In All About Symbian Insight 72 (AAS Podcast 131) Steve, Ewan and Rafe round up an eclectic collection of news including Google Calendar Sync, Spore, recent MOAP devices, recent stats and Omnia HD availability. In the second part of the show discuss moments of change - times when we've seen a device of technology that marks a significant shift. You can listen to AAS Insight 72 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
After a lengthy (but evidently productive) beta period, the Skyfire (cross-platform) web browser has now been released as a full v1.0. You may remember that Skyfire, like Opera Mini, is a proxy-based browser, in that all web content is parsed and compressed before making its way to your phone, saving time and bandwidth. Skyfire's main advantages over Opera Mini are that it offers full multimedia (including Silverlight, Flash video, RealMedia, etc) and Ajax support, meaning that it should work with just about any web site. Skyfire's Raj Singh claims that Skyfire have effectively reduced 'click fear'. Read on for screens, what's new, video from The Phones Show 81 (out today) and some useful links.
The rather brilliant N-Gage-exclusive 3D platform game Bounce Boing Voyage has been updated to include motion control on those phones which have accelerometers, where you can tilt the phone to control the main character (or you can use the traditional button controls if you prefer). If you've already bought the game you can get the updated version free, and if you haven't bought the game you can buy it from the N-Gage showroom tab. Instructions for updating existing games are below.
In a special edition of our AAS Insight podcast, recorded today (launch day of the Ovi Store), Rafe, Ewan and Steve share their first thoughts on Nokia's content shop. We talk about some of the initial connectivity and load problems (but try not to dwell on them), plus the usability of the Ovi Store on-device client. We conclude, after kicking the store while it's down (literally), by sharing some of our positive impressions.
The Ovi Store roll-out just reached the UK in the last hour for many device product codes, it seems that the store availability is still proceeding around the clock today, around the world, for up to 50 devices and (estimated) around 50 million customers. Go into Download! on your Nokia S60 device and hitting 'Refresh content', Ovi Store is now showing up, for example, on my 5800 XpressMusic (and my N95) in the root folder of Download. Screenshots, observations and comments below.
Nokia's Ovi Store has soft launched in Australia; the information we recieved indicates that Ovi Store is now accessible on a Nokia E75 on the Australian operator Vodafone (see updates, in full story, for other markets). Ovi Store is Nokia's content store and download application for applications, games, wallpapers, themes, ringtones and video clips.
We're expecting the roll out of Ovi Store, in other countries, to continue over the next few hours and days. It is likely that a formal launch announcement will be made this week. We'll be updating this story, and will have full coverage of the Ovi Store once it launches in the UK. For now read on for more details and the first live pictures showing Ovi Store in the wild!
It's today's public service announcement: Nokia and Adobe have updated Flash Lite to version 3.1 on the Nokia 5800. It is available, not via a firmware update, but as a standalone update via the 'App update' utility. It's a 700k download and installs without even needing a restart, which is pretty cool. Flash performance in Web is doubtless smoother, comments welcome if you notice a site-specific improvement. (via the Nokia Guide)
At their recent developer summit Nokia described how it would be opening up the Ovi platform to third party developers. Apps on Maps was given as the initial example and now, at the Where 2.0 conference, Nokia has announced more of the technical details for the web side elements. The Ovi Maps Player API will allow developers to embed Ovi Maps on third party website and create 'mash-ups' by overlaying data and interacting with the map. As such it will be in direct competition with the Google Maps and its accompanying APIs. Read on for more details.
Google has announced that their new Google Sync for Mobile now supports S60 phones. You can now synchronize your Google Contacts and Calendars, but not via SyncML, rather disappointingly. Instead, sync has been implemented as a profile for Nokia Mail for Exchange, which has to be installed separately. The advantage of using MfE is that it's based on push technology, meaning that changes should automatically appear at either 'end' within minutes, i.e. your information is constantly up-to-date.
Launched today by code masters Spb Software is Spb TV for S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition. I've been using it for a day or two on my Nokia N95 and 5800 and here present a full and detailed review of Spb TV. Around 100 channels, 'picture in picture' channel switching, QVGA video streams, a TV Guide that in some cases works a week ahead, the works.
CellPhoneSoft, the UIQ software experts, are transitioning across to S60 and one of their first utilities has just arrived: Speedy Go! This claims to speed up all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition smartphones by "display acceleration and overall speed boost". Hmm.... Anyone brave enough to try this on an S60 device and report back in the comments?
The Register has a good summary of the saga of Yahoo!'s latest Java mobile 'all in one', which has apparently now been canned. Yahoo! Go and their new mobile home page all seemed pretty slick to me, but one can't help but feel that the mighty Y! are fighting a rear guard action against the invincible big-G. Comments welcome if you're a big Yahoo! Java client fan...
EA's life simulator Spore Origins is now available through the N-Gage application, just open it on your phone, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now". Alternatively select "See All Games". You can see a list of N-Gage-compatible phones (and more about the platform) on All About N-Gage's FAQ page.
In All About Symbian Insight 70 (AAS Podcast 128) Steve and Rafe talk about the upcoming N97 and the return of Comes with Music to the UK. However the main part of the show is taken up with answering questions from listeners. We touch on Ovi Store, Nseries branding, screen resolution and more. You can listen to AAS Insight 71 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In the third of his tutorial series looking at Nokia Messaging, Asri al-Baker looks at the email setup process, using the Nokia 5800 as a guinea pig device. This guide applies for all users who are not using the E75 (at the moment) because this has a different (newer) version of Nokia Messaging. Asri explains the decision point about dropping back to S60 Messaging or deciding to press on with the (beta, but soon-to-be-commercial) 'push' service, the core of Nokia Messaging.
