Tuesday, October 28, 2008

WorldMate Live coming


WorldMate has announced that they now have over a million S60 users of their free (and optionally paid for) service. I've included the brief press release below, also partly because the company promises that the next generation of their software, WorldMate Live, is 'currently in development'. The 'Live' version incorporates social elements such as itinerary sharing and contact discovery via overlapping travel plans.

"WorldMate, Inc., the company that has paved the way for mobile travel innovation since 2000 and serves frequent flyers and road warriors around the world, today announces that it now services over one million users on Nokia’s S60 platform. With more than 100,000 new Nokia owners signing up for WorldMate each month, more travelers than ever are managing their itineraries through their handsets.

WorldMate is a single source for easily accessible and actionable travel information. The free service is available on Nokia’s S60-based smartphones and is preloaded on millions of Nokia E-series handsets including the upcoming E66 and E71 devices. It is tailor made to assist business professionals both on the road and at home, and a large portion of WorldMate users interact with the service on a daily basis relying on unique real-time information including:

* Flight alerts — real-time notifications with gate changes, delays and cancellations for 175 airlines around the globe
* Weather services — Weathercaster™ audio forecasts, enhanced imagery, and animated satellite maps
* Contextually relevant tools-comprehensive flight schedules, clocks, and currency converters, allowing members to easily prepare for and access information about their travel

Already available on BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices, WorldMate Live for S60 is currently in development and will mark the most significant upgrade to the WorldMate service on the Nokia platform to date.

“The mix of the world’s most popular smartphone platform and WorldMate’s industry leading travel services has made our relationship with Nokia a resounding success,” said WorldMate CEO Nadav Gur. “We are committed to developing best of breed mobile services for Nokia’s users, and working together to achieve further success.”

WorldMate for S60 is available with the Nokia Download! catalogue and on smartphone browsers at www.mobimate.com."

Vampent vBagX v1.25 Unsigned - Game Boy Advance Emulator



What is vBag?
vBag is a GameBoy Advance emulator that can play GBA games on your mobile phone.
vBagX is the latest version of vBag.

Features
  • For S60v3 and some S60v2, full speed with perfect sound effects for most games
  • Big rom size support (full support for 32M rom)
  • Each rom with 5 save/load slots
  • Speed adjustment option and frameskip option
  • Graphics mode option (origin,full,landscape,landscape origin)
  • Save/Load in games (flash,eeprom,sram up to 128K)
  • Key map setting
  • Sound volume switch
  • Thread priority option
  • Two Graph Output Mode: bitmap mode(default),direct mode(speed improved, but some phones not supported)

Updates from vBagX 1.20 S60v3
  1. Fix some emulation bugs (some unaligned ldm/jump, thumb blh jump)
  2. Fix some compatibility problem. Provide an option for user selection speed/compatibility. Mode 3 is very slow and is not recommended.
  3. Sound is more smooth when speed is enough. Make sure speed option is normal (not fast) to let sound smooth
  4. Media key support (on s60v3, app can only capture volume up/down now)
  5. Simple cheat file support 5. Simple cheat file support. For ABC.gba, write a cheat file named ABC.gba.cht. Its content format is as follows:
  • 2002A46=0A
  • 3006FA2=006C
  • 2004250=000063
  • that means it lockes [0x2002A46] to byte 0x0A, locks [0x3006FA2] to halfword 0x6C, locks [0x2004250] to word 0x63

If your mobile is among Nokia Series 60v3 (3250, 5500, 5700, N71, N73, N80, N91, N92, N93, N95, E50, E60, E61, E70, etc), you should download vBagX 1.12 S60v3. Make sure your ROM file ends with ".gba", and send them to mobiles via bluetooth or USB or card-reader. If you install vBagX on your MMC card, please put the roms into the folder "MMC:\data\Others\vBag";If you install vBagX on your phone memory, please put the roms into the folder "C:\Others\vBag". We recommend you install vBagX on MMC.


REMEMBER TO DELETE THE OLD VERSION BEFORE INSTALLING THIS ONE!

NEW!! VBagX v1.25.4 SIGNED with Keygen!!

