Planet Mobile

Review: Drop It!

Although I'm a fan of casual games, there does come a point where a casual title can be just a little... too casual. Drop It!, with a total game time as short as a few seconds and as long as you can keep the main gameplay going (around a minute or so in my case), runs very close to this boundary but redeems itself with several physics options, a dash of strategy and a little genuine excitement.

The idea here, as the single help screen suggests, is to guide a ball through horizontal cracks in a never-ending series of ledges by tilting your smartphone left and right, with the ball behaving more or less faithfully to the laws of physics, i.e. rolling down each ledge and accelerating, depending on how severely you're tilting the phone.

Three types of ball are available - as you might expect, each has different properties: the Metal ball plays most easily as it falls quickly and doesn't bounce around, so can be quickly rolled along ledges towards a crack; the Rubber ball falls quickly but then bounces off the ledge a few times - these have to be allowed for; while the Pingpong ball floats downwards more slowly and bounces wildly as well - consider this the 'hard' option in Drop It!

One, three or four points is/are scored for each crack dropped through, depending on ball type chosen. Although '+1', '+2' and '+3' legends appear on screen they don't always seem to be bonuses, merely confirmation that you've just dropped through two or three cracks in one go (i.e. one above the other), though occasional scoring oddities indicate that there's some degree of extra incentive being applied here. The developer's not clear about the exact scoring system used.

In fact, this is where strategy comes in, in addition to changing ball types to get greater scores per ledge at the risk of not clearing each one as easily. You see, the ledges start rising from the bottom of the screen faster and faster as the game goes on - if your ball is left stranded at the top of the screen at any point then the game is over. And a good way to keep making progress is to keep an eye on the ledge (or two) below the current one, factoring in the position of those cracks and coordinating ball trajectories such that you can drop through multiple cracks in one go, or at least make a smoother, less jerky path for the ball.

And that's Drop It! - I'll accept that it's possible to get longer game times from it, given the included online high score table, shown below - if I believe the datestamps, it seems that 'QQ269' got his high scores with roughly seven minute play times, though I wouldn't put it past online players to resort to trickery - a common technique when people wanted to cheat at my own Atomic Tetris clone was to run something intensive in the background to slow the gameplay down and make reaction times less critical! People, eh?

As is common these days, Drop It! is available in ad-laden (above, right) form for free or by buying the commercial, ad-free version at £1.50. I've linked to both above, so take your pick.

Drop It! is simple, it's casual, but it's also fun and adds a little adrenaline into small moments of downtime in your day. Worth an install, I think.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 27 January 2012

January 27, 2012 08:04 AM

Review: Lloyds TSB Mobile Banking

Mobile banking seems to be one of the last few frontiers that are not well catered for here in the UK. There are many money managers, but few official applications, for our high street banks. Lloyds TSB has stepped up to provide Symbian users with access to online banking and the ability to find nearby branches and ATMs. One catch though – the mobile banking element is handed off to a mobile website. Which is... something of a fail...

 
The Lloyds TSB application.

The Lloyds TSB app greets you with options to enter mobile banking, or the ATM and branch finder. There’s also the “…More” page which has links to help pages and useful phone numbers. Tapping the mobile banking button opens a notice telling you that your web browser will be opened; closing the browser returns you to the app.

 
Main menu and browser notice.

Lloyds TSB handles its mobile web login by first asking you to enter your user ID and password, and then prompting you to enter selected characters from your memorable information. Having to remember and count to the N^th characters from a passphrase is the least pleasant form of authentication I’ve ever come across. Your User ID is at least (optionally) remembered for your next online banking session, though the security questions will naturally have to be entered each time.

 
Getting started with the Lloyds TSB mobile banking website.

Once logged in, you can see a list of all your accounts. For each, you can view your balance and recent transactions – the most likely types of information you will want to check. However, the only functional task you can perform is making one-off payments to other bank accounts. To send a payment you need to enter the account and sort code numbers. However, if you regularly send payments to the same few accounts you may have already saved the recipients’ details via the desktop website – in which case they will be listed in a drop-down menu. If you are new to online banking, you will have to go through a telephone authentication process before you can save recipient account details.

While having the ability to do any online banking from a phone is great, I was disappointed that the mobile site had no facility to manage direct debits or standing orders. The only way to access more facilities is to switch from the mobile site to the desktop site, which quickly breaks the user experience. While the Symbian Anna version of Web can just about handle the desktop site, it will not be practical for older versions.

 
Checking transactions and making payments.

Thankfully, the functionality to find branches and ATMs does not require launching a browser. You are invited to select either or both kinds of location, and to enter a city name or postcode. It’s here that you notice that the application hasn’t been updated for a while, as it does not support Symbian Anna’s split screen keyboard. Additionally, there is an “Open Now” option to make sure that you don’t arrive at a branch that’s closed!

 
Searching for branches and ATMs.

After entering a search query, a list of results close to the address you entered is shown. Tapping a result brings up a page with the address, opening hours, and available facilities. There is also a favourites list, to save repeated searching for your regular financial haunts. However, while you can add branches, you cannot add ATMs.

 
Viewing the details and location of a branch.

You can bring up a map showing the location of a branch by tapping its “View on Map” button. However, there are no pinch or drag gestures; moving and zooming are controlled via six icons along the bottom of the screen. As a result, every move requires a complete map reload, which makes for a stilted experience. It would have been better if the branch finder could have somehow been integrated with Nokia Maps for navigation purposes. Especially so, since the map view does not even show your location relative to the branch or ATM!

I wanted to be impressed with this application – I wanted mobile banking to mean real banking. However, the application launches a mobile website, and the branch finder doesn’t do anything that a Google or Nokia Maps search couldn’t do. Therefore, the only unique part of the application is the list of useful Lloyds TSB phone numbers – which could be saved to your address book anyway.

All in all, the Lloyds TSB app is more of a glorified bookmark than a useful application. Also note that there are versions of this application for the Bank of Scotland and Halifax.

David Gilson for All About Symbian, 26^th January 2012.

January 27, 2012 07:04 AM

Smartphone Owners Concerned and In the Dark About Mobile Security

In support of Data Privacy Day 2012, NQ Mobile, the international brand of NetQin Mobile, Inc., a leading provider of consumer-centric mobile security and productivity applications, and the National Cyber Security Alliance, a non-profit public-private partnership focused on cybersecurity awareness and education for all digital citizens, today released the results of a new survey of consumer attitudes and behaviors towards mobile privacy and security.

The online survey of 1,158 smartphone-owning consumers conducted in December 2011, showed that while almost three-fourths of American consumers are aware of - and concerned about - security threats to their smartphones, they aren't always taking active measures to protect their mobile lives. Peop... .. .

Read more:
Smartphone Owners Concerned About Mobile Security - full story

January 26, 2012 05:53 PM

The Finnish Mobile Phone Giant Has Reported Quarterly Loss on Impairment Charges

As expected, The Finnish mobile phone giant has reported its fourth-quarter resuults with a net loss of EUR1.07 billion (US$1.4 billion) for the fourth-quarter of the year as revenues also fell by 21% to EUR10 billion (US$13 billion). The company dropped into a loss due to a EUR1.1 billion impairment charge at its location services division.

Smartphone sales dropped by 23% compared to a year ago, but by less than analysts had expected. Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop commented: "The fourth quarter of 2011 marked a significant step in Nokia's transformation. Most notably, in Q4 we introduced new mobile phones and smartphones, which res... .. .

Read more:
Finnish Mobile Phone Giant Reports Forth Quarter Results - full story

January 26, 2012 05:35 PM

fMobi Version 2.5 Is Now Available To Symbian^3/Anna/Belle Users Too And Available At Nokia Store

As I have already said somewhere, Juuso Kosonen remains serious about keeping its Facebook client application up to date with constant improvements and continues with providing updates on a fairly frequent basis.

So if you find this feature rich app useful and you'd like to support the developer and encourage further development purchase this latest version (2.5) of fMobi app for S^3 / Anna / Belle from OVI Store and make him able to get more coffee to stay up late and bring out more features or maybe even some new apps for Nokia devices ;)

fMobi is quickly becoming one of the most popular way to access Facebook and stay in touch while on the road and access your favourite social network anytime and anywhere and therefore it is really nice to see that even owners of older Sym... .. .

Read more:
Get yours now and experience all new great things - full story

January 26, 2012 05:01 PM

Nokia Q4 2011 - in the heart of transition

Nokia has released its Q4 2011 results, reporting an operating loss of €954 million, with net sales of €10.0 billion (down 21% YoY). Nokia's Devices and Services division's profits were €203 million. Margins in devices and services were 3.4% (down from 12.7 % on Q4 2010 and up from 3.1% in Q3 2011). Total smartphone device sales were 19.6 million, compared with 28.6 million units in Q4 2010 (down 31% YoY) and 16.8 million units in Q3 2011 (up 17%, QoQ). 

Nokia's results were slightly ahead of market expectations, with core earnings per share of €0.06, compared to market expectations of €0.04.

The headline loss of €964 million is a big number, but the biggest component of it is a write down in value of goodwill from the Location and Services division of €1,090 billion. This can be seen more clearly in Nokia's non-IFRS figures.

Non-IFRS operating profit was €478 million (down 56% YoY and up 90% QoQ), with Devices and Services non-IFRS profit at €292 million, and margins at 4.9%. Non-IFRS results exclude special items for all periods and can be seen as measures of underlying performance. In Q4 2011 the non-IFRS results exclude €1.432 billion of charges, an unusually high level. This includes charges related to the partial impairment of goodwill in Location & Commerce (€1.090 billion), a number of restructuring charges (€100 million in Devices & Services, €25 million in Location and Commerce) and a variety of charges related to acquisitions and similar (e.g. €24 million because of Accenture deal).

Stephen Elop said:

"The fourth quarter of 2011 marked a significant step in Nokia's transformation. Most notably, in Q4 we introduced new mobile phones and smartphones, which resulted from the strategy shift in our Devices & Services business. 

And, while we progressed in the right direction in 2011, we still have a tremendous amount to accomplish in 2012, and thus, it is my assessment that we are in the heart of our transition.

In summary, with a strong balance sheet, our performance in mobile phones and the new excitement around Lumia, we are confident that we are on the right track to build long-term value."

In Q4 2011, Nokia shipped 19.6 million smartphones. Separately, Nokia disclosed that "to date [26th January] we have sold well over 1 million Lumia devices". Allowing for some sales of Lumia devices in January and sales of the Nokia N9, this would suggest Symbian sales were in the region of at least 18.5 million units. This compares well to Symbian device sales of approximately 16.8 million in Q3 2011, but is significantly down from Q4 2010's figure of 28.6 million. 

Stephen Elop noted that he was pleased with the progress made with Nokia's Windows Phone devices, following the announcement of the Nokia Lumia 800 and Lumia 710 last October. The two devices were brought to market ahead of schedule, an example of Nokia's "changed clock speed":

"In the war of ecosystems, clearly there are some strong contenders already on the field. And with Lumia, we have demonstrated that we belong on the field.  Our specific intent has been to establish a beachhead in this war of ecosystems, and country by country that is what we are now accomplishing. To date we have sold well over 1 million Lumia devices. From this beachhead of more than 1 million Lumia devices, you will see us push forward with the sales, marketing and successive product introductions necessary to be successful.  We also plan to bring the Lumia series to additional markets including China and Latin America in the first half of 2012."

However, Nokia's Symbian devices are facing significant pressure:

In certain markets, there has been an acceleration of the anticipated trend towards lower-priced smartphones with specifications that are different from Symbian's traditional strengths. As a result of the changing market conditions, combined with our increased focus on Lumia, we now believe that we will sell fewer Symbian devices than we previously anticipated.

Nokia's mobile phone business remains strong, with year on year shipment numbers shrinking by just 1%, a good result in the context of the market. This was, in part, driven by Nokia's dual SIM products, which "in Q4 showed sequential double-digit percentage growth".

Looking forward, Nokia expects its non-IFRS Devices and Services operating margin in Q4 to be around break even, suggesting Nokia is facing a tough Q1 as continues the roll out of new products and feels the impact of lower than expected (long term) Symbian sales. The outlook is based on a number of factors, including competitive industry dynamics, a greater than normal seasonal decline in sales, costs associated with new product launches and ramp up, and the macro economic environment.

Nokia did not provide an outlook for 2012 as a whole, noting that 2012 is expected to be a year of transition, during which the "Devices & Services" business will be subject to risks and uncertainties. 
   

Market Context

This chart shows smartphone shipments by manufacturer for the last few years. The figures for Q4 2011 include some estimates as some manufacturers have not reported their numbers, nor have the numbers been fully normalised between manufacturers.

The most notable recent change is the increased sales of Apple and Samsung. Samsung's sales performance was primarily Android based, but also include around 3 million Bada devices and a small portion of Windows Phone devices. Apple's increased sales was largely driven by the release of the new iPhone 4.

These figures from the chart above can also be expressed as % market share, which shows comparitive performance over time.

