Of course, Jaiku's been in such a moribund state since Google bought it that it's arguably not as earth-shattering - we now have a world where Twitter is king of the microblog and Google's own Maps/Latitude is arguably king of location sharing. But location-aware blogging tool Jaiku still has a place in many people's hearts and news is just in that not only is Jaiku now Open Source and running on its final destination server (Google App Engine) but a new S60 native (and presumably also Open Source) client is also coming very soon. Can't wait.
Hot off the press, Ovi just added support for S60 5th Edition phones such as the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and N97. Each can now be added in the 'Manage your device' section and, crucially, you can now sync your Calendar, Contacts, To-dos and Notes to Ovi. For 5800 owners like me who have felt a little uneasy about the lack of OTA backup, then this is very welcome. Screen grab proof below.
Gameloft's action adventure Prince Of Persia is now available on the N-Gage platform. Go to your phone's N-Gage application's showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now" to see it. For more info about the N-Gage platform including a list of compatible devices, see All About N-Gage's FAQ section.
In All About Symbian Insight 62 (AAS Podcast 118) we briefly discuss the recently released S60 5.0 SDK (and consider broader uses), follow up on kinetic scrolling on the N97, get Ewan's view point on Monopoly for the N-Gage. In the last part of the podcast Steve and Ewan relate their experience of video recording on the N85 versus the N95. You can listen to AAS Insight 62 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Via CJ comes news of a new version of Nokia's Energy Profiler (Forum Nokia login required). New in this version 1.2 (for all S60 variants), in addition to the existing energy profiling features, are a graphing feature and plotting of Wi-Fi signal strength in real time. It has an element of 'cool' about, but can also be used to help troubleshoot problems. Rafe says this is a must have tool for every developer and explains more in the full story.
The Nokia Events site is showcasing an upcoming Nokia virtual launch (online only) event, which is related to music. It's likely we'll hear about new XpressMusic device(s), as well well as updates around Nokia's music strategy. The announcement will be made at 10am CET (9am GMT). DRM-free music in the Nokia Music Store, updates to Comes with Music, new market roll out plans, price cuts? Let the speculation begin!
As S-F points out, we've been waiting for flashlight functionality to return to our phones ever since the Nokia N93. The new E63 also has this and I've been wondering why Nokia doesn't implement a Torch application in most smartphone firmware. Anyway, Harald Meyer has come to the rescue with PhoneTorch for S60 5th Edition, in full Symbian Signed form. As the author points out, it might be best not to run the dual LEDs for long periods, but this is sure going to be a boon coming back from the pub/theatre late at night. Photo proof below...
Another (perhaps derivative) free painting application for the Nokia 5800 has appeared, this time on Nokia Hong Kong's site. It's native S60 and has lots more painting options than the original Forum Nokia example, including import of an existing photo for doodling on. (via S-F)
TextArt is a new 'generative' text-to-MMS applet from Nokia, ostensibly for the E71 but working on other qwerty devices such as the E63 and E90, I'm sure. It's Java-based, but don't let that put you off. Eye-candy, to be sure, but cool. (via NC)
The full version, 1.0, of the S60 5th Edition SDK is now available for download from Forum Nokia (previously available was version 0.9). Changes include support for keypad-off display in the emulator, support for additional languages, a start-up progress indicator for the emulator and fixes for a number issues and deficiencies. A number of new plug-ins are also now available for the SDK.
Opera, the Norwegian browser and web technology company, today introduced Fingertouch, a technology which aims to make it easier to interact with a web page on touchscreen devices. On such devices, especially those with smaller screens, when selectable page elements (e.g. links or form elements) are grouped close together on a web page, it can be difficult to accurately select the right element. Opera's Fingertouch looks to solve this problem by providing visual feedback and 'zooming in' on the clustered elements. Read on for more and demo video.
Amazon's portable ebook reader, the Kindle, is in its second hardware iteration, and has now expanded out from the dedicated reader into a software platform. At the moment the Kindle and the Apple iPhone are the only devices in the ecosystem, but you have to expect more platforms to join the party. Here's why.
Forum Nokia recently published an implementation of the card games Solitaire as their latest S60 5th Edition code example. For consumers it is a nice bit of extra freeware. For developers it is an example of an application fully optimised for touch; it demonstrates handling of pointer events of custom made UI controls and tactile feedback.
S60 5th Edition code example. For consumers it is a nice bit of extra freeware. For developers it is an example of an application fully optimised for touch; it demonstrates handling of pointer events of custom made UI controls and tactile feedback.
