3UK have announced this week that they now have two new Android smartphones that you can purchase on 3UK, and not just that, but you can get them on the new One Plan we covered here which offers fantastic value for money if you are a heavy mobile user.

Firstly, they are now offering the HTC Wildfire, which is a cut down version of the HTC Desire.  Although cut down might imply “cheap”, and it’s fair to say it doesn’t have the spec (or the price) of the HTC Desire, but it’s actually still a very capable Android device; in fact the only compliant I’ve heard about it is that moving forward over the next year or two, the screen maybe too small to allow major OS upgrades, as Google has now specified a minimum spec (including display resolution) for the future, and the HTC Wildfire falls a little short.

Having said that, it still rivals many other phones, and is still a better display than many other phones of last year! The 3.2″ screen is still a good size, and the 5 megapixel camera is still better than many, and it offers Android v2.1 with HTC’s Sense UI too.  All the usual Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc. are there too.  Also interestingly, although it’s available now in “Metal Mocha” colour, it will also be available on 3UK in Red from August, and the Red colour will be exclusive to 3UK.

If you aren’t an HTC fan, then there’s always the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro, which again, is a smaller smartphone (the “X10 Mini” part), but features quite a key differentiator; the “Pro” means it also features a QWERTY keyboard!  This is a slide out keyboard (in the same way as the Nokia E75, Nokia C6 or Nokia N900), and although it blatantly doesn’t feature the HTC Sense UI, it does feature some key Sony Ericsson UI customisations instead.  These include the ability to specify 4 corner navigation and 3 homescreens, and it also features Sony Ericsson’s Timescape, which brings together your Facebook, Twitter, email, text messages and calls into one place.  This sounds an interesting feature, although with many of these manufacturer applications, it may be a little limiting to the “serious” social networker, especially if it can’t be expanded to support other social networks.

The Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is available in Black from 3UK, and also in White, which will (like the Red HTC Wildfire) be a colour exclusive to 3UK.

If you want either of these phones on the new One Plan, they are available for £30 per month (24-month contract), and remember that comes with 2000 cross network minutes, 5000 3UK-3UK minutes, 5000 texts and 1GB data; if you want to buy them on PAYG, the HTC Wildfire is £199 and the Sony Ericsson X10 Mini Pro is £249, both very competitive prices in their own right!

I like the way that whilst historically 3UK were not able to arrange model exclusivity agreements, they are now sufficiently recognised by the manufacturers to at least able to negotiate colour exclusives, and you never know, maybe this time next year, we’ll see a worthy smartphone launch exclusively on 3UK…

This, apparently, maybe the new Nokia C6, from the same mid-range family as the Nokia C5 we covered a week or so back.  The interesting thing about this device, though, is obvious in the picture (this appears to be a leaked official Nokia press photo); the Nokia C6 combines a QWERTY keyboard (in the style of the Nokia E75 and the Nokia N810 before that) with the touchscreen of the latest S60 5th Edition.  That’s a very nice combination; the touchscreen for access to all the latest applications (eg Brightkite, which is S60 5th Edition only), but also offering a QWERTY keyboard for those who want to type a little more (and the additional of a cursor D-pad is a nice touch too)…

This device should have GPS too (and hence free Navigation), making it a nice all round device.  However, as a C-Series device, it is likely to be missing WiFi (like the recently announced Nokia 5230), which may be a challenge for some whilst at home; I know my data usage only stays within the limits set by the mobile networks due to WiFi usage at home.

Having said that, this looks very interesting, especially if it is priced as keenly as the Nokia C5…

If it’s a real device, it should be out in time for the Summer Holidays in the UK.

Nokia have released, via the Nokia Beta Labs, an update to the Free Ovi Maps solution, now at v3.04.  The new features are:

• Improved positioning speed and accuracy
• Map zooming with faster speed
• Improved search for cities with zoom out to city level

This is good to see, and if you want to try it out (remember it’s a beta version, so may not be perfect), then head over to the Nokia Beta Labs to download this new version.  If you think your device (whether S60 3rd Edition FP2 or S60 5th Edition) is not supported, it’s worth trying one of the other similar models (within the same OS group); eg if you are using a Nokia N86 or Nokia E75, then try the 3rd Edition FP2 version even though your model is not explicitly listed; strangely some people seem to have had success with this method, and others not, so it’s not clear whether or not other devices of the same OS (other than the original 10 or so Nokia announced) can access this software or not.

One word of warning; if you are using a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, you need at least v31 firmware, which is still not available for some Orange models and all 3UK Nokia 5800 XpressMusic devices, and this despite 3UK giving assurances last month that they were working at fast as possible to get this update out to their users.

Now, about all those of us with S60 3rd Edition FP1 devices; Nokia released a statement (via a Q&A session) about supporting existing and elder devices with the Free Ovi Maps service.  They said they were working to extend the compatibility to other current devices (although I believe they meant FP2 devices), and from now on, all GPS enabled devices will be supported with Free Ovi Maps, but could not give any timelines or guarantees over elder devices; although a ray of hope was that their exact comment was “We can’t say when it will be available”, which seems to imply there is still a chance it will happen.

