Ahead of part 2 of our detailed review of the Nokia E7, covering its camera functions and multimedia generally, you'll recall EDoF's inability to shoot anything closer than about 40cm crisply? This limitation is a far more serious one for the potential E7 owner than it is for (say) someone with the C7 or C6-01, whose main 'macro' subjects might be cats, flowers and bowls of fruit(!) A mobile professional is going to want to use the E7 camera as a scanning/recording device, to snap white boards, back-of-envelope sketches, logos, documents and business cards, in some cases with recognition software to process what's been captured. Can it be done?
Putting aside the initial commentary of doom, the partnership between Nokia and Microsoft has got a lot of people thinking of what could happen next. It would be fair to say that it’s caused pretty much everyone to stop, think, and try and make an educated guess as to the next move of Espoo and Seattle. So let’s have a little look around and see what some of the names in the mobile technology space think of it.
One of my loyal Twitter following asked me an interesting question last week: if I had the choice between a Nokia N8 and an identical N8 (hardware-wise) running Android 2.3, which would I go for? It's a testament to Nokia's hardware prowess that I had to think about my answer (of which more below). And, in the same week, I observed exactly the same thing when reviewing the HTC Desire Z, which (despite its obvious attractions) had me immediately pining for Nokia's build quality and component choice. It's (nearly) all about the hardware - for me, at least.
This is going to sound strange, radical, blasphemous and counter-intuitive, but I've a sneaking suspicion that the recent reported (whether it is actually true yet or not) overtaking of Symbian OS by Android on the world stage does, in one fell swoop, more for Symbian's credibility than all the technical slides, sales numbers and glowing reviews from the last few years put together.
After my extended musings on what makes a smartphone and on the varying definitions around the world (see below for a summary), something else hit me yesterday as I pondered more pronouncements from around the world. Apologies if this seems like me rehashing an old argument, but it seems that there's more to the very word 'smartphone' than meets the eye too! Read on....
Twenty four hours later and the discussion around Nokia’s Q4 2010 results is still going on. Taking some time to go over what was announced, filed and talked about, there are a number of points that I think need to be considered in between all the hype, fluff and distractions.
You'll remember my somewhat scathing appraisal of the current state of in-app advertising in Symbian applications last week? I focussed on both the aesthetics and overall user experience and found the implementation somewhat lack-lustre, to say the least. inneractive is the company behind the examples given and I was pleased to get a direct response from Hillel, inneractive's marketing manager, asking for right of reply, to explain the company's approach and plan. The full interview between myself and Hillel is below, for your interest.
As writers who often seem to be taking Nokia's side, against the prevailing mood in the world tech press, I'd like to justify why our faith isn't misplaced. Specifically, in the context of updates and stability. It's at this point that I have to acknowledge the few who have bought specific network-branded, locked Nokia smartphones in some countries and been left high and dry, but on the whole Nokia's firmware and application update programme has been relatively impressive. Read on for my thoughts and a cautionary tale or three.
The pendulum swings regularly in the software world, with different ways of making money from software being in 'vogue'. The latest fashion, somewhat predictably, with most applications and games needing a price of 'free' in order to get serious numbers of downloads, is to put adverts inside the app or game and rely on income from these to bring in a similar amount of money to that which you'd have expected if you'd tried to sell the item by more conventional means. The concept is indeed sound - but I'm finding the implementation often lacking. What's needed is more imagination.
I have a new party trick and you won't be surprised it involves my smartphone. And a kitchen knife. All of which has got me musing about the nature (and role) of touchscreens on handheld devices through the years. Expectations and roles sure have changed. Though it's tempting to say that there's nowhere else for the touchscreen to go. The rest is surely up to the programmers behind the glass?
