The Maemo Last.fm client, Vagalume (which also works on a variety of Linux OSes), has been updated to v.0.8.1.  This new version (which has been released for the existing OSes as well as the new Maemo 5 OS), offers a range of new features…

• Implemented the Last.fm Web Services API v2.0
• Support for Libre.fm and other Last.fm-compatible services
• Support for Maemo 5 (Nokia N900)
• New icon that replaces the classic Vagalume logo
• New CD case image to place the album cover artwork
• New feature to stop playback after a given time (”sleep timer”)
• New menu option to play any user’s tag radio
• New “Add bookmark” and “Bookmark this radio” menu entries
• New configuration setting to download free tracks automatically
• Add {station} keyword to the IM status template
• Use system-wide Gnome audio settings
• Mixer support to change the volume in non-Maemo targets
• Added Polish translation
• Autocompletion support for combo box entries
• Make url and email clickable on the about dialog
• vagalumectl: new commands to show and hide the player window
• Fix some timeout problems in HTTP requests

What’s nice to see is support for Libre.fm, which is a similar setup to Last.fm, but designed around Free music, and hence as no subscription to pay.  It uses a very similar API to access the music as Last.fm, so it will be interesting to see whether we start to see other clients, such as the Symbian mobbler client also supporting this site.

Since the initial v0.8 release, a minor update has already been released which fixes a minor install issue with the Nokia N900, and also falls back to the old Last.fm API should the new one not work.

For me, it’s nice to see this client not abandoning the elder Nokia Maemo devices, and I hope many other Maemo applications offer continued support for these devices (eg Nokia N800, Nokia N810), which still function perfectly well, even if they can’t run the latest OS.

If you aren’t seeing Vagalume in the Application Manager on the Nokia N900, then follow Gerry’s advice here to activate the “Maemo Extras” application repository to get access to more applications.

Nokia BetaLabs have released an update to their Nokia Messaging for Social Networks beta product, which now features improved Facebook access, and also adds the first round of Twitter support.  Nokia have also commented that they will be adding other Social Networking sites over time.

As well as the initial version, which offered to let people view, post, and comment on messages, share their location and status while keeping up with their Facebook friends, the new version adds the following Facebook features:

• Upload pictures and videos
• Events: View upcoming events, birthdays and import to device calendar
• Search friends
• Click-to-call / click-to-SMS / click-to-FB Email

In terms of the Twitter support, it includes the ability to see your friends’ tweets, reply to them, and open links in their tweets, but more advanced functions like Direct Messages, Trends, and Follower information all have placeholders, but are marked as coming soon.

The application also has some location sharing features, which are built on top of Ovi Maps, and it also offers a Homescreen widget.  This app is, however, limited to the Nokia N97, Nokia N97 Mini, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia X6 right now.

This does look an interesting application, and may, over time, become a useful tool for those wanting to keep online from their device.  This is the sort of functionality we are seeing built directly into other phones as they ship (eg the INQ Mini 3G, and the INQ Chat 3G), so it will be nice when Nokia are shipping this by default on their phones to offer a similar experience as other manufacturers are managing.

Yahoo have updated their Upcoming mobile website to be much more feature rich than the previous version.  Although it provides an iPhone-like interfact, this still works well on multiple devices, and now provides much more user specific information.  If you are a regular Upcoming user, then head to m.upcoming.yahoo.com to access the new site.

Firstly Spotify have updated their Symbian client (v0.3.22), with the following improvements:

• A fix for disappearing offline tracks.
• A fix for the problem when adding tracks to existing playlists on touch screens.
• Text input of special characters now added, e.g. Norwegian and French.
• Text input on special types of keyboards now added, e.g. non-touch phones with dual keyboards.
• New devices supported include the Nokia E72, Nokia N82, Nokia 6110 Navigator, Nokia 6210, Navigator,Nokia 6290, Nokia N79.

Also, they have upgraded their Android client (v.0.3.24) with the following improvements:

• URI support – Open/Share Spotify URI’s to or from SMS, email, the Facebook or Twitter apps, etc.
• Updated player with cover art swipe support (similar to the iPhone version).
• Android 2.0/Eclair support. Spotify now runs on the popular Motorola Droid phone.
• Home screen widget – control Spotify from the home screen!

It’s nice to see Spotify working to try to unify their features across multiple devices, although we’re still hoping they can add support to scrobble tracks to Last.fm from their mobile clients soon.