Download the Trial here
http://vampent.com/d.php?d=vbagx_s60v3.sis

And run the keygen on your PC and generate a valid code! No need to sign files and stuff!

vBagX.v1.25.S60v3.SymbianOS9.1.Unsigned.BiNPDA.rar - 560.3 Kb
vBagXKeygen.zip - 151.3 Kb

Nokia's musical park bench With Music


The Nokia Comes With Music subscription service provides users with unlimited access to Nokia's Music Store catalogue. That's a nifty two million songs on your phone, anytime. Now, the mobile giant has built a load of park-bench-shaped MP3 players to promote the service, and save our derrieres…

The benches will be placed at 'secret locations' – namely parks, streets and town squares – all over the UK. Each bench has three Nokia handsets and headphones installed into the arm rests.

The available playlist differs depending on where you are. Nokia surveyed the nation to find its favourite songs, and tailored the list to fit each region's favourites. Whether Liverpool's list is chock full of The Beatles and Birmingham's with Black Sabbath remains to be heard.
Take a seat

Before you think about stealing one for your garden, each bench will be accompanied by a live performer and, presumably, a security guard. One different appearance will be made each day between now and Christmas - check out the Comes With Music site to find out where.

Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Memory structure of Series 60 (S60) smartphones


Disk C - Flash memory based storage ("disk") memory. This disk is used for storing user data, files and applications. Disk C: is a Flash disk, which means that it preserves its contents even when the power is off or the battery is removed. Old S60 phones like the 7650 or 3650 only had about 4 MB C: drive. New phones like the N90 have almost 30 MB of internal storage available for the user. This memory also stores your settings, important system data files, Contacts and Calendar databases and more.

Disk D - RAM-disk (size depends on phone: about 400 kilobytes in older phones, about 1,8 MB in newer phones like 6630, 6680 or N90). This disk is created in DRAM memory, which means it is volatile. It is meant for internal system use and not to be used by the phone user. Some applications temporarily store their data on this disk, which makes them work faster (DRAM memory is much faster than Flash). It is useless to save any user data on D: because all contents of this disk are lost when you switch the phone off or reboot the system.

Disk E - memory card. Memory cards (in MMC or SD format) can be used to expand the built in storage memory (disk C:). On memory cards, users can install applications and store different kinds of data (e.g. music, videos, documents, etc). Memory cards use Flash memory, which means that they preserve their contents even if the phone is turned off or the card is removed.

Disk Z - read only Flash memory containing the Symbian operating system. Contents of Z: drive cannot be modified by the user as this memory area is protected and read only. Firmware upgrade can only be made by authorized service centres using special Flash programming devices and Nokia service software called Phoenix.

Operating memory (RAM) - this memory is for program execution. It is not visible as a "disk" or drive letter like C: or Z: and it is not directly available to the user. Think of it as of RAM memory of your desktop computer: you don't save any files or data in it, it is only used by the system and applications. Of course, the more of it the better as it lets you execute more advanced programs or run more applications at the same time. Old Symbian OS phones like 7650 or 3650 only had 8 MB RAM of which about 3,5 MB was free. Newer phones like e.g. 6630 or 6680 have 16 MB RAM of which about 8 MB is free. The newest NSeries smartphones like the N90 have 48 MB RAM of which about 21 MB is free!

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Handy Shell










Since the dawn of time (ok, about 1995), developers have been looking to replace the default home screen of PDAs and smartphones. Epocware's new Handy Shell seems pretty comprehensive for S60 and so we asked Ewan to install it on his main device and run with it for a week...

Handy Shell is scary, cute, not scary, powerful, easy to use and pointless all in the same breath. By the end of this review, you'll be able to choose the two words that apply for you (- if you want to pretend to skip to the end, I'd choose 'powerful' and 'easy to use').

Epocware think the regular S60 standby screen is missing functionality, so they've decided to replace it. And tweak the application launcher. And the task bar. Basically they want to give you a swiss army knife to replace the cutlass of the regular S60 experience. It's a mighty challenge, but they are more than up to it.

Now, on with the mighty review.

This used to be the bread and butter of third party application scenes in the past, but there again in the past the people with smartphones (or PDA's) were the tinkerers, hackers and programmers in the world. Those people are still there (albeit significantly outnumbered by regular users) and that means applications like Handy Shell are always going to be around as well.

And it's a good thing too, because Handy Shell ups the flexibility of your S60 smartphone by a significant factor. It's not for everyone, and there will be a lot of you arguing that the S60 interface doesn't need changing.

