It seems I just can't keep up with the news today! Google just upgraded their free Maps for Mobile client (www.google.com/gmm on your smartphone) to v2.0.3, adding a 'virtual GPS' feature (thanks Stefan), in which your location on non-GPS devices is estimated based on cell tower information. Google is an amazing company. Also (unrelated), they're investing in green energy in a big way, yet more brownie points from me.
Asri al-Baker finds the new Easy Search utility for UIQ 3 smartphones like the Sony Ericsson P990i and P1i a real life saver and an answer to a heartfelt request from long ago. Now it's not just S60 users who can trawl their content for a piece of text!
Calling all Flash Lite programmers- to promote the upcoming launch of the Playyoo Games Portal, they are offering a prize fund of $25,000 (with $10,000 to the winner) for your Flash Lite games. Playyoo is hoping to be a community destination for players and programmers of mobile games, and rather obviously given the competition based around using Flash Lite.
Popular Web 2.0 ‘microblogging’ site Twitter has put in place SMS usage limits for UK users . Each month you’ll only be able to receive a maximum of 250 SMS messages to your handset (although there are no limits on using it over IM or the Web). The change is likely due to the cost of SMS traffic on the parent company; unlike America, UK customers do not pay to receive text, so there’s no opportunity to do a revenue share with the outbound messages.
ShoZu has rightly been applauded for providing a quick and easy route to uploading media (including pictures to Flickr and videos to YouTube) from your handset. They’ve now introduced “round-tripping” into the latest version of the application (downloadable from www.shozu.com ), which allows you to pull down pictures from your Contact’s Flickr streams (not just your own) and also to stream video from your favourite YouTube content.
Nokia Beta Labs is currently running a beta on an advertising supported version of Nokia Download! (UK market only). Nokia Download! is an application that acts as a 'shop window' and offers a variety of software, services and content for download. It is testing the concept of using advertising to subsidise some on the content available in the Download! application. Read on for some example screenshots.
Power users are always on the look out for ways of getting to information just that little bit quicker. In this review of SkyeQuiKey Steve examines one potential option. SkyeQuiKey is an utility application that integrates with the idle screen of S60 3rd Edition phones and offers quick matching against contacts and applications stored on the phone.
Nokia Ad Business today announced an agreement with Handmark to provide a mobile advertising solution for its Pocket Express mobile data application. Nokia Ad Business is a marketplace for mobile advertising, it was formed out of the fusion of Nokia's recent Enpocket acquisition together with the existing Nokia Ad Service and Nokia Advertising Connector. We expect to see further such announcements in the future as more services move to an advertising funded model.
Nokia Beta labs have announced the renewed availability of the beta of Nseries PC Suite 2.0. The software gets a new look and feel and a major new addition, Nokia Photos, is integrated into Nseries PC Suite. Other improvements include single click sync and drag and drop file copying to a device. Installation is also easier thanks to a web based installer. Read on for more details and screenshots.
It has been informallyannounced that a PHP and MySQL implementation is going to be added to Nokia's Web Server software Raccoon. PHP is an open source scripting language usually used to create dynamic web pages. There will also a number of PHP extension modules that provide access to the core functionality of the phone. Read on for more thoughts.
Version 2.1 of Nokia's free Mail for Exchange is now out, with support for the N81 and N95 8GB, plus auto-configured Heartbeat and with the Company Directory application (supporting the Global Address List lookup feature) now available as a standalone application via its own .SIS file. More details and links below.
...just...can't....resist...posting.... these links. The famous Light Sabre has been upgraded to 1.3, with auto-activation on slide opening and much more. See Ricky Cadden's blog for details but here's the download link. Vrmmmm!!!
Yes, you know all about S60 games and you know about the upcoming N-Gage titles, but what about all those games tucked away in publisher folders inside your Download! application? Medal of Honour, Tiger Woods PGA Tour 07, etc? In the interests of experimentation, I bought a batch and here report back on J2ME games via Download! Your comments welcome, as always!
