Google Maps for Symbian on S60 (3rd and 5th Edition) has received a major update to version 3.0.1.4 (from 3.0.0.x). There are UI changes, notably to the context 'pop-up' menu (when you press in the D-pad), this has been restyled to match the application's other dialog elements. There are also many under-the-hood changes to how Google Maps works on S60 phones, see below for the full published changelog [added April 13th].
I wanted to introduce Vesuvian software, who have built a new portfolio of Nokia 5800 applications using Java. Now, Java and the 5800 are traditionally seen as awkward bedfellows, but these are touch-enabled, work full screen and rather well. And they're all free. See Hack Proof Password manager, Notes on the Phone, Touch Calc (a scientific calculator), ScratchPad, XpressDrums (a fabulously intuitive drum machine/sequencer) and SuDoKu SoftTouch. Oh, and if you use a S60 3rd Edition phone, then most of these apps, plus a few more, are also available for your device, too. Enjoy.
After much delay, the most anticipated third party N-Gage game Worms World Party is out now on the N-Gage platform. The centrepiece of WWP is of course its online multiplayer mode for up to four players, and it becomes the first third party game to offer such a mode on N-Gage. To download WWP, go to your phone's N-Gage application, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now", or alternatively you can find it in the "All Games" section. The official trailer is below, you can see screenshots on AAN's WWP game page, and you can see a list of N-Gage-compatible phones on the AAN FAQ page.
It may be early days for this variant of S60, and of course many S60 3rd Edition commercial applications work fine too (though they won't be optimised for the new screen resolution(s) and touch), but if you own a compatible smartphone, which applications should you be willing to dip into your wallet for? Which are the best, in terms of both quality and value? It's telling that in these days of freeware and Open Source software, I had to dig relatively hard to come up with a Top 10 at all, but hopefully more serious commercial apps will be along in due course. Comments welcome and I'll (of course) keep the Top 10 regularly updated.
In All About Symbian Insight 65 (AAS Podcast 123) we welcome Ewan back from the USA and tell him about a few additions to the AAS team. We round up some of this week's news including Yahoo Mobile Home, Nokia Messaging 1.1, Nokia Point and Find Beta, Real Football for N-Gage, Nokia E71x and more. You can listen to AAS Insight 65 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Interesting to see Nokia still developing their Friend View application in the light of the elephant in the room, Google Latitude (though as even that can't seem to get traction, what hope has Friend View got? - discuss). The latest build of Friend View has background notification features, in that you can leave it lurking away in the background and it will ping you when a friend gets within a customisable distance from your current location. See this Beta Labs Friend View post for the full explanation and some handy shortcuts.
The Flahorn icon pack has become somewhat legendary in the Symbian world, featuring in a load of PiZero themes, and the man's done it again, this time with a theme for S60 3rd Edition phones that emulates the icon set and general look of the new S60 5th Edition phones. Why buy new hardware when you can simply pretend?...
Manikantan is a keen (Python and) Flash developer and has produced a prototype app, Translator, for S60 3rd Edition phones that leverages Google's recently updated language translation engine. A nice Web 2.0 example, even if it's not very polished yet. See below for screenshot and download link.
Curiously dated as a 1 April release, the Nokia Energy Profiler has been updated to fix issues with it freezing on S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 2 devices. With the release also came an update to the NEP External API, enabling developers to tap into NEP data or add new data capture to the application.
Nokia's application store, Ovi Store, is now accepting content from developers, and will launch in May. In our latest developer feature, Richard Bloor speaks to Eric John, Director of Media Product Marketing for Nokia Services, to discuss the developer proposition offered by Ovi store. There's questions on operator billing, supported content types, platform support and more.
As CJ puts it, "It’s been a long time coming". The brand new ShoZu release for S60 5th Edition/touch devices is now live (v4.01). ShoZu is the premier third party photo and video blogging client and works with just about any service. You can download ShoZu for S60 (all varieties) from m.shozu.com on your phone.
Only for UK residents (it seems), the BBC has now started streaming live TV for compatible handsets (currently the Nokia N96 and 5800) at mobile resolutions, 24 hours a day. The quality's currently not brilliant, seemingly a frame size of 176 by 144 pixels, though RealPlayer on S60 phones will sample this up to fit, of course. But - it is TV, it is the real deal and you get the full range of BBC channels. including those normally only available via Freeview or cable/Sky. Screenshot proof, link, handy S60 widget and tips, all below.
Exclusive: the BBC has re-enabled the 'Download' system in their iPlayer widget for UK residents. In addition to the streaming option, video downloads were initially withdrawn because of lack of DRM compatibility with some Nokia 5800 product codes. The issues seem to have now been resolved and the Download! option is back. Thankfully. See below for screenshot proof.
Nokia Handwriting Calculator has just been updated for S60 5th Edition, with support for scientific functions like sin, cos, tan, ln, etc., although the symbols can't be written directly and have to be dragged from a toolbar at present. There's also a new help system and support for the maths constants ‘e’ and pi - which you can write directly.
There's been a lot of talk about Gravity, the Twitter client for S60, most of it very positive, and Ewan backs this up with a detailed and lavishly illustrated review, finally awarding it a rare AAS Mega-App award for a score of 90% or over. And yes, it hadn't escaped our notice that a second Twitter client for S60, Twittix, was released yesterday. We'll get Ewan onto that, too, don't worry.
