Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Now Open!

If you have been waiting for the public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 to open up, or waiting for the email inviting you, the wait is over.

Head on over to the Office 2010 Beta Page to sign up, get your key and download it. There are 32bit and 64bit versions on offer. I myself went for the 64bit version after having built a new computer with Windows 7 64bit on it!

With the beta, as in the previous Technical Previews, a small app will be installed which shows up in Add/Remove Programs or Programs and Features (depending on your version of Windows) called Microsoft Office Send-a-Smile. This will start up with Windows and display 2 emoticons in the system tray, near the clock, which you can click if you like or hate something. The app will then send a screenshot and allow you to add a comment regarding the feature that made you smile or frown. Please make use of this as it only serves to make Office better (depending on your comments) if the Office team get your feedback!

From the FAQ, the Beta will be active until October 31, 2010, so you have a good length of time to try it out and settle in.

Nokia N97 Gets v20 Firmware Update

Today saw the release of the long awaited v20 firmware update which was expected to bring kinetic scrolling throughout all menus on the N97, being able to hold keys down to access the alternative character/number when typing as well as some other much needed bug fixes. One important feature which was expected, Skype, is not included and is expected again, at a later date.

An excerpt of the change list from Steve Litchfield at All About Symbian:
Improvements in firmware 20.2.019 are:

• A reworked memory mapping model – this means that applications use the (relatively) limited RAM much more efficiently and you should rarely see any memory errors. Note that the available ‘Free RAM’ after booting is now a lot less (around 47MB), but don’t take this raw number too literally – apps apparently use less RAM than before
• Kinetic scrolling in the User Interface in all lists and larger-than-screen views
• The keyboard driver has been enhanced so that a long press on any key brings up its associated ‘function’ symbol (or number)
• Music player shows album art more reliably, plus extra MP3 ID3 information
• Half a dozen new social media and services widgets have been added by default
• Camera still and video improvements…

For those of you running a sim-free unlocked UK Nokia N97, the v12 update has only been able since the 17th of October, there may be quite a wait for v20 unless the posts on the Nokia forum have been read.

The update is probably only available to Euro sim-free variants but worth a try if you have a non-operator branded handset from another region. For more information check out this post on how to update your N97 firmware. Over the air updates using the built-in Software app may not be available for a few days.

Opera Mini Beta 5 – Optimised for N97 et al.

The previous version of Opera Mini worked well on Symbian S60 3rd Edition handsets but wasn’t conceived in anticipation of the touch-screen version of the S60, S60 5th Edition, which can be found on the Nokia N97 and the 5800, to name two. As a result touch functionality didn’t work and the user had to fall back to the hardware keys of the N97 and the virtual keypad of the 5800.

Opera has now released Opera Mini Beta 5 which is a godsend for those with a touch-screen mobiles and brings with it some great new features that should have been part of the inbuilt browser of the Nokia N97, in particular. So, what does Opera Mini Beta 5 offer besides touch friendly browsing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tabbed Browsing
An awesome feature especially on a mobile device which has a small screen. The native S60 browser doesn’t handle multiple windows well and to force a new window you have to create a custom page/bookmark hack as the feature is not available natively. The way this has been implemented on S60 5th adds to the usability as the thumbnails of the page are shown in the tab, which will work well for those who prefer to see the colours/images of a page rather than read the name of the tab to identify it.

Select Text/Copy
One thing that Nokia have missed the boat on is the copying of content from the web browser with their S60 devices. Opera opens up this feature and is activated by pressing down on the screen until a balloon with “Select Text” appears. Once text is highlighted, by dragging a finger or stylus across the screen, another balloon pops up offering options to “Copy,” “Search,” or “Search with,” which allows you to select a search engine. Nice time saving features allowing information to be freed from the browser.

Save Page
You can save web pages to the device so they can be viewed offline. Another cool feature allowing pages to be saved, just like on a PC browser but for a mobile device, options can be set as to where you would like pages saved on the phone, to prevent those ‘low disk space’ errors!

