In the wake of today's news of the Symbian Foundation being set up, UI company UIQ have announced plans to layoff of 200 employees (reports BLT.se). Currently the majority of the 375 staff are employed in the Ronneby offices, with the balance of staff in two foreign offices in London and Budapest. These offices will probably close. Further details will be announced by UIQ this afternoon.
The Symbian Foundation website is now online, and carries a few more details on the project. The big news is the commitment to move the platform to be open source (using the Eclipse Public Licence) and have this freely available to all. The foundation itself is set to commence operations in the first half of 2009, and the annual membership fee will be $1500. Until the open sourcing, membership will be the route to obtain the platform royalty free for device manufacturers. Naturally, membership is not required to develop for the platform, that remains open to all, just as it is now.
Money management software remains perennially popular and there's now a fully fledged bank account/finance manager for S60 3rd Edition, with the appearance of Flying Money Manager. The developers claim it 'gives you access to your accounts' balances, credit limits, all your payments, deposits and transaction histories'. Flying Money Manager was already available for UIQ 3 smartphones.
Neither are huge updates, but Google Mobile completists like me might like to note that Google's native S60 search utility is now updated to a full 1.01 release and (the Java-based) Google Mail is now up to 1.5.0.1193. Search 1.01 does feature extensive help screens and extra informational menu options, but I can't see anything different in terms of functionality. As ever, m.google.com is your friend...
This new Webkit-based internet browser for UIQ 3 is now available for download from the developer's official web site (free registration required). Digia @Web is bringing a new level of web experience to UIQ 3 as the first finger-optimised web-browser for the platform. More information and screenshots after the break.
TV on the move has many solutions, and one of them that we've looked at before is the Slingplayer. They are currently developing a new UIQ client, but the problem the team is having is that the people with UIQ devices aren't matching up with people who have Slingboxes. So they're putting out a general call for beta testers of the upcoming UIQ client. Can you help?
Missing Sync, a sync tool for Mac OS X, is now available as a beta preview for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 phones. Missing Sync for Symbian can be used to synchronize / copy contacts (Apple Address Book), calendar entries (iCal), photos (iPhoto), videos (Quick Time) and music (iTunes) to and from the phone. The current version is a beta preview and as such should be used with caution.
The simulation game Sims 2: Pets has now gone live on N-Gage, you can download it directly to your phone from the N-Gage application's showroom. Naturally we'll be bringing you a review in due course. Now, where did we put that dog lead?
Over at All About N-Gage, we're wondering when the Next Generation Gaming Platform is going to fully launch? With the initial roll-out of S60 v3 Feature Pack 2 phones not shipping with the N-Gage Client, phones aiming for a large user base, including the currently available N78 and impending N96 and Nokia 5320, and no sign of a compatible N-Gage client, the question is whether these devices will have the client in firmware before 2009. (Update: the official N-Gage blog has just announced the first FP1 phones with embedded N-Gage apps have begun to ship, starting with the N81. No word on FP2 yet.)
More accelerometer fun for Nseries owners, this time in the form of pyWuzzler. As the Euro 2008 Football Championship reaches its final stages, it's time for some Football on the phone, with a difference. It's an implementation of 'Bar Football' with your players on sticks that spin, on your phone! Gooooaaaaaaallll!!
Ah yes, the irresistable urge to make a play on words for a review of a utility with this sort of name. Quite appropriate really as, ultimately, Hi-n-Bye is more of a geek-toy/tech demonstrator. Still, within its niche, this accelerometer-driven telephony aid is immaculately programmed, a model app in many ways - and it's battery-sensitive too.
In this beginners tutorial, I share a little of my sat-nav experience, hopefully of help to anybody suffering from slow GPS locks, especially under S60 and Nokia Maps, and frustrated by the apparent 'unreliability' of mobile navigation software. Here's how to make sure your GPS locks are faster and how to speed around Nokia Maps.
In AAS Insight #28 Rafe, Ewan and Steve discuss some of the news from the past week including Trolltech, Mail for Exchange 2.5 and the Symbian Smartphone Show before moving on to the general waffle topics: firstly S60's increasing integration with the PC and web, secondly smartphone statistics and definition.
Thanks to Ed at the Eseries blog for writing up the new version of Mail for Exchange, v2.5 - if your company uses Exchange 2007 then you're in for several brand new features, including handling of 'follow up flags' and control over 'out of the office' notifications.
You'll remember Nokia's newish Sports Tracker widget, whereby you can embed your journeys and media into your web page? Well, following on from the news that Sports Tracker itself can handle videos (taken along the exercise route), the official widget has now been upgraded too. The current name is now 'Maps+Photography+Video' - something snappier is desperately needed.
