Earlier this week (original story below) we wrote a story about the Pantech C630 phone which had been reported as running Symbian OS. We can now confirm that this is not the case. The Pantech C630 is not a Symbian phone. Please accept my apologies for the misleading news story. While we always strive for accuracy on All About Symbian we do have to balance this against keeping you informed in a timely manner.
Tucked away on Nokia's press release page is the announcement of the 6260 Slide, a non-smart phone based on the latest 6th Edition version of their proprietary Series 40 platform. What's remarkable though are the 6260's tech specs: 480x320 screen resolution, WebKit web browser (same engine as S60 and Safari), 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera, built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and tri-band 3.5G HSDPA/HSUPA. Would the average phone buyer really see any difference between this and an S60 device when they're deciding what to buy?
Tim O'Reilly has posted some interesting thoughts on the use of voice in the mobile interface, sparked by Google's recent voice powered search application for the iPhone. His first idea, that an easily accessible and usable mobile device will put people closer to 'the cloud' is one worth thinking of, especially when you consider how much faster accessing your online data would be when using speech recognition.
The Java-running, proxy-based, web browser Opera Mini v4.2 has now been officially released, with new Skins support, faster servers, compatibility with the mobile version of YouTube and Opera Desktop note syncing. Read on for more.
Not just for developers, Forum Nokia's web site has been an invaluable resource for everybody connected with Nokia, S60 or Series 40 over the last few years. As of 10 minutes ago, Forum Nokia has re-launched its web site with a new look and a new 'I want to', mission-based structure. If this wasn't in your Nokia/Symbian bookmarks before, then time to take a look now. Screenshot of the new home page below...
Should a mobile phone that can play an MP3 be regarded as an MP3 player? That's the question Jemima Kiss asks over at The Guardian's Digital Content Blog. That total of 32.1 million MP3 players sold last year includes a significant percentage of smart(ish) phones, of the order of 75%, which makes the headline figure 'a little disingenuous'. I disagree. Read on for my thoughts....
There's a particularly interesting Carnival of the Mobilists this week, no. 151 over at Golden Swamp. Look out for Helen Keegan's contribution in particular...
In this environmentally conscious mobile world, five of the leading manufacturers (Nokia, LG, Samsung, Motorola and Sony Ericsson) have announced a simple 'star rating' to show how energy efficient their AC chargers are. Four or five star chargers will help you do your bit for the environment, so watch out for the ratings on your next purchase.
See below for the photographic proof. Honestly, you'd have thought that with all the millions of dollars poured into HSM (High School Musical) marketing, they could have afforded a little research into the sort of phone your average 10 year old girl is going to be using. How many female 'tweens' do you know who carry around Nokia's business flagship?
Vaibhav has put together a great summary of Nokia's recent 'Legends' online Q&A concerning Near Field Communication, well worth a read if you want to know what's coming up from Nokia and others. I think NFC has huge potential, even if we are a few years from mass adoption.
For Phones Show completists(!), show 69 just went live, with a much more condensed (3 minute) version of my day at Nokia's Test Centre (in case you haven't got time to watch the full 35 minutes on AAS!), plus a hands-on review of the Sony Ericsson C905 (8mp cam, Xenon flash) and a reminder about firmware updates.
Today, Nokia and IBM announced Lotus Notes (which has 140 million licensed users) support for all S60 3rd Edition-based phones. 'Lotus Notes Traveler' can connect to corporate email accounts via Lotus Domino Server, and provides real time access to email, calendar, address book, journal and to-do list data. Availability is December 2008.
A couple of days ago, I was invited to spend the day at Nokia's Testing Labs at Farnborough, UK, being given a tour of the facilities and numerous demonstrations along the way. The aim was to spread the word about how rigorously Nokia test their handsets' hardware and on that front I was extremely impressed. AAS video podcast 37 is a fairly full 35 minutes of footage from the tour (taken on the N93 and N82, for those that are interested) and will let you see and hear what I saw. Enjoy.
Always good to see some enthusiasm from Nokia for carrying on developing Mac OS integration software, as can be seen from this article and video featuring Marko Lindgren. One tip for the Nokia Conversations team though - next time you have really poor audio on an item, don't make it even harder to hear by adding non-stop cheesy music!
Totally non-Symbian but still a valid link-of-interest for many, Engadget have been evaluating the Blackberry Storm, very much a Nokia Eseries competitor, and have come up with a refreshingly honest critique of the sprung-screened Storm - I've played with one and agree that this is one technology the Symbian world should steer clear of. Comments welcome if you've tried one too... BGR has also released its Storm review on the same day - longer, but with some very pointed criticisms. Both worth a read.
