Planet Mobile

All About Symbian: Review: Nokia 500 (quick look video)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 16:06:00 +0000

In this quick look video review, we kick off our review coverage of the Nokia 500. The video covers the key hardware and design features and also includes a look at the in-box content, plus a demonstration of the device's exchangeable back covers. At €150, the Nokia 500 is the cheapest ever Symbian smartphone (when comparing launch prices).

We'll be a publishing a formal textual review of the Nokia 500 soon. If you have any questions that you would like answered please leave them in the comment thread , or send us an email, and we'll do our best to answer them.

Key hardware features

111.3 x 53.8 x 14.1 mm in dimensions, 93g in weight, 73cc in volume; monoblock touch form factor
Changeable back covers, three are included with each Nokia 500, and additional covers will be available as accessories (similar to C5-03 and Nokia's earlier XpressOn covers).
3.2 inch capacitive TFT touchscreen; 640x 360 pixels resolution (nHD)
5 megapixel full focus (EDoF) camera (no LED flash); video capture at 640 x 480 (VGA and 15 frames per second)
Integrated GPS with location support for GPS, A-GPS, WLAN and Cell-ID location techniques.
Compass (magnetometer), accelerometer, proximity and ambient light sensors.
3.5 mm Nokia audio connector for audio out
FM Radio with RDS
microUSB (USB 2.0) for file transfers and charging (2mm charger also available)
BL-4U (1100mAh) battery with easy access battery cover (standby by time of 20 days and talk time of 7 hours (GSM) and 5 hours (WCDMA).
WCDMA 850/900/1700/1900/2100 and GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900 (HSDPA Cat 10 - 14.4 MBps, HSUPA Cat 6 - 5.76 Mbps)
WiFi: WLAN IEEE802.11 b/g and Bluetooth 2.1
Processor: ARM 11 at 1 GHz, RAM: 256MB
2GB mass memory and microSD card slot (supports sizes up to 32GB)
In box contents: Nokia 500, Nokia Battery BL-4U, Nokia Connectivity Cable CA-101D, Nokia Headset WH-102, Nokia High Efficiency Charger AC-15 and 2 additional battery covers.

More details are available in our Nokia 500 launch story.

Erik Thauvin: Avengers Assemble!

Erik C. Thauvin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:00:24 +0000

via YouTube

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (February 5)

Erik C. Thauvin — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 08:00:03 +0000

My Top 3 #lastfm Artists: Pete Thorn (16), Scorpions (12) & Michael Schenker (4) t.co/F1Ryri2e #

All About Symbian: The curse of continuous auto-focus?

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 07:16:00 +0000

How's that for a controversial title? What I examine below is that there's more than one way to arrange focussing when shooting video on your smartphone - the rightly popular system of having continuous auto-focus does a good job a lot of the time but also manages to infuriate occasionally too. How bad is the problem, what are the alternatives and can I offer any tips for Symbian or Windows Phone users?

Having been something of a pioneer in phone-shot video over the years, it's fair to say that I lusted first after focus of any kind (the N93, shown above, was perhaps the first phone in the world to shoot usable video, back in 2006), then later after continuous auto-focus - after all, surely having the phone always working to keep the centre of frame in focus is a good thing, right? Well, not always...

Some of the various approaches to capturing video on phones over the years:

No focussing of any kind, lens is left focussed on the horizon. Examples include most phones and smartphones prior to about 2008.
No focussing, but the lens is left in a 'hyperfocal' position, i.e. ensuring maximum depth of field. Examples include the Nokia N86 and N8, with subjects from about 70cm to the middle distance being very crisp at all times.
Pre-focus, the user half presses the shutter button (or taps the screen, as appropriate) at the start of the clip and whatever's in the centre of the viewfinder becomes the focus subject. If you pan around and change the subject later in the clip, the original focus is retained - meaning that the new subject may be out of the depth of field for that lens position and so will appear blurry.
Continuous auto-focus, as it sounds, the software monitors the sharpness of whatever's in the viewfinder and if not happy with what it finds, steps in to 'experiment' with different focus positions until high enough sharpness is found again. This 'hunting' for focus whenever the subject is changed produces two effects: one, a slightly unsettling zoom in and out again (because the different focus positions all have slightly different fields of view); and two, an unsightly blurriness that clears up after a second or two once focus is restored.
Extended Depth of Field, also known as 'Full Focus', pioneered by Nokia in the phone world and using optical and electronic tricks to mean that everything from 40cm to infinity is crisp. This approach works surprisingly well, with the main disadvantage being that you can't film anything up really close (so no arty shots of small animals and flowers!).

Although I've hinted above as to some of the pros and cons of each approach, options 2, 4 and 5 offer the best results for typical user-with-phone video capture. Typical subjects include:

Video scene type	Comment on focussing modes which work best
Landscapes (cliffs, cityscapes, sights, etc.)	Bizarrely, mode 1, which isn't really used anymore, works best of all here, though all the other modes also cope pretty well with detail in the distance.
Groups of people at an event (adults, slow moving, 1m to 3m away)	Modes 2, 4 and 5 work best here, with 5 perhaps producing the crispest results.
Sports events (football match, sports day, etc., nothing closer than 4m)	Modes 1, 2 or 5 would work well here, with perhaps 4 not working out too badly.
Kids (in gardens, indoors, always moving, always cute, from 30cm to 3m away)	Mode 5 will work out crispest, with the caveat that the 30cm edge of the focus range will be a little blurry. Mode 2 also works well for much the same reasons and with the same caveat.
Flowers, artefacts (often arty videos, usually close-up, 15cm to 1 m)	Modes 3 or 4 are the only ones suitable, because of the need for macro focussing.
Steam trains (!) (or is this just me? - 2m to 5m away, usually, slow moving or static)	Modes 2, 3, 4 and 5 will all work out well here.

What's interesting in the table above is that mode 4, continuous auto-focus, which you would think is going to win out overall by virtue of being more sophisticated, doesn't sweep the use-case board. Instead, modes 2 and 5 also do extremely well, neither of which involves any dynamic re-focussing of the camera phone optics. This turns out to be the achilles heel of mode 4 - the need to continuously monitor sharpness and adjust focal length to maximise it means that 'hunting' (as described above) is a real issue.

To illustrate 'hunting' and general continuous auto-focus behaviour, here's a test video, shot on the Nokia Lumia 800 with continuous auto-focus turned on. The bulk of the video includes side-by-side comparison with video capture of the same subjects with an EDoF-equipped smartphone, in this case the Nokia E6, typical of the breed. I'm not saying that the optics and sensor in the likes of the E6 are better than that in the Lumia 800 (or other a-f-enabled devices) - they're not, but the absence of 'hunting' does make for a less flawed experience for the video viewer:

Aside from me hopefully having just dispelled the myth that 'continuous auto-focus' is necessarily the best way to go (I'd argue that, clip for clip for casual users, EDoF video is best, as almost everything will always be in focus, etc.), it's worth pointing out that one way of having the best of both worlds would be to have the option of enabling or disabling continuous auto-focus, depending on subject and need.

This can, thankfully, be achieved on most smartphones. For example, on the Nokia N8, using the new Camera application, hyperfocal (mode 2, above) is the default, but you can also turn on 'Close-up' mode, in which continuous auto-focus is used to great effect. (In case you're wondering about the 'Close-up' name, it's because continuous auto-focus is only ever really needed for things closer than a few metres - the default hyperfocal system is fine for everything else.)

To take another example, behaviour is much the same on most Windows Phone devices. For example, on the HTC HD7 (and similar), continuous auto-focus can be simply turned off in settings, with 'off' reverting back to typical hyperfocal depth of field. Things are slightly more complicated on the Nokia Lumia 800, since, although auto-focus can be turned off manually, the lens is left in the last position used - so film something close-up with auto-focus on and then switch the feature off, and everything at normal distances will then be very blurry. (You thus have to make allowances if you want to switch focus modes, remembering what you last filmed and picking a subject at more typical distance in auto-focus mode, before then switching the feature off again.)

