Planet Mobile

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (May 18)

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-19T07:00:02+00:00

Picking up dinner with mom. (with Christiane at CC Teriyaki) - t.co/wnNeDeNe #
Shopping with mom... (with Vicki and Christiane at Costco Business Center) - t.co/fJ3uvOr6 #

Erik Thauvin: Hardline - Fever Dreams

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-19T06:32:10+00:00

via YouTube

Johnny is back with a whole new lineup...

All About Symbian: CamEfx provides novelty photo 'FX'

2012-05-18T16:14:00+00:00

Regular followers of me on Twitter will know how much I despise image-filtering monstrosities like Instagram. Having spent the last decade trying to take better photos on my smartphone, the thought of deliberately mangling them seems to be anathema, to me at least. However, these sort of apps seem to be popular, so in the public interest I briefly tried out CamEfx, available for free in the Nokia Store.

Right off the bat, there are filters for:

Thermal
Mirror (think reflection in a lake)
Night vision (i.e. black and green)
X-ray (think negative)
Pink
Black and white (actually monochrome)
Sketch (think line drawing)
Blue
Lomo (a vintage look from the days of the earliest cameras)
Brown

Each is shown in real time on-screen (i.e. at nHD resolution) and taking a shot is done with the on-screen button - there's no support for the camera phone shutter key:

By default, the output resolution of this (fun) app is 3 megapixels, but you can up this in the Settings (see screenshot later) to something higher at the risk of a longer processing time when you want to save what you've snapped. CamEfx's warning (below) is for full 12mp images - it's only a handful of seconds for 3mp ones, don't worry.

Once saved, you can share directly from CamEfx, though you do of course have to go through each service's web site to authorise the app the first time you do this. One oddity is that CamEfx didn't use my standard 'Internet' settings and wanted me to make a specific access point selection before it would go online.

Also available in Settings is the strangely named 'Focal length with volume buttons' - what the developer means is 'Zoom with volume buttons' - it's nothing to do with focal length as far as I can see (CamEfx does focus before taking each shot, by the way). Probably an English translation thing and not surprising from someone who mispelt 'Gallery' in the screenshot above....

I'm sure you can have lots of fun with CamEfx once you've worked out how it works and have set it up, etc. But, as with Instagram and all others of its ilk, it's not for me....!

CamEfx is free in the Store here (presumably with ads) - I was trying the commercial version, here.

All About Symbian: Latest Nokia Store beta client blessed with full release

2012-05-18T14:45:03+00:00

The last Nokia Store client that appeared in Beta Labs almost two months ago, v3.24.053, has made it through testing without further changes (unusually!) and is now being rolled out officially as an auto-prompted update when anyone goes into the Nokia Store on their Symbian (^3/Anna/Belle) device. The main changes for this version, you may remember, were fixes for download queue and purchase bugs.

The previous 'release' version pushed to devices was v3.22.54, which is what you'll probably see if you haven't been experimenting with the Store betas through Nokia Beta Labs. To see if the update is available in your region yet, just go into the Nokia Store client and, if available, you'll see these screens (courtesy SymbianTweet):

Or, of course, because this is the same version as from Beta Labs, just grab the 'QML Store' from there instead, if you're impatient!

All About Symbian: Place your order now - SUBWAY Express on Symbian

2012-05-18T08:54:12+00:00

Yep, everyone's favourite fast-sandwich vendor is now available on Symbian. At least, it is if you live in the Greater London area - no doubt the system will get extended in due course. Screenshot proof below, but SUBWAY EXPRESS does seem well built (in Qt) and available for free now - you can place extravagantly detailed orders for a pick up time of you choice from any of hundreds of included restaurants.

Home screen, offering the facility to replace your existing SUBCARD, etc.; finding my nearest SUBWAY - note that I'm a long way out of London - oops!; starting to place an order

Refining the order, options for bread type, extras, salads and much, much more - you've been to a SUBWAY, right?

Adding a drink and some cookies; checking out; nice to have some comprehensive FAQs and other documentation all within the application

Rather curiously, there's no way to exit the application. It probably doesn't matter, since Symbian OS now works so well with Qt - I doubt the application uses up significant resources when idling in the background. But an 'exit' button would still have been nice, developers please note.

In the meantime, go grab SUBWAY Express from the Nokia Store.

All About Symbian: Review: Belkin In Car Tunecast 6 Universal FM Transmitter

2012-05-18T07:46:00+00:00

Something a little different for a Friday. Frustrated that a lot of the Symbian and Windows phones I wanted to try day to day didn't have a built-in FM transmitter (I'll explain why that's important to me below), I opted to grab the Belkin In Car Tunecast 6 Universal FM Transmitter and try it out and about in the UK. Summary: it works brilliantly, far better (surprisingly) than the few phones which did have the functionality built-in.

NB: In testing this accessory, I used both the Nokia Lumia 800, running Windows Phone, and the Nokia E6, running Symbian Belle, though in truth an FM Transmitter accessory like this is applicable to any device with a standard 3.5mm output (even an iPhone, Android device or Blackberry).

A little background, though. I wrote, last year, about FM transmitters in some of Nokia's Symbian smartphones, pointing out their advantages and bemoaning the fact the functionality wasn't more widely available:

In case you've been living under a stone for the last 4 years (this technology only became 'legal' in many countries at the start of 2007), an FM transmitter (Wikipedia info) is, as it sounds, a way of sending a phone's audio stream (usually music or podcasts) via a genuine FM frequency of your choice to your car (or home, or caravan) FM radio. The power output is very low and is restricted by law to just 50 nanowatts - which is good for your phone's battery consumption and yet still more than enough to reach your car aerial, typically less than a metre away.

Alternative approaches to getting your phone's stored music collection onto your much bigger car speakers include using Bluetooth to a wireless car kit, or to plug in via a 3.5mm to 3.5mm jack lead, into an Aux port on the back of the car stereo. Both very valid and capable of higher quality, but most cars don't have fitted Bluetooth car kits and many car stereos don't have accessible Aux ports. And it may not be practical, cosmetically or mechanically, to rip out the existing stereo and replace it with a Bluetooth (or Aux)-enabled version. Making the humble FM Transmitter a great ad-hoc way of getting music transferred through a real 'lowest common denominator'/'low-tech' mechanism - after all, FM radios are built into just about everything around you and have been for decades.

In practice, I use the FM transmitters in my N8 and N86 almost every time I'm in the car - if I've been listening to a podcast in the house while getting ready to go out, I can hit 'Play via Radio' (again, note the new name) under 'Options' in any audio playback app on the phone and tap it 'on'. And the podcast carries on seamlessly via my fairly meaty (8 cones in all) car speakers with impeccable quality. Or, if I'm not on my own, I choose music from my mass memory or memory card that's family friendly and treat everyone to an album from Adele or Take That or similar. No messing with wires or Bluetooth pairing - it just works.

Well... it works most of the time. By its very nature, your phone is broadcasting a specific FM frequency at very low power. If you're unlucky and you've picked a frequency that's used by a local FM radio station then it's easy to get distortion and the two signals effectively interfering with each other. Even if, like me, you pick a frequency which works well in your area (I use 96.0MHz in Berkshire, UK), you'll find that as you travel across your country, local stations pumping out full power occasionally intrude and you might have to pause playback and mute the radio playback for a few miles.

Finding the perfect frequency for your area is purely a matter of trial and error. Literally. Pick a number (the range is usually from about 88MHz to about 107MHz, depending on the country) and try it. If you get interference, shift the number by 0.2MHz up or down and try again, rinse and repeat. it's a slight pain, but once you find a frequency that works well for you, set that on a preset on the car radio and you're off and rocking.

The last couple of paragraphs quoted are critical to the whole endeavour. Fiddling around, on a car journey, to avoid local station interference is a right royal pain, especially when within 20 miles of a city. Which is why the 'ClearScan' bit caught my eye in this £20 Belkin accessory - the idea is that the accessory takes a moment (actually around ten seconds) to scan the airwaves and then it picks the 'quietest' portion of the FM spectrum, displaying the result clearly so that you can then manually tune your car radio to this frequency.

The gadget itself is around 7cm long, with a nice chunky LCD display. One end goes into your car's 12V socket, the other end into your smartphone. Set something playing (a podcast or music or indeed anything which outputs audio) and you're set.

One press on the big 'C' (for ClearScan) button and a scanning animation appears on the display, followed shortly by a frequency (e.g. "88.4", below). My car stereo has a 'scan for next strong signal' button built into the steering wheel stalk, making it trivially easy on the move to fix interference problems.

When a local FM station gets in the way, I simply press the 'C' button again and wait for the report. In fact, with my set up, I don't even have to look at the chosen frequency, since I can tap my stereo's 'scan' button as many times as needed to find it for me, all without taking my eyes off the road. Or, of course, a user could choose to use their car stereo's tuning buttons to dial up the frequency manually.

The '+' and '-' buttons on the Belkin's front let you manually tweak the frequency being transmitted, though I can't really see a use case for this.

On the unit's left/top side are three more buttons:

'M1' and 'M2', unsurprisingly, are memories. It's all very well getting new frequencies every time you do a 'ClearScan' but even the small amount of retuning you need to do on your car stereo is a bit of a bother. If you've found frequencies which do work quite well for you (perhaps one near your home and one near your office?) then pressing and holding a memory button allows these to be remembered. Matched with the memories built into your car stereo, changing the frequencies used to one of the two presets is a piece of cake.

The 'Pro' button is interesting, cycling between four different transmission modes:

Normal
'Pro 1', Volume boost
'Pro 2', Volume boosted further(!, at the risk of distorting loud parts of the audio)
Mono

In practice, 'Pro 1' worked perfectly in my car. In fact, transmission overall was much clearer than from my Nokia N8 - I suspect that the power produced from this 12V-powered accessory was significantly greater than from my self-powered smartphone. Not surprising in hindsight, but the stronger signal did make it easier to lock onto the signal and audio was clearer and less prone to interference.

