A few minutes ago, YouTube's S60-native application got upgraded to v2.2.1, bringing official support for 11 countries (up from 5 in previous versions) - it'll now work in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, UK and the USA and, crucially, will work in French, UK English, Italian, Spanish, German and Dutch. The SISx file is designed for all S60 3rd Edition phones. To get YouTube/S60 v2.2.1, go to m.google.com in Web.
A three way cross between a painting package, Minesweeper and Sudoku, Picross combines number logic with spatial skills to create a unique (though reasonably well known) puzzle. Picross Mobile is a conversion for phones and currently sits pretty in the Ovi Store, here's Ewan's review.
In All About Symbian Insight 75 (AAS Podcast 135) Steve, Ewan and Rafe discuss the release of the Nokia E72 and 5530 XpressMusic. There's also discussion of the latest Ovi Maps for mobile release, updates fro Rest Generation and early reaction to the N97. The podcast concludes with Rafe sharing his first impressions of the Nokia N86. You can listen to AAS Insight 75 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia's Point and Find portal, where you can point your smartphone's camera at contents (such as movie posters or adverts, bar-codes, or any custom artwork) in the real world and be taken to a relevant URL in your browser, is now allowing you to upload your own media and tag it, so you can “Create your Own Experience,” in the words of the blog post.
Dev Week is back after a couple of week’s absence and I hope to keep it truly weekly from now on (despite the best attempts of Telecom New Zealand to deprive me of an internet connection). This week: getting started with the widget development tools, changes in FleaC licensing, and a new API for haptics.
Nokia's next-gen Photo Browser utility has just received a big update, adding faster operation, easier access to the menu, folder sorting, send functionality and image rotation. This release is for all S60 devices, but future updates will be focussed on S60 5th Edition and touch-screen phones. Via Nokia Beta Labs.
Today, at the Nokia Connections Event in Singapore, Nokia announced its latest Eseries device - the Nokia E72. This is an updated version of the Nokia E71, which was launched a year ago. The Nokia E72 has an updated version of S60 (3rd Edition Feature Pack 2) and improved messaging software suite. There are a number of small hardware changes, including a camera upgrade to 5.0 megapixels, a tweaked keyboard layout, an Optical Navi Key (trackpad) in the centre of the D-pad, and a 3.5mm audio jack. The E72 will be available from Q3 2009 at a cost of €350 (before taxes and subsidies). Read on for more.
ZOMGitsCJ.com is reporting that the Nokia N79 has received a firmware update to v30.011 which apparently includes improved stability and tighter Ovi integration. The update should be available OTA (type *#0000# on the standby screen) or through the Nokia Software Updater application.
On the official Nokia Conversations YouTube Channel there's a promotional video [update: temporarily withdrawn] for the presumably imminent Nokia E72. The device is a follow up to the popular Nokia E71, it shares the same form factor and basic design. However it has an updated keyboard with a redesigned control cluster area and redesigned layout for the bottom row of the QWERTY. There is also a 5 megapixel camera (up from 3.2 megapixels) and it runs an updated version of S60 (S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2) with the latest version of Nokia's messaging and email software. We're expecting an official announcement shortly and will post more details at that time (update: now officially announced).
Ovi Store has been updated again, and it seems the latest content push has added about 79 new titles to Ovi as well as more apps and other content. The list of new games is below, and you can see these for yourself by going to store.ovi.com and selecting the "Any Phone" option, then "Games", then "Newest - Oldest" from the drop down menu. By our reckoning Ovi Store has around 350+ different titles now available, with lots more still waiting to be added for various technical reasons. Note that not every game works on every phone, so if you select a particular model on Ovi Store you probably won't see every game on offer. As always, you can find out more about Ovi Store on our Unofficial FAQ page.
One of the seemingly vast number of Java game titles that have been put up by Nokia in their Ovi Store, The Sims 3 doesn't seem too bad - it's playable and well thought out, once you look past the lowest-common-denominator interface. Here's Ewan's Sims 3 review, right here on Ovi Gaming (used to be All About N-Gage).
NAVTEQ have supplied us with a comprehensive overview of their activities at this year’s CommunicAsia show, running 16 to 19 June in Singapore. The development of location based services in and for the APAC region remains strong and NAVTEQ is hoping to capitalise on this growth with its portfolio of map data and developers tools.
