Steve's review of "Best Ball" from Smartphoneware reflects the fun of companies trading properties, because Ewan reviewed it under the guise of "Powerball" from Symbianware over two years ago. See how much they (dis)agree with each other in the dual reviews!
Woize plans to launch a SIP client for Symbian OS 9.1 (S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3). The software is targeted at WiFI enabled phones. Wozie offers a similar service to Skype with clients available for PC and other mobile platforms. It is primairly aimed at consumers. Calls between Woize users are free with low charges for normal land and mobile lines.
Sept Solutions have announced that they're building a reader for OpenDocument files (as used by OpenOffice 2) for all Symbian platforms, followed by an editing suite. Press release here.
Joining Quickoffice in the world of S60 Office applications is Mobi-Systems snappily-named OfficeSuite. Steve has hammered it with his detailed test files to see how this title works in the real world, and you can find out why this suite shows promise (but still has some way to go) in his review of Office Suite.
A tiny bit misleading in places, this new Wikipedia entry has an interesting ready reference table of the pros and cons of the various smartphone development options. Something for everyone?
For all those occasions where you need quick and cheap web info on your smartphone and it's not covered by RSS subs or other Internet apps, what you need is a bookmarked page of essentially text-only 'useful links'. I've just updated the 3-Lib web guide.
For a limited time, AAS friend Mike Ullrich has made his DevMan (task switching, processor loading, that sort of thing) utility free, with reg codes generated automatically on the download page. Grab it while you can?
Ewan goes into more detail on how well Nokia's new breed of music smartphones (starting with the 3250 and N91) work with Windows Media Player. Music on your smartphone suddenly got a lot more practical!
AllTunes is a music download service from the company behind AllofMP3. AllTunes provides an iTunes like PC client, but there is also a beta version of a smartphone client application available for S60 (2nd Edition) and UIQ 2 phones. The program is not fully functional yet (downloads are not yet implemented), but it does provide an interesting glimpse of one possible music service for mobiles.
Steve rants on poor journalism and provokes debate over initial user experience with S60. How is it possible that a six year old can use S60 without help but a professional reviewer found it disappointingly awkward?
There's a new release, 1.4, of Nokia's free Mobile Search application on the official site. Curiously, it's still labelled as a beta in the 'About' screen. Mobile Search is an official mobile-friendly way into Yell.com and Medio's country databases, plus Yahoo Web and Image search. Watch this space for a detailed review.
Steve gets his hands on the first S60 v3 phone we've had for review, the Nokia 3250 Music Phone. With an interesting keyboard layout (the bottom section spins around to reveal the playback controls) it's well suited for music playback, but how is it as a general smartphone? Read the full Nokia 3250 review to find out why.
Falling well into the category of 'interesting but not confirmed' is this story from the Netherlands, detailing and picturing the Nokia N93, running Symbian OS 9 and S60 v3. Plus mention of an N73. Anything you want to tell us, Nokia? Read on for more.
