The Nokia Sports Tracker consists of two parts, the first being the app itself which you install on your phone and the second part being the standalone Sports Tracker website.

This app has four main parts; New Workout, Routes, Training Diary and Settings. In New Workout you can choose which workout you are going to do now e.g. running, walking, cycling, skiing. With the help of GPS you can then measure the distance of your running or walking sessions. To do that you only have to start the actual app in New Workout and stop it when you finish the workout. Each finished workout session is saved in your training diary from which you can upload selected sessions to the Nokia Sports Tracker website. Before uploading you can decide whether everyone or just your friends will be able to take a look into your activity results. On the website you can then compare your times with that of your friends for each route that you guys ran. With the help of the training diary you can also track your progress between a specific time frame very well.

During workouts the running app shows you the time, pace and distance. You also have access to other interesting information and graphs like your longitude, latitude and changes in altitude.

So that this app tracks your workout correctly you have to enter your characteristics such as gender, weight, height and age in the settings options. There is also a possibility to have multiple users on one device.

The Nokia Sports Tracker is a very interesting and innovative application for S60 phones. It is very helpful for every hobby athlete. The app shows what phones with the help of software have become. It uses the built in GPS in an interesting way and also helps to socialize with your friends over the Internet. Of course there are still things which have to be worked on like the official website of sports tracker but at the moment the overall app and service are pretty satisfying.

To get more info on this app just visit the Nokia Sports Tracker website.

The news we got were related to the Nokia E55 release and approval, no news yet regarding the yet famous Nokia E72.

So what is the FCC actually and what exactly does it mean when we talk about devices passing through it?

The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is an agency of the US government. As the name indicates the FCC is heavily involved into communication devices which are supposed to be released in the US market. Before a device is allowed to be sold in the US it has to pass the FCC which means it has to pass many different kinds of tests related mainly to the hardware. The FCC journalizes every fact related to those tests on their webpage like SAR ratings, used accessories, connectivity tests and much much more which is hardly of use the normal cutomer.

So after a device passes the FCC it means that it will definitely be available on the market soon. But sometimes it can take weeks from passing the FCC and the official release to the open market. There are also cases where a device got through the FCC but never was released because of the cancellation of the device by the manufacturer or other complications.

All in all this just means that we are closer to the E55’s release but it is still unknown how close we actually are.

You can get the whole FCC report here.

The good thing with PiZeros works are that he really pays attention to the S60 Editions while making the themes. This way they fit both the newest S60 5^th Edition devices and the older S60 3^rd Edition devices very well.

Now let us talk about the actual theme. Solstice is very nature centric because of its background/ wallpaper. The background is a picture of grass and a blue sky with white clouds. The focus of the picture is on the grass and the sky is just blurred out. Not only are the colors sky blue and grass green present on the background but they can also be found in the menus.

There is no taskbar on the home screen. The main font color is white and the battery and status bars are also white but the battery icon is black since it wouldn’t be visible otherwise because of the white clouds. The secondary font color is in a sky blue just like the background of the pop-up menus. Icons in the menu are indicated by a white square field with rounded edges. There is also a secondary indication field which is grass green.

Like with all PiZero themes Solstice comes with a lite version. The theme fits both landscape and portrait mode very well which is pretty important since almost all the new phones have an accelerometer.

To get the theme just visit the PiZero website.

Ovi Contacts is another application form the Nokia Beta Labs. It is somewhat of an IM client which is available on almost all of the S60 3^rd and 5^th Edition devices. Ovi Contacts which was known as Contacts on Ovi is still not finished yet but it runs pretty stable. There were already some updates which got rid of bugs and introduced some new improvements.

What Ovi Contacts basically does is that it allows you to chat with your friends and shows your presence to them. With this app you can also show your friends what music you are listening to, your current location or your call status. The location feature is pretty nice. You can mark the place where you are at and share it with your friends. On the app itself the name of the location will be shown. It is also possible to let your friends view your location on a map via Nokia Maps.

At the moment Ovi Contacts only allows you to add contacts from Google Talk but not the other popular IM clients like MSN, Yahoo, ICQ etc. Because of this the app is somewhat limited but since it still is in development this can change pretty soon.

