Download! has been significantly recorganised by Nokia for some devices, with increased use of folders and many new games (N95 8GB screenshots shown below). It's still a mile away from how comprehensive Apple's iPhone AppStore is going to be though. Can Nokia use its headstart to improve Download! across the board in time? Comments welcome. Also, do please comment if you've spotted similarly interesting Download! additions on any device.
In Insight #18 (AAS Podcast 67) Rafe, Ewan and Steve talk about this week's news (N-Gage First Access closing and Comes with Music). Rafe and Steve discuss their first impressions of the Samsung SGH-i450 and Samsung SGH-i550 (S60 phones) and afterwards Ewan talks about how he recorded and broadcast video on his trip to the USA.
Thanks to Ricky Cadden for pointing us towards the brand new beta of OwnSkin's Professional Theme Creator. It's a 100% online theme creation application for S60 smartphones, i.e. no messing around with Java tools or having to install an SDK. Be patient while it's loading up, it'll take a minute or so to load into your desktop browser but the end result's well worth it. Finished themes can be shared directly or simply downloaded as SIS files for your device.
Will the incredibly popular Y-Browser file manager ever get to the big 1.0? Somehow I doubt it, but in the meantime note that Y-Browser's now up to v0.88, released yesterday, with tweaked design, bug fixes (especially to help SP2 compatibility), menu shortcut accelerators, wildcard file selection, file association settings added, plus a proper plug-in manager. It's all a (fabulous and) free download over at DrJukka.
It's not often that Krisse struggles, but there seems to be a dearth of Easter themes around. For our article, we've only uncovered four Easter themes of varying relevance - can you help Krisse by suggesting other themes that fit this holiday better? Comments welcome!
Ewan's been the perfect use-case for ShoZu, the media uploader, while he's been away on his 'Seesmarch' - lots of photos and video, flat rate data and a desire to share stuff with the world. Here's his report/review of the new ShoZu version 4. Suffice it to say that the application scores very highly indeed, with only a few small caveats.
In Insight #17 (AAS Podcast 66) Rafe, Steve and Stefan talk around Apple's recently announced SDK and Application Store and what Nokia and Sony Ericsson do in this area. We also talk about our favourite form factors where we recognise that device robustness is the most important factor.
The Widsets 2.0 beta (update: now live on main site too) site recently went live which means you can now download and test the latest version of the Widsets client. New features include better integration between Widsets and the rest of the device including the ability to initiate a phone call or open a browser window. Widsets is a way to get web content on your mobile via widgetisation. Read on for more.
Out today is another free VoIP solution. OctroTalk works on all S60 3rd Edition phones and is an Instant Messaging application with full VOIP and peer-to-peer file transfer. You can connect to GoogleTalk, Jabber, MSN, Yahoo, AIM and ICQ (though not Skype). OctroTalk claims to use a low bandwidth codec and can be used with GPRS/EDGE networks.
Hearing that my long-suffering wife, Fiona, was off for a day jaunt to 'somewhere she'd never been before', I wondered if she'd like to get help from some smartphone technology and try out one of the new features of Nokia Maps 2.0 - namely the explicit pedestrian navigation mode. She agreed and handed over her Nokia E51 for me to preload it with the latest beta and the UK maps. I also stuck a pocket GPS in her jacket and guessed it would see enough of the satellites from there. Here's her Maps 2.0 report.
A few links of interest that caught my eye yesterday. Mr. Lock is a freeware, customisable auto-lock utility that's worth investigating if the inflexible built-in auto-lock frustrates you (via N82 blog). The E90 blog has a mini-review of Boxwave's Nokia E90 deskstand sync/charger/spare-battery-charger. And SymbianWorld has published an interview with one of the software heroes of the Symbian OS world, Antony Pranata, developer of Screenshot, used on every site and blog you read.
Four links of interest to the same source, so I'll group them together 8-) Over at SMS Text News, there's an item on Vyke (VoIP) being added to Nokia's Download! - although it hasn't appeared on my N95 8GB, there's an update on Scribe, the Wordpress blogging client for S60, plus a lengthy rant on how customer service can sometimes get it soooo wrong, including revelations about a secret N95 4GB, and news that Vodafone actually have a forum intervention team, scouring the Internet for Vodafone-related issues to sort out. Coo.
In conjunction with DDH Software, AllAboutSymbian is giving away three copies of HanDBase 4.0 for S60 smartphones. The draw is now closed, the three winners are listed below, along with all the rest of the submitted entries.
The Nokia Nseries PC Suite (v2.0) has apparently 'graduated' from Nokia Beta Labs, effective from today. It's not clear whether today's download contains any further updates, so comments welcome if you're feeling brave. The download shown is only 8MB, so presumably this is just a stub that then grabs the rest. Anyone care to review it?
The Nokia Music Store is now available in Finland and Germany. Nokia Music Store works on both the PC (Internet Explorer only) and a selection of Nokia mobile phones. Compatible S60 devices include the N95, N95 8GB, N82, N81, N91 and the N76.