Reported widely today is a new over-the-air update to Nokia's GPS-uber-utility, Sports Tracker. v2.05 (up from v1.83) brings better touch support (map zoom icons, more reliable finger swipe screen transitions), plus N79-like support for the Polar heart rate monitor and (on compatible devices) the integration/backup of accelerometer-based step counting. You can get v2.05 by going into the application and using 'Check for updates'.
After almost eighteen months of silence, a Nokia forum moderator has finally made an official statement about the status of N-Gage on the N73, N93 and N93i. In short, N-Gage will NOT be coming to those phones. As many predicted, the relatively older OS versions and less powerful hardware on those models apparently weren't up to the job of handling next gen N-Gage games. The low sales of the N93/N93i wouldn't have helped either. Our editorial thoughts on this issue are below. (Click here to see which phones ARE getting N-Gage.)
Samsung Mobile Innovator has announced the availability of the Qt for S60 Garden technology preview device DLL installation files with Samsung certification. This enables the Qt for S60 demos , as well as applications created with Qt for S60, to run on Samsung S60 phones.
Hot on the heels of their new Mobile site, YouTube has now also released an official (native) S60 client application. It is compatible with most S60 3rd Edition phones. The video quality is good, and looks to have been optimised for QVGA screen resolution. There's a basic interface to browse and search through YouTube's extensive video catalog. All videos are shown in full screen, but widescreen videos are shown in a 'letter-box' format. Read on for more information and screenshots.
For an All About Symbian podcast with a difference, join Ewan, Ricky Cadden, Charlie Schnick and Molly Schonthal (the latter two from Nokia) on the show floor at SXSW in the States this week. The discussion's a little more chaotic than usual, but they cover devices, UIs and apps, before moving on to the organisational miracle that is Ewan's Filofax.... Presenting Podcast 119.
The Nokia E71 today received a firmware update to 210.21.006 from 200.21.118. It is currently available for both Asian and European SIM-free models. Other markets and operators variants will likely follow in due course. It is a relatively minor firmware updates with a few bug fixes and minor application updates.
EA's racing game Need For Speed: Undercover is out now on the N-Gage platform. You can find it in your phone's N-Gage app: to see it go to the showroom tab, select Options, then Update Now. (For a list of compatible phones and other info, see the All About N-Gage FAQ.)
Long-time Arena user Clintonjeff has been one of the first in the world to receive the new business-oriented Nokia E75 smartphone. This is the first Eseries device to be compatible with N-Gage, and CJ has looked at how well it copes with gaming. Apparently not very well. There are quite a few "issues" such as the N-Gage icon being hidden too deeply in the menu system (in the "Media" folder!), restricted gaming key options, and a client that doesn't work in horizontal mode. Check the link out for more details and see below for CJ's E75 N-Gage video. It's a real shame that N-Gage is making such a disastrous debut on Eseries. If anyone from Nokia is reading this, take a look at CJ's article and make note of what needs fixing (the problems would mostly be very easy to fix too).
YouTube has finally, finally, done something about their low-grade 176 by 144 pixel mobile video interface. For Flash Lite 3-compatible phones (which means most S60 phones made in the last couple of years, provided firmware is kept recent), videos are now served up from the mobile YouTube interface in Flash format. Once the video starts playing, you tap to bring it up full screen in Flash Lite's video player. Most significantly, the quality's miles better than the original QCIF version - 480 by 320 pixels for many videos. Screenshots and links below.
It seems the E75 fairy missed AAS out (an admin mistake, apparently), but fear not for Clinton Jeff has stepped up to the plate with a nicely opinionated and illustrated look at Nokia's latest Eseries qwerty slider. A man after my own heart, he has torn into the device in his first 24 hours and presents a long list of pluses and minuses.
Of course, Jaiku's been in such a moribund state since Google bought it that it's arguably not as earth-shattering - we now have a world where Twitter is king of the microblog and Google's own Maps/Latitude is arguably king of location sharing. But location-aware blogging tool Jaiku still has a place in many people's hearts and news is just in that not only is Jaiku now Open Source and running on its final destination server (Google App Engine) but a new S60 native (and presumably also Open Source) client is also coming very soon. Can't wait.
