In All About Symbian Insight 80 (AAS Podcast 142), we discuss Nokia's Q2 results and the announcement of the Nokia Surge. We follow up with news of Symbian's Horizon program, before talking about the latest set of software updates for the N97. Finally we answer some questions from our listeners. You can listen to AAS Insight 80 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Ho yes. Every news network worth its salt has to have its share of iPhone and S60 widgets. ITN is the latest to join the throng, with its News widget now in the Ovi Store for all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition phones. It's free, of course, and has sections for 'Headlines', 'Sport', 'Business' and 'Fun'. Many of the stories have attached ITN videos, which pop up in fairly low res (176 by 144 pixels) 3GP format in RealPlayer. Some screenshots below.
In this major feature, Rafe Blandford compares the relative performance of web browsers on various mobile devices, including the Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia E71, Nokia E75, Nokia N86 8MP, Nokia N97, Nokia 5800, T-Mobile G1, and Apple iPhone 3G. Which mobile device has the fastest browser? The results may surprise you - they did me.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've reviewed six games that are available in Ovi Store for one euro each: African board game Mancala Touch, Japanese-themed arcade game Go Sushi, turn-based puzzler Octopuzzle Deluxe, computer classic Mine Sweeper Touch, geographical tutor Flags Trivia and foreign vocabulary builder Dictiomania.
One of my most essential Web Runtime apps, for S60 5th Edition, is Device Info - mainly for showing free RAM, but it does have plenty of other uses. It has now been updated to v2.0, with extra readouts, including IMEI. Grab it here for the 5800, N97 and Samsung i8910 HD. (via Wampyre)
The Symbian Foundation today announced the first details of Symbian Horizon, an application-publishing program, which aims to reduce the barriers developers face when taking their products to market and thus increase the profitability of creating Symbian applications. Symbian Horizon will place applications in a number of partner app stores including Nokia's Ovi Store, Samsung's Application Store and AT&T's MEdia Mall, effectively acting as an application publisher on behalf of developers.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing and videoing some freeware touchscreen titles for S60 5th Edition devices: Speedtouch is a minimalist but fun whackamole clone, Bubbles Touch is rather poor (in fact it gets our lowest score ever), and Fridge Magnets Touch turns your phone into a ouija board thanks to its internet connection.
Fans of Spb Software's rather nifty world TV application, SpbTV (AAS shop link, support us by buying this way), should note that it has had a big update. Version 1.1 (download page) for all Symbian/S60 devices adds lower quality streams for anyone on a slow or weak 3G/EDGE connection, adds full support for TV out (making your smartphone into an Internet TV appliance!), plus better startup notifications (percentage reports while index building). Plus a litany of minor fixes and optimisations for a wider range of devices. Recommended.
Nokia have made available a number of new and updated applications for the N97 through the device's 'Software update' application. They include Ovi Maps 3.1, N-Gage 1.3, Nokia Messaging 10.0, Ovi Contacts 1.20, and a small helper application for freeing space on the N97's internal C: drive. Read on for more information and screenshots.
Steffen Geraner, despite English not being his main language, has put up a lovely little walk through and real world assessment of some of Ovi Maps 3.0's 'extra' features, including speed cam warnings, tunnel handling and 3D buildings. Worth a read. Maps 3.0 is turning into a pretty huge product - look out for more features on it here on AAS over the summer.
In All About Symbian Insight 79 (AAS Podcast 141), we share news of Symbian^2's release and the first Symbian package to move from SFL to EPL. Then there's a mention of Nokia Android rumours, leading into a discussion about Maemo positioning and Qt. Finally we talk about a recent post from Robert Scoble. You can listen to AAS Insight 79 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Ewan takes a brief look at Tommi Laukkanen's new, free Mobile Task Manager, a no-frills to-do-list/project manager that still manages to knock spots off the built in S60 function. It's Java-based, but don't let that put you off, this is one lean and efficient concept app - let's hope it continues to evolve.
Nick Anstee wanted to add a load of RSS news feeds into a single widget slot on his new (and seemingly much loved) Nokia N97. In this tutorial he shares how he did it, with the aid of a rather useful third party service from, somewhat surprisingly, Yahoo. See also his PS for an even quicker way of achieving the same.
Samsung Italy have released a fairly major (I8910XXIG2) firmware update for the i8910 HD (Omnia HD, as it's branded in Italy). The biggest change is to re-enable AAC (8bit 16KHz. mono) as the audio codec for HD video recording. A video example, taken on the new firmware, is posted below.
At last, at long last, the popular Twitter client Gravity has gained large fonts, for use by those like me who (ahem) have less than 20:20 vision in our advancing years. You'll need to go online in Gravity, move to the start page and click on the 'alpha' (and 'experimental') version 1.20 build 5570, but don't worry, it works just fine. You also gain, as shown below, the ability to have a different (e.g. a white) theme/backdrop, again greatly aiding visibility. v1.20 works fine on all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition phones.