A while back I spoke of a few different instant messaging applications for your Nokia N97. Today I’m going to tell you about an update to Nimbuzz, one of the best out there Nimbuzz is a free app for S60 that allows you to call, text and send instant messages to your friends. It does this through instant messaging servers, you’ve probably got an account on one even if you don’t know it. For example; Facebook, Twitter, MSN, Google Talk (comes with Gmail)… the list goes on… forever

But yeah, you now know what Nimbuzz is if you didn’t already and now for the improvements;

• Completely redesigned call screen (Display picture of contact and more information about the call)
• The option to mute the microphone during calls.
• DTMF codes come to touchscreen phones
• Removal of display pictures in the chat rooms
• Support for limited access points (can I finally use Nimbuzz on T-Mobile Internet???)

So what do you think? Version 2.3 sure does look tasty doesn’t it? Why don’t you get yourself on down to http://www.nimbuzz.com/en/mobile/pc/download and download this newest version of Nimbuzz and let me know what you think in the comments section below.

Again, peace out and enjoy the freeware

Aden

Nimbuzz gets an update… is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

Right, I haven’t posted in a while due to being completely overloaded with work and stuff but now I’m back

Just recently Nokia Beta Labs have released another great application, Nokia Bots. This is a selection of homescreen widgets for your shiny N97 that basically learn what you want to do based on your routines. Currently there are only 4 bots but I guess more will be added soon, below is a run down of each bot and what it does;

Profile Bot

Do you ever forget to silence the phone for meetings? Or when the meeting ends, forget to switch back to normal profile, and miss calls? Profile Bot is here to help. Profile changes are suggested on your homescreen: confirm automated profile changes for each meeting with a single click, or let them be fully automated for you.

Alarm Bot

Setting up a wake-up alarm and silent profile for night time has never been easier! Alarm Bot learns at what time you use to wake up, and suggests alarms and profile changes on your homescreen nightly. Create a new alarm and automate night profile with a single click, and never again forget set the phone to silent profile in the morning.

Shortcut Bot

With new apps from the Ovi store and other sources that make the phone more useful and fun you have so many that you want at the touch of a button. With the help of Shortcut Bot, you get quick access to your most frequently used apps straight from your homescreen without configuration hassles: your preferences are learned in the background, and shortcuts automatically updated. This one is my current favourite bot.

Battery Bot

Battery Bot observes your battery status. In case the battery is likely to drain while you sleep, it reminds you in advance to connect the charger. Otherwise you might wake up too early because of “battery low” alerts, or too late if it drains before wake-up alarm.

So there you have it, Artificial intelligence for your phone. Check that out Apple ;p It’s available for the N97 and N97 mini only due to the homescreen widgets so head over to https://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-bots and download it NOW and tell us what you think in the comments

Also, Check out Nokia Bots on YouTube

Until next time, Peace.

Nokia Bots – They learn from your daily routine is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

First up is a theme I have JUST started to use. I found it yesterday and I think it’s GREAT! It’s created by a theme designer who goes by the name of Rugge. This theme is based on the newly released video about the upcoming Symbian^3 and looks absolutely brilliant. This is the second theme that I have tried that attempts to look like the new version of Symbian due to be released later this year, it is definitely the better one of the two and I am yet to find another.

The whole colour scheme is a mixture of blue, green, black and white which at first do sound a tad strange but I assure you that it works really really well. The wallpaper is a close up image of a few shards of grass that the designer took himself which shows how talented this guy is.

I also find that this theme makes my phone run a lot faster, at least it seems so. I don’t really know, if you try it out let me know what you think of performance.

So if you’re bored of your current theme or just fancy a change, or you really like the look of the new and upcoming version of symbian then get this theme and check it out. You’ll love it, or at least I do!