Split over three information screens, Handy Shell pulls S60 away from being a 'making calls and running applications' platform to 'making calls, organising your information, and running applications.'

First up, and the screen that's effectively the main screen of Handy Shell, and replaces the active stand-by, is the 'today' view, with four main strips of info - Clock, application shortcuts, phone settings and Calendar. The clock takes up most of the width of the screen, although by using a constant sized font (all characters are the same width) it makes it feel a little clunky, although it does hark back nicely to an old fashioned digital clock. It's a pity there are no formatting options for the clock.

It would be sensible to think that most people loading Handy Shell have done some customising on their own phone's desktop, so the inclusion of a standard set of six application short-cuts in the next strip is both welcome (after all, it's something people are already used to in the customisation stakes) but at the same time do I really need to put in my favourites again? Is there no way to read what I already have during the first run of Handy Shell and populate this with my own picks?

The next line is probably my favourite - the phone settings. This is a quick glance/quick change on a number of features on your phone, mostly around communication. A single tap on the Bluetooth icon will toggle your Bluetooth on or off (or you can change this to launch the Bluetooth application if you so wish), and alongside this you have icons and numerical cues for your missed calls and unread SMS and emails, finally finishing on quick change icons to alter your chosen ringtone profile or overall phone theme.



All these strips (and those in the other views as well) have their own customisable settings, you just pop into the Settings dialog, choose the view, and then choose the part of the view to alter. I get the feeling that this modular approach runs through the entire program, so it would be an easy matter to add a view of another application to any screen. In fact, Epocware have done exactly that in building a view of Handy Weather into Handy Shell's desktop and bundling a one year subscription to Handy Weather in the registration price of Handy Shell.

It's important to realise that each element in Handy Shell might seem a bit 'is that it?' when taken on its own, but it's the glueing of them altogether into a single package and making them all relatively easy to access that makes Handy Shell so useful. Think of it like a multi-bladed Swiss Army knife - nobody carries just a pair of tweezers with them, but with that knife you'll always have one when you need it - just like some of the icons in Handy Shell.

Tapping on the right soft key lets you cycle through the three views of Handy Shell, and after the Today screen is the Applications view, a 3x4 grid of applications that you can set up and shuffle around. It's no surprise that this feels a lot like the regular S60 application launcher, and with some careful thought, you could probably get 95% of your regular smartphone usage launching from this screen. The one feature that's missing here is using the keypad to fast launch an icon. As the keypad is also 3x4, matching the matrix on the S60 home screen, pressing a number on the standard S60 applications menu launches the one whose icon is in the same relative place on the screen. Handy Shell is missing this and I found my thumb erroneously hitting the keypad to launch something on numerous occasions.

Asking for folder support in this screen would be a step too far, even though I like the idea of ditching the S60 app launcher completely - the point here is to have your most used applications shortcutted, not all your applications. Still, it is Handy Shell, not Handy Shell Around The Popular Bits. You've got full control over what applications to add, and you can edit them or move them around as often as you wish.

I did like the dialog screen to choose the applications - rather than the radio button screen that S60 uses, where you have to scroll (a lot), you can just start typing the name of the application and Handy Shell will search as you start to type.

The contacts view works in pretty much the same way as the applications view - 12 slots to put in your favourite contacts for dialling. If they have a thumbnail graphic that is used, alternatively a nice font is used to get as much of their name in as possible. One thing missing here (perhaps a bug, or earmarked for the next release?) is some intelligent context awareness. If I'm on a contact and select 'New... [SMS] Message' from the menu is it wrong to expect Handy Shell to pre-populate the message editor with the correct phone number? What's weird is that if you select 'Create Message' on the top level menu, it does pre-populate the editor. Curiouser and curiouser.

Alongside the views is one of my favourite features of Handy Shell - the quick dialler. From the standby screen of a vanilla S60 phone, hitting the keypad simply racks up some numbers to dial. Not with this application though. It starts searching the contents of your smartphone to try and work out what you are typing. It will scan phone numbers to match the numbers you start to enter; or take the T9 spellings to a match up a name you are typing from your address book; or use that same T9 spelling in your list of applications. Looking to start the podcasting app? Just start typing P-O-D... and the app will be listed. As will the number for 'Podium Computing' from your contacts, or any number starting 663. It's quick, simple, easy to understand, and I love it. This is an application in its own right, and if I were to lose Handy Shell, I suspect this is the part I would miss the most. [NB. this functionality is also available in some other add-on utilities, most notably SkyeQuiKey - Ed]

It's also the reason why I can't 'speed dial' an application to launch, as pressing number keys starts the quick dial part of the program - it's a tough call, but I think I prefer this quick dialling once the muscle memory forgets about pressing number keys.

