Truphone, an 'Internet' operator that aims to cut call costs using VoIP (Truphone WiFi calling) and call-though (Truphone Anywhere) technologies, today announced that it now supports an additional 11 phones (most S60 3.2 and S60 5.0 phones). Truphone started out as a VoIP only services on Nokia devices, but subsequently widened its focus and switched attention to the iPhone and Android platforms. With Ovi Store providing an improved distribution channel Truphone feels the time is right to update its Nokia offerings.
AAS reader, (ex-)OPL programmer and now Python developer, Martin Dehler, has released a couple of applications that have effectively made it from the Psion Series 3a (circa 1995) to modern S60 3rd Edition phones. FuelLog is shareware and is a fuel consumption tracker that records, stores, calculates and exports fueling data and fuel consumption of vehicles. Birthdays is freeware and lists birthdays from the Contacts application in chronological order. For each birthday name, date of birth, age and remaining time until the next birthday are shown.
With the advent of summer in the Northern Hemisphere, Steve Litchfield reprises an old rant with a look at how the current crop of 2008/2009 smartphones fare on a sunny day. Does your phone turn into a hand mirror or can you see what's going on? Featured here are seven popular screen types, showing how well - or how badly - they do.
Location based services are the latest buzz-phrase in mobile marketing, and the next tranche of Nokia devices will come with software to help you access local information from your mobile. The Nokia Beta Labs are giving S60v3 users a chance to see an early version of Here and Now.
In this Insight, Rafe, Steve and Ewan talk about the Nokia N86, a visit to Symbian, N-Gage Games (Dance Fabulous and Pinbusters) and general reaction to the N97.
What's in a box? Quite a lot if you are a collector. And that's why the move to digital distribution is robbing the gaming world of one of its prize assets. The collectiblity of the box that the game comes in. Ewan explains why the Magpie in him needs something more from Nokia. He also (in a timely fashion) refers to the problems of not being able to take purchases onto a new phone, or even back onto the same phone after a hard reset. Read on...
[updated - 23 June 2009] In which I report on a usually forgotten feature of all modern Nokia smartphones - their stereo speakers. Why are these important (to me) and what sort of variation is there in volume and quality? I think you're going to be rather surprised - I know I was, the cheapest devices were the best! I looked briefly at the Nokia 5800, N95, N86 and N97... and have now added Nokia E90, E75, N96 and 6220c, plus the Samsung INNOV8 for good measure.
It's a hardware spectacular for The Phones Show 83, now out, with news of new Symbian OS smartphones, a long video review of the HTC Touch Pro, with head-to-head section against the Nokia N97, plus a demo-focussed tour around case makers Proporta, down in Brighton. If you want to pick the show up via RSS, here are the QVGA (for phones) and VGA (for desktops) feeds.
Rafe's been sending back some pictures and thoughts from the UK launch of the Nokia N97 and N86 in the Nokia store on Regent's Street through both Twitter (@aas) and Flickr (RafeB). No huge queues at the store, but plenty demo units, augmented reality units and he's wondering if the N86 is getting lost in all the lust for the N97.
Don't be fooled by the 'Overview' subtitle, we proudly present All About Symbian's detailed review of the Nokia N86 8MP being launched today. We cover all aspects of the device and explain where it fits into the world of top-end phones. Future review parts will cover specific areas, such as multimedia functions, in greater detail, plus we'll have specific photo comparison articles. Can the N86 8MP succeed amidst the barrage of summer touch-screen 'heroes'?
The Nokia N97 and Nokia N86 will launch tomorrow, Friday 19th June, in the UK. Nokia's Regents Street flagship store will open it doors at 10am. They are advising customers to come in, if possible, and pre-order a device, ahead of tomorrow, to avoid disappointment. You can also order the N86 and N97 via Nokia's online store. Other UK online stores will also start selling both devices and they will become available through select operators in the next few weeks.
Rafe excels at these annotated photo galleries, and his Nokia N86 Gallery is his biggest ever. Pore over the N86 8MP with him and see why both he and I think it almost perfectly formed and a spiritual successor to the N95 Classic. Yes, the screen's only QVGA, but it's perhaps the ultimate in the keypadded dual-slider form factor. And the camera's not bad, too. 8-) Note that a full N86 review is coming very soon, don't go away.
EA's mobile phone version of the classic board game Cluedo (aka Clue in some parts of the world) rejigs the traditional gameplay into a limited-turn logic puzzle game with an extremely slick graphical interface. Ovi Gaming has reviewed Cluedo for Ovi Store, and we also provide our usual gameplay video and selection of screenshots.
Promised some time ago, N-Gage games have finally been made available through Ovi Store, in the form of free trials which can be unlocked into full versions through an in-game purchase or rental option. Although Ovi Store and N-Gage remain separate brands right now, it might make sense for Nokia to merge them, as discussed below.