What I can say is that the Beta of v3.04 isn’t available in an FP1 version, so it’s fair to say it’s going to be a while longer before it comes out, if it ever does…

Yes, finally, after all these years… Nokia (well Nokia Beta Labs) have released a Custom Dictionary Editor, which allows you to read, edit and delete the words in the customer dictionary on your phone.  Of course, as with all things Nokia, it’s not that simple, so read on before you head off to install the software…

Firstly, it’s mainly aimed at the latest phones, so devices like the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and the Nokia X6 are fine, and there’s a dedicated version for the Nokia E71 and Nokia E63 which works fine too, but most other devices will struggle in one way or another, and not have the full functionality, which includes…

• View all the words in your custom dictionary
• Add new words to it
• Edit and Delete existing words
• Export the dictionary as xml file
• Import words from an xml file
• Scan text files to import all the words
• Transfer your dictionary to another phone

Although many devices are generally supported (most S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition devices should be able to run the application, although most S60 3rd Edition FP1 phones will have limited functionality), the best support is limited to the 4 supported phones (even devices like the Nokia N97, Nokia E72 and Nokia E75 are listed as having “minor issues”).

This is a good forward step by Nokia though; many people, myself included, have been annoyed by the lack of edit capability of the dictionary over the years.  One useful piece of advice Nokia have now provided though; the dictionary is limited in size, and, once full, when it adds a word, it deletes the least used word from the dictionary.  This will explain for many why some words disappear over time.

As always, if you want to try it out, head over to the Nokia Beta Labs to see it, and the support for your phone.  Also, if you hadn’t visited the Nokia Beta Labs site recently, you’ll need a Nokia Account (you’ll already have one if you use the Ovi features) to download the application.

Nokia have released the first major firmware update for the Nokia E75 (v201).  Weighing in at 153MB, it may never be available using the Over-The-Air option, but is available via PC using NSU.  All About Symbian have said the changelog includes:

Earlier this week Nokia released information about a new firmware for the generic Nokia E75 hardware (Network Operator specific versions may take a bit longer as always).  The main updates of v200, when it gets released include:

• General updates across all Nokia apps (including N-Gage, Share Online and Ovi Contacts)
• Geotagging support
• Lots of minor updates

For the full changelog, head over to Symbian World, who have published the full list.

We’re planning to update our Nokia Firmware regular feature soon, so watch out for more updates across a whole range of Nokia devices soon.

There’s been quite a lot of activity over the last couple of weeks within the Symbian marketplace, mainly related to the release of the Nokia N97, and many people releasing new or upgraded apps to support the new range of touchscreen devices, so we thought we summarise some of those activities that we haven’t already mentioned…

last.fm and mobbler

Firstly, to one of our favourite S60 apps; mobbler.  mobbler, a last.fm client has been through a vetting process with last.fm and has been given the seal of approval, such that it can continue to use the new API for accessing streaming music to S60 mobiles.  To clarify, you need to pay a subscription to access this though.  A few months ago, when last.fm first talked about the new API, they said users in the UK (Germany and the US) would not need to pay due to last.fm receiving sufficient ad revenue in these countries; so why the need to pay?  Simply, because mobbler doesn’t show you ads; if you “only” use the last.fm desktop application (which does show ads), then last.fm are happy you don’t need to pay, but as mobbler doesn’t offer last.fm ads, last.fm feel it’s fair to charge (and at £3 per month, it’s only a small outlay).

If you don’t want to pay and don’t want access to streamed music, there is an alternative to mobbler; the Vodafone last.fm client, but, having seen both, we still prefer mobbler (although if you have a Nokia 5800 XpressMusic it appears mobbler cannot record the music you listen to yet, whereas the Vodafone client can).

Nokia E75 IM Beta application

Nokia Beta Labs have released an IM client.  At this stage, it only support Yahoo and Ovi chat, but Nokia have stated it will support more IM platforms in time, and of course, they will extend support beyond the Nokia E75.  Our only comment on this is that it’s a Java application, and not a native S60 app, which seems a little strange for Nokia.

Other Ovi updates

Nokia also announced this week that Ovi Maps 3.0 (aka Nokia Maps v3.0) has moved from Beta to being released.  This brings with a range of new features within the mapping client, and offers the ability to sync your favourites between your phone and your Ovi online account (as this is both ways, it allows you find and record destinations on the PC, and then download to your mobile).  This, although only just released looks an interesting proposition.  Unfortunately, the Map Loader application remains Windows only, although the actual SIS files for the map clients are already available on the internet.

Nokia has also updated their Ovi Contacts application to support the Symbian S60 5th Edition touch devices.  Included with this new version, for Nokia N97 users only, is integration with the homescreen; you can integrate your contacts with the Contacts addressbook on the phone, such that you can see their status within the standard addressbook, and if you have that contact in your favourites on the homescreen, their IM status will appear there too.  Symbian S60 3rd Edition users shouldn’t feel left out; Nokia have updated this version too, although without the homescreen integration.