What all this means in practice is that if your smartphone doesn't have an FM transmitter (in Nokia speak, 'Play via Radio') then it's really not that big deal, should you need the facility, to keep this Belkin TuneCast (or similar) in your car glovebox to perform the function rather splendidly.

Having a wire coming from your in-car 12V to your Nokia E6 or Lumia 800 (say) smartphone is a little bit of an inconvenience, but then you might as well go the whole hog and also take advantage of the USB port built into the TuneCast's 12V jack to charge the phone at the same time:

It's at this point that I found my first negative with the product - the output from the Belkin TuneCast's USB port wasn't enough to charge any of my Symbian smartphones. These are notoriously fussy about the voltage and current that they'll accept before 'Charging' appears on the display. Thankfully, my Windows Phones accepted the USB charge gratefully and I had no problems with this 'dual cable, dual benefit' approach on my Lumia 800.

I have a founding principle when buying electronics - never buy the cheapest (it'll be underfeatured, appallingly built and complete rubbish), never buy the most expensive (usually paying for a 'brand name' or unnecessary gilding) - pick something in between.

Here we have a product that's expensive enough to be pretty darned good, yet not so expensive that you go off the whole idea (adding FM transmission to your smartphone). The Belkin TuneCast I was reviewing can be found here on Amazon or elsewhere on the web, though do note that prices vary wildly (between £18 delivered and £50!)

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian and All About Windows Phone, 18 May 2012

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (May 17)

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-18T07:00:03+00:00

Just completed a 1.37 mi walk - Back from storage unit with mom. t.co/3UENjiXX #RunKeeper #
Just completed a 1.41 mi walk - Trip to our storage unit with mom.. t.co/saiGG9cI #RunKeeper #

All About Symbian: Fight: N8 vs HTC One S/X cameras

2012-05-18T06:23:10+00:00

Ah. So there is someone else out there in the blogosphere who takes smartphone camera testing as seriously as me. Well, almost as seriously...(!) In this case, 'Deaconclgi' over at 'My Nokia Blog', who takes his beloved Nokia N8 and HTC One S and puts them through a set of demanding shots in varying light conditions, exploring the detail and coloration in their photos.

(Although the HTC One S was used here, the camera in it is identical to that in the One X, so the comparison applies to both.)

From Deaconclgi's intro and conclusion:

As some of you may know, the HTC One S (and X) has the best camera that HTC has ever made. It has great specifications coupled with a great camera software suite and lightning fast shooting performance. I recently added the One S to my stable of smartphones and decided to put it to the test. Now, I don’t have any fancy lighting or other equipment, or even PC software to crop the photos so this is about as raw and unbiased, unprocessed method as you can get.

Basically, I found subjects to capture in varying lighting, distance and object conditions, loaded them to my laptop, and fired up Windows Live Photo Gallery to simply view the photos. I then used Windows 7′s built in split window organization feature and the built in Snipping Tool to take a screenshot of the equally zoomed photos.

...

The Nokia N8 continues to impress with its 12MP detail yet I find issue with the amount of digital noise/pixel noise that it shows in low-light. What surprised me most is that the N8 viewfinder becomes a grainy mess in low light. Thankfully the photos come out better than what is show in the real time viewfinder. The color accuracy is still a crowning achievement with the N8 as well.

The One S does a FANTASTIC job, especially considering HTC has had some of the worst cameras in the past. In ideal lighting conditions, it is a top notch performer. The camera captures plenty of detail, and provides eye pleasing results, even if a little saturated. Turn off the lights or find yourself outside at night and things get soft and purple like Barney. Even with the soft and cuddly purple, I am surprised at the overall photon capturing ability of the BSI (Back Side Illuminated) sensor on the One S. It appears to do an admirable job. I really hope that HTC can fix the sharpness and purple tinge in a future software update as those are the big negatives to an otherwise solid camera effort from HTC.

Sounds about right. I've reviewed both the HTC One X and One S for The Phones Show and concluded each time that their cameras were undoubtedly the best that HTC has produced, but still some way short of the results from the Apple iPhone 4S and a long way short of those from the Nokia N8. HTC seem to have gone all out to apply colour and edge enhancement, leading to wierd purple coloration when the light's low and unpleasant artefacts when you look closely at an image.

In contrast, the N8's policy of 'no enhancement whatsoever' produces photos which look less saturated but are usually a lot closer to real life colours, with digital noise left as-is, from the sensor, i.e. no noise reduction gets applied. What you see in the photo is what the N8 camera sensor saw and not the result of a few rounds of 'software knows best' filtering....

Nice comparison, Deaconclgi, I'll race you to the big, big Nokia 808 PureView / N8 face-off. See you on the other side!

All About Symbian: Coloring Book for your toddler(s)

2012-05-17T10:40:40+00:00

You may remember that I reviewed Coloring Fun recently, a stab at producing a colouring-for-toddlers application to keep them happy for 10 minutes on a car journey or in a queue. I won't subject you to another full review, since Coloring Book is fairly similar, but I did want to highlight its existence in the Nokia Store and to provide you with some screenshots of this commercial application. And no, neither of the titles get the spelling of 'colouring' right. What's that? There's some magic land called America where they mangle words?....

From the review of Coloring Fun:

In short, the idea is to keep things really simple, really colourful and yet allow the creation of little pieces of art that can be proudly shown to the parent sitting nearby (or driving, perhaps - this app could be a good way of keeping a son or daughter quiet on a long car journey).

If the graphics below seem over-simplistic to you then think again - they're deliberately pitched at four and five year olds and might even be a nice diversion for six and seven year olds, too.

And now we have Coloring Book in the Nokia Store too, pitched at £1.50 and more designed around scribbling than filling in areas of colour.

Large, finger-friendly controls - actual painting is a lot more fiddly - not that a toddler will care!

The 'flower' icon cycles between pictures to try out - sadly your previous attempt at each isn't saved - this is strictly in 'colouring novelty' territory....

The 'x' close control doesn't seem to work at all. There's obviously some 'kid-safe' trick to using it, to stop your three year old closing the application by mistake and then deleting your contacts, but I couldn't stumble on it. I had to end the application using the standard Symbian multitasking carousel!

I'd rate Coloring Book slightly below the previously reviewed Coloring Fun, if only because there's no 'fill' tool, making finished pictures look messier, even in a three year old's eyes. Still, worth loading up if you have kids of the right age.

All About Symbian: Nokia Maps - updated maps, dated 30th April 2012

2012-05-17T09:58:38+00:00

Well spotted by Nokialino, there are new maps available for Nokia Maps, adding latest road information along with extra traffic coverage. Some screenshots below, you will want to seek out a Wi-fi hotspot before checking for the update, since the downloads are large (typically hundreds of megabytes) and can't be done over 3G.

You can check for updates in Nokia Maps by either:

In Nokia Maps, using the 'Maps loader' function on the menu
In the dedicated 'Maps loader' utility provided with some Nokia Maps installations
In Nokia Suite in Windows, with your Symbian smartphone connected via Bluetooth or USB

The new maps are dated 30th April and have the version number 2.46.103, as shown below:

Note that, as shown above centre, the existing maps will get deleted ('cleaned up') first. A typical 300MB maps update will take around ten minutes to download and install over wi-fi.

According to Nokialino, the maps update also now enabled traffic updates to more cities around the world. Comments welcome if you notice improvements in functionality in your area.

Updating the underlying maps in any sat-nav product is easy to forget, but is well worth checking periodically - if nothing else, you'll reduce the chances of driving up a road which has been altered and getting thoroughly confused!

All About Symbian: Review: IronWorm

2012-05-17T09:28:10+00:00

It feels as if all the games I review lately are variations on established genres, so I was happy to find IronWorm, which seems to defy classification. In IronWorm (a remake of SwingWorm), you play a worm with a vendetta, and in his quest to chase down his nemesis, he has to climb and swing his way through increasingly complicated environments, with a gymnastic grace that deserves to be in the Olympics! His only weapon, and protection, is a mace-tipped tail, plus YOUR coordination and cunning.

When I saw IronWorm, my sceptical mind started trying to find what meme it was making use of. Given its heavy metal style, I did wonder about Marvel's IronMan and AC/DC tie-in, but no, IronWorm is quite unique. The main character, IronWorm, looks like he should be in a glam metal band; in fact, he wouldn't look out of place as a member of KISS!

The general graphical style is cutesy, but grotesque as well, with something of a satanic slant to it, but it all fits together nicely. The music and sound effects work perfectly together. The soundtrack is a high tempo electric guitar piece, and every time you despatch an enemy, the game plays a strained guitar note – take out several in one go, and the notes change, almost as if you're playing a riff along with the soundtrack – very Bill and Ted.

The bad guys enjoy a Batman-esque death

IronWorm kind of shares some heritage with Angry Birds – in as much as it is physics-based, levels are split into episodes, and it defies classification. In fact, given that birds prey on worms, it begs the question who would win in a fight, Angry Birds or IronWorm? (Cue: Harry Hill shouting "There's only one way to find out – FIGHT!")

Yes, contributing to the destruction of the perception that physics is not fun, IronWorm makes use of pendulum motion and elasticity. This is because our hero is basically two weights connected by a stretchy (and wobbly) body. At one end is his head, resplendent with a gold tooth and glam rock fringe, which can bite on to the surroundings as an anchor, but is vulnerable to enemy strikes. At the other end, we have a spiked mace. Not only can this act as an anchor too, but it is a weapon, and a shield.

Using the tail to defend yourself

As you might have guessed, you move around in the game by alternately swinging the head and tail. If you're going slowly, you can walk IronWorm along platforms, or you can make great big swings to cover more ground – but this opens you up to more enemy shots and inadvertent collisions. If the head or body touch an enemy you lose one of three lives. The larger the swinging arc you make, the more IronWorm's body extends, thus allowing you to go further.

