Nokia Beta Labs has announced yet another experimental project, called Nokia Drop. This project sets out to push content from your desktop browser to your phone. Pushed content comes in the forum of URL's, files, images as files, or images as wallpapers. The desktop end requires a browser plugin; Firefox and Chrome are currently the only supported browsers. The phone application is available for S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3. Read on for more.
Nokia has officially 'graduated' Ovi Maps 3.6 (the version with Social check-ins, live traffic services and on-device country map loading) from Beta Labs and into the Ovi Store. This doesn't preclude further updates of course, but the application is stable and complete for now. If you want to check what version you have installed, tap on the "?" icon, then "About Maps" and then "Versions". The version of Ovi Maps now in the Ovi Store is v3.06 11wk10 b01.
We do like to highlight bargains every now and then and, thanks to a tip off from reader Gary Moncrieff, it seems that most of the Smartphoneware titles in the Ovi Store have been reduced from their usual $10 (or so) tickets to just 1 pound (or local equivalent). If you've been eyeing up any of the following: Best Safe, Best Reminder, Best Crypto, Best TaskMan, Best SpamKiller, Best Jotter, Best Converter, Best Blacklist or Best Full Screen Message (among others), then grab them now rather than later. A few titles remain at higher prices, so do please check, etc.
I was impressed by Peter Krass's write-up over on the Ovi Daily App blog, looking at three free weather forecasting solutions for Symbian smartphones. He reviews ForecaWeather Free, AccuWeather and Weather Touch, all free or ad-supported. In particular, I had a 'duh' moment when he revealed that Weather Touch has a second, forecast screen that you only see when you rotate your phone into landscape mode. How the heck didn't I spot that before?
Opera has announced the new versions of its mobile browsers, Opera Mobile 11 and Opera Mini 6. These bring an updated user interface, improved text wrapping, and most significantly, multi-touch zoom. Overall performance is improved too, with native handling of heavy sites appearing to load faster in Opera Mobile 11 than with Opera Mobile 10. Read on for more about the update.
An official PayPal mobile application, written in Java, is now available for download in the Ovi Store. It allows you to send and receive money, review your recent transactions, set a mobile PIN for easy mobile log-in and carry out other common PayPal tasks. The application is available in select markets for most S60 5th Edition devices and some Symbian^3 devices.
Now available as an 'experimental beta' for all S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3 phones, Nokia Shoot & Tag is a camera-centric utility that allows video capture with automatic scene detection and then lets you browse through scenes later on. The idea, as usual, is to get the public to try the interface and ideas before the concept is (or isn't) rolled out into device firmware. Links and a video below.
The Ovi Store client has been updated today, with v2.06.00042 being enforced for Symbian^3-powered phones, and v1.9.008 for S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition phones. The new version is to maintain compatibility with architecture changes at Nokia's end and also provides performance improvements on all devices.
Digia, a Finnish software company, has signed an agreement with Nokia to acquire the commercial licensing and professional services arm of Nokia's Qt. The major portion of Qt, including all core development and LGPL licensing remains with Nokia. Nokia plans to continue to invest in the future development of Qt, which remains core to its Symbian (150 million additional devices) and MeeGo (future disruptions) activities. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the month; neither company are disclosing cost details.
For all Symbian/S60 3rd Edition/5th Edition phones, SPB TV has been re-launched with a new version number, v2.0, adding higher quality TV streams, better performance and wider device compatibility. As before, SPB TV is marketing and advert-driven, with a registration process and with occasional static adverts displayed during channel loading pauses. Some screens and a link below.
Layar, an augmented reality browser, is now available in Ovi Store. Layar provides an augmented view of the world around you by overlaying information ('layers') on to your smartphone's field of vision (as seen through the camera). For example, this can be used to visualise local search (overlay local businesses), orientate the position of nearby landmarks and attractions and see nearby social activity (Twitter, YouTube, etc). Layar is available for all Symbian^3 devices, plus the N97 and N97 mini.
The Qt SDK beta 1.1 was launched today. While the SDK is a beta release, the Qt (4.7.2) and Qt Creator (2.1) releases within it are final (i.e. not beta or previews). This means that Qt Quick can now be considered to have been officially released. Qt Quick is a crucial step forward for Qt, bringing easy UI creation, which allows developers and designers to work together more easily to create applications with great user experience.
Nokia Beta Lab have released an update to Ovi Maps, taking it to version 3.06. While still in beta, it’s available through the Ovi Store or direct from the labs. This is a small update from the main 3.06 release last week, with the addition of two check-in services, Qype and Foursquare taking centre stage. This version is specifically for touch devices only. That is, the Symbian^3 devices: N8-00, C6-01, C7-00, and E7-00; and S60 5th Edition handsets. S60 3rd Edition are not supported in this release.
After a year of development, Podcatcher (originally Escarpod) is now in the Ovi Store for all S60 3rd Edition, 5th Edition and Symbian^3 Nokia devices. Of course, it's not necessarily needed for phones with Nokia Podcasting on board, but it's a boon for the increasing number of devices which haven't. Screenshots below. Note that if you've been using the free distribution, at v1.10, this is much the same, but with a few less minor bugs.
We recently reported about a new beta version for Mobbler, having been updated for Symbian^3 and support for Last.fm's Scrobbling 2.0 API. Today the Mobbler team announced via Twitter that the very latest version of Mobbler is available for free download in the Ovi Store. This news means that the features listed for this new version at Mobbler's Wiki for the beta version we already reported on, have now graduated to Mobbler's official release.