Recent News Headlines - Links of Interest
The Nokia E63 hits v200
Just a short note to say that, as expected, the E71's cheaper sister, the E63, has also gotten itself a firmware update, this time to v200 firmware update (via Nokia Software Updater), adding in Ovi Contacts. Screens and comment over at The Symbian Blog.
Nokia Should Lock Up Ovi Store Developers In A Warehouse
Over on the Lazarus like Mobile Industry Review, the other Ewan in mobile has posted an ambitious yet simple plan to save the Ovi Store from itself. Simply put, Nokia would create three enclaves of coders (in London, San Francisco and Paris) and give them a monthly stipend of £3,500 and as much coca cola and pizza as they can eat. As long as they code one application every eight weeks, the proposed 100 developers per warehouse get to stay. Total cost? Roughly £2.34 per handset. That's quite high, but this is a fascinating idea that should be taken seriously.
Ovi Contacts updated, now supports touch/S60 5th Edition
Ovi Contacts, originally Nokia Chat, integrates the standard S60 contact list with a proprietary instant messaging and presence/status system. It has just had an update that brings it close to formal release status and includes much wider compatibilty, including support for the Nokia N97 and 5800 XpressMusic. The next step, presumably, is to start building this into more phones (the Nokia 5630 XpressMusic, Nokia 5730 XpressMusic and Nokia 6720 classic) already have it. Data-phobes should note that Ovi Contacts requires an online connection and will consume a small amount of bandwidth. Maps lookups are integrated into Ovi Maps.
Ovi Maps 3.0 is now officially released (but you need a PC)
It's official. After months of beta testing, Nokia has released Ovi Maps (née Nokia Maps) 3.0 to the world for most (but not all) S60 3rd Edition FP1, FP2 and S60 5th Edition phones. The download is a 20MB Windows installer, so you do have to own a PC, but there's a little note on the Ovi Maps download page saying that Mac support is 'coming soon'. I certainly hope so. See also Rafe's preview of this release, here on AAS.
The Phones Show 84 with Symbian interview and N86 review
The Phones Show 84 is now public (embedded below too), with a reprise commentary on the Nokia E75, a hands-on review of the Nokia N86 8MP and a interview with the Symbian Foundation's Executive Director Lee Williams, asking him some of your questions, on the subjects of robot duck overlords, LTE, touchscreens, open source OS and, of course, which phone does he personally use(!)
The Nokia N97 firmware v11 goes live
For many people anyway, e.g. here at N97 enthusiast Gerry Moth's. See also his Twitter feed for his comments through the day. Rafe and Tzer2 both have N97s here at AAS and I'll try to get some comments out of them through the day!
Looking ahead to Nokia N97 v11 tomorrow
I couldn't resist a link-of-interest to the Serie-N folks over in Italy, who have dug deep to uncover what's coming in the version 11.0.021 firmware for the Nokia N97 tomorrow. Relax, you can skip their first para in Italian - the good stuff's all in English!
Nokia Java Runtime 2.0 for the 5800 and N97
Having a busy day, Nokia Beta Labs has formally launched a next-gen Java Runtime for S60 5th Edition and upwards - presumably this will make it into future device firmwares. In addition, version 2.0 is a component which can be maintained in the future independently, through the 'Sw update' system built into each device. The technicalities of the update mean that the installer (a 4MB SIS) includes a routine to modify any already-installed Java MIDlets to work properly with the new runtime. More details below.
Messaging IM beta for the E75
Nokia is previewing its upcoming Messaging/IM hybrid application by releasing a Java-hosted test version for just the E75, over on Beta Labs. This is the only S60 phone (so far) with permanent full access to Nokia Messaging as a service, but presumably functionality from this will spread in the coming months, as well as it getting wider compatibility. More details below, if you've got an E75, if use either Yahoo Messanger or Ovi Chat, if you don't mind its Java nature, and if you fancy giving this a whirl.
Nokia Multimedia Transfer now supports the N86 and N97
Nokia Multimedia Transfer just got itself a profile update - ignore the claimed compatibility in their flash widget - if you update your Mac's Nokia Multimedia Transfer now you'll get the new configurations. It definitely now works with the N86 (screenshot proof below) and the N97.
Search News Stories
Use keywords to search in the summary, title and full text of our news.
Submitting News and Information
You can submit your own news, or give us a news tip for inclusion on the site. For more information visit this page.
More information on how we collect our news and the basis on which it gets published is also available.