IronWorm being hit in his soft underbelly!

The object of the game is to get from the starting position to the exit, continually chasing the evil boss, which is some sort of skull-headed beetle thing. However, in between there are various types of minions in your way, who you either have to avoid or kill. Some of them will fire sharp looking objects at you, which is where using your tail as a shield comes in.

Reaching the exit!

In what I think was an intentional design, IronWorm isn't as responsive as I thought it would be. Your finger gestures must be quite exaggerated to get a decent swing going. Once it is moving, it is quite mobile, only limited only by the body folding up on itself and having a noticeable minimum folding radius. As such, you may sometimes have to swing to get rid of kinks – in much the same way you'd smooth out a bed sheet by sending a wave along it.

You can hold IronWorm up in space, poised to make an attack, or timing a swing onto a moving piece of scenery. You have to be careful that your soft body doesn't get hit while you wait though. While posing like that, I felt quite disconcerted, as the realistic movement actually felt quite creepy, as if I was handling a snake. Given that software (on a phone!) can produce this kind of movement, I wonder about a future where the military sends robotic snakes after its enemies, but I digress.

Poised to attack!

As hinted at in the last paragraph, there are different types of scenery which helps to keep the gameplay fresh and interesting. Most of the world is made up of red leaves, which your head and tail can bite into. However, there are wooden propeller type objects which you can hitch a ride on. There's ice and glass which your teeth can't attach to, but your tail can, and it can also smash glass to open up new areas of the map.

Hanging onto a rolling log

It should be noted that IronWorm isn't completely original. It's actually a remake of SwingWorm (reviewed by us last year), also by 10tons Ltd. Rather than slaying foes in a hellish landscape, SwingWorm was a much nicer game with zero emphasis on killing and battle. Much of the in-game text is the same, and the game mechanics are 99% the same - IronWorm feels slightly less responsive than SwingWorm. If you're going to be passing this game off to your kids, SwingWorm is probably the better bet. However, IronWorm is a more dynamic game by virtue of having to use your tail for offensive and defensive maneuvers, rather than just collecting fruit!

That said, if you like your games to be a bit different, a bit quirky, and to have a life-like feel to them, I can't recommend this game enough. I had a great time playing it, and after testing, I had a hard time putting it down to write my review. You can slither to the Nokia Store and gobble IronWorm up for £3.00.

All About Symbian: Let's play.... hunt the higher capacity batteries

2012-05-17T07:32:07+00:00

You may remember that I reported late last year on the newer, higher capacity versions of some of Nokia's most popular batteries? One such came with the 1300mAh version of the BL-5K that came with the Nokia 701, but this battery type also fits the Nokia N85, N86 and C7. And ever since, I've been watching for the point at which the new batteries starting being sold on their own. After all, what's not to like about getting a new, refreshed battery that's also higher capacity than the original, when your phone was new?

Thanks to a tweet from Johan, it seems that the 1300mAh version of the BL-5K has started appearing in online shops, e.g here at Clas Ohlson, albeit for a somewhat steep price (about £35).

So, my challenge to you the AAS reader and die-hard Nokia/Symbian fan, is to find other examples of either the new BL-5K or another uprated official Nokia battery available for purchase across the world.

And no, please don't include all the various fakes and outrageous cons from eBay and even Amazon ("BL-5K replacement, 2300mAh, Gold", etc.)- I'm talking about official Nokia batteries, sold by reputable outlets.

What can you dig up? I'd expect the 1300mAh BL-5K to be around the £20 to £25 mark, so the Clas Ohlson price is definitely on the high side? What about the BL-5J, original capacity 1320mAh, for example, used in the Nokia X6 and 5800?

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (May 16)

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-17T07:00:03+00:00

Looking for Jell-o for mom. (with Vicki and Christiane at @Walmart) - t.co/Yrk5lV7U #
A cup of joe with mom... (with Vicki and Christiane at @starbucks) - t.co/yLcDoZge #
My mom loves this store! (with Vicki and Christiane at @poloralphlauren) - t.co/YbddptZp #
Shopping with mom. (with Vicki and Christiane at @premiumoutlets) - t.co/oKmQbKsu #

Erik Thauvin: Ralph Lauren

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-16T23:21:39+00:00

Mom doing some shopping...

All About Symbian: BelleChat brings IRC with style

2012-05-16T16:08:36+00:00

BelleChat is an IRC client for Symbian^3 devices (running Anna or Belle). The app's UI follows the Nokia Belle style guide, giving a visually pleasing and coherent user interface that matches the native apps. Features include split screen keyboard text entry, ability to join more than one channel at once and support for rendering output in mIRC colours.

On its first start up BelleChat will ask you to provide details for your IRC server of choice. Once you've connected to that channel you are, optionally, presented with a list of available channels, which you can join with a single tap. You can also manually enter a channel to join. Each channel will open its own tab, as shown in the screenshot below and you switch between channel by tapping on the appropriate tab in the tab bar at the top of the screen.

From inside a channel you can see a list of users by tapping the appropriate icon on the toolbar (back, disconnect, channel commands, user list and menu). The menu gives accessing to the about, help and settings screen. In settings you can configure whether to show timestamps with incoming messages, whether to show the channel list when joining a server and set the appearance (text format) of your messages (colour, background colour, bold, italic and underline).

BelleChat provides an easy on the eye and intuitive IRC client for Symbian devices. While the feature set is relatively limited, compared to some desktop clients, it handles all the basics of IRC well and should be more than sufficient for most IRC usage on the go. Moreover, the developer is planning to add support for private messages, ignore commands and other 'advanced' IRC features in the next version of the application.

BelleChat 1.0 can be downloaded from the Nokia Store; it costs £1 / $1 / €1.

More information on BelleChat is available on the developer's blog, and on this Nokia Developer Wiki page. The source code for the application is available via GitHub.

All About Symbian: AAS Insight #213: beautiful phones and what next for N8 owners

2012-05-16T13:57:21+00:00

In All About Symbian Insight number 213, we start with the news of a fix for Nokia Maps Suite 2.0 installation and details of latest beta of Nokia Transport. Rafe and Steve discuss mobile web versus client apps, prompted by recent updates to Twitter and YouTube's mobile website; and David talk about his experience with the DC-16 charger. In the second half of the podcast, we revisit Steve's feature on the top 10 most beautiful Symbian smartphones, before moving on to talk about the upgrade options for Nokia N8 owners.

This podcast was recorded on Wednesday 16th May 2012.

In this podcast we cover:

You can listen to earlier episodes of the AAS Insight Podcast in our media section.

All About Symbian: Don't forget Vlingo - now updated

2012-05-16T08:54:22+00:00

In all the fuss over Apple's (effectively bought in) Siri and Samsung's (effectively bought in) S-voice, Symbian owners eager for a little voice recognition action shouldn't forget about Vlingo, free for our OS and recently updated to v2.4.50, bringing better recognition, new settings and under the hood improvements. Some screenshots and examples below, just to refresh your memory!

We last mentioned Vlingo here on AAS back in September 2011, when the utility had just gone 'free' and was at v1.7.425 - there have been several updates since then, taking us up to today and v2.4.50, presumably some of the updates are to maintain compatibility with improvements at the server side, which is where the actual voice recognition takes place.

Just a few screenshots to whet your appetite - if you fancy the idea of voice recognition and haven't tried Vlingo yet then there's no better time - here's Vlingo in the Nokia Store.

When first installed, your Contacts are indexed, presumably for quicker matching of names spoken later on; shown in the mid panel in Vlingo's interface are examples of things you might like to say - these can be swiped left and right, to see more examples

Vlingo's Settings panes keep on growing. Of note here is that you can change the default web search engine and you can opt to optimise the recognition samples for speed or for lower data bandwidth, depending on the speed and expense of your data connection; also note the homescreen widget, providing a quick and convenient way into Vlingo.

Also note that I did a feature on the usability of Vlingo last year - admittedly on an older handset, but most of the things demoed will work fine here too, perhaps even better. From the piece:

That this was filmed in windy conditions outdoors - on purpose. I could have tested voice control in a nice quiet living room, but I didn't want to make things too easy for the software! Apologies for the gusty wind every now and again in the E7's microphone (filming the segment...!)

In the video, I refer to caveats to voice interrogation. There are, in fact, quite a number of caveats and disadvantages. Which is not to say that voice control isn't the future - or at least a crucial part of the future (watch an upcoming Phones Show for my vision of where we'll be in 2015). But, right now, I see the following as impediments to voice interrogation of our smartphones in daily life:

Background noise. Away from cosy reviewer office tests, there's traffic noise, other people talking nearby, glasses clattering and music playing down the pub, wind gusts, in-car rumble and engine noise. Although both Vlingo (above) and Siri seem to cope surprisingly well with some degree of background noise, it's ultimately a problem and a factor in recognition results being less than perfect.

Broadcast speech. TV sets and radios playing, most of which is speech, usually at reasonable volume. And it plays havoc with Vlingo, Siri or similar. Can you get away from the TV and radio?

Accents. Current voice systems just about recognise classical American, English and some European tongues. But even I have trouble understanding many of the dialects and accents in my own country, I'm sure it's the same for many others. How on earth will voice software cope? Given huge resources and enough samples, it could be done. But not... yet.

Social factors. Testing all this in our reviewer office is fine. Testing it at home is fine - and may well save you some time. But what about on the train, on the bus, in the airport lounge, on the plane, in the open plan office, and so on? Your chatter into your phone will be bad enough for your companions. What about their chatter on all their voice interrogated phones too? It'll be an audio/aural nightmare!

