You know, I thought I would make some kind of joke here like, “Trying to navigate to your mom’s house in less than 12 parsecs?” or some such, but I’m tired from my first day of C25K.  So instead, I’ll just stick with the facts:

On May 14th MobileNavigator (full North American version) will be on sale for $49.99, a $30.00 price reduction until June 11th. Also, in line with the upcoming WWDC, stay tuned for another promotion on the three versions of MyRegion.

In addition to being a pretty low price in and of itself based on the prices of other navigators I’ve seen, that’s also a pretty huge reduction. … Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Mobile travel applications let you select and track flights, book hotels and effortlessly manage all of those last-minute changes that will inevitably occur your trip.   The Gear Diary team are huge fans of travel apps like TripIt, but that’s not the only game in town.

If you are using a Symbian smartphone, you may prefer Psiloc’s World Traveler that features the  “HotelZon” plugin that lets you search and book hotel rooms in real time from a selection of more than 90,000 hotels worldwide.  That’s in addition to their free currency converters, world clocks for managing multiple timezones, weather and premium plugins for additional flight assistance.  Best of all, World Traveler is optimized specifically for your Symbian phone.   Read on to see even more features.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Let’s face it, no one enjoys contacting their IT department at work.  By the time that call comes it is usually preceded by a lengthy bout of frustration, swearing and pounding of fists.  While it used to just be your PC or Mac giving you fits, now you are probably just as exhausted trying to get your new smartphone to work properly.    Add to the fact that you may be miles — if not an entire continent! — away in today’s global work environment and your aggravations multiply ten fold.  At the end of the day you just want the @#$%! thing to work.

As more and more people bring smartphones into their lives, these mini-computers that surf the web, check email and even make a phone call now and again become our lifelines for both work and personal business.    If you are lucky enough to use one of these devices — be it BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, Symbian, or Windows Phone — you probably cannot imagine going back to when you did not have this convergence of functions with you at all times.

But what happens when you do run into problems?   It will always occur when you’re traveling or during the most important meeting ever scheduled.   One tool that I’ve been using lately could very well be the thing you need.  It’s called LogMeIn Rescue+Mobile, and it lets you support and manage smartphones remotely right from your computer.   It doesn’t matter if the person having a problem is in the next room or on the other side of the globe.  You can remote into their device and fix the problem, saving them from lengthy aggravation and (hopefully) leaving them  once again loving their smartphone of choice.

Interested?  Let’s take a closer look at a great remote management tool for mobile users.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

To paraphrase my favorite beer commercial, “I don’t always use Windows Mobile, but when I do, I prefer SPB Mobile Shell.”  SPB Software is known for making a number of great Windows Mobile programs, but this week they announced that they’re venturing outside of that familiar territory and into the Android and Symbian neighborhoods with the next Mobile Shell release, version 5.0.  Mobile Shell is a launcher on steroids, with lots of great customizable settings, plug-ins, and widgets, and has long been one of the first things that I load on any Windows Mobile device.

Considering that I’ve been using an Android-powered phone a lot recently, I’m definitely interested in seeing  how SPB has adapted Mobile… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you use a Symbian S60 device, then you probably know about Handy Shell. I took a look at it over the summer, and found it to be an overall great way to replace the default Symbian user interface.

Epocware has updated Handy Shell with a few new tricks, most notably a “3D Cube” that animates switching between the screen views. Handy Weather is still tightly integrated, and sports some new features as well; hourly updates are now supported, and there is an option to set your favorite cities, making switching between them for weather updates even easier.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

SPB Software is offering a very special sale this holiday season: 50% off their entire catalog!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you have a Symbian smartphone (Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Motorola, Samsung, among others) you are going to want to stop what you are doing RIGHT NOW and download Nimbuzz!

Why?  Not only will you get messaging, chat, and cheap international calling — you also get what may be the most powerful Twitter app for the Symbian platform, as well as  pop-up notifications for chats and events — all with Nimbuzz running in the background.  Have a touch screen?  Nimbuzz has added kinetic scrolling to give you the best multimedia experience on your Symbian phone. The Nimbuzz mobile VoIP messaging applicaton integrates these features with your social networks and instant messaging clients (Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, Hyves, MSN, ICQ, Google Talk, AIM, etc).  The free application has been so popular that T-Mobile USA recently launched their TAP phone with Nimbuzz preinstalled.

Nimbuzz is currently being used by more than 13 million users worldwide, with another 40,000 new users being added daily. Interested?  Read on for the full press release.

