The last time I formally reviewed a Zingmagic Backgammon game was five years ago, amazingly, an eternity in the mobile world. Since then we've had much higher resolution screens, touch interfaces, faster processors, and so on. The core game hasn't changed, of course, this being based on a board game that dates back thousands of years. Meaning that you probably already know how to play this - though how well you know is something that Backgammon Pro V aims to find out.
Even if you are not a member of Qype, it's likely that you'll have benefited from the European based service when searching the web for local customer reviews of shops, cafés, etc. With the mobile app, you can look up reviews of locations in your area, as well as checking in at, and reviewing, places you've just visited. Fortunately, Qype is available on all major mobile platforms, including Windows Phone 7 and Symbian.
The batteries in Nokia's smartphone range continue to improve incrementally. First we have existing battery designs like the BL-5K getting 'upgraded' by another 100mAh, then we have the BV-4D on the Nokia 808 PureView, which proudly proclaims itself as providing '3.8V' rather than the familiar '3.7V'. All of which means that there's more power available per milliAmp hour. However, tracking how much battery power is left in your phone has never been more vague. The new version of PhoNetInfo can help slightly. But only slightly. And it may even add to the confusion!
Informed sources claim that the developers of this little camera utility pack, Scalado (much of which has just been acquired by Nokia), also have some of their IP inside the Nokia 808 PureView, so you shouldn't be surprised that Camera Lover Pack is pretty slick and polished. The pack has been out for a while, but has just been issued with a v1.1.9 update that's compatible with the 808, making this a good moment to give it the formal review treatment on the device whose imaging it helps power. The result: fabulous speed on the 808, though 90% of the range of effects on offer will be viewed as gimmicks by most owners.
Word games never get old. Over the years there have been plenty variations on Scrabble and word search games. After looking for something new, I came across Word on Word, it's a dated title, but brings a new way to apply both planning and vocabulary. Giving you a loose literary equivalent of Columns or Bejeweled, could this keep your mental dictionary engaged and enthralled? Read on to find out.
As you may recall, I've been trying out a number of Bluetooth speakers, first the Jawbone Jambox (loud, but massive and expensive) and then the Nokia Play 360 (loud, but still big and expensive). And now the budget contender, the SoundWave SW50, at just over 7cm wide/high and costing less than £30, so roughly a quarter the price of the previous two speakers. I tested the SW50 with both my Nokia N8 and N86 from the Symbian world, with my Lumia 800 from the Windows Phone world and with my Android-powered Galaxy Nexus. Summary: it's almost as loud as the two pricier contenders and amazing value for money, with only one caveat.
I'm not a lover of cute and cuddly image filters, Instagram-style, as many of you know - why bring the mighty cameras of today's smartphones down to 2003 levels of quality and resolution? However, PhotoFunia promises to work and act differently - the idea here is to take a photographed face and do 'interesting' composites with it, with the heavyweight processing working server-side. Nice idea, with fun results, but don't go looking for anything of useable quality.
Predating NFC in mainstream use by a year or two, and with some definite areas of overlap, QR codes still haven't taken off fully, I'd argue. You don't see them on every shop window, on every publication, even though they're easy to generate and free to present to the world. Regardless of take-up, there will be times when you want your Symbian smartphone to read both QR codes and the older, linear barcodes - so what software is currently available to read these and how well do all the titles work?
On the face of it, Pool Rebel should be just about the most mature pool game on Symbian - it's certainly the title with the longest heritage, starting life back in the days of Windows Mobile (most recently in 2008). However, though I was impressed by the options all round and by the physics, Pool Rebel just isn't ported as well as it could be to Symbian, with too much wasted space on screen and with on-screen action that's, at times, eye-strainingly small.
The balance between an application simply being an on-device advert and being genuinely useful is often a hard one to strike, but AA Breakdown & Traffic has got it slap, bang on right. Holding your details, providing an obvious action to take in the event of a breakdown and advising on incidents are all part and parcel of this useful little applet... even if you're not actually an AA member.
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