See also

Nokia Results

Earlier results: Q3 2011, Q2 2011, Q1 2011, Q4 2010, Q3 2010, Q2 2010, Q1 2010, Q4 2009, Q3 2009, Q2 2009, Q1 2009, Q4 2008, Q3 2008, and Q2 2008

January 26, 2012 12:55 PM

Porter Gale Joins Kred

by Andrew Grill at January 26, 2012 12:48 PM

Twits du Jour (January 25)

• Just watched the first 2 episodes of Alcatraz. Much better than I thought it would be. Onto number 3... #
• Upgraded my server to Tomcat 7. Except for a little problem that took some research, it was pretty smooth overall. #
• OMG. First Google, now I just found out that Amazon keeps track of me in all of their store departments. #newsformorons #doevil #

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 26, 2012 08:00 AM

State of the Union Highlights

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 25, 2012 11:57 PM

In-app purchases now possible with latest QML Store beta

Even though the QML Store client is now the 'norm' and formally released, the betas continue, with v3.22.044 now supporting in-app purchases, i.e. applications can call the Store client when needed for handling payments. A few screens and links below. Of note is that this client is now built on the very latest Qt 4.7.4 and Qt quick components v1.1, both of which are baked into the upcoming Belle OS update.

More info on the changes, and download links, here:

• includes fixes for bugs found since the previous one
• is now based on Qt 4.7.4 and Qt quick components 1.1
• offers the next generation of in-app purchase, based on QML.  This feature is available through applications that support in-app purchase

It's not clear at this point which applications might support in-app purchases - but at least this Store client will let the appropriate developers try the functionality out.

Screenshot gallery of the installation. Comments welcome if you find an app that's available which supports the new purchasing system!

January 25, 2012 05:34 PM

AAS Insight #200: Retrospective

After just over four years, we've reached the 200th edition of the AAS Insight Podcast. To celebrate, we look back to the first and hundredth editions of the show, marvelling at the changes that have taken place, but also finding some surprising similarities. Each of the team also chooses their personal favourite Symbian device from the last decade, with the emotional attachment factor being just as important as technical capabilities.

January 25, 2012 04:33 PM

Resident Evil: Retribution

Teaser trailer that was shown before Underworld 4.

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 25, 2012 07:41 AM

Review: The Guardian

Traditional newspapers and new media are still trying to work out their differences, but The Guardian in the UK has been forward looking. It has resisted the temptation to create a paywall and seeks to engage the smartphone market by creating an app for every platform, including Symbian (reviewed here, below) and Windows Phone 7. This well designed application not only delivers the latest news, but also provides Guardian podcasts, photo galleries and offline reading.

 
The Guardian.

The Guardian application opens on its homescreen with preset sections of news, including top stories and recent photo galleries. Fortunately, these sections can all be changed, enabling you to fine tune the initial content to your liking, via six customisable slots. For example, you could either set only one section with the maximum number of stories, or all six with only one or two stories on show. Unfortunately, it is impossible to change the order of slots. Instead, you have to alter every slot individually. Nor can categories be selected twice, so rearranging these front page stories can become quite a puzzle if you’re particularly concerned with the layout.

 
Changing the front page content to better suit my interests!

If you scroll down to the bottom of the homescreen, you’ll find a link for offline reading. This is a handy feature if you want to take the news with you for reading while in a poor signal area. You are a presented with a checklist of all the top-level news categories – simply tick the ones you want and tap the download button. The offline option does not count as a subscription, so whichever categories you download will be a snapshot of the news in that moment – it does not appear to (or imply that it will) update itself when you are back in range of a data signal.

 
Downloading content for offline reading.

There is a constant toolbar at the bottom of the screen with four buttons, and their functions change depending on context. The user interface does not follow the Nokia Belle style guide, the toolbar is much deeper and the Back button is found at the top of the screen. From the homescreen, the fourth option is the “More…” button which leads to the full list of news sections.

 
A section page and the favourites list.

Top-level categories are typically split into Editors’ picks, Galleries, Features, Popular, and Audio (i.e. Guardian podcasts). At the end of each section you can usually find a list of sub-categories – helpful for focussing on specific areas of interest. Categories of all levels can be added to your Favourites section by tapping the star in the top-left corner of the screen.

Speaking of favourite content, both categories and articles can be starred, and are thus respectively added to the “sections” and “content” tabs of the Favourites screen. For articles, this function is best used as a bookmark. For sections, it’s a good way to quickly access frequently read sub-sections.

While viewing an article, there are buttons for changing the font size. Thankfully, there is a wide range of sizes, rather than the usual three or four that we see in many text-based content applications. Each article also has a share button, which allows you to email a link via the built-in Mail application, or post to Facebook. I would have expected Twitter and SMS to be options, but alas they were not. Those who use services like Read It Later or Instapaper can use the email option to save articles.

 
Sharing articles and viewing gallery stories.

The gallery stories in The Guardian provide a pleasant change of pace from the usual text-heavy stories. Each one allows you to view all photos at once or swipe your way through one by one.  Photos are accompanied by short descriptions.

The Guardian produces a surprising amount of audio content in the form of podcasts. However, listening to them via the application isn’t as straightforward as it could be. First, you tap the “Play” button, launching Symbian Web, which downloads the MP3 file. Once the download is complete, the built-in audio player begins to play. The process feels a tad clumsy, but does allow you to continue reading while the podcast plays in the background. If you want to regularly listen to episodes, you will probably be better off subscribing with a podcasting client such as Podcatcher.

 
Finding and listening to Guardian podcasts.

The Guardian application does the job it was designed for perfectly – free of charge, and with added features like audio content and offline reading. I only wish that more publications would follow its example.

Recommended.

David Gilson for All About Symbian, 25^th January 2012.

January 25, 2012 07:40 AM

Haywire

Bracing for the worst...

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 25, 2012 12:49 AM

JoikuSpot 2012 Edition debuts

The popular JoikuSpot wi-fi tethering utility for Symbian just got itself a big '2012 Edition' product update, now re-implemented in Qt and working just on Symbian Anna and Belle handsets only. More details below, but the main functional changes are better control over who connects to your phone-hosted signal and how much data they use, plus a My JoikuSpot service to keep a log of (and optionally share) when you've connected and what transpired.

It's fair to say that anyone who has already purchased the full JoikuSpot Premium utility probably doesn't need this new product, but the extra functionality may well sway someone who has so far existed with just the http-only free version of JoikuSpot. 

Having said that, there's a launch promotion for this new Qt-ified JoikuSpot, at 5 Euros for the first 1000 purchasers. So if you're going to buy again to get the new version then the cost isn't that prohibitive?

From the official 2012 Edition page:

Purchase the JoikuSpot 2012 Edition license from this official sales site and transfer it to your phone. After phone installation, you can simply start JoikuSpot 2012 on your phone to turn the phone into a WiFi HotSpot. Other WiFi devices like laptops or iPads can then wirelessly connect to internet via your phone JoikuSpot WiFi HotSpot, and enjoy high speed 3G internet instantly. Under JoikuSpot Settings you can define controls for usage, like security settings, user limiters, data cap limiters, phone battery threshold levels, and create Your JoikuSpot User profile. You are invited to personal web service My JoikuSpot, where you can register and log in and enjoy the service palette via the web service.  

JoikuSpot 2012 Edition works with Nokia Symbian Anna and Belle phone models: N8, E7, C7, C6-01, E6, X7, 702T, T7, Oro, 500, 600, 700, 701 and 603. Please make sure you have the latest firmware in your phone.

Changes for this new 2012 Edition are:

• You can set data caps for your JoikuSpot use. Data caps can be set by session or by total maximum allowed data use. This is especially useful if your data plan with your network operator introduces restrictions for data amounts that are allowed. The client also presents a monitor view, where you can track your total data consumption. In addition, you can set limiters to connected users. You can for instance define that only 3 devices can connect to your HotSpot at one time.
    
• There's a new 'value added service' My JoikuSpot. You can register a free account at My JoikuSpot either from the JoikuSpot 2012 Edition client, or via web at www.joikuspot.com. Here you can view your entire JoikuSpot session and your data consumption history. You can also manage your JoikuSpot profile and connect your Joiku profile with social media services. After connecting your profile with your Twitter and Facebook acconts, you can share your JoikuSpotting from the JoikuSpot client with your contacts online.
    
• There's an integrated JoikuNews Client. You can directly access latest JoikuSpot news updates from the JoikuSpot Client. This way you will always know when there are new product updates available or new platform versions being published.
    
• You can define if you want the landing page (My JoikuSpot Web Service) on or off for connecting devices.

As with previous versions, the client also has views for monitoring your JoikuSpot status (connected or stopped), duration of your session length, speed of your operator mobile internet connection, and amount of data consumed (down and up), connected devices to your WiFi HotSpot, and security level selected.

Because of the implementation in Qt, there's an important change in phone compatibility. Whereas JoikuSpot Premium supports every Symbian phone model from Nokia and Sony Ericsson, going right back to early S60 3rd Edition devices, the 2012 Edition is exclusively available for Nokia Symbian Anna and Belle phones. It's also available directly through the Nokia Store, here, or on your device.

January 24, 2012 02:16 PM

Review: SpeedFest

Arctica has got me sussed. Throw in 3D action with plenty of particle physics and a sci-fi theme and I'm basically putty in its hands. In this case detailing a review of the latest particle experience, SpeedFest. If you're into seat-of-the-pants action games then I think you too will love it. Read on for a wealth of screenshots and a video that will give you a great idea of the gameplay on offer.

You'll remember my review of Arctica's recent BreakFest, which I described as being 'a cross between Breakout and Doom', the latter a reference to the 3D textured surfaces and particle physics - fountains, bubbling lava, and so on. All very well, but if you're not a big Breakout fan then it's all just an excuse for eye candy. 

What we have here is the same graphics engine, but translated into a driving/racing game. According to the official blurb: "Speedfest straps you on to a rocket-sled going at breakneck speeds, your mission is to evacuate stranded personnel from a deep space research outpost before a collapsing sun scorches the planet". Indeed.

The result is quite something to behold, especially when you get up to speed. The particle streams may not look much in the static screenshots, but they're a lot more impressive when animated, as you'll see in the video at the end of this review. Here's another particle-fest example, very Doom-like:

...and another....

There are thirty levels in all to power your way through, with five lives available for each, and with the twists and turns in the maze ahead of you getting ever trickier. And everything's against the clock, so you'll want to pick up some 'speedups' (like this one, below) along the way, to accelerate your sled. 

The catch comes when the turns become extreme - in these cases you'll also want to seek out and pass over 'slow downs', similar avatars that decelerate the sled. The physics behind SpeedFest seem very well thought out and with reduced velocity you'll find you can skid round tight corners more easily.

Overcook your speed round a corner and you'll slam into one of the walls with a sickening thud - despite the sci-fi setting, there's a surprising air of realism and even glancing blows are represented in haptic and aural feedback - you know you've hit something - a fact also represented by your sled's health number, bottom left, gradually getting depleted even as the time on the right advances inexorably.

Slam into a wall point blank, of course, and that's a life gone ("Crashed and burned"). Although the clock is always ticking, there are time gates such as the one shown below, passing over each of these gives you a two second time bonus. Although when playing SpeedFest at first your main goal will simply be to make your way through the levels, you'll eventually be good enough to want to achieve the mythical three star rating for each level, not to mention a faster-than-before time total for the game.

All of which means a lot of gameplay value. I played for a good hour and got as far as level 12 - with the levels getting harder and harder, I'd say you've got up to ten hours of racing to get through the whole game before you start to go back and try to clear levels faster and better. Having said this, SpeedFest is a tiny bit repetitive - you're not going to want to play for hours, it's a perfect casual game for ten minutes here and there (i.e. "clear a new level, achieve a better time", etc.)

There's a pumping Knight-Rider-esque soundtrack, as you'll hear in the video below, plus numerous atmospheric sound effects as needed, depending on what you hit or pass over.

Although I've linked to the £3 commercial version above, there's also an ad-sponsored, free version here. In between levels there's a simple sponsor message with a two or three second delay. All very nicely pitched and it means that you can try the game out very easily without commitment.

Arctica really has mastered the art of gaming on Symbian, in terms of game performance and implementation. Although the menu structure is custom for their titles and not standard Symbian UI, it's all very useable and I especially liked the detailed way you can customise the game sound in terms of music and SFX. Very nicely done, even if I ended up with both turned up to the max for the full audio-visual experience!

Here's a brief video demo of one of the earlier levels (4) - I'd have shown a later level, but it was hard enough steering as it was, when peering round the phone camera (Lumia 800) filming the action - you try it sometime! The video will give you an idea of the graphics and physics, at least.

Another cracking title from Arctica and one that really is adrenaline-fuelled. You'll get through the early levels and think "piece of cake" and then by the time you get to levels 7 and 8 it'll be more "oh heck, what have I got myself into, I'm going too fast, I won't make that turn", followed by a bone shattering crash, particles everywhere and a fade to black. Before the action starts again, automatically... and again.... and again....

At the very least, grab the ad-laden free version and see how far you get. If your eyesight and reactions are good enough then you'll want to pony up the £3 and get faster access to subsequent levels.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, Jan 24th 2012

January 24, 2012 09:55 AM

Review: Save The City

Tower defence games are a regular addition to my review tray – so much so that I’m becoming a connoisseur of the genre. This is no doubt why Save The City was assigned to me. In this most miniature of militaristic marches, you are tasked with saving your city from a stream of tanks and alien spacecraft. Does it add anything new to the genre or have we seen it all before?

