In case you hadn't gathered from the RMR news piece, NS Basic has now been formally released for Symbian. It's a Visual Basic-like development environment which "makes it easy to create apps for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3 devices". The full press release is here. Comments welcome if you give this a try.
Nokia Beta Labs have released an enhanced calculator for S60. The calculator, which has been ported from Series 40, features standard, scientific and loan modes. A big plus, in standard mode, is the use of the D-pad as shortcuts for the common operators (+, -, × and ÷) which greatly improves the speed of entering calculations.
Two bits of news from RMR Software - if anyone's still using an older Series 80-based Communicator then note that all RMR's software is now reduced by between 45% and 70%. Also, more 'cutting edge' is that RMR has put together what's possibly the first real Style Tap-based app for S60 (i.e. Palm OS app running within Symbian OS). More on this below the break.
Content from the Lonely Planet travel guide series is now available in Nokia Maps. The guides are available via the Extras section in the Options menu of Nokia Maps 2.0. The Lonely Planet guides take the form of a collection POIs (Points of Information) which are divided into several categories (Eat, General, Night, See, Shop and Sleep). Read on for more details and screenshots.
You can now play the excellent N-Gage multiplayer title Reset Generation for free through Facebook (click here to visit the game's Facebook page) and Google Gadgets (click here to visit the game's Google Gadgets page). You can also put it on your own website or blog for free by copying the HTML code included below, and of course you can play it on your phone through the N-Gage application. All versions of the game share the same game world, so it should be very easy to find opponents.
Nokia currently has three platforms in development simultaneously, for their smartphones (S60), normal phones (Series 40) and internet tablets (Maemo). They all have their good and bad points, but in this feature krisse looks at how S60 could learn from its two sister-platforms. We would like to hear what you think S60 can learn from Series 40 and Maemo in the comment thread.
Steve has been thinking about the lure of Apple's iPhone to normal users. In this editorial he looks at screens and compares Apple's technology with that found in the N95 8GB. How important, for the average consumer, are screens in the all-important first impression period?
In All About Symbian Insight #36 (AAS Podcast #89) Rafe, and Steve chat about the web as a platform for services and follow on with a discussion on whether Nokia should make its services available on competing hardware. There's also a debate on the relative merits of the N78 and N82 for those looking to make a purchase decision.
This may sound like a spoof listing from TV Go Home, but it's absolutely true: Nokia presents a series of short videos aimed at mobile game developers, this week featuring Miikka Skaffari, Head of Developer Product Management. Episode 1 sees host Arnold Faber quizzing Miikka about the N-Gage platform's new development tools, APIs and SDK. In a sauna.
It's not only AAS which has guest writers, you know. Over at Darla Mack's site, AAS regular snoyt brings us an epic tale of how an N95 classic performed, week in and week out during some transcontinental journeying. He worked the N95 into the ground, but fear not for a more modern replacement is on its way...
In this video review Rafe looks at the Nokia 6650, the clamshell S60 device that is exclusive to the T-Mobile network (and which I reviewed in text last week). In the video (embedded below) you can see the T-Mobile and Nokia services running on the device, a run through of the 6650's cover UI and a demonstration of the customisable keypad lights.
Canalys have crunched the numbers and produced some definitive smartphone sales stats for Q2 for EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa). Always interesting reading, the highlights this time are that 38% of devices had built-in GPS, 58% had built-in Wi-Fi and 13% had touch-screens. Nokia shipped almost 9 million smartphones in this region alone, with 71% market share - 7% is the share of RIM and HTC, more or less in joint second place. Apple are lumped in with others, but may prove a contender in the future, of course.
You may recall that in March Steve reviewed an early sample of the Samsung i550W - plagued with bugs and issues, Steve was rather disappointed. However, Samsung haven't abandoned the device and, with latest firmware under the hood, the i550W is transformed into a 'recommended' device. Unique selling points of this candy-bar design are its thinness, the trackball, the extra shortcut keys, USB charging, plus smartphone staples like GPS and Wi-Fi.
Nokia Chat, the Contacts and GPS-integrated chat and location-sharing system, just became available for vanilla (i.e. non-FP1 or FP2) S60 smartphones such as the Nokia N93, E61 and E65. There are a few small functional limitations but, armed with a Bluetooth GPS, there's now no reason not to join in the world of Chat.
Do you use Google's chat and sharing site 'orkut'? If that's you and you have a S60 phone then there's a shiny new S60-optimised mobile site at http://m.orkut.com. From Google: "We have added a bunch of new features, including photo uploads, picture galleries, click-to-call and quick friend searches." Screenshots below.