The N79, which Rafe and I have played with at length (though admittedly not day to day), has received a truly huge firmware update to v11.049, with hundreds (I kid you not) of tweaks and bug fixes. Kudos to S60 Inside for getting the first detailed changelog online. As usual, if this isn't on Nokia Software Update yet, it soon will be, for non-network-crippled N79s, at least.
Yes, yes, MOAP is being rolled into S60 as well in the future. But in the meantime, hardware continues to be released. Launched yesterday were the NTT DOCOMO PRIME series SH-03A, which is made by Sharp, has a touch screen and an 8 megapixel camera, plus the STYLE series F-02A, which is made by Fujitsu and is fully waterproof.
I've never known Nokia's programmers to get so productive. In addition to the news items below, we also now have a brand new version of their threaded SMS Contacts add-on, Conversation, plus a big new version their exercise-tracking tool Step Counter and a new technology demo, Handwriting Calculator, which runs on (among other platforms) S60 5th Edition and demonstrates symbol recognition and interpretation (video embedded below). Follow the links for the explanatory Beta Labs changelogs.
Continuing Nokia Beta Labs current splurge, Nokia Audiobooks has today had a big update, with a simpler installation procedure, wider compatibility, UI improvements (including a clock), different time intervals in the sleep timer, plus a better audiobook manager with tighter integration with a PC, better audio book 'ripping', plus the usual bug fixes.
Following on from Rafe's detailed (p)review articles on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (we labelled them 'preview' because the firmware wasn't final), I've been testing a 5800 with production (9th Dec 2008) firmware, specifically looking at video and photo capture. We'll have much more on this first S60 5th Edition handset in the coming weeks, of course, but see the example widescreen footage and embedded photos below.
Congratulations to Mark from The Nokia Blog for his engagement, live blogged via Ping.fm, which now has a mobile client (ping.fm/m/login/). What this gives us is a way of updating a mountain of social networks (Twitter, Facebook, etc) by filling out one mobile form, which is pretty cool and worth bookmarking.
After a little downtime and turnaround, Share on Ovi seems to have had its login system well and truly integrated with the generic Nokia Account system used in some other parts of Ovi. There have been some glitches of course - at least one reader emailed in with a story of woe and I've had some Apache server errors - but things generally seem to be working. Interestingly, on the Account page, there's a section on 'Subscribed Services' (screenshotted below), showing the integration between Ovi (Maps, Contacts, Calendar, Files), Share on Ovi, Friend View, Nokia Chat and My Nokia.
It's possibly the best game on N-Gage - ever. Or so we reckon, with Ewan Spence giving Metal Gear Solid Mobile a much-earned 90% score and a Megagame award on All About N-Gage. From the atmosphere to innovative gameplay and plenty of surprises along the way, MGS Mobile is solid stealth combat and fully worthy of its place in the Metal Gear Solid canon.
Vodafone has release their own Last.FM client (in conjunction with their Vodafone Music product no doubt). Available directly from Last.FM (and thanks to CJ for the heads-up), the application is geared towards the scrobbling side of Last.FM, ie letting the web server know what you are listening to, and to recommend other artists you might like. It doesn't have an option to stream music, perhaps that's coming in a later version.
In a splurge of activity over at Nokia Beta Labs in the last day or so, here's a roundup of news: Nokia Email has graduated from Beta Labs to become Nokia Messaging, though the full announced functionality (e.g. IM) still isn't in place. Nokia Communication Center 2.0 has graduated and is now part of the latest PC Suite (7.1.18). Finally, Enhanced Calculator has been 'archived' and will at some point be reworked and brought into devices - meanwhile you can still grab it as-is if you like.
Image Exchange is here! A new beta application from Nokia, promising to make browsing and sharing images easy and fun is available from the Beta Labs. Image Exchange is more than just an uploader to a service (such as Flickr or Ovi Share), but an experiment in tying the handset gallery and the on-line gallery much closer together. Think of it as one pool of pictures constantly synchronised between your mobile and the web server, reflecting changes and interactions instantly. More information and comment below.
In AAS's latest beginner's tutorial, I explain how to use Mobitubia, a popular third party video tool to archive your YouTube favourites for later offline viewing and as part of a long term archive. You'll never be bored on a train journey again...
Ewan's back from his travels and takes the time to get set up with third party email app ProfiMail, now into a push-email-like IMAP-ready version 3. With the very nature of email changing and with Nokia's Ovi Message about to hit, is version 3 of ProfiMail still worth stumping up for?
Epocware's Handy Safe is no longer the only secure database with a synced PC version - SBSH just announced SafeWallet Pro, which comes with a 'PC companion'. The launch information and a screenshot are below the break, but your comments welcome if you want to give this a try. Note that SafeWallet Pro is currently on special offer, at $15.
Now this is what you call a long term review. One year of hard use and over 3000 photos later, Eric's Corner presents a long, detailed look back at how the Nokia N82 has stood up to every day life. Along similar lines, did you know that since July 2006, I've taken over 1,300 videos with my Nokia N93 and since January 2005, I've (apparently) taken over 8,000 photos with the 6630, N70, N93 etc. Rafe calls me an 'edge case'. Hmmm....
