Steve explains how to get your CDs into ultra-high-efficiency digital music files on your Eseries smartphone or communicator. He shows you how, using the AAC+ format, it is possible to pack an album into each 25MB of your expansion card at 'CD quality'.
A tip we've alluded to several times, but which is spelt out clearly and sensibly by our friends at the See into S60 blog: installing applications can leave behind original SIS files which do nothing but waste space on your 'C' disk. Go tidy!
Opera recently announced that more than one billion pages have been viewed with its JME browser (i.e. 'runs on anything') Opera Mini. To celebrate, Ewan reviews Opera Mini 2 and concludes that, for his usage, it is the perfect mobile browser.
Nokia have signed an agreement to acquire Loudeye, the mobile music service company, for $60 million. Loudeye currently operates a larger number of music services (generally music purchase and download) for mobile operators. Nokia intends to create a service that allows Nseries owners to acess 'all the music they want, anywhere, anytime and at a reasonable cost'. Press release follows...
The BBC take a look at the current fight to try and find the perfect user interface for a mobile device. Be it iPod, mobile phone or walkman, there doesn't seem to be a one size fits all solution, but that doesn't stop a number of companies attempting their own ideas to achieve this holy grail.
Austin based Super Happy Fun Fun talk about how competitive the mobile gaming market is (reports the Austin Statesman ), while UK reporter Chris Jarvis offers his Top Ten hints on making good mobile games over at Business Week. It's a long way from the days when Steve I put out shareware - it was a smaller market, but it seemed to provide a better return for programmers. What do you think of the current market for leisure applications?
I haven't mentioned this for a while, but I've been doing lots of little updates to my (hopefully comprehensive) S60 device comparison table. From 7650 to N93, and from free RAM to camera resolution...
Steve continues his exploration of the world of text input and observes that the presence of a usable QWERTY keyboard can actually change how you use a smartphone. While not for everyone, the increasing range of keyboard-equipped devices open up new possibilities for smartphone users.
In case you hadn't noticed, there are new items appearing in our Support database all the time, with answers to many common queries. New today: "Can I speed dial my Contacts?"
Actually released a few days ago, I was rather amused to see several developers trying to sell commercial utilities to auto-lock (as in 'keypad lock', rather than full 'enter lock code' each time) your smartphone. Why pay when Autolock is 100% free and works brilliantly?
Thanks to the E60 Blog for the heads-up over a new version of Nokia's PC Suite. v6.81 promises bug fixes, prettier windows and an 'improved mobile music experience with Nokia Music Manager'. Harumph - but will it now let us access an online CD database? Comments welcome!
In this tutorial on how to best use your device's RAM, Steve looks at how much various programs utilise on S60 3rd Edition smartphones and considers how to get the optimum performance out of their multi-tasking functionality. Although the tutorial focusses on S60 3rd Edition, the principles are applicable for all Symbian OS devices.
Flash Lite is an increasingly popular way to create content for mobile devices. In a Flash Lite Primer for Symbian OS users Ewan introduces Flash Lite and shows you how to install and run Flash Lite files and applications on your S60 phone.
