As ever, S60’s interface revolves around the dual tenets of a homescreen, in this case one with five customisable slots for widgets (several of which have multiple actions and assignments), and a traditional application shortcuts grid. Both tenets deserve comment here, especially in the light of 2009 expectations.

Nokia’s widgetised homescreen, lifted (as far as I can gather) from Symbian^2 (along with much of the memory model, and another example of how S60 is going to fairly seamlessly meld into ‘Symbian’), has been widely praised and for good reason. It’s simple enough for everyone to understand, there’s little to go wrong and yet it’s relatively powerful. The slots available may look limited compared to the multiple scene, multiple page freeform system that HTC have envisioned for their Hero’s Sense skin (on top of Android), but they do the job nicely for most people.

As shown, I tend to run my N97 mini with two application shortcut widgets (i.e. 8 apps just one tap away), Music player (in the absence of hardware media controls, this is the best that can be done for the likes of the N97), Calendar (showing up to three upcoming appointments and/or to-dos), and my four ‘Favourite contacts’. With extra application shortcuts assigned automatically to the clock, to the Profile display and date, there’s a lot of accessibility on offer. The legacy ‘Options’ menu looks a little redundant, as does the assignment of a ‘right hand function key’, but at least this mimics what a user would find on an older S60 phone and provides a degree of familiarity.

For starters, according to the Beta Labs page, it’s only available for the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia N97.

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FExplorer Pro also includes a number of other phone related tools, such as a phone info screen, where you can quickly find out the IMEI, firmware version, and other important information about your phone. You can also restart your phone through this submenu, which is definitely convenient, and get details about the network that you are currently connected to.

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Nokia Image Exchange service was updated last week. Along with the server update came wider support for operators and thus more of you should be able to register and try out what the service is like. The list of supported operators has grown considerably but not every operator is covered. The operator support can now be more easily checked from Nokia Image Exchange website under system requirements on the download page or help page.

The second change to the web interface is that it now allows sharing images to your contacts. This is easily done via sharing panel in image view. Viewing images from your friends can also be done via the web service. This is done so you can decide to use whichever interface that better fits your needs.

"Install Ovi Maps
         
Connect your mobile to your compatible computer via USB cable or Bluetooth in PC Suite mode*.

Open Maps Updater on your computer.

Follow the installation instructions on your computer and mobile screens to install Ovi Maps on your mobile.

*To use Maps Updater, you need Nokia PC Suite installed on your compatible computer

Open Ovi Maps on your mobile
Go online to download the map of your current location over-the-air, or use Map Loader to add several locations and save time and money downloading map data.

Get going
Select your destination with the Navi™ key and choose Drive to or Walk to to get going with Premium navigation services on Ovi Maps."

The very popular Nokia 5800 theme “iPhone 5th by Dsma” with iPhone UI got another update!

Changelog:

• added the maximum number of third-party applications to 9.4
• replacement of all standard 9.4
• restyling many old icons
• graphical component, drawn in accordance with all the features of 5800

Download the theme from here

The 6500 Classic comes with a unique configuration of dual-band WCDMA support on top of its more conventional quad-band GSM/EDGE support. This candy bar handset supports the normal 2100MHz band used in Europe and much of the rest of the world, as well as one of the two North American UMTS bands: 850MHz. This means that the 6500 Classic should be able to get EDGE data on any GSM network, and manage 3G UMTS connections in most parts of the world, where available, as well. It doesn’t have tri-band UMTS support, which would have been great, but this is certainly a step in the right direction.

The Nokia 6500 Classic sports a generous 1GB of internal storage capacity for use with music tracks or photos shot with its built-in 2 megapixel camera. Like the other two devices released today by Nokia, the 6500 Classic uses the new micro-USB connector for charging, headsets, and data connectivity.

Physical Aspects

Despite its keen pricing, the design of the LG KC550 certainly hasn’t been affected. It sports a simplistic, classy look, with lashings of chrome and fingerprint-loving glossy black plastic. It shares the same slider layout as LG’s range-topping Secret, and the sliding action is just as smooth. Happily, the KC550 has rectified my main gripe with the Secret, and provides a ‘proper’ tactile 4-way d-pad and enter button. It seems that cost-cutting has its perks.

Either side of the d-pad you’ll find the device’s softkeys and call/end keys, as well as the dedicated cancel button. Oddly, the cancel button didn’t function as expected. Rather than offering a quick way to delete things, it is instead used to go back one screen. However, when entering numbers or text, it resumes its expected role as a backspace button. The red ‘end’ key also doubles-up as the device’s on/off button.

