Gerry over at nokiAAddict brings us news that BirdStep SmartConnect now seems to have been made available for many more Symbian devices now free of charge.  Although a popular program for the Nokia E71, it seems that the licensing deal with Nokia allows for many other devices.  As Gerry says, SmartConnect “removes the access complexity and brings the user just one click away from internet access, i.e. it combines all your Wifi & GPRS access points into one access point.”

So, if you have any of the following phones, head over to here to download the free client, or here for more information.  It seems the latest version from BirdStep is v1.3.6, which may well be newer than the version most people are running (When it was available in the Download! App for the Nokia E71, it was back at v1.2)

Nokia E-Series:
E50, E51, E52, E55, E60, E61, E61i, E62, E63, E65, E66, E70, E71, E75, E90

Nokia N-Series:
N76, N78, N79, N81, N82, N85, N86 (8MP), N95, N95 (8GB), N96

Thanks to Gerry for the screenshot too.

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 been busy of late.  Firstly they sneaked out an update to FriendView beta, and have now launched a mobile friendly FriendView website (which simply offers the client for download, but it’s better than before).  They’ve also stated that this client shares the same map cache as the v1.82 Sportstracker beta, so although neither use Nokia Maps right now, at least the online map data is only downloaded once.

After quite some time in beta, Nokia viNe has now been released too, which we have covered before, but basically will allow Sportstracker to be limited to true Sports activities, with all others activities slowly moving to Nokia viNe instead.

They’ve updated Nokia Wellness Diary, which now supports the Nokia N79, Nokia E71, Nokia N85, Nokia 6210, and Nokia 6220, and is compatible with the v1.82 Sportstracker beta too.

Nokia have updated their Nokia Maps data, so if you haven’t checked recently, it might be worth checking via the Nokia Map Loader to see if there are any new maps for your region.

Also of note; if you are an Nokia N810 Tablet user, and have upgraded to the latest firmware, then use the Map information menus within the “Maps” application, and you’ll see updated maps too (these have been available for some while, but very few seem to be aware of the new maps, as it needs the new firmware and the new Maps software that it brought to gain access to these maps).

In terms of non-map related updates;

• Nokia have updated Nokia Chat to v1.0 Beta 4
• They have graduated Nokia Photos (now v1.5, or part of the latest Ovi Suite), which means it now features on the main Nokia website, and comes with full support from Nokia
• Finally, they have also updated the Multimedia Transfer Application for Macs to v1.4.

Today is the start of Nokia World, and a fairly key announcement is due from Nokia first thing this morning.  We’ll report on this as soon as we’ve received the information and fully digested it.  We wonder if it’s the phone codenamed IP08 that we featured here…

Tesco I hear you ask…? Yes, Tesco have had an Internet based Talk service for quite some while now, but have supplemented the traditional Internet Phone solution (which requires one of a number of custom SIP phones), and also added Tesco Talk Wi-Fi.  This works on S60 phones, and uses the Wi-Fi connection at home (or possibly via your phone or broadband dongle **) to access the Tesco service and allow you cheap calls.  Tesco have stated it’s currently only available for the Nokia E51, N81, E65, and N95 phones, although why only those phones we’re not sure.

Although we applaud the idea of offering a SIP based service from mobile phones (like many others, fring, Skype etc. offer), the £1 premium rate text charge to download the application in the first place is a bit rough.

We recommend you keep an eye on it, but unless you are an existing Tesco Internet Phone customer, it may not be cost effective to sign up.

More information here.

We’ve covered the new N-Gage before, and we originally covered this story back in April, but Nokia have extended the original FIFA08 campaign to the end of August.  This involves giving away 120,000 copies of the game to UK phone users with a compatible phone (N95, N95 8GB, N81, N81 8GB, N82), although some of those phones will need firmware upgrades to support N-Gage.  Nokia have established a dedicated website for this here, where you can also see some videos they have created to support this campaign.

Although we’ve listed the only phones that support N-Gage today, Nokia have stated that the N73, N93, N93i, 5320 XpressMusic, and the N78 will “soon” support N-Gage as well.

Nokia have also announced they have finally released their PC Music Client for managing your music between your desktop and your smartphone. However, you need an N95, N95 8GB, N82, 5610 XpressMusic, N81, as these are the only phones supported (read: tested) right now, and despite the beta client already being at v1.5, it does not support the Nokia Music Store, which would be an obvious integration we would expect to see in the final product (it’s actually “deactivated”, so support is likely to be available before the product comes out of beta).

Interestingly, Nokia have adopted a standards based approach with this software, and hence it should actually work with “any MTP-compliant device, whether it be a Nokia device or another brand MP3 player.”

Head over to the Nokia Beta Labs PC Music Client website for more information and to download.

Nokia have finally launched the new N-Gage gaming service, with support for the N95, N95 8Gb, N81, N81 8Gb, and the N82. Other phones, such as the N73 and N93i should follow at a later date.

Nokia have finally made the new N-Gage gaming platform available. Although a number of phones are compatible with N-Gage, at this stage, the software and pre-release games are supposedly only for the N81 (hacks are available to make them work with other N-Gage compatible phones). Right now, there are only 3 games (System Rush Evolution, Space Impact Kappa, and Hooked On Creatures of the Deep), and you have to download roughly 60MB of data to your PC before installing to your phone via PC Suite.

At some point this week, Nokia may announce a WiFi deal linked to their OVI portal (including the Nokia Music Store). This will be aimed at the N81 and N95 8Gb phones and be seen as a response to the iPhone’s UK deal with The Cloud (which offers free WiFi access). It’s likely to be a major WiFi provider, but there is little more detail at the moment.

Of course for those who have other phones, or can’t wait there are plenty of other options for fixed rate or free WiFi.

It appears (potentially due to the built in Nokia Ovi music store support) that the UK mobile phone network operators have not been too keen on the N81, with The UK Mobile Report reporting that instead of the usual fight between operators to be granted an exclusive for a particular phone (eg Vodafone have the exclusive on the Nokia 6110 Navigator at the moment), Vodafone were the only operator interested in the N81, and then only in N81 8Gb format.

This is interesting – with Nokia pushing Ovi, MOSH, and other new services direct to its customers, the network operators are either going to have to embrace this and accept it, continue to demand phones with features removed (and I think Nokia has stood it’s ground with the N81), or start losing control of the handset market, and moving towards the mobile phone manufacturers selling direct.

This is happening in the US – you can buy Nokia and some Motorola phones direct from the companies, without involvement of your operator, and it appears the US may well move much closer to this model for all phones. In the UK (and Europe), we are used to being able to buy “SIM-Free” phones, but the cost is much higher.

I wonder if we’ll start to see the manufacturers subsidising the phones, based on services they provide, instead of the operator subsidising the phone…