Wow. The uses for a S60 smartphone just keep on growing. AAS friend Saku Tiainen has just released BeatEd, a full, professional drum sequencer/machine - just plug in your headphone lead from your smartphone into an amp and you're away! Break out your guitar and start rockin' out. Links and video demo below the break, enjoy!
Nokia are giving away FIFA08 for N-Gage-compatible phones absolutely free to a limited number of people in Europe (we don't know the exact figure but it's in the thousands at least). It's on a first-come-first-served basis, so the quicker you act the more likely you are to get the game free. The most reliable way of getting the game free is to install the FIFA08 demo directly on your phone in the N-Gage application, then go to the special N-Gage Play site (play.n-gage.com) on your computer's browser to get the activation link sent to your N-Gage phone as a text message. When the message arrives, just click on its link to activate the game. UPDATE: If you couldn't get it activated on the mobile site, try again through the PC site! (via Symbian Web Blog)
The official N-Gage blog has reported that Space Impact: Kappa Base is now available in final version from the onboard N-Gage client. Go play! See also All About N-Gage's review. (Tzer2 adds: If you're having trouble getting SI:KB to appear in your phone's showroom, click here to see how to fix this problem.)
The official N-Gage blog has announced that third party publisher Gameloft will be answering your questions at a future event. You can submit the questions by posting in the reply section of this N-Gage blog post. Questions can cover anything, including their current games and future plans for supporting N-Gage, or you can ask about other mobile platforms as well.
OK, so the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 isn't Symbian OS-based, but it's a form factor that's got a lot of people interesed from all corners of the smartphone world. And, as it's Friday, here's a little off-topic link to WMexperts' initial review of the X1 prototype. Plenty of good information here, plus some good comments and extra Q&A at the end too. (via IntoMobile)
One for the paranoid this Friday, as the O'Reilly Radar reports that the A5 Hardware Project will be releasing a web service to crack the GSM A5/1 Encryption Protocol. Pick up a radio receiver (around $700) and the potential is there to crack and listen to a call while it is in progress.
With Mowser's impending demise, a lot of discussion has been centred this week on the future of the mobile web. Ewan reckons that it's stronger than ever and has produced a rundown of his Top 10 mobile web sites as evidence. What's especially interesting is that some of these m.versions are more useful than either the full desktop-designed site or the service's own downloadable client. Comments welcome: what other m.sites have you found that are also worthy of a mention?
Dublin based Developer BitRabbit has released v2.0 of RabbitFactory, their middleware for PDA and smartphone game developers. Included are a number of C++ API's that will allow the same title to be easily ported over a variety of devices, including Palm OS, Windows Mobile and Symbian OS; alongside a universal C++, desktop based, emulator. RabbitFactory will power the upcoming multi-platform release of Platypus from Astraware.
The Nokia N95 8GB just got a firmware update, to v20.0.016 (from v15). Apart from a few bug fixes and optimisations, the main changes are the addition of Automatic Screen Rotation (driven by the accelerometer, as on the N82) and support for more Bluetooth headsets. See below for details and comments.
In Smartphones Show 57, I challenge Stavros at Position Art (unsuccessfully - but then he is a genius), I cover Google's native S60 Search utility and there's an in-depth video review of the Samsung i550 business smartphone. Here's the main Smartphones Show 57 page, the high res YouTube version, and the QVGA (low res) and VGA (high res) RSS feeds.
Nokia has released official figures for Q1, 2008, revealing growth in 'Devices and Services' of 50%, year on year, net sales up 35%, overall phone market share of 39%, smartphones sales up 24% to 14.6 million in the quarter, with 10 million Nseries handsets and 2 million Eseries. Geographically, unsurprisingly, market share was down in North America, static(ish) in Europe and growing in emerging markets (e.g. China). Here's the full Nokia statement, tables and their own analysis.
Never mind small local trials of DVB-H mobile TV, never mind twiddling with cell towers, the Americans just love doing things bigger than the rest of us. Yesterday they launched a huge satellite dedicated to covering the whole of the USA with DVB-SH signals, reports PhoneMag. This is a satellite-friendly (higher frequency), extended version of DVB-H, the new Euro and (arguably) worldwide mobile TV standard. See also DVB-SH at Wikipedia. So look for DVB-SH compatibility in the next generation of smartphones. Now, why can't we have a huge European satellite to serve the same purpose?
Krisse delves into the economics and logistics of Nokia's upcoming Comes With Music system, explaining how it's possible in today's climate and then goes on to ask why other types of digitally protected content couldn't also be bundled in? Games? Applications? Videos? Thankfully, a line is drawn before we get to 'Comes With An Indian Takeaway'...
Escarpod is a free podcatcher for UIQ 3, which can be used to download and play podcasts directly on your UIQ 3 smartphone. It has received UIQ Technology's Application of The Month for April 2008 (previous apps included ShoZu, AquaCalendar and Google Maps, among others). Some screens and details of Escarpod below the break!
British based Mippin are happy bunnies today, with Red Herring labelling them as one of 100 Top Tech Start-ups in Europe. Nice to see their service get the recognition it deserves after six months of public availability.