This tip has come from the Maemo community, but applies to all Nokia devices, and may help if you are having a problem with GPS lock times. By default, your Nokia device will be set to the supl.nokia.com positioning server to help the A-GPS system locate you whilst the GPS catches up, but its been suggested that changing that to supl.google.com speeds up the intial positioning in the US.  Now, it’s not clear if this is due to Nokia having less A-GPS data for the US, or whether it’s to do with Google having less loaded servers, or Google having better algorithms for that initial position location, but it seems to be helping some people.  Although we have no evidence it will necessarily help in the UK, if you are having problems, why not give it a try, and report back on whether or not it helped…

Although nothing has been announced yet, if you go into the Settings page within Twitter, and select Mobile, the UK entry has been updated as:

• UK: 86444 (Vodafone, Orange, 3 and O2 customers)

Now, this seems to imply that 3UK have joined the other listed networks in providing the ability to send and receive twitter messages and DMs via SMS.  Obviously until it’s formally announced we won’t know the exact limits (eg the number of free SMS you can receive per month, or exactly how the billing of sent SMS will work), but this is a positive move for 3UK, although with their inclusion of free internet on PAYG, and the fact that many of their phones are now shipping with Twitter clients directly may limit how many people truly need such a function, but it’s nice to know it’s coming…

That just leaves T-Mobile who aren’t playing…

Thanks to Liam Green-Hughes who drew my attention to this earlier today.

In a move said to be supporting the “Make do and Mend” movement, 3UK have announced that they are now selling refurbished handsets, which currently includes the Skypephone S2, the White Skypephone, and the LG KF310, although this list will vary as stock changes over time.

If you are interested, head to the 3UK Refurbished Handsets page on the 3UK website.

We’ve mentioned VEDA before, who are the official UK distributor (and are even listed on the Chumby US website), and they have now confirmed that as well as the Chumby, they are now in a position to sell the newer Chumby One (more information on this new device here).  Whereas they sell the Chumby for £139.00, the Chumby One sells for £109.95, although right now it’s a pre-order, as VEDA are still awaiting their initial stock.

At this stage, firebox are not yet selling the Chumby One, so if you want to purchase one without buying in US Dollars (and incurring import fees) from buying direct from Chumby, then head to VEDA to pre-order now.

Update: VEDA’s stock has now arrived, so if you want a Chumby One, they are now in stock…

For those who have bought an Amazon Kindle and were hoping to use the Kindle for iPhone application to additionally read their eBooks, we can announce that Amazon have finally released the iPhone / iPod Touch application for the International market (60 countries, including the UK), and it’s now available to download from the Apple iTunes Store.

Further to our announcement of last week that we had drawn the winner for the LG 42″ TV, I can now announce the winner is D. Shore of Suffolk, who will hopefully be receiving the TV shortly.  It’s been great fun running a competition, and I’m hoping to be able to offer more competitions in 2010, although the prizes might not always be as fantastic as this first competition!

Although not the first UK mobile network to provide a statement on the Nokia N900, Vodafone are the first to announce that they will be selling the phone as from January (according to their website).  This is good news for this popular Maemo device, and the word on the street is that the amount of firmware customisation by Vodafone will not be too heavy.

As the phone is still at the “pre-register for updates” stage, Vodafone have not yet released pricing, but it’s likely to be inline with the Nokia N97 and Nokia N97 Mini pricing and tariffs.  It’s also interesting to see the iPhone 3GS is still marked as “Coming Soon”, whereas the Nokia N900 already has a date attached to it.

If you are interested, head over to the Vodafone website and register for updates.

Oh, and the other network? 3UK have already indicated they are unlikely to carry the Nokia N900 as it’s a little bit of a niche device for them…

The Peek email only device has been quite popular in the US since it launched (and in fact, they now also have a Twitter only device too, which unlike some of the reviews does include Twitpic support and the ability to open links, but not much else).  However, FON, another company I have been a supporter of with their Wi-Fi sharing network, have now announced they will be selling the PeekFON with European GPRS roaming from this month (although not shipping until next month).

The device will go on sale tomorrow (Tuesday 15th) for €99, and that will include 6 months of European GPRS roaming to allow you access to your email anywhere where the device can get a working mobile phone signal.  After that, it’s €12.90 per month, and there is no cancellation policy, so no long term contract to worry about either.

For now, the device is an email-only device (although with a full QWERTY keyboard, that’s still going to be a popular device), and in time, FON hope to add web browsing and Twitter support too.

This device doesn’t use the FON Wi-Fi Hotspot technology at all, but has been launched as a complimentary product; if it supports your email service provider (it’s not yet clear whether this will use your existing email provider, or require you to use a dedicated email address), then this does look an interesting device for the reguar traveller, especially with that lack of roaming costs across Europe; imagine being on holiday, or on a business trip, and still be able to keep up with all your email without fear of “bill shock”; an even better proposition when they are able to add twitter and web browsing support.