Bandwidth. All current systems farm out most of the recognition to servers online. Which means you need a fairly fast Internet connection on your phone for voice interrogation to work. Away from home/office wi-fi, you'd better be in an urban area and hope for a decent 3.5G connection. Anything less and it'd be far faster to type what you wanted to do or to enter.

Mischevious offspring. By which I mean your kids. Whenever there's any kind of voice recognition going on, they love, simplylove messing around "Fifteen, chickens, octopus...", talking nonsense at the same time as you, to try and throw the software off. Usually successfully!

It can be less efficient. We've all seen the Siri demos by Apple and some of them (e.g. setting a reminder) will save time. But quite a lot of voice interrogation uses (however cool) don't. For (a trivial) example, it's far quicker to look at the weather widget on my homescreen than to painstakingly ask voice recognition software "What's the weather going to be like today?" and then wait for an answer too....

Steve, AAS, 16 May 2012

All About Symbian: Concluding the N86 experiment

2012-05-16T08:10:09+00:00

I'm not the only crazy N86 fan, it seems - the much respected Alvin Wong has been running a two week experiment using this three year old T9-based phone (the last great N95-style dual-slide smartphone) as his only device. No touchscreens, no qwerty keypads (physical or otherwise), no 2012 cloud computing (out of the box, at least). He took the experiment very seriously and has produced a number of extensive reports, some of which are quoted and linked below.

Of particular note is that the experiment didn't reach the full two weeks because, despite warnings from this very site, Alvin used a micro-SIM adapter in the N86's slot and errr.... broke the little contact pins. The repair lasted long enough to make the experiment worth doing though, thankfully.

Here's Alvin's launch article on the N86 experiment (previously linked here on AAS).

Then, in chronological order, we have:

Two weeks with the N86 – Day 3, in which Alvin got reacquainted with the N86's still stunning camera:

There are so many things that Nokia got right with the N86 from a hardware design standpoint. First and foremost, the N86 is solidly built and still feels very much like it just came out of the box for the 1st time despite being three years old. Previous N95/N95 8GB/N85 owners will recall how build quality wasn’t really a strong point of those earlier dual sliders, but the N86 still feels like a top-end smartphone today. The sliding mechanism is still as tight as ever, the lens is pristine, the battery cover fits tightly without any creaks and none of the buttons feel abnormally loose. And the glass front looks and feels perfect.

I really like the physical size of the N86 not only because it fits really comfortably in my hand but also because it actually feels like a phone when I hold it up to my face, as opposed to almost every modern smartphone available today. What I love, however, is the experience of taking photos with the N86.The N86′s camera is still stunning even by today’s standardsThis is the first time in a really long time that I’ve felt like I actually want to take photos with a phone, simply because what the N86′s camera produces is never disappointing and the physical lens cover (another feature that’s pretty much non-existent on smartphones today) means it actually feels like a camera. I can start shooting with the N86 very quickly from standby, and it’s really refreshing to be able to trust that a smartphone camera will capture a more-than-acceptable shot even when all the settings are left on auto. I’ve actually put up a gallery of photos shot with the N86 on my Google+ page; it’s clear that the N86′s camera is still stunning even by today’s standards.

Four days on, we got Two weeks with the N86 – Day 7, in which the honeymoon period seems to be over and he's starting to miss things from the 2012 smartphone world:

I’ve spent an entire week with my Nokia N86 and I think it’s safe to say that the honeymoon period is over.... The N86 definitely isn’t the most stable smartphone in the world, and the software instability has definitely put a negative spin on my experience. In the past week, I have encountered several spontaneous reboots, Gravity force-quitting without warning (sometimes in the middle of composing a tweet), several instances of apps freezing up and frequent skipping during music playback, especially when I’ve got Gravity or Opera Mini running at the same time as the music player. Of course, I’ve already loaded the latest (and last) firmware version released for the N86, and it’s definitely less stable than the still-in-development CyanogenMod 9 ROM running on my Xperia Mini Pro.

I’ve begun to lament the absence of other apps that I depend on that are available on Android. Evernote is a big one; it’s a wrench to be pretty much unable to access my notes from the N86 because the Evernote mobile site is so horrible. Ditto for my inability to view anything I’ve saved on Pocket (formerly Read It Later) – I’ve found the service very useful for saving an article on my laptop before heading out so that I can continue reading it on my phone on the train and I simply can’t do this with the N86. I’ve also been pining for a proper Google Reader experience – Gravity supports Google Reader but it doesn’t support it particularly well. The fonts are too tiny and not all unread items in a feed are loaded at a time, which doesn’t help if I’m trying to triage my subscribed feeds quickly.

As I cross into the 2nd and final week of this N86 experiment, I think it’s worth mentioning that if I had to use this Nokia N86 for an entire year, if I had no other option, I probably could live with it just fine. We, as human beings, are highly adaptable, and although using nothing but the N86 as my everyday smartphone has been challenging in some areas, the key is in getting used to how it is. Yes, it has a small display. Yes, it has a numeric keypad that’s really not suited for entering large amounts of text. Yes, the software it runs can get really cranky. But there’s nothing about the N86 that I couldn’t live with if I had to. I’ve even adapted to the lack of proper notifications by observing vibration patterns to determine what’s just come in.

These days, we all love to complain about the smallest flaws on smartphones, like how non-standard icon shapes on Android makes the user interface look less elegant compared to iOS. Using the N86 has helped me appreciate how complex today’s smartphone platforms are, how much work goes into developing user experiences and how far we’ve come since S60 was cool. It’s amazing.

Finally, we have Alvin's 'piece de resistance', 'The N86 and me', a veritable treatise on the pros and cons of a mid 2000's smartphone OS versus the operating systems and interfaces of today:

The biggest difference between the smartphones of old, such as those running Symbian or Windows Mobile, and the smartphones of today lies in the prioritization of hardware quality and design versus software, user interface design and user experience. There is zero sense of fluidity or smoothness in S60v3 running on the N86, while modern smartphones like Windows Phone 7 have been built around fluidity and smoothness. Yet, in the past, buying a smartphone meant you were guaranteed top-shelf hardware components and nifty hardware features.

The N86, for example, still has an amazing 8-megapixel camera even by today’s standards. Its stereo loudspeakers sound better than any modern smartphone I’ve ever owned or reviewed. It had cutting-edge (at the time) display technology, a flip-out kickstand, hardware media controls and an FM transmitter. But S60v3 on the N86 is a complete bodge prone to spontaneous reboots, freezes and general weirdness. And in terms of usability, one has to wonder how an average N86 user even managed to figure out the menu structure or customize the homescreen. The settings menus on the phone are literally scattered everywhere.

On the other hand, any modern smartphone – take the Sony Xperia S, for example, provide an excellent and seamless user experience supported by a rich ecosystem of apps and services. Even a platform like Android, which is often criticized as being messy and complicated, is far more user-friendly than S60 ever was. Getting around the Android user interface is painless for most, the phone remains stable and problem-free in everyday use and there is a wealth of apps available for the platform. Yet, corners have been cut on the hardware; build quality isn’t great on the Xperia S, the loudspeaker is mediocre at best, and the 12 megapixel camera is hampered by an overly-small image sensor. But despite these flaws, the Xperia S is still considered one of the better high-end Android devices available at the moment, given how certain rivals competing in the same price bracket are encased in cheap glossy plastic, have Pentile displays or a worse camera. The only aspect of the hardware where manufacturers aren’t skimping on is the internals.

...Every smartphone platform developed post-iOS is built first and foremost with the web in mind. That’s how big the paradigm shift has been. It’s not even about touchscreens and user interfaces, it’s about how iOS, Android, Windows Phone and webOS are designed around the Internet. Social networking, online sharing, cloud storage, streaming media, desktop-class web browsing, downloadable games, email, instant messaging, background sync, integration with web services – all these aspects of modern smartphone platforms take priority over being able to dial a number straight from the homescreen, being able to sync data with Microsoft Outlook, supporting the greatest number of video codecs or making efficient use of limited hardware and data allotments. Symbian quickly became unappealing to the average consumer simply because it hadn’t evolved to keep up with the web-focused capabilities of post-iOS smartphone platforms.

In addition to some of the quotes above, Alvin also complained several times about random disconnections - although it's possible these were down to the OS, I might also point the finger at the dodgy SIM slot pin repair here. I guess we'll never know for sure!

Steve, AAS, 16 May 2012

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (May 15)

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-16T07:00:02+00:00

New video card ordered from @Newegg. Limping along with a neighbor's spare card for the next couple days or so. #
Cleaning video card didn't help. Shucks! Neighbour may have spare card to test with. t.co/iRsSZ90L #
Looks like my desktop's video card is on the Fritz. Backing up right now, will try to clean next. #

Erik Thauvin: Facebook MBA: Behind the IPO Everyone's Googling About

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-16T01:20:05+00:00

via MBAOnline.com

All About Symbian: 361 Degrees Podcast - All things cloudy

2012-05-15T17:38:25+00:00

In the second episode of season three of the 361 Degrees podcast we examine the consumer cloud, talking about what services we use, why we use them, and our main priorities and concerns.

Episode description:

We talk about ‘quality of service’ and how it needs to relate to privacy and customer support just as much as the software and – crucially – how it’s different to security.

Rafe mentions the challenges of cloud data storage for those with slow Internet connections, Ewan worries about his approach to back-up and Ben kicks himself about giving Path his data (again).

361 Degrees also now has an associated newsletter:

Updates on each episode (and bulletins between seasons), 'behind the scenes' news , comment round-ups and personal views from the team. 'Back Chat' also offers a way to respond directly to the team on the topics we discuss each week.

You can sign up for the newsletter here.

About 361 Degrees

361 Degrees is a podcast all about mobile technology. From consumer to enterprise and from fun to industry analysis, we investigate and discuss mobile technology and the mobile industry.

You can follow and subscribe to 361 Degrees on the dedicated mini-site, on Soundcloud, with an RSS reader or podcatcher, via iTunes via Zune or on any of the hosts' sites.

