News From Symbian Smart Phones World...

Brief: Nokia launches new business related site (nokiaforbusiness.com)

15 May 2008 12:19:40 GMT

Nokia is pleased to unveil the new nokiaforbusiness.com! The new version of the site provides you, as business and IT decision makers, with the information you need to successfully plan and implement a mobility strategy within your own company.

We've redesigned the site to shift the focus from individual products to a holistic view of business mobility: the software, security components, and devices that, when combined, can provide an end-to-end solution enabling greater productivity and employee satisfaction.

We've listened to your requests and are responding by giving you more of what you need: up-to-date content, a guide to solutions, compelling thought-leadership content, deta... .. .

Brief: A Quick Update for Just Released Nokia Communication Center

15 May 2008 11:08:33 GMT

Hi folks -- Let's start today's blogging adventures with some good news -- and good news comes from the Beta Labs, as usually lately ;)

The folks over at Nokia Beta Labs just released a quick update for the recently announced Nokia Communication Center. Although it brings lot of fixes, don't expect too much, it won't mark a significant improvements, it just brings changes that should address many of the problems that appeared since the outset.

They've made a lot of progress in addressing many issues that arose, some issues they've noticed themselves, and many you've brought to their attention.

WeatherBug LAUNCHED Weather Widget for S60 (WRT)!

14 May 2008 18:54:03 GMT

WeatherBug, the world's leading provider of live, local weather information and services, announced the WeatherBug S60 widget today for the WRT enabled Nokia devices.

WeatherBug's S60 widget utilizes Nokia's latest Web Runtime Technology (WRT) and bring advanced, local weather information to millions of Nokia users worldwide.

The WeatherBug S60 widget is available right now from the http://is.gd/got and soon will be available via the Nokia Download application as well. Nokia also plans to pre-install WeatherBug on select Nokia devices; enabling the widget to be easily accessible with a single click from the S60 idle screen or appl... .. .

RealVista Desktop - Vista Environment on S60 Devices!

14 May 2008 12:39:50 GMT

First of all I have to admit that RVD is one of the best flash based themes or maybe is better to call it Flash Lite application that I have ever seen. It is fully capable to simply change your phone style into Windows Vista without changing ANY system files or damaging your phone.

Of course, this is not the first attempt to brings the Windows looks like UI to Symbian devices, there are few flash applications that promise Windows experience on S60 devices but unfortunately all of the m including this one fails at the most important part functionality!!! It is undoubtedly nice to look at but no matter how nice it looks like I am pretty sure that you'll newer use it because of the poor funct... .. .

Technology: Express, Share, and Feel, new Nokia concepts!

14 May 2008 09:07:53 GMT

Really not sure what it is so appealing about these shiny concept phones that appear from time to time.

I mean it's hard to expect that you'll ever see most of them in the wild, but stilly they are usually looks so cute and it is really pleasure to see how the future will looks like. All in all, it's lovely to look at, but their purpose and functionality is definitely questionable.

Anyway, to meet our future vision, design firm Provoke worked with Nokia to make a conceptual study showing where mobile phone trends are heading in 4 years. Nokia concepts known as Express, Feel and Share will be shown at this yea... .. .

Copter pilots? Are you ready to ascend to victory?

13 May 2008 21:24:51 GMT

Hexagon from the N95 related Swedish forum has managed to port an addictive arcade Copter flash based game for the S60 devices.

Copter is classic arcade game developed in flash that allows you to control and drive a small helicopter by pressing the top d-pad to fly up and release it to drop down. You'll find yourself spiraling through fun and uplifting labyrinth.

'Copter pilots, are you ready to ascend to victory? Then rise to the occasion, take a flight, grab your little copter, drive it through the strange maze world and avoid the obstacles as for as long as you can without crashing your helicop.. .. .

Microsoft To Challenge Symbian In Mobile Phone Market!?

13 May 2008 18:38:47 GMT

Microsoft is aiming to capture 40 percent of the smartphone market with Windows Mobile by the year 2012, an executive said Tuesday. The target is ambitious considering the company's relatively small share of the market for smartphone operating systems today and stiff competition from the likes of Symbian, Apple's iPhone, RIM's BlackBerry, and newcomers such as Google's Android platform.

