Nokia N96 interactive 'manual' online

I'd held off posting about it because I thought it was an accidental leak, but this comprehensive (Flash-based) Nokia N96 interactive demo has been online for a while now and not removed, so presumably it's 'final', especially as we're now within a month or so off seeing the first N96 in the shops.

Nokia N78 now officially available in the US

In all the excitement over the Symbian takeover, we missed another announcement by Nokia yesterday, that the Nokia N78 is now officially available in the USA including 3.5G HSDPA support for American phone networks on 850 and 1900 mhz. The press release mentions the unlocked SIM-free version, but presumably locked operator versions should come along soon too.

Nokia 3310 - Microcontrollers & Embedded System Designs

This tutorial is meant for all enthusiasts who want to turn their appliances on/off with the famous 8051.

A lot of info is freely available on the net on subjects aforementioned. Many old phones qualify for the job. Siemens, Ericsson etc have an inbuilt modem so do recent Nokia phones. It is quite easy to understand the command set of these phones as they can be governed by ‘AT’ commands and can be operated on a modest 4800/9600 baud.

Well, I am not going to go deeper in explaining ‘AT’ controlled phones.

I intend to use the Nokia older phones like 5110/3210/3310 etc, for which Nokia has developed its own protocol which it calls MBUS and FBUS.

MBUS is the older and slower one which operates like half duplex and can be used @ 9600 bauds. This communication uses only one wire therefore; whatever is xmitted is received on the same line, so it’s a bit difficult here.

The other protocol is FBUS (currently FBUS2) which operates @ 115200 bauds and is full duplex. There are 3 wires Tx, Rx, Gnd as in RS232. We will be using this protocol.

Looking at the popularity, we will use the Nokia 3310 phone (likewise 5110, 6110, 3210 can be used, but will have to check the pinouts for those)

Download abhi_FBUS.xls

Download Circuit Diagram


Setting up the Phone

It’s a bit tricky to get to the FBUS pins in Nokia 3310.They are below the battery.



There are special data cables for this and you can get it from a mobile/cable shop for around Rs 100/- (You will have to check if it’s an MBUS or FBUS cable though)

(Incidentally if you are in Pune, you can get it near Dagdusheth ganpati)

The cable looks like this



The encircled part is the pins that fit in Fig1.0 (phone)

Note: To check whether the cable is FBUS/MBUS, remove the 4 screws (one is shown by arrow). If the Tx, Rx, Gnd are separate pins (not soldered together) then its FBUS. Some FBUS cables which have MBUS pin disabled have an unknown config, that I was unable to understand but surprisingly work well with Logomanager (nokia s/w).What I did was separate the pins in the connector, and use individual pins. But before this I cut off the DB9 end, and put a plain DB9.The cables DB9 has electronics in it. (See Fig 1.2)



If you are to use the above cable be sure to connect DTR and RTS as shown above else the cable will not get power, and you will be left wondering ‘what’s wrong with my schematic?’ This is because the cable when connected to the PC and accessed through Logomanager works fine.

But if you were not to use the above schematic, do following steps.
a) Cut off the DB9 portion(which houses above electronics)
b) Add a plain DB9 connector to the wires which are cut loose. Connect Rx to Pin 2, Tx to pin3 and Gnd to pin 5.
c) The phone runs on 3V, and our Microcontroller (haven’t discussed it yet) runs on 5V.So it will sure damage the phone. For this, just convert the 5V on microcontroller Tx side or correspondingly on Phone Rx side(simple voltage divider which converts 5V to 3V See Fig.1.3)
d) Nothing to be done on Micro Rx side because it works with 3V.

But apart from above steps you can directly solder wires to the FBUS (but be careful )



Hurray we have setup our phone for communication, and we are ready!




Communicating with the Phone

As said earlier, communication with the phone is full duplex 8 bits, no parity, 1 stop bit and @115200 bauds.

So when connecting the AT89S52 microcontroller to the phone you have to setup baud rate of 115kbps using Timer 2. To initiate the communication we have to send character ‘U’ or 0x55 128 times to the phone. That’s all. The race track is ready now!


Understanding FBUS protocol

So here’s the difficult part. The FBUS2 protocol is made up of numerous bytes and always start with ‘0x1E’ for cable type of connection (we are really not worried for IR or Bluetooth here)

Let’s see a frame of bytes which when sent to the Nokia 3310/5110 phone will reply back with the h/w and s/w version of the phone.

Byte0=Frame id 1E=cable
Byte1=Destination address=00=phone
Byte2=Source address=0C=terminal/micro/PC
Byte3=Type of command (D1=get version)
Byte4=MSB of frame length
Byte5=LSB of frame length=07 (7bytes ahead and more)
Byte6=Byte7=Byte8=Byte9=Byte10=Byte11=don’t need to worry about them! J
Byte12=Sequence number or Seq.No. (Very important)
Byte13=is padding byte and is present if Frame length is odd.
Byte14=Even checksum
Byte15=Odd checksum (embedtronics.com was wrong here)

Byte5 has the info of how many more bytes there are about to come till Seq.No.. comes (which means that after Seq.No.., minimum 2 bytes checksum are always present and a padding byte=0x00 is inserted to make the whole frame even .In our case padding byte=0x00 is present since frame length is odd=0x07)

A little more about the sequence number here: The Seq.No. as the name suggests defines the sequence of frames and goes from 0 to 7 and back to 0..and so on.
E.g: In above example if we were to send the same Get version frame 9 times in a row, what should be done? You are absolutely correct! In the first frame, Seq.No.. is 0x60, next its 0x61,next 0x62……0x67 (and back to..) 0x60. That’s all. The phone will be having a count of the source’s (micro) Seq.No.’s, and if it’s incorrect, then phone will not respond. And you will have to re-initiate the whole ‘U’ sending again.

Now about the checksums. These are nothing but the XOR of all bytes. In our case they are XOR of all bytes in even positions and odd positions

E.g.: in above example the even checksum will be calculated like this
Byte0 XOR Byte2 XOR Byte4 XOR Byte6 XOR Byte8 XOR Byte10 XOR Byte12
0x1E ^ 0x0C ^ 0x00 ^ 0x00 ^ 0x00 ^ 0x00 ^ 0x60

=0x72
(Keil compiler)
Whereas odd check sum is obtained by XORing all odd placed bytes
Byte1^Byte3^Byte5^Byte7^Byte9^Byte11^Byte13=0xD5

Now we’ve understood how a frame is made up.
When such a frame is sent, the nokia phone replies with 2 frames
a) An acknowledge frame to tell us that ‘he’ recd the frame.
b) Actual data frame.


