Nokia's Hydrophobic Future

Nokia’s Cambridge Research Lab is investigating several uses for Carbon nanotube technology. Built from a single layer of Graphene, a new type of Hydrophobic coating could make phones much more resilient to wet environments, while providing a cheaper alternative to current touch screen technology, which is based on rare earth metals. Since Graphene is a form of Carbon, one of the most abundant elements on the planet, the raw materials are much easier to obtain. We spoke to researchers at Nokia World’s Future Technology tent to find out more.

Qt in the mix: An interview with Chris Watt of TigerSpike

TigerSpike is a Sydney, Australia, based business — with offices in London and New York — that has been offering solutions in the personal media space for eight years. The company has recently started working with Qt and I (Richard Bloor) caught up with Chris Watt, product director at TigerSpike to find out about the company’s initial impressions.

In-app advertising and inneractive's right of reply

You'll remember my somewhat scathing appraisal of the current state of in-app advertising in Symbian applications last week? I focussed on both the aesthetics and overall user experience and found the implementation somewhat lack-lustre, to say the least. inneractive is the company behind the examples given and I was pleased to get a direct response from Hillel, inneractive's marketing manager, asking for right of reply, to explain the company's approach and plan. The full interview between myself and Hillel is below, for your interest.

Navteq True at Nokia World 2010

Navteq were present at Nokia World 2010, with one of their GeoData collection cars taking centre stage. They were also showing a promotional video of their LIDAR based 3D data collection system. Also on display was the first showing of a mobile client to actually make use of Navteq's 3D street maps, running on the Maemo-powered Nokia N900. Read on for more details and a demonstration video.

Indoor Location Services - Future tech from Nokia World 2010

One of the future technology demonstrations at Nokia World 2010 was an innovative system for providing indoor location services. Indoor positioning has always been a missing link in navigation software because GPS signals cannot penetrate into buildings. This new system from Nokia Research Centre has the potential to revolutionise navigation, providing a seamless transition between outdoor and indoor navigation. For example, allowing people to navigate to a public place, and then find their way around once inside, and much more. Read on.

Plug and Touch - Turning your TV into a touchscreen

On show at Nokia World 2010 were several exciting examples of future technology. One of those was a research project brought from Nokia's Beijing research and development labs. Named "Plug and Touch", it's an application which can turn any type of visual display (TV or projector) into a Symbian-powered touch screen display. Click through to read our commentary and see the demonstration video.

Nokia's design directions

Rafe reports back from a 'conversational briefing' with Marko Ahtisaari (Head of Design at Nokia) at Nokia's London Design HQ. There's an explanation of Nokia's "smart push", of how Nokia's three tier device strategy fits together, of how Nokia's software and hardware design teams have been brought together to promote a holistic approach and accelerate the pace of innovation, and there are hints of future design directions for both Symbian and MeeGo devices and software.

MWC Video Content

List of video content from MWC related to Symbian as part of the AAS / Mobile Industry Review collaboration.

The Symbian Foundation Strikes Back - interview with Lee Williams

After widespread speculation on many tech blogs that Symbian's future is bleak, I visited Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, to put AAS and Phones Show reader /viewer questions to him directly. Has the death of Symbian been "greatly exaggerated"?

Supporting developers through diversity

Ulf Wretling is a nineteen year veteran of Ericsson and Sony Ericsson. He headed up Sony Ericsson’s developer program for a number of years and recently has been responsible for setting up the processes to manage third-party application sales through PlayNow arena.

Sony Ericsson – Getting Back To Symbian

Sony Ericsson has been a long term supporter of the Symbian OS. After something of a hiatus in Symbian phones, Sony Ericsson will soon be back with the Satio, its first S60 platform phone. So how is Sony Ericsson gearing up to support Symbian developers? I talked to Christopher David, Head of Developer and Partner Engagement at Sony Ericsson.

Members matter: A discussion with Lauren Sarno, Member Programs at Symbian Foundation

Any open source project lives or dies by its members, whether those members are active contributors to the code base or provide support in other ways. The Symbian Foundation is no different. The responsibility for building and maintaining membership of the Symbian Foundation falls on the shoulders of Lauren Sarno.

Quickoffice 6.0 news, Q&A with Phil Spencer

In the light of last month's announcement of the Nokia E72, which includes the full Quickoffice 6.x editing suite, and of yesterday's news for S60 5th Edition phones, we took time out with Phil Spencer, Director, Busness Development at Quickoffice, to get to the bottom of what exactly has been announced so far for current S60 and Quickoffice users and what's coming up.

App Stores: A Handmark perspective

With all the coverage of recently launched manufacturer’s application stores it’s easy to forget that there have been several companies working in the application store space for a number of years. AAS talks to Eric Pfeifer, Content Acquisition Director at Handmark to find out what an independent aggregator has to offer.

Nokia 5800 Sauna Edition Preview

After a successful launch of the 5800 XpressMusic, All About Symbian can exclusively reveal Nokia's future plans for the big-selling handset.

Ovi Store – A discussion with Eric John

Ovi store is expected to launch in a few weeks, ahead of the release of the Nokia N97, and become available on millions of existing S60 and Series 40 devices from Nokia. I caught up with Eric John, Director of Media Product Marketing for Nokia Services, to discuss the developer proposition offered by Ovi store.

Symbian Foundation – Challenges and Opportunities

As we rapidly approach the formal opening of the Symbian Foundation, I caught up with Thibaut Rouffineau, Head of Community and Program at Symbian Foundation, to discuss the challenges and opportunities in setting-up to support developers and the role of academia in the software industry.

Desert Island Desktop, with David Wood

Desert Island Desktop, with Nigel Clifford

There were a lot of smartphones around at the recent Symbian Smartphone Show, and lots of people who had them in their pocket. Ewan decided to find out what people were using, and approached Symbian CEO Nigel Clifford to be our next guest in our 'Desert Island Desktops' series...

The New Executive Director - Lee Williams and the Symbian Foundation

At the Symbian Smartphone Show last week, Lee Williams was announced as the Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation. Right after that, he sat down with Rafe and Ewan to talk in more depth about the plans for the Foundation, and to discuss what he brings to the table.