Nokia’s picked the beta version of the Skype app up off the floor, dusted it off, and granted it a shiny new spot in its Ovi Store , for all Symbian^1 phones. Your network can kiss goodbye your money. It works over Wi-Fi or a data connection on these handset models: Nokia E71, N96, N85, 5320, 6210 Navigator, 6220 classic, N78, N79, E63, E66, N82, E51, N95, N95 8GB, N81, N81 8GB, E90, E72, 5800 XpressMusic, N97, N97 mini, X6, and the 5530. While it only works on Nokia handsets at the moment, Skype plans on launching the app on other manufacturers’ Symbian phones, with Sony Ericsson next in line to get the free Skype-to-Skype calls, IM ability and sharing files functionality. It’s available now through the Ovi Store , however whenever I click on it it says the item is no longer available.

After 13 days Nokia had seen 1.4million downloads of its free Ovi Maps . Now, less than a month after giving away the good for free, they’ve seen 3m downloads—with a map being downloaded every second. [ TechRadar ]

TechCrunch has run a dubious-sounding piece , quoting sources as saying Amazon’s working on a scheme to give each Amazon Prime user a free Kindle. With an annual membership to Prime costing $79 for extra-fast shipping, they’d be losing $120 from the retail value of the first-gen Kindle. While I don’t think it’ll be offered to the one-month trial members, it would definitely encourage more Prime sign-ups—and therefore, more Amazon purchases. Still, to give away a free Kindle sounds way too generous, even for Amazon. [ TechCrunch ]

Don’t shy away at the sound of that “S” word. I’ve got some reassuring news for anyone who’s ever thrown their N95 across the room in horror. Starting today, Symbian^2 will be offered as a free open source download for anyone wanting to tinker with it. The details are a bit thin on the ground so far, but at least it shows Symbian is finally starting to view Android as a threat. Once Symbian^3 is launched later this year, it won’t be quite as attractive fooling around with Symbian^2 behind its back, so best to start early and get in a few months of quality time together before the jealousy sets in. [ Wired ]

McDonald’s promised that it would be make its in-restaurant WiFi service available for free in “mid-January” and, right on cue, it’s now kicked things open to everyone with a laptop and a fast food craving starting today, January 15th. That service previously cost customers $2.95 for two hours of use, and it’s already available at 11,500 of the company’s 14,000 locations. Incidentally, that also makes McDonald’s one of the largest providers of WiFi hotspots (free or otherwise) in the United States, with the company itself claiming that no less than 16% of reported WiFi hotspots in the U.S. are located at McDonald’s. McDonald’s starts dishing out free WiFi at most of its U.S. restaurants originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 15 Jan 2010 19:06:00 EST.

This isn’t quite on par with Finland’s contention that 1Mb broadband is a “right,” but UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has pledged

Sometimes, us non-Christians feel really left out at Christmas. So I’d like to personally thank Peet’s (pretty much what Starbucks wishes it was) for giving everyone the gift of free coffee today, Christmas Eve . Find your nearest store here . [ Peet's ]

Sometimes, us non-Christians feel really left out at Christmas. So I’d like to personally thank Peet’s (pretty much what Starbucks wishes it was) for giving everyone the gift of free coffee today, Christmas Eve . Find your nearest store here . [ Peet's ]

Dragon Search is a voice search app that aggregates results from Google, Wiki, Twitter, YouTube, and iTunes, and more. It’s good for free, and free for now, so get on it before they start charging. After Dragon Dictation , this is the second app that Nuance has released gratis for a limited time this month. The only thing stopping Dragon Search from being a must-have is that voice search with your Google app will bring up largely the same top results, so for casual surfing it’s a bit redundant. If you’re looking for a deeper dive, though, the scrolling Search Carousel UI is actually a useful tool. Dragon Search also acts as a nice cheat to use voice search for the iTunes store, which might save your thumbs some damage in the long run

Nobody wants to pay for iPhone apps , and some people simply don’t. The good news is, you don’t really need to: For almost every paid app, there’s a free app that’s nearly as good. Here are the best of the best. A lot of these apps will be familiar to anyone who’s checked out our Essential iPhone Apps directory before, and yeah, there is a lot of overlap. What we’ve done, basically, is strip out the dollar signs from list, then fill in the gaps with more free