When your application is blacklisted because it duplicates the functions on the phone, something has gone wrong, thinks Ewan Spence, who considers the issue of a single monolithic app store, and tells why he thinks the Symbian way is better.
Google Maps for S60 (and also the UIQ and Java versions) just got more accurate, with news that Google has significantly improved its cell tower location algorithms for its 'My location' feature ("far more accurate") to take into account tower coverage areas - hmmm... I'd assumed that these were already taken into account.... No matter, Google Maps is free, as always, at m.google.com, and this will help anyone without a GPS in their phone or in areas of poor sky visibility. (via Google Mobile)
As you know, AAS's guest Nick Anstee is now well over a week into his 'exclusive' Nokia N96 experience. Seeing as production N96s seem to be a couple of weeks away, this is as close as most of us will get for a while. Below are more thoughts from Nick, along with an invitation.
Another trip away, another opportunity to really test out Nokia Maps, here in its latest v2.0 version with updated maps. And it all went horribly wrong, with navigation completely unusable. Read on for more and to comment if you've experienced similar problems. [update] From the comments so far, it seems that map data for some countries is simply broken.
Live streaming video from a S60 handset is something that only Ewan (on the AAS team) has any real world experience of - so we set him to compare the latest versions from the two main contenders, head to head. Qik vs Flixwagon. Ewan helpfully provides a couple of live-ish example videos too, so that you get the idea.
Did you know that 8GB microSD cards can be a lot slower than 6GB ones? No, neither did, I, so I was very interested to read Ricky Cadden's detailed investigation into the issue.
Quite scandalous really, my sympathies go out to S60-theme-supremo PiZero in his tale of woe with Handango and with the criminal fraternity. Summary: people are re-selling his free themes for profit - you'd better read the full story over at PiZero's site. How on earth do these rip-off-merchant's minds work?
The 6220 Classic was officially released several months ago, but in real life there seem to have been severe supply problems in many countries including Finland, and it's actually been relatively difficult to get one compared to other recent S60 models. However, the Finnish online electronics shop Verkkokauppa now has the 6220 Classic listed as in stock for the first time, which possibly signifies the end of the shortages.
A quick plug for our sister site, All About N-Gage, in which the number of listed 'unofficial' games has doubled in the last couple of days, as Tzer2 has seriously got to work, with new N-Gage games 'Prince of Persia Zero' and 'Million Dollar Poker' being announced, and with Nokia themselves being scored in an editorial assessing how well (or badly) N-Gage has been coming along.
I'm sure some of you will be wondering about the software supplied by Samsung for the i8510 CD - it turns out it's a tweaked version of Nokia PC Suite. There are several things worth noting though, so I sat down to grab screenshots and give you a quick walkthrough of PC Studio - Samsung's way.
Just another quick note from Nick Anstee that the N96 has now been added to Nokia's Mac support site, meaning that Multimedia Transfer and iSync are now a reality for Mac-owning N96 purchasers.
Guest writer Nick Anstee is pleasantly surprised by the audio quality from Nokia's latest Bluetooth accessory - the pair of MD-7W speakers. Here's his full review. We hope you're enjoying seeing Nick's writings - if you have acquired something interesting that you'd like to vent about in a formal review, do get in touch!
A quick pointer to a little web-based game from Nokia's Maps team, over on their 'Mapsters' mini-site. You are asked to pinpoint cities on a world map against the clock, with prizes of Nokia 6210s and navigation licenses.
Whoa. Some UIQ 3 news? I'm stunned. It's good news too, with the remote TV/video-watching solution SlingPlayer now available for all UIQ 3-based smartphones. You'll have to buy a SlingBox too, of course... (via MIR) Anyone out there got the kit and inclination to find out how well it works?
Not written from a Symbian viewpoint, but Michael Mace's latest missive, about smartphone/PDA ecosystems, is worth a read if you're a developer or if you're connected to a manufacturer. My initial reaction (again) is that Nokia's Download! system has the potential to be just as game-changing as the Apple example quoted - and it utterly defeats me why Nokia hasn't poured resources into this area.