On-Screen QWERTY Keyboard
A handy feature for the N97 which doesn’t have this natively. Sure, there is a physical keyboard but sometimes you aren’t typing enough to warrant opening the keyboard, but just enough that the on-screen number pad becomes an inconvenience.

Speed Dial
Opera Mini b5 can be set to open up on the Speed Dial page, a grid of 9 thumbnails representing your favourite sites, providing you with quick access to them from start up. This has replaced my Start.io homepage and instead the Start.io page can have a speed dial box.

Password Manager
If you hate signing-in to sites over and over again, the password manager will be a boon, although if you frequently misplace your phones, this feature may be better left unused.

I have been Opera Mini Beta 5 briefly, but some sites aren’t formatted correctly, resulting in text overlaps, yet these pages appear normally in the default S60 browser. There’s no bookmark sync, which might have been the feature to get me to install Opera on my PC! Due to the addition of kinetic scrolling for touch-screen devices, the screen no longer snaps to the edges of paragraphs, so when scrolling up and down, unless you keep your finger, thumb or stylus on a perfectly vertical trail, you will find the page moving horizontally also. On a positive note, browsing on Opera Mini remains snappy, great access to pages using speed dial and tabs adds to the experience. With the addition of the qwerty keyboard, convenience and speed seems to have been the primary focus of this release. This is great progress on a great app and a lot of thought seems to have gone into improving the mobile browsing experience, which can be a chore at times!

Give the app a try if you haven’t used it before: opera.com/mini/next.

Official Tesco.com iPhone App Coming?

Nick Lansley’s Tech for Tesco.com blog is in my Google Reader subscriptions, it’s the sort of blog I like as Nick gives an insight into the technology goings on behind a company that probably everyone in the UK is familiar with. The interesting part is seeing new technology being considered and used as part of a highly successful business and knowing that it could provide improvements to the way we shop or interact with the company.

I had previously followed Nick’s blog after seeing him present the Tesco application created with Conchango at Microsoft’s PDC2008. Since then, the opening up of the Tesco.com API had been announced along with a prototype ‘Beauty Room’ Silverlight app amongst other things of interest. I hoped to get on the API bandwagon to create an app where items in the kitchen could have their barcode scanned, or if they come with RFID tags, could be detected and potential recipes be suggested for that evening or even suggest items to add to the shopping list to increase the number of recipe suggestions.

My app thoughts aside, there is another channel for those wishing to create applications linking into Tesco, how about an iPhone application? On Nick’s blog, the latest post talks about how Tesco.com are open to creating an iPhone app and have asked the developer community to continue and create their own apps which will also have access to the checkout as will the official Tesco.com app. Nick makes it clear that the official app won’t have any “…secret privileged access to our service so will not present an ‘unfair advantage’ over third party apps.” So all the more reason to continue working on your apps. The application the Tesco.com team will be working on aims to be a simple one which can do the basics of shopping well. This leaves the door open for others to create apps with funky features such as data visualisation, list suggestions, connecting with other online to-do apps and information sources to create unique and engaging apps.

Now, if anyone is reading this, how about a Tesco.com app which compares items in your shopping basket, with the deals listings on HotUKDeals.com and other offer sites to see if you could make a saving elsewhere or even suggest Tesco deals from Hot UK Deals that may be of interest depending on which section of the store you are browsing, eg. If I was in the Dairy section of the app/site/API, a search would be run on Hot UK Deals for items relating to Tesco’s dairy selection and then display this at the top or bottom of the page or a small star with a number superimposed, denoting the number of offers available which, upon tapping/clicking would display the offers.

Read the post on Nick Lansley’s blog.

PS3 Slim Now Official

Remember the rumours of a slimmer version of the PS3 around the time of E3? Well it turns out that it has been announced officially by Sony. Over on the PlayStation blog there is a video with Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Jack Tretton presenting the PS3 Slim and announcing a $299 price Worldwide for the existing PS3. The PS3 Slim will be out on the 1st of September with a matt finish and 120Gb hard drive, not long to wait!

The higher price of the PS3 was the last issue in competing with the Xbox 360 and now that barrier has almost been removed, buyers looking to purchase a console from this generation will be considering their purchases even more.

