One component of Nokia's Ovi which hasn't had quite so much attention is Sync. This just popped up on the main Ovi toolbar, trailing what Sync will offer. See below for the details.
After the brace of S60 devices announced at MWC, I've done an update to my comprehensive S60 comparison table. Still a few 'Unknown's, so comment if you can help fill any in. Also of note is that Forum Nokia now has the official specs of the new Nokia devices online.
Push email specialist emoze seems to be improving in all areas. Their free push service has just been extended to anyone with any POP3 account (i.e. no GMail or Exchange needed). And, unlike the GMail dedicated client, this one's native Symbian OS, so it's faster and leaner. Well worth checking out if you've been lusting after push email but didn't know how to get started.
While most people have been getting excited about the pre-announcement of Opera Mobile 9.5, the hugely popular (and free) little sister, Opera Mini 4, has just had a big back-end (i.e. the bit that does the work) upgrade, which (among other changes, listed below) should improve browsing speed by (up to) another 20%.
So AAS forum member 'kflyer' emailed me a few days ago, "wondering whether viruses can really affect a current smartphone. I've read your view on this
question, but AAS itself has adverts for AntiVirus clients!" As it's a long, long time since my last rail against the fraudulent anti-virus industry, I thought it high time for an update. Read on.
Lenovo is to sell it mobile phone division to a number of private equity firms for $100m. Lenovo may not be well known for mobile phones outside China (where it is the number 4 handset manufacturer), but trivia buffs may remember its early (now defunct) association with S60. It became the sixth licensee of S60 in 2004 and released the P930 S60 handset in 2005.
SymbianGuru (no, not that Symbian Guru) has released a handy freeware solution for one-way-syncing your Google Finance stock data down to your smartphone. My Portfolio runs under Java and works on all S60 3rd Edition devices. for Series 60-3 mobile phones.
The best (also just about the only) database system for S60, HanDBase has had a big update. v4.0 was announced in December and has been going through test builds. v4.00.55 is now online and working well. See below for a changelog, links and some screenshots. Also of note is that the desktop client has also had a big update and looks a lot more modern.
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.
