Gah. Trust MobiMate to scupper my perfectly good Eseries Download! editorial that was in-progress. It turns out that WorldMate isn't an Eseries exclusive anymore, but is now a general free download for any S60 3rd Edition smartphone. I'm only joking, MobiMate, thanks for the great freebie.
Y-Browser supremo, Jukka Silvennoinen, just keeps coming up with the freeware goods for S60 3rd Edition users. There's now a proper web site for his utilities, a new version of the popular file manager/viewer Y-Browser (v0.82, with an added Bluetooth send function) and a whole new application, Y-Tasks, an 'internals' utility for the uber-geek(!)
After a hugely detailed and comprehensive beta phase lasting over a year, Python for S60, or 'PyS60' is finally finished, ending up at v1.4. I'm sure there will be further minor updates, but in the meantime, it's stable, signed and complete. I even got spurred on into revisiting my Musician and making it work on far more S60 3rd Edition phones.
In the interests of science, I thought I'd try out the updated Smart2Go (also known as Nokia Maps) MapLoader, v1.1g, in conjunction with the now fairly old Smart2Go beta on the Nokia E61. I was in for one delight and one huge surprise....
New staff writer Attila Katona has been sitting on this review of Handy Taskman for S60 for a couple of weeks - but I managed to wheedle it out of him! Meanwhile I've been trying the latest (and rival) Best TaskMan and have been equally impressed. Nothing wrong with having two terrific utilities that are both available in trial form...
Nokia today released a new version of its PC Suite software. New in version 6.84 is the ability to sync files between a PC and compatible phone, PC Suite will also now notify when you new add-on application become available. There are enhancements to performance and stability. More in the full story.
You'll remember that Best TaskMan, a 'system' utility for peeking under the hood of your S60 smartphone, had some issues in its S60 3rd Edition version? Well, it's back, fixed and with a truck load of extra features, including proper hotkey support and a Windows-like alt-tab system. And it's only $10 (£5), which is pretty impressive. Here's the Best TaskMan product page in our software shop.
Here's something useful for your summer travels and completely free. CoolGorilla have created a freeware talking phrasebook, available in half a dozen languages. It runs under Java, so should work with the majority of S60 and UIQ smartphones. Just pick the model in their list that's closest to what you have. It worked fine on my E90 8-) (Via MobHappy)
According to a report on Pocket Gamer, the mysterious Project White Rock for the Next Generation N-Gage platform will be a cross-platform game playable on both the PC and selected Nokia S60 3rd Edition smartphones. Pocket Gamer goes on to say the title has "over a thousand lines of recorded dialogue" but is not an RPG.
Using GMail in a web browser has always been a bit clumsy. Ewan's taken a shine to Google's dedicated Java-based GMail client on his Nokia N95. OK, so Java's slow to load and clumsy, but Google's mini app is well designed and has some lovely touches.
Kudos to well respected S60 tipster Antony Pranata for going the extra mile and trying out all the various Voice over IP solutions for smartphones, comparing EQO, Fring, Gizmo, iSkoot and Truphone, with Fring and Truphone seeming to come out winners, depending on your requirements. Also of note is that Truphone's new v3.0 is now available in a full beta.
