Thanks to Andrea Trento for an interesting roundup of Flash Lite news - it seems that the latest all-singing, all-dancing release of this multimedia-centred mini-app system is now out and is free - with downloads for all S60 2nd and 3rd Edition smartphones, although you do have to register your details to get the player... If you've an idea for an application, this is now an avenue well worth exploring.
These crazy Russians. One chap has decided to put the Nokia 5500's ruggedised pretensions to the test by vacuuming it up, washing it, soaking it in milk, dropping it from a great height and then running over it in a car. And er.... it still worked. Not bad, Nokia!
Nokia has now put up its official N95 product page on the Nseries site, with animations, spotlights and full technical specifications. And the good news is that it's still scheduled to arrive within the next 3 months.
I've been adding to and fleshing out my original Nokia N93 'TV out' showcase - see the revised 'Powerhouse in your pocket' feature. And, of course, everything mentioned in this piece will now also apply in equal measure to the upcoming N95 and other top-end future Nseries devices.
OPL, if you remember, was the 'edit and run it on the device' programming system for old Psions and UIQ/Series 80 smartphones, but OPL never made it past Symbian OS 7. With the steadily increasing maturity of Python (there's a new version 1.3.14 out now), I've been playing with my Musician mini-app again. Read on for thoughts and the download...
Nokia's Jaakko Kaidesoja gave a very interesting interview to Pocket Gamer at the Nokia World event. Apparently, there will be between five and seven S60 3rd Edition smartphones which will support Nokia's Next Gen gaming platform when it launches next year, presumably with that number expanding after the launch as even newer models appear. Here's the interesting bit though: "Some of (the smartphones) are already being sold today ... if you have one of those devices, you'll just have to go to our website, download the application to your phone." Frustratingly however, he declines to say which models these are. (Thanks to Symbian Freak for pointing this story out!)
Ewan provides over a dozen pointers for would-be successful hobbyist programmers and small developers who'd like to create successful applications and games.
I was resisting posting about this because I think they're in danger of complicating the application, but Opera Mini is now up to v3.0, with photo publishing (to an Opera photo server), RSS (news/blogs) and HTTPS (secure site) support, plus various usability improvements. It's still the best way to keep your GPRS bill down though....
