Skype and Nokia today jointly announced the release of Skype for Symbian, a Skype client for Nokia smartphones based on the Symbian platform, the world’s most popular smartphone platform. Skype for Symbian will allow Nokia smartphone users worldwide to use Skype on the move, over either a WiFi or mobile data connection (GPRS, EDGE, 3G). It is now downloadable for free from the Ovi Store, Nokia’s one-stop shop for mobile content.

So I have gone to OviStore and downloaded the app. To my surprise, it’s very fast and the interface is very sleek. I expected it to be somewhat sluggish like the previous Java version but was totally overwhelmed.
Upon logging in, your contacts will be displayed with their avatars and statuses.

Skype for Symbian enables Nokia smartphone users to:

· Make free Skype-to-Skype calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world*
· Save money on calls and texts (SMS) to phones abroad.
· Send and receive instant messages to and from individuals or groups
· Share pictures, videos and other files.
· Receive calls to their existing online number
· See when Skype contacts are online and available to call or IM
· Easily import names and numbers from the phone’s address book

Here’s a screenshot of the contact list and by tapping the first button at the bottom of the screen will call the contact straight away. This allows us to do voice calls with Skype users anywhere in the world via their computers or mobile.

Skype for Symbian will run on any Nokia smartphone using Symbian^1, the latest version of the Symbian platform. Skype will soon introduce this client to Symbian mobile devices from other manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson.

The chat window looks clean and easy to the eye. There’s no lag between entering the text and displaying it on the screen, in other words, the interface is very fast.

The initial Skype for Symbian application is compatible with the following Nokia touchscreen models: Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia X6, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and Nokia 5530 and the following non-touch devices: Nokia E72, Nokia E71, Nokia E90, Nokia E63, Nokia E66, Nokia E51, Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8Gb, Nokia N85, Nokia N82, Nokia N81, Nokia N81 8 Gb, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, Nokia 6220 classic, Nokia 6210 Navigator, Nokia 5320.

For more information on Skype for Symbian, including the latest supported handset list, at http://www.skype.com/go/symbian.

* Skype recommends use of an unlimited data plan to avoid incurring additional charges from operators. Users should also be aware that extra charges may apply if they use Skype over a mobile data connection when abroad.

Download Skype for FREE now on OviStore!

A feature that I think many have been waiting for many years. Finally someone from BetaLabs came up with app that lets us customize the predictive (T9) dictionary in our phones!

With this application, you can:

• View all the words in your custom dictionary
• Add new words to it
• Edit and Delete existing words
• Export the dictionary as xml file
• Import words from an xml file
• Scan text files to import all the words
• Transfer your dictionary to another phone

Check out the video below to understand the app more.

Nokia Custom Dictionary can be installed on S60 3rd and 5th Edition devices. Its fully functional on Nokia E71, Nokia E63, Nokia 5800 XPressMusic, and Nokia X6.

There might be some minor issues on Nokia N97, Nokia N97 mini, Nokia E72, Nokia E75, Nokia E55, and Nokia E52 and has limited functionality on Nokia N96, Nokia N95, Nokia N95 8GB, Nokia N82, Nokia N79, Nokia N78, and other older phones.

Head on over to Nokia Betalabs now to download the app for your S60 devices!

One of the most innovative game from Ovi is about to emerge…

It’s a game based on GPS location, maps and your driving skills.

Behold! OVI MAPS RACING!

Basically when you launch the game, it will detect your location via GPS and then present you the map of the area you are in and then you can start racing in your neighbourhood.

Here are more screenshots of the game.

The game will soon be available for download, so for now, enjoy the game trailer first.

Source

Are you a music buff? Do you love music as much as er… food? Nokia Malaysia is currently looking for 50 people to become the Nokia Music Explorers and enjoy unlimited access to over a million tracks via the latest Nokia music device.

What’s this about?

The 50 selected explorers will be amongst the first to preview Nokia’s Comes With Music service and the new Nokia X6 32GB music device.

A complimentary 1 year account subscription will give you unlimited access to over millions of tracks available on Nokia Ovi Music.

To apply, simply answer a survey and 50 people will get selected to become the Nokia Music Explorers and will be able to attend an event on 14th January 2010.

Click here to apply now!

Seems like Nokia realised that many users are not clear on the direction and the app availability for email, social network and messaging on Nokia devices.

