The arcade racing game Asphalt 4: Elite Racing is now available on the next gen N-Gage platform. To see it, go to the Showroom tab on the far right, select "Options", then "Update Now". It should be visible in the "Latest Games" section, or alternatively click on "Available Games". (Also worth noting that the prequel, Asphalt 3, is still available on N-Gage and has been reduced in price to 7 euros.)
If you've been wowed by the 'find things as you type' technology shown off in the forthcoming Palm Pre, note that you've been able to do this for ages on S60 with a third party utility, SkyeQuiKey. But now there's a new challenger, T9Nav, claiming more functions and more speed. Matching contacts, bookmarks, applications, web services and more all by typing in T9-style on the standby screen, and currently free, it sounds too good to be true. I investigate in my review of T9Nav.
The Nokia N95 8GB has now had its v31 firmware update, too. This (the full ROM, around 130MB) went live today for unbranded phones. Estimated changes are noted below the break. The usual backup and sync precautions apply - the N95 8GB does not have UDP (user data preservation).
In All About Symbian Insight 56 (AAS Podcast 109) Steve, Ewan and Rafe discuss the news of the two N79 variants (Eco and Active), touch on the LGPL license option for Qt before discussing hands-on experience of the Nokia E63. In the second half of the show we talk about the issues around music DRM and consider the perfect mobile user experience.
According to a report on mobiletoday.co.uk, Sony has refused to let Sony Ericsson use the PlayStation brand on its phones. Sony Ericsson (a separate company jointly owned by Sony and Ericsson) apparently asked Sony for permission to use the "PlayStation" name as a sub-brand on their devices, in much the same way they have already used Sony's "Walkman", "Cybershot" and "Bravia". Sony said no, allegedly. (via Eurogamer.net)
Nokia and Securitas today announced a collaboration that will bring mobile services for personal security and safety to Nokia's S60 platform. The service bundle, Securitas Safe-2-Go, consists of four components: Assist (security alert), Find (locate person), Zone (SMS boundary alerts) and Friends (general friend locator). Safe-2-Go will launch in Sweden in the first half of 2009, with other European markets following later in the year. Read on for more.
I can't resist linking to this. Just about my favourite version of Tetris, all programmed in Python for S60 (amazingly) and working on almost all modern S60 devices (no need for graphics acceleration here) in this, the very latest version 1.60. It seems that Jomtris really is paving the way for other heavyweight games and apps all written in Python (a modern day object-oriented equivalent to Psion's old OPL, if readers remember this).
Our smartphones have a lot of features in them, yet this is causing a divide. When we as power users look at a new device, we're expecting our favourite features to be there, yet this depth of power can be daunting to new users. A survey from Mformation (see here on the BBC), linked to earlier by Tzer2, reports high numbers of users having problems with setting up a new phone and accessing the available services. Read on for my take on the issue...
Roll up, roll up, for the latest Carnival of the Mobilists, no. 157, and your start of the week reading....
You all know my stance on Symbian OS malware being virtually impossible and a non-story. The same doesn't quite apply to older versions of Symbian OS and S60, i.e. for phones running variants of S60 2nd Edition, up until the N70 and N90. Malware is still very rare and impossible to catch if you don't manually accept it, but it's worth noting that if you know any paranoid S60 2nd Edition owners, you might like to point them towards Exovirusstop, which has given up the fight to sell something that's not really needed and has made its 'Antivirus' software free.
BBC News has highlighted a survey that found most people considered setting up their phone to be as difficult as setting up a bank account. 95% of those questioned also said they would try more mobile services if the setup process was easier, which does imply there's lots of room for growth in the phone ecosystem. However, 61% of people would not use a phone app if they couldn't work out how to use it straight away.
In Part 1 of my Nokia E63 review, I covered the hardware, the UI and Email. In this, part 2, I look at the E63's multimedia capabilities, I look in detail at how the bundled Files on Ovi subscription works in practice and I sum up the device - never has the term 'workhorse' been so accurately applied to a smartphone. The E63 is terrific value though, at the end of the day, with the cost considerations dominating our opinion of it.
UI junkies might like to read over my diatribe over on All About iPhone (distant cousin of AAS) on how Cupertino's finest could learn a valuable lesson from Nokia and S60. NB. I'll leave off the comments thread here, as there's one on the original article on AAI...
Another week, another member of the AAS team succumbs to 5800 XpressMusic and S60 5th Edition fever. Tzer2 now has the touch-screen phone and here presents a look at how suitable it is for gaming in general and for N-Gage in particular. Maybe it's not up to the job and we'll have to wait for the N97 after all?
Although not listed on all Nokia support sites, the 5800 XpressMusic seems to have gotten its iSync profile at last, meaning that you can sync it officially to a Mac. Screenshot and links below.