Save The City begins with an introduction screen describing the general idea of the game. That is, you have to defend your home from streams of invading war machines – if you let even just one of them through, it’s game over. You are given some coins at the start with which you can buy your first few defence towers. As you progress, more can be bought and sold between levels, but not during. As is the norm for this type of game, towers sell for less than you paid for them. There are three types: arrow, gun and bomb; none have upgrade options though.

 
Introducing Save The City.

The game map is composed of a real-life aerial photo which has been tweaked to suit the game; e.g. see the computer generated city at the top of the screen which you have to defend. Oddly, the map does not fill the screen and there is no pinch to zoom. Consequently, all game elements are extremely small. This makes it problematic to place a tower because each – and the surrounding geography – become lost beneath your fingertip.

To make things more confusing, the map does not make it clear where you can and cannot place towers. There is a road that runs directly south from the city which one would think is the obvious route to defend. However, when the game begins, all of the tanks and aircraft follow the path of what looks like a winding river to the east. I was surprised to find that towers could be placed in the invaders’ path – I have never come across such a feature in a tower defence game. Given that everything (towers and enemies) in Save The City can overlap, it just feels like a rather lazy design.

 
Victory and defeat screens.

You gain more coins by completing a level, rather than on a per-enemy basis. Each level brings an increase in the quantity and/or size of enemies, and to deal with them you have to choose which towers to buy and where to place them. The path that you’re defending has sections that twist and turn a lot. So, the trick is to concentrate on these areas thus maximising the time each target spends within reach of each tower. At the same time though, you should spread your towers out enough to make sure you can finish off the stragglers. Choosing which towers to buy is a classic resource management puzzle. Do you spend small amounts on lots of puny arrows, or save up for the big bomb tower?

 
Preparing your defences!

When it comes to aesthetics, there is a stylistic mismatch in Save The City. You are defending a modern high-rise environment with arrows and guns from tanks and alien spaceships! The visual quality of the game also suffers due to poor animation – the screen only updates once or twice per second. The sound effects are awful too – the speaker (on the Nokia N8) distorts when several guns are firing at once.

Save The City has twenty-two levels and four difficulty settings, which are all played on the same map. At medium difficulty, I completed the game three times in forty-five minutes. In “Expert” mode, it only took me two attempts to complete. Overall, I see no long-term appeal in this game, given its lack of variety and limited challenge. The weak longevity would be excusable if the game was priced at £1.00 or even free. Instead though, Save The City is in the Nokia Store at £3.00. When you compare it to other games at the same price point, you’ll see this title offers little value for money. If you want a tower defence game then there are plenty of alternatives.

David Gilson for All About Symbian, 23^rd January 2012.

January 23, 2012 05:10 PM

Our guide to the Symbian Belle update - reasons to want it - and a few caveats

The coming of Symbian Belle, or as Nokia marketing would have you call it, 'Nokia Belle', has been much anticipated in the Symbian world, bringing a whole new scheme for working with RAM and associated performance benefits, plus more flexible homescreens, drop-down notifications pane, Android style, and a nominally 'flat' application menu, with every app in one big (and searchable) list (so you'll never again 'lose' Recorder, for example). Plus a myriad other improvements, mostly detailed below. It's a 'must' download, but what caveats are there? And what precautions should you take?

As we've reported before, there's plenty to like in this new version of Symbian. In approximate order of desirability (in my opinion!), here's a plain English changelog:

• Far better use [a new memory management scheme] of the 256MB of RAM in all Symbian^3/Anna devices. In practice this will mean no occasional 'Memory full' errors and (hopefully) foolproof execution of even the largest 'HD' games. Applications which are running will, on the whole, stay running, whatever else you start up. Overall performance is better, in terms of UI responsiveness and multitasking.
    
• Qt 4.7.4 is baked in from day one, meaning far fewer installation problems for Qt apps and faster (and more silent) installs in general. In addition, some applications which haven't even been available yet because Nokia hasn't been approving Qt 4.7.4-written applications for 'Anna' devices, will suddenly appear in the store. For example, CuteTube (reviewed here).
   
• Full NFC functionality (on the Nokia C7, at least, which has the necessary chip!), including: tap and share (share images, videos and contacts), tap and pair (pair Bluetooth accessories through a simple tap), tap and access (read tags to find information) and tap to play (unlock new levels on NFC-enabled games).
  
   
    
• Improvements in screen real estate, with slimmer top status bar and optional (in some apps) bottom toolbar, meaning that all phones will have a larger useful display area. 
   
   
    
• Homescreen widgets will now come in up to five different sizes (1x1, 2x1, 4x1, 2x2, 4x4) and allow a greater degree of interactivity. For example, scrolling through new email headers, enhanced music controls, and 'toggle' widgets (allowing you to quickly switch functions on or off). In addition to dragging widgets around a homescreen in 'Edit' mode, you can now also drag from one homescreen to another. Widget re-positioning when moving from portrait to landscape mode remains intelligent, with some tweaks for the new variety in widget sizes.
   
   
    
• New drop-down menu, Android style, to access notifications, connectivity toggles (including a welcome one for 'Mobile data', which previously required an involved trip into 'Settings') and system status information from most places in the UI. The layout is static, in that you can't dismiss individual items on the pane or install plug-ins, mind you.
    
• The Symbian homescreen system now supports up to six pages (previously the limit was three for most phones and five for the smaller-screened E6). As a fan of using just a single homescreen, I've got some rethinking to do here, but I'll get there in the end.
   
• A rewritten application launcher with default 'flat' structure, i.e. all applications are presented in one big scrolling grid of icons, though as I explained here, it's easy enough to make new folders, including one called 'trash' (or similar), somewhere to put all the apps you don't think you'll even need - this significantly reduces the amount of vertical scrolling needed. I'd also be tempted to make a folder for 'Games', I think. There's an option to switch the icons to alphabetic order, or to quick match/search the list, but happily your original order is also remembered so that you can switch back at any time. Newly installed applications are now marked with a red asterisk until they've been opened for the first time.
   
    
    
• An application can be 'added to the homescreen' from the main app menu, by long pressing its icon.
    
• The bottom softkeys and (optional) bottom toolbar are replaced with a single toolbar comprising up to four icons (Back/Exit, Custom 1, Custom 2, and Menu). This, for most applications, in theory, gives the UI a flatter hierarchy, with less use of menus and with more direct interaction.
    
• Improvements to the lock screen, which will now have information about missed calls, messages and emails. The lock screen also now supports a transparency effect, showing the underlying homescreen wallpaper.
    
• A new, more modern (Nokia Pure) font is used throughout the UI.
   
• Update to Web, with numerous optimisations and easy access to multiple windows through a permanent toolbar icon. Like desktop browsers, Web keeps track of your 'Most visited pages' and this can be set as your 'homepage' if needed. A long press and drag on web page text now pops up a 'Copy' option, for copying text to the system clipboard.
  
   
    
• Update to Music Player, with a 'floating track list' in the album art 'cover flow' view.
   
• Update to Camera, showing the new, streamlined UI that featured in the Beta Labs N8 Camera update. Although functionality is the same, far less taps are needed to get to the majority of settings and functions.
   
  
    
• Update to Social, probably distributed through Nokia Store (it remains to be seen what's in the final update firmware).
   
   
   

Quite a list, I'm sure you'll agree, and arguably the biggest update to Symbian since the big 'Platform Security' update and Symbian OS 9. But what about caveats? What could go wrong for you?

• Application compatibility is the biggest worry. Although there's basic binary compatibility for previous Symbian applications, the rejigged UI elements may cause cosmetic or functional problems for some third party applications, while some of the changed OS internals may cause problems for utilities and communications apps - at the time of writing, Skype still doesn't work on Belle. We're all hoping someone at either Nokia or Skype is chasing an update down as a matter of urgency. 
   
  On the other hand, there will be other applications which will only work on Belle - the new Nokia Social is a good example of this. When you visit the Nokia Store with a Symbian^3/Anna device now, you'll get a pop-up asking whether you have upgraded to Belle or not - this is explicitly because there's something of a compatibility divide for certain applications.
   
• Application shortcut chaos. If you've been used to a specific hierarchy of application menus (e.g. Media, Office, Games, Tools) then the new 'flat' icon menus will throw you completely. However, the chances are that you only used a couple of icons in each folder and it's easy in Belle to promote these up near the top of your 'big list' - again see my tutorial. And if in doubt, there's a big 'search' icon on the app menu toolbar, tap this and tap the first letter of the app you're looking for, etc. Or just toggle the icons (temporarily) to 'A-Z' order.
   
   
   
• Gremlins caused by old system files and the update process. Although I'm sure Nokia/Accenture has tested this update extensively on real world devices, I'm sure that many AAS readers are 'power users' and have pushed Symbian^3 and Anna at each stage. In other words, there will be a significant build up of old system and temporary files in a device's system (C) disk, accrued over the last year and there's always the risk that some of these may cause minor issues with the new OS. 
  

Given that Belle effectively introduces a big UI update and that nothing's going to look the same anyway, and given that there may be some minor compatibility issues (see above), I'd give strong consideration to:

1. backing up your PIM data and documents (in the usual way, to a desktop suite or to a Cloud service)
2. backing up any captured photos and videos on disk E: (mass memory) - just in case
3. doing *#7370# on the dialler screen, to wipe all your user data and OS settings and temporary files
4. updating to Belle Over The Air or using Nokia Suite
5. resyncing your data, documents and media back onto the 'fresh' installation of Belle. Most applications can be grabbed again via the Nokia Store (remember that this now lets you re-download many more times than it used to) - if an app isn't compatible with Belle then it simply won't be listed, don't worry.

Plus, the chances are that you're a bit of a geek like myself and will secretly enjoy the rebuild process to create a smartphone that's 'fresher, newer'!

Finally, if you're actually quite happy with Symbian Anna on your phone then you might even like to wait a few weeks to let others discover any more 'gotchas'. I doubt I'll be able to hold off more than a few seconds, but the old adage of 'if it's not broken then don't fix it' applies here if your N8 or C7 (etc) is currently doing what you need it to and if most of the changelog above seems somewhat unimportant to you.

The only remaining question then is timescale. When will the Symbian Nokia Belle updates start rolling out for existing Symbian^3/Anna devices? My (latest) guess is the second week in February - I'm certain Nokia wants to get it all in place for most existing devices before Mobile World Congress. Whenever the roll out starts in earnest, I'll be sure to post the news here on All About Symbian, of course.

At the very least, now is the time to do your research (starting with the piece above), now is the time to think about how you're backing up your PIM data and documents, now is the time to check you've got copies of the SIS files for important non-Store third party apps, now is the time to do backups of your backups, and so on. Belle is coming, so best be ready.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 23 Jan 2012

January 23, 2012 11:46 AM

Twits du Jour (January 22)

• Trying not to have high expectations... (@ Regal Everett Stadium 16 for Underworld 4) t.co/ymKz47vS #

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 23, 2012 08:00 AM

Underworld 4

Trying not to have high expectations...

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 23, 2012 01:34 AM

Twits du Jour (January 21)

• The staples. Bread, milk, etc. (with Vicki at Safeway) - t.co/2aTiPDLF #

by Erik C. Thauvin at January 22, 2012 08:00 AM

360Cities comes to Nokia Maps

Nokia's Maps team has integrated the popular 360Cities database of panoramic photos into Maps 3.6 and Maps 3.8, appearing under 'More' or 'Guides' (depending on version). You can then browse through 360 degree photos shot near you or in the location of your choice, albeit with photos presented as static 2D images rather than the interactive experience offered on the 360Cities web site.

From the Nokia Maps blog:

Today, we are proud to introduce you all to 360Cities, which provides high quality panoramic imagery of beautiful locations across the world. Now these images are available on your Nokia Symbian devices for 82 countries. 360Cities is the world’s largest collection of geo-referenced panoramic photos, each one shot by a network of expert panoramic photographers from around the world. 

360Cities works on Nokia Maps version SR6 (v3.6) onwards, where you can access 360Cities from the ‘More’ tab on your main Maps menu.  For Nokia Maps SR8 (v3.8), you can access it via the ‘Guide’ icon. Currently, the images are displayed in a "flat Mercator projection", meaning that when viewed on a Symbian nHD screen there's a certain amount of 'squashing' evident, but the images are still fun to browse through. 

Perhaps a full 360Cities client could be developed for Symbian, one which included a better representation of the original, immersive photos?

Here's a walkthrough of 360Cities on Maps 3.8 on my N8:

The interface is all HTML/WRT-based and appears inside the Guides module in Nokia Maps...

Numbers by a location indicate the number of panoramic photos available. Tapping through shows all the photos...

Rotating your phone into landscape mode gives a better feel for each of the panoramas...

A little 'squashed', but still effective at giving an idea of what the location's like?

One of the artier photos available, here under 'Editor's Picks'

Again, somewhat foreshortened, but still interesting, provided you can get your brain around the idea of 640 pixels representing a full 360 degree sweep around your head!...

January 20, 2012 08:56 AM

Review: Ashes Cricket

Cricket remains, I contend, a sport that's extremely tricky to simulate in any enjoyable way on a phone screen. The sport timings, complexity, atmosphere - you name it - are all just... wrong. Which hasn't stopped a number of publishers writing a cricket game anyway and Ashes Cricket is, like the others I've tried, ultimately doomed to disappoint. Here's my full review.

