To the uninitiated, Carcassonne could be classified as a puzzle game; however, it's actually a remake of a very old German board game. If you can imagine playing a Pipe Mania type of game, with different types of classes, as well as shapes, of pipe, along with people to station on strategic points, then you might just have an idea of how Carcassonne plays out. If a cerebral board game that goes at a gentle pace is your kind of thing, then read on.
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.
It has been a long time since I allowed a Symbian utility to have auto-start privileges on my phone, but Extra Buttons is so elegant in concept and implementation that I'm prepared to go out on a limb for it. Essentially it takes wasted space on your Symbian Nokia Belle toolbar and adds in extra icons and functions, as seamlessly as if they were part of the OS itself.
Just when we thought we'd seen every Twitter client for Symbian, we were proved wrong; kind of. Tweetian is currently available for Symbian Anna devices only; however, a Belle version is in the works. While none of the features should be of surprise to anyone at this point in time, the question is what subtle features are there to separate it from other clients. Read on to find out.
A few days ago, I covered impressions of the Nokia 701 in comparison to the heavyweight from the initial Symbian^3 line-up, the N8. You may also remember that, I did formal review parts on the 701 before, in review part 1 and review part 2, but since then the device has received a big Feature Pack 1 update, including a processor speed bump, so it's high time to refresh our memories and to look in detail about what's changed and what's new.
Physics is fun! No really it is, think of all those pool games, Angry Birds, Worms – they're all physics simulations. Next along in the realm of physics-based action puzzle games is The Marbians HD. You're in control of 'Martians', who have crash landed and you have to bounce them around inside marbles (yes, really) to get them back to their flying saucers. If you like pool games, Martians and the 1950s, then you should read our review.
Developer ZhuShuoSoft shows that it's possible to take an existing successful genre, mix it up and add a whole new layer of enjoyability. Airport Control takes the 'flight control' line-drawing game, adds in a measure of flight simulation, cranks up the realism, adds a musical soundscape - and then makes the result harder to play. Sounds like an addictive, immersive game to me...
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.
Available either in 10 day trial form or for immediate purchase, Notekeeper aims to offer a healthy degree of access to your Evernote online account from your Symbian smartphone. In the absence of an official client (the Web Runtime version for S60 5th Edition was phased out a while ago), Notekeeper is by definition the best Evernote client for Symbian - but happily, it's also a slick, thoughtfully-implemented and reliable solution that I can recommend.
Take a classic game theme (Aztecs, jungle techno, coloured balls, temple runography) and apply it to simple 'Columns' arcade gameplay and you end up with.... Zuba Deluxe. Unaccountably, it's free in the Nokia Store even though there's also a 'trial' version - don't question it, just grab it while you can. It's a competent enough, even at times gripping, arcade puzzler and with atmosphere oozing from its pores, it's hard to argue with at this price point.
