SymbianGuru (no, not that Symbian Guru) has released a handy freeware solution for one-way-syncing your Google Finance stock data down to your smartphone. My Portfolio runs under Java and works on all S60 3rd Edition devices. for Series 60-3 mobile phones.
While not set available for download, Keynetix's RockNscroll system for S60 has been demonstrated at CES, and will be on show at both 3GSM and CTIA Wireless. A software solution for the N95 to harness the accelerometers, their demo video of the software has raised many an eyebrow in the blogosphere. The software will be available from free on their website forum in the near future.
The best (also just about the only) database system for S60, HanDBase has had a big update. v4.0 was announced in December and has been going through test builds. v4.00.55 is now online and working well. See below for a changelog, links and some screenshots. Also of note is that the desktop client has also had a big update and looks a lot more modern.
Google has launched a revamped version of its mobile search for select markets. The service is available in the UK, USA, France, Germany and Canada. The new system offers blended results and has a stronger location-based element. Blended results mix in local and news search results with web search results. In practice this means that Google shows the result type that it thinks is most relevant first. Read on for more and lots of screenshot examples.
Showing off the power of Python (again) and the usefulness(!) of the S60 accelerometer plug-in, ShakerRacer is a project to control a (model) racing car using just your smartphone. And you can now grab the source code and hardware mod instructions for free, to have a play yourself, if you've got the time and inclination.
Ewan continues his music-centric look at the latest Walkman-branded UIQ 3 smartphone from Sony Ericsson. In this part, having already looked at the main Walkman music player, he looks at all the OTHER music and audio-related applications. Do they work well and do they add significant value?
ShoZu, the one click solution to uploading media from your smartphone has taken a third full round of funding (reports Business Wire). For this Round C, they've taken on-board $12 million from a number of new and existing partners, and allow the company to expand onto more handsets and continue to work with manufacturers to be bundled with handsets.
Over on All About N-Gage, we're getting excited about an unconfirmed video which appears to be a trailer for Worms on Next Gen N-Gage. It's from a fairly reliable source, and it features the N81 plus graphics never seen on the original gen N-Gage version. Worms publisher THQ has already said they're supporting Next Gen N-Gage, so a new version of Worms would make a lot of sense.
Joining Rafe, Steve and myself on the latest All About Symbian Insight Show is Stefan Constantinescu from Into Mobile. Discussion this week centers around the differences between the Exx and Nxx series devices - fundamentally the same software, but wildly different smartphones. We also have a reader question submitted by Andrew Currie, asking us about our thoughts on the retail experience of smartphones.
PDA Essentials magazine issue 71 is out today (in the UK) and is notable for a five page 'Real World Test' between the iPhone, the Nokia N95 8GB and a smattering of HTC, Palm and Blackberry models. Tests included 'Outdoors' (contrast in sunlight), 'Pub' (ease of use when err.... inebriated) and 'Bus' (ease of use on shaking transport, possibly one-handed). There was also a seven page 'Smartphones with GPS' round-up. Read on for results and comments!
Amidst the flurry of Location Tracker activity at Nokia Beta Labs, it seems Conversation (SMS threading) and Gizmo (free VoIP and chat) both received attention. Conversation has been relaunched (bug fixes, apparently) and the Nseries-only Gizmo has seen bug fixes and support for multiple locations.
Ah yes, I was wondering where my Nokia E90 had got to. Krisse has been using it in Finland, comparing it head-to-head with the N810 'Internet tablet'. Here's the first part of this report, covering the physical form factors and all the various communications possibilities. There's no real overall winner, but plenty of food for thought if you've been wavering as to which to get.
It seems that Nokia Maps just got new data. Or at least when I started up Map Loader just now, a popup message informed me that there was new map data and that my existing map sets (on memory card) would be deleted and replaced. Alas, there are no clues as to what exactly has been improved, so comments welcome if you spot any changes in your neck of the woods!
Skyfire is a new proxy-based browsing solution that uses the Firefox 'Gecko' engine on the handset and which can apparently cope with Flash video and other advanced page objects. According to PhoneBoy, it's coming to S60 this quarter and should give both the Webkit-based S60 Web and Opera Mini 4 a run for their money.
