EMI has confirmed it's in talks with Nokia to offer its portfolio of songs as part of the upcoming "Comes with Music" program, scheduled to become available later this year with selected devices. The world's largest music label, Universal, signed up for the program last December. (via IntoMobile)
Yup, I'm still maintaining my 'No Nags' lists of freeware over at 3-Lib - I've been tweaking my freeware list for all UIQ 3 smartphones (e.g. Sony Ericsson M600, P1i) - can you help to add to it? Anything I've missed out?
OK, so I said earlier that AAS doesn't deal with rumour and vapourware. But we make exceptions for the later-than-a-very-late-thing-indeed N-Gage games platform. I just noticed that the official N-Gage blog just let a test post slip onto their RSS feed, entitled "N-Gage First Access Update #2". I'm guessing that the opening up of N-Gage is therefore imminent. Hopefully to include a much wider circle of compatible devices. Any guesses?
Google is seeing a massive increase in mobile internet devices using their services (reports Reuters). And while the obvious answer is 'people are using the web on their phones!' I don't think that's the case. More like Google has signed enough deals for search plug-ins and 'go on, set Google as the browsers default homepage' that they are grabbing a bigger share of existing traffic.
A large screened S60 slider, 5 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi, GPS, 3.5G data - it's got to be the Nokia N95, right? But actually no, I just came across this recent video (see below) of the Samsung G810, which also adds a stainless steel case and genuine 3x optical zoom into the mix. Looks very good from here, we'll get one for review when it appears in the real world, never fear.
At the risk of inducing N82 overload, I noticed that there's new content up on Nokia's web site, with a flash front end introducing arty videos for the black N82, the Urbanista diaries and Nokia Sports Tracker. The diaries link is worth clicking through if you haven't yet played with the rather nice graphical widget that lets you see which roving blogger took which photo (with the N82) where. Sports Tracker seems groomed, from the video, to also take on geotagging of photos - comments on how this is supposed to work welcomed. Maybe it's artistic license?
Ewan's been the perfect use-case for ShoZu, the media uploader, while he's been away on his 'Seesmarch' - lots of photos and video, flat rate data and a desire to share stuff with the world. Here's his report/review of the new ShoZu version 4. Suffice it to say that the application scores very highly indeed, with only a few small caveats.
I said at the time of Nokia's "Comes with Music" announcement ("all you can eat" music included in the price of a new handset) that if Apple had made the announcement then it would be like the second coming on the blogs. The FT reports today that Apple are negotiating just such a deal - but also reports a rumoured price of Nokia's offer... $80 per handset, distributed by market share to the labels.
Well folks, if you think the guys at Quickoffice are sleeping and didn't care about UIQ 3 users, think again because they just unveiled version 4.0 of their UIQ 3 office suite. With a total revamp of the codebase and heavy makeup in the design department, as well as the inclusion of Quickmanager, we think we have a winner! Read on for some screens and the full press release. Watch this space for a full review from yours truly!
In Insight #17 (AAS Podcast 66) Rafe, Steve and Stefan talk around Apple's recently announced SDK and Application Store and what Nokia and Sony Ericsson do in this area. We also talk about our favourite form factors where we recognise that device robustness is the most important factor.
No, no, not the v21 firmware for the Nokia N95, we're still waiting for that. But Nokia has officially unveiled the black N82, with availability quoted in 'weeks' and with a price of 400 Euros (300 pounds) before sales taxes. For the N82, the colour change from silver is not just cosmetic. The black finish solves the huge usability problem of white key legends on silver background, plus it should reduce the fingerprint problem quite a bit. Read on for pics etc.
You've got to love high end comparisons like this - Abul over at Symbian in Motion has put together a great photo shootout between the Nokia N82, the N95 and a Casio Exilim (also 5 megapixels). The shots are selected well, there's apposite comment and there's even a linked Flickr gallery with many more comparison photos.
