Nokia India has kindly released a number of free applications for their new 5800 XpressMusic, good to see this getting off to a fast start in most markets. SMS Timer and Smart Guard should work on all 5800s, while Marble Maze, Wave Secure, Touch Card Match and Touch Maneuver are regionally restricted to those with an India SIM card. Some of these applications, along with a few additional ones, are also available for the Hong Kong market.
You remember the Nokia E63, which I started to review a couple of days ago? UK residents might like to note that it's the subject of one of Expansys lightning sales today. Between 11am and 4pm, it's £180. Which, for a qwerty-driven S60 phone is definitely good value. Part 2 of my review will be published on Sunday.
In a move that should be regarded as sound business sense from one of the largest companies in the world, Google will be closing the Jaiku and Dodgeball services in the near future. While I don't want to dwell on those specific cases (although both have been sidelined by the Mountain View company since they were purchased), it's an interesting warning signal for those of us who wish to live in the clouds and rely on hosted web services.
Fujitsu and NTT DoCoMo today announced they had localised the FOMA F905i handset for the Taiwanese market. The F905i, which runs MOAP on Symbian OS, is the first such handset to be made available outside Japan. The phone will be available on Far EasTone Telecommunications' (FET) network. The F905i features a 3.2 inch WVGA screen, 3.2 megapixel camera and allows input via the Traditional Chinese character set.
Nokia has announced the N79 Active, a "healthy twist on Nokia's smallest Nseries". The standard N79 is being bundled with a Polar Bluetooth WearLink heart rate belt, arm-band case, and a brand new version of Sports Tracker (which will also be released independently). The N79 Active is expected to ship shortly in "selected territories".
How many of you have heard of the Sectera Edge smartphone? It runs Windows Mobile, it's made by General Dynamics (the people behind the F-16 Falcon fighter) and it's about to get a whole lot of publicity. Why? Because the feature set is perfect for one smartphone user – Barack Obama. But what can the President of the United State's choice tell us about the mobile market?
Nokia's subscription music service, Comes with Music, seems to be struggling to pick up momentum. The major problems are around educating users in the details of the offer and the limited availability in terms channel availability and handsets. However worthy of note is that Carphone Warehouse has reduced the price of the Nokia 5310 Comes with Music Edition to £82.18.
While I'm sure the problem is not as simple as he makes out, Robert Scoble's reasoning on why Palm can now rule the American smartphone market and why both Microsoft and Nokia are out the game, makes for a great rule of thumb. In short, there are six smartphone/OS competitors (Nokia, Microsoft and Palm as mentioned, plus Apple, Research in Motion and Google Android) and only four US networks (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile). Now the music has stopped, there are no seats left for the phones from Espoo and Seattle. Read on for my take on all this....
In All About Symbian Insight 55 (AAS Podcast 108) we look at the UK launch of the Nokia 5800 MusicXpress, talk about the 'Curse of Silence' vulnerability (stops SMS messages from being received on some S60 handsets), before discussing our first impressions of the Palm Pre. You can listen to AAS Insight 55 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
A major firmware update for the Nokia E71, version 200.21.188, is now available. The new firmware adds the Internet Radio and My Nokia application, adds two new themes, adds a number of usability improvements and contains a large number of stability and functionality updates including improved WLAN support, more power efficient 3G and improved camera performance.
I'll admit that Nokia's DT-29 phone stand, as shipped with the 5800 XpressMusic is somewhat more professional than my own paper clip version. Aaron, over at the N82 blog has put up a gallery of photos and comments on how well it works propping up his N82 for video watching and capturing - I think he's right and Nokia should market this as a standalone accessory. [Updated: see below for the PDF template to Make Your Own]
Judy Breck asks, over on Smart Mobs, if it's about time for a mobile phone with a dual screen? The thought is inspired by the new Lenovo laptop that has an extension to the regular screen in the lid that slides out to the side, providing an almost Cinerama experience. I suspect that my reaction would be similar to any Symbian OS follower, namely a discrete cough before pointing out the Nokia Communicators.
Don't get too excited, as this isn't a commercial product yet, but Nokia have shown off Locate Sensor, a tiny gadget that can be attached to anything precious and then which communicates with your S60 phone. If the aforementioned gadget then gets separated from you, you can track it down (direction and distance) up to 100 metres away. So perfect for keys, laptop, etc. There's a reverse mode, too, which can act as an anti-theft device. See Electric Pig for more info and photos.
If you're a mobile game company interested in publishing your games on the N-Gage platform, you may want to check out their slightly updated Developer Application Process page. This page used to only mention becoming a first party developer. However, the application form now also says it can be used to apply to be a third party publisher, so presumably you can now publish your games on N-Gage without giving up ownership of them.
Well spotted Symbian World for this find: a complete, functional touch-driven painting application for S60 5th Edition (and thus the 5800 XpressMusic) over at Forum Nokia. Although Mobile Paint is only an 'example' app, you can still save your creations in JPG form. Don't worry about all the source code bits, you only need to install one of the SIS files, etc. Screenshots and links below...
