In All About Symbian Insight 70 (AAS Podcast 128) Rafe, Ewan and Steve talk about the recently released Nokia E52, the N96's firmware upgrade to version 20, the newly released Pandemonium and the N97's processor and specifications. Rafe also reports on UI changes proposed for Symbian^4. You can listen to AAS Insight 70 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Over the weekend the news arrived that a beta of Ozone, a WebKit based web browser, had been released for S60 3rd Edition. Ozone, previously available for UIQ 3, claims better standard compliance and faster performance that the built in S60 browser. In the full news story we take a closer look at some of Ozone's features and include some illustrative screenshots from both S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition.
Just a quick note that, as per the headline, the Download option has now started appearing again for BBC iPlayer programmes on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic with v21 firmware, see the screenshot below, taken just now. I'm guessing the right person's elbow was nudged at the Beeb and the appropriate amendment made in the 'Send them a download link' table...
Those folks at Vesuvius Software have been busy in the last few weeks, cranking out more useful little Java-powered freeware applications for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and S60 5th Edition. Brand new and screenshotted below, with hyperlinks, are Musician's Swiss Knife, Soft Touch Stopwatch, Karao60 and ScratchMMS.
Ozone is now available for S60, at the same beta 0.9 version that appeared for UIQ 3 last year. Ozone is a web browser that "not only delivers advanced features such as client-side database support, application cache, zooming and multiple windows, but also provides the best web-standards compliant experience that's available". The beta download is at www.o3mobi.com. Comments welcome if you've tried Ozone.
The N-Gage application has been updated to a new version. There don't seem to be any major changes visible, but apparently this fixes some score sync and predictive text problems, and possibly other bugs. If you want to update, open your N-Gage application, select "Options" and then "Check For Updates", then follow the instructions. Alternatively you can download directly from this link. Important Notes: The update download file may have the old app version number, but it IS the new version. Also, after installation the N-Gage icon may get moved from the front page to the Applications folder, you can move it back to the front page by using the instructions below.
Thanks to CJ for noticing that a S60 5th Edition Touch version of Nokia’s Friend View application is now available. Friend View is similar to Google Latitude in that it lets you add friends to a custom list and shows you where each is at the moment, along with a status update or message. Do you think Friend View has a future and will it ever make it into a device's firmware? Will it ever get integrated with Nokia Maps in the way that Ovi Contacts has been? Comments welcome!
You've got to love Ricky and Rita at Symbian Guru, here unearthing (and providing a brief tutorial for) another gem - Pixelpipe, a new plug-in for Share online which widens the photo (and video) uploading compatibility to encompass Facebook, Twitpic, Picassa, YouTube and others. If you've used Pixelpipe then your comments welcome.
Nokia has recently made available a major firmware update for the Nokia N96. The new firmware, version 20.050, improves email support (including an email shortcut on the homescreen), adds personalisation settings for Audio Themes, slide handling and slide show wallpaper. There also improvements to WiFi support, camera image quality, Flash Lite video support and more. The firmware can be updated over the air or via Nokia Software Updater. Read on for more details and screenshots.
The classic 3D platformer Pandemonium is out now in the N-Gage showroom. To see it, go to the N-Gage application on your compatible phone, select the "Showroom" tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now". You should also be able to see it in the "All Games" section. You can find out more about the N-Gage platform including a list of compatible phones in the All About N-Gage FAQ.
In All About Symbian Insight 69 (AAS Podcast 127) Rafe, Ewan and Steve talk about Bobba, operating billing on the Ovi Store, v21 firmware for the Nokia 5800 and the new N-Gage game - Age of Empires III. Rafe then reports back in detail from the Nokia Developer Summit 2009. You can listen to AAS Insight 69 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
One of many people's must-have utilities, and like competitor Fring before it, the VoIP and chat client Nimbuzz has been finally ported to make full use of the touchscreen on the Nokia 5800. In fact, not just a straight port, since the developers have produced the most Nokia-like UI of any third party app for the 5800 that I've seen so far. Screenshots and download link below.
Nokia’s Ovi Contacts application for (seemingly) all S60 3rd Edition phones has been updated today, with v1.06 mainly containing reliability fixes, though there's also an enhanced name search function, to help find people to chat to. See also the Beta Labs post on the update.
Samsung Mobile Innovator has released the first iteration of the DevPak for the Samsung i8910 HD (formerly the Omnia HD). This plugs into the existing S60 5th Edition SDK to provide an emulator skin and control features, as well as additional APIs.