Microsoft's Windows Mobile OS went into around 11 million handsets in the company's fiscal year 2007, and it says it will reach nearly 20 million devices in fiscal year 2008, which ends June 30, said Eddie Wu, managing director of Microsoft's OEM Embe... .. .

Nokia Beta Labs just launched early beta version of the new Nokia Music PC application

13 May 2008 14:03:26 GMT

Those folks over at Nokia beta labs are extremely productive lately, incredible level of activity resulted with bunch of handy applications.

Nokia PC Music is latest addition in its software portfolio and lets you play and organize your music, discover and download new music, all seamlessly integrated with your PC and your Nokia device.

In their own words: "We talked to many users during the product development phase and they told us they want to update the music on their mobile device more frequently than they do at the moment. Many of them find the process time consuming and difficult. We created Nokia Music with that in the forefro... .. .

Brief: New Opera Mini 4.1 Out Of Beta!

13 May 2008 13:12:51 GMT

After the shorter period of beta testing the first public version of the Opera Mini (v4.1.11313) was officially released today. The just released version fixes most of the bugs discovered thought the beta testing (more than 150 changes, wow) over the past few weeks, boasting performance and brings user interface enhancements.

Opera Mini 4.1 lets you have the full Web everywhere. This newest release includes several new features, including automatic completion of web addresses, making it easier to get to the sites you need; tools for attaching files to web-based em... .. .

Nokia N78 near shipping - Support pages online

13 May 2008 12:28:34 GMT

The support pages for the Nokia's N78 is available now, releasing support pages usually means that Nokia going to ship phone within the next couple of days or weeks, at least I hope.

Nokia N78 phone support pages are place where you can find assistance and information to help you make the most of your phone.

As usually support pages include detailed specifications, Interactive Demonstrations, PC and phone software, usefultips and tricks and of course the full final versi... .. .

Nokia phone maps will get Webbed feet

13 May 2008 07:54:59 GMT

Nokia is extending its mobile navigation system to the Web via its Ovi.com site, where people will be able to save map locations and routes and then synchronize them with their phones.

Maps on Ovi, unveiled Monday at the Where 2.0 conference in Burlingame, California, builds on Nokia's next generation of mobile-phone navigation technology, Nokia Maps 2.0. It also signals Nokia's growing focus on software and services, even for use independent of its mobile phones.

Ovi is a Nokia Web portal for Internet services such as content sharing. Maps on Ovi will let people use and mark up maps on the Web and then upload their changes to a cell pho... .. .

NiiMe Drums Project available for download - Discover the inner artist in yourself!

12 May 2008 23:01:01 GMT

NiiMe Drums is the latest addition in the Asier Arranz's innovative set of NiiMe fusion applications that is now available for the public download after the shorter period of the closed beta testing.

NiiMe Drums is the very first motion based music composers for the Accelerometer enabled Symbian S60 phones like Nokia N95.

It is music-production solution that allows you to spontaneously compose the music tracks just with shaking your phone and instantly playing on your PC after composing. It is like virtual recording studio and creative sound creation tool for your phon... .. .

Mobile operating systems: The complexities of simplicity?

12 May 2008 21:23:00 GMT

In my usual daily search over the numerous blogs, sites and forums that I read frequently, I came across an interesting article that you might like to read it.

Jason Ankeny from over at FierceMobileContent shares his though on the Mobile operating systems, Symbian, Linux, Android and more particularly on the Apple's iPhone and its changing role in today's Smartphone market in US.

Sick of hearing about Apple's iPhone? Just think how the computing giant's rivals must feel. According to web measurement and analytics firm Net Applications' March operating system market survey, in less than a year since its launch, the iPhone already controls 0.15 percent of total OS market share in th... .. .

Pocket Toshi - Accelerometer based music composer

12 May 2008 17:01:37 GMT

Pocket Toshi is a prototype of a music application for the Accelerometer enabled Symbian S60 phones like Nokia N95 developed by Teemu Korpilahti and Jenna Sutela and thanks to the authors I am allowed to exclusively offer it through the Symbian Freak.

