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News Headlines - Links of Interest

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The Vivaz on video

If you thought my text reviews of the Vivaz here on AAS were a little generous to Sony Ericsson, then you might appreciate my Phones Show 107 review of the phone, where - maybe - it's possible I got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. Or maybe the Vivaz really is that flawed... There's also your Desert Island Smartphone (poll) results. Enjoy.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 10:40 BST, Apr 5th || 0 Comments

The all purpose desktop Nokia battery charger

Over on his own blog this time, our own David Gilson has been reviewing the latest idea for charging your 'spare' smartphone batteries - the SBC, or "Smart Battery Charger". With spacers to fit most Nokia batteries, this does seem a great way to charge your spares without having to cycle them through the actual phone(s).

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Links of Interest at 15:26 BST, Apr 2nd || 2 Comments

Should Symbian host a freeware test area?

If, like me, you'd like to see the Symbian freeware scene grow and grow, why not take a look at this appeal over on the Symbian Foundation blog? Craig is trying to amass votes so that the idea of a freeware test system can get progressed within the organisation - take a look and add your tuppence worth if you agree that it's a good idea!

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest, Developer at 15:04 BST, Apr 2nd || 0 Comments

Answering those Admob stats - more to smartphones than RIM and iPhone

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In which case it would be helpful if, sometimes, Tomi Ahonen actually did a few diagrams, to keep general article length down(!) His latest missive, "Repeat After Me: The Rival to the Blackberry is NOT the iPhone" is still well worth a read though, aimed at putting some much needed perspective into the tech world's obsession over each month's rather misleading Admob phone-browser-ad stats.

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest, Industry at 14:37 BST, Apr 1st || 6 Comments

Opera look back at a big month in February

Opera have published their monthly look at the mobile web, which even though it has a focus on the Norwegian browser company, is a nice snapshot of growth, both their own and that of the mobile web. From their 50.5 million users, the top countries for Opera Mini, their java based browser, were Russia, Indonesia, India and China.

# Posted by Ewan in Links of Interest, Industry at 10:14 BST, Mar 29th || 6 Comments

Nokia Bots from Beta Labs - intelligent add-ons

Nokia Beta Labs today released Nokia Bots, a collection of 'mini-utilities' which monitor how you use your phone and try to improve your user experience either by making suggestions or automatically changing configurations. Or as Nokia puts it 'add-ons that make daily routines easier by learning from your behavior'. Nokia Bots, which runs as a homescreen widget, is available for the Nokia N97 and N97 mini from Beta Labs. Read on for further information and screenshots.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Links of Interest at 20:48 GMT, Mar 26th || 4 Comments

Optimising the N97 and looking at a Legend

The Phones Show 106 just went live, now with an audio-only version (by popular demand), featuring 'Optimising the Nokia N97', plus a User Story with a very happy Nokia E55 user. There's also my review of the HTC Legend. And don't forget Phones Show Chat each week, the audio podcast where Tim Salmon and I chat about smartphones around a pint cup of coffee...

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Links of Interest at 7:27 GMT, Mar 26th || 14 Comments

AdMob Mobile Ad Metrics show healthy growth

AdMob, a mobile advertising provider, has released its latest set of statistics, based on ad requests to its advertising network. It shows increasing demand for advertising from mobile websites and applications and notes an increase in the proportion of ad requests coming from smartphones. AdMob's numbers need to be understood in the proper context, but they do underline the increasing importance of advertising as a monetisation model for mobile content

# Posted by Rafe in Links of Interest, Developer, Services at 18:18 GMT, Mar 25th || 5 Comments

Nokia 5230 - 6 months Internet and 8GB card for £79.99

T-Mobile UK are having a one day sale on their range of PAYG (Pre-Pay) mobile phones. As a result, the Nokia 5230 is available for £79.99. As part of the package you'll also get an 8GB microSD card and six months of Internet access. The 5230 is also one of Nokia's Ovi Maps free navigation phones, so you'll also be getting worldwide free sat-nav too. We think this represents fantastic value for money for those looking for a low cost smartphone or for a backup phone. But you've only got til midnight. More analysis below.

# Posted by Rafe in Hardware, Links of Interest, Editorial Thoughts at 13:45 GMT, Mar 25th || 35 Comments

When is The Cloud not a cloud?

Simon Wardly, Software Services Manager for Canonical, is a strong advocate of distributed computing – the mythical cloud that exists in the modern web world – and he’s spent some time on his personal blog to go into some depth about the current “state of the cloud.” While not directly relevant to Symbian it makes for great background reading over your mid-morning coffee.

# Posted by Ewan in Links of Interest at 10:25 GMT, Mar 23rd || 0 Comments

Developing applications a sure fire bet to losing money?

