Nokia's Social networking application for its Symbian^3 devices (so far, the Nokia N8 and Nokia C7) has been updated to version 1.2. The most notable update is the ability to upload and share images and videos to social networks (Twitter and Facebook) directly from the Photos and Camera applications. Additionally, the overall UI of the application has been improved, with easier finger touch interaction and the use of larger font sizes (thankfully). Also updated is the homescreen widget and the process to link social network profiles to entries in the Contacts application.
Nokia's UK music service, Ovi Music, is now DRM-free in its pay-per-track store. Nokia started switching its music stores last year; while new country launches moved straight to the DRM-free version, existing countries have been switched over only gradually. Ahead of next week's Nokia World and the launch of the N8, Nokia is moving over most of the remaining countries to the new version of the service, where there are no restrictions on how and when you play any of your music downloads.
In All About Symbian Insight 134, we start with news of new, community created Samsung i8910 firmware, which leads to a discussion of Samsung's mobile platform choices. Rafe discusses the Ovi Files closure and talks about how the thinking behind Nokia's Ovi service strategy has evolved. David shares his PixelPipe Send and Share experiences, before bringing news of UK operator Orange's HD Voice service. Ewan talks about Swype, an alternative text input entry system, which is now available in beta. Finally, Steve gives his first opinion on the Nokia E5.
Orange UK have announced a new service called HD Voice, which will give superior audio call quality over its 3G network on selected phones. Available free of charge, the service will initially be available to a small set of phones; Nokia's 5230, X6 and E5, plus the Samsung Omnia Pro. Having listened to test calls, it is a vast improvement, but not quite up to the claimed "Crystal Clear" quality as claimed. Click through to read our commentary.
Nokia Experts reports that Ovi Files, Nokia's remote file access and cloud-based file mirroring/storage solution, will be discontinued on October 1st. The announcement is a set back to Nokia's Ovi service ambitions, but with relatively few users and low awareness, the long-term impact is likely to be small. A number of third party services, such as SugarSync and DropBox, provide a similar service for those who need to move from Ovi Files.
One of the more interesting numbers I came across this weekend was in regards to the use of Facebook. With over 500 million members, some 30% of them are accessing the site through a mobile device. Which means that 150 million people are not using the desktop web interface for the social network site. How long until the majority of users around the world are from mobile handsets?
In All About Symbian Insight 133, we start with news of the Nokia 5250, Nokia's cheapest ever smartphone, following which, Steve shares some more detail from his recent reviews of Let's Golf and Mommax's Mains Battery Charger. Rafe talks about Nokia and Intel's new joint laboratory for 3D mobile user experiences. Finally Ewan gives us his commentary on the the re-branding of Nokia Music to Ovi Music. You can listen to AAS Insight 133 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Applications are rarely completely static. Anything with a decent amount of functionality is bound to have either flaws - which then hopefully get fixed - or planned improvements. The big question is how to best to get these new versions out to users. In this news editorial, I look at how application updates work for the three big smartphone platforms of the moment, Symbian, iPhone and Android. What can those in the Symbian world learn or implement?
Self-proclaimed Position Art genius Stavros would have been proud, it seems that his art form is alive and well. At least according to the Ovi Blog's recent Sports Tracker competition, in which people were invited to send in their best captured 'tracks'. Here are the position art winners and, because I know you're wondering, here's Stavros's original Position Art mega-site "The World is my Canvas" - go on, browse around and watch - it's still a hoot, even two years on!
Bookatable, a European-based restaurant booking service, has been added to Ovi Maps. As with other Ovi Maps integrations (TripAdvisor, TimeOut, Expedia, Qype), the service is available via 'More' from the main Ovi Maps menu. It gives rapid access to a mobile optimised, location aware, version of the bookatable.com service, which runs within, and is connected to, the Ovi Maps application. The aim is to offer a superior user experience to the typical restaurant-phone-around to check availability and book a table.
Multimedia content creation on smartphone usually revolves around photos and videos, but what about the humble audio file? Audioboo is a popular audio clip publishing service and has mobile publishing clients for Android and iPhone. However, there is no support for Symbian devices. Never fear though, David Gilson is on the case and, in this how to article, shows us how to publish to Audioboo via Nokia Share Online and Pixelpipe's Audioboo plugin.
One of the most under-rated features of the Nokia N8 is its new email client, in the form of an upgraded version of Nokia Messaging. The Nokia Messaging team, in a blog post and video, talk about some of the key improvements, which include full HTML email support, improved device integration, easier set up and settings configuration, portal address lookup for GMail and Hotmail and improved performance characteristics. Also in N8 related news is the availability of N8 pre-orders through the Nokia USA web store.
Nokia's unlimited music service, which launched as Comes with Music (CwM) in late 2008, has been steady gorwing its geographic footprint. Last year Nokia started branding new country (e.g. India) launches as Ovi Music Unlimited (OMU), more obviously linking the service with its Ovi service brand. An email to UK based users of CwM, which says that 'Comes with Music will soon be part of Ovi', suggests that Nokia is now in the process of switching CwM over to OMU, thus unifying its unlimited music service brand.
The online service element of Sports Tracker, the application that lets you track exercise activities (workouts) and turns your Nokia smartphone into a GPS sports computer, is now available. The online service allows you to see at a glance information about each activity, easily visualise your workouts, make comparisons and share activities with others via the Sports Tracker website, Facebook or Twitter. Read on for more information and screenshots.