Let’s see how the ACK frame is made up

Keep in mind, the above frame is sent by Nokia. (Nokia is source now)

Byte0=Frame id 1E=cable
Byte1=Destination address=0C= terminal/micro/PC
Byte2=Source address=00= phone
Byte3=Type of command (7F=acknowledge frame)
Byte4=MSB of frame length
Byte5=LSB of frame length=02 (2 bytes)
Byte6= (replying to what was sent/asked by micro) D1=get version
Byte7=Seq.No. (no padding byte present after Seq.No. since
Frame length=0x02=even)
Byte8=Even check sum
Byte9=Odd check sum
After this ACK frame, the phone will send the actual data frame, with the h/w and s/w version (check my excel sheet on this)

It isn’t over yet!..The phone also wants a confirmation that we/microcontroller have received the data, so it will be waiting for the ACK frame that we are supposed to send. If we don’t send this ACK frame, the phone sends the data two more times (after the first frame) which means that we are entitled to the data 3 times before phone stops sending data.

This also means we need to send an ACK frame to the phone now. This too is quite simple .The ACK frame that we should send is like this

I think there’s no need to explain the bytes now, but for the sequence number.
When we/micro sends an ACK frame, the sequence number is not the one we are generating (from x0 to x7) but it is the last three bits of the Seq.No. of previous received data frame. No? Haven’t got it? Let’s take the example of the Get-version frame.

The phone had sent 0x41 as the sequence number in its h/w , s/w data frame
0x41= 0100 0001 b
We need to send the lower three bits xxxx x001 b of this Seq.No. as our ACK frames sequence number. (But I have found that the lower nibble’s MSBit is never 1, so masking off the higher nibble just does the job)
You know how to calculate checksums.

The general idea is like this
a) Abhijit asks for some data
b) You say, “I understood what you want”
c) You send what Abhijit wanted.
d) You wait to see if Abhijit got what he wants.
e) If Abhijit does not say that he received the data,You send the data one more time.
f) You wait to see if Abhijit got what he wants
g) If Abhijit does not say that he received the data,You send the data one more time.
h) Now You stop sending data.(Since Abhijit is really deaf or he is rude)
i) On the contrary if Abhijit says he got the data the very first time, you stop sending more data.


Understanding a received SMS Frame

When your girl friend (or boyfriend! Hi to all girls) sends you an SMS like
“Get lost!” (W/o the quotes lol) do you really know what’s going on underneath (I mean in the protocol)

Let us see that now.
When an SMS is received on your phone, phone will immediately send the SMS on the FBUS to your microcontroller(in our case AT89S52), like in the excel sheet (SMS sent was “hello”). Let’s understand it.
(I will now discuss only the relevant bytes now)
Byte3=Type=SMS functions=0x02
Byte5=Frame length=0x31=odd=there has to be padding byte after Seq.No.
Byte9=Subtype of SMS functions=SMS recd=0x10
Byte10=SMS location? SIM/PHONE; 0x02=SIM
Byte11=Inbox location=0x07=7th position (will be required to delete SMS)
Byte15 to Byte 20=SMS service centre no.
e.g. The number is recd as BCD

Byte28=SMS length=0x05 (5 bytes ‘packed’sms.We will come to ‘packed’ after this)
Byte31 to Byte36=Senders number (recd same as SMS service centre no.)
Byte48=SMS data starts here and ends at offset given by Byte28.
(Seq.No. and check sums as earlier)

What is a packed SMS?

The packed SMS for ‘hello’ is

Actually you can find more info on this subject by googling for PDU format or TPDU
The site www.embedtronics.com also gives good info on this.

Now how do you decode this SMS?
Simply DON’T! I didn’t!
Instead store coded templates of the SMS (as the above one) in code memory for your various devices to be controlled.

E.g. If you have 4 devices to be turned on and off, name them
Device1, Device2, Device3, Device4
So now if Device2 (connected to P2.5) has to be turned on, send SMS
Device2 on
Which when coded is C4 B2 3D 3D 2E CB 40 6F 37 (hex)
So now you can put this code in Code memory and compare the received ‘packed’ SMS instead of decoding/unpacking the SMS. Quite easy!

But otherwise you can write the unpacking code too at the cost of memory.
We are using AT89S52 which has got 256 bytes RAM and 8K code memory.
But since it does not have EEPROM, there is no point customizing SMS for user and therefore no need unpacking the SMS.

To summarize, whichever way, you can now take appropriate action according to the SMS received.


Deleting SMS

Once action has been taken on the SMS, it is really no worth to us now and must be deleted, otherwise the inbox gets full. See the frame for deleting SMS in excel sheet(Download section).

Byte9=SMS delete command=0x0A
Byte11=SMS location in inbox, should be taken from SMS recd frame (Byte11)
Calculate Seq.No. and check sums as usual.

If correct delete is done, phone replies with Delete-Ok frame (check sheet)
What do you need to do with that?
You need to send ACK to that yaar!

If somehow, the delete command was unable to do the deleting operation, which may be due to numerous reasons, (The basic reason being the noise on FBUS [which we can do really nothing about, with the scheme we are using].
Other reason is sending wrong Seq.No. Protocol is really strict with this!)

Phone sends a Delete error frame (check sheet).So you know that the particular SMS has not been deleted, and needs to be sent a fresh Delete-frame.


Alternate method to get SMS

Incidentally there is another way to get the SMS than wait for it.

In the above frame (SMS handling) the Byte9=0x07 is the Get-SMS command.
So what you can do is, check for a location (Byte11) say 2nd location for new SMS after a specified interval (which you can decide 5 seconds, 10seconds etc).
If there is no new SMS, alternately the location is empty, Phone replies with
Empty-SMS frame which you can check in the excel sheet

So now everything is clear I hope. We have discussed just the SMS related functions of the FBUS because that was all we needed. You can check www.gnokii.org for more information on other features like Call-handling, Battery-monitoring to name a few.


Some TIPS

· We had started with using the AT89S52 controller which has the limitation of RAM size (256 bytes).All the frames are received in this RAM of which half may be used for stack operations, registers etc.
You have seen that a mere ‘hello’ frame is 58 bytes long. Some more declarations will require using RAM, so more and more of RAM is used. In such a case what if a really long SMS is received?
No need to panic! Simply delete such an SMS without taking any action. Subsequently all that needs to be taken care of are the actual SMS we are going to consider or have stored in our code memory!
People have therefore used AVR controllers for this. Incidentally you can use external EEPROM for the 52 controller as well. However using the S52 is simpler and serves the purpose of only switching devices on/off
· We have not discussed anything about the Battery connections and charging it. You cannot remove the battery and connect +5V directly to the battery terminals. The battery has some electronics built in to identify type of battery and temperature of battery. Elaborately what you can do is design a charger which switches off when battery is fully charged (nokia battery chargers are CV chargers and have no electronics to cut off power on full charge)
· The above method is tedious and a simpler way exists. Take an old nokia battery, disassemble it. Now connect your power supply +5V to the B+ and Gnd to B- terminals.
· Power Supply should be able to deliver up to 3A max

The Sims 2 Pet

The simulation game Sims 2: Pets has now gone live on N-Gage, you can download it directly to your phone from the N-Gage application's showroom. Naturally we'll be bringing you a review in due course. Now, where did we put that dog lead?

