Courtesy of our friends at The Really Mobile Project, it seems that you can win a Nokia E55, E75 or N97 by simply being your normal witty self. Their post explains all, but they've given you three good alternative ideas to get you started. The three funniest entries win, apparently. And you can enter as many times as you like. So what are you waiting for?
Mobile Systems, far from being daunted by the Quickoffice juggernaut, have been plugging away at their competing OfficeSuite for S60 - the latest v5.30 can edit Google Documents directly, something of a breakthrough for the Symbian world. A hat tip to Wampyre here for both spotting the new version and doing a brief, illustrated write-up. Comments welcome if you're an OfficeSuite user and can add your recommendation.
Some sad news, I'm afraid. You'll remember Sweden's Wayfinder navigation software from back in the early 2000s - I was a proponent, loving the fact that it would work on anything because it didn't need to have hundreds of Megabytes of maps preloaded (well, it seemed a lot at the time). Sydsvenskan is now reporting the Wayfinder story (including the Vodafone buyout over a year ago) and says that Wayfinder has now given up, in the face of free navigation from Nokia (and, to some extent, Google). Tough times, though the cycle of operating systems and ecosystems building in functionality which started out as third party add-ins has been going on for decades.
You may have heard myself praise Nokia's 'hero' battery, the Lithium-Polymer BP-4L, rated at 1500mAh, and used in everything from the E61 to the E90, most Eseries devices seem to be based on it, plus it's the core of the likes of the 6650 and N97. Anyway, it turns out that David Gilson (of this parish) reviewed a third party 'drop in' (i.e. no new phone back needed) replacement for the BP-4L, rated at 1900mAh, back at the end of 2009. Having updated it with new information (it works properly in the N97, but didn't in the original phone), I thought you'd be interested in having a read too.
Thanks to CJ for the heads-up that Emoze, the third party push email aggregator that preceded Nokia Messaging, has just opened up its 'Pro' version for free. You can read more about it below and on the Emoze Blog but essentially you get rich HTML, multiple accounts, Gmail, Hotmail and Facebook support, plus a lot more.
Widely reported round the tech world yesterday and fascinating, despite not being Symbian-related, is the announcement of the Olive FrvrOn, a phone with both Li-Ion and emergency AAA power(!) With the Symbian world springing out of Psion palmtops (1994-2000), most of which were powered by AA cells, I can't help thinking what a great 'best of both worlds' idea this is. Let's hope something similar comes to the Symbian (and Western) world sometime soon...
Just a little weekend link of interest: a writer with the marvellous name of Hagop Kavafian for the NokiaLB site has produced a detailed and fairly insightful review of the Nokia E55. Do take his opinion of the E55's camera with a pinch of salt though - I don't think he really understood the idea behind EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) and I'm tempted to suggest that there might have been dirt on his E55's camera glass....
According to the official Ovi Blog, the enormous HRS system is beginning to appear in the homescreen of Ovi Maps 3.3 (and beyond), offering hotel searching by proximity to your current location, with navigation to a hotel handled within the application. There's also integration with other phone functi ons, to allow real time availability checking and booking. Initially HRS is appearing in just Germany and Finland, but other countries should see this rolled out quite soon too. Some quotes and screens below.
Yep, that's our very own Matt Radford (late of All About iPhone) writing as a guest over at The Really Mobile Project and talking about a topic close to all our hearts - the cycle of lust-buy-disappointment (and hopefully) enlightenment-productivity that we all go through as part of obtaining our next smartphone. It's a Link of Interest and a good read for your afternoon cup of coffee.
After almost a year of operation, the contacts in Ovi Mail and Ovi Contacts have finally been officially merged, with Ovi Mail 2.0, according to a Beta Labs post this morning. The overlaps between Ovi Mail, Nokia Messaging and Ovi Sync have always been somewhat grey, so at least this clears up one loose end. Some quotes and links below.
Phones Show 104 just went live, with three Top 3s, i.e. my (and the rest of the Phones Show team's) assessment of the top 3 phones in the world, in each of three categories. Overall, three Symbian handsets make the 'chart', out of nine slots. There's also a demo of Vlingo voice recognition on the N97 mini.
Remember all the fun that Apple and Nokia are going through in the US IP courts? Well there could be a little bit of history about to repeat itself with yesterday’s filing by Google. The Mountain View based company have been awarded a patent that covers “using location in an advertising system” by the USPTO. Given the primacy location has in various Ovi modules, this could the next touch-paper for the lawyers in Espoo.
US tech blog Engadget has done a head to head of GPS navigation and maps of the leading contenders in the US, namely Google Maps, Ovi Maps and VZ Navigator for Windows Mobile and Blackberry. Google Maps comes out on top with some very strange caveats (“if you're staying domestic and won't need to be navigating out of any coverage gaps, its hard to find fault in Google Nav”) but it's worth reading the whole article to get a balanced view.
It’s taken some time, but Nokia are reporting that the Helping Haiti charity single, a cover of REM’s “Everybody Hurts” is now available in the Nokia Music Store. Proceeds from the single are split between two funds in the UK – which is great if you pay for the download, but what happens if you use Comes with Music?
Tackling a cross-genre game title, Ewan finds that Mini Golf Challenge 99 Holes provides just what it claims. Despite a degree of Java-kludginess, there's enough thought in the levels holes here to keep you casually entertained for many hours. Just don't expect Tiger Woods! Here's our Ovi Gaming review.
