Folks who have smartphones running on the S60 operating system have more to rejoice about just before the iPhone takes over the rest of the world. BeatEd is a drum machine application for the S60 platform, featuring a full professional drum sequences/machine. All you need to do is plug in your headphone lead from the handset into an amp and you're good to go, guitar and all. Highlighted features include :-

• Easy to use beat editor, even easier beat player
• Change tempo and volume while playing
• Edit beat on-the-fly while playing
• 16 bit 16 channel audio mixer
• Extremely accurate beat timing (1-999 BPM)
• Real-time VU meters
• 16 different drum tracks
• Supports S60 v3.x mobile phones
• Adjusts to different screen layouts
• Random volume variance

With last week's announcement that Google would be added to Nokia's Mobile Search service, it's no surprise that Google is attempting to score some brownie points with Symbian users. This point is driven even further with the release today of Google's native client for the S60 OS.

Google has created a version of their Google Maps application for 3rd edition S60 phones. This allows for Symbian OS 9 phones to run Google Maps natively, allowing for the program to be integrated into the phones GPS capabilities. Being native means much better performance than the previous Java-based version of the Google Maps service - a huge overall difference in speed will be felt.

Thanks to the GPS, your current location, which will be shown by a blue dot on the satellite image.

The FCC has approved the long-awaited Sony Ericsson P990i, bringing some much needed cheer to the fans of this wonderful smartphone device. The P990i is powered by the Symbian OS 9.1 and the UIQ 3 platform. It comes with features such as music playback (MP3, AAC, and AAC+ format support) as well as a QWERTY keyboard to assist those who rely on push email as their main mode of communication. Those residing in the U.S. should see the Sony Ericsson P990i arrive when August rolls around.