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S60 and Password Maker

David Gilson tackles that age old problem of how to manage web passwords using your desktop and smartphone - and he ends up at a solution that most readers won't even have heard of. It's also a solution that doesn't actually store your passwords anywhere at all, making it device-independent and utterly secure from hacking, in the case of theft or loss.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Miscellaneous, Links of Interest, Editorial Thoughts at 7:26 BST, Jun 2nd || 5 Comments

First Symbian^2 phones ship in Japan

The Symbian Foundation today announced the Symbian^2 platform is being used in four of the seven Symbian based handsets announced by NTT DoCoMo a few weeks ago. The F-07B (Fujitsu) went on sale on May 21st; it features a dual orientation screen (swivels from portrait to landscape) and a 12 megapixel camera. The SH-07B (Sharp) went on sale a week later; it features a 12 megapixel camera with full HD video recording and is partially waterproof. The F06-B and F-08B will go on sale later in June. These are the first Symbian^2 handsets to ship worldwide.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Developer, Industry at 14:33 BST, Jun 1st || 4 Comments

Pimping the Nokia N82

Here's the latest in my series about taking older, classic (2008 or before) hardware and finding out how far it can be taken to work to best effect in the modern day. You'll have seen the features on the Nokia E61i and E90 - now here's Pimping the Nokia N82 - a quirkily styled candybar that sat at the top of Nokia's hardware tree for ages - and in some ways still does.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Hardware, Editorial Thoughts at 8:31 BST, Jun 1st || 23 Comments

AAS Insight 120 - Open for Ideas, Yahoo, Symbian^3 phone

In All About Symbian Insight 120 Rafe reports back on the first part of his trip in Finland to find out about Nokia's approach to innovation. Rafe and Steve then discuss the Nokia-Yahoo partnership announced this week, the release of Nokia Messaging for IM for Nokia's S60 5th Edition phones, the game Creebies and an interview with Symbain's Lee Williams that suggested the first Symbian^3 phone will arrive from an Asian manufacturer (rather than Nokia in the form of the N8). You can listen to AAS Insight 120 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Hardware, Miscellaneous, Editorial Thoughts, Events, Services at 9:30 BST, May 31st || 0 Comments

SEE 2010 - Amsterdam 9th-10th November

The initial website for this years annual Symbian show recently went live. They reveal that SEE 2010 will take place in Amsterdam at Beurs van Berlage on the 9th and 10th of November. On the site you can find the basic information about the event and register your interest in attending as well as find out more about sponsor and speaker opportunities. SEE 2010 could be the venue for the first substantive look at the new UI of Symbian^4 and will set the scene for the Symbian ecosystem as it moves towards what is likely to be very busy 2011.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Links of Interest, Developer, Industry, Editorial Thoughts, Events at 16:45 BST, May 30th || 7 Comments

Some Top Applications when you're working abroad

Here in Norway for Eurovision week (culminating in the final tonight), the last 7 days have been rather hectic for me, but one I always enjoy (others may disagree). Reporting from the Eurovision Song Contest is a great test of mobile connectivity and productivity. So what have I been using at the biggest television show on the planet? I've been finding a number of S60 5th Edition apps invaluable and hope that some of them will help others venturing abroad with their smartphone. Read on for some old favourites and some new additions.

# Posted by Ewan in Software, Editorial Thoughts, Events at 14:41 BST, May 29th || 11 Comments

Nokia Messaging for IM in beta for touch devices

Nokia Messaging for IM is now available in beta for Nokia's touch devices including the Nokia N97 and N97 mini. The client has been completely redesigned with a focus on 'an efficient user experience'. The aim of Nokia Messaging for IM is to offer a 'desktop like IM experience on your Nokia device'. Features include support for Ovi, Windows Live Messenger, Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk, custom status messages, full avatar support and homescreen integration (N97 and N97 mini only).

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Services at 16:42 BST, May 28th || 7 Comments

SPB Mobile Shell launched

SPB Software launched SPB Mobile Shell a few minutes ago, a favourite of many on other mobile platforms, for Symbian, specifically for S60 5th Edition smartphones (and presumably compatible with Symbian^3 in months to come). Highlights of this replacement front-end are multiple customisable homescreens, widgets for tasks, agenda, weather (etc), photo contacts, app lau ncher, full kinetic scrolling, adaptive skins and support for OpenGL and a (somewhat mind-blowing) 3D carousel. Video, more details, links and screens below. Comments welcome once you've tried the trial version!

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 16:11 BST, May 25th || 52 Comments

JulyPlayer debuts

It seems CorePlayer (among other apps) has new competition on S60 - JulyPlayer is now available, in (very) early version 1 form, for both S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition and claims to play an impressive list of video formats. Trial versions let you test file compatibility and full versions are $10. It's early days though and both the interface and player performance looked like they could do with a lot of feedback from you guys (via their new forums) and subsequent iteration. See below for some screens. Comments welcome if you've tried it yet.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 11:01 BST, May 25th || 13 Comments

Nokia and Yahoo strategic partnership for web services

Nokia and Yahoo have announced a global strategic partnership which looks to enhance the companies' respective services across both the PC and mobile devices. Nokia will become the global, exclusive provider of mapping and navigation services across Yahoo service (powered by Ovi) while Yahoo will become the global, exclusive provider of Nokia's Ovi Mail and Ovi Chat services. Nokia and Yahoo plan to work on ID federation, the first stage of which will be the ability to use Ovi ID to log into select Yahoo services.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Services at 16:01 BST, May 24th || 22 Comments

