Something caught my eye with the new Symbian client for LinkedIn last month. Partly it was "ooh, a Web 2.0 site has decided to release a Symbian version, we need more of those", but given the business nature of LinkedIn I don't think this is a huge surprise. No, what got me was that the application felt horribly familiar. Yes it's nicely polished, has all the functionality that you would expect, but something about it seemed to echo in my brain. This was a new app, but it felt as old as the digital superhighway.
Carrying on with my look at the Windows Phone system while attending the Blog World New York conference, it's time to turn my eye to something that's becoming more important to every smartphone platform - the interaction with social networks such as Facebook and Twitter. Can you keep up with your online presence on Windows Phone, and what impact does this have on the rest of your day with the latest smartphone?
Tomi Ahonen, like me, has been a heavy Nokia Communicator user over the years. And so our opinions on the Nokia E7 should be pretty similar. He has just published his long term critique of the device and, in typical Tomi style, there's no holding back in terms of volume of words (so get yourself a coffee before settling down to read). While we do agree on many aspects of the E7, both good and bad, there are many, many notable criticisms made by Tomi that are well, well worth a response in the device's defense.
Alongside our coverage of the Windows Phone Mango announcement, I'm attending the BlogWorld conference in New York. Like most of my trips to the USA, this is a good opportunity to try out new smartphone hardware in a real world, fast moving environment. This time, rather than a new Symbian device, I'll be looking at a Windows Phone device - specifically the HTC Trophy.
Unless you've (literally) had your head under a rock for the last 3 years, you'll have noticed that 'thin' is 'in' in the phone world. The thinner the better and the lighter the better - the aim seems to be to create a phone that's nearly all screen and never mind its other attributes. Playing devil's advocate, I present five reasons why thinner is not necessarily better.
With the news that Nokia is closing the door on its Ovi Adventure, reported yesterday here on AAS by Rafe, this is a good time to look at Nokia's marketing message for the rest of the year, into 2012 and beyond. With the Microsoft partnership in the wings, it'll need to make sure that the Nokia message stays in the minds of the consumers. All it needs to do now is work out what that message is - and communicate it effectively.
Why the N8? It's a question I get asked a lot. Not just in the Symbian world, either (i.e. which is my pick of the current devices?), but out of the dozens of current smartphones that I've tested, borrowed or bought, why the heck am I still using the N8, a whopping seven months after I got it? After all, the OS is supposedly 'dead', the interface is 'unintuitive' and the screen on the small side for a 2011 champion phone. The answer, surprisingly, is not just all about the camera....
So I'm at the Eurovision Song Contest... and I know the idea of attending all the rehearsals, parties hosted by each country singing, welcome receptions by the Mayor of Dusseldorf, and generally immersing yourself in one of the biggest live TV shows of the year would strike terror and fear into the hearts and minds of many of you, but bear with me. I want to talk more about using the Nokia N8 at an event like Eurovision.
The new Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc has been long awaited by many in the Android community who wanted a challenger to the all-conquering Nokia N8 in the camera department. With its back-illuminated EXMOR R sensor, Sony Ericsson have been claiming extremely good low light performance. So, with the Arc in hand, I decided to put the two head to head for still photos under various conditions.
You may remember Nokia's rather thought-provoking video promo "Welcome to the Fourth Screen", embedded below? It was part of the launch of N-Gage 2.0 and devices like the N96 and, yes, it's now somewhat dated, in terms of specifics. But the central concept remains inspiring: that with a smartphone in our pocket we can go out into the world, rather than being cooped up in our homes and offices, plugged into broadband and desktop computers. Into the world, with its knocks and shocks, with rain, with extremes of sun and cold. Good thing that my smartphone tools of choice can take it. Here's some evidence...
