SymPaper (Symbian)

SymPaper is a “Read It Later” app for Symbian Smart phones.

SymPaper allows you to sync your Read It Later list to your phone for offline article reading and sharing articles to your friends.

Features:

  • Syncing your Read It Later list to your phone
  • Reading of articles offline
  • Adding new articles to list
  • Opening articles in the default browser
  • Marking items as read
  • Deleting items
  • Sharing Items via SMS, Email, Twitter & Facebook
  • Filter list view by read status

The first time you open the app you will need to either log in or sign up to the read it later service:After the first log in your Read It later list will automatically be synced to your phone, this downloads your full reading list and text only versions of articles where available. For each subsequent time you open SymPaper your reading list is automatically opened (there is no need to re-log in). The list view mode also lets you filter items by their read status.

SymPaper has an options screen that allows the app to automatically sync your reading list at start up, by default this is turned off. It also has options for alternative light and dark views in the reading list and when reading an article as well as allowing you to set the preferred font size in the article reader.

From the list view you can also add new items to your read it later list:Pressing on an article opens the article in it text mode and allows you to scroll through it using smooth kinetic scrolling, if content isn’t available in the text only view SymPaper allows you to open the page in the Symbian browser to look at it in greater detail! Unfortunately Qt currently doesn’t respect your phones default browser and will always open an article in the S60 browser, if you wish to open an article in another browser (such as Opera Mobile) the article options menu has a “Copy Url To Clipboard” feature. Images can also be viewed if the setting is set in the main options menu.From within this view you can also mark an article as read, which automatically updates your Read It Later account or share an article’s url via SMS, EMail (if your device has an email account set up on it), Twitter or Facebook!When sharing articles via twitter the article Url is automatically shortened and appended to the end of your tweet. The screen gives an indication of how many characters you have left to tweet with!

SymPaper has two themes, an AMOLED friendly dark theme, and a light theme which are configurable in the options submenu.

Works on:

  • All Symbian 3 Devices
  • All S60v5 Devices (Using an older version of SymPaper where most but not all of the features in this article are listed)

Get SymPaper over at the Ovi Store.

SymPaper was praised recently over at The Tech Bishop read about it here!
It also got an excellent review at All About Symbian which can be read here!

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  • Sunfury

    Hello, I just purchased your software and I like it very much. Only problem I have is the character support, it doesn’t show Turkish characters… Is there any way to fix it? Greetings

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      Hi, I’m glad you like SymPaper! Can you give me an example of a site you’re trying to access so I can look at fixing it for you :)

      • Sunfury

        oops, now application just shows white blank screen. I’m gonna report to you after reinstalling all. Thank you for prompt support!

        • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

          :O why blank screen i’ve not had any reports of that before can you tell me what you did to get that to happen? 

          • Sunfury

            ok great news, apparently white screen was caused by QT installation, I fixed it.

            For the character issue, that seems to be caused by certain web pages, I didn’t see it again so SymPaper is working quite fabulously… Thank you very much for the great application!

            cheers

          • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

            fantastic let me know if you come across anymore issues and tell your friends about SymPaper too ;)

          • AB

            Hi just purchased it. white screen too!, QT already installed, can you help me? thx

          • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

            Which version of Qt are you using? try installing all of the packages from http://fixqt.com/ if you’re using a Symbian3 device (You’ll need webkit core and mobility for SymPaper)

          • AB

            I have S60v5 N97. Qt 4.07 and Mobility 1.01 installed, but not webkit core. Fixqt.com is only for S^3? what should i do? thanx 

          • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

            downloads for the Symbian1 sis files are available on the fmobi page http://jiikoo.com/fMobi/ ill start hosting my own ones soon!

          • AB

            I see. Is there an automatized way to upgrade all files? Do I need to uninstall previous Qt? Is the whole upgrading process dangerous for the phone functioning? A pity the white screen. Thank you.

          • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

            Contact Nokia /  the Ovi store if you’re worried about this sort of stuff, this is actually a failing on their side of the installation not mine.

          • AB

            I know, I know. Anyway, thx for your almost immediate responses and good luck with what seems an excellent product. I’ll take my risks with Nokia’s Qt

          • AB

            Done! Success Thank you.

  • Rohit K

    Hi,

    I just installed the Demo version of SymPaper on my C7 and liked it a lot. But since I am not a Reliance user, I cannot buy the app through Ovi store :( Is there any other way?

