I asked an eclectic selection of 20 luminaries, bloggers and power users from the Symbian ecosystem: "Which is the Symbian-powered smartphone of the Decade? Which one was most significant, the most memorable, the most game-changing and the most loved?" Here are their answers, for your interest and amusement - and yes, a clear winner emerged...
NAVTEQ would literally like to take you for a ride at SEE. Along with the usual activities, NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) will be giving developers the opportunity to gain an insight into how NAVTEQ gathers mapping and location information.
Another new batch of games has appeared in Ovi Store, the full list is below. (Incidentally, if anyone from Nokia is reading this, could you please take a look at the Ovi Store servers and find out why some games are constantly appearing and disappearing!) Anyway, on with the new games, you can see them listed below in alphabetical order. Most of the new games seem to be from the publisher Playfon, who are apparently making their Ovi Store debut.
The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic (Symbian S60 3rd FP2, 3.2 mp autofocus camera, Wi-Fi, 3.5G, 600mhz CPU) has quietly become available through various channels in Europe including the official online shops of Nokia Finland, Nokia Germany and Nokia Italy, it's starting to appear in normal retailers too, and is available to pre-order in areas and shops where it isn't yet on sale. The 5630 is designed for S60 users on a budget, and the unlocked SIM-free model in most places seems to be around 200 euros plus taxes, which is among the lowest launch prices so far for a smartphone. (Note that the Nokia Germany shop currently only stocks the Comes With Music edition which costs more due to its unlimited music downloads bundle.)
After much delay, the most anticipated third party N-Gage game Worms World Party is out now on the N-Gage platform. The centrepiece of WWP is of course its online multiplayer mode for up to four players, and it becomes the first third party game to offer such a mode on N-Gage. To download WWP, go to your phone's N-Gage application, go to the Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now", or alternatively you can find it in the "All Games" section. The official trailer is below, you can see screenshots on AAN's WWP game page, and you can see a list of N-Gage-compatible phones on the AAN FAQ page.
According to a Nokia press release, the E75 QWERTY sliderphone is now making its way into shops, and may even be available already in some areas. As mentioned in previous stories, the E75 features Symbian S60 3rd Edition FP2, a 2.4 inch QVGA screen, side-sliding QWERTY keyboard, GPS, 3.2 megapixel autofocus camera, 3.5G HSDPA and Wi-Fi support. It's also the first Eseries device to be compatible with the N-Gage platform. The full release is below.
Gameloft's soccer simulator Real Football 2009 has been released on the N-Gage platform. Just go to the application's Showroom tab, select "Options" and then "Update Now", and it's also available in the "All Games" section. As always, a list of current and upcoming N-Gage compatible phones can be found on the AAN FAQ page.
The San Francisco GDC conference is starting on monday and All About N-Gage's Ewan Spence will be reporting live from the event (there have been some interesting rumours regarding N-Gage news). To follow AAN's GDC coverage, you can visit our website of course, but we also have various other online presences such as our Twitter channel and our RSS news feed. And if we have any interesting vids to show you they should end up on our YouTube channel. Also see Ewan's personal Twitter feed.
Nokia will be holding a four-hour question and answer event for publishers and developers interested in the upcoming Ovi Store on-phone content shop. The registration link and more details are available below.
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available in Australia on the 20th of March, and the Comes With Music all-you-can-eat subscription service will launch there simultaneously. The Nokia 5800 will have a recommended retail price of 979 AUD (£440) for a device with a 12 month Comes with Music subscription.