In summary, if your smartphone does have continuous auto-focus when capturing video, recognise that the first few seconds after switching subject will be subject to 'hunting'. So, for example, you're shooting some kids playing and then you swivel round to talk to mum or dad on-cam. Having turned, wait a couple of seconds before asking them whatever you were going to say. Recognise that these 'hunting' sections of video may have to be snipped out later in a video editor.

In practice, it's quite easy to simply allow an extra few seconds at the start of each planned clip 'in your head' - you probably won't be able to see the focus 'hunting' on your small smartphone screen, but the effect will be there and much more visible on your big desktop monitor or TV later on. So just allow for it and move on.

And consider turning continuous auto-focus off altogether - yes, it means a bit more fiddling around (especially if you have a Nokia Lumia device), but the results may be more consistent.

(And if you have a Symbian-powered EDoF-shooting phone then you can basically ignore everything I've just said, apart from not shooting subjects closer than about 40cm, since your video will always be auto-magically in focus anyway!)

Steve Litchfield, 6th Feb 2012, for All About Symbian and All About Windows Phone

All About Symbian: Review: Symeo

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 14:05:00 +0000

YouTube is the Web’s biggest video sharing service - which is part of its problem – there is a bewildering amount of choice. If you want to discover new content, having some sort of curation would be nice to find something entertaining for a few minutes. That’s exactly what Symeo does by providing pre-loaded channels of YouTube videos (not Vimeo as the name might suggest). Read on to see how well this version 1.0 app performs.

Symeo

Symeo opens up with a horizontally scrolling carousel of video categories. It has large thumbnails for each, and a white background which is not power efficient for AMOLED displays. User interface controls are presented as quarter circle icons in each corner of the screen – they’re non-standard but friendly looking. One of which is for search, allowing you to break out of Symeo’s curated content.

The categories on offer through Symeo are Music Videos, Movie Trailers, Upcoming Virals, Most Shared, and New Videos. It’s not clear to me how these channels are being compiled – YouTube does not have the same categories as these; simply searching for the above category names on the desktop yields different results than are listed in Symeo.

Symeo categories

When browsing categories, the thumbnail carousel has a 3D effect not present in the category list. On first impression it feels inconsistent, but it is a visual cue to let you know which kind of list you’re in. Frustratingly, video thumbnails are not accompanied by a title. Neither is there any extra information about the video when you tap through to view it.

Symeo category content

In a video list, there are two icons, one to play and one to share the currently selected video. You can share via Facebook, Twitter or Tumblr. However, Facebook authentication couldn’t be completed as the confirmation page couldn’t fit on the screen, and for some reason Symeo wouldn’t let me scroll down to tap the accept icon. Because of there being no video information, sharing is the only way you can find out what you were watching!

Setting up social network sharing

Failing to show Facebook’s accept button

The video player is a custom solution, rather than sending the video stream to Symbian’s built-in player. There are controls for volume, timeline, pause, fullscreen, and back (to list) – unfortunately, it has a litany of issues. Firstly, it does not force the phone to stay awake during playback. Secondly, it ignores the volume keys, and so you can only adjust via the on-screen slider. Thirdly, when fullscreen mode is engaged, the player controls are removed. However, the fullscreen control icon area is so small that it’s very difficult to find when working blind.

Symeo’s custom video player

The next disappointing part of Symeo is that the streaming quality is exceptionally poor, and there are not any settings to change the quality of the stream that Symeo uses. Furthermore, there’s no download option either, so you cannot view videos offline.

Symeo is an interesting idea, and when content is curated in the right way it can add value. However, I’m afraid the pieces didn’t fit together for me with Symeo. It’s not obvious how the curation is achieved and so how good a source of information is it? The streaming quality is almost unwatchable, and the user interface is awkward. To be fair, I should note that this is only a version 1.0 product, and so things may yet improve in later versions.

Symeo is free in the Nokia Store, but if I were you I’d stick with the CuteTube - it's £3 but worth every single penny....

David Gilson, 3rd February 2012.

All About Symbian: Camera shootout: Nokia N8 vs Apple iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S II

Sun, 05 Feb 2012 12:26:11 +0000

I've been very impressed by the technical knowhow of 'theycallthislife' and there's a new post up comparing the cameras of the Nokia N8, Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S II, the three best camera phones in the world right now. With good example shots that can be examined in full detail and with interesting analysis, it's well worth a ten minute read. As to the winner, let's just say that the iPhone 4S comes closer than any other contender has in the eighteen months the N8 has been available....(!)

From the article:

I believe it is fairly safe to say that the Nokia N8 is still the king of image quality when compared to today’s best smartphones based on its superior dynamic range, low noise, and accurate color - not to mention higher resolution. All things considered, the iPhone 4s comes in a solid second in this test. Although its hardware may not be totally up to snuff, I could understand getting an iPhone in place of an N8 if editing and sharing are more important that the utmost image quality to the user due to the social platforms (think Path and Instagram) and image editing software available only for the iPhone.

Here's one of the test images. Note, in the original article, that you can click through each blogged image to see the full photo in various sizes on Flickr. Nice job.

You may also remember my own original top camera phone comparison, though this was pre-iPhone 4S... I suspect the latter might have nipped into second place in that test too, but I reckon the N8's peerless standing is still intact a full year and a half from first availability.

(via)

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (February 4)

Erik C. Thauvin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 08:00:02 +0000

Pizza two days in a row... Why not! (with Kim and Vicki at @TheRockWFP) [pic] - t.co/lS2iOc03 #

Erik Thauvin: Man on the Ledge

Erik C. Thauvin — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 00:55:29 +0000

They told us this showing was closed captioned. That would be a first for me.

All About Symbian: A day (still) made of glass!

Sat, 04 Feb 2012 08:36:28 +0000

Corning, the company behind the Gorilla Glass in our smartphones, has produced another of its inspirational 'here's the future' videos and, as with the original one, it's well worth watching. There are two versions of the video, actually, I've embedded the expanded one below, complete with video guide to all the (probable) tech used. Seems like touchscreens really are the new buttons? [PS. Watch out for the medical sequence - it's something we're used to seeing only in Sci-fi]

In Corning's words:

Watch and share "A Day Made of Glass 2: Unpacked," to see how Corning's highly engineered glass, with companion technologies, will help shape our world. Take a journey with our narrator for details on these technologies, answers to your questions, and to learn about what's possible -- and what's not -- in the near future.

All About Symbian: AAS Insight #201: Q4, Belle and Social 1.5

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 18:42:13 +0000

In All About Symbian Insight number 201 we look forward to the release of Nokia Belle for existing Symbian handsets, with each of the team highlighting an expected benefit. We also discuss Nokia's Q4 results and device shipment numbers. Steve brings news of the addition of 360Cities to Nokia Maps, Rafe talks Social 1.5 and David shares his thoughts on CNN's Symbian application.

This podcast was recorded on Wednesday 1st February 2012.

In this podcast we cover:

Looking ahead to the Belle upgrade for existing Symbian^3 devices
Nokia Q4 2011 results
1.5 billion Series 40 phones
360Cities comes to Nokia Maps
Nokia Social 1.5
Review: CNN App for Symbian

You can listen to all 200 editions of the AAS Insight Podcast in our media section.

All About Symbian: Review: Tune It

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 07:44:00 +0000

Guitar playing and fiddling with tech seem to go hand in hand, judging from the number of fellow strummers I've come across. Many worse than me and a greater number a lot better. But we all have to tune our guitars every time we get the 'ol six string (or in my case the 12-string) out - which is why there's a booming cottage industry on every mobile platform in guitar tuning aids of every type. Here's a free option for Symbian....

