HanDBase, the professional database system that's been such a major player in the Palm OS and Windows Mobile worlds over the last five years, has now been made available for S60 3rd Edition (2nd Edition has been supported for a while), albeit in beta form. If you're into databases on your smartphone, get involved with the beta - this is one app that I for one really want to see mature on Symbian OS.
Ewan's been struck by the buzz surrounding Papyrus and decided to try it for real. How does this S60 Calendar replacement fare on Ewan's E61 and N91? Find out in his review.
Ordance Survey Ireland will shortly make OSi Streetsmart for Dublin, an interactive mapping and information solution, available through its website. Streetsmart has been developed for Ordnance Survey Ireland (mapping) in partnership with Fáilte Ireland (point of interest database) by Augmentra, the same company who has developed the ViewRanger software.
Nordic Wireless Watch have rolled up their sleeves and produced an interesting set of graphics benchmarks, mainly of Symbian OS smartphones. Almost inevitably the Nokia N93 wins by a country mile, but there are plenty of other interesting numbers here. Via WOM World.
Thanks to those who emailed in about GooSync, a free service that uses SyncML to synchronise your S60 or UIQ Calendar with your Google Calendar. Looks pretty simple to use, too.
Yes, I know it's a slow news week, which is why we're streaming in a bigger than usual quota of original content. Here Ewan reviews the brand new and very shiny PicoBlogger for S60 3rd Edition (and also for 2nd Edition devices). Summary? Very Web 2.0 and very effective.
Shame on Symbian Freak for even giving column inches to Kaspersky Lab's latest 'report' on Mobile Malware, though at least S-F has the sense to add a one-line rider in the form of an image caption. 'Highlights' of the report include the mesmerizingly misinformed "Data shows that the number and scale of mobile worm outbreaks is rapidly increasing" and "Today's mobile viruses can do very much the same things as (desktop) computer viruses". Eh? The same? Worms? Utter madness. What about all S60's Platform Security measures? Just say no.
Ewan's been living and breathing chess for the last week, pitting 'Chess' and 'Chess Genius' against each other. It turns out that it's not actually that fair a fight, for various reasons, although both games heavily impressed Ewan. Read on in his head-to-head...
Steve Litchfield explores an attribute that's rarely covered in the smartphone world - how useable is each device in sunlight? [Updated with tweaked text and I've included two extra touch-screen devices, the Nokia 7710 and i-Mate K-Jam (aka HTC Wizard etc.)]
Deep down, we all like new themes, and Daniel at E61Life has been creating some beautiful and practical examples for S60 3rd Edition. Here are Dandelion and Hot Sun. Enjoy!
Our resident game emulator expert krisse reviews MasterGear, bringing the old SEGA Master System and Game Gear and their titles to S60 3rd Edition. Summary: it works well and will bring the memories flooding back. Also, don't forget to check out our updated guide to S60 3rd Edition game emulators.
The very latest EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa) sales figures for smart mobile devices are out. Highlights include Symbian OS's share now up to 78% of the market, with Nokia at a whopping 75%, although Sony Ericsson's UIQ 3 sales have started in earnest, with 3% and rising.
Google Co-Op, a recently announced service, allows you to create custom search engines. Here is a custom search engine for Symbian related sites, which can also be accessed via SymbianSearch.com. The search includes many of the largest Symbian sites, but if you think you know of another site that should be included you can edit the list of included websites.
