A few more Symbian related gems from CES, this time in the new Yahoo! Go service. The mobile sync section is just a small part of the service, but the Series 60 client allows you to keep Contacts, Photos and Email messages in sync with your Yahoo! account. There is also a client for Yahoo Messenger, allowing you to use Yahoo IM on your phone. In addition Yahoo Go Mobile acts as a shortcut, via bookmarks, to allow you to access many Yahoo Mobile services including games, and information (news, weather, finance movies). We'll have a more in-depth look at this next week once we've had a play.
"Anytime, Anywhere" is Nokia's promise for their latest N-Gage competition. If you sign up through the Arena, you'll get an alert saying it's time to play either Tiger Woods (a knockout competition), Colin McRae Rally or Snakes (both of those are Power Hour best score posted in 60 minutes format). The thrice weekly competitions start on January the ninth.
Forget those 'match and tap' puzzles, this is the real thing. The classic Mastermind game on steroids, Steve finds that Enigma is brain-manglingly challenging and slickly implemented for both Series 60 and Series 80. Read the review.
I'd been rather concerned that the Canalys figures throughout 2005 had been somehow 'missing' all the Windows Mobile smartphones branded by network operators. But according to Bill Gates himself, total worldwide sales of Microsoft-powered smartphones in 2005 were only about 3.6 million. This compares to Nokia's combined S60 and Series 80 sales of around 23 million. Symbian OS thus outselling Windows Mobile by 5 and a half to one. Now that's what you call a market lead.
Again, not exactly covered by the site remit (except only in the loosest sense), but Nokia's Maemo/Linux powered Tablet device, the 770 is proving popular and production is to be increased, reports The Register.
MetrO is a freeware tube routefinder that works for many cities around the world, on all Symbian-based smartphones. Steve's been putting it through its paces on his Nokia 7710 to let us know what it's like.
Two phones that aren't Symbian, but of note for the marketplace. Verizon have announced availability of the Windows Powered Palm Treo (the 700w) for $400 and a two year contract, while Motorola's second version of the ROKR, the E2 has debuted with full SD card support, USB 2.0 for fast file transfer, a standard 3.5mm headphone socket... and no iTunes support, so you can wave goodbye to the 100 song limit that Apple allegedly imposed.
Nokia has expanded their range of 'own brand' memory cards, now including a 1GB DV RS-MMC (a.k.a. MMC Mobile). If you'd rather buy Nokia and not take the risk of third party cards not working with your smartphone, here's the full list.
Ewan's been working his way up the part-arcade, part-platform game Mile High Pinball for the Nokia N-Gage and has concluded that it's too well done to get ignored. Here's the review.
Ewan's been trying the Snap-On Speaker for the N-Gage QD and finds its design rather half-hearted. Needing an AAA battery? No hands-free calling support or pass-through for a mike or headset? Here's the review.
As MobHappy puts it: 'Another problem is that people don't compartmentalize their music into "music I can listen to on my stereo," "music I can listen to on my computer," "music I can listen to on my MP3 player," and they won't add "music I can listen to on my phone". People just have their music, and expect it to travel across all their playback devices.' We couldn't agree more. Look out for some music 'How to's coming soon on AAS.
We don't normally mention software for Windows Mobile devices, but this little gem is worth pointing out (thanks, Richard). Kai's Auto Soft Reset is a scheduling macro for Windows Mobile that will reset your device once every 24 hours to "keep it running smoothly." Discuss...
Opera has come to an agreement with Google that they will become the 'default partner' for their mobile internet browsers, with heavy integration of Google in the home screen of the browser. Is this going ot be enough to kill off the rumours of a Redmond/Oslo courtship? Didn't think so!
