Google has finally updated their YouTube mobile client to work fully with Symbian^3 handsets, taking the client to v2.4.10 - you can now sign in and use the usual Favourites and account features. As a bonus and perhaps a nod to the increased graphics capability of the new handsets (or indeed Symbian in general - it's not stuck in the Stone Age, you know...), Google seems to be serving up a higher quality video stream (where appropriate, in terms of the source footage) - so it's a big win all round. Screenshots and comments below.
The next version of Pixelpipe's social media sharing agent, Send and Share, has reached its final version, and is awaiting approval on the Ovi Store. For a number of months, the Pixelpipe team have been working hard on developing the Send and Share client, regularly sending test versions out to their beta testing mailing list. In a message to testers from CEO Brett Butterfield, this pre-release pattern will be changing and less frequent updates will be sent to testers.
Nokia Diagnostics is a little suite of on-device tests to help exercise core functionality of your Symbian smartphone and report back. It's a nice idea, driven by Nokia Beta Labs, and has had a big update (to v1.74) today, but only for S60 5th Edition phones (e.g. N97, 5800) - it seems that the S60 3rd Edition version is no longer to be updated. And Symbian^3 phones are also out of luck - so far - a version is promised for these 'soon'.
Recently added to the Ovi Store is a client for TheTrainLine.com - and I was going to review it but Jay Montano has beaten me to it, with a complete walkthrough. Highlights include a built-in portrait QWERTY keyboard, the re-use of saved pages and data, the speed and the full feature set. The application takes you right through to purchasing tickets and is free to download. A couple of screens and links below.
When C7 owners check their Software Update application this week, they will (network branding permitting) find a set of Over-The-Air updates for their device. First of all, there is the update for the Social application, available for all Symbian^3 devices, that we have already reported on. Also there is a 3.3MB update for core applications to "improve stability", and a 3.0MB update adding the "Midnight" theme.
You may remember that Opera Software recently ported their acclaimed proxy-based web browser to (native) Symbian? Beta 1 of Opera Mini 5.1 was great apart from some weirdness when it came to incorporating text input from the phone's own text input system (e.g. virtual keyboard). Now we have Beta 2, with this fixed and doubtless a multitude of other minor bugs quoshed.
There's a new beta of Ovi Maps 3.6 out over at Nokia Beta Labs, including 'map loading' of areas direct to your phone's mass memory or memory card (over Wi-fi). There are also some interface tweaks, listed below, including more Symbian^3-like long-tap functionality and popup tips and hints for new users.
Only a minor update, but noteworthy because the app's so central to Nokia's new Symbian^3 handsets, but check Sw_update on your N8. You should see a 2.5MB update to 'Social' and it will install over the air. Do note that a phone restart will be needed as well, presumably to add a newer version of the Nokia Social widget to the homescreen system. Comments welcome if you notice any actual changes!
Following the news that it would now become a licensing body, the Symbian Foundation has announced that all of its websites will close down on December 17th 2010. After that date, every site under the symbian.org domain, including developer.symbian.org, horizon.symbian.org, ideas.symbian.org and blog.symbian.org, will no longer be online. In addition, it has been said that the Twitter and Facebook accounts for the Symbian Foundation "are also likely to be discontinued". Read on for further details and ramifications.
Nokia's Ovi Suite just got itself a new version number (3.0, albeit in 'beta') and a whole new interface - it now has even larger ambitions in terms of managing your phone's music and maps from your Windows PC, plus there's integration with the Ovi Store itself, with application recommendations. Below are the official changelog, the launch video and relevant links. Comments welcome on how this works out for you!
Following on from last month’s beta 2 release, Opera has announced the final release of Opera Mobile 10.1, a native web browser for Symbian. Since the beta release, there’s been a further update to the javascript speed increase – now up to nine times faster than Opera 10.0. Along with the server side compression, geo-location plug-in, and their rendering engine, the Opera browser continues to be one of the leading Symbian applications. More, and links, below...
Version 32.0.007 of the Nokia 5530's firmware was released today, the update is available via over-the-air download. There is nothing noticeable in terms of user experience updates. According to other sources, there is a small number of language specific bugs that have been addressed. In our own examination, Web has received a minor update too. Click through for further details.
Last week Nokia announced that the Ovi Store had reach the milestone of 3 million downloads a day, an increase of 1 million from the beginning of September. All About Symbian's Ovi Store tracking estimates there have been around 710 million downloads from Ovi Store since June 2009, with half of this total coming in the last 5 months (from July onwards). We estimate that Ovi Store will reach the 1 billion download mark in February 2011. Read on for some further numbers.
A new firmware, version 052.005, is now available for the Nokia E72. It is a minor update, with a number of small bug fixes (time zone corrections, keypad autolock fix, device management fix) and application updates (Adobe Reader). The update is available over the air or via the PC based Nokia Software updater. E72 owners should be automatically alerted when the updates becomes available for their device.
Nokia seem to be far more Mac-aware these days - the C6-01 and C7-00 - and even the still-in-womb E7-00 - are all now listed in Nokia's iSync plug-in system, for PIM sync to the Mac's iCal and Address Book. You can find these iSync plug-ins and more at Nokia's revamped Mac software page here. Particularly notable is a veritable flurry of FAQs and tutorials explaining how to do the more common operations with Nokia Multimedia Transfer, and how to connect up a Nokia smartphone to a Mac in the first place.
