To coincide with the first shipments of the Nokia E75, Forum Nokia released the Nokia E75 plug-in for Carbide.ui and the Eseries SDK plug-in for the S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 SDK. There was also some apparently gloomy news about developer intentions to port location enabled applications to Symbian.
It takes a lot for us to link over to a Symbian Freak feature*, but I wanted to make an exception in this case because of a lengthy and very detailed blow-by-blow comparison of Samsung and Nokia's current flagships, the INNOV8 and N95 8GB respectively, by Jun Chao Ai. He concludes that the INNOV8 would have won overall but for its easily-damaged and hard-to-replace plastic screen.
Tucked away in my office for days on end, exploring the frontiers of technology, at least in the smartphone world, it's exciting to tinker with the latest touchscreen smartphones and generally live on the bleeding edge. But heading out into the 'real world', as I've been doing for the past week, a world inhabited by parents and cousins and grandchildren, it's best to fall back on hardware and software that's going to be 100% reliable. And, in this case, with the classic Nokia N82, to do some things that no other smartphone could have matched anyway.
A question that has cropped up a few times since I took the Nokia 5800 to the recent Getting Things Done Conference in America is how I organise my time using GTD principles on my smartphone. And the honest answer is that I don't use a smartphone at all. I still use paper. Why? Let me explain... [Editor's note: Ewan's latest stylus for the Nokia 5800 appears to be.... an Allen key! Strewth - what next?]
The self styled TechnoMiser has posted his list of recommended freeware applications for Symbian OS, and whle there are a lot of familiar names in the mix it's still worth checking out to make sure you've got your handset in the best shape for software. It's also a good companion to Steve's Top 20 Freeware and Top 10 Commercial Applications for S60 Fifth Edition.
In the final part of our three part preview of the Samsung Omnia HD (i8910) Rafe looks at the GPS and web functionality, explains TouchWiz, and comments on the device's S60 integration, before drawing some overall conclusions. Part 1 of the preview covered the general design and hardware details of the phone and part 2 covered the multimedia elements of the phone.
I wanted to introduce Vesuvian software, who have built a new portfolio of Nokia 5800 applications using Java. Now, Java and the 5800 are traditionally seen as awkward bedfellows, but these are touch-enabled, work full screen and rather well. And they're all free. See Hack Proof Password manager, Notes on the Phone, Touch Calc (a scientific calculator), ScratchPad, XpressDrums (a fabulously intuitive drum machine/sequencer) and SuDoKu SoftTouch. Oh, and if you use a S60 3rd Edition phone, then most of these apps, plus a few more, are also available for your device, too. Enjoy.
Now firmly ensconced back in Scotland, Ewan lets his hair down (literally) to spend some time with the new Nokia E75. Thanks for the positive comments on the 5800 video diaries - this is the first in a series of (roughly) four diary entries featuring the E75, in similar irreverent vein. Roll the credits!
After much delay, the most anticipated third party N-Gage game Worms World Party is out now on the N-Gage platform. The centrepiece of WWP is of course its online multiplayer mode for up to four players, and it becomes the first third party game to offer such a mode on N-Gage. To download WWP, go to your phone's N-Gage application, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now", or alternatively you can find it in the "All Games" section. The official trailer is below, you can see screenshots on AAN's WWP game page, and you can see a list of N-Gage-compatible phones on the AAN FAQ page.
It's another weak Gameloft mobile game conversion for N-Gage, I'm afraid, with Real Football 2009 not even making the 50% score mark. Ewan reckons that despite some nice graphics here and there, it falls down on default control keys, on gameplay, on sound effects and on responsiveness. Still, I guess you can always try the demo for yourself? Comments welcome!
It may be early days for this variant of S60, and of course many S60 3rd Edition commercial applications work fine too (though they won't be optimised for the new screen resolution(s) and touch), but if you own a compatible smartphone, which applications should you be willing to dip into your wallet for? Which are the best, in terms of both quality and value? It's telling that in these days of freeware and Open Source software, I had to dig relatively hard to come up with a Top 10 at all, but hopefully more serious commercial apps will be along in due course. Comments welcome and I'll (of course) keep the Top 10 regularly updated.
In All About Symbian Insight 65 (AAS Podcast 123) we welcome Ewan back from the USA and tell him about a few additions to the AAS team. We round up some of this week's news including Yahoo Mobile Home, Nokia Messaging 1.1, Nokia Point and Find Beta, Real Football for N-Gage, Nokia E71x and more. You can listen to AAS Insight 65 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Although the ZOMGitsCJ site might have an unusual name, don't let that fool you as it takes phones very seriously. The site's owner CJ has put together an absolutely ginormous sprawling epic review of the E75 with lots and lots and lots of pictures of the phone itself plus screenshots of the interface and various applications. The verdict? Well, you'll have to see for yourself...
Yup, it's the weekly link to the reading-fest that is The Carnival of the Mobilists. Number 168, to be precise, hosted at 'mjelly'! Happy reading.
Interesting to see Nokia still developing their Friend View application in the light of the elephant in the room, Google Latitude (though as even that can't seem to get traction, what hope has Friend View got? - discuss). The latest build of Friend View has background notification features, in that you can leave it lurking away in the background and it will ping you when a friend gets within a customisable distance from your current location. See this Beta Labs Friend View post for the full explanation and some handy shortcuts.