Aside from the expected framework (England, Australian teams with proper player names, options to play in matches of 5, 20, 30 ('Test') or 50 overs), the core of any sports game comes down to the interface, the graphical realism and the immersibility. And on two of these three counts, at least, Ashes Cricket does very well. 

When bowling, for example, you get to pick a spot for the ball to land, a line for it to take thereafter (picked from a fast-animating set of dotted lines, so it's hard to be precise - on purpose) and then you set the bowling speed based on stopping a left-of-screen power bar. This all works like a dream, so if you want to bowl a fast yorker on leg stump then this is quite achievable.

Ashes Cricket does well for realism too, with nice bowler, batsman and wicket keeper animations. We're not talking TV-quality graphics, but they're fairly believable. There are two or three different bowler styles modelled here, so a spinner runs up and bowls with a different action to a fast bowler, plus there's awareness of left handed bowlers and batsmen as well. The various player names licensed here are all shown with the correct handedness, a nice touch.

The realism extends to a wider view too, with an appropriately lit (so night games are here as well) stadium and small animated cricketers moving around. After bowling, you get to see where the ball is hit to, even down to it being chased down and returned to the wicket keeper. Yes, everything's a bit low resolution on the Symbian nHD screens, but you get the idea of what's happening and there's at least an air of TV-style authenticity.  

Batting is handled in two ways, depending on how fiddly you want things to be. There's an 'auto' mode (the default), where the batsman moves under computer control and you simply tap on an 'OK' button to indicate timing - this works well in terms of scoring but everything feels somewhat out of your control. The manual system, shown below, has you positioning your batsman as the bowler comes up and then tapping the appropriate icons to indicate shot type - in conjunction with the timing of your taps, a variety of different shots then get played. You'll need a lot of practice, but the end result is a better sense of facing the bowler down and making shot decisions.

Sound effects are few and far between though, with just the odd crowd cheer when a four or six is hit. A little extra ambience (music, chatter, incidental sounds) would have been nice, I think. After all, a big stadium is a noisy place to be, yet for 99% of the time Ashes Cricket is totally silent...

It's at this point we come to immersibility. When playing, how immersed did I get in the sport? Could I suspend disbelief and simply enjoy the game as if it were a real cricket match? Sadly, the answer is a big 'no' here. Despite the clever interface and good core graphics, there are numerous little details which just aren't 'right' and I can only think that the last 10% of development, play/beta testing, just wasn't done properly.

For example, after playing for an hour, I'd yet to see any wickets fall. This despite me firing in fast yorkers at batsmen, despite balls lobbing up in the air near fielders, despite (as a batsman) deliberately stepping away from a straight ball and not playing a shot. Fielders would appear not to be capable of catching, and AI bowlers of delivering anything but a good length ball that will bounce over wicket height every time. Eventually, I managed to stage a runout, but the whole riskiness of being at the wicket (or rather lack of risk) didn't ring true to me.

Other examples: there are no slip fielders - ever. And however fast you are and however short you drop the ball (as a bowler), the batsman still comes onto the 'front foot'. Seeing an AI batsman 'sweep' a fast yorker or bouncer just ruins any realism for me. When opting to bowl a left arm spinner, the animation for a fast bowler was used, i.e. they appeared to bowl identically.

There are other examples - I'd like to see different animations for off spinners and round arm spinners - but at some point I have to admit that I'm getting a little picky - this is just a game on a phone, after all. But I still think that a few hundred hours of play testing by real world cricket fans would have picked up most of the above and made this a much better title.

There are 'tutorial' modes for batting and bowling which are well done, even if (as above, for example) I'd have a hard time working out what the heck an 'Advanced Half Crease Hook' was... and I'm normally considered quite knowledgeable about the game! Textual Help screens also give you the basics, in case you need a refresher:

In addition to straight matches, there's a set of (gradually unlocked) 'Scenarios', where you get to play just a few balls at the end of a game and make all the difference. A nice idea, though starting off with only 4 balls to go seems a little extreme - I've heard of quick and casual games, but these scenarios play out in under a minute!

The scorecard and interstitial screens are nicely done throughout, with authentic graphics, including this modern 'Hawk eye' view of your bowled over so far (showing in this case that I was right in that even the most 'pitched up' ball still bounces over the stumps - hardly worth having these then!)

There's a great cricket game lurking here that's waiting to be unleashed. Honest. But there's so much fine detail that needs adding in terms of gameplay, from better batting AI and shot types to more bowler animations, to a wider range of ball lengths - and the possibility of a fielder one day actually catching something.

Until then, Ashes Cricket is gone from my smartphone. Wake me when version 2 is out, I'll be back in the pavilion bar downing a few 'cold ones'...

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 20 Jan 2012

January 20, 2012 07:40 AM

Review: CutePress

WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms on the web. Until recently, the only option on Symbian had been the official client. Now though, thanks to the freedom of open source software, Abhishek Kumar has created CutePress. This new WordPress app takes the code of the official client, revises the feature set, and wraps it up in a QML user interface.  Has he improved on the original? Read on to find out.

Given that CutePress is based on the official WordPress client, this review will describe and compare both. When discussing features that apply to both clients we’ll refer to them as “the mobile client”. We reviewed WordPress for Nokia in 2010 – consider this an update.

 
Loading screen and signing in.

The official WordPress client for Nokia has been around for a couple of years, and in that time received regular updates from a community of open source developers. It is a reliable option for blogging on the move, while hiding much of the complexity that managing a blog involves with a clean user interface.

Common features

The mobile client allows you to work on multiple blogs – it doesn’t matter whether they are hosted on your server or WordPress.com. Once logged on, you are able to view posts, pages, and comments. Pages and posts can be created, edited and deleted. You can view posts as they will look on your blog, and add comments. However, it is not possible to view a static page on the mobile client, which is a rather strange omission.

 
Viewing your content.

While editing posts or pages you are able to set the title, tags and categories. Tags are freeform text entry fields, but categories are selected from a list (to which you can add new categories). You can also add a password, and set the publication time and date – useful for delaying a post until most of your readers will be online, or to coincide with events. Posts can also be saved as public, private or drafts.

The editor used for posts and pages is a plain text input field with toolbar buttons for adding simple formatting: bold, italic, blockquote, code and hyperlink. Each button inserts a corresponding HTML tag, and tapping a second time will insert the closing tag. The buttons save some time, but there’s nothing to stop you writing your own HTML code.

 
Editing posts.

There are also buttons for inserting images and videos. It’s possible to select content that’s either stored on your WordPress.com account or stored on your phone. However, the mobile client isn’t able to access content stored on a self-hosted blog. Once an image has been uploaded, the confirmation page gives you the option of inserting the necessary embedding HTML into your post. However, the preset WordPress image sizes (small, medium, and large) are not offered as options, so you will have to tweak the HTML to adjust the image size manually.

In my testing of the mobile client, video uploading to a self-hosted blog failed. The phone froze for an extended period, on investigation I found that no file had been uploaded to my server.

 
Dealing with comments.

The Comments section of the mobile client lists excerpts, but each can be expanded to show the full text by simply tapping. Long pressing on a comment brings up a context menu allowing you to approve/unapprove, reply, delete, or mark as spam. I like how this is done, but it does require the user to presume that further options are available via a long press.

Differences between CutePress and WordPress

While we’ve covered a lot of common ground between CutePress and WordPress, there has been a significant amount of work done on differentiating the two – in both functions and design.

The most obvious change is the dark colour scheme, which is much friendlier to AMOLED screens. The whole user interface has been recast in line with the Nokia Belle style guide. While WordPress has a clean appearance, CutePress looks tidier and more attractive.

Split-screen keyboard in CutePress.

A functional aspect of WordPress that really spoils the user experience is that the editor launches a fullscreen keyboard, which makes handling large blocks of text impractical. CutePress improves on this by making use of Symbian Anna’s split-screen keyboard facility. Scrolling through text shown in the editor box is easy, and tapping anywhere launches the standard keyboard on the lower half of the screen.

WordPress includes a statistics page that lets you see how popular your blog has been. However, this is only supported with WordPress.com blogs. Unfortunately, this has been removed from CutePress.

Summing up

Both WordPress and CutePress are available for free. Abhishek Kumar should be commended for taking the source code of the Nokia WordPress client and creating a much easier to use interface. Having used both, the only reason I can see for choosing WordPress is if you absolutely have to have analytics about your blog. Otherwise, CutePress will make your mobile blogging life much easier. Since they’re free – why not install both?!

Highly Recommended.

David Gilson, 19^th January 2012

January 19, 2012 12:43 PM

Accessibility and Nokia Screen Reader

In this guest feature, the 'almost blind' Nickus de Vos tackles an area that's often ignored: accessibility, looking at Nokia Screen Reader (NSR), enabling anybody with visual impairment to still use the main functions of a Symbian smartphone. If you have the right model, that is - NSR is currently only supported on the Nokia C5-00, Nokia C5 5MP, Nokia 700 and Nokia 701. What can NSR do, how well does it work and are there any caveats?

It all started back in October of 2011 at Nokia World 2011 in London. Nokia announced a free mobile screen reader for blind and visually disabled people and Nokia tasked a Spanish company to build this tool. Code Factory already makes their own popular mobile screen reader for Symbian called Mobile Speak and also a few other accessibility applications for mobile platforms including Android, so they’re not newbie’s in the field of screen readers and accessibility.

Nokia Screen Reader v1.1, or for short NSR, currently supports four Nokia devices, the numeric keyboard C5-00 and C5 5MP and also the touch Symbian Belle 700 and 701. NSR is a totally free application, essentially a stripped down and simplified version of Code Factory’s Mobile Speak screen reader (feature set comparison) but it is in no way too simplified to make your phone unusable. If I can explain it by comparing it to sports cars, the Ferrari F430 Scuderia is a stripped down racing version of the normal F430. The Scuderia still gives you all the functionality of the normal F430 but because it’s stripped down it doesn’t, for example, have comfy adjustable leather seats and it also doesn’t have air conditioning or a booming sound system like the standard F430.

Getting back to Nokia Screen Reader, it still gives you all the functionality of Mobile Speak but you can’t customise the reading options or verbosity settings - what you hear is what you get! NSR works with Nokia’s built in TTS (Text To Speech) voices and, in its current form, supports eight languages: English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish and Spanish. All it takes is a simple download from the Nokia Store just like you would download any other application, just remember that you’ll need some sighted assistance at this stage. After the download, it’s a quick and easy installation process, a phone restart and there you go, your phone speaks. In my case it was a install on the Nokia 701, which is one of the newer Symbian Belle phones, and because I know and have been using Code Factory’s Mobile Speak for a while now, I fortunately already knew how to use it so I was on my way immediately. For those not familiar with Mobile Speak, I would recommend you read the NSR user Manual before installation.

Down to the business end, everybody’s first questions would be: 1. Is it any good? 2. What can it do? and 3. What can’t it do?

Firstly, it’s very good - it doesn’t have to stand back for any other mobile screen reader on touch or non touch devices. Secondly, NSR allows a visually disabled or blind person to read and manage all phone menus, read and manage their contacts and calendars, send and receive messages and emails and it also allows you to browse the web. All this is done without any problems and with built in Nokia TTS guiding you every step of the way.

On the subject of the TTS voices, this is I believe an area where Nokia can still improve. The quality of the Nokia TTS voices is simply just sub standard - I only tried the English voice so far but I can’t see that it will be different with the other languages. The voices are simply too mechanical, which makes it hard to understand what it’s saying at times, especially at lower volumes and higher speeds, the way most people use screen readers on their phones. Nokia could, for example, invest in some third party TTS voices, a lot of companies make TTS voices which have much higher quality.

  NSR is free, so it might be a bit unfair comparing the TTS quality to those used by companies like Code Factory (in Mobile Speak), Nuance and Apple in their screen readers, but I believe the quality of the TTS voices will eventually make or break NSR. The question is, if Nokia can use higher quality TTS voices in its Maps application (e.g. in pronouncing road names) then why can’t it also use higher quality for NSR? As it is, NSR runs the risk of being dubbed a bad screen reader just because of the voices used.

Another major shortcoming, but this time platform-related, Nokia Store can’t be accessed by NSR or any other screen reader and this is a big problem because then the only option for visually disabled and blind people to get any applications from the Store is to ask for sighted assistance. I see this as a Nokia problem and it falls into the same hole as Nokia Suite - the Windows application not being accessible with any Windows-based screen reader - but this is a subject for another day.

What can’t it do? As I’ve mentioned, you can’t customise the reading options and verbosity settings like you would in Mobile Speak and you can’t set up different customised user profiles. This isn't really a problem in practice, as Code Factory has put some thought into it and has selected the best settings which would suit the widest group of users.

I'm almost blind and yet a heavy phone user and somewhat of a phone geek, I use my smartphone each and every day to its full potential. In the past two weeks or so of having NSR on my Nokia 701, I have used my phone like I normally would, I called, messaged, sent emails, used the calendar, made notes, used the web for Google searches, Facebook and YouTube, and I also used Twitter via Tweets60. I did all this without any problems and with NSR running smoothly. I’m pretty happy with the application, except for the TTS voices already mentioned.