Handy Shell also replaces the 'task bar', normally accessed by holding down the Applications key on your smartphone, with a full screen system overview. Here, as well as seeing (and being able to jump to) the running applications in a full screen view, you'll also get the time and date (so now it's only ever one keypress away) and details on your free RAM, storage and memory card space.... something that the true hacker [Ewan looks sideways at Steve] is always looking at on his phone, but seems to be less and less critical as smartphone specs improve.

For all the complexity that Handy Shell offers, there will still be times where you need to duck into the regular S60 interface, and thankfully Handy Shell is not a jealous program. You tap the Applications key to get into Handy Shell, but while in the shell if you tap it again you will be taken to the regular S60 standby/Applications screens. How this works can be subtly changed via the settings.

There is a touch of jealousy, though, because I really can't see a way to switch Handy Shell off. Once it's installed and running, it's just there. Yes you can toggle everything off, but the Task Manager is always there, and it's going to pop up when you hit certain keys (depending on those settings). The only 100% sure way to do this is to take off and nuke it from orbit remove the application from your handset altogether. But that makes sense. If you have Handy Shell, it's because you want to be using it, not switching it on once in a while for kicks. It's either on or off. (Luckily a regular uninstall of Handy Shell will shut it down correctly and let you remove it cleanly, should this be needed)

And to be honest, there's no reason for it not to be on. While it does add significantly to the productivity potential of your smartphone, it's not unduly complicated in what it does or how it does it. By spreading the main functions over three screens which you can easily switch between, all the information has been given room to breathe, and it actually makes your smartphone easier to use. Sure, the set-up takes time, and getting your head round a new way of working takes a bit of time, but if Handy Shell was to appear on a bog standard any-OS smartphone and be the core method of running things, I think it would be up to the job. Part of me is really looking forward to a touch-enabled version of this on the 5800 at some point next year

For all the faults I've mentioned here, Handy Shell has a fearsomely large job to do as a full replacement for S60's core UI feature, and it's only when you sit back do you spot the little touches, such as the smoothness when you switch between portrait and landscape modes, the display showing the time of your next alarm call (and not just a little bell), the preview of unread SMS messages as you scroll your cursor over the icon, the 'new' menu option giving you access to your Contacts, Calendar, To-do list and said alarm clock, having 'lock keypad' on the menu... There is a lot going on in here.

Handy Shell isn't just a great addition to S60, it pretty much rips out and replaces all the launching and thread management of S60 that users see. To a certain extent, that's reflected in the price of $45, which may raise some eyes. I think it's a perfectly fair price for something of this scope and breadth... and stability. I've been really working Handy Shell hard and not yet experienced a crash or system slowdown. With a full 14 day demo available for free before you need to register, anyone using their smartphone for more than just calls and messaging should seriously consider running this little gem.

Monday, October 13, 2008

CommonTime's mSuite5 mobilises Lotus Notes


CommonTime recently announced an upgraded version of its mobile solution for Lotus Notes, today it announced support for all S60 3rd Edition devices. mSuite is a solution, similar to Mail for Exchange, which allows enterprise users to access Lotus Notes based email, contacts, calendar and tasks from a mobile device.

CommonTime's software seamlessly integrates with the existing Contacts, Calendar and Messaging (for email) applications. However there are a number of extra applications: firstly Chat gives access to Lotus Notes SameTime messaging functionality. Secondly Meetings which enables users to set, accept and schedule meetings more easily. Meetings also allows you to to access your colleagues 'free time' and look at meeting room schedules.



Here's an extract from the press release:

CommonTime believe mSuite5 is the most complete and integrated Lotus Notes mobility solution on the market today, pushing the boundaries of the corporate mobility world. mSuite5 builds on the trusted functionality of mSuite4, giving customers more benefits and a better experience than ever before. A streamlined, flexible installation process, cut to just 15 minutes, plus a dedicated provisioning portal means setting up is quick and easy. All this, coupled with simplified end user deployment and user self registration, makes mSuite5 the ideal choice for both corporate end users and IT management wanting to deploy Nokia E Series devices.


