Google's native S60 YouTube client has just got itself a significant update, to v2.2.17, now working in full-screen mode (at last!) on S60 5th Edition phones like the N97, 5800 and Samsung i8910 HD and with new countries and languages added to its officially supported list: Brazil, Czech Republic, Poland, Russia and Sweden. You can get the update by going to m.google.com in Web on your phone. Screenshots below the break.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing lots more games, we have another batch of Ovi Store client installation walkthroughs, and we'd like to know which games you want us to review. See below for a complete list of links...
Just a quick link to a couple of nice software mini-reviews in the last 24 hours over on the Nokia 5800 'Tube' blog, looking at PixelPipe, which plugs a number of popular image and video sharing services into S60 Share Online, and at Shazam TrackID, which tries to identify music that's captured by the phone's microphone. A couple of nice 5-minute reads.
Gartner may have beaten Canalys to the Q2 smartphone sales figure stories, but there's still plenty of interest in Canalys' version of events. The headline numbers are similar to Gartner's, with Nokia in the lead with 44% of the market, RIM in second place with 21% and Apple in third with 14%. From a platform point of view, Symbian OS powers just over half of all smartphones sold across the world, though this market share was down 8% year on year. RIM and Apple's OS both gained share, with Windows Mobile being the big loser, with its market share almost halving year on year.
Just a quick note that the BBC have flicked the switch at their end and that the Nokia N86 is now officially compatible with iPlayer, meaning that the service shows up when you visit the Beeb's mobile site and iPlayer page. (Previously you had to manually install the generic 1.6.0 widget). Downloading of shows is also possible, with the N86 having the right DRM capabilities, of course.
Inova IT, a mobile developer from Slovenia, has announced the public beta of SalesForce for Symbian S60, a mobile client application for the SalesForce.com service. SalesForce is the leading web-based, software as a service, Customer Relationship Management (CRM) solution. SalesForce for Symbian you to view and add all the Standard SalesForce objects, log calls, and assign tasks on your mobile while out of the office. Read on for more details.
Symartic, developers of ExtGPS, have announced that they will soon be releasing Symabook, a Facebook client application, for S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition. The application allows you to update your Facebook status and view your news feed, friend list and photos. Symabook has a custom UI which is designed to allow you to view photos more easily and make the best possible use of screen space.
In a world where the average Joe still has trouble getting his head round all the things smartphones can do, you can never have too many tips or tutorials. Which is why I'm happy to give a shout out to a new Nokia/S60 site, NokiaTips. The launch content includes how to change the fonts on your N97 or 5800 and how to set up Google Voice, so worth a look, especially if you like 'getting your hands dirty'. There's also a Twitter and a RSS feed to follow for updates.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've been lamenting the rather poor service provided by Ovi Store's search function. However, instead of just complaining about it we've set up an alternative unofficial Ovi Store search using Google's Custom Search Engine. You can try Unofficial Ovi Store Search over on Ovi Gaming. This is still very experimental, so let us know what you think in the comments thread.
Yesterdays news of the Nokia - Microsoft alliance around enterprise software and services has been generating a lot of interest. One of the interesting side stories is that Nokia's Symbian phones already have an outstanding Office compatible software suite, in the form of Quickoffice, which ships with every current Nokia Symbian phone. Quickoffice have released their own statement today noting that its Symbian business represents only a portion of its overall business and that it will ship on 200 million Nokia Symbian phones before Microsoft's product is even released. See below for comment and their statement in full.
More interesting data from the smartphone world analysts. See below for the full table of data, but essentially Nokia's world market share is down 2.4% year on year, to 45%, despite shipping over 3 million more units, a total of 18.4 million smartphones. RIM improved slightly to 18.7% market share, while Apple is now in third place at 13.3% market share. Notable is the fact that Nokia still outsold RIM, Apple, fourth-place HTC and fifth-place Fujitsu combined, so as ever, it's business as usual at Espoo. In terms of worldwide platform/OS market share, Symbian OS was down 6% at 51%, RIM was up at at 16%, iPhone OS up at 12% and Windows Mobile was down at 9%. Android's share was under 2%, showing how far this has to go to make a serious impact.
Yellix is a startup focussed on integrating Facebook with your phone's telephony, i.e. when someone calls you, their Facebook avatar and status are automatically popped up on screen, giving you an idea of where they might be or what they're up to. There's a native S60 3rd Edition version for download, the service is free and you can start using it immediately. Bandwidth used is reportedly low, only 3k for each avatar/status pop-up. See below for a hi-res promo video, a bit from the press release and see also their FAQ page.
Nokia has announced that, from today, Qt Software will be known as Qt Development Frameworks and its URL changes to qt.nokia.com. The reason behind the move? Nokia want to encourage the use of Qt by mobile developers and therefore decided to strengthen Qt's associated with the Nokia brand.
Over on AAS's sister site Ovi Gaming, we've been continuing our review of Ovi Store games available for Symbian devices. Our latest batch of reviews includes five titles, an incredible three of which have won our Recommended award: slick arcade game Bubble Popper Deluxe, charming puzzler BlockGO, old favourite Tower Bloxx (aka City Bloxx), arcade conversion Ms. Pac-Man and Yahtzee-clone Yacht II. All of these reviews come with long gameplay videos and lots of screenshots. The games were reviewed on a Nokia 5800, but they should also be available for most other S60 5th and 3rd Edition devices too.
YouTube has announced that their mobile web site has received a big facelift, making it more appropriate for access by the smartphones of today and giving access to favourites, friends and comments. It seems to work well with S60 phones, while also offering a link to the dedicated S60 YouTube client, of course. Visit www.youtube.com in Web on your phone to try it out. Some screenshots below... (via @MickyFin)
