emoze, the popular and free push email and Calendar service for S60 and UIQ smartphones, has been given a major update to v1.4, with much increased efficiency top of the list of improvements, meaning a smaller hit on battery life. Here's the press release and here's the download page.
Nokia has launched a new S60 evengelist scheme, starting in New York and presumably in other world cities later. Here's the S60 Agents page, with details.
In response to criticism in PC Pro magazine(!) and lots of (well, ok, two) emails, I've added Windows Mobile smartphones back into my Grid of smartphone solutions. Now you can compare the best from the Symbian OS world and its main competitor. As ever, plug in your preferences and watch the magic 8-ball Javascript decide!
...In which I review the Proporta Wireless FM Stereo Transmitter, to let you play your smartphone's music tracks over your car radio. It's built down to a price and isn't unique in the gadget world, but it's small, stylish, works quite well and is unbeatable value.
Symbian has announced their 2007 Smartphone Show, at the usual ExceL centre, on Oct 16/17th, along with a new web site for the event. All About Symbian will be there in force, of course, with an extra gathering, details to be announced.
Projekt, already available for every other Symbian-based interface, has finally hit S60 3rd Edition, with a full spread of compatibility. One of the most mature third party applications in the Symbian OS world, Projekt is an outliner at heart, but with links, notes, import and export options, it can be used to manage projects too.
Python for S60 has been evolving steadily over the last year, but v1.3.22, just released, fixes quite a few longstanding issues, including one which prevented proper display of graphical text. Like many other part-time programmers, I can see myself fiddling with Python over the summer - here's the relevant Python discussion board thread and here's the v1.3.22 download page.
locr is a photo hosting service with a geographical tilt. It encourages its users to geotag (encode location information) into their photos. Last week locr announced the availability of an S60 client which allows you to geotag photos on your phone (S60 2nd and 3rd Edition). We'll be covering geotagging in more detail later this week.
Smartphones Show 33, now live and on YouTube, has a hands-on review of the WinMob-powered HTC S710, plus a video feature looking at ten things current smartphones can do that the otherwise cool Apple iPhone can't. The ten are demo-ed on current S60 3rd Edition hardware, but many also apply to other Symbian OS-powered devices.
Although available for most other Symbian OS platforms, AquaCalendar for UIQ 3 is reviewed here by P990 devotee and guest writer Asri al-Baker. Summary: plenty of eye candy and functionality, Asri reckons it makes PIM more fun!
Yet another warning for users of S60 2nd Edition devices from F-Secure, reports Symbian Freak, with the twist that this time there's a financial angle. As usual, the malware poses as a utility on a file sharing site, so that the user accepts the installation prompts, etc. Just steer clear, and stick to downloads from reputable sites like, oh, off the top of my head, AllAboutSymbian...