Launched today by code masters Spb Software is Spb TV for S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition. I've been using it for a day or two on my Nokia N95 and 5800 and here present a full and detailed review of Spb TV. Around 100 channels, 'picture in picture' channel switching, QVGA video streams, a TV Guide that in some cases works a week ahead, the works.
CellPhoneSoft, the UIQ software experts, are transitioning across to S60 and one of their first utilities has just arrived: Speedy Go! This claims to speed up all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition smartphones by "display acceleration and overall speed boost". Hmm.... Anyone brave enough to try this on an S60 device and report back in the comments?
Issue 88 of the (newly renamed) Smartphone & PDA Essentials magazine (in the UK) has a seven page feature group test on 'Best multimedia smartphones', looking at all aspects of music, image, video and camera, plus the relevant interfaces and controls. In addition to the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the other contestants were the Blackberry Storm, the Samsung Tocco Ultra and the T-Mobile G1. Rather curiously, the Apple iPhone was absent, and it was doubtless written too early to look at the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD) - in their absence, the Nokia 5800 swept all before it with an overall rating of 9/10. Photo below.
The N79 certainly seems a suitable device for a hardy, dusty, GPS-enabled, solar-powered cycle ride across the globe. Susie Wheeldon, Jamie Vining and Iain Henderson are using 'Nokia N79 Active' devices to find their way (Nokia Maps) and keep track of their heart rate (Sports Tracker), as they make their way through 15 countries in travelling 12,000 miles. It's all being powered by thin-film solar panels attached to their bike paniers. You can follow their progress over the next nine months on www.thesolarcyclediaries.com. Photo and bits from the PR below.
The Register has a good summary of the saga of Yahoo!'s latest Java mobile 'all in one', which has apparently now been canned. Yahoo! Go and their new mobile home page all seemed pretty slick to me, but one can't help but feel that the mighty Y! are fighting a rear guard action against the invincible big-G. Comments welcome if you're a big Yahoo! Java client fan...
EA's life simulator Spore Origins is now available through the N-Gage application, just open it on your phone, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now". Alternatively select "See All Games". You can see a list of N-Gage-compatible phones (and more about the platform) on All About N-Gage's FAQ page.
NTT DOCOMO today announced its new handset line up for 2009. Included in the line up are Symbian (MOAP) phones from Fujitsu (F-08A and F-09A) and Sharp (SH-05A, SH-06A, SH-06A NERV and SH-07A). Features include being water proof (low end models) and 10 megapixels cameras, GPS built in digital TV receivers, world roaming (high end models).
Hopefully pulling no punches, I've been mulling over all the different form factors seen in the smartphone world in the last half dozen years. Is there a common consensus 'perfect' form factor? No. Could there be one in the future? Yes, I argue in The Quest for the Perfect Form Factor. And, to the point, at least one of 2009's smartphone contenders is achingly close, at least in terms of hardware, to the ideal. This being something of a contentious subject, your comments more than welcome of course!
Last week's announcement by Vodafone UK that they were scrapping their roaming charges for users of the Vodafone Passport service was a welcome levelling of the billing system to the problem of calls made abroad. The offer makes it simple to understand what your bill for calls, texts and MMS's will be when you are travelling in Europe, New Zealand or Australia – you'll pay exactly the same as you would when at home. Read on for my comments.
The 8GB variant of the Samsung i8910 HD (also known as the Omnia HD) is now available to buy on the UK operator Orange. The handset costs £97.50 on a new 18 month - £35 contract. Once the phone is available through Orange's retail partners this price will likely fall, but at the moment the i8910 is only available direct from Orange retail (limited stock) or its online store.
The world of gaming for the Nokia 5800 is certainly in its infancy, if QuickBlock is representative. It's a simple touch-screen 'dodge the blocks' game and gets the review treatment from Ewan here. Maybe the Ovi Store, next week, will bring a raft of new, whizzy 5800 titles - we're starting to suspect a number are being batched up to launch with the store...
The 'Comes with Music' version of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available in the UK, SIM-free, for a cost of £300, from the Nokia UK Store from May 21st. It comes with a 12 month Comes with Music 'subscription' so that you can download an unlimited amount of music, from the Nokia Music Store, for one year. The 'Comes with Music' version has a £50 price premium over the standard Nokia 5800. Read on for more links.
In All About Symbian Insight 70 (AAS Podcast 128) Steve and Rafe talk about the upcoming N97 and the return of Comes with Music to the UK. However the main part of the show is taken up with answering questions from listeners. We touch on Ovi Store, Nseries branding, screen resolution and more. You can listen to AAS Insight 71 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia has announced that the much anticipated Nokia N97 is going to be now available to pre-order online later today priced at £499 (inc VAT, SIM free) from the Nokia Online Shop. Typically the Nokia UK Online Shop gets the first stocks of UK variants of Nokia devices. Here are the links to the Black Nokia N97 and White Nokia N97), though no shipping date has been set yet. As we know, the Nokia N97 will also be the first device to feature (in its firmware) the Ovi Store, which is set to go live in the next week.
In the third of his tutorial series looking at Nokia Messaging, Asri al-Baker looks at the email setup process, using the Nokia 5800 as a guinea pig device. This guide applies for all users who are not using the E75 (at the moment) because this has a different (newer) version of Nokia Messaging. Asri explains the decision point about dropping back to S60 Messaging or deciding to press on with the (beta, but soon-to-be-commercial) 'push' service, the core of Nokia Messaging.
