After years of saying 'No', top handheld games producer Astraware has finally admitted that Symbian OS is on its radar, planning to produce at least a handful of titles for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ 3 in 2007. Let's hope it's earlier rather than later.
Read on in the full article.
Nokia ought to have a budget games section on its Next Gen platform, so companies like this have a way into the market that doesn't involve the complication and dreck that make up a lot of online smartphone stores.
When Bejewelled comes out I'm going to be incommunicado for two weeks, and then giving it 92% in a review.
(probably silly) question: how do you guys manage to score a particular application or device on a scale from 0 to 100? I mean, what makes the difference between 91% and 92% for example? I would personally struggle to give a scrore between 0 and 10 to a particular application or device. Is it worth 6/10 or 7/10? So i've always been amazed by people who were able to be so precise about what they were after that they could give a score precise to the hundredth. And there seems to be a lot of people like that since many (most) magazines and web site use a scale from 0 to 100.
It's easy enough to score apps to the nearest 10%, purely on gut feel and instinct. Where they sit within that band is then down to details, minor bugs, interface oddities etc.
So I might reckon an app is pretty darned good, at 80%, but then during the course of the review keep discovering little annoyances, and so it might end up with 73%.
Something like that, anyway! There are a few other factors!
Steve
The way I do it is to give a rough score based on how good the product is (60+ for useful things that don't quite achieve everything they should, 70+ for decent software, 80+ for really good solid stuff, 90+ for something that goes beyond the call of duty, and zero if they're called "Lucky Lotto"😉 and then like Steve I deduct or add marks if there are problems or extra features that spoil or enhance the overall effect. I also try to look at what other similar software or devices has received on AAS, so people can compare scores more easily. Steve has the final call on my marks though as he's the editor and I'm new here, but most of the time they're not altered.
But scores are pretty meaningless really, if you want to know if something is right for you then you really should read the review, or at least the last part of the review where the summary is.
For example, I deliberately refused to give a score to the Nokia 5500 in its review because it had two totally different potential audiences (brilliant for those who want the most durable smartphone possible to take everywhere, not so good for those who want a feature-packed multimedia experience). As a durable general purpose smartphone I'd give it 90+ because it's by far the most durable smartphone ever made (it can be run over by a car!), as a multimedia device I'd give it 60 or 70 because of the small screen, but as there isn't an option for two scores I just added a paragraph at the end explaining the situation.