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Top Story: Ewan around America with a $250 phone budget - part 3
Some say his beard is made of stainless steel. Some say he relaxes by hanging upside down from the light fittings. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 3 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230 / Nokia Nuron). In part 3, Ewan goes shopping, mapping and walking.
Top Story: Lee Williams walkabout at MWC 2010
Our latest MWC video features a walkabout with Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, in Hall 1 of exhibition area. The video summarises some of the key messages of the Symbian Foundation from the event. There's discussion of the buzz around Symbian at MWC, the formal launch of Symbian^3, the Open Screen Project (which the Symbian Foundation had just joined), the importance and strengths of Qt to Symbian developers going forward, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz and the bright future for Symbian.
Wayfinder finally dies a cold Swedish death...
Some sad news, I'm afraid. You'll remember Sweden's Wayfinder navigation software from back in the early 2000s - I was a proponent, loving the fact that it would work on anything because it didn't need to have hundreds of Megabytes of maps preloaded (well, it seemed a lot at the time). Sydsvenskan is now reporting the Wayfinder story (including the Vodafone buyout over a year ago) and says that Wayfinder has now given up, in the face of free navigation from Nokia (and, to some extent, Google). Tough times, though the cycle of operating systems and ecosystems building in functionality which started out as third party add-ins has been going on for decades.
Replacing Nokia's 'hero' battery, the BP-4L
You may have heard myself praise Nokia's 'hero' battery, the Lithium-Polymer BP-4L, rated at 1500mAh, and used in everything from the E61 to the E90, most Eseries devices seem to be based on it, plus it's the core of the likes of the 6650 and N97. Anyway, it turns out that David Gilson (of this parish) reviewed a third party 'drop in' (i.e. no new phone back needed) replacement for the BP-4L, rated at 1900mAh, back at the end of 2009. Having updated it with new information (it works properly in the N97, but didn't in the original phone), I thought you'd be interested in having a read too.
Google Maps for Mobile Street View now for the whole UK
Google's drive for world domination around your country has been going nicely, judging from the fact that Street View just went live for virtually all the UK. Yes, every last track, every last estate road - it's all there in glorious technicolour on your smartphone. Google Maps for Mobile itself is available from the usual m.google.com/gmm and to see Street View you need to long tap on any location and pick 'Street View' from the pop-up menu.
Unfortunately, App Stores are not the answer
The last year or so has seen one of the biggest changes in distributing mobile applications – the rise of the App Store. It has had a huge effect on all areas of development, especially in the gaming sector, which thrives on snack-sized gaming sessions. Here in San Francisco at the tenth Game Developer Conference (GDC), a number of sessions and panels have been specifically focussed on this new distribution channel. To call it a new channel though is a little bit short-sighted, given that stores have been around since the end of the twentieth century (such as Handango), and Nokia's N-Gage store is widely seen as the first mobile gaming app store for a single handset family. Read on...
Nokia's Tero Ojanperä on Solutions and strategy
Nokia is currently transforming itself from a hardware company to a hardware+services (solutions) company. At MWC 2010, we spoke to Tero Ojanperä, EVP of Services, in order to get an insight into current progress. Over a wide-ranging interview we cover a number of topics around Nokia's service strategy including how Ovi fits into Nokia's software platform strategy, the thought processes that led to free navigation, the importance of services compared to phone hardware, getting content onto the Ovi Store, the importance of partners and much more.
YouTube Mobile hits v2.4, gets account support
The YouTube Mobile client for S60 has gone through more versions than I've had flavours of ice cream recently, but at last the one we've all been waiting for has appeared. Version 2.4 (build 4) has full support for YouTube favourites, plus search suggestions and a revamped layout on S60 5th Edition phones like the Nokia 5800. Read on.
Ewan around America with a $250 phone budget - part 2
Some say he plays tiddlywinks with 50p pieces. Some say he plays electric guitar secretly at 5am each morning. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 2 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230 / Nokia Nuron).
