Following on from last bit of news about the Walt Disney secrets Notescast, here’s another of Timestream Software’s apps for another cool attraction!

TimeStream Software is offering free downloads of its new Glacier National Park Notecast for the iPod Classic and iPod nano on www.Notescasts.com. With 110 interactive pages, complete with photos, it’s a comprehensive new guide to Glacier National Park…all on the iPod.

“With its stunning scenery, vast backcountry and countless miles of hiking trails, Glacier National Park is an excellent subject for a Notescast title.”, said Mike Westby of TimeStream Software. Now park visitors can access a wealth of interactive park information on their iPods right in the palm (NSDQ: PALM) of their hands when they plan their trip, or while it the park itself.”

TimeStream Software encourages Notescast® developers to develop related titles for Glacier National Park, including Notescasts for specific hikes, backcountry tips, park tour guides, driving guides, flora & fauna information and more. Information on the easy development process is available at Notescasts.com.

“Anyone can learn to develop a Notescast.”, continued Mr. Westby. “If anyone has expertise on Glacier National Park, or any subject matter, they can now develop their own Notescast titles and share them with iPod users around the world via www.Notescasts.com.”

Sounds cool doesn’t it?

[Via: Notescasts.com]

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) is bringing back its flagship all-touchscreen device to its U.S. Flagship Stores in Chicago and New York. The firmware of the device has been updated and now the Tube sings perfectly along AT&T (NYSE: T)’s 3G network.

In case you pre-ordered the 5800 online, you’ll get your unit within 1-2 weeks. Otherwise, if you’ve already grabbed one, it’s fair to bet an update will be released soon through Nokia Software Updater.

Glad to see Nokia acting promptly. After all, if they want to get a decent share of the U.S. handset market, this kind of glitches shouldn’t happen often. And if they do happen, a quick reaction is a must…

[Via: TheNokiaBlog]

Forum Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has recently released classic card game, Solitaire for S60 5th Edition, as an example application to demonstrate the touch features of the platform. In that sense, in addition to tapping the cards, users can also drag and drop them around, just like they would do on a desktop computer with a mouse.

Also included in the game is the support for tactile feedback using the Touch Feedback API, to show developers how they can use the functionality in their apps. Cards are implemented as Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) icons, but the example also provides an option to draw them using methods of the graphics context class CWindowGc…

Interested to develop for S60 5th Edition or just want to play the game? Here’s a link to the Forum Nokia page with all the details from where you can also download the code.

[Via: SymbianFreak]

Just when we reported that Monopoly was launched for N-Gage, we’ve found out yet another solid title is available for the platform. It’s the brand new Prince of Persia, featuring cool 3D graphics and great animation of all the characters.

Here’s the official description:

The Prince is back in a new kind of adventure in full 3D where cooperation with the mysterious Elika will let you perform actions never before seen on a mobile device. Partnered with Elika, prepare for amazing acrobatics and fight gigantic monsters in 360° with a mix of magic and electrifying combat techniques! To save the world from a magical menace that has contaminated everything in its path, you must be ready for anything: ride a dragon, swing from precariously high ropes, and fight a multitude of enemies in gigantic 3D environments full of traps and secrets to discover.

Again, in order to see the game on you N-Gage client, you’ll need to update it first. Hop over to “Options” then “Update Now,” and you should see the Prince listed in the showroom.

One warning – we’re talking about a 24MB-heavy download here, hence I would suggest you grab the game while in a hotspot. That’s in case you’re not on an unlimited data plan, of course. Enjoy the game!

[Via: Darla Mack]

Leading the charge against entrenched smartphone incumbent Nokia (NYSE: NOK), both RIM and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) have proven that consumers are a finicky bunch. Following on data that had Apple and RIM at least doubling the size of their slice of the smartphone market, at Nokia’s expense, we’re presented with new data from Gartner that confirms Apple and RIM’s mobile OS offerings are leading the charge against the Finns and their Symbian mobile OS.

Gartner’s data shows looks at the growth of smartphone market share through mobile OS market share – all smartphones come installed with a mobile OS, which makes mobile OS market share growth a reliable way to measure smartphone market share growth. Apple blew past other smartphone makers with its Mac OS platform showing an explosive growth rate of 245.7% from 2007 to 2008. Apple saw their Mac OS selling over 11 million units in 2008. RIM held its own by growing its BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) platform 96.7% from 2007 to 2008, on sales of more than 23 million in 2008.

Meanwhile, Nokia saw their Symbian market share shrink 6.1% on sales of just under 73 million units. It’s clear that Nokia is still the market leader, by a fairly large margin, but there’s no doubt that the “little guys” are playing catch up as we speak.

Apple ended 2008 with 10.7% of the global smartphone market, with RIM capturing a solid 19.5% of the worldwide smartphone space. Nokia saw its majority share of the world’s smartphone market drop to just 40.8% in 2008 – still a formidable slice of the pie no doubt, but a smaller, formidable slice, to be sure.

