Chris “Macca” McCormack won his 2nd Ironman World Championship on the 9th of October. In this interview he reveals a bit about how he prepares. The part I liked the most is how he studies every single competitor to understand their strengths and weaknesses – to be able to plan his own race to improve his winning chances.

Excellent interview, which you can subscribe to on iTunes or listen to right here.

Enjoy!

Often the new goal of going somewhere new with training is one that the athlete eagerly wants to get to. A common mistake is to let the efforts in training match the desire to get to the goal.

While that is certainly understandable, it could well lead to a too steep increase in both intensity and duration of trainings. This is certainly a mistake I’ve often made in the past.

For the 2010 season I set out to avoid injury by following a few rules that I wanted to share with you:
- set your seasonal goal below your dream. For instance if your goal is to complete a marathon, then set a goal for this season of completing a half marathon and push the marathon to next year.
- never increase your training intensity or training time by more than 10% week over week – the body just can’t handle it.
- at the first sign of any type of injury, back down and either stop training or take the training down to a level which provides room for reecovery. And stretch – particularly the part of the body which is in danger of injury.
- recover! Make sure to rest well, get your night’s sleep.

I’m doing pretty well on the first two, but am still working on the last point. i’ll go do that now.

Earlier this year I wrote a bit about some of the best Twitter apps out there for Nokia E71 and other S60-based smartphones. Meanwhile a few new entrants have stirred up competition and are attacking some of my favourites on their home turf.

As you may have read, my personal favourite among Twitter apps for the E71 is Gravity and since my posts in April this year, Gravity has tweaked its features significantly and most importantly a number of Facebook features are being tested. That would mean that Gravity is breaking out of its Twitter-only market and into the much larger market of being a mobile Facebook application.

This review really was prompted by talks with Thomas Østerfeldt earlier today. He seemed to use Snaptu as his favourite social networking tool. I’ll have a look below at what he could possibly get out of that.

“Snaptu – A Different Mobile Web” – that’s what they say on the website for this new kid on the block. Snaptu is currently at version 1.2.3 and features an impressive number of apps like Twitter, Facebook, Google Calendar, Orkut, Flickr, AccuWeather, Picasa, and others.

That’s all fine, but a number of these so-called apps are nothing more than bookmarks to the webpages of those services. That’s the only disappointment that I’ve encountered with Snaptu. I really like the concept of a social networking control center, but with the bookmark-style “apps” Snaptu doesn’t deliver on its promise.

Of the apps that are genuine apps I’m quite impressed with the selection it holds. My personal favourites are indeed Twitter, Facebook, and Flickr. Also Accuweather is a real app that does what the traditional AccuWeather app does – only with nicer navigation. Finally you can add a number of newsfeeds, guides and games of which some are likely to be real apps and some just links to websites.

As mentioned above my personal tool of choice for Twitter and Facebook is Gravity. I’ve tried to see how Snaptu stacks up against Gravity on those two social networks. Bottom line is that Snaptu holds comparable feature set for Twitter and more features for Facebook. Still, the better and more intuitive design of Gravity means that I still prefer Gravity and will choose other applications – like probably Snaptu – for social networking and other sites which are not Facebook or Twitter.

Should you want to view the comparison chart, you can find it here – just remember that only Gravity and Snaptu have been updated, and in Snaptu’s case, keep in mind that I’ve only touched on the features in the Twitter and Facebook apps.

– shozu (social networks): http://www.shozu.com
– gravity (twitter): http://mobileways.de/products/gravity/gravity/
– google maps: http://m.google.com
– nokia sportstracker: http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/download.do
– nimbuzz (im): http://nimbuzz.com/
– mail for exchange: http://www.businesssoftware.nokia.com/mail_for_exchange_downloads.php
– totalrecall: http://www.killermobile.com/newsite/content/view/40/82/
– sms preview: http://get.smspreview.mobi
– flixwagon: http://www.flixwagon.com/
– qik
– Enterprise One (Seven) theme for E71
– mobbler
– coreplayer
– google translator
– wordmobi + python
– screenshot
– accuweather
– google app: http://m.google.com
– pathe cinemas

In addition:
– update share online

Maybe:
– Youtube app
– Nokia maps

At the very bottom I have a few requests for applications I’m looking for as well!

So let’s get started!!

Communication:
Email: E71 comes standard with an e-mail client which also includes Nokia’s own mail for exchange. No need for special apps here – the E71 does a fine job as it is already.
UPDATE (13/4/2009): w0nk0 alerted me earlier today to an alternative app for HTML-addicts. The app is ProfiMail from “Lonely Cat games”. I’ve just run a brief test of ProfiMail and see both pros and cons of the application. The main pro seems to be its ability to support HTML email – something that Nokia aficionados have long asked Nokia to do something about. In addition it supports pushmail, but Nokia has similar services with Nokia Messaging for consumers and Mail for Exchange for the business users. And now for some of the cons: Profimail holds many features and offers great flexibility. My experience as a first-time user was that ProfiMail fails to deliver simplified organisation of information. In fact when I didn’t manage to create a connection to my POP3 server via either a wireless LAN or my 3G connection, I uninstalled the application. Good news is they let you try the application before you buy – maybe my experience had more to do with me than with the Lonely Cat. Get ProfiMail here: http://www.lonelycatgames.com/?app=profimail.

