Google has released a native client for Google search for S60 phones. The application, available via the Google mobile site, places a shortcut to a Google search box on the Idle screen (unfortunately only for devices with either a 'Ctrl' or 'pencil/edit' key), but is also accessible via the usual application launcher on all devices. Typing in a query to the search box and pressing search opens up Web and takes you to the results page for that Google query in one go. It uses the new Google Mobile search service we mentioned a few weeks ago. Read on for more.
You've got to love all the cool widgets and utilities coming out of Nokia Beta Labs. They just announced the availability of Nokia Text Messenger, a Windows Vista desktop gadget to show your received text messages and let you send new ones.
From accelerometer enthusiast(!) Andrew Galpin comes news: "The first of Samir’s two new apps
have been released to beta testers. The first one, ShakeMe (video below), allows
the user to perform certain actions on their phone by Shaking it,
rather than using a keypress. Currently it supports 4 modes, with
more to be added in the next release! More below."
At the Game Developer Conference (GDC) in San Fransisco Glu Mobile and Nokia unveiled a number of new N-Gage games. The Dark Knight ties in with the new Batman movie and sees you fighting to eradicate crime in Gotham city. SPEED RACER, also tying in with an upcoming movie, is a racing game while Super Slam Ping Pong is a fight title in the style of Super K.O. Boxing.
In All About Symbian Insight #13 Rafe, Ewan and Steve discuss their first impressions of Mobile World Congress 2008. Rafe gives his impressions from the show floor while Steve and Ewan pick out their highlights from the various announcements and cover a variety of news from last week.
Handmark were promising a native S60 version of their information portal app at last year's Smartphone Show. It seems it just went live, at least for UK users. It's a 2.4MB install though, and you need to surrender phone number and postcode info before it'll do anything. As with the original Java version, you get news, sport, dictionary, weather and finance stats for free, but you need to pay for mapping and travel help (via IntoMobile)
Released as a Valentine's present is the latest build of Mobitubia, one of a handful of third party YouTube viewing applications. With the ability to download
the FLV videos and watch them while offline, it's a popular choice for
a number of you, and it shows the powerful nature of having a fully
open platform that third parties can write applications.
Yamake has broken cover, in the latest N-Gage press release. A 'game creating game,' players are able to pick and mix their own games from a range of mini-games, add in their own skins, themes, text, sound clips and movies from their PC. These can then be uploaded and shared with the rest of the Yamake community.
Push email specialist emoze seems to be improving in all areas. Their free push service has just been extended to anyone with any POP3 account (i.e. no GMail or Exchange needed). And, unlike the GMail dedicated client, this one's native Symbian OS, so it's faster and leaner. Well worth checking out if you've been lusting after push email but didn't know how to get started.
Anyone know whether we should read anything into the fact that emTube's web site has been taken down? Legal action from YouTube about unauthorised access to their streams? emTube (direct YouTube video access) continues to work, but it would be great if someone could fill us in with hard news on this, arguably the best S60 app yet created.
Before you get too discouraged by Ewan's 'sharing' analysis(!), here's a nice (Flash) demonstration of what can be achieved by Ovi's Share (/Twango) - working on the principle that a picture is worth a thousand words, the slideshow is equivalent to a small book...
Ah yes, good to see Nokia and Google talking to each other at last. It seems that they've inked a deal to include Google search results in Nokia's on-device Mobile Search utility. The rollout will start with the new devices announced yesterday and will then come in firmware updates and downloads to existing devices in various markets in due course. The press release is below, if you want the full details.
[updated post] Yep, v2.0 is now out, at http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps/ - thanks, guys, we got to a working URL in the end(!) It's strictly a beta release but should work well on any FP1 phone (e.g. N95, N82, E90, E51, etc.) Some of the new features (e.g. traffic) may not work yet, either.
Nokia's press release at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona
annoucned Ovi's next step. It seems that the evolutioon of Ovi is
geared towards the big press dates on the calendar - which makes sense,
as the Ovi concept needs to bear repetition to the world, as witnessed
by the number of questions around it at today's press conference.
Joining Nokia Maps 2.0, is the Share on Ovi online service.
This weeks All About Symbian Insight, #12, focuses on N-Gage First Access (the pre-release version of the N-Gage client and select games). In the podcast Ewan and Rafe talk over their first impressions and some of the choices Nokia have made in strategy, positioning and pricing. This weeks Insight is a shortened version as we're busy get ready for MWC next week.
