The BBC has begun to roll out the latest version of iPlayer, its on-demand and live TV system, for selected S60 3rd and 5th Edition Nokia phones. The new version, 3.0, moves away from its stand-alone widget origins to become a simple widget shortcut, which opens the browser and loads the BBC iPlayer mobile website. However, the core functionality on offer: live streaming, catch-up streaming and download for TV and radio remain the same. Screens and more below.
As part of Nokia's 'Open for Ideas' event, I had the opportunity to attend the Tampere Innovation Experience @ Demola day, which included a showcase more than 40 research projects that had been guided by open innovation principles. I teamed up with The Really Mobile Project's Ben Smith to shoot three videos of NRC (Nokia Research Centre) demos. The first video covers the Nokia Image Space research, with a demo of the Image Space mobile client on a Nokia N900.
Ewan surveys the freeware multi-service chat and calling client, Nimbuzz, from from its big v2.4 update. Logging you in and integrating contacts from multiple social networks and chat systems is its speciality and it sounds like it did Ewan proud. It's also not only for multiple mobile platforms, but also for just about every S60 phone currently in use, so there really is no excuse for not keeping it installed and ready for action.
Speaking at the MobeyForum conference, Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki has reaffirmed the company's commitment to NFC (Near Field Communication) technology. Starting from 2011, Nokia's global Symbian smartphone portfolio will begin to include NFC functionality. However it may, or may not, be included in all country variants. NFC is a short range (~10cm), high frequency wireless communication technology; the major uses are likely to be in Bluetooth pairing, reading RFID tags (e.g. smart posters), mobile ticketing (e.g. London's Oyster system) and mobile payment (contactless payment).
SPB Mobile Shell, which received a rapturous welcome in the Symbian world a few weeks ago - for those that had enough RAM to run it - has had a major update. V3.5.5 uses 10MB less RAM (i.e. half that of the launch version) and also adds a media player widget. The full changelog is below.
Mark Skrebels, Senior Release Manager at the Symbian Foundation and Chairman of the Release Council, posted a short tweet today noting that Symbian^3 has been declared functionally complete. This is an important milestone for the Symbian Foundation as it marks the first time this point has been reached for a fully open source release and the time at which Symbian^3 is considered ready for community 'use'. Read on for more.
Multiple IM client application Nimbuzz has been updated to v2.4. This client now has closer ties with your smartphone’s address book, adds kinetic scrolling throughout the interface for touch enabled devices, has finer options to control Twitter update, and the ability to limit usage while roaming. More below.
IM and voice network specialist app Skype is now available on the Sony Ericsson S60 handsets. Usable over WiFi or cellular data connections, you can download the application direct to your handset by visiting skype.com/m in your browser. Skype is, of course, also available for many Nokia S60 devices via the Ovi Store.
Marguerite Reardon at Cnet is worried that the upcoming data caps are going to “force developers to be efficient”. Which I raised an eyebrow at, because I’d hope that any decent developer out there is already coding as efficiently as possible. If they can’t make sensible use of data, what else are they not bothering about in application design? Should we be worried that smaller batteries will force developers to stop using tight coding loops next? Read on for more.
In All About Symbian Insight 122, we share the best of the previous week's news: Expedia hotel booking in Ovi Maps, Nokia 5228, Nokia Notifications and Tesco's Clubcard application. Steve shares his thoughts on the visibility of various screen technologies in bright sunlight, including a hands-on with Super AMOLED, and Rafe explains last week's Symbian Baidu tie up. Finally, the team discuss the launch of the iPhone 4 and the high-end device landscape. You can listen to AAS Insight 122 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
As part of its promotional activities for the N8, Nokia is releasing a series of overview videos presented by Chris Bennetts, a Senior Product Manager at the company. The third video covers the Music application and the N8's HDMI out functionality; rather than just linking to it or embedding it, we've broken this video down in detail to offer you some insight into the N8's music software and HDMI-out feature. Read on for further details.
The website for Sports Tracker, an application which turns your phone into a GPS sports computer, is now accepting pre-registrations for its online service. The online service will allow you to upload workouts (tracks) from your phone to be visualised, analysed and shared on the website. By registering now you can reserve the username you wish to use, get a notification when the site will goes live, and import your existing Nokia Sports Tracker data.
With the football World Cup 2010 (eh, what, is something happening today?) starting this evening and going on for all eternity a month, you'll be wondering how you can keep track of the goings on in South Africa on your smartphone. Whether out and about or on the sofa, there are plenty of options to keep you informed and entertained. Read on for some suggestions.
Good news from Furtiv, the makers of plug-ins for Nokia's Share Online application. According to their blog, they have passed the 250,000 downloads mark through the Ovi Store, and are now beta testing plug-ins for MySpace, LinkedIn and TwitPic, due to popular demand. More below.
