Ovi Sync there, but not live...
One component of Nokia's Ovi which hasn't had quite so much attention is Sync. This just popped up on the main Ovi toolbar, trailing what Sync will offer. See below for the details.
Recent News - Links of Interest - Page 114
Not Gold, But Silver
Fans of PiZero will want to note that there's another class theme available, in full vector format, for all S60 3rd Edition smartphones, including widescreen devices like the E90. Presenting... Silver.
Philips Demo AAA Battery Boost for Handsets
Over on Guy Goma Kewney site, James Sherwood has pictures of a lovely mobile phone battery solution from MWC - the Philips 9@9j mobile phone takes not only a custom Lithium Ion battery, but also has a slot to take a regular AAA battery to top up the main battery for another three hours of talk time. If I was travelling, and I had the option to strap in a standard cell to my Symbian phone, I would be right there.
SS53 live... and a teaser for more video here
I forgot to mention that Smartphones Show 53 went live a couple of days ago, with some nice video footage of the Nokia and Sony Ericsson S60 and UIQ 3 hardware launches, shot by Rafe, plus comments from me, iPhone tips and a look at how far the Nokia E90 has taken me since my Psion-toting days, ten years ago. Rafe's Mobile World Congress video clips will feature in their entirety in exclusive AllAboutSymbian video podcasts in the next few weeks, so stick around.
Symbian P.I.P.S. goes 1.2 on UIQ
As noted by SymbianOne Symbian recently updated P.I.P.S. and version 1.2 now supports the latest UIQ phones. 1.2 also adds a full-featured port of the Open Source zlib compression library. The 1.2 version was made available to S60 through the Novemeber Open C release.
10 things that would be really cool on N-Gage
Tzer2 has been busy, over on All About N-Gage, listing 10 things that would be really cool on the new next-gen games platform. Do you think any of these semi-predictions will happen? Let Tzer2 know in the comments!
Three events, two dates - Nseries, S60 and the Shed
Some events for your diary, should you be in the area. I'll start with the one I'm at(!). On March 5th at the 3Bs in Reading, UK, there's a chance to try out the Nokia N82 to take Xenon-flash photos and see me with my rock band, Shed Music. The fun starts at 8.30pm. On the same night, March 5th, WOM World are holding an Nseries get together at the Crown, in London, from 6.30pm. Finally, there's an S60 event in Milan, Italy on March 11th from 8pm. Phew!
Direct N-Gage answers in video interview
There are two video interviews with three of the executives behind N-Gage over on AllAboutNGage now, with fairly frank and interesting answers to (more or less) the questions that you've been wanting to ask. Good stuff.
Is Video Capture Sleeping?
Nseries video supremo James Burland echoes many of my own sentiments in chewing Nokia out over the VGA capture in its Nseries devices - the resolution ticks the right box but fails miserably for frame rate and focus. A justified rant? I think so.
S60 device table updated, also Forum Nokia
After the brace of S60 devices announced at MWC, I've done an update to my comprehensive S60 comparison table. Still a few 'Unknown's, so comment if you can help fill any in. Also of note is that Forum Nokia now has the official specs of the new Nokia devices online.
You Have Won The "Apple Iphone Nokia 8GB"... Honestly!
Opening my email, I see I've won an amazing prize - the "brand new Apple Iphone Nokia 8GB"! It's allegedly part of the "Nokia 'N' Series New Year Program", and also comes with a cash prize of five hundred thousand pounds.... Oh it's spam? Darn. But isn't it interesting that viagra is no longer the big draw in email fraud, but phrases like "to promote the use of mobile phones with the world as a global village" are? More below...
Nokia launch games developer challenge
Nokia is calling on mobile developers with new ideas to take part in its Mobile Games Innovation Challenge, and at least one winning game will be published by Nokia on its new N-Gage platform (which is based on S60 3rd Edition). Entries will be accepted from the 3rd of April 2008, so if you're interested it might be worth starting work now. Established developers and publishers can already apply to publish commercially on the platform, or find out more on the N-Gage developer site.
Nokia N78 - the TV skit...
I couldn't resist passing on Nokia's Nseries team's latest marketing skit, showing off the inner workings (ahem) of the Nokia N78. Funny stuff, see below!
Nokia N93 four times faster at 3D graphics than N81
3D graphics benchmarks aren't the 'be all and end all' when it comes to games playing performance, but they're a good clue as to how capable a device is. So it was interesting to find out about a regularly updated and bookmarkable table of OpenGL ES benchmarked smartphones. It's topped by the 'if you believe Nokia' obsolete N93 and the N-Gage 1st access smartphone, the N81, comes in a lowly 22nd. Read on for comment.
N-Gage - the BBC interview
There's a really nice video interview just up on the BBC site with Nokia's N-Gage head talking about the next gen games platform and demonstrating several of the games. And the video interview, just like my own Smartphones Show, was shot ON an Nseries smartphone, apparently. Cool points all round!
