In a remarkable turn of events, Nokia's Ovi Store (e.g. see the client on your phone) has beaten another official outlet to the punch, with new versions of the free S60 YouTube client available - v2.2.21 for S60 3rd Edition phones and v2.2.29 for S60 5th Edition phones. No major feature changes, I'm afraid, and the menu is somewhat screwy on the latter version, but hey, it's free and it's new, right? Photo proof below.
A couple of Phones Show-related links for you: show 98 is now live, with my video review of the Nokia E72 and a walkthrough of Nimbuzz with Twitter on the Nokia N97. And if you're anywhere near Berkshire in the UK on the 6th of January 2010, there's an informal Phones Show pub meet - anyone welcome, though my offer of 'free beer' might need a caveat if too many people want to attend... 8-)
Our very own Asri al-Baker has taken the time to sit down with Malcolm Lithgow, the guy behind Dreamspring, a software house which has been in the Psion and Symbian worlds for almost as long as I have(!) - Asri questions him on the challenges and rewards of developing for Symbian and asks him to summarise a modern developer's other options (Maemo, iPhone, Android, etc.) Here's the fairly lengthy, but interesting, interview.
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.
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.
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)
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?
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!
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....
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.