NockIt allows you to use your Nokia touch-enabled device (either new  Symbian device or S60 5.0 device) for blackboard-style writing and drawing, and to share your creations with others. You can write, sketch and erase, and there are an unlimited number of pages.

Did I say blackboard? Well, actually, it’s the greenboard look from the 70s and 80s, rather than the actual blackboard look from the 60s and before. I tried the Qt-based NockIt on my Nokia N8 and the first thing I did was scrawl up a grocery list, as shown below.

Now, I have full-sized man fingers and no patience for caligraphy, so I found that about four or five items was about as much as I could get onto one screen. Fortunately a long grocery list could be put on as many screens as I needed just by clicking on the new page icon in the upper right of the screen. I should note that had I been using a stylus as I would have with my Nokia N97 or Nokia XPressMusic 5800 devices, then I would have gotten a much finer line and greater control, and could have put more information on one screen. One scrolls among the screens using the left and right arrows at the bottom of the screen.

The nice thing about making out the grocery list on NockIt was that I didn’t actually have to go to the store to get the items. My wife was already at the store, and I just sent her the list by clicking on the icon in the upper left of the screen.  Below is a screen showing the dropdown choices  that one gets by clicking on the icon in the upper left. This screen was not actually the transmission of the grocery list, but of a notification to my friends of a foosball tournament that I was organizing for next Wednesday night.

As you can see from the drop-down list, there is also the option to delete the entire page as well. If I had just wanted to erase part of my scribbling, then I would use the top middle icon, the eraser icon. It actually is a toggle switch between eraser and pencil functions as you need to draw more or erase more.

When I clicked on the Share option, the screen below appeared, offering me the options of sending the screen via message, e-mail, or Bluetooth. If you have Pixelpipe set up on your device, that option will also appear in the list of choices.  I sent the grocery list via SMS, and the foosball tourney notification via e-mail to a listserv of foosball fanatics that I know.

When you are in close proximity to someone with a Bluetooth-enabled device, you can also pass critical information, such as your phone number, to them in a discreet manner.

Just to show you that people with more drawing skills than myself actually can create drawings on a NockIt screen, I include the screen below.

One other usage that my wife and I found for NockIt was in a crowded room social situation. We used NockIt as a messaging scratch pad, passing notes back and forth to each other like a couple of school kids. Some people just never grow up.

NockIt is available for free in Ovi Store.

More information about the app is available from the LineFarmer website.

No matter how much capacity you give me, I’ll find a way to fill it up. That basic rule holds for my computers, digital cameras, smartphones … you name it. I remember back in the day having to delete reams of SMS messages to free up kilobytes of space on my mobile so there would be room for another calendar entry or two. Now my Nokia N8 has so much storage I use it as a big thumb drive, transporting data and media files from one location to another.  Grovr Folder Sizes from UK-based Matthew Grover gives me an easy way to see where I’m storing the most data on my Nokia Smartphone so I can clean it up every now and then.

Grovr Folder Sizes is compatible with Nokia touch smartphones and is available as a fully functional 10-day trial or as a lifetime install for $0.99 (USD). I tested the paid version on my Nokia N8.

The interface on the Qt-based Folder Sizes app is clean, intuitive, and appropriately interactive. As you open the app, it scans all your storage locations to generate the management views.

The clean interface opens with a scan of your data storage locations.

Once the scan is complete (it takes about 12 seconds on my N8) Grovr Folder Sizes presents you with a collapsed directory tree showing the amount of data stored on each of your drives.  It would be nice to also provide the user with an indication of the total or available capacity on each drive.

Top-level view shows were you store the most data.

From here the interaction is exactly as you’d expect. Touch anywhere in a row with a preceding  + square icon to expand the tree to see details. Touch any expanded row (it will then have a “-” square icon) and the tree collapses back to summary form.

Expand or collapse a directory tree with a single touch.

Because the entire directory tree view is occupied by touch panels to control the directory view, you cannot scroll through the view using the “touch-drag” gesture that you may expect to work. However, the developer provided an ample scroll bar on the right hand side of the display.

The primary purpose of a utility app like Grovr Folder Sizes is to manage your memory, which means deleting files you don’t need.  The app makes this incredibly easy. In fact, in my opinion a previous release of the the app made deleting files entirely too easy. Now, when you ask the app to delete a file or an entire directory you get an “are your sure” screen to make sure you don’t accidentally hurt yourself.