Certainly, the Peek device in the US allows access to up to 2 email accounts, and that includes Google Mail, Windows Live Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo!, so assuming that the software inside is similar, then this European device should also support a variety of email accounts.  It will feature a 2.5″ screen, a scroll wheel (and back button) on the side, and the QWERTY keyboard.  It’s roughly 4″ x 2.7″ x 0.4″ and weighs around 100 grams, and in essence, is similar to the early BlackBerry device in the sense that it is a data only device.  It seems to have a total of 16MB of Flash, of which 8MB is allocated to the OS, and 8MB for email data.  It’s said in the US to manage 4  to 5 days between charges (wow, that’s so much better than most mobile phones!) and a recharge takes around 2 hours.  It should support blinking LED, ringing and vibrate to alert you to new email.

Finally, it appears to be able to view JPG attachments, but not anything else; there’s a second device in the US that supports 5 email accounts, push email, sending SMSes, and PDF & DOC support as well as JPG attachments, but I don’t think this is the device being targetted in Europe right now, although it’s not clear.

FON have announced that the mobile data will be provided by Europe’s first pan-European MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), Spotnik.

Obviously, for those with corporate BlackBerry devices (and others who don’t actually pay the bill for mobile data roaming) this will not be popular, but for the rest of us, it’s certainly a device to consider.  Imagine letting your elder kids go off travelling around Europe for 6 months knowing that they can keep in contact with you…

Personally, I think devices that offer full European roaming built into the device are going to sell well as niche devices; in that respect this device is similar to the Amazon Kindle (which features even greater worldwide coverage), and although many people will not want or need this device (preferring to either pay the roaming charges, or will swap a local country SIM into their phone), for some people this offers a very cheap way of getting access to email and twitter (once supported) across Europe, and for that requirements, we recommend you at least look at this device…

We’ll publish more on this, including links to purchasing it once they go live, but for now, keep an eye on the FON website…

Here’s a screen grab from part of what maybe the next version of the Current Cost website.  The only thing is; so far, only the Classic and Envi units have been made announced and are available for sale.  It does look like Current Cost have a whole range of new displays coming; based on a quick look at the pictures, it would seem to me…

• The Trec is a new basic model (as it doesn’t have the graph function), and I suspect possibly no PC connection
• The Trec plus is the same unit with a base attached (maybe the Trec will be wall mount only)
• The Envi is as today; graphing and PC connection
• The Envi Pro seems to offer more graphing built in, and I would assume a PC connection
• The EMC² looks an interesting unit, possibly designed to work better with the still “coming soon” IAMs (Individual Appliance Modules) with all those additional buttons
• The C² Touch just looks fantastic, but maybe out of the price range of many home energy enthusiasts, as it seems to bring together a touchscreen and lots of graphing capabilities

More information on all these new devices as and when they are formally released.  Thanks to one eagle eyed reader who made me aware of this webpage.

It’s been a busy few days.  Firstly, Nimbuzz announced a fairly major upgrade within their client such that they now have much better twitter support within their application (shown above).  The full feature list for this new version includes:

• Full Twitter client – Timelines, Tweet, DM, Searches, Trends, Profiles and much more!!
• Kinetic scroll – available for Symbian 5th edition touch screen phones  (e.g. Nokia 5800, Nokia N97, N97 mini, Nokia 5730, Nokia  X6 )
• Chat History – see all your past conversations
• Pop-Up notification – for new chats and other events whenever Nimbuzz runs in the background
• DTMF tones in calls – now you can press 1 in a call
• NimbuzzOut rate calculator – see the rates for calling to different countries
• Upgraded UI -  new chat screen layout & contact list layout

Also, NokiAAddict wrote a handy guide to setting up and configuring the Nimbuzz client to support a SIP VOIP account, which may be useful for those trying Nimbuzz for the first time, but want the additional benefit of standard SIP support, and as NokiAAddict are UK based, the guide shows using a UK VOIP provider.  See here for their article.

Then, Skype announced the launch of their Symbian client entering Beta for a select range of handsets (S60 3rd Edition FP1 and FP2, but no S60 5th Edition touch devices at this stage).  This includes:

• Free Skype-to-Skype calling
• Call phones with Skype credits or subscription
• Receive calls on your Online Number
• Instant Messaging
• Group conversations
• File sending and receiving

Now, remember that this Skype client uses the 3G / WiFi connection to actually make the call, Skype are recommending users have an unlimited data contract, and of course, for 3UK users, you will still be better using the slightly more limited Skype for 3 application, as this uses the 3G voice infrastructure for the call, and doesn’t come out of your data allowance.  More information can be found here and the user guide can be found here.

Finally, Truphone have just announced a major design update to their iPhone application.  This new version includes:

• New look and feel
• Streamlined sign-up
• In app guided tour
• Tru Friends presence
• Speaker phone support
• Improved IM and chat with multi-chat switcher
• Full Twitter integration

What’s certainly clear is that all these 3 companies are innovating in the mobile space, and offering their customers alternatives to traditional mobile calling plans.

