Google's new free Mobile app for S60 (effectively Google Search v2) has been updated again, to v2.1.12. It's a minor update and brings a few cosmetic tweaks to the interface - but you'll still want to grab the update (m.google.com) if it's something you use. Note that this is still strictly for S60 3rd Edition only - it's not compatible with the Nokia 5800/N97 etc.
AAS reader, (ex-)OPL programmer and now Python developer, Martin Dehler, has released a couple of applications that have effectively made it from the Psion Series 3a (circa 1995) to modern S60 3rd Edition phones. FuelLog is shareware and is a fuel consumption tracker that records, stores, calculates and exports fueling data and fuel consumption of vehicles. Birthdays is freeware and lists birthdays from the Contacts application in chronological order. For each birthday name, date of birth, age and remaining time until the next birthday are shown.
Location based services are the latest buzz-phrase in mobile marketing, and the next tranche of Nokia devices will come with software to help you access local information from your mobile. The Nokia Beta Labs are giving S60v3 users a chance to see an early version of Here and Now.
Well, not quite, but it's a fair indication. According to the eagle-eyed Jay (who has thankfully scanned the appropriate table), the Europe-wide Carphone Warehouse has listed its top selling pay-monthly phones - the Nokia 5800 is number 1, with the Apple iPhone at 2 and the Tocco Ultra feature phone at 3. As Jay notes, it's really not surprising, given that the 5800 started free on £15 a month contracts, undercutting the iPhone by a factor of around two, while out-speccing it in many departments (the exceptions being screen tech and size of app store).
What's in a box? Quite a lot if you are a collector. And that's why the move to digital distribution is robbing the gaming world of one of its prize assets. The collectiblity of the box that the game comes in. Ewan explains why the Magpie in him needs something more from Nokia. He also (in a timely fashion) refers to the problems of not being able to take purchases onto a new phone, or even back onto the same phone after a hard reset. Read on...
There's something outrageously different about the Nokia N97 (or is it outrageously the same?) that utterly polarises opinion, on both sides of the world. The Really Mobile Project's Ben Smith and James Whatley seem completely divided here on video (and embedded below), while Engadget Mobile's Chris Ziegler and Thomas Ricker seem equally polarised in print, right here. Sigh. Whatever happened to peace and love? Or maybe the N97 is a 'Marmite' smartphone that you either love or hate?
It's a hardware spectacular for The Phones Show 83, now out, with news of new Symbian OS smartphones, a long video review of the HTC Touch Pro, with head-to-head section against the Nokia N97, plus a demo-focussed tour around case makers Proporta, down in Brighton. If you want to pick the show up via RSS, here are the QVGA (for phones) and VGA (for desktops) feeds.
I'm not sure if The Gadget Show's Jon Bentley has been watching my Phones Show, but in his own video review (embedded below in HQ) of the Nokia N97, he seems to have picked up on many of the same complaints, including the diminutive keyboard and the still immature S60 5th Edition interface. Yet, overall, he concludes it's still "one of the best phones you can buy". I'd concur, with the rider that Nokia need to get cracking on firmware updates and that the 'b' in 'Buy' is in capitals - £500 is still a sizeable sum!
Following up the release last week of Dance Fabulous, Nokia and the N-Gage team are offering a 30 day licence on top of the usual free downloadable demo. This will give you the full game, with no playing restrictions. At the end of the 30 days, you can purchase the game in full if you're still getting your kicks from dancing along to your own music collection! Grab your pass at the Dance Fabulous N-Gage site.
Nokia's Point and Find portal, where you can point your smartphone's camera at contents (such as movie posters or adverts, bar-codes, or any custom artwork) in the real world and be taken to a relevant URL in your browser, is now allowing you to upload your own media and tag it, so you can “Create your Own Experience,” in the words of the blog post.
As mobile phone sales have exploded and handset prices have tumbled, even people in the poorest parts of the world usually either own a mobile phone or have easy access to one in their community. The latest estimates from CGAP suggest that by 2012 there will be 1.7 billion people who have access to a mobile network but not a physical bank, and that the developing world's mobile banking sector may be worth US$5 billion by then. Could banking be the way forward for network operators who don't just want to be "dumb pipes"? And could this be a key weapon in the war against poverty?
ZOMGitsCJ.com is reporting that the Nokia N79 has received a firmware update to v30.011 which apparently includes improved stability and tighter Ovi integration. The update should be available OTA (type *#0000# on the standby screen) or through the Nokia Software Updater application.
The BBC has just launched a standalone iPlayer S60 application (v1.0.0!) for the Nokia N95 and E71. iPlayer lets UK users catch up on BBC programmes that have been broadcast in the last week or so and has previously been exclusive to the Nokia N85, N96 and 5800, available as a Web Runtime widget. Although no formal announcement has been made by the BBC as I write this, it's as good as a done deal, as this BBC blog post strongly hints.