Playing games on a mobile can be a frustrating experience - N-Gages aside, few phones are built for the the precise controls that any decent action game requires and fat-fingered players won’t know whether they are running or jumping.
Sure, there are specialist game pad add-ons available, but these are not cheap and few but the most dedicated mobile gamers would actually pay for one.
MobiPad lets Wii owners use their magic wands with their UIQ or S60 mobiles.
The app pairs your phone and a Wii controller via Bluetooth and runs on all Symbian OS S60 3rd edition and UIQ3 devices.
In practice, the Wii controller works like as standard ‘Gameboy style’ D-Pad and button combo. The Wii controller’s motion-sensors are supported by MobiPad’s code but the developers are still figuring out what to map it’s controls to on the phone. Perhaps as we see more accelerometer based games appearing this feature might come into its own.
MobiPad is a free download, available here.
As we may have mentioned, we rather like the old Palm OS devices here at Pocket Picks. Whatever your misgivings about the PDAs themselves, you can’t deny that they had one of the best libraries of freware and shareware pps around - over 20,000 apps at the last count.
StyleTap is a Palm OS emulator that has been available on Windows Mobile for some time, claiming high levels of compatabilty to that lovely library of apps and games and operating a ‘Runs on StyleTap’ certification program that app developers can use to show their compatibilty with StyleTap.
The publishers have just announced plans for a Symbian port and - crucially - a version for the iPhone. Assuming they get it working with the iPhone SDK, this could be a great way to extend the Apple handset’s capabilities.
VITO Technology are celebrating their 7th birthday by selling all their Pocket PC, Windows Mobile, S60 and UIQ software for $7 a pop.
They seem to have been producing apps t the rate f about ten a day during their 7-year history, with a huge back catalogue of apps. Some of thes, like VITO Audioplayer, have freeware equivalents, but there are some gems.
Some of their better efforts have passed through PocketPicks before, including Pocket PC GPS utility VITO Find Me, S60 dictaphpne VITO AudioNotes and Windows Mobile SMS threader SMS-CHAT.
If you have $7 burning a hole in your account, the offer runs until Feb 26th.
(Well, it was either that or some variant on ‘Bloove is in the heart’, sorry)
Bloove is a web-based app that works with a Symbian S60 or UIQ client to let you manage your phone’s contacts, initiate calls and send SMS messages. There is also an archival feature that allows you to save old messages and rarely-used contacts to free up space on your phone.
The developers describe it as being ‘Like PC suite for the web’ although a closer match would be Nokia Beta Labs’ PC Phone.
Bloove’s big advantage over PC Phone is that it works using your Internet connection, whereas PC Phone requires a USB or Bluetooth connection and will only work in conjunction with a Windows PC running the Firefox web browser.
Bloove is platform independant and officially supports Internet Explorer, Opera and Firefox (and will probably work with others).
The basic version of Bloove is free but allows only 10 contacts and 100 messages to be archived. There is a (price TBA) upgrade planned that will allow archiving of unlimited contacts and messages.
In this season of late nights and party hangovers, wouldn’t it be nice if you could get someone to screen your incoming calls and filter out people who you really don’t want to talk to?
If you can’t afford to hire a PA, but still want the option of pretending you are busy while you wait for the paracetamol to work, take a look at Anfy Call Filter.
This simple app lets you enter a list of phone numbers - any calls from a number on the list will be hung up automatically.
Incoming calls are logged and you have the option of sending out an automated SMS to particular numbers as soon as they call, or to create ’smart blocking’ rules that will keep a number blocked for, say, 30 minutes after the first ring.
Call Filter runs on most S60 and UIQ phones and is available as freeware.
One of Sony Ericsson’s beta testers has leaked a picture of the delayed Sony Ericsson P5i smartphone. Admittedly it’s not a great shot but these days we have to take what we can get until Sony Ericsson officially unveils it.
The picture was leaked onto an Esato forum and shows a phone looking very heavily influenced by Apple’s iPhone.
