You may remember my own extended video tour through Nokia's Test Centre at Farnborough? Shorter, but glitzier is the BBC's own report, currently online here (click on 'Watch now') - they got access to the Test Centre a few months after we did, but the general content is similar. Still worth a look though.
Google Maps for Symbian on S60 (3rd and 5th Edition) has received a major update to version 3.0.1.4 (from 3.0.0.x). There are UI changes, notably to the context 'pop-up' menu (when you press in the D-pad), this has been restyled to match the application's other dialog elements. There are also many under-the-hood changes to how Google Maps works on S60 phones, see below for the full published changelog [added April 13th].
It takes a lot for us to link over to a Symbian Freak feature*, but I wanted to make an exception in this case because of a lengthy and very detailed blow-by-blow comparison of Samsung and Nokia's current flagships, the INNOV8 and N95 8GB respectively, by Jun Chao Ai. He concludes that the INNOV8 would have won overall but for its easily-damaged and hard-to-replace plastic screen.
The self styled TechnoMiser has posted his list of recommended freeware applications for Symbian OS, and whle there are a lot of familiar names in the mix it's still worth checking out to make sure you've got your handset in the best shape for software. It's also a good companion to Steve's Top 20 Freeware and Top 10 Commercial Applications for S60 Fifth Edition.
Although the ZOMGitsCJ site might have an unusual name, don't let that fool you as it takes phones very seriously. The site's owner CJ has put together an absolutely ginormous sprawling epic review of the E75 with lots and lots and lots of pictures of the phone itself plus screenshots of the interface and various applications. The verdict? Well, you'll have to see for yourself...
Yup, it's the weekly link to the reading-fest that is The Carnival of the Mobilists. Number 168, to be precise, hosted at 'mjelly'! Happy reading.
Interesting to see Nokia still developing their Friend View application in the light of the elephant in the room, Google Latitude (though as even that can't seem to get traction, what hope has Friend View got? - discuss). The latest build of Friend View has background notification features, in that you can leave it lurking away in the background and it will ping you when a friend gets within a customisable distance from your current location. See this Beta Labs Friend View post for the full explanation and some handy shortcuts.
Nokia's Ovi Mail just moved one step closer to other popular webmail systems by adding better message formatting, auto-URL creation and auto-complete for contact emails. There's still no integration with Ovi Contacts though (i.e. the module with your actual contact details in), so consider this still very much a beta.
The Flahorn icon pack has become somewhat legendary in the Symbian world, featuring in a load of PiZero themes, and the man's done it again, this time with a theme for S60 3rd Edition phones that emulates the icon set and general look of the new S60 5th Edition phones. Why buy new hardware when you can simply pretend?...
Yesterday marked 'day one' of the Symbian Foundation. This announced the commencement of the beta testing of its new web site and that 81 companies have applied for membership (50 of which are first time endorsers). The new logo of the Symbian Foundation was also unveiled: Symbian, in stylised letters, underlain by a yellow heart. Read on for more.
As CJ puts it, "It’s been a long time coming". The brand new ShoZu release for S60 5th Edition/touch devices is now live (v4.01). ShoZu is the premier third party photo and video blogging client and works with just about any service. You can download ShoZu for S60 (all varieties) from m.shozu.com on your phone.
Ricky Cadden, on Symbian-Guru has published an interview with Symbian's David Wood, covering all aspects of the Symbian Foundation set up, plans for the future and much, much more. This has been a big week for Symbian, it's 'Week One' for the Foundation and there will be some in depth coverage coming from Rafe very shortly.
Yet more from the BBC, who are on something of an April roll this week.... You may remember that we were first to bring you news of their next-gen mobile home page revamp, accessible for the last month through a 'beta' URL? Well, this has now been tidied up and made official. Some quotes from the BBC below, but all you really need to do is go to bbc.co.uk/mobile in your phone browser and follow your nose from there. All the beta functions are there, including iPlayer integration (and live TV links, see above news item) for UK residents owning compatible phones and connecting over Wi-fi.
Infamous tech news site The Register has been taking a look at the new Nokia E75, concluding that "It's a beautifully compact do-it-all smart phone with slimline Qwerty keyboard. Could this be the end of the Communicator?" The Register's closing para on the E75 was: "But with good email and browser services, document creation and viewing, a decent camera and music player, aGPS and N-Gage games, plus access to loads of additional Symbian apps, this all adds up to a very powerful phone both for work and in-between jobs." Rafe and Ewan now both have E75s and our own coverage of this qwerty newcomer is imminent.
Nokia Handwriting Calculator has just been updated for S60 5th Edition, with support for scientific functions like sin, cos, tan, ln, etc., although the symbols can't be written directly and have to be dragged from a toolbar at present. There's also a new help system and support for the maths constants ‘e’ and pi - which you can write directly.
