Thanks to Micky Aldridge for pointing out that Nokia is giving away one week's free Drive navigation for Ovi Maps 3.0 at the moment, as a trial of their service. Worth grabbing the code for typing in and trialling over the Christmas and New Year break? To get your code, head here and fill out your details. Of course, it would be even better if Nokia changed the whole sat-nav game in an instant and made the thing free for all, but....
Symbian is starting to crank up its presence at Mobile World Congress 2010, there's a new article here detailing the ways in which you can both help Symbian and help yourself. As a company, by cross-promoting your own products, as a developer by taking part in the BoF sessions, and as a general enthusiast by attending the Symbian party during the show (sponsors needed, if your company would like to promote itself at this evening event). And free MWC entry tickets are available in exchange for volunteer efforts on the Symbian booth. It's all kicking off in Barcelona, 15-18th Feb, 2009, so email Symbian if you want to get involved.
As shown below, Nokia has now released official iSync plug-ins for the N97 mini and X6, allowing these smartphones to be fully synced to an Apple Mac's Address Book and Calendar. (via)
Ewan takes a tour round Psiloc's World Traveler for S60 5th Edition, competing with Worldmate in the travel utility stakes. It's fair to say that most things it can do could be replicated with built-in software and a few judicious Web bookmarks, but it seems that what you're paying for here is convenience.
I'm repeatedly called a Nokia 'fanboy' in various comment threads by a small but determined set of Samsung i8910 HD-owning zealots*, and I'd like to respond with my own objective thoughts on the state of this Symbian flagship. Read on for what's good and bad about the i8910 HD (Omnia HD in some markets), along with a number of relevant links for further reading.
Necessarily a brief post, but I thought I should let people know that after the slightly botched release of Google Maps v3.3.0, with many people caught out by a crash when trying to use Layers, the big G has made available a bug fix, v3.3.1, from the usual m.google.com mobile web site. Grab it if you had a problem you haven't been able to resolve by using the 'Reset' menu function?
It's time to get into the festive spirit, or at least Offscreen Technologies think so, as Ewan hits the Ovi Store and some mulled wine. He's been taking a quick look at their Snow Globe and Christmas Tree novelties - the second is of particular interest as it's a way to get to some free applications.
Ovi Prime Places, a free service which allows businesses to add their details and meta data to Ovi Maps, has been quietly launched by Nokia. Ovi Prime Places should help improve Ovi Maps PoI (point of interest) database and related location / place search. For businesses it is an opportunity to reach 'users on millions of devices'. Read on for further details.
The Sony Ericsson Satio has received its first public firmware update, to version R1CA037 (from R1Bxxxx), which was released via Sony Ericsson Update Service (involving a Windows utility) in the last 24 hours. It's a 106MB update and addresses a litany of stability issues, including non-responsive touchscreen, media playback freezes, sub-par speaker sound and erratic camera. I'll be trying it over the weekend and will report back on the difference it makes. Comments most welcome from others who have applied this update.
Nokia's Ovi Store client just got itself an update, to v1.05 (436), with smoother operation and (doubtless) a few bug fixes. If your 'old' client is recent enough then you should be prompted to auto-update, otherwise zap it and re-download from store.ovi.com or Download! (depending on device).
One of the big selling points about the original Nokia N95, N86 and 5730 XpressMusic (among others) has been that they have hardware music controls. So, while pocketed, or while in another application, or even with eyes closed in bed at night, you can still skip music tracks, pause podcasts, and so on. But with the new breed of touchscreen phones, you're out of luck in this department. Or are you? From (arguably) the "AAS dept of the bleedin' obvious", see my How to: Control music and audio on your touchscreen phone without touching it.
During Nokia's Capital Markets Day event, held yesterday, a few screenshots showing Symbian^3 were shown off as part of Kai Öistämö's (Nokia EVP, Devices) presentation. While the big Symbian UI rewrite will not happen until Symbian^4, there are still some significant changes in Symbian^3. Read on for further details and commentary.
Blocks and grids align for classic gameplay with classy UI and presentation, in BlockGo and BlockGo Lite, reviewed here by the master of mobile puzzles, Mr Ewan Spence. If you can put up with a rather high dose of 'Cute' then you're going to love this S60 5th Edition game, fresh from the Nokia Ovi Store.
In All About Symbian Insight 97 (AAS Podcast 161), we discuss the release of Qt 4.6 and why it is important (Symbian and Maemo support, Qt Mobility APIs). We answer a range of user questions ranging from Ovi Suite for Mac, through N86 firmware and E72 software, to discussing what's the best current imaging phone. You can listen to AAS Insight 97 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Opera continues to improve on the recent first beta release of Opera Mini 5 (Java) and Opera Mobile 10 (native C++) for Symbian OS. Beta two sees numerous bug fixes, and the addition of a Download manager and Opera Link - which allows you to sync your bookmarks and browser settings to other Opera installations on your desktop or second smartphones. Point your phone's browser at m.opera.com/next for the new version.