Check out the pictures of the PS3 Slim over on Flickr

Sources: PlayStation Blog, PlayStation Blog Flickr

Remove Boingo Access Point from the N97

A pet hate of mine is pre-installed apps on devices, especially when they can’t be removed from the paltry storage space provided. In the case of the N97, you may have started up the Boingo application that comes pre-installed, by mistake with no intention of ever using it, only to find out that it adds a new Internet Access Point to your Destinations that cannot be removed! The only solution until now has been to carry out a soft reset of the phone.

Thanks to the observant matt_t at the Nokia Discussion Forums, it seems that Boingo have buckled to the emails from users and provided a way to remove the Boingo access point that is automatically created. Unfortunately, the Boingo app along with Joikuspot and Qik are tied into the ROM and taking up space, but at least it’s a start.

“The Nokia N97 comes pre-loaded with three months of free Boingo Wi-Fi. Like other native N97 applications (Contacts, Calendar), the Boingo application is pre-installed and cannot be removed. The first time you launch Boingo, a Boingo IAP (Internet Access Point) will be created under Internet Destinations. However, if you choose not to activate your free Boingo account, neither the application nor the IAP will interfere with your other connections.

If you wish to remove the Boingo IAP, simply run the “Boingo IAP Remover,” which removes the IAP (if present) from your device.

If at a later time, you wish to activate your free Boingo account, simply re-launch the application, which will re-create the Boingo IAP.”

Boingo Access Point Remover for Nokia N97 from Boingo.com

Free Applications for the N97

Being a relatively new platform in terms of software offerings, users of the Nokia N97, may be looking for the latest and greatest apps to use on their device or to show off its features. The Series 60 5th Edition Symbian operating system is shared with the Nokia 5800 as well as several other handsets from other manufacturers but unlike Apple’s iPhone and Android based mobiles, the enthusiast/developer community doesn’t seem as active. To help get the word out about cool apps for those new to the device, I present a list of what I found interesting…to get you started:

Dr Jukka’s Key Lock Clock
Excellent app which displays a large digital clock on the standby screen when a button is pressed. The newer build of this app activates the clock by pressing the menu button only so you may wish to get the older version. I prefer to use the volume keys; being left handed, getting the thumb to the Menu key is like trying to lick my elbow.
http://drjukka.com/KeyLockClock.html

Dr Jukka’s Y-Browser
If you mess around with files, file locations and would like to see the drives and folders hidden by the standard Nokia File Manager, grab this app. You won’t get to see the protected directories but it’s better than the standard offering. Don’t forget to check out the plugins such as the Mail Folder plugin which lets you save files from the SMS inbox and back them up to any drive/folder.
http://drjukka.com/YBrowser.html

Time Machine 2.0
For some reason the N97, does not have a stop watch or timer. Time Machine, now on version 2 provides a basic countdown timer and uptimer as well as a new clock mode which can be left on and used as a desk clock. The app looks like something you would see on Apple’s App Store, from the interface you wouldn’t know it was a Symbian app. I’ve been wondering who wrote this great app and think I have tracked the author down to a poster named Sheludkov at the DailyMobile.se forums.

http://dailymobile.se/2009/07/13/symbian-time-machine-for-nokia-n97-and-nokia-5800-updated-to-v2/

Mobbler
If you use last.fm to stream music based on your preferences and like to ‘scrobble’ your music (I think this is where music you listen to is logged by last.fm as a measure of your tastes! Last.fm, Parlez vous Anglais?), then this app will come in handy as it lets you scrobble and listen to a music stream based on your chosen artist or tag. Warning: requires an Internet connection.
http://code.google.com/p/mobbler/

Nokia Sports Tracker
An essential app when I had a Nokia N95. When coupled with the built-in or external GPS receiver, you can record your journeys, see how fast you were going or just upload to sportstracker.nokia.com as a record of your runs or cycling trips. Your journeys can be saved to a file compatible with Google Earth and overlaid to show your route!
http://sportstracker.nokia.com

