Angry Birds Valentine’s edition coming
Surprise! Surprise! A new edition of Angry Birds is coming.
Well actually it’s not really a surprise considering Rovio — the makers of Angry Birds — released Angry Birds Seasons late last year in conjunction with the holiday season.
Not much has changed in the upcoming Valentine’s day edition safe for the fact that you get some themed levels and some new characters, and that’s pretty much it.
To enjoy the Valentine’s edition of the Angry Birds game, be sure to download Angry Birds season and update that come Valentine’s day.
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Nokia Bubbles offers a different phone unlocking experience
When it comes to unlocking screens, they pretty much do the same thing. You enter a gesture and the screen unlocks, allowing you access your phone. What if you can have shortcuts to view messages, respond to missed calls and even control your media player just from your unlock screen?
Some unlock screens may have already allow you to do some of these things but the Nokia Bubbles offers a fun and unique way for you to do more from your unlock screen than anything we’ve ever come across.
As the name suggests, Nokia Bubbles feature action bubbles that you drag to execute certain actions. You drag a key bubble to a lock bubble to unlock the phone. You drag a contact icon bubble to a phone icon bubble to initiate a call to that contact — you get the drift.
Nokia Bubble is availabe for Symbian devices and you can download it here. Head on over to after the jump for a demo video of the Nokia Bubbles app.
Mozilla releases Firefox 4 beta for Android
The Firefox browser for Android has come a long way since the days of Fennec. When Mozilla started developing a mobile browser for the Android (and the Maemo) platform, we were eager to try it out but the first versions of the beta was a major disappointment.
Then beta 2 came bringing much needed improvements and added features making the Firefox mobile usable but still, we placed it within the “also-rans” category in the mobile browser race.
Now Mozilla has released the latest version of it Firefox mobile browser and we have to say that Firefox has climbed up from being just another mobile browser to probably one of the best offerings out there.
The most noticeable improvement brought about by this latest addition of Firefox is speed. Browser pages load considerably faster than previous versions of Firefox. In fact this version of Firefox is one of the fastest mobile browsers we’ve tested. In addition, the responsiveness is also felt when feeding inputs into the browser like scrolling, panning and zooming. It’s an overall pleasant experience.
Welcome additions to the latest Firefox beta release include the Firefox Sync feature, the Add-on customisation and the Awesome Screen.
RIM introduces BlackBerry trade-up program
Bring in your old BlackBerry and RIM will offer up to $120 in rebate when you upgrade to the latest BlackBerry smart phone. If this sounds too good to be true, well it kind of is. The BlackBerry trade-up program is currently only available for customers in the US who trade-in selected BlackBerry models for a new one.
If you go to www.blackberrytradeup.com and click the “Trade-Up Now” button you’ll see a country drop-down menu. The menu currently only lists US as a selection. Could more countries offer the trade-up program? BlackBerry fans can only hope and keep their fingers crossed.
Samsung release TV remote app for its line of Android devices
Here’s a nifty little app for you Samsung fans out there. If you have a Samsung Android powered device and a fairly recent (read: models from produced from 2010 onwards) Samsung TV that supports the Samsung Internet@TV feature, then you can try out this Samsung TV Remote app.
The Samsung TV Remote app turns your Samsung Android device into a WiFi remote allowing you to control a Samsung Internet@TV so long as both are connected to the same access point.
And since your TV is connected to the Internet you can use the Samsung TV Remote app to call up web pages, browse content on YouTube or Facebook as well. The app also makes it easy to access your favorite content with customisable hotkeys and a full multi-touch QWERTY keyboard, while the 4-way directional pad allows for easy scrolling through the TVs menus and content listings.
A list of compatible Samsung TVs is available after the jump. Find the app in the Android Market by searching for “Samsung TV Remote”.
Motorola teases its Xoom Super Bowl commercial yet again
The theme of the commercial is pretty much confirmed by now. Motorola is taking a swipe at Apple’s 1984 Super Bowl commercial complete with a cameo of the 1984 book written by George Orwell (which the original Apple commercial copied from but never admitted to), and at the same time telling us to break the mould.
While the first teaser was nothing more than some CGI, dramatic soundtrack and fancy words, this new 15 second teaser actually reveals the ad, and it looks very much like the 1984 Apple ad we posted earlier.