Picked up a new Symbian S60 device? Looking to push the one you have further? Epocware, makers of Handy Shell and other major Symbian software are offering a 35% discount on the following programs:

Handy Shell: Was $19.95, now $12.97

Handy Calendar: Was $29.95, now $19.47

Handy Weather: Was $24.95 , now $16.22

Handy Safe Pro: Was $34.95 , now $22.72

Handy Alarm Pro: Was $14.75 , now $9.72

This deal runs for the next 5 days, so act fast!… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I love casinos, but I am terrible at gambling. Flashing lights, lots of bars, video games; essentially casinos are just a grown-up version of the boardwalk arcades from my childhood. Of course, my problem is that I don’t understand how to gamble; I just tap screens, pull levers, and pretend I understand how poker works until I run out of money. Luckily, Astraware Casino for Symbian offers many of those games with virtual money; we’ll be taking a look at this versatile game set today.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Since late May, my main phone has been a Nokia E71x. It is my first Symbian phone, but I owned Nokia feature phones before and had good memories of them, so I was quite excited to get to know a smarter, fancier Nokia. I’d read good things about Symbian as well as bad ones. Universally, the hardware was praised, but the software reception was a good more lukewarm. My E71x and I have good days and bad days; last week I was ready to sing its praises to the world, this week I’m a bit more annoyed and seem to be seeing nothing but its flaws. Nokia has been trying harder to muscle into the North American market, most recently by offering some incredible deals on AT&T. So I thought it would be helpful to share the good and the bad sides of my Symbian experience.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It’s inevitable…you’re sitting on your couch, relaxing with your tivo and your xbox…when you realize you need to <gasp> go outside! But what is the weather like? How will you know whether to wear your crocs or your docs? You could get up and go outside, but that takes effort. Luckily for you, Epocware has the excellent utility Handy Weather so you can check the weather from your Symbian phone before you have to leave the couch.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’ve recently become a convert to the Symbian OS. It has been a lot of fun to learn the ins and outs of a new system, especially one that approaches things like Symbian does. Nokia’s flavor of Symbian feels more phone oriented, with the PDA aspects tacked on as almost an afterthought. While this can be tweaked around a bit, the place it is felt most acutely is on the “Active Standby” screen (essentially the Symbian version of a Today Screen). The only major option if you want something that offers up more power is if you look to Epocware and their Active Standby replacement, Handy Shell.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

A while ago, I ranted on a Symbian forum about what a piece of cr disappointment the Nokia N96 was, and how it’d put me off Nokia smartphones forever. Until a recent firmware update, the N96 was slow, buggy and practically unusable. It creaks so much, I’ve actually come to think of the squishy casing as a feature – use it as an expensive stress ball, and it’s entertaining; the built-in DVB-H TV tuner is essentially useless anyway. Given the vitriol, you can imagine that it’d take a lot to get me interested in using the N96 again.

Spb TV has temporarily saved the N96 from The Drawer of Forgotten Gadgets. Spb TV is an IPTV client for Symbian S60 devices. It receives streaming live television over a mobile internet connection, and includes an electronic program guide (EPG) for supported channels; if you’ve ever used Livestation on your desktop computer, Spb TV is just like a mobile version of it.

The lovely Alison graced my inbox this morning with the latest from Club Astraware; this month’s special is one you won’t want to miss!

Club Astraware offers for September 2008

The Club Astraware Member-only discount offer for September 2008 is Astraware Solitaire for just $9.95, that’s a huge saving of $10 off the regular price!

In addition to our regular offers for Palm OS(R) and Windows Mobile(R) device owners, this discount is also available to Club Astraware members who own Symbian(R) S60(R), and UIQ(R) smartphones.

Astraware Solitaire features 12 of the most well-known and best-loved single player card games, chosen based on direct feedback and suggestions from Astraware customers.

The games included in Astraware Solitaire are Klondike, Pyramid, Spider, Clock, Yukon, Canfield, Four Seasons, Sultan’s Harem, Idiot’s Delight, Golf, Calculation, and Freecell, and to make the playing experience both familiar and fun, each game has custom gameplay options so everyone can enjoy the games using their favorite variation on the standard rules.

According to an unsubstantiated rumor on web site The Symbian Core, iTunes for Symbian is under beta testing with a rumored released of January 2009. No information is given as to why Apple might cannibalize their own hardware sales with an iTunes release for Symbian. Similar rumors surfaced in 1986 and were debunked as someone’s creative wishful thinking. If there’s truth to this rumor it might also be a remote control for iTunes versus a full blown implementation. This rumored development effort for iTunes comes on the heels of Nokia’s “Comes with Music” effort scheduled to roll out in the UK later this year.

There is an information that iTunes s60 will have the same functionalities as desktop version