Should Nokia use touchscreens or buttons for N-Gage games?

The success of the Nintendo DS has proved that touchscreens and games can go together very well, and Nokia announced last year that they will be releasing touchscreen phones in 2008. Are we going to therefore start seeing touch-based N-Gage games, and if so, would that be a good idea? In this special in-depth article, All About N-Gage takes a look at the pros and cons of touchscreen phone gaming, and ponder whether this would suit the N-Gage platform.

Before we start, here are a couple of facts:

- In December 2007, in an interview for Pocket Gamer, Jaakko Kaidesoja apparently made a throwaway remark about "GPS and/or touchscreens" being part of the future of N-Gage. That's not exactly a direct statement, but it tells us that Nokia is at least considering making touch-based N-Gage games.

- In August 2007 at the Go Play event in London, Nokia announced they would be introducing touchscreen-based S60 phones some time in 2008. S60 phones are the kind that run the new N-Gage platform, in fact N-Gage games are technically S60 games, so it seems possible we will see a touch-sensitive N-Gage-compatible phone some time soon.

Would it be a good idea for N-Gage games to have touch-based controls? Well, there are good arguments both for and against it, so we're going to try and present them all here in this article, and conclude by balancing one against the other.

Part One: The case FOR touch-controlled N-Gage games

1. Touchscreens would stop the debate about whether phone controls are good enough for gaming

One old chestnut that keeps coming up when people discuss phone gaming is how you control the games.

Some people maintain that only a dedicated games console can have the right kind of controls to make games fun to play. We would respectfully disagree with this, and point out that games developed specifically for phones (such as Infinite Dreams' back catalogue) tend to make excellent use of phone controls, but the doubt still remains in many people's minds.

If N-Gage games could be controlled by a touchscreen though, that doubt could be killed stone dead, because it's become clear over the past four years that touchscreens on their own are easily good enough. Touchscreen-based N-Gage games would automatically have console-quality controls, and that console would be the Nintendo DS.

The DS has sold in bigger numbers than any other recent console, either home or portable. What's even more significant is that the DS has made some progress towards attracting a wider audience, most famously with the massive-selling Brain Training (aka Brain Age) series that is aimed at older gamers, and the wonderful puppy simulator Nintendogs that is aimed at younger gamers. This wide appeal is exactly the kind of thing that phone gaming aims for too, because every kind of person uses mobile phones, from grandparents to schoolchildren. In fact the N-Gage platform already has two titles which are very similar to DS games: Brain Challenge is N-Gage's equivalent of Brain Training, and Dogz is N-Gage's Nintendogs.

The secret of the DS reaching a wider audience has often been attributed to its control system: it uses a touchscreen, which makes controls extremely intuitive (for example in Animal Crossing if you want to walk somewhere you just touch the place you want to walk to). It also makes the device itself look less frightening, and it allows the game designers to completely customise the controls to suit each particular game.

It should be noted of course that the DS also has two screens, hence the Dual Screen name, but the second screen isn't touch-sensitive, and it's rarely used for anything except to display status screens or extra scenery. Most DS games could work perfectly well on just one screen, which is what a touch-sensitive N-Gage-compatible phone would have.

2. Touchscreens would allow games to be more easily ported between the N-Gage platform and the Nintendo DS

Earlier this year, the acclaimed N-Gage game developers Ideaworks3D released a new version of their Airplay development kit which allows games to be ported between the new N-Gage platform and the DS. There have been such ports before, Gameloft released Asphalt Urban GT on the original gen N-Gage and the DS, so we know it's already technically possible, but the new Airplay SDK should make it even easier.

Ports between the N-Gage platform and the DS would allow developers to make games for both at once, or to port particularly successful titles later on. Either way, it would increase the amount of third party software support for the N-Gage platform.

3. Touchscreens would allow games to be more easily ported between the N-Gage platform and a future "PlayStation Phone"

There have been many rumours in recent years that Sony is considering making some kind of gaming phone or gaming platform for their phones, using the PlayStation brand to bring it to the public's attention.

Sony doesn't make phones itself though, years ago it abandoned phone making in order to set up a joint venture with Ericsson (who also abandoned phone making). Sony Ericsson is a separate company jointly owned by Sony and Ericsson, and it's one of the largest phone manufacturers in the world.

Now, here's where N-Gage comes in: N-Gage-compatible phones are all based on the Symbian operating system, as are all of Nokia's smartphones. By an interesting coincidence, all of Sony Ericsson's smartphones are also based on the Symbian operating system, and many games are released simultaneously for both Nokia and Sony Ericsson smartphones because of this. Nokia and Sony Ericsson are actually major shareholders in the company which makes the Symbian OS, and that's why they continue to use it in all their smartphones.

If Sony Ericsson does manufacture a PlayStation-branded phone or gaming platform, it's very likely that they would base it on their existing smartphones, which means it would use Symbian OS, just like N-Gage does. That would make it relatively easy to develop games for both N-Gage and any PlayStation Phone, or to port from one to the other, and that too would increase the amount of third party software support on N-Gage.

However, there's a catch: Sony Ericsson's smartphones all use a touch-based interface, while Nokia's don't. If Nokia wants to make it as easy as possible to port between a PlayStation phone and N-Gage, they ought to make their N-Gage-compatible phones touch-sensitive.

4. Touchscreens would allow games to be more easily ported between the N-Gage platform and Apple's iPhone

Game ports between N-Gage and Apple's iPhone might not be quite as easy as the ones mentioned above, because the iPhone uses the OS X operating system and not Symbian. But such ports would be far more plausible if the N-Gage platform had support for touch controls, because it would allow any port to work similarly to the original. There would be a minimum amount of work required to port the actual design of the game, because both platforms would have similar control systems.

5. Touchscreens would remove any need to compromise phone design for the sake of gaming

The original N-Gage and QD were commercial failures, and Nokia spent a great deal of time doing a post mortem on what went wrong. The best-known failures (sidetalking, difficulty in changing games) were quickly corrected by the QD model, yet the original generation of N-Gage still failed to take off, even though the identical S60 hardware was very successful when sold as normal-looking smartphones like the Nokia 3650.

One of the results of Nokia's post mortem was that most people who play phone games don't necessarily want their phone to look like a gaming machine. They do value gaming as a feature, but it's not the main feature they look for in a phone, so they don't want the design compromised for the sake of gaming.

In short: most people want their phone to look like a phone, not a console.

This has left Nokia in something of a dilemma: their audience is telling them that they don't want phones designed for gaming, but they do want games to have comfortable controls.

Nokia's response so far is to include subtle gaming-oriented buttons on certain models such as the N81 and upcoming 5320 XpressMusic, and to allow the multimedia controls of the N95 and N96 to be used as gaming buttons. These kinds of buttons do work, and this writer has had great fun using them, but what about people who buy these phones and don't want gaming at all? And what about those who do like gaming but feel that just a couple of extra buttons are inadequate?

