Symbian in Motion

Great news! Just stumbled on the Mobbler Google Code Page and discovered that they have updated the application to version 0.2.1. Nothing much interesting in this release just a few bug fixes for the N73 and N80.

What’s exciting is the update on the previous version 0.2.0  - The first radio player version of mobbler.

Yes it now streams music from Last.fm and scrobbles tracks played on your handset to your Last.fm profile! I’ve just been playing with it for a few minutes now, there is a new interface with some extra controls and menu options, and you have the option of streaming via Wi-Fi or 3G as desired. The usual options found on the desktop clients are there!

Now this is truly a solution for streaming music for all S60 users.

Google Maps has been updated to include limited support for Transit directions. The service is available to a few selected regions around the world, for the full list of supported areas see the Google Transit site.
The latest version of Google Maps (2.2) is available for S60 (3rd Editions and later) and Windows Mobile (2005 or later) handsets as well as Blackberry devices which had this feature previously.

Users of Window Mobile and S60 will also get a few more features with this latest version, which include:

star-ratings for businesses will help you get a feel for what other people think, your search results show up faster than ever, and user-generated content will now surface in your search results — opening up a whole new world of geo content on your phone. Look for the blue result markers when you search for “ruins in london,” for example.

To get this latest version of Google Maps for mobile with Transit, simply point your mobile browser to google.com/gmm. Also note the new icon for Google Maps. Nice!

For more info check out the Official Google Mobile Blog.

It’s been a while since something interesting came out of the Nokia Beta Labs, but today they have released Nokia Chat - an IM (instant messaging) application which also utilises Nokia Maps to show your location and also presence - something very similar to the Jaiku S60 client.

Phillip Schwarzmann takes us through the introduction video demonstrating the use of Nokia Chat, head over to see the video. The application has been tested with and is compatible with the following models and should also work with some other models listed below, which haven’t been tested.

Tested with:
Nokia N95 8GB, N95, N82, N81 8GB, N81, N76, E71, E66, E51, 6290, 6120 Classic, 6110 Navigator

Should work with:
Nokia E90 Communicator, 6124 classic, 6121 Classic, 5700 XpressMusic

The basic features:

Meet one-to-one

Chat helps you hook up with no hassles by sending your real-time location in an instant message. This unique feature lets your friend pinpoint your position and share her own on Nokia Maps.

Share Your Location

Chance meetings with friends are made easy. Pick out your places on Nokia Maps and choose where you want to publish your presence. Chat automatically updates your location status when you arrive at your hangouts.

Update Your Status

As well as sharing your location, you can edit your status with what’s going on and stay up-to-the-minute with your friends. Status symbols on Chat show when you’re available, on the phone, or away.

Message Friends

Chat puts quick and easy instant messaging at your fingertips. You can also record and send voice messages to friends.

I’m heading over to install it and give it a go, expect more feedback on this soon.

Did you guys catch the most recent Flixwagon update details? They’re definitely making it hard to to use Qik / Ktye right now…

• Share on Twitter and YouTube directly from phone: you can share individual videos on twitter and YouTube directly  from your device, as well as customize the message or titles. All you need to do is add your Twitter or YouTube account details on Flixwagon.com, and then you can customize posts directly from your phone.
• Detailed sharing from device: on your device you can now easily choose which specific groups (friends, family, etc.) can access your video. Make sure you set up your contacts, groups, and alerts first on flixwagon.com and you can start sharing flix with them on the fly.
• Digital zoom-in and zoom-out.
• Post messages back to chat. You can send IM messages back to the video chat room, making chats around your video 2-way. This is especially useful when you want to respond to your viewers’ comments without interrupting the video or audio in the broadcast.
• Change title: you can now change the video title directly from the phone while broadcasting.  This is great when the ‘right’ headline comes to you while you broadcast (and can help more viewers discover your broadcast while you’re still broadcasting live).
• Choose between delay or video quality: in the preferences section you can determine whether your broadcasts will be optimized for the shortest delay, or highest video quality.

Digital zoom and the ability to chat via text are awesome additions to the app. It’s still the best out there in terms of quality as well. All the big boys seem to be sticking to Qik though, despite the fact that not much seems to be going on in terms of app development. Is it just a case of the Twitter effect; popular people use it so everyone uses it? Let me know in the comments section - what live video streaming service do you guys use most often and why?

It’s no mystery that SkyeQuiKey is one of my favorite S60 apps - I’ve mentioned it plenty of times here on SiMo. Long story short, it’s a contact / application / game / bookmark / new message launcher that allows you to type directly from your Active Standby screen to pull up and launch your desired item. Thanks to a post from Stefan on Jaiku I’ve learned of a new SQK competitor that is currently available as a free beta. The following are my thoughts on T9nav as found in Stefan’s thread.

It’s a nice attempt at a competitor IMO but it has some big flaws… Here’s how they match up in my eyes:

T9nav Wins…

1. Less RAM consumption: ~265KB (T9nav) vs. ~965KB (SQK) [of course in modern S60 phones the impact is minuscule]
2. Ability to save a number to contacts: This is important and it’s basic functionality that SQK should have had from day 1.

T9nav Loses…

1. No history: SkyeQuiKey maintains a history. For example, because I visit my ESPN bookmark often, when I press 3 for “E” SQK places ESPN at the top of the list.
2. Slooooow to launch: Indexing media files was a horrible idea. Who launches a track but clicking on it in a menu? The first time I launch T9nav it takes over 2 minutes before my search results are shown. Fail. They should add settings to choose which categories should be indexed.
3. Slooooow to use: While keying in digits and navigating around, there are a lot of pauses and jumps.
4. Tabs: In one respect, separating categories into tabs is nice because the app indexes so many things. On the other hand, it eliminates the possibility of dpad shortcuts. I prefer shortcuts - ie: with SQK I can press left with a contact highlighted to open a new SMS to the contact or right to open a new email.

In my eyes, SQK wins by a long shot. It’s infinitely faster and much smarter. T9nav is five times better than digging through menus and apps, but SQK is 10 times better. The app is still in beta though so it is likely being actively developed. Looking forward to future versions…

To check out T9nav for yourself click here