Ravensoft have released their Twitter client for Symbian, TweetS60. It enters a market with many smaller clients and two strong C++ clients (Gravity and Twittix). The initial feature set is not huge, but it does have a clean UI and being labelled as a public beta there could be a lot of development work planned. You can download from www.tweetS60.com.
Fring, the IM and Social Network client for smartphones has been updated to version 3.4, and the big new feature is consolidation. If you have a friend on Skype, AOL and and Gtalk, you can add those separate accounts into one single “mega profile” of your friend. This unification approach also extends to your Contacts data on the handset, with Fring able to suggest “I think person A in your phone is person B on MSN Messenger.”
Developers might like to subscribe to the new series of podcasts from Forum Nokia. The first episode is now available and Bill Volpe talks with Riku Salminen about the new tools and components available for S60 and S40 Flash Lite developers.
Plenty of good questions are starting to come from readers, so I thought I'd gather them together here and answer them more formally. See below. And add extra questions about Nokia's newest flagship to the comments on this thread and Rafe and I will do our best to answer them in the main body of the piece. [even further updated]
Google today announced the release of Google Mobile App for S60 (3rd Edition), which allows quick access to Google search and offers shortcuts to a number of Google's other services. Features include a homescreen shortcut and automatic location context, via GPS or cell positioning, for searches. Incidentally Google's S60 YouTube application was also silently updated to version 2.0.17. Read on for more details.
The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic (Symbian S60 3rd FP2, 3.2 mp autofocus camera, Wi-Fi, 3.5G, 600mhz CPU) has quietly become available through various channels in Europe including the official online shops of Nokia Finland, Nokia Germany and Nokia Italy, it's starting to appear in normal retailers too, and is available to pre-order in areas and shops where it isn't yet on sale. The 5630 is designed for S60 users on a budget, and the unlocked SIM-free model in most places seems to be around 200 euros plus taxes, which is among the lowest launch prices so far for a smartphone. (Note that the Nokia Germany shop currently only stocks the Comes With Music edition which costs more due to its unlimited music downloads bundle.)
In this special edition of the All About Symbian Insight podcast we offer an audio unboxing (you'll see!) of the Nokia N97. We recorded this podcast in Regents Park (London) a few hours after receiving the full retail version of the N97. Rafe and Steve run through their first impressions of the device, the in-box contents, thoughts on software updates and on a homescreen that's alive... Plus bonus 'footage' of the keyboard 'clip-clop' sound(!)
Nokia's Back N82 has been cut to £199 in their UK Online Shop from the original £295 and most importantly is actually being shown as 'in stock'. Yes there are some new models on the way, but the N82 is still a high spec and respected smartphone; even Steve has belatedly come round to its charms after his initial review.
There has been some interesting discussion online about the upcoming Palm Pre and the announced Media Sync capabilities that has raised some eyebrows in tech circles, specifically the ability of the Pre to sync itself to iTunes. Researchers (including 'DVD John') are theorising that the Pre is pretending to be an iPod when connected, which raises a lot of potentially tricky questions. But the fact is that connectivity to a multitude of media sources is vital for a modern smartphone.
Hot off the presses from the recent Sony Ericsson launch of the Satio, Rafe has put together a gallery of this pretty glorious touchscreen device. Sporting a 16:9 touchscreen, a 12 megappixel camera, xenon flash and a spec sheet that hits most of the modern high water points, the Saito is expected during Q4 this year.
Via David Cabeiro's Forum Nokia Blog and Symbian Foundation's David Wood comes the news that the Symbian Foundation Developer site is now open to all. Entry into the site currently requires registration, but the notice on the home page says that eventually the site will have complete public access. Screenshot and any comments below.
MooLan is a new, Lunar Lander-like game for S60 5th Edition and is one of the first breed of Ovi Store-only titles. Pity it's not that deep or that good, though, as I found out in one of my shortest ever game reviews, here on Ovi Gaming.
A Chinese website has posted screenshots and video of the N97 running the N-Gage application, see the third video for N-Gage. It seems the N-Gage app has been redesigned somewhat for horizontal use on the N97's large touch-sensitive screen, but the only game shown (Asphalt 4) seemed to be running at 4:3 aspect ratio rather than the full 16:9. (via brainimpact on Twitter)
The Nokia 5800 has a very large high res screen which is compatible with many touchscreen Java games in full-screen mode, for example Cooking Mama works on the 5800 in full screen. Unfortunately the default setting for many Java games and applications (including Cooking Mama) seems to have the on-screen "virtual keypad" switched on automatically, which makes the game or app shrink into half-screen mode. However, there is an easy solution to this problem which should let touch-compatible Java software use the 5800's entire screen. See below for a quick step-by-step guide...
One for the developers now, as Aleksi Uotila confirms, via the Developing on S60 blog, that Nokia will not be insisting that Java applications in the Ovi Store will require to have a Java Verified testing certificate. While it is still recommended, it is not an essential requirement - unlike signing the Java app via Verisign or Thwaite, which is required.
