Over on All About N-Gage, we're getting excited about an unconfirmed video which appears to be a trailer for Worms on Next Gen N-Gage. It's from a fairly reliable source, and it features the N81 plus graphics never seen on the original gen N-Gage version. Worms publisher THQ has already said they're supporting Next Gen N-Gage, so a new version of Worms would make a lot of sense.
Amidst the flurry of Location Tracker activity at Nokia Beta Labs, it seems Conversation (SMS threading) and Gizmo (free VoIP and chat) both received attention. Conversation has been relaunched (bug fixes, apparently) and the Nseries-only Gizmo has seen bug fixes and support for multiple locations.
It seems that Nokia Maps just got new data. Or at least when I started up Map Loader just now, a popup message informed me that there was new map data and that my existing map sets (on memory card) would be deleted and replaced. Alas, there are no clues as to what exactly has been improved, so comments welcome if you spot any changes in your neck of the woods!
Skyfire is a new proxy-based browsing solution that uses the Firefox 'Gecko' engine on the handset and which can apparently cope with Flash video and other advanced page objects. According to PhoneBoy, it's coming to S60 this quarter and should give both the Webkit-based S60 Web and Opera Mini 4 a run for their money.
Location Tagger, an application that enables the geotagging of photos captured on your phone, is the latest release from Nokia Beta Labs. Location Tagger serves as a preview release, Nokia are planning on building Location Tagger's technology into the core Camera and Gallery apps themselves. Much more below the break, with comment, screenshots and examples.
Nokia today announced that it would acquire Trolltech a company which provides software development platforms and frameworks. Trolltech is best known for its Qt product, a multi-platform graphical user-interface framework. Qt is used in KDE, the web browser Opera, Skype and Google Earth applications. Nokia intends to use Qt to enable cross platform development environments.
Ah, never mind the official Java YouTube streamer, emTube is still streets ahead, and pulling further away all the time. The author has quietly sneaked a big update, v1.0.10, online in the last couple of days. This includes lots of tweaks and fixes, plus a new 'Sort by' option and a way of scanning your disks for flash video files. See below for the link and the changelog.
YouTube has announced an official mobile client application for a number of handsets including several S60 phones. The application allows you to watch any YouTube video and offers browsing by popular videos (most viewed, top rated, featured), related videos or keyword search. You are able to sign into your YouTube account and access your own videos, subscriptions and favourites. The application also allows you to upload video from your phone to YouTube directly.
You may remember my Musician (open source) Python project for S60 - mini-piano, metronome, tuning notes? Well, it's been heavily tweaked (with help) and there's now support for the hi-res screens of the N80 and E70, in addition to all QVGA varieties. Plus it's faster and less likely to crash. Perhaps more importantly, it's also a better example app to learn from when starting out with Python? Here's Musician 3.1
Ah yes. Ogg Vorbis music files and the freeware OggPlay. I've still got a soft spot for them, even if the rest of the world seems to have largely ignored the format. But never mind, because, better late than never, OggPlay for S60 3rd Edition is now fully available. Do make sure you read the notes about skins, and note that installation is a two stage process.
Ewan's been trialling Wavelog, a new blogging client. Although it does the job, he found the application too restrictive for advanced users and too hard for beginners to get to grips with. Here's the full Wavelog review .
The Pdf products from mBrain Software for S60 3rd Edition have received an upgrade. Most notable is v1.75 of Pdf+ Pro, which includes the functionality from PdfPrinter, allowing you (as it sounds) to print to PDF format, and also lots of Nokia E90 keyboard shortcuts. Pdf+ Standard v1.75 is also new out today. Pdf+ Pro is a paid upgrade to the Standard product.
In AAS Insight # 8 (AAS podcast 56) Rafe, Steve and Ewan discuss some of the news out of CES: the announcement of the Motorola Z10 and Nokia N95 8GB North American version. There's also information on the recent firmware update for the N95 8GB and the importance of runtime technologies for the Symbian platform.
The Windows Live client for S60, which includes the Windows Live / MSN Messenger (IM) and is available via Nokia's Download! client, will shortly become a paid for service in select markets. Up until this point in time no charges have been levied, but starting immediately consumers will be offered a 30 day trial after which time they we be asked to pay a monthly fee to continue too use the service.