Nokia Screen Reader is perfect for anybody first needing or trying out a screen reader for their phone and who knows, if you like it and the way it works but need a little more, then the upgrade to Code Factory’s Mobile Speak would be the logical upgrade.

It looks like Nokia is starting to take accessibility seriously so I really hope it continues the development of NSR and other accessibility applications in the future. I hope we see support for more phones and, looking further ahead, I'd like to see accessibility applications like NSR built into the Nokia operating systems like we see in Apple’s iOS and some versions of Android. 

Nickus de Vos, for All About Symbian, 19 January 2012

___________________________________________

Thanks, Nickus, his blog (where an unedited version of this article first appeared) is at www.nickusdevos.blogspot.com and you can follow his musings each day on Twitter.

Nickus: "I plan to do a lot of accessibility things in the future, not only Nokia, not only Symbian and maybe not even only phones. I want to write about anything and everything to do with technology and whatever disabled people use on a daily basis. I'm in talks with the manufacturers of the different screen readers to compile documents outlining requirements for accessibility for third party developers. At the moment, a lot of the developers don't know anything about accessibility or screen readers, let alone how to make a app accessible."

If you're an application developer and want to improve the accessibility of your app then please get in touch with Nickus directly, via the blog above.

Steve (AAS)

January 19, 2012 07:10 AM

App and game selection: a cross section through my Nokia N8

It's one of the most loved geek games of all - peeking at someone else's smartphone to see how they've got it configured. Usually prompting either "What a newb!" or "Ooo, where did you get that?" With my Nokia N8 now equipped to the maximum just ahead of the imminent Belle update (which will change things around significantly), I thought this might be an opportune time for you to peek at the applications that I, personally, have installed on the N8 that has been with me through thick and thin for the last 15 months. 

(NB. As many apps mentioned below are hyperlinked to either our reviews or to the product/download page, for your convenience.)

Homescreen

You'll already have read about my propensity for keeping homescreens simple - just the one does me fine and means that I don't have to keep swiping back and forwards to find the information I want. Bearing in mind that several applications can be accessed by tapping on a homescreen icon or panel (so Profiles, Calendar, Clock, etc. don't need their own shortcuts), the four app shortcuts that I use most (baked into my Shortcuts widget) are set to:

• Contacts - I consult this a dozen times a day, for looking up a phone number or texting someone. I guess I should assign this to the right hand virtual soft-key, but this is set to 'Call' and, with the N8 not having a green 'Call' key, the setting is probably best left alone.
    
• Podcatcher - my constant companion, making sure that all driving, all chores, all ablutions and going to sleep are accompanied by my favourite podcasts from around the world. It's a vital feed of news, information and chat right into my ears on and off through every day. The older dual-slide smartphones like the N95 and N86 had multimedia shortcut keys for pausing playback and skipping adverts, but these are of course missing on modern touchscreen devices. So it needs a shortcut of its own, for instant access.
   
    
   
• Micropool - still my all time favourite casual game. Crank the difficulty to 75% and then try to beat the AI on a best-of-five frame match!
    
• Bluetooth - it may seem odd to have a Settings module here, but I turn Bluetooth on and off several times a day and it's a pain to dive right through Settings or work my way through the homescreen (top right) Connectivity shortcut every time, when I want to toggle the status with one or two taps maximum. Why not simply leave Bluetooth on all the time? Partly because it does save power (a few percent, but every little helps), partly for privacy reasons, since it advertises to anyone driving past my home that I'm in and (ahem) me. Oh, and partly because I have multiple phones and multiple Bluetooth-compatible desktop computers - if I left all my phones with this turned on, they'd be connecting right left and centre in ways that I often don't intend. I like to control my wireless connections.
  

The remaining widgets I use on my single homescreen are 'Gravity-tweets', Email (set to my Gmail), plus my four most contacted people from Contacts.

Application menus

In a few months, it may seem funny to see the plural on the above heading ('menus') - are we all about to get used to a single huge scrolling list of applications? See also my guide to speeding your way around Symbian Belle applications...

In the meantime, I work with the default set of twelve icons on the main menu, partly because I'm too lazy to change things too much - I can't face re-doing it all yet again after the umpteenth 'hard reset in the line of duty' for an AAS firmware article. With one exception: to keep the number of icons in the main Applications folder down, I replace one of the standard icons (not sure which, actually!) with a new named folder, 'Games'. This way I can move my modest selection of Symbian games into their own area, making them easier to find and other general applications ditto, by virtue of game icons not getting in the way.

In the Games folder I have:

• Real Golf 2011 HD - given away for free for the N8, at least, still a decent golf game with good graphics and physics, spoilt only by the interstitial delays between holes while the next load of graphics and models load.
    
• Micropool - as above, my favourite.
    
• GT Racing: Motor Academy HD - my favourite of the genre, in that it's quite realistic in terms of physics and graphics. More novelty-packed driving games are also available!
   
  
    
• Control Tower - a Flight Control clone and not as smooth as the iOS version. But it's still fun as a casual game and closest I can get to the original on Symbian.
    
• Fortuna - another casual classic, this time modelling a wooden bagatelle.
    
• Breakfest - it's Breakout meets Doom and a surprisingly involving arcade puzzler.
   
  
    
• Nokia Racing - one game after another after another - it's not the biggest or slickest game ever created but the addictive nature of this has to be experienced.
    
• HomeRun - the classic card solitaire, I've played this since Psion days! 18 years of gaming with this one title...
    
• Angry Birds - needs no introduction. Am currently flumoxed by a level in 'Seasons'...
    
• I Must Run - classic 'instant action' game, also good for keeping ten year old nephews amused.... 8-)
   
  
    
• Mau Mau - I'm rather addicted to this card game, on which Uno was based - or was it the other way around?

A pretty good selection, with everything for one minute to one hour gaming sessions....

Jumping across to the main Applications folder, I have (in very approximate order of importance to me - as long as an icon is in the 'top 12' then it can then be accessed with one tap once I'm in Applications...):

1. Handy Safe Pro - the classic cross-platform secure database, I keep this synced with multiple PCs (note the desktop client), with my other Symbian phones and with a Windows Phone or two, meaning that a) all my PINs and passwords are always to hand and b) every device is a 'backup' for data on every other (albeit only as up to date as the last sync done).
     
2. Office - the default set of Symbian Office applications, including the full editing version of Quickoffice, in the N8's case. We're not talking laptop replacement, more casual office needs, including the great voice ecorder and the always useful File manager.
     
3. Sw_update - Nokia's on-device update system that generally works very well. I tap on this once every few days, just in case something new in Symbian pops up. I wonder when I'll see Belle here?
     
4. Skype - the official client and one that works well aside from not offering video calls (I'm guessing performance isn't quite high enough) - my lifeline to the AAS virtual office while on the move.
    
    
     
5. 20,000 leagues under the sea - I always like to have an ebook on the go. This is just one of Offscreen's range of free Symbian ebooks. Attractively presented and good stuff.
    
   
6. Opera Mini - we've talked enough about this proxy-based web browser enough over the years. Essentially, when bandwidth is tight (e.g. on EDGE or GPRS), this is the only browser that is practical.
     
7. Camera Pro - Not the only way to do continuous auto-focus video on the N8 now, but still the most reliable in terms of 'hunting'. Also plenty of things to fiddle with for still photos. I really must learn all its ins and outs one day when I get time...
     
8. CuteTube - the best YouTube client for Symbian bar none - a must-install for everyone reading this.
    
   
     
9. Best Screensnap - a staple screen-snapping tool for any Symbian writer, even if it's no use to the main in the street!
     
10. SPB TV - free TV channels from across the world - an eclectic selection, but usually something interesting, if you've got the mobile bandwidth.
      
11. Tune It - simple but effective (passive) guitar tuner that sounds good over the N8's loudspeaker.
      
12. JoikuSpot - the famous wi-fi tethering solution, this is the premium edition that allows the use of all ports and protocols. Great for getting an iPad online in places where there isn't open wi-fi, for example. Only disappointment is that it doesn't work with an Xbox, which blocks the ad-hoc Wi-fi used.

Outside the 'top 12' and thus needing a small swipe or scroll, are a couple more of interest:

• Profile Scheduler - a lovely little utility that automatically switches my phone to 'Offline' at 11pm each night and back to 'General' at 7am. I'm sure it can do more, but this is all I need it to, both for saving battery power and also making sure noone phones or messages me in the night!
    
• Podcatcher - as mentioned above, but I always access it via the homescreen shortcut, so the icon here never gets tapped on.
    
• plus Gravity and any apps that I'm currently trialling, for review here on AAS...

Not a bad selection and enough to keep me informed, entertained and productive in almost any situation. Comments welcome if there's a particular application that you absolutely rely on!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 18 Jan 2012

January 18, 2012 07:42 AM

Review: Tweeties

Symbian already has a wealth of options for accessing Twitter, but there’s no official application. This means the time you spent learning the layout of a Symbian-only application will be lost if you move to another platform. Fear no more because Tweeties is here in free and paid versions – it’s the latest Twitter client for Symbian and it follows Twitter’s design language to a T. Read on to find out how well the Twitter design language translates to Symbian.

In the last AAS Insight podcast we discussed the availability of mainstream applications. While Symbian has applications for most services, many are made by third parties, which leads to unfamiliar surroundings to anyone coming to Symbian from another platform, and vice versa.

 
Loading Tweeties and signing in.

Tweeties seeks to address this issue (for Twitter) by closely following the design of the official Twitter application for Android and iOS. However, this goes against the new design rules of Nokia Belle. So, while it brings Symbian in line with other platforms, it breaks the Belle look and feel.

Anyone who has used the official Twitter client on another platform will be at home in Tweeties. Reloading the timeline is achieved by pulling downward, and tweet options (e.g. reply, etc) are revealed by swiping to the left or right. There is a toolbar across the bottom of the screen to access your timeline, replies, direct messages, and search – there is also a triple dot icon for other functions. Whenever an update is available on your timeline, replies, or direct messages, a blue glow appears above the respective icons, prompting you to refresh that screen – this is another design idea borrowed from the official Twitter client.

 
Notifications and refreshing the timeline.

The direct messages page gives you a list of your current conversations, and tapping through gives you a conversation view. While testing, I found no way to manually update my direct messages. The test message I was trying to receive took approximately 30 minutes to arrive – the same message arrived instantly via SMS, TweetDeck, and Twitter’s website. Unfortunately, Tweeties does not have any settings for alerts or to change update frequencies.

 
Direct message handling.

The search page in Tweeties is nice and simple – just a search box, complemented by the currently trending topics. I’d have much preferred to see a list of my saved searches instead of trending tripe topics.

Tweeties allows you to browse your favourite tweets, even though they are buried away. There are two routes to find them, though - either via your profile page or by tapping the triple dot icon at the end of your toolbar.

 
Searching and browsing Favourites.

As mentioned above, you can access the options for an individual tweet by swiping it to the side. However, tapping on a tweet takes you to a dedicated page which contains all the basic options: reply, retweet, favourite, and delete (if it’s one of yours). When retweeting, you can use the official retweet method or just quote the original text. When reading replies,  a “in reply to” link is not included and there is no way to view an @reply conversation, which is a shame. Additional options include opening URLs in the default browser and sending a copy of the tweet as an email.

 
Retweeting and mailing a tweet.

The single tweet page also shows a link to the author’s profile at the top of the screen. Viewing a profile page shows all the same information as the Twitter website, and links you through to the user’s followers, following, tweets, and favourites lists. You are also shown whether the account is following you, along with a button to follow or unfollow. The bottom of the page has buttons that expand with links to the user’s Twitter lists and their retweets (of them, and by them).

 
Profile pages in Tweeties.

The upper toolbar of Tweeties shows an ever-present button for writing tweets, which offers a comprehensive set of tools for creating content. There is a custom portrait QWERTY keyboard (there’s no landscape mode - isn't this taking emulating Twitter on other mobile platforms a little too far? - Ed) which is fine, but it does not have text correction. Fortunately, there is an “Edit” button with which you can launch the standard keyboard and editor. This seems a rather complicated way of entering text, since Symbian Anna supports split-screen keyboards natively, which Tweeties should be taking advantage of.

 
Writing tweets in Tweeties.

There are a number of helpful auto-text features: all URLs are shortened by the t.co service; typing the @ symbol launches a list of who you follow, to save you typing a whole name; and typing the # symbol brings up a list of trending topics. Tapping the camera icon gives you the option to upload an image, either by taking an in-situ image with the camera or picked from the Gallery application. All images are uploaded to Twitter’s photo hosting service, on pic.twitter.com – there’s no option to use an alternative service, not even the original Twitpic server. When adding an image, the on-screen keyboard is deactivated and the only way to bring it back is to tap the camera icon again. This is not intuitive and might lead some to think there is a bug if they tap in the text field, expecting the keyboard to appear, and nothing happens.

 
Uploading images.

If you’re a casual Twitter user and want to move beyond the limitations of Nokia Social, then Tweeties is a good alternative – especially if you think Gravity is too expensive. I have a reservation with Tweeties’ performance though, as downloading tweets can sometimes take an unfeasibly long time. Still, if you’ve used the official Twitter client on other devices, you’ll find Tweeties very easy to use. Similarly, if you’re planning to move away from Symbian, then Tweeties will prepare you for the official Twitter client.

