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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

How to: Use a Bluetooth keyboard with your smartphone

Steve Litchfield shows newcomers to smartphones how easy it is to connect and use a Bluetooth keyboard...

# Posted by Steve in How To, Hardware at 17:04 UTC, May 29th

2006 - the year in review

We take a look back at some of the major events in the Symbian world in 2006.

# Posted by Rafe in Comment, Develop, Hardware at 19:52 UTC, Jan 1st

Predictions for 2007

Rafe once again gazes into his legendary Crystal Ball.

# Posted by Rafe in Comment, Hardware at 18:50 UTC, Jan 1st

Gotta have QWERTY?

Steve Litchfield continues his exploration of the world of text input and observes that the presence of a useable QWERTY keyboard can actually change how you use a smartphone.

# Posted by Steve in Comment, Hardware at 6:22 UTC, Aug 6th

CTIA and Smartphone Summit Report

Rafe reports back from the 2006 CTIA trade show from Las Vegas.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Develop, Hardware at 18:57 UTC, Apr 18th

A 5 Minute Guide To Mobile Music Solutions

Which mobile music solution is the one for you? Well, we here at AAS can't advise you personally (Ewan still insists Minidisc is the future!) but this handy chart might give you a rough idea where you want to jump.

# Posted by Ewan in Hardware at 8:54 UTC, Apr 10th

Sony Ericsson W950i Walkman Phone: A First Look

I don't know, you wait years for three Sony Ericsson UIQ devices, and all of a sudden you get not one, but two new devices in the space of the week. The W950 talkes UIQ, adds the Walkman brand, and turns out the most desirable Music Phone yet.

# Posted by Ewan in Hardware at 12:25 UTC, Feb 14th || 0 Comments

Sony Ericsson's M600i, A First Look

Not so much a review, but a first look at the M600i. There's promise here, but we also detect a few mixed messages along the way. Sony Ericsson's marketing is going to have to be careful...

# Posted by Rafe, Ewan, Steve in Comment, Hardware at 10:23 UTC, Feb 6th || 9 Comments

30 Minutes with the Sony Ericsson P990

Making its public debut at The Smartphone Show 2005 is Sony Ericssons P990, featuring Symbian OS 9.1, and UIQ 3.0, along with 3G and Wi-Fi support, 2 megapixel camera and a QVGA screen. We've spent some time with this flagship device, and we like what we've seen so far.

# Posted by Ewan in Hardware, Preview at 13:32 UTC, Oct 16th

The Smartphone Show 2005 - first report

Thomas Boys takes a look at The Smartphone Show 2005 from an end user perspective.

# Posted by in Comment, Hardware at 11:06 UTC, Oct 13th

Previewing the Motorola A1010

Rafe takes a first look at Motorola fourth Symbian phone the A1010. Announced at 3GSM it packs a lot of features including WiFi, 3G, and AGPS into a pen driven UIQ tablet form factor. It is a powerful phone and should see wider release than the previous models.

# Posted by Rafe in Comment, Hardware at 10:35 UTC, Feb 25th