All About Symbian: YouTube Mobile in May 2012 - who needs a client?

2012-05-15T11:18:00+00:00

You all know I'm a fan of the Web doing the job of an application - remember 'There's a bookmark for that', from 2010? Over the last couple of years I've dipped into YouTube's mobile-optimised web site, m.youtube.com, watching it get better and better. Recent changes have improved it to the point where it's debatable whether you need to even think about sourcing a dedicated YouTube client. Read on for proof...

Back in 2008, we were using QVGA-screened smartphones (e.g. N95 8GB) and Google was pre-Android and very much in the cross-platform mobile game. Having acquired YouTube, Google set about creating and updating a dedicated YouTube client for Symbian. This ended up at v2.4.10 in 2010, with a slick enough interface, adapted for touch but then Android took off and Google axed future Symbian development. Unfortunately, this client is still stuck, resolutely, using the QVGA video stream (i.e. 240p) from YouTube. And rather sadly, I still see this version promoted by Nokia in its Store, as if it's new and exciting - it's not.

Take a look at the comparison graphic below:

Cropped framegrabs from the same video (2012 Avengers Trailer) on the Nokia N8 at nHD resolution

Numbered from left to right, above:

from the QVGA stream served up by the YouTube 2.4.10 application
from the 360p (actually 640 by 344 pixels) stream served up by the current m.youtube.com site
from the HD 720p (actually 1280 by 690 pixels) stream served up within the commercial CuteTube client

The quality difference between 240p and 360p is vast, as I'm sure you'll agree. And immediately disqualifies the official (old) YouTube client from any serious use today.

The second and third crops are more interesting. The 360p stream from m.youtube.com looks pretty crisp, as indeed it should, since the resolution (theoretically) matches that of the nHD Symbian screen. But one thing noted in our review of the latest CuteTube was that slightly better quality could be achieved by altering the 'Playback' quality to '720p' and letting the phone hardware do high quality downsampling in its GPU to 360p. However, judging from the crops above, the quality difference is marginal at best - and with the disadvantage that a) you need CuteTube in the first place, and b) you'll significantly increase the amount of data bandwidth needed by the phone.

Now - please don't let me discourage you from buying CuteTube - it's one of the stars of the Symbian firmament and puts YouTube into a slick GUI, complete with download options, for saving videos for offline viewing. BUT - note also that for general purpose YouTube use, the mobile site now serves up the exact same underlying 360p .3gp video as it does for CuteTube in its default mode.

In addition, the range of functions now available, quite elegantly via m.youtube.com, is now quite wide:

With 'Show more' expanded and note the 'Sharing' pop-out toolbar; scroll down the page for top-rated and all other comments on each video

Suggested videos - these rather get in the way, in that they're inserted before comments, but it's a great way to follow a daisy-chain of videos around the site; and the (very Symbian Web-like) menu pane for all your YouTube functions once logged in with your Google account.

So what are you waiting for? At the very least, make sure you've got m.youtube.com bookmarked in Web!

Steve Litchfield, AAS, 15 May 2012

PS. It's obviously not just Symbian which has inherited a decent mobile YouTube experience. I was interested to note that, since day one of Windows Phone, that OS's official YouTube client has simply been a shortcut to m.youtube.com. In fact, it might even be that the existence of tweaks for Windows Phone has now drastically improved the experience for Symbian users. Shhhhh.......

All About Symbian: Towards Belle Feature Pack 1

2012-05-15T07:45:57+00:00

Up on Nokia's official YouTube channel is a short promo video for Symbian Nokia Belle FP1, currently rolling out, highlighting a few of its highlights (I'll refrain from being picky and pointing out that some of things mentioned are (ahem) already available, even for generic Belle devices). In particular, the video highlights improved entertainment options, personalisation choices, boosted performance, 20 new and improved widgets and a faster browser with HTML 5 support.

Nokia Belle Feature Pack 1 is the latest software update for Nokia 603, Nokia 700 and Nokia 701. Read more at http://nokia.ly/JA3jVZ

See also our write-up of what's in Belle FP1. The update is unlikely to come to Symbian^3-generation hardware (e.g. N8) in its entirety but items like improved widgets and faster browser will almost certainly get patched in at some point.

All About Symbian: PureView sample photos miss the point

2012-05-15T07:03:09+00:00

I'm rather disappointed that Nokia's latest set of sample 808 PureView photos completely miss the point of its own device. Published up on Flickr is a set of arty low light shots from Iceland - fine as far as the concept goes. But the photographer has completely forgotten the core concept behind PureView.

Each of the seven images in this Flickr set is presented as a high megapixel photo - typically around the 30mp mark. The photographer obviously decided that the key thing to show off in these shots was the 41mp sensor in the 808 PureView...

Err.... no. The end result is that each image is actually quite grainy and imperfect if you look at it closely, e.g. a simple crop below.

The PureView technology was not designed to promote insanely high megapixel counts. The point of PureView (other than to enable some rather nifty zoom capabilities - watch for our review coverage of retail units soon) is that it can produce grain-free, noise-free, artefact-free photos at lower megapixel counts, with the 6 or 7 to one pixel oversampling allowing each pixel in the final 5mp or 8mp image to be near 'perfect'. Or indeed 'pure'. (See also my explanation of PureView virtual pixel size.)

What I want to see are more 'pure' images. These will be FAR more representative of what PureView can do for ordinary people and in my purist eyes will be FAR more interesting, especially when I get to compare crops of these images to those taken with the N8 or other competing smartphones.

Over to you, Nokia. Or just send me the 808 early and I'll do some proper sample PureView images for you to show off.

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (May 14)

Erik C. Thauvin — 2012-05-15T07:00:03+00:00

Just completed a 1.84 mi walk - Evening trip to the convenience store with mom. t.co/8MLQTTOm #RunKeeper #

All About Symbian: N8 to 808 PureView: Where else would we go?

2012-05-14T17:35:00+00:00

With the world of Symbian seemingly shrinking around us, in terms of 'sales marketshare' at least, because of lack of presence in shops around the world, and with mainstream application development only including Symbian rarely, the question of 'where, if anywhere, should I go, after my N8?' is certainly a valid one. What are the pros and cons of other platforms and other devices? Apple iPhone 4S? Nokia N9? HTC One S? Or perhaps the 808 PureView is the one to go for and the rest of the world be damned?

Before looking at alternatives, I should perhaps state, fairly concisely, the 10 reasons why I and many others have stayed with the Nokia N8 so long:

great daytime camera, accurate colour rendition and great detail, with no artificial artefacts
great nighttime camera with Xenon flash ensuring crisp people shots with no blurring
excellent build quality with aluminium unibody
good Symbian multitasking and mature functionality
Nokia Maps/Drive world sat-nav
FM transmitter, providing music and podcasts to car radios when needed
high quality, loud mono speaker
expandability via microSD
the 'perfect' form factor in terms of feel in the hand (c.f. iPhone, also with 3.5" screen and similar size)
removeable battery (admittedly, you need to spend £2 on a Torx T4 screwdriver, but it can be changed when it gets too old)

There are other plus points, of course, but the 10 above are most relevant to me. Yet the N8 is starting to show its age, with the internal disk just starting to fill up for some people, with the 680MHz processor seeming a little slow in these days of multi-Gigahertz, multi-core smartphones, especially when web browsing, and with the internal BL-4D battery now at 18 months old for most users and typically at 75% or less capacity.

Plus, if you're anything like me, your N8 is now sporting multiple battle scars. And there's a fair chance, if you got the N8 with an 18 month contract, that this is up for renewal very soon - another reason to look around at the alternatives, at least.

________________________

Here are some of the 2012 contenders for your hard earned cash.

NB 1: that I've excluded the very biggest (4.7/4.8"-screened) 'superphones' since we're looking at replacements for the 3.5"-screened N8 here - I've set a reasonable upper limit of a 4.3" display.

NB 2: for each, I've 'scored' 'hits' from the list of 10 desired attributes or functions listed above from the N8. i.e. they're not review scores in any way, I'm simply looking at how well matched each is for an existing N8 owner.

HTC One S

Sumptuous build quality in unibody metal
Decent camera in most light conditions, the LED flash has five intensity levels, as needed. Look closely at its output though, and you see lots of artefacts and over-sharpening, plus the LED flash doesn't help with blurring of anything moving when indoors or at night.
4.3" 'Super AMOLED' screen is similar in visibility to Nokia's CBD on AMOLED, but remember that the N8 predated CBD, so any device here will have a better display almost by definition. Resolution is higher too, at qHD (540 x 960, c.f. nHD on the N8 at 360 x 640).
Integration with Google services, Google Maps/navigation and access to 2012 Android applications
Limited by non-replaceable battery, non-expandable memory (16GB)

Top 10 points 'hit': 1 (maybe), 3, 4, 5, 9 (maybe). Total: 4/10. [external link to Phones Show review]

Sony Xperia S

Plastic, sealed construction, boxy design
Novelty transparent LED strip at the bottom, awkward function key 'spots'
Adequate camera with excellent speed and interface, though low light shots are disappointing and there's too much noise and artefacts even in daylight shots. The resolution may be 12mp but the sensor's no larger than most competitors and it's no N8 challenger.
4.3" 720 x 1280 LCD transflective screen, excellent in almost all light conditions
Integration with Google services, Google Maps/navigation and access to 2012 Android applications

Top 10 points 'hit': 1 (maybe), 4, 5, 7 (maybe). Total: 3/10. [external link to Phones Show review]

Apple iPhone 4S

Glass and steel construction with RF antennas built into the outer band
High resolution (640 x 960) IPS LCD display
World-leading application and game market
Excellent camera that outperforms its stated sensor size, LED flash, rivals N8 in some daylight scenarios
Great loudspeaker
Limited, but intelligently implemented multitasking
Google Maps built-in, needs third party software for full sat-nav (especially offline)
Integral storage (various GB available) and battery

Top 10 points 'hit': 1, 3, 4 (maybe), 5, 7 and 9. Total: 5.5/10.

