Ovi Maps graduates
July 3, 2009 by Aditya
Filed under Applications
Yesterday saw Ovi Maps graduating from a beta application to a proper application. Nokia Maps has now become Ovi Maps Mobile. This means that from now on future GPS enable devices of Nokia will have Ovi Maps installed in the phone.
A press release gives a lot more details about Ovi Maps Mobile (OMM).
The latest version of Ovi Maps application for your device is enhanced through additional features and services, opening up a new world of possibilities with better maps than ever before: high resolution satellite and terrain maps – both in 2D and 3D views – 3D landmarks for over 200 cities, rotation, tilting, night view, and fly-overs and fly-throughs. Ovi Maps on the device offers also enriched POI information by Lonely Planet, Michelin and Wcities, as well as a weather service that provides 24 hour and 5-day forecasts. Walk from one place to another using WALK, our pedestrian navigation with routing optimized for those on foot, providing better orientation in a city or outdoors. Or use DRIVE, our fully fledged car navigation with enhanced safety and real-time traffic information such as safety cameras and speed limits, lane assistance and localized road information like signposts, providing the largest service coverage in the world.
With Ovi Maps on the web, www.maps.ovi.com, you can also search for addresses and POIs, find places and save them into Favorites, and organize them into Collections. Check the weather situation and preplan routes for walking or driving – and then save them. Your places, collections and routes can also be synchronized over-the-air between Ovi Maps on your compatible mobile device and Ovi Maps on the web.
The latest version of the Ovi Maps for your device is available for download at www.nokia.com/maps.The Ovi Maps Beta on the web is accessible at www.maps.ovi.com.
Below are a few screenshots of Ovi maps in action,
We would also like to remind our readers that we have a contest going on Symbian-Life Blog, where you could win 3 activation codes for Audials Mobile. So hurry, contest closes 5th July, 2009.
The Audials Mobile Contest
We are up with another contest where we are giving away 3 activation codes to the Audials Mobile application. We are pretty sure that this is a great application for your XpressMusic or for that matter any S60 device. This application allows you to search for your song on the internet and then download it for free. This download is legal, so you don’t have to worry about any cyber crimes department cracking down on you. We would like to thank the people at Audials for creating this application for the S60 phones.
This time we will giveaway 3 activation codes. Everybody can join to this contest, simply by commenting on this post. The regular price of Audials Mobile is right now GBP7.90 (promo), normally it is GBP12.90 but by getting in this contest you can get it for free.
To join the contest you only need to:
- Comment in this post, saying something like: “I am in”, “I want to get a MyPhone App”, simply comment;
-On the comment you must put a real e-mail so that we can contact you
…that’s it.
Rules:
-You are able to comment more than one time, but your e-mail will only count once.
-We will get the 3 winners using random.org and we will ‘printscreen’ the result and post here in the website.
-Those winners who don’t answer to our e-mail notification in 1 week lose automatically the opportunity to win the app, giving the chance to others and so on.
Dates:
-The contest starts from now and will end at 5th July 2009 at 8:00 PM (Indian Standard Time – Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata).
-The winners will be posted in the website by 6th July 2009 (we will not reveal e-mail address of the winners, just the first half of their email address, i.e the name). So stay tuned.
We would like to thank Audials for giving to our visitors and readers this great opportunity. Now just comment! Best of luck!!!
Audials Mobile works with all cell phones with Symbian S60 3rd and 5th Edition
A ring to unite them all!
June 26, 2009 by Aditya
Filed under Personal Rants
I was just sitting and watching something known as the television and as soon as the episode was up, it was back to my E75 just doing one of those random things we do on the internet, when we got nothing to do. I hit ‘Search’ and typed news, looking for nothing in particular, and Google News it was. After having read a few articles here and there on the happenings, I hit the Science and Technology section, there was an article on the N97 and below that another article on the N97 being a worthy contender to the iPhone. This article spoke a lot about a many things and it got me thinking. I thought it best to rant them out for you all to read.
The N97 comes at a point for Nokia when a lot of things have changed in the mobile industry. What seemed like a battle of only handsets and megapixels has slowly, with the advent of the iPhone escalated to something more. the iPhone has brought many features previously unknown to us, multi touch and phones were not used in the same sentence, UI – suddenly became a huge differentiator, materials became important.