Sunday, October 12, 2008

Alberninho Football 2008



Alberninho Of football is the realistic football game, compared in the characteristics with the games for the prefixes. You can play single match or select the regime of championship with 16 different commands, each with your characteristics. Comment of game, the function of repeated showing, the replacement of players - all this makes this game of unique on the mobile. From time to time commentator makes observations at the interesting moments of game, such as impacts on the winches and mastery of ball. Players can carry out impacts, passes, impacts by head. Players are distinguished by the color of clothing and hair. In the game are also realized the actions of judge, changing weather conditions, and full support of football rules.

Download Files Here

Tested on Nokia N95

Academy of Mafia 2



You do want itself to try in the role of gangster? For this you should graduate from the school of the Mafia!. Dismantlings with the enemies, knocking out of debt, car theft - to all this are in prospect to return examination. It is undertaken from " [Obmennika]" , sent skorbik

Download Files Here

Abracadaball



An addictive aim-and-shoot puzzle that lets you escape to a magical universe, full of enchantments.

Features (may vary by handset):
* Simple aim & shoot gameplay inspired by arcade classics
* Perfectly designed for cell phones with easy navigation and intuitive gameplay
* Cast spectacular spells based on fire, water, earth, and wind that sweep across your screen.
* Escape through 66 diversified levels in 9 enchanting surroundings for hours of fun!
* Use lots of essential skills to conquer 56 surprising challenges and 8 tenacious guardians.
* 5 game modes: Quick Start, Story, Survival, Endurance, and Boss Rush

176x208 3250.N70.N91
240x320 N82
Download Files Here

240x320 6120.N73
N95
Download Files Here

Change N95.8GB for N85. Am I fool or not?


I'm afraid to make this step... Can someone help me about concrete differences? I will put in N85 an 8gb microsd. Then, is 3D accelerator necessary "to survive" if I don't use n-gage or gaming in general? Thankyou very much.

The Answer
The 3D hardware graphics accelerator on the N95 8GB is used only by applications using OpenGL ES graphics APIs. For now, at least, this means only a handful of games. So you don't lose out much because of that when going with an N85.

S60 5th edition


Today sees the introduction of S60 5th Edition, bringing new, advanced set of features that enable innovations and new experiences for consumers that want to fully embrace the use of smartphone products. With S60 5th Edition, the user interface is extended by the introduction of touch and with full support for tactile feedback. Enhanced display resolution support and a new Widescreen mode further compliments the touch UI and enables engaging visual experiences. Also, for the first time, the platform includes a framework for the use of advanced sensor technology. This all allows S60 device manufacturers to create innovative new device concepts for a wider range of user segments, while preserving the rich capabilities of the existing software platform. The first S60 5th Edition based device, designed for music lovers, was announced today - the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic.

S60 software continues to lead in the support for and use of internet technologies, and includes the Web Browser for S60, which supports desktop-quality browsing with Adobe Flash Lite 3. With the Touch enabled products and S60 5th Edition, Internet browsing is made more convenient by enabling scrolling Web pages and interacting directly with Web content by touching with a finger or the use of keys or stylus. The ecosystem now has more options, and user experiences are further enhanced with touch optimized toolbars and easy access to browser and internet application options.

Sensors enable very intuitive and smart usability for the key S60 applications. For example, silence the phone ringing by turning the phone upside down. The sensor framework in S60 5th Edition provides easy integration for wide range of sensors into vendor’s devices, and enables them and developers to take advantage of sensor data to create new exiting and intuitive applications and features.

S60 5th Edition's new features continue to provide a complete solution for multimedia experiences. New image and video editors in the S60 5th Edition make it simple to capture and edit pictures and videos directly on the device, before sharing them with others. Users can for example decrease red eye, crop image highlights, adjust image quality or add text and graphics to pictures. With the video editor, users can quickly cut and merge videos and sound directly on the device. Support for large, high resolution displays makes it possible for users to better enjoy widescreen multimedia and these features.

The implementation of the S60 Web Runtime in S60 5th Edition adds support for S60 Platform Services, which enables creation of personal and context aware Web widgets. Platform Services gives these Web standards based applications access to numerous applications and features of the S60 platform, such as calendar, contacts, GPS, messaging, audio, and video. Widgets can also mash-up information from the Internet together with selected information from the user’s mobile device. These Platform Services are easily accessible to Web content developers and service providers via new JavaScript and Adobe Flash Actionscript extensions. All of these capabilities continue to provide the user with the most control over security and their own private data.