Nokia N9

Beautiful unibody polycarbonate
Sealed battery. Choice of integral storage memory (as on the iPhone).
Decent camera, but ultimately limited by LED flash and relatively small sensor
3.9" CBD AMOLED display is genuinely beautiful, at 480 x 854 resolution.
Meego Harmattan OS/interface is a geek's paradise, combining insanely easy to use multitasking with insanely fiddly ways of extending the phone to do things it can't do out of the box. Great geek community support.
Nokia Maps/Drive isn't perfect, but good enough, and probably still has an update or two left in it.
Disappointing loudspeaker.

Top 10 points 'hit': 1 (maybe), 3, 4 (maybe), 5 and 9. Total: 4/10. [external link to All About Meego, for more]

Nokia Lumia 800/900

Beautiful unibody polycarbonate (the 800 is derived from the N9 above)
Sealed battery and no memory expansion beyond 16GB
Decent camera, but ultimately limited by LED flash and relatively small sensor
3.7" CBD AMOLED display is beautiful, with 480 x 800 resolution, though fonts can be a little small - there's the Lumia 900 too, with 4.3" screen, which also scores because it's full RGB and not 'pentile', but loses the holistic unibody screen-to-body curvature.
Windows Phone's super modern, cloud-centric interface conceals a smartphone OS that's arguably nowhere near as function rich as Symbian. Good potential for the future, with updates though?
No significant multitasking, applications can be frozen and then resumed when needed if you know the magic keypress(!)
Nokia Drive is fully featured, as on Symbian, but Nokia Maps still needs a lot of work.
Windows Phone Marketplace is quite extensive now, if not quite at parity with iOS and Android
Disappointing loudspeaker.

Top 10 points 'hit': 1 (maybe), 3, 5 and 9. Total: 3.5/10. [external link to All About Windows Phone, for more]

You can probably see where this feature is going, but here we go anyway....

Nokia 808 PureView

Plastic construction, but solidly built
Thicker than the N8, thanks to a monstrous 41 megapixel camera with 1/1.2" sensor
Xenon flash that's twice the brightness of the N8's
4" CBD AMOLED screen is supremely clear but pixellated compared to most of the devices mentioned above
Fast 1.3GHz processor, 512MB of RAM (twice that in the N8), plus dedicated camera imaging processor
Symbian Nokia Belle FP1 - think Belle on steroids
Removeable 1400mAh battery, 16GB mass memory, plus microSD expansion
Large loudspeaker

Top 10 points 'hit': 1, 2, 3 (maybe), 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10. Total: 9.5/10.

_____________________________

Now, before the trolls leap in to criticise in the comments, there's an implicit assumption in all the above scoring, that the reader (in this case, the N8 fan) is trying to find something that will do everything the N8 can do, and then a bit more besides.

While the iOS, Windows Phone and Android-powered devices have a far more vibrant ecosystem in terms of new applications and games, these aren't taken into account because I'd argue that many N8 owners have chosen their device in the first place based on what it can actually do rather that what apps it runs - with a little carefully chosen third party software, most Symbian phones can get close to the service functionality of their contemporaries. In which case, raw abilities and flexibility become the dominant differentiating factor.

The question of how sustainable such an approach is in the long term, through the (say) two year life of the 808 PureView is relevant, of course - it will depend on what you actually want to do with your smartphone. For me, the attractions of the N8 are heavily skewed to its hardware, as evidenced by the list of 10 attributes above, and so the 808 PureView is the slam dunk obvious successor.

The Nokia 808 takes the N8's functionality and adds: a more up to date OS version, a faster processor, more RAM, a better camera, a better flash, a better speaker, a better screen and a far more easily removable battery, with no real 'downside', other than perhaps physical material and thickness preferences. You may remember that I wrote before, at length, about why the N8 is unique in the smartphone world? With the 808 arriving imminently, the N8 won't be alone anymore.

And, yes, the rest of the smartphone world be damned. With the Nokia 808, as with the N8, the extent of my 'modern' smartphoning will be email, some basic web searches, social sharing of my photos and comments - plus the usual application and game mix from the Symbian app pool.

It's possible, of course, that I'm too caught up in the 808 PureView hype - if you're an N8 owner, what do you think? Is the 808 the same certainty for you or is there a viable alternative that I haven't mentioned?

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 14th May 2012

All About Symbian: WPEmu - turn Symbian into Windows Phone? Not quite...

2012-05-14T09:25:57+00:00

Now this is patently silly. And yet curiously cute and quirky at the same time. WPEmu puts an obviously fake and yet partly working Windows Phone front end onto a Symbian device, as shown below. Part novelty, part attempted replacement front end, you'll have to fork out a quid or so to play with WPEmu at all - which is why you may want to just browse through the screenshot gallery below instead!

The opening scrolling set of tiles is convincing enough - smooth and with most of the tiles you'd expect to see on a Windows Phone. Not everything is as it seems though. Although 'Phone' has a functioning dialler and 'Messaging' links through to Symbian Messaging, 'Profile' sneakily links to Symbian Profiles, rather than a person-centric set of data! 'Store' and 'Web' are obvious shortcuts to the original Symbian applications, of course.

Yes, there's a full, fake Windows Phone lock screen - at least the date and time are right! Disappointingly, the applications list is largely empty - I'd have expected a full scrolling list of the Symbian apps available at least.

The 'People' hub shown at the top, complete with thumbnails of people you don't know(!) links, as do several of the WPEmu tiles to groupings of suitable applications, irrespective of whether you've got these installed on your Symbian phone. Two of these are shown above - 'phonebook' is a shortcut to the normal Symbian Contacts application.

WPEmu can be found here in the Nokia Store, currently priced at £1.50, should you feel the urge.... Personally, this is a novelty only, I can't imagine using it in real life!

All About Symbian: Review: iBomber Defence

2012-05-14T06:17:00+00:00

iBomber Defence is the latest tower defence game for Symbian, and being my favourite genre of game, I jumped at the chance to review it. This is a title that has been ported from the iPhone, and Electronic Arts have done a great job. The problem is that tower defence games are a dime a dozen, and so to be great you have to introduce some new features to differentiate from the rest. In this review I investigate what new twists have been added to this title.

iBomber Defence is vaguely set during World War II, with the campaign mode being set across the Afro-European front and the choice to join the Allies or Axis. Other similarities of the era relate to the weaponry, but it's all superficial – this is a tower defence game. As such, there are fast-but-weak bad guys, and slow and heavily armoured bad guys; you have a range of weaponry ranging from light damage with high rate of fire, to heavy damage weapons that are slow to reload. To mix things up though, iBomber Defence comes complete with a comprehensive set of enhancements too.

During testing, I uncovered three different maps to play on, which appear in both the quick play missions, and represent the different environments that were being fought in during World War 2. There are more maps which become unlocked for Quick Play as you progress through the campaign. All of these have simple routes for the enemy to follow – the game mechanics don't allow for routing enemies through the longest possible path. All you can do is cover the path set out, and hope they don't make it through to your base – or at least more than ten of them don't!

You start off with the machine gun and the cannon (anti-air too, but early levels don't feature aircraft) – you place them by dragging from your arsenal, and upgrade by tapping for each tower's menu. Unusually for a tower defence game (and that's a good sentence to see in this kind of review), the enemy can fire back at you. This means you'll have to keep an eye on the tower's health and spend your cash to repair them. You'll have to repair them before you can upgrade too. Another unique feature in this game is that placing weapons on high ground will increase their range.

Ranges are highlighted as you place a weapon

If you make a strategic error, you can go back one wave, rather than abandoning the entire level. For those who don't know, tower defence levels are split up into waves of enemies, 20 to 30 is a typical number of waves per level. More points for originality to iBomber Defence.

Cash is used for upgrading and repairing during a level – but "victory points" are the inter-level currency that you'll use to increase the level to which your current weapons can be upgraded, and to unlock other weapons and facilities. You only get one or two points per level so you have to think carefully about the order you'll unlock things. For example, the Comms Unit doesn't damage enemies itself but increases the range and damage output of the weapons within its range. In a nice metaphor, the "Sabotage" tower is used to slow down your enemies, allowing your guns to get more shots in; and the "X-Weapon" is a long range, heavy hitting tower that also boosts nearby weapons.

A level 3 and a level 1 machine gun tower working together

You're not alone in making these choices though; because the game is jam-packed full of useful information on everything you need to know. It even advises you to prioritise upgrading weapons over buying new ones, and advises that the Comms Unit is only cost effective if it's buffing three or more towers. This sort of quantitative data is usually left for the user to 'guesstimate' on their own in other games, and it was a refreshing change to see such exact advice given in help screens.

In-game instructions

As for gameplay, if things are too slow for you, there is a fast forward switch. However, you are able to place and upgrade towers while the game is on pause if things are going too fast for you. Overall, I found the pace of the game just right – fast enough to stop me getting bored, but just slow enough to give me time to make decisions about how to spend my resources.

I felt that iBomber Defence was a tad pricey at £4.00 – but the more time I spent with it, the more I could see the quality that had gone into the game, and a level of polish other Symbian games of this genre often lack – even down to the touch screen responsivity.

Highly recommended.

Andrew Grill: Solving the Heathrow crisis with technology

Andrew Grill — 2012-05-05T23:46:11+00:00

Symbian Freak: Nokia And Carl Zeiss Extend Partnership To Continue Setting Standards In Smartphone Imaging

2012-05-02T09:53:55+00:00

Nokia and Carl Zeiss today announced that the exclusive partnership between the two companies, which has resulted in some of the industry's best camera smartphones such as the Nokia N8 and the Nokia 808 PureView, has been extended.

