As we've already mentioned, All About Symbian recently had to be restored, after being hacked, from an overnight backup. While we lost some forum postings, a regular backup strategy meant that we didn't have to roll back too far to get to a working state. What would happen if something catastrophic befell a Symbian phone rather than a Symbian web site?
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing and videoing some freeware touchscreen titles for S60 5th Edition devices: Speedtouch is a minimalist but fun whackamole clone, Bubbles Touch is rather poor (in fact it gets our lowest score ever), and Fridge Magnets Touch turns your phone into a ouija board thanks to its internet connection.
Fans of Spb Software's rather nifty world TV application, SpbTV (AAS shop link, support us by buying this way), should note that it has had a big update. Version 1.1 (download page) for all Symbian/S60 devices adds lower quality streams for anyone on a slow or weak 3G/EDGE connection, adds full support for TV out (making your smartphone into an Internet TV appliance!), plus better startup notifications (percentage reports while index building). Plus a litany of minor fixes and optimisations for a wider range of devices. Recommended.
Nokia have made available a number of new and updated applications for the N97 through the device's 'Software update' application. They include Ovi Maps 3.1, N-Gage 1.3, Nokia Messaging 10.0, Ovi Contacts 1.20, and a small helper application for freeing space on the N97's internal C: drive. Read on for more information and screenshots.
Steffen Geraner, despite English not being his main language, has put up a lovely little walk through and real world assessment of some of Ovi Maps 3.0's 'extra' features, including speed cam warnings, tunnel handling and 3D buildings. Worth a read. Maps 3.0 is turning into a pretty huge product - look out for more features on it here on AAS over the summer.
Following on from my camera/camcorder series here on AAS, here's a look at the pros and cons of adding focussing to video capture in Symbian smartphones. What should a manufacturer do? What's the best way forwards? Is continual auto-focus practical yet? Is initial focus necessarily better than a preset focus? The pros and cons may surprise you...
Zum Zum is a lovely mix of arcade action and Tetris-like clearing strategy. While it's been done on countless platforms before, this version of the genre game Zuma, according to Ewan Spence, doesn't make any mistakes in providing a good conversion to the S60 platform.
Last night a message was posted by hackers to an existing new story on the front page announcing that the site had been hacked and that the databases had been deleted and user information copied. There was some additional damage to the forum database. The issues have now been fixed, but almost all forum posts (including news comments) from yesterday (July 14th) have been lost. I would like to apologise for the data loss and any inconvenience caused. More information will be added to this thread.
The Symbian Foundation today announced it is establishing a new office in Japan. The aim is to improve its support for it Japanese members (who include the operators NTT DOCOMO and Softbank Mobile and the manufacturers Sharp and Fujitsu) and bolster engagement with the developer community. The Symbian Foundation also have offices in London, San Fransisco and Helsinki.
In All About Symbian Insight 79 (AAS Podcast 141), we share news of Symbian^2's release and the first Symbian package to move from SFL to EPL. Then there's a mention of Nokia Android rumours, leading into a discussion about Maemo positioning and Qt. Finally we talk about a recent post from Robert Scoble. You can listen to AAS Insight 79 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
UK mobile network O2 joins Vodafone in agreeing a partnership with micro-blogging service Twitter to provide their users with free texts from Twitter to their handsets. From the 1st of August, every O2 user will be able to switch on this feature and receive both direct messages and '@' replies to their handset.
For all those with phones running S60 3rd Edition or 3rd Edition FP1, you might want to grab Birdstep's SmartConnect utility, which is now free. This removes the "access complexity" and combines all your Wifi and 3G access points into one access point, effectively mimicking the Destinations feature of S60 3rd Edition FP2 and beyond. The supported phones are listed below, along with a download link.
Ewan takes a brief look at Tommi Laukkanen's new, free Mobile Task Manager, a no-frills to-do-list/project manager that still manages to knock spots off the built in S60 function. It's Java-based, but don't let that put you off, this is one lean and efficient concept app - let's hope it continues to evolve.
Nokia and AT&T today announced the Nokia Surge, which they're calling a 'socially supercharged smartphone'. It's a Symbian S60 (3.2) phone with a QWERTY keyboard on a horizontal slide with a unique looking design. It features a 2.0 megapixel camera, integrated GPS and includes AT&T's Navigator, Video Share and Mobile Music services. The phone will cost $79.99 ($129.99 before mail in rebate) with a two year contract and will be available in AT&T stores in the next few weeks.
In their own different ways, the Nokia N86 8MP and the Apple iPhone 3GS represent the pinnacles of their form factor. The one is the classic one-handed 'phone', the other is the classic two-handed 'PDA/tablet. Yes, never mind that over-simplification, in the feature below I look in detail at every aspect of the two devices and try to see where comparisons can be drawn. I'm not looking for an overall winner, but am genuinely interested in the areas in which each device and form factor wins out. [Updated with notes on the N86's 'real' digital zoom and a demo link]