Touchscreen controls in N-Gage games would completely avoid all these problems, and resolve Nokia's dilemma.

N-Gage-compatible phones with touchscreens would allow N-Gage games to have console-quality control systems, as there would be no practical difference between playing a touch-based N-Gage game or a Nintendo DS game.

There would be no need for any gaming buttons or unusual direction pads, phones could be designed entirely as phones, and there would be no need for any compromises.

Part Two: The case AGAINST touch-controlled N-Gage games

However, the arguments above are not perfect. There are some serious challenges that will be encountered if the new N-Gage platform embraces touch-based controls.

1. What about the non-touch phones?

In all the hype about touch-based phones, one fact seems to have been forgotten: no one actually buys them.

Yes, lots of people talk about them, and they're often seen on TV and in films, but when you look at the sales figures you realise that almost all phones actually sold are the normal button-based kind. The iPhone, probably the most famous touchscreen phone, has a market share of less than 1% after a year on the market. Nokia, which has a 40% market share, doesn't even make any touchscreen phones (though they will release touchscreen models later in 2008).

Even if touchscreen phones doubled or trebled or quadrupled their sales, they would still only be a small niche market. The conclusion one comes to is that for the foreseeable future the phone world will continue to be dominated by non-touch phones.

The whole point of N-Gage is not to go for the niche market, but to go for the mainstream market. If N-Gage is eventually present on even a tenth of Nokia's phones, and Nokia's sales continue at their current rate, that would increase N-Gage's userbase by 40 million every year.

The only way N-Gage can get to this mainstream market is by making games that work on mainstream phones. Touch-based games won't work on mainstream phones, so very few people will have the hardware needed to play them.

In other words, why should Nokia make touchscreen games if the vast majority of their customers can't play them?

2. What about one-handed controls?

One of the most useful features of mobile phones is that they can be operated with one hand. If you're carrying a bag or holding on in a train, you can still use your phone with the other hand to read messages, view your appointments, or even play games.

Touchscreen phones generally require two hands to operate, so the above situations may render them useless. As phone gaming is meant to be a way of passing time on your journey to work or school, anything which stops games working with one hand may be a major problem.

3. What about the games that need buttons?

Even with all the acclaim and sales success that the Nintendo DS has had, there are still some of its titles which don't really use the touchscreen at all. Most famous of all is possibly Mario Kart DS, a racing game which is almost entirely controlled using the DS's conventional buttons and direction pad.

Good game designers can use whatever controls the hardware has, but there may be some game genres which would be difficult to do without buttons (though equally some genres would be difficult to do without a touchscreen).

4. What about physical screen size differences?

One of the most interesting things about the N-Gage platform from a technical point of view is the sheer variety in the compatible hardware. The phones which can run N-Gage games look very different physically. All of them have the same screen resolution, but some of them have physically much smaller screens than others, because some people prefer buying smaller phones.

As it becomes more mainstream, more and more phones will join the N-Gage platform, and that will mean even more variety in the size of phone screens.

If N-Gage goes over to touch controls, how will these cope with the huge variety of screen sizes? Will touch control be as easy to use on the physically smallest screens as it is on the largest?

5. What about compatibility with older games and games from other button-based phones?

All of the games made so far on N-Gage have been based around button and direction pad controls, and as far as we know all of the games currently in development are similarly button-based. Nokia's predicting that there may be 50 or 60 N-Gage titles by the end of the year, and we would take an educated guess that there may be 100 or 200 by the end of 2009.

If this entire back catalogue of games is based around buttons, will any of them be playable on a touch-based device?

And what about all those Java and S60 games which are out there, how will they work on a phone that has no buttons?

Part Three: Touchscreens? Buttons? Why not both?

Balancing the arguments for and against touch-based N-Gage games is tricky, mainly because no one knows what the future holds for touchscreen phones. Even with all the hype it received, the iPhone only managed to sell about 5 million in its first year, whereas the total mobile phones sold every year come to 1000 million, with Nokia alone selling 400 million phones a year. At the moment touchscreen phones are a very very very small niche market, and perhaps this situation will not change.

On the other hand, the situation might change. For example, Asia is the biggest growth market for phones and contains most of the world's population. Some Asian languages, most famously Chinese, use very large alphabets which contain far too many characters for a keypad or keyboard to handle, so touch-based phones may be more of a mainstream hit there, especially when their price drops.

Another potential driving force for touchscreen phones might be changes in people's habits. As phone network data charges drop, people may become more confident about surfing the web through their phone, which is more easily done using a touchscreen.

Whatever happens, it's still far too early to judge the fate of touchscreen phones.

However, this may not be such a big problem for Nokia. Perhaps they can have their cake and eat it as far as touchscreen games are concerned, because of another two facts:

- It's perfectly possible to design games for both buttons and touch-based controls.

One of the biggest-selling and most critically-acclaimed games on the Nintendo DS was Animal Crossing, which allowed the player to use either the touchscreen or the buttons and d-pad, or both if they wanted to. It was just as playable either way, and provides something of a model for N-Gage if Nokia intends to try making touch-based phone games.

- It's perfectly possible to design phones with both buttons and touch-based controls.

A touchscreen phone doesn't have to be entirely touch-controlled. The front of a phone can be devoted to touch controls, but when the buttons are wanted or needed they can be slid out from under the screen using a slider mechanism.

A phone which combines a touchscreen and buttons allows Nokia to avoid pretty much all of the problems mentioned above. It allows both touch and non-touch games to be used on a single device, and it lets the user choose whichever control method suits their tastes and/or current situation.

Some people will prefer touch-only and some buttons-only, so they might want separate models, but those who want the best of both worlds could have it.

It's also interesting to note that Nokia's choice of button controls for N-Gage games (the d-pad and two buttons above the screen) could easily fit onto a touchscreen phone, even one without a keypad at all. Nokia's mockup touchscreen phone in the still above is laid out very much like the N81 in its closed mode, and one could well imagine the gaming buttons fitting above the touchscreen. Perhaps Nokia already have a button/touch combo phone in mind as far as gaming is concerned?

Part Four: The Epilogue

Whatever happens and whoever does it, it should be fascinating to see how touchscreen phone gaming plays out in the real world. Could portable consoles become obsolete? After all, touchscreen phones would have superior processing power, an equally good control system, and potentially a much much larger userbase.

A theme per game

As part of the promotion for the game, Nokia's N-Gage team has designed a dedicated theme for Snakes Subsonic for any S60 3rd Edition device, to remind you of the game. What a good idea - maybe they'll do one for every other N-Gage game? Mine's the Pro Golf one in the corner...