You can rely on Tomi Ahonen to tell it like it is - in this case musing on the appalling economics in the iPhone app world (there's a summary quote below), talking about the sheer numbers mean that even if you do a great app and are moderately lucky then you'll still lose your shirt. Comments welcome as to how much of this applies in the world of Symbian - Ovi Store, Play Now, etc. - I've a feeling there's a common argument that could be aimed at Symbian app development. Of course, the solution is a) to be insanely good and b) reviewed/feature here on All About Symbian...

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest, Developer at 13:12 GMT, Mar 22nd || 10 Comments

Earth for Nokia touch smartphones

OK, so Steve has a new favourite theme - and it seems that PiZero is experimenting with new ways of distributing his excellent themes: Earth is a new addition to the Nokia Ovi Store and appears for S60 5th Edition (touch) phones only. It's artistic and yet lightweight, with default icons to save RAM. Worth a look - there's a graphical preview below.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 17:32 GMT, Mar 20th || 25 Comments

Vivaz and Satio belatedly get music equalizer

Thanks to Norman John for spotting online that at least one of the existing holes in the functionality of the Sony Ericsson Satio and Vivaz has now been plugged, semi-officially. 'Equaliser' is now a free download in the PlayNow store and is a tiny 17kb standalone utility whose music chip presets are honoured by the main Media/Music player. Hopefully this will become more integrated in future firmwares?

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 9:46 GMT, Mar 18th || 1 Comment

All About eBooks?

eBooks have been a part of the Psion/Nokia/Symbian scene, on and off, for 15 years now. Admittedly, it's more 'off' than 'on' at the moment, but that's absolutely no reason for you not to take a hot drink and 30 minutes to read Michael Mace's epic feature on 'The Future of Publishing: Why eBooks Failed'. He looks at the topic from every angle and in terrific depth. What I'd now like to see is for a commercial eBook platform really take off on Symbian: suggestions for current contenders welcome if you agree?

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 15:15 GMT, Mar 17th || 10 Comments

Samsung i8910 HD modding scene gets new champion

Much as All About Symbian doesn't encourage the hacking of Symbian smartphones, we do feel that the Samsung i8910 HD is a special case - a super-high-spec smartphone that has been somewhat under-curated by the manufacturer. And the device has attracted those who want to mod, not for installation of illegal software, but for genuine improvement of the device. Which is why I'm happy to link to the industrious Andy, aka 'HyperX', who has been beavering away to produce firmware HX-V3-16, details and link below.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Links of Interest at 8:16 GMT, Mar 17th || 12 Comments

Nokia Conversations release "Design by Community"

Nokia have opened a crowd sourcing initiative, "Design by Community", to find out what form customers would like future Nokia phones to take. Each week, members of the public can vote on different aspects of mobile phone design. See below for all the details and links.

# Posted by David in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 11:17 GMT, Mar 16th || 3 Comments

The old pearl (Nokia N95 8GB) still rocks....

Always good to read of older (but classic) devices still being put through their paces. Diogo Neves has penned a lovely 8 point comparison between his trusty Nokia N95 8GB and his newer N97 mini and N900, looking at different functionality in daily life. It's fair to say that the older device is outgunned overall, but the margin is surprisingly small, bearing up my own opinion for years that the N95 8GB was the most powerful phone in the world.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Links of Interest at 21:04 GMT, Mar 15th || 17 Comments

Win an E55, E75 or N97 with TRMP

Courtesy of our friends at The Really Mobile Project, it seems that you can win a Nokia E55, E75 or N97 by simply being your normal witty self. Their post explains all, but they've given you three good alternative ideas to get you started. The three funniest entries win, apparently. And you can enter as many times as you like. So what are you waiting for?

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 9:27 GMT, Mar 15th

OfficeSuite now offers Google Docs editing

Mobile Systems, far from being daunted by the Quickoffice juggernaut, have been plugging away at their competing OfficeSuite for S60 - the latest v5.30 can edit Google Documents directly, something of a breakthrough for the Symbian world. A hat tip to Wampyre here for both spotting the new version and doing a brief, illustrated write-up. Comments welcome if you're an OfficeSuite user and can add your recommendation.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 8:50 GMT, Mar 15th || 6 Comments

Wayfinder finally dies a cold Swedish death...

Some sad news, I'm afraid. You'll remember Sweden's Wayfinder navigation software from back in the early 2000s - I was a proponent, loving the fact that it would work on anything because it didn't need to have hundreds of Megabytes of maps preloaded (well, it seemed a lot at the time). Sydsvenskan is now reporting the Wayfinder story (including the Vodafone buyout over a year ago) and says that Wayfinder has now given up, in the face of free navigation from Nokia (and, to some extent, Google). Tough times, though the cycle of operating systems and ecosystems building in functionality which started out as third party add-ins has been going on for decades.

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 13:22 GMT, Mar 12th || 6 Comments