The front of the device is otherwise dominated by the 2.4" screen, with its bright 262,000 colors and 240 x 320 pixel QVGA resolution. The display appears to be the same as the LG Secret’s, but without touch-sensitive capabilities. However, unlike the Secret, the KC550 doesn’t have a mirrored finish over the display, making it much easier to view in bright environments. Just above the display is a discreet slit housing the earpiece. Overall the front of the device is very simplistic and stylish - very LG.

The rear of the phone is clad with grippy soft-touch plastic, so you don’t have to worry about fingerprints here. There are also a few slits for the loudspeaker, next to the camera’s brushed metal effect lens cover. The lens cover slides across with a satisfying click into place, but is fairly stiff, so you might find yourself opening the phone instead. Opening and closing the lens cover automatically activates and deactivates the camera.

The left side of the device is home to a single headphone/data/charger port, covered by a plastic door that slides across to keep grime out. The right side is a little busier, with a covered microSD slot, zoom/volume keys, and the camera shutter button. At the top corner of this side you’ll also find a neat lanyard fixing. The microphone and button to unclip the back panel can be found on the bottom of the device.

Giving the fascia a push upwards will reveal the KC550’s large 12-key keypad. It sports an attractive checkered design, with some keys being black, and others in a grey spun metal effect, similar to the d-pad’s enter button. The keys are perfectly flat, but offer good feedback with a satisfying click.

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Functions available on your S60 Smartphone: Tweet, Reply, ReTweet, Message, DM, Follow & Unfollow, Favorites, Search, Auto-Update and many more…

Twittix is fully embedded in the operation system, supports English and German language and is Symbian Signed certificated.

Features:

Gravity is a Twitter client, letting you post updates (tweet) and receive updates from all your friends and contacts.

Buy it here. Cost: £7

2. WorldMate Pro

This item’s cheating to a degree because WorldMate straddles the worlds of freeware and commercial software. By default, you get a slick and free utility, offering weather forecasts, a currency converter and world clock. But then pay the commercial premium (go ‘gold’) and you get real time flight status and alerts, flight schedules and satellite imagery for weather. If you’re a regular traveller then this becomes a time and money saver and will easily pay for itself.

Buy it here. Cost:$30 a year

3. Twittix

It’s yet another Twitter client and isn’t quite so pretty, but can’t be ignored because it offers much of the functionality of Gravity at 60% of the price. 

Buy it here. Cost: $7

4. ZingMagic Backgammon Pro II/Chess

Another cheat, in that I’m listing two separate games. but I’m guessing that you’ll prefer one over the other, so pick the one you’re better at. As usual, the ZingMagic games are slick and friendly to your phone’s OS. The price is a little high, but then each will give hundreds of hours of gameplay and fun, so….

Buy Chess Pro II here. Buy Backgammon Pro II here. Cost: $15 each

5. Handy Safe Pro

I hesitate to suggest this application, in view of the cost, but you still can’t beat the way it syncs all its data seamlessly to a fully functioning Windows desktop version, right down to record level. Used properly, this can hold all the secrets of your life, in a maintainable and easy-to-backup fashion. And you can’t really put a price on that, surely?

Buy it here. Cost:$35

6. OfficeSuite

Yet again there’s a caveat. This time because MobiSystems seem to have rushed their office editing suite to market. It’s buggy, but at least they know it’s buggy and are working on it. And it’s on special offer at the moment, so I recommend you buy it now and then take advantage of the fixes as and when they come along.

Buy it here. Cost:$20 (usually a whopping $60)

7. Resco Bubbles

One of the better and trickier accelerometer games, this one’ll have you tearing your hair out. In a good way. The screenshot’s self-explanatory, but the game’s harder than it looks. Persevere past the weird setup interface.

Cost: $10

8. Can’t Stop Solitaire

Horrifically expensive by modern standards, for a humble game, this solitaire collection has almost infinite interest and playability, and deserves a recommendation on this alone. Over two hundred card solitaire variants are here, so something for everyone.

Buy it here. Cost: $30

9. Handy Shell

Epocware’s vision for what the Symbian home screen should look like, you’ll either love this or hate it. There’s no denying the number of apps represented, plus you get another three optional ‘views’, plus a year’s worth of weather, but it’s a;; rather overkill for the average user. Still, perfect for the road warrior!

Buy it here. Cost: $20

10. Best TaskMan

Think of this as the built-in S60 ‘Open Applications’ list on steroids. You get extra views, including the all important ‘free RAM’ figure, plus detailed info on how much RAM each application and process is using, a must for geeky troubleshooting.

Buy it here. Cost:$12

Via All About Symbian