How do you find your way around the London Underground? With a printed map or this little Java app from mxData? Ewan considers the latter and, despite a low score, decides it's definitely worth installing. Here's his review of the freeware Tube Map.
Skype has released the first beta of its own native Skype client for Symbian phones. The Symbian Skype client supports a full range of Skype functionality including Skype to Skype calls, Skype Out calls, instant messaging, file transfer, credit top-up, voice mail access and more. In the beta phase, a limited number of S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and 2 phones are being supported. Compatibility will be extended to other phones in due course. Read on for screenshots and additional information.
Looks like Gravity just got a major competitor. Nimbuzz has released a new version of its free Symbian client with "industry-first Homescreen Notifications and sophisticated Twitter functionality". The new version 2.2 also has full kinetic scrolling on all touchscreen phones, a number of layout improvements and ties in with the NimbuzzOut rate calculator for international calls. Full details, screens and links below.
Thanks to Micky Aldridge for pointing out that Nokia is giving away one week's free Drive navigation for Ovi Maps 3.0 at the moment, as a trial of their service. Worth grabbing the code for typing in and trialling over the Christmas and New Year break? To get your code, head here and fill out your details. Of course, it would be even better if Nokia changed the whole sat-nav game in an instant and made the thing free for all, but....
Necessarily a brief post, but I thought I should let people know that after the slightly botched release of Google Maps v3.3.0, with many people caught out by a crash when trying to use Layers, the big G has made available a bug fix, v3.3.1, from the usual m.google.com mobile web site. Grab it if you had a problem you haven't been able to resolve by using the 'Reset' menu function?
Ovi Prime Places, a free service which allows businesses to add their details and meta data to Ovi Maps, has been quietly launched by Nokia. Ovi Prime Places should help improve Ovi Maps PoI (point of interest) database and related location / place search. For businesses it is an opportunity to reach 'users on millions of devices'. Read on for further details.
Nokia's Ovi Store client just got itself an update, to v1.05 (436), with smoother operation and (doubtless) a few bug fixes. If your 'old' client is recent enough then you should be prompted to auto-update, otherwise zap it and re-download from store.ovi.com or Download! (depending on device).
In All About Symbian Insight 97 (AAS Podcast 161), we discuss the release of Qt 4.6 and why it is important (Symbian and Maemo support, Qt Mobility APIs). We answer a range of user questions ranging from Ovi Suite for Mac, through N86 firmware and E72 software, to discussing what's the best current imaging phone. You can listen to AAS Insight 97 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Opera continues to improve on the recent first beta release of Opera Mini 5 (Java) and Opera Mobile 10 (native C++) for Symbian OS. Beta two sees numerous bug fixes, and the addition of a Download manager and Opera Link - which allows you to sync your bookmarks and browser settings to other Opera installations on your desktop or second smartphones. Point your phone's browser at m.opera.com/next for the new version.
Google Maps for Symbian just got updated to v3.3, with direct syncing support for your 'starred' places (to the full Web version of Google Maps). In addition, on the first sync, your Nokia/Ovi Maps favourites also get uploaded. You can get v3.3 by going to m.google.com in Web on your phone. There are a couple of screenshots after the break.
There's a handy new set of video tutorials for Quickoffice Premier 6.0 over on the main Quickoffice site, including 'Editing spreadsheets', 'Editing cells', 'Formatting spreadsheets' and 'Editing Word documents'. The content is a little clumsy in places because of the need to apply to both touch and d-pad-driven interfaces, but it's still well worth a look. And Quickoffice's perennial half-price offer still seems applicable - if you don't see it, try bringing up the page from a different PC or IP address.
As I observed almost a year ago, the pairing of a Symbian smartphone and an Apple iPod Touch makes a huge amount of sense in terms of their complimentary strengths. And now Mike Macias is rightly making similar observations, pointing out that the Nokia E71 armed with JoikuSpot (for sharing its data connection via Wi-Fi) makes a perfect partner for the latest 2G iPod Touch. The best of both worlds? Food for thought, at least!
The times, they are, as the bard quoth, a changin' - Google Maps Navigation now provides free turn by turn voice instructions on Android-powered phones in the USA, and it's only a matter of time before the licensing restrictions and map rollouts get sorted for real time navigation in many other countries. And all for free. But this still leaves a window of opportunity for Nokia to step in and change this landscape in an even bigger way - right now. And sell a truckload of phones in the process, worldwide. Read on for my thoughts.
Available for almost all recent S60 phones (touchscreen and non-touch), HP's free iPrint Photo software is now available in the on-device Ovi Store as a small 250k native Symbian utility. It's touted as a quick way to print 6" by 4" prints from your phone's photo albums. It's all done via Wi-Fi, so you will need a Wi-Fi-enabled printer, it seems. Comments welcome if you've printed using this by other means!
Nokia has released a new firmware update for the Nokia E71. The new version, 400.21.013, adds improved support for Nokia Email / Messaging and a pre-installed version of Ovi Contacts, contains numerous stability and bug fixes, and includes small updates for Internet radio, Quickoffice, Ovi Store, Email Setup Wizard, and Mail for Exchange. The update can be downloaded and installed using Nokia Software Updater, which is a module of PC Suite.