Pocket Toshi offers a creative means for using an everyday object. It turns the mobile phone into an instrument for easy music making in an instant and creates a new emotional dimension to the use of mobile technology.

Taking after the classic mobile ping pong as well as experimental music interfaces (like Toshio Iwai's Tenori-on) Pocket Toshi sets new creative challenges for compo.. .. .

Nokia N78: Unboxing and Quick Tour Video

11 May 2008 23:17:53 GMT

It seems that Nokia N78 is closer to shipping than I have expected. The folks over at iGadge have managed to got their hands on the Nokia N78 that looks like final production model and runs the very stabile software.

The first part of the video is focused hardware and design, typical unboxing and isn't as attractive as the 2nd that is more oriented on software and provide a quick tour through the Feature Pack 2 and changes that it brings.

Speaking about hardware it is interesting that Nokia has removed the quite handy gallery side key and that phone features little bit strange speakers position. The navi-wheel is improved a lot and now it is fully functional in most of the applicatio... .. .

The Saga Continues: More Live Nokia E71 Photos

11 May 2008 21:58:08 GMT

Nothing officially jet, just a few more photos for the long awaited Nokia E71 device. Actually, we know almost everything about these phones; everything except what is Nokia waiting for!?!?

We got lot of photos, we got the User agent profiles that reveal most of the specification but we still have to wait for Nokia to officially announce new additions to the Eseries family and finally confirm all these speculations and rumours.

Speaking of the just leaked photos, the thing that especially caught my attention is photo with N95 8GB side by side. I just can't believe how thin this phone is, it is thinner than the supper model and dressed in the luxury suite made of the high qua... .. .

HOT: Hands On 'Improved' Nokia E90 Version!

11 May 2008 18:01:03 GMT

I already blog about the bad build quality of some of the latest Nokia Nseries and Eseries of phones that seem to cripple their businesses and irritate users as well. Many Nokia E90 owners have reported annoying background noise during phone calls, as well as tedious keyboard issue which is caused by the keyboard construction failure and bad choice of the keyboard material that leaves fingerprints on the screen.

Anyway, our KingRichard has managed to get the redesigned 3rd edition of the Nokia E90 model yesterday after the first shipment arrive the night before in Indonesia. It seems that Nokia is well aware of all these issues and is attempting to resolve them. The new improved Nokia E90 comes in the decent black su... .. .

Add more style to already stylish Nokia N76

11 May 2008 11:20:46 GMT

If you are proud owner of the Nokia N76 and you like your mobile phone but just wish it was a little bit more stylish than it is, if you want to make it unique, then you might be interested in this article.

I've just found a quite interesting article on some Chinese site that shows how to transform the boring Nokia N76 black into luxury gold device that can compete to the premium and high quality Nokia S40 phones like Nokia 8800 Sirocco Gold.

Gold is rare, nothing new there, but gold platted mobile phones are even rarer with only few models currently available on the markets and situation with Smartphones is even worse mainly because of dominating low quality and cheap plastic mat... .. .

Freeware: World Time and Temperature Application

10 May 2008 18:27:46 GMT

Do you want to know what time it is in Hawaii? What is the weather like in Reykjavik? You are sitting at the airport in New York and want to have a quick look how the weather at your destination is?

Using The World Time and Temperature software you will be able to get answers on all of the above questions. It allows you to discover what the time is and what the weather like is in 16 major world cities is.

With the help of Yahoo! Weather web site, this application gathers weather information from all around the world and displays information in a simple graphical manner. It has the very simple, clean and well designed interface but unfortunately lacks any kind of customization and the whole application is lock... ..

Nokia aims to sell 35 million GPS mobile devices this year

10 May 2008 12:20:58 GMT

Nokia Oyj, the world's top cellphone maker, expects to sell 35 million Global Positioning System (GPS) equipped phones this year, its chief executive said on Thursday.