Tweeties is available in the Nokia Store. It normally costs £3.00, but it is currently on a Christmas promotion for £1.50. There is also Tweeties Free, which is ad-supported but lacks the ability to write tweets.

David Gilson, 16^th January 2012.

January 17, 2012 02:07 PM

AAS Insight #199: Nokia Social, Sisvel

January 17, 2012 11:37 AM

A view on Symbian in the Indian market

Following on from our editorial on the state of Symbian in the UK High Street, we have a guest feature from Aditya Singhv, editor of worldofphones.net, looking at the current status of Symbian and the wider phone market in India. The editorial also comments on some of the key differences between the UK (Western European style) and Indian mobile markets. It's a timely reminder that there are huge variations in the global market.

Aditya writes:

Introduction to the Indian market

2011 has been a very tough year for Symbian. Ever since Stephen Elop's "burning platform" memo was 'leaked', things have steadily gone downhill for Symbian. However, Symbian's decline is happening at different rates in different markets. 

My recent visit to Nokia World showed me the reality of the UK mobile phone market, giving me an interesting insight about how people there look at the industry. At a simple level, India isn't that different, mobile phones are present everywhere. But, as you'll read, the psyche of the consumer could not be further apart.

The Indian mobile phone market and telecom industry is enormous, both in financial terms and in terms of the number of customers. In India there are nearly 900 million mobile phones in use (94% market penetration), compared to 330 million in the US (103% market penetration) and 76 million in the UK (122% market pentration). And the market is growing too - Gartner estimates that 213 million devices were sold in 2011 and this will increase to 322 million by 2015. The UK and the US are expected to have relatively flat sales at around 30 million and 15 million respectively.

But even more than the numbers might suggest, the fundamentals of the market are quite different in India. How different? Here’s a snapshot:

• Apple, which is so big in the US and UK, is a minnow in India and a niche player at best.
     
• Nokia, which has almost no marketshare in the US, is a major player here.
     
• The UK and the US are smartphone centric markets, while India sells some of the cheapest phones and the most expensive as well.
   
• India has an astounding 15 operators, as against just 4-5 elsewhere. None of the 15 is an MVNO and none of them offer devices on a subsidy.
     
• Over 90% of Indian subscribers are prepaid or ‘pay as you go’ customers.
     
• Call rates are much lower. Rs.80 (£1) will give you a minimum of 267 minutes of talk time.
   
• Indians do not pay for receiving calls and SMSes at all, even when roaming within the country (unlike the USA, famously).
     
• Mobile phones in India are as much a part of one’s appearance as good clothes are. They are material indicators of one’s status in society and economic wellbeing.
     
• The Indian market is not uniform. The north of the country behaves completely differently from the south and each region displays unique characteristics. What works in one state might not work in another.
     
•  Camera, music player and battery life are key factors influencing the buying decision, besides brand.

One of the points I want to highlight from the above list is that there are no handset subsidies in India. Consumers make an outright purchase of the handset he or she is going to use. That’s right! We actually pay the full retail price for the smartphone that you (in the UK) get on subsidy from your carrier. This means that the iPhone or the Samsung Galaxy S2 or even the Nokia Lumia and other devices are bought outright as against a small fee and a monthly commitment. As a consequence, the operators are not as strong as the handset manufacturers. Because there's no handset subsidy, their influencing power is limited. The operator merely serves to provide connectivity and not devices.

Mobile phones in the Indian market are available from as low as £10-£13. These are not on contract but outright purchase prices. They are decent phones for the price and come with warranty as well. In fact the cheapest Nokia is priced in the vicinity of the £13 mark.
 

Nokia Series 40 and Nokia Symbian in India

The market for Nokia's Series 40 devices is big and Nokia is doing a good job at continuously providing features and improvements to users at a competitive price point. A typical Series 40 device will start off from Rs.2000 (approx. £25). This market is what will drive the numbers for Nokia. These phones will continue to provide value to people who want a simple phone or cannot afford an expensive phone. Another factor that is helping the sales of these phones is the goodwill the brand enjoys. People are willing to buy a recognized and trusted brand rather than an Indian brand whose devices aren’t as good as a Nokia’s.

However, the situation is not quite so rosy for Nokia's Symbian devices. At a price point of Rs.7000 to Rs.16000 there is a lot of competition and there are a lot of devices available. Android and Symbian are very much head to head, with BlackBerry being the third player in the game.

While most contend that Android is emerging as the top choice, I feel the market is still open. Symbian devices in India are overwhelmingly available in this price bracket, with a few exceptions, namely the N8, X7, C7/701 and the E7.

Android seems like the populist choice, driven more by the adoption of it at the top end of the market. But it has its disadvantages as well and they are more pronounced in this segment.

1. Android development is moving at a rapid pace and that pace is too much for devices in this price bracket.
      
2. Android’s true experience is best had on 1GHz and above clocked processors with ample RAM. Devices in this segment are mostly powered by 600 to 800MHz processors, where Android isn’t as good.
      
3. When it comes to battery life, Android still lags behind Symbian’s power management solutions.
     
4. Android still remains a bit complicated as a platform solution for a majority of the audience in India.
       

I’ve seen many users complain of battery life on the devices and about build quality as well. The chief reason for people complaining about battery life is the lack of knowledge on how to exit an app. I’ve overheard so many times about how their Android device becomes slow after a while and how the battery life also becomes poor.

These things point to only one thing – lack of knowhow about how Android is designed and works. The educated folks who have access to internet and know their way around might be able to tackle these issues and even push the boundaries of their basic Android phone, but for a large set of people this is a hurdle and a headache. Most of the users in this segment are looking for sturdy and reliable devices that will work without too many hassles. A device they won’t have to change too often.

This is where Symbian holds an advantage.

1. Symbian development isn’t being stretched on the top; it is a mature platform and has quite a few functionalities built in.
      
2. Symbian Belle devices are smooth even on 680MHz processors.
      
3. Most of the new Symbian devices are already running a 1GHz processor.
      
4. Symbian devices are known to be efficient when it comes to power management. The N8 on 3G or HSDPA can easily do 10-12 hours with moderate-heavy usage in India.
      
5. Symbian is simpler and has a shorter learning curve as compared to Android. It has elements familiar to a user moving up the ladder from a budget device.
      

As things stand, currently Symbian is definitely a better choice for smartphones in this price range in India. The user experience on a Symbian Belle device is now much improved and mimics Android (the pull down status bar). The widgets have also improved and they look more user-friendly and appealing.

In India, looks and appearance play an important role and the new UI refresh, Belle is just what the doctor ordered. People in the metro cities (8 major and important cities in India) and other tier-1 cities may have begun shifting to Android. However, Symbian has not vanished from there yet and I’d contend that it may even make a small comeback.

Barring the metros and tier-1 and a few tier-2 cities, the depth of knowledge is not high about platforms amongst the populace. It might have heard of Android and know it’s something from Google and perhaos  that the current version is Gingerbread. Tier-2 cities and smaller towns and villages are where Symbian holds a good chance. A lot of people in these places still have a strong positive attachment with the Nokia brand and they are beginning to move up the ladder. They are increasingly exploring options. For them Nokia is familiar, almost reassuring in a way.

The new touchscreen devices in these places are the best things to get them started on. An Android phone in these parts of the country would only confuse them. People in these places are not as savvy as we think. A majority of the people here aren’t that well educated and many of them cannot afford to take ‘risks’ when it comes to expensive items - the mobile phone being one of them. So they will turn to something they are familiar with or have heard of.

Now these things might seem very old school for a typical AAS and AAWP reader, but this is a reality in India. Research and recommendations are more prevalent in the urban areas when it comes to purchasing a phone and this is evident even more so in the cities and towns with high tele-density.

However, Symbian phones can’t sell by themselves or on just the basis of the brand. Strong marketing and advertising push is needed to remind people of this bond and the familiarity. After all, it’s not as if competition is non-existent in these places.

So what does Symbian need to be able to survive and thrive?

1. Specs – Highlighting key specifications of the product, like a 5 megapixel camera, big battery life, loud speakers, processor speed, etc.
      
2. Apps – Show how apps are available on these phones and that one can do a lot more than just take photow or listen to music. A lot of the people in towns know that they can add apps and do more with a smartphone.
      
3. Events – By organizing small events at local shops (somewhat of an awareness drive) where people with a Nokia phone can come and get apps installed or update the Maps on their Nokia phone.
      
4. Roadshows – Nothing attracts public attention like a roadshow, showcasing the new Nokia Symbian phones and allowing people to have a feel of it will play a big role in creating increased visibility for the phone.
      

It is also important to understand that there are large regional variations within India, with consumer purchase decisions driven by different factors. For example, I’ve seen people prefer expensive and big phones in the north, especially in the NCR (National Capital Region). For them, the phone should be big and expensive, because it’s a sign of prosperity. By contrast, come down to west and the south of the country and people are looking at getting the best deal. Even a saving of Rs.50 at another shop a couple of kilometres away and people are likely to prefer that place to the one they are at. Here it is all about getting the most bang for the buck!
 

Phone shops in India

India has three distinct shopping formats from where a mobile phone can be purchased: a regular stand-alone outlet, a branded store (part of a large retail chain) and an online store.

Now this is where it gets tricky. A large portion of the market is unorganized, i.e. single stand-alone outlets. These, known as 'mom and pop' shops, are places from where most people buy their phones. The reasons are somewhat similar to why you go to a branded store in the US or UK.

These shops provide better customer service - if you are a regular then they’ll greet you and even give you a discount on your purchase if you ask nicely. You can even pick a phone from them and pay them later in a few days. These stores will go out of their way to provide you the best prices and will even arrange for a model if they don’t have it or if it’s not available. These stores work with a lot of co-ordination amongst themselves, despite being competitors. These stores also will buy and sell used phones.

Typical 'mom and pop' store

Since they aren’t run by a group, they are more flexible and will compete with each other to offer the best prices. These stores are also less likely to fool the customer - call it ethics or the fact that they don’t want to be hassled if something goes wrong with the phone that they suggested. Due to their cost structures these stores are able to undercut the retail stores by quite a margin, sometimes by as much as Rs.2000.

Then you have the modern retail stores, which are much like the Carphone Warehouse and Phone4U stores found in the UK. These retail stores have different pricing structures because of the incentives laid out by the manufacturers and their higher operating overheads. As a general rule, these stores are always more expensive than the 'mom and pop' store down the road and they always advise you to buy phones they have or the ones for which there are higher commissions. In addition, these stores usually aren’t as warm and friendly as the neighbourhood mobile store. So there’s no buying now and paying later and definitely no grey market handsets.

In the next few years, they are expected to absorb the ‘unorganized trade’, through buyouts and franchise agreements. Though I think it will be a while before they replace the neighbourhood mom and pop store.

Typical modern retail store

The last format, and one of the fast growing this year, has been online. The number of ecommerce sites from where you can buy a phone today in India is truly staggering. These online stores offer great discounts and price the phones aggressively. Delivery is quick and includes the option to pay at the door in cash. 2011 has seen a lot of people log on to an online store and buy their phone from the internet. It’s sometimes easier to find that odd phone model online and order it than it is to search the physical stores.

However, what’s really helping the growth of online phone stores is that they offer the right ambience when it comes to buying. No annoying salesman, specs are all there to see, plus colour options and a list of accessories that goes with the phone. These online stores also keep a wide variety of phones in stock. With inventory costs being low and delivery times quick (2-3 days is normal and free) it’s easy for people to look at all sorts of options.

Online shopping is becoming more popular, but for it to become truly successful there needs to be greater penetration of internet and PCs. With only around 13.13 million broadband connections in India, this could take some time.
   

Concluding thoughts

This is a small snapshot of the Indian market. I’ve tried to cover what I consider to be the major themes. Consider this as just a peek into the Indian market, the consumer mind here, Symbian in India and the retail industry.

Thanks, Aditya! (editor of worldofphones.net), follow him on Twitter: @adityasinghvi.

January 16, 2012 02:54 PM

N8 named Techradar camera champion (again)

TechRadar has updated its set of camera phone reviews to pitch the N8 against the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and others - you may not be surprised that, even 15 months after first availability, the N8 still came up as top dog, though the new iPhone also got a special mention or two.

TechRadar's system seems to be to maintain the review opinions on all the top camera-toting smartphones, along with labs results to back them up, then periodically take the six best and deliver a verdict. There's some serious numerical testing going on in its labs, rather than relying on tight-cropped visual comparisons, but TechRadar still manages to come to the same conclusion as me and tnkgrl:

Although it doesn't have the flexibility of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc, Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S2, the Nokia N8 is nevertheless easy to get to grips with and it generally turns out the best images. In fact, in good light the amount of detail that can be recorded by this phone is on a par with some top-end compact cameras.

In terms of all round image quality the battle is really between the iPhone 4S and the N8. The N8 is capable of capturing the most detail... 

The winner of this test is the Nokia N8 - but only in terms of providing the best pictures quality in the widest range of areas. If you're looking for the phone on the market that will offer you the best pictures in a wide variety of scenarios, we'd suggest you plump for this phone. However, it is slightly ageing now and the software is among the hardest to use on smartphone - although the incoming Nokia Belle update should remedy that somewhat.

