The online service element of Sports Tracker, the application that lets you track exercise activities (workouts) and turns your Nokia smartphone into a GPS sports computer, is now available. The online service allows you to see at a glance information about each activity, easily visualise your workouts, make comparisons and share activities with others via the Sports Tracker website, Facebook or Twitter. Read on for more information and screenshots.
Built into Symbian^3's new Podcatcher software is a link into an online podcast discovery system, which I wanted to showcase - it's a step up from Nokia's clunky old manually-compiled directory, but how good (or bad) is it? With examples and screenshots, I try to point out that even if podcast discovery still isn't perfect, then it's easier than it used to be.
In All About Symbian Insight 130, we start with an update on the ongoing Conspiracy for Good transmedia project. David Gilson then talks us through his first impressions of the Nokia C6. Rafe reports back from Nokia's N8 Developer Day in London, including details of the new Ovi Store client, which is expected to debut on the N8. Finally Steve leads a discussion on Q2's mobile device shipment numbers. You can listen to AAS Insight 130 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia’s blog has picked out five applications for your smartphone that will make your time at the summer music festivals just that little bit better. But only five? Surely there are more than that? Ewan Spence dons his blue suede trainers and heads online to find the top apps for music lovers. Power and bandwidth aside, what else do you need?
During its N8 developer event, which took place in London yesterday, Nokia demonstrated some of the key features of their upcoming Symbian^3 handset. This included, for the first time on a real device, a preview of the new Ovi Store client. The new Ovi Store client has been redesigned to make it more attractive and easier to use. Read on for some exclusive images and preview comments.
The 'Best RSS Apps' section of Nokia's 2010 Calling All Innovator competition has been judged and a top 10 Ovi App Wizard apps (actually Web runtime widgets) listed, based on 'Innovativeness', 'Cumulative number of downloads on July 15th 2010' and 'Quality of marketing materials'. They're all covered below, with brief comments and screenshots, in case you should want to look any of them out(!).
The Register’s Top Ten Essential Symbian Apps makes for a good list. I’m sure we could argue that there are some apps that should be there which aren’t, but that’s always the fun of these lists. The question might be what are your top ten apps? Let us know in the comments.
NAVTEQ, the division of Nokia that provides mapping and location data services, has announced that its new JourneyView product has entered into a private beta period, ahead of a full launch early next year. The JourneyView product is a combination of 360 degree street-level imagery and links to map and POI content. The private beta is intended to allow developers and other partners to get a demo of the data and help shape the final specification of the product.
You've seen the 'pinching and zooming' adverts for many (non-Symbian) smartphones, showing lightning fast manipulation of full desktop-class web page renders, with new pages 'coming down' in a matter of seconds. "It's the Internet in your pocket" say the promos. And, from my own observations, for many people this is utter pie in the sky. Out in the real world, mobile coverage and bandwidth falls diabolically short - which partly helps explain the popularity of a certain proxy-based web browser that works on everything and enables not the 'real web', but more 'looks and feels a lot like the real web, but isn't really'...
In All About Symbian Insight 129, we start with a number of short items: Angry Birds as a favourite game, Qt on Samsung and Sony Ericsson, Vodafone Mobile Clicks competition. In the second half of the podcast we respond to number of listener questions, from a discussion of how quality impacts on user experience, to how Nokia should market the N8 and the possibility of an Android Nokia device. You can listen to AAS Insight 129 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
TripAdvisor and Nokia have announced a partnership that has two major elements: firstly a TripAdvisor application will be made available via the Ovi Store and secondly the TripAdvisor service will be integrated into Ovi Maps. TripAdvisor is one of the world's biggest travel web sites, it covers more than 1 million businesses (restaurants, hotels, attractions) in more than 70,000 cities. As well as the usual business listing information, typical of such sites, it is well known for its user generated reviews, which number in excess of 35 million. Read on for further details and screenshots.
We recently reported that Furtiv had announced new beta version plugins for Nokia Share Online. Futiv have now announced that the current wave of plugins are now officially available, for free in the Ovi Store. In total this now means that Furtiv offer Share Online plugins for YouTube, Facebook, TweetPhoto, Picasa Web Albums, TwitPic, Dropbox, MySpace, Orkut, yfrog, img.ly, LinkedIn and Flickr. See Furtiv's publisher page on the Ovi Store for more details.
Location based tools on your smartphone aren't always about the check-in. Sometimes they can be for information and discovery as well. Locago harnesses multiple sources of information (including user generated contet) and puts these layers over a competent mapping and routing tool. Let's take a closer look at it.
More significant news from the Samsung i8910 HD firmware scene, which is accelerating, amazingly, rather than slowing down. 'faenil' has organised a one-click installer for the Qt 4.7.0 beta2 libraries for non-Nokia smartphones such as the i8910 HD, in theory letting them install some of the new Qt apps (e.g. the superlative Orange Wednesdays). A quote and video from faenil below. In related news, HyperX is now finalising HX8 firmwares, including even more customisations and a fix for Samsung's longstanding Music player bugs (a video for which is also embedded below). It's all go... What do you mean, you don't own an i8910 HD?
In All About Symbian Insight 128, we open with a round up of recent news including the formation of the Symbian Developer Cooperative, the retail availability of the Nokia C6, news of the i8910 HX7 firmware, and Nokia's Conspiracy for Good. Rafe talks about his experience with Track and Protect and Ewan asks whether Symbian needs a reference device. Finally we talk over Nokia's Q2 2010 results. You can listen to AAS Insight 128 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
