Perhaps the most relevant 'pimping' piece I've ever done, this feature looks at the legendary Nokia N8, with some components that are still cutting edge in 2013 and with an OS that's been updated steadily since its launch in 2010. So - what can be done to ensure that a Nokia N8 is running as sweetly as possible today?
One of the staples in the Symbian world since the days of 'Series 60' has been Epocware's Handy Safe Pro - the original encrypted database of private info, synced happily between multiple Symbian devices and a Windows desktop. Heck, many of us still use it, despite a few availability glitches (cough: E6, Mac desktop), but the way forward when the time comes to move away from Symbian isn't completely clear cut. In this feature, I explore some of the options available, including SBSH's SafeWallet.
The Nokia E6, ever since its launch in an otherwise nHD-screened world, has been different. Higher (VGA) resolution, smaller physical screen, and landscape not portrait. All of which has meant a few headaches in terms of compatibility with some third party applications. But, once those have been weeded out, which applications do I (and the AAS community) really recommend for the Nokia E6? Apps which work well on the small landscape screen, and/or which work well with the d-pad and full keyboard? Here's my rundown. Oh, and the 'Communicator' in the title? - before you complain, see my postscript!
It's a fair cop, I just couldn't resist trying out another custom firmware for Symbian. At least in this case I had a willing volunteer, in the form of an old Nokia C7 which had been in heavy use for a year and which was in dire need of a clear out and rebuild anyway. Delight 6.2 for the C7 is freshly released, so I threw caution to the wind and flashed it onto what is now a two-and-a-half year old smartphone. How was the experience and what does Delight 6.2 firmware actually get you? Here's my report.
2013 should see, somewhat belatedly, a feature that has been standard on Nokia's Symbian since 2009 (and also on Meego) finally make it onto Windows Phone. Admittedly, there are some technical considerations here, since the feature only works if the devices have an AMOLED screen (most of the Symbian smartphones do/did), but there have also been issues of OS support, I suggest. What I'm talking about is, of course, the 'always on clock', about which I eulogise below, along with gratuitous shots of owls and leaves....
I asked a few days ago for screen grabs of your Nokia E6 homescreens (following up the generic nHD homescreen article), so that we can all learn and take inspiration from the set-up efforts of the wider AAS Communicator community - and here I present the results, along with some thoughts of my own on the unique challenges of configuring the Nokia E6 and its form factor.
Whether used explicitly, or bundled into another application such as gNewsReader or Gravity, there's been a heavy reliance in the Symbian world on Google Reader, the industry standard way of consuming RSS feeds from web pages across the Internet. With Google announcing that this service will be stopping in just over a month's time, it's time to look at other ways of gathering news via RSS. Here I look at a number of options.
I asked a few days ago for screen grabs of your Symbian homescreens, so that we can all learn and take inspiration from the set-up efforts of the wider AAS community - and here I present the results, thanks to everyone for your submissions, from all across the world. And if I didn't get round to including your homescreens, please don't be offended - I had way more submissions than could be reasonably included here. Do note that this article is quite big, in terms of bytes, because of the number of screenshots - please be patient while it all loads in your web browser!
Now I know what you're going to ask: "What's the point? If you're at home then you can use a real TV or a desktop/laptop, and if you're mobile then you probably don't want hours of mobile TV swallowing up your cellular bandwidth!" All very true, but say you're mobile, some breaking news is happening and you're frustrated that all you can see are headlines and textual reports. Wouldn't it be nice to see what's going on by tapping into a live TV stream? With, admittedly, a UK focus, I investigate a few options. I'm sure readers from around the world can chip in with links to solutions for Symbian that work in other areas?
The E6 may look a bit diminutive in today's world of monster screens, but it's still a popular concept in some circles. Not least chez Litchfield, which is why, when my E6 started playing up (after one app install too many!), I decided on a change and went looking for custom firmwares. Here's my report on the appallingly lengthily named 'Nokia E6-00 v3 - 111.140.58 -Belle Refresh Enhanced by Luna Updated' - what does it offer, over and above the final official Nokia firmware, how did the flashing go and how well does it work in practice?
