In this video review we take a look at the recently released Rally World Championship application. With a slick user experience, it presents a guide to the drivers and teams involved, but more importantly allows you to follow the rallies as they happen, with breaking news stories, videos, live maps and timing updates. World Rally Championship also serves as a good example of how a rich media application, with a custom user interface, can be created using Qt and Qt Quick (QML).
This is more like it! Smart graphics, a big logical challenge, requiring arcade reactions, with lots of granularity of levels... Now Boarding was a game that stood out for me the second that Steve pointed it out in the Ovi Store. Given that I pounced on this game, have I made a good snap decision? The short answer is yes, this is a great mobile game.
Digital Cubes have always been with us on computers, partly because I think those people who can work cubes very well are also the sort of people who like to fiddle around with computers, but the rise of the touch screen smartphones has meant that the portable physical puzzle is easily available as a virtual puzzle in your pocket. But is it worth it?
Another Qt-written game title from new boys Bluefir, Hotshot Pool takes the traditional pool table, cue and balls and then reinvents some of the premises. To be honest, there's a good idea here that might have worked really well, but Hotshot Pool lets itself down in the end by not getting the basics - playing shots - right.
"Can't read my, can't read my, no you can't read my, Poker Dice, Yahtzee's got to love somebody." Okay, that's enough of that. The question is not how good my singing is, but can Blue Particle's poker dice game, Yacht, make a better attempt at covering a classic than I can?
One of several casual games launched by Bluefir recently, Pinball Puzzle is more akin to traditional Bagatelle, or 'Pachinko', as the Japanese apparently call it. Yes, it involves firing balls into arrays of metal pins and trusting to luck as to which scoring 'bin' they'll end up in, but thankfully there's a bit more to it than that, as you'll see.
Symbian has long supported the use of custom folders to help organise content in the app launcher. They reduce the need for scrolling, thus allowing you to find and launch applications more quickly. However, every custom folder has the same icon, which can get confusing. This is where the Folder Icon application comes in; it allows you to customise the image used for each folder. It's an extra piece of the customisation puzzle, but, especially on the homescreen, will also help solve cases of mistaken identity.
Fresh from add-on application Camera Pro, we have another ambitious photographic add-on for Symbian^3 phones, this time not limited in effective applicability to the N8 and this time focussing(!) on stills only. ShutterPro Premium aims to extend the range of basic camera settings and then add a range of image processing effects, from tilt shift to 3D anaglyphs. There's quite a bit to take in, but I've put my thoughts down below. One thing's for sure though - ShutterPro Premium's for thoroughly planned shots and not for ad-hoc snaps.
There are huge applications, sprawling labyrinths of functions, coupled with perfect form (Steve will no doubt be along with one of those later today) but right now I want to show you a fast application, in the modern "single function app" mode that is so prevalent on smartphones. And it's for fast food. Yes, welcome to Symbian, the McDonalds Finder!
If there's anything that the Las Vegas hotels are good at, it's giving you a massive experience - because at some point they know they're going to get you sitting down at a gambling table where they have at least a 0.5% advantage. But as the attraction of Vegas expands to luxury resort, spectacular shows and fantastic food, the sooner they can get you into their... ecosystem the better. Which is why the Wynn Las Vegas application is a little bit interesting.