If you are the type of user who fills digital devices to capacity, Grovr Folder Sizes provides an easy way for you to manage your memory.

Recently, I have been watching a lot of alien sci-fi TV drama including the latest season of Dr. Who! So, when I got a chance to try IronPlane HD, an alien fighter spaceship game, I was super excited. The game is set in the not so distant future where humanity is under attack by the ‘Huron’ race. The ‘Hurons’ have already destroyed a major portion of planet Earth. Now, you have to lead the human fight back by piloting the state of the art IronPlane in the enemy territory!

Before you start on your mission, you can choose from two types of planes – the plasma fighter plane or the laser fighter plane. The plasma fighter plane fires out multiple bursts of plasma radiation and the laser fighter plane creates a lethal laser beam right in front of the plane. I prefer the plasma fighter plane as it gives me options to destroy enemies from a longer distance. To enable this weapon, you need to tap on the ‘F’ icon (for Fire) in the right side of the screen.

The IronPlane can be steered in four directions using the virtual pad on the bottom part of the screen. The red dot at the center of the virtual pad parks the plane in space. One of the most powerful weapons in your arsenal is the nuclear missile (represented by the N icon on the right side of the screen). This weapon destroys everything on the screen but you just have a limited supply of them to start with. The other controls and status indicators available to you are shown below.

The game has simple graphics, which include impressive background images. The background music adds to the ‘Star Wars-esque’ atmosphere of the game.  You can enable and disable special effects in the Options menu. If you enable the accelerometer control in this menu, you can steer your plane by moving your phone! The accelerometer based control may take time to get used to. Once you master it, you will definitely enjoy it better than the virtual pad based control.

Each game level has a unique theme with new challenges and more powerful enemy spacecrafts. Each level has a boss battle format with the climax being the most challenging and engaging part of the level. Some of the controls such as the ‘Boost’ bomb (‘B’ icon on the weapon controls on the right side of the screen) are enabled in specific levels. There are two modes of game play – ‘Normal’ and ‘Hard’. After you finish all the levels in ‘Normal’ mode, you can proceed to the ‘Hard’ mode.

There are some areas where the game can be improved. I noted that sometimes the menu controls were unresponsive. Furthermore, the size of weapon/bomb control icons could be increased. Overall, IronPlane HD scores well for a basic Java game.

IronPlane HD is available for $0.99 (USD) in Ovi Store. If you have a Nokia Symbian OS, S60 3.x device, you can try the free version to get an idea of the game play -  IronPlane Demo.

What are you waiting for? The world needs you to fight the wicked aliens – NOW!

The developers at HeroCraft have come up trumps with their latest action puzzler, Robo. They label it as logic and consistency in the bustle of hot cybernetic passion, asking you to guide your little robot through various landscapes until you reach the evil Discharger’s underground lair. But will your lovesick robot survive the deadly terrain?

Underneath all the talk of exploring maps, trying to find your beloved robot partner, lasers, bombs and mirrors, there is a classic game that has been brought to Nokia’s new Symbian devices. That game is Sokobahn.

Before we get too far, let’s pause to take a look at a quick video demo showing Robo in action, care of my All About Symbian colleague, Rafe Blandford who tested it out on the Nokia C7:

Back in the original Sokobahn, your goal was to push boxes around to specific spaces in the top down game grid. Push all the boxes into place and you win the level. Robo takes this a step further, both in simplicity and complexity.

First up is the simplicity. All you need to do is get your robot to the exit door in each level. You can leave chaos behind, a mess of lasers and debris, or a level clear of every nasty element. The choice is yours, and that makes for a much nicer gaming experience.

Then there is the complexity. Standing in your way is a mix of bombs, lasers and mirrors, criss-crossing the grid. Stand next to an exploding bomb, and you’ll need to start the level again. Have a laser touch you, and you need to start the level again. Stand next to a mirror, and you can push it!

Here’s where the planning and thinking comes in, because mirrors can’t be destroyed by lasers (only bombs). Like a good mirror with light, the laser will be bounced round a 90 degree corner. With smart placement, you can have a laser shine on a bomb to explode it (which also means it explodes any bombs next to it, in a chain reaction), or to shine on another laser generator, exploding that and removing one of the many beams of death from the grid.

