ukmp is a very feature rich media player for the Nokia Internet Tablets, and in this new version, which has just been released to the main software repositories, offers some very nice new features.  v1.83 now offers, natively within the program, portrait support, as shown above.  This version offer much improved album art handling (it’s likely to remove all existing album art on installation to allow this benefit to show), better handling of things like the play / pause buttons, and an oft requested feature; a close button on the main screen.

The only real downside is a display limit of 35 songs per album, which seems to be a fair compromise between functionality and speed.  Applications like ukmp are starting to show the real power of the Nokia Tablets off to their full; as an overall experience it may not match that of an iPhone / iPod Touch, but apps like ukmp should make people less shy about showing off their tablets.

ukmp is already available from the maemo extras software repository and the new version should make an appearance any time now.

fring had a small problem last week, the latest iPhone / iPod Touch firmware, v2.2 broke their app ever so slightly, but not to fear, they’ve now released an updated version which should fix the connection issues with the previous version.  If you use fring, head over to fring for more information; to get the update simply go to the App Store.

Opera Mini 4.2 has been formally released, and not just for Symbian and Windows Mobile, as Opera have also released a version for Android.  Opera are claiming that this version is a lot faster in actual operation, and this is partly due to the provision of new server farms in the US and Asia Pacific, which will not just help those areas, but take some of the load off the original European servers too.  Opera Mini 4.2 is available for a fantasticly large range of devices from here.

Nokia has recently announced the above information, which provides details of how much power each generation of Nokia phone charger consumes when left plugged in and turned on but is not charging a phone.  Admittedly the power consumption is not that great, but it still would add up over time.  If you generally use elder chargers then you may want to reach for that power switch a bit more often…

Head over to Nokia for more information.

It’s been a while since we’ve featured PURE Digital, and in that time, they’ve released a whole range of new devices.  The PURE AVANTI Flow (above) is, according to PURE, the ultimate next generation digital audio system.  In the rest of the article we’ve got the specs and details of the other units…

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Well, our review Vodafone netbook arrived on Friday, and we’ve been using it on and off since then; in fact, this article was written completely on the netbook!  Having turned it on, we were impressed the battery came sufficiently charged to get going, although the completion of the XP install took quite some time (as always).  Having got that working, we were impressed by the screen; the 8.9″ screen is nice and clear, and runs at 1024 x 600, which is just big enough; less than 1024 width causes problems on lots of websites, although the 600 height is often not enough, with many websites needed additional scrolling to read.

One thing that the Dell Mini 9 doesn’t have, which was brought out by all that additional vertical scrolling is the lack of a scroll area on the touchpad, something we are used to from larger laptops.  Having said that, the addition of an external scroll mouse has removed most of the problems with the touchpad, by virtue of not using it

Although the whole keyboard is less than full size, a number of the symbol keys are even smaller again, which makes them more difficult to touch type on (eg the comma key is the same size as the main keys but the period key next to it is smaller), but generally the keyboard is acceptable, especially given the size of the unit.

In terms of software installed, there’s a nice range pre-installed, including Microsoft Works and viewers for the various Office document types, Dell video chat and webcam software, McAfee (30 day license only though), and a WiFi / Bluetooth connection application.  We were a little disappointed at the lack of IE7 and the 129Mb of Microsoft patches that were needed straight away, which has of course eaten further into the 8GB SSD Flash it came with.

Overall, our initial impressions are that it’s a nice, small little laptop, and very easy to use and cart around.  Our only other problem; despite what the Vodafone website says, the device claims we are only in a GPRS area, ie no 3G, so we’ve yet to test the Mobile Broadband in anger; more updates later in the week on that.

Update: The Dell Mini 9 does have vertical scroll support in the touchpad, but only after a fresh boot; if you use standby mode, this support seems to get lost on resume, especially if an external mouse is attached, whereas it’s fine on a cold boot even with an external mouse plugged in.

Oh, and once we had connected to Vodafone in a 3G area, all was sorted out, including then listing the original location as a 3G supported area.

Skyfire, an alternative web browser for Symbian and Windows Mobile mobile phones, is now available in an open beta.  If you head to the download page (or click below) from your PC you’ll be able to provide your phone number (for a text message to be sent to you), or if you access the page directly from your device you should get a download link.  Skyfire will take advantage of either Wi-Fi or 3G (or slower) data links to work.  Although it should work on most S60 3rd Edition phones, we’ve heard some people are having problems with certain devices.  The latest version is currently 0.85 BETA.

Do we need another browser in the marketplace?  Well, possibly; if they provide regular updates and provide new features, this may well become the browser of choice of many.  We’ll keep you up to date with how this browser performs over time.

IBM (well, Lotus) have announced that Lotus Notes Traveler (sic) will be available in December for Symbian phones.  Now, there are apparently 140 million Lotus Notes users worldwide, and 80 million Symbian phones out there, and IBM is hoping that there is a nice overlap between the two, and that those users want to access their Notes whilst mobile.  Here at UK Gadgeteer, we believe that there will be a lot of overlap, although whether all those combined Notes / Symbian users will have both decent data contracts *and* friendly IT staff who allow them access will be the real challenge…

Either way, Lotus Notes Traveler will allow these users real time access to email, calendar, address book, journal and to-do list data.  Looking at the supported phone list, it would seem to be supported on all S60 3rd Edition phones, even back to phones like the Nokia N73, and more recent phones like the Nokia N96 and even the Nokia E63, only announced last week.

