Recent News Headlines - Links of Interest
Phones Show 94
Just a note that The Phones Show 94, programme 94 is now out, featuring extended news, a user testimony (N86), my review of the Nokia E91 N98 N97 mini and a top 10 Android application run down. On a technical note, the MP4 codec used in making the QVGA version for those subscribed to the show (via RSS) on their smartphones has been downgraded to 'MPEG-4 basic', meaning that it should play smoothly on absolutely every phone in existence 8-) Comments welcome if you still have a playback issue!
Nokia launches Messaging information site
Nokia has launched Messaging.nokia.com , a new portal site for all their messaging software ambitions. From email to social networks to IM, this should be the place to come to pick up latest news. There's a blog to subscribe to as well. Now all they've got to do is (ahem) finish the software itself!
The N86 8MP gets a thumbs-up at The Register
The Register has been taking a close look at the Nokia N86 8MP, concluding "Sure, it won’t shake up the smartphone market. But, bringing 8Mp camerawork to the Nokia range for the first time, the N86 is another heavyweight addition to the Nseries line-up." It seems they didn't spot the variable aperture or true digital zoom in video recording, mind you, but they still liked it overall, just as the N86 won a place in our hearts.
Symbian aim for 'Satisfaction'
The third party community support site, GetSatisfaction, is fairly well known. It transpires that there's now an official (as in manned by Symbian employees) Symbian sub-community here, hopefully worth bookmarking should you 'need to ask that awkward question'.... Early days, of course, so the numbers are small but I'm sure it will grow.
The Nokia N97 v20 firmware Q&A
On Tuesday evening, I took part in a Nokia first - bloggers from round the world were invited to a (virtual) meet with the people behind a device's firmware, in this case Frank Zillikens, the Lead Firmware Developer, and Catalin Gheorghiu, a member of the technical team responsible for the recent firmware upgrade, both for the huge v20 update for the Nokia N97. Clinton Jeff, also attending, has taken the time to produce a nice summary of the questions and answers. Note that more questions were actually asked and that Nokia said they'd get back to us with answers in due course.
EyeMags, easy mobile content creation, adds S60 Touch support
EyeMags, a service for generating personal content applications for mobile phones, has today added support for S60 5th Edition phones such as the Nokia 5800, Nokia N97 and Sony Ericsson Satio. EyeMags, using a web-based creator, allows anyone to create their own cross platform (JME, iPhone and Symbian) 'snackable' mobile content application containing a mixture of text and pictures. Read on for further details.
Symbian UI concept video from SEE 2009
At last week's Symbian Exchange and Exposition, Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) showed, during the keynote, a concept video of what a future Symbian UI might look like. The video shows a typical use case: accepting an invite to a party via Facebook and, the next day, attending the party. There's a glimpse of a new look homescreen, complete with social web integration, navigation and mapping features enhanced by augmented reality functionality. Read on to view the video and my comments.
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.
Nokia's Savander on Ovi and the USA
There's a great and interesting interview here with Nokia's Niklas Savander by the USA's 'CNET', talking about Ovi, app stores and Nokia's lack of penetration in the USA market. Well worth a read and helps understand where Nokia is coming from.
Google Mobile Search adds voice, and multi-language too
Google's S60 'portal' search utility, 'Google Mobile App' just got itself an update to v2.03(8), bringing voice searching - and it works rather impressively. Bring up the S60 3rd Edition utility in the usual way (e.g. by pressing 'C' on the homescreen) and then press and hold the green call key to speak your search string. Some screenshots, videos and links below.
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