Skyhook has launched a plug-in for the Positioning system in S60 phones, dubbed Maps Booster and illustrated/reviewed below. Essentially, Maps Booster hooks into the Location sub-system in Symbian OS and adds WiFi-based location services, especially useful in urban areas, where GPS struggles on account of tall buildings and lack of sky coverage. Read on for more.
There are a few people in the mobile ecosystem whose opinion I make sure to listen to. Mark Guim has been around the block almost as long as I have and here provides a (month) long term review of the Nokia N900, running Maemo 5, of course. If you're currently using an N97 (for example) and had been wondering whether the grass was greener on the other side, his review should answer your questions. Summary? If you live in the browser, you'll love the N900 - if you live in apps and media, then best stick with Symbian and the N97.
Nokia Music (PC Client), Nokia's software for managing and transferring music to Nokia devices, has been renamed Nokia Ovi Player. With the name change comes a small update: there's official support for Windows 7 and the addition of 'Recent' to the navigation/filter tabs (joining the existing Albums, Artists and Genre tabs). Nokia Ovi Player is a relatively resource hungry application, but it does offer a one-stop-solution for managing, buying (from the Nokia Music Store), and importing (burning from CD) music as well as transferring music to MTP compatible mobile devices.
Firmware version 22.009.202.01 now available for the Nokia E52. It appears to only be available via NSU, not OTA at this time in the UK, at least. The update most likely consists primairly of bug fixes. For example, there are no noticeable additions like the Podcasting app or Internet radio are present. It may be worth upgrading if you're having problems, but beware - take your backup and restore as the NSU wipes the device clean. Update: of course the E52 should have UDP but just a warning that this one was wiped well and truly back to factory! A similar update is also available for the E55.
In which Ewan Spence takes a slightly light hearted look at the infrastructure and privacy implications of Nokia's latest Device/Services concept video, introduced at The Way We Live Next event in Espoo. Rafe responds, having been in attendance, pointing out that the future will always contain challenges and changes to The Way We Currently Live(!). Your comments most welcome, of course - this one could run and run!
SEE 2009 (Symbian Exchange and Exposium) is Symbian's annual big show. In part 2 of my walkabout video you can join me on a amble around the show floor at SEE 2009. I share my impressions and analysis in an unscripted, one-take, walk and talk. Part 2 covers the remaining stands and concludes with some general thoughts on SEE 2009.
We've already had the Canalys figures, listed below are Gartner's reports/estimates for the same period, Q3 2009, worldwide. The numbers are very similar (though not for the year-on-year figures, with Q3 2008 looking different, oddly enough), showing Nokia's world smartphone market share at 39%, RIM (Blackberry) at 21%, Apple at 17% and with HTC (50% Android, 50% Windows Mobile) at 6%.
According to a detailed report by Norman John, the Nokia 5730 XpressMusic has been updated from version 100.48.122 firmware to v.101.48.128. There's UDP, so your data is safe, of course, and the update is available over the air.
Roy Tanck hits the nail on the head with his observations on both Opera and Gravity. In his thoughts on Opera Mobile (which we reviewed here) he says that "the Norwegian company has made browsing fun again". This follows on from the "much needed sexiness" that Gravity added. The question is whether manufacturers realise this is just as important as an environmentally friendly box or a new wallpaper?
In part 1 of this review mini-series, I looked at the form factor, design, build quality and performance of the Nokia N97 and N97 mini, concluding that the mini was the more streamlined product of the two, with another six months of design behind it. In this second part, I look at the OS, interface and applications. Can the N97 and N97 mini hold their heads up in 2009?
We've been hearing a lot about Qt running on Symbian OS and how it's going to help, but this video (from the recent Qt Developer Day) shows how the current S60 UI would act if it was powered by Qt. It's still recognisable as the interface that many have a love/hate relationship, but it gives a nice touchstone to jump off from to the next iteration of UI.
In All About Symbian Insight 94 (AAS Podcast 158), we round up a few loose items from SEE 2009 - the Nokia 6788 and the open sourcing of the EKA2 kernel. Then there's discussion of the official enabling of Ovi Store downloads, live tests of Google voice recognition in its Mobile Search product, thoughts on Opera 10 Mobile for Symbian from Ewan, news of a Symbian UI concept video from Rafe and details of the new version of BBC iPlayer from Steve. You can listen to AAS Insight 94 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
There's an interesting two-part interview, by The Register, with Symbian Foundation CEO Lee Williams in San Francisco, talking with him partly about the possible peaking of the iPhone ecosystem, but mainly about the impending battle between Symbian and Android. There are some nice insights, though you have to overlook a few silly spelling errors by el Reg.
Over the next two day I'm at Nokia's The Way We Live Next event, which 'features presentations and demonstrations from Nokia and our ecosystem partners, showing how Nokia are connecting and building the communities of the future'. You can follow along via our live coverage below or via @aas.
Just a note that The Phones Show 94, programme 94 is now out, featuring extended news, a user testimony (N86), my review of the Nokia E91 N98 N97 mini and a top 10 Android application run down. On a technical note, the MP4 codec used in making the QVGA version for those subscribed to the show (via RSS) on their smartphones has been downgraded to 'MPEG-4 basic', meaning that it should play smoothly on absolutely every phone in existence 8-) Comments welcome if you still have a playback issue!
