It's nearly the end of 2007, so we're presenting a short and sweet round-up of seasonal S60 3rd Edition themes in honour of the upcoming New Year. Don't forget the Champagne and assorted party snacks! UPDATE: We've now added PiZero's freshly-created collection of New Year themes. SECOND UPDATE: The legendary Babi has now come up with a New Year 2008 theme, which we've added to the article. THIRD UPDATE: As if to complete the trilogy, P@sco has done a New Year theme as well.
We don't normally news post version updates, but emTube is such a biggie. v1.04 of the best native YouTube client for S60 includes a simplified download and install, interface tweaks, bug fixes, an Italian language option and a flv recogniser (this bit needs self-signing though). Highly recommended for anyone with a Wi-Fi capable smartphone.
Forum enthusiast (on several sites) Menneisyys put together a multi-part 'bible' post on the differences between vanilla MP4 and H.264 video (ASP vs AVC) in our forums. He actually did this a couple of months ago but the subject's more relevant now than ever. Read on for the link and some of my own thoughts.
It's possibly the biggest and best game ever created for S60, has texture-mapped 3D surfaces, innovative puzzles and gameplay, a fabulous soundtrack and it's exclusively available for S60 3rd Edition and S60 2nd Edition phones. It's Lament Island, and it's reviewed in detail here by our very own Krisse, who awards it a coveted AAS MegaGame award. Highly recommended.
Coming over the wires on Christmas Eve was the report that Anssi Vanjoki, the Exec VP at Nokia leading the push on the Finnish Community Portal, Ovi, would be happy for Apple's iTunes store to be represented (reports CNN). "Of course, Apple can get into our portal. We even invite (Apple Inc chief executive) Steve Jobs to do so," he is quoted as saying. It's highly unlikely that Jobs would take up this offer, but in ensuring Nokia's online strategy, including its music store, is mentioned in the same breath as a more powerful competitor (in this case the iPod) is classic marketing strategy for an underdog.
All About Symbian would like to wish all its visitors a very happy Christmas. If you're hankering after some Xmas-related Symbian action while defrosting or digesting the turkey, don't forget to check out our recent features on Symbian Christmas Games and S60 3rd Edition Christmas Themes.
All About Symbian podcast #54 (also known as AAS Insight #6) is a Christmas special edition. Ewan and Rafe talk over a few topics of interest (software discounts and special offers available over the festive period and Palm's recent woes) before moving on to answer a special question: What phone does Father Christmas use?
Thanks to AAS reader Martin Mauch for alerting us to his new home-brew S60 (all versions) Python-based project and task management system, MobileGTD . Based on plain text files in a folder hierarchy, this does have the benefit of complete platform independence, at least in theory.
In a move that perhaps wasn't so surprising after all, the Nokia N-Gage team have announced that the service is now delayed again, quoting "unexpected difficulties". No date in January has been stated. Let's hope that it's early January and that more than the N81 is supported when N-Gage does come online. You can read the N-Gage blog statement below, and there's an editorial about this latest delay over on All About N-Gage.
Nokia is looking for some consumer insight and feedback to help it develop future versions of PC Suite. You can fill in this survey to offer your views on the current version. Nokia PC Suite evokes mixed reactions, some people love it while others find it slow and confusing. Personally I can't remember the last time I had a problem, a far cry from a few years ago when the software was a temperamental beast, but that doesn't mean usability can't be improved.
