With Rafe indisposed, Insight #78 could have been a double header between Steve and Ewan, but that wouldn't be rock and roll enough, so James Whatley (The Really Mobile Project) joins us to chat firmwares, betas, messaging and travelling technology. Listen in on the fun or subscribe via the AAS Podcast Feed.
Over on the Lazarus like Mobile Industry Review, the other Ewan in mobile has posted an ambitious yet simple plan to save the Ovi Store from itself. Simply put, Nokia would create three enclaves of coders (in London, San Francisco and Paris) and give them a monthly stipend of £3,500 and as much coca cola and pizza as they can eat. As long as they code one application every eight weeks, the proposed 100 developers per warehouse get to stay. Total cost? Roughly £2.34 per handset. That's quite high, but this is a fascinating idea that should be taken seriously.
In All About Symbian Podcast 138, Rafe talks to Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation. The interview covers a wide range of topics, including the Symbian Foundation's planned application arena, the universal web runtime, the forthcoming Symbian Exchange and Exposition, Qt and the Symbian Foundation, the challenges of openness and open governance, and more.
An updated firmware, version 300.21.012, is now available for both the Nokia E71 and E66 (previous version was 210.xx.xxx). This is a major firmware update for the Nokia E71 and E66, it includes updates to Mail for Exchange software and email wizard, adds Internet Radio and social networking bookmark widgets, and improves overall performance. The new firmware can be downloaded and installed via Nokia Software Updater.
Yep, it's another update to Google native S60 YouTube client, to v2.2.6, though note that this seems to be more about increasing compatibility - there are no performance improvements, you still can't log in to YouTube and it still doesn't work full-screen on the Nokia 5800. Ah well, at least it shows the development team is active! You can grab v2.2.6 via m.google.com on your phone.
Ovi Contacts, originally Nokia Chat, integrates the standard S60 contact list with a proprietary instant messaging and presence/status system. It has just had an update that brings it close to formal release status and includes much wider compatibilty, including support for the Nokia N97 and 5800 XpressMusic. The next step, presumably, is to start building this into more phones (the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic and Nokia 6720 classic) already have it. Data-phobes should note that Ovi Contacts requires an online connection and will consume a small amount of bandwidth. Maps lookups are integrated into Ovi Maps.
It's official. After months of beta testing, Nokia has released Ovi Maps (née Nokia Maps) 3.0 to the world for most (but not all) S60 3rd Edition FP1, FP2 and S60 5th Edition phones. The download is a 20MB Windows installer, so you do have to own a PC, but there's a little note on the Ovi Maps download page saying that Mac support is 'coming soon'. I certainly hope so. See also Rafe's preview of this release, here on AAS.
The popular proxy-based, media-friendly (and free) browser, Skyfire, has just had a significant update, to v1.0.0.12114, adding a reduced memory footprint and a long list of bug fixes (detailed below). You can upgrade by going to http://get.skyfire.com on your S60 3rd Edition phone. There's still no S60 5th Edition version, sadly.
Nokia is previewing its upcoming Messaging/IM hybrid application by releasing a Java-hosted test version for just the E75, over on Beta Labs. This is the only S60 phone (so far) with permanent full access to Nokia Messaging as a service, but presumably functionality from this will spread in the coming months, as well as it getting wider compatibility. More details below, if you've got an E75, if use either Yahoo Messanger or Ovi Chat, if you don't mind its Java nature, and if you fancy giving this a whirl.
In All About Symbian Insight 77 (AAS Podcast 137), there is news of Truphone's extended support for Nokia and the 5800 continues its best selling streak. Rafe talks about Nokia and Intel's strategic tie up and reports back from the launch of the HTC Hero. Ewan shares news of AdSense for applications, which leads to a general monetisation discussion. You can listen to AAS Insight 77 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia Multimedia Transfer just got itself a profile update - ignore the claimed compatibility in their flash widget - if you update your Mac's Nokia Multimedia Transfer now you'll get the new configurations. It definitely now works with the N86 (screenshot proof below) and the N97.
Although not quoted as supported yet on the BBC's Mobile iPlayer site, the Nokia N86 has been officially enabled as a client for the online TV catch-up service by the BBC. Current UK N86s are arriving with iPlayer preinstalled (thanks Tim for the heads-up) and you can also retro-install iPlayer if needed by manually going to www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/iplayer/iplayer.wgz in Web.
A beta version of Ovi Suite 2.0, Nokia's new look application for Windows PCs, has been made available via Nokia Beta Labs. The beta version, which is Qt-based, is 'totally new' and represents a fresh start for Nokia's desktop software. The new version will eventually replace all existing Nokia PC software. Read on for more information and first look at the features.
Google's new free Mobile app for S60 (effectively Google Search v2) has been updated again, to v2.1.12. It's a minor update and brings a few cosmetic tweaks to the interface - but you'll still want to grab the update (m.google.com) if it's something you use. Note that this is still strictly for S60 3rd Edition only - it's not compatible with the Nokia 5800/N97 etc.
Truphone, an 'Internet' operator that aims to cut call costs using VoIP (Truphone WiFi calling) and call-though (Truphone Anywhere) technologies, today announced that it now supports an additional 11 phones (most S60 3.2 and S60 5.0 phones). Truphone started out as a VoIP only services on Nokia devices, but subsequently widened its focus and switched attention to the iPhone and Android platforms. With Ovi Store providing an improved distribution channel Truphone feels the time is right to update its Nokia offerings.