The YouTube Mobile client for S60 has gone through more versions than I've had flavours of ice cream recently, but at last the one we've all been waiting for has appeared. Version 2.4 (build 4) has full support for YouTube favourites, plus search suggestions and a revamped layout on S60 5th Edition phones like the Nokia 5800. Read on.
Some say he plays tiddlywinks with 50p pieces. Some say he plays electric guitar secretly at 5am each morning. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 2 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230 / Nokia Nuron).
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has arrived for review, enabling me to start testing its unique HD autofocus camera. See below for an embedded version of my test footage, plus a little sunlight video taken in London by Sony Ericsson a few days ago. The good news: the video is excellent, the autofocus quick and silent; the bad news: audio's a little on the quiet side. Still, pretty astounding for such a small camera unit in such a small smartphone. See below.
After resisting the persistent trend of touch screen smartphones, David Gilson reports on his experience of living with some S60 5th Edition touch screen phones, namely the Nokia 5230 and N97. Could it be that, like me, he finds the biggest strength of touch screens isn't that they respond to touch?
Over on our Ovi Gaming site, Ewan goes hunting through the Ovi Store to find a free little game to while away part of his long trans-Atlantic flight - and finds the Bejewelled clone 'Cube Touch: Match' - which fits the bill perfectly. Describing the game as more "Zen" than challenge, this is an interesting title that's worth keeping in a (purple) corner of your mass memory or memory card, it seems.
Continuing from our previous Sony Ericsson Vivaz videos we look at some of the key design charcteristics of the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro (human curvature, light reflection effects and material choices), compare the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro on video, take a brief look at some of the different colours that will be available and get a demo of the handset shooting video and uploading to YouTube. Taken together these videos help you get a clearer picture of Sony Ericsson's new Symbian^1 handsets.
As work has continued on Sony Ericsson's take on S60 5th Edition with the Vivaz, it's not surprising that the Satio has reaped the benefit, inheriting benefits and fixes. Widely panned on release six months ago, the Satio finally delivers on a bit more of its promise with this update, 'R2AK', a 108MB download, which has been dribbling out for some product codes but is right now available using the Sony Ericsson Update Service in Western Europe. Comments, changes, links and more below - though I have to warn you that some of the core bugs and issues remain unresolved.
As noted in Rafe's Maps interview thread, Nokia isn't keen to put resources behind creating a version of Ovi Maps 3.3 with free voice navigation for older S60 3rd Edition FP2 and FP1 (and vanilla 3rd Edition) phones. A good question is why Nokia doesn't then just make existing navigation licenses free, thus having much the same effect. It seems that they've gone much of the way to 'free' for older devices, with even a full 'Drive Europe' license now only costing 10 Euros for a year - this presumably to help cover admin and server costs. Photo proof and more below.
Some say he has a pet polar bear. Some say his beard glows gently on the darkest night. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 1 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges, Top Gear style. There's even a cameo by The Stig.
In this interview, recorded in Barcelona at MWC 2010, we talk to Christof Hellmis, Director Navigation & Routing Solutions at Nokia, about Ovi Maps and Nokia's location strategy. It is clear that location has an enormously important role to play as a key enabler in the future of mobile - and this piece will give you an insight to Nokia's viewpoints and attitudes. We cover the story behind the recent release of the Ovi Maps 3.3 with free navigation, potential future improvements to Ovi Maps, the Ovi Developer SDK, future directions and much more.
Always good to see a company from the now defunct UIQ world make waves in the S60 5th Edition world - CellPhoneSoft's latest is a port of their BigBen utility, a "combined clock screensaver, key lock, and reminder utility for S60 smartphones." Some screens and links below.
In Insight 108, (with Rafe away) Steve, Ewan and guest Tim Salmon chew over the week's news, including Qik Premium, Nokia Nuron, Ovi Mail 2.0, Skype and Terminal mode. Plus, we get Tim's views on where Nokia, Symbian and others need to improve in order to compete with the likes of iPhone and Android competition.
Thanks to CJ for the heads-up that Emoze, the third party push email aggregator that preceded Nokia Messaging, has just opened up its 'Pro' version for free. You can read more about it below and on the Emoze Blog but essentially you get rich HTML, multiple accounts, Gmail, Hotmail and Facebook support, plus a lot more.
Widely reported round the tech world yesterday and fascinating, despite not being Symbian-related, is the announcement of the Olive FrvrOn, a phone with both Li-Ion and emergency AAA power(!) With the Symbian world springing out of Psion palmtops (1994-2000), most of which were powered by AA cells, I can't help thinking what a great 'best of both worlds' idea this is. Let's hope something similar comes to the Symbian (and Western) world sometime soon...
While I've previously pitched the Google Nexus One head to head with the Nokia N97, concentrating on screen size and general capacity, there's another timely and interesting comparison to be made in the smartphone world, centred on metal construction and all-round communications and multimedia ability. Here, I take the industrial designed Motorola Milestone and the Nokia N97 mini - which will stand up to my intensive testing best?