Worldwide, smartphone sales were up 13.9% in 2008, compared with figures from 2007. It seems the global demand for smartphones has outpaced the dwindling global economy. After all, we’re always going to need cellphones.

We can only imagine Nokia’s troubles are just starting, what with Palm (NSDQ: PALM)’s WebOS expected to take the world by storm later this year. Unfortunately, Nokia’s move to go open-source with Symbian might not be enough to fend off the advances from the likes of Apple and RIM.

[Via: Cnet]

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) has released three short video clips demoing the latest music devices announced – Nokia 5030, Nokia 5330 XpressMusic and Nokia 5730 XpressMusic. As you’re about to see, there are big hopes hidden behind this trio. Personally, I see them selling like hot cupcakes – they are not expensive and the right message is on place.

First comes the Nokia 5030 demo, while the other two clips follow after the jump. Enjoy!

Read the full article »

Remember the sleek, entry-level Nokia 7205 clamshell (flip-phone) that Nokia (NYSE: NOK) was preparing for Verizon (NYSE: VZ) Wireless’s network? More than a year since we first laid eyes on this slim flip, it seems the Nokia Intrigue 7205 has finally made its way into Verizon’s product-pipeline. Newly leaked pictures of the Verizon Nokia Intrigue hints at the No. 1 US wireless carrier getting ready to launch the affordable handset.

The Nokia Intrigue 7205 will apparently launch in two flavors – one will sport an all-black finish with a standard navigation-pad, the other will offer a pink keypad with a flower-themed navigation-pad. The Nokia Intrigue offers entry-level customers a handful of style to go along with a decent feature set – 2MP camera, QVGA display, Bluetooth, VCast video, mobile web, and microSD card slot are its highlights.

Look for the Verizon-branded Nokia Intrigue 7205 to launch around March 15th!

[Via: PhoneArena]

It seems one of the only things growing in this hostile global economy is the number of smartphones being sold around the world. The growth of sales in this particular segment highlights the smartphone’s recent push to popularity. The smartphone market now sits at a new high, showing 3.7% growth in sales  (38.1 million handsets) for Q4 2008. Unfortunately for Nokia (NYSE: NOK), Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and Samsung and RIM’s assaults on the smartphone space has left the Finnish cellphone giant with less overall and smartphone market share.

While Nokia still leads the world as the largest mobile phone maker, Espoo saw its overall market share drop from 50.9% to a more humble 40.8%. More significantly, Nokia’s smartphone sales declined 17% to 15.6 million units in the last quarter of 2008. “Nokia’s entry-level smartphone range will continue to offer good value for the money, but Nokia remains more exposed to pressure from competition in the higher end of the consumer smartphone market as the Nseries loses its appeal,” said research firm Gartner Research

Apple, on the other hand, saw sales of its iPhone more than doubling to 4.1 million units, up from 1.9 million. The boost in smartphone sales has given Apple a solid 10.7% of the global smartphone market, a not-so-small increase from 5.2%.

Samsung’s Q4 2008 smartphone sales highlighted the manufacturer’s break-out success in the smartphone segment. Samsung’s sales grew 138%, hitting 1.6 million. The added sales helped increase Samsung’s market share to 4.2% in the fourth quarter, up from 1.8%.

RIM likewise impressed with an 85% growth in sales of its popular BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM) smartphones. RIM moved 7.4 million BlackBerry handsets, netting it 19.5% of the smartphone market. RIM had previously held 10.9% of the world’s smartphone market.

HTC’s Q4 2008 saw 1.6 million Windows Mobile smartphones sold, a more modest 20% growth in sales. HTC can now lay claim to a global smartphone market share of 4.3%, up from 3.7%

It seems that the growth of the smartphone market has benefited all the big names in the smartphone space – that is, with the exception of Nokia. The success of Nokia’s competition is likely due to “their ability to offer compelling device experiences and touch interfaces,” according to Gartner.

[Via: CNNMoney]

Following a private beta announced in our forums, one of my favourite voice applications for BlackBerry (NSDQ: RIMM), Vlingo, is spreading its wings both technologically and linguistically with a new version for S60, supporting British accents, German and Spanish language recognition. What can you do with Vlingo? Well, just about everything, to be honest: transcribe messages, launch applications, do web searches, start calls, make task lists, update Facebook status, and send tweets. The turnaround time on a command isn’t crazy, and it learns the more you use it, but you do have to take the time to train the app – I use it only occasionally, so it’s still a little off, but it was good enough to make Yahoo!’s cut for OneSearch. Only those with a Nokia (NYSE: NOK) N95, N96, N81, E51 or E71 need apply. Brits can sign up here, Germans here, and Spaniards here. Let us know what you think!