In decent light, the iPhone 4S was given the nod just behind the N8, with TechRadar commenting, memorably:

It's swift, so easy to use that a technophobic penguin could operate it and offers great pictures on the fly. It might not give you the absolute maximum a cameraphone can muster in every scenario, but it's a jack of all scenes and a master of many of them too.

All of which begs me to wonder how long the N8 can maintain its camera champion crown in the smartphone world? Fifteen months is a long time to be on top in such a fast changing industry - surely another smartphone will be manufactured at some point which can take it on? Mind you, the N82 was top dog for years before it. One huge common factor? Xenon flash, of course - I remain amazed that not a single Android manufacturer currently produces a model with a proper flash for night time snaps. 

In the mean time, it's the N8 that continues to rule this particular roost.

January 16, 2012 01:53 PM

Review: The Adventures of Tintin

Sideways scrolling platform games aren’t as popular as they used to be. To maintain interest in a genre, developers need to come up with unique twists that will keep gamers coming back for more. Failing that, a good movie tie-in never hurts. Fortunately, GameLoft has managed to do both with The Adventures of Tintin.

The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn

This 2D platform game mirrors the plot of the recent movie remake. The game tells the story of how Tintin buys a model of the good ship Unicorn, which is desperately wanted by the dastardly Mr Sakharine. As you progress through the game, you are presented with further text-based updates to help you keep track of where you are in the story arc.

Telling the story of the movie

In-keeping with the spirit of the Tintin stories, this is not a predominantly violent game but Tintin can throw a punch or two when he has to. Mostly though, the game requires you to have problem solving skills and good reactions to time your jumps, etc; for one level, you even need to fly a plane! For a 2D platform game, the environments in The Adventures of Tintin are very interactive. Of course, there are the run-of-the-mill platforms and obstacles. However, there are also ledges to climb across and ropes to slide down too. Sometimes the jumping and climbing work make Tintin look like he has taken up Parkour!

Tintin does gymnastics

The game is controlled via an on-screen D-pad and fire-button. The icon on the fire-button changes depending on who you are controlling – but more on that later. The D-pad is ostensibly an eight direction pad, but the downward diagonal buttons are apparently (and oddly) never used. However, as all old-school gamers will be familiar with, UP makes Tintin jump on the spot, and UP-LEFT and UP-RIGHT make him jump sideways.

Describing this game as two dimensional isn’t completely correct – there is, in a loose sense, a third dimension. You can hide behind and in-front of walls and objects, to avoid detection by Sakharine’s henchmen.

Hiding behind parts of the environment

The action takes on a different perspective as you also get to control Tintin’s companions - Snowy the dog and Captain Haddock. For example, early on in the game Tintin is captured while aboard Sakharine’s ship – he’s tied up and left in a cabin to be dealt with later. You are then put in control of Snowy as you find your way around the ship, slipping in and out of air vents, avoiding humans who he’d be no match for. Snowy doesn’t have any offensive capability – but can bark with hilarious and incapacitating consequences. For example, barking behind an unsuspecting guard will cause the poor chap to run off in a panic, and knock himself out on the nearest bulkhead! Snowy is able to hide in things like life rings and coiled ropes, just like Tintin can hide behind walls, etc. It’s a nice twist that makes you play the game differently to how you would as Tintin, who can defend himself when the stealthy approach fails.

Snowy to the rescue!

Whichever character you’re playing, gameplay is saved from becoming too monotonous thanks to set-piece action sequences. In these parts of the game you’re still in control, but have to perform a number of moves in order to trigger a spectacular and improbable chain of events. For example, there is a scene where Tintin has to run and jump, while being chased, to catch a ladder that is being pulled out of his reach. Upon catching the ladder in time, it flips over and entraps the perusing henchmen between its rungs. Snowy has a similar sequence on-board Sakharine’s ship where he gets to roll along in a steel oil drum and bowls over countless henchmen who he’d never be able to defeat otherwise.

Tintin on the run

Every dog has its day!

This game certainly has long-term appeal, thanks to the generous supply of ingenious and devilish platform puzzles. The control system isn’t quite as responsive as I’d like, but a little bit of practice will compensate nicely. The weakest point is the graphics – while I didn’t expect something like Assassin’s Creed – I was surprised at how dated they looked. The lack of detail in the sprites and their animations made the game look like a console game from the late nineties rather than a contemporary premium game.

Still though, I’d suggest you take a look at Tintin if you have a yearning for some old-school platform action and prefer to use your brain rather than your brawn.

You can get “The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn” from the Nokia Store for £3.00.

Recommended.

Update:

Note that the version reviewed here is compatible with most Symbian phones. However, GameLoft also have a HD version that is only compatible with current Nokia Belle handsets (that we have also had issues getting that version to work due to a failed download - watch this space for a full review though.

David Gilson, 11^th January 2012

January 16, 2012 06:50 AM

Nokia's Ovi Store Tops 11 Million Daily Downloads

Although Symbian is getting weaker day by day, the momentum of Nokia's Nokia Store continues to be strong!

Figures released yesterday revealed that the Nokia Store attracts more than 11 million downloads of content items every single day.

The most popular content downloading device was the Nokia N8, followed by the 5800 XpressMusic, while the most content hungry nation was India. Additionally, as we recently reported, Ovi Store has grown nearly eight tim... .. .

Read more:
Another day, another 11 million downloads on Nokia Store - full story

January 11, 2012 08:45 AM

First Nokia Smartphone Designed Specifically For The US Features LTE, Large Display And Exclusive Applications

Today at the 2012 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Nokia and AT&T announced the Nokia Lumia 900, the first of Nokia's Windows® Phone-based range to feature high-speed LTE connectivity.

With Nokia's largest display, the Nokia Lumia 900 delivers a rich content experience from a phone that still fits easily in your hand.

Coming exclusively to AT&T in the coming months in cyan and matte black, the Nokia Lumia 900 has a 4.3-inch AMOLED ClearBlack Display for rich, bright images both indoors and out, faster connection speeds based on cutting-edge 4G LTE techno... .. .

Read more:
Nokia and AT&T introduce the new Nokia Lumia 900 - full story

January 10, 2012 03:34 PM

New Gorilla Glass 2 Enables Sleeker Devices, Brighter Images, And Greater Touch Sensitivity

Corning Incorporated introduces Corning® Gorilla® Glass 2, the next generation of the company's widely accepted, damage-resistant cover glass for consumer electronic devices, at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Corning Gorilla Glass 2 enables up to a 20 percent reduction in glass thickness, while maintaining the industry-leading damage resistance, toughness, and scratch resistance customers have come to expect from the world's most widely deployed cover glass.

The thinner Gorilla Glass 2 enables slimmer and sleeker devices, brighter images, and greater touch sensitivity. These benefits can provide electronics manufacturers with superior design flexibility as they address consumer demand for incre... .. .

Read more:
Corning Unveils New Gorilla Glass 2 - full story

January 09, 2012 08:15 PM

Mobile Internet Increasingly Available, But EU Still Missing Out On Growth-Creating Potential Of High Speed Broadban

Neelie Kroes, Vice-President of the European Commission responsible for the Digital Agenda, welcomed figures just released which show a solid increase in the availability of both mobile internet and basic quality fixed broadband lines.

At the same time the Commissioner warned that Europe risked missing out on badly needed economic growth if it does not step up a gear and increase the capacity of its broadband networks. Studies show that a 10 percentage point increase in broadband take-up boosts annual GDP growth by 1 to 1.5%.

Broadband is getting faster in Europe, but very high speed connections are not yet widely available. Although 42.2 % of fixed broadband lines were at least 10 megabits per second (Mbps) in July 2011 (up from 29.2% a year ago), only 6.5 % w... .. .

Read more:
Mobile internet increasingly available - full story

January 09, 2012 05:22 PM

Symbian Developer Ixonos To Cut 150 More Jobs Due Nokia Shift To Microsoft's Windows Phone

Finnish IT-services supplier Ixonos aims to cut up to 150 jobs after demand from key client Nokia dropped following the handset maker's decision to shift to Microsoft software, Ixonos said. "The demand for Ixonos' Symbian and MeeGo R&D and software development services provided for Nokia has reduced significantly, and the demand is not expected to return to past levels," Ixonos said in a statement.

Ixonos said the lay-off talks apply to all personnel in Finland, where it had 641 staff at end-September. Ixonos Plc is a creative mobile solutions company developing wireless technologies, software and solutions for connected devi... .. .

Read more:
Share Your Media In High Definition - full story

January 09, 2012 05:02 PM

Nokia Big Screen Adds Support For Symbian Belle Devices

Updated version of Nokia Big Screen application that turns your mobile into a media center for photos, videos and music when connected to HDTV with HDMI is now available from the Nokia store for Symbian Belle devices.

With Nokia Big Screen you can show videos and pictures in high definition with multichannel audio and even play music on the picture show 's background.

Nokia Big Screen is mobile application for phones with HDMI output (like the Nokia N8 and Nokia E7), that allows you to turn your phone into a portable media center that you can easily connect to any TV set that supports HDMI. This way, you can sh... .. .

Read more:
Share Your Media In High Definition - full story

January 09, 2012 04:43 PM

Nokia Play To Leaves Safety Of Beta Labs And Entering The Big Wide World Through Ovi Store!

The latest version of Nokia Play application has reached new milestone and is now available for free in Ovi Store.

Nokia Play To lets you show photos and videos taken with your mobile to your friends wirelessly on your TV. Or you can listen to your favourite music stored on your mobile with your home audio system.

All you need to do is to launch Play To, select the device and media you want to play. No configuration is needed once WLAN is on and all devices are connected to the same network. Nokia Play To is meant for playing media stored on mobile i.e. it is no... .. .

Read more:
Nokia Play To Application Now Available In Ovi Store - full story

January 09, 2012 04:20 PM

New Nimbuzz For Symbian Brings Back Tabbed Chatting

Nimbuzz for Symbian devices has been upgraded today (curently available through get.nimbuzz.com, but it will also be available in Nokia Ovi Store soon) and includes a good number of enhancements, bunch of improvements, some minor bug fixes and tweaks, as well as the interface and functionality improvements.

One of the first things I'm sure you will notice is that Tabbed chatting is back on the latest Nimbuzz Symbian 3.3.1 which is now available to download. Also as you may have already know, they have updated Nimbuzz Symbian to 3.3 last month and intro... .. .

Read more:
New Nimbuzz 3.3.1 for Symbian! Get it now! - full story

January 06, 2012 02:26 PM

Nokia Configuration Tool Version 6.3 Graduates From Beta

The latest version of Nokia Configuration Tool (v6.3) has now been deployed as the commercial version available through nokia.com.

Nokia Configuration Tool is a Windows PC application which you can use to manage the settings of Symbian phones through a USB cable or Bluetooth. 

It is primarily designed for system administrators who configure phone profiles within an organization. With it you can configure various settings like WLAN, email, Internet access points, and VPN on a single phone or several phones at the s... .. .

Read more:
Nokia Configuration Tool version 6.3 graduates from beta - full story

January 05, 2012 11:38 AM

Nokia Car Mode Application for Symbian Belle Is Now Available For Download From Nokia Store

Couple of months ago at the IAA (Internationale Automobil Ausstellung), Nokia announced Nokia Car Mode, a standalone application optimized for the in-car use of Nokia smartphones. Nokia Car Mode features an optimized user interface simplifying the access and use of Nokia Drive (voice-guided car navigation with Nokia Maps), traffic updates, music and voice calls while driving.

People with a car and a smartphone running Nokia Belle will be glad to hear that Nokia Car Mode is now available for download from Nokia Store. This lets you connect your phone to your car's infotainment system (if you've got one) and control your phone through the car, rather than touching the phone itself. There's tw... .. .

Read more:
Nokia Car Mode Application for Symbian Belle - full story

January 05, 2012 11:16 AM

StatCounter reveals Symbian Continues To Be Leader In Smartphone Web Browsing

The latest mobile data charts from Statcounter reveals Nokia's Symbian OS continuse to dominate in smartphone web browsing, but competitors such as iOS and Android aren't far behind and have made it a close race.

The figures show that the Symbian took over about 33.55 percent share in smartphone web browsing, from a previously 30.25 percent recorded during the start of the previous year and once again proofs that Symbian is far from being dead althpugh it continues to lose smartphone market share.

The iOS marked a decrease in usage from 22.61 percent in December as against 25.02 percent during early last year, while the Android showed a significant increase from 14.61 percent at the start of previous year to 21.76 perc... .. .

Read more:
Symbian Still Dominates Smartphone Web Browsing - full story

January 05, 2012 10:50 AM

Textbook example of blogger engagement – courtesy of HM the Queen

by Andrew Grill at December 27, 2011 11:05 AM

Google UK online education program is spot on

Over the last few months in the UK, Google has been running what I believe is an excellent campaign to educate users on the finer points of web security, and how websites use your data – and what you can do to control this access.

Google have the money and the reach to pull this off, and they have partnered with the citizen’s advice bureau to look at issues in 4 main areas

1. Staying safe online

2. Your data on the web [and how it makes websites more useful]

3. Your data on Google [and how it makes Google services more profitable]

4. Manage your data

The whole campaign can be accessed via

http://www.google.com/goodtoknow

Google has to balance that fine line in promoting to consumers why cookies and IP location, preferences etc are a good thing (for them and advertisers) as well as outlining the issues and explaining how to stay in control.

