Firefox Mobile for N900 full release 1.0 now available and much faster
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the latest Release Candidate 2 of Firefox ... [read more ››]
Say Hello to TiPb: The iPhone, iPod, and iPad Blog!
We’re proud to say that The iPhone Blog is now TiPb: your #1 iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad blog!
A little SPE network news before we get to our weekly list o’links. We’ve been calling TiPb ‘TiPb’ instead of ‘The iPhone Blog’ for so long now, we figured we may as well make it official. Add in that the iPhone platform now encompasses the iPhone, iPod Touch, and the newly announced iPad and renaming the site pretty much became a foregone conclusion. Same great content, new shorter URL to type in!
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Hey Apple, is there an app for this? Play SNES with PS3 controller on the big screen
Readers here, and SPE editors, know that the Nokia N900 is more computer than phone and the things you can do with it are pretty astounding. I just read an article over on Engadget where it has been shown you can connect a Sony Playstation wireless controller to your N900 via Bluetooth and then control the SNES emulator with the N900 connected via TV out to have a kick butt retro gaming platform. I don’t have a PS3 controller, but I do have Wii and XBox controllers and wonder if either of these will work. I may just have to pick up a PS3 controller to get this setup working on my N900 since there are some SNES games I really enjoyed playing when I was younger and would love to have them in hand again.
Check out this video below showing the setup and gaming on the big screen.
Stream Slacker Radio to your Nokia N900
Recently, I wrote about using 3rd party applications to stream Pandora and Last.fm on your Nokia N900. Previously, I took a look at streaming music via the web browser and at that time I mentioned I was unable to get my favorite streaming client, Slacker, up and running due to pop-up and other issues. I figured it was time to try it out again since there have been updates to the N900 since my last test and I am pleased to say that Slacker works like a champ on the Nokia N900 default web browser!
I think the reason it works now for me is that I first signed in to Slacker Radio Plus, which is a subscription-based option that removes audio and banner ads that may have been causing the problems for me before. Slacker Radio Plus also gives you unlimited song skips, complete lyrics, unlimited song requests, and a mini player. You can subscribe for $4.99/month billed monthly or $47.88/year (works out to $3.99/month). Slacker states they have four times the amount of content over other leading streaming clients and I personally find their service to be the best for me.
Check in to Foursquare on your Symbian S60 device
I recently presented a walk through of Barriosquare on the Nokia N900. Barriosquare is a Foursquare application for the Maemo 5 platform and a bit surprisingly there is still no Symbian S60 version available. However, Ricky Cadden posted a great tutorial on how to check-in with Foursquare using Waze on your S60 device. I haven’t yet tried out Waze, but see Ricky has some thoughts on Waze too.
I don’t know if any kind of official Foursquare application is being worked on for S60, but this looks like a nice solution to assist you with checking in on your device. I plan to soon load it on the Nokia N97 mini. Has anyone here tried out Waze or this Foursquare implementation yet?
Race around your neighborhood with Nokia Ovi Maps Racing game
I popped my SIM back into the Nokia N97 mini yesterday to update the firmware (did you know there was an available update?) via my PC and also try out the new Ovi Maps Racing game that is available in the Ovi Store for free. While the game is a pretty basic one in terms of the driving experience and flat 2D view, it has something special in it that makes it quite unique. You see, the game has infinite racetracks available for you to drive on since it pulls data from Ovi Maps and allows you to create tracks based on those maps. You can now race others around your virtual neighborhood.
As I said, the actual game play is pretty basic with constant acceleration and the only controls are tapping on the right and left side to turn your car. I would love to see the accelerometer used for turning right and left as well. Check out the official Nokia video below to see a bit of the game in action and download it now for your device while it is still free.
Ovi Store adds new tabs for better sorting and access
I mentioned that the Ovi Store was down for maintenance last night and according to a post on the Ovi Blog Nokia added some slight enhancements to the experience. You will immediately see new upper tabs in the Ovi Store on your device for Top Free, Best Sellers, and New so you should be able to more easily find applications to try on your devices. When you go to the Ovi Store on your device you should be prompted to install a new version of the application. You can also visit http://store.ovi.com through your Nokia mobile browser.
This is a nice addition to the store and should help you filter through the thousands of applications available in the Ovi Store.
Nokia Ovi Store down for 4 hour maintenance upgrade
I am here in my car working while my oldest daughter is at soccer practice and turned on the Nokia N97 mini to try to download the new Ovi Maps Racing game only to find the Ovi Store was down. I popped over to the Ovi Store blog and saw that the store is scheduled to be down for 4 hours while undergoing some maintenance. You can see on the blog that Nokia stated, “We will be posting more details on these enhancements shortly here on the Ovi Blog.”
Hmm, I wonder what enhancements we will see from Nokia on the Ovi Store. Stay tuned a bit later as I will be checking out the Ovi Store to try to find out what has been improved and changed with this update.
