Started in Amsterdam in 2009, Layar is an award winning mobile browser, specifically geared towards augmented reality and presenting location based information on the screen of your smartphone, mixing real world views with data pulled in from a number of sources. Now available on Symbian^3, Layar is an application that is far more than a test-bed prototype. Layar has been out there for two years, in the real world, helping people find out what is around them. It's a glimpse into a world that's been promised by science fiction, and while it might have some teething problems, Layar is still a great example of what a modern smartphone can do.
Buying music isn’t just an audio experience. For as long as music has been on sale, cover art has been part of the purchase. This continues into the digital age, where images are supplied with MP3’s as part of the download. As any seasoned Symbian user will know, the built-in music player doesn’t always successfully handle album art. Fortunately, help is at hand from an app called CoverUp which is here to fix our woes, read on for our review.
Some things shouldn’t work well together. Putting together a Bejewelled style match three game with a 'Sim Village' system to keep score strikes me as a four o’clock in the morning idea that's just wrong. But much like Run DMC and Aerosmith, 10tons's Heroes of Kalevala makes it work thanks to a smart learning curve and a huge dollop of style.
If you've been paying attention to our coverage of the Nokia E7, you'll remember that I complained at length about the slipperiness of the unibody main shell of the device: it was prone to dropping, especially when opening the E7, plus the device tended to skate away from me on the desk when I was typing. In addition, the camera glass on the back was flush, meaning it was prone to picking up dirt and scratches. The Black Silicone Skin fixes all the above, as you might expect, although there are a couple of minor caveats that help to push my rating for this accessory down a bit.
Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Look, this is going to be painful, maybe you should just stop reading now. You see, last week there was a bit of a scuffle in the AAS chat room, because Pipe Mania had shown up in the Ovi Store and we all wanted to review it. I got the short straw (I just didn't realise it at the time). Put together by AppsOnGo, this doesn’t appear to be a licenced version of the game, and while it does have the same starting point as the traditional PipeMania, it rapidly goes horribly wrong.
There are two types of music rhythm game out there – the first uses existing songs and performances and carefully pre-sculpts the musical beats you need to hit (Rock Band is a good example of this), and the second is where your own musical collection is used and the program will analyse the music to create the patterns to match on the fly. Where does Gamelion's Boom Beats fit in?
It's not often that you play a new game and wonder why on earth noone's thought of the idea before. But that's what I was thinking when reviewing Word Jockey. Not because of the horse racing metaphor for winning and losing, but because of the idea of a word game played with extreme time pressure. Word Jockey also manages to present a super-slick and rather pleasant interface, making it a sure fire hit all round.
Smartphones have replaced many of our everyday items, the wristwatch, the calculator, and even the Dictaphone. If the latter applies to you, then you’ll be interested in this review; especially if you think the Symbian (Sound) Recorder isn’t good enough for your needs. Recordoid Lite is a high quality sound recording application, but does it have what it takes to survive in the social media generation? Read on to find out.
WeatherBug is a big name in weather - just look at their apps for every other platform and browser known to man. And now it's on Symbian too, courtesy of the ease of app development that is Qt. For all Symbian^3 phones (and a few S60 5th Edition ones which you've been brave enough to install Qt onto), WeatherBug is a fairly comprehensive solution, whatever your forecasting and meteorological needs - and it's totally free, which always helps!
If you like extreme sports and ordinary parachuting is too tame for you, then maybe you need a taste of Parachute Panic. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to guide parachutists in their descent through gruesome obstacles, then hopefully land them on boats which are sailing in shark infested water. The hand-drawn drawn graphics try to disguise the horror, but Parachute Panic is aptly named. Read on to find out why.
