David Gilson sat in on Vodafone's Vitorri Colao's keynote yesterday, at Nokia World 2010. He spoke about real world mobile usage and what needs to be done to increase this, in both existing and developing markets, breaking down what mobile consumers currently do and where Vodafone would like to see the market move. Overall, it's a useful snapshot of the 2010 mobile world across the globe - at least, as seen by Big Red.
With the first Symbian^3 device now imminent - the Nokia N8 - and with other Symbian^3 phones about to be announced, it's worth taking a look at what's new. Is it a case of a tarted up S60 5th Edition rehash, or is there in fact plenty that's worthy of serious note? Will Symbian^3 convince the tech doubters? Starting with a genuine user 'first impressions' that had been sent in, I attempt a rebuttal and an exploration of the underlying changelog.
We're used to Symbian, iOS and Android being the big players in the mobile wars, but Microsoft are ready to return to the fray. Mind you, they never really left, and the Windows Mobile 7 UI is already out there with consumers. In this feature, I take a look at the Zune HD and how it interacts with its audience. Is there a lesson in here for the Symbian Foundation for Symbian ^3, ^4 and beyond? You bet! Read on...
You'll remember that, exactly a year ago, I published a piece here, 'Three apps on my smartphone...', looking at what I reckoned was a common fallacy when looking at smartphone app stores and the numbers quoted? Presenting a 2010 take on the matter, with a slight upgrade from three to (ahem) five, with a semi-serious suggestion for a premium download store or area, and, yes, with an even sharper tone of ridicule at some of the stats and opinions being quoted in the popular press.
Following on from the previous articles in his series looking at the sub £100 smartphone (namely the Symbian powered Nokia 5230 and the Android fuelled ZTE Racer), Ewan here turns his eye to the other major parts of the built in software - namely, PIM apps, music and media. How do the two budget smartphones fare against each other?
Nokia’s blog has picked out five applications for your smartphone that will make your time at the summer music festivals just that little bit better. But only five? Surely there are more than that we can come up with? I put my blue suede trainers on and headed online to find the top apps for music lovers.
David Gilson turns blogger in this Day in the Life of the Nokia N82, bought by him for camera duties and becoming his tool of choice for an all day wedding event. Read on for his impressions of this three year old device and its Xenon flash, sample photos and even a battery report - it seems that rumours of the N82's demise have been greatly exagerated...
Spurred on by his reviews of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro and Samsung i8910 HD, David Gilson looks at the huge investment Nokia has made into providing an Ovi service layer - it seems that, whatever Ovi's detractors might say, the absence of this service layer on non-Nokia hardware is desperately noticeable. He also wonders whatever became of Symbian's Horizon project - as good a starting point as any for getting applications out to all Symbian smartphones.
David Gilson explores the relative benefits of native applications and cloud applications, both from a consumer point of view, and from the point of view of the developers who ultimately supply our applications. Will the cloud replace the traditional app?
Our rule of thumb is that 95% of content in every mobile app store is complete rubbish, without significant merit. But, rather than dismiss this 95% en-bloc, or one at a time, we thought we'd do better to dismiss some of the worst offenders category by category, so that you can spot future offenders yourself more easily in future. The traditional way is to handle software roundups is to go for a Top Ten list, and we've done a few here in the past (such as this Top Time Management Apps list). But, by way of something slightly different, here's some coverage of the Top Ten Lists we won't be compiling... naturally itself in the form of a somewhat recursive Top Ten List!
