My trip to SXSW earlier this month illustrates another hard truth that’s important not just for Symbian, but for any mobile platform and application developers looking to make any headway in the socially networked online world. People need to be able to work with their online friends as quickly as possible.
Way back in time, around 2007(!), after he first tried the Apple iPhone, long time Nokia camera-fan James Burland confidently stated that he'd seen the future and that physical keypads and keyboards were a thing of the past. And in the main he was right, as demonstrated by many recent phone designs, as I'll explain below. But there's a holistic aspect to a particular QWERTY form factor that's missing from this analysis, and it helps explain why all of us on the All About Symbian have a bit of a soft spot for the E7 and its predecessors, despite logic, specifications and prevailing popular opinion.
Adding the BBC's News feed to a Symbian^3 homescreen is nice and simple - it's preloaded on many devices, so you can pick it from a list. But what if you want to add BBC News or another news source to the homescreen of an older, S60 5th Edition smartphone such as the Nokia C6-00 or N97 or N97 mini? It's a tiny bit fiddly, but then that's what our 'How to's are for - to make the fiddly somewhat easier!
It's a commonly held 'fact' that the apps in the iPhone (iOS) App Store blow away the competition, especially the young upstart that is the Ovi Store, with the latter having something like 10 times less bona fide applications. In the light of my recent editorials (e.g. here), I was curious as to how true (or false) this 'fact' is. Looking at the top selling and top freeware applications (and the best games) in the Apple iPhone App Store, how many are also available for Symbian, either directly or via an equivalent? More than you might think...
You may remember a piece from me almost a year ago in which I gave six reasons why the Nokia N97 sucked and nine reasons why it still 'ruled'? In this followup piece, I extend, for the first time, my popular 'Pimping' tutorial series to a touchscreen Symbian phone - and not just any old smartphone, but the one that everyone loves to hate, the flawed flagship that for many people epitomises some of the decisions that sealed Symbian's fate. However, I'm a geek, you're a geek, and the N97, now available second-hand for under £100, is about to get 'pimped'...
In this in-depth feature we look at the thinking behind the smartphone portion of Nokia's new strategy, which was announced on February 11th and sees, in essence, a transition from Symbian to Windows Phone. We consider Nokia's three options and explain that ultimately the necessecity for a competitive and sustainable ecosystem proved to be the vital factor in the decision.
INQ CEO Frank Meehan got himself into hot water a few days ago for suggesting that "pretty girls prefer iPhone and BlackBerry to Android" - making sweeping statements about demographics always gets quoted and there's usually a backlash of some kind. But, with no mention of Symbian (naturally enough, given Nokia's recent pronouncement), I figured that if Frank could do it then so could I. Read on for my own sweeping (and equally unscientific) demographic analysis, delivered with a healthy degree of hyperbole....
The Nokia Communicator marque strikes a chord for most of us, especially those who have been here since 2001 or so. The original 9210 was a break through device, offering most of the functionality of our old Psion palmtops, with a large full colour screen and phone and connectivity built-in. In many ways it was ahead of its time, as was the Psion before it. After ten years, how close are we now to the 'Ultimate Nokia Communicator'? Not very. Let's look at the background to the question and examine a few contenders.
You'll remember my somewhat scathing appraisal of the current state of in-app advertising in Symbian applications last week? I focussed on both the aesthetics and overall user experience and found the implementation somewhat lack-lustre, to say the least. inneractive is the company behind the examples given and I was pleased to get a direct response from Hillel, inneractive's marketing manager, asking for right of reply, to explain the company's approach and plan. The full interview between myself and Hillel is below, for your interest.
As writers who often seem to be taking Nokia's side, against the prevailing mood in the world tech press, I'd like to justify why our faith isn't misplaced. Specifically, in the context of updates and stability. It's at this point that I have to acknowledge the few who have bought specific network-branded, locked Nokia smartphones in some countries and been left high and dry, but on the whole Nokia's firmware and application update programme has been relatively impressive. Read on for my thoughts and a cautionary tale or three.
