Route 66 Mobile 8 gets a serious test drive

Guest writer Arjen Broeze has been trialling the new Route 66 Mobile 8 for over a month now and here's his very detailed review. The only real problem seems to be over-stubborn clinging to originally-calculated routes - apart from that Arjen gives this sat-nav solution a green light on all fronts. I was sceptical about the way search matches are still shown in alphabetical order, but Arjen argues that the search match filtering is good enough to do without location-sorted results.

An N95 a day...

It's always interesting to see what real world uses people find for their smartphones and which software they zero in on. In this post, Mark Guim discusses his use of Mobipocket Reader, Quickoffice and GooSync in his studies at college.

CorePlayer Mobile updated. Now supports YouTube!

CoreCodec just announced the availability of version 1.24 of its CorePlayer Mobile for all platforms including S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3. The YouTube support might not be interesting for some S60 3rd Edition users but for the UIQ 3 community, it is the icing on the cake because for the first time, FLV videos can be played on UIQ 3 smartphones without conversion. See below for UIQ 3 screenshots, links and comments.

PiZero premium themes direct and at half price...

Master theme maker PiZero has made all his 'premium' themes available at half price until the end of May. Paying for themes may sound a bit odd when most other themes are free, but having tried some of these, I can testify that they're very high quality, being fast, RAM-efficient and 100% SVG-based, so they'll work on anything. Err.... advert over!

Every Step You Take

I guess this had to come, given that Nokia's Sports Tracker already contained an accelerometer-driven pedometer. But as Sports Tracker has widened its scope, there's room for a cut-down little brother, Step Counter. From the Step Counter page: "It determines the distance you have covered and your energy expenditure. You can even compare your activity levels on different days by looking up the summaries stored in a handy diary."

IoUYoM - no, it's not a code...

The availability of a mature Python interpreter is gradually producing mainstream applications and not just novelties. Witness the acronymically-named IoUYoM (I owe yoU, You owe Me), which was just released and lets you keep track of what you've lent and to whom, plus what you've borrowed, etc.

Maps 2.0 update

Nokia Communicator Center arrives at Beta Labs

Nokia Communication Center Beta is now available via Nokia's Beta Labs. It is an add on for PC Suite (a potential replacement for several existing modules) that allows you to manage contacts and messages on your phone from your PC. This includes the ability to send SMS and MMS messages, view the contents of the messaging folders and view, edit and add contacts. Read on for more details and screenshots.

S60 to iPhone actually works...

Thanks to bery95 for spotting this surprisingly attractive/fun iPhone theme for S60 3rd Edition. I know, I know, I usually hate this sort of thing, but this one has iPhone icons in surprising depth and works well on many levels under S60 (240 by 320 pixel screens, at least).

Astraware releases Hidden Expedition: Titanic for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3

Phone game developers Astraware have released the nautical adventure game Hidden Expedition: Titanic for Symbian S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3 smartphones. You can find out more about the game and purchase it on its official S60v3 page or official UIQ3 page. Naturally we'll be bringing you a review in due course. Astraware also asked us to mention that they're looking for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3 beta game testers. Click on the headline for screenshots...