Archive for October, 2007

Pocket Gamer takes a look at the new Nokia N81 and N95 devices, but focuses on the important stuff: How are they for games?

“The [N81’s] slider, which is currently available for purchase, is surprisingly well-equipped for gaming. Along with a traditional orientation that situates the phone upright for play, the device can be tilted on its side for a landscape presentation. This option won’t be available for all titles since it isn’t native to the device; instead, it’ll be supported on a game-by-game basis.”

The writer goes on to discuss the N95, the pre-installed game demos, and the overall N-Gage experience that is coming soon, including a quick overview of N-Gage Points.

Definitely worth checking out. Another article on the same site covers EA Mobile’s private briefing at the recent CTIA show, including coverage of Nokia and N-Gage.

Finally if you’d rather watch than read, the latest episode of the Smartphones Show includes a hands-on review of the new Nokia N95 8GB. See it here.

While “Mosh and Seek” may sound like professional wrestlers playing hide and seek, they are in fact parts of a broader effort by Nokia to facilitate the creation and sharing of content for mobile devices.

MOSH — short for Mobilize and Share — is an application, currently in beta, that allows users to upload, download, and share mobile content they or others have created with others in the MOSH community.

Revealed at the CTIA show in San Francisco this week, SEEK is a new extension to MOSH that allows you to submit customized search requests to the MOSH community to help you find the exact content you are looking for:

“SEEK is the third dimension in the evolution of MOSH. The first dimension was the ability to upload and share content with a global audience; the second was downloading and customizing your device; now SEEK provides the ability to seek content and interact with the community, SEEK will tap into the power of the MOSH community and provide customized responses to people’s mobile needs.”

If you haven’t tried out MOSH yet, now’s a good time. The application is free and should work on any Nokia device. Check the site for more.

Good morning, afternoon, or evening to you — depending on where you are. It’s time for some coffee and N-Gage news, so without further ado, here are today’s clickables…

N-Gage expectations: The graphicsPocket Gamer kicks off a new series of articles looking at their hopes and expectations for Nokia’s next generation of N-Gage. Their first article discusses the next generation N-Gage’s graphics.

Touch Interface for S60
All About Symbian has posted up a write-up and a YouTube video showing Nokia’s touch interface for Series 60 devices.  This was revealed at last week’s Symbian Smartphone Show, for those of you that missed it.

Save our Rifts!
Tzer2 on All About N-Gage makes an impassioned plea for Nokia to step in and assist Palladium Books, our partner in the Rifts: Promise of Power first generation N-Gage game.

Nokia N95 8GB Review
Finally, one of the first reviews of the N95 8GB that I’ve seen. A quote: “Is this the best smartphone ever made? Yes.”

That’s it for now, if you see anything cool add a link!

Develop Magazine has a new interview with Dr. Mark Ollila up, talking about cross-platform gaming, user-generated content, and other leading edge concepts. Dr. Ollila is head of first-party publishing for N-Gage as well as director of technology and strategy.

In the article, he hints at some of Nokia’s plans for these concepts in next generation N-Gage games, alluding to the previously-reported Project White Rock as well as a second, unnamed game in development:

“For one of the titles we are working on, we are looking at the possibility of letting players create a game and sharing that experience with others.”

Take a look.

Following up on the release of the Nokia N95 8GB (try saying that five times fast), our pals over at All About Symbian has posted up an unboxing photo diary, complete with lots of juicy photos of the etched lens, the multimedia keys, and more.

Also check out the N-Gage icon in the interface — it’s not the actual N-Gage application, but it should be something called the Discover N-Gage application.

The Discover application is designed to give you a taste of the full experience and help you go and download the full application is available. 

Not to be outdone, Into Mobile has also posted a video showing off the unboxing of an N81 8GB. It’s like a birthday party!

The Nokia N95 8GB has begun shipping to selected markets — check out this device page on N-Gage.com for all the juicy details on this multimedia computer.

