There is more to good photos than megapixels, you have to consider camera component quality and custom firmware too. Steve's been testing various smartphone cameras and in this feature he compares the photos produced by the Nokia N70, N80 and N90, along with the i-Mate K-Jam.
Yes, yes, this is a bit off the wall, but it's been a slow news day and what with summer well and truly here... At the end of one of her blog posts, AAS's very own Darla revealed how she keeps her smartphone free of sand and water at the beach... and for nearly free. Great idea, Darla!
Very much for anyone planning to develop applications or Flash Lite content for Symbian OS 9 devices, Symbian have released a new paper documenting all the changes in the SIS installation file format and their implications.
Ewan's been trying out a Bluetooth novelty. BlueRader will scan for specific Bluetooth smartphones in your vicinity and alert you when they're close by. Plenty of suggestions for use and a few caveats in Ewan's review. (There's also a S60 3rd Edition in development, by the way)
Nokia has released the Flickruploading tool for the Nokia N72. Although unsupported, it also works on the Nokia N70 and N90. The tool allows you upload images to Flickr from both the built-in Camera and Gallery applications. You can configure the upload to send the original or a medium or small-sized image.
NTT DoCoMo have announced a number of new Symbian powered handsets. Most notable among these is the Enterprise focused D702iBCL (manufactured by Mitsubishi). Unlike other FOMA MOAP the phone does not have a camera and is only available in one colour. The usual MOAP / FOMA features are present such as support for iChannels and FlashCast. Read on for more.
For those that like to browse for news, directions and info while mobile, note that I've done a big 2006 update on my 3-Lib Web guide. As usual, bookmark the guide in your smartphone browser and make it your starting point when surfing and you'll keep those GPRS bills at bay....
I've been sent a trio of Krusell designer cases for S60 3rd Edition smartphones. Here's my joint review of the three. Don't worry, they'll all be there on the AAS door prize table at the October pre-Expo pub meet!
Steve Litchfield looks at the Nokia N80 and finds that cutting edge specifications do not automatically give the N80 the title of best S60 smartphone. Here's the review. Update: there's now a video review, too, as part of Smartphones Show programme 12.
N-Gage and N-Gage QD owners can now buy and download the rather excellent N-Gage exclusive arcade game Mile High Pinball for just €9.99 from Nokia's online gameshop. Hopefully this heralds the start of more sensible pricing on Nokia's behalf, and some excellent value titles for N-Gage owners.
Route 66 have announced actual availability of its Mobile 7 satellite navigation package for all S60 3rd Edition smartphones and confirmed more details. It comes in both software-only and full kit form (miniSD or MMC Mobile). A review is in progress, but in the meantime, the official press release follows...
Ewan Spence reviews Checkers for S60 3rd Edition and finds an immaculately presented and pitched version of the board classic, spoilt only by an unintuitive piece moving system.
Shape Services has announced the availabilityof IM+ for UIQ 3 devices such as the Sony Ericsson M600i, P990i and W950i. IM+ allows you to connect to the major instant messaging networks (MSN, Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, Jabber and Google Talk) from your phone.
mBrainSoftware have announced the availability of new versions of its popular PDF viewers for S60 and UIQ. New features include support for Type 0 fonts and Chinese PDF documents, owner passwords and 128 bit encryption and file handling and performance improvements. Compatibility with the Nokia N70, N90, 6630 and 6680 have also been added.
The ever reliable Jukka over at the S60.com Multimedia blog has been given a Nokia N92 to play with and has written about his experiences so far. Whether or not the N92 makes it to market in its current form, the comments still make for interesting reading.
