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Touchscreens through the years - and my new party trick

I have a new party trick and you won't be surprised it involves my smartphone. And a kitchen knife. All of which has got me musing about the nature (and role) of touchscreens on handheld devices through the years. Expectations and roles sure have changed. Though it's tempting to say that there's nowhere else for the touchscreen to go. The rest is surely up to the programmers behind the glass?

# Posted by Steve in How To, Comment, Hardware at 10:31 UTC, Jan 13th || Comments

Symbian's Five Forgotten Form Factors

Maybe I'm turning into a sentimental old codger, but despite Nokia's efforts with the recent E7 (and N97 before it), the majority of modern smartphones are turning into either large screened tablets or tiny-screened thumb qwerty affairs, with a side branch of low end numeric key-driven devices, effectively for the feature phone market. It occurs to me that five of the very best form factors of the last decade, all of which debuted on Symbian, have been (sadly) forgotten, despite their proven advantages. A quirk of providence? Or negligence on behalf of the manufacturers? Here are the form factors which I'd like to see revived, with modern software and services on-board.

# Posted by Steve in Comment, Hardware at 22:17 UTC, Dec 12th || Comments

The Symbian Phone of the Decade

I asked an eclectic selection of 20 luminaries, bloggers and power users from the Symbian ecosystem: "Which is the Symbian-powered smartphone of the Decade? Which one was most significant, the most memorable, the most game-changing and the most loved?" Here are their answers, for your interest and amusement - and yes, a clear winner emerged...

# Posted by Steve in Comment, Hardware at 21:33 UTC, Dec 30th || 46 Comments

The fastest smartphone in the west? Text input speeds compared

Steve Litchfield directly compares speeds of text entry on a range of PDAs and smartphones and draws some conclusions about design and general form factor. [original article 2006, updated 2007 and June 2009]

# Posted by Steve in Comment, Hardware at 6:42 UTC, Jun 8th || 42 Comments

Top 10 - Classic Smartphones

Steve Litchfield proclaims the ten smartphones from the Symbian OS world that have made the most impact in terms of innovation, style and functionality.

# Posted by Steve in Comment, Hardware at 8:59 UTC, Feb 28th || 46 Comments

The J2ME games just keep on comin'

Steve Litchfield looks at more J2ME games available through Nokia's Download! system and ClickGamer.com

# Posted by Steve in Software, Previews at 11:47 UTC, Dec 7th || 6 Comments

A Symbian Christmas 2007: Part 1 - Games

Want to get into the festive spirit with your Symbian-powered device? Then read this article to find out about Christmas-related games you can install on your S60, UIQ, Series 80 or even Series 90 phone.

# Posted by krisse in How To, Software at 11:38 UTC, Dec 7th

Malware and Anti-malware now a distant memory

Steve ponders the fall and fall of the mobile anti-virus (malware) scene, but still sounds a note of caution.

# Posted by Steve in How To, Comment, Software at 10:05 UTC, Oct 17th || 7 Comments

The AAS Pub Meet 2007

Details on the All About Symbian Pub Meet.

# Posted by Rafe in Comment, Previews at 12:19 UTC, Sep 13th

8 ways to get a simple weather forecast!

Steve Litchfield explores the many, many ways to use a Symbian OS-powered smartphone to find out what the weather's going to do...

# Posted by Steve in How To, Comment, Software at 13:36 UTC, Aug 7th

Who needs Outlook? Syncing to Mobical.net

Steve Litchfield has been getting twitchy feet over his reliance on Outlook as the PIM partner to his smartphones and he's overjoyed to find a Web-based PIM that's totally cross platform, that supports just about every smartphone ever made and which is completely free!

# Posted by Steve in How To, Comment, Software at 6:20 UTC, Jul 31st