According to the posting, the P5i is a slider handset running Symbian 9.1 on a UIQ 3.2 or UIQ 4 platform. The hi-res screen’s 2.8-inches, there’s GPS and of course, Wi-Fi built-in.
The phone also has a quite powerful 360Mhz processor and 160MB of internal memory, which can be expanded with both Memory Stick Micro (M2) and MicroSD cards.
It sounds and (we think) looks better and better every time details are leaked about this device, but we’ll have to wait until mid-2008 to see it.
[Via Symbian Freak]
Sony Ericsson’s the P5i won’t be publicly unveiled until the middle of next year. At least that’s what forums on the normally reliable Esato are saying.
The P5i has long been the subject of intense speculation that Sony Ericsson was working on touchscreen smartphone to end all, well, touch-screen smartphones.
The slimline slider will feature a 2.5-inch screen, a five-megapixel camera, built-in GPS and wi-fi, HSUPA (Better than HSDPA), 128MB of RAM, a 360MHz processor and a Memory Stick Micro (M2) card slot. The most interesting feature could be the rumoured Symbian 9.3 OS and UIQ 3.2 interface that it runs on.
A post on Esato’s forums is now claiming that the P5i has been sent ‘back to the shop for retooling’.
Regardless of the expected specs, we have to say the device (if real) looks gorgeous. Sadly we’ll have to wait six months before we get more of a look at it.
[Via Esato]
HTC obviously has high hopes for Google’s Android OS if recent claims are to be believed.
The manufacturer has already thrown its hat into the ring by helping develop the first Android handset, the Dream, but this is apparently only the start.
Speaking to Taiwanese analysts, HTC CEO Peter Chou has come out and said his company plans to launch up to three Android-based phones in the coming year, and expect its revenues to rise 20% next year.
Some manufacturers like Samsung and Motorola have already signed up to Google’s Open Handset Alliance, but Nokia is yet to commit fully. HTC’s support will be a fillip to Google’s attempts to break the Windows Mobile-Symbian-UIQ hegemony of mobile OS systems.
He also said that HTC plans to launch new user interface that’s better than TouchFLO and its first WiMAX devices by early 2009.
[Via Digi Times]
Although Sony Ericsson has always been vanguards of touchscreens in mobile phones, the release of the iPhone has put them in the unique position of playing catch up. The long rumoured P5i touchscreen wunderkind is looking ever more tangible and many are expecting an official announcement for the handset as soon as next week.
No actual spy shots of the device have emerged yet but the ever dependable Esato forums has a very nice looking render of the device as well as a run down of what are rumoured to be the finished specs.
Besides the 2.5 inch VGA touchscreen, the P5i is also said to sport a 5 MP camera with auto focus and flash, built-in GPS, Wi-Fi, 160 MB ROM, 128 MB SDRAM, a 360 MHz CPU, HSDPA/HSUPA connectivity and a MicroSD/Memory Stick M2 card slot. Most interesting of all however is the Symbian 9.3 OS, UIQ 3.2 touchscreen UI that runs on the device, something we have already been hearing murmurs about.
If these specs turn out to be accurate, this could be one serious touchscreen contender. As soon as we get the concrete details we’ll print them here.
(Via Esato forums)
Nokia, Microsoft, Apple and RIM - notable omissions from Google’s Open Handset Alliance - have all dismissed Android, the new upstart to a mobile OS market dominated by Symbian and Windows Mobile.
Reuters canvassed the companies on their responses to Android and all brushed it aside, claiming that it may boost web browsing on handsets but won’t threaten their dominance.
“If Google was not involved the industry would have just yawned and rolled over,” John Forsyth, strategy chief at Symbian, told Reuters. He said it would face difficulties basing the platform on an open-source, collectively designed Linux operating system.
He went on: “We have been going nine years and have probably seen a dozen new platforms come in and tell us we are under attack.
“We take it seriously but we are the ones with real phones, real phone platforms and a wealth of volume built up over years.”
Meanwhile Nokia, which owns 48% of Symbian simply said: “We don’t see this as a threat.”
Continue reading ‘OHA rivals Nokia et al dismiss Google’s Android mobile OS’
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