The retro tank game My Little Tank has now been released for Symbian S60 3rd Edition devices (sorry, no UIQ3 version this time). You can download the demo or purchase the full game from Astraware's website, the game costs $9.95 which is around 8 euros or 6.5 pounds.
Rita El Khoury often seems to come up with discoveries that the rest of us overlook - in this case, it turns out that freeware star cCalc (a scientific calculator) has a big brother, cCalcPro, designed for the landscape screens of the Nokia E61 and E71. Here's Rita's write-up, with screenshots.
Geography enthusiasts rejoice! The long awaited quiz game from Herocraft - the makers of such great titles as Robo, Revival and Stolen in 60 Seconds - has finally arrived to keep the smart player happy for hours to come. Read on for the details.
For those happy to 'open sign' their utilities, note that Swim, the background sync tool for S60, has been updated to v0.41 and, notably, the scheduling problems of earlier versions are gone. In case you hadn't heard of Swim, it syncs your phone to Google or Ovi or GooSync, etc. automatically. And no, we still don't know why this functionality isn't part of S60 itself...
Nokia's Beta development teams do seem to be working in parallel to a degree. With the launch of FriendView, their Chat extension to Contacts has now been updated to BETA 4, adding friend profile pictures on its maps, plus you can also now make calls from that view. There's also comprehensive access point selection (favourite Wi-Fi, preferred GPRS, etc) Which of the two chat/presence systems do you prefer?
A lot of news over on All About N-Gage, with updates to the N-Gage app and new phones added to the platform, sales charts released, a new games announcement, and a couple of very interesting videos published. See below for the relevant links.
You'll remember Tagggit from my AAS video interview with SkyHook? It's a geospatial social networking tool for S60, i.e. it uses SkyHook's databases of urban Wi-Fi hotspots to find your location without GPS and annotate places and activities for others. Tagggit is now available in open beta, so anyone can try it out. See below for lots of screenshots of Tagggit and the official launch press release. Comments welcome after you've given this a try over the weekend?
Nokia Beta Labs today made available a preview of the next version of Share Online, Nokia's media sharing application. Share Online version 4 has an improved upload/download experience which allows asynchronous usage, adds an outbox to make it easier to manage uploads and has improved active standby indicators (including the ability to remove them). The new version is currently only available for the N96, 6210, 6220 and 5320. Read on for screenshots and more details.
The N-Gage platform's client is now available for the Nokia N78 and 6210 Navigator. The easiest way to get it is to visit n-gage.mobi/d (note there's no "www") on your phone's web browser, and select your phone from the list, which lets you download and install the app directly. Alternatively, you can download the app from the official N-Gage website and install using PC Suite. (Other phones compatible with the platform include the 5320 XpressMusic, N79, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N85, N95, N95 8GB and N96.)
FlyingBird Software have been producing native Symbian OS money management software for a while, but they've now knocked out a completely free option: Money Lite, claiming to "help you in tracking your personal expenses, deposits, transfers and other transactions." You can't beat free, of course, but they also have a commercial option for those that need greater functionality.
Nokia today announced a new addition to its Eseries range. The Nokia E63 is a QWERTY-equipped S60 phone and is effectively a mid-tier version of the Nokia E71, on whose success it will be looking to build. It has a 2.0 megapixel camera, WiFi and 3G connectivity, and runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1. The Nokia E63, which is expected to start shipping in the next few weeks, will be available in ruby red or ultramarine blue and will cost €199 before taxes and subsidies. Read on for more.
Opera Mini just went up to v4.2, in beta form at least, with new Skins support, faster servers, compatibility with the mobile version of YouTube and Opera Desktop note syncing. Opera also announced that Opera Mini is being used by 20 million unique monthly users worldwide. Read on for more.
New firmware updates are now available for both the Nokia E71 (110.07.127) and the Nokia E66 (110.07.126). Updated applications include Mail for Exchange and Nokia Maps and there are improvements to the email and settings wizards, performance enhancements for Bluetooth and camera hardware as well as a number of bug fixes.
In part 3 of his Nokia N96 review Steve covers the multimedia capabilities of the phone. After comprehensive testing he delivers his verdict on the still photography, video recording, music playback and video playback capabilities of the N96 before coming to some overall conclusions about the multimedia functionality. Part 3 follows on from the general overview in part 1 and application walk through in part 2.
Very interested to hear about the Bergamot Project. Their Swim tool has just been released for S60 and enable automated synchronisation (at long last) with your chosen sync server (e.g. GooSync, Ovi). Only thing is that it's unsigned and you'll have to used Symbian's online signing tool to sign it for your specific phone. More comments and links by Ricky Cadden here.