That’s why the company launches a new portal that features all the messaging options and ambitions.

The portal is divided into 3 main sections: Email, Instant Messaging and Social Networking.

Each section tells users what they can do on their phone in messaging and how it helps them to communicate better.

Once the user has selected the device, the graphic changes to match messaging options for the selected model.

Here’s a video overview of Nokia Messaging.

Check out the new Messaging site now!

Woot! This is gonna be great.

Check out this widget below with international artiste Rihanna talking about some stuff.

What stuff? You have to click play to view it.

“Nokia today announced the launch of a groundbreaking new global music partnership – Nokia Play 2010 - with the Island Def Jam Music Group (IDJMG) and Universal Music Group International (UMGI)”

The partnership will launch international superstar Rihanna’s highly-anticipated new album, Rated R, with Nokia via an exclusive live, streamed concert and simultaneous listening parties in multiple locations around the globe on November 16th 2009.

Streamed live from London, Rihanna will perform for the very first time a select number of tracks from her new album. In front of fans in London and an audience globally, the exclusive gig will showcase Nokia and IDJMG’s ability to bring fans closer to artists, and artists closer to fans via its home on www.nokia.com/rihanna

This event places Rihanna at the forefront of cutting-edge technology to deliver music and exclusive content to fans, whilst enabling fans to get closer to the live action from wherever they are in the world.

Listen up Rihanna fans! You now can:

* Sign up to watch the live stream
* Invite your friends to watch the performance simultaneously with you through Facebook and Twitter
* Download a web widget counting down to the live performance.
* Download an exclusive Rihanna mobile application from Nokia’s Ovi Store.
* Download the album with an exclusive track either to their PC or over the air to mobile from Nokia Music Store or Comes With Music.

In addition, Nokia will offer of an exclusive version of the new Rated R album via Nokia Music Store, as well as a companion Rihanna application with exclusive footage and other links on Ovi Store.
Rihanna stated, “I am so excited to partner up with Nokia. They are doing some really revolutionary things with this album, enabling me to reach more fans than ever before.”

To secure your place in the making of music history, register at www.nokia.com/rihanna now!

Reminder: Live Stream will take place on 16th November 2009

Recently I’ve been playing a lot of Dance Fabulous on the N96. It’s such a fun dancing game to play (especially when we are dancing to our own tunes).

Basically it’s similar to one of those dance dance revolution kinda games minus the arrows directions.

The game allows a lot of user customization. Dancer gender, clothings, skin colour, facial expression are some of the settings we can do to suit our likings. One of the biggest customization that I like is that it allows us to use our own tunes! That means I  can put in a slow Titanic-ish song into the game and my dancer will be doing slow motions too.

As we progress through the game, new backgrounds, clothes and dance styles will be unlocked.

The gameplay is simple, create random moves using the navipad so that the dancer will not do the same move again and again (that will not earn you points btw). Utilise the up, down, left, right and center directions fully to create special moves and gain gold stars that will warp you to a special challenge.

Check out the video I recorded.

What do you think of Dance Fabulous? Leave a comment and share with us.

As mentioned in my previous post, the Nokia X6 was featured at the recent Nokia OneConnectedWorld conference and I got the chance to play around with the device trying out it’s new display, camera and other features.

Click here to view some sample shots from the X6.

First of all, the X6 is the first Nokia that comes with a capacitive touchscreen. The dimension of 3.2″ with 640×360 resolution display is big enough for most of the video and photo viewing tasks. The responsiveness of the capacitive screen was definitely a lot better than the 5800 and also the N97. A slightest touch on the screen is sufficient to trigger actions on the interface.

Speaking on interface, the X6 comes with a new homescreen that allows a carousel view of favourite contacts and there’s also a shortcuts bar at the bottom of the screen. I think this is more usable than the one on the 5800 XPM.

Since the X6 is the highest end device in the music line, the audio playback should be of a certain standard in speaker quality and also the music player interface.

Well, I can say that the speaker plays audio very well. Loud and clear (thanks to the dedicated audio chip for crystal clear hi-fi sound quality. Still, it lacks bass but I’m sure its a totally different story if music is played throught the earphone). The player interface on the other hand is quite a dissapointment as it looks and works the same as the 5800 XPM. The X6 supports mp3, SPMidi, AAC, AAC+, eAAC+ and WMA.

