When it comes to obtaining podcasts (podcatching), the options for Symbian users are surprisingly limited. Many old-time users still lament Nokia's decision to abandon the built-in Nokia Podcasting client. Fortunately, another third party podcatcher was recently released, in addition to Sebastian Brannstrom's Podcatcher. Poddi Podcatcher fully embraces the Nokia Belle style user interface. Read on to see what it has to offer.
Good news for Twitter fans – a new Symbian client has arrived, and it goes by the name of Neatly. With Twitter clients being so plentiful, it's crucial that new entrants to the market have some unique feature to separate them from the rest. With that in mind, Neatly is appropriately named, as its selling point is that it attempts to automatically organise your tweets for you. Read on to see how well it works in practice!
Look away touchscreen-only users, Shortcuts is designed for Symbian smartphones with physical keyboards, so we're talking N97, N97 mini, C6-00, E6 and E7. What it promises though, is a wonderland of keyboard shortcuts that let you fly around the applications running on your fully multitasking smartphone. It's slick, it works, but it's currently in need of extra development and I was also puzzled that some potential shortcuts seem blocked for some reason.
Regardless of my own feelings on these social utilities mangling and downsampling your photos, I realised that Sophie Cam (which at least preserves a modicum of resolution for locally saved images) had never even been mentioned before on AAS. Updated in the last month to v1.6.1, there are now more filters, a new tilt shift effect and more, which means that it's time for my full review of this rather slick social photo tool.
As successive versions of Symbian touch interfaces have emerged from Nokia, there have been power users out there waiting for better widgets to be released. This wish hasn't always been fulfilled by Nokia but third party developers can step in and save the day, and that's exactly what QooApps have been doing lately. We recently reviewed QooBattery, and now followed up with both QooCalendar and QooClock widgets. Find out if they complement or complicate the Symbian homescreen.
Stoppola isn't the only time lapse tool on Symbian, but it's the newest and slickest one on the block and the most video-focussed. In fact, it's so new that it's only currently available for Belle FP1 devices like the Nokia 808 PureView, which makes it fairly exclusive. Here's my review, together with a sample of its output. Summary: works as advertised, but you have to pay for high resolution video output and - yes, it really does need wider device compatibility.
We all know Symbian has the best the power management of the smartphone platforms, but that doesn't mean we should take it for granted! If you're a power user who likes to know everything about your device, then having some sort of battery monitor is a good idea. We've already seen Nokia's Battery Monitor, but there's an alternative in the shape of qooBattery.
Choice is never a bad thing and that's why we're glad to see another YouTube client for Symbian. FastTube is free of charge and provides Hi-Definition streams (where available) and downloads from YouTube to your Symbian device. Here we put FastTube under the microscope and see what else it offers and how it compares to the competition.
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!
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