New Ovi Maps update downloaded every second 24 hours a day
It was just 13 days ago when I wrote about the amazing news that Nokia released Ovi Maps premium features for everyone for free for life and now we see an astounding figure reported from Nokia. Just since 21 January, Nokia has seen over 1.4 million downloads of the free Ovi Maps version and this occurred with only 10 selected Nokia devices currently supported. The one million mark was reach after just one week and Nokia reports they are seeing an average of one download per second, 24 hours a day. I know I personally downloaded and installed it on a couple of devices right away and am very pleased with the software and services.
Nokia also mentioned that the top five countries downloading the new version of Ovi Maps were: China, Italy, UK, Germany and Spain. The top five most popular Nokia devices installing the download were: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia N97 (this just with the firmware update occurring a few days ago), Nokia 5230 and Nokia E72. From next month, all new Nokia GPS-enabled smartphones will include the new version of Ovi Maps, pre-loaded with local country map data, with high-end walk and drive navigation and access to Lonely Planet and Michelin travel guides at no extra cost.
While many in the US may not understand the impact this Ovi Maps release has on the smartphone market, as we can see it is huge around the world and you can easily justify paying another $100 to $200 for a compatible device to have outstanding GPS navigation and worldwide map support on your device.
Thinking about worldwide map support, is there any other company that can even offer maps for you around so many countries? I do not think this is the case and Nokia clearly leads now in GPS navigation and mapping support for world travelers.
Need more levels of Angry Birds on your Nokia N900? Here they are
Back when the Ovi Store launched on the Nokia N900, I mentioned that Angry Birds was my favorite game and that everyone should download and play it now. I have since completed all the levels in the game and was looking to buy the next pack from Rovio. Unfortunately, there seems to be an issue with the Ovi Store and priced applications so at this time we cannot even pay to get more levels even though I am willing to do so. I hope this gets resolved soon, for both the developers and my sake. In the meantime, I read over on ZOMG its CJ that a Rovio employee was able to get clearance for custom level creation and the folks at NomandsNirvana.com have created a new level pack with 10 custom levels.
I remember back in the days with my Pocket PC that there was a war game where people could create custom levels and it was a pretty big hit. It is great to see a level editor available for Angry Birds and I imagine we may see a virtually unlimited number of levels for this game soon. I do hope that the developers are able to somehow make some money on this though since I want them to continue development of Angry Birds and hopefully more excellent games in the future. I understand that Angry Birds has been downloaded 6 times more than the same game on the iPhone. This tells me there is indeed a market out there for excellent games on the N900.
I just followed the instructions and now have many more levels of Angry Birds available that are accessed in the game by simply tapping the big 2 in the center of the level selector.
Walk around Barriosquare Foursquare application for the Nokia N900
A couple of days ago I mentioned that I was part of the beta test group for Barriosquare on the Nokia N900. Barriosquare is a Foursquare application that will hopefully soon find itself in the Maemo repositories and Ovi Store for the N900. I am very impressed with how fast the developer, Chris Burris, rolls out updates and at this time I have version 0.1.23 loaded on my device. It has actually been quite fun to mess around with X Terminal and figure out some commands and geeky aspects of the N900. As you can see in the screenshots below, Barriosquare is actually quite a good looking and functional application that easily beats many of the apps we already see in the Maemo repositories.
What the heck is Foursquare?
For those of you unfamiliar with Foursquare, I recommend you check out the Learn More page. Foursquare is a social networking service that is both a game and an information tool with ties into Twitter and Facebook. You “check in” to various locations and then can have your location sent to Foursquare, Twitter, and Facebook friends. You can add “shouts” when you check in to add a statement along with your check in. It is an easy way to see who else in your friend list is in the area and even cooler you can leave and find tips that are location based and live in the cloud as virtual tags. I have found this most helpful at restaurants where people have left tips on what is good to eat or what you should avoid ordering. There is some huge potential here for expanding this tips capability and even having venues give you coupons if you login or other incentives to play the game.To further the game aspects of the service, you can earn different badges for checking into various locations a certain number of times, throughout different times of the day, and multiple times. Some of the badges are just plain silly, but I have to admit it is kind of fun. If you check in enough at a certain location you will earn the title of Mayor and at this time I am mayor of 10 locations. You can actually earn free coffee, ice cream, hotel stays and more by being the mayor of certain locations so get out there and check in with your N900 and GPS. The stats page is quite interesting to view as well.
Quick look at Barriosquare
I won’t go into all the details of Barriosquare since it is still actively being developed, but Chris told me it was OK to post some screenshots and thoughts. I find the user interface of Barriosquare to be quite good and easily rivals the native Foursquare apps we see on the iPhone, BlackBerry, and Google Android platforms. As you can see in the screenshots, Chris uses Google Maps to show locations on maps. You can tap icons to view your information, your check-in history, your friends history, established venues in your geographic location, and ability to search for venues. This latest version just added the ability to add venues right in Barriosquare so that you can then check-in to new locations. The application is pretty straightforward while looking good.When you select a venue you will see a Google Maps view, address and phone number (if entered), along with the mayor of that venue. On the right are options to check-in, view any tips, check out links, and see who else is at that venue. I have yet to see anyone in the who is here page so am not sure this is enabled yet.
There are currently 66 members of the Barriosquare Google group so hopefully the application is getting tested out so it can be improved and tested thoroughly. If you have a N900 and are interested, then please do apply for membership to test it out.
