All About Symbian - News Headlines

News Headlines - Miscellaneous

1.5 billion Series 40 phones, plus half a billion Symbian too

The news that Nokia just handed over its one and a half billionth Series 40 phone was interesting - and impressive - and got me thinking and fact-checking. Just how many Symbian-powered smartphones have been sold, in total, i.e. in the last decade? Turns out it's now well over 500 million, i.e. over half a billion Symbian smartphones have already been sold and are... out there in the world somewhere. Some thoughts below.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 9:05 UTC, Jan 28th || Comments

The DIY quad-pod phone stand

In the spirit of my own cardboard (DT-29 copy) phone stand, Aliqudsi, over on My Nokia Blog, has had a brain wave and used two bulldog/binder clips to create a four legged, stable stand for his N8, though it will also work for any other similar device, ostensibly for holding the camera phone up for stable filming, without worrying that it will fall over. Clever stuff...

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 14:23 UTC, Jan 11th || Comments

Screens to get brighter, more sensitive, thanks to Gorilla Glass 2

We've gotten used to all our phones now coming with Gorilla Glass, meaning no more casual scratches and no need for screen protectors. Well, 'Gorilla Glass 2' has now been announced by Corning, its creators, at CES 2012, scheduled to start going into smartphones towards the end of the year, and claimed to be 20% thinner yet as tough as the original, meaning that screens can be brighter and more sensitive when used with capacitive touch technology.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Events at 19:36 UTC, Jan 9th || Comments

A snapshot of the UK High Street - Symbian almost non existent

Feeling a little like a TV undercover 'mystery shopper', I picked a UK provincial town and worked my way through their High Street phone outlets. I wanted to get a snapshot of how Symbian was (or wasn't) being represented in the place from which most people acquire phones in this nation. In the process, I was somewhat shocked. However much as some geeks like to attribute failing Symbian sales per quarter to 'technical deficiencies' or 'lack of apps' (both of which are somewhat over-exaggerated), there's a far simpler explanation...

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 7:13 UTC, Jan 9th || Comments

Nokia Configuration Tool graduates from beta

Nokia Configuration Tool, a Windows PC application for system administrators to manage the settings of Symbian phones through a USB cable or Bluetooth, has now graduated from Nokia Beta Labs and is formally available for enterprise users as version 6.3.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 10:59 UTC, Jan 5th || Comments

Nokia and BBC finally resolve iPlayer download problems

After months of BBC iPlayer downloads that wouldn't play, following a DRM change on the BBC's servers, it seems that Nokia and the Beeb have worked out the problem, releasing a 'WMDRM DLA iPlayer plugin' for many Symbian smartphones. At least, those based in the UK, presumably worked out via network or IP. As with similar updates, the gradual nature of the roll out means that you may have to wait a little longer for this to appear in your copy of Nokia Suite.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Miscellaneous at 17:39 UTC, Jan 3rd || Comments

Symbian OS still on top, according to StatCounter

Thanks to a reminder from WebProNews, it's instructive to look again at the smartphone world via StatCounter, a pro service embedded on many web sites which tracks the browser and OS used to access them. And, reflecting the still enormous installed base of Symbian-powered smartphones across the world, Symbian still (for web access, at least) still dominates the world, at 31%. The full graph is below, along with some comments.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest, Industry at 9:09 UTC, Dec 30th || Comments

Symbian Belle updates officially 'early 2012'

Although Nokia hasn't officially ever claimed a specific date for updates to Symbian Belle for existing Symbian^3/Anna smartphones, many people (including me) had been hoping for the update to start appearing this month, a hope fuelled by the demonstration of all current models running Belle at Nokia World and by Belle firmware appearing on firmware flashing systems. However, we've now had official word, quoted below - the bottom line is that a little more patience is required.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous at 9:43 UTC, Dec 8th || Comments

The Proporta charger hits 7000mAh

Anecdotally, the Proporta chargers have been hugely popular amongst my Phones Show viewership and 'All About' readers generally - and there's a new monster version now available, clocking in at a stunning 7000mAh. The Turbocharger 7000 has two USB output ports as usual, along with a facelifted exterior, weighs only 175g, and comes with charging heads for all major phone and gadget ports and a carrying case. Watch this space for a full review.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 10:47 UTC, Nov 29th || Comments

Nokia Maps Creator debuts for 'previously unmapped' countries

Not Symbian-related directly, but I did note that Nokia has launched 'Nokia Maps Creator', aimed at letting people make small edits or additions to existing maps - and edits are available to all Nokia Maps users 'immediately'. Initially, this is only for 'previously unmapped' countries, but it's possible that moderated edits might come to other countries in time. Some links and quotes below.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 9:50 UTC, Nov 23rd || Comments

Nokia's 'Great Lost Platform'?