This isn’t the first big announcement linked to Lotus Notes and mobile usage, but does certainly seem to offer Lotus Notes companies a new method of accessing their data.

More information is available direct from S60.com.

Assuming all is well, you should find that the new iPhone firmware, v2.2 is now available.  Beware although iTunes will happily download the update, unless you already have the absolutely latest version of iTunes, it won’t let you install the update, so be prepared to update iTunes unless you religiously keep that up to date too.

The main new features are Google Street View, the ability to download podcasts directly, an updated Safari browser, improvements to auto-correction, and an ability to rate an application when you delete it.  However, the oft requested copy’n'paste is still not there, nor is any obvious sign of MMS support (although at least one operator is claiming it’s coming soon, although whether it will be via an application or within the firmware is not known); even worse, the application may be specific to the single operator, and not available to all.

Google have updated their Google Sync for BlackBerry product to now include two way Contact Sync.  To get the new version, simply head to m.google.com/sync from your BlackBerry.  More information is here, although we recommend you read the comments there; it appears there are a few bugs for some people, and even some recent BlackBerry devices that are yet to be supported.

Here’s a very good challenge for you.  Vodafone are currently giving away 4 Dell netbook laptops every day until the end of next week.  There are two ways of winning…

• Every day, he will be in a different city, and if you can pinpoint him and catch him, you then need to say a specific phrase (available on the website); he will give away 3 netbooks like this each day.
• Once a day, the person who closest predicts his location will win a netbook too.

Head over to the Vodafone LiveGuy site for more information, his schedule, and more details on how to win; in the meantime we’re hoping to get hold of a Dell Mini Inspiron 9 for review.  To remind you, the specs are:

• Built in Mobile Broadband (up to 7.2mbps, although realistically you will only get about 5mbps), but this is one of a very small handful of units where the HSDPA is built in; ie you just need a SIM card
• 232 x 175 x 30 mm, 990g
• 8.9inch LCD display
• 8GB SSD hard drive running Windows XP with 1GB RAM
• Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and Webcam

If you don’t win one, you can always a Vodafone netbook for free from Vodafone, at either £25 per month (1GB data limit, 24 month contract) or £30 per month (3GB data limit, 24 month contract).

Although there is no news on UK availability, if you are looking to secure your data then this secure hard disk maybe just the thing.  It offers up to 10 different passwords on the 160GB or 320GB external drive, with the password entered directly on the drive housing.  No mention on the type of encryption used, or how exactly the security is used to protect the data.

If you are after a more advanced calculator for the Nokia E71, then cCalcPro may well be the answer, as it supports the QWERTY keyboard and offers a range of different scientific modes.  You can download the application here, where there is also a version for the non-QWERTY Symbian phones too.

Thanks to nokiAAddict.com for spotting this one, which was first mentioned this week at Symbian Guru.

Although only available for the iPhone / iPod Touch right now, we suspect these functions will filter out to their other mobile applications in time…

The Google Mobile App for the iPhone has been updated to support two new features.  Firstly, it now supports searching by voice; you just hold the phone to your ear, say what you are looking for, and it will search for you.  You don’t even need to press a particular key to start the search process.

Also, they’ve added Search with My Location for both devices, which will provide a location based specific response to the search.  Obviously for this to work you need to have Location Services enabled on the device, and allow Google Mobile App to be able to access it.

More information direct from Google here, although it should be pointed out it the voice search works best with US accents right now.

There’s a new version of Share Online available from Nokia Beta Labs.  Unfortunately, due to some of the functionality needed only being available in S60 3rd Edition FP2, this is an FP2 only supported product, which limits it to a handful of phones.

However, the new features are:

• Improved upload/download experience: You no longer need to wait for your photos to be uploaded before starting to upload the next one. You can also refresh your feeds, add comments, or exit the application while still uploading your media!
• Outbox: You can see a list of pending uploads, as well as review, cancel or retry specific uploads. You can also use the Outbox to keep track of which photos and videos you have already uploaded.
• Economic sharing: You can now disable the use of cellular data in the Share Online settings if you don’t have a data plan set up with your service provider, and queue your photos and videos to be uploaded as soon as a free WLAN connection is available. There are now data counters available, in case you want to keep track of your cellular data usage.
• Active standby indicators. Your outbox infomation is visible and accessible in your active standby screen. You can now also TURN OFF the Active Standby feature altogether.

It looks very impressive, but the lack of FP1 support (N95, N95 8GB, E71, E90, N82) really limits the number of people who will actually benefit from this new version; let’s hope Nokia Beta Labs manage to bring the majority of the functionality out to FP1 phones as well in the near future.

Head here for more information.

