In its latest hardware feature, All About N-Gage takes a brief look at the N95 as a games machine. It turns out to be actually rather good, due to N-Gage and S60 games working in horizontal mode, and being able to use the multimedia controls as N-Gage gaming buttons. Those new to the N95 should also see the links to AAS's review of it as a general phone, which are at the bottom of the page.
The N-Gage platform aims to usher in a new age of high quality connected phone gaming. However if you upgrade to a new phone, you cannot transfer any of your N-Gage games from the old phone. In a special feature article All About N-Gage looks at why this is such a damaging policy for N-Gage, what the unintended consequences are, and a number of potential solutions. Will Nokia change their minds on this issue? Update: Looks like Nokia has indeed now changed their minds, their official blog has announced a game transfer system is on the way! Read the Nokia blog's statement.
So you've been eyeing up qwerty clamshells from the dark side (Windows Mobile)? So had I - in this case, getting in the Toshiba Portege G910 flagship, with a spec sheet that rivals the Nokia E90 - in theory, at least. Having used both, here's my illustrated head-to-head review: G910 vs E90. The winner? You can probably guess, but let's just say that this Windows Mobile clamshell has got more than a couple of surprises up its sleeve.
In the spirit of better-late-than-never, we've finally done a brief summary of how the N81 / N81 8GB performs as a gaming phone for All About N-Gage's hardware section. This aspect of the N81 was missing from All About Symbian's original review of the phone as the N-Gage platform hadn't launched at the time, and we felt it was unfair to judge an N-Gage phone without N-Gage games.
Yep, it's all in the latest All About Symbian Insight podcast, number 25. Specifically, we look at the Asus M930 vs the Nokia E90, the Cost of SMS and a discussion around messaging costs, Maps on Ovi, Nokia's new Music PC application, and some top software picks.
In this feature article on location based search services and software (also known as searching the world around you) Steve gives a round up, with real world examples, of the current state of the market. With options from Nokia, Google, Yahoo, Microsoft and Yell he asks what software or service options performs best? Read on to find out.
A combination of 3G, 3.5G, Wi-Fi and flat rate phone data charges provide lots of possibilities for internet gaming on the new N-Gage platform. Take part in our new poll and let the world know which kind of online gaming you most want to see on N-Gage, or even tell us if you don't want online gaming at all.
In the second part of his review of the Samsung i450, Ewan explores the music functionality of this unashamedly music-focussed smartphone. How do the dual slide and rubber music 'arc' work out in practice? And what about the fancy Bang and Olufsen '3D' equalisation electronics?
In the second part of our look at Nokia's upcoming N-Gage flagship game, there is further chat with producer Scott Foe and reflections on how Reset Generation's free embeddable web-based version could attract new people to N-Gage, even people who don't currently own a mobile. Oh yes, and we also get to see those legendary Pac-Man biscuits...
Nokia Music PC Client is now available in early beta form from the Nokia Beta Labs website. The application is designed to help you manage your music collection on your PC and then transfer it your mobile device. The software has been designed with mobile users in mind and includes the ability to directly rip a CD to a mobile device, to easily sideload music from a PC and to use bi-directional playlists and music sync.
In a tutorial for beginners, and with plenty of real world examples, I look at some practical photo-taking tips for your multi-megapixel smartphone when conditions are less than perfect... and I explain that adjusting the photo later in software is cheating - but often helps a lot!
It's... Insight number 24, aka AAS audio podcast 73, in which the usual team discuss the news of the week, including N-Gage and Nokia Communication Center (sic), three new S60 3rd Edition smartphones (black N82, Samsung i450, Nokia 6122c) and we introduce the idea and state of play in the world of Location Based Search.
Guest writer Arjen Broeze has been trialling the new Route 66 Mobile 8 for over a month now and here's his very detailed review. The only real problem seems to be over-stubborn clinging to originally-calculated routes - apart from that Arjen gives this sat-nav solution a green light on all fronts. I was sceptical about the way search matches are still shown in alphabetical order, but Arjen argues that the search match filtering is good enough to do without location-sorted results.
Over on All About N-Gage, we've been putting one of the games of the year, Nokia's first party title Mile High Pinball, through its paces. Those of you who remember the original gen N-Gage version may want to check out the new high res graphics, as there are lots of screenshots. Click here to read Tzer2's in-depth review on AAN and find out how Mile High Pinball did. UPDATE: We've now added a gameplay video at the beginning of the review.