Apple iPhone 3G versus Nokia N95 8GB

Nine months ago, Steve looked at the then-new Apple iPhone, pitched against the also-new Nokia N95 8GB flagship - with the release of the iPhone 3G, it's high time for a rematch. It's evident that the iPhone 3G has closed the gap and wins in some areas, but there are still holes in its functionality that you could drive a motorhome through, leading to another overall N95 8GB victory.

The original N95/iPhone battle may have moved onto new stomping grounds, but it's still a battle royal. Between strength and subtlety, between functions and form, between features and ease of use. Both devices are either aimed at totally different markets or aimed at the same market, depending on who you talk to. But the fact remains that the Nokia N95 8GB (now six months old) and the Apple iPhone 3G (available on July 11th) are still two of the most desirable smart devices anyone can own.

Let's put them head to head and try to be totally objective:

Form factor	Glass-topped tablet, 3.5" touchscreen, reasonable outdoor contrast, four physical buttons/switches	Fairly robust slider phone, 2.8" screen, reasonable outdoor contrast, 25 buttons, including traditional phone keypad (hidden away when not in use)
Typical price on a £35 a month contract	£99 (minimum contract with O2 = 18 months, total cost of ownership over period is £729, but this includes unlimited data)	£free (on a typical 18 month contract, total cost of ownership is £630 - plus data (for some networks, though - shopping around for a good deal should end up at the same or lower price than the iPhone 3G)
Runs	Version of Apple's desktop OS X	S60 3rd Edition, Feature Pack 1, on Symbian OS.
Battery life	Good, but integral, non-removable battery, 1400mAh, replacement is via sending away to Apple	Good-ish, BL-6F battery can be removed and replaced quickly, 1200mAh.
Connectivity	3.5G. Plus Wi-Fi, also where available, seamless changeover (in theory)	3.5G, plus Wi-Fi where available, manual access point selection
Performance and RAM	Very limited multitasking, but applications start and terminate so fast that you don't notice. Background applications limited to Apple built-in apps.	Pretty quick, and around 90MB of free RAM after booting, thanks to a demand paged version of Symbian OS, with full multitasking (i.e. all apps at once, if necessary)
Built-in Applications	A slightly restricted application set, but graphical and hyper-intuitive.	The usual S60 set of apps and mini-apps, with something of a media/online bent.
Web browsing	A good touch-driven experience using Safari. No Flash or Java support at all though.	A similarly good experience, this time limited by screen real estate and not bandwidth, with very similar browser code (both based on the same open source Web modules). Flash and Java support, including full Flash video.
Text entry	Text entry via fingers using an on-screen keyboard. Word prediction software helps to enlarge screen touch-sensitive hotspots for likely followup letters, improving typing accuracy a lot. No option for Bluetooth keyboard, at present, sadly. No way of copying and pasting text between apps or within an app.	With no touchscreen or keyboard, text entry is relatively inconvenient, using predictive text on the keypad, and mostly impossible when the N95 8GB is in 'landscape' mode (although a separate Bluetooth keyboard gets round this fairly easily). Full copy and paste support via an 'Edit' key.
Imaging/Video	Acceptable (for casual snaps) 2MP camera, fixed focus, no flash, no video recording.	Awesome 5MP camera with professional lens, auto-focus, multiple scene modes, effects and settings, bright flash, high quality VGA video recording at up to 30 fps. Plus secondary, front-facing VGA camera for video calling.
Music and expansion	Very slick, as you'd expect, and with browsable cover art, MP3 and AAC formats supported. 8GB flash memory capacity (a 16GB version will also be available at extra cost), non-expandable. Music is loaded via iTunes from CDs or DRM-ed purchased music tracks.	Very slick, with dedicated hardware controls for background playback, although cover art is often hit and miss, depending on your music source. MP3, AAC, eAAC+ and WMA formats supported. 8GB flash memory capacity, non-expandable. A2DP also supported, for wireless listening. Loading is via PC through a slow USB 1.1 link or via DRM-ed purchases over the air from Nokia's Music Store.

Durability	Pouched/cased by necessity, to protect the touch-screen from damage.	Pretty durable, with a hard plastic covering over the screen. The camera is not mechanically protected (as on the original N95) and picks up small day-to-day scratches which slightly impact photo quality.
Real world experience	In use, requires two hands to use most of the time, proving a little restrictive. Possible target for muggers?	Almost all operations are easy to accomplish one-handed, so other activities (shopping bags, driving(!), child's hand, tube strap) can be undertaken during use. Also a possible target for muggers!! 8-)
Messaging	Slick email and SMS clients, but no MMS support. Emailed photos are all downsampled to VGA.	Functional email, SMS and MMS client. Attachments possible for any file with no transcoding or reduction.
Office work	Word/Excel/Powerpoint/iWork/PDF viewers built into the email client. No editing options, although workarounds using Ajax applications on web sites are possible.	Quickoffice 3.8 viewers (upgradable to v5.0 round-trip-perfect editing, including Office 2007 formats), plus Adobe Reader LE 1.5.
Navigation	Native version of Google Maps, with cell tower and GPS location support.	Native Nokia Maps with ad-hoc upgrades for voice guided navigation, with all maps pre-loadable via a PC to enable operation in areas of low data signal. Google Maps is free and a native S60 application, as an over-the-air alternative. Both use both GPS and cell tower data.
Extra applications	Extensible using Widgets and Web applications in the Safari web browser, plus third party apps via a slick built-in AppStore/portal.	Plenty of native S60 applications and games, plus thousands more Java apps/games and Widgets. Python, Ruby and Flash Lite applications are also supported. Download! on the device offers a similar service to AppStore, but without the same scope and consistency.
Bluetooth	Just headset/mono-handsfree functions.	Full A2DP stereo support, plus object exchange, dial up networking and many other profiles.
Extra connectivity	Flush 3.5mm headphone socket.	Flush 3.5mm headphone socket, also with integrated TV-out facility (sending screen feed or full res photos or videos to any TV or video equipment). There's also UPnP support via WiFi and direct printing support with Pictbridge.
Desktop integration	Seamless integration with iTunes on Mac or Windows desktops, for all PIM data, settings, etc.	Full functioned but messy integration with several versions of PC Suite and other tools on PC, Nokia Multimedia Transfer, iCal/iSync on Mac, etc.
Online sync/backup	$100 a year 'Mobile Me' PIM data, plus email and photos. Slick and full realised, but proprietary to Apple.	Free Ovi Sync (probably available at the same time as Mobile Me), plus sync offerings, both free and commercial, from the likes of GooSync, Zyb, Mobical, etc.

Looking at the table above, it's clear that the iPhone 3G, despite the 2008 refresh, is still rather outgunned by the N95 8GB, but there are wins for the high profile device from Apple. It's cleaner, more elegant, has a larger screen, a great text input method and more foolproof desktop connectivity. And that shortlist of wins is probably enough for a lot of purchasers, especially those with lesser ambitions and a deep lust for shiny Apple hardware.