I should say up front that Tune It is nowhere as ambitious as the commercial Tunerific, which I reviewed back in 2011. Rather than try and sample a guitar's audio output and produce interactive animations to show the pitch, Tune It goes altogether more old school, simply producing reference tones that you then use to tune your guitar by ear.

But don't switch off, thinking that the application is too trivial to be bothered with. For starters, Tune It is free (and no ads in sight), so you've got nothing whatsoever to lose by installing it and keeping it in a corner of your smartphone.

Secondly, and going a little philosophical, there's a distinct benefit to staying 'old school' and low-tech, in that the commercial sampling tuners reduce tuning each string to tweaking the tuning pegs and watching the fancy animations - you essentially stop fiddling when the display says so and never mind how the string sounds. Ultimately, as a player, you want to improve, but you also want to improve your musical ear, I'm often appalled by the numbed of players who carry on strumming something which is obviously out of tune because they just can't 'hear it'.

I should emphasise that I haven't got 'perfect pitch', but I can recognise when a note's not 'right'. In part this is because I've usually tuned my guitar by ear, playing a tuning fork to get a reference tone and then tuning by harmonics across the strings, or by playing the appropriate notes on a nearby electronic piano or organ and tuning to those.

Or, as here, by using a tool which can generate each of the string notes directly. The idea then is to train your ear to hear the differences between two plucked string tones and know not only which one is higher pitched (not that easy, especially when the difference is small) but how far the guitar string is 'out'. You'll end up being able to tune guitars quicker and quicker by ear and will feel a whole lot more musical than if you'd relied on pure electronic sampling tools.

In addition, every guitar has its own little, miniscule idiosyncrasies, i.e. no instrument is perfectly intoned. By tuning by ear, you'll eventually be able to make these little allowances as you go.

That's the theory then of why tuning using a simple app like Tune It can be 'better' then sampling utilities - but it does rely on you having a good musical ear and I accept it's not for everyone. Tune It does its best to help by producing genuine string tones, complete with harmonics and decay, rather than just 'pure' tones (as if from a 1980s keyboard). So you're not having to compare something weedy and pure with a live, messy, complicated, real world string. You effectively compare like with like, making the job much easier.

In terms of interface, you have to step through strings one at a time - each screen tap 'plucks' the string, as needed, then you move onto the next string with 'Next' and so on. This system does have the advantage that you don't have to tap accurately - after all, you've got a guitar in your hands, too, the phone is probably next to you on a table, so it's nice to just be able to tap anywhere on the virtual fretboard to hear the string sound again.

Three different tunings are supported, though in 20-odd years of playing I've never used anything other than 'standard' - I guess I'm not good, or experimental, enough! A nice tutorial walkthrough is also provided, albeit being slightly unnecessary for such a simple application and interface.

Obviously Tunerific is the most accomplished of the two applications, having both the sampling and string-sound functions, but if you just want something fast, free and effective then Tune It comes recommended. And will do its best to stop your tuning ears getting lazy!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 3 Feb 2012

Erik Thauvin: Fatal Attraction: Cosmetics & Chemicals

Erik C. Thauvin — Fri, 03 Feb 2012 04:00:43 +0000

via cosmetologyschool.org

I didn't know that chemicals in cosmetics are not regulated.

All About Symbian: At last, CBD explained in one image

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 15:41:26 +0000

When Nokia introduced CBD (ClearBlack Display) at Nokia World 2010, for the C6-01 and E7 models, there was an element of uncertainty involved as to how this technology worked. Certainly it was incredibly effective at cutting out reflections from ambient light, but noone seemed to know the full details. After much digging, we established it was something to do with polarising layers, but only now do we see a clear depiction of how CBD works.

The diagram below is courtesy of Nokia Conversations:

The page explains:

There’s both a linear polariser and retardation layers between the surface of your phone and the display. When light hits your screen, this is what happens:

It hits the linear polariser, this vertically polarises the light. (Polarising means – roughly – aligning the wave vibration in a particular direction).

Then it hits the circular polariser retardation layer. This converts the light again, making it right-circularly polarised.

Then it hits the screen and bounces off it, switching the rotation of the light to leftist.

It goes back through the retardation layer. When this happens, the light becomes horizontally polarised.

Finally, it hits the linear polariser, since the light is horizontally polarised at this point it can be blocked entirely by this optical solution.

So why doesn’t the light from your phone’s display get blocked? Because it only goes through the second half of this journey so the light is unpolarised when it hits the final filter and goes through.

Good stuff, just the detail we needed.

It should also be noted that CBD isn't the only technology that aids outdoors visibility of smartphone screens - for example, a similar (though not as effective) goal was implemented on the Nokia X7 by closing up the various screen layers to eliminate any air gap - this technique is used by other manufacturers, including Sony Ericsson.

It should also be noted that CBD is effective on both AMOLED and traditional TFT/LCD screens (examples of the latter include the Nokia 701 and 603).

All About Symbian: Skype now available for Nokia Belle

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 13:15:53 +0000

The Skype app is now available for Nokia's Symbian Belle devices (700, 701 and 603, etc., plus many others once Belle update is available) The application has been updated with the Belle UI look and feel and overall performance has been significantly improved. Nearly all of the core voice calling and IM functionality of Skype is implemented in the Symbian client, making this a must have app for frequent Skype users.

Skype for Nokia Belle (version 2.1.23 - 6.9MB) can be downloaded from the Nokia Store. Once you have downloaded and installed the application, you'll need to enter your Skype username and password. Contacts and current IM conversations will be automatically downloaded. You can optionally choose to import names and numbers from the Contacts application, so that you can call these numbers via Skype.

The screenshots here show the updates to the user interface. The selection bar/tabs at the top of the screen give access to the major sections of the app (Contacts, IM, Call, History and Skype Extras). The Belle style toolbar at the bottom of the screen is context sensitive, giving access to the most common commands for the current view.

Here's the description for Skype from the Nokia Store:

With all the benefits of Skype on your phone you can save money and stay in touch when you're on the move.

• Make free Skype-to-Skype calls and IM on 3G or WiFi.
• Save money on calls and texts (SMS) to phones abroad.
• Share pictures, videos and other files from your phone.

It's free to use Skype in a WiFi zone. If you use Skype with a mobile data connection, operator charges may apply, so we recommend an unlimited data plan.

Skype is also available for Symbian Anna (Symbian^3) handsets, of course. More details on Skype's Symbian page.

Thanks to Finnish First for the tip.

All About Symbian: Worldwide phone and smartphone stats, Q4, 2011

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:51:00 +0000

Most of the numbers are now in for Q4, 2011 and, while some are estimates, we now have a pretty good idea of the state of the mobile industry for the last quarter. Phones grew 6% year on year, smartphones by a whopping 63%, with the latter now at 36% of the overall market. The top three companies were the same by either metric - Apple, Samsung and Nokia are way ahead of the rest.

Rather than reproduce every last detail here, let me point you towards the press release of Strategy Analytics and that of IDC.

In summary, here's the picture for overall mobile sales, courtesy of IDC:

Top Five Mobile Phone Vendors, Shipments, and Market Share, Q4 2011 (Units in Millions)

Vendor	4Q11 Shipments	4Q11 Market Share	4Q10 Shipments	4Q10 Market Share	Y-over-Y Change
Nokia	113.5	26.6%	123.7	30.7%	-8.2%
Samsung	97.6	22.8%	80.7	20.0%	20.9%
Apple	37.0	8.7%	16.2	4.0%	128.4%
LG Electronics	17.7	4.1%	30.6	7.6%	-42.2%
ZTE	17.1	4.0%	15.7	3.9%	8.9%
Others	144.5	33.8%	135.9	33.7%	6.3%
Total	427.4	100.0%	402.8	100.0%	6.1%

Although Nokia is still comfortably the top selling phone maker in the world, its lead has been halved by Samsung, while Apple is now firmly in third place with its much more profitable iPhone range. The whole market grew by 6%, year on year, less than in previous years but still heading upwards, in line with population and increased penetration in developing markets.

