I know quite a few of you rely on my definitive pub-quiz-helper, Trivopaedia. It's now been brought up to 2008 levels, with up to date stats for v2.3 . It's available in Mobipocket reader and iSilo formats (i.e. compatible with any portable device or any platform), in addition to being fully online as well - and of course it's still free.
S60.com's recent video competition, "Show your S60 Smarts", has ended and the winners have been picked down at the S60 Summit. Our very own Rafe came in third, with a little help from his dog. You can view all the winning video entries here - that's your lunchtime viewing sorted and you'll learn a few things along the way too!
Nokia Wellness Diary has just been updated to v1.18, significantly bringing seamless data import from Nokia's Sports tracker and Step Counter applications - seems like Nokia really want us all to get fit... v1.18 also brings support for S60 3rd Edition FP2, as used in the upcoming Nokia N96, among others.
Have you had trouble installing N-Gage on your phone? Need some help with using the application? Want to know what other kinds of games your N-Gage-compatible phone can run? Perhaps you should check out a new site called the N-Gage School, which contains videos and step-by-step tutorials aimed at people of all skill levels, with more tutorials to be added on a regular basis. (Incidentally, to make things clear, the N-Gage School is written by yours truly, but it has no official connection to AAN or AAS.)
Although there are no real production units of the Sony Ericsson G900 up for looking at yet, it's been interesting to read the early reviews of the prototype around the web. Unwired View reckons the G900 should be great for people who need normal phone functions first and smartphone functions second, while Mobile Review says that the G900 presents one of the finest offerings in terms of the price/quality ratio.
At the Summit today, S60 has announced the opening of its 'Ambassador' web site. The Ambassador program aims to harness enthusiasm for S60 among early adopters, promising 'freebies' (not devices, but general 'swag') in exchange for signing up. With news and software leads flowing out to 'Word of Mouth' ambassadors and with reports on good and bad experiences with S60 smartphones coming in from people on the street, it's potentially a win for all parties.
All About Symbian regular Matt Radford is hosting the Carnival of the Mobilists this week, it's here at his All About iPhone blog. Carnival 125 is a bit of a cracker, actually, with discussion about whether content providers should pay the carriers for the data consumed by the end user, with a look at a huge new mobile-related craze from Japan, plus a detailed look at the implications of Google's Android (and the aforementioned Apple iPhone) for the rest of the smartphone industry.
Arun Sarin is stepping down from his CEO role with Vodafone. While cutting a controversial figure since his appointment almost 5 years ago, he has overseen rapid expansion in traditional markets, and made significant inroads into India, Turkey and Eastern Europe. In those five years theuser base has grown from 120 million users to 260 million.
Recently announced was the news that T-Mobile will carry Ovi, but only, it appears, after a long negotiation with Nokia (reports MoCoNews). The software and services space, traditionally the exclusive realm of the carriers is opening up to the handset manufactures, and specificallyNokia . "My life would be simpler if they would have not come to my space. It is still not the happiest thing to have someone try and take your cheese away," was the quote from T-Mobile CEO Hamid Akhavan.
The Indian industrial giant Videocon is apparently interested in buying Motorola's handset business. Videocon already have licences to build 3G phone networks in India, and see potential benefits from also owning a handset manufacturing unit. Motorola currenly owns half of UIQ Technology and manufactures UIQ3 handsets, so such a sale may have implications for the Symbian world. (via Mobile Burn)
Perhaps the clearest photos yet of the new, tweaked Nokia E90, with the lower profile keyboard, have emerged at the Swedish site Daily Mobile. Scroll down its page for the all-important revealing side shot. Apparently the keyboard is retro-fittable for existing owners complaining of screen damage caused by key contacts - although comments so far indicate that the new keyboard is even harder in operation... (Thanks to kflyer)
Nokia have responded with good news on the N-Gage Game transfer issue that AAN highlighted earlier this week. They say they 'have been working on a solution that would allow people to transfer purchased N-Gage games to a new Nokia device' and are working with Nokia Care Centers on an intermediate solution. It's excellent to see Nokia to respond in a positive and timely manner. Read on for the full statement.
Don't you just love these early-bird, pre-order prices? I can't resist mentioning that Expansys now have the Nokia N96 up for pre-order - £697 inc VAT. Gulp. In fact, make that an extra big gulp. Don't panic though, I'm sure the price when available will be more reasonable!
[Update: this is now live, no password needed] Nokia's latest Flash-based novelty site is about to go live. The Mapsters are a small tribe of robots and err... aliens, who specialise in trampling on perfectly good cities and turning them into two-dimensional maps. For a preview go to www.themapsters.com/preview and use username 'mapsters' and password 'preview'. And there we were thinking that Nokia's Maps were created by the Navteq people.... (watch out for the jaw-dropping Flash earthquake effect in the opening sequence)
[Updated] Nokia has announced that Maps 2.0 is finally available, after several months in (a very wide) public beta. The press release, with official changelog over v1.2, is below, plus also the less formal changelog for the full v2.0 release over the v2.0 beta. See also my preview of the Nokia Maps v2.0 beta. And here's the all important download link (build 2102 is the one you want). Nokia Maps (as referenced in my recent Location Based Search feature) is a core product for the next five years and has enormous potential, both standalone on devices and as part of (Maps on) Ovi.
