Garmin, maker of standalone and other GPS-focussed devices, has launched Mobile XT, a complete microSD-based navigation solution for smartphones, priced at $99. Details of international availability are sketchy at the moment, but we've asked Garmin UK if they can get hold of a review sample for us to try.
Nokia has released a new preview version on its Share Online software via Nokia Beta Labs. Online Share allows you to upload photo from your Nseries phone to popular multimedia hosting services and communities such as Flickr. Version 3.0 of Online Share adds the ability to set privacy options (e.g. private, family only, or public on Flickr). A major addition is the ability to view feeds of photos and comments on them from within the Share Online application. Read on for more details and screenshots.
Talk about mad scientists - I just ran across Symbian Resources, an open source (i.e. free) set of S60 3rd Edition research projects, featuring a speaking clock, a snowboarding log(!), a car acceleration tester, a Nintendo Wii controller driver, a ski resort navigator, and more. Cool projects, guys, keep up the good work!
Quickoffice has just publicly released v4.5.25.0 of its S60 office suite, complete with brand new Mail for Exchange 2.0 integration, so you can pluck attachments from your company mail server, edit and return them quickly. They fixed quite a few bugs too, as I found out when compiling my revised review of Quickoffice 4.5, bumping up the suite's review score by one point to that crucial 90%. Read to the bottom of the review though, and you'll see how they can go higher...
Nokia today announced that its has added new content parters to the Nokia Video Center. Nokia Video Center, an application which runs on the Nokia N95 and will be available on future devices, offers Nseries users a simple way to access video content (effectively it's a video podcast aggregator / catcher). New content partners include Sony Pictures (movie trailers), ROK (FreeBeTV) and CNN (news for the APAC region).
In what is one of the most significant technology acquisitions of the year Nokia has announced it is to acquire Navteq for $8.1 billion. Navteq is the leading provider of digital map information which is used in car navigation systems (e.g. BMW), mobile navigation devices (e.g. Garmin), Internet-based mapping applications (e.g. Google Maps), and government and business solutions. Nokia uses Navteq data in its own Nokia Maps product.
Nokia has announced Mail for Exchange 2.0, available now, for anyone using Microsoft Exchange Server with Nokia Eseries and selected Nseries devices. Version 2.0 "will improve the user experience" and offers access to meeting request handling and directory look-up, for the first time on a mobile device. The full press release follows...
You probably know that every S60 smartphone comes with Adobe Reader built-in. But this is v1.5 and there's a brand new v2.5, released by the guys behind Quickoffice. In my review of Adobe Reader 2.5 I look at the story behind the application, test it on my E90 and work out who should upgrade and who shouldn't.
The Next Gen N-Gage platform is due to go live some time in November, so we still have a fair while to wait until our gaming main course arrives. However, to whet our appetites, All About N-Gage has been serving up some Next Gen hors d'oeuvres, looking at the best S60 games that are compatible with Next Gen N-Gage phones and are available right now.
To be filed under 'Hey, S60 Web uses the same core code as the iPhone's browser', come these links: pages of Javascript-hosted quick games and the entire text of the King James Version of the Bible (with the 'thees' and 'thous', etc). The latter works fine in Web but some of the games are a bit hit and miss. Comments?
Ah, it's not just me that wants to also use my smartphone as a torch. Ever since the N93, I've wondered why this isn't a built-in feature. All In One Torch is a Python hosted script that offers pulsing of the camera LED in the likes of the N95 and E90, along with always-on white main screen. The only downside is that you have to go through a silly Rapidshare system to actually get the download. Shout here if you can't grab it. The usual warnings about knackering your LED hardware apply, of course. And familiarity with running a Python script will help (via Symbian blog)
If you've owned a Nokia E70, N95 or N93, or a Sony Ericsson P990i, the chances are that, at some point, you've had a 'Memory' error, usually in the context of 'Low memory' or 'Out of memory'. In this How to, I explain the cause of 'Memory' errors, discuss ways to avoid them and point out a silver lining.
After my initial look at Adobe Reader 2.5, it became apparent that a comparison to the established third party offering Pdf+ was needed. And so, I give you a three way comparison, Adobe Reader 1.5 versus Adobe Reader 2.5 versus Pdf+ 1.68. Summary: this one's almost too close to call - but I called it anyway.