The table below shows the breakdown in terms of 'smartphones', though the very definition is something which is coming under increasing attack, not least from (what were previously considered) 'feature' phones, which increasingly have full Internet access, email and social clients, touch-based games, and more...

Global Smartphone Vendor Shipments (Millions of Units)	Q4 '10	Whole of 2010	Q4 '11	Whole of 2011
Samsung	10.7	23.9	36.5	97.4
Apple	16.2	47.5	37.0	93.0
Nokia	28.3	100.1	19.6	77.3
Others	45.6	128.0	61.9	220.8
Total	100.7	299.5	155.0	488.5

It's not entirely clear whether Samsung's Bada phones are included in the total above. Nokia's sales of 19.6 smartphones (around 95% Symbian) in Q4 would, a few years ago, have been dominant, but it's a sign of the times that smartphone market leaders, Samsung and Apple, both managed around 37 million sales in the same period. Over the course of the year there wasn't that big a difference between the top three and Samsung, Apple and Nokia are way ahead of the trailing pack, just as they are for wider mobile handset sales.

Significantly, the entire 'smartphone' market grew by 63% over the year, a big contrast to the 6% growth of the overall market. The 'smartphone' segment is now up to 36% and will be 50% by the end of 2012, surely a sign that we should soon drop the moniker altogether and just talk about 'phones'? If nothing else, it would make these news stories simpler to write and simpler to understand!

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (February 1)

Erik C. Thauvin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:00:04 +0000

Well, the CentOS 6 CD wouldn't install. I guess I'll stay at 5.7 for a while longer. #
CalPop is upgrading my server to CentOS 6. Should be back momentarily. #

All About Symbian: Review: Coloring Fun

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 07:55:00 +0000

Way back in the last decade, around 2003 or 2004, with a creative four year old daughter who was just taking her first steps on one of my PCs, I discovered a wonderful application, Electronic Colouring Book, an old DOS application, I believe, which kept her happy for ages. Rather than requiring super-precise mouse skills for proper computer artwork, the idea was to present line drawings and have the painter pick which colour to fill each enclosed section with. Worked a treat, and now today's four year olds can do the same with their parent's Symbian smartphone, thanks to 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.

I was looking at the free sampler application, with five line drawings to endow with colour, but if the app is a hit with your small ones, then you'll want to grab either (or both of) Pack 1 Coloring Fun and Christmas Pack Coloring Fun, each of which has fifteen images for your £1 purchase price.

The interface (as you'd hope, given the target audience) is simple. Pick the drawing you want from an initial carousel and then you're off and colouring. The right hand side crayons are part of a vertical carousel - although it's not obvious at first that there are more colours available, the very first flick or drag gives the colourer an immediate grasp of how it works.

The drawing tools are kept similarly simple, with only two of note - one to perform the main 'filling' of enclosed sections with colour, as already eulogised, the other a brush to add extra strokes as needed, shown below:

The bottom tool (obviously) erases whatever the colourer rubs it over, while the dustbin tool reverts the image to black and white, ready for the child to start again.

The top 'back' icon returns the colourer to the image picking carousel, but the current image is saved, so no accidental returns followed by a "All my colours have gone!" cry. This also means that the child can be 'working' on more than one image at a time, which is a neat feature.

The (rather antiquated!) floppy disk icon is supposed to be for saving each masterpiece, not only internally, but also to a bitmap file that can be used elsewhere on the phone, such as emailing off to a proud grandparent:

At least, that's the theory - the quoted folder gets created but, on this free version of the application, no images actually appeared, no matter how hard I tried. Maybe this only works on the paid versions? The functionality's not a huge loss, but worth noting.

Although the limited (15 images each on the paid versions) 'canvases' may seem a problem, the very fact that a child can erase the colours from a drawing with one tap and have fun starting again with totally different colour scheme means that there's some extended value here - I'd even go so far as to suggest that you as a parent might like to go into each image and (ahem) accidentally wipe it of colour before a car journey: "Oh, dear, all the colours have gone, can you help colour all the pictures in again?", and so on!

We grabbed the free Coloring Fun because we were round at a relative's house, where there was a bored five year old (my own daughter is now way too old!) and it worked very well, installing in seconds and entertaining as needed. If my own kid(s) were at the right age, I'd have no problem paying a pound for each of the two paid image packs.

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 2nd Feb 2012

All About Symbian: Qt SDK 1.2 released

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 19:19:33 +0000

An updated version of the Qt SDK, version 1.2, was released today. It contains all the tools required to create Qt applications for Nokia's Symbian devices. The new version includes Qt Creator 2.4 (bringing improvement to the QML editor and numerous bug fixes) and Qt Mobility 1.2 (improved API access to Bluetooth and NFC).

The Qt Labs blog also notes that the new version includes an update to the Notifications API (improves the end user experience and fixes issues with the N9 implementation), additional Qt Mobility examples (to help you get started with coding) and an update to the Symbian Complementary Package (new Analyze Tool plugin and new CODA 1.0.6 installation package).

Also worthy of note is the inclusion of Qt 4.8, although this is only for desktops; it is not directly relevant for mobile developers.

The Nokia Developer News blog notes that the SDK also deliver improvements that make it easier to integrate in-app purchasing.

In the SDK installer and the SDK maintenance tool you can now access advanced settings in which to specify your network’s proxy settings or add new SDK content repositories. This allows adding dynamic content to the SDK. Available today, the In-App Purchase API is the first new SDK content repository.

The Qt SDK 1.2 is available as a free download, and it can be used on Microsoft Windows, Apple Mac OS, and Ubuntu Linux powered PCs. Existing Qt SDK users can get the new version using the built in software updater.

All About Symbian: Review: Star Chart

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0000

If you’re an aspiring astronomer but never get a clear night to see anything, do not fear. You can explore the cosmos in the comfort of your home with your smartphone. Escapist Software has just ported Star Chart to Symbian over from its Android and iOS versions. If you want to view the night sky without getting too technical, this could be the app for you.

Star Chart.

As is standard on mobile astronomy applications these days, Star Chart has an augmented reality mode. As you tilt and rotate your phone, it will show you the view of space from the direction you’re looking. It automatically determines your location from the phone’s GPS receiver, but you can set a manual location.

The Nokia Belle style toolbar at the bottom has an icon of an eye which toggles the augmented reality mode. Turning it off allows you to navigate the sky by swiping across the screen. While it may be easy to lose your bearings in this mode, Star Chart helps by overlaying an equatorial grid, and a coloured hue above the horizon. When the time of day is upon your local sunset, you’ll find a glorious red haze surrounding our local star.

Atmospheric view.

You can also stretch and pinch to zoom in and out. Doing so will reveal objects that were too dim to see before. This is a deceptively simple way of implementing a magnitude (brightness) filter for those who are not perhaps familiar with aspects of astronomy. In real life, the dimmer an object is, the more you have to zoom in to collect enough of its light to detect it.

Zooming into a cluster.

Tapping on an object in the sky will target it and bring up a list of its vital statistics. There is also a button to auto-zoom onto a targeting object. This is good for a quick look-up but you will have to go hunting out specific objects because this version of Star Chart does not have a search function!

Astronomical data on display.

As essential tool for any astronomy companion is a red monochrome mode to preserve your night vision. The crescent moon icon on the toolbar toggles this on and off. Having this enables you to go out observing in the night and use Star Chart as a guide. However, it lacks many other tools that you would need for serious observation.

Night vision mode in action.

Star Chart is currently at version 1.0, which is shown by not even having an option to overlay constellation lines and names. It is currently limited to toggling planet and star names. Neither is there an azimuthal grid option or the ability to set a future date so you can plot where objects will be in the future – e.g. if you were planning the evening’s observations during the day.