Then came the rush to overturn the iPhone, Samsung, LG, HTC retaliated with a slew of devices, each claiming to be one up on the iPhone. Nokia trusted it’s flagship – the venerable N95, there were many video comparisons and countless blog posts about the two.
- Image courtesy: http://richd.com/images/2007/android-rendered.jpg
Then Google came not with a phone but with an Operating System and changed the rules of the game. Suddenly with the advent of Android, there were many foundations which were formed to take on the might of Android and Google’s marketing prowess. LiMo Foundation, and a few more, then Nokia decided to make Symbian an open source platform and created Symbian Foundation. In between all of this it is the ‘app store’ which became the next weapon to sharpen the divide between iPhone and the others. Soon every phone manufacturer had to have an app store or be looked down upon. Nokia, Samsung, Microsoft, Google, RIM – they all launched their ‘app stores’.
So what has changed in the last two years? Firstly, the UI has become extremely important to everyone. How easy is it to work with? What else can it do for me? These are the questions people are asking their dealers and the phone companies. The need for it to be Open Source has also never been louder!
Design which was the only thing is now of prime importance, since the physical object has to close the gap between the real life and the digital life. A candy bar, a clam shell, slider are just not enough… It has become increasingly important for manufacturers to give more in the same form and give new devices in new forms to their customers yesterday.
App Stores, an idea that many people thought of, but only one could exploit successfully. Even if you think the apps on iPhone don’t make sense and their tight controls on what goes out and not, it still remains a success story. Other companies also have their own versions of the same idea and you have some independent ones as well.
Internet, which was not so important a few years ago, is now suddenly something everybody (OK, a lot of people!) wants on their cell phone. Internet innovations have spilled over to phones, and there is an inherent need of having a mobile friendly version of it. People’s needs have evolved. They want to be able to do things with their cell phones on the internet. Share, explore, learn and be informed, they want it all.
Features, they were there earlier, but now are even more pronounced. The megapixel war has only escalated; entertainment features are a deal maker and breaker; hardware additions like WiFi, GPS, etc are a must for smartphones and feature phones. A rather nice development here is a rather large consensus for a few components like 3.5mm audio jack and USB in its many iterations. There’s more but I can recall only these off hand.
Environment, this suddenly is the topic that everyone is discussing. It is now an equally important feature for prospective customers. many of them want to know if their next purchase is going to be a power hog or a power saver. Being green was never so important!
With so many factors emerging and becoming powerful decision helpers many companies are taking up their positions. Each wants to be known for one particular feature that makes them better than their rivals. Every one is gunning for a niche category. Nokia being the biggest has clearly shown that it wants to be number one in them all. It can be also, but only when it can be better than Apple, Samsung, Android, Microsoft and many more combined. In the struggle to be this mammoth amongst giants from other areas, it has released the N97.
The N97 is in many ways like the ‘One’ ring in the movie “The Lord of the Rings”, with this device Nokia aims to rule them all. To what extent it will succeed is something only time will tell, simply because the churning has only just begun. The ring has just been forged. There is a lot more to come. So keep your ears to the ground!
Configuring ‘Messaging’ on the E75
June 23, 2009 by Aditya
Filed under symbian s60
We’ve just come across a blogpost by the author of www.adityasphones.wordpress.com, where he shows us the steps to be followed on how to get Nokia Messaging to work on your device (E75), if you could not get it to work the first time or if you are having problems with the native email client on the E75.
If you have an E75 and want to use Nokia Messaging and not the native email client, then go and have a look at his post.
He has given a complete list of steps involved. Don’t worry, you don’t need to hack into the phone. The steps are very simple and you will have Nokia messaging working in no time.
Here is the link to the post: How to configure ‘Messaging’ on your E75
E72 with a usable secondary camera option
- Image Courtesy: www.s60blog.com
This just in! We have just learned that the E72 will have secondary camera option available and a ‘Panorama’ mode will also be available.
As you all know the E66 and the E71 had a front facing camera, but one could not use it at all. It was only usable when you wanted to make video calls.
This time around, Nokia Eseries people have heard the customers of these phones and provided the prospective customers of the E72 with the option of using the secondary camera (front facing camera).
Kudos guys, for listening to your customers.
(Source: http://s60blog.com/2009/06/nokia-e72-comes-with-secondary-camera-option/ )