Ah yes, good to see Nokia and Google talking to each other at last. It seems that they've inked a deal to include Google search results in Nokia's on-device Mobile Search utility. The rollout will start with the new devices announced yesterday and will then come in firmware updates and downloads to existing devices in various markets in due course. The press release is below, if you want the full details.
No matter how you break it down, having your application downloaded 100,000 times every day is a crazy number, and one worth shouting about. So that's what Opera have done. Opera Mini is the software getting the accolade (on top of last week's upgrade announcement), and the free browser with a proxy rendering client deserves it.
[updated post] Yep, v2.0 is now out, at http://www.nokia.com/betalabs/maps/ - thanks, guys, we got to a working URL in the end(!) It's strictly a beta release but should work well on any FP1 phone (e.g. N95, N82, E90, E51, etc.) Some of the new features (e.g. traffic) may not work yet, either.
Nokia's press release at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona annoucned Ovi's next step. It seems that the evolutioon of Ovi is geared towards the big press dates on the calendar - which makes sense, as the Ovi concept needs to bear repetition to the world, as witnessed by the number of questions around it at today's press conference. Joining Nokia Maps 2.0, is the Share on Ovi online service.
This weeks All About Symbian Insight, #12, focuses on N-Gage First Access (the pre-release version of the N-Gage client and select games). In the podcast Ewan and Rafe talk over their first impressions and some of the choices Nokia have made in strategy, positioning and pricing. This weeks Insight is a shortened version as we're busy get ready for MWC next week.
Nokia Maps is approaching the release of its second major version (2.0). Currently it is in a semi-public beta, so you expect to see a few postings about this around the net in the next few days and weeks. The new version brings a number of improvements including a new pedestrian mode, enhanced driving navigation mode, satellite maps, much improved search and new real time traffic information. Read on for more details and screenshots.
Guest writer Noel Kennedy takes us on a tour through JoikuSpot, through installation and deployment. Can you really get full Wi-Fi anywhere you like? What are the catches and does he have any reservations?
While most people have been getting excited about the pre-announcement of Opera Mobile 9.5, the hugely popular (and free) little sister, Opera Mini 4, has just had a big back-end (i.e. the bit that does the work) upgrade, which (among other changes, listed below) should improve browsing speed by (up to) another 20%.
Opera have announced that version 9.5 of their mobile browser will be officialy launched at 3GSM, with OEM and retail availability soon after. This release marks a big, long-overdue jump for the Opera browser, bringing it back on par with the S60 browser. For UIQ3 users especially, who have been stuck with older, outdated browsers for the last 2 years, this is great news. Read on for the full press release.
Twango the media sharing / community site that Nokia acquired last year has now been Ovi-fied. Its been rebranded as Share on Ovi and has a new look and feel to go with the new name. There are also user experience improvements in navigating, sharing and searching for media on the site and a restructured back end to allow it to scale to millions of users. Read on for more.
So AAS forum member 'kflyer' emailed me a few days ago, "wondering whether viruses can really affect a current smartphone. I've read your view on this question, but AAS itself has adverts for AntiVirus clients!" As it's a long, long time since my last rail against the fraudulent anti-virus industry, I thought it high time for an update. Read on.
Following on from today's launch of N-Gage First Access, Ewan, in 30 minutes with the N-Gage First Access client gives us his first impressions of the system and a summary of the user experience of the N-Gage client. In the piece Ewan covers installation, game installation and the community features of the client application.
A pre-release version of Nokia's new N-Gage gaming platform is now available for Nokia N81 users. N-Gage First Access lets N81 owners download the pre-release version of the N-Gage application (through which all N-Gage activity takes place) and try and buy select N-Gage games. Other N-Gage compatible devices will be added to the service in due course. Read on for more.
A video has appeared on YouTube offering a sneak preview from Motorola in regards to the Mobile World Congress. There are no specific details on devices, but the video does show various people lugging around a TV set and DVD player. Might this suggest another video focused phone from Moto, perhaps with an accomapnying video download or purchase service? Read on for more.
Always interesting to read good third party face-offs. Here, SMS Text News' Ben has been trialling both DataViz's RoadSync and Nokia's free Mail for Exchange for a staggering nine months. Here's his verdict, although personally the latter's price can't really be beaten(!)
