TV on the move has many solutions, and one of them that we've looked at before is the Slingplayer. They are currently developing a new UIQ client, but the problem the team is having is that the people with UIQ devices aren't matching up with people who have Slingboxes. So they're putting out a general call for beta testers of the upcoming UIQ client. Can you help?
Missing Sync, a sync tool for Mac OS X, is now available as a beta preview for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 phones. Missing Sync for Symbian can be used to synchronize / copy contacts (Apple Address Book), calendar entries (iCal), photos (iPhoto), videos (Quick Time) and music (iTunes) to and from the phone. The current version is a beta preview and as such should be used with caution.
With talk of handset compatibility and the mobile internet going around, dev.mobi's report from earlier this month makes timely reading. Over a period of a few weeks, some 120 handsets were examined on various operators to determine if they had a "proper" Wap 2.0 mobile browser and the screen resolution offered. The results show 82% of handsets are fully mobile capable with a good user experience, and 72% of devices have screens of 240x320 pixels or more.
Rafe and Ewan are joined this week by Ricky Cadden as they take on the week's news and hot topics (recorded before Monday's announcements, but don't let that put you off) in Insight 29, a.k.a. AAS podcast 80. They cover the 'Evening with S60' in Boston, the LG KT610 clamshell, iGoogle and the new Google Reader for S60, Cloud Computing and Social Services, plus more N-Gage musings. Oh and they covered some new update from an American manufacturer in Cupertino...
Chinese Checkers? Rafe and I threw up our hands in horror: sounds complicated, we thought. Let Ewan review it! It turns out that the game itself isn't difficult and, moreover, is superbly implemented, with an intuitive and colourful interface. Here's the full review of Five Deers' Chinese Checkers, which gets a solid thumbs up on all fronts.
Echoing many of my own thoughts in recent months, Nokia Duck has come out with an N95 retrospective, looking at the device (in video, text and pics) with latest firmware with fresh eyes, concluding that "The N95 has metamorphosised from over-priced geek fodder into a reasonably-priced quality product. After a year and a half on the market it's no longer the cutting-edge headline maker it once was, but that glamour has been replaced by competency." Well worth a read.
The simulation game Sims 2: Pets has now gone live on N-Gage, you can download it directly to your phone from the N-Gage application's showroom. Naturally we'll be bringing you a review in due course. Now, where did we put that dog lead?
Do we need all these different models and form factor variants of smartphones coming out? Ewan thinks so, arguing for variety from a ecological viewpoint. E71 or iPhone? - plenty of room for both in the marketplace, and rightly so, according to Ewan.
Over at All About N-Gage, we're wondering when the Next Generation Gaming Platform is going to fully launch? With the initial roll-out of S60 v3 Feature Pack 2 phones not shipping with the N-Gage Client, phones aiming for a large user base, including the currently available N78 and impending N96 and Nokia 5320, and no sign of a compatible N-Gage client, the question is whether these devices will have the client in firmware before 2009. (Update: the official N-Gage blog has just announced the first FP1 phones with embedded N-Gage apps have begun to ship, starting with the N81. No word on FP2 yet.)
More accelerometer fun for Nseries owners, this time in the form of pyWuzzler. As the Euro 2008 Football Championship reaches its final stages, it's time for some Football on the phone, with a difference. It's an implementation of 'Bar Football' with your players on sticks that spin, on your phone! Gooooaaaaaaallll!!
My review of the Nokia E71, after a week with a production device, still left a few questions in the air, apparently. Rounding up everybody's comments so far, I've attempted (below) to try and answer all the questions about the E71, with Rafe (who also has a production device) pitching in to help. [Heavily updated - again]
Having been using the Nokia E71 for a little while now, Steve Litchfield delivers his verdict - what's new compared to its predecessor, the E61i? And how close does the E71 get to being the perfect smartphone for the modern professional? With predictive text and a wealth of other tweaks to S60, the E71 certainly delivers more than you'd think at first sight.
The Nokia E71, the latest addition to Nokia's Eseries line of enterprise focused S60 devices, has been formally announced. It features a full QWERTY keyboard (thumboard style) packed into a device that is just 57mm wide and 10mm thick and has a 2.4 inch QVGA screen (in landscape orientation), a 3.2 mega pixel auto-focus camera, integrated GPS, a full family of connectivity options (WiFi, quad band GSM, dual band WCDMA (with HSDPA), Bluetooth, Infrared, and microUSB) a FM Radio and a microSD memory card slot. There's also a full software suite of business applications and tweaks to standard S60 applications. Read on for more.
Nokia today officially unveiled the E66 enterprise focused smartphone. It has a slider form factor and is a follow up to the Nokia E65. It has the usual array of connectivity options: quad band GSM, dual band WCDMA (900/2100), WiFi and Bluetooth. There is also an integrated GPS, a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, microSD card slot, accelerometer, FM radio, 2.5mm audio jack and IrDA, USB and Bluetooth for local connectivity. Read on for pictures and the full details.
The Times' Testbed section today looks at five touchscreen based rivals to the iPhone (leaving unspoken the idea that the iPhone is the one phone that every other phone must be measured against) and fails to appoint a clear winner - each phone is good at a few tasks, and poor at others - but it certainly points out a loser... the W960i.