To lower the barrier to entry for new innovation, S60 5th Edition is also expanding its support for open source technologies through integrated support for Open C++. This support brings the Standard Template Library and other popular platform-independent C++ libraries to the S60 platform, extending the Open C offering. Together, Open C and Open C++ create opportunities for developers to utilize existing skills and code from other platforms in their S60 development projects, including open source components that run today on Linux and other open platforms.

Developers are encouraged to leverage touch UI functionality in application design to get the full consumer advantage of touch in their solutions and create the best possible user experience. From today, S60 5th Edition SDK and tools are available to download via Forum Nokia.

5800 XpressMusic: S60 5th Edition with Touch Screen



Nokia has just announced its first Touch enabled S60 smartphone. Powered with the new S60 5th Edition platform, the 5800 XpressMusic has a large, touch sensitive 3.2" 640x360 pixel nHD widescreen display, 3.2 Megapixel (2048x1536) Carl Zeiss Tessar camera with dual LED flash and VGA/30 fps video recording, built-in A-GPS and Nokia Maps, support for up to 16 GB microSD cards (8 GB card is included with the device), 3G, HSDPA and WLAN connectivity, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR with A2DP and AVRCP, Hi-Speed USB 2.0, microUSB and 3.5 mm AV connectors and is powered with BL-5J 1320 mAh Li-Ion battery.

The touch sensitive screen (single-touch) provides tactile feedback using vibra. Touch the screen or move a slider and you will not only hear and see but also feel its reaction. It works all the time, unless you set a profile to not use it. The tactile feedback vibration works towards the screen, you can feel it as a 'click'. There are three levels of feedback and other simpler feedback mechanisms (like turning the phone over to stop it ringing). The 5800 has a proximity sensor preventing inadvertent touches and saving power.

Text input (ITU keypad with T9) and UI control work both with finger and stylus, at your convencience. You can enter text in four different ways, using finger and stylus: Handwritting Recognition (stylus), Full Screen Qwerty (Landscape orientation, finger or stylus), Virtual Keyboard (Portrait orientation, small Qwerty, stylus) and virual standard keypad (Portrait orientation, stylus or finger).

The new user interface provides serveral new home screen features making access to the most frequently used functions easier and quicker. Contacts Bar lets you put four favourite contacts on your home screen, and access them with a single-touch, track message histories, blog updates, photos and more. Media Bar, with Flash support, provides rapid access to favourite media like surfing the web and using online sharing services. The 5800 has three buttons located below the screen: End key, S60 Menu key and the Send key. Plus there's a Media bar key on the top providing access to Music, Gallery, Games, Video Center and Internet Browser.

This phone is of course mainly about music. The updated Nokia Music Player allows drag-and-drop transfer of tracks and playlist management. And the device is packed with all the music essentials - a high-quality player with graphic equaliser, in-box memory for up to 6000 tracks, standard headphone jack, powerful built-in surround sound and up to a-day-and-a-half of music play time.

The 5800 XpressMusic weighs 109 g and measures 111 x 51.7 x 15.5 mm. Its 1320 mAh battery provides 35 hours of music playback and up to 9 hours of talk time. Box contents include Nokia Music Headset, Portable Stand, Video-Out cable, stylus, carrying case and 8 GB memory card. The 5800 will be available in Q4 2008 in silver-black, red and blue colours.

Stay tuned for detailed review of the 5800 and its new S60 5th Edition as soon as we get a test unit.


Saturday, October 11, 2008

Hard Reset / Format 6702


my nokia 6708 doesnt turn on. only nokia logo comes in. the batery is full charge...Help me please

The Answer
Try entering the engineer mode: when you power on the phone quickly type *#7589 when the initial startup screen is shown.

The E90 Communicator hits v300!



