When goods are virtually free, why do people pirate software? Developer Cliff Harris took the simple step on his blog... to ask the pirates why they weren't buying his titles. While the Positech titles in question are for the desktop, the principles should apply to mobile games as well.
Nokia Beta Labs have released an enhanced calculator for S60. The calculator, which has been ported from Series 40, features standard, scientific and loan modes. A big plus, in standard mode, is the use of the D-pad as shortcuts for the common operators (+, -, × and ÷) which greatly improves the speed of entering calculations.
Two bits of news from RMR Software - if anyone's still using an older Series 80-based Communicator then note that all RMR's software is now reduced by between 45% and 70%. Also, more 'cutting edge' is that RMR has put together what's possibly the first real Style Tap-based app for S60 (i.e. Palm OS app running within Symbian OS). More on this below the break.
Content from the Lonely Planet travel guide series is now available in Nokia Maps. The guides are available via the Extras section in the Options menu of Nokia Maps 2.0. The Lonely Planet guides take the form of a collection POIs (Points of Information) which are divided into several categories (Eat, General, Night, See, Shop and Sleep). Read on for more details and screenshots.
Nokia currently has three platforms in development simultaneously, for their smartphones (S60), normal phones (Series 40) and internet tablets (Maemo). They all have their good and bad points, but in this feature krisse looks at how S60 could learn from its two sister-platforms. We would like to hear what you think S60 can learn from Series 40 and Maemo in the comment thread.
In All About Symbian Insight #36 (AAS Podcast #89) Rafe, and Steve chat about the web as a platform for services and follow on with a discussion on whether Nokia should make its services available on competing hardware. There's also a debate on the relative merits of the N78 and N82 for those looking to make a purchase decision.
Nokia Chat, the Contacts and GPS-integrated chat and location-sharing system, just became available for vanilla (i.e. non-FP1 or FP2) S60 smartphones such as the Nokia N93, E61 and E65. There are a few small functional limitations but, armed with a Bluetooth GPS, there's now no reason not to join in the world of Chat.
Nokia has made available, via its website, a wide range of Ramadan related content for a number of phones (including all recent S60 devices). There are a number of applications: Quran (multi-lingual interface, search and bookmark, Emsakya (prayer alerts), Hajj and Umrah (journey guide) and more; as well as ringtones, wallpapers, anasheed (Islamic vocal music) and landmarks (for Nokia Maps).
What with more and more video codecs being involved and YouTube continually fiddling, it's not surprising that shareware-by-any-other-name Mobitubia is having to be fiddled with too, to keep it working efficiently. Version 1.81 build 5 just got released for anyone who's donated to the project and features video playback fixes, general app bug fixes and a new feature: Make thumbnail, for clips which don't come with one. Recommended.
Vodafone has made available, via widgetvine.mobi, a number of WRT Widgets which have been developed by Vodafone's Group Research and Development department. There are some genuinely useful widgets available such as cinema listings, travel planning and news retreival. Read on for more information and a few screenshots.
In All About Symbian Insight #35 (AAS Podcast #88) Rafe, Steve and Ewan chat about the launch of the N-Gage's Reset Generation, carbon offsetting from your phone, the continuing importance of voice and the Nokia Music client/store.
With eclectic musical tastes and a love of all things Web 2.0, Ewan was the natural choice to review Mobbler, a new S60 client that integrates with Last.FM to share your music favourites with the world and present to you other tracks and genres that you'll probably like. And it's Open Source too, i.e. free - what are you waiting for?
A beta version of Nokia's new e-mail client for S60 devices is now available from Beta Labs, and provides an alternative to the default S60 Messaging application. It will work with most services including Gmail, but it doesn't currently work with Hotmail or corporate mail. There's also a consumer site for this client called Nokia Email. (via Symbian-Guru.com)
Nokia's programmers are certainly staying busy - their insanely-useful GPS-aware Chat utility just got updated too, to build 5 - see the official Beta Labs blog entry announcing the update. Make sure you also install the updated support file.
Integration between the Nokia Music PC Client (available via Beta Labs) and the Nokia Music Store has now gone live. This means you can browse and buy music, from the Nokia Music Store, within the Nokia Music PC Client application. This gives Nokia a seamless music experience, akin to Apple's iTunes, for discovering, purchasing, downloading and transferring music to a mobile device.