Just a quick heads up; the INQ Chat 3G has gone on sale with 3UK today in both their Stores and on the 3UK website.  It retails at £99.99 on PAYG or is available from £15 per month (18-month contract), and nicely it seems that 3UK are including internet on that tariff.  Head to the 3Store today to purchase.

Spotify have released an update to their Spotify client today, and the new features include:

• URI support – Open/Share Spotify URI’s to or from SMS, email, the Facebook or Twitter apps, etc.
• Updated player with cover art swipe support (similar to the iPhone version).
• Android 2.0/Eclair support. Spotify can now runs on the popular Motorola Droid phone.
• Home screen widget – control Spotify from the home screen!

The new version should be available from the Android Market, or head to m.spotify.com and select manual install.

Tesco Mobile will be selling the iPhone from Monday, with the following pricing:

• On PAYG, the 8GB iPhone 3G will cost £342, the 16GB iPhone 3GS £440 and the 32GB iPhone 3GS £538, and includes 12-month “unlimited” web and WiFi (BT Openzone only, whereas O2 offer BT Openzone and The Cloud)

On a 12-month contract:

• The 8GB iPhone 3G will cost £222 upfront, and £20/month (12-month contract)
• The 16GB iPhone 3GS will cost £320 upfront, and £20/month (12-month contract)
• The 32GB iPhone 3GS will cost £407 upfront, and £20/month (12-month contract)

For that £20/month, you’ll get £60 of value of calls & texts, and “unlimited” web and WiFi (again BT Openzone only)

On a 24-month contract:

• The 8GB iPhone 3G will be free and £60/month (24-month contract)
• The 16GB iPhone 3GS will be free and £60/month (24-month contract)
• The 32GB iPhone 3GS will cost £50 upfront and £60/month (24-month contract)

For that £60/month you’ll get “unlimited” £500 worth of calls and texts, and “unlimited” web and WiFi (BT Openzone only)

Tesco Mobile have call rates of 20p per minute and 10p per text, although it’s possible to halve these figures for up to 5 pre-selected phone numbers, and for PAYG users, Tesco Mobile offer some free credit once per month when you topup.

It’s certainly not clear reading the Tesco Mobile what the Fair Use limit is for the “unlimited” web; for a normal Pay Monthly contract, internet is charged at £4 per MB and comes out of that “unlimited” credit of £500 worth of services, whereas it’s not clear whether the iPhone tariffs will be any different.  As a result, you should certainly discuss the costs carefully with Tesco Mobile before signing up…

Some information courtesy of The Really Mobile Project.

A while back, we covered 3UK’s plans to update their network in London, which would result in small interruptions to their service as they replace equipment necessary to allow them to proceed with their major infrastructure merger with T-Mobile next year (allowing both networks to share the same infrastructure for the benefit of all customers).  Well, 3UK have just announced some wider plans in the South (in a variety of locations from Torquay to Ipswich, and from Milton Keynes to Folkestone).  If you want more information on the areas affected, when they will be affected, and the ability to sign up to receive text alerts (to 3UK or non-3UK mobile numbers) then head here for more information.

Thanks to 3mobilebuzz for letting me know about this new information.

Over at mynokiablog.com Hiren has written a very comprehensive review of the new Nokia N900, covering a lot of aspects of the device, including a large number of screenshots.  If you are interested in this particular Maemo device, then head over to the mynokiablog.com website here.

Last week we covered the news of the new v3.3 for Symbian and Windows Mobile, and today Google has launched v3.3 for Android as well.  However, it’s not quite got the same feature set, with some additional features, and some missing features too.

Firstly, they now have the “What’s Nearby” feature, which lists nearby businesses, and can often provide useful information on cafes and restaurants nearby.  To access this, just long press on the map and tap on the bubble, and look for “What’s nearby?” in the menu.

Secondly, they have added a range of Labs features (in essence, Beta features that you may want to use to make the program a little better); these include:

• A scale bar on the map
• Showing a terrain layer which adds a level of height and the ability to see a shaded relief map
• Search for popular categories
• Turn the blue dot into a compass to show which way you are facing when stationary
• Added Layers support to be able to see Traffic, Satellite mapping, Latitude users, and Transit lines (eg the London Underground)

There’s also a “Report errors in the map”, but that’s definitely US-only, so won’t be available in the UK.  It’s worth noting there is no mention of the star / favourites syncing that comes with the v3.3 on Symbian and Windows Mobile.  It’s not clear whether any other of the Labs features are US-only, but it’s nice to see Google still managing to innovate and provide new features into the products, even if it’s not consistent across their full platform range.