We have received feedback from the users of Symabook Alpha. Thank you all for the feedback! We are addressing issues reported to us. We have had some nice reviews also:
- App Preview: Symabook – “Best user interface seen on the N97 ever!”
- Nokia 5800 App Review: Symabook Alpha by Symarctic Solutions.

There is also video displaying the Symabook Alpha on Samsung Omnia HD. Symabook section starts from the middle of the video.

Hi folks, it starts now! Grab your copy of Symabook Alpha and give it a test drive on your S60 5th edition mobile phone. We have tested it to run on Nokia 5800 XpressMusic and N97. Our pre-alpha testers have also reported Symabook to work on Samsung i8910HD (Thanks Tariq!).

Download Symabook Alpha

This is early technology preview video of our upcoming Symabook application. Symabook is Facebook Platform application for S60 5th Edition and later for S60 3rd Edition mobile phones. Symabook features user interface that is not seen before in S60 devices. Available soon from http://www.symarctic.com/beta If you have any comments or feedback please contact us info [at] symarctic.com.



We work hard to add more features and polish existing ones. We are striving for alpha phase of the application soon. If you are interested on alpha release of the application please drop us a line at symabook [at] symarctic.com

Symarctic ExtGPS is created in somewhat platform independent way. Originally, it was only created in Nokia S60 devices in mind, but it should work on other platforms which provide MIDP 2.0 API, JSR-82 Blueooth API and JSR-179 Location API.

However, there are some differences in some platform implementations. It looks like SonyEricsson has decided that the Location API's NMEA data provides only satellite information, not the actual location info. I mailed to SonyEricsson about this last year, but I never got any response.

Also, Nokia has released also Series 40 6th Edition devices equipped with GPS. At least these "feature phone" models support the required APIs:

Nokia 6700 classic
Nokia 6260 slide
Nokia 3710 fold

If anyone has tested ExtGPS on these new handsets, please post your experiences in comments!

I was looking for information about E90's GPS antenna position, but instead I found this interesting document: N95_GPS_Connection_Guide_en.pdf

It doesn't really tell me any real new information, but I think it can be useful for some of the N95 users. Here's a quote from the document, how to create optimal receiving conditions:

The GPS receiver is located in the bottom of the device. When using the
receiver, slide the numeric keypad open, and hold the device at an angle of
about 45 degrees (as shown in the picture), with an unobstructed view of
the sky. Do not cover the numeric keypad with
your hand.

I wonder how the keyboard is supposed to be used if you cannot cover it with your hands - maybe it's for voice- and mind controlled GPS applications ;)