Steve Litchfield explores the goodies that Google Local for Mobile brings to any Symbian (or Windows Mobile, come to that) smartphone. Free mapping, aerial photography and route planning for anywhere in the world? Yup, but watch your GPRS bill...
I started reviewing Another World and gave up, it was just too hard - Ewan showed some Scottish grit and made it further into this 1990s epic, cinematic adventure game. Here's his review.
A quick update for freeware fans. No nag screens, no reg codes, no hit on your wallet. There's a much updated table of S60 freeware over on 3-Lib, with over a dozen new entries in the last month.
Guido van Rossum, the creator of the Python programming language that holds a lot of the cool stuff on the Internet together, has been personally enthusing over the recent Nokia S60 port of the language, which allows users to create innovative smartphone applications extremely rapidly.
NTT DoCoMo has launched a Japanese version of the S60-based 6630. Dubbed the NM850iG, this smartphone has a slightly different keypad layout, with the appropriate Japanese characters catered for.
Steve discovers XXL Screensaver, a freeware utility to replace the default Nokia 'strip' screen saver, and finds it incredibly cool and rather useful. Here's the review.
TechDigest is carrying a report that ALK's CoPilot Live sat-nav software (previously Windows Mobile only) is coming to Symbian/S60, and for free. Subject to a monthly T-Mobile contract on a Nokia N70, anyway.
ShoZu, the moblog client for Flickr, Webshots, Text America and Buzznet has been updated to v1.6 for S60 users. New in this version is the ability to back up and edit (via the Shozu website) your contacts. To get the latest build, log into Shozu with your username.
On Tuesday Skype announced a partnership with Hutchinson to put Skype on phones on the 3 networks around the world. However, Skype were not willing to answer questions on specific handsets saying only that they were actively working on development for the Symbian platform. However at the 'Do New' booth on the Nokia stand there was a demo of Skype running on two 6680s over a 3G network. Read on for details...
Interesting interview over on Yahoo, with Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, talking about the fight to make Windows Mobile devices as affordable as those using Symbian OS. Some fighting talk here, though even he admits that Symbian are currently 'dominating' the sector.
Symbian have announced some interesting 2005 and Q4, 2005 figures. Almost 34 million smartphones running Symbian OS shipped in 2005, the fourth consecutive year in which shipments have grown by more than 100%. Over 10 million shipments were in Q4. Here's the full press release, which goes into a lot more detail.
Samsung have announced their latest S60 phone at 3GSM. It's a GSM / UMTS (3G) phone operating on the 850/900/1800/1900/2100 Mhz bands in a flip form factor. It runs Symbian 8.1 and S60 2nd Edition, has a two megapxiel camera on the rear, a VGA camera on the front for video calling and a microSD memory card slot. Read on for pictures and summary specifications.
One of the initial ‘bullet points’ of Series 60 was that it could be seen as a widely adopted platform (on top of the widely available Symbian OS) across the market, with Nokia licensing to other manufacturers, such as Siemens, Sendo, Samsung and Panasonic. That strategy seems to have been diluted (as have Siemens and Sendo) but today’s announcement is that one of the world’s largest carriers, Vodafone, is pushing Series 60 as a ‘preferred device software platform.’ Which is a nice public acknowledgement of the same plan, but tweaked slightly to put an onus on the carriers.
Symbian's David Wood talks up Symbian's prospects (with good reason) and seems positive about the Sony Ericsson M600i ('wider appeal', although without a camera, some would disagree), in his latest Insight article.
One by one the wires and devices are disappearing from your living room. Engadget reports on FCC approval of Nokia's AD-42W Wireless Audio Gateway", which lets the Nokia N91 and other future smartphones supporting Advanced Audio Distribution Profile send music over Bluetooth straight to your hi-fi.
Steve Litchfield explores the goodies that Google Local for Mobile brings to any Symbian (or Windows Mobile, come to that) smartphone. Free mapping, aerial photography and route planning for anywhere in the world? Yup, but watch your GPRS bill...