Some features that are missing are for example group chat and transfer of data like pictures and such. Even if it isn’t a very good IM client at the moment it is definitely heading into the right direction. It is a very nice app to socialize with your friends.

Like with all web based mobile applications it is recommendable to have a data flat which covers the bandwidth usage of Ovi Contacts even though it uses very little bandwidth.

To download it just visit the Nokia Beta Labs.

Discuss this further at our forum.

The Katamari gaming series was first introduced in 2004 by Namco. Katamri Damacy was the first game in this series and was released on the PlayStation 2. There are several sequels to this game which mostly were released on the Sony gaming consoles. Several spin-offs were also released on the Xbox 360, Nintendo DSi and iPhone. So it isn’t surprising that there is also a Katamari version for all the cell phones that can execute java apps. This version is called Rolling with Katamari.

The concept of all the Katamari games is pretty much the same and mostly tied to an absurd story. In the case of Rolling with Katamari the King of all Cosmos has accidently knocked all the stars out of the sky and it is up to you to replace them. So your objective is to create a cluster which is big enough to replace a star.

There are 30+ levels and several different game modes. The basic game play is pretty simple. You have a small ball which you have to roll around and collect things with so that it can grow bigger. In each level you get a time limit and a specific objective. Which most of the time is diameter you have to reach during the time limit. A level mostly is located in different environments. You start on a circuit board then move on to a whole room and then to a park and etc.

Collecting things from your environment is not easy since at the start of the level you only can collect the smallest objects so that you are able to move on to the bigger objects. You have to be careful not to bump into bigger objects on the start of a level since this way you would lose precious time which is really important in later levels.

The game has decent graphics and sound. Controls are also very nice and simple. If you finished all levels you have the possibility to download more levels which is a pretty positive point about this game. Rolling with Katamari is a pretty absurd game but it is really fun to play once you get into it. To download it just visit the Ovi-Store.

Discuss this further at our forum.

The theme background/ wallpaper represents broken grey and at some points almost black asphalt with neon green graffiti like patterns on it. Those neon green patterns look really nice and refreshing. Most of them are circles with white circle parts in them which then are placed very closely together. Around those circle patterns there are some color stains which are also in neon green. Near the bottom the asphalt fades to a pitch black.

The font color is white which is very well visible both in contrast to the background and the neon green. Of course the battery and status bars are also in white. The primary indication field is slightly transparent and in neon green like you would expect it to be. A stronger shade of neon green is also used as the secondary font color which isn’t transparent.

Flahorn also overworked the music player to fit Neon Noise better. The media buttons (e.g. play, skip, stop etc.) are now in green and white.

Overall this theme is a nice alternation to the themes that I reviewed so far. It doesn’t have a really innovative concept since the circle like patterns are known to many of us already but the integration and the colors used give this theme somewhat of an individual look.

Like with every Flahorn theme you can download it over at his Deviantart page.

Discuss this further at our forum.

Handy Taskman from Epocware is very useful application for S60 phones. A taskmanager is a very essential tool for a multitasking device. With Handy Taskmen it is much easier to manage all your apps that are installed on your phone. Besides managing your apps it also shows some basic info about the phones different memories.

A really nice thing about Handy Taskman is that it replaces the standard S60 taskmanager after it is installed on your phone. This way you can start Handy Taskman just by a long press on the menu button. The first thing you will see after starting this app is the process list which shows applications that are running on your phone. Apps that are running in the background are indicated with the typical blue Nokia arrow. On the right side of Handy Taskman you will see the current time and date, the amount of free memory left on your phone. This includes the phone memory, memory card and RAM. Each kind of memory has an indication bar which shows you how much memory is in use compared to the actual amount of memory that the device has. This can also be viewed under options in Memory details.

Under Option you also have the possibility to switch off all running programs or kill some of them. You also have the possibility to search through all the apps on your phone and start them which comes really handy when you have many apps installed on your phone.

Used apps will appear later on your process list so that you can start them directly from Handy Taskman. You can also add apps that you use very often to a favorite list so that you have a faster access to them.

