I see PDA Essentials magazine has renamed itself as "PDA Esssentials, Smartphone & GPS"... Anyway, issue 77 of this UK-based newstand magazine, out today, has full reviews of the Nokia E71 and Motorola MOTO Z10, along with a multi-page feature on '10 things to do with GPS on your smartphone' and the inclusion of the Sony Ericsson W960 and the Nokia N82 in a 'budget' group test.
One for the US readers here, as Mark over on the Nokia Blog talks users of the US N95-8GB through the process of turning back on the anti-aliasing after a firmware upgrade. All nicely practically, but you have to wonder why it was turned off in the first place . I expect it'll be turned back on with a few tweaks (perhaps it's just a missing line in a .ini file?) but in the meantime, the instructions are here.
With today being another 'iPhone day' and with Apple's new commercial Mobile Me service going live, it's worth noting AAS regular Matt Radford's comparison between Nokia's free My Nokia service and the $100/yr Mobile Me. Matt's notes complete the picture somewhat and his conclusion is spot on, although I suspect that within a few months, Ovi Sync will have rectified the relative lack of integration.
Joiku have announced JoikuSpot Premium is now available, discounted to 15 euros (from 25 Euros) for the launch period. Complementing the freeware variant of JoikuSpot, this version also turns your Wi-Fi enabled phone into a mobile hot-spot, but adds in encrypted browsing, and support for more protocols (the light version is web browsing only, premium offers the full range of network protocols, including email and VPN). It's available now from the aptly named JoikuShop.
Short and sweet. Carnival of the Mobilists 131 is up, with a surprising amount of Symbian-related content, for once! That's your bedtime reading sorted out, anyway.
The hoo-ha about a new piece of malware 'for S60 3rd Edition' called 'Isexplayer' should be utterly beneath our contempt - it's a non-story and I'll simply link to Vaibhav, who also dispells any worry very succinctly. Move on, folks, nothing to see.
It looks like the promo season for the upcoming Nokia N96 is starting in earnest. "Face The Task" is an ultra-high-bandwidth Flash site promoting all the things you can do with the N96. In addition, it's announcing a limited edition ('96' will be made) N96 supplied in an Ash Tree box and with a supplied 8GB microSD card. Plus, view all the videos and answer a question to win one...
Dataviz have announced the immediate availability of Documents to Go Premium Edition version 4. The new version, among other features, brings full viewing and editing of Office 2007 documents to the UIQ3 platform. The full press release follows the break.
S60 Python Programmers should head on over to Croozeus, a new website and resource centre for developers using the scripting langauge. Pankaj Nathani, an active participant in the Forum Nokia community, and Bogdan Galiceanu are the team behind the site. Now to dig out my text editor and start tinkering with their tutorials...
There's a timely tips reminder over on 'My Nokia E65', presenting its 'Five Things You Didn't Know about S60 Web', well worth a glance over or printing out. It's surprisingly easy to forget some of these shortcuts, especially how useful the ones for Zoom in and Out are...
There's a new version of Mail for Exchange out. v2.5.3 introduces support for the Nokia E66 and Nokia E71, as well as fixing Exchange Server 2007 SP1 compatibility. (via Eseries)
UI Rendering Platform TAT Kastor has announced that TAT Kastor is now available on the S60 platform. TAT Kastor is a core system to provide designers with a lot of 'whizz-bang' effects in a UI; particle effects and3D rendered elements are two highlights in the plug-in based system. Of special interest to hardware designers, you can find out more at the product page.
Continuing our MOTO Z10 smartphone coverage, Motorola have been holding a competition to see who can create the best video entirely ON the phone itself - i.e. all shots and editing on the Z10. And here's the winner - the Z10's video quality isn't the best, but the editing software's certainly up the job, it seems. (via IM)
Why is the mobile platform not being innovated on as heavily as the web? It's been bothering Ewan MacLeod over at SMSTextNews - and when I say bothered I mean full on ranting on the mobile scene, VC's, entrepreneurs and networks and the consistently closed world. Well worth reading this one over a nice cup of coffee and a digestive biscuit.
Smartphones Show 62 is now up, with a hands-on review of the UIQ 3-powered MOTO Z10, plus my Top 5 (Smart)Phones for mid-2008 - a personal choice, with reasons!
