29% of developers support Symbian, says Millennial Media, with 100% of them supporting iOS. While that sounds like a bad statistic for Symbian, it’s worth examining the data to conclude that this is healthy for a huge number of mobile operating systems. More below...
In All About Symbian Insight 132, we start with a quick reminder that mobile data coverage is not universal, especially in rural areas. Rafe shares news of the V Festival application and the availability of the SugarSync client for Symbian. Ewan brings news of a new Foursquare client for Symbian, which leads to a broader discussion of location check-in services, Facebook Places and location availability. In the latter half of the podcast, David shares some final thoughts on the Nokia C6 and highlights the importance of battery life. You can listen to AAS Insight 132 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Another calendar quarter, another golf game, another chance for Steve to wallow in handheld golf nostalgia? Or maybe not, this time - let's keep this one a straight Ovi Gaming review. Let's Golf! has been well received on other platforms, notably on the iPhone and iPad, and here we have a Java version optimised for Symbian-powered touchscreens. How much of the experience has been compromised in the port to Java and is Let's Golf! (in the Ovi Store) actually any good?
Bookatable, a European-based restaurant booking service, has been added to Ovi Maps. As with other Ovi Maps integrations (TripAdvisor, TimeOut, Expedia, Qype), the service is available via 'More' from the main Ovi Maps menu. It gives rapid access to a mobile optimised, location aware, version of the bookatable.com service, which runs within, and is connected to, the Ovi Maps application. The aim is to offer a superior user experience to the typical restaurant-phone-around to check availability and book a table.
With a new Foursquare app available for S60 5th Edition, is it time for an easy route into the location-based game? Ewan has a look in this full Symbian Foursquare review, concluding that, while a great start, a lack of search and discovery functions really hurts the app in real world use.
Just in time for this weekend's V Festival event featuring the likes of Kasabian, the Kings of Leon, Paul Weller, the Pet Shop Boys and many others, the official V Festival application has been updated and the new version is live in Ovi store (existing users should get notified of the upgrade automatically). There are some innovative features, including a customisable map and schedule planner, but it is also a great example of how a well executed application can add value to a real world event.
Never mind the date on the official download page, DivX Labs has officially released v1.0 of their ubiquitous mobile player for all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition smartphones (direct SISx links). Version 1.0 "has numerous updates and simplifications to the UI. It also has touch-screen support for S60 5th Edition users." Initial feedback shows that desktop class DivX files (unsurprisingly) generally have bitrates that are too high for the limited processor speed in most current Symbian handsets. A figure of 600kbps is recommended as a maximum.
Nokia Beta Labs add-on shot at an integrated 'social' experience has now been closed, pending the arrival on the High Street of a full commercial implementation of the ideas and feedback in both Contacts and Ovi Maps in Nokia's Symbian^3 smartphones. Note with the discontinuation of the Beta program you will no longer have access to the Nokia Messaging for Social Networks service.
As part on our on-going series of games reviews Ewan takes a look at BoxIt2 from inner Acctive. It's a Sokobahn style game, where the aim is solve the box pushing puzzle, over multiple levels. From the game play to the graphics, Ewan finds a well executed implementation of this classic puzzle game, which earns BoxIt2 a thumbs up and a recommended rating.
Multimedia content creation on smartphone usually revolves around photos and videos, but what about the humble audio file? Audioboo is a popular audio clip publishing service and has mobile publishing clients for Android and iPhone. However, there is no support for Symbian devices. Never fear though, David Gilson is on the case and, in this how to article, shows us how to publish to Audioboo via Nokia Share Online and Pixelpipe's Audioboo plugin.
Continuing his budget smartphone review mini-series, which is looking at the £100 ZTE Racer (powered by Android) when compared to Nokia's similarly priced 5230 (Symbian powered), Ewan evaluates the respective device's email and web browsing functionality. He finds that there's balance with plus and minus points on both sides. In part one of the series Ewan compared the relative merits of base hardware specifications of each device.
One of the most under-rated features of the Nokia N8 is its new email client, in the form of an upgraded version of Nokia Messaging. The Nokia Messaging team, in a blog post and video, talk about some of the key improvements, which include full HTML email support, improved device integration, easier set up and settings configuration, portal address lookup for GMail and Hotmail and improved performance characteristics. Also in N8 related news is the availability of N8 pre-orders through the Nokia USA web store.
Nokia has taken the beta label of its free Symbian Signing program, demonstrating Nokia's long term commitment to lowering costs for developers placing their applications in the Ovi Store. Previously the cost for a developer to sign their first Symbian application was $215, with an additional $15 for every signing instance thereafter. In order to participate in the free signing program developers need only become Ovi Store publishers (necessary to publish content in the Ovi Store), which means paying a one-off fee of €50.
In the third part of his review of Nokia's new C6, David Gilson considers the user experiences and examines the remaining applications. David concludes that, with a hybrid form factor and an increasingly attractive price point, the C6 has offers a compelling entry into the mid tier market. Part 2 of the C6 review covered the camera and multimedia software bundle. Part 1 covered first impressions and hardware.
In All About Symbian Insight 131, we start with new of a firmware update for the 5800 and 5530, which leads to a discussion on firmware change logs. Ewan talks about his recent Android experience, with the ZTE Racer (Rafe chips in with details of the Vodafone 845), which leads to a general discussion of Android in the low end. In the final part of the podcast David continues his C6 briefing, with details of the phone's multimedia capabilities. You can listen to AAS Insight 131 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
