I've written about EDoF before, of course, explaining how it works and rationalising why it's used so much and who it's aimed at. Ten of the eleven Symbian^3/Anna/Belle smartphones use EDoF cameras, rather amazingly - Nokia has gone 'all-in' with the technology. But I wanted to come to a verdict once and for all - for me, this time: could I live with EDoF? Taking only the Nokia C7 with me for a whole weekend of family activities and leaving the N8 at home(!), just how good could my EDoF-taken snaps be? Or just how disappointing? We find out below in a truly image-tastic gallery, with comments.
The smartphone world moves, as they say, at a frantic pace. What is cutting edge one month is replaced six (or even three) months later. Making rather a mockery of typical 18 and 24 month phone contracts, but that's another rant for another day. More to the point, we've had a number of new Symbian handsets announced and then made available in the last few months (Nokia 603, 700, 701), all running Symbian Belle. Where on earth does this leave the original Symbian^3 handsets from 2010? On the shelf? Not likely....
NFC, widely touted to be one of the 'next big things' is here already in the Nokia C7, Google Nexus S and Blackberry Bold 9900, plus all the new Symbian Belle handsets have it built-in and other manufacturers and platforms are sure to follow. But what actually is Near Field Communications and how does it work? What can you do with it right now and what will it enable in the future? Here's a bookmark-able primer that should answer all your questions.
We've all been impressed by Apple's launch of their 'Siri' voice interrogation technology in the new iPhone 4S. But it should be borne in mind that something along the same lines (though admittedly nowhere near as adaptable) has been possible for ages on Symbian, even on extreme budget hardware. Just as a reminder, and with some comments on whether this is the way forward for smartphones generally, here's a demo of the free Vlingo in action on an old S60 3rd Edition handset.
One of the longest serving 'stars' in the Symbian software firmament has been Handy Safe Pro, working on every device from 2004 up to the present day. It's an encrypted database, of course, a way of keeping all your PINs, passwords, logins, reference numbers and much more, all safe from prying eyes. One key feature is that every entry can have a note and this can often run to dozens of extra lines. Which makes the tool very flexible, but how to get all of this information over to a new smartphone on another mobile platform? In this case, Windows Phone?
Amid all the anticipation and speculation surrounding Nokia’s Windows Phone handsets, you’d be forgiven for thinking you have to move with the times and give up your staunch Symbian sidekick. Don’t be in too much of a rush though; while Windows Phone will improve over time, things aren’t all that rosy on the Redmond side of the fence.
Both devices are now out and established, fighting for the title of 'Best Portrait Qwerty' - it's the Nokia E6 and Blackberry Bold 9900. Having now used both for a few weeks, here's my detailed head to head, comparing them blow for blow. Both devices have compromises, remarkably similar, both are from companies fighting to stay alive in the 2011 smartphone space - is there a winner and are either of them ultimately good enough?
More of an observation than a rant (though see below), but the rise and rise of the REAL camera phone puts quite a bit of pressure on us geeks, whatever mobile OS we currently favour. You see, the theory is that "the best camera is the one you have with you" but in practice all smartphones aren't created equal in the camera department and that has unforeseen social repercussions....
Have you seen the number of applications that are little more than a list of website articles? Or launch a bookmark? Or are yet another eBook reader of the Project Gutenberg text of A Princess of Mars? Why are they all still flooding every mobile app store on the planet? Because I think, secretly, the stores love the spam.
I've tried to like Nokia Social over the last 12 months, I really have. And in attempting to document how to use it effectively in the light of other, more capable, contact-social schemes like in Windows Phone Mango, I keep coming up against limitations and annoyances which should really have been addressed by now. At the risk of stating the obvious, here's Social's limited take on contact integration, my constructive comments, and five other things that should definitely be on the Nokia Social team's to-do list.