Just like Sokobahn, you can only push the mirrors, there’s no pulling back, so you will need to move around the mirrors to be able to push them in the required direction. That’s pushing with care, mind you, as you don’t want to walk into another laser (or indeed have a laser reflected back on you as the mirror pattern changes around you.

This constantly changing terrain is what makes Robo a great mental challenge, because the majority of changes will only happen as a direct consequence of your actions. When it is yourself killing yourself, there’s a frustration that you can only clear by clearing the level. Which makes you want to see the next level, and the cycle continues. That’s good game design at the macro level.

At the micro level, the interaction between the various elements leads to a changing environment almost each time you make a step, and, while it is all predictable, the longer you play the game the more steps ahead you need to plan. A good learning curve is on show here, as is a certain restraint in the level design to stop it becoming too complicated too soon.

The only weak area in Robo is the control system. The idea is simple, you press above, below, or to the side of your robot and you’ll take one step in that direction. The key thing to remember here is that this is always relative to the position on the screen. There are times when touching the screen in the same location can lead to a different action. Having to focus on controls which can shift and change means no muscle control, and I feel like I’m always fighting the game.

Because of the nature of the game, you do need to look around the game grid to see what is going on and to plan a strategy to get to the exit door. HeroCraft have gone with an on-screen toggle button that lets you move the map around – I think I’d have preferred some sort of zoom function, but that may have required a lot of changes in the display code for the title, so this is a compromise that makes sense.

What’s here is a great puzzle game. It has roots in the classics of yesteryear but adds in enough new material, with cute but clear graphics, to give it a fresh feel. It’s never going to be an A-list title, but it’s one that’s worth a week or two of your time, because it is slick, presented well, and is challenging while remaining fun. Recommended.

Robo is available for $1.99 (USD) in Ovi Store. There is also a Lite version available for free trial.

About the guest blogger:

Ewan Spence sits in the space between podcasting, blogging, writing and reporting. You might recognise him from All About Symbian, but you can follow his online adventures through Twitter (@Ewan), as he bounces around the world, covering technology, culture, and even the lives of love-sick robots!

Sports gamers, prepare for a game that is part football, part soccer, and a whole lot of fun! Speedball 2 Evolution, created by Tower Studios, is here!

Speedball 2 Evolution is run like a tournament. By making your way through each quarter final, semi final, and final, the team of your choice will be one step closer to having a great career!

Choose between tilting your phone or using a touch D-pad, and you are ready to guide your Speedball team to stardom and possibly even greatness. I opted for the D-pad myself because I tend to over extend everything if I’m tilting the device.

If you’re looking for a simple game Speedball 2 Evolution may not be the game for you. There is a whole lot of things to do that can bank your team points. Beware, it may be overwhelming if you are a first timer to Speedball like I was.

Points are accumulated by throwing the ball into the respective goals, throwing the ball at five stars on the opposing team’s wall, or throwing the ball at three little knobs that lie in a line down the center of the Speedball field. The goals will gather you ten points, whereas the knobs in the middle of field only gain you two, so definitely don’t get too caught up with gaining the small points. If, however, your stars get hit by the opposing team you can throw the ball at your own stars to take away points from the other team.

Whichever character of yours has the ball will be the one that you control. Run like mad, by tilting or the D-pad, while trying to avoid the opposing team’s tackles. Tap the screen to throw the ball into the goal, at another team member, as well as anything else previously mentioned to gain your points. But be aware that the ball will only go in the direction you are facing. Hold down on the screen for a few seconds and the ball will get tossed up into the air.

If you are without the speedball the character that  is closest to the opposing teammate holding the ball will be in your control. Tackle by tapping the screen or hold down on the screen for a few seconds for a harder tackle in order to take possession of the ball. And defend your goal using your goalie anytime the ball comes near.

If you like quick moving sports games then this game is definitely for you. Guide your helmeted and padded team to the championship they deserve.

Speedball 2 Evolution is available in Ovi Store for $2.99 (USD). Are you speedy enough?

Adding in an e-mail account to your device is a pretty straight-forward process. Open up your mail application > new account > edit settings > etc. The end result is a relatively bland, HTML lacking interface that works but is not all that pretty. Enter Pixelpipe to the rescue with one of their latest creations: Gmail Apps Browser.