You can download it from http://www.4shared.com/file/234525293/d64fa71a/MySymbian3_Rugge.html

Best N97/S60v5 Themes! Day 1: My Symbian^3 is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

Google, who now own YouTube, have released an updated version of their application for Symbian devices. The YouTube application for Symbian is great, if you haven’t tried it yet then do it NOW! Seriously, it’s a good piece of kit. It really speeds up the viewing of videos, which is especially great when showing off to your friends

But the S60 browser is fine at displaying YouTube videos… Yes, that is correct but it’s much easier to use the application and it also has a much nicer interface that’s more suited to a phone’s screen than any website will ever be.

Any ways, this new version comes with numerous improvements…

• Performance improvements.
• User account integration. (My Account)
• Search suggestions.
• New user interface tailored towards larger, touch screen based devices.

The user account integration includes favourites, subscriptions and playlists to help you out when on the move. For example, if you add a video to your favourites on your PC then boom, it’s on the app.

When you find the video you want to watch and click on it, a tasty animation transitioning from search results to video player mode is shown – adding to that already tasty user interface. The player offers all the usual functionality such as Play, Pause, Seeking and Volume.

So head over to www.youtube.com with your phone and you should find a nice little message telling you about the new version of the youtube app http://adenbeckitt.co.uk/extras/symbian/s60v5/YouTube_2.4.zip to get the SIS file. YouTube have for some reason set the N97 as an unsupported device so I had to rip the installation file. Give it a go, it’s FREE!

Official YouTube application updated is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

The Gig Finder app helps you search for live concerts and purchase tickets straight from the app. It also helps you keep track of all the gigs you have tickets for currently with the inbuilt “My Gigs” section. Great ey?

Not only does it help you find tickets for gigs you think of but it can also recommend shows to see based on your music tastes. How does it do this you ask? By searching your music library! COOL! Also, you can search for gigs through a wide range of different filters such as Artist, City, Genre, Venue, Date or any mixture that takes your fancy.

Once you’ve found the gig you want to see then you need some friends to come along right? Easy, press a button and gig info can be posted on Facebook or sent to a friend through SMS or Email. We love it when we can be lazy don’t we?

So after you’ve got some friends and bought tickets (possible straight from the app) then you might want to scrub up on the tracks so you know a few lyrics for the show. Simply find the artist and links are available for their page on the Nokia Music Store (soon to be Ovi Music), this means you can easily preview and purchase songs before and after the concert.

Now, you’re just about to set off to see your favourite band but… Oh oh, does anyone know where the venue actually is? No problem! Show off with finding the gig in “My Gigs” and pressing on the Map link which will instantly open Ovi Maps so you can painlessly start your journey. Done

This application is free and available from the Beta labs… WHAT? Yep, this app is in Beta stages so there may be some performance or stability issues but you won’t know unless you try it out. So check it out, what do you have to loose?

Head over to: http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/gig-finder NOW!

Peace.

Gig finder application gets an update! is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

A new beta version of the Ovi Maps applications has been released over at Nokia beta labs. Recently, Nokia’s Ovi Maps was released with free voice navigation – something that was previously a premium service. This was prompted by Google announcing that their GPS software was going to be free. Ovi Maps is also available over the internet in a web browser like Google Maps. If you use the Ovi Maps app on your phone and Google Maps on your PC then it may be a good idea to try out the in-browser version of Ovi Maps as it can actually sync with the app so all your planned routes and favourites are quickly and easily saved on your mobile device. (Link later on)

Any way, We now have a new version that comes with a few improvements over previous versions. Before I explain the new features let me remind you that this is indeed a Beta version and therefore it is prone to have some problems along the way.

The improvements;

• Faster zooming and panning of the maps.
• Improved speed and accuracy for GPS positioning. (finding, and keeping, where you are)
• Improved searching functions for cities.
• Added “zoom out to city” level of zoom.

If you don’t already know, the maps themselves don’t actually come with the app. You can download them on-the-fly whilst navigating but this can be slow and tedious if using a slow connection. The best way is to download the map data on a PC using Nokia Map Loader and the Ovi Suite – both will detect which version of Ovi Maps you are running and download the appropriate map data depending on the selected locations.

