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Written by Mohd Nazley Mohd Fadhley
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Nov 04, 2003 at 05:11 PM |
Product Name:
FunBook
Category:
- Mobile Phone Memory Manager
- Communication
Type:
Commercial
US$19.00
Developer:
funCommunications
GmbH
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FunBook
How many of us have lost our precious contact information when our
mobile phone's SIM Card malfunctions or when we lost our mobile phones,
accidentally or stolen? I had gone through the situation and I tell you
it is no fun. I had to go over and reenter the numbers of my customers,
suppliers, friends and family into the new SIM or phone.
How about updating our contact info in our mobile? .... Using the
keypad on the mobile phone. It is no fun, I can tell you!
Well ... Now comes funBook to the rescue
SIM Backup
FunBook is a useful tool to "download" SIM card entries and keep a copy
of the contact list in your PDA as backup. However, this requires you
to have either a phone with IR capabilities or one with
Bluetooth™.
I have two mobile phones both have IR and one is a Siemens S45 and the
other Ericsson R520m. The latter even has Bluetooth™
capabilities. I have the advantage of testing funBook on both modes, IR
and Bluetooth™.
The Test Drive
I recently subscribed to a prepaid mobile service so that I could get
connected via GPRS. The new SIM card is blank and I need to copy all my
contact info from my "old" SIM card in the Ericsson R520m to the "new"
SIM in the Siemens S45. FunBook support quite a number of mobile phone
makes, including Siemens, Ericsson, Sony Ericsson, Nokia, Motorola and
a few others.
Setting up funBook to communicate with my R520m is easy. I just need to
choose the method of communication, in this case Bluetooth™,
then choose the phone make and model. Follow the setup list in the FMML
(Fun Mobile Messaging Library)
Next., I need to "pair" my Tungsten|T3 with my R520m (I won't go into
details on the Bluetooth pairing. Please refer to the hardware
documentations). Having done that, I just need to create a workbook, a
place where all the SIM contact numbers would be stored, and click the
"import" icon. A small window pops up showing bluetooth connection in
progress followed by a window showing the "download" progress. When the
transfer is complete, funBook lists all the contact numbers downloaded.
FunBook then gives the option to select which entry i.e. Phone numbers
to be saved or accepted into the workbook. I chose to select and save
all entries.
Now, I have the phone numbers in my Ericsson R520m SIM stored in my
Tungsten|T3.
The Ericsson R520m has a built in Addressbook that can store 500
contacts with multiple numbers. FunBook is not 100% compatible with
this type of addressbook. It compensates by breaking up each contact
number as a single entry. For example, if I have a contact in the
phone's memory called John and have three separate number to call him,
mobile, home and office, funBook breaks this up into 3 separate
entries;
- John/H ... 555-1234
- John/M ... 555-4411
- John/W ... 555-5555
In my case, I have 146 contacts in phone memory (with multiple phone
numbers) and 101 entries in SIM memory. After importing, I have 193
entries in my funBook workbook.
The next step is to transfer the phonebook entries I saved to my other
SIM card in my Siemens S45 mobile. Since this is a different phone
make, I need to reconfigure the FMML for IR communication with the
phone.
To transfer the phone numbers to the mobile phone, tap the "export"
icon and funBook initiates the export procedure. A window pops up
displaying the status of the export. I noticed it takes longer time to
write to the SIM card, compared to just reading the data and writing
the data on the SIM card.
My "test drive" of funBook went through without a hitch.
SIM Contact Manager
FunBook is a good tool to manage numbers in SIM. Scrolling through the
phone list on a small screen on a mobile phone is no fun but it would
be with funBook. Al l you need to do is select the contact in the
funbook workbook, edit the number or contact name and re-export the
list back to the mobile phone. It beats clumsily tapping on the phone's
keypad. You could also add contact info from the PDA's addressbook to
funBook then update it to your mobile.
The latest version of funBook also lets you dial the number direct from
the list. Tap and hold on the number you want to dial and a list of
options pops up allowing you do dial direct from the PDA to your
bluetooth enabled mobile phone.
The Bottom Line
I like fiddling with funBook and ia a good utility application to have.
I now keep a few workbooks as backup for my wife's mobile, and also my
parents.
I tested funSMS on a Tungsten|T3 and there no stability issue at all
.... Its rock solid. I highly recommend this nifty litlle application
for those who keeps critical contact numbers in their mobile phone.Like
everythis else that involved digital data ... always backup!!
There's one gripe I'd like to mention here. funBook did not come with a
comprehensive user manual with the download. I need to explore the
functions and settings to learn how to use funBook. Luckily it is not
difficult to handle. Perhaps funCommunications could improve on this.
FunBook registration costs US$19.00 and is also bundled with another fine software, funSMS, an SMS manager, for US$29.00.
Tapping off
Mohd Nazley Fadhley
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Last Updated ( Oct 30, 2005 at 02:30 AM )
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