The X6 comes with a Carl Zeiss 5 megapixel AF camera (2592 x 1944 pixels), 4x zoom and dual LED flash. From some shots I took. I realised that the X6 can take photos really well. The desaturated-when-indoor problem almost didnt exist on this one so it’s a good thing. It also records video at 640×480 resolution at 30fps.

Check out these videos of I took of the Nokia X6.

What do you think of the Nokia X6? Leave a comment and let us know.

New buzz in town! Microsoft and Nokia, one worldwide software leader and one of the world’s largest smartphone manufacturer have announced yesterday that they will be working together to deliver a groundbreaking, enterprise-grade solution for mobile productivity.

Under this alliance agreement, the two companies will collaborate on the design, development and marketing of productivity solutions for the mobile professionals. This will bring Microsoft’s popular Office Mobile into Nokia devices, especially the Eseries.

Microsoft Business Division President Stephen Elop and Nokia’s Executive Vice President for Devices Kai Öistämö announces the agreement, outlining a shared vision for the future of mobile productivity.

Some of the tangible benefits or features that users will get from this collaboration are:

• The ability to view, edit, create and share Office documents on more devices in more places with mobile-optimized versions of Microsoft Word, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Excel and Microsoft OneNote
• Enterprise instant messaging and presence, and optimized conferencing and collaboration experience with Microsoft Office Communicator Mobile
• Mobile access to intranet and extranet portals built on Microsoft SharePoint Server
• Enterprise device management with Microsoft System Center

What do you think about this alliance between Microsoft and Nokia? Let us know by leaving a comment.

Source

There has been quite a lot of new apps for download in Ovi Store and I was browsing it last night, this comic caught my attention.

It’s called “ATOMIC DREAMS: The Lost Journal of J.Robert Oppenheimer”

This comic was produced by Carnival Comics and they announced that this is the first mobile comic app for Nokia phones and it was available for download since 21st July 09 through OVI Store.

Some screenshots of the mobile comic. It has a total of 7 chapters and the one available for download is chapter 1.

Do visit OVI Store and download this app for your S60 touch devices now!

At the recent Nokia Developer Summit event held at Monaco, I was lucky enough to be able to meet some key people in the Symbian industry.

Some bloggers, some developers and some people from Nokia and Symbian foundation.

Below are some shots of them.

2 journalists from Singapore, Rob Taylor: Head of Forum Nokia, me and Kelly, a journalist from Malaysia.

Tero Ojanpera: Executive Vice President, Services, Nokia & us.

Lee Williams: Executive Director, Symbian Foundation & us.

Rafe Blandford from AllAboutSymbian

Leanid Vouk: Team Leader of QIK

Rocco and Rene, developers from Germany and UK.

Nice meeting you guys.

I got an email today from N-gage with an invitation to sign up to get game trials when new games are available.

The perks of doing this? Get to play new games and of course… getting FREE N-Gage game codes.

Here’s a screenshot of the email.

Click here if you wanna sign up for game trials and get free game codes too!

Since we are on the topic, here’s my top 3 favourite N-gage games so far.

1. Reset Generation

2. Star Wars: Force Unleashed

3. Metal Gear Solid Mobile

What’s your favourite N-gage game?

Dance Fabulous, the one of a kind dance party game is finally out on N-Gage!

It’s a dancing game that lets you dance to your own songs. You can also create your own unique dance moves and boost your music experience to a totally new level!

Connect this game to the network and beat your friends’ score points!

You wont see it on the N-gage website for now, since it’s scheduled launch date is 11th June… but you can get this game now by accessing the “showroom” tab on the N-gage app on your Nokia phones. Just make sure you click on options > update now!

Here’s the official trailer for Dance Fabulous.

Check out this video too! It’s Rafe from AllAboutSymbian trying to beat my high score (spot my name Jason G at the high score chart on the left of the LCD) at the Dance Fabulous party, Monaco recently.

Check out Dance Fabulous Official Site now!

Nokia is giving out 97 x Nokia N97 worldwide to 97 lucky people!

For Malaysia, SymbianpOp has been appointed to give out the N97 to 6 lucky Malaysians!

Join the Search for N to get yourself one of the 6 Nokia flagship touchscreen device now!

How Does The Search For N work?

