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Top Story: Never too old for a wedding - a Day in the Life of the Nokia N82
David Gilson turns blogger in this 'Day in the Life of the Nokia N82', bought by him for camera duties and becoming his tool of choice for an all day wedding event. Read on for his impressions of this three year old device and its Xenon flash, sample photos and even a battery report - it seems that rumours of the N82's demise have been greatly exagerated...
Top Story: The problem with location check-in fatigue on your smartphone
Many years ago, everyone thought that Instant Messaging (IM) would be a big winner on the mobile platform. That’s turned out to not be the case – the winner in the field of short form updates has been the status message on Facebook and the broadcasting nature of Twitter. So what happened? And are the same mistakes being made by the current slew of location-based apps that are the so-called 'next wave of innovation'? Read on...
Top Story: The sadly flawed Symbian world top-end line-up - looking to the N8
In this feature, I've been taking a long hard look at the top-end smartphones in the Symbian powered world over the last three years, pointing out their flaws and frailties, and - where appropriate - pointing out what should have been done to fix things up. Yes, Symbian has been cracking along with record momentum in the mid-tier, with Nokia trouncing the iPhones, Blackberries and Android phones in terms of raw unit sales, but Symbian's partners have been scoring rather a lot of own goals in recent times. And what of the 2010 Symbian^3 crop, such as the imminent Nokia N8 - will these suffer a similar fate? I'm optimistic...
Angry Birds win "Best Game in Ovi Store" poll
What’s the best game in the Ovi Store? Nokia asked last week with ten games to choose from, and the result are available. But in a lovely nod to their ability to spot a top game, the write-in "others" category provided the runaway winner with 36% of the vote. The winning garland has been placed on Angry Birds, available for the N900. Which isn’t that surprising given that (a) it’s a runaway hit on the iPhone and (b) the N900 version sold six times as fast as the iPhone version!
Touch or keyboard, is there only one way to sort this out?
You may recall last week we pointed out Nokia’a Conversations Blog post crying out the virtues of the keyboard. Keeping the karmic balance, this week sees the touchscreen side of the debate step up to take a swing at the arguments. And then there’s Tomi Ahonen’s take on the debate.
One click Qt 4.7 for the Samsung i8910 HD, plus HX8 on the way
More significant news from the Samsung i8910 HD firmware scene, which is accelerating, amazingly, rather than slowing down. 'faenil' has organised a one-click installer for the Qt 4.7.0 beta2 libraries for non-Nokia smartphones such as the i8910 HD, in theory letting them install some of the new Qt apps (e.g. the superlative Orange Wednesdays). A quote and video from faenil below. In related news, HyperX is now finalising HX8 firmwares, including even more customisations and a fix for Samsung's longstanding Music player bugs (a video for which is also embedded below). It's all go... What do you mean, you don't own an i8910 HD?
N8 available for pre-order from Nokia Italy
The Nokia N8, the first publicly announced Symbian^3 device, is available for pre-order from Nokia Italy's web store. It is priced at €469 (£390 / $600), with availability stated as being at the end of September, just in line with Nokia's stated Q3 shipment date. Nokia Italy is offering free delivery and say that customers pre-ordering will be 'among the first to receive the new N8'. Other Nokia stores will no doubt make their pre-order processes available shortly.
Does Symbian have a service layer gap?
Spurred on by his reviews of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro and Samsung i8910 HD, David Gilson looks at the huge investment Nokia has made into providing an Ovi service layer - it seems that, whatever Ovi's detractors might say, the absence of this service layer on non-Nokia hardware is desperately noticeable. He also wonders whatever became of Symbian's Horizon project - as good a starting point as any for getting applications out to all Symbian smartphones.
Vodafone announce Mobile Clicks innovation competition for 2010
Got a smart idea for something on mobile? Vodafone Mobile Clicks 2010 might be just the thing for you. This competition (with a prize fund of 150,000 Euros) is accepting registrations for the competition until August 22nd. They're looking for smart ideas, not just finished products, and are hoping to accelerate innovation in European mobile start-ups. More below....
The Qi standard for wireless charging now defined
The Wireless Power Consortium has now finalized the interface definition for a low-power specification for charging devices wirelessly. The exact details will be published publicly on August 30th. The specification is currently limited to 5 Watts, more than enough for all USB-charging Symbian-powered phones. Devices that want to comply with the standard will have to pass third-party certification before the manufacturer is allowed to use the 'Qi' logo on the device or its packaging.
Nokia get tweety with USA customers
With Nokia getting criticised every year for failing to put serious investment into the USA, a single Twitter account isn't exactly going to reverse this overnight, but it's good to see regardless. There's now an official 'Nokia US Care' Twitter account for people to hit up for updates and to fire questions at. Early days, obviously, but personal contact like this really can't do any harm...
Where to get your Data while abroad with no contract
A little something for the mobile traveller, as the Pay as you Go Sim with Data wiki is pointed out to me. In it, a country’s network providers are listed, but only those that offer Pay as You Go data. A great resource for those who want to plan ahead before picking up a SIM when they land.
AAS Insight 128 - TnP, Symbian DevCo and Nokia Q2 results
In All About Symbian Insight 128, we open with a round up of recent news including the formation of the Symbian Developer Cooperative, the retail availability of the Nokia C6, news of the i8910 HX7 firmware, and Nokia's Conspiracy for Good. Rafe talks about his experience with Track and Protect and Ewan asks whether Symbian needs a reference device. Finally we talk over Nokia's Q2 2010 results. You can listen to AAS Insight 128 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Touchnote
For all the internet connectivity, software, shiny themes and applications, there is something that is eminently wonderful about a physical object. Touchnote, from the London based company of the same name, brings both of those worlds together and Ewan Spence reviews Touchnote for S60 5th Edition application here, ending up 'thoroughly recommending' it. PS. Look out for Rafe's cute kittens....
Information applications are trending to free, says BBC Trust report
An interesting view of the mobile application space has come to light over the weekend with a report commissioned by the BBC Trust to investigate the state of play with mobile apps, smartphone app stores and accessing content on the move. It concludes that (at least for information and news portals) “[the market] is already trending toward free apps”. More below.
HX7 on the i8910 HD gets Qt built-in
There's a surprise release from arch-Samsung i8910 HD-modder HyperX and his helpers today, in that there's a brand new version of HX7 out this morning. In addition to all the other customisation and battery saving goodness in HX7, the QT 4.6.2 Symbian^3 QT libaries are now integrated - seems like this device is edging towards to the Symbian^3 spec of devices like the Nokia N8?
Defining the Smartphone - part 2 (testing the definition, head to head)
As mentioned in part one of my Defining the Smartphone feature from earlier in the week, the very word now encompasses a surprising range of hardware, with some claiming that the older phone-like devices are outdated when compared to the modern capacitive touch slabs and that the former shouldn't even be called smartphones. In this, part two, I attempt to quantify the various attributes of two of the extremes from the smartphone world, I take the latest evolution of Nokia's classic S60 slider form factor, the N86, and pitch it head to head with the current highest rated Android smartphone in the UK, the HTC Desire. Will my own smartphone definition hold water?
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Meffys 2010 Videos
View a list of videos from the Mobile Entertainment Forum's annual award ceremony, The Meffys, captured by MIR's Ewan MacLeod. The Meffy video series is supported by the Symbian Foundation.
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