ShakeMaster by ShakeLock Developer

Manu was one of the first developers who thought about the nice idea to let the phone execute useful functions with a little shaker for which you would normally need some clicks and menu steps.

His application “ShakeLock” written in Python was the first “shaker application”. It was simple but useful: A little shaker locked the keyboard, a further shaker unlocked them again.
Little gestures like left – right shaking were well though through and made the application quite popular.

N95 FM Aerial

Jan over at N95 Blog has found a nice gadget on eBay which should be interesting for people who are often using the built in FM radio of their smartphones.

All newer phones have a built in FM radio which only works with a plugged in headset which is used as aerial. The “Visual Radio” application of S60 phones supports also radio playback over the loudspeakers. However, it’s indeed not very useful to have always a headset plugged in, although you don’t need it.

Nokia and China Postel strengthen strategic Cooperation

Nokia has signed a strategic partnership agreement with China Postel Mobile Communication Equipment Co., Ltd. (China Postel) of China P&T Appliances, bolstering the strong existing relationship between the two companies. Mr. David Tang, Vice President of Nokia China, and Mr. Tan Xinhui, Chairman of China Postel, signed the agreement on behalf of the two parties. China Postel is expected to purchase mobile devices valued at approximately USD 2 billion from Nokia in 2008. In addition, both parties have agreed to strengthen strategic ties, especially with regard to channel development, resource investment, and marketing management.
 

US Nokia N95 8GB now available

Nokia admirer living in the US who contemplate a purchase of the N95 8GB look out: Nokia’s powerful Nseries phone is now also available in a version which WCDMA, the US HSDPA frequencies, formally known as N95 – 4.

More information about further changes are not common yet, but I think 3G support will remain the only one.

Mirage Money – First real Motion controlled Game in full 3D

I just found information about the very first “real” game which combines impressive 3D graphics with accelerometer control.

We have only seen very simple games using the accelerometer of the N82, N95 and N95 8GB which weren’t really fun to play a long time, because of a boring game principle and poor graphics.

Nokia 6550 Hands On

Nokia has announced their new S60 phone 6650 in exclusive cooperation with T-Mobile. Endgadget Mobile had the possibility to get their hands on the new phone at the T-Mobile booth at the Cebit and they have taken some pictures.

I did also not like the N76 and in my opinion Nokia fails in producing nice looking phones with a flip phone form factor. I am anyhow no fan of flip phones; so I also don’t like the 6650’s design, but maybe you like the steely display and flat keyboard?

MobiClass developed by Tong Reng – OpenC Challenge 2nd Runner up

The S60 developer Tong Reng has become pretty popular with his accelerometer applications “FlipSilent” to silence the phone by flipping it over and “ShakeSMS” which facilitates SMS reading by shaking the phone.

Even before these great programming works, he developed the S60 application “MobiClass” which was 2nd runner up behind the great YouTube client “MobiTubia” from my friend Sittiphol and the traffic assistance software “Live Traffic”.

RockNScroll Beta v1.01 released

I think you all know about the great application “RockNScroll” developed by Keynetik which provides users to control their phones by motion input. Menu navigation, gaming – no problem for the application which detects movements by using the accelerometer of latest Nseries phones like the N95.

The first beta version worked well, but only on the N95, because Keynetik was only able to test their application on the device they own themselves. On other phones having an accelerometer like the N95 8GB and N82, the application caused many problems it didn’t work in many cases.

N73 ME Firmware Update v4.0808.4.2.2

Nokia has today released the new firmware v4.0808.4.2.2 for the Music Edition of their wide spread N73 candybar S60v3 phone.

As usual, it’s only available for certain product codes and can be updated via the Nokia Software Updater. Nokia Service Center should also be able to update soon.

Redbull and Amstel Drinks for PyPiwo

I hope you don’t mind me posting another two new drinks for the well known Python application PyPiwo which simulates a glass with a (more or less) realisticly moving surface.

After my recently posted espresso and whisky drinks, I found another two nice looking ones which I want to share with you.