1. First, surf on over to http://symbian.smashpop.net. Beginning May 26th, each question will be released at a set schedule as below:

· Clue 1 – 26th May @ 7:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur

· Clue 2 – 28th May @ 7:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur

· Clue 3 – 30th May @ 7:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur

· Clue 4 – 31st May @ 7:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur

· Clue 5 – 2nd June @ 7:00 p.m. Kuala Lumpur

2. There will be a total of 5 questions to be answered. The 5th question will be released on June 2nd.

3. As soon as the final question is released, email all five of your answers to nmalaysia@ovi.com. The first 10 all-correct entries will progress to the FINAL stage to stand a chance to win one of six Nokia N97.

4. Nokia will contact the final 10 contestants with a secret password to be used for the FINAL stage. The FINAL CLUE will be posted on 4th June 2009 on http://symbian.smashpop.net (time to be revealed to 10 finalists).

5. Solving the FINAL CLUE will reveal the the secret location of the Nokia N97 where the finalists must immediately proceed to on that day within a specified time. It’ll be an exciting race to the finish because only the FIRST 6 to arrive will receive the Nokia N97.

Will you dare to Search for N?

Clue 1: 26th May 2009

At the tips of your fingers, a way to find your way in the dark? (Hint: It’s one of your five senses)

==========Terms & Conditions==========
Eligibility
* Nokia Malaysia (the Organiser) presents the Search for N Contest (“Contest”), starting from May 26 2009 and ending on June 4 2009.
* Only participants who submit entries to the nmalaysia@ovi.com email address during the specified Contest period will be eligible for the prize.
* This Contest is open to all Malaysian individuals aged 18 and above. Employees, agents, employees of advertising agencies and suppliers of Nokia Malaysia and their immediate family members are not eligible to participate in the Online Contest.
Mechanics
* Participants must adhere to the mechanics of the Online Contest as follows:
o Participants must surf over to http://symbian.smashpop.net. Where one question will be released at a set schedule beginning May 26th.
o There will be a total of 5 questions to be answered. The 5th question will be released on June 2nd.
o As soon as the 5th question is released, participants must email all five of their answers to nmalaysia@ovi.com.
o The first 10 all-correct entries will progress to the final stage to stand a chance to win one of six Nokia N97s.
o Nokia will contact the final 10 contestants with a secret password to be used for the final stage. The final clue will be posted on 4th June 2009 on http://symbian.smashpop.net.
o Participants must solve the final clue which will reveal the the secret location of the Nokia N97. Finalists must immediately proceed to the location on the same day within a specified time.
o The first six participants to arrive at the secret location will receive a Nokia N97.
Prize
* Participants may submit as many entries as they like.
* Nokia Malaysia is offering one unit of Nokia N97 each as the prize for the six winners. The prize is not transferable and cannot be exchanged for cash or items of equivalent value, except at the sole discretion of the Organiser. The Organiser reserves the right to substitute or replace the prize from time to time without prior notice.
Winner Selection
* The selected 10 finalists will be notified by phone or email and be given the secret password as well as details on the final stage of the contest.
* If a finalist is unable to participate in the final stage of the contest, the Organiser reserves the right to select another finalist from its pool of qualifying finalists.
* The Organiser reserves the right to reject entries that are found or in the opinion of the Organiser to be fraudulent.
* The Organiser’s decision is final and binding. No correspondence or appeals against any decision made shall be entertained.
Miscellaneous
* The Organiser reserves the right at its absolute discretion to change, delete or add to any of these Terms & Conditions and/or to terminate, suspend or cancel this Contest at any time with or without prior notice. For the avoidance of doubt – termination, suspension or cancellation of the Contest shall not entitle the participants or the prize winner to claim for compensation against Nokia Malaysia for any and all losses or damages suffered or incurred by the participants or the prize winner as a direct or indirect result of the act of termination, suspension or cancellation.
* The Organiser reserves the right to publish or display the name, information and/ or photographs of the winner for marketing, advertising and publicity purposes in any manner it deems appropriate.
* By participating in this Contest, it is deemed that the participants agree to be bound by all of these Terms & Conditions and the decisions of the Organiser in relation to every aspect of the Contest.
* All participants’ information provided shall become the property of Nokia Malaysia and may be used for but not limited to the following purposes: marketing communications, marketing analysis, or third party offers.
* This Contest is carried out to further promote Nokia Malaysia and its products. It is not designed for any gambling purposes.

