Over on Ovi Gaming, Ewan Spence has been putting Nokia's exclusive music game Dance Fabulous through its paces, and apparently it is rather good... The game was developed for Nokia by Digital Legends, the same people who did the excellent fighting game ONE, and features exclusive new music created by Dave Stewart (of the Eurythmics) and Cindy Gomez. You can also use your own music if you prefer.
Over on All About Symbian's sister-site Ovi Gaming we've been reviewing some big-name titles recently, and also added our usual gameplay videos and screenshots alongside the reviews. See below for the complete list of links...
The Ovi Macintosh Files Connector, writes Tam Huynh on the Ovi Blog today, is now available. It will allow OS X 10.5 users to remotely access files on their Mac from a Nokia handset, or the Ovi Files web interface , send the files directly to friends and colleagues and build up a mirror of your useful files on the Anytime Files archive that comes attached to your Ovi account. And don't forget that Ovi Files recent dropped the subscription charge and is now available as a free web service.
Digia have released a beta version of their @Web browser for S60 5th Edition devices (Nokia 5800 and N97, Samsung i8910 HD). Digia @Web is a 'fully finger controllable, web browser for mobile'. Features include direct page control with finger, multi-window support, URL auto-completion and automatic full screen browsing. Read on for more details and screenshots.
The Symbian Foundation have asked for input from Developers and interested parties on the newly drafted Test Criteria for Symbian Signed. The new criteria, v4.0.8, are still in draft (and developers should continue to follow the existing v3.0.3 criteria until told otherwise), but the Foundation "...believe that it's important to get as many eyes on this as possible as soon as we can."
Quickoffice today announced the official release of latest version of its Microsoft Ofiice compatible document viewing and editing software. With the release comes the news that all existing S60 on Symbian Nokia devices will receive a free upgrade to the latest version, Quickoffice 6. Users will receive an upgrade in line with the version that shipped with their device. This means that Eseries devices will receive an upgrade to the viewing and editing version, while other S60 Nokia devices will receive an upgrade to the viewing only version. Read on for more information.
DataViz today announced the release of an updated version of RoadSync that improves the product's support for S60 5th Edition devices such as the Nokia N97 and 5800, and Samsung i8910. Version 4.004 of the Microsoft Exchange Client features a new 'touch toolbar' when viewing messages, allowing for easier email management. The release also improves the set up procedure with support for auto-discovery (Exchange 2007 only) of account details.
Quickoffice has now soft-launched Quickoffice v6.2 Premier (i.e. the editing version) for the Nokia S60 5th Edition phones. The company say "This is an interim release for touch devices only due to significant demand and requests from our end users for editing support ASAP. Watch this space for full v6.2 feature details and developments/launches for other phones happening soon". Soon, from the little birdie that twittered in my ear, might be very soon, in fact. In the meantime, N97 and 5800 owners should find that v6.2 Premier is now available as a paid upgrade on their device in Quickoffice's 'Updates & upgrades' (Quickmanager) section. See below for screenshots and brief comments.
In All About Symbian Insight 81 (AAS Podcast 143), we share the news that Ovi Files is now free to use and talk about its potential uses. We follow up with discussion of the latest Google software updates, the most notable being the addition of Layers to Google Maps. There's comment on Apple's recent result, Accenture acquisition of Nokia's Symbain Professional Service unit and answers to some listener questions. You can listen to AAS Insight 81 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've got lots of new vids: How to install the Ovi Store application on the Nokia N95, a more general look at how to use the Ovi Store application, a gameplay video of old-style arcade shoot-em-up My Little Tank, and a gameplay video of plasticine-based scrolling shooter Platypus (think Wallace & Gromit crossed with R-Type).
In this tutorial, Rafe explains how you can create your own shortcut widget for the TouchWiz-powered idle screen of the Samsung i8910. In this example, the widget links through to the AAS mobile site, but you'll have your own destination in mind. And, hopefully, will have your imagination inspired to create something more ambitious - and maybe even enter Samsung's competition to win some big cash prizes? See the bottom of the tutorial for full details.
Two little software items of general interest. The rather lovely (you know I like clear, white themes) 'Nseries White' theme, as featured in the firmware of the N86 8MP, is now up for download here (is copying themes from one device to another legal? - discuss!). You'll spot that the theme is RARed up, but that's OK because there's also now a freeware UnRAR tool for S60 and no, you don't have to fiddle about signing it (unless you want a file recognizer too).
Nokia today announced that it is acquiring certain assets of cellity, a small privately owned mobile software company. cellity's current services, which are focused around managing and syncing contacts between different web services, will not be transferred to Nokia; rather Nokia will acquire the cellity team to strengthen its own 'competencies in the area of social networking'. Read on for more.
Over on Ovi Gaming we've reviewed five games which all retail on Ovi Store for €3 each: excellent surreal racing game Sheep Mania Barnyard Dash, relationship simulator Date Or Ditch, online Scrabble clone Lexulous (formerly known as Scrabulous), Lancashire's finest in Wallace & Gromit Adventures, and the return of the blue hedgehog in Sonic Unleashed. As usual we've included gameplay videos and screenshots along with brief remarks on all aspects of the games.
Nokia have updated the Nokia Music PC app to version 1.3, adding in software to ease connection difficulties between the S60 handsets and the music client. The app will now offer to switch the connection modes of a connected device to ease transfer of music, and the caching of the contents of a smartphone has now been tweaked, allowing faster connections to be made.