"We expect to ship about 35 million GPS-enabled Nokia devices in 2008, which is equal to the entire GPS device market in 2007," CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo told the annual shareholders' meeting.

Nokia's $8.1 billion acquisition of U.S.-based navigation firm Navteq, which is still pending regulatory approval in the European Union, is a good deal, Kallasvuo said. "When we look at it with the eyes we have now, when regarding pedestrian navig... .. .

Glove converts sign language into words on a Nokia N95

10 May 2008 10:56:58 GMT

The students Bhargav Bhat, Hemant Sikaria, Jorge L. Meza and Wesley Jin demonstrated their project 'HandTalk' a sensor equipped glove that translates finger and hand gestures into spoken words few days ago at Carnegie Mellon's "Meeting of the Minds" expo of undergraduate research projects

HandTalk, is actually a portable glove that recognizes sign language and sends signals to a cell phone that translates the hand gestures into audible speech.

Although it is capable to process only 32 words at the moment, but someday the young inventors hope, it may allow deaf people to communicate with those who don't know American Sign Language by having their cell phones speak their words alo... .. .

Freeware: Design Province releases iBattery screensaver

10 May 2008 10:02:54 GMT

Folks behind the very popular interactive LiveU screensaver have released a new Flash Lite screensaver named iBattery. iBattery is a crisp battery UI that can be used as Wallpapers and Screensavers on your FlashLite enabled phones. It is actually the cloned Apple iPhone battery indicator that looks pretty good I have to admit but unfortunately is not completely optimized for the 3rd edition phones.

It features only basic indicators and shows the current network, signal strength and obviously tracks your battery but lacks all other necessary indicators like, missed calls indicator, messaging, Bluetooth and so on. Hopefully they'll be able to optimized and release update version like they did with the LiveU screen.. .. .

Update: CorePlayer Mobile v1.2.4 now with flv support!

10 May 2008 08:47:55 GMT

CoreCodec Inc, a leading provider of digital media technology, has released an update for the mobile version of its very popular CorePlayer to address some issues and bring some new features and improve functionality. This update brings support for Adobe Flash multimedia container files encoded in flash video. If you have video saved to your memory card it will now be able to play them back.

Native support for flash within webpages is still a ways off, but is planned for a future release. The update also includes some bugfixes and optimizations for the recently introduced YouTube support and improved RSS feed functions. CorePlayer Mobile v1.2.4 Edition is ready and you can get it for ab... .. .

Brief: Creatures of he Deep Wins Meffy Award!

9 May 2008 21:08:16 GMT

Have you ever heard about the Meffy Awards? Completely unknown to me but in their own words: As the industry’s official benchmark for measuring success and rewarding innovation, the Meffys honour the most influential players from around the world.

Congratulations to the Hooked On: Creatures of the Deep team, for winning the Mobile Entertainment Forum, or mentioned “Meffy” Award, for best mobile game. Creatures of the Deep beat out three other nominees to take top honors in the games category.

Rimma Perelmuter, MEF Executive Director, said: "A focus on discoverability, interactivity, usability and affordability were the common strands shared by this yea... .. .

Nokia Step Counter: Track how much you walk during the day

9 May 2008 18:15:03 GMT

Ever wanted to how much you walk or run as you go about your daily life? The Nokia Step Counter not only counts your steps, it also 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.

Want to know how it all works? Your steps are measured by analyzing the output from an accelerometer in your S60 mobile device. All you have to do is carry your phone around with you whenever you move, for example in a pocket of your cloth... ..

I owe U, You Owe Me - Keep track of your borrowed stuff!

9 May 2008 13:03:47 GMT

IoUYoM is a free tool to track your IOU-like type of agreements with friends, roommates and family members.

It allows you to keep track of what your friends borrowed from you, and never lose a single item again.

This little piece of Python code is so simplified and yet very powerful tool that could save you so many CD's, books, and various different stuffs from being temporarily lost or forgotten. It has few different views and also supports filti... ..

Nokia's 'Comes With Music' Comes With Profit!

8 May 2008 22:29:54 GMT

Offering unlimited music downloads to phone buyers will make money for Nokia as well as record labels, the handset maker said, dismissing talk the move would come at the expense of profits.

