SmartMovie, always a competent (though quirky) video conversion system for Symbian-based devices, has recently embraced the terrific CoreMP4 codec and boasts much better performance. Steve Litchfield reviews the result, tested in this case on the Nokia 9500 and N70.
The official support pages for the Nokia 3250 are now availble on the Nokia.com site. Material available includes an interactive demo of the functions and features of the phone, the user manual and some additional software for the phone. Nokia support pages usuaully appear just before the phone in question is shipped.
Forum Nokia has annouced details of the Designed for S60 Devices Logo program for Developers. The program features a logo that developers can use in their application marketing. For end users the logo shows the application is designed for S60 and that the application provider will tell you which devices the application will run on.
Six Apart, the blogging software and service provider, has acquired SplashBlog. Six Apart have acquired the technology and development team including John Chaffee. Chaffee will lead the mobile group at Six Apart and will be responsible for integrating the SplashBlog wireless sync protocols and mobile technologies into the Six Apart product line.
Perhaps stung by criticism of the slow frame rate of previous versions, Lonely Cat Games has released a whole new generation of SmartMovie for all Symbian-based devices, with a new MPEG-4 codec and claims of far better performance, up to 25 frames per second in some cases.
The eagle eyed among you may have spotted that we reviewed Best Desk a while back, when it first appeared. It has now been updated and so has our review. Summary: still a cool way to take in your pre-6680 smartphone at a single glance.
In an open letter to developers, Steve Litchfield muses on the unique requirements of software on the smartphone (compared to the limited restrictions when run on a standalone PDA). Nobody ever said this would be easy, but hard work will reap rewards.
Steve's been reviewing BePlumbed, a clone of the classic Pipemania for S60, and comes away rather impressed by the gameplay and desperately hoping noone calls him mid-game...
Balancing the needs of high resolution, for later printing, and low/mid resolution and quality, for photo-blogging over an expensive GPRS connection, has always been a real head scratcher. Steve's been reviewing a new utility, PhotoFix, which claims to solve the problem once and for all.
With lots of new software being announced every day, it's easy to miss something. Freeware remains a favourite, so here is my latest roundup of some of the S60 freeware released in the last fortnight. Read on...
MobiSystems has announced the availability of OfficeSuite for S60 which allows for the viewing and editing on Word and Excel documents on your phone. Features of interest include reading and writing Word and Excel formats, spell checking, support for the RTF and CSV document format (which should be good for non Word users), support for undo / redo operations and support for embedded images and tables.
MBrain Software's popular Pdf Acrobat viewer is now available for beta testing here. Initial impressions are that it's a little slow but does let you open documents that the supplied Adobe Reader can't cope with.
Steve's been reviewing Mine-Fields for the Sony Ericsson P800/P900/P910 and finds a good game completely ruined by poor cooperation with the rest of the smartphone. Developers coming in from other platforms, take note.
Mobipocket Pro is now available for free (the standard version no longer exists). The Pro version includes extra features such as auto scrolling and configurable text-orientation. You can download the latest version from the Mobipocket web site. Also of interest is the new beta version (5.2) of Mobipocket Reader Desktop which changes the way the eNews system works (becoming effectively an offline RSS reader for mobile devices) as well as being a comprehensive system for managing and transfering eBooks to your mobile device.
