All About Symbian - News

Nokia N96 and N78 hands-on

2008-05-11T21:26:18+01:00

Yeah, yeah, more hands-on with prototypes by other sites - you can tell we're a tinsy bit jealous - but then on the other hand devices like the N96 don't seem anywhere near finished yet and we'd rather wait for the real thing. Still, the N78 seems fairly complete, according to this latest hands on by PhoneReport, which provides lots of photos and makes a few new observations. (via Symbian World)

Route 66 Mobile 8 gets a serious test drive

2008-05-11T16:40:25+01:00

Guest writer Arjen Broeze has been trialling the new Route 66 Mobile 8 for over a month now and here's his very detailed review. The only real problem seems to be over-stubborn clinging to originally-calculated routes - apart from that Arjen gives this sat-nav solution a green light on all fronts. I was sceptical about the way search matches are still shown in alphabetical order, but Arjen argues that the search match filtering is good enough to do without location-sorted results.

An N95 a day...

2008-05-11T07:19:18+01:00

It's always interesting to see what real world uses people find for their smartphones and which software they zero in on. In this post, Mark Guim discusses his use of Mobipocket Reader, Quickoffice and GooSync in his studies at college.

CorePlayer Mobile updated. Now supports YouTube!

2008-05-11T03:37:42+01:00

CoreCodec just announced the availability of version 1.24 of its CorePlayer Mobile for all platforms including S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3. The YouTube support might not be interesting for some S60 3rd Edition users but for the UIQ 3 community, it is the icing on the cake because for the first time, FLV videos can be played on UIQ 3 smartphones without conversion. See below for UIQ 3 screenshots, links and comments.

Which phone are you using N-Gage on?

2008-05-10T08:45:57+01:00

The N-Gage platform has now been officially launched for several weeks, but which phones are people actually using it on? Take part in our survey and let us know which N-Gage-compatible model you use to access the service.

Nokia gets slightly more Mac-friendly

2008-05-09T17:11:55+01:00

Not directly Symbian-related, but Nokia have just brought out a Macintosh version of their Internet Tablet Video Converter. Are they getting a bit more used to supporting "alternative" operating systems, and when will we see their first desktop Linux app?

PiZero premium themes direct and at half price...

2008-05-09T15:51:40+01:00

Master theme maker PiZero has made all his 'premium' themes available at half price until the end of May. Paying for themes may sound a bit odd when most other themes are free, but having tried some of these, I can testify that they're very high quality, being fast, RAM-efficient and 100% SVG-based, so they'll work on anything. Err.... advert over!

Every Step You Take

2008-05-09T15:20:42+01:00

I guess this had to come, given that Nokia's Sports Tracker already contained an accelerometer-driven pedometer. But as Sports Tracker has widened its scope, there's room for a cut-down little brother, Step Counter. From the Step Counter page: "It determines the distance you have covered and your energy expenditure. You can even compare your activity levels on different days by looking up the summaries stored in a handy diary."

dotMobi Buys Mowser For Mobile Web Integration

2008-05-09T11:58:54+01:00

Congrats to Russ Beattie and Mike Rowehl, the guys behind Mowser. It may well have looked dead and buried a few weeks ago, but the service has been bought by the dotMobi consortium. Reporting on Dev.Mobi, James Pearce charts out the use of their new toy, namely to drive Opt-In mobilisation of websites, integrating the Mowser Directory, and of course using the (re)formatting technology.

IoUYoM - no, it's not a code...

2008-05-09T08:54:19+01:00

The availability of a mature Python interpreter is gradually producing mainstream applications and not just novelties. Witness the acronymically-named IoUYoM (I owe yoU, You owe Me), which was just released and lets you keep track of what you've lent and to whom, plus what you've borrowed, etc.

All About N-Gage reviews Mile High Pinball

2008-05-08T15:17:56+01:00

Over on All About N-Gage, we've been putting one of the games of the year, Nokia's first party title Mile High Pinball, through its paces. Those of you who remember the original gen N-Gage version may want to check out the new high res graphics, as there are lots of screenshots. Click here to read Tzer2's in-depth review on AAN and find out how Mile High Pinball did. UPDATE: We've now added a gameplay video at the beginning of the review.

Nokia Software Update loses Vista support

2008-05-08T10:55:39+01:00

In a shocking move, Windows Vista support has been officially (but temporarily) removed from Nokia Software Update, with Nokia citing instability. This will slam an awful lot of users, including me. Let's hope they iron out the problem sooner rather than later.

The Samsung i450 - a wolf in sheep's clothing

2008-05-08T10:09:27+01:00

The Samsung i450, at first glance a Nokia N95 wannabe, has hidden strengths that come from its more unassuming appearance and lower price. Ewan brings us part 1 of his review of the i450, looking at the hardware, form factor and target market. Parts 2 and 3 will cover music and applications.

Promoting Mobile Services to top One Billion Dollars

2008-05-08T08:56:46+01:00

Juniper Research reckon that the advertising spend to promote mobile services will be in excess of $1 billion dollars for 2008 (reports IT Pro), which leads me to think that the total income from the mobile services must be at least $8-$10 billion. Those are some impressive numbers. The usual culprits are blamed for the increase, including better handsets and more bandwidth.

Maps 2.0 update

2008-05-08T08:32:44+01:00

Well, you certainly can't accuse the Nokia Maps team of rushing things.... Still, the latest (and possibly last) beta of Maps 2.0 is available today for anyone with a S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 device (e.g. the N95), although there's no changelog that I can see. Comments welcome.