In roughly four hours time, around 11pm GMT Thursday, the creme de la creme of the S60 world will be gathering in the Nokia Store, New York, for talks, demos, previews and more.... Rafe and I couldn't make it (though Ewan's at least on the right continent), but Darla and other AAS stawarts will be there, reporting back with Flickr photos and a YouTube channel, so we can all share something of what goes down...
This Saturday the Benelux PDAtotaal usergroup is holidng an open-day in Utrecht at the Vechtsebanen congress centrum. The PDAtotaal usergroup supports Epoc, Symbian, and Windows Mobile users. The open day includes a presentation of the latest devices including the E61i, E65, N95 and the E90. There's also a prize draw and of course the chance to meet like minded enthusiasts. The event is supported by Nokia, HP, Epocware, mBrainsoftware and Pdashop.nl.
There's a new version of Nokia's PC Suite on the streets (thanks Darla). PC Suite v6.82 includes more network operator support, bug fixes, an improved Nokia Music Manager and Nokia Software Updater integration.
Helping prove that their business ambitions at least are getting somewhere in the USA, Nokia's Enterprise Solutions group has received the 2007 Frost and Sullivan North American Mobility Award for Mobile Device Management. The press release follows.
Released today with absolutely no fanfare, the free Nokia Sports Tracker (which seems to share quite a bit in common with the built-in suite on the Nokia 5500 Sport) integrates your smartphone and your GPS with exercise-related data-logging, stats and export to Google Earth. Again, the E-series blog got there first with an excellent overview.
Ewan may be in the USA, but it seems he found time on the flight over there to hammer through epic arcade puzzler (you'll have to read the review!) Tilelander for both S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 smartphones, and to give it his hearty recommendation.
In Smartphones Show 26, I pitch the Nokia N73 against the Qtek 8500, a.k.a. the HTC STRTrK. Both are of similar age, price, size and are aimed at similar buyers. But which is the better 'smartphone for everyman'? If you want to grab the show on your smartphone, iPod or PSP, here's the RSS feed to copy and paste.
Announced around six months ago, the Nokia N73 Music Edition is finally becoming available. What's new for this revamp of the popular high street best seller and is the whole Music Edition thing worthwhile? Read my review of the N73 Music Edition to find out.
A new developer, a new game concept. Relative newcomers CrazySoft enter the world of Symbian OS 9 with a bang with PaintBall 2 - Krisse reviews this puzzle game for S60 3rd Edition (also available for UIQ 3) and finds plenty of extras and game modes to keep it interesting for hour after hour.
Ikona, one of the big cheeses over at the N-Gage Arena, posted to the N-Gage Blog recently about an unannounced (first party?) game codenamed Project White Rock for Nokia's next gen gaming platform. Details were scarce, but it's being produced by Scott Foe, who produced the N-Gage's biggest hit Pocket Kingdom (which was the world's first mobile MMO). White Rock also appears to involve RedLynx, the Finnish developers who produced the N-Gage's most critically acclaimed game, Pathway To Glory, and another acclaimed title called High Seize. Ikona hinted that White Rock might be released for the PC as well as N-Gage.
Hmmm..... methinks the HTC P5500 is looking awfully familiar - the screen size, the slider, the built-in GPS, the 3 megapixel stills camera, the Wi-Fi, etc. I doubt there are copyright issues at stake here, but you know what they say about imitation being the sincerest form of flattery... Nokia must be doing something right with the N95! I can't wait to review the two devices head to head in the summer.
Danish website Mobilsiden.dk has a video interview (in English) with the designers of the Nokia 5500, Rachel Sleight and Marja-Leena Nurmela. Product designers rarely explain their decisions in public, and it's interesting to hear the philosophies behind the 5500's design and materials. The interview is split into short chunks for some reason, but they're all on the same page one below the other.
