Friday’s Pick and Mix #12

GLOBAL – The close of another week can mean only one thing. It’s time for this week’s round-up of blog posts and news articles that we found elsewhere on the Web that we wanted to share with you. There’s a much lighter selection this week, we’re pleased to say, and something for everyone. Do share links to blogs and articles that we haven’t featured in the comments.

* It’s old news that you can install a console emulator on a Nokia N900 to relive your teenage days spent with Megaman, Mario and the rest. Now you can complete the experience with a Game-Gripper, which adds an authentic-looking NES control panel to the bottom of your device. (via. OMGITSCJ)
* So you knew that the N900 was clever… but clever enough to read your thoughts? That’s the claim made for the new Think Contacts application when it’s paired with a NeuroSky Mindset. Seeing is believing, as they say, so check out the video demonstration. (via. The Handheld Blog)
* David Gilson on All About Symbian has been pondering the ideal keyboard layout for button-based mobile phones. What’s fastest, the portrait-style orientation found on the Eseries or the wide-but-narrow layout of recent Nseries devices? The Nokia E72 and E63 are currently scoring highly, but more data will help to improve the accuracy of his findings.
* PCWorld offers an interesting article on ‘Four Ways Camera Phones are Better than Cameras’. It’s all in the convenience, software and the connectivity options, of course. We note there’s a lot of disagreement in the comments, though, so it’s a debate that’s far from over.
* We noted the appearance of Blog Radio last week: it’s an RSS reader for your Nokia that reads your news aloud to you, promising natural-style speech. It’s forgiveable if you were sceptical over the claim if you’ve experienced computer speech in the past. However, there’s now samples over on OviDailyApp that demonstrate quite how well they’ve managed.
* And finally, we know from our recent polls that the words ‘free games’ are music to your ears. The LoveMyNokia blog has uncovered a whole host of these from developers InnerActive. They’re ad-funded, so you might expect some interruptions to your gaming pleasure, but gift-horse/ mouth etc.