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      Unfortunately not for now, i heard Nokia re-opened CC billing in India but pulled it shortly after which sucks we’ll just have to wait for them to sort out that mess in India :(

      • Rohit K

        Thanks for the reply.
        Anyways congrats for developing a great looking app! It’s easy to use and the Belle-esque UI looks fantastic. The black background/white text combo looks and works very good on AMOLEDs.
        Hope to see more apps from you in the future! :)

        • http://twitter.com/talv talv

          Looks like CC billing is working again  now :D

    • El Marko

      I am not sure if this will help, Rohit K, but I am using a credit card with Nokia Store, although my carrier prohibits it. In the United States, although I am using an unlocked Nokia N8, AT&T requires carrier billing for Nokia Store. But their carrier billing doesn’t always work and I don’t care to have my carrier bill me or even be aware of what software I am using on my unlocked phone. I configured my Nokia Store account, using a PC, with a charge card. Then, I remove the SIM card from my phone and shop Nokia Store using only wi-fi. I find, if I do that, I am able to select my credit card, in the Nokia Store, when it’s time for me to make a purchase transaction. Again, this only works if I pull the SIM card, before I boot the phone. Maybe this will work for you, too.

  • M Fragos

    Hallo from Greece,
    Well done! I think your application (sympaper) is very useful and it fills a very important gap in Symbian.
    I am using the demo at the moment with my Nokia N8 and thinking of upgrading to full, but I have a small problem.
    It is that the app is crashing very frequently and it goes like that: if I open and read an article and then go back to the main list with the 5 elements, whenever I press another article to read it freezes for 2 seconds and crashes. This does not happen if for example I press sync again, or if I scroll a little bit up and down and then open a link. It happens only when I start to read 2nd or 3rd article not the 1st time that I open any article.
    Is it something that is fixed in 2.1v?

    Thanxs in advance for your time.
    I think also symnote, if it works with native Symbian notes, would be great too!

    Best Regards,
    Marios

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      Hi!

      No one has actually reported that to me before so thank you, I actually uploaded the demo of 2.1 to the ovi store today so in a few days you’ll be able to try it out with new features too! Hopefully the problem you’ve been experiencing will be sorted too!

      Ill look into importing native notes into symnote for you too! :)

  • Robin

    I really love this piece of software – it just perfectly fills the gap. I do have one question: On this website, it is said that the program is capable of “Opening articles in the default browser” – However, SymPaper does use the standard web browser on my N8, regardless of the browser set up as the “default browser” in the Symbian^3 settings. I think being able to use alternate browsers like Opera Mobile this way would be awesome.

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      Hi Robin, 

      Unfortunately Qt (4.7.3) at this time doesn’t respect your default browser settings so always opens in the in built browser, its for this reason that I’ve included a “Copy Url To Clipboard” function, its not ideal but it provides a workaround till Qt is updated.

      • Robin

        I see. Thanks for your quick reply and keep up the good work :-)

  • Massis

    Hi, your app si so smart and brilliant! I’ve discovered it as a cherry on Gravity. I’m using the trial version right now and don’t really understand the connection policy. I don’t have any data plan and use only Wifi. SymPaper looks like connecting when updating (sync or marking as read) and stays connected. I would have expected the connection to be shut down once the sync is done or at least, an option to deconnect. Am I missing something here? Anyway, I love the simplicity of this application and for the first time in my life, I even consider buying an app :D

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      Hi, SymPaper is designed to only attempt to go online when you tell it to, if you tell it to sync it will try to go online if no connection is available nothing will happen, it may appear to attempt to sync for longer because request timeouts are very long in Qt and aren’t changeable. As soon as the action completes the data connection is no longer used. I hope that helps you :)

      • Massis

        Hi, thanks for your quick and precise answer. I’ve just checked SymPaper’s behavior like this : ticked an article (I think it marks it as read), wiaiting for the “loading” sign to stop on the main page. But
        A. If I return to the article, it’s not marked as read
        B. SymPaper doesn’t release the wifi connection even 5 minutes after “loading” or “syncing” has stopped.

        However, when I leave the app, the connection is closed.

        Another point : when I re-sync an article, it doesn’t really change its status to unread.

        Thanks for your help!

        • http://twitter.com/talv talv

          Hi,

          The RIL api doesn’t allow you to mark items Unread and that’s not what re-syncing an article was ever supposed to be for, the reason text for items already marked as read isn’t fetched is to save on data being used, Re-Syncing was supposed to be to get content for items marked as read if you and to update items whos content may have changed.

          Did you actually look at packets transferred during that time the connection was active? The app itself only uses data when it needs to in these instances:

          Sync
          ReSync
          Mark As Read
          Add Item
          Share Item (Twitter / Facebook)
          Open In Browser

          If the connection is being held open longer that’d be down to how Qt / QML is dealing with the connection, once a request is finished that SymPaper made the data connection is no longer used, Im not sure why this would even be an issue over Wifi in the first place tbh.

