The Symbian Podcatcher project has been in development for Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) for some time now, but it was announced yesterday, via Twitter, that Podcatcher has finally been backported to S60 3rd Edition. Nokia made the inexplicable decision to remove Podcasting support from their Eseries S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 phones, so the availability of this could be a breath of fresh air for the enterprise-orientated platform.
Is there anything stunning about the "Orange Wednesday" application that just popped up in the UK Ovi Store? Probably not, but there is more to it though, with Qt for developers, marketing for company strategy, and a great cinema listings app for UK users. Read on...
Several readers have experienced an instability with Ovi Maps 3.4 in recent weeks, resulting in seemingly random reboots, worryingly. The failsafe cure is to disable the new 'Wi-fi positioning' method in 'Settings/General/Positioning' (or 'Location/Positioning' on S60 5th Edition), and it seems like Nokia have identified at least one specific reason for Wi-Fi going doolally, see below for a quote from a service bulletin issued to their Care Points.
Symbian's Product Development Kit (PDK) 3.0.0, which is based on Symbian^3, is now available for download. This is the first PDK released since Symbian^3 attained its functionally complete status. The PDK contains a build of Symbian^3 platform, the complete source code, related utilities and an emulator. It is aimed, primarily, at platform developers and device creators, but the curious may also be interested in taking a look, as it enables you to gain a better understanding of the new version of the platform.
Thanks to CJ for letting us know of an official, slickly produced tutorial video for Nokia Messaging, demonstrating the vast number of keyboard and keypad shortcuts, on the Nokia E72 and E52 respectively. Here's the video, from Nokia India, or its embedded below for your convenience.
Skype for Symbian has been updated to version 1.1 and is now available for most Symbian (3rd Edition and 5th Edition) devices, either directly on the handset from m.skype.com or as a download from the Ovi Store. Apart from minor cosmetic changes, the interesting improvement seems to be a reduction in the amount of RAM that the application uses, now down to around 10MB on the AAS N97, acceptable on a modern-firmware-equipped device.
Microsoft’s browser-based app framework Silverlight is now available for Symbian S60 5th edition devices. Popping up in the Ovi Store, "the .Net framework allows for applications to run in the browser over multiple devices, operating systems and browsers". The easiest way to get Silverlight installed is to head to the Bing example app (here or here). If you need the runtime installed, you’ll be offered just the link, which takes you to the Ovi Store.
I wonder just how much effect the proposed EU Antitrust law change would have on the smartphone scene? The new tweak in the law would change the wording from “Dominant” to “Significant” in regards to market positions of companies. Jason Mick (at Daily Tech) highlights the issue but I don’t think it would have the huge utopian effect that many are hoping for. Here's why...
Steve Litchfield dons his sports gear and trials the new Sports Tracker application with Polar wireless heart rate monitor. Can this new version of an old favourite, in conjunction with some Bluetooth accessory magic, help you improve your workouts, whether walking, cycling or jogging? (Short answer: Yes. With bells on!)
David Gilson looks in depth at Bolt, a Java proxy-based web browser for all phones that claims desktop-class browsing, a degree of social integration and both Flash and HTML 5 video support. This latter seems to be the only feature that really impressed David though, with Bolt's overall operation seeming stilted and clumsy in comparison to Opera Mini, its nearest competitor.
In All About Symbian Insight 125, we welcome David Gilson to the podcast for the first time. This week we round up a lot of news including a rallying cry from Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki, details on SEE 2010, firmware updates for the E71, E66, N97 and N97 mini, SkyFire's market retreat, Nokia 5230 pricing and more. In the main part of the podcast David tell us about his experiences with the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro, Ewan talks about The Big Roll in Paradise and Rafe reports back from a 3UK briefing. You can listen to AAS Insight 125 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
"It's a cross between an adventure game and carpet bowls..." From such a startling mix comes 'The Big Roll in Paradise', created by Symbian legends Infinite Dreams and reviewed here by Ewan Spence. The core engine is a physics-perfect implementation of Bocce, in which you throw a jack and then vie with another player to throw your bocce/boules to roll closest to it. Accessible to casual players but with long term goals for more serious gamers - and with mini-games and side-quests to enjoy along the way, The Big Roll in Paradise comes highly recommended, it seems. The introductory 'free' offer may be over, but it's still a steal at £1.50.
In a move to placate a lot of very unhappy mobile web users (including myself), the BBC’s Anthony Sullivan hopes that the upcoming BBC Accessibility Tools will allow people to replicate the “low graphics” version of the BBC News website. Unfortunately, for people who’ve been using that version of the site for over ten years, it feels like they’ve lost a close friend. There’s a lesson in here for web developers around the world, read on.
Virgin Mobile (the UK MVNO under Richard Branson’s Virgin Group) has launched an interesting summer promotion on S60 5th Edition handsets, in conjunction with Nokia, and it ties in with one of the largest summer music events - the V Festival. Branded editions of the Nokia X6 and 5230 are now available from the company, along with some rather nice software tweaks.
No, not a video editor, as the name might suggest, but rather an experimental way of jumping around your video collection. Working on any S60 5th Edition phone but so far only tested on the N97 and 5800, Nokia Video Cuts is available for trial and feedback now. I've included screenshots, links and an intro video below. If you like or dislike the app then please feedback to Nokia Beta Labs using the links they provide.