But the Nokia N95 8GB, as with the original N95 (on latest v21 firmware) and now also the N82, is simply awesome as a piece of technology, winning on overall data connectivity, multitasking, camera, video camera and in general as a smartphone tool for anyone with a smattering of technological knowledge. Paired with a Bluetooth keyboard, the N95 8GB can, for short periods, replace phone, camera, camcorder, music player, navigation device, laptop, games console and Blackberry, among others.

The iPhone 3G has closed the gap to the N95, taking it from a lap behind to only a few lengths. Let's see if Nokia's flagship smartphones have what it takes to put on a decisive winning burst to the finish line.

Prettier, more useful - Share on Ovi

Nokia's Share on Ovi just got prettier, with a new PicLens function (requiring a download and plug-in, mind you) that allows Mac-like fluid photo browsing, plus extra image sizes for viewing, including 'Original'. There's also a new intro tutorial video.

Prettier, more useful - Share on Ovi

Nokia's Share on Ovi just got prettier, with a new PicLens function (requiring a download and plug-in, mind you) that allows Mac-like fluid photo browsing, plus extra image sizes for viewing, including 'Original'. There's also a new intro tutorial video.

How to develop Java(TM) Applications for the Nokia 9210 Communicator

How to develop Java(TM) Applications for the Nokia 9210 Communicator

The Nokia 9210 Communicator is the first Nokia product with wireless Java support.

Download File here

S60 Device Optimization

Optimize Overview

For as long as developers have been building applications for mobile devices, they have been contending with the challenges of device differentiation. This issue has become even more important as the number of devices has grown and the promise of "write once, run anywhere" has become harder to realize.

However, device manufacturers are not creating different devices just to make developers' lives more difficult. Each unique device targets a different market niche - a combination of form, functionality, and price - which expands the total addressable market for mobile applications. And within the Nokia portfolio, device differentiation does not mean market fragmentation, but instead the expansion of the Platforms.

The Develop/Optimize Process

Nokia recommends building applications starting with the key technology enabler (such as Symbian C++or Java MIDP), which you will have selected based on the application's requirements, your expertise, preferences, and the desired market.

Next, you can target specific Platforms and develop your applications against the Platform specifications

The next step is to optimize the applications for the different UIs on a given Platform (such as screen size and keymapping) and then accommodate any device-specific hardware limitations or issues, such as file size limitations or processor speeds.

You can also add functionality for specific devices that have lead software that adds capabilities to the base software of the Platform.

Here are some of Nokia's resources to help progammers understand the Platforms:

The Platform Advantage

Nokia currently offers three Platforms:

* Series 40 Platform
The mass-market platform for Java™ applications.
* Series 60 Platform
The No. 1 smartphone, available from six different manufacturers.
* Series 80 Platform
Designed for business productivity applications.

Nokia's platform approach provides a common software implementation across a range of Nokia devices. This consistency minimizes the differences between devices at a functional level, although there are some differences based on hardware and UI implementations that developers must address.

The key to leveraging the Platforms and minimizing device-specific development when building mobile applications is to stay as abstract as possible for as long as possible. By separating the business and application logic from the UI and taking device-agnostic programming into account from the outset, support of multiple devices - and even multiple Platforms - becomes significantly easier.

By starting in the abstract and gradually narrowing your focus, your application will be much more portable and device variation will have minimal impact. This is in stark contrast to developing your application for a specific device and then later trying to retrofit it to other devices, which often requires rewriting significant portions of code that may be tied to a particular device implementation.

Creating Screen Savers for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 Devices Screencast

Creating Screen Savers for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 Devices Screencast

This video provides artists and graphic designers with an overview of creating animated screen savers for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices. The video illustrates the creation of a simple animated “bouncing ball” screen saver using animated GIF, animated SVG, and Flash Lite from Adobe. The video then shows how to include an animated screen saver in a Theme package as well as how a device user can activate the screen saver. Running time: 13 minutes

S60_3rd_Edition_FP1_Screensavers_v1_0_en.exe

Getting Started with Mobile Design

This document provides an overview to different aspects of mobile designing, such as the mobile context, tools, and standards. The challenges of mobile design are discussed with guidance of how to overcome them.

Getting Started with Mobile Design

American Analyst Downgrades Nokia after Apple iPhone News

I'm not sure how to respond on this one - after the announcements from Apple, American Technology Research have downgraded their stock recommendation on Nokia from 'Buy' to 'Hold' because of the increasing competition, and they are awaiting a competitive response from Nokia. I suspect that response will be coming at some point next week.

MoCoNews carries the quote from the Analyst that "Nokia will face increasing competition from new third-generation smart-phone introductions in the second half of 2008 and early 2009. We do not recommend new money until we get a competitive response from Nokia."

Hidden Expedition: Titanic

It's time to dive down to the hidden depths in the latest puzzle game from Astraware. The teaser text is good (explore the wreck of the Titanic), the goal is clear (find the Lost Crown of MacGuffin) and all you need to do is hunt through the rooms of the sunken White Star Liner and you’ll find riches and fame beyond anything your Symbian smartphone can produce on the final victory screen. Maybe…

And how do you explore the wreck? Amazingly, by looking at the screen and comparing what you see with a list of 'treasures' that you need to find on your dive. So if you have 'crowbar' on your list, all you need to do is click on the crowbar in the on-screen view of the room you are currently exploring. Find all the items, and you'll successfully complete that portion of the dive, and be ready to move onto the next level.

Get through all these levels, and you’ll hopefully find the crown you seek. But keep your eyes peeled, because this isn’t going to be easy – at the depth of the wreck, you’ve only got 30 minutes to get through all the sections of the ship. The occasional oxygen tank can be found to give you a bit more time, but less haste and more speed is the order of business here.

I'd be hard pushed to describe a 'click on what you see on the list' game as in-depth, addictive and engrossing, but I'm going to make the effort, because this is a surprisingly nice diversion on your handset. Part of it is because of the simplicity of the idea, you just need to roam your cursor around (or tap on the screen for the UIQ version) and click on the object, but it’s delightfully hard – which I'm enjoying, even though I could see some people getting quickly frustrated. Being told to look for a ‘desktop microphone’ means you’ve got to try and think what that would actually look like, then find it.



As always, I like the personal touch of Astraware games asking for your name and creating a profile. Perhaps it’s not needed as much nowadays, with phones being much more personal than PDA’s or Palms and so getting handed round less, but it’s still oh so polite and very much appreciated. This is for your profile, and it allows you to easily resume a saved game. With a tight time limit and a lot of rooms to explore, you’re going to need a fair amount of practice to get through it all to find your ultimate goal of the missing crown. It’s good you can stop half way through a room and not lose your progress when you come back the next day.

Hidden Expedition is a good diversion and there’s a guilty thrill in completing each level. It wouldn’t be on my 'must buy' list, but it’s on the 'interesting if you want something different' alternative.