You can find the new beta version of Ovi Maps over at http://betalabs.nokia.com/ ovi-maps and the in-browser version over at http://maps.ovi.com/

Have fun and let me know what you think.

Peace out.

Ovi Maps Beta v3.04 released! Brings numerous improvements is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

Bored of the built in Nokia browser? Skyfire not holding up to the pressure? Opera Mini lacking some key features? Well then you’re in luck because the final version of Opera Mobile 10 for Symbian is out… and it’s FREE! Okay, I lied… it’s not the final version but it’s one step closer – Beta three of the long awaited Symbian browser has been released. Also it’s free, I didn’t lie about that.

So you may be asking, what does this browser offer that others don’t? Well there are many features of this product to feast your eyes upon.

These great features include;

• Speed Dial – A sort of “visual bookmark” system. As soon as you load up the browser you will be presented with little thumbnails of the sites you need to quickly access.
• Tabbed Browsing – With this you can actually browse more than one website at a time. Easily switch between tabs to find Facebook, Email, Twitter, BBC News, Thenokian97.com or whatever takes your fancy, just open a new tab and load a site – EASY!
• Faster Browsing – Not only does Opera Mobile claim to be faster at rendering pages, panning, zooming and “almost everything else” but it this version is also up to 50% faster than Beta Two! This is all thanks to Opera Turbo which can “compress Web pages up to 70%” – a handy feature for those will little or no data plan
• Opera Link – This is handy if you use Opera on your desktop/laptop/whatever as you can effortlessly sync all your bookmarks between devices.

Beta three comes with new features on top of Beta two and also packs in some bug fixes with improved stability and performance, what more could you ask for? It being free? Did I mention it was free? I think I did.

To check out more of the features that come with this version then go to http://www.opera.com/mobile/features/ and you’ll see things from kinetic scrolling, password managers, auto-completion, shortcuts and auto-rotation all the way over to developer tools such as Opera Dragonfly.

Any way, if you want to check out this awesome browser on your shiny N97 then head over to www.opera.com/mobile from your PC or m.opera.com/mobile from your mobile device.

Last but not least, as always with beta apps you have to wonder why they are in the testing phase. Well the answer is simple, IT LIKES THE RAMZ! Yes, this little beauty will munch away at your RAM like there is no tomorrow so check out the tips on here about how to keep your N97 running top notch.

Peace out Holmes!

New version of Opera Mobile 10 released! is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

As you are probably aware, a few weeks back we got the v21 firmware update for the N97. But this update was only available on certain product codes, the UK (0585162) one not being in there Any way, now we have the update available, get over to the Ovi Suite and get updating! I was however hit with a warning that the “Software updates server could not be reached” so you may have to keep trying until it lets you in.

UPDATE: The servers seem to be working fine now

I haven’t been able to update yet so a hands-on review of the new firmware is not available at this moment in time but I can tell you what is expected.

The new firmware is claimed to;

• Improve the browser.
• Add smother kinetic scrolling.
• Numerous bug fixes!
• Improved image and video stability.
• Build on functionality.
• Enhance performance.
• Improved call reliability.
• Music player improvements.

Through discussion I have read about the firmware when it was released to other product codes were that it did indeed increase the free RAM available at startup (some claim up to around 60-65mb at boot). This firmware is still unhackable (the N97 firmware wasn’t hackable since version 20) but if you don’t care for hacking (or are unable to due to firmware restrictions) then it is highly recommended that you update your phone. Although, if you have the hack installed then I believe it will keep through User Data Protection (the thing that keeps your photos, videos etc) when updating.

So load up the Ovi Suite (available at: http://www.ovi.com/suite) or Nokia Software Updater (available at: http://betalabs.nokia.com/apps/nokia-software-updater/) and update your Nokia N97 to the latest firmware!