The Nokia 808 PureView, which starts rolling out in May, combines high-performance Carl Zeiss optics with Nokia developed algorithms and a super-high resolution sensor to set a new standard in high-end smartphone imaging.

"Carl Zeiss was a crucial partner in the creation of the first PureView experience," said Jo Harlow, executive vice president of Nokia Smart Devices. "The benefits of our ongoing collaboration will be more PureView innovation and further advancements in smar... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia To Begin Rolling Out Award-Winning Nokia 808 Pureview In May

2012-05-02T09:35:28+00:00

Nokia today confirmed that the Nokia 808 PureView will start rolling out in select markets in May. The Nokia 808 PureView is the first smartphone to feature Nokia's award-winning PureView technology.

PureView represents Nokia's highest level smartphone imaging experiences, bringing together high-performance sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss optics, and Nokia developed imaging algorithms. The first markets to begin selling the Nokia 808 PureView include Russia and India.

Since its launch in February, the Nokia 808 PureView has received multiple awards, including Best Mobile Device at Mobile World Congress 2012, as well as an award for Best Imaging Innovation for 2012 from the Technical Image Press Assoc... .. .

Symbian Freak: fMobi Version 3.02 Is Now Available For Symbian Belle Devices At Nokia Store

2012-04-27T13:20:59+00:00

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 (3.02) of fMobi app for 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 ;)

This latest version has new widget UI with some fixes to it and now there's also more settings to the widget. Image cache is also moved to E: drive, so everyone should be happy no... .. .

Andrew Grill: Love a good infographic – this Klout vs Kred one is especially good

Andrew Grill — 2012-04-19T09:34:17+00:00

Andrew Grill: How I saved $1Bn and built my own Instagram

Andrew Grill — 2012-04-15T11:46:18+00:00

Interesting news that Facebook has bought Instagram for a cool $1Bn.

I’ve never really understood Instagram.

Firstly – you can’t easily go to a user’s instagram profile from a tweet (unless you have the app) and see all the photos they have uploaded, nor can you browse other photos when you are on an Instagram web or mobile page.

See the screengrab below (taken by thetodayshow at the Logies in Melbourne with One Direction) – click for larger view.

In many ways, apart from the cool filters that are available on the mobile app, it is a pretty unimpressive photo destination point in my eyes for non Instagram users, or those of us looking at photos on our desktop.

Perhaps it is just designed to be just that – a link from a tweet to a single page.

Unless you actually have the app on your phone, with instagram tweets from your friends you are viewing on your phone or on the desktop version:

You can’t see the other photos taken by the user
You can’t see the people following the other user
You can’t even click on the people who have commented on the photos – the usernames in the screenshot above aren’t clickable??

Worth $1Bn? time will tell.

Photoblogging since 2006

I’ve been photo blogging for a while now, starting with Shozu (remember them – what happened to these guys??) sending my mobile photos to Flickr in real time.

Enter Twitter and I initially used Twitpic as everyone else did, but I became tired of the non-existent mobile interface and ads all over the site.

The problem with Twitpic, and Yfrog is as you can see below, they are littered with ads and look horrible on a mobile phone.

In 2009 I swapped to Mobypicture after meeting Mathys van Abbe in Amsterdam. It is similar in functionality to and other photo sharing sites – with a nice mobile interface and thankfully no ads. Also Mobypicture allows you to post to multiple social networking sites simultaneously.

Even Mobypicture does not meet all of my needs, as I want my own URL shortener to be used when I share the picture and not their moby.to one. This is because I like to get the stats of who’s clicking and looking at my pictures, and also helps with branding.

When I moved my site across to 6Sync and a VPS (Virtual Private Server) I decided to “roll my own” photo sharing service – here’s how you can too.

How to roll your own Instagram in 5 steps

1. Set up a new site or a subdomain of your site such as pic.lc.tl

2. Set up a completely new instance of WordPress here

3. Install the WP Postie plugin that allows you to email a picture to a secret email address, and the plugin grabs the picture and posts it straight away

4. Install the YOURLS WordPress to Twitter plugin – this complements an existing YOURLs branded shortener at lc.tl that shortens all of my links (also works with bit.ly)

5. Grab the amazing “Autofocus Lite” WordPress theme that displays the photos brilliantly

That’s it. With this you have your own “Instagram-esque” site.

So how can this save me $1Bn and why is it better than Instagram?

When shooting a mobile picture on my device, I simply email it to my blog, with the text of the tweet in the subject line.

Postie then does all the rest, and YOURLS WordPress to Twitter shortens the link and then tweets it as me!

On Android or Blackberry I can also use the native WordPress app to take a picture within the app and post it directly to my blog.

Getting the Instagram look

How do I achieve the cool Instagram filters? On my HTC Sensation 4G, filters are included within the camera app.

The benefits of this “roll your own” Instagram are numerous

1. It drives traffic to my photo blog pic.lc.tl, and you can also browse the other photos there taken at different times easily

2. It shortens the links automatically as my branded links and is much shorter than instagr.am/p/Y65eWr457/

3. You can easily comment on the pages using the standard WordPress comment feature

4. It has a cool mobile optimised version using WPTouch (try viewing pic.lc.tl on your mobile to see what I mean)

5. There are no ads!

6. I have full control of the site and the pictures

I am sure that some of you reading this post will argue that I have my own server, know what I am doing etc – but that’s my point.

If I can do it, and I am not a web designer, just an experienced blogger using a mix of open-source tools, then why is something that is technically better and has more features than Instagram cost exactly $0 in incremental funds to set up??

I say $0 in incremental funds as I already have the server and space and the plugins and themes were free.

Creating your own services for bit.ly and Twitter clients

Now I have my own server, I’m moving all of my other 3rd party services across there.

I use YOURLS for my URL shortener – see why at http://lc.tl/url - bye bye bit.ly

I use the amazing DABR Twitter client on my mobile and desktop so have no need for a 3rd party Twitter app, and now I have my own Instagram.

I just wish there was a simple way to export all of my pictures across from Mobypicture to my pic.lc.tl site, as I have around 600 pictures over there from 2009 that I’d like to get on the site

Andrew Grill: Facebook Activity Drives Influence Scores via Kred Integration

Andrew Grill — 2012-04-12T10:07:50+00:00

Symbian Freak: Nokia And Microsoft Brings Microsoft Office Word, Excel & PowerPoint To All Symbian Belle Powered Smartphones

2012-04-11T13:50:49+00:00

Nokia today announced forthcoming updates to its Symbian Belle operating system that turn the latest range of smartphones into a mobile office for any business.

The free updates, called Microsoft Apps, deliver a suite of Microsoft productivity applications to compatible Nokia smartphones to add to the comprehensive security and manageability features already contained in Symbian Belle.

Requiring no additional infrastructure, these apps help add immediate business advantage to the first Symbian Belle devices as well as delivering significant additional value to existing Nokia business customers who upgrade to Symbian Bell... .. .

Symbian Freak: Latest Version Of Maps Suite Leaves The Safety Of Nokia Beta Labs

2012-04-04T13:16:21+00:00

After the shorter period of Beta testing, Nokia Map Loader 2.0 is now ready to graduate from betalabs and is available for download as over the air update through the Sw Update app on your smartphone.

This suite combines Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive as well as the new Nokia Public Transport, and enhances them with key application shortcuts developed specifically for Symbian.

Now you can instantly access useful information such as weather, guides, and your current location. Existing capabilities, such as deep traffic integration and full offline maps, are combined with new, rich enhancements such as tighter applic... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Introduces 'Live Traffic Feature' On Maps in India for Delhi and Mumbai

2012-04-04T07:25:12+00:00

Traffic congestion is a growing problem in major urban areas and there is a large and growing necessity in the provision of services and information for people on the move.

Having the latest information at your fingertips means that you can optimize your routes to spend less time on the road and have more time for yourself and your loved ones.

Given how much time we spend on commuting from one place to another as part of our daily lives, Nokia started its location services in India with the availability of 'Traffic feature', a real time traffic service on Nokia smartphones. The service, available to users in Delhi and Mumbai. The service is available on all Nokia late... .. .

Symbian Freak: Hundreds of Ex-Nokia Developers Voluntarily Abandon Work On Symbian Platform After Being Outsourced To Accenture

2012-04-04T06:58:58+00:00

Hundreds of former Nokia employees at the consultancy firm Accenture are reportedly leaving the company and claiming severance packages.

Nokia and Accenture have finalized an agreement for Nokia to outsource Symbian software development and support activities to Accenture last autumn.

Accenture has offered the packages to workers who were only outsourced by Nokia and a ccording to a shop steward's survey, up to 400 former Nokia workers have accepted the packages. “Around 40 percent of those who were transferred have sought [the pay-offs]," said shop steward Sami Sallmén. “A maj... .. .

Symbian Freak: Interview: Soundtracker Working With Nokia For Multi-Platform Success

2012-04-04T06:43:15+00:00

Daniele Calabrese, founder and CEO of Soundtracker, discusses their multi-platform mobile music service. Daniele describes Soundtracker as the "first geo-social internet radio".

It offers more than 11 million songs, which consumers can play in real time with friends and broadcast via Facebook and Twitter.

The free, ad-supported service, is available in 10 languages on a broad range of Nokia S60 and Symbian touch-based smartphones, as well as Nokia Series 40 phones. Building the app in Java, and making it work for more than fifty different Nokia phon... .. .

