Today at Nokia World 2008, Nokia has released (via Beta Labs) the latest version
of Nokia Maps, v3.0, as well as a full personalized 'online mapping experience' on Ovi (also now available). The combination of Nokia Maps 3.0 plus Ovi is claimed to be "the first free service that allows people to pre-plan a journey at home and synchronize with their phone, giving access to pre-planned routes and favourite destinations while on the move." Nokia Maps has also been updated to include higher resolution aerial images, 3D landmarks for 216 cities across the world and terrain maps. Screenshots, info, download link (for selected devices) and notes below.
The Nokia Messaging Service, announced this morning at Nokia World in Barcelona, will open up popular email and instant messaging services and make them easily accessible both on your handset and via the Ovi web site. The on-device version of the Mail on Ovi service is due to go into beta before the end of 2008, with the web based version to follow in early 2009. Update; now with added YouTube demo video.
Kudos to Symbian Guru (the developer, not the blogger) for introducing a new genre of S60 utility. GPS-Action uses GPS and/or cell ID to fire alarms, switch profiles, open applications, etc. according to where you are rather than the time of day. So, for example, you could be reminded to look for a particular product the next time you get to the shopping mall. Lots more other examples and information at the main GPS-Action page.
Released a few days ago was Nokia's latest Mac suite, 'Nokia Multimedia Transfer 1.4'. Labelled beta software, it looks to be holding the fort and preparing the ground for a full Ovi Suite for Mac in the next month. v1.4 requires the latest version of Leopard and features 'a new method for selecting the content to be transferred, various performance improvements and a new user interface for settings'. I've put together some screenshots from v1.4 below, for your delectation.
Good to see some response from Nokia's Friend View team, fielding questions about map caching, lack of Nokia Maps compatibility and GPS/battery efficiency. Sounds like they're serious about this particular Beta Labs project after all...
In AAS Insight 49, we have brief news of a new version of Mobile Web Server, and a forthcoming TD-SCDMA S60 phone. The main part of the podcast is divided in to two parts: Rafe discusses his time at a recent Developer Day in Budapest while Steve, from the 17 minute mark, tells us about his visit to Nokia's hardware testing facility. If you want to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia's supposed Sports Tracker replacement, viNe, is now available to all, it seems. It geotags photos and videos and lets you plot them later on the viNe web site. More on this later, I suspect. What do you think of Nokia viNe? The jury's still out chez Litchfield.... (via CJ)
Despite a few misgivings over the status of the items people might download (especially cracked applications), it's good to see SymTorrent continuing to receive updates; version 1.4 adds browser integration support, selectable file downloads within torrents and improvements in speed and stability. There's also a promise of S60 5th Edition support in the near future.
The Java-running, proxy-based, web browser Opera Mini v4.2 has now been officially released, with new Skins support, faster servers, compatibility with the mobile version of YouTube and Opera Desktop note syncing. Read on for more.
The Skyfire web browser, previously only available in the US and Canada, is now available in the UK, it seems. It's proxy-based (for pre-processing speed) and it runs on virtually any S60 3rd Edition phone. Comments and early reviews welcome. (via p@sco)
Today, Nokia and IBM announced Lotus Notes (which has 140 million licensed users) support for all S60 3rd Edition-based phones. 'Lotus Notes Traveler' can connect to corporate email accounts via Lotus Domino Server, and provides real time access to email, calendar, address book, journal and to-do list data. Availability is December 2008.
UK Publisher Tag Games has been working on a GTA styled mobile game for many months, and now Car Jack Streets is available for download. Given that the Tag founders were part of the original design team for the first Grand Theft Auto, it's no surprise that this is an addictive little mobile game, that makes best use of the smartphone environment. Ewan's full review can be found here.
Epocware have updated their security/reminder application Handy Safe Pro. Allowing you to store passwords, user names, pins and other paraphernalia (and manage them on your device or via an included PC application), this latest version has a recovery operation for accidental deletions, sub folders, and URLs now act as hyperlinks into the Web Browser.
Electronic Arts' football simulator FIFA 2009 is now available on the N-Gage platform. Just open your phone's N-Gage app, go to the Showroom section, select "Options" and then "Update Now" to see it. (It should also become available through the N-Gage website over the next day or two, if you prefer to install games through your computer.) This release is a bit of a surprise, as it had only just been announced a few weeks ago and hadn't even made it into N-Gage.com's upcoming games list. Obviously EA were working on this a long time before they announced it.
