Symbian toting Dropbox users will be glad to hear that one of the best in class apps, cuteBox, has now become free of charge. We reviewed cuteBox back in May, with Rafe concluding that “general performance [was] excellent”. Fortunately, it was only priced at £1.50 / €1.50 / $2.00, so paying users hopefully won't feel too aggrieved at the change. Read on for more details.
Here's another in my series of interviews with some of the top developers and marketeers in the Symbian (and wider mobile) world. In this case, Jake Levant, from Fring, chatting about fring’s creation, its development, the philosophy behind its programming teams – and fring’s future.
Users of the popoular content sharing service, Pixelpipe, may have noticed the absence from the Ovi Store recently. While Pixelpipe has been active (e.g. the Gmail Apps Browser), their blog hasn't been updated for over a year. There has been no announcement about the fate of their popular sharing app via their Twitter account either. Fortunately, Pixelpipe has answered direct queries, which have revealed the status of their "Send and Share" application. Read on for more details.
This may seem like something you kind of knew already, but just in case... the mass of 'official' Anna themes appearing regularly in the Ovi Store (i.e. with all the new icons, animations, background and transitions) also work fine with many of the older S60 3rd Edition (i.e. non-touch-driven) smartphones. See below for an example.
You'll remember I found GPS Toolbox a useful little utility for looking at what the GPS receiver in my smartphone was actually doing? Well, here's GPS Info Qt, a free replacement that does much the same thing, but with the advantage that you don't have to dip into your pocket. Plus it's implemented (as the name suggests) in Qt and not Java. Screens and some comment below.
Google Plus is the latest addition to the ranks of social networks. Unsurprisingly, Android was the first platform to be catered for with an application, followed recently by iOS. As you might expect, there is no sign of a Symbian application. Just as with other Google services, there are several HTML versions for mobile devices, provided you know the right URL. Asri Al-Baker, our friend from i-Symbian.com, has come to the rescue with a web runtime widget for the HTML5 mobile version of Google Plus. This widget provides an attractive icon which will always launch the correct URL. So now we can at least pretend that Google loves us! Read on for more.
Nokia has released its Q2 2011 results, reporting an operating loss of -€487 million, with net sales of €9.275 billion (down 7% YoY). Nokia's Devices and Services division's losses were -€247 million. Margins in devices and services were -4.5% (down 14% YoY and down 14.2% QoQ). However, non-IFRS operating profit was €391 million (down 41% YoY and down 44% QoQ), with Devices and Services non-IFRS profit at €369 million, and margins at 6.7%. Total smartphone device sales were 16.7 million, compared with 24 million units in Q2 2010 (down 34% YoY) and 25.2 million units in Q1 2011 (down 31%, QoQ).
The latest addition to Gameloft's Asphalt series of racing games has been added to Nokia's Ovi Store for most Symbian^3 devices. Asphalt 6 Adrenaline HD, which weighs in at 305MB, is an arcade style racer with impressive cut-scenes, gameplay graphics, backing music and sound effects. Also new from Gameloft is Dungeon Hunter 2 HD, a continuation of the 3D RPG series set in the fantasy world of Gothicus.
Over at Nokia Conversations, I've been (ahem) moonlighting, in this case interviewing Tom Ojala, CEO and co-founder of Joiku, based in Finland, the makers of JoikuSpot, a software utility that shares your 3G data signal with other devices using WiFi (‘commonly referred to these days as ‘tethering’). See below for a quote and a link to the full article.
Phones Show 144 is out this morning - and I mention it only because the main feature is my hands-on video review of the Nokia E6. Rolling in all my thoughts on this device into one easily-digested nine minute chunk of your time. Summary: it's the best built phone I've ever handled - yet I still can't recommend it to everybody. See below for the embedded video and salient links.
The much publicised demotion of the Ovi brand name has started to take effect with maps.ovi.com becoming maps.nokia.com as of now. To accompany the switch, there are some updates to the data set and appearance in its Web incarnation, including 'heat' maps of night life, shopping, eating, etc., plus more cities available in 3D, hotel bookings, a user review facility and a new blue design.
An update to the Ovi Store client for Symbian^3 phones is now being rolled out. On starting the Ovi Store application you will be prompted to update to version 2.12.033. The previous major release was version 2.08.042. The focus in this release is performance improvements, with item and index pages loading more quickly than in earlier releases.
Months after you thought the Samsung i8910 modding scene had finally died, out comes arch-modder 'faenil', curator of 'faenil's pit', with a major new firmware release, 'n2o5', bringing an all-singing, all-dancing graphical interface to a wealth of i8910 system settings (browser user agents, camera tweaks, kinetic UI tweaks, and much more), compatibility certificates, Qt runtimes, and more. See below for warnings and links.
Announced today is Facebook for Every Phone, an application that promises to allow access to the social network for over 2500 different mobile phone devices. Now available as a free download (direct from Facebook, as well as a number of App Stores, including Getjar), it includes your news feed, messaging and photo uploads. A number of international carriers will provide free data for this application for 90 days, making it attractive for people to try it out.
Nokia Live View, an augmented reality browser, has been released by Nokia Beta Labs for Symbian^3 devices. It works as an add-on for Ovi Maps, giving a new way to search for and explore Places around you. Place icons, drawn from the Ovi Maps database, are overlaid on a 'live view' (from the camera) to represent their physical location, providing a connection between the digital and physical world. As you pan the phone around, the live view changes and new places appear.