Tomorrow is the day… when 6 people in Malaysia will get the chance to win a Nokia N97 each.

Be sure to come back tomorrow if you wanna be part of this.

Tell your friends, tell your family, tell your colleagues, tell your classmates… you might need them to support you. They deserve a chance to know about this too. Blog it… Facebook it… Twit it… Plurk it…

Here’s a video to get you excited.

So… white or black N97? Hahaha.. just a random question.

p/s: “Follow me on Twitter for updates and hints! @smashpop“

Nokia’s upcoming flagship device, the N97 is going to be launched soon… and something interesting is going to happen here on SymbianpOp in a few days time. Here’s a teaser for you.

Be sure to check out often for more details here. Some of you might just get lucky

I recently got the chance to play with something futuristic. Haha. It’s the Cinemizer eyewear produced by Zeiss.

It was at the Nokia Developer Summit where I got exposed to this device that allows users to have 3D experience with stereo sound watching movies(and playing games) on mobile phones.

According to Zeiss website; “Whether you want to watch a whodunit inside the sanctity of your own four walls, or a thriller while riding an exercise bike at the gym – cinemizerplus allows you to enjoy a blockbuster wherever you are”

To get it to work on the mobile phone, we need to have the software installed and the dock that plugs into the 3.5mm headphone jack that has a cable connecting to the eyewear.

The Cinemizer eyewear made me look like Cyclopse…. but the 3d experience was mind blowing… with earphone plugged deep into your ear… one get get immersed into the movie right away.

Here’s a video demonstration of the eyewear plugged onto an N86 that I recorded at the event in Monaco.

Find out more about Zeiss Cinemizer here.

Have you seen the latest Star Trek movie? If you have, I am sure you noticed the Nokia touchscreen device used by young James T. Kirk in the car at the beginning of the movie.

The ringtone played before Kirk answered the call is called the “Star Trek Nokia Futurize” tone. Check out this video if you have forgotten about this scene/have not seen Star Trek.

Nokia has actually put up some wallpapers, video clips and also the ringtone used in the movie on www.nokia.mobi and you can access to these goodies using your phone browser.

These contents are actually location dependant, therefore some countries might not be able to get them. If you want the tones, you can click on the button below and download the ZIP file that consist the futurize and dematerialise tone from Star Trek.

I installed AoE3 on the N96 last night and played around with the trial version. I had kinda low expectation of it since I played the Nintendo DS version and got disappointed as it did not resemble most of the gameplays as the PC version.

Glu has done a great job with this one as it has everything we used to play on the PC; campaigns, skirmish and even multiplayer mode.

WE can play the game in landscape mode but more functionality of the game can be accessed using the numpad. I started the game playing the first campaign which the objectives were to collect 200 wood, build a barrack and train 5 Pikemen. As far as I know, we cant really select the number of settlers or the armies as we wish. There are only 2 options; select one or double click to select all of the same type. Guess we need the mouse in order to be able to select, say… only 3 or 4 citizens… but that’s still fine knowing the restrains of the phone keypads.

Gathering resources works the same as on PC. Plucking fruits for food, cutting trees for wood and mining for gold. Only if we have enough of these resources that we can construct new buildings.

Fight scenes are a little too simple as we cannot really see the actions clearly due to the tiny screen, and there is no fighting sound effects during these actions. The experience would be richer if we can have sound effects for every actions in the game like mining, chopping trees and sword fighting.

Watch the video I recorded below.

Overall I think Age of Empires 3 on the N-Gage platform it not too bad and is worth buying. I will buy it because I used to be a big fan ot RTS games like AoE and CnC.

Checkout Age of Empires 3 now on the N-Gage showroom.

At the recent Nokia Developer Summit 09, Lee Williams, Executive Director, Symbian Foundation, talked about the open mobile platform and Symbian.

Some key points mentioned by him:

Symbian Foundation is a community for develoeprs to share ideas and to guide one another to eliminate the need to go through pages of materials, links… without having to download 3-4 different kits and tools and version controlling your own systems and apps.

Symbian foundation helps to create a cleaner access to these resources so that ideas and developers’ creativity does not get diluted.

Here’s one of the slides that he showed, comparing the attribute strengths among the different mobile platform today. These are attibutes that most developers are looking for when producing apps and systems.

Here’s the video of his keynote.