Appforge have announced an update to CrossFire (taking it to v5.6). Crossfire allows developers to us Visual Basic .Net and Visual Basic 6 on Series 60. 80 and UIQ devices. Along with this, they have released AppForge Data Sync (using Intellisync based tools) allows developers to include OTA syncing in their applications.
With 40 plus phones already available, and another 40 odd due out through 2005, Ewan's a bit worried that Symbian's number of handsets is leaving open an area that might cause problems. Fragmentation of the OS and UI, and confusion in the end- user. Read the rest of the news to find out why...
It's time to pick your favourite photos from 19 great photos in the 2nd Open Photo Contest * here *. This poll will close on 17th April 2005 & Good Luck to all taking part.
Orange, following on from a successful event last year, are holding another Code Camp for mobile developers. Code Camp US will take place in Sarasota, Florida between 18-20 April and ot costs $249 to attend. Symbian is a Platinum Sponsor of the event. Code Camp is effectively an intensive 3 day event built around developer needs with a bit of fun thrown in for good measure (developers that means beer and a chance to win a Segway HT).
Another week, another Mobiles Podcast over at the The Podcast Network. Given the gaming feel of the last week, you won't be surprised that Ewan and Rafe are knee deep in the Gameloft's of this world to talk about Mobile Gaming. As usual, the MP3 (20mb, 1hr) is available for direct download if you've not subscribed to the RSS Feed.
Apologies for another 3-Lib link(!), but Series 60 smartphone owners might like to read my walk through of how to use S60 Notes as a PC-compatible word processor.
There are menus, there are 3d menus, and there are great big spinning cubes that scream 'usability' at you. Infocube is one of the latter, and Gordon Ross, the Founder of Infocube, is a tireless attendee at trade shows. And he's very English about it. Ewan caught up with him to ask him why the future of menus is cubed. Read the interview here.
[Updated] Unstrung is reporting that Ericsson are suing Sendo for "patents covering GSM and GPRS technologies." Hugh Brogan is quoted (on BBC News) that "We do not want a free ride... We respect other people's intellectual property. We will pay a fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory royalty." The Feature goes into a good bit more depth today on this.
The next podcast from The Mobiles Show, on The Podcast Network has been posted. Sun's VP David Rivas was interviewed by Ewan while at 3GSM, and the show is now available to download as an MP3 file or via your favourite Podcasting Client.
The 3-Lib directory of useful smartphone-friendly web sites has just been overhauled, with double the number of sites. All are guaranteed to keep your GPRS useage to a minimum. The directory is available in illustrated form (for reference) and in bare form, for bookmarking on your smartphone.
It's time for the 2nd Open Photo Contest. Please upload your Photos (taken on a Symbian Phone) to the Photo Contest 22 page. Vote will start on 3rd April 2005 to pick a winner. Winners Photo is displayed on Main Gallery page and can select next category.
Symbian OS devices are equally represented in Palmtop User journal, whose latest issue 10 has just been shipped. They've also got a 'free issue and back issues on CD' offer on, for anyone interested, full details here.
So if you've got a camera phone, where do you show off your pictures? One option is over on MoblogUK. Ewan caught up with Alfie Dennen, one of the brains behind the site to find out what Moblogging and MoblogUK is all about.
Rafe and I aren't really still on the TGV coming back from 3GSM, but the next Mobiles Podcast is available over on The Podcast Network. We're talking about the phones that were announced this year.