CoolIRC
If you want to jump into IRC and chat, this is an essential app. With the N97’s qwerty keyboard, there’s no excuse! There is also phIRC which I haven’t tried.
http://www.coolirc.za.net/

Compass Touch
Since the N97 has a magnetometer, it is a shame that outside of Nokia maps there isn’t an app that uses it extensively, like Layar for Android handsets. Even in Nokia Maps, there isn’t a dedicated compass, if that is all you want, grab Compass Touch, it is a nice looking compass that doesn’t do much else but is cool nonetheless.
If the link below doesn’t work, go to http://store.ovi.com and sign in or set your phone to the N97.
http://store.ovi.com/content/6E48B6D01950F915E040050A85323E71

Google Maps
Being out and about with Internet access means you have a wealth of information at your fingertips, if only it was easy to extract. If you are in need of a restaurant, cinema, bar or shop in an unfamiliar area, a quick search in the Google Maps app can pinpoint locations matching your search term.

Coupled with Google Maps is the ability to see where your friends are or to report your own location, if you are comfortable, with Latitude. The recent addition of ‘Layers’ means that the London Underground maps can be seen in non-topological format over the map of London. If you want to know where you are heading before you get there, satellite and street views are available options.
http://m.google.com and select Maps

Fring
The N97 seems to have been crippled when it comes to VOIP/SIP capability, but this doesn’t mean the proprietary Skype is out of bounds. Despite there not being an official Skype client that doesn’t use a phone call to make the first hop, there isn’t a shortage of other apps offering Skype support. One of these is Fring which also includes support for MSN/Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and posting to Twitter. I have read a number of times that Skype ‘is due later in the year’ or ‘due in the big update in Autumn’ but not from an official source other than word of a big update in the Autumn.
http://fring.com

Palringo
Like Fring, Palringo provides access to your friends on multiple messaging networks. The one field where Palringo excels is in allowing you to send a picture from the camera or audio recording to friends. It also supports location reporting using GPS.
http://Palringo.com

Digia’s @Web
If like me you find the current S60 browser to cause a minor annoyance everytime the interface pops up and juts into the page you are viewing forcing it to move down abruptly, and then move up when the bars disappear, or hate the large buttons taking up valuable display area in landscape and portrait modes, you might want to try @Web. Like other thought out browsers, bars slide over the existing page, while they do obscure content slightly, if you are reading something when the interface features appear/disappear, at least you wont lose your reading point, as the page doesn’t move. Supporting the standards and minimal Flash the standard browser supports, this app is still in beta so it is functional but problems may be experienced.
http://www.digia.com/C2256FEF0043E9C1/0/405001847

Skyfire – I would recommend this for viewing sites with Flash video or any other media the standard browser can’t handle but there is no sign of a version for the 5th edition and 3rd edition doesn’t work correctly. I also contacted Skyfire for comment and they couldn’t be bothered to reply back…yes I checked my spam folder.

If you have any free apps to recommend, please post them in the comments!

Warning for N97 Users: Potential Fire Hazard

If you have a Nokia N97, you will probably have received the Nokia CA-146C in the box, an adapter so you can use the two popular Nokia chargers (3.5mm and 2mm connections) with your N97 which uses a Micro USB connection.

I myself have briefly used the adapter with an in car charger, Nokia DC-4, and experienced the adapter to be so hot that it was like trying to hold a hot bulb. It occurred to me that this seemed abnormal but I thought nothing more of it at the end of a short charge.

A user over at the All About Symbian forums and another at the Nokia discussion forums have both experienced overheating of the adapter unit also but with dire consequences. According to their pictures, the CA-146C has become so hot that the outer casing has melted, one of of their cases so much so, that it reveals the innards.

A quick scan for any reference to the adapter in the manual for the N97 proved fruitless, maybe I am going blind. However, the item is listed at Nokia UK’s site, listing the following devices as compatible with the CA-146C:

“Nokia Charger Adapter CA-146C enables you to charge your microUSB phone, accessory or other device using your exisiting(sic) Nokia 2.0 or 3.5mm charger. E.g.
Nokia Travel Charger AC-4
Nokia Compact Travel Charger AC-5
Nokia Travel Charger ACP-12
Nokia Retractable Car Charger DC-9
Nokia Mobile Charger DC-4
Nokia Mobile Charger LCH-12”

I have the DC-4 but am not willing to test the limits of this thing again after feeling how hot the adapter got the first time around.

