You'll remember from three months ago that I explored, in some depth, peoples' various definitions of what makes a phone a 'smartphone'. I also tested some of these with a concrete example. Musing on the apparent huge divide between the excellent and dismissive reviews of the Nokia N8, it hit me that one of the original tenets of smartphone-ness is utterly personified in the N8 and yet almost totally ignored by tech-mainstream reviewers. They are indeed working to a totally different definition of the word - and this split in meaning for this now oh-so-common word threatens to not only confuse the casual reader but also split the smartphone world apart. Can't we bring the best of each world together and give peace a chance?
Watching the feeds and blog sites in the last week would get a hypochondriac very worried, as multiple sites are reporting a “dangerous and new threat” from touchscreen smartphones, specifically that there are highly infectious virii being transmitted by sharing phones (stories like ”The Ultimate Bacteria Carrier” being typical). Really? You know, a bit of research and some common sense proves exactly the opposite. If you want to read more than the first paragraph, that is.
Let me introduce you to guest writer Tony Butler, a long time AAS reader and, as it turns out, a first class wordsmith too. Like me, he has been fighting to balance the innate gadget lust that all of us secretly harbor with common sense - admitting that the current smartphone we own actually works pretty well. Grab a coffee and read on - I guarantee that some of his musings will strike a chord with many reading this - and may well help save you a few pennies by staving off the dreaded 'lust'....
So..... Xenon flash is back in fashion (thank goodness) and we have several top end smartphones with decent cameras and decent overall specifications. Having now been using the Nokia N8 for two weeks, I wanted to pitch it at the Motorola XT720, its exact counterpart in the Android world. Which device wins out overall in terms of specifications, usability, software and results? Here's my latest best-of-Symbian versus best-of-Android 'head to head'!
In case you missed it, there was another 'seven' in the mobile world yesterday to go alongside the shipping of the C7. Microsoft unveiled their new mobile OS and platform, Windows Phone 7. The fireworks are out in celebration as what is essentially a new platform with zero market share attempts (yet again) to take over the world.
Navteq were present at Nokia World 2010, with one of their GeoData collection cars taking centre stage. They were also showing a promotional video of their LIDAR based 3D data collection system. Also on display was the first showing of a mobile client to actually make use of Navteq's 3D street maps, running on the Maemo-powered Nokia N900. Read on for more details and a demonstration video.
One of the challenges of the 2010 and 2011 smartphone is that being online is not just about email and web anymore. There's a complete social awareness of what your friends and family are up to, of breaking news, with complete interactivity in terms of everybody commenting on, and replying to, each other's updates. Plus these social networks have their own 'Inbox', meaning that for many people the social environment is their primary online interaction. Up until now, social on Symbian has largely meant third party apps and clunky widgets. But on top of Symbian^3 on their new devices, Nokia has implemented some fairly comprehensive social networking integration. Let me walk you through how it works, while David reports with some more background from a chat he had at Nokia World with the Social team.
One of the future technology demonstrations at Nokia World 2010 was an innovative system for providing indoor location services. Indoor positioning has always been a missing link in navigation software because GPS signals cannot penetrate into buildings. This new system from Nokia Research Centre has the potential to revolutionise navigation, providing a seamless transition between outdoor and indoor navigation. For example, allowing people to navigate to a public place, and then find their way around once inside, and much more. Read on.
At the beginning of September, the four Symbian Councils (Features and Roadmap, UI, Architecture and Release) held their latest face to face meetings. The usual range of activities were carried out, examination, review of and voting on contribution proposals, assessment of the hardening of Symbian^3 and feature complete date for Symbian^4, and much more. Also of interest was the proposal to change the naming of Symbian releases. This will see the introduction of minor release numbers.
On show at Nokia World 2010 were several exciting examples of future technology. One of those was a research project brought from Nokia's Beijing research and development labs. Named "Plug and Touch", it's an application which can turn any type of visual display (TV or projector) into a Symbian-powered touch screen display. Click through to read our commentary and see the demonstration video.
