In the second part of our multi-part, multi-author review series on the Nokia N97, I look at its multimedia functions, including camera (superb in daylight), camcorder (super for landscapes...), video and music playback, radio and Podcasting (all good). Are there any weaknesses left in this Nseries flagship? And what happened to Internet Radio, UPnP and a TV out cable? By the way, see also Part 1 - First impressions and overview.
Following on from the news that the BBC iPlayer is available for older Nokia S60 devices we can now also report that the BBC iPlayer is also now available for the Nokia N97. It uses the same widget as the Nokia 5800 and can also be downloaded from www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer. The N97 version includes full download capabilities.
The BBC has just launched a standalone iPlayer S60 application (v1.0.0!) for the Nokia N95 and E71. iPlayer lets UK users catch up on BBC programmes that have been broadcast in the last week or so and has previously been exclusive to the Nokia N85, N96 and 5800, available as a Web Runtime widget. Although no formal announcement has been made by the BBC as I write this, it's as good as a done deal, as this BBC blog post strongly hints.
Nokia's exclusive strategy game Reset Generation was originally made available as a free online game for Windows PCs at resetgeneration.com, and the site has now been revamped to also be compatible with computers running Macintosh OS X and CentOS Linux. If you have a computer running any of these operating systems, all you have to do is visit the site to play the game, it's the full version including four-way online multiplayer and it's totally free. If you also want Reset Generation on your phone, it can be purchased through the N-Gage application. (via The Official N-Gage Blog)
The adventure game Mystery Mania has been reviewed by Ovi Gaming, and we've also done a ten minute gameplay video and lots of screenshots too. We've reviewed it on the Nokia 5800 but it is available for other phones too. You can get it right now from Ovi Store either through the website or the Ovi Store client. (Mystery Mania has been developed for EA by Danish company Progressive Media, who also did the absolutely excellent Sola Rola which won our very rare Mega Game award.)
Nokia's 8 megapixel N86 smartphone is now shipping according to Nokia Press Bulletin Board. Outwardly similar to the N85, the N86 features a slightly redesigned casing, kick stand, non-flat chunky keypad, and of course an 8 megapixel af camera which is the highest resolution on any Nokia device so far. Our camera expert Steve will be examining this hardware in detail of course, but just to give the official specs the N86 has a variable aperture for low-light photography, a fast mechanical shutter and automatic blur reduction. The N86 runs Symbian S60v3 FP2, is compatible with N-Gage and Ovi Store, and comes with 8 gigabytes of on-board memory as well as a separate microSD card slot for extra memory. (via ZOMGitsCJ)
Nokia Beta Labs has a graduate! Gizmo for S60 an application that allowed you to access the Gizmo5 service for IM and VOIP functionality on your handset is no longer in beta test – it's all grown up, left the program and is now available as a regular application in the Nokia Download! Store, although interestingly it is not yet in the Ovi Store.
Three years ago I wrote an article comparing text input speeds using various devices and form factors from the PDA and smartphone world. Here's the update, with some modern devices (including the iPhone 3G, HTC Touch Pro 2 and Nokia N97) included and tabled, plus a rogue's gallery showing Communicator keyboards through the ages. Am I obsessing too much? Is raw text input speed that important to you? Comments welcomed.
One of the hallmarks of web based applications in the last few years is the cost – for the most case they've been free to the users. Of course someone must pay for all the servers, coders and everything else needed to run a company. While the good times and the VC investment money flowed in, many companies have focused on growing the user base rather than build practical foundations of income. But are we in for a shock as our favourite applications start to reach into our pockets?
Forum Nokia has announced an update to the plug-in that enables WRT widget development in Aptana Studio and added new plug-ins for Adobe Dreamweaver and Microsoft Visual Studio. WRT widgets are clearly seen by Nokia as a mechanism to accelerate the availability of add-on features for S60 devices. Recent news, such as the availability of a Facebook widget, suggests it may be a good strategy.
The exclusive first-party music game Dance Fabulous is out now on the N-Gage platform (we all know Nokia never sticks to launch dates, this is two days early!). To get the game, open your phone's N-Gage application, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now". The download file is 31 megabytes and the price should be around 5 euros, which is interestingly in line with the average pricing on Ovi Store.
ZingMagic's conversions of board games are legendary and Gomoku Pro 2 doesn't disappoint in our Ovi Gaming review - Ewan's been keeping not one, but two games on the go (moku) simultaneously. Think of it as 'five in a row' for adults. It's a tidy game, with intuitive UI and plenty of customisation options, as you'd expect.
Should anyone be in a hurry for this (as if...), the YouTube version of The Phones Show 82 is now up and embedded below, with my video review of the N97. There's also a news section with shots of the iPhone 3GS in action, plus a no-doubt-controversial June 2009 'Top 5 phones'...
Ovi Store had capacity problems on the day it launched as demand for the service apparently far exceeded Nokia's estimates, but they seem to have cured that and Ovi Store now loads reliably. However, another problem has appeared which is rather annoying and frustrating: some items seem to be disappearing and reappearing at random. All too often people click on a game, app or other content and are greeted with the message "Sorry, this item is no longer available." even when it should be available. Let's take a look at the availability problems one by one, hopefully someone high up at Nokia is reading this.
In All About Symbian Insight 74 (AAS Podcast 134) Steve, Ewan and Rafe round up recent news from the Symbian world including ST-Ericsson's SMP demo, Google's 'new' S60 Mobile App, the commencement of Nokia 5630 shipping and more. In the second part of the show Steve gives a few N97 impressions and the team answer a few listener questions. You can listen to AAS Insight 74 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