AAS Insight 119 - Ovi Maps 3.04, new MOAP-S phones

In All About Symbian Insight 119 Steve, Ewan and Rafe share their thoughts on NTT DOCOMO's latest MOAP-S (Symbian phones) and Gartner's Q1 figures for mobile phones. The second half of the podcast includes news of Ovi Maps 3.04, Google Latitude API (leading to some thoughts on the future of location services) and Ewan's and Steve's summary thoughts on the Nokia X6. You can listen to AAS Insight 119 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Hardware, Editorial Thoughts, Services at 8:36 BST, May 24th || 1 Comment

A user writes: 'Where Nokia and Symbian need to improve'

Fired up by the discussions in the Phones Show Chat podcast, one of my listeners, Andy Weekes, took the time to write in a veritable essay on his experiences (ok, mainly frustrations) with Nokia, Symbian and the current competition. Some of his points are very valid, others more arguable, but you'll hopefully enjoy his essay and my (inline) responses below. Comments welcome, some of these topics could run and run!

# Posted by Steve in Software, Miscellaneous, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 16:09 BST, May 23rd || 47 Comments

Ovi Maps 3.04 (3.4) improves performance, adds Qype

Nokia has released an update, version 3.04, for Ovi Maps. The new version adds formal support for WiFi as a positioning method as part of an overhaul of the positioning functionality, plus significant performance improvements for search, zooming and map panning, a number of consumer-friendly UI tweaks and the addition of Qype information to the places database. Read on for more details.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Services at 13:10 BST, May 20th || 58 Comments

BBC open up national streaming radio to mobile web browsers

It’s a subtle tweak, but the addition of live streaming to the mobile web pages for the BBC’s UK National Stations is an important addition. Exec producer JamesSimcock goes into some of the thinking behind the decision on the BBC Internet Blog, but the main reason is user expectation – with more flat rate devices and wi-fi connections, bill shock is no longer the over-riding issue.

# Posted by Ewan in Software at 21:37 BST, May 19th || 11 Comments

AAS Insight 118 - Nokia Design, #NokiaNav

In All About Symbian Insight 118 Ewan and Rafe share their thoughts on a visit to Nokia's design HQ in London, the release of Sports Tracker and memory performance on Ewan's X6. The second half of the podcast features an outside broadcast recorded at the recent #NokiaNav event in Richmond. Rafe and Steve are joined Julien Fourgeaud and discuss the event and related accessories and activities. You can listen to AAS Insight 118 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Hardware, Editorial Thoughts, Events at 13:09 BST, May 17th || 7 Comments

OpenTable for Nokia - book a restaurant table from your phone

OpenTable for Nokia, an application which lets you book a restaurant table from you phone, is now available to download from Ovi Store. OpenTable is a well established online restaurant booking service; it covers more than 13,000 restaurants in the US, UK, Canada and Mexico. The key advantage of the service is that it provides a complete 'end-to-end' offering allowing you to browse restaurants, making a booking and receive a confirmation. This saves significant time and effort over the traditional method of telephone booking.

# Posted by Rafe in Software, Services at 17:09 BST, May 14th || 8 Comments

Renewed Sports Tracker adds S60 3.2 support

In April, a renewed version of Sports Tracker, which turns your phone into a GPS sports computer, was released for S60 5th Edition devices. In the meantime, Sports Tracking Technologies have launched their website and now they have made available a S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 version of the application. S60 3.2 devices were supported by the old version of Sports Tracker, but the new version has a number of extra features and UI tweaks. It will also support the new online service, which is set to become available shortly. Read on for more.

# Posted by Rafe in Software at 12:38 BST, May 14th || 16 Comments

My Top 10 Reasons for Staying with Symbian

I was asked a very good question last week: "Why do you stay with Symbian when there's a world of wonder with iPhone and Android?" I have to admit to finding a number of positives in these other platforms, sometimes accompanied by positives in their hardware, but it's true that I do keep coming back to Symbian as the OS powering my smartphone-of-choice. Investigating my own leanings and trying to justify them, here are the top 10 reasons why I stay with Symbian.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Hardware, Miscellaneous, Developer, Industry, Editorial Thoughts at 11:54 BST, May 14th || 57 Comments

How to: Use Google Reader to deliver podcasts to S60

Nokia's Podcasting is a wonderful media consumption tool. But, aside from its own somewhat limited 'Directory', Nokia doesn't make it simple to get new podcasts into Podcasting's feed 'system'. In this tutorial, David Gilson looks at way of using Google reader on your desktop computer to harvest interesting podcasts and import their feeds into your smartphone.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Miscellaneous at 11:20 BST, May 12th || 6 Comments

Ewan looks at Own Voice for Ovi Maps

Nokia continued to push both their mapping service and the customisation potential of the smartphone with the release of Own Voice this week, which allows you to record your own vocal package for the turn by turn directions in Ovi Maps. How easy is it to use? Ewan finds out (below)...

# Posted by Ewan in Software, Editorial Thoughts at 20:22 BST, May 6th || 6 Comments