Rafe also spent a lot of time with the Nokia N78 at Mobile World Congress. Here's his detailed and illustrated preview. A natural evolution of the best-selling N73, despite the hardware improvements, it's the software and services improvements that really caught Rafe's imagination, taking Ovi and a much more rounded package to the mass market.
Over on All About N-Gage, we've just done an in-depth review and playing tips feature about Nokia's flagship N-Gage title Hooked On: Creatures Of The Deep, programmed by Symbian OS codemasters Infinite Dreams. Click on the link to find out whether it makes the grade or has to be thrown back in the sea.
It's not every day that you get direct feedback from the team behind a major manufacturer's software project. Following on from my Maps 2.0 preview, Nokia got in touch, answering some of my criticisms and giving more information about the future of the product. What's going to be added next to Maps, how to plan routes for free, why the satellite images aren't quite there yet, integration with Location Tagger and news of a future web-based map sync tool, it's all covered.
S60.com are giving away just about the noisest game EVER - Breaker. You'll see when you run it. It's microphone-powered and you're not advised to play it where you might annoy others! (Via the official S60.com Miami meet page)
Darren Waters, of the BBC no less, has been using the Nokia N95 exclusively for blogging and videoblogging, as we've mentioned before. In this post, he summarises his experiences, good and bad. Suffice it to say that the N95's staying in his kit bag, but that he wishes there was an external microphone option. Wait.... there is - see below for video proof... [updated: video actually err.... works!]
In my de facto role as contact for PDA Essentials magazine, note that issue 72 is out today in the UK (and some other territories), with a feature on the pros and cons of buying SIM-free vs Contract, a review of the Nokia N82 ("Nokia has thrown everything at this phone's internals, but the externals leave a bit to be desired") and, shock horror, a review of an HTC device that lists the Nokia E90 as "cheaper and less featured" - never seen that before!
Nokia's in-beta Location Tagger just got a lot more intelligent, making sure that your photos don't get delayed while waiting for a GPS fix, enabling a 'show on map' function and fixing a 'nasty, battery-draining' bug. All the details are over at Nokia Beta Labs. There's also a hint as to a big firmware update for the N82 'soon'.
I was interested to see (and apologies if this sounds like an Expansys advert) the Nokia N81 8GB in their stock clearance already, at £215 plus VAT. We know the N81 had some design flaws (and Nokia geek agrees), but to be sold off this early? Also noteworthy is that the E90's had a price cut, to a (slightly) more palatable £460 plus VAT. If you've seen any 'net bargains, do please comment!
To complement his textual preview of Nokia's upcoming N96, Rafe has produced a comprehensive hands-on video about the device, covering each of its major areas with video (and photos) shot at Mobile World Congress. Rafe makes a compelling argument against actually calling the N96 a flagship, but its specs are still mightily impressive.
Michael Mace has written an interesting post on his blog Mobile Opportunity about the fall of (native) Mobile Applications. The basic thesis of the post is that native mobile development is declining because of platform fragmentation, issues around certification, and marketing problems. Michael goes on to suggest that mobile development itself is not dead, but that it will increasingly move to the web as a platform. Read on for more.
Steve Litchfield has been putting in the miles and paces to test Nokia's new beta of Maps 2.0. This premieres the pedestrian navigation mode, significant upgrades to the driving mode, satellite imagery, plus many rewritten UI elements. What exactly is new, what's improved and what's been removed? It's all here in this in-depth, illustrated preview.
In this podcast we cover current developments around Nokia's Ovi strategy including Sync, Share, N-Gage, plus we chat about all aspects of the Nokia N96, following on from our hands-on preview. Finally, we rant and rave a little about Google's new native search 'client'. Here's the link: Insight no. 14, plus the RSS feed to sign up for the future.
One component of Nokia's Ovi which hasn't had quite so much attention is Sync. This just popped up on the main Ovi toolbar, trailing what Sync will offer. See below for the details.
Fans of PiZero will want to note that there's another class theme available, in full vector format, for all S60 3rd Edition smartphones, including widescreen devices like the E90. Presenting... Silver.
The first batch of next generation N-Gage games has now become available through the public beta test, so we've started reviewing them. Our first ever Next Gen N-Gage review is Block Breaker Deluxe, an unofficial remake of the old classic Breakout.