Apologies to those who already know this, but it was news to me and perhaps to other people too: if you run an internet radio station you can add it to Nokia's online directory of stations for free by visiting this link. The directory is used by Nokia's Internet Radio application currently available on Symbian S60 3rd Edition phones and Maemo internet tablets, and allows people to browse and listen to listed stations on their devices through wi-fi or the phone network. The directory accepts both internet-only stations and internet streams of conventional broadcast radio stations.
DChoc Cafe Hold Em Poker is now available in the N-Gage application's showroom section. Just go to the N-Gage application on your device, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now" to see it in the latest games list (alternatively you can select "Show All Games"). To find out more about the N-Gage platform including a list of compatible phones, try reading the All About N-Gage FAQ.
The Nokia Beta Labs blog recently announced Nokia's latest beta offering - 'Here and now'. This is a context-aware (location) shortcut to services. Currently 'Here and now' provides local weather and events listings. It currently works only with S60 3.2 devices (N79, N85, 6220c etc.), and is currently still in development, but will be pre-installed on a number of upcoming Nokia devices. Beta Labs is asking for your feedback to help shape the future direction of the application. See below for screens and thoughts.
Thanks to CJ for reminding me that there's an official Nokia messaging YouTube channel, worth subscribing to. New on this channel is a four minute guide to the keypad shortcuts for Nokia Messaging, and it's also embedded in HQ form below.
Ewan returns to a familiar theme (for long time AASers) in the second part of his video diary with the qwerty-side-sliding Nokia E75, pointing out the apparent complexity of S60's application menu for new users. He's also found inconsistencies in this area that are new to the E75. Some of his concerns are addressed in S60 5th Edition, of course, but that's not going to help those who buy the E75. Video below.
In 'Mobile Development - For Everyone', our latest developer feature, Richard Bloor talks to Amer Hasan, Senior Manager, Apps & Developer Programs at Vodafone, about Betavine's £20,000 widget competition. The article explains how Vodafone sees widgets reducing the barriers and costs of development and the importance of open standards in choosing which widget platform to use.
With the advent of Google Latitude, Nokia Chat, Nokia FriendView and other similar services, Steve Litchfield ponders their future, wondering why they haven't taken off as fast as he'd originally predicted. Part of the reason, he suspects, is that the typical demographic for such mo-lo-so applications is fairly restricted, i.e. most of us either know exactly where our main contacts are or don't need to know.
Nokia's Download! system, integrated into every S60 device, has finally had one of my long-standing bugbears fixed. Never mind that the whole thing is now seemingly administered by Jamster (explaining all the '1 of 3' 'costs' listed throughout some of the app pages), the core 'Applications' section now has freeware marked as '0' (i.e. costs nothing), while trialware and demos now appear, less misleadingly (they used to say '0' too), as 'Try for free'. There's also the new 'Payment in application', in readiness for Ovi. See below.
Continuing a long run of success, Nokia has scored again with the N86 8MP at the annual TIPA (Technical Image Press Association) awards. The N86 won in the 'Mobile imaging device' category - perhaps a little premature given that the device hasn't hit the streets in production form, maybe Nokia has been handing prototypes to the 'right' people? Previous winners in the category were the Nokia N82 (2008) and N95 (2007), so at least it does seem as if the judges have got their heads screwed on straight.
I was pleasantly surprised to see the discussion on my recent “Why I Don't Use the PIM on S60” bring in a bundle of comments both on the site and in the emails. Lots of you brought up similar points, so I thought it would be a good idea to bring those into an article about why a PIM on a mobile device is a really good idea. [And Mr. Editor (Steve) couldn't resist sticking in his thoughts as well... bah]
Mobbler, a last.fm client for S60, has been updated to version 0.4.4. The new version supports the new Last.fm Web Services, which is an official API / integration route, and should improve stability. Other new features include improved album art support, the ability to disable scrobbling, a sleep timer (perfect for using music to send you to sleep), and the ability to view you Last.fm data.
Nokia today released its Q1 2009 results. Nokia had net sales of EUR 9.3 billion, down 27% year on year and down 27% sequentially (down 24% and up 25% at constant currency). Nokia sold 13.7 million converged (S60) devices, down from 14.6 million in Q1 2008 and 15.1 million in Q4 2008, of these 5 million were Nseries and 3 million were Eseries. An individual device highlight was the 5800 which sold 2.6 million units. Nokia's industry outlook sees similar device volumes and market share for Q2, but expect overall conditions to improve in the second half of the year
The Phones Show 79 went live just now, with some extended news, thoughts on the T-Mobile G1 and a demo of Slingplayer Mobile on the N95 8GB. Comments welcome as usual.
In this developer feature we preview Nokia's upcoming Developer Summit 2009, which being held in Monaco at the end of this month. It is the first event that brings all aspects of development for Nokia devices together and Srikanth Raju, head of marketing for Forum Nokia, offers some insight.
