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Forum Nokia developers actively support S60 devices

I am a big fan of the S60 platform and in particular the Nokia N95, Nokia N73 and N93 and one major differences between these devices and the iPhone is the huge 3rd party development community. Michael Tangeman, from The Pen Group sent along a loaner Nokia N80ie loaded with applications from Forum Nokia developers. The applications include fring, FlashWeather, PocketCaster, Project Gotham Racing Mobile, SCANBUY Shopper, and SCANBUY Media. Michael also included QuickOffice and I plan to post a thorough review of the latest version in the next couple of weeks. So take a look at my image gallery for application screenshots and read below for a bit more about each application.
Written by Matthew Miller, Contributing Writer

I am a big fan of the S60 platform and in particular the Nokia N95, Nokia N73 and N93 and one major differences between these devices and the iPhone is the huge 3rd party development community. Michael Tangeman, from The Pen Group sent along a loaner Nokia N80ie loaded with applications from Forum Nokia developers. The applications include fring, FlashWeather, PocketCaster, Project Gotham Racing Mobile, SCANBUY Shopper, and SCANBUY Media. Michael also included QuickOffice and I plan to post a thorough review of the latest version in the next couple of weeks. So take a look at my image gallery for application screenshots and read below for a bit more about each application.


 Image Gallery: Check out product screenshots from several S60 applications.  
Image Gallery: PGR
 
Image Gallery: FlashWeather
 

Fring: One aspect of the S60 platform that really puts it head and shoulders above any other mobile operating system is the support for VoIP and my personal favorite application is fring. fring lets you make calls via Skype, Google Talk, Windows Messenger, and SIP clients like GizmoProject. You can also send instant messages with these services as well as communicate via Twitter. At this time this is the only S60 client I know that supports Skype as the official Skype client seems to be in a black hole. Fring is a free download and I highly recommend you give it a try.

FlashWeather: Weather updates and forecasts seem to be very popular with mobile device users, including Apple iPhone owners. I have WorldMate on my Nokia E61i that gives me the weather forecast, but haven't tried any other clients until now. FlashWeather from Foreca is a Flash application (obvious from the name, I know) that works very well on the S60 platform and provides a fluid rich experience. After launching the application, it took me to the central US by default and then you simply use the directional pad to move to the city where you are located. They support major cities around the world and my local city of Tacoma, WA was available. After moving to the city and selecting that city you are presented with several options, including SpotWeather forecast, current conditions, weather radar, satellite view, and more. I generally used the SpotWeather forecast since that provided me with 48 hour forecast graphs complete with temperature, weather condition (sunny, cloudy, etc), precipitation, and wind at a glance. It will automatically move through the 48 hour period or you can manual select a date and time using the directional pad on your device. The rain radar animation and satellite image were cool and great for demos too. There is a free trial version available, but it appears that individuals may not be able to purchase the application directly and must rely upon their provider to include it with the phone.

PocketCaster: I saw a demo of ComVu PocketCaster at a Windows Mobile event and thought it looked like a very cool service and application. PocketCaster lets you broadcast live video directly from your mobile device. When you sign up for service, you are given a personal page where you can share your live video feed with family and friends. You can also select to have your video posted automatically to your blog or site and even send it to YouTube for later viewing. The application is very easy to use on the S60 device and with devices like the N80ie you actually have the choice of using the front or back camera. After setting up your account and preferences on your device you simply select Start and begin recording and streaming your video. PocketCaster really takes out a lot of extra work for you and is very slick. I only have a T-Mobile EDGE connection so PocketCaster didn't work except for when I was connected via WiFi. If you have a 3G connection then you should be fine. You can also select to just save the video to your external storage card for later use and sharing. Pricing still has not been established so you can download and give it a try for free. Free accounts are limited to 2GB of data per month and 100MB of video storage.

Project Gotham Racing: Mobile device usage shouldn't be all work and no play and actually games are one of the hottest selling categories of software for mobile devices. glu games brings the Xbox classic game, Project Gotham Racing, to the mobile device. I was playing it on the Nokia N80ie and have to say the graphics were actually quite good, as you can see in my screenshots, but it was tough to drive using the directional pad on this device. The N80ie also has a very high resolution display so there was a bit of blurry motion around the roads when driving. The gameplay is very much like the full Xbox version and includes maneuvers like drifting and airtime, racing ghosts of your other races, a nice car selection, some great road environments, and in-game unlockable previews of PGR4. There are 5 different levels of gameplay and I think it may have been a better experience on a device like the N95. It was pretty amazing though to see how much detail they were able to bring to this mobile device game.

SCANBUY Shopper: This was one of the last applications I tried out and didn't think much of it before actually trying. SCANBUY Shopper allows you to quickly enter a UPC code from a product you are interested in and then the application connects using your data service to download lowest prices on the internet. There are even reviews of the product. For books, you can enter the ISBN number and see a price comparison as well. I always check out online prices before making an in-store purchase and now I can do this quickly and easily to balance which way I am going to make a purchase. Best of all, SCANBUY Shopper is a FREE application so if you have a supported mobile phone and buy things then I recommend you give this application a try. I know I'll be using it now to check out prices online and not have to go through a bunch of Google searches on my mobile devices.

I was unable to try out ScanLife's Scanbuy because the application uses your phone camera to capture an image of the 2D/QR barcodes on objects. Scanbuy will then decode the barcode and provide information and even external links to the data. These types of barcodes are very popular in Japan and Korea, but I haven't ever seen one in a store myself.

As you can see there are a number of applications for you to enjoy on the S60 platform and many of them are actually available for free. Support the 3rd party developers and give these applications a try on your mobile device.

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