Google Maps for Symbian just got updated to v3.3, with direct syncing support for your 'starred' places (to the full Web version of Google Maps). In addition, on the first sync, your Nokia/Ovi Maps favourites also get uploaded. You can get v3.3 by going to m.google.com in Web on your phone. There are a couple of screenshots after the break.
Returning to a familiar theme but with a new twist, I caught myself doing something rather silly and rather telling. Reprising the pros and cons of touchscreen phones in the face of almost universal acceptance, seemingly, it does rather seem as though a tipping point has been reached. Read on for my Dec 2009 thoughts on 'Touch vs non-Touch'...
There's a handy new set of video tutorials for Quickoffice Premier 6.0 over on the main Quickoffice site, including 'Editing spreadsheets', 'Editing cells', 'Formatting spreadsheets' and 'Editing Word documents'. The content is a little clumsy in places because of the need to apply to both touch and d-pad-driven interfaces, but it's still well worth a look. And Quickoffice's perennial half-price offer still seems applicable - if you don't see it, try bringing up the page from a different PC or IP address.
A fun discussion with Om Malik and Nokia's Services EVP Tero Ojanpera has been posted on GigaOm. Malik rightly points out that, given his previous coverage, this wasn't going to be a chat over tea and cream cakes for the Finn. Still, it's a good sign that it did happen. My comments below.
Symbian and Orange are teaming up in the 'Symbian Developer BootCamp' in London on January 13th 2010. This is completely free and is "the ideal place to gain insight and hands-on experience with the Symbian Mobile Platform, leveraging our Runtime tools including Web, Adobe Flash Lite, Python, and QT". Intriguingly, they "will also have a limited number of Symbian devices to give away, these will be distributed on a first come, first served basis." Wonder how long those will last!
iSearch is a delightful little widget for touchscreen S60 smartphones. It provides a very simple function – to take a search term from the user and direct it to one of many search engines online to help you find whatever you're looking for. Now you might think that this is the job of your bookmarks page, rather than an external application, and if you are a l33t power hacker then you'd be right. But iSearch is for everyone else, reckons Ewan.
The times, they are, as the bard quoth, a changin' - Google Maps Navigation now provides free turn by turn voice instructions on Android-powered phones in the USA, and it's only a matter of time before the licensing restrictions and map rollouts get sorted for real time navigation in many other countries. And all for free. But this still leaves a window of opportunity for Nokia to step in and change this landscape in an even bigger way - right now. And sell a truckload of phones in the process, worldwide. Read on for my thoughts.
For anyone else waiting for an iSync plug-in for the Nokia N97 mini, to enable Mac syncing, note that Jim @ Worded Wonders has produced one, currently best described as in alpha status, see his blog post about it here. Comments welcome if you've got time to try this today. Of course, if Nokia could just put in 10 minutes effort and do an official one....
There is a lottery whenever you download an application for your Symbian Samrtphone. I don't mean the lottery of whether you'll be able to re-download the app (although that can still be a concern); I don't mean the lottery of getting the right platform variation in terms of 3rd or 5th Edition or something even older (although that can be a concern as well); nor am I thinking about the “will the security certificate still be in date” when I install the app (seriously – who thought that expiring apps would be a good idea?)
Following on from the best-selling(!) part 1 of my Sony Ericsson Satio review, here's part 2, looking at its star feature, the 12 megapixel camera with Xenon flash. In addition to comments on the interface and photo/video samples, I put the Satio's camera head to head over a variety of photo shoots with the Nokia N86 8MP, the Samsung i8910 HD and the Nokia N96 (for reference). In summary, I'd rate the Satio as having potentially the best camera ever fitted to a phone, though there's obviously still some optimisation needed in its algorithms. Comments welcome!
Available for almost all recent S60 phones (touchscreen and non-touch), HP's free iPrint Photo software is now available in the on-device Ovi Store as a small 250k native Symbian utility. It's touted as a quick way to print 6" by 4" prints from your phone's photo albums. It's all done via Wi-Fi, so you will need a Wi-Fi-enabled printer, it seems. Comments welcome if you've printed using this by other means!
Just to note a flurry of relevant updates from the Symbian world. Google Mobile App just got updated to v2.3.9, bringing a slightly slicker interface and extra shortcuts - get it from m.google.com on your S60 3rd Edition smartphone. Ovi Maps just got a minor bug fix update to 3.1.09 wk44 - if relevant to your installed copy, you'll be prompted to update (I was on the N86) - or look for it in 'Sw update'. And, should your phone not already have Ovi Contacts built-in (many do), there's a new standalone installer that includes data compression and better power saving features.
I'll be accused of cherry picking links again, but what the heck, it's nice to see a USA tech web site giving space to the Nokia N97, in this case pitching its camera against that of the HTC Touch Pro 2 (Tilt 2) and the (also 5 megapixel) Motorola Droid. As perhaps might be expected, the N97 rather runs away with the test, but then the Nseries cameras haven't been in doubt for a while.
Priced at only a (UK) pound, Mind is an interesting application from the Ovi Store - it takes a well recognised organisational technique, that of mind mapping, and places it in a Java application on your smartphone. With a system of vector graphics and smart links, there's a lot to recommend it, but ultimately the Java interface and necessarily limited screen size mitigate against it, or so reckons Ewan in his review of Mind.
In All About Symbian Insight 96 (AAS Podcast 160), we discuss recent rumour around Nseries in 2012 and the related Symbian / Maemo debate. Then there's news coverage of the Nokia 6700 Slide and Spotify on Symbian. We finish with a number of reader questions ranging from the web as a platform to buggy firmware and augmented reality. You can listen to AAS Insight 96 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
