If there’s one application responsible for an exponential boost in my productivity at the news copy desk it’s Float’s Mobile Agent (FMA). I wrote a short post about FMA earlier. FMA is an open source application that allows you to manage and operate your mobile phone through your PC via a data cable, infrared or Bluetooth connection.
With FMA installed in your computer, you can just leave your phone in your desk and do all your mobile communications in your PC-from sending, receiving and archiving SMS messages, managing phone contacts, to-do lists and calendar entries to (for some phone models) taking and making calls using your regular PC headset. The program also allows you to easily back up important phone data like messages and contact numbers.
With FMA running, you can also control your PC via your mobile phone. A menu will appear in your phone allowing you to control Winamp, PowerPoint and various other programs. You can also use your phone’s joystick to control the mouse cursor and operate the computer.
You can also use your phone as remote control for your laptop when giving PowerPoint presentations. The extent of the control is such that you can even command your computer to lock down when your phone is out of Bluetooth range-an indicator that you are away from your desk.
I use a SonyEricsson T630 and I connect this via Bluetooth to the FMA running in my office PC. With this setup, I can send and receive SMS while writing or editing a story and laying out a page. I also keep an archive in my PC of all the SMS I’ve received as reference.
And since I’m using my PC’s keyboard to write messages, I send and reply to SMS very fast that one astounded new source told me that I should check if I can break the world record for text messaging. This is a big productivity boost especially when you need to communicate with someone through SMS while trying to beat deadlines.
The messenger window makes sending a message to several recipients a breeze:
The program also displays a lot of information about your phone:
The personal data menu offers links to various tasks in phone management: synchronizing phone and calendar data; entering new data and browsing through your calendar, contact and to-do list entries:
You can download FMA here. To check if your phone will work with the program, go through this list of tested devices.
15 responses so far ↓
taorist // Jan 9, 2006 at 11:16 am
Hope they’ll come out with a program for the N6600 as well. Looks like the programmer was a big SE fan. LOL.
John Stevens // Jan 27, 2006 at 12:53 am
Looks good, but it doesn’t work.
Choose Bluetooth connection in options and then that’s it.
“Connect” does nothing. “Lookup devices” does nothing.
Many people complain about this on the FMA forums and there are no solutions given. It simply does not work with Bluetooth native.
Max Limpag // Jan 27, 2006 at 2:14 pm
John,
What phone are you trying to connect with FMA? I’ve been able to use the software with Sony Ericsson t630 and k750i. If you’re using it with a Sony Ericsson phone, make sure to have the mobile phone monitor installed first.
Taorist,
Yes. They adore SonyEricsson phones there
Norwegian Superhero // Mar 3, 2006 at 8:19 pm
It works with Bluetooth!
If the Native Bluetooth connection does not work, try connect via the Serial Port connection. To do this, you need to know wich COM-port the PC uses on the Bluetooth radio. You will find this in My Bluetooth Places in Windows XP.
Arung Siram // Jun 16, 2006 at 3:51 am
I used Sony Ericcson T610 with FMA. It was NOT getting connected with Native Bluetooth. Finally, I succeeded by using Serial Port of the Bluetooth. In my case it was COM6. The setting has to be done at FMA “Option” by selecting SERIAL PORT and PORT NUMBER
Kenneth // Jun 30, 2006 at 9:54 pm
I can’t send a message through it…
I can do calls etc.. but not with messages… I cant read a newly recieved message… nor send a new message…
Back up your mobile phone data online at Leon Kilat ::: The Cybercafe Experiments // Aug 19, 2006 at 4:57 am
[...] To prevent a disaster such as losing important contact details, you need to regularly back up your phone data. Most phones today come with PC suites that allow you to easily manage and back up these data. If you’re using a SonyEricsson phone, use Float’s Mobile Agent, it’s the best PC software for your unit. [...]
poh soon // Aug 23, 2006 at 10:17 am
but.. too bad.. it can only view ascii text. It can’t support mandarin character set
Krishnendu // Nov 21, 2006 at 11:18 pm
Well I have gone through this s/w and this link left-right-center and done all kinds of research. However, its sad to say that this application don’t support my K750i phone.
Is there anyone, who can help me on how to backup my SMSs on my phone.
Krishnendu // Nov 21, 2006 at 11:21 pm
Well the only other options which I found is
http://mobile.yahoo.com
which lately started a service to backup your messages, but its a paid service.
The next option will be the s/w listed on the following link.
http://www.fjsoft.at/en/
Me yet to try the stuff, will post tomorrow about the status.
Cheers!!!
Max Limpag // Nov 22, 2006 at 2:19 am
Krishnendu,
The software works perfectly with the K750i. Install the FMA 2.1 beta 3 version. I’ve never had problems with it. I back up and manage all my phone data using FMA: contacts, text messages and even calendar items.
krisshhnna // Mar 19, 2007 at 6:28 pm
i tried this but i am unable to connect my
Nokia 3230 phone with FMA.
please inform me how to connect with it.
rajeev // May 6, 2007 at 4:29 am
Was using FMA 2.1 beta 4 version with my Sony Ericsson K750i and it worked beautifully. Then one day it just stopped working. The Error message on trying to load the program reads:
Error Signature:
AppName: mobileagent.exe AppVer: 2.1.4.0 ModName: kernel32.dll
ModVer: 5.1.2600.2945 Offset: 00012a5b
Application Error
Exception EOleCtrlError in module MobileAgent.exe at 00132FD8
Microsoft ActveX Script Control script create failed.
Class not Registered.
Someone please help solve this.
Michael // Sep 3, 2007 at 1:06 am
Nice post, I have CDS 60 Desktop stand and I would like to automatically synchronize my contacts with outlook. Has anyone experience with setting this up? I cant get FMA to automatically scan port 6, and do a auto sync on connection.
Stephanie // Sep 21, 2008 at 4:30 am
It doesn’t work. I installed it so I could use it on my Pantech Duo C810. Help, please?
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