Nokia news, reviews

Tyler, writing at Tyler’s Toolbox has leaped on the ‘intersection of positivity, creativity and technology’ that is international video-fest Pangea Day and is celebrating with a contest!

Open to all filmmakers, all of the details you need to get involved are handily provided by Tyler in his post, as are detail of the prize on offer: an N82, headphones, tripod, speakers and more… not bad at all I’m sure you’ll agree.

Jump over now for the full details of the prize package and how you can be in the running to win it.

bery95 from Symbian Web Blog bring news of the Python based Accelerometer remote control app.

Currently only for use with mPlayer under Linux, this app allows an accelerometer enabled device to be turned into a remote, letting the user control movies simply by twisting the device! You hook up your device via a simple programme to the computer, and away you go, with a surprising level of control. A nice idea of course, but bery95 can??™t see PyAcceleREMOTER working with the average user, as the app won??™t communicate with the Windows computers we all use.

What do you think? Are you a Linux user glad of the exclusivity, or are you simply intrigued by the thought of such an app? Jump over and let bery95 know what you think.

In the hot seat for this week??™s Driving With the Guru ??“ sitting in for the otherwise engaged Ricky ??“ Dotsisx brings us her take on the new N-gage platform.

She??™s loving the community aspect of N-Gage, adding that it adds a ???new dimension??™ to the gaming experience. There are a few gripes with the downloading process of getting your hands on a game, but she promises some posts on the various aspects of N-Gage later this week. She actually wonders whether everyday consumers would put up with the process of downloading zip files just to get a game in their device.

This episode of ???Driving??¦??™ is filmed on both the N93i and the N95, and whilst Dotsisx talks of liking the way the N93i is held while it records video - reminding her of a camcorder ??“ the difference in quality is noticeable.

Do you share Dotsisx??™s points of view? Jump over and let her know.

Steve Litchfield from All About Symbian and Teo over at Symbian Freak both bring news of similar hot new apps for S60 devices.

Harnessing the power of drum machines on a mobile device seems a big ask, but both BeatEd and Niime Drums seem to manage quite nicely, thank you very much. Steve has included a video demo of BeatEd, which originally started out as a metronome app for guitar players, but blossomed after some positive feedback.

Niime Drums, an accelerometer-based app, is a different set up and proposition entirely, but nevertheless scratches the same itch. Allowing a user to compose drum sequences by shaking the phone ??“ thus releasing the ???inner artist??™ ??“ Niime Drums is still in development and is due for public release soon.

So which looks best to you? Jump through any of the links above to have your say.

Mark Guim from The Nokia Blog has come up with an ingenious use for the GPS capacity of his N95 8GB.

We??™ve all done it, gone to the big game, the concert, the mall, and come out with absolutely no idea of where we parked. By saving the location of the parking spot of your vehicle right after you find a place, when you need your transport again, just select ???Walk to??™, and hey presto, no more frantic searching. Imagine the other uses though??¦mark the location of your car keys in your house, the TV remote, the possibilities are endless.

So what have you used your GPS to mark? Jump over and let Mark know.

Mark Guim from The Nokia Blog brings us news of a discovery when idly thumbing through the multimedia menu on his N95 8GB

By arranging the tiles on your multimedia window so that the Internet option shows first after you press your shortcut key (#5 in Mark??™s case), just pressing the multimedia key will open a fresh tab. Browse through open tabs by scrolling left and right and the top of the page lists how many tabs are open. Great discovery from some idle browsing.

Have you already discovered this? Any other remarkable menu tips? Jump over and let Mark know.

They??™ve been around for a while ??“ and been promised for much longer ??“ but Apocalypso at Symbian Freak has posted as to why the Nokia Extra Power DC-8 is a potential lifeline for those on the move.

With the ability to charge your device when you??™re in, say, the desert, the North Pole or just plain old Oklahoma (somewhere with few power points), this little beauty will give you juice when you run out. Provided you charge it up before you leave the house ??“ either with your standard charger or AA batteries ??“ you can give your device that extra boost when your usage exhausts it.

Have you used one of these ???in the field??™? Jump over and let Apoc know how it went.

We’ve mentioned it before, but word of Nokia’s involvement with Pangea Day is spreading far and wide across the web.

Vaibhav Sharma over at The Symbian Blog is the latest to cover the initiative that is seeking mobile film makers to record what inspires them and upload them to Share on Ovi. Vaibhav mentions what is involved, as well as bringing news of the parallel competition running on David Howell’s site, David Howell Studios.

If you want to join the fun, jump over to The Symbian Blog or David Howell Studios for full details of how you can get involved.

Lovetocamp5 (known to her mother as Linda) has posted on Howard Forums about falling out of love with her E65.

She??™s threatening to elope with an N95 because she is disappointed in the speaker volume her current device is giving, saying it is ???ridiculously quiet??™. She also doesn??™t think that the ???voice quality and call signal reception??™ is what she has come to expect from Nokia. There is a raft of E65 supporters who have spoken up in favour of the maligned device saying they have had no problems with their devices. Linda isn??™t convinced, though, and is headed towards N95-ville.

Want to jump to the defence of the E65? Jump over quick and let Linda know what you think before she heads to the store.

Amir at Mobile Space wonders which is the best app for blacklisting numbers. Ever keen to jump on a passing bandwagon, we thought we??™d have a gander and see what was being said.

Handy Blacklist from Epocware, and Best Blacklist by Smartphoneware get put through their paces by Amir, and it seems there are a number of similarities. Both use the black and white (or black and allow) list system for numbers you want to accept or reject, and both remain in the memory so you can??™t see them running. Amir gives us his verdict, but invites comments from users who prefer one or the other.

So why not jump over and let him know what you think?

Dotsisx over at Symbian Guru has also picked up on this, so have a look at what she has to say too.