Recent News Headlines - Hardware
Review: the Nokia N97 mini - part 0!
Yes, a full retail Nokia N97 mini is at AAS Towers and I'm currently scribbling away on the ol' parchment to bring you a full review for next week. Just to wet your appetite though, here's my detailed N97 mini image gallery, with comments by Rafe and myself. With slimmer form factor and higher use of metal, I'd sum up my impressions of the device after a day as 'feels like the N97 that the Eseries team would have come up with'. More, much more to come next week.
Q3 Smartphone Sales figures now out
Canalys' Q3 worldwide smartphone sales figures have been published. Headline figures are that the entire smartphone market grew by 4% year on year, with Nokia's S60 smartphone sales growing by 6% year on year and with their world market share now also up to 40%. RIM are in second place worldwide, with 21% (and impressive 40% year on year sales growth) and Apple are in third place with their iPhone with 18% (6.7% year on year sales growth). Down in marketshare are HTC and 'others'. However HTC's figures hides an increase in Android shipment and a decrease in Windows Mobile shipments.
Nokia N86 8MP to N97 mini: The reluctant baton hand-over?
In which I muse on the seemingly unstoppable handover in all parts of the phone world from traditional phone form factors to large touchscreens and wonder, in particular, just how far the Nokia N97 mini actually is a step forwards from the last (and best) of the mainstream S60 3rd Edition line, the Nokia N86 8MP...
microUSB marches on, Symbian theme, Horizon app store launches
It's.... another compendium of interesting links that I really wanted to flag up for attention here. Firstly, the ITU (the telecoms bit of the UN) has joined the American CTIA in agreeing on microUSB as the cable standard for phones for the future. Note that most Symbian-powered phones already use this. Secondly, there's a new, official Symbian Foundation theme (screenshot and d/l link below), which I'm determined to try out. Finally, Symbian's Horizon app-recommendation programme has gone live and is worth bookmarking.
The non-invasive DIY way to fix N97 LED flash flare
I'd been seeing comments about improving N97 camera flash flare (refracted through camera glass scratches) by using a marker pen, but hadn't quite got my head around exactly what to do. Luckily, I came across this helpful video on YouTube (embedded below) - the marker pen has to be applied to the sidewall between the flash silo and the start of the camera glass. See especially the photo at the end of the video.
When is a phone not a phone any longer?
In this feature, I look at the creeping size increases in modern 'phones' - at what point do they cease to become phones and turn into media 'tablets'? I postulate a definition that refers to the way in which these devices are used - proving that the Nokia N900 and HTC HD2 definitely aren't phones at all and throwing doubt on the N97 and iPhone in the process. Controversial? Moi?
Fujitsu appointed to the Symbian Foundation board of directors
Fujitsu has been appointed to the board of directors of the Symbian Foundation. As a result, Fujitsu will, as an OEM Board Member, contribute to the funding of the Symbian Foundation and take an active role in all four Symbian Foundation councils (features and roadmap, architecture, user interface and release). Fujitsu have more than 8 years of Symbian experience and have released more than 20 Symbian handsets, second only to Nokia, including the first videophone.
The Phones Show 93 and Phones Show Chat 10
Just a quick note that The Phones Show 93 and The Phones Show Chat 10 are both now live, with plenty of Nokia/Symbian content that you might be interested in. In particular, you might like to note my 'top 5' choices in the former... See also the RSS feeds for the MP4/video and MP3/audio shows.
The Nokia N97 gets v20 and a new lease of life
[Story updated] Yes, it's out. For some product codes at least, with a changelog below. The next-gen Nokia N97 v20.x.019 firmware (a.k.a. PR 2.0), the biggest, most ambitious and most eagerly awaited firmware update in Nokia's history, is now available via Nokia Software Update. In short, RAM management is better and you effectively get a lot more flash memory on C: (provided you go through a little wipe/update/restore data effort) - plus the delights of kinetic, intuitive scrolling in all applications, transforming the S60 5th Edition experience, and a mountain of smaller fixes. See below for the changelog and comments.
Nokia 6788 - TD-SCDMA Symbian phone
Nokia today launched the Nokia 6788 - a TD-SCDMA Symbian phone. TD-SCDMA is a China-specific version of 3G, which is used by China Mobile. The Nokia 6788, which runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, has a vertical slider form factor, a 5 megapixel camera, and 2.8 inch QVGA screen. The phone is expected to become available at the end of December 2009.
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