Overall this is one of the only capable taskmanagers for S60 cell phones besides Best Taskman. It really helps when you have a device which has a low amount of RAM. Other than that it does a much better job than the native S60 taskmanager which seems just pitiful compared to this app. In my opinion it is definitely worth a buy if you have many apps installed on your phone.

Handy Taskman costs $14,95 and has also a 14 day trial version. Visit the Epocware Website to buy this app.

Discuss this further at our forum.

One is a fighting game for devices which supports N-Gage. Back in 2005 One was also available for the N-Gage device which was a combination of a cell phone and handheld gaming system. It was a very popular N-Gage game and was considered as one of the best games for that platform. The reason being is that One had awesome 3D graphics and was one of the few fighting games for N-Gage.

Last year Nokia published a newer version of this game for their N-Gage supporting cell phones and it seems like that the graphics got even better. The graphics seem very smooth and movements look fluid which is one of the most important factors when it comes to a fighting game.

The objective of the game is to fight yourself to the top so that you can become the One which refers to the best fighter around. To do this you have to start with the story mode in which you can create your own character and customize their clothes, hairstyles and accessories. The actual gameplay isn’t that special since it is a beat-em-up game where you have to beat up opponents after opponents. You have three possible fighting styles which you can change during the fight. The fighting styles include an offensive style, a defensive style and a normal style which is a combination of the offensive and defensive styles. There are many moves you can pull of and they are fairly easy to do. Sadly there is no background music and you will be only left with the rather bland fighting sounds.

There are over 30 opponents who you have to beat to rise in the ranks. Playing is done in of the 7 locations of One. If you want to play against someone other than the computer then you can do so via the Bluetooth function.

One is a nice game and most certainly not without flaws but it still is one of the best mobile fighting games. Like with every other N-Gage games this one also has a demo which sadly doesn’t give you a glimpse at the training mode. To get the training mode you have to buy the full version for €10 at N-Gage.

If you are an avid Google Mail user then the free GMail client for S60 3rd Edition should be of interest to you. It is a java based application which will allow you to receive and send emails via Google Mail a lot easier. Of course you can also visit the mobile version of Google Mail on the regular S60 web browser but using that browser can sometimes be a real pain. So the standalone Gmail client is a nice app to have.

After opening this app for the first time you will be asked to log in and after that you can begin to use the actual email client. The Gmail client has the option to pre load the email content so that you don’t have to wait too long to get a look into your in-box. The mails are sorted according to date which is pretty logical since the latest mails are the most relevant to people who are on the go.

Sending emails with the Gmail client isn’t hard to do. You have the possibility to search for a specific contact with the help of a search bar at the top. Writing the mails are also very easy since you get an extra window which takes up the complete screen while typing. It looks almost like the text field where you type your text messages or notes.

The fonts look very clear and are well readable. Navigating through the mail client is smooth and the user interface is pleasant to look at. Overall it shouldn’t be too hard using Gmail effectively.

Discuss this further at our forum.

The Zen Series is a series of PiZero premium themes which contains three individual themes. The three themes included in this pack are Zen Fire, Zen Violet and Zen Aqua. The names derive from the main colors of the themes. Besides the colors the themes hardly differ from each other.

Let us start with the Zen Fire Theme. The color of the background image is a fierce red. On the right bottom corner the red is lighter. It looks like as if a light is emitting at that spot. Therefore the other side of the theme is in a darker red. The menu bar on the home screen is a silvery white just like the clock and the battery and status bars. This color is also used as the main font color. In the main menu the indication field is not surprisingly also in this color. The secondary font color is the same fierce red that can be found on the background image and pop up windows.

The Aqua is identical to the Fire theme. The only difference is the background color and secondary font color which is an aqua blue. The Violet theme has violet as its background and secondary font color and misses the silvery white menu bar that the Aqua and Fire themes have.

Overall these themes have a very professional look. All the themes of this series are very detailed making them look like an original Nokia theme. And that is exactly how it should be when it comes to premium themes. After all you have to pay €7,99 for these three themes. You can also buy these individually but then each one will cost €4,99. The Zen Series is available at the PiZero website.

Discuss this further at our forum.