These ads have appeared in newspapers (consecutive full page ads), outdoor in underground stations and also on digital escalator panels in tube stations – so a pretty broad (and expensive) campaign.

The ads can also be used to educate children about how the web works and how Google sometimes “knows” where you are also how it manages to anticipate your typing mistakes.

Examples of the campaign can be seen below (click on each one for a larger view)

Related posts

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• Where am I? With Google latitude now everyone knows
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• US report says consumers ready for LBS

by Andrew Grill at December 14, 2011 08:01 PM

Nokia Live View Beta Now Available For Nokia N9

Following on the success of the Live View app for Symbian and carefull evaluating of users' needs and suggestions, the good folks over at Nokia Beta Labs have developed another Qt version of the LiveView app specifically optimized for the Nokia N9.

Nokia LiveView is new augmented reality browser that gives you a fun and easy way to discover interesting places around you. And, it doesn't stop there, once you've discovered it, with a single tap you can read reviews, call, SMS, share, rate, or even get turn by turn walking or driving directions right to the front door.

Nokia takes augmented reality a step further by seamlessly integrating the discovery, learn, decide, and go-to experiences in a single service. And if it is out there, odds are that Live View will find it. Live View accesses millions of unique places gl... .. .

Read more:
Nokia Live View Beta Now Available For Nokia N9 - full story

December 14, 2011 11:32 AM

“when is my bus due?” a brilliant use of public data and probably the best use of mobile ever

by Andrew Grill at December 14, 2011 09:30 AM

Soundtracker Radio version 1.7.3 Brings Minor Bugs Fixes & Performance Improvements

A new version of Soundtracker Radio for S60 5th editions and S^3 devices including Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle has been released at Nokia Beta Labs for you to try out.

Soundtracker 1.7.3 further improves the musical experience and fixes a number of issues identified by the Nokia Beta Labs community. It also further improves performance on Symbian Belle and Anna devices, fixes redraw bug, player in pause status bug and improves time elapsed description for stations.

Now there is only have one version of Soundtracker for S^3, Symbian Anna and Symbian Belle as well as one version for S60 devices covering both Java Runtime 1.4 and 2.1. The tea... .. .

Read more:
Soundtracker Radio Application Gets A 'Bug Fix' Update - full story

December 13, 2011 09:57 AM

New Glossy White Variant Of The Nokia N9 Starts Shipping Today

The white varinat of Nokia's highly acclaimed device announced at Nokia World, the stylish white variant of Nokia N9, officially starts shipping today.

According to folks over at Nokia's official conversation blog, the boxes have been filled, the vans loaded and the factory gates opened, which means that you can expect that phone will be available with retailers and operators near you.

Frank Zillikens, who heads up the product marketing for Nokia N9, explains: “The manufacturing process for beautiful white products is quite complex and we wanted to make sure we deliver the best possible quality for our consum... .. .

Read more:
White Nokia N9 Shines Bright In The Shops - full story

December 12, 2011 01:12 PM

So NFC yet so far

by Andrew Grill at December 11, 2011 07:30 PM

using social media for business development – the art of the eTap on the shoulder

by Andrew Grill at December 11, 2011 11:01 AM

QML Based Store Client Extends Compatibility, Improves Search, And Gets Support For Three More Language

The good folks from Nokia Beta Labs released a new version of the new QML based Store client application for Symbian devices today.

QML Store version 3.18.036 provides some fixes to issues that have been reported by the Nokia Beta Labs community and also prepares for some new features that will be deployed on the Store backend soon.

This new beta version of the Store QML client is now available with loads of goodies. Version 3.20.044 includes: Support for Arabic, Hebrew and Kazakh languages; Support for VGA resolution for devices such as Nokia E6; Improved Virtual Keyboard for Text Entry, allows users to enter text directly in the en.. .. .

Read more:
QML Based Store Client Gets An Update- full story

December 05, 2011 10:39 AM

Nokia Live View Updated With Number Performance Improvements And Easier Switching Between Views

After carefully evaluating users' needs and suggestions, the good folks over at Nokia Beta Labs just announced the availability of the latest update for recently released Nokia Live View application which is currently only available as a standalone update of Live View, not via Nokia Maps Suite.

In the latest release (version 2.03) you'll find number of performance improvements (fixes for install issues, crashes, slowness, freezes and bug fixes), two views: camera viewfinder and list view (tap on the circles on the menu bar to change the views). Last but not the least, they have also added tutorial to guide through the Live View usage and feature set.

Nokia LiveView is new augmented reality browser that gives you a fun and easy way to discover interesting places around you. And, it doesn't stop there, once you've discov... .. .

Read more:
Nokia Live View Gets Number Of Improvements - full story

December 02, 2011 02:39 PM

Kik Messenger Now Available For ymbian^3, Anna And Belle Users Through Nokia Store

After shorter period of closed beta testing, Kik Interactive's dev team today announced the first public version of its Kik Messenger app, a real-time cross-platform instant messenger which is available for all major mobile platforms including the iOS and Android and now finally for Symbian users through Nokia store.

"We're proud to announce that Kik Messenger for Symbian is available for download in the Ovi Store. Go get it now! We think the millions of Symbian users around the world deserve pretty, responsive, reliable apps, just like any other mobile platform. In that spirit, we built Kik to be the fastest and most beautiful messenger available for Symbian today.

A special 'thank-you' goes out to our beta users, who not only gave us valuable feedback but also freely shared their enthusiasm for Symbian. Your spirit is infectious. :) So, Sym... .. .

Read more:
Kik for Symbian is here - full story

December 01, 2011 05:32 PM

New Nimbuzz for Symbian Devices Brings Improved Interface And Functionality

Nimbuzz development team remain serious about keeping its product up to date with constant improvements and providing regular updates to its huge users base.

Nimbuzz for Symbian devices has been upgraded today (curently available through get.nimbuzz.com, while the auto update will be turned on early next week) and includes a good number of enhancements, bunch of new featuers, some minor bug fixes and tweaks, as well as the interface and functionality improvements.

One of the first things I'm sure you will notice is the beautifully redesigned Home Screen. They made the icons bigger and rearranged them in grid view so you can access the mo... .

Read more:
New Nimbuzz 3.3 for Symbian! Get it now - full story

November 25, 2011 11:05 AM

F-Secure's New Mobile Security 7.5 Offers a Helping Hand for Parents Worried About Mobile App Usage

The rapid increase in young people using smartphones and the growing popularity of apps are creating new mobile security concerns. The latest version of F-Secure Mobile Security, the world's leading security solution for mobile devices as proven by F-Secure's operator partners and their customers, provides improved security and parental control capabilities on Android devices to meet these challenges.

Today there are more children and teens accessing the web with their mobile devices than ever before. Reports indicate 75 percent of 12- to 17-year-olds have a mobile device, and according to Nielsen, apps are responsible for 56% of all act. .. .

Read more:
F-Secure's Adds Parental Controls - full story

November 24, 2011 01:44 PM

China Overtakes United States as World's Largest Smartphone Market in Q3 2011

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, smartphone shipments reached a record 24 million units in China during the third quarter of 2011.

Smartphone shipments reached just 23 million units in the United States. China has overtaken the United States for the first time to become the world's largest smartphone market by volume.

Linda Sui, Analyst at Strategy Analytics, said, “Smartphone shipments grew 58 percent sequentially to reach a record 23.9 million units in China during Q3 2011. In contrast, smartphone shipments fell 7 percent sequentially to reach 23.3 mill.. .. .

Read more:
China Overtakes U.S. In Smartphone Shipments - full story

November 24, 2011 07:30 AM

The global road warrior’s new BFF the Huawei E587 mobile hotspot

As many London Calling readers know, I travel a lot for work.  I used to travel within Europe extensively, and have done the London-Sydney-London route more times than I care to remember.

Lately, my role with PeopleBrowsr has seen me in San Francisco on a regular basis.

One of the most popular posts on this site is the one about saving costs on data roaming – share this with your friends via http://lc.tl/dr

I have been using a number of MiFi hotspots for the last year or so when I travel with a local data SIM inside to run my phone, iPad and laptop from the one device, I am not being stung by hideous data roaming costs.

To date I have owned both E585 MiFi and E586 mobile hotspots from 3 and also the R201 from Vodafone.

Each has their own benefits, and as each new one is released, the features improve.

As I travel to the US a lot, I was hoping that the new E586 MiFi from Three would live up to the promise of 1900 UMTS (AT&T support this here in the US).

I was sadly disappointed as there is no US 3G support on this device even though all of the reviews (and the manufacturer) said this was true.

Luckily the Vodafone R201 does support 1900 UMTS, however it is a fairly bulky unit.

So imagine my delight when in San Francisco on Sunday and I wandered into the nearby T-Mobile shop.

They had on display their Sonic 4G mobile hotspot which is not much larger than the E585/E586, and packs some impressive specs. Needless to say, I grabbed one.

• DC-PA+: 42Mbps (Downlink) 5.76Mbps (Uplink)
• HSPA+/HSPA/UMTS 2100/1700 AWS/2100/1900/900/850MHz
• Smart Media sharing, Smart Routing, Smart Surfing
• WiFi 802.11b/g/n
• Rechargeable 2200MAh capacity battery
• Micro SD Card Slot: up to 32 GB
• Size: 102.0 x 56.0 x 15.5 mm

Translating this , DC-PA+ = double carrier. This allows you to take advantage of networks such as T-Mobile USA and Telstra Australia that have upgraded their HSPA networks (marketed here as 4G) to permit “up to“ 42MB/s download.

In practice in San Francisco, I experienced a peak download of over 13Mb/s, and regularly saw between 4-6MB downloads in the SOMA area – quite impressive speeds!

I unlocked the device via Swiftlocks (ebay link here) and now can use it on any GSM/UMTS network!

Using my AT&T data SIM on the faster isp.cingular APN I could only manage 2-3MB/s maximum speeds on the same unit. proving that the T-Mobile network really is fast!

The T-Mobile data plans are reasonable for prepay – you can get 3GB for $50 (30 day expiry), or 1GB for $30.  This is compared to the AT&T Data connect pass which only gives you 1GB for $50 (30 day expiry).

Some of the other improvements in the E587 include

• more intuitive web interface (really nice to navigate)
• better APN profile management
• Allows the ability to auto power off (or not) after 10-30 mins when on batteries
• Extra capacity 2200MAh battery
• The back cover slides of easily for SIM change (no broken fingernails)

As the frequencies in the T-Mobile variant support the funny AWS frequencies (2100/1700 UMTS) as well as the EU 2100MHz 3G, AND 900/850MHz 3G frequencies used in Australia, this means that I now truly have ONE MiFi that will work at fast speeds in pretty much any of the countries I visit on a regular basis.

If you travel a lot internationally, this could be the device for you.

FOOTNOTE: As I now have the E587 I am selling my old MiFis on eBay.

If you want an unlocked E586 (Great in UK, Europe and US at HSPA+ 21.6 MB/s speeds) head to http://lc.tl/586 to bid.
if you travel to the US, have a look at my unlocked Vodafone R201 (up to 7.2MB/s and works on AT&T in the US).  Bid via http://lc.tl/201

Related posts

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• How to avoid paying data roaming charges on your next overseas trip part 2 – while you are there [UPDATED]
• How to avoid paying data roaming charges on your next overseas trip part 1 – before you go [UPDATED]
• Will the 3G mobile broadband “dongle” kill the WiFi hotspot market?
• PeopleBrowsr Names Andrew Grill as the UK CEO

by Andrew Grill at November 23, 2011 02:34 PM

The Sales Start Of The Lumia 800 Is The Best Ever First Week Of Nokia Smart Phone Sales In The U.K.

Literally dozens of news sites and numerous prominent bloggers have picked up on the story that shipments of Nokia's first Windows phone based smartphone in the December quarter is very disappointing.

The story is based on Bernstein Research analyst Pierre Ferragu who pointed out a research note Friday that checks on Google Trends finds that the buzz level for the Lumia 800 is about on a part with the Nokia N8, the company's top-of-the-line but poor selling smartphone a year ago.

“With no breakthrough innovation, we believe Nokia's new phones are unlikely to get traction in a highly concentrated high-end," he writes in a research note. “Second, we don't believe Lumia phones are competitively priced. Third, we bel... .. .

Read more:
Lumia 800 Is Off To Excellent Start In UK - full story

November 23, 2011 01:20 PM

Soundtracker Turns to LightSquared To Revolutionize the Mobile Music Business

LightSquare, a wholesale carrier building a nationwide wireless broadband network that will create consumer choice and drive industry innovation, and Soundtracker, a geosocial Internet radio company, have signed a wholesale agreement that will enable Soundtracker's customers to access one of the world's largest catalogues of online music.

LightSquared's network will allow Soundtracker to offer its customers a product that bundles music with connectivity - eliminating concerns that consumers will rack up huge monthly wireless fees while listening to their favorite music. "LightSquared's... .. .

Read more:
Soundtracker & LightSquared to revolutionize mobile music - full story

November 23, 2011 11:21 AM

Mobile to the rescue for Black Friday online sales

by Andrew Grill at November 21, 2011 02:42 PM