The 'Best RSS Apps' section of Nokia's 2010 Calling All Innovator competition has been judged and a top 10 Ovi App Wizard apps (actually Web runtime widgets) listed, based on 'Innovativeness', 'Cumulative number of downloads on July 15th 2010' and 'Quality of marketing materials'. They're all covered below, with brief comments and screenshots, in case you should want to look any of them out(!).
The Register’s Top Ten Essential Symbian Apps makes for a good list. I’m sure we could argue that there are some apps that should be there which aren’t, but that’s always the fun of these lists. The question might be what are your top ten apps? Let us know in the comments.
NAVTEQ, the division of Nokia that provides mapping and location data services, has announced that its new JourneyView product has entered into a private beta period, ahead of a full launch early next year. The JourneyView product is a combination of 360 degree street-level imagery and links to map and POI content. The private beta is intended to allow developers and other partners to get a demo of the data and help shape the final specification of the product.
You've seen the 'pinching and zooming' adverts for many (non-Symbian) smartphones, showing lightning fast manipulation of full desktop-class web page renders, with new pages 'coming down' in a matter of seconds. "It's the Internet in your pocket" say the promos. And, from my own observations, for many people this is utter pie in the sky. Out in the real world, mobile coverage and bandwidth falls diabolically short - which partly helps explain the popularity of a certain proxy-based web browser that works on everything and enables not the 'real web', but more 'looks and feels a lot like the real web, but isn't really'...
In All About Symbian Insight 129, we start with a number of short items: Angry Birds as a favourite game, Qt on Samsung and Sony Ericsson, Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition. In the second half of the podcast we respond to number of listener questions, from a discussion of how quality impacts on user experience, to how Nokia should market the N8 and the possibility of an Android Nokia device. You can listen to AAS Insight 129 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
TripAdvisor and Nokia have announced a partnership that has two major elements: firstly a TripAdvisor application will be made available via the Ovi Store and secondly the TripAdvisor service will be integrated into Ovi Maps. TripAdvisor is one of the world's biggest travel web sites, it covers more than 1 million businesses (restaurants, hotels, attractions) in more than 70,000 cities. As well as the usual business listing information, typical of such sites, it is well known for its user generated reviews, which number in excess of 35 million. Read on for further details and screenshots.
More significant news from the Samsung i8910 HD firmware scene, which is accelerating, amazingly, rather than slowing down. 'faenil' has organised a one-click installer for the Qt 4.7.0 beta2 libraries for non-Nokia smartphones such as the i8910 HD, in theory letting them install some of the new Qt apps (e.g. the superlative Orange Wednesdays). A quote and video from faenil below. In related news, HyperX is now finalising HX8 firmwares, including even more customisations and a fix for Samsung's longstanding Music player bugs (a video for which is also embedded below). It's all go... What do you mean, you don't own an i8910 HD?
In All About Symbian Insight 128, we open with a round up of recent news including the formation of the Symbian Developer Cooperative, the retail availability of the Nokia C6, news of the i8910 HX7 firmware, and Nokia's Conspiracy for Good. Rafe talks about his experience with Track and Protect and Ewan asks whether Symbian needs a reference device. Finally we talk over Nokia's Q2 2010 results. You can listen to AAS Insight 128 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
For all the internet connectivity, software, shiny themes and applications, there is something that is eminently wonderful about a physical object. Touchnote, from the London based company of the same name, brings both of those worlds together and Ewan Spence reviews Touchnote for S60 5th Edition application here, ending up 'thoroughly recommending' it. PS. Look out for Rafe's cute kittens....
One of the biggest blights on Internet forums in the last year has been a deluge of spam for commercial DVD ripping software - well, such products may just be even more redundant with Freepoc legend Malcolm Bryant's latest mini-project, DvdToSymbian, a special script for the freeware VLC (for Windows) that effectively offers a one-click route from (non-copyrighted) DVD to a nHD movie file for a S60 5th Edition smartphone. Link and quotes below.
Steve Litchfield takes Wikitude, the ambitious augmented reality browser for Symbian (plus iPhone and Android) for a spin in his local area. What sort of things can Wikitude help you find and is the app ready for mass market adoption yet? More to the point, just how many spare batteries would you take to pack in order to get through a day of Wikituding in the city?(!)
Guest writer Asri al-Baker reviews SyncLion, a new utility developed by a newcomer to the Symbian application market, Trismer Technology, designed to archive your SMS, MMS, Contacts and Notes into your standard email. Asri tests it to his Gmail setup and admires the innovative folder creation system that keeps this information separate from normal email.
Rafe reviews the updated version 2 of Klomptek's Track and Protect, which he describes as the 'Rolls Royce' of remote security, allowing not only the traditional locking and wiping functions but also super-cool recovery actions like getting the phone to report its own whereabouts to you over the web (even if the finder/thief puts in a new SIM) and taking photos of anyone trying to 'break in'. Read the review for a full breakdown of Track and Protect's capabilities.
In All About Symbian Insight 127, we open with a discussion of Nokia's Terminal Mode, which is seeking to create an industry standard for the next generation of integration between cars and mobile phones. We follow this up with news of the Opera 10.1 beta, a sale of games in the Ovi Store, the announcement of furtiv's support for DropBox, the addition of Maps Reporter to Ovi Maps, and the opening of the Qt Developer Network. There's also a brief discussion of the number of software releases for S60 3rd Edition phones versus S60 5th Edition phones. You can listen to AAS Insight 127 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Opera have announced a new beta version of Opera Mobile for S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition devices. Version 10.1 boasts a new rendering engine (Presto), new graphics library (Vega), and new Javascript engine (Carakan), all of which are also utilised in Opera's desktop browser. The end result is a significant boost in overall performance. Also new is geolocation support, which allows websites to serve up location specific content. The beta can be downloaded from the Opera website (visit m.opera.com/next on your phone).