Nokia have continued to tweak their Ovi services with a few changes to Ovi Mail. The main visual change is that it is now integrated in the top icon bar of the main Ovi site, while in the background it will now automatically check for email and allow you to mark mail as read without requiring you to open said mail.
Managing a football team is easy, countless games have shown you how, on all platforms. But owning a football team and trying to make money... that's a different matter. Can Football Tycoon show us the way forward? Ewan, a Scotsman with an eye for money, takes a critical look at this new S60 game...
In the last of his video diaries with the Nokia E75, embedded below, Ewan chats at length about its multimedia capabilities - camera, music, recording, and so on. It's fair to say that he still likes the device and considers it well above average. Your comments welcome on both the E75's multimedia and also on the video diary format. Which device would you like to see Ewan tackle next?
PyS60 enthusiast Croozeus breaks the news of another landmark test release of the next-gen version of Python for S60, v1.9.5. Significantly, this includes 'listbox' support for touch-screen devices, meaning that we're one step closer to a full v2.0 release that supports all recent S60 phones (touch and non-touch). In other related news, there's heated discussion going on about Nokia's decision not to allow Python-coded applications in the new Ovi app store.
The rather brilliant N-Gage-exclusive 3D platform game Bounce Boing Voyage has been updated to include motion control on those phones which have accelerometers, where you can tilt the phone to control the main character (or you can use the traditional button controls if you prefer). If you've already bought the game you can get the updated version free, and if you haven't bought the game you can buy it from the N-Gage showroom tab. Instructions for updating existing games are below.
In a special edition of our AAS Insight podcast, recorded today (launch day of the Ovi Store), Rafe, Ewan and Steve share their first thoughts on Nokia's content shop. We talk about some of the initial connectivity and load problems (but try not to dwell on them), plus the usability of the Ovi Store on-device client. We conclude, after kicking the store while it's down (literally), by sharing some of our positive impressions.
The Ovi Store roll-out just reached the UK in the last hour for many device product codes, it seems that the store availability is still proceeding around the clock today, around the world, for up to 50 devices and (estimated) around 50 million customers. Go into Download! on your Nokia S60 device and hitting 'Refresh content', Ovi Store is now showing up, for example, on my 5800 XpressMusic (and my N95) in the root folder of Download. Screenshots, observations and comments below.
Nokia's Ovi Store has soft launched in Australia; the information we recieved indicates that Ovi Store is now accessible on a Nokia E75 on the Australian operator Vodafone (see updates, in full story, for other markets). Ovi Store is Nokia's content store and download application for applications, games, wallpapers, themes, ringtones and video clips.
We're expecting the roll out of Ovi Store, in other countries, to continue over the next few hours and days. It is likely that a formal launch announcement will be made this week. We'll be updating this story, and will have full coverage of the Ovi Store once it launches in the UK. For now read on for more details and the first live pictures showing Ovi Store in the wild!
Something for just about everyone this week: the Mobile Sensor API for Java ME on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, an update for S60 5th Edition theme creation, and an extended service for mobile advertising from NAVTEQ.
Our sister site, All About N-Gage, has evolved into Ovi Gaming. The new name reflects an expansion in the coverage of the site. In addition to providing the usual comprehensive N-Gage coverage, Ovi Gaming (OG) will provide coverage of games available via Nokia's forthcoming Ovi Store, which we expect to arrive very soon. As before, we'll continue to feature the best of Ovi Gaming content, here, in AAS's news stream.
At their recent developer summit Nokia described how it would be opening up the Ovi platform to third party developers. Apps on Maps was given as the initial example and now, at the Where 2.0 conference, Nokia has announced more of the technical details for the web side elements. The Ovi Maps Player API will allow developers to embed Ovi Maps on third party website and create 'mash-ups' by overlaying data and interacting with the map. As such it will be in direct competition with the Google Maps and its accompanying APIs. Read on for more details.
In response to popular demand, I've added the Samsung i8910 (Omnia HD) to my 'choose your perfect smartphone' Grid, along with the HTC Touch Pro 2 and the HTC Touch Diamond 2. How does the Grid perform for you now? It chooses the Nokia E71 for me, followed by the 5800 XpressMusic, which isn't a million miles out. Comments welcome!
It may be named an enterprise device, but Nokia's E75 could easily measure up as a consumer device on the High Street, couldn't it? Ewan takes a look at the slider form factor device from the point of view of the regular man in the street. See also the rest of our full Nokia E75 review: Nokia E75 - Part 1: General Design and Hardware (Rafe) and Nokia E75 - Part 2: Camera and Multimedia (Steve)
Google has announced that their new Google Sync for Mobile now supports S60 phones. You can now synchronize your Google Contacts and Calendars, but not via SyncML, rather disappointingly. Instead, sync has been implemented as a profile for Nokia Mail for Exchange, which has to be installed separately. The advantage of using MfE is that it's based on push technology, meaning that changes should automatically appear at either 'end' within minutes, i.e. your information is constantly up-to-date.
Always interesting to see the latest figures coming out, this time from Gartner for Q1 2009. Nokia's market share in the smartphone world had fallen slightly, to 41%, but they still sold more devices (15 million) than the next four manufacturers put together. The 5800 in particular was pointed out as a success story. Behind Nokia in the stats were RIM with 20% of the market, and Apple at 11% with their iPhone. In terms of smartphone OS, Symbian powered just under 50% of devices sold. Comments welcome!