"We expect to make money both from our traditional device sales, as well as from the 'Comes With Music' service," said Liz Schimel, head of Nokia's music business. "I can assure you that we are looking out for everyone's interests in creating these new business models, including our own."

The new music offering from Nokia, the first cellphone maker to push heavily into content, would differ from any other package on the market as users can keep all the music they have downloaded during the 12 months. Last week Nokia stru... .. .

Are you ready to be Zone Free? O-FONE mobile SIP client for Symbian S60!

8 May 2008 21:18:08 GMT

Just released O-FONE's client for Symbian's S60 Smartphones is basically a special and the first SIP dialer that allows you to register to the O-FONE ZoneFree network.

Today mobile users, private or business, have to pay high rates for phone calls to their mobile carriers whilst roaming, and they are also bound to their home carriers for long contracts.

O-FONE is a provider of low-cost, high-quality Voice over IP services, allowing its customers to use their mobile phones to make inexpensive and even free calls from their mobile phone whilst at home, in their office or roaming. Therefore there is no ne... .. .

A postcard from Paris: SE P5 Live Pictures leaked!

8 May 2008 19:26:12 GMT

After lot of concept art and bunch of blurry photos over the past few months finally we got some better live photos that reveals a lot about upcoming Sony Ericsson P5 UIQ Smartphone with a code name Paris. Specifications are still unconfirmed unfortunately but it seems that all the information that appeared so far looks proved to be accurate (glossy black front, slider form factor and camera).

Besides the glossy finishing that reminds me on the Nokia N81 and especially on N96 it obviously features the 5mpx camera and the kind unpractical and uncommon QWERTY solution know form the SE M600i that is definitely not suitable for the large male thumbs. The back side of the phone isn't as glossy and attracti... .. .

Brief: NSU Microsoft Vista support temporarily removed

8 May 2008 12:51:25 GMT

Support for Microsoft Vista has temporarily been removed from the Nokia Software Updater.

This is due to recent changes in certain Microsoft Vista configurations that cause the Nokia Software Updater to become unstable which can result with the very well known brick issue.

Other Microsoft Operating Systems are not affected. Support will be reintroduced as soon as possible. They are apologies for any inconvenience this may cause. I am proud XP user but if you one of those that run Vist... .. .

Update: New bugs free version of Nokia Maps v2.0

8 May 2008 11:05:55 GMT

We just got informed by the Nokia Beta Labs that beta edition of its latest Maps version is getting close to graduate and has been updated today.

Unfortunately there is no word about changes but apparently lots of bugs have been fixed and some new features have been added. It is nice to hear that soft is more stable now but I am really curious about new features, hopefully they’ll release some kind of change log soon? Oh yes, it seems that they have update Maps data as well so better check if the ma... .. .

The Saga Continues: Dora and Liam Strikes Back!!

8 May 2008 08:01:42 GMT

When last I wrote about these phones , it was a Wednesday evening, a week ago and we got the User agent profiles that reveal that both devices are based on the S60 3rd Edition (3.1) and on Symbian OS 9.2. Both phones also features the disappointing QVGA screen (N71 in landscape orientation).

Both phones also supports wide range of the connectivity options including Wi-Fi, GPRS; EDGE; UMTS and HSDPA. Furthermore both devices are equipped with the 3.2 megap... .. .

Nokia Gets FCC Approval For 6210 Navigator

8 May 2008 07:46:18 GMT

According to documents that appeared on the US Federal Communications Commission's Web site yesterday, Nokia has received regulatory approval to start selling its Navigator successor, Nokia 6210 Navigator.

As usually, there is nothing especially on the FCC pages, blurry external and internal photos of the phone and the very attractive Users Manual (draft version) which is highly suggestible to get it and read it if you are waiting for this phone.

Such approval is required before a wireless device can be sold to consumers in the United States and if nothing else FCC approval is always a good sign that phone is on the wa... .. .

Nokia Communication Center - New tool from Beta Labs!