A month ago we promised to keep you updated with the goings on on firmware updates for branded phones.  Since then, the E71 generic firmware has been “released” by Nokia, although for some reason it’s yet to appear for the majority of the unbranded product codes.  However, what has happened, is that a couple of operators have finally released some Nokia N95 8GB updates…

The v30 firmware for the Nokia N95 8GB was released in September 2008, so that’s less than 2 months for both 3UK and Orange to test and release this new firmware, I wonder if the other operators plan to update it at all…

As we predicted last month, 3UK launched their Facebook phone, the INQ1 yesterday.  Not just are the specs actually quite impressive (for the price), some of the software integration is very impressive too.

• Quad Band phone with HSDPA support
• 3.2 megapixel camera
• Can function as a modem when connected to a PC (*)
• A2DP Bluetooth
• Facebook, Skype and Windows Live Messaging built into the phone
• Facebook and Skype contacts are integrated directly into the Address Book
• Widget Manager with Weather, RSS Feeds, and Google now, others including eBay to follow
• Facebook avatars will get imported into the Address Book (that’s the type of integration we like!)
• Flight Mode support
• last.fm support built in for scrobbling only
• Available in Silver (Black coming soon)

That last point was one that no one knew was coming; last.fm support, built in directly into the phone.  That’s a nice coup for both 3UK and last.fm and one we support.  It will only scrobble (record the music you listen to), and there’s no access to listen to the last.fm radio streams (apparently due to licensing issues, although no one seems to know exactly what issues).

Also interesting is that 3UK knew that there are some limitations with this phone, and are addressing them; there’s no GPS in this phone, but future handsets will have GPS, and they are planning a QWERTY model too.  No Wi-Fi, and no plans to launch that though.

The Facebook is a feature rich solution, which as well as syncing your contacts, and the avatar integration, will also collect your messages.  If you are out of coverage, you can still use the Facetool tools, and the updates will be delivered to the site once coverage returns.  Now, if 3UK could expand this integration and offline working to a whole range of other social networking sites too I suspect they could clean up in the non-smartphone marketplace.

It looks like the INQ1 will be on a new 3UK tariff for £15 per month.  Normally this would buy you 300 cross network minutes or texts, but the INQ1 will only feature 75 cross network minutes or texts, but included within this price is their Internet Max Addon, which is normally £5 per month, and offers 1GB of data per month.  The tariff includes the recently launched “unlimited” 2000 minutes 3 to 3 calls, and free voicemail access.  Overall, that’s a very good for the phone and tariff, and one that will sell very well.  If that’s not enough cross network minutes, £20 per month ups the 75 to 200 cross network minutes or texts.  Alternatively, it will be available on PAYG for £79.99.

it may be coincidental, but in the same week TomTom announce new maps covering new countries and offering new facilities, Garmin do the same, with the the announcement and release of Garmin’s City Navigator NT 2009 version.

• Now with full country coverage for the Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania)
• Greece road coverage increased to 83% (+40%)
• Major updates for Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia
• Over 8 million km of road coverage
• Updated speed limit information for more roads
• Including 1.2 million POIs and 1 million cities, towns and villages
• Now including over 8,000 campsite POIs for Western Europe

This great new update is available at £59.99 including VAT for most of our Garmin sat-navs. Head here to check if your Garmin unit’s maps are up to date.

Although we would normally attribute articles like this to the original author, it appears a number of websites are claiming they originally “discovered” this leaked Nokia device plan, making it difficult to correctly give thanks.  What’s interesting is a number of the new devices that are due to be announced before the end of this year, and what might be coming for next year (the list was obviously compiled some time back, and the full list includes a number of “Cancelled” phones, so just because a device appears on this list doesn’t mean it will actually get released (or on time)…

• The E63 was released yesterday, and meets the above specs
• The IP08 (internal codename) looks very interesting, and should be announced (if the dates are still valid) in the next week or two
• The Sharika will probably be a 56xx model
• The Stella and Terra will be interesting ESeries phones, especially with the “Hybrid” QWERTY keyboard
• The Ivalo will be the last phone announced this year.  Both the IP08 and the Ivalo feature widescreen touchscreens, although we predict we won’t actually see either in the shops in the UK until well into 2009
• Starting the 2009 device announcements is the Victoria, or the E75 we have covered before.
• The Corolla will be the first 8 megapixel cameraphone from Nokia, keeping up with the likes of the LG Renoir.
• The Madeleine has a side-sliding QWERTY keyboard and N-Gage gaming keys…
• Finally the Eitri sounds very interesting, it appears to be an E71-like phone with a QWERTY keyboard and a touchscreen.

Of course, that last phone, though interesting, is not due to be announced until Week 17 in 2009, which is April, so it’s likely we won’t see it until much later in the Summer, so I wouldn’t hold off on that phone purchase right now, but use this list more as a shopping list for your next upgrade!

Majority of the table from Engadget Mobile.

As well as updating the majority of it’s current maps, TomTom has also just released maps of Brazil, Turkey, Greece and Mexico.  Along with a software update for existing x20 and x30 units, they have now released these v8.15 maps, which are required to get the 24/7 IQ Routing working that is included in the latest software (v8.3).

These software and map updates should be available via TomTom HOME shortly, if not already.