Chat: Nokia loads the E71 with a software called “IM”. I assume it’s supposed to be some sort of instant messaging application. For most people this will not do, and so alternatives are required, such as:

• Nimbuzz (preferred): An excellent chat application that allows communication with contacts on the following networks: Windows Live, Skype, Yahoo!, Facebook, Google Talk, Orkut, AIM, MobileMe, MySpace, ICQ, Twitter (updates), Gadu-gadu, Hyves (Dutch social network), Giovani, Jabber, studiVZ/meinVZ, and schülerVZ. Nimbuzz also allows you to use a bunch of SIP services, and configure your own in case you preferred SIP service isn’t listed. Outbound calls can be done with SIP, SkypeOut or your normal mobile service provider, giving you international calls from your mobile for nearly nothing. Nimbuzz was recently upgraded to version 2.0 and can be found at http://www.nimbuzz.com

Other applications in this category include: Fring (interesting alternative to Nimbuzz), Windows Live, Skype, and Palringo. Like Nimbuzz and Fring, Palringo combines several services in one application. It falls short, though, with no SIP and only Windows Live, YIM, AIM, ICQ, Gadu-Gadu, Jabber, Google Talk, Facebook (Alpha), and iChat. Palringo also has a location based service, which I’m not all too sure what to do with…

SMS: Various applications exist to tweak your sms experience. If you must then check Nokia Conversation for threaded sms. Get it here.

• My preference for sms is  a small application from Norwegian Mobile Nordic called SMS Preview. It gives you a 30-60 second preview of any sms as it arrives without the need to press any buttons. Get it for your mobile phone here: http://get.smspreview.mobi.

Call Recording: Yes, you might want to do this now and then for a variety of reasons. In any case there are several applications for this as well. My preference is:

• TotallRecall from KillerMobile software: allowing silent recording either hot-button activated or automatic of any mobile conversation. This application is free to test, and will cost you $13,50 to buy. Get it here.

Web 2.0:

• Blogging: Wordmobi is a WordPress blogging application, which fulfills the most basic needs of the mobile blogger. The most current version 0.7.0 was released in early April 2009. Get the application here. Wordmobi requires installation of Python, which can be found here.
• Twitter: A lot of discussion on this topic was put to rest recently when Mobileways.de released the impressive Gravity client for twitter. Mobileways provides a free trial of their roughly €10 application. It is by far the sleekest Twitter client for Symbian to date and well worth the €10 pricetag. Find it here: http://mobileways.de/products/gravity/gravity/.
• Web 2.0 publishing: CellSpin is a free and easy to use mobile blogging app that lets you blog photos, audio, video, and text to WordPress, Blogger, Facebook, Flickr, Twitter, Picasa, YouTube, Live Journal, MySpace, and more! This very powerful application is like a publishing house on your phone. Publish literally any kind of content from anywhere at any time. Get the application here: http://www.cellspin.net. Alternatives include Shozu, which disappointed in several ways…

GPS and Location-based applications: One of the best things about the Nokia E71 is how the makers managed to put an internal GPS into such a sleek design. Having a GPS opens for location-based services and applications such as maps, navigation, searching for friends’ locations etc. The best application on my E71 are:

• Nokia Sports Tracker: Ideal for walkers, joggers, runners, cyclists of any kind, in short anyone who does distance based sports outside. The GPS will help you track speed, distance, pace, and averages of those + calories burned, put it all in nice graphs, give you a map of where you are/have been training AND share that near-live with anyone who you want to watch where, how fast and how far you’ve trained. Download here: http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/main/download.do
• Google Maps with Google Latitude: This two in one application evolved from the original Google Maps application which in itself is pretty good. Google Maps lets you see where you are and search for points of interest anywhere. With Latitude, however, Google Maps becomes an entirely different application. Latitude lets your contacts know where you are on a Google Map – or were you were the last time you updated it. Very interesting start of location-based-services from always interesting Google!! Download here: http://m.google.com/maps.
• Alternatively you can use Nokia Friend View, which does more or less the same thing and can be downloaded here. During non-scientific testing Nokia Friend View did seem to load maps much slower than Google Maps. In addition one could imagine many Nokia users going to Nokia Friend View, while many users of anything will use Google Maps. Lost that battle Nokia – on to the next.
  

Media Playing:

Now we’re going to have a closer look at which special applications you might want to get for playing media on your E71. The E71 is an OK media player when you have little other options and you can actually enjoy a movie if you have a pair of headphones with you and some time to kill:

• CorePlayer Mobile: Plays this interesting range of video formats: H.264 (AVC), AVCHD, MKV, MPEG-1, MPEG-4 part 2 (ASP), DivX, XviD, WMV*, Theora*, Dirac*, MJPEG, MSVIDEO1. That’s just such an impressive list and I haven’t found comparable applications anywhere. Download it here!!
• YouTube: Now there are some things that CorePlayer Mobile is just OK at. One of those things is Youtube. So the guys at Youtube have developed their own app – the YouTube app. It does a decent job at viewing YouTube videos over any type of internet connection. Only things missing is an overview of your own account and an upload feature. Get the YouTube app here: http://m.google.com/youtube.
• Internet Radio: In one of the most recent firmware updates to firmware 200.x.x.x Nokia included the “internet radio” application in the update. You can tune in to any station in the overview via the internet connection on your phone. Make sure to make a backup of your data before you upgrade to newer firmware.

Various applications:

• Google Translator: Excellent translation tool for your S60-based Nokia. Attempts to determine which language you’re translating from and just allows you to select your target language. Works pretty well and is downloadable here.
• Google Docs: The well-known Google Docs application now with editable documents also on Nokia S60 phones. Find it at http://m.google.com/docs.

The most interesting single application developer seems to be either Nokia or Google. Find all Google applications for S60-based Nokias at http://www.google.com/mobile/nokia_smart/

I am looking for:

• Good Facebook application
• Solid GPS Navigation application
• Comments and additional insight on all of the above applications and application categories.

Article on Gartner analyst Van Baker’s comments to be found here:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9129018&intsrc=hm_list