Thanks to Web Runtime Widgets (WRTs) and QtWebKit, presenting web apps as native apps has become a quick and efficient way of publishing to Symbian devices. The same applies on other mobile platforms with their equivalent development tools too. However, when anyone can sell an application in the Ovi Store which encapsulates any website, do we need to become cannier shoppers? Read on for a cautionary tale.
Large reference texts have long been something ideally suited to carrying around in electronic form and I've had several requests for a round up of ways to take the Bible with you. It has, in fact, been something I'd been meaning to research for ages, so here goes. It's true that Bible options on Symbian^3 are somewhat more limited than on other mobile platforms (even than on earlier Symbian versions, e.g. S60 3rd Edition), but that's no reason to lose faith in the idea....
Eagle eyed observers may have noticed that Nokia has stopped including the N97 (classic) in some of its compatibility lists for various software releases. This is almost certainly because of problems with RAM or flash memory and it has prompted me to prepare a little obituary for this (not so) classic device, I think the time has come even for N97 die-hards to move on.... What were the mistakes Nokia made, how did they happen, is there anything that can still be done and what should N97 (R.I.P.) owners upgrade to?
I've recently got rather fed up with a part of modern smartphone life: every time I want to take a decent photo on any device, it's out with a clean tissue (or a corner of my t-shirt!), I breathe on the camera 'glass' (it's not really glass) and then wipe gently away, removing the inevitable finger smudges, face grease and dust. After all, not doing so means a blurry photo (and with sunlight flares, if the sun's out). But what's the alternative?
Following on from part one of our look at monetising applications, it's time to look at the most prevalent method. The direct sale of the application, be it from a shareware model or the dual nature of lite/full applications in an App Store, to time limited apps and in-app purchasing, there are a number of choices to get the money straight out of the user's wallet.
As pointed out by My Nokia Blog, the Nokia World 2011 event page has been updated with additional speaker information. The speakers contain no real surprises, with CEO Stephen Elop headlining, supported by Jo Harlow and Mary McDowell (the heads of smart devices and mobile phones respectively). However, this does give us a chance to highlight some of the topics that will be covered at the event, as Nokia looks ahead to 2012.
In a shockingly unscientific real world experiment, I took an hour out at a busy UK train station to scan what phones and smartphones people were using in summer 2011. Go on, admit it, you do this too when on the move. The biggest surprise was that the most popular mobile form factor didn't involve a fruit logo on the back, a large display or touch control.
Sharing content from a Symbian phone has never been a straightforward process. It was streamlined thanks to PixelPipe's Send and Share application, which integrated into Symbian's native Send menu. Pixelpipe can simultaneously post to a vast range of services. Unfortunately, that application is no longer available, even though the service is still available via email uploading. Therefore, here is a round up of the other options for Symbian sharing. Read on to see how the All About Symbian team push content from our phones.
The modern smartphone landscape places a huge emphasis on third party applications, but those applications don't simply appear. The developers behind them need to make a living, or at least justify their investment of time. The monetisation of apps is at the forefront of many in the industry, including us here at All About Symbian. Over the next month or so, we're going to look at monetising applications, the choices open to developers, best practices and implementation strategies. First up, an overview of the landscape as it stands today, and how we got here.
An unusual head to head, this, in that the non-Symbian device is much the cheaper of the two and with distinctly budget pretensions. Still, the physical comparison is apt and it gives us another data point as to how Symbian powered smartphones compare to the competition mid 2011. Even if the data point is in this case well away from the flagship/superphone end of the spectrum.
