It's along time since I've laughed out loud when reading editorial about the mobile world, but Michael Mace has managed that this Friday morning, with a lovely piece entitled "Good Luck Naming Your Phones, Nokia." If you've always wondered about the byzantine naming structure of companies such as Nokia, then here's your answer. And keep reading to the very end, it's worth it.
Ewan reviews the classic strategy puzzle, Super Miners, here in its latest S60 3rd Edition incarnation (but applicable to all other Symbian OS platforms). Summary: classic puzzle, superbly implemented.
Nokia and EA have announced an agreement that will see EA create games for both current and future Nokia phones. The agreement encompasses both Java Games, which will be distributed using Nokia's Content Discoverer, and Nokia's next generation gaming platform.
According to a report on Gamesindustry.biz, Nokia is to be joint sponsor along with PC World of the 2006 BAFTA Games Awards. Nokia will sponsor the Gameplay award which is voted for by members of the public, and is apparently carrying the N-Gage brand. This continued support for the name implies that they're going to continue using it with their Next Gen games service due to launch in the first half of 2007 on new Nokia S60 smartphones.
Attention N-Gage and N-Gage QD owners: the acclaimed pirate-themed strategy game High Seize is now just €9.99 via download at the N-Gage Game Shop. Arcade game Mile High Pinball and martial arts simulator One are also still available at the reduced price of €9.99.
If you're an N-Gage or N-Gage QD owner, you might like to know that the N-Gage Gameshop has slashed the download price of Nokia's acclaimed 3D martial arts game ONE to €14.95 (about £10). This follows on the heels of their equally acclaimed arcade game Mile High Pinball, which remains at last month's sale price of €9.99.
I've been revising and reworking my review of Virtual Pool Mobile and, after six months of daily playing, ask the question: with perfect gameplay, immersive graphics, accurate physics and game longevity - is the best S60 game ever?
N-Gage and N-Gage QD owners can now buy and download the rather excellent N-Gage exclusive arcade game Mile High Pinball for just €9.99 from Nokia's online gameshop. Hopefully this heralds the start of more sensible pricing on Nokia's behalf, and some excellent value titles for N-Gage owners.
Steve shows how easy it is to publish your thoughts to the world with this 'How to' on blogging from your smartphone, using nothing more than the built-in Contacts and Messaging applications.
Steve reviews TrafficTV, which claims to give any smartphone owner in the UK access to traffic hold-up information and exclusive roadside CCTV images from trouble spots. Summary: surprisingly useful and genuinely clever, but only within its coverage area.
I've been reviewing Magi-Lines, one of ZingMagic's latest round of puzzle and strategy game conversions. It may not have 3D baddies or swooshing sound effects, but Magi-Lines is as brain-stretching as puzzle games go and it works superbly on every single Symbian-based platform.
You may have heard about Widsets and widgets and the fact that they're something to do with Nokia? Rafe explains all and reviews the current Widsets application. Is it compelling for smartphones or just a way of extending non-Symbian features phones?
Christopher Rydberg, our regular N-Gage hard core reviewer, has played X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse to death and delivers a very positive verdict for all N-Gage gaming fans.
The allTunes mobile client, which allows access to the allTunes music service (a service similar to iTunes), has been updated. The new version allows access to full song previews, account log in, and full track music download. The allTunes client is available for S60 1st, 2nd and 3rd Edition and UIQ 2.x phones.
Nokia has made all its current gen first-party N-Gage games available for purchase via a download service. The games are paid for on Nokia's Software Marketplace website, downloaded to the user's PC, then transferred by the user to a MMC memory card, after which they work exactly as if the games had been bought at retail. This is strictly for the currently available for the original N-Gage and the N-Gage QD. It's not related at all to the Next Gen gaming platform (or any NSeries devices) due to appear in the first half of 2007.