- Aden Beckitt

N97 Firmware v21 available for UK! (0585162) is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

I often look on the IMDb website for info on actors, movies and TV shows on my phone but what if there was an easier way to view this information through an app of some sort? Well now there is, queue the IMDb Widget from moubail.com.

I first liked the idea as it solves the problem of horizontal scrolling on the website as the page is too big for the N97s screen. But after a quick go I’ve found it doesn’t just make it a lot easier to find out the information you require but makes it a lot sexier! That’s right, I just called IMDb sexy! But seriously, it’s like someone has actually created another great looking iPhone-esque application for Symbian (yes, we have some).

Admit it though, a lot of applications for Symbian have an awful looking UI but this is joining those select few developers that have decided to put some TLC into creating this app. It comes with really sleek looking loading animations and kinetic scrolling, what every S60v5 application should have to date.

Every page includes an “Extend search” feature that enables the user to select a website to search the current actor/film/TV show on. The options are Google, YouTube, Wikipedia, Amazon and eBay. I find this quite a nice feature that makes it very easy for the user to continue their search, which is often what people do.

Each page has a link to the actual IMDb website where the information is taken from in case you want more information that is available on the website and not in the widget.

Speaking of information that isn’t in the widget, it seems that when you search and select a person (actor/actress) then there is limited information shown on the page which is very disappointing. Although there is limited information on the actor pages, there is a lot of information shown on pages for movies and TV shows.

The only “cons” as such for this widget are;

• The fact that not much information is shown on the actor pages
• That as there is no API from IMDb so that developers can make applications it means that the information has to be scraped from the website (presumably using PHP and cURL). This however is fine until they change the layout of the pages, then we’ll have to wait for a new version to fix the issue – hopefully this day will never come

So after a brief look at this widget I have decided that I really really like it – it’s really well created. Again, it’s free so check it out over at www.moubail.com. It isn’t in the Ovi Store at this moment in time and I’m unsure if it will get added.

Hats off to moubail for this one, well done.

- Aden Beckitt

IMDb Widget Released! is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks

A new version of Nokia’s Ovi Suite (2.1.0.87) is out and promises to bring many new features and bug fixes. When I upgraded the update was around 61mb and downloaded fairly quick. If you have the update available then I suggest that you upgrade as the new features are quite handy to have at your disposal.

First up on the new features is Ovi.com contact sync. With this all your contacts will be uploaded to Ovi.com for safe keeping – Great ey?

Secondly, it is now very easy to upload and share your videos to Ovi.com straight from the Ovi suite which can of course be handy for showing off those all important holiday videos down the beach (using the metal detector application ).

It also adds new updates for device applications such as the, now free, Ovi maps software. Just connect your phone and the app will update, at least that’s my understanding.

Now onto another new feature that I didn’t see coming; Contact syncing with Mozilla Thunderbird. Now I’m not one for having a contact book on my PC but there are many people out in the wild that do just this and for you guys that keep your contacts in Thunderbird then this is obviously a dream come true. Never again will you be without those phone numbers and email addresses!

There have been many complaints about how the Ovi Suite doesn’t really like to play with Windows 7, I have had no problems at all but I know that many people do. Well for you guys this update is crucial! The change log states that this update ensures compatibility with Windows 7. Yay! Now all you people that couldn’t update your N97 to the latest fw (v21) due to this problem should get right on it.

And as ever, performance upgrades. Every update seems to promise improvements to performance which is great and Nokia say that “these improvements are something we continue working on.” Which is also great but I know there are many users out there screaming for N900 support in the Ovi Suite and I believe that this functionality has still not been added.

If you don’t already have the Ovi Suite installed then head over to http://www.ovi.com/suite and get it, NOW! Otherwise just pop over to the Software updates option on the Tools menu to see if the update is available for you.

New Ovi Suite released! (2.1.0.87) is a post from: Nokia N97 Blog - News, Help, Apps, Games, Themes, Hacks