Everybody loves a good mash up scenario. Take Nokia's classic 'Snake' game from the earliest mono-screened feature phones. Take a modern multi-level, multi-scenario game framework. Mash the two together with lashings of timers, powerups, customisation options, cut scenes, high score tables and help pop-ups. The end result is Snake Deluxe 2, a major Symbian title that has been around for ages but which we haven't covered for at least five years, and certainly not in this latest touchscreen, nHD resolution, Belle FP2-compatibility-fixed version, updated recently, here tested on the Nokia E7.
This is 2013, a full two years after Symbian was given its marching orders, yet we still see some major games being released for the hundreds of millions of existing Symbian users. Thankfully. The latest is Contre Jour, an original iOS classic that made a high profile entrance on Windows Phone recently. And now on Symbian, here in its full stereo-accompanied glory.
Tower Defence, it's a genre of game that everyone in the All About Symbian office seems happy for me to take care of; I don't know why, but I'm not complaining. Just when I thought I'd seen everything in the genre on Symbian, Fantasy Kingdom Defence popped up on our radar. This is your standard tower defence fare, but wraps it up in a cutesy medieval style.
If you're a phone geek, customising one's smartphone is one of the best things about owning it. Since the release of Symbian^3, we have enjoyed the always-on clock and notification display from our AMOLED displays. Screenlock FX is an alternative lock screen that attempts to replace the original with far more functionality, but does it warrant the £4.00 price tag? Read on to find out.
We all know how useful it can be to have access to our files in the cloud, not just for sharing but for having access to a much larger library of data than we would normally carry on our mobile devices. Dropbox and SugarSync have been the big hitters in this line of business, but Microsoft has been developing its SkyDrive solution, which goes a step further by providing Office web apps so you can edit and create your files in a browser. SkyDrive also gives more free space than anyone else, 7GB. Until now though, SkyDrive coverage on Symbian has been pretty weak. However, with its latest update, SkyFiles Pro now brings a first class SkyDrive experience to Symbian. We put it though its paces.
Smartphone speakers are a mixed bag, but most of us make the best of what we have. While more and more people seem to be audiophiles and are making their audio opinions known online, there comes a point where you might say a smartphone speaker isn't enough. The question is then which are the best external speakers? Nokia are keen to push NFC paired Bluetooth speakers which come with hefty price tags. Today's review looks at the more affordable Veho 360 M4 Bluetooth speaker.
Draky and the Twilight Castle is a quirky adventure game. It tells the tale of two children who explore the home of Baron Von Draky and how they run in to trouble when it turns out that the legendary Baron is actually a vampire. If you think you have the reactions, the memory, and the puzzle solving skills to get the kids out alive, then step inside, if you dare.
A few weeks ago I reviewed Mugen's 3000mAh Extended Battery for the Nokia 808 PureView - the obvious downside of this is that it comes with an extended back cover too, making the 808 rather thick. Which is why I'm now also reviewing the sister product, the 1500mAh Slim Extended Battery, slotting into exactly the same volume as the Nokia supplied original.
Calling all power users, if you're interested having a widget that can show you exactly how your phone is performing, then qooSystem is something for you. Symbian^3 brought better task management options with live previews of apps and a 'Close All' feature. However, a dedicated task manager goes well beyond that with the ability to audit, close or kill running processes, which is exactly what qooSystem does. Read on to see how well it all works.
Astronomy is an app genre that thankfully never seems to go away. Mobile devices are the electronic companions always at our side and can provide an excellent guide to the night sky. We've had quite a few astro apps through our doors here at All About Symbian (see our Top 5 apps list), and Smart Planetarium is the latest astronomical discovery in the Nokia Store. Let us take a look to see where it fits into the constellation of other Symbian astronomy apps.
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