But as the name suggests, one of the key features is the eight gigabytes of memory built right into the device.

As part of the rollout, and to show off this storage capacity, there is a special version that is coming pre-loaded with a full-length feature film.

The film is Spider-Man 3, the third installment in the Peter Parker saga from Sony Pictures Entertainment. The special version of the N95 8GB with the film preloaded is available in Europe and selected markets in Africa and the Middle East. It also includes Spider-Man goodies such as a ring tone, wallpaper, and a screen saver.

How to start the movie:

Go to Menu -> Video Centre -> My Videos
Select “Spider-Man 3″
The movie will begin automatically and it will play in full-screen landscape mode. The My Videos folder also includes a movie trailer.

It’s pretty amazing that devices like these today have so much memory they can come preloaded with an entire film. Makes you wonder what’s in store a few years down the road — maybe a device with all twenty seasons of The Simpsons pre-installed, or the entire film catalog of Stanley Kubrick.

On your phone multimedia computer.

All About N-Gage has put up a new poll asking you to vote on which first and third party games for the first generation N-Gage you’d like to see return for the next generation.

“Contrary to popular belief, the original generation of N-Gage had many great games, but unfortunately almost all of them were released in 2004 and 2005, after most of the gaming world started ignoring the system in 2003. Now that the Next Generation of N-Gage is here, perhaps there’s a chance to give some of these wonderful “lost” games another chance. “

Be sure to check it out and vote! So far, Pathway to Glory has a commanding lead in first party games, and Worms World Party is leading the pack for third party titles.

In other news, I’ve put up a couple new movies on the game pages of N-Gage.com. The Asphalt 3 page has a new movie, in better resolution and showing more gameplay than the earlier one. There’s also a brand new movie for Brothers in Arms, the World War II action game from Gameloft.

To view the videos, go to the Showroom then to an individual game page, then click on the “View Screenshots” button. There is a thumbnail in the Gallery that will start the video playing.

Finally, there are new high resolution pictures of the Nokia N81 8GB available on the Nokia press photo site.

Pocket Gamer has put up a beefy interview with Dr. Mark Ollila, head of first-party publishing for N-Gage as well as director of technology and strategy. In this wide-ranging discussion, they talk about everything from global positioning, Nokia’s music initiatives, Project White Rock and cross-platform gaming, and more.

Here’s a snip:

“What’s important, though, is we don’t want to necessarily have the technology driving the actual gameplay. We’re very focused on creating good games, so gameplay is very important, obviously. But what we’re looking at is how technology can add to that gameplay, and give an experience that players will enjoy.”

Definitely worth a read.

Gulfnews.com, a news outlet located in the United Arab Emirates, has posted up a thorough and accurate overview of the next generation of the N-Gage program on its English language website.

While none of the details will be new to anyone who’s been following this blog for a while, we should all be pleased to see this kind of coverage outside the gamer press.

It’s also a nice demonstration of the N-Gage’s global appeal; speaking from experience I know that our N-Gage Players of the Month came from all around the world — Turkey, Poland, India, to name a few — and not just the traditional gaming markets of the US, Western Europe, and Japan. I’d be surprised if that wasn’t also the case for the next generation of N-Gage.

Go ahead and comment where you guys are from. Oh, and on an unrelated note, for those of you who thought side-talking was awkward, I got a kick out of this…  :)

It seems that some smarty pants at the University of Applied Sciences in Hagenberg, Austria have created some software to allow S60 devices, like the N95 with the Nintendo controler, the Wiimote. The software Wiiconnect uses the bluetooth driver of the device and “enables you to play party games directly on / through your mobile phone,” it even takes advantage of the accelerometer and rumble functionality of the Wiimote. The team even crafted WiiRider, a motorcycle simulation that utilizes the Wiimote’s features. The best news is it’s being provided as freeware in the read link below. Be interested to hear any comments from folks that get this working.

Symbian Resources - Wii Rider

Via Mobile Closeup via Engadget