Nintendo are dropping the price of the GBA SP in the USA, and Europe is sure to be following in the near future (reports the BBC). This puts the main rival to the N-Gage in the Christmas season at under £100 for the unit and a single game (not counting any seasonal promotions that might turn up to bundle Pokemon to the kids). What does this mean for the N-Gage?
Along with announcing their membership of the Symbian Affiliate Program (so they're in good company there), Symbianware have released two new products... PowerTorch will light up your screen in a variety of colours, and KeyLocker, which will manage the Keypad locking on your device, with autolocking, time delays, and custom hotkeys.
FB-4 today announced the availability of Symbian SoftLock, which will (and I quote) "prevent virus intrusions and malicious code from attacking mobile phones" through "On-Board, real-time, on access and on demand scanning... The overall effectiveness of our technology is ensured by the combined strength of our detection, heuristic and emulation algorithms, and by frequent updates to the virus signature databases." We'll leave the counting of Symbian viruses out there (as opposed to badly programmed beta versions of apps) as an exercise for the reader.
More games from the past for the N-Gage, with Christopher this week taking a look at Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. Bringing in some strong franchise names was one of the key launch strategies of the N-Gage, and everyone knew that shots of Lara Croft next to the units would ensure some nice magazine covers (which it did)? But how does it play, and was it a worthy N-Gage Game? Christopher's review covers all that and more.
Todays big announcement... Nokia have shipped one million N-Gage Units (that's both the N-Gage and the N-Gage QD). Of those units, there's been a 10% take up of the N-Gage Arena, the online multiplayer service, with 100,000 registered users. Now for some perspective. It's taken Nokia 11 months to rack up that magic million. In the first six months of Nintendo launching the GBA SP, they sold over two million units - which out-performs the N-Gage sales by a ratio of 4 to 1. Still, from a standing start, and from a company that's never launched a gaming device before, it's an impressive number.
GoDB (from Consigntech is a forms based Developement Tool that can be run on a GoDB Virtual Machine for almost all the handheld platforms (including the Nokia Communicator series) with the available Virtual Machines. NewLC is carrying a guide to a GoDB Hello World application, and GoDB itself is available for a 30 day trial. Full purchase cost is $999.
Looking for a job? Then Amazon is looking for someone to manage their Wireless and Computer & Video Game business. With a large number of software distribution sites (from the behemoth of Handango to smaller sites like The Games Kitchen) it was only a matter of time before the really big boys got involved. One to watch for developments (via Monster)
Psiloc have pre announced several programs they will be publishing for the Nokia 9500 communicator as the availability date for the 9500 approaches. These include localistion programs, a hotspot (wifi) finder, a data guard (store sensitive information) program, a version of their recently announced world traveller, a task manager and a port of the popular irRemote program.
Rafe's been pushing the limits of what a Smartphone can do, with iGO's QuickOffice Premier suite. His review is long and in-depth, so you'd best settle down with a nice hot cup of tea while you find out why it's been given the "AAS Recommended" award.
Maxinote for Series 60 is an alternative Notes / SMS program. It gives another way for you to eneter text into your phone either to send SMS messages or to make notes. The majority of the text entry is done using the phone's navigation key and as a result writing can be faster.
A new version of the popular Agile Messenger is now available. The new version includes support for push to talk (sending and receiving voice over GPRS) along with a new GUI and speed improvements. Agile Messenger allows you to log into instant messaging networks (such as AIM, ICQ, Yahoo and MSN) from your phone and send and receive text, pictures, and now voice. The program is a free download from the Agile site. An absolute must for your Series 60 phone.
Johan Frank has updated Quirc to 1.01. Quirc is an IRC client for UIQ. The program is opensource GPL and now moves out of its beta phase. The program allows you to chat, send and receive files on any IRC nework.
Mobile SSH is a SSH program for UIQ enbaling you to remote control any SSH enabled computer. Features include bookmarking sessions, xterm emulation, SSH-2 protocol, and a full screen mode.
The All About N-Gage Games Database is continually updated with news, links and screenshots of the latest N-Gage MMC Games. While the last foru entries are always noted at the foot of the All About N-Gage home page, you can now follow the latest updates through the Games Database RSS Feed (alternate formats and filtering options are available).