          I can’t repeat what you mean about marked as read items not being marked as read.

  • Massis

    ok I’ve finally bought your app, it’s the first time in my life ! I’ve discovered one negative difference with the free one. It is the haptic feedback aka touch vibration. I’ve modded my 5800′s one down to a N8 like return (softer). Your full version has a very strong vibration return when the free one respects the system default vibration. Any hint to solve this annoying bug?

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      I’ve spoken to another Symbian 1 user today and he agreed the haptics are a little strong, they’ll be turned down in the next update for you :)

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  • http://thefiendish.com Jaiyant Cavale

    I have this E72. Would this app work on it? the Ovi Store says my phone is not compatible. I so want this app (I have Gravity) until I get rid of my annoying nokia for good.

    • http://twitter.com/talv talv

      Unfortunately my apps wont work on Symbian 3rd Ed phones because of the lack of touch input and the outdated Qt binaries available for them 

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  • di Lampedusa

    I’m using the free trial version, but after login in, it gets stuck in ‘loading’ forever… (I stopped it after five minutes). Any suggestion?

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  • New user

    The trial version installed OK, but when running it it just hangs at “Loading…” on the sign in page.  Any idea how to fix this?

  • El Marko

    SymPaper is a badly needed app, for Symbian phones. I have purchased a license, even though I can see the app is not yet “ready for prime time.” Frequent crashes, on my Symbian Anna Nokia N8. It doesn’t always download the content. When I delete the local copy, it doesn’t delete the Read It Later server copy (and there seems no way to get it to delete the server copy). But, I want to support further development of SymPaper, so I purchased a license, via the dreadful Nokia Store.

    However, now I find, when there are beta updates, I get the “update error” unless I uninstall my licensed copy. Then, the beta version has limitations such as a limit on how many articles can be synced, inability to share, etc.

    In order to beta test, I basically have to stop using SymPaper.

    Please make it possible for those who pay to support development of SymPaper to fully participate in evaluating beta versions of SymPaper. Allow us to download and install fully-functional beta releases. Don’t penalize those of us who purchase SymPaper, by forcing us to use a limited version, if we want to evaluate your beta.

    Thanks for SymPaper and thanks for finding a way to release a fully-functional beta to those of us who purchase a SymPaper license.

    • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

      those limitations on the beta are because they haven’t been written yet prehaps beta is the wrong word for that sis file its a no where near finished work in progress normally those builds go out to a closed group of people just a quick preview for suggestions and feedback.

      In instances where no article is returned provided that the sync completes correctly the issue is with the read it later parser not being able to find the said article on the page.

      Deleting the local copy does exactly that, removed the downloaded text from the local database on your phone, it doesn’t sync back to the RIL server because there is no API method available to delete articles from your list.

      Im aware the current build has some stability issues and thats the reason im moving it to QtComponents and regrettably having to discontinue providing the app for Symbian 1 users, however what a lot of people dont realise is that this isn’t something i do full time my job has nothing to do with phone app development and i have to fit it in as and when atm.

  • Bernard Scott

    hello im very concerned you have removed sympaper from the nokia store i purchased it a few weeks ago but recently i have restored my phone and now i noticed that the app has been removed, i purchased the full app because i wanted to enable the full compatiblility of read it later, im am not able to download an app that i payed for? why is this? please could you re-add it soon for symbian^1 devices

    many thanks

    bernard scott

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  • Petr

    Hello. Thank you for Sympaper! I have some suggestions though. Firstly, Czech characters are not handled well in the reading list (otherwise they are). Secondly, am I the only one that can not leave the Info dialogue without killing the app via the app manager? Keep on the good work. Cheers.

    • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

      The info bug is something that’s fixed in an upcoming build, sorry for the inconvenience but you wont have to wait too long! :)
      and as for the characters not being displayed in the list view properly its a bug I’m aware of and am activley looking to fix although with not much success atm :(

  • http://www.talvbansal.com Talv

    WOW i have no idea what could have happened  there :S I dont understand why your installation seems to be having so many problems, if you think its a Qt binary issue i’d say re-install from fixqt.com but im sure we tried that before with no luck. I’m rolling out an update tonight which removes the use of the nokia pure font and might fix that :S

  • Phil

    I wonder if the problem is deeper in the OS, such as sqlite as presumably the QT database stuff uses it.I think my phone has far too much crap on it and could really do with a hard reset. Just a pain that Ovi Store will ask me to pay for everything again! Is the Ovi Suite backup and restore any good? Even if it works ok, I wonder if it will just restore the same problem, whatever it is. May try anyway.