Article updated 6/5/09 at 8:05am PSTwith more information about countries of availability.
(Credit:
Google)
Nokia S60 users can finally bypass the browser and start Google searches from the same application that most other smartphone users have been using for months. The free Google Mobile App has arrived on Nokia S60 phones.
As with CNET Editors' Choice winner Google Mobile App on BlackBerry, this Symbian build places a search bar at its heart. The search bar supports search suggestions, history, and edits to the history, all of which saves you typing on subsequent searches for similar topics. Submitted searches return results in the default browser.
The search bar is flanked on the top by icons for Gmail, Google Maps for Mobile, YouTube, and Picasa Web albums. Clicking either of the first three will launch each separate native app if you've got it installed, or will install it for the first time if you don't have it. A 'more" button fast tracks you to online versions of Goog 411, Google Reader, Google SMS, and Orkut.
The final feature in this approachable and endlessly useful app is the My Location feature that uses the phone's GPS or cell tower triangulation to guess your general neighborhood. With it activated, Google can automatically localize your searches, which takes typing your city or zip code off your hands.
You can launch Google Mobile App from Nokia's Today screen by pressing the phone's "back" key. Users can opt out by disabling the quick launch hot key in the app's Setting menu.
Get Google Mobile App for Nokia S60 by visiting m.google.com from your mobile browser, or mobile.google.com from a desktop. It is available for handsets used in Canada, China, Denmark, France, Germany, India, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russian Federation, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Finland, Hong Kong, Macao, Norway, Portugal, Taiwan, and Sweden.
Microsoft's Silverlight browser plug-in will be bringing videos and other rich media to Nokia smartphones later this year.
The two companies on Tuesday at Microsoft's Mix '08 conference are scheduled to announce that Microsoft will write a version of Silverlight for Nokia's Series 60 (S60) smartphone software that runs on Symbian OS. The software, which will be available later this year, will also run on Series 40 devices and Nokia Internet tablets.
Silverlight videos are coming to Nokia's N96 smartphone.
(Credit: Nokia)For people with compatible devices, it means they will be able to see content, notably video, written for Silverlight, which Microsoft is pushing as an alternative to Adobe's Flash Player. Microsoft has been signing on content partners to use Silverlight for media streaming, including MLB.com and online Olympic games broadcasting with NBC.
For Microsoft, the deal with Nokia is a step in its pledge to make Silverlight "ubiquitous," that is, capable of running on multiple operating systems.
The software giant is trying to lure Web developers toward Silverlight--and away from Flash--to build rich Internet applications or media-oriented Web sites.
The strategy, which Microsoft detailed at last year's Mix conference, hinges on creating tools that let traditional Microsoft developers write Silverlight Web applications with familiar products like Visual Studio and ASP.Net.
Silverlight now runs on Windows and Mac OS, and it has a deal with Novell to build a distribution on Linux.
A version of Silverlight for Windows Mobile will be available later this year, said John Case, a general manager in Microsoft's developer division. "The whole Silverlight strategy is to provide one programming model and ubiquity," he said.
Microsoft chose to work with Nokia because it has the largest market share of mobile phones, but it will sign on with other handset makers to create ports of Silverlight, Case said.
All the main features of Silverlight, including video and interactive Web application development, will be included in all mobile versions.
But there will be some device-specific restraints, which means Microsoft will create editions of Silverlight for different mobile platforms, he said.
MIAMI--A tech conference just wouldn't be a tech conference without a few wacky parties. The Future of Web Apps event in Miami this week is no exception.
Handset manufacturer Nokia decided to take advantage of the fact that no official FOWA parties were on the books for Thursday night by throwing its own soiree at an awkwardly named Miami Avenue bar called Dolores, But You Can Call Me Lolita (if it's going to be literary, can't the name at least be a little shorter?) as a promotion for its S60.com smartphone software.
The party was appropriately timed in conjunction with the gathering of many developers because the Symbian-based S60's hallmark is the fact that it accepts third-party applications.
We tried really hard, but BricaBox's Nate Westheimer and I couldn't find a way to make the pink Nokia S60 hats look tough.
(Credit: Caroline McCarthy/CNET News.com)The highlight of the party, besides the free drinks, was a screaming contest. Yes, a screaming contest. Attendees were divided into groups based on the color of a smiley-face sticker on their badges, and each group was given an S60-equipped handset with an application installed that measured the volume of whatever was getting spoken or shouted into the phone. The group that could raise the volume highest by screaming into the handset was awarded with a Bluetooth headset for each member.
My group didn't win. After the screaming contest, I spent a bit of time talking to entrepreneurs from a few local tech companies, such as Grooveshark and Scrapblog. Then I went to sleep. The end.
In Nokia's swag bag? A memory stick (OK, I can deal with that), an extra-large T-shirt (beach cover-up!), breath mints (do they really think FOWA-ers are going to be making out?) and a pale pink baseball cap. Um, hello? The S60 party was about 95 percent male. Heck, even your average female wouldn't put on one of these hats.
And despite our valiant efforts, as you can see in the accompanying photo, even BricaBox founder Nate Westheimer and I couldn't make those hats look hard-core.
Update your status, and keep an eye on your buddies with Jaiku's freshly updated Nokia S60 app.
(Credit: Jaiku)Jaiku's got a freshly updated mobile app for owners of Nokia handsets running the latest version of the S60 OS. Once installed, it lets you keep track of your Jaiku buddies without having to resort to your phone's Web browser. The real pull however, is presence, which lets you see what your Jaiku friends are up to live--or go back and take a look at their previous messages using a feature they call "stream view." With the new presence system, if you see one of your friends online, you can begin a conversation with them, turning the app into a near-instant messaging client.
Another big change users of Jaiku's previous mobile iteration are going to notice is a new option to swap back and forth between an "always on" mode, and one that checks in only when you re-enter the app, which cuts down on battery drain. There's also an improved way to share your presence with your friends, including your geographical location, which the app will pull up based on what cell phone towers you're connected to (handy for non-GPS phones).
Still missing is a way to access the app via Wi-Fi, which you can get around if you visit the slightly less featured mobile version of the site on your phone's browser. The Jaiku team is planning on adding this functionality in the next release.
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