Star Chart is available in the Nokia Store for £1.50. What it lacks in comprehensiveness it makes up for in simplicity and could be a great way to get a child interested in astronomy.

I'll be revisiting this should it get seriously updated in the future.

David Gilson, 31^st January 2012

Erik Thauvin: Twits du Jour (January 31)

Erik C. Thauvin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 08:00:03 +0000

I can now send/rec. sms from my Comcast/Xfinity home phone. It even supports short codes. Are you paying attention Google Voice? #
Tourists banned from U.S. over Twitter jokes? t.co/brGS6lYx via @msnbc_tech #
RT @thomashawk: Former Flickr Staffer Blasts Yahoo/Flickr Over Yesterday's Layoffs t.co/RXjoqRzf #

All About Symbian: Two-box solution or one? Symbian/iPad versus the Galaxy Note

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 11:14:00 +0000

12 years ago, I remember demonstrating to a packed room of enthusiasts to delights of pairing up my Psion palmtop with the Ericsson SH888 (titanium, indestructible), which possessed an infrared modem, meaning that I could get my palmtop online at a whopping 9.6kbps via Circuit Switched Data (this was before GPRS!) It was a working two box communications solution and it's with a certain nostalgia that I remember it as I look a modern 'two box' solution. How do the pros and cons of splitting one's electronics work out in practice?

At the same meeting, I remember a friend (who worked at Symbian) indicating (under his jacket) the very first Nokia 9210 prototype and (quietly) decrying my two box system as old hat. And he was right, of course, the 9210 launched in 2000 and the world of smartphones was born (a full seven years before the iPhone - tell that to your kids, and they won't believe you, etc...)

But that's never stopped many people wondering, ever since, whether a two box solution is practical. These days, the phone and data parts are built into everything, of course, so the 'two box' bit refers to form factor and capabilities. With 'smartphones' getting ever larger (I've just been reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and Galaxy Note, at 4.65" and 5.3" screen respectively), to the point where they are actually quite clumsy to use as 'phones', is there now a case for returning to the two box concept and splitting the main functions of communications and display?

In this feature, I'm going to be looking at combining a Nokia N86 (chosen because of its terrific camera, great/traditional 'phone' form factor, and because it's great for music) with an Apple iPad 2 (great for games, applications, Web, email and social networking). So as not to duplicate functions and expense, I'm obviously looking at the Wi-fi-only version of the latter, using Joikuspot Premium on the N86 to provide mobile broadband to the tablet.

Is this the best of both worlds or simply a clumsy and inefficient solution? Would I not be better off with a one box system such as the Galaxy Note? Let's investigate.

Here's the set up then, the top rated (by me, at least) but somewhat ageing Nokia N86, showing JoikuSpot Premium in action, and the 2011 Apple iPad 2:

	N86/iPad 2	Samsung Galaxy Note
Cost	£100 second hand (too old to find new), plus £400 new. Total = £500	£550 new
Form, bulk, overall weight	Two devices, obviously, one will be cases/pocketed, one will be in your bag or briefcase, total weight 650g	One single device, though you'll need a large pocket - suit jackets will work quite well, as will a handbag of some kind. Weight 178g
Display and relevant specs	2.6" display on phone, 1200mAh battery, replaceable, 10" display on iPad, around 7000mAh battery	5.3" display, 2500mAh battery
Usable battery life	The N86, running JoikuSpot all the time, will need you to swap to a second battery halfway through the day - and then you'll have to charge both batteries at night; the iPad 2 should also be charged at night.	A full working day, easily, with charging overnight.
Calls, video calls	Taking phone calls is a doddle, of course, on the N86, and very discreet, by modern standards. Physical call/hangup keys, too. iPad obviously not needed unless you want to max out bandwidth and try a Skype or Facetime video call - the iPad 2's front-facing cam is very good for this (the Symbian phone can only video call using the niche Fring system).	Taking a voice call on the Note looks somewhat comical, but can be done. Longer calls will need the wired headset or a Bluetooth headset. Video calls work well, bandwidth-permitting, using Skype, Google Hangout or a number of other niche systems.
Email	Email and Symbian have never gone together all that smoothly, especially on S60 3rd Edition - certainly the experience is far faster and more productive on the JoikuSpot-connected iPad 2 using the built-in Mail client or even a webmail page.	Android's email handling is a trifle uneven, with separate Gmail and generic Email applications, but does all work well in the end. The 5.3" screen is large enough to handle incoming emails and Polaris Office is on hand to handle attachments.
Working on the Web	The N86 itself is fine for mobile web lookups (I have this page set as my starting page), but the bottle neck is the Symbian phone's processor and web rendering code, so most people will get on better using the connected iPad 2 and its Safari web browser. There's no Flash support and Javascript compatibility is somewhat less than desktop-perfect, but it's enough for many people not to need to break out a genuine laptop.	The web browser on the large-screened Note is really pretty good and supports more pages than the iPad, including most Flash sites. And there's decent integration with other applications, any of which can launch you off into the browser as needed.
Navigation	Nokia Maps 3.6 provides superb real time navigation on the phone - no involvement needed from the iPad. The N86 is also a doddle to mount in just about any car phone holder.	The Note includes a GPS and Google Maps Navigation now works for many countries. It's functional, but not as polished as Nokia Maps in my experience. You may have to think laterally about how to place the Note in your car, due to size and relatively thin form factor.
Social networking	Although Gravity on the N86 is ok for quick photo uploading or catching up on Twitter mentions, etc, the small, non-touch screen isn't really conducive to flying around social networks. Best to break out the iPad 2 and use one of the many iOS Twitter and Facebook clients, all running full-screen. More options than you'll ever want to try.	Social network support is extensively built into Samsung's extensions to Android, integrating into Contacts and much more. Plus a dozen or more Twitter, Facebook and clients for every other social network. An Android highlight.
Music	Sound quality from the N86 is excellent over headphones, i.e. using the phone as a high quality music player, even with JoikuSpot active and transmitting. There's also the option of FM transmission to the car's radio (works well outside big cities). (Music playback is also possible via the iPad, though you have to remember to sync it through iTunes. Streaming music is possible via various iPad applications, while you're working, if you have the bandwidth.)	Sound quality is excellent over headphones and will play happily in the background while you work. Android has plenty of streaming music options, from custom services to Internet Radio.
Movies	The iPad 2 is pretty good for video content bought through iTunes or video podcasts sideloaded (I wasn't silly enough to try streaming HD YouTube content via weedy UK 3G...) And you can't beat watching on a 10" screen, of course.	The Note is superb for video use, allowing simple sideloading of any MP4 or similar content, direct downloading of video podcasts, etc. The screen may only be 5.3", but held at around 30cm from the eyes it's still a sumptuous experience.
Photos/Video capture	The N86 camera is almost unmatched, of course, use this for the serious photos for working on later; the iPad 2 camera's not that bad and certainly good enough for fun shots for immediate upload through the aforementioned iOS social networking apps. Video capture is good but low-res (VGA) from the N86, and 720p from the iPad 2, though holding a 10" tablet up to shoot a video is a real pain!	With the same camera as the Galaxy S II, the Note takes stonkingly good photos in most light conditions, I'd rate it as good as the N86's, with the proviso that you've got to stop to wipe the camera 'glass' each time. Video capture is very practical at up to 1080p, and with high quality sound, up to the N86's standard. In addition, Samsung provides an 'Outdoor' mode for the display, boosting the AMOLED to silly levels to make sure that you can see what you're snapping or shooting, even in bright sunlight.
Gaming	Games for the Nokia are relatively simple and limited, but the iPad 2 is currently arguably the world's premier mobile gaming device, with its large screen and touch interface, and with tens of thousands of quality game titles.	The Android gaming scene is growing, but held back slightly by the wide range in screen resolutions. Find a title you like and you're off and running, but the gaming can't get close to that on the iPad.