Motorola really wants to make a point here and we get it — the Xoom even in those very short 15 seconds, is looking very, very drool-worthy in our eyes.
If you like ads, head over to after the jump for the 15 second Motorola Xoom teaser clip.
The first official Sony Ericsson Xperia Play (aka. PlayStation Phone) TV commercial has been leaked out and it’s not what we hoped it would be.
We were expecting to see some mobile gaming screentime and more shots that highlight the strengths of the phone but instead we get this, some shady characters grafting stolen human thumbs onto an Android mascot. Sounds weird? See the video after the jump for yourself.
Nokia devices running Windows Phone becoming less of a rumour and more of a reality
The earlier rumour that Nokia might be taking all its eggs from the Symbian and MeeGo baskets and putting it into a Window Phone basket is looking to be less of a rumour and more of a reality, if the latest news that’s buzzing on the Internet is anything to come by.
Ahead of the major investors conference happening next Friday February 11, rumours have surfaced again that Nokia is very much looking at Windows Phone as a feasible platform to built devices around. It’s a well-known fact that Nokia’s current CEO, Stephen Elop was formerly from Microsoft and it is also equally well-known that Android has overtaken Symbian as the most popular mobile operating system in the world.
Both make very compelling motives for the world’s largest mobile phone manufacturer to consider switching to the Microsoft mobile platform, but does this guarantee the success of the Nokia?
With everything that’s been said the Windows Phone platform is still very new, with relatively little app ecosystem support. Even the native apps within the platform still needs a lot of work. It is a beautiful OS but complete it is not. But that’s just one side of the story. Consider also that with Windows Phone, there is no UI customisation, an option offered by Android allowing manufacturers to differentiate their devices with the rest.
So if Nokia is to choose Windows Phone as their next strategic move, it would appear that the brand is paying a very expensive cost — a Windows Phone from any manufacturer is simply a Windows phone with nothing separating the devices apart aside from hardware. If this were the case, Nokia’s branding would be diluted and it would be relegated to the many other third-party mobile phone manufacturers churning out WP7 devices.
If Nokia were to take the Android route on the other hand, the brand would have a lot more options to play with. Android’s UI customisation option will allow the Symbian look and feel to live on in Android powered Nokias. Nokia die-hards will then have no problems upgrading to an Android powered Nokia as the usability would be pretty much intact. With a Windows Phone Nokia, on the other hand, it would be a different experience altogether.
Add to that Android’s very healthy app ecosystem and also Honeycomb — Android’s made for tablets OS that is very good — and Nokia suddenly posses the flexibility to expand its product line to tablets with a bevy of apps to whet users’ appetites. Suddenly things are looking peachy for Nokia.
So that’s our take. If indeed Nokia’s jumping platforms, it would be better off with Android than with WP7. Perhaps Nokia has a different strategy, perhaps all this talk about Nokia building WP7 phones are just hogwash. Friday February 11 is just a week a way. We all can wait to see what is really going on.
Nokia rolls out update for N8, C7 and C6-01
Nokia has just made available the first update for its Symbian ^3 platform — now simply known as Symbian — globally starting from today. The version 1.1 update is available for the Nokia N8, C7 and C6-01.
Nokia says most of updated features in version 1.1 “are not directly visible to end users, but together” but ensure that the enhancements “will enhance the user experience of each Symbian device”.
General enhancements in version 1.1 are:
- Meeting requests can be accepted directly from email invitations
- Maps integration in email, which means people can view the meeting location on the map when the address is mentioned in the location field in the invite
For the Nokia N8:
- New Quick Office 6.4 editor version, which offers editing possibilities and allows zooming in & out in Word documents
- Need for Speed Shift, Real Golf and Galaxy on Fire preloaded in the new version. (In some countries, Need for Speed is replaced with Asphalt 5). In any case these games are already available for free from Ovi Suite & Ovi Store despite the 1.1 update
To get the update, go through the “Software Update” on your device or just visit Ovi Suite for instructions.
Nokia warns that the update will be hefty, especially for the N8, so make sure your device is connected to a non-3G network via WiFi when executing the update.
Alternatively, you can use the Ovi Suite on your PC to download and install the update.
C7 owners can get the standard, non-customised version of the software is available from today. Nokia N8 and C6-01 owners will have to wait for your version early next week.
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