Ozone is now available for S60, at the same beta 0.9 version that appeared for UIQ 3 last year. Ozone is a web browser that "not only delivers advanced features such as client-side database support, application cache, zooming and multiple windows, but also provides the best web-standards compliant experience that's available". The beta download is at www.o3mobi.com. Comments welcome if you've tried Ozone.
Yesterday marked 'day one' of the Symbian Foundation. This announced the commencement of the beta testing of its new web site and that 81 companies have applied for membership (50 of which are first time endorsers). The new logo of the Symbian Foundation was also unveiled: Symbian, in stylised letters, underlain by a yellow heart. Read on for more.
Astraware is selling Astraware Boardgames and Astraware Solitaire at the reduced price of $5 each until the end of this month. The games are available for Symbian S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3, and can be purchased at the reduced price from astraware.com: click here for their S60v3 section, and click here for their UIQ3 section. (Astraware's parent company Handmark is also having a sale until the 29th of March, with a "buy one, get one free" offer using the discount code "DEMAND".)
Opera, the Norwegian browser and web technology company, today introduced Fingertouch, a technology which aims to make it easier to interact with a web page on touchscreen devices. On such devices, especially those with smaller screens, when selectable page elements (e.g. links or form elements) are grouped close together on a web page, it can be difficult to accurately select the right element. Opera's Fingertouch looks to solve this problem by providing visual feedback and 'zooming in' on the clustered elements. Read on for more and demo video.
Sony Ericsson has laid out a proposition for their customers at MWC. Entertainment Unlimited is their name for “the true fusion of communication and entertainment” that the partners have been working on since 2001. It's a statement that makes clear their corporate direction of smartphones, and as such is a good marker to remind journalists what Sony Ericsson want to do. Coupled with their concept smartphone Idou announced yesterday, this is a line in the sand drawn by the Swedish company, answering the obvious question of “what now after UIQ?”
CellPhoneSoft have announced, in a reversal of their previous statement, that they will be ceasing to support and develop their UIQ portfolio with immediate effect. They had pledged resources through to the end of 2009, but with rising levels of piracy and a drop in income from registrations they've pulled the plug.
Not quite free but very close to it, you can now buy the updated puzzle game Quartz 2 Deluxe for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3 devices for just €0.78 from Clickgamer (that's about 66 pence or 1 US dollar). As well as a single player mode the game also features internet and bluetooth multiplayer, and multiplayer versus computer opponents.
Thanks to ares for the heads-up that Opera Software have been busy, releasing its Opera 9.5 web browser for UIQ 3 with widget support today. For technical reasons (lack of RAM?), it's only compatible with the SonyEricsson P1, W960, G700 and G900. Opera has also updated people on progress towards v9.5 for S60 - more on this in the weeks to come.
Digia have today announced the immediate shipping of @Web, their Webkit based UIQ 3 browser. This application, which has been in fairly open beta testing for the last few months, brings full S60, iPhone & Google Android style browsing to the UIQ 3 platform.
AAS favourite Malcolm Lithgow has produced a handy reference article for anyone new to UIQ 3 smartphones such as the Sony Ericsson G700 and G900, with tips, application pointers and third party recommendations. One to bookmark.