So my white Nokia N97 was returned to me after Ewan's extensive video diaries and after Tzer2's Finnish experiments on it. It's a little battle scarred in places, but hey, phones are designed to be used(!) I'm well aware of all the N97's pros and cons, but was relishing a chance to really get to grips with some of its - ahem - quirks, a couple of months on from my initial look. Read on to see how I got on, and to learn how to set up and optimise the N97 in this 'waiting for v20 firmware' probationary period.
[updated] Nokia Beta Labs has quietly issued an update to Ovi Maps 3.3 - 'subversion' 54 for S60 5th Edition (only) is now available on the main Ovi Maps page. There's still no opportunity to install to mass memory, and v3.3 is still English-only, but at least some more of the rough edges have been knocked off. 'GPS data lost' no longer sounds every few minutes(!), but at the expense of laggy screen updates - it seems the GPS interruptions are being averaged out behind the scenes. Ultimately, the N97's communications software subsystems simply need a big update. v20 firmware can't come soon enough for me.
As reported around the web over the weekend, Nokia Messaging for S60 5th Edition has now received full HTML support. As usual, you’ll need to go to email.nokia.com in Web on your phone (a 2MB download). Version 10.1.0.13 will automatically replace your previous installation and will also keep all email accounts and emails. You may remember the issues I've had with Nokia Messaging - at the very least take the usual backups, syncs and precautions before installation.
More updates from Nokia (although there seem to be more betas than Google to be honest!) as Ovi Suite 2.0 receives an updated beta. It now includes support for installing applications on your smartphone via .jar or .sisx files on your PC, better use of memory and various tweaks and fixes to the syncing of photos and music.
More betas in from Nokia World, with Communities, billed as a 'Social Messaging' beta. The idea is that this can handle all your friends and updates for all social networks - an über client. This early version is quite limited though and only compatible with Facebook and the N97. I've explored it with screenshots below and there's also an official video to enjoy.
Quietly launching yesterday during Nokia World is the Forum Nokia powered My Daily App, which will be showcasing a new application in the Ovi Store every day. Yes it is a list decided by Nokia, "let's be honest: We're biased. OK, we admit it. We have a point of view, and we're not afraid to use it." but why not shout about the third party support of their devices? And they're so hip it hurts, because they're on Twitter as well (@mydailyapp). Seriously though, great idea, chaps.
The latest beta version of Ovi Maps, demonstrated at Nokia World this morning, is now available from the Nokia Beta Labs. New additions include a new menu with one touch access to popular features and improved searching. Compatible with S60 v5 devices, including the newly announced N97 Mini, be aware that this is an early release, but you can download it direct from Nokia.
If the Nokia World presentation on lifecasting caught your eye, then you should head over the the Nokia Beta Labs where an early version of this N97 widget is now available. It will allow you to share your current location via Facebook, and allow your friends to see where you are, as well as any pictures or status messages that you upload. It might be a small idea, but it looks well implemented and easy to use.
In All About Symbian Insight 85 (AAS Podcast 147), Rafe, Steve and Ewan discuss the glut of Nokia news ahead of this week's Nokia World. We cover the Nokia Booklet 3G, Nokia 5230, Nokia Money (an under appreciated announcement) and the Nokia N900. There's also some discussion of Maemo 5, service strategy and the Sony Ericsson Satio. You can listen to AAS Insight 85 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
It seems that when you're trucking along (in the USA, UK, France or China, at least), navigating using Google Maps on your smartphone, you're actually helping crowd source traffic data for Google, i.e. the application is reporting back to Google on your position and speed, a process described here in detail. While there are possible privacy implications in this, it does seem an interesting approach - or at least it would be if there were enough people using the system - so far in the UK, only motorways seem to be tagged for traffic status. Comments welcome.
Nokia today introduced Nokia Money, a mobile financial service, which will offer basic financial management and payments from a mobile phone. It will allow you to send money to another person, using just their mobile phone number, pay for goods, services and bills or recharge pre-pad SIM cards. Financial services are widely considered a very significant market opprtunity for the future: there are 4 billion mobile phones, but only 1.6 billion bank accounts.
The Nokia Music Store India was formally launched today at the Music Connects conference. More than 3 million tracks are available and, as with Nokia Music Stores in other countries, there is a heavy emphasis on including local music. Nokia has signed up India's major independent labels including Tseries, Yashraj Music, Saregama, BIG Music and Venus; it has also partnered with India's leading music body, the Indian Music Industry. Nokia also announced that its Comes with Music service would be arriving in India later this year.
We here at All About Symbian have been using Ovi Store for quite a while now, and have noticed a number of things that need to be fixed or could be improved. We don't doubt the effort and resources that Nokia has put into this so far, but we think it's fair to demand that Ovi Store lives up to the same general standards as other online content shops. Here are 23 suggestions for the Ovi Store team's to do list, neatly categorised into 'urgent', 'gripes' and 'suggestions'!
Sequence Point Software's ARound project is now in beta, a free download for the Nokia N97 and compatible S60 3rd or 5th Edition phones. The project's aim is to incorporate feed data from Twitter, from geonames.org and from landmarks databases, combining the live camera viewfinder and compass and GPS information to produce an augmented reality solution for Symbian. Screenshots and links below.
Google's native S60 YouTube client has just got itself a significant update, to v2.2.17, now working in full-screen mode (at last!) on S60 5th Edition phones like the N97, 5800 and Samsung i8910 HD and with new countries and languages added to its officially supported list: Brazil, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Sweden. You can get the update by going to m.google.com in Web on your phone. Screenshots below the break.
