PhoneTorch has been one of the most popular utilities for S60 5th Edition for the last year - and users like myself have been pleading with the author Harald Meyer to say the magic words and sacrifice the necessary goats to the masters of Symbian Signed in order to get it working for S60 3rd Edition FP2 too. And it's finally here, using the dual LED flash lights to revolutionise your walk home from the pub or find your way around the house in the dark without waking everyone else by turning on the main lights. Links and more below.
Nokia has made a number of developer announcements today, which significantly strengthen their developer services and offerings. Perhaps most interesting is news of a public beta service that allows developers to get their content Symbian Signed at no cost (compared to a previous first time signing cost of up to $215). Also important is the news that individuals can now register as Ovi Publishers (previously restricted to companies) and that the Ovi Store is now accepting Qt-based applications. Finally, and the most significant in the long term, is the first full release of the Nokia Qt SDK 1.0 and the accompanying Nokia Smart Installer (previously in beta). Read on for additional details.
Over the last few years, I've had a burning conviction that's been growing and growing as I watch the current craze for 'Apps' blossom. Now, I've nothing against genuine applications or games, but it has to be said that a large number of so-called 'Apps' are simply scraping or managing exactly the same data as you can get right now, on any phone, for free. And, my way, there are no installations, no complications and no hassle. Apps? Pah - I've a new slogan to rival Apple's. "There's a Bookmark for that!"
Nokia's Ovi Store has been updated, with changes to both the mobile client and the publish tool used by developers. The client for S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition has been updated, from version 1.06(18) to v1.07(12). The key changes are the introduction of 'continuous' pages for content lists (behaving more like the Android Marketplace or Apple App Store), improved search and an updated category structure. The Ovi Publish tool has also been updated with changes to meta-data that developers would be well advised to pay attention to. Read on for more.
In All About Symbian Insight 123, the team discuss the news of the Nokia X5-01 and X6 8GB, which were launched at Nokia Connection in Singapore. Ewan gives us an overview of the Nimbuzz application, before Rafe explains that Symbian^3 is now functionally complete. Finally, Rafe and Steve discuss their thoughts on what they learned at the recent Nokia N8 hands-on event. You can listen to AAS Insight 123 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Time Out, best known for its events listings and city guides, has been added to Ovi Maps. The location aware listings are found under the 'More..' section of the main menu (similar to the recently added Qype and Expedia hotel booking). The key benefit of Time Out is its focus on short duration events (e.g. a concert that's on for a single night) and its detailed reviews of events, venues and related services. Time Out listings in Ovi Maps currently cover Chicago, Kuala Lumpur, Lisbon, London, New York, Singapore and Sydney.
Ewan surveys the freeware multi-service chat and calling client, Nimbuzz, from from its big v2.4 update. Logging you in and integrating contacts from multiple social networks and chat systems is its speciality and it sounds like it did Ewan proud. It's also not only for multiple mobile platforms, but also for just about every S60 phone currently in use, so there really is no excuse for not keeping it installed and ready for action.
Multiple IM client application Nimbuzz has been updated to v2.4. This client now has closer ties with your smartphone’s address book, adds kinetic scrolling throughout the interface for touch enabled devices, has finer options to control Twitter update, and the ability to limit usage while roaming. More below.
The website for Sports Tracker, an application which turns your phone into a GPS sports computer, is now accepting pre-registrations for its online service. The online service will allow you to upload workouts (tracks) from your phone to be visualised, analysed and shared on the website. By registering now you can reserve the username you wish to use, get a notification when the site will goes live, and import your existing Nokia Sports Tracker data.
With the football World Cup 2010 (eh, what, is something happening today?) starting this evening and going on for all eternity a month, you'll be wondering how you can keep track of the goings on in South Africa on your smartphone. Whether out and about or on the sofa, there are plenty of options to keep you informed and entertained. Read on for some suggestions.
Good news from Furtiv, the makers of plug-ins for Nokia's Share Online application. According to their blog, they have passed the 250,000 downloads mark through the Ovi Store, and are now beta testing plug-ins for MySpace, LinkedIn and TwitPic, due to popular demand. More below.
The good thing about Ovi Maps 3.3 and 3.4 having a server-side-fed homescreen is that Nokia can add extra services and the application already installed on your smartphone will pick up the changes automatically. Such is the case for Expedia, ahotel-booking service: previously, a similar system (fed by HRS) was only available in Ovi Maps in Germany and Finland, but Expedia should now show up for UK and USA customers.
The Symbian Foundation and search engine Baidu have announced a strategic initiative that will see the two companies establish a joint laboratory to stimulate the development of 'box computing' on mobile devices. 'Box c
omputing' is Baidu's vision of the future of search - one that allows a more direct presentation of what a user has searched for. In related Symbian China news, Monotype Imaging announced it was contributing the MYuppy Chinese font to the Symbian Foundation. Read on for more.