Andrew Orlowski's posts on Psion, Nokia and Symbian over at The Register are often a rollicking read, especially for geeks interested in Symbian's past. This five page article is all about Hildon, the UI (and indeed 'platform', or so argues the piece) that was evolved to Series 90, used in the Nokia 7710, and which underpinned a revamped Series 80, used in the Nokia 9500 and 9300. One for Symbian historians, definitely!

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 13:40 UTC, Nov 21st || Comments

The new Nokia BL-5K - when a typo isn't a typo?

When the Nokia 701 was announced, I leapt up on its specification with my editor's hat firmly in place. "BL-5K battery, 1300mAh" read the press release. Having owned the Nokia N86 and having played with the C7 and X7, all with the same battery, "that's got to be a typo" I asserted and insisted that Rafe fix it to "1200mAh" for our news story. As it turns out, the Nokia 701 ships with a new 'variant' of the BL-5K that we haven't seen before, rated at "1300mAh". Have there been chemical tweaks inside?

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous at 11:03 UTC, Nov 15th || Comments

Ovi Suite now officially replaced - long live Nokia Suite!

After a month in beta, Nokia Suite (for Windows) has been formally released via the usual Nokia PC connectivity pages, replacing the former Ovi Suite. It's not just a name change though. In addition to the label, there are functional changes, we've included a brief changelog below. The new release version is 3.2.100, replacing the latest beta 3.2.98 that had been in Nokia Beta Labs.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Miscellaneous at 9:16 UTC, Nov 10th || Comments

The Nokia (/Ovi) Store has upped the download restriction to 10

Nokia has finally relaxed its somewhat restrictive policy of only allowing you to download paid content up to five times (it was a draconian three times, originally) - the limit has apparently now been raised to ten times. Given that you also have to be fully signed in as well, many have argued that there shouldn't be any limit, but ten is a reasonable number and should appease even serial phone switchers like ourselves!

# Posted by Steve in Software, Miscellaneous at 8:34 UTC, Nov 4th || Comments

Q3 world phone stats, courtesy of IDC

Figures are now in from IDC for the world phone market in Quarter 3, 2011, showing the market flattening in the USA and Western Europe as saturation sets in. However, the proportion of smartphones in the overall mix continues to rise. Nokia is still king in terms of sheer numbers, selling over a hundred million phones in the quarter, although Samsung is catching up relatively quickly. IDC's stats table is quoted below, though we don't yet have a breakdown of smartphone-only sales.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Industry at 10:57 UTC, Nov 1st || Comments

People Made - Nokia exhibition at London Design Museum

A free exhibition is currently running at the London Design Museum (28 Shad Thames, London SE1), entitled, 'People Made - Nokia products that changed the world' and tells the 'inside story of Nokia - past, present and future'. The exhibition is free to enter, but is only running from October 28th to November 2nd, leaving you three days to go along and take a look.

# Posted by Rafe in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 12:56 UTC, Oct 31st || Comments

361 Degrees S02 E01 - Live at Nokia World

The 361 Degrees Podcast has returned for season 2. To kick off our second season we headed to Nokia World and recorded our first ever 'live' edition in front of an invited audience of bloggers and mobile gurus. The episode primarily consists of a conversation, based on a question and answer format, between the audience and the three hosts (Ben Smith, Ewan MacLeod, and Rafe Blandford).

# Posted by Rafe in Miscellaneous at 11:00 UTC, Oct 31st || Comments

Symbian roundup at Nokia World 2011

The focus at Nokia World 2011 was, of course, very much on the launch of Nokia's first Windows Phone devices (Lumia 800 and 710), but there was plenty of Symbian Anna and Belle goodness across the various booths and stands too. To give you a flavour of the Symbian presence at the event, here's a virtual tour of (some of) what was on display.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Events at 6:05 UTC, Oct 28th || Comments

Symbian Anna gets a service 'performance' pack, starting with the N8

Being rolled out with only a day or so to spare before Nokia World hits is a 'service pack' for Symbian Anna, claimed to bring performance and usability benefits, plus faster email and messaging, quicker GPS fixes and a mysterious 'more' (presumably including minor bug fixes). So far we've only seen this (today) for our Nokia N8s, though I'd expect other Anna devices to also get offered this fairly soon. What's not to like?

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous at 20:50 UTC, Oct 25th || Comments

Nokia Maps 3D - the 'making of' DVD extra

Nokia Maps 3D is a desktop browser-based 3D mapping tech demo, with (currently) 23 major cities around the world mapped in glorious, true 3D, with data and textures gathered from satellites, planes and cars, using conventional cameras and laser rangefinders. Anyway, Nokia just released a rather cute 'making of' video, demonstrating in public-friendly form, roughly how it all gets put together. It's embedded below - comments welcome. Oh, and apparently you'll soon not even have to install a plug-in into your browser...

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 11:08 UTC, Oct 25th || Comments

Pages: 1 . 2 . 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 . 8 . 9 » [55]