All About Symbian - News Headlines

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A look at an important relationship for your smartphone - networks and manufacturers

The relationship between the network and manufacturer has always been one of the more opaque areas in the history of the mobile phone – and as the demands of modern smartphones push the capacity of the networks, the discussions and bartering on both sides continue behind closed doors. Which sometime open a little bit. Wired author Fred Vogelstein has posted a detailed look at the marriage of AT&T and Apple. See below for a quote.

# Posted by Ewan in Hardware, Links of Interest, Industry at 0:29 BST, Jul 20th || 0 Comments

Defining the Smartphone

In leaps and bounds, the term 'smartphone' is being bandied about by manufacturers, analysts, journalists, developers and end users across the world. Which would normally be a good thing, except that there are many definitions, all totally different. What exactly defines a smartphone in 2010? What did it used to mean in 2007? Or 2003? With reports regularly quoting the word, it would be good to all agree what the word means, surely?

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 7:29 BST, Jul 19th || 22 Comments

Let’s be cool... or what Nokia could do next

In all the talk of user interfaces, promises, updated software and hardware, there is one other area that Nokia need to look at. Making the Nokia name one that everyone is the world is happy to be associated with. How can they do that? Here are some thoughts.

# Posted by Ewan in Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 15:45 BST, Jul 16th || 39 Comments

Nokia's Terminal Mode (car integration) progressing

What's the next step for mobile phone and car integration? One option is Nokia's Terminal Mode technology, which proposes an industry standard for the integration of mobile phones (and their applications) into the car environment. Nokia has developed Terminal Mode in conjunction with CE4A (Consumer Electronics for Automotive) and recently held the Terminal Mode Summit at their Espoo offices in Finland. This gives us a good opportunity to review what Terminal Mode is about and what progress has been made to date. Read on....

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Hardware, Miscellaneous, Industry at 10:36 BST, Jul 15th || 6 Comments

Ahonen and the USA's mobile tech 'lead'

Here's some Wednesday coffee break reading: you'll remember Steve Jobs claiming in 2007 that the original iPhone was five years ahead of the competition? Now AT&T's CTO has been bragging that "in the past 3 years, the US has been the clear leader when it comes to phones, design, operating systems and applications." Like a red rag to a bull - top industry analyst Tomi Ahonen here rips into the claims and points out the innovation from Japan and Finland, among others. His metrics also point to the USA now rising to 19th in the world in terms of mobile adoption and technology, now level with, ahem... Portugal. Grab a hot drink and treat yourself!

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest, Industry at 10:54 BST, Jul 14th || 26 Comments

Resistive vs Capacitive: Moving the goalposts?

In an article written some 15 months ago, just after the first S60 5th Edition smartphone had appeared (the Nokia 5800), I went in depth into the pros and cons of resistive versus capacitive touchscreens, pronouncing both technologies as being equally valid, but for different use cases. We're now mid 2010 and it's clear that capacitive technology is winning out, for mid and high priced smartphones at least. So what's changed? Who moved the goalposts?

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 7:16 BST, Jul 13th || 33 Comments

Symbian^3 PDK 3.0.0 available for download - includes emulator

Symbian's Product Development Kit (PDK) 3.0.0, which is based on Symbian^3, is now available for download. This is the first PDK released since Symbian^3 attained its functionally complete status. The PDK contains a build of Symbian^3 platform, the complete source code, related utilities and an emulator. It is aimed, primarily, at platform developers and device creators, but the curious may also be interested in taking a look, as it enables you to gain a better understanding of the new version of the platform.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Links of Interest, Developer, Industry at 15:16 BST, Jul 8th || 12 Comments

Not a Dedicated Follower of Fashion - 10 Reasons Why Touchscreens Suck

Playing devil's advocate, but only to a degree, Steve Litchfield turns the entire smartphone world on its head by rejecting its latest darling - large touchscreens. Ask any pundit in the mobile world about smartphones and you'll get the answer that it's all about touch. About large displays that can be caressed and programmed and manipulated with your fingers. Except that traditional, non-touch form factors have these 2010 'flagships' well and truly beat in many ways - here are the Top 10 Reasons Why Touchscreens Suck.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 11:53 BST, Jul 8th || 46 Comments

Some points on the costs of staying connected

Two interesting pieces on the costs paid by mobile users, The first is the “termination fee” paid between UK networks. Ofcom have announced plans to drop this to 0.5p by 2015 but Westminster MP Mark Lazarowicz is pushing to have this lower rate in place in a shorter time frame. Meanwhile the technological marvel of in-flight WiFi is being used by around 10% of passengers where it is available (mostly on US internal flights).

# Posted by Ewan in Links of Interest, Industry at 12:43 BST, Jul 7th || 1 Comment

Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki says 'the fightback starts now', champions both Symbian and MeeGo

Anssi Vanjoki, marking his first day as Nokia's Head of Mobile Solutions, and in the face of recent widespread criticism of Nokia's high end device performance and strategy, has come out with some hard hitting statements in a feature on Nokia's Conversations blog. He underlines the importance of Symbian for Nokia, suggests that a Symbian^4 powered Nseries device is 'a very strong possibility', says that, for consumers, MeeGo will mean having 'true computing power in your pocket' and that MeeGo gives Nokia the ability 'to take mobile technology beyond the smartphone'. Read on for further details.

