In the second part of this music-focussed look at the latest Walkman smartphone, the Sony Ericsson W960, Ewan's been picking apart the new Media Manager suite that's bundled on CD with the device. Is it polished enough for real world use? Ewan's not entirely convinced...
Ah, never mind the official Java YouTube streamer, emTube is still streets ahead, and pulling further away all the time. The author has quietly sneaked a big update, v1.0.10, online in the last couple of days. This includes lots of tweaks and fixes, plus a new 'Sort by' option and a way of scanning your disks for flash video files. See below for the link and the changelog.
YouTube has announced an official mobile client application for a number of handsets including several S60 phones. The application allows you to watch any YouTube video and offers browsing by popular videos (most viewed, top rated, featured), related videos or keyword search. You are able to sign into your YouTube account and access your own videos, subscriptions and favourites. The application also allows you to upload video from your phone to YouTube directly.
More cool applications have appeared for UIQ 3 users in the last couple of days. PowerMovie and TouchCalc are among them and, today, Bunch Launch has just been annnouced by CellphoneSoft. Basically, Bunch Launch is a utility to bring your UIQ 3 smartphone to a desired state, with all your apps running, in one go.
You may remember my Musician (open source) Python project for S60 - mini-piano, metronome, tuning notes? Well, it's been heavily tweaked (with help) and there's now support for the hi-res screens of the N80 and E70, in addition to all QVGA varieties. Plus it's faster and less likely to crash. Perhaps more importantly, it's also a better example app to learn from when starting out with Python? Here's Musician 3.1
Ah yes. Ogg Vorbis music files and the freeware OggPlay. I've still got a soft spot for them, even if the rest of the world seems to have largely ignored the format. But never mind, because, better late than never, OggPlay for S60 3rd Edition is now fully available. Do make sure you read the notes about skins, and note that installation is a two stage process.
F-Secure is reporting that a new worm, Beselo, is in the wild. The worm, similar to the Commwarrior worm, targets only S60 2nd Edition handsets such as the Nokia 6600. The worm is notable for its use of social engineering; when spreading it appears as a JPEG or MP3 file which is more likely to be opened by a user. However simple common sense can readily protect you against infection.
Ewan's been trialling Wavelog, a new blogging client. Although it does the job, he found the application too restrictive for advanced users and too hard for beginners to get to grips with. Here's the full Wavelog review .
Steve's been looking at GooSync; which promises to sync up your smartphone's PIM data to the relevant Google applications (specifically your Gmail contacts list and Google Calendar data) as an alternative to being tied to Outlook and Microsoft. Can SyncML on the smartphone, and a bit of third party magic, come up with a solution for his data?
The Pdf products from mBrain Software for S60 3rd Edition have received an upgrade. Most notable is v1.75 of Pdf+ Pro, which includes the functionality from PdfPrinter, allowing you (as it sounds) to print to PDF format, and also lots of Nokia E90 keyboard shortcuts. Pdf+ Standard v1.75 is also new out today. Pdf+ Pro is a paid upgrade to the Standard product.
In AAS Insight # 8 (AAS podcast 56) Rafe, Steve and Ewan discuss some of the news out of CES: the announcement of the Motorola Z10 and Nokia N95 8GB North American version. There's also information on the recent firmware update for the N95 8GB and the importance of runtime technologies for the Symbian platform.
Hey, it must be UIQ week! Ewan's been reviewing Scribbler for UIQ 3 - a free form, inifinite paper note-taker. It's a cool idea for a touch-based smartphone and I think it's a keeper on Ewan's P990. Highlights are the strip overview and the export to image files.
The Windows Live client for S60, which includes the Windows Live / MSN Messenger (IM) and is available via Nokia's Download! client, will shortly become a paid for service in select markets. Up until this point in time no charges have been levied, but starting immediately consumers will be offered a 30 day trial after which time they we be asked to pay a monthly fee to continue too use the service.
Popular Palm and Windows Developer Astraware (with a number of mobile phone titles, and the promise of S60 and UIQ this year) has been acquired by Handmark, the company announced this week . I've been waiting a long time for the team behind the addictive Bejeweled titles to come to Symbian OS, and they promise it's still happening in Q1 this year! Congratulations to Howard Tomlinson and the team.
These accelerometer applications are getting more and more fun - PyPiwo runs on the N95 et al and provides free water or beer, you will have fun with this down the pub, I absolutely guarantee. And it's written in my current favourite development system, Python, showing what can be done with this RAD (Rapid Application Development) language.