Pixelpipe support for the Nokia N97

Pixelpipe, a service we’ve recently been supported, have also released a QuickPost widget beta too.  “The widget aims to provide a simple and efficient method of updating your status or posting to blogs/micro-blogs while on the go.  Just keep it running in the background, pop it open when you have something to say and post it to any of Pixelpipe’s 95 supported services.  You can even use our Routing Tags feature to selectively post to specific services or groups (eg. @twitter, @facebook, @friends).”

It’s available now and can be downloaded OTA directly to your handset or desktop at http://tr.im/qGxu, although Pixelpipe would be grateful for any feedback to beta@pixelpipe.com.

Mippin Homescreen Widgets

Finally, Mippin have produced a number of widgets for Symbian S60 5th Edition devices *and* Android phones.  They have released 4 “Buzz widgets”;

• Buzz Widget – the very latest up-to-date news

• Gossip Buzz Widget – the latest celebrity news

• Gaming Buzz Widget – the latest gaming news

• Tech Buzz Widget – the latest technology news

These widgets will work on all S60 5th Edition devices, and can also be incoporated onto the homescreen on the Nokia N97, and you can control some elements of the content (eg selecting UK news) and the refresh rate.  As a default, they only collect new news every 30 minutes, but as they store the data locally, they will still work in areas of no signal coverage, or when the phone has been put into Flight Mode.

Right now, only the News Buzz widget is available from Nokia’s Ovi Store, so if you want, you can download the widgets direct from Mippin via these links…

Downloads for Nokia N97, 5800 / 5530

• Download News Buzz widget

• Download Gossip Buzz widget

• Download Gaming Buzz widget

• Download Tech Buzz widget

Well, I’m afraid to say, we’ve got very little to report in terms of Branded firmware updates, but let’s go through the variety of devices we monitor, and provide any key information:

Nokia N95 – No change at all (v31 the latest); with 3UK the only network not providing v30 or v31.

Nokia N95 8GB – No change at all (v31 the latest); with Vodafone not providing v30 or v31.

Nokia E71 – v300 was released this week for generic unbranded devices; 3UK are still only offering v100 for their customers.

Nokia E75 – as we covered a while ago, v110 is now out for generic devices.  This device is not common on the main UK networks, although Orange have now started selling it.

Nokia 5800 – most networks are now offering v21 for their customers, except certain Orange variants, still stuck on v11.

Nokia N79 – although v30 has been released, it appears that the Nokia Software Updater is still only offering v20, so you may want to use the OTA (Over The Air) firmware update option.

Nokia N96 – just like the Nokia N79, the v30 is only available via the OTA firmware update option, and not NSU.  All UK networks still seem to be offering v11 or v12 (in fact since Nokia have released v20, T-Mobile have upgraded from v11 to v12).

Nokia N97 – v11 was released this week for generic unbranded devices, although there seems to be some issues with UK devices getting this firmware.  It will be interesting to see how quickly the network branded firmwares are updated…

Hopefully next time we report, we’ll be able to show that the UK networks are happy to keep the latest Nokia phones up to date…

Nokia have released what they are claiming should be the final beta version of the new Nokia Maps v3, AKA Maps 3.0 with Ovi Maps.  This new release has a number of new features, including:

• Additional features such as weather information, safety spot warners in selected countries, extended country coverage for traffic info service and premium POI (Point of Interest) content for travel, selected events and cinema
• New maps data version
• Quicker zooming & panning
• New “Shop & Licenses” format
• Also, a number of fixes and enhancements onto both Maps Updater and Map Loader have also been implemented – with Maps Updater supporting 21 different languages
• Last but not least, many bugs have been fixed!

This new version is also compatible with Symbian S60 5th Edition devices, so the list now includes:

S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 (E63, E66, E71, E90 Communicator, N81, N81 8GB, N82, N95, N95 8GB)
S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (E55, E75, N78, N79, N85, N86 8MP, N96, 5320 XpressMusic, 5630 XpressMusic, 5730 XpressMusic, 6210 Navigator, 6220 Classic, 6650, 6710 Navigator, 6720 Classic)
S60 5th Edition (5800 XpressMusic & N97)

To use this, you’ll need to head off to Nokia Beta Labs and download and install the new Map Updater and Map Loader.  If you use SpeedCam on your Nokia to get alerts for speed cameras, the author tells us it should still be compatible with this version (on S60 3rd Edition FP1 and FP2 only; he is still looking into S60 5th Edition support).

Update: If you are a Mac user, then N97Geeks have managed to work out the Map Updater simply downloads a .SIS file and sends it to your phone, and they have intercepted this process and released the .SIS file for Mac users to download and directly send to their Symbian phones.

Nokia have released firmware updates for the generic firmware versions of the Nokia E75 and the Nokia E90.  Both updates (v110 for the Nokia E75 and v400 for the Nokia E90) seem to be based around stability and bug fixes, as opposed to offering major new features.

Nokia have stated the Nokia E75 update includes “several email improvements (setup, sync, connection reliability and readability) and automatic lookup added to Contacts. VoIP and Wi-Fi also have stability improvements.”  Also, as the Nokia E75 has UDP (User Data Preservation), it’s nice and easy to install the update as all applications and data will remain installed.

We’ll look into our full list of products soon and provide a full update across the range of branded firmwares.