Gmail Apps Browser is a Qt-based application that brings the HTML5 enhanced UI for popular Gmail services to Nokia’s new Symbian devices with our custom QtWebkit browser for Gmail services. You can access your Gmail & Google Calendar, Tasks & Buzz from a convenient dashboard. How cool is that? The screen shots speak for themselves:

Default Inbox View

Individual Message View

As you can see, the e-mail renders flawlessly in comparison to what you would see on your laptop/desktop. In addition, you get full access to all your folders and filters:

Folders and Filters

Pretty cool, eh? I really love the integration to other features of Gmail such as the Calendar, Tasks, and Buzz. Although I don’t really use those other three services personally, however it is nice to know that they are there.

Application: Main Menu

The only thing that I feel is missing from this application would be integration with Gmail’s instant messaging service GTalk. If this was included, then for me this application would be 100% flawless. Nonetheless, great stuff as always from the folks at Pixelpipe.

Gmail Apps Browser can be downloaded for Free in Nokia’s Ovi Store!

How do you say it in another language? Voicelator, a mobile app for Nokia advanced Symbian smartphones, not only knows, but can also say.

Voicelator is a kind of meta-app, that is, an app based on another app. In this case, the other app is Google’s Translate service. Voicelator is essentially a mobile graphical user interface (GUI) for Google Translate.

To use that Google service, you make three entries: the language you want to translate from, the language you want to translate to, and the word or phrase you want translated. For example, if you select from French, to English, and the word ‘bonjour’ — Google Translate will tell you it means ‘hello’. Voicelator brings this service to your Nokia smartphone in a simple user interface.

Of course, you could just use Google Translate from your phone’s web browser. But in my tests, Voicelator is much, much faster. You don’t have to open a web page or wait for the response from a remote server. In fact, once you’ve entered your options, Voicelator can translate a word in less than a second.

Conveniently, both Google Translate and Voicelator offer many languages to choose from. In the case of Voicelator, you can select any of nearly 40 languages — not only the usual Spanish, English, French, but also Albanian, Filipino, Maltese, Vietnamese, and much more.

Voicelator has only one screen, so there’s almost no learning curve. You simply fill in the three blanks – language from, language to, and the word or phrase you want translated. Then tap the Translate button, and voila! Here’s how the screen looks before you’ve filled anything in:

Again, you simply select the ‘from’ and ‘to’ languages from two pull-down menus. Here’s the menu for the ‘from’ languages:

And here’s how the main screen looks after I’ve asked Voicelator to translate the French word ‘bonjour’ to English:

As you can see, the app has correctly translated ‘bonjour’ to the English ‘hello’.

You can also translate phrases and sentences. But beware: phrases are translated word-for-word, and thus may be literally correct, but not idiomatic. For example, Voicelator translates the English phrase ‘How are you?’ into the French ‘Comment êtes-vous?’ While that is a correct literal word-for-word translation, it is not French. The correct translation would be ‘Comment allez-vous?’ — literally, ‘how do you go?’ or less literally, ‘how goes it with you?’ For this reason, you should be careful when using Voicelator to translate phrases and sentences.

Like Google Translate, the Voicelator app can also speak the translated word or phrase aloud. To hear your translated word, tap the Play Translated Word button. The slider control on the right side of the screen controls the volume; sliding up makes it louder.

The Mute button disables the Play Translated Word function. I’m not sure why this button is needed. Perhaps it is meant as extra insurance for situations where you absolutely must have silence – for example, in a opera concert hall.

The Clear button erases the word from Text To Translate box, so you can enter another word to be defined.

One issue with this app is how it handles unusual alphabets or writing systems. Sometimes, it works fine; sometimes not. Here, for example, is the English word ‘hello’ translated correctly into the Hebrew ‘shalom’ and shown correctly in Hebrew letters:

But for some languages, Voicelator can’t find the characters, and the result is less than useful. Here, for example, is the Chinese greeting ‘ni hao’…note the garble:

Also, not all languages can be spoken aloud. It seems that if a language uses non-ASCII characters, Voicelator cannot speak it. In those cases, the Play Translated Word button will usually not appear, removing the option. In other cases, however, I got a short error message, telling me the word could not be spoken aloud. I tested Voicelator 1.0, so perhaps these issues will be addressed in a later version.

Overall, this is one quick and handy app. Voicelator is available in Ovi Store for $0.99 (USD).