The upcoming Ovi Store application is due to replace Nokia's existing Download!, MOSH and Software Market services, and there has been speculation about what else it might absorb. However, Nokia has now gone on record to say the N-Gage application will be kept as a separate service, at least for the moment, though they also said that their medium term goal is to "converge everything into a single distribution channel".
Just a note that The Phones Show 77 is now live, with a discussion of TV and video for free on your phone (demoed on the Nokia 5800), demos of five musician's aids on the Apple iPhone and a declaration of a winner in the video editing race for handling phone-shot MP4 video. You can subscribe to the QVGA or hi-res VGA RSS feeds (iTunes versions here and here) if you want to catch the show regularly.
Here's the final batch of high resolution images from Mobile World Congress 2009 from Rafe. Immaculately done as usual, click through any image for the full size JPG. Featured here are the Nokia E55 (compact qwerty keyboard), the Nokia E75 (side-sliding qwerty) and Nokia 5630 XpressMusic (mid-range music phone, with 'Say and Play'). Enjoy. See the comments threads on the individual galleries.
TextArt is a new 'generative' text-to-MMS applet from Nokia, ostensibly for the E71 but working on other qwerty devices such as the E63 and E90, I'm sure. It's Java-based, but don't let that put you off. Eye-candy, to be sure, but cool. (via NC)
The full version, 1.0, of the S60 5th Edition SDK is now available for download from Forum Nokia (previously available was version 0.9). Changes include support for keypad-off display in the emulator, support for additional languages, a start-up progress indicator for the emulator and fixes for a number issues and deficiencies. A number of new plug-ins are also now available for the SDK.
One great camera phone produces an image that's full of detail. Another great camera phone produces an image with similar detail but totally different colouring - but which is 'right'? In this postscript to my Camera Nitty Gritty series of features, I explain that 'right' is somewhat subjective and that what you see from a digital camera is always heavily influenced by what the manufacturer thinks you'll prefer to see.
Would you be happy if you were told by someone how much you had to charge for your application? Not in a gentle “perhaps you should try this” way , but in a “choose one of four prices, no variance.” It's not something that I think developers would take to kindly, but Research in Motion have set up a bank of fixed prices for their soon to arrive App World, with a minimum charge of $2.99 per application.
Opera, the Norwegian browser and web technology company, today introduced Fingertouch, a technology which aims to make it easier to interact with a web page on touchscreen devices. On such devices, especially those with smaller screens, when selectable page elements (e.g. links or form elements) are grouped close together on a web page, it can be difficult to accurately select the right element. Opera's Fingertouch looks to solve this problem by providing visual feedback and 'zooming in' on the clustered elements. Read on for more and demo video.
Amazon's portable ebook reader, the Kindle, is in its second hardware iteration, and has now expanded out from the dedicated reader into a software platform. At the moment the Kindle and the Apple iPhone are the only devices in the ecosystem, but you have to expect more platforms to join the party. Here's why.
Forum Nokia recently published an implementation of the card games Solitaire as their latest 
S60 5th Edition code example. For consumers it is a nice bit of extra freeware. For developers it is an example of an application fully optimised for touch; it demonstrates handling of pointer events of custom made UI controls and tactile feedback.
Fancy plugging your Nokia N95 8GB (or similar) into a battery-powered portable projector and having your own mobile cinema? Thought so. James Burland (Nokia Creative and iPhone buff) has been reviewing the Optoma Pico PK101, using it with both N95 8GB and iPhone, and delivers his verdict here in both text and video form (the video bit is also embedded here below the break).
When the N97 was announced at Nokia World last year, some 8 months ahead of its retail release, it was clear that the software was a work in progress. At MWC, it was equally clear that progress had been made. For example, Nokia were showing off a number of fully operational homescreen widgets, including one for Facebook. A new addition, which caught my attention, was the implementation of kinetic scrolling (finger flick) in the browser, which improves its usability. Read on for (extensive) further discussion and example video.
Ah. Merely days after dismissing Fring (VoIP, Skype, other IM, etc) as not ready for inclusion in my 'top freeware for the Nokia 5800' piece, the guys in Israel go and formally release it! C'est la vie, and you can be sure that Fring will make the next iteration of my roundup. In the meantime, here's Fring's official blog announcing availability. And there's a video after the break. What are you waiting for, go download...
Nokia have released Monopoly, Here and Now: The World Edition for the N-Gage platform. Bringing the classic property trading board game into the next generation gaming platform, the EA published title allows up to four players to play on a board populated not by streets, but by the major cities of the world.
Even if you're an old S60 hand, there are some unique aspects of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and S60 5th Edition which need a little pause for thought. Here's my take on how to get optimised on the 5800's home screen, from realising all the additional shortcuts available to populating the new Contacts bar. Which home screen view do you prefer? [See also our complete list of Nokia 5800 tutorials]
