Nokia today announced the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic; it's a S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 phone with a music and multimedia focus. It features a slim design (12mm thick and just 55cc in volume), music-focussed hardware (playback controls, 3.5mm audio jack, 4GB memory card) and software ('Say and Play' enabled music player, Nokia Music Store access and Comes with Music compatibility), an enhanced homescreen (Contacts Bar and Shortcut Bar), rich connectivity options (3.5G and WLAN), US charging and a 3.2 megapixel camera. The 5630 will be available, in selected markets, in the second quarter, at a price of €199 before taxes and subsidies. Read on for more and a video.
The BBC have just released a full, standalone (i.e. not Web-hosted) version of their hugely popular iPlayer for S60 5th Edition, specifically for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. This runs slickly and includes the 'Download' feature first seen on the likes of the N96, where you can grab DRM-ed programmes for watching in the next month or so, offline. To get the new version of iPlayer you need to go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/iplayer.wgz in Web on your phone. Read on for screenshots and extra comment.
In All About Symbian Insight 59 (AAS Podcast 112) we talk about the recent release of Google Maps 3.0 and its inclusion of the Latitude location service. We follow up with a general discussion of 'people location services' and discuss their implementation, utility and surrounding privacy issues. In the last third of the podcast we preview the forthcoming Mobile World Congress event.
Google today launched the beta of its new Google Sync service for mobile phones. The service, which is free, allows you to synchronise data between your phone and Google's web services. This, for example, allows you to synchronise the contacts on your phone with the contacts data used by Google's GMail. All recent S60 and UIQ phones are supported through the use of SyncML. However currently only the synching of contacts is supported. Read on for more details.
Nokia Maps 3.0, currently in beta, has received its second major release. The new beta extends compatibility to popular S60 3.1 (3rd Edition Feature Pack 1) devices such as the Nokia N95 and Nokia E71. The new version adds support for map rotation, more shortcut keys, better 3D support, a 'point me' function for saved landmarks and fixes a larger number of bugs. Based on my initial experience, I would add that the performance is improved and the application is much more stable. You are now also able to synchronise routes (in addition to favourites/landmarks) between Nokia Maps and Maps on Ovi. Read on for screens and more detail.
The first major firmware update for the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music, version 20.0.0.12, is now available, adding camera photo geotagging, full device search and (slightly) faster operation. You can update either using PC Suite or over-the-air (OTA). The 5800 does have user data preservation, which means your data should be retained during the update, but it is still advisable to do a back up before carrying out the update. Read on for more, including a special reset code that you might need...
Our cousin site once-removed, All About iPhone, hosts this week's Carnival of the Mobilists, number 160, with some excellent generic mobile reading to start your week...
Although described as not yet 'optimised' for S60 5th Edition/Touch, the popular file utility Y-Browser at least works at 90% capacity on the Nokia 5800 and N97 now, see version 0.89 at the venerable Dr Jukka's web site, along with new versions of the companion plug-ins. Just thought you'd like to know that. Especially if you're trying to get some S60 miscellany files out of your 5800's Inbox like me...
Regulars to AAS will know that I hate DRM (Digital Rights Management). Not because it stops me getting stuff for free, though that would undoubtedly be some people's reason, but because it gets in the way of how I want to use content that I've paid for. See below for a tale of woe - I was trying to give Nokia Music Store one last chance and it let me down yet again. Oh, and did I mention that I hate DRM?....
Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP), a networking organistion for developers and developer organisations, is a holding another of its Mobile Jam sessions in Barcelona on the last day of the Mobile World Congress. The event allows developer to get together with their peers and talk about issues impacting the mobile industry and mobile development.
Last week Betavine, Vodafone's open mobile developer community, launched Widget competition. In addition to a first prize of £20,000 the winner will receive promotion of their widget in a Vodafone market, potentially reaching millions of users. Vodafone is using the Opera Widget Manager as the widget development platform and asks that developers target the N95, N96, N78 and 6210.
I often want to subscribe to a podcast that's not in the official Podcasting directory. At the moment, I have to bring up the RSS feed's address on the screen, write it out by hand on a piece of paper and then type it all in again into the Podcasting application. However, there's a quicker way, involving copy and paste. In this tutorial, I show how to subscribe to podcasts in Nokia's Podcasting system without typing a single podcast URL.
That's just what AAS regular kflyer has been doing for the last few years. No PC needed, just a Series 40 (and then S60) phone, writing articles, managing Wordpress, answering email and so on. Opera Mini is one particular star of the show here, but Miyuru also deserves credit for sticking at such an ambitious task in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In this article, he describes how he's been able to manage his blog using just his phone.
Tzer2 has ripped into Gameloft's Asphalt 4 for N-Gage (on S60) over on our sister site All About NGage, criticising its lack of innovation and jerky frame rates. The title is even described as feeling "dangerously close to shovelware", with the developers being "lazy". Despite the above, there's plenty in Asphalt 4 for getting an instant arcade racing gaming fix and doubtless the title will sell as well as its predecessor.
