Those who played and kind of liked some of the older N-Gage First Access games on their N81s (cough.... err.. and other... cough... devices) but are now upset because the N-Gage launch line-up doesn't include Tetris, Space Impact or Block Breaker, might like to look at p@sco's post on the subject.
Turning out to be a busy day! N-Gage just went live. Phew. There's a 7MB .sisx client to install via the usual PC Suite route. Here's the English Download link. (via p@sco). Initial observations, device compatibility and screenshots of the only new game, Brain Challenge, below. All other announced games are still shown as 'coming soon' on the web site. All comments welcome, of course.
You'll have heard of Mippin, the RSS-based web portal for your feeds and interests, we've featured it before. The same developers have just announced Mippin Maker, a "free service that creates a perfectly rendered mobile edition of the publisher’s web site and allows them to generate revenue". So you use Mippin's mobile rendering system for your RSS-compatible mobile site and you share the ad revenue. The link and full press release are below, if you're interested in following this up.
Recently added to Nokia's Download! for some devices, Brain Genius is actually widely available for all phones and smartphones. How does this daily mental exercise work and how has it been implemented on the Download! version? Find out in my review of Brain Genius.
Symbian's developers are making a big push into China (reports Daniel Shen at the Digitimes), with an expansion to almost 300 staff expected at their R&D Centre in Beijing. The market in Asia for smartphones is one that most western handset manufacturers have been eyeing over the years, and I'm sure that 'let's try to be big there' has been the downfall of a few companies along the way.
Users of non-network branded Nokia E90s should check NSU right now. There's a new firmware update, v200.34.72, with Flash Lite 3, a new Quickoffice, and more. More details below. No idea why they should jump from v7.4 right up to v200, though! Read on.... [Updated: the update seems to have been pulled]
Ewan and I look at MosKillto, a new commercial demo of an accelerometer-driven shooting game. In our review, we look past the simple gameplay to appreciate the genre's history and its future. Oh, and add in a flamethrower and some zombies and you've got us hooked...
Nokia have announced the immediate availability of the Nokia Music Store in Ireland (Nokia Press Release) As with the UK store, you're going to need to have Internet Explorer to make full use of the service. To entice you in Nokia are offering a number of vouchers, some 24,000 of them giving up to 10 Euros of music. And everyone gets a free Tom Baxter track.
C-Net's Tom Krazit sat down with Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford a couple of days ago and the resulting interview is now online here, talking about elegant computing, USA market share, Google's Android and the iPhone, among other topics. Recommended reading!
While in San Francisco last month, Ewan popped in to see N-Gage's 'Ikona'. Here's his exclusive interview with the man who is N-Gage's public 'face'. Find out how he got started with N-Gage, and find out just how important the N-Gage blog now is to Nokia.
More Convenient! More Productive! More Fun! Announced at CTIA in Las Vegas, the new version of Opera Mini, v 4.1, certainly sounds like it's at home with the lingo of the city of flashy lights. This is a beta release, but nevertheless with a speed increase of up to 50% and the ability to save pages and content without invoking any other application on your device, Opera Mini continues to provide strong competition to on-device browsers. Screenshots and more details below.
JoikuSpot, the phenomenal little utility that turns your smartphone into a Wi-Fi hotspot for your laptop and other hardware, just got significantly better, with the release of a new beta (1.2) that supports WEP encryption. Previously, your little Wi-Fi hotspot had to be open to allcomers, with predictable results. (via The Symbian Blog)
Fed up waiting for N-Gage to go live? Console yourselves with this brand new games compilation from PDA maestros Astraware. After yesterday's announcement, and after a week or so of actual pre-release gameplay, Ewan presents his review of Astraware Boardgames, for both S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3. Summary: classic games, well pitched and well implemented, Boardgames only falls short of Megagame status by a gnat's whisker.
It's.... AAS Insight 19 (aka AAS audio podcast 68), mainly concentrating on the news of UIQ 3.3 and what it will mean, but also chatting about the split of Motorola, the v21 update for the Nokia N95 Classic and the usual software spots. Here's the Insight 19 listening link, here's the RSS feed for you to subscribe for the future.
Astraware, arguably THE top name in PDA gaming, has finally started releasing titles for Symbian OS, with the simultaneous launch of "Boardgames" for both S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3, supporting all the usual devices. The games include Chess, Reversi, Backgammon, Snakes and ladders, Nine Mens Morris and Checkers. Ewan's been playing with an advance copy for a while and he'll have a full review tomorrow, hopefully. See below for some screenshots and the full press release.