A note on data and speeds: for your interest, my 3.5G connection here in Reading - patchy, usually - performed surprisingly well, topping out at just under 4Mbps. With an iPad hooked up, mind you, it should be impressed on the mind of anyone trying this, just as if a desktop or laptop computer was being tethered, that you'll go through data like there's no tomorrow. Just a couple of hours of normal web browsing, some email, a couple of small app updates and some tweeting on the JoikuSpot-connected iPad 2, and I went through several hundred Megabytes of bandwidth. If you're going to do this regularly, check your data tariff on your network account - you may need to upgrade it!

The whole two-versus-one argument is extremely subjective, of course, which is why I haven't awarded any 'wins' above. I did think it notable that the two box solution costs less than the single device tested, plus there's the flexibility that if one component fails (e.g. the phone) then you can switch to another while retaining the other major component (e.g. the iPad). In fact, the presence of an older iPad model (with slower processor, less RAM and no camera) means that a budget two box solution could be achieved for around £250, sourced second hand.

On the other hand, the 'one box' solution has the advantage that everything's supremely integrated and you never have to fiddle about getting one component online:

Definitely a case of pros and cons for each. The possibility of combining the best bits, the strengths of an older, now cheaper Symbian smartphone and the arch-tablet of our times, the iPad, did appeal to me though. You really can have a phone which is phone-sized and with the usual Symbian strengths of decent battery performance, navigation and great audio, while also having a huge screen for work, reference, gaming and entertainment.

One possible big flaw for the two box approach is battery life - if you're intending to stay online on the iPad for most of the day, then the effort of keeping the ad-hoc Wi-fi hotspot going will kill the phone battery several times over. The N86's battery life isn't great at the best of times and it's really only suitable for running a hotspot in short bursts. You can't just leave it 'on' and active all day. If I were to repeat the experiment, I'd probably go for the Nokia E52 or E55, with the large BP-4L 'hero' battery.

My gut feel is that, although the two box solution produces a more expansive, more immersive and more flexible mobile computing system overall, issues of bulk, inconvenience and battery life mean that a good all-in-one 'converged' solution (and, trust me, the Galaxy Note is one such) edges it overall. Comments welcome if you agree, if you disagree, or if you've tried something similar!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 31st January 2012

PS. Bonus link to JoikuSpot Premium product page

All About Symbian: Review: Robo-E

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:33:00 +0000

Sokoban is a genre you probably haven’t heard of, but have played many times. The original was a Japanese puzzle that involved moving boxes around a room. Without planning several moves in advance you can easily box yourself in. Robo-E is a spin on this classic puzzle with a Sci-Fi theme; you control a garbage collecting robot that has become confused and needs your Sokoban skills to get his job done!

Robo-E is a galactic garbage collector, and a local supernova has interfered with his positronic brain. That’s the story told by the game’s help page, which also stresses that his name is pronounced “Roboy” – to prevent confusion with a certain Pixar character! The help pages also have a demonstration of how to play the game, indicating where to make gestures with an animated fingerprint.

Robo-E help pages.

This science fiction incarnation of the classic puzzle genre requires you to place chunks of toxic waste onto yellow rings. The junk will be disintegrated when you load all rings, and you’ll progress to the next level.

Loading the disintegration rings.

The trick and attraction with this type of puzzle is that you can’t just blithely go shoving the blocks around – you have to plan ahead. Each level has walls that limit the play area, and you are only able to push blocks. So, if you happen to shove a piece of junk into a corner then you’ve already lost, as you can’t pull it back!

What not to do!

Your lowest move and push count are recorded as a high score for each level (or should that be low score?), which can be reviewed in the level selection screen. The graphical quality of this page is a leap ahead of anything else in the game. There is a three dimensional carousel that is clearly hardware accelerated. Swiping through this list also reveals that there are 32 levels.

Level selection screen.

I found this type of puzzle genuinely challenging, and your success will depend on how many moves ahead you can store in your mind. This is why I don’t think 32 levels is particularly limiting. It will take a while to complete all of them, and then there is the ongoing challenge of bettering your high/low-scores.

It has to be said that the graphics in this game are rather basic. However, this can be forgiven as the main robotic character is incredibly cute – at least to a nerd like me. Robo-E is somewhat orientation-agnostic. As you rotate your phone, Robo-E just adjusts his own orientation and the rest of the user interface is unchanged.

Playing in landscape.

Robo-E is available on the Nokia Store for £1.50. At that price, I really think this is a great title for puzzle fans. It’s the ideal mobile game in that you can dip in for a quick go without having your attention demanded for extended periods.

Highly Recommended.

David Gilson, 30^th January 2012.

All About Symbian: How would you improve the Nokia N8?

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 10:46:00 +0000

It's somewhat amazing that the Nokia N8 remains in the top tier of smartphones a full 16 months after release - it's fair to say that this is almost entirely due to its camera, with perhaps build quality and gadget-complement contributing too. But no phone can go on forever. If you were Nokia and wanted to produce an "N8 mark II", what would you add/tweak? What's practical? What's worthwhile?

I should stress up front that I've no knowledge of Nokia's plans for 2012. We know that it is committed to Windows Phone now, as well as Symbian, the latter in 'franchise' status (a term I still find confusing), but I for one am still optimistic for a couple of last great Symbian smartphones announced this year. Is it possible that one of these could be high end and succeed the amazingly popular N8? Of all the Symbian^3/Anna phones, it's the only one that has really made waves, the only one that has endeared itself to millions of users.

So... sitting down with the N8, how would I improve it? And yes, I know that product timescales dictate that this very (hypothetical) thought process would have had to have taken place inside Nokia a good year (or more) ago, but the exercise is still worthwhile here, if only to recognise that even the mighty N8 has shortcomings and to consider practical ways that it could have been bettered.

Let's call this imaginary new device the N8-X...

____________________________________

Form factor

There's general agreement that the N8 form factor is just about perfect, in terms of size and feel in the hand. The use of metal is uniformly praised, the device is very tough (I've dropped mine countless times) and I'd class the N8 as 'reassuringly heavy'(!) The screen bezel on the N8 is such that a 3.7" or 3.8" display could be squeezed in fairly easily for the N8-X, taking the phone closer to the 4" screen 'sweet spot' of today's competing Android smartphones (plus the upcoming 'iPhone 5' is rumoured to be around the 4" screen mark).

Screen

At (say) 3.7" diagonal, Symbian nHD (640 by 360 pixels) would still work quite well in terms of pixel density. If Symbian was still being developed with a high budget and many future devices, I'd suspect that we might see pixel doubling to 1280 by 720 displays on 4" and 4.3"-screened devices, but even with Accenture on board for development now, I think it's a little late in the day to radically overhaul Symbian's basic screen resolution - so nHD it is.

The N8, famously (along with the C7), missed out on the ClearBlack Display revolution, being specified just a few months too early in the grand scheme of things, so the N8-X would have CBD, making for clearer, higher contrast visuals, indoors and outdoors. In fact, there might as well be an oleophobic coating as well - this worked well on the C7.

It goes without saying that the N8-X should have Gorilla Glass - the N8 was pioneering here and the technology is now more or less standard in the smartphone world.

OS

Symbian Nokia Belle, of course, the latest iteration of Symbian, with the most 2012-friendly touch UI yet. Some of its design points are a little alienating to long-time Symbian users, but I reckon it's well worth getting over these points in order to gain the performance improvements under the hood and in main applications. Plus increasing amounts of software, both utilities (latest Nokia Social) and HD games are appearing and requiring Belle as a minimum.

Combined with a slightly larger and even clearer AMOLED screen, Belle should prove quite palatable on an N8-X, even set against the eye candy of huge 720p displays on some of the (significantly larger and less pocketable) Android competition and the 'retina' iPhone 4. Display technology certainly won't lead the world (though CBD is nice), but it'll easily be 'good enough'.

