This is 2008 and, being away from home, I wanted to revisit some of the free satellite navigation applications that I'd previously played with over a year ago - surely one of them had developed into something that could get me home? Or is successful real time navigation still the preserve of the commercial applications like Nokia Maps, Wayfinder, CoPilot, etc.?
Steve Litchfield looks at the state of the market in terms of location-based search software and services. A bit of a mouthful, that - what we're talking about is ways of asking 'Where's the nearest hospital (or ATM or hotel) and how do I get to it?' That sort of thing.
For all the bright lights, technology and potential, has the smartphone really changed how we live in the world? Ewan, with his tongue slightly in his cheek, says that they haven't changed anything.
Steve Litchfield argues that sometimes you just need to stop lusting, stop fiddling and simply enjoy.
Ewan's been looking at some of the real-time and not-so-real-time video solutions for smartphones....
Looking at LG's latest 'Secret', Steve Litchfield ponders on the mighty spec list, matching just about every smartphone blow for blow. But it's not all about specs - let's also remember why a smartphone is 'smart' in the first place - the native software which you can add to take it from being just a super-phone to being a true 'multimedia computer'.
With so much freeware around, is there still a market for paid-for software? And which would be the top picks of the All About Symbian team?
Nokia is due to launch its innovative "Comes With Music" service this year, which will let owners of selected smartphones legally download as much music as they want and keep it forever. It sounds like commercial suicide, but it actually does make economic sense for both the music industry and the consumer, and this article explains why. We also ask whether such a scheme could be expanded to cover video, games and applications as well.
In which I rant a little about the glaring lack of common sense in today's navigation applications... and explain what's happened to the sat-nav group test that we promised six months ago...
