A couple of interesting links of interest for you from the N82 Blog - bringing news that Slick IM, a popular free Instant Messaging utility, has been updated with full theme support, plus news of a big update to MyPhone, a commercial iPhone skin/launcher that sits on top of S60 (though its use seems to be mainly novelty value in front of easily-swayed friends...)
While not directly S60 powered, the accessories announced at Nokia World yesterday certainly would sit happily alongside any smartphone. With a focus on 'enhancing the mobile experience,' the Finns presented a Home Music Station, the Internet Stick and the Nokia Extra Power DC-11.
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.
There are now six separate competitions running simultaneously to promote the N-Gage platform, with some rather good prizes ranging from phones and games to a big pile of Star Wars and football goodies. We've collected together all the links and info you need to enter these contests and grab some loot. As these contests have been poorly advertised there is actually a very good chance of winning too... :-)
A couple of days ago, I was invited to spend the day at Nokia's Testing Labs at Farnborough, UK, being given a tour of the facilities and numerous demonstrations along the way. The aim was to spread the word about how rigorously Nokia test their handsets' hardware and on that front I was extremely impressed. AAS video podcast 37 is a fairly full 35 minutes of footage from the tour (taken on the N93 and N82, for those that are interested) and will let you see and hear what I saw. Enjoy.
The latest branch of Nokia Music Store has gone live in Italy, if you head over to music.nokia.it you'll find instructions in Italian on how to use the service. Interestingly in this globalised age the press release for the launch emphasises the need for local music, giving a statistic that 54% of music bought in Italy is Italian. Full text of the release is below.
In the final part, number eight, of my Camera Nitty Gritty series, I look at some of the top smartphone cameras again, but this time looking at their video capture potential, covering the Nokia N82, N93, E90, the Samsing INNOV8, the Sony Ericsson K850i and the HTC TyTN II. Obviously just a snapshot of the phone video capture world but hopefully nonetheless interesting. Your comments welcome if you can add any comparisons of your own!
At last month's Smartphone Show, Ewan collared Symbian's David Wood for a chat about the Symbian Foundation and his role in it. And yes, also sneaked a peek at the smartphone David uses (a Nokia E61i) and the software which he had installed, for another in the 'Desert Island Desktop' series.
You may or may not remember that Nokia ran a three month programme over the summer, with almost 500 volunteers installing a small monitoring application on their phones (mainly N95s). The results from this programme have now been published and there's a slideshow of results here. No real surprises, but this sort of thing is always interesting (via Nokia Conversations)
One of the easiest contests ever: every week for the next twelve weeks a Nokia N81 8GB and limited edition N-Gage bathrobe will be given away on Gamasutra.com in association with Sauna Talk. All you have to do is answer one multiple choice question, which has a hint link next to it where you can find the answer. You can enter once a week, so you effectively have up to twelve chances to win the prizes. (In case you're unaware, Sauna Talk is a series of videos designed to advertise the N-Gage platform to developers. Apparently the contest is only open to those "related" to the games industry, but don't ask us what that means.) (via the Official N-Gage Blog)
Another Desert island Desktop interview, where someone's Smartphone comes under the microscope. I took a few moments at the recent Smartphone Show to sit down with Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford to find out what applications he's loaded onto his device.
In AAS video podcast 35, I met up with Lori Sylvia and Richard Kinder of Red Bend at the Smartphone Show 2008, talking about their FOTA (Firmware Over The Air) software that's included in the latest Nokia S60 phones and having a hands-on demo.
More video from our coverage of the London Smartphone Show 2008, in which I chat to Phil and Tanya from Quickoffice about their new v6 office suite for S60, plus Sari from S60 waxes lyrical about S60 5th Edition.
In the first of our video features from this week's Smartphone Show 2008, I chat in AAS video podcast 31 to Michael Shean from Skyhook and Loughlin Spollen from Tagggit about their Wi-Fi-based location technology and the first S60 native app to use it.