In Insight number 50 (woohoo!), Rafe, Steve and Ewan discuss the latest news from the Symbian World. Steve talks about his overall N79 experience, Ewan has been playing with an N85 and Rafe waffles about the state of the open platform market. Plus, we look forward to Nokia World 2008 (tomorrow)....
I've just found out that BBC iPlayer's (UK-only) streaming TV programmes work in the beta Skyfire browser for all S60 phones, there are comments and some screenshots below of it working on my Nokia N82. Previously, iPlayer access had only been possible on the N96 or via hacked versions of the iPlayer widget on selected other devices.
Dennis Bournique has done a great job here of writing a full critical review of the new Skyfire browser for S60. It seems that, despite still being in beta, it's the best for viewing web video, but that there are still some day to day usability problems that need addressing.
If you're a Python tinkerer like me then you'll be interested in a summary post over at Forum Nokia by Daniel Crocha, talking about possible reasons why Python for S60 doesn't often make for easy development of full, commercial (read polished) applications. He also links to a possible solution for making building all-in SIS install files easier.
Kudos to Symbian Guru (the developer, not the blogger) for introducing a new genre of S60 utility. GPS-Action uses GPS and/or cell ID to fire alarms, switch profiles, open applications, etc. according to where you are rather than the time of day. So, for example, you could be reminded to look for a particular product the next time you get to the shopping mall. Lots more other examples and information at the main GPS-Action page.
Released a few days ago was Nokia's latest Mac suite, 'Nokia Multimedia Transfer 1.4'. Labelled beta software, it looks to be holding the fort and preparing the ground for a full Ovi Suite for Mac in the next month. v1.4 requires the latest version of Leopard and features 'a new method for selecting the content to be transferred, various performance improvements and a new user interface for settings'. I've put together some screenshots from v1.4 below, for your delectation.
Another of Nokia's latest wave of S60 3rd Edition FP2 phones goes under Steve Litchfield's scrutiny. This time it's the Nokia N79, which, like the N96 before it, though full of 'toys', is ultimately not powerful enough when compared to the older N82 and N95 variants. A lack of graphics acceleration and poor video capture are two aspects which Steve felt disappointed with, but the all-in-one, slim, fashionable form factor will, I feel, ensure mainstream success.
Good to see some response from Nokia's Friend View team, fielding questions about map caching, lack of Nokia Maps compatibility and GPS/battery efficiency. Sounds like they're serious about this particular Beta Labs project after all...
In AAS Insight 49, we have brief news of a new version of Mobile Web Server, and a forthcoming TD-SCDMA S60 phone. The main part of the podcast is divided in to two parts: Rafe discusses his time at a recent Developer Day in Budapest while Steve, from the 17 minute mark, tells us about his visit to Nokia's hardware testing facility. If you want to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Sometimes we at AAS Towers get review hardware that we're allowed to keep for many months - in these cases, it means that it's practical to move everything over and use such a device as our main phone, day in, day out. In such a situation is Ewan with the Nokia N85. The data transfer process wasn't without its hitches though and there's one critical piece of software whose absence is causing Ewan's blood to curdle. Read on...
Nokia's supposed Sports Tracker replacement, viNe, is now available to all, it seems. It geotags photos and videos and lets you plot them later on the viNe web site. More on this later, I suspect. What do you think of Nokia viNe? The jury's still out chez Litchfield.... (via CJ)
Despite a few misgivings over the status of the items people might download (especially cracked applications), it's good to see SymTorrent continuing to receive updates; version 1.4 adds browser integration support, selectable file downloads within torrents and improvements in speed and stability. There's also a promise of S60 5th Edition support in the near future.
The Java-running, proxy-based, web browser Opera Mini v4.2 has now been officially released, with new Skins support, faster servers, compatibility with the mobile version of YouTube and Opera Desktop note syncing. Read on for more.
Not quite free but very close to it, you can now buy the updated puzzle game Quartz 2 Deluxe for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3 devices for just €0.78 from Clickgamer (that's about 66 pence or 1 US dollar). As well as a single player mode the game also features internet and bluetooth multiplayer, and multiplayer versus computer opponents.
I do enough phone camera comparisons of my own here without really needing to link to other people's, but Clinton Jeff's incredibly detailed head to head here between the Nokia N96 and N82 is worthy of mention. It seems that the newer device is hamstrung in firmware when it comes to focussing on close-up objects and that exposed camera glass seemingly doesn't help when shooting into light.