Hot off the press, the Nokia E90 has had another big firmware update, to v300.34.84. There's now Maps 2.0 in the firmware, plus many other improvements. Changelog below. [Update: looks like this new release knocks out Blackberry support. If this is important to you then don't upgrade!]

v300 includes:

* Much faster orientation switching (open/close lid etc)
* Nokia Maps 2.0 now built-in
* Download! application updated (v 3.1.736)
* Cosmetic upgrade to Music player
* Update for Flash Lite 3 and Flash video
* Wi-Fi improvements
* New baseline for VoIP
* Realplayer supports FLV format (i.e FLV files can be played directly like MP4)

In summary, well worth going through the usual backup/restore (from card) and tweaking procedures....

Symbian S60 5th edition - Review


First of all, let me say Congratulations! to Series 60 for the big improvement to the new generation, Series 60 5th Edition. Today I will bring you through this great thing. (All images in this blog entry were captured from Series 60 5th Edition SDK Emulator)

First Opening
When you launch device for first time, same as earlier version, you have to select region and set date/time.





Welcome to Active Idle screen!



This theme is too bright. I don't like it, so let me change the theme...



OK! Much better! It's nice looking now. ^_^

User Interface
Generally, user interface doesn't change much. It still has Status Pane at the top of screen and Softkey Pane at the bottom of screen but there is one additional pane above the Softkey Pane. It contains some amount of menu icons for the application.



Let see what is the icon in that Menu Pane mean. (I'm not sure that in official it's called Menu Pane or another)

Swirly Button



Familiar? Yeah, now swirly key has been moved to active idle screen already. Dial Keypad Button

Dial Keypad Button



Bring up the Dial Keypad.



Profiles Button



Basic Applications
Press Swirly Button, the familiar menu screen will appear.



Familiar but much more fantastic, right? ;) Now, Let touch some icon to launch application. The first one I'm going to show you is...Contacts.



Now, let create new contact by press the right most button on Menu Pane or Options -> New Task. (In my opinion, it's quite user friendly. It's very similar to S60 3rd Edition. I don't need to learn anything.)



Type in the name in First Name box by touch at First Name field.



Huh?!? What's that. Oh, it's the new input method called Alphanumeric Keyboard. Actually there are 4 input methods in Series 60 5th Edition. I will write about them in the next part.

Umm, it supports so many languages. Very interesting...



Fill inthe First name and Mobile phone number and then press Done.



Result



Now I try to add my thumbnail to my contact information.



Nice UI! I like it.

Next application I'm going to show you is... Calendar.



There is additional area at the lower of screen. This area is used for showing the calendar entries.

Next app is Gallery



You can notice that there are so many major changes of Gallery from the S60 3rd Edition. Every entries have been showed in Grid.

The thing that I like most of Gallery application is you can Edit Image.



You can add effects as you want. Cool! I like this feature much.




One more thing that is very interesting is wmv file is fully supported.



Next is Camera. Camera UI come in the landscape view like in S60 3rd Edition.




So many effects still be there.



Music Player
The buttons are so big. It's very user friendly for touch based UI.The interesting thing in Music Player application is you can seek through the file using the timeline at the center of screen.

Last one, Web Browser.




(Sorry that I opened my native language website so the text inside may be unreadable)

I must admit that I'm very impressive on this generation of Web Browser. It can render nearly perfect (or may be perfect already!)



You can zoom in/out easily using your finger.



This new generation of Web Browser come with many interesting options and user friendly UI.



Let see what you get when you change screen mode to Full Screen and Landscape mode. Very great!



This is the most important factor for me to buy Nokia 5800. Big Screen, Perfect Rendering. Wow!

Input Methods
This will be the last part I will write about Series 60 5th Edition.The Input Methods. As I said above, there are 4 input methods in Series 60 5th Edition. Let's see one by one.

Alphanumeric Keypad


It's on screen keypad. You are still able to use T9 in this mode.



Mini QWERTY Keyboard



It's a small QWERTY on screen keyboard. This is the only mode that you can see the application while typing. While you press any key in keyboard, there will be some popup called Character Preview show above that key. This will help you to type more accurate.



One more thing about this mode is you can move on screen keyboard anywhere you want using the top right button on on screen keyboard.

Full screen QWERTY Keyboard
When you select this input method, the screen will change to landscape mode automatically.



In my opinion, it's the most suitable input mode for touch based UI like Series 60 5th Edition.

By the way, there is Character Preview in this mode too.



Handwriting
Touch Screen and Handwriting are always come along. ;)



Wow, this is quite long article (and quite hard for me to write it with my bad English skill. ^^")

Hope these information is useful. :)

Good luck, Series 60!


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