Symbian^3 homescreen on Symbian^1 (N97 Mini)

Have you seen the new Symbian^3 homescreen? Looks nice and hip doesn't it?

Just imagine this fine looking homescreen on your Symbian^1 Touchcreen phone such as N97 or N97 Mini.  

Well it might become reality!

There are people making this reality at the moment! Down at the Symbian developers forum members are actively trying to port the S^3 homescreen source code to the S^1. How did they get the code? Well Symbian became open source remember?

Follow their progress on their wiki or check out the thread!

Feel ''App neglected''?

Isn't it a weird feeling that even-though you are part of the biggest smartphone market share you are neglected by app developpers? Symbian users must have this feeling everytime a big developer makes a new app announcement. If its engaget.com which releases a new mobile app or ulitmate-guitar.com which created a mobile guitar tab it always ends the same, Symbian users get forgotten.

Why are Symbian users neglected? According to a Symbian employee this is the reason for active neglect:

I'm sure lots of people will have this question as well. My personal opinion (and not necessarily of my employers) is that the tech media is US centric and Symbian does not have high market share there. UK media for example will often run stories on Symbian devices, and market share is much, much higher here.

 So what is there to do? Will the tides change? There seems to be an option which is worth mentioning: Mosync.

Back in 2004, when MoSync was founded, the mobile landscape was very different. There were far fewer platforms to code for. The idea of downloading a new application for your phone was almost unheard of. Yet even back then, creating a single environment for cross-platform mobile application development was a promising idea.
Today it is much more than that. Now there are many different mobile platforms. No one who understands the way the mobile industry is heading questions the need for a true cross-platform development solution.

Lets all hope developers will adopt Mosync and let symbian users join in all the App fun!

Nokia Bots for N97 & N97 Mini

Nokia Bots is a collection of add-ons that autonomously learn your personal preferences, and improve user experience with new, customized features and tricks.  These add-ons, or Bots, observe how the phone is being used and automatically configure and activate themselves, if customization seems relevant.

Sounds interesting doesn't it? Try it out for your N97 or Mini! Get it Here

Windows Live Messenger on Symbian^1

For some aparent reason Nokia or Microsoft pulled the S60 v5 version of the populair Live messenger from the Ovi store. The application seemed to work fine with good touchscreen support. Thanks to active users a mirror was created for those who did not originally download it from the Ovi store.

Installed on the N97 (mini) you have the option to use the Hotmail mail service in the messaging menu. You can also access the camera during your chat to send photo's and videos. The application can also be run in the background and will notify when a friend is chatting.

Notice: I have tested the application and it seems to run fine, the reason why it was pulled from the Ovi store is unknown. So use at own risk!
Download Live Messenger for s60 v5 here: LINK

WhatsApp for Symbian platform

Great news for symbian users, the popular smartphone-to-smartphone messenger/chat application is set to be released on the symbian platform.  The app allows users to carry conversations in real time with mobile contacts over an internet data connection. The biggest advantage of WhatsApp is that it is a cross platform application which creates the ability for iPhone ,BlackBerry, Android en Symbian users to message each other.

According to the official WhatsApp twitter they company is actively working on a Symbian and Android version of the popular application.

@MADekker yes, we are working on it: http://twitpic.com/1bfiop http://twitpic.com/1bfisx

Great news for N97 (mini) and other Symbian platform users! Another big advantage of Whatsapp is that it uses your mobile number as user name, it searches in your phone book for other Whatsapp users which makes it a very easy application to use.

We will keep you updated if any new developments appear!