Saturday, October 31, 2009

Nokia to Kill N-Gage in Late 2010

FEATURES

1.:Nokia's plans for the popular N-Gage gaming platform are rather bad news for users and fans. No more games will be published for the platform, and all titles will be moved to the Ovi Store, while the currently available N-Gage games will remain available for purchase only until September. Moreover, the N-Gage website and Arena service will remain active throughout 2010, but not afterwards.

2:According to a blog post on the N-Gage website, those who already purchased N-Gage games will be able to enjoy them on their compatible devices even after the social services become unavailable. The post also says that handsets featuring the N-Gage applications will continue to be sold on the market for a period of time, yet no new devices will be pre-loaded with the application.

3.:The Ovi Store will be the gaming center from now on, it seems. The application portal will come pre-loaded on a wide range of mobile phones, and users will have this way the opportunity to access new titles there. The Ovi Store is already supported on a number of 100 Nokia phones, and will also come with new compatible Symbian S60 and Series 40 handsets.

4.:Most of you might already know what the Ovi Store is all about. According to the Nokia Games team, if you access the software solutions portal, “not only will you be able to get a wide variety of games like Pac-Man, The Sims 3 and Guitar Hero World Tour Mobile in the Ovi Store, but you will have access to hundreds of new ones like Sky Force Reload and EA SPORTS FIFA 10 from a wide range of publishers from 65 countries.”

Bing Mobile Adds New Features

FEATURES

1.:Redmond-based software giant Microsoft released a few months ago a revamped and re-branded search engine, Bing, which also came to mobile phones shortly after the initial launch, and which now has seen as series of improvements on the mobile side. Up until now, the company has been mainly focused on enhancing the capabilities of the search / decision engine for computers, yet currently mobile phone users also have a reason to rejoice, as new features are available for them as well.

2.:Here's what the company says about the new mobile Bing, “Today we released an update to the Bing for mobile browser at m.bing.com. In addition to being a great resource for local searches, quick answers, and maps, we have some new features to tell you about:
NFL feature – type a team or player and see upcoming games, stats, and scores. While the game is on, you can get real-time updates on the plays. (U.S. only)
Flight status – enter the airline and flight number and get the latest departure and landing times.”

3.:In addition, Microsoft also announced that the new Bing for mobile comes with a wide range of touchscreen optimizations. United States owners of a touchscreen-enabled mobile phone will enjoy a new version of Bing, specifically created for high-resolution handsets, as well as touch optimized navigation and a new Movies feature. “You can get to this version by going to m.bing.com with your iPhone, Zune HD, T-Mobile G1, Verizon Imagio, or Samsung Omnia. We’ll be adding support for new devices over the next couple of months,” the company states.

4.:Bing for mobile phones can be enjoyed by mobile phone users in 31 countries, and it can be accessed on about any type of handset. All that users willing to give it a try need to do is to head to m.bing.com. The new features added to the default search engine, as well as to the touchscreen-optimized one, might attract even more users to it, though it is hard to believe that it will gain much market share against rival Google. Bing is also the default search engine on Verizon phones.

VIDEO LOOK

Friday, October 30, 2009

LATEST VERSION GOOGLE MAP FOR MOBILE

Features

* My Location (watch video). See your location on a map, even if you don't have GPS.

* Business listings. Search for any business or category of interest.

* Driving directions. Thanks to My Location, you don't even have to enter your starting point.

* Navigation (Beta). New! Get turn-by-turn GPS navigation with voice guidance. Learn more.

* Transit & walking directions (watch video). Get routes and schedules to travel via subway, bus, or on
   foot.

* Latitude. See your friends' locations and share yours with them. Start Maps and then select "Join Latitude."
   Learn more.

* Street View (watch video). View street-level imagery of businesses and turns in directions. With Compass
   Mode, you can rotate your phone to see a 360 degree view.

* Layers (watch video). New! View layers of geographic information (e.g. My Maps, Wikipedia, Transit).

* Traffic. Real-time traffic helps you find the fastest route.

* Enterprise. BlackBerry administrators can deploy Maps for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

* My Location (watch video). See your location on a map, even if you don't have GPS.

* Business listings. Search for any business or category of interest.

* Driving directions. Thanks to My Location, you don't even have to enter your starting point.

* Transit & walking directions (watch video). Get routes and schedules to travel via subway, bus, or on
   foot.

* Latitude. See your friends' locations and share yours with them. Start Maps and then select "Join Latitude."
   Learn more.

* Street View (watch video). View street-level imagery of businesses and turns in directions.

* Layers (watch video). New! View layers of geographic information (e.g. My Maps, Wikipedia, Transit).

* Traffic. Real-time traffic helps you find the fastest route.

* Enterprise. BlackBerry administrators can deploy Maps for BlackBerry Enterprise Server.

Supported Phones

Google Maps for mobile works on most phones, including those that run the below platforms. You can always download Maps to your phone using your cellular connection -- just visit m.google.com/maps on your device's browser, or send yourself a text message using the button at the top of this page. Some mobile phones also support the ability to sideload Google Maps onto your phone.

Android
BlackBerry
Java
Windows Mobile: Download Binary
Symbian S60 3rd Edition (most new Nokia smartphones): Download Binary
Palm OS: Download Binary
iPhone (pre-installed)

If you're not sure whether your phone runs one of these platforms, just try sending yourself a text message to get Maps. It will probably work!

VIDEO LOOK

Coming Soon Samsung Moment slider coming to Sprint, packing Android

DESC

Samsung just accidentally leaked a Sprint-bound Android QWERTY slider called the Moment in an otherwise totally boring press release about its OLED handset lineup -- it'll have an 800MHz processor, a 3.2-inch AMOLED screen, optical trackpad and a 3.2 megapixel camera. We're guessing this is the long-rumored "high-end" InstinctQ, but we're not sure why Sprint and Sammy have dropped the Instinct branding in favor of Moment. Samsung has a press event scheduled for 2PM EST, so we're guessing we'll find out more shortly -- stay tuned. Follow the break for live shots!

Update

: Oop -- Sprint just posted its PR ahead of the event as well, along with a pre-registration page. Yep, the Moment is indeed the InstinctQ. Pricing will be $179 on a two-year contract after $50 instant savings and a $100 mail-in rebate when it launches November 1. Oh, and there's no TouchWiz here after all -- that's another hyped manufacturer UI shelved in favor of "With Google" branding. Interesting.

FIRST LOOK