# Posted by Rafe in Hardware, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 12:38 BST, Jul 2nd || 101 Comments

AAS Insight 124 - Future of Nseries, developer initiatives

In All About Symbian Insight 124, the team discuss the future of Nseries devices and the respective roles of MeeGo and Symbian in Nokia's software strategy. We move on to a discussion of the application business model and app store, which leads into a discussion of Nokia's new developer initiatives. We also share news of updates to Ovi Store and Ovi Suite and the opening of Sports Tracker's online shop. You can listen to AAS Insight 124 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Developer, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 16:05 BST, Jun 28th || 1 Comment

The changing shape of Nseries - no scaremongering, just the facts

Nokia's quoted comments regarding the future of its Nseries devices have been causing much comment in the media in last few days. This editorial puts some perspective into the story - Nseries devices only represent around 12% of Nokia's Symbian portfolio and the evolution of the brand towards Maemo/MeeGo had been signposted since Autumn 2009. Moreover it is vital to understand that MeeGo and Symbian are complimentary parts of Nokia's overall software strategy. Read on for further analysis of the evolution of Nseries and a number of salient facts.

# Posted by Rafe in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 23:20 BST, Jun 24th || 129 Comments

Nokia fights back with new developer offerings

Nokia has made a number of developer announcements today, which significantly strengthen their developer services and offerings. Perhaps most interesting is news of a public beta service that allows developers to get their content Symbian Signed at no cost (compared to a previous first time signing cost of up to $215). Also important is the news that individuals can now register as Ovi Publishers (previously restricted to companies) and that the Ovi Store is now accepting Qt-based applications. Finally, and the most significant in the long term, is the first full release of the Nokia Qt SDK 1.0 and the accompanying Nokia Smart Installer (previously in beta). Read on for additional details.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Developer, Industry, Editorial Thoughts, Services at 14:23 BST, Jun 23rd || 29 Comments

O2 CEO puts his point of view for dropping unlimited data

Following on from previous discussions of the dropping of “unlimited” data in smartphone contracts, CEO of UK network O2 Ronan Dunne blogs about the changes and why he believes they are fair and transparent. In any unmetered system, there will be heavy users consuming the most resource – it’s the nature of the arithmetic – but is this a long term plan, a quick fix, or a grab for more income?

# Posted by Ewan in Links of Interest, Industry at 9:57 BST, Jun 21st || 7 Comments

AAS Insight 123 - Nokia X5 and X6 8GB, Nimbuzz, N8 hands-on

In All About Symbian Insight 123, the team discuss the news of the Nokia X5-01 and X6 8GB, which were launched at Nokia Connection in Singapore. Ewan gives us an overview of the Nimbuzz application, before Rafe explains that Symbian^3 is now functionally complete. Finally, Rafe and Steve discuss their thoughts on what they learned at the recent Nokia N8 hands-on event. You can listen to AAS Insight 123 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Hardware, Developer, Industry, Editorial Thoughts, Events at 9:01 BST, Jun 21st || 0 Comments

How long SHOULD a smartphone battery last?

Starting with a throwaway line from a US podcast, Steve Litchfield works up a head of steam over the ever-slipping battery life standard in our smartphones. How long is long enough when it comes to keeping a modern smartphone going on a single charge? Are we destined to need to carry around mobile chargers in our pocket in 2011 or is there a better way to go? Surely making it through the day is a fundamental that should never be compromised?

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 20:03 BST, Jun 20th || 39 Comments

Fujitsu and Toshiba agree to merge mobile phone businesses

Fujitsu, the second biggest manufacturer of Symbian based phones, and Toshiba have signed a memorandum of understanding to merge their respective phones businesses. Toshiba will transfer its mobile phone business into a new company and Fujitsu will acquire a majority of shares in the new company (suggesting Fujitsu is the dominant partner in this deal). The companies hope to take the number one spot in the domestic Japanese market, but will also be developing handsets for the world market.

# Posted by Rafe in Links of Interest, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 19:12 BST, Jun 19th || 3 Comments

Symbian^3 is functionally complete

Mark Skrebels, Senior Release Manager at the Symbian Foundation and Chairman of the Release Council, posted a short tweet today noting that Symbian^3 has been declared functionally complete. This is an important milestone for the Symbian Foundation as it marks the first time this point has been reached for a fully open source release and the time at which Symbian^3 is considered ready for community 'use'. Read on for more.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Industry at 0:30 BST, Jun 17th || 0 Comments

AAS Insight 122 - Nokia 5228, screens, Baidu and more

In All About Symbian Insight 122, we share the best of the previous week's news: Expedia hotel booking in Ovi Maps, Nokia 5228, Nokia Notifications and Tesco's Clubcard application. Steve shares his thoughts on the visibility of various screen technologies in bright sunlight, including a hands-on with Super AMOLED, and Rafe explains last week's Symbian Baidu tie up. Finally, the team discuss the launch of the iPhone 4 and the high-end device landscape. You can listen to AAS Insight 122 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Hardware, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 8:39 BST, Jun 14th || 4 Comments

Video calling and FaceTime - Terrible name, Brilliant pitch - but a way forward?

Video calling on mobiles has been a reality in most of the world for five years now - and it's been a disaster in terms of take-up rate. Yet Apple comes on the scene with their new FaceTime - video calling - 'feature' and seems to have nailed it in terms of making people want it. Read on for my thoughts on what has the rest of the world been doing wrong and for the use case that Apple has, quite correctly, identified and exploited.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts, Services at 16:54 BST, Jun 13th || 73 Comments