S60v3 games are unofficial N-Gage games

Do you want to know a secret? You can get a lot more N-Gage games for your N-Gage-compatible phone than Nokia is telling you about. These unofficial games are known as S60 Third Edition (S60v3) games, and they're technically the same thing as N-Gage games. S60v3 games have just as much access to the phone's hardware as N-Gage games, and their graphics and sound can be just as good too. Click on the headline of this item to find out where to get S60v3 games, how to install them on your phone, and which ones you should get.

What are S60v3 games?

If you think your N-Gage-compatible phone can only do official N-Gage games, you're missing out on all the unofficial N-Gage games. They're called "Symbian S60 3rd Edition" games, because N-Gage-compatible phones run on a software platform known as Symbian S60 3rd Edition. This is a bit of a mouthful, so it's often shortened to just "S60v3", and some people also call it "Series 60 v3" or "Series 60 Third Edition".

S60v3 games can access an N-Gage-compatible phone's hardware much more directly than Java games, which means better graphics and smoother gameplay.

In fact N-Gage games are really the same thing as S60v3 games, "N-Gage" is just a brand name for S60v3 games sold through the N-Gage application.



Where to find S60v3 games

There are lots of commercial and free S60v3 games out there. Almost all of them are available as special installation files that end with .SIS or .SISX. These can be installed onto your phone directly by downloading them through the phone's web browser, or indirectly using your computer and the Nokia PC Suite application. Don't worry if that sounds complicated, it's very easy, and there's a link to a step-by-step tutorial later in this article.

Commercial S60v3 games are usually sold through retail sites such as Handango.com and Clickgamer.com, which provide you with a downloadable file that you can install onto your N-Gage-compatible phone (they'll probably also e-mail you an activation code which turns the demo version into the full game).

If a shop asks for your phone's IMEI number, don't panic! Every phone's IMEI number is printed on a metal plate underneath the battery, and you can also find it out by typing *#06# which will display it as a "serial number". The reason they ask for this is so they can lock the game so it only works on your phone, in order to fight piracy.

Free S60 games are usually available as .SIS or .SISX files from the game developer's website.



Which kind of S60v3 games are compatible with N-Gage phones?

All N-Gage-compatible phones are Symbian S60 3rd Edition (aka S60v3) devices. If you can get hold of an S60v3 game, it should work on your N-Gage-compatible phone.

Some sites may offer S60 3rd Edition games in a variety of screen resolutions, which can be rather baffling. It's very simple though:

All N-Gage-compatible phones have QVGA screens, which means they can run games that are 240x320 pixels (in portrait/vertical mode) or 320x240 pixels (in landscape/horizontal mode). You can also use lower resolution 176x208 games too, but these will have a black border around them.

Some games will be able to support both modes, and perhaps even switch between them while you play, but other games will only support one mode or the other.

If you're in any doubt about compatibility, download and install the game's demo on your N-Gage-compatible phone. If the demo works, then the full version will work too.



How to install S60 3rd Edition games on your N-Gage-compatible phone

There are two basic methods, both of which are very easy once you get the hang of them.

- You can download and install the game straight onto your phone using the phone's web browser. This method works best for free games, as they are usually available as direct links to the .SIS or .SISX file, so you can just click on the link to download and install the game.

OR

- You can download the game onto your PC, then install it on your phone by connecting it to your computer using the USB cable. This method works best for commercial games, as they often require you to purchase the game on sites that are difficult to navigate on a small screen.

Which S60v3 games should I get?

Some S60v3 games are great, some aren't so great, and some games are sold as S60v3 but are actually Java (you can tell which games are Java because they have file names which end in .JAR or .JAD instead of .SIS or .SISX).

To help you out, here are some S60v3 games which we recommend for your N-Gage-compatible phone. Some of them are free, some are commercial. The free games tend to have less impressive graphics because their development budgets tend to be lower, but they can be just as much fun to play as the commercial games.

The "Review" links below all have numerous screenshots of the games along with detailed reviews, and the "Where to get it" links take you to sites where you can download or purchase the games.

Symbian S60 3rd Edition gaming explained

Over on All About N-Gage, we've just published a guide to S60 3rd Edition games, or "unofficial N-Gage games" as we like to call them. If you're new to S60 gaming, you might want to check out this article which goes through what S60 games are, where you can get them, how you install them and which games you should download or buy. It's written with owners of N-Gage-compatible phones in mind, but the article could equally apply to almost all S60 3rd Edition devices.

Nokia tops Q1 worldwide smartphone stats, ahead of booming Blackberry

Gartner have released figures for worldwide smartphone sales in the first quarter of 2008 - about as up to date as you and I get to see. There are no real surprises - Nokia top the table with 25% year-on-year growth of its S60 smartphones, with Q1 market share of 45%, healthy by any standards, but the biggest surprise is RIM's Blackberry range posting 107% growth, up to 13.4%. Apple's iPhone is already up to 5.3% of the smartphone market, somewhat ominously given their next-gen launch tomorrow (Monday) evening, UK time. The full stats/table is shown below the break.

click to enlarge

Mail for Exchange 2.5 - This One is Big

There is a new version of Mail for Exchange available - Mail for Exchange 2.5.

Mail for Exchange is the name of Nokia's email client built on Microsoft's ActiveSync technonology. Mail for Exchange provides push synchronization of email and other data between Microsoft Exchange and Nokia devices.



The new version of Mail for Exchange is not an incremental update but instead, a big step forward for this free email application.

For the first time Mail for Exchange now includes support for features available on Microsoft Exchange 2007.

So if you are in luck, and your company uses Exchange 2007 you have a few additional useful features.

Ability to set up Out of the Office auto-reply notifications from your Nokia device. In my opinion, this is probably the best feature of this release. A few of us have probably forgot to turn on the "out of office" function when we have rushed out on Friday afternoon when going on vacation. Or perhaps realized on the way to the airport, before a long trip, that we forgot to turn on the out-of-office auto replay. Well, no more booting up the laptop to set up out-of-office you can do it directly from your device.



However, finding this new function is a bit tricky. I expected the out-of-office function to show up in the calendar but it is not.



Instead, it is part of your Mail for Exchange profile. You need to go to the MfE application in the MfE folder, and then go to "edit profile" and buried deep in the settings for "profile" is out of office.



But once you find the feature it is dead easy to set up.



My second favourite feature of MfE 2.5 is support for "Follow-Up" flags so that you can see flags on the device for emails that have been flagged on the server. It is also possible to Clear flag, Flag complete and set Follow up from the device.

Mail for Exchange 2.5 also introduces a number of Mailbox policies which will make all the IT administrators of Exchange happy.

For an example, the administrator can allow or disallow simple passwords such as “12345” or “1111”. Similarly, the administrator can define the length of time a password can be used before it must be changed and also define the number of old passwords to be saved so that user can not reuse them.

These features might not seem so important for an end user but makes all the difference to the group of hard working administrators who has the thankless task of supporting us all with our email issues.

