Gmail on the Nokia 5800 with that clunky old Java client? Not interested? Don't dismiss the idea too quickly, for S60 Java, touch and Gmail aren't so clunky with latest versions all round and with the aid of this tutorial for beginners on setting Gmail up on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic (and other S60 5th Edition phones). Full Gmail features and benefits, all running full screen, with push notifications and all for free?
Forum Nokia regularly publishes example applications; they are intended as examples for developers, but occasionally are useful enough to be downloaded and installed by consumers. New today is Route, a basic GPS tracking widget. AccuWidget, an existing WRT example, which shows weather forecasts, has also been updated. Both widgets support miniview, which means they can be added to the homescreen of the Nokia N97. Miniview is something that all widget developers should consider implementing.
An interactive demo has been added to the Nokia N97's product pages on the Nokia UK web site. The interactive demo showcases some of the key features of the upcoming phone, including the customisable homescreen and Facebook functionality. The demo also includes the ability to log in to your own Facebook account (using Facebook Connect) so you can see what it looks like on the N97. Read on for more details and screenshots.
Nokia and Orange today announced that they will, exclusively, launch the Comes with Music edition of the Nokia 5800 in the UK. From May 29th, the Comes with Music Edition of the 5800 will be available on a number of two year Orange contracts, ranging from £25 to £45 per month. For the duration of their contract, consumers will be able to download unlimited music from the Nokia Music Store. Read on for my thoughts.
If you're the sort of person who's organised enough to record every financial transaction in meticulous fashion (I'm not!) and want to way to bring your data from Quicken or another banking app with you onto the Nokia 5800 and S60 5th Edition then the recently-updated JabpLite might be just want you're after. Don't let the fact that it's written in Java put you off - link and some screenshots below.
Nokia recently announced it was refocussing its service strategy in certain areas. Nokia said it was looking to 'provide a better, more simplified service' and would work more closely with third parties. The implications of this announcement are now starting to emerge: mocoNews reports that Nokia is closing its Kirkland (Seattle) offices and Reuters reports that Nokia is halting investment in its media sharing site, Ovi Share. Read on for more.
In All About Symbian Insight 70 (AAS Podcast 128) Rafe, Ewan and Steve talk about the recently released Nokia E52, the N96's firmware upgrade to version 20, the newly released Pandemonium and the N97's processor and specifications. Rafe also reports on UI changes proposed for Symbian^4. You can listen to AAS Insight 70 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Over the weekend the news arrived that a beta of Ozone, a WebKit based web browser, had been released for S60 3rd Edition. Ozone, previously available for UIQ 3, claims better standard compliance and faster performance that the built in S60 browser. In the full news story we take a closer look at some of Ozone's features and include some illustrative screenshots from both S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition.
Just a quick note that, as per the headline, the Download option has now started appearing again for BBC iPlayer programmes on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic with v21 firmware, see the screenshot below, taken just now. I'm guessing the right person's elbow was nudged at the Beeb and the appropriate amendment made in the 'Send them a download link' table...
Those folks at Vesuvius Software have been busy in the last few weeks, cranking out more useful little Java-powered freeware applications for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and S60 5th Edition. Brand new and screenshotted below, with hyperlinks, are Musician's Swiss Knife, Soft Touch Stopwatch, Karao60 and ScratchMMS.
Kudos to Ricky Cadden and Rita El-Khoury for this awesome and rather definitive guide to Twitter on your S60 phone and similar guide to Facebook. They table, elegantly, all the native, Java and web-based solutions and make it very easy to decide which one(s) to try first.
Thanks to CJ for noticing that a S60 5th Edition Touch version of Nokia’s Friend View application is now available. Friend View is similar to Google Latitude in that it lets you add friends to a custom list and shows you where each is at the moment, along with a status update or message. Do you think Friend View has a future and will it ever make it into a device's firmware? Will it ever get integrated with Nokia Maps in the way that Ovi Contacts has been? Comments welcome!
You've got to love Ricky and Rita at Symbian Guru, here unearthing (and providing a brief tutorial for) another gem - Pixelpipe, a new plug-in for Share online which widens the photo (and video) uploading compatibility to encompass Facebook, Twitpic, Picassa, YouTube and others. If you've used Pixelpipe then your comments welcome.
In All About Symbian Insight 69 (AAS Podcast 127) Rafe, Ewan and Steve talk about Bobba, operating billing on the Ovi Store, v21 firmware for the Nokia 5800 and the new N-Gage game - Age of Empires III. Rafe then reports back in detail from the Nokia Developer Summit 2009. You can listen to AAS Insight 69 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
One of many people's must-have utilities, and like competitor Fring before it, the VoIP and chat client Nimbuzz has been finally ported to make full use of the touchscreen on the Nokia 5800. In fact, not just a straight port, since the developers have produced the most Nokia-like UI of any third party app for the 5800 that I've seen so far. Screenshots and download link below.