The first public release of Symbian^3 (S^3) PDK has been released by The Symbian Foundation. Version 3.0.0 is FC (Functionally Complete) and, along with the corresponding source code, is now available for developers to download.

 

According to Mark Skrebels, Release Council chair and senior release manager at Symbian, S^3 provides users with a greatly improved user experience, multiple personalised home-screens, HDMI support, the introduction of next generation graphics, as well as better data networking.

 

 

After BMW announced its new BMW ConnectedDrive system which sees the German automotive maker adding BlackBerry email synchronization via Bluetooth to its latest vehicles, Ford is also looking at pairing with Blackberry holding company Research in Motion (RIM).

 

According to BlackBerry Cool, the American automaker is currently updating its factory-installed Ford Sync in-car communications and entertainment system, which it developed along with Microsoft. This update includes the integration of Bluetooth Message Access Profile (MAP) which allows for email, SMS, as well as MMS messages to be exchanged between the car and a smartphone.

 

Ford Sync also has a text message read back feature, so you can continue driving with your eyes on the road.

 

 

According to Techtree, Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin managed to get hold of a Nokia N8 prototype and wrote a very unflattering review (via Google Translate) of the early version of the smartphone before being officially announced by Nokia.

 

Now the Finnish manufacturer is taking legal action against Murtazin to get its phone back. “Several weeks back, we formally requested the return of all unauthorized Nokia property from Mr. Murtazin and he declined to respond. As a result, we have contacted the Russian authorities to assist us in the return of all unauthorised Nokia property,” a statement read on the official Nokia blog.

 

The action apparently doesn’t have anything to do with Murtazin’s criticism of the device. “To be perfectly clear, we are defending our intellectual property by asking for the return of all unauthorised property in Mr. Murtazin’s possession. This is not about attacking bloggers or people who give critical reviews of our products.”

 

Murtazin has denied receiving any such requests from Nokia.

 

 

Social travel recommendation site Nextstop has announced that it has been acquired by social networking site Facebook.

 

The Nextstop staff will be moving house to become part of Facebook’s team and the nextstop.com site will be shutting down on 1 September, but existing users will until that time be able to utilise the site’s export tools to export their travel guides, Picasa Web Albums, Google Maps, or download a set of PDF or HTML files for their guides.

 

 

According to Microsoft’s The Windows Blog, the company’s latest figures indicate that as of June 2010 nearly half ( 46%) of all Windows 7 PCs worldwide are running a 64-bit edition of Windows 7. This is in comparison with Windows Vista which has a 11% 64-bit installed base, whilst Windows XP only has a measly 1% of users opting for a 64-bit edition.    

 

“Essentially, 64-bit Windows allows your PC to take advantage of more memory to do more things”, wrote Brandon LeBlanc, who runs The Windows Blog. “If you are like me and are running tons of apps, you can see a real difference in performance. Aside from the performance gains, there are also security enhancements and support for virtualization as well.”

 

 

According to RIMarkable, RIM has released BlackBerry Enterprise Server 5.0 Service Pack 2 which includes new features like the ability to remove corporate content from employee owned devices without changing the employee’s personal information and apps, as well as a new Individual Liable Device Policy to allow users to access personal email, make calls and view email even when the device is locked.

 

 

After providing a pic teaser of an Aava prototype smartphone that is running an early edition of MeeGo, website Carrypad now has also added a video of the phone. This 16 minute video shows amongst others  the phones multitasking, gallery, contacts and a Firefox mobile web browser.