Over on All About N-Gage, we've just published a special in-depth article looking at the pros and cons of touchscreen phone gaming, and we ponder whether Nokia should start making touch-based N-Gage games. Is touchscreen gaming the mainstream future or just a niche market? And does it matter either way?
Nine months ago, Steve looked at the then-new Apple iPhone, pitched against the also-new Nokia N95 8GB flagship - with the release of the iPhone 3G, it's high time for a rematch. It's evident that the iPhone 3G has closed the gap and wins in some areas, but there are still holes in its functionality that you could drive a motorhome through, leading to another overall N95 8GB victory.
Nokia's Share on Ovi just got prettier, with a new PicLens function (requiring a download and plug-in, mind you) that allows Mac-like fluid photo browsing, plus extra image sizes for viewing, including 'Original'. There's also a new intro tutorial video.
Make sure you don't miss Serko Artinian's five part look, over at Symbian Guru, at the North American Nokia N95 8GB versus the (non-3G) Apple iPhone. Lots of good insight here. Links: Part 1 - Form Factor and Build Quality : Part 2 - Its GUI : Part 3 - Syncing And Connecting : Part 4 - Core Apps : Part 5 - Multimedia Computer or Feature phone?
I'm not sure how to respond on this one - after the announcements from Apple, American Technology Research have downgraded their stock recommendation on Nokia from 'Buy' to 'Hold' because of the increasing competition, and they are awaiting a competitive response from Nokia. I suspect that response will be coming at some point next week.
Although Hidden Expedition: Titanic didn't make Ewan's 'must buy' list, it certainly proves a well presented, well programmed interesting diversion, up to Astraware's high standards for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 games. Here's the full review.
In this beginners tutorial, I share a little of my sat-nav experience, hopefully of help to anybody suffering from slow GPS locks, especially under S60 and Nokia Maps, and frustrated by the apparent 'unreliability' of mobile navigation software. Here's how to make sure your GPS locks are faster and how to speed around Nokia Maps.
Over on All About N-Gage, we've just published a guide to S60 3rd Edition games, or "unofficial N-Gage games" as we like to call them. If you're new to S60 gaming, you might want to check out this article which goes through what S60 games are, where you can get them, how you install them and which games you should download or buy. It's written with owners of N-Gage-compatible phones in mind, but the article could equally apply to almost all S60 3rd Edition devices.
In AAS Insight #28 Rafe, Ewan and Steve discuss some of the news from the past week including Trolltech, Mail for Exchange 2.5 and the Symbian Smartphone Show before moving on to the general waffle topics: firstly S60's increasing integration with the PC and web, secondly smartphone statistics and definition.
Gartner have released figures for worldwide smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2008 - about as up to date as you and I get to see. There are no real surprises - Nokia top the table with 25% year-on-year growth of its S60 smartphones, with Q1 market share of 45%, healthy by any standards, but the biggest surprise is RIM's Blackberry range posting 107% growth, up to 13.4%. Apple's iPhone is already up to 5.3% of the smartphone market, somewhat ominously given their next-gen launch tomorrow (Monday) evening, UK time. The full stats/table is shown below the break.
Despite being sold off by Nokia at clearance prices, I thought you'd be interested in this detailed and very positive review of the Nokia N93. And, with N-Gage compatibility surely just around the corner, I can't help but feel that Nokia are going to send a little update love in the N93's direction soon...
Thanks to Ed at the Eseries blog for writing up the new version of Mail for Exchange, v2.5 - if your company uses Exchange 2007 then you're in for several brand new features, including handling of 'follow up flags' and control over 'out of the office' notifications.
Well spotted the guys at P@ssioneMobile - S60 have updated their S60 Touch UI demo video with many more examples of the UI in action. Good stuff, although dragging down the web browser screen to make the content move up seems counter-intuitive - is it just me? The video is embedded below the break here.
Gaming was also fairly high on the agenda at the S60 Summit. Ewan was in the room and taking copious notes - here's his report on Nokia's strategies and expectations for N-Gage for the next few years.
Don't you just love garage sales? Nokia is having one, selling off its N93 (original and best design) stock at silly prices. It's the golf edition, too, which means it comes with an extra miniSD card that you can wipe and use. At £100 inc VAT it's the bargain of the century. Just don't mention firmware updates...