Nokia’s Point and Find service has has an update, a short three months from the initial release. The latest build of the Beta Labs product improves the flickering problems some users encountered, and brings official support for the X6 and the 5230.
Sports Tracker isn't the only game in town when it comes to GPS-tracking your workouts. And especially not when it comes to sharing these with others, either for interest sake or to provoke healthy competition. Here, Ewan reviews Endomondo, a largely server-side solution that has a wealth of social features, in addition to the traditional mapping and logging summaries.
The announcement of the Nokia N8 has certainly got the internet chattering, more than any other recent Nokia product launch. It’s not an out and out success, but that’s to be expected. No product in the real world can get 100% satisfaction on launch day, but it can get the buzz building from the time the press release goes public (or perhaps before - grrrrr). So what did the internet think of the N8? Lets find out.
In All About Symbian Insight 115 Ewan, Steve and Rafe share their thoughts on the China bound Nokia C5-01 and Nokia X5 (TD-SCDMA handsets for China Mobile). We also take a detailed look at Nokia's Q1 2010 financial results with discussion of Nokia's Symbian^3 plans. Finally we cover Offscreen's 25 million Ovi Store downloads. You can listen to AAS Insight 115 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia's own Internet Radio application - or rather its absence on its S60 5th Edition phones - left a pretty big hole in the power user's software catalogue. In this feature, Ewan investigates a number of (mostly free) alternatives - can you still stream radio to your smartphone in 2010?
Google Maps for S60/Symbian just got itself an update to v4.1. No, not free real time navigation - that's still coming for Symbian - but voice searching, along the same lines as its existing Google Search applet. Just hold down the green (Call) key and say what you'd like to search for, etc. There are also minor updates to its Settings menu and a new 'Report a problem' function. Some quotes, links and screenshots below.
Offscreen Technologies, who have released a wide portfolio of games, applications and eBooks on Ovi Store, have announced that their content has been downloaded more than 25 million times. Offscreen has focussed on providing content for Nokia's touchscreen devices, including the Nokia 5800, N97, X6 and N900. They currently have around 100 titles in the Ovi Store; some of the applications, including Level Touch, Bright Light Touch and Labyrinth Lite Touch have been downloaded more than a million times each. More below.
A major new firmware, version 31.023, is now available for the Nokia E72. The update introduces several new pre-installed applications: Ovi Sync, Advance Communication Manager, Smart Connect, and Internet radio. Additionally, a number of the core applications have been updated including Ovi Maps (free navigation and location sharing version), Web (to version 7.2), and Ovi Store. There are also the usual bug (e.g. the spacebar bug) and performance fixes. Read on for further details and screenshots.
What if the Symbian handset manufacturers followed the lead of Microsoft? Slashgear picks up on a Windows 7 architecture guide that gives [proposed] information on what customisations hardware manufacturers and networks can add to the new range of Windows Phone 7 phones. In short, not a lot. Which got me thinking about why the open principles of the Symbian Foundation are in opposition to this rush for conformity.
After a few sporadic sightings yesterday, the full roll out of firmware version 50.0.005 for the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music has begun. The popular touch-screen device receives kinetic scrolling in the application menu, an updated version of Ovi Maps (free navigation and location sharing), minor updates to a number of other applications and the usual bug fixes and performance updates.
A beta version of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks, also known as the Communities application, has been made available, via Nokia Messaging and Nokia Beta Labs, for the Nokia E72, E71 and E63. The application, which provides access to messaging and other features of social networks; currently Facebook and Twitter are supported. Communities is already available for Nokia's Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) devices and is the application that will provide social networking functionality out of the box on the Nokia C6 and E5.
Numo Solutions, the developers of SMS Preview, have announced they have passed the 1 million download mark on Ovi Store. SMS Preview shows a preview of incoming text messages, in a bubble that floats above other screen content, for a user defined period of time. It provides an improvement over the built in 'new message alert', which only tells you that you have received a message. Numo Solutions say that SMS Preview is being used in more than 170 countries on 50 different types of handsets.
In All About Symbian Insight 114 Ewan, Steve and Rafe share their thoughts on Nokia's announcement of the Nokia C6 and Nokia E6. We also shares news of Sony Ericsson's Q1 2010 results, the renewal of Sports Tracker, firmware updates for various phones and Numo Solution's Ovi Store success. You can listen to AAS Insight 114 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
New in the Nokia Ovi Store is Sports Tracker, from Sports Tracking Technologies (STT). STT is the company founded by Ykä Huhtala, Jussi Kaasinen and Antti Sorvari, who originally created Sports Tracker for Nokia as part of a Nokia Research project, to spin the concept out into a separate company. For those that remember the old Sports Tracker, this has all the usual track and workout logging facilities, plus mapping, courtesy of OpenStreetMap (and loaded ad-hoc) and extras like a countdown to sunset, plus additional export options. Links, comments and screens below.
It had to happen - someone's gone and done an Apple iPad theme for Symbian. The example screenshots are shown below, along with the link, though note that the home wallpaper is optimised for the Nokia 5800 (and similar) - it'll look a little odd on some other S60 5th Edition phones!
