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?
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!
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."
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.
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.
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.
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, 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.
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.
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.
Intrinsyc was appointed a Symbian Competence Center by Symbian Limited. Symbian recognized Intrinsyc's expertise in mobile device software development, as well as Intrinsyc's contribution to the successful development of Symbian OS handsets. As one of only ten Symbian Competence Centers worldwide, and the only center based in North America, Intrinsyc helps handset manufacturers, operators, partners and silicon vendors reduce product development time and cost while improving time-to-market and quality.
QSound Labs announced that its mQFX and QSurroundMobile technologies will be made available on Symbian OS as a reference component. mQFX, for 3D stereo audio enhancement effects, and QSurroundMobile, the multichannel audio virtualization technology, will be available in Symbian OS developer and customer kits and can be used for test and demonstration purposes. QSound's mQFX and QSurroundMobile will provide extended functionality for Symbian OS mobile phones, delivering a superior listening experience for all types of multimedia content.
Search Brands Still Offer Stronger Reach on PCs According to inaugural results from the MobileWeb Metrix service, The Weather Channel, Yahoo! Weather and AccuWeather achieved mobile reach that outpaced their PC reach. All three sites had mobile-to-PC reach index scores above 120, pointing to significantly stronger reach among mobile Web users than among PC Web users (see Table 1). With an index of 190, ESPN also has stronger reach among mobile Web users.
QUALCOMM, a provider of business-to-business wireless enterprise applications and services, and TMTsoftware, the provider of fleet maintenance software, have announced the full integration of TMT's TRANSMAN, a best-in-class maintenance management solution, with QUALCOMM's GlobalTRACS equipment management system and OmniTRACS mobile communications system, creating a complete and automatic maintenance management solution that helps to manage the entire fleet maintenance process.
Symbian welcomed the availability of Nokia's N72, a sleek addition to Nokia's N series range of phones with high-performance multimedia functionality at its core. The Nokia N72, based on Symbian OS v.8.1 and S60 software, has started shipments to key markets worldwide, including the Middle East and Africa.
It could be argued the mobile web is right here right now due to the powerful smart mobile devices that we are now using. These re-render existing sites, and the power of 3G makes mobile browsing not only fun, but practical.
Symbian welcomed the availability of Nokia's Symbian OS-based Nokia 9300, the first business device on a US operator network with BlackBerry Connect. The Nokia 9300 is now available in the U.S. through Cingular Wireless and features the popular BlackBerry wireless services via the BlackBerry Connect licensing program from Research In Motion.
Ziff Davis announced today the launch of SmartCompany.com, adding to its growing portfolio of over 50 consumer and enterprise technology websites. SmartCompany.com provides entrepreneurs, owners and technology professionals at small businesses with timely, targeted information about the technology solutions that will help their companies grow and become profitable more quickly.
Access your GMail messages from your mobile at http://m.gmail.com. The Series 60 application lets you use most of your existing Yahoo account features, such as email (which supports push), instant messaging, and uploading photos. This really is amazing software and I would recommend you download it if you have a series 60 phone. Get it here.