7 May 2008 21:31:34 GMT

The team behind Nokia PC Suite together with people behind the Nokia Beta Labs today released a sneak preview of the new simplified concept for managing messages and contacts in Nokia PC Suite.

With Nokia Communication Center, you can access all your messages and contacts effortlessly in one location from your PC. This new concept replaces four existing Nokia PC Suite features - Nokia Phone Browser, Nokia Text Message Editor, Nokia Contacts Editor, and Nokia Multimedia Factory - with one simple solution. For the beta trial period, they named it as the concept Nokia Communication Center. Depending on your feedback duri... .. .

Hidden Expedition: Titanic - Astraware Delivers Second Symbian Game

7 May 2008 21:04:16 GMT

Astraware and Big Fish Games, Inc. TM , Inc. are excited to announce the availability of the highly acclaimed Hidden Expedition: Titanic TM game for Symbian S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 smartphones. Hidden Expedition: Titanic was the first 'hidden object' game to be released for Palm OS and Windows Mobile in September 2007 and is now available for play on Symbian S60 and UIQ phones worldwide.

The legendary RMS Titanic, which sank in 1912, still houses a wealth of artifacts and treasures on-board. Hidden Expedition: Titanic offers players the opportunity to explore the wreckage of this once-majestic ship and collect antique artifacts for the Tita... .. .

Just for fun: Mandelbrot set fractal generator for nokia s60 phones

7 May 2008 16:47:49 GMT

This small script is a Fractal generator written in the Python programming language. It generates the most widely recognized fractal (the Mandelbrot set) on a Nokia S60 mobile phone.

This code was inspired by the original Fractint program. It's amazing to see this program run quicker on an mobile phone (Nokia e90) than it did on a i386 machine in the early 1990's...

If you know about fractals, you may have seen nice pictures about the famous Mandelbrot or Julia sets. In fact, there have existed a lot of fractal galleries on the Internet, just hit some search engine and it will give you a variety of spectacular computer generated virtual arts about fractals. And there also exi... ..

HACK: Change Your Animated Icons (FP1 only)

7 May 2008 12:41:44 GMT

As you may have already know, Nokia N95 was the very first S60 3rd edition phone with addition of the feature pack 1 and of course first S60 phone that features animated icons in the main menu. Although animation isn't as nice and fancy (its more like zooming and sliding towards you) as 3D transition effects in the multimedia menu it is more than welcome addition that puts UI customization on entire new level.

Unfortunately, realization isn't that great as idea itself. There are some downsides that make this feature not as attractive as it should be. Animation menu is very limited and features only two options, it works only with default icons and there is no way to change the predefined icon at least it wasn't possible till the platform ha... ..

DivX Mobile Player vs. Core Player; direct comparison

7 May 2008 11:07:04 GMT

The DivX folks have just released a new (0.90) beta of their free (!) DivX / XviD player DivX Mobile Player for Windows Mobile and Symbian (note that while they state there's no 0.90 for the latter, only 0.89, the internal version number does state it's too 0.90).

Note that you'll need to register yourself in order to be able to access the app; after this, click the URL that comes in the e-mail, change your password and, then, go HERE to directly access the downloads. Back in the pre-1.2.0 CorePlayer times, several Symbian people used to state CorePlayer was definitely inferior to this application. This is why I was extremely interested in the results of my tests. CorePlayer 1.2+ (o+... .. .

Interview: Nokia's Serena Glover Lays Out Vision For Ovi's Future On the Phone!?

6 May 2008 21:33:31 GMT

T-Mobile International joined Vodafone last week as two of the carriers on board with Nokia's new brand of services called Ovi. Although there has been a lot of buzz about Ovi, a word that means “door" in Finnish, the extent of it all is a little hard to grasp. MocoNews caught up with Nokia's Serena Glover in Bellevue for a better sense to get an idea of where it is all going.

Glover co-founded Twango, the company Nokia acquired and made its first service branded under the Ovi name. As Nokia director of entertainment and communications, she heads up Share on Ovi, the social network platform where media can be viewed and shared with others. In upcoming months, more services, like music, games and maps, will transition under the bra... .. .