Accelerometer-based apps for suitably-equipped S60 3rd Edition phones are popping up thick and fast at the moment but there aren’t many around that do anything really useful.
There are some cute single-use apps like the spirit level app Pypoziomica and plenty of novelty apps like this sword fighting game, but potentially useful things like ShakeMe seem to be in perpetual beta.
Flipsilent, though, that I can see myself using quite a bit - especially now it has been released as a Symbian Signed app and I won’t need to jump through hoops to get it to install.
As the name implies, Flipsilent lets you shush your handset simply by turning it over. The app lets you configure ‘flip’ behaviour for hanging up calls, switching to a ’silent’ profile and muting alarms. Oh, and it’s free.
Check after the jump for a video of the app in action.
Continue reading ‘Flipsilent gets Symbian Signed’
Catching up with Doctor Who or ‘Enders while you are meant to be working has never been easier thanks to the BBC’s iPlayer service but, although Auntie Beeb launched an iPhone-compatible iPlayer streaming service a few months ago, non-Apple mobile owners have been left out.
That should be set to change, according to the BBC’s head of digital media Anthony Rose.
Speaking to Marketing news source Brand Republic, Rose said that the beeb are working on a version of iPlayer that will be compatible with the Nokia N95.
Whether this means that any S60 3rd Edition smartphone will be able to enjoy mobile re-runs of Strictly Come Dancing or if the BBC will be somehow restricting iPlayer to working with a specific handset is not clear.
The iPhone/iPod Touch version of iPlayer was hampered by the lack of Flash support or the ability to install any apps without jailbreaking the device, but S60 devices should be a lot more flexible.
The problem with PIM software on most mobile phones is that it ties you down to using whatever apps the phone designers thought would suit - either a plugin for something generic like Outlook (over my dead body) or a lame custom-made desktop version of the phone’s own calendaring software that is incompatible with anything else.
CalSyncS60 will, in theory, allow you to sync your S60 3rd edition phone’s calendar with a Google Calendar. Google Calendar is another one of Google’s many spin off services - a pretty full-fuction calendar and scheduling app with a web interface and an API that helps it integrate into many other similar projects.
CalSyncS60 is still very much beta software and currently only syncs over a wifi connection. But sync it does, and the ability to near-instantly place your appointments on the web is a useful one. Given that this is freeware, it is certainly worth a download and an encouraging email to the coder responsible, in the hope of an update.
“Funny, I could have sworn that was fully charged this morning..”
We’ve all been there - you pull out your phone to make a call, only to find that all your lovely ‘leccy has drained away. Not only are you unable to tell the world that you are on the train, you will have to charge your phone when you get in and the environment will take another beating.
One common cause is running an app that takes more than its fair share of battery power, either by being poorly written, or by over-using certain components like the vibrator.
It’s not ideal - so Nokia has released Energy Profiler to try and sort things out. Although it is intended for developers to streamline their new apps, there is nothing to stop us mere mortals from loading it up and using it to find out which shareware Tetris clone is killing the planet. One Nokia developer is asking users to email Nokia and ask them to release a more consumer-focused version of the app via Nokia Beta Labs.
Nokia Energy Profiler runs on S60 3rd Edition phones with Feature Pack 1.
The oddly named Spodtronic, a streaming music service, has inked an agreement with the BBC to bring archived concert recordings to S60 3rd Edition smartphones.
That’s the good news; the bad news is that the service won’t work in the UK as it conflicts with the BBC’s own ambitions for a mobile music service.
Hopefully we will get to hear more about the BBC’s shadowy mobile plans soon. In the meantime, if you live on the continent you can already enjoy concerts from 1971 right through until the present day by taking advantage of a seven-day free trial — which can be found here.
(Via AllAboutSymbian)
Nokia has updated its S60 3rd Edition (Nseries et al) Maps application, adding user-requested features including a data-use counter, and an indicator to show when you’re connected to a satellite. Also improved is the user interface, which has been ’streamlined’, and the search categories have been updated.
The new version also comes with a free three-day trial Navigation license (the useful bit), which should function in around 50 of the 150 countries that have been mapped (full list here). Also updated is the PC-only Nokia Map Loader
app, which is designed to ease the process of loading new maps into your phone.
You can check it all out & download from Nokia’s Maps pages — obviously you need a GPS-enabled phone to use it. Having checked the coverage list, we’re curious to know how Ewan McGregor managed to ‘”stay on track” all the way through Africa with a 6110 Navigator handset, given that only South Africa is offered with navigable mapping…
