I've done other top lists here, based on functionality and innovation, but never one based on pure cosmetics and elegance. And, with that in mind, we discover in my latest Top 10 a few unsung heroes of the Symbian world. You see, the raw power and functionality usually championed on this site often comes with something of a price in terms of compromises to appearance - the devices on offer here include some which are fairly unusable out in the world but which look a treat...!
I'm struggling. I really am. To understand the whole concept of 'homescreens'. Symbian Nokia Belle allows up to six of the things and it seems that when I parade my one or two homescreens to the world I'm subjected to 'call yourself a power user?' taunts. But hang on, which of us have six 'homes' in the real world? Surely a homescreen is not a 'home' screen if there are six of them? And where the heck did the idea of a homescreen come from in the first place? With the help of the Nokia 9210 and Apple iPhone, I investigate....
The smartphone world has been full of challenges recently, not least various campaigns from the Windows Phone community, trying to 'smoke' other user interfaces, pointing out how fast some things can be done with the new OS. However, I have a challenge of my own - being something of a fan of hardware shortcut keys and multitasking, I thought I'd invite anybody who fancied themselves (and their devices of choice) to try and beat my time for a common enough set of actions, set below.
There's a certain class of mobile game that's often ignored. One that gets overlooked in favour of all-singing, all-dancing 3D-rendered RPG slash-em-ups and orgies of feathered destruction. It's not - quite - casual games. It's not - quite - sports games. It's not - quite - board games. Though many of those titles qualify. I'm talking about infinite games. By which I mean mobile games that you can happily play every day - forever - literally.
One fairly unique feature of the Symbian scene over the last decade has been the willingness of manufacturers to experiment with different form factors. And, usually, this means the introduction of physical QWERTY keyboards, perennially loved by geeks and messaging-centric users across the world.
Whether you call it fragmentation or choice, having multiple versions of an operating system across a product line probably does more harm than good. While the issue rarely affects the average user, power users/developers/reviewers are all well aware of how fatiguing it can be to track a platform in parallel. Symbian is no stranger to this type of multiplicity either, and here we review the history of all its various guises over the years.
Following on from our editorial on the state of Symbian in the UK High Street, we have a guest feature from Aditya Singhv, editor of worldofphones.net, looking at the current status of Symbian and the wider phone market in India. The editorial also comments on some of the key differences between the UK (Western European style) and Indian mobile markets. It's a timely reminder that there are huge variations in the global market.
As I sit at my desk looking at around a dozen smartphones of all shapes and sizes (hey, I'm a journalist, and privileged that way), running four different mobile OS platforms, I find my decision on which to use as my main phone based on a number of hardware factors (screen size, form factor, camera) that you'll probably empathise with, plus one that you might not expect. At the top of my list of characteristics for a perfect smartphone is a loud, high quality loudspeaker. Yes, really.
2011 has been an eventful year for Symbian. The maturation of Qt and the Anna and Belle releases greatly improved performance and usability, easily the biggest year on year improvement in the platform's history. However, this was largely overshadowed by Nokia's February 11th announcement and the start of Nokia's switch to Windows Phone. Nonetheless, between numerous software releases and new hardware, such as the Nokia E6, X7, 701 and 603, there was still more than enough to keep us very busy. Here are the main stories, month by month.
Holidays are a touchy subject in our household. But holiday plans got me thinking about smartphone platforms… Unlikely? Well, yes, but bear with me as I think I've hit upon a rather apt analogy. Do you prefer to cruise in a motorcaravan or to be pampered in a five star hotel - or something in between? And, having chosen, how would you cope living that way full-time? Your decision may affect your happiness with each platform!
