Spotify has arrived on Symbian - the music service du jour is now complementing its Android and iPhone offering with a Symbian S60 client. Available only to premium subscription members (£9.99 a month), the client will let you stream music on request to your handset, or you can download music to listen to when you are offline and out of coverage (ie on the London Underground).
I've now used most of the major smartphone application stores now and have, at last, worked out where they're all going wrong. You see, Apple get stick for applying a little editorial censure and not allowing every app submitted to make it into the live App Store. But what we need is for Apple - and Nokia - and Google - and Microsoft - and Samsung, Sony Ericsson and the other pretenders - to get dramatically more heavy handed. Read on.
CellPhoneSoft, UIQ specialists until a year or so ago, have launched their new flagship title for S60. Swiss Manager Pro 3.0 is a 'task manager, system information tool and file manager in one' (I've pasted the feature list below, along with a screenshot). It also includes a 'memory cleanup function' which sounds interesting. Comments welcome if you've tried this and/or want to review it formally for AAS(!)
If your smartphone is all about personalisation, why is it that we are left with the manufacturer's default choice of applications in the firmware? Years ago you checked the memory size and radio frequencies, now it's interrogating the firmware load-out. It's a given that no matter what Symbian OS product comes out, there are caveats in the review as to why application (a) was left out while application (b) made the cut. With the example omission of Podcasting from Nokia's recent Eseries smartphones, I've been musing...
We currently have the strange situation where Google show their new voice-driven 'Mobile App' when m.google.com is browsed by a S60 5th Edition phone - and then during installation we're told that this phone is 'not compatible'. However, with a slight adjustment, it's quite possible to use this handy tool on a Nokia 5800, N97 or compatible.
Nokia PC Suite has been updated to version 7.1.40.1 today (from 7.1.30.9) and it weighs in almost 300MB in total. Is it worth it? Yes, if you run Windows 7, which is now fully supported. If your current PC Suite installation doesnt prompt you for the update, you can download it over at the Nokia PC Suite web site. (via Clinton Jeff)
Skyhook has launched a plug-in for the Positioning system in S60 phones, dubbed Maps Booster and illustrated/reviewed below. Essentially, Maps Booster hooks into the Location sub-system in Symbian OS and adds WiFi-based location services, especially useful in urban areas, where GPS struggles on account of tall buildings and lack of sky coverage. Read on for more.
Nokia Music (PC Client), Nokia's software for managing and transferring music to Nokia devices, has been renamed Nokia Ovi Player. With the name change comes a small update: there's official support for Windows 7 and the addition of 'Recent' to the navigation/filter tabs (joining the existing Albums, Artists and Genre tabs). Nokia Ovi Player is a relatively resource hungry application, but it does offer a one-stop-solution for managing, buying (from the Nokia Music Store), and importing (burning from CD) music as well as transferring music to MTP compatible mobile devices.
SEE 2009 (Symbian Exchange and Exposium) is Symbian's annual big show. In part 2 of my walkabout video you can join me on a amble around the show floor at SEE 2009. I share my impressions and analysis in an unscripted, one-take, walk and talk. Part 2 covers the remaining stands and concludes with some general thoughts on SEE 2009.
We've been hearing a lot about Qt running on Symbian OS and how it's going to help, but this video (from the recent Qt Developer Day) shows how the current S60 UI would act if it was powered by Qt. It's still recognisable as the interface that many have a love/hate relationship, but it gives a nice touchstone to jump off from to the next iteration of UI.
In All About Symbian Insight 94 (AAS Podcast 158), we round up a few loose items from SEE 2009 - the Nokia 6788 and the open sourcing of the EKA2 kernel. Then there's discussion of the official enabling of Ovi Store downloads, live tests of Google voice recognition in its Mobile Search product, thoughts on Opera 10 Mobile for Symbian from Ewan, news of a Symbian UI concept video from Rafe and details of the new version of BBC iPlayer from Steve. You can listen to AAS Insight 94 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Over the next two day I'm at Nokia's The Way We Live Next event, which 'features presentations and demonstrations from Nokia and our ecosystem partners, showing how Nokia are connecting and building the communities of the future'. You can follow along via our live coverage below or via @aas.
Nokia has launched Messaging.nokia.com , a new portal site for all their messaging software ambitions. From email to social networks to IM, this should be the place to come to pick up latest news. There's a blog to subscribe to as well. Now all they've got to do is (ahem) finish the software itself!
With Skype's native Symbian incarnation still somewhat AWOL, it's interesting to see that Nimbuzz has stepped into the breach with their own pay-as-you-go VoIP to traditional number service, dubbed NimbuzzOut. More details and links below.
In All About Symbian Insight 93 (AAS Podcast 157) we discuss the Q3 smartphone figures from Canalys and Rafe explains that Fujitsu and Quic have joined the board of the Symbian Foundation. We move on to a retrospective of SEE 2009 with discussion of the media reaction (which send Rafe into rant mode). We finish with thoughts on N97 PR 2.0 and the closure of N-Gage (sniff). You can listen to AAS Insight 93 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
