If it's a geeky accessory review you're after, then I'm your man. In today's slot, I present a look at the ultimate Nokia E75 battery life extender, in the form of the Mugen Power after market 2000mAh cell - does it actually double the useful life of the phone, are there any gotchas and just how badly will your street cool factor be affected if you use this?
As it's the weekend we've got a round-up of eight new game reviews over on Ovi Gaming, as well as a few other features. Following our new format, the reviews are brief but include long gameplay videos and lots of screenshots, to give an idea of what the game is really like. All the relevant links are below...
Just a quick note that the BBC have flicked the switch at their end and that the Nokia N86 is now officially compatible with iPlayer, meaning that the service shows up when you visit the Beeb's mobile site and iPlayer page. (Previously you had to manually install the generic 1.6.0 widget). Downloading of shows is also possible, with the N86 having the right DRM capabilities, of course.
Inova IT, a mobile developer from Slovenia, has announced the public beta of SalesForce for Symbian S60, a mobile client application for the SalesForce.com service. SalesForce is the leading web-based, software as a service, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. SalesForce for Symbian you to view and add all the Standard SalesForce objects, log calls, and assign tasks on your mobile while out of the office. Read on for more details.
It's part 3 of Ewan Spence's 'real world' test of the Nokia N97 at the Edinburgh Fringe and it's embedded below. In this part, he looks at some interface oddities, and at Email and Web use. A couple of minor items of errata: the GMail Java application can go fullscreen in portrait mode too, but it's not obvious - you have to dive into Settings | App Mgr | Installed apps and highlight Gmail, then use Options | Suite Settings, turning the on-screen keyboard 'Off'. Also, the E75 uses microUSB as well as the N97. OK, scroll down to watch!
Symartic, developers of ExtGPS, have announced that they will soon be releasing Symabook, a Facebook client application, for S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition. The application allows you to update your Facebook status and view your news feed, friend list and photos. Symabook has a custom UI which is designed to allow you to view photos more easily and make the best possible use of screen space.
In a world where the average Joe still has trouble getting his head round all the things smartphones can do, you can never have too many tips or tutorials. Which is why I'm happy to give a shout out to a new Nokia/S60 site, NokiaTips. The launch content includes how to change the fonts on your N97 or 5800 and how to set up Google Voice, so worth a look, especially if you like 'getting your hands dirty'. There's also a Twitter and a RSS feed to follow for updates.
In this first look review Rafe runs through some of the key points of the brand new Nokia E55, sharing his thoughts after 36 hours with the device. I'm currently writing a far longer and fuller review for AAS and this will follow sometime next week. In the meantime, enjoy Rafe's photos and observations.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been lamenting the rather poor service provided by Ovi Store's search function. However, instead of just complaining about it we've set up an alternative unofficial Ovi Store search using Google's Custom Search Engine. You can try Unofficial Ovi Store Search over on Ovi Gaming. This is still very experimental, so let us know what you think in the comments thread.
Yesterdays news of the Nokia - Microsoft alliance around enterprise software and services has been generating a lot of interest. One of the interesting side stories is that Nokia's Symbian phones already have an outstanding Office compatible software suite, in the form of Quickoffice, which ships with every current Nokia Symbian phone. Quickoffice have released their own statement today noting that its Symbian business represents only a portion of its overall business and that it will ship on 200 million Nokia Symbian phones before Microsoft's product is even released. See below for comment and their statement in full.
More interesting data from the smartphone world analysts. See below for the full table of data, but essentially Nokia's world market share is down 2.4% year on year, to 45%, despite shipping over 3 million more units, a total of 18.4 million smartphones. RIM improved slightly to 18.7% market share, while Apple is now in third place at 13.3% market share. Notable is the fact that Nokia still outsold RIM, Apple, fourth-place HTC and fifth-place Fujitsu combined, so as ever, it's business as usual at Espoo. In terms of worldwide platform/OS market share, Symbian OS was down 6% at 51%, RIM was up at at 16%, iPhone OS up at 12% and Windows Mobile was down at 9%. Android's share was under 2%, showing how far this has to go to make a serious impact.
Microsoft and Nokia have entered into an alliance that is "set to deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity". They will begin collaborating immediately on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions, bringing Microsoft Office Mobile and Microsoft business communications software to Nokia’s Symbian OS smartphones, starting with the business-focussed Eseries. The two companies will jointly market these solutions to businesses, carriers and individuals. Read on for further details on today's announcement.
Ewan is, as you might have noticed, a big eBook fan and when he switched to the Nokia 5800 he found himself deprived. The only practical eBook reader, Mobipocket, was written for phones with hardware buttons, specifically a * key, providing the essential full-screen toggle function. Thankfully, he's spotted that the N97, having a basic qwerty keyboard, does provide a way to enter the * character and, again thankfully, Mobipocket Reader responds appropriately, as is demonstrated here, along with notes on getting and installing the software. Ewan's a happy bunny and you may be too if you own an N97 and wondered whether to get re-acquainted with your eBook collection...
Yellix is a startup focussed on integrating Facebook with your phone's telephony, i.e. when someone calls you, their Facebook avatar and status are automatically popped up on screen, giving you an idea of where they might be or what they're up to. There's a native S60 3rd Edition version for download, the service is free and you can start using it immediately. Bandwidth used is reportedly low, only 3k for each avatar/status pop-up. See below for a hi-res promo video, a bit from the press release and see also their FAQ page.
Nokia has announced that, from today, Qt Software will be known as Qt Development Frameworks and its URL changes to qt.nokia.com. The reason behind the move? Nokia want to encourage the use of Qt by mobile developers and therefore decided to strengthen Qt's associated with the Nokia brand.
