Paragon Software (who long term readers may know better as Epocware) have released version 2.0 of Handy Shell, a replacement stand-by screen for your S60 smartphones which provides huge levels of customisation and interaction over and above the regular active stand-by screen on your phone.
In this review, Ewan takes a look at SPB Weather, a new commercial weather forecasting and reporting application that has both functionality and cosmetic appeal. Moreover, there are several tactile innovations, including an interactive weather-layered globe. At the end of the day, the only thing left to complain about is... the weather itself, this being the UK!
There are only a handful of point and click adventures on the S60 5th Edition smartphones - Zeus Quest from Crazysoft makes a welcome addition to the genre, with you taking on the role of the ancient god Zeus as he returns to Earth to try and save the planet from its current drifting state into disaster. Ewan has a crack at Zeus Quest and reports back.
When it comes to S60, we are fortunate to have a choice of which mapping application we use, but which is best? Is it Ovi Maps (née Nokia Maps), with its worldwide pre-loaded maps, voice navigation and PC integration, or is it Google Maps with the power of Google search, high-res satellite imagery and the perfect price? David Gilson has been testing both, and here reports on his findings.
Smaato are a name you've probably never heard of - even if you're a developer. Yet, if the latter, it's a name that should be well and truly on your radar - Smaato serve up over 3 billion ads each month, in both mobile applications and in mobile web sites. I found all this out when I interviewed Ragnar Kruse, Smaato's founder and serial entrepreneur, a few days ago in London, just after the Heroes of the Mobile Screen event and not that long after Google bought out Admob, one of Smaato's partners - an aspect I was keen to chat about. The full 20 minute video interview is embedded below - recommending watching for all, but especially for developers.
SPB Software has launched a glitzy new take on the weather forecast genre, with an interactive 3D globe and various weather animations, plus an N97 homescreen widget. More details and screens below.
It's all very well having huge screens, tens of thousands of applications and even virtual and physical qwerty keyboards, but there's plenty you can do without typing a single character using Google's humble new Mobile App, using voice recognition on a vanilla, cheap S60 3rd Edition phone. Here are a few ideas - you might be very surprised!
In All About Symbian Insight 98 (AAS Podcast 162), we discuss the weeks news including closing Nokia Flagship Stores, Skype for Symbian Beta and Nimbuzz's Twitter integration. We also discuss some of the information that came out of Nokia's Capital Market Day, Steve's interview with Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) and offer insight into future Ovi Store developments. You can listen to AAS Insight 98 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
How do you find your way around the London Underground? With a printed map or this little Java app from mxData? Ewan considers the latter and, despite a low score, decides it's definitely worth installing. Here's his review of the freeware Tube Map.
There are plenty of reports of firmware updates for Nokia smartphones over the last few days from various world regions, watch this space for more. New today (screengrab below) is v20.0.080 for the Nokia 5530 Xpress Music (you know, the smallest S60 5th Edition one), weighing in at 140MB via Nokia Software Update and rolling out Over The Air as I write this. All these Nokia devices should preserve all data, apps and settings, but an extra sync/backup might be a good idea, as usual?
If you have one of Nokia's S60 5th Edition phones and feel both social and brave, there's a whole new beta of "Nokia Messaging for Social Networks" to play with over on Beta Labs today, now including Twitter integration. Video and details below. Is it only me wishing we could just get to the end of the road where all this stuff was just finished and stable and we could use it without caveats?
In October Nokia announced it was suing Apple over patent infringements with regards to the iPhone and GSM, UTMS and WLAN technologies. Today Apple announced that it had filed a counter-suit against Nokia. In the counter-suit, which has been filed in US District Court of Delaware, Apples denies all claims of infringement against it and further alleges that Nokia 'chose to copy the iPhone' and as a result has infringed on 13 of Apple's own patents. Such counter suits are common in patent disputes where each side tries to establish as strong as negotiating position as possible.
One million downloads a day. That's the popularity of the Ovi Store, reports ME News from a Nokia round-table this week. Although still in its first iteration, with a new version of the store due early in 2010, and many will comment that ring-tones and wallpapers as well as applications will be included in that number, it's a significant number.
With Symbian taking a right royal bashing in the tech industry gossip columns in recent months, I was determined to get Symbian's side of the story. Heading to their HQ in London, I collared Executive Director Lee Williams for a 20 minute interview, putting over my (and your questions). Here's the interview, transcribed in full (grab a coffee first). And, if you prefer, embedded below is a condensed 9 minute video version, forming the lion's share of my Phones Show programme 97.
Looks like Gravity just got a major competitor. Nimbuzz has released a new version of its free Symbian client with "industry-first Homescreen Notifications and sophisticated Twitter functionality". The new version 2.2 also has full kinetic scrolling on all touchscreen phones, a number of layout improvements and ties in with the NimbuzzOut rate calculator for international calls. Full details, screens and links below.
