Nokia's 'Tube' already has great battery life. But Tzer2 wants to go to the max and has penned an excellent 'how to' on maximising the battery life on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic... and on just about any other comparable phone, for that matter. Some great (if sometimes extreme) suggestions here.
Carnival of the Mobilists 159 is now out over at the Mobile Broadband Blog, but of course my eagerness to link to it has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that two of my articles are featured.....(!) As always, a good source of general reading, especially if you're snowed in, like most in the UK today...
It's Digital Chocolate's second N-Gage title and one which again plays things very much by their own rules and style guide rather than Nokia's. Ewan Spence has been whiling away the last week playing it and finds it a good introduction to the puzzle for newcomers, while probably not appealing to hard core sudoku fans...
In All About Symbian Insight 58 (AAS Podcast 111) we talk about the recent release of Quickoffice version 6, Rafe reports back from Betavine's birthday bash, and Steve talks about T9Nav. The team then moves on to discuss Samsung S60 application compatibility, followed by a few thoughts on the capacitive versus resistive touch debate.
Nokia's Podcasting application for S60 phones has some default podcast directories included, but these aren't very comprehensive and only include a tiny number of BBC feeds. However, if you add the BBC's online podcast directory to the app you can browse all current podcasts and subscribe to any of them with a single click. Adding the directory is very VERY easy to do, almost the same as adding a bookmark in a browser. See below for more details on how to do it (this should work on all current Nokia S60 phones including the 5800 and N95) ...
If you own (or have been eyeing up) a Nokia N95 or N82 (or similar, e.g. the 6220 Classic) but also hanker for iPhone multi-touch and App Store goodness, then you might be interested in an editorial of mine over at All About iPhone (still no relation!) in which I muse on the possibility of letting both a camera-centric Nokia smartphone and Apple iPod Touch play to their strengths in order to complement each other nicely. Please use the comment thread over on AAI etc. if you violently disagree(!)
Bought a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic? Before you do anything, read All About Symbian's guide to your first steps with the phone. Tzer2 has written the article with ordinary people in mind and tried to keep jargon to a minimum, but hopefully even advanced phone users should find something useful in it.
Guess these are official now, seeing as they're up on Nokia's web site. The E71 page now includes a Flash gallery showcasing the new red/silver and black colour choices. The online shop still limits purchase options to silver or white, though that will change once stock is received. (via BGR)
More stats out recently, this time from ABI Research, showing worldwide phone market share for 2008, just about the grandest metric of all, even if it does include devices right down to bargain basement level. Nokia tops the list again, with a world share of 38.6%, while Samsung reached 16.2%. Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG are hovering at around 8%, with newbies RIM and Apple getting to 1.9% and 1.1% respectively. I wonder where we'll be at the end of 2009? Predictions on a postcard....
The strongest freeware contenders in the S60 world are quite well known. But, as you may know, there are certificate issues on occasion when installing this freeware on a Samsung INNOV8 or i7110. There are also issues to do with using S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2. In this feature, I look at ten top picks for new Samsung INNOV8 users that won't cost a penny and are also guaranteed to install and work properly.
Not that anyone's actually been hit by the nuisance SMS exploit the 'Curse of Silence' yet, since most networks block these deliberately malformed messages, but should anyone fear being sent one by a prankster, there's an official Nokia 'cleaning' tool available now. Info and download over at Nokia's web site. (via Vaibhav)
The CEO of Research in Motion, Jim Balsillie, has admitted to the Washington Post that the recent release of the Blackberry Storm was buggy, and they knew it. Pushed out to make sure it was in the shops for Black Friday – one of America's biggest day for consumer electronics sales – after the planned shipping date in October was missed. And he ominously warned that shipping with imperfect software was the future of electronics. He's right – and let me explain why.
Symbian OS office stalwart Quickoffice has just gone live with its long awaited version 6.0, incorporating password protected documents, ZIP file support, word count in Quickword (finally!), Quicksheet improvements that include Excel 2007 chart viewing and a 'Go to cell' function, plus a much improved file manager interface. There's also a new version of the Quickoffice-written Adobe Reader. Details, screenshots and link below. [updated for upgrade pricing]
Fring, the all-in-one instant messaging and VoIP messaging application, has added Last.fm streaming to its list of functions. It allows you to stream music, based on a key word search, from the Last.fm service. Last.fm makes a note of what you listen to (and your likes and dislikes) and customises the stream to your personal tastes.
Nokia Experts, which is authored by AAS friend Matt Miller, is a new site which will focus on Nokia's high-end mobile device offerings. There's a review of the 5800 on the site and I'm told a launch competition is coming shortly. Matt also blogs for ZDNet on their Smartphone and Cellphone blog, which we've linked to regularly over the last few years.
