'Tis just a little thing, but oh so worthy - one of our favourite Symbian developers, Sittiphol, has come up with NorthPole, a free compass utility for the Nokia E72. Meaning that you don't have to boot up Ovi Maps just to find out where North is.
Paragon Software (who long term readers may know better as Epocware) have released version 2.0 of Handy Shell, a replacement stand-by screen for your S60 smartphones which provides huge levels of customisation and interaction over and above the regular active stand-by screen on your phone.
The application development system Python for S60 has finally reached the big version 2.0, at least in runtime form, and is being pushed out via SW_Update on selected S60 phones. I've done some screens of the availability and installation process below on the Nokia N86. I daresay an official announcement and a full development release is also imminent. Watch this space.
In this, part 2 of my Nokia E72 review, I look at its camera functions, multimedia handling and general applications, before rounding it up. Is it fully useable and does it measure up to the 2009 competition? See also part 1 of the E72 review, looking at its hardware and performance.
When it comes to S60, we are fortunate to have a choice of which mapping application we use, but which is best? Is it Ovi Maps (née Nokia Maps), with its worldwide pre-loaded maps, voice navigation and PC integration, or is it Google Maps with the power of Google search, high-res satellite imagery and the perfect price? David Gilson has been testing both, and here reports on his findings.
SPB Software has launched a glitzy new take on the weather forecast genre, with an interactive 3D globe and various weather animations, plus an N97 homescreen widget. More details and screens below.
It's all very well having huge screens, tens of thousands of applications and even virtual and physical qwerty keyboards, but there's plenty you can do without typing a single character using Google's humble new Mobile App, using voice recognition on a vanilla, cheap S60 3rd Edition phone. Here are a few ideas - you might be very surprised!
In All About Symbian Insight 98 (AAS Podcast 162), we discuss the weeks news including closing Nokia Flagship Stores, Skype for Symbian Beta and Nimbuzz's Twitter integration. We also discuss some of the information that came out of Nokia's Capital Market Day, Steve's interview with Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) and offer insight into future Ovi Store developments. You can listen to AAS Insight 98 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Today seems to be the day for firmware upgrades, as the Nokia N85 gets a small jump to v31.002. Downloadable over the air (*#0000# on your handset as always), we always recommend a backup before you do this, even though in theory everything will remain untouched!
How do you find your way around the London Underground? With a printed map or this little Java app from mxData? Ewan considers the latter and, despite a low score, decides it's definitely worth installing. Here's his review of the freeware Tube Map.
In October Nokia announced it was suing Apple over patent infringements with regards to the iPhone and GSM, UTMS and WLAN technologies. Today Apple announced that it had filed a counter-suit against Nokia. In the counter-suit, which has been filed in US District Court of Delaware, Apples denies all claims of infringement against it and further alleges that Nokia 'chose to copy the iPhone' and as a result has infringed on 13 of Apple's own patents. Such counter suits are common in patent disputes where each side tries to establish as strong as negotiating position as possible.
One million downloads a day. That's the popularity of the Ovi Store, reports ME News from a Nokia round-table this week. Although still in its first iteration, with a new version of the store due early in 2010, and many will comment that ring-tones and wallpapers as well as applications will be included in that number, it's a significant number.
Skype has released the first beta of its own native Skype client for Symbian phones. The Symbian Skype client supports a full range of Skype functionality including Skype to Skype calls, Skype Out calls, instant messaging, file transfer, credit top-up, voice mail access and more. In the beta phase, a limited number of S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and 2 phones are being supported. Compatibility will be extended to other phones in due course. Read on for screenshots and additional information.
Looks like Gravity just got a major competitor. Nimbuzz has released a new version of its free Symbian client with "industry-first Homescreen Notifications and sophisticated Twitter functionality". The new version 2.2 also has full kinetic scrolling on all touchscreen phones, a number of layout improvements and ties in with the NimbuzzOut rate calculator for international calls. Full details, screens and links below.
Thanks to Micky Aldridge for pointing out that Nokia is giving away one week's free Drive navigation for Ovi Maps 3.0 at the moment, as a trial of their service. Worth grabbing the code for typing in and trialling over the Christmas and New Year break? To get your code, head here and fill out your details. Of course, it would be even better if Nokia changed the whole sat-nav game in an instant and made the thing free for all, but....