spend at least an hour everyday on Facebook. I use Opera Mini on my phones for browsing and the FB experience is not very easy or eye catching. Using the stock browser requires a fast internet connection, which is not always available here.

So I decided to check out the apps for Facebook available in the Nokia Store. I had tried fMobi trial version earlier, but had decided against keeping it. It was an early build and did poorly on my aging 5800. This time I bought the fMobi app from the Store for INR 10. (Roughly 25 US cents, but it ought to be priced higher in the States and Europe, say like $1 or €1). I do not regret buying it now. It works wonderfully.

Installation:

After buying the app from the Store, and downloading it, it gets installed automatically. Depending on what’s running inside your phone, there can be different installation techniques. In my case, the installer checked whether I had all Qt components installed. If you do not have them installed, on your S60v5 phone, it will prompt you to download Qt, a hefty download of up to 13 megabyte. Qt is built into the firmware of many new phones and they do not need separate installation of Qt.

The app can be installed either into the phone memory, mass memory or memory card.

Login:

After installation, the app icon appears in the applications folder in s60 phones or in the app drawer in Belle phones. Opening the app brings the login screen where you can log into the app with your email ID or phone number (which you have registered with fb) and password. It takes some 15 seconds to log in for the first time. Next time you open the app you will not be asked to provide your details and you are automatically logged in.

The Main Screen:

The main screen or front page is designed like the menu/app drawer in Belle. There are 12 icons in all, each one for a particular function. There is no option to rearrange or modify the icons. But since no scrolling up and down is involved, it is not a major inconvenience.

At the bottom is a Belle inspired bottom bar which has four buttons, when in the homescreen: back, reload, settings, and quit. The bottom bar can be made transparent from the settings so that more information can be fitted on the screen. If disabled, it covers a few pixels worth area towards the bottom, but again no major inconveniences.

Towards the top is a text box like facility, from which you can update your Facebook status. Just touch the area, and the input facility (keyboard, handwriting, swipe.. depending on the phone and settings.) pops up.

Notifications, News feed:

All your notifications are shown in a vertically scrollable list when you open notifications. Game invites are also shown, eventhough there is no way to play them here... (Pun intended).

The news feed as expected provides you with your friends' updates and photo uploads. Clicking on an item in the feed opens it and provides options to like and comment in the bottom bar. Clicking a comment flips and opens an option for you to like it.

Similarly, the groups option and pages option do what is expected of them. They open up a list of groups or pages and let you access them.

Chat, Profile, Friends:

There is real time chat enabled by default. However it can be disabled from settings.

The friends option gives the list of your friends. There is a cool scrolling alphabet chain on the top which, sliding across which takes you to the names starting with the alphabet where the chain has stopped at. There is a search option too.

The profile option gives the option to make minor changes (only) to your FB profile.

Settings:

The settings are accessed by pressing the Settings button on the bottom bar when at the homescreen. Settings give the option to change the language, colour scheme (black or white), to turn off the homescreen widget, chat, and to adjust the font size.

Drawbacks:

As with any app out there, there are a few bugs. Most important of them is the absence of a 'log out' option. Only way to go out, at present, is turning on the 'logout on exit' option from settings. This causes you to be logged out whenever you quit the app. Next time you open the app again, you have t log in again. It does not seem like any major problem, but it does cause a little trouble.

Impressions:

I’ve been running this app on my 5800 with limited resources, 434 MHz processor, 128 MB RAM, no GPU. Still the app ran without any serious lags causing harm to usability. It is easily imaginable how smooth it will be on a better phone like N8 or later phones.

Recommendation:

I have also tried some other Facebook apps. This one was the least buggy and most usable and attractive of them all. I’ll be reviewing them, the other apps, on a later date. If you need an app for Facebook, and you are on Symbian(you probably are, if you are reading this) , this is the best option.