Twice from Herocraft
The latest time waster from developer powerhouse Herocraft is an amazing logic game and a memory training tool in one. Read on for an extract from the press release and a video.
Recent News - Page 163
European Union pushes for roaming price caps on data
Lots of people now have flat-rate data plans for their phones, but these plans usually aren't flat-rate when you're in a foreign country. Using data while abroad has traditionally been very expensive, but the EU is now trying to introduce caps on data roaming charges. Under the plan, data roaming charges would be capped from July 2009 at 1 euro per megabyte, falling to 50 cents per megabyte by July 2011. These are caps so phone networks could charge less of course, but they could not charge more.
Planes, Trains and the Nokia 5800 - Ewan across the USA - part 7
Yes, Ewan's heading off for a three week tour of the USA, taking in social media and gaming events. To try and add a little Symbian spice to proceedings, we insisted he take the Nokia 5800 with him, to really try it out 'on the road'. This is the seventh of his regular video reports, embedded below, letting us know how he's getting on with S60 5th Edition and the 5800. In this part, Ewan looks at the phone's camera, from the point of view of still photos and video, finding that it really struggles indoors and in low light, plus he finds the Camera application's interface less than seamless.
DreamLife beta testers needed
DreamSpring, the guys behind some of the leading UIQ titles, have turned their attention to S60 (including 5th Edition) and have contacted us to announce a beta program for DreamLife, their integrated Calendar and Contacts system. There's no mention of getting a free reg code at the end of the beta, but this is probably taken for granted if you provide useful feedback.
5000 N-Gage game activation codes being given away on Need For Speed website
If you go to the official Need For Speed Undercover N-Gage site, you'll see a competition section labelled "coming soon". Try clicking on the words "coming soon", and you'll see a contest which tells you how to get free activation codes for Pro Series Golf, Mile High Pinball or Reset Generation. According to the n-gage.com NFSU game page, the code you require is NE3D 4 5P33D, though the prank form says NE3D 4 S433D. (via mavilacivert on the Arena forums) (UPDATE: It appears that the competition has been taken down as the "coming soon" link no longer works. We suspect they activated the link too early, as a lot of people couldn't get the codes to work.)
Nokia's vision for the N97 and a new UI tour
Below the break is the HQ, wide-screen version of the latest video demo/promo for the upcoming N97, now showing some additional screens and transitions. All pretty convincing, though of course the proof will be in the pudding, as we say in the UK! Watch this space.
AAS Podcast #121: Nokia at the Game Developers Conference
In a GDC-inspired AAS podcast special, Ewan sits down with Jakko Kaidesoja (Nokia's VP of Games, Services and Software) to discuss the current status of the N-Gage ecosystem. It's a wide-ranging discussion and there's a LOT of meat in here, despite it only clocking in at 16 minutes - a must-listen for anyone remotely interested in N-Gage.
The ill-fated 'Red' UK Nokia 5800s finally get v20 firmware
Just a note that if you're the owner of a UK-bought 'red' Nokia 5800 and have been champing at the bit for a bit of v20 firmware action, it's now online for you, bringing faster operation, Search, geotagging in Camera and more. See Nokia Software Update or check your on-device firmware updater with *#0000# etc.
PyS60 gains touch support
It's definitely not a 'formal' release, but anyone with a penchant for fiddling with Python applications on S60 should note that there's now a build of Python for S60 that includes touch support. There's also an example 'Scribble' application, plus extra modules and easier installation. You can get PyS60 v1.9.3 here and here's hoping that a formal all-encompassing v2.0 release isn't far away. See the full change log here.
Building a phone and where Symbian Foundation fits in
There's more from Symbian Foundation's David Wood here, talking about the steps needed to get to a working SF phone, including a couple of the clearest 'picture speaks 1000 words' diagrams I've seen in a long time.
Nokia explain Comes With Music in.... song?
Ho yes. At SXSW last week, after talking to Ewan in our podcast, Nokia's Molly Schonthal joined Chanse Arrington and Cathy Brook to ham it up at the VIP Lounge, singing (well, more like talking) all about Comes With Music. See the video below!
Nokia and Mac - working beautifully? - an update!
In a follow up to my popular series, from August 2008, investigating the practicalities of a S60 smartphone owner switching to an Apple Mac as the desktop counterpart, I report back after a couple of months of living the Mac life for real. What improvements have their been to the software available and does using a Mac and OS X now offer a more seamless smartphone experience than a PC and Windows?
Rita's Top 15 S60 Games
With GDC in full swing now, it's topical for top S60 lady Rita El Khoury to run down, in detail, her top 15 games for S60 3rd Edition. There's a nice mix of free and commercial games here, genuinely something for everyone. Enjoy.
Astraware Boardgames and Solitaire at $5 each until end of March
Astraware is selling Astraware Boardgames and Astraware Solitaire at the reduced price of $5 each until the end of this month. The games are available for Symbian S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3, and can be purchased at the reduced price from astraware.com: click here for their S60v3 section, and click here for their UIQ3 section. (Astraware's parent company Handmark is also having a sale until the 29th of March, with a "buy one, get one free" offer using the discount code "DEMAND".)
Uno-esque card game Mau Mau is now free on Symbian S60 1st, 2nd, 3rd and UIQ2
Long-time readers may remember we gave Lonely Cat Games' card game Mau Mau quite a positive review, and for those who don't know it's basically Uno played with normal cards. Well, it now appears that the game is available free of charge from LCG's website for all S60 editions and UIQ2 as well. Just download the file from the download page, then head on over to the free unlock code page and use your phone's IMEI. (UPDATE: Apparently there's the old annoying "expired certificate" problem with this file, but you should be able to get round this by altering your phone's date settings to March 2008 instead of March 2009. You can then alter the dates back to normal after installation.)
