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Category: News & Info

Nokia N86 8MP gets firmware update v20 with Camera Improvements & Bug Fixes

Nokia N86 8MP has received the much awaited v20 firmware update bringing improvements to the camera including “Face Detection” as well as overall reliability improvements & bug fixes. This is a major firmware update & I would recommend all the N86 owners to update their phones without delay. Although the N86 supports UDP (User Data Preservation) meaning your data will be kept intact during the update, a backup never hurts and is always recommended.

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Read the full story for the changelog as well as details on what all has been updated / changed.

Step by step guide to set up Google Sync on phones with Mail for Exchange pre-integrated

Bought a new phone which came with Nokia Messaging integrated with the default messaging client for emails? You would have noticed that there is no direct access to Mail for Exchange client on these phones like on the other S60v3 phones. That is because Nokia has integrated the Mail for Exchange client with Nokia Messaging on the new S60v3 FP2 phones like the Nokia E75, Nokia E72, Nokia E55, Nokia E52, Nokia N86 8MP and Nokia 6710 Navigator. Due to this, users could not directly configure a Mail for Exchange profile for Google Contacts & Calendar syncing.

Read the full story for the detailed step by step guide on how to set up Google Sync on your phone.

AAS reports that Ovi Store starts rolling out re-downloads

Barely a few days since we brought you news that the Ovi Store client has been updated to support the new devices using the v7.xx of the Webkit browser, the guys over at All About Symbian are reporting that the ability to re-download purchased / already downloaded content is slowly starting to be rolled out. You can read more about this news at AAS.

This is certainly a welcome update and shows that the ovi store team is hard at work & is working on improving the ovi store experience. Yesterday, we also told you about the updated error messages in the ovi store. With the upcoming maintenance work at the store today & tomorrow, we can hopefully expect more updates rolling out soon. As always, we’ll keep you updated on whatever we come across.

Ovi Store Will Undergo Scheduled Maintenance on 23rd & 24th

Just a quick heads up, The Ovi blog is saying that Ovi Store is scheduled to undergo maintenance at the following times -

- Wednesday September 23rd at 8 PM EST the service will be unavailable for a few minutes.
- Thursday, September 24th at 8 AM EST the service will be unavailable for a bit longer.

You won’t be able to access the store at these times. There is no mention of what is supposed to be tackled in the maintenance. We’ll keep you posted if we notice anything new.

Ovi Store Now Shows “Not Available for Your Device” Error Messages

One of the complaints we had with Ovi Store till now was with the error messages it used. The error messages it used made absolutely no sense & gave the user no description of what the error or problem exactly was.

Thankfully, the Ovi Store team has tweaked the error messages and made them actually meaningful now. Previously, if you opened a link for an item which wasn’t available for your phone, the store would give you an error message that said “This item is no longer available.” Now, when you open the link for an item which is not available for your phone, the error message clearly says that “this item is not available for your device : [ Model Number].”

Continue reading for the screenshots of the error message.

This Week in Ovi – Nokia World Edition

Starting this week, we are renaming our “Oviapplications weekend hits..” posts to “This Week in Ovi”. Ever week, in the “This Week in Ovi” posts, we shall bring you a short summary and a link to read more about whatever made the news in Ovi & Nokia that week.

This week was undoubtedly dominated by the much awaited Nokia World 2009, which saw new phones getting announced, Nokia first foray into the computer segment & new services being revealed. Also of interest and importance was the launch of the Ovi SDK & APIs letting the developers make use of Ovi services and quickly develop useful applications for a variety of phones as well as the web.

Read the full story for the news & details. Have a great weekend!

Nokia Messaging Updated with Improved HTML Performance

This is surprising. Nokia Email or Nokia Messaging (somebody please decide the name!) has been quietly updated, bringing the version number up to v9.6.12. Although the details about what has been updated or fixed are not know, the HTML email view has been updated it seems. The performance is better and it is much snappier now. The Gmail icon has also been updated.

Oh and to complicating the naming mess even more, the application is now called Nokia Messaging email. Yeah, email doesn’t not start with a capital “e”.

Read the full story for the screenshots showing what has been updated.

3 Months & 10 Million Downloads Later, Where is the Ovi Store at?

The announcement I had been looking forward to the Nokia World for was the Ovi Store download statistics. Though it was not announced on the stage, Kai Oistamo, Nokia’s EVP of Devices let the numbers out in a call with a few North American reporters. So the numbers are finally out, and they are nowhere near what most of the people had expected.

In the 3 months since Ovi Store launched and was available to the public, users have downloaded a little over 10 million pieces of content and applications. This combined with the claims by Nokia that an average user has done 6 downloads from the store, gives us a figure of round about 1.67 million users using the Ovi Store. Considering Nokia’s worldwide presence and that the Store supports over a 100 different devices, the numbers seem pretty disappointing. Another statistic available to use was that the store saw a 50% increase in the number of downloads between July & August.

Read the full story for a detailed analysis of the problems with the Ovi Store & Improvements on the anvil.

Ovi Opens up to the Developers with the launch of Ovi SDK beta & Ovi APIs

The second day of Nokia World, which was being pitted as the day for the developers, saw Nokia releasing a beta of the Ovi SDK for the Developers as well as Ovi APIs. As of now, only two APIs have been released, but more are slated to be released later.

According to the press release “Nokia makes it easier for web publishers and developers to create applications with integrated services with Ovi APIs and Ovi SDK Beta introducing a new breed of applications for the web and smartphone platforms”

Read on for more details about the SDK and how to apply for it.

New Smartphoneware Apps Available in the Ovi Store

Smartphoneware has been one of the few developers striving to make their applications available from the Ovi Store ever since the store was launched. Today, 6 more of their “Best” applications went live on the store, bringing their tally to 25 applications!

The following softwares were released at the store today, in addition to the ones already available from the store here.

1. Best Taskman

“Running applications and tasks control, ability to substitute built-in system task manager or work along with it, ‘Windows Alt-Tab’ style task switcher, a unique way to access favorite applications (Quickstart), running processes control, and many more advanced functions to explore. Unlike built-in task switcher it tells you what programs exactly are running on your smartphone, where these programs reside, memory they consume and capabilities they use.“

2. Best Jotter

“Best Jotter allows you to write down quick notes, memos, ideas and any piece of information, organize it, and easily find at any time. You can keep your sensitive information as notes as well. Just set up a password in the application and Jotter will encrypt all your data. Additionally it’s possible to export notes to a text file that you can transfer to PC. The format of this file is very simple and you can edit the file in any text editor or Excel, transfer it back and import to Jotter.”