The Nokia 5530 XpressMusic Chronicle, Must Have App's Part 1 ~ SCRATCH e-PAD!

I've been around my Nokia 5530 XpressMusic for quite sometime now and within those weeks, I can say that I have downloaded and installed tons of application softwares to enhance the phones performance but not all came out useful for me so most of them were axed down after a few hours or days leaving only the elite functional ones that I'm about to feature.

1. Nokia Messaging - perhaps the most used application of all that every time I open my phone, I go directly to this app. Nokia Messaging is a client that mobilizes consumers email on a Nokia phone. It enables users to quickly set up, access, and use their email on their Nokia devices through a service that is optimized for mobile email.

Capabilities of the email client;
- Automatic delivery of email using the IMAP idle protocol (Common term for this is Push Email, the very reason why I love this app!)
- Support for Yahoo! Mail, Google Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, Ovi Mail, and POP/IMAP email accounts
- Support for Google Apps, Yahoo! Small Business, and other vanity domain email accounts
- Support for up to 10 email accounts
- Support for HTML email
- Available on 10+ Nokia S60 devices and localized in 20+ languages
- Support for subfolders in IMAP email accounts
- Easy email setup using only an email address and password for almost all ISPs
- Efficient data usage
- Intuitive client interface navigation built around top mobile email functions

This is not installed out of the box, so you need to download this from Nokia Ovi Store and install to the phone. There's big catch though, the client have encountered problems with the phone which I haven't experience with my N82. Oftentimes the phone to crash and reboots, much worse it becomes insensitive leaving me with no choice but to rest the phone. To be very honest, I have remove and reinstall this client 12x now, maybe my problem was isolated or maybe not, ans that Nokia have mess up something in between that's why it becomes to much for the phone to handle. I've been twitting about this problem for quite sometime now and so far I haven't receive any solutions to address this. But then its still my most used app in the phone so its impossible to delete this.
2. Gravity - the first fully-featured and native Twitter client for the S60 platform. It supports multiple accounts, Twitter Search, Laconica, Ping.fm, posting of pictures via MobyPicture & TwitPic and wraps everything into a gorgeous looking interface. This I would say is second to my most use application on the phone being a big twitter addict. Things I like on this app, nice looking interface, very interactive, supports kinetic scrolling on the 5530 XpressMusic.

Overview of Gravity’s Features:
- Compatible with Twitter and Laconica
- All functions available on your S60 phone: tweet, reply, retweet, DM, follow & unfollow, block, create favourites, search, auto-update and many more …
- Tabbed view of your Timeline, Replies, Messages, Friends, …
- Profile View to see information about a Twitter User
- Configurable Audio Alerts for Timeline/Replies/DM’s & Searches
- Auto-Connect to any Access Point and Auto-Fallback to WLAN
- Setup and use as many accounts as you want at the same time
- Group support for creating custom tabs with user-defined filters
- Post URLs from tweets to del.icio.us or Instapaper
- Twitter-Search section with multiple search tabs and Twitter Trends
- Post pictures to MobyPicture, TwitPic, TwitGoo, Posterous, Yfrog or img.ly
- Preview pictures from MobyPicture, TwitPic, TwitGoo, Flic.kr, Yfrog and img.ly
- Ping.fm support by simply sending “p message” or “p #group message”
- Open URLs from any Tweet
- Kinetic scrolling on S60v5 ( Nokia 5800 and Nokia N97 )
- Theme support ( fixed dark and bright theme )
- Full-Screen mode
- Includes a Homescreen Widget for the Nokia N97
- Built-in auto-update function and beta access for testing the latest features

This is NOT a free application so you need to shell out Php441.38 to enjoy its full feature, payment method can either be through Credit Cards (Visa/Mastercard) or Paypal, CLICK HERE for your order. Free 10 Day Trial can be downloaded via Ovi Store or better be yet, join the Nokia Conversations for a chance to win one for FREE, a bit of advice, post a sensible comment to score a node.
3. Opera Mini 5 Beta - my most fab web browser in the 5530 XM! Not only that it has a gorgeous UI in contrast to Nokia's very own but it also loads webpage faster, navigation around open web pages is smooth and best of all support a flick scroll. I also like the bookmark page, it kinda reminds me of the Fast Dial add on application on the Firefox browser making it more interactive and fun.

Some of the Popular features

Innovative and Easy-to-use
Living up to our vision of providing the best Internet experience on any device, Opera Mini 5 boasts a powerful new user interface. Merging the best from our desktop browser together with new innovations for mobile phones, Opera Mini is advanced, yet highly intuitive to use.

Tabs
With tabbed browsing, you no longer need to interrupt one session to start another. Use your Web mail in one window, Facebook in another, Twitter in a third and all that while checking the latest sports results. With Opera Mini, you can easily identify the different tabs and jump between them.

Password manager
No more hassle with those hard-to-enter usernames and passwords. Opera Mini 5 will remember your credentials, and you can log on to your favorite Web sites with just a single click. The passwords are stored on your phone for your convenience.

Full Web in your palm
When visiting a Web page, Opera Mini displays the overview of the page and suggests where to begin your reading before you zoom in. Opera Mini also detects when on a Web page designed for a mobile phone and displays it optimally.

Touch & Keypad
The user interface has been designed for both touchscreen- and keypad-style mobile phones. With a touchscreen, you can enjoy even easier navigation with our new zooming and kinetic scrolling.

Speed Dial
Get your favorite Web page with just one click. Speed Dial is a set of visual bookmarks you see when you open a new tab, like a dashboard for your on-line life. To add a new page, simply click on an empty Speed Dial slot, and Opera will make suggestions based on your browsing history and bookmarks.

Built for speed
Time is precious. Opera Mini compresses pages by up to 90% before being sent to your phone, meaning faster page-load times than in other mobile Web browsers.

Find things faster
The new Opera Mini lets you search for text within a Web page, so you can get to the information you need even more quickly than before.

Power scrolling
Scroll at warp speed using your phone keypad or by dragging the page on a phone with a touchscreen.

To try Opera Mini 5 Beta, Click Her e!
Applications mentioned so far were 3 of my most fab, more to be featured, Stay Tuned!