The long anticipating Swype input is now available for Nokia Phones, thanks for the collaboration between Swype Inc and Nokia Lab. I’m a long time fan of Swype since my first experience of using it on Samsung Galaxy S. Now I’m glad that I can use it on my Nokia N97 even though it’s still under beta testing.

Currently, Swype for Nokia supports the following Nokia S60 5th Edition touch screen phones :-

• Nokia 5800
• Nokia 5230
• Nokia X6
• Nokia N97
• Nokia N97mini

I recorded my first swype on Nokia N97, check it out :-

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Swype Input Is Now Available For Nokia Phones

Last Friday, I received an email from Nokia Ovi team informing me that my idea Instant Voice Translation Application is 1 of the final 13 ideas the judges of Make My App competition selected. All these 13 ideas will be developed into real applications and included in the upcoming Nokia flagship smartphone, Nokia N8. In other words, you’ll see Instant Voice Translation running in the phone when it hits the market in Q3 2010. :)

This piece of fantastic news is indeed the best news so far in this year.

Instant Voice Translation (Click to enlarge)

• 1. The phone user speaks to the phone in foreign language.
• 2. The phone translates the spoken words into English by utilizing its voice recognition and language translation feature.
• 3. The phone sends a query to dictionary.com or Google Dictionary for the voice pronunciation of the translated words.
• 4. The dictionary.com or Google Dictionary server returns the voice output to the phone.
• 5. The phone will output the translated words in voice to the user.

More than 6,000 ideas were submitted in this Make My App competition, 90 got shortlisted, then the final 13 were selected by the judges. I would like to thank all of you who have voted because my idea won’t get shortlisted without your votes. Thanks a lot for making it a reality!

The prizes for winning the competition is a Nokia N8 loaded with all these proposed applications and a trip to London to attend Nokia World Event 2010 on 13^th-15^th September 2010.

I can’t wait to see all these winning applications running in Nokia N8. Stay tuned for more first hand news about Nokia World Even 2010 and Nokia N8 from me by either following me (@sapiensbryan) in Twitter or subscribing to my blog feeds.

I wrote a post about the 5 Unique Things You Can Do Using (Only) Nokia N900 in May. Today I’m gonna show you another 5 to make it a total of 10 unique things you can do with Nokia N900.

The number continues from my previous post, hence starting from #6 :-

6. Run 3 widely used web browsers (Firefox, Opera & Chrome)

I have no idea how I left this out in my previous post. I should have included this in my first post.

Anyway, Nokia N900 is able to run all 3 popular browsers :-

• Mozilla Firefox Mobile
• Opera Mobile (Not Opera Mini, see the difference)
• Google Chrome

Firefox Mobile is exclusively available for Maemo devices only at the moment, making Nokia N900 one of the first few devices to have the honour to run it. Besides, Opera Mobile runs smoothly on N900 as well, all thanks to the huge virtual memory the device has. Last but not least, you are able to run Google Chrome in n900 too, even though Google Chrome is not officially available for Maemo phone yet. Anyway, it runs. :)

On top of the above 3 browsers, the default web browser of Nokia N900 is capable to load Flash content such as Facebook and Youtube videos right inside the web browser itself.

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Another 5 Unique Things You Can Do Using (Only) Nokia N900

Don’t you just hate it when you see the following picture while surfing on the Internet using Nokia N900 or any other phones?

Well, no more frustration as I’ll show you a trick to play flash right in the web browser of your Nokia N900. This trick works for many sites, including Facebook and Youtube videos.

You’ll need this application installed on your N900 :-

• Tweak Flash Plugin Version

Below are some simple steps to play Flash in your Nokia N900 web browser :-

• 1. Search for the above application in Application Manager and install it.
• 2. Launch the application once you’ve installed it.
• 3. Start surfing! :)

For some reasons, the application might not be able to run by double-clicking the application icon. No worries, you just need to launch the application via X-Terminal. Below are the steps to launche the application from X-Terminal :-

• 1. Search for rootsh in Application Manager and install it.
• 2. Open X-Terminal and type sudo /usr/bin/tweakflashver then hit Enter. This command will launch the Tweak Flash Plugin Version application.
• 3. Once Tweak Flash Plugin Version application is running, you can start surfing! :)

Below is the video showing you this trick :-

If you think this trick is useful, please feel free to share it with your friends who are using Nokia N900 as well.
Cheers!

I was totally addicted to this 3D racing game, Asphalt 5, and was playing it everyday on my Samsung Galaxy S since last week.

Asphalt 5 Splash Screen

The full version of Asphalt 5 is available for download in Samsung Apps at no charge. I thank Samsung for giving it free to all the users of Samsung Galaxy S. Anyway, this 3D racing game is priced at US$4.99 and is available at the developer’s site, GameLoft.com.

The game basically offers you 4 racing modes :-

• Quick race – Pick a racing venue and practice. No monetary reward in this mode.
• Career – Complete a race to advance to a higher level. You’ll win some money in each level to buy cars and accessories. New cars and girls will be unlocked in different levels as well.
• Multiplayer – Race with other player(s) of Asphalt 5 via WiFi connection.
• WCG2010 – Race with other players of Asphalt 5 online over the Internet. Live result is available at asphalt-5.com

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Samsung Galaxy S 3D Racing Game – Asphalt 5

The 2-week Maxis10 review programme of Samsung Galaxy S is coming to an end tomorrow, so I’m wrapping up all the reviews that I’ve done so far. You may find all interesting reviews from the reviewers using the hashtag #Maxis10 in Twitter.

Each of us in this review programme have covered different aspects of Samsung Galaxy S in our reviews, below are mine :-

• Samsung Galaxy S Unboxing
  The unboxing process of Samsung Galaxy S phone package
• 10 Things You Want To Know About Samsung Galaxy S
  Some important aspects of Samsung Galaxy S that you might want to know.
• Samsung Galaxy S Super AMOLED Screen Close Up
  Super AMOLED screen is one of the main selling points of Samsung Galaxy S, so this post is meant to show you how the screen looks like. Seriously, you need to see the phone in front of your own eyes because even the HD video in this post does not do the Super AMOLED screen enough justice. :)
• Samsung Galaxy S TV-Out Feature
  This post showing you how to use the TV Out feature of Samsung Galaxy S. You’ll find it very useful.
• Samsung Galaxy S 5mp Camera – Features & Pictures
  My review of the 5-megapixel camera of Samsung Galaxy S. Plenty of pictures and a video showing you how to snap panorama picture using the phone.
• Samsung Galaxy S Camera : HD Video
  A sample of High Definition (HD) video I took using the phone.
• Samsung Galaxy S Battery Life Tests
  A series of extensive tests on the battery life of Samsung Galaxy S. You’ll find the answers to battery performance of the phone under extreme usage.
• Samsung Galaxy S Reception Test
  A simple reception test on Samsung Galaxy S to check whether the phone will suffer the same significant signal lost like the iPhone 4 under normal holding, tight grip or using the finger tips.

One thing I want to stress is that no phone is perfect, but there will be a phone that is perfect for you.

Samsung Galaxy S does have its strengths and weaknesses but it successfully amazed me in many ways. To wrap up my Samsung Galaxy S review series, the impressed me decided to do a quick and simple survey to gather opinions and first impression on Samsung Galaxy S from random individuals in a shopping mall after I show them the phone and let them play with it for a while. Below is the video :-

If you are interested in getting the phone, go to the nearest Maxis Center and check out the phone. They are having a promotion right now offering you the phone at only RM1,699 under 1 year contract. The normal price without contract is RM2,599.

Now good luck to all fellow Maxis10 reviewers.