Pizero's Earth theme has been downloaded more than one million times from the Ovi Store. Earth is an artistic and lightweight theme (default icons), with full support for portrait and landscape orientations, and is compatible with both S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition devices. The one million downloads were achieved in 86 days, with an average of 11,600 downloads a day.
The first fruit of the enterprise alliance between Microsoft and Nokia, which was announced in August last year, is now available. Microsoft Communicator Mobile for Nokia, a 'unified communications client', is now available in Nokia's Ovi Store for the Nokia E72 and E52. The application ties in to Microsoft's Office Communications Server 2007 product; it offers the ability to view a colleague's status and then choose the most appropriate communication method - instant messaging, email, text or voice call. More below.
HipLogic has been a name that has floated around S60 circles for the last year or so. Ostensibly a Web-aware homescreen replacement, it turns out to be something more ambitious, albeit with a few minor caveats. I set out last week to intercept HipLogic's 'Chief Action Figure', Mark Anderson, and quiz him on the vision behind, and the implementation of, HipLogic on Symbian. Read on for more.
Forum Nokia has released a tool, Flowella, which allows designers and developers to easily create design prototypes (mock-ups of how an application will look), without using a single line of code. Prototypes are built by using images of screen mock-ups and defining links between them (i.e. what happens when you click of a given area). The information is then used to create a Flash Lite application or WRT widget, which can be run on a Nokia phone or in the included simulator.
A new firmware, version 210.12.15, is now available for the Nokia E75. The new firmware is a relatively small update, but does improve the responsiveness of the keyboard, updates the underlying email software and contains the usual bug fixes and optimisations. The firmware update is available via both OTA and the Nokia Software Updater.
Ovi Music Unlimited, which is branded as Comes with Music in some markets, has launched in India. The service, which can only be purchased with a new device, allows unlimited music downloads from the Ovi Music Store for 12 months. Music is DRM protected, but users are able to keep the music after their subscription period has ended. The service has been customised for India with a smaller Ovi Player (desktop client), local content from more than 150 labels and the ability to download music using different PCs.
DreamLife, a popular S60 5th Edition 'Activity manager' (think Contacts/Calendar replacement) for S60 5th Edition, has now been released for S60 3rd edition FP1 and FP2. The new version features "clear display of contact information in business card format, key match and global find contacts, planner calendar view, context activity editor and hierarchical sub-categories". More info and links below.
In All About Symbian Insight 115 Ewan, Steve and Rafe share their thoughts on the China bound Nokia C5-01 and Nokia X5 (TD-SCDMA handsets for China Mobile). We also take a detailed look at Nokia's Q1 2010 financial results with discussion of Nokia's Symbian^3 plans. Finally we cover Offscreen's 25 million Ovi Store downloads. You can listen to AAS Insight 115 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Google Maps for S60/Symbian just got itself an update to v4.1. No, not free real time navigation - that's still coming for Symbian - but voice searching, along the same lines as its existing Google Search applet. Just hold down the green (Call) key and say what you'd like to search for, etc. There are also minor updates to its Settings menu and a new 'Report a problem' function. Some quotes, links and screenshots below.
A major new firmware, version 31.023, is now available for the Nokia E72. The update introduces several new pre-installed applications: Ovi Sync, Advance Communication Manager, Smart Connect, and Internet radio. Additionally, a number of the core applications have been updated including Ovi Maps (free navigation and location sharing version), Web (to version 7.2), and Ovi Store. There are also the usual bug (e.g. the spacebar bug) and performance fixes. Read on for further details and screenshots.
A beta version of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks, also known as the Communities application, has been made available, via Nokia Messaging and Nokia Beta Labs, for the Nokia E72, E71 and E63. The application, which provides access to messaging and other features of social networks; currently Facebook and Twitter are supported. Communities is already available for Nokia's Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) devices and is the application that will provide social networking functionality out of the box on the Nokia C6 and E5.
Numo Solutions, the developers of SMS Preview, have announced they have passed the 1 million download mark on Ovi Store. SMS Preview shows a preview of incoming text messages, in a bubble that floats above other screen content, for a user defined period of time. It provides an improvement over the built in 'new message alert', which only tells you that you have received a message. Numo Solutions say that SMS Preview is being used in more than 170 countries on 50 different types of handsets.
In All About Symbian Insight 114 Ewan, Steve and Rafe share their thoughts on Nokia's announcement of the Nokia C6 and Nokia E6. We also shares news of Sony Ericsson's Q1 2010 results, the renewal of Sports Tracker, firmware updates for various phones and Numo Solution's Ovi Store success. You can listen to AAS Insight 114 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Last Friday, Nokia announced that it had acquired MetaCarta Inc, a privately owned firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which specialises in 'geographic intelligence solutions'. MetaCarta is best known for its geosearch and geotagging products (e.g. NewsMap, which allows publishers to automatically created a map tagged with their news stories) and has partnerships with a number of leading technology firms. MetaCarta's technology will help Nokia improve its social location services, such as local search.
In All About Symbian Insight 113 Ewan and Rafe share news of Nokia's acquisition of MetaCarta, the preview release of Symbian Web Tools and the addition of E71 and E66 compatibility to Ovi Maps 3.3. The major part of the podcast focuses on the launch of Nokia's Comes with Music in China, before ending with some thoughts on Apple's iPhone OS 4. You can listen to AAS Insight 113 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.