A while ago we asked the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation if they had an online OPML directory of their podcasts. They replied they didn't but would make one, and true to their word it has just gone live. You can now browse and subscribe to all CBC podcasts on your S60 device by adding the directory address http://www.cbc.ca/podcasts.opml to your Podcasting application. We will be publishing a more detailed article about this later, but for the moment see our previous article on how to add directories to the S60 Podcasting application (the link also has the URLs for the BBC and NPR podcast directories). Also see our guide to podcasting on the Nokia 5800.
Running S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, Nokia has launched the 5730 XpressMusic, with E75-style side-sliding qwerty keyboard. There's a 3.2 megapixel camera, Wi-Fi and GPS, plus the “Say and Play” feature first introduced in the Nokia 5320. It has the same customised home screen to directly access contacts and Ovi services, as seen in the Nokia 5630. More below, including photos.
Yesterday saw two announcements that further the options for developers to bring their applications to the S60 platform. Qt Software announced a new technology preview of Qt for S60 and Forum Nokia released Mobile Extensions for Qt for S60. More or less at the same time Red Five Labs announced the availability of Net60 version 2.1 with many improvements and support for the S60 5th Edition touch UI.
Gameloft's action adventure Prince Of Persia is now available on the N-Gage platform. Go to your phone's N-Gage application's showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now" to see it. For more info about the N-Gage platform including a list of compatible devices, see All About N-Gage's FAQ section.
After MWC, CeBIT is always a let-down in terms of mobile phones, and noone from AAS has been attending. However, lest you feel like you're missing out, Norman John from SymbianWorld (this being his 'home' event) has produced an illustrated report.
Tzer2 brings us the latest All About N-Gage review - Monopoly: Here & Now - The World Edition, the board classic, brought to life here by Electronic Arts. It seems as though it ticks most of the boxes in terms of gameplay and graphics, and makes a good multiplayer party game through TV Out. But Tzer2 picks it up on having no online multiplayer mode (though you can hand the phone round a group), and no tutorial for those not already au fait with the rules of Monopoly.
In All About Symbian Insight 62 (AAS Podcast 118) we briefly discuss the recently released S60 5.0 SDK (and consider broader uses), follow up on kinetic scrolling on the N97, get Ewan's view point on Monopoly for the N-Gage. In the last part of the podcast Steve and Ewan relate their experience of video recording on the N85 versus the N95. You can listen to AAS Insight 62 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Six months on, it's time for another update to my semi-definitive(!) table of S60 hardware through the ages, over at 3-Lib. As ever, it's not perfect, so be gentle with me and if you can fill in any of the 'Unknown' blanks then please get in touch at slitchfield@gmail.com. Thanks.
The Nokia Events site is showcasing an upcoming Nokia virtual launch (online only) event, which is related to music. It's likely we'll hear about new XpressMusic device(s), as well well as updates around Nokia's music strategy. The announcement will be made at 10am CET (9am GMT). DRM-free music in the Nokia Music Store, updates to Comes with Music, new market roll out plans, price cuts? Let the speculation begin!
Just a note that The Phones Show 77 is now live, with a discussion of TV and video for free on your phone (demoed on the Nokia 5800), demos of five musician's aids on the Apple iPhone and a declaration of a winner in the video editing race for handling phone-shot MP4 video. You can subscribe to the QVGA or hi-res VGA RSS feeds (iTunes versions here and here) if you want to catch the show regularly.
Here's the final batch of high resolution images from Mobile World Congress 2009 from Rafe. Immaculately done as usual, click through any image for the full size JPG. Featured here are the Nokia E55 (compact qwerty keyboard), the Nokia E75 (side-sliding qwerty) and Nokia 5630 XpressMusic (mid-range music phone, with 'Say and Play'). Enjoy. See the comments threads on the individual galleries.
TextArt is a new 'generative' text-to-MMS applet from Nokia, ostensibly for the E71 but working on other qwerty devices such as the E63 and E90, I'm sure. It's Java-based, but don't let that put you off. Eye-candy, to be sure, but cool. (via NC)
It's Brain Training - for S60, with SPB kindly porting their own take on the genre from their Windows Mobile version. The result is something that's clearly not optimised for non-touch S60 phones, but despite this Ewan found the SPB Brain Evolution games challenging and the overall package good value. Will it actually help your brain to evolve? I suspect not, but it sure looks like a good way to keep your grey matter on an even keel while waiting in queues...
Nokia today announced the availability of version 4.5 of the Qt cross platform application and UI framework. The new version sees the first release of the Qt Creator, a cross platform IDE, which combined with the Qt SDK, gives you everything you need to start cross platform development. The release is also the first licensed under LGPL, which is more permissive license and should increase the adoption of Qt.