The number of supported device models has also grown. Mail for Exchange 2.5 naturally supports all Eseries devices and a number of Nseries device. MfE 2.5 supports these new devices

Nokia N78, Nokia N96, Nokia 6124 and Nokia 6220.

The release also contains a number of bug fixes - that goes without saying. But there is one more change. Mail for Exchange now comes in multiple installation files, depending on the version of Symbian on your Nokia device.

S60 3.0 - First generation Eseries i.e. E50, E60, E61(i) E62, E65, E70, N73 etc.

S60 3.1 - Some Eseries and many Nseries i.e. E51, E90, N81 8GB, N82, N95, N95 8GB

S60 3.2 - Nseries devices i.e. N78, N96, 6124, 6220 classic

Once again, please note that the above features require Microsoft Exchange 2007 server. If you / your company is using a previous version of Microsoft Exchange as your email server, the above features will not be available.

Mail for Exchange can be downloaded from here.

'Fixing' Flash Lite 3 on the Nokia E90

You'll recall that the Nokia E90 Communicator recently received a major official firmware update, to v210.34.75, as reported by me here. This brought the E90 into a pretty mature state apart from the fact that Web's Flash integration seemed horribly broken, but only for some people. Read on for my investigation...

The really bizarre thing, as I say, is that for some people v210.34.75 worked properly, with Flash-enabled web sites rendering properly and YouTube (etc) videos playing, while others (including me) were left floundering with an almost useless browser that simply terminated itself whenever anything Flash-related was called upon. Which means virtually every major site these days...

What was especially interesting was that the problem manifested itself on my newly updated E90 with no user data on, no previous backups restored and with no memory card inserted. In other words, we can't blame the usual culprits - third party software, microSD conflicts and so on.

So what's left? I decided, on a hunch, to do a factory reset using the usual *#7370# sequence. And yes, I know that the Nokia Software Update had effectively done the same thing, starting the E90 with a clean internal disk and everything on defaults. But I was curious.

Web worked. It played Flash video files, it displayed complex Flash animations, and seemed almost 100% stable. Hmm.... I started installing my 30 or so (Nokia and) third party applications, bringing the E90 back up to the spec level I need for day to day smartphone use. You know, Quickoffice 5.0, Handy Safe, Internet Radio, Nimbuzz, Location Tagger, Sports Tracker and the rest...

As I installed, I'd stop every now and then and check that Web was still working. Yes. Video playback from YouTube wasn't as smooth as on the N95, but then the E90 has a larger screen to drive and slightly less graphics processing oomph. But at least it was working and not crashing.

I started running everything in sight, leaving it all going in the background and then trying Web video playback - it still worked.

So why on earth did this not work after the original v210.34.75 firmware update? I'm not completely sure, but here's my theory - do please jump in if you know enough to correct me....

After a wipe to factory settings or after a firmware update, the internal disk is basically empty. As the phone is powered on, a sizeable number of system working files are created for the first time, along with configuration files, all of which are added to or modified as you start using the device. In other words, the system area on the internal disk is both complex and always changing, in ways that you and I never get to see.

My theory is that at some point in S60's initialisation or when Web is first launched, the Flash Lite 3 modules are integrated - the OS and browser make a note of where to find them when needed and what capabilities are present. At this point, things sometimes go wrong. And sometimes go right. The situation seems to be binary - if Web and FL3 work fine straight after the update/hard reset then they'll carry on working forever more, whereas if they don't work at first then the system is 'broken' and you need to hard reset again.

The reason why FL3 sometimes integrates OK and sometimes doesn't, in my theory at least, is that we're talking about real time operating systems and complex interactions between all the different tasks, added to which you're likely to do things in a slightly different order each time in terms of keypresses and application launches/installs. It obviously doesn't take much to make FL3 on the E90 unstable, at least in this current OS build - it's ultimately down to an instability (the new name for 'bug', you know?....) in either S60 Web or Adobe's Flash Lite 3 code.

The bottom line? If Flash videos don't play in your E90's Web, then it's time to do your backups, hard reset it and try again! [footnote: the 'solution' has now been tested on several problem E90s and has worked each time]

An N93 for £100? One of the most iconic smartphones - at bargain basement price

Don't you just love garage sales? Nokia is having one, selling off its N93 (original and best design) stock at silly prices. It's the golf edition, too, which means it comes with an extra miniSD card that you can wipe and use. At £100 inc VAT it's the bargain of the century. Just don't mention firmware updates.

Top Trumps Doctor Who

"Diddle dee dum, diddle dee dum, diddle dee dum, it's Doctor Whoooooooo, On your smartphone..."

The hit TV series makes it’s way to the mobile world, in Eidos' latest Java game. Yes, you too can wander through space and time with the 900 year old man who delights in picking up twenty-something boys and girls… Let’s face it, the Doctor Who licence could lead to absolutely any genre out there, so why Eidos have decided that the best use of it would be to create a Top Trumps game. Errr, come again?

Don’t Blink

Top Trumps are a peculiarly British phenomenon, although their revival at the turn of the century has seen some effort to market them to other corners of the empire. The basic game play has never changed, and indeed is still here on the mobile version. Each card in the set has five or six ranked attributes – in this Doctor Who version they are Height, Intelligence, Monster Rating, Darkness and Courage. In each ‘round’ the player who won the last round chooses the attribute to be compared, after looking at his card, and then the opponents compare cards. The person with the highest attribute wins both cards, places them at the bottom of their pile of cards, and play continues until one player has all the cards.

This can take some time...

Who Turned Out The Lights?

Thankfully, there is more than one way to play Top Trumps, and this computerized version, labeled as “Top Trumps Adventures” does tweak the game enough to make it not as monotonous as an actual game. This is because the starting points aren’t necessarily 15 cards each, but might see you with 27 cards and only having to win three more cards. After each game, you can save your progress and also gain special ability cards, such as Teleport (swap your current card with your opponent), Blind (opponent must choose the attribute before looking at his or her card) and the Super Top Trump (automatically wins the round). There are nine abilities to collect in all.

As you progress through the ‘adventure’ you’ll unlock more cards to view in the library, and also open up some mini-games, including a High-Low game and ‘Find the Pairs’. They’re a nice touch, but they don’t distract away from the core gameplay. And to be honest, the core gameplay is cute for a while, but starts to get repetitive very quickly. Choose a number, cross your fingers, choose a number, lose, wait till you get back in, choose a number, cross your fingers, repeat, repeat, repeat…

Are You My Mummy?

This isn’t a title for dedicated gamers, but then it was never targetted there - it’s for the younger mobile users. Top Trumps Doctor Who should keep children happy on a long car ride or family holiday. After all, it’s the perfect material, it’s a relatively easy game to understand, and doesn’t need help from Mummy or Daddy to work the controls (this has to be one of the few games where all the keys I expected to work, worked, so congrats to the developer team for that).

It looks slick, the interface is good, but the actual game of Top Trumps leaves a little bit to be desired.