Fans of Spb Software's rather nifty world TV application, SpbTV (AAS shop link, support us by buying this way), should note that it has had a big update. Version 1.1 (download page) for all Symbian/S60 devices adds lower quality streams for anyone on a slow or weak 3G/EDGE connection, adds full support for TV out (making your smartphone into an Internet TV appliance!), plus better startup notifications (percentage reports while index building). Plus a litany of minor fixes and optimisations for a wider range of devices. Recommended.
Following on from my camera/camcorder series here on AAS, here's a look at the pros and cons of adding focussing to video capture in Symbian smartphones. What should a manufacturer do? What's the best way forwards? Is continual auto-focus practical yet? Is initial focus necessarily better than a preset focus? The pros and cons may surprise you...
Zum Zum is a lovely mix of arcade action and Tetris-like clearing strategy. While it's been done on countless platforms before, this version of the genre game Zuma, according to Ewan Spence, doesn't make any mistakes in providing a good conversion to the S60 platform.
In All About Symbian Insight 79 (AAS Podcast 141), we share news of Symbian^2's release and the first Symbian package to move from SFL to EPL. Then there's a mention of Nokia Android rumours, leading into a discussion about Maemo positioning and Qt. Finally we talk about a recent post from Robert Scoble. You can listen to AAS Insight 79 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
For all those with phones running S60 3rd Edition or 3rd Edition FP1, you might want to grab Birdstep's SmartConnect utility, which is now free. This removes the "access complexity" and combines all your Wifi and 3G access points into one access point, effectively mimicking the Destinations feature of S60 3rd Edition FP2 and beyond. The supported phones are listed below, along with a download link.
Ewan takes a brief look at Tommi Laukkanen's new, free Mobile Task Manager, a no-frills to-do-list/project manager that still manages to knock spots off the built in S60 function. It's Java-based, but don't let that put you off, this is one lean and efficient concept app - let's hope it continues to evolve.
Nokia and AT&T today announced the Nokia Surge, which they're calling a 'socially supercharged smartphone'. It's a Symbian S60 (3.2) phone with a QWERTY keyboard on a horizontal slide with a unique looking design. It features a 2.0 megapixel camera, integrated GPS and includes AT&T's Navigator, Video Share and Mobile Music services. The phone will cost $79.99 ($129.99 before mail in rebate) with a two year contract and will be available in AT&T stores in the next few weeks.
In their own different ways, the Nokia N86 8MP and the Apple iPhone 3GS represent the pinnacles of their form factor. The one is the classic one-handed 'phone', the other is the classic two-handed 'PDA/tablet. Yes, never mind that over-simplification, in the feature below I look in detail at every aspect of the two devices and try to see where comparisons can be drawn. I'm not looking for an overall winner, but am genuinely interested in the areas in which each device and form factor wins out. [Updated with notes on the N86's 'real' digital zoom and a demo link]
At last, at long last, the popular Twitter client Gravity has gained large fonts, for use by those like me who (ahem) have less than 20:20 vision in our advancing years. You'll need to go online in Gravity, move to the start page and click on the 'alpha' (and 'experimental') version 1.20 build 5570, but don't worry, it works just fine. You also gain, as shown below, the ability to have a different (e.g. a white) theme/backdrop, again greatly aiding visibility. v1.20 works fine on all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition phones.
Spin the numbers around the carousel, add in a Sudoku grid and a touch of frustration, and you have a new puzzle game. Will Rotoku, new in the Nokia Ovi Store, be enough to satisfy Ewan?
Telexy Networks has launched Network Commander, a collection of useful network utilities for Symbian OS. A while back Telexy released a piece of
software called SymSMB - basically it allowed Symbian devices to connect to network shares via Wi-Fi. Very clever, but they encountered a small legal issue with a large Finnish phone maker. To cut a long story short, they shouldn't have been doing two jobs at once. Naughty. So SymSMB was pulled from sale, sadly. But there's now Network Commander and I've looked at it briefly below.
Launched today in Nokia's Ovi Store is a free Bing widget:- you'll recall that this is Microsoft's next-gen answer to Google's main search site. Offering Web, Mobile web, News, Images and Videos, the tabbed interface gives you results almost instantly, since content is cached for each tab/data type. Some screens and comments below.