Consider this a warning. Don’t charge your phone using the adapter for long periods or leave it unattended when charging until we hear more from Nokia.

UPDATE: I askied Nokia if they had heard anything and if they would like to comment on this issue, I received the following reply:

“We have received information of a few individual Nokia CA-146C charger adapters which may have malfunctioned during the charging of a device. Product quality is clearly a top priority for Nokia and we started to investigate this issue immediately. We will take any corrective steps which prove necessary in order to facilitate the best possible customer experience.”

Facebook Takes Friendfeed Under Its Wing

Friendfeed, a content aggregator, has been acquired by Facebook, who, besides Twitter are another major rival in the battle for users even though the services can be complimentary.

I have an account at FriendFeed but only use it to aggregate all my content and activity from sites such as Youtube, Flickr and Twitter and occasionally read other people’s feeds. I don’t use it much but then, I use Facebook even less.  FriendFeed became even more interesting when it went ‘real-time’ and comments from users appeared as they were submitted, turning comment threads into a bustling chatroom. This is used to great effect by Leo Laporte, where he creates a new post on FriendFeed at the start of a show and users comment away as if it was a dedicated chatroom. Not long after this addition, I was expecting to see something similar on Facebook.

According to the Facebook release at Mashable, where I first saw news of this takeover, FriendFeed will operate as is for the time being until they figure out what they want to do with it.

Links: Facebook Acquires FreindFeed – Mashable

When Web Design Goes Wrong

No, it’s not another of those programmes like When Stunts Go Bad, but based on the efforts of the branding and web department at or working for Be Broadband, you could start work on such a programme.

Before I start, granted, my site isn’t exactly a masterpiece of design/marketing/branding, but then I don’t employ people who do these things as their job.

Having decided to visit the site and see what was new on the ISP’s forum yesterday, I was greeted with this:

A hideous site, you might say. It looks as though someone wanted an 80’s theme with the neon colours and a dodgy typewriter font but failed to pull off any sort of consistency. The whole page is of high contrast, too many fonts and colours with no clarity or flow, resulting in the eye wandering around. It takes me back to what the web looked like in the mid-90s, which is no good thing.

I wanted to sign in to the forum so the first place I looked was in the black panel on the left that looked like a menu, alas there was nothing there, so I had to scan around a bit more and there it was, in the top right corner in a box looking nothing like the navigation on the left that I was now expecting.

A box at the top of the page was rotating banners with what seemed useless/irrelevant information, a cyan circle, matching the plain fonted Be logo, houses an offer. A garish yellow highlights the three price points Be offers for its broadband and then the trademark pink which Be is probably known by, is demoted from use in the logo to text links.

Over on the Be forums there is a poll, to see it you need to sign up and sign in,the question asked:

As you can see, the site is a big hit (sarcasm). Either this is a viral marketing campaign to get Be’s name out to the public which has done so, but made the brand look shabby,or is a genuine re-branding exercise. In its current form the site may put of potential customers by making them think the site has been hacked, the company is unprofessional or isn’t a genuine ISP but a referral site. This could be seen as a good and bad thing for existing customers, with new custom being pushed away, existing customers who may be experiencing congestion could do without the extra load. On the other hand no new customers means that much less investment into the existing infrastructure. As a Be customer, I don’t mind what they do as long as the connection I have remains stable. It would be nice if they had a more professional/corporate looking site, rather than something to appeal to MySpace users, haven’t they heard, everyone is on Facebook and Twitter?

Be are accepting feedback and if you wish to contact them to let them know what could be done to improve the site or anything else, you can contact them by email: whatwethink /at/ bethere.co.uk   replace /at/ with @ If anyone at Be would like me to look at any re-designs to say yay or nay, then let me know I’m in the market for a job!