I was impressed by Peter Krass's write-up over on the Ovi Daily App blog, looking at three free weather forecasting solutions for Symbian smartphones. He reviews ForecaWeather Free, AccuWeather and Weather Touch, all free or ad-supported. In particular, I had a 'duh' moment when he revealed that Weather Touch has a second, forecast screen that you only see when you rotate your phone into landscape mode. How the heck didn't I spot that before?
The Nokia E7 is now available for pre-order in the UK through Nokia's online store, at a cost of £499, with delivery expected at the end of April. You can also buy the phone on PAYG (£469) or a contract (free from £35 per month). It will also be available through operators (O2, Vodafone, 3) and other online retailers. The E7 is already shipping in select markets, but is expected to become more widely available over the next month or so.
NAVTEQ, the Nokia-owned company behind Ovi Maps, have announced a new product called “Destination Maps”, which aims to provide the data that would enable guidance services inside public buildings. Initially, the data will cover more than 200 shopping malls in the U.S. One of the possible indoor location technologies that could use this data was previewed at Nokia World 2010, where I interviewed one of the development team about this technology. Read on for more information on its background and implementation.
Released for UK product codes of Symbian^3 devices is a "DRM DLA iPlayer plugin", apparently to solve a problem acquiring licensed for downloaded TV programmes. It's only a tiny update, 12k and installs in seconds. Photo proof below. Comments welcome if this solves a problem for you!
Every year Ewan disappears to South by South West (SXSW) in Texas with his podcaster's hat on - and every year we give him something interesting to road test. This year, the kilted road warrior is taking his turn with the Nokia E7 Communicator and in this final video in the series (embedded below), he is reunited with Emu and he chats about DM and Email being aimed at different communities, plus he relates how the Americans were wowed by the E7 (no, really) and he summarises his time with the device.
Rolling out today (story updated) for the Nokia N8-00, C7-00 and C6-01, as well as the E7-00, is a minor firmware update, available over-the-air, which fixes a Mail for Exchange sync issue and adds in latest versions of Ovi Maps and Ovi Store, plus some other minor bug fixes. Some FAQ about this update were posted officially on the Nokia Discussions board here (and partially reproduced below). The update is for SIM-free devices in some markets, while some (and most network-locked variants) will have to wait for the big PR 2.0 update, now scheduled for "the summer".
Opera has announced the new versions of its mobile browsers, Opera Mobile 11 and Opera Mini 6. These bring an updated user interface, improved text wrapping, and most significantly, multi-touch zoom. Overall performance is improved too, with native handling of heavy sites appearing to load faster in Opera Mobile 11 than with Opera Mobile 10. Read on for more about the update.
With the tag sentence "Inspired by U.S. consumers who want an affordable smartphone that offers a simplified user experience and on-the-go entertainment", Nokia and T-Mobile USA have launched the C7 as the Astound, complete with much of the PR 2.0 software (including new web browser, portrait QWERTY etc) from day one, plus some extras, including Swype. We've got some quotes from the official press release and the Conversations blog post below, with relevant links.
Snaptu, the startup company which produces the well-known J2ME mobile app, have agreed to be acquired by social networking giant, Facebook. Snaptu is the first Israeli start-up company to be acquired. According to Israeli news site, Calcalist, this buy-out has brought investors approximately a six-fold return on their investment. The Snaptu application has a massive reach by targetting Java compatible mobile phones, most of which lack any sort of app store. Furthermore, the wide range of social networks and content offered by Snaptu bring services to feature phones which are otherwise restricted to more advanced smartphones. Read on for more.
An official PayPal mobile application, written in Java, is now available for download in the Ovi Store. It allows you to send and receive money, review your recent transactions, set a mobile PIN for easy mobile log-in and carry out other common PayPal tasks. The application is available in select markets for most S60 5th Edition devices and some Symbian^3 devices.
Corning, the company that makes the Gorilla Glass used in the recent Nokia handsets, has released a concept video that I just couldn't resist embedding below. Entitled "A Day Made of Glass" it shows the complete integration of technology and the glass displays it powers, including numerous instances where the smartphone is a vital tool in the information chain. It's five minutes long but well worth watching - it's a glimpse into the future, probably five to ten years away.
Every year Ewan disappears to South by South West (SXSW) in Texas with his podcaster's hat on - and every year we give him something interesting to road test. This year, the kilted road warrior is taking his turn with the Nokia E7 Communicator and in this fourth video in the series (embedded below), he looks at Layar, Dropbox, USB on the go and a novel way of charging your smartphone. All delivered in inimitable chatty Ewan style.
Angry Birds Seasons, which is available for all Symbian^3 devices, has been updated to help celebrate St Patrick's Day. There's a distinctly green tinged theme to proceedings, but you can also expect to see shamrocks, pots of gold and Irish style top hats. The update, which adds an additional 18 levels to the game, can be downloaded via the in-app update mechanism or via the Ovi Store.
Joy unbounded. It seems that the mythical, legendary, v22 firmware for the Vodafone-locked Nokia N97 has just become available. A mere eight months after SIM-free N97 classics received the update. If ever there was an example of why you should buy SIM-free smartphones where possible then this is it - network variants have to be approved by the network in question and it can take.... ages. Anyway, as shown in the screenshot below, my Vodafone-locked N97 has now been upgraded to v22, so frustrated 'classic' users everywhere can at last relax.
Every year Ewan disappears to South by South West (SXSW) in Texas with his podcaster's hat on - and every year we give him something interesting to road test. This year, the kilted road warrior is taking his turn with the Nokia E7 Communicator and in this third video in the series (embedded below), he looks at Food, File Formatting and Finland. All delivered in inimitable chatty Ewan style.