The Vivaz is in the house - test footage from its HD autofocus camera
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has arrived for review, enabling me to start testing its unique HD autofocus camera. See below for an embedded version of my test footage, plus a little sunlight video taken in London by Sony Ericsson a few days ago. The good news: the video is excellent, the autofocus quick and silent; the bad news: audio's a little on the quiet side. Still, pretty astounding for such a small camera unit in such a small smartphone. See below.
Discovering the Pros and Cons of Touch. Is this the Future?
After resisting the persistent trend of touch screen smartphones, David Gilson reports on his experience of living with some S60 5th Edition touch screen phones, namely the Nokia 5230 and N97. Could it be that, like me, he finds the biggest strength of touch screens isn't that they respond to touch?
Review: Cube Touch: Match
Over on our Ovi Gaming site, Ewan goes hunting through the Ovi Store to find a free little game to while away part of his long trans-Atlantic flight - and finds the Bejewelled clone 'Cube Touch: Match' - which fits the bill perfectly. Describing the game as more "Zen" than challenge, this is an interesting title that's worth keeping in a (purple) corner of your mass memory or memory card, it seems.
Sony Ericsson Vivaz - design choices, comparison with Pro, video demo
Continuing from our previous Sony Ericsson Vivaz videos we look at some of the key design charcteristics of the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro (human curvature, light reflection effects and material choices), compare the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro on video, take a brief look at some of the different colours that will be available and get a demo of the handset shooting video and uploading to YouTube. Taken together these videos help you get a clearer picture of Sony Ericsson's new Symbian^1 handsets.
Satio update enhances camera and core functionality, but still buggy
As work has continued on Sony Ericsson's take on S60 5th Edition with the Vivaz, it's not surprising that the Satio has reaped the benefit, inheriting benefits and fixes. Widely panned on release six months ago, the Satio finally delivers on a bit more of its promise with this update, 'R2AK', a 108MB download, which has been dribbling out for some product codes but is right now available using the Sony Ericsson Update Service in Western Europe. Comments, changes, links and more below - though I have to warn you that some of the core bugs and issues remain unresolved.
Ovi Maps now down to 'admin charges' levels for older phones
As noted in Rafe's Maps interview thread, Nokia isn't keen to put resources behind creating a version of Ovi Maps 3.3 with free voice navigation for older S60 3rd Edition FP2 and FP1 (and vanilla 3rd Edition) phones. A good question is why Nokia doesn't then just make existing navigation licenses free, thus having much the same effect. It seems that they've gone much of the way to 'free' for older devices, with even a full 'Drive Europe' license now only costing 10 Euros for a year - this presumably to help cover admin and server costs. Photo proof and more below.
The All About Symbian Challenge: Ewan around America, 2010
Some say he has a pet polar bear. Some say his beard glows gently on the darkest night. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 1 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges, Top Gear style. There's even a cameo by The Stig.
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MWC 2010 Video Content
View a list of all our MWC related video including interviews with key mobile executives from Symbian, Sony Ericsson and Nokia, hands-on with handsets, developer profiles, stand tours and much more.
Symbian Software
TIP: Check out our feature article on recommended software for some of the best commercial software available for your phone.
Zlango Icon Messaging
Zlango free icon messaging brings text messages to life! Incorporate Urban, Gorgeous & Classic themed icons among your text to add spice & personality into your messages.SPB Quads - Make Your Biggest Quad
SPB Quads is an arcade game for touchsceens. The player's goal is to reveal and mark rectangles' corners of the same colors in a field filled with color bricks.BigBen S60
A combined clock screensaver and key lock application, that also offers reminders for missed calls and incoming messages.Marble Maze 2
Second version of the famous Marble Maze game is finally here! Here''s the Marble Maze 2.Local Guide
LocalGuide application helps you navigate to your favorite destination.Gold Premium 2.0 Theme
This Gold Premium theme is design for Symbian S60 3rd and 5th edition devices. You will never get tired of this amazing theme.ABBYY FotoTranslate English version
ABBYY FotoTranslate English version translates words with a single button push,you don't need to type unknown foreign words by hand.
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