Smartphone loudspeakers are a mixed bunch, many are good enough while some make us wonder why manufacturers bothered to fit them in the first place. If you like to use your phone as a boombox, external speakers are definitely the way to go. However, some of them are so bulky or elaborate that they rather defeat the object of using a converged device. The XMI X-Mini II mini speakers might just offer a compromise of compactness versus quality and power. Read on for our review and photos.
The problem with classic games is that they tend to get overlooked by many because it's been so long since they appeared. Such is the case with ZingMagic's Yacht (i.e. Yahtzee), here in its 'II' implementation, reviewed back by us five years ago on All About Symbian, when the screen size was a brain numbing 176 pixels by 208 - remember? The gameplay's basically identical, but for a classic game this is exactly what you want. And we have improvements in screen resolution and distribution method.
So you want a Hammond organ in your phone? No? Go on, give it a try. Still no? Well, you can sound like Rick Wakeman and recreate some classic 1970s organ prog intros? Yes? There - I knew you were interested. See my review and video below, demonstrating Drawbar Organ for Symbian. It's not perfect, but it's a unique slice of musical fun.
It starts off looking rather familiar - a big grid of tiles, and you can swap over two of them to try and make something. The difference here is that Word Blast is built up around letters and words rather than colours, and that adds a level of complexity to what promises to be an interesting puzzle game.
Part of Nokia World 2010 was the Nokia Innovators Hackathon, which asked developers to come up with some smart ideas and test code in a limited amount of time. One of the winners, Facelock, is now polished and up in the App Store for you to download. Who needs a password for your phone when you can use your face?
While it won't replace local knowledge and a friendly face, Toozla's audio guide to the world around you is a great little tool to have in your pocket while you travel, or even if you want to explore your home town and discover something about where you live. But it has some very rough edges - which might be enough to stop many people using it.
Writing a comprehensive language translation application is a lot easier when someone else is doing all the heavy lifting for you - as is the case with the new genre of translation applications which piggy back on the Google Translate API. For us, the users, it doesn't really matter whose servers are doing the work, mind you. In this case we have a simple and functional interface - all that's needed is a modest mobile Internet connection and you're away.
Viewing photos on a phone is something that we all take for granted. The Photos application on Symbian does a fine job, especially on touch enabled devices. However, if you don’t want to swipe through everything on the device, you’ll have to create albums. This can take some time, and there’s no way to view photos in relation to where they are saved. Fortunately, that’s where Folder Gallery steps in, generating galleries based on directories in your mass storage drives. Read on to find out how well it works.
I'm surprised there haven't been more attempts at Air Hockey games on touchscreen phones, especially with multi-touch capacitive screens. So Glow Air Hockey from Hyperkani has a pretty open field to rule over. And it still fails.
Mobile data is an expensive resource unless you have an unlimited tariff. Oh wait, ‘unlimited’ doesn’t mean unlimited! While Symbian OS can tell you how much data you’ve used during a given connection session, that count is gone once you disconnect. It would be useful if we could have a third party app running in the background, keeping a running total of your data usage. SPB Wireless Monitor is one such application, but how well does it work in practice? Read on to find out.