Andrew Grill: Connect with Jenni Hogan – pilot program on KIRO7 Seattle mixing TV with social media

Andrew Grill — 2012-03-21T00:34:55+00:00

Andrew Grill: Top tweeters list based on number of tweets? This is so 2009…

Andrew Grill — 2012-03-19T12:04:58+00:00

Andrew Grill: The pitfalls of moving hosting services. The bad then the good

Andrew Grill — 2012-03-12T09:55:00+00:00

Andrew Grill: A 5 year old’s perspective on website design

Andrew Grill — 2012-03-10T16:56:02+00:00

Andrew Grill: How to pay for your Starbucks on Blackberry or Android (non app method)

Andrew Grill — 2012-03-07T12:20:56+00:00

Symbian Freak: Dolby And Nokia incorporate Dolby HD Audio Experience To Nokia 808 PureView

2012-03-02T12:58:58+00:00

Almost a two years ago, Dolby Laboratories and Nokia revealed the collaboration following the launch of the Nokia N8 the world's first smart phone to incorporate Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 surround sound technology.

Following its success, Dolby Laboratories also supplies the sound software for the new award-winning Nokia 808 PureView as well as to other smartphones powered with Nokia Belle Feature Pack 1 software upgrade for the Nokia 700, Nokia 701, and Nokia 603.

The inclusion of Dolby Digital Plus in the Nokia 808 brings a new dimension to the capabilities of the smart phone, transforming it into an HD mobile entertainment device, which can output high definition content with Dolby Digital Plus 5.1 chan... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia 808 Pureview Named The GSMA's 'Best New Mobile Handset, Device Or Tablet'!

2012-03-02T11:03:48+00:00

Nokia Conversations has announced that Nokia has won the award for “Best New Mobile Handset, Device or Tablet at Mobile World Congress 2012" for the Nokia 808 PureView, as voted by a panel of leading journalists and analysts at the show.

Jo Harlow, EVP smart devices, told Conversations after picking up the award: “It's a fantastic award because it signifies that consumer experience counts.

It's about technology, but it's about how tech is used to make a consumer have a fantastic experience. The imaging is fantastic; the audio is fantastic; the navigation techn... .. .

Symbian Freak: SMS is Still the King of Messaging, Even Smartphone Users Stating They Would Be Lost Without It

2012-03-02T10:38:29+00:00

According to new research published by Acision, SMS still dominates the mobile messaging market when compared to other messaging services such as 'Over the Top' (OTT) Instant Messaging (IM) services.

95% of all respondents questioned stated they actively use texting, significantly more than the Smartphone owners actively using OTT/IM services such as Facebook Chat (37%), Skype (20%), Twitter (17%), Blackberry Messenger (17%) and WhatsApp (16%) -- the five most popular OTT/IM services today.

Based on interviews with 1000 mobile device users in the UK across smartphone (63%) and feature phone (37%) owners, the research revealed that SMS proves most popular with smartphone owners -- 93% of this demographic reported usi... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Introduces new Portable Charger To Keep Frequent Travelers Powered On-the-Go

2012-02-28T12:21:21+00:00

Looking back through all these years everything has been improved or been given an extra dimension, everything except the batteries technology and the battery life that basically remains the same.

For a years we've been promised fuel batteries with the size often matchbox that will provide almost unlimited power and liberate using our lovely mobile devices, but unfortunately none have materialized onto the market.

Crappy and fat batteries takes up a huge amount of the space and contributes to a large part of the device's weight and unfortunately still can't provide enough energy to use the phone on the power user level and to solve this problem Nokia today intro... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Became World's Largest Windows Phone OS Vendor in Q4 2011

2012-02-28T11:41:23+00:00

According to the latest research from Strategy Analytics, global Microsoft smartphone shipments grew 36 percent sequentially to reach 2.7 million units in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Nokia captured top position as the world's number one Microsoft smartphone vendor for the first time ever.

Alex Spektor, Associate Director at Strategy Analytics, said, “Global smartphone shipments using the Microsoft operating system grew 36 percent sequentially to reach 2.7 million units in Q4 2011. Microsoft smartphone shipments remain tin... .. .

Symbian Freak: Samsung Unveils The Galaxy Beam, Smartphone With Embedded Projector

2012-02-28T09:24:45+00:00

Samsung has been working aggressively on incorporating small pico projectors into mobile phones for some time now and at the Mobile World Congress Samsung made official (in conjunction with digital convergence technologies) the company's latest projector equipped Smartphone called the Galaxy Beam that allows users to display and share multimedia content anywhere on a large luminous projector screen.

GALAXY Beam lets users spontaneously share photos, videos or other digital media with family or friends by beaming content stored on the device directly onto walls, ceilings or improvised flat surfaces, so that everyone can share the fun with.. .. .

Symbian Freak: Opera Launches Opera Mini Next And Opera Mobile 12 Smartphone Browsers

2012-02-28T08:11:30+00:00

Opera Mini is the mobile web browser that turns any feature phone into a smarter device. Now, with Opera Mini Next, a preview version of what's next for Opera Mini, feature phones get even smarter with advanced social media functions.

The web doesn't stop evolving, and Opera Mini evolves with it. Introducing the Smart Page, a new feature previewing in the Opera Mini Next series of browsers for feature phones, to be launched on all Opera Mini browsers for feature phones later this year.

The Smart Page will take its position alongside Opera's famous Speed Dial shortcuts and give feature phones smarter access to social networks, the latest news and more. With soc... .. .

Symbian Freak: See what you hear: Nokia Unveiled FC Capable Bluetooth Stereo Headset With Built In OLED Display And FM Radio

2012-02-28T07:41:27+00:00

Beside the new services and with a bunch of new phones handset based on the latest version of Symbian and Windows Phone OS announced at MWC 2012 event, Nokia has also introduced BH-221, NFC capable Bluetooth Stereo Headset that includes an OLED display and built-in FM radio.

BH-221 Bluetooth Stereo Headset, a brand new accessory designed to let you make the most out of the entertainment potential of your Nokia smartphone or any other Bluetooth enabled music player.

What makes it stand out from the crowd is the built-in FM radio and single line Passive matrix (PM) OLED display that allows you to use headset as the stand alone radio pla... .. .

Symbian Freak: The Nokia Lumia 900 Brings High Speed Connectivity To More Countries Around The World

2012-02-27T11:33:49+00:00

After launching the award-winning Nokia Lumia 900 as its first LTE smartphone, Nokia is also making the phone in a DC-HSPA variant, for high speed data connection (42Mbits download) to allow Nokia's biggest and fastest Lumia smartphone to deliver rich Web video and speedy browsing via ultra-fast Dual Carrier-HSPA networks outside America.

At the high end of the range comes the Nokia Lumia 900 in white, cyan and black, designed for the rest of the world, outside the United States. Designed for entertainment, with a stunning combination of big screen and processing power, people all over the wo... .. .

Symbian Freak: MWC: New Nokia Services at Mobile World Congress

2012-02-27T11:01:28+00:00

Buying a Nokia is never just about hardware and an operating system, billions of people around the world expect access to all the entertainment and information they need in their lives through their mobile.

Whether it's with a Lumia 900, or an Asha 202 - Nokia connects people to the world through great entertainment and services.

Now Nokia has taken the next stage in providing even better services; improving how you can navigate your way around the world with a Nokia Lumia using Maps, Drive and Transport, introducing a world class eReading service - and launching a new Nokia Life for people in dynamic growing econo... .. .

Symbian Freak: MWC: Nokia Advances On Its New Strategic Direction, Rolls Out Range Of New Mobile Devices and Services

2012-02-27T10:34:47+00:00

Nokia today introduced a range of new products, services and partnerships at Mobile World Congress, setting the pace for 2012 and demonstrating rapid execution of its new strategic direction.

The new strategy already has resulted in the adoption of Windows Phone as Nokia's primary smartphone platform, major changes to its feature phones, and additional emphasis on location-based services with the launch of its Location & Commerce business.

"One year ago, we shared that Nokia was embarking on a new journey to build great mobile devices," said Stephen Elop, president and CEO of Nokia. "Today, with our fourth Lumia device, smarter mobile phones and an array of new servi... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Unveils 41 Megapixel Symbian Belle Powered Cameraphone

2012-02-27T09:48:33+00:00

Nokia today ushered in a new era in high-end smartphone imaging with the Nokia 808 PureView. This is the first smartphone to feature Nokia PureView imaging technologies, bringing together high resolution sensors, exclusive Carl Zeiss optics and Nokia developed algorithms, which will support new high-end imaging experiences for future Nokia products.

The Nokia 808 PureView features a large, high-resolution 41 megapixel sensor with high-performance Carl Zeiss optics and new pixel oversampling technology. At standard resolutions (2/3, 5 and 8 megapixels) this means the ability to zoom without loss of clarity and capture seven pixels of information, cond... .. .

Symbian Freak: Nokia Sleeping Screen Available For Belle Devices

2012-02-24T08:14:40+00:00

The latest version of Nokia Sleeping Screen App for Symbian^3 devices is now compatible with the Belle OS and available through the Nokia Ovi Store!

Nokia Sleeping Screen enhances the appearance of your phone with always-on decorative graphics, status indications at a glance, and a calm nighttime clock.

It is not only about aesthetics - Nokia Sleeping Screen is highly useful, too. With just a glimpse you'll be able to see missed calls, unread text messages, and reminders presented with clear icons and animations. Te design and development of Nokia Slee... .. .

Symbian Freak: IconHider: Protect Your Apps From Unwanted Eye

2012-02-23T09:12:23+00:00

Ever thought of how well you know the functions of your phone? Now, ever thought of how much your phone knows about you? The ultimate question to ask: Is my privacy and security at risk? The increasing use of smartphones for daily activities gives your mobile device the ability to know everything about you. If not protected your Smartphone's knowledge, is a potential risk to your security and privacy.

You make calls, send SMSs, emails, storage files, track bills, manage bank accounts, browse the web and communicate via social networks every day. Your smartphone is your life and IconHider helps you keep your private life truly priva.. .. .

Andrew Grill: Plan UK uses facial recognition technology for latest outdoor campaign

Andrew Grill — 2012-02-22T12:33:50+00:00