Processor, memory

Although Symbian is generally pretty good at multitasking, there's no doubt that it could be snappier. Belle will help with this, of course, but in the N8-X I'd be looking for the same 1GHz chip as in the 701, together with its faster GPU and the 512MB of RAM (double what's in the N8, of course).

The N8-X, like the N8, should also have the best of both worlds in terms of mass memory and expansion via microSD. I don't think the current '16GB plus card' arrangement should be touched, to be honest - every time Nokia has moved to 32GB mass memory we've hit performance problems and they're simply not worth it. With the card expansion as well, anyone who needs an extra 32GB can simply pop in a card as needed.

Camera

As good as the N8's camera is, with a huge 1/1.83" sensor and Xenon flash, the very fact that anyone appreciates why it's good will see them wanting even more. Although the best of the competition just jumped to 16 megapixels that kind of resolution on a sensor in a phone isn't really warranted - the law of diminishing returns definitely hits somewhere around the 12 megapixel mark, even with 2012 sensor technology.

So what would I want from the N8-X's camera? To be honest, not a lot extra. Maybe the sensor could be made larger still, perhaps 1/1.5" - which in turn would mean that 16 megapixels would actually make sense. The optics are already excellent, but I would ask for basic camera glass protection, as on the N95, N82 and N86 - hang the extra millimetre, not having to wipe the glass free of fingerprints before every photo would be a big convenience for me. And there's the really nice feature that opening the sliding protection could start the Camera app, just as on the older models quoted.

And yes, I realise that a larger sensor and camera glass protection would necessitate a slightly thicker 'hump' on the N8-X's back, but this is a specialised smartphone and every purchaser will hopefully know exactly what they're buying - not everyone aspires to a phone that's razor thin.

Having a proper Xenon flash, 100 times brighter than LED, was a major feature of the N8 camera but it was let down ever so slightly by being dimmer than that on the N82 (for example). It's all relative, but I'd like a bigger Xenon unit, something which could light up a room like that on the N82 could, rather than just nearby subjects. With the extra camera hump thickness on the N8-X, fitting in a larger Xenon flash module and capacitor should be no problem.

Battery

Definitely a change needed here. The 'integral' battery system of the N8 simply doesn't work, in my view. Although brave souls can change the BL-4D battery if armed with the right screwdriver, running out of power for most people means having to wait until the device can be charged again. All of which I don't understand, since the N8's twin sister device, the C7, with identical core specifications, manages to have a battery door and removable battery and yet its body is still a good millimetre or so thinner.

In short, there's no reason whatsoever why our hypothetical N8-X shouldn't have a metal battery door, C7/701-style, and the savvy photo-centric user can simply pop a charged, spare battery in a pocket in case power runs out after a lot of shooting while out and about.

In fact, with virtually the same width and thinner than the C7's BL-5K, I can't see why the 'hero' BP-4L Li-Poly battery shouldn't be used in this new device (hey, why not shoot for the moon)? With 1500mAh, I don't see why the N8-X would ever really run short of juice before the end of even a busy day.

Speaker(s)

The N8 comes with a loudspeaker that's a cut above the rest of the smartphone pack, with a larger cone and a power amplifier similar to that in the likes of the old Nokia 5800 and X6. While good enough, while we're redesigning the N8, why not put in an extra speaker, matching the two older music phones? After all, the N82 (the N8's spiritual predecessor) had loud stereo speakers, so let's put the same units either end of the new N8-X. You'd be surprised how often having a decent set of speakers helps in a phone...

2012 must-haves

Aside from the remarks above, there's not that much else the N8-X needs to hold its head high in the 2012 phone world - NFC is the big omission in the current N8, explained by the device's specifications being set in stone before NFC was available to the designers, no doubt. So the N8-X would have to have NFC, for tapping to share, pair, and so on - NFC in Symbian Belle is more advanced than on any other mobile OS, so it's a shoe-in on our hypothetical device.

So there we have the Nokia N8-X, my personal wishlist for what Nokia could create in an N8 successor. Not that anything I've said here will have any influence of course - as I said earlier, for an N8 successor to be announced this year, the design would have been set in concrete way back at the very start of 2011. But I can still dream....

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 30 January 2012

All About Symbian: Review: CNN app for Symbian

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 07:47:00 +0000

Getting the latest news is one of the most basic needs of an always connected smartphone user, whether through an app or the mobile web. 'CNN app for Symbian' provides news in both text and video across a varied range of topics and geographical regions. It also supports the emerging field of citizen journalism by integrating CNN’s iReport service. How well does it all fit together?

With only two navigation tools, the CNN app has a refreshingly simple layout. There is a toolbar across the bottom with context sensitive icons, and a horizontally scrolling list of news topics across the top. From the homescreen, the toolbar has icons for news headlines, iReport, and videos.

The topics covered by CNN are Top Stories, US, Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, Middle East, Business, Sport, Entertainment, Tech, and Travel. This horizontal list is present in both the text-based and video sections. Given that CNN is a US based news service, UK residents may well be disappointed by the lack of focus on British news.

The CNN app and its news headlines.

While viewing text stories, the toolbar icons change to show only “Back” and “Share” – somewhat staying within the Nokia Belle style guide. The Share menu launches all the options I consider mandatory for this type of application: SMS, Email, Twitter, and Facebook. Each news story leads with two bullet points that give context for those not familiar with the background of the story – as a reader, I appreciated this.

CNN articles and sharing options.

Video story lists are presented clearly in either portrait or landscape orientations – just like the text based stories. However, the landscape mode presents large thumbnails in a horizontally scrolling carousel that really sells the content.

While most applications that stream video opt to use Symbian’s internal player, CNN has a custom player, which streams in high quality. Tapping the screen while videos are playing reveals controls for volume, timeline, pause, and back (to video selection). There’s no way to share a video though, which is a shame.

Video story thumbnails.

The CNN app has a homescreen widget and supports push delivery of breaking news. However, during my testing neither appeared to work. This was either due to connectivity issues at my end or something that will no doubt be fixed in the next version.

Breaking news settings and homescreen widget.

This app isn’t just about content delivery though – CNN has an initiative called iReport which embraces the emerging field of citizen journalism. As the name implies, this is where members of the public can contribute reports, photos, or videos from the scene of an event. Other, more open, platforms for citizen journalism include Blottr and Wikinews.

Once in the iReport screen, the toolbar changes its icons to Back, Featured, Assignments, and Submit. “Featured” gives a list of stories and photo essays submitted by readers. Meanwhile, “Assignments” contains posts by CNN requesting specific subjects for iReport features.

Selecting your content to upload.

The first step in story submission is selecting or creating a photo or video. You then select which assignment you’re submitting to, and finally enter a title and type your story. You’ll find the current version (1.3) is a little out of date as it does not support Symbian Anna’s split screen keyboard, so navigating large bodies of text will be tricky. Instead, I suggest you type descriptions in another application, such as Notes, and then paste into CNN.

Choosing your assignment and telling your story.

You obviously need an account, and you can create one if it’s your first time. There’s no guidance on creating a password though – I had several failed attempts before reading iReport’s desktop website. Apparently, the maximum password length is 10 characters, and I typically use more than that!

I was impressed with the CNN app – the text and video news are very well presented, and you can submit your own news! I’m glad to see a news service inviting the public to contribute, and I hope other services, like the BBC, will follow suit with similar apps for Symbian. You can download the CNN app from the Nokia Store for free.

Recommended.

David Gilson, 29th January 2012.

All About Symbian: Four Pizero Premium themes free for a few days

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 16:31:17 +0000

Available free for a 'limited time' are four 'Premium' themes from one of our favourite S60 3rd Edition/S60 5th Edition/Symbian designers, Pizero. The themes are Aurora, Paradise, Magma and Azure and I've included links to all the free download pages below. Grab 'em while you can!

