Yet another neat Internet-hosted idea that fully supports Series 60 smartphones - Orb lets you view your pictures, videos and Media Center TV channels, from your smartphone, anywhere in the world. But yet again, it's only practical on an unlimited data plan. Sigh....
The eagle eyed among you may have spotted that we reviewed Best Desk a while back, when it first appeared. It has now been updated and so has our review. Summary: still a cool way to take in your pre-6680 smartphone at a single glance.
Balancing the needs of high resolution, for later printing, and low/mid resolution and quality, for photo-blogging over an expensive GPRS connection, has always been a real head scratcher. Steve's been reviewing a new utility, PhotoFix, which claims to solve the problem once and for all.
Mobipocket Pro is now available for free (the standard version no longer exists). The Pro version includes extra features such as auto scrolling and configurable text-orientation. You can download the latest version from the Mobipocket web site. Also of interest is the new beta version (5.2) of Mobipocket Reader Desktop which changes the way the eNews system works (becoming effectively an offline RSS reader for mobile devices) as well as being a comprehensive system for managing and transfering eBooks to your mobile device.
If there's one thing sure to bring up more questions, gotchas and technical problems in the All About Symbian forums, then it's how memory works on your smartphone. Steve's taken a look at this issue, and his guide to making the most of your memory is essential reading.
Trivopaedia, beloved of so many for (ahem) checking answers in pub quizzes, is now updated to v2.1. A free download in iSilo and Mobipocket formats for any PDA or smartphone.
Gamasutra have posted a long and interesting interview with Nokia about their upcoming N-Gage platform plans, along with a photo of a smart concept device. Thanks to Engadget for the heads up.
It must have been tough at the bars of 3GSM, because the latest N-Gage competition, Snakebite, sounds just like something invented after all the beer had been drunk dry. Simply post a score online from Snakes before the 28th of Feb and you could win one of many reptillian prizes (including a snake-bite kit, a Snakes T-Shirt, '277 Secrets Your Snake Wants You to Know' or even a copy of Whitesnake's 'Snakebite' album. The mind boggles...
Ewan's broken out his N-Gage to review the latest epic from Nokia. Civilisation (II) is a port from the classic PC game of the early 1990s and looks to be solidly implemented.
Via Nokia Growth Partners, Nokia have invested four million Euros in graphics hardware designers Bitboys Oy. The sum hands Nokia 14% of the company, and values Bitboys at a tasty 28.5 million Euros. It's a nice investment given that back in November the N-Gage team were talking about dedicated 3D hardware appearing in 'the next generation of mobile gaming.'
There's always been a huge fragmentation problem with mobile games having to be tested against every possible device configuration, even with the promise of write once run anywhere of Java. So to see Symbian and Microsoft stand alongside Activision, Digital Chocolate, EA, Ideaworks, Konami, Nokia, Montavista, Samsung, SK Telecome, Square Enix, Tau Group and Texas Instruments to define and support an open gaming architecture is promising, but of course it's results that count. Lets see what happens.
Neatly transplanted from 3-Lib and enhanced significantly, AllAboutSymbian is proud to present its new Support Knowledgebase (click the link or use the menu tab above).
3D Tracking is an innovative service which allows you to see where you (or rather a suitably set up mobile) has been. The service allows you to view current and past routes and positions. It uses information from a Bluetooth GPS to send location information (via a small piece of Java software) to their servers and display the results overlaid on Google Maps or Google Earth. The service is available at no charge.
