Device Support Help Topics
- Samsung phones: why is there so little support?
- LG phones: why is there so little support?
- Phone variations (a, c, i, etc.): I have (e.g.) a Sony-Ericsson K600i. Will the K600 build work?
- Minimum requirements: what are the minimum phone requirements?
- Compatibility: I don't see my phone in your list of supported devices. Will it work on my phone?
- Motorola phones: how do I get the correct Motorola RAZR / KRZR / SLVR / RIZR build?
- Add support for a new phone: How do I suggest a new phone to support?
- Not supported: my phone is not supported. Will it ever be?
- Support levels: What is basic / full / king support?
- Swirl Forum: Device Support
Samsung phones: why is there so little support?
Samsung is the third largest manufacturer of mobile phones in the World. Unfortunately, many of them are not ideal candidates for advanced Java applications like Swirl.
Many Samsung phones have very low limits on the size of installed applications, and make very little processing power available to running applications, meaning that many applications can't be installed, or when they are, they run sluggishly. Even for some Samsung phones without these limitations, there are omissions in support. For example, the SGH-D700, which includes advanced location-based services support, does not include support for standard Java-based messaging.
We've tried to work around these limits wherever possible, offering up lighter flavors and modified versions of Swirl where appropriate. We know there are many Samsung users out there, and we are continuing to build out support for these phones. If you have a specific model you’d like us to look into supporting, you can let us know via the discussion forum.
LG phones: why is there so little support?
LG is another large manufacturer with several popular phone models. The challenge we have with supporting LG phones is the limited specification information we have about the phones themselves, i.e. we don't have enough detail to put together a phone profile that we can use to produce a version of Swirl Connect tailored to that phone.
We are trying to stay on top of new models coming out of LG. If you have a specific model you’d like us to look into supporting, you can let us know via the discussion forum.
Phone variations (a, c, i, etc.): I have (e.g.) a Sony-Ericsson K600i. Will the K600 build work?
Of course it will! Unless these variations are specifically separated in our device support list, you can expect all of the variations to be supported by the same build as the parent.
For example, the Sony-Ericsson z520 build will work for the z520, z520a, z520c, and z520i. Similarly the Nokia 6265 build will work for the 6265 and the 6265i. However, you might notice that there are two builds for the Nokia 6230: a 6230 build and a 6230i build. These variations are specifically separated, indicating that a specific build must be selected.
Minimum requirements: what are the minimum phone requirements?
Swirl Connect is an advanced application, and to use all of its functionality, you'll need a sufficiently advanced handset. We've made every effort to also deploy lighter versions of Swirl so that no one is denied entrance to the club. All of these versions work together seamlessly, but if you don't have a fully supported handset, you'll notice that other people can do a few more things with Swirl than you can do.
Basic Support: MIDP 2.0 phones with 16-bit color screens that are at least 128x128 pixels; must support JAR size of 250 KB, and a heap size of 300 KB; Internet access; support for standardized wireless messaging; support for standardized multimedia messaging.
Full Support: All of the above, plus support for standardized Bluetooth. Note that just because a phone can make a Bluetooth connection to an earpiece, for example, doesn't mean that Bluetooth is fully supported.
It's Good to be King Support: All of the above, plus support for location-based services.
Compatibility: I don't see my phone in your list of supported devices. Will Swirl Connect work on my phone?
It might. If your phone meets our minimum requirements, but you don't see your phone model listed, you have a few options:
- See if a phone very similar to yours is supported. For example, many of the Nokia Series 60 phones use the same build. If you can find a phone in the same family as yours, your phone is likely supported.
- Try one of our generic builds. Our generic builds are designed to be used by any phone meeting the Basic or Full Support requirements. You'll want to make sure that we have your screen size listed as an available option.
- Let us know your phone manufacturer, model, and your carrier, and we'll add it to our list of requested devices. Depending on the complexities involved in supporting your phone, we might be able to add a new build to our support list.
Motorola phones: how do I get the correct Motorola RAZR / KRZR / SLVR / RIZR build?
For the most part, we should be able to auto-detect Motorola phone models, so all of our usual download options are available to you. Either select a build yourself during signup or via your My Preferences | My Account page, or point your WAP browser to http://get.iswirl.com/d. But for some popular Motorola phone models, especially the Motorola RAZR, we might have some difficulty determining precisely what model you're using. Many of these phones identify themselves the same way, and there's no way for us to guess the correct model in these cases.
If the build you downloaded doesn't look right (e.g. our screens only take up a limited portion of the available screen on your phone), or something is stated to be disabled when you know it should work (e.g. proximity searches don't work on a RAZR model with known Bluetooth support), you might be using the wrong RAZR build. In these cases, manually selecting the most appropriate build is your best bet. You can do this by changing your phone model at My Preferences | My Account, and then downloading Swirl Connect again via the Upgrade Software page. If you've not yet downloaded the software, select the most appropriate model during registration. If you're unsure of your model, try the Motorola RAZR V3xx for 240x320 screens, and Motorola RAZR V3 for 176x220 screens.
We are currently collecting information on which models work with various carriers around the world. If you have a Motorola RAZR, and you're sure of the model you use with your carrier, it would be helpful if you let us know so that we can pass that infomation along to others.
Add support for a new phone: How do I suggest a new phone to support?
We're adding popular phone models as fast as we can, but some manufacturers don't make adequate device specifications available, which complicates the process. LG phones are a good example. If there's a phone you'd like to see us support, and it meets the basic requirements of Swirl Connect, tell us the manufacturer and model, and we'll add it to our research list. If we get a lot of requests for the same phone, there's a good chance it will move to the top of the list. You can add your request to the device support forum.
Suggested minimum requirements:
- Java runtime
- MIDP 2.0 / CLDC 1.0
- Screen size 128x128 or above
- MMAPI support (mobile media)
- WMAPI support (wireless messaging)
Even better:
- CLDC 1.1
- Screen size 176x208 or above
- PDAAPI support (File connection and PIM)
- BTAPI support (Bluetooth)
- Location API support
Not supported: my phone is not supported. Will it ever be?
When you browse the device support pages, you'll see all of the phones that we've addressed so far that have not been ruled out. These are either devices that we know are supported and have been tested, or devices that we're working to debug and support, or devices that we think should be supported but haven't tested yet. If we've tested a phone and know that we can't support it, we'll make a note of it in our forum.
Support levels: What is basic / full / king support?
Basic support: these phones support the network connection, menu, display, and service interaction features of Swirl Connect. Many will also support photos within Swirl and instant messaging features via 'push' messaging..
Full support: these phones offer basic support, plus support for proximity connections, profile matching and sharing, guestbooks, sound effects. Many will also offer additional storage so that more connections, places, photos, and logs can be stored between synchronizations.
King support: these phones offer full support, plus support for automatic location-based services (vs. manual check-ins).