Here are the download links needed:

Magma was a new one to me, so I grabbed it for your inspection:

As Pizero himself says, "I hope you’ll appreciate this gift. If you like these themes, please consider purchasing one or more Premium Themes to support us."

He certainly gets my vote - I've used many Pizero themes over the years and these work well on all ages of Symbian-powered handset.

Symbian Freak: Symbian Belle Os To Be Available For Phones Running Symbian Anna Starting From 8th February

Sun, 29 Jan 2012 11:15:53 +0000

Nokia Vietnam has announced that latest version of its in house smartphone operating system will be arriving for our delectation in February.

Symbian Belle marks the latest step in the iterative evolution of Symbian that brings gorgeous new widgets, more customisation options, new apps and built-in NFC functionality.

As before, the upgraded operating system will be available on new Symbian smartphones and will be made available as a free update for owners of the Nokia C7, C6-01, N8, E7, X7, E6 devices starting from 8th February. Symbian Belle adds to the work done by Anna to improve and modernise the Symbi... .. .

All About Symbian: Nokia Social 1.5 updates homescreen widgets

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:33:09 +0000

A new version of Nokia Social, version 1.5.214, is now available from the Nokia Store. Following in the footsteps of version 1.4, which was was released a fortnight ago, the new version aims to provides fixes for installation and connectivity issues. However, the new version also includes a new Facebook widget and an update for the generic Social widget.

The updated Social widget, which in increased in size, now includes a scrollable list of the last ten status updates from your Twitter and Facebook streams. Tapping on an update drops you into the appropriate view in the Facebook or Twitter module of Nokia Social, so that you can, retweet or comment on the status update. There's also a shortcut to update your own status or share a photo. If you are logged in to both Twitter and Facebook you status update will be sent out to both networks.

The previous update of Nokia Social added dedicated Facebook and Twitter widgets. These have now been joined by an additional Facebook widget, which adds shortcuts, similar in style to the Social widget, for updating your Facebook status and sharing photos.

The new and updated widgets means that a significant portion of social networking functionality is directly accessible or viewable from the homescreen. In particular the new Social widget makes it much easier to keep up with the last few status updates from your social networking streams.

We also noticed that the Facebook and Twitter icons in the app launcher, which allow you to launch directly into a specific social module, have also been updated to the standard Anna and Belle squircle style. If you spot any other changes or improvements, let us know know in the comments.

All About Symbian: 1.5 billion Series 40 phones, plus half a billion Symbian too

Sat, 28 Jan 2012 09:05:56 +0000

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

From the Series 40 news:

Mary McDowell, Executive Vice President for Mobile Phones at Nokia, said: "We are incredibly proud to reach this milestone. Having 1.5 billion Series 40 devices sold is a hard-to-reach mark, let alone one attainable in a single line of products. At a time when we are maintaining our commitment to connecting the next billion customers around the world - it is gratifying to consider how Series 40 devices have made mobile technology accessible and help continue to change people's lives for the better."

Congratulations, Series 40.

Going back through the news archives and checking figures with industry watchers, according to our calculations, we passed the half billion sales point for Symbian last Autumn. With multiple manufacturers contributing to these figures over the years (albeit with Nokia dominating), and with some 'closed' Symbian-powered phones like the FOMA devices in Japan and the older Ericsson R380, the actual counting is obviously less clear cut, plus Symbian as an organisation no longer exists, which is perhaps why noone has yet remarked on the milestone.

But still. Half a billion Symbian smartphones.

The next question is, I think, how many of these are still in use, i.e. what's the installed base across the world? With the tech press loving to dismiss Symbian as being a dinosaur, it shouldn't be forgotten that dinosaurs were often very, err... large. And so it proves with Symbian's installed base.

Now, obviously, there's no point in counting every last phone back to the Nokia 9210 Communicator, Sony Ericsson P800 and Nokia 7650 (for example). There comes a point where smartphones are too old to be practical - or will simply be broken. In the chart below I've chosen to go back to 2006, where Symbian OS 9 and S60 3rd Edition were being sold for the first time and where the last great Series 60 phones were selling in high volume - think Nokia N70, etc. It's a fair bet that everything from this point on is still in use in some form, barring breakage, even as another family member's device these days or passed on down through the second hand market.

Here then is the Symbian smartphone installed base, 2006-2011, compared to those for other mobile OS, for direct comparison:

At the very least, such a chart is a reminder to anyone looking to dismiss Symbian as irrelevant in 2012 - in addition to still selling at the rate of getting on for twenty million smartphones per quarter today, the installed base of Symbian users across the world is enormous, dwarfing even that of iOS and Android (though they are gradually closing the gap, of course - I estimate Android's installed base will exceed Symbian's sometime in 2013).

Anyway, even though there's no Symbian Ltd or (active) Symbian Foundation to trumpet the news anymore, why not raise your glass of beer or wine today and drink a toast to the half billion mark? Achieved in just over a calendar decade, too, in a pioneering smartphone world where Symbian was the behemoth.

Cheers!

Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 28 January 2012

Symbian Freak: Smartphone Owners Concerned and In the Dark About Mobile Security

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:53:16 +0000

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

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

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

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:35:39 +0000

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

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

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

Thu, 26 Jan 2012 17:01:03 +0000

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

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

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

Andrew Grill: Porter Gale Joins Kred

Andrew Grill — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 12:48:40 +0000

Symbian Freak: Nokia's Ovi Store Tops 11 Million Daily Downloads

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 08:45:28 +0000

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

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

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

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

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:34:36 +0000

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

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

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

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

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:15:38 +0000

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

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

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

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

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:22:08 +0000

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

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

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

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

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:02:38 +0000

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

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

Symbian Freak: Nokia Big Screen Adds Support For Symbian Belle Devices

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:43:38 +0000

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

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

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

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

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:20:30 +0000

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

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

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

Symbian Freak: New Nimbuzz For Symbian Brings Back Tabbed Chatting

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 14:26:19 +0000

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

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

Symbian Freak: Nokia Configuration Tool Version 6.3 Graduates From Beta

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:38:11 +0000

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

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

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

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

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 11:16:11 +0000

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

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

Symbian Freak: StatCounter reveals Symbian Continues To Be Leader In Smartphone Web Browsing

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:50:48 +0000

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

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

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

Andrew Grill: Textbook example of blogger engagement – courtesy of HM the Queen

Andrew Grill — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 11:05:07 +0000

Andrew Grill: Google UK online education program is spot on

Andrew Grill — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 20:01:52 +0000

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

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

1. Staying safe online

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

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

4. Manage your data

The whole campaign can be accessed via

http://www.google.com/goodtoknow

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

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

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

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

Symbian Freak: Nokia Live View Beta Now Available For Nokia N9

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:32:41 +0000

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

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

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

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

Andrew Grill — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 09:30:11 +0000

Symbian Freak: Soundtracker Radio version 1.7.3 Brings Minor Bugs Fixes & Performance Improvements

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 09:57:51 +0000

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

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

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

Symbian Freak: New Glossy White Variant Of The Nokia N9 Starts Shipping Today

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 13:12:06 +0000

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

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

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

Andrew Grill: So NFC yet so far

Andrew Grill — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:30:19 +0000

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

Andrew Grill — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 11:01:08 +0000

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

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 10:39:46 +0000

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

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

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

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

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 14:39:00 +0000

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

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

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

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

Thu, 01 Dec 2011 17:32:42 +0000

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

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

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

Symbian Freak: New Nimbuzz for Symbian Devices Brings Improved Interface And Functionality

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 11:05:04 +0000

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

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

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

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

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:44:37 +0000

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

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

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

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 07:30:59 +0000

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

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

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

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

Andrew Grill — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 14:34:13 +0000

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Some of the other improvements in the E587 include

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 13:20:29 +0000

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

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

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

Symbian Freak: Soundtracker Turns to LightSquared To Revolutionize the Mobile Music Business

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 11:21:38 +0000

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

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