It's part 6 of Ewan Spence's 'real world' test of the Nokia N97 at the Edinburgh Fringe and it's embedded below. In this part he looks at how he uses the N97 (as a tablet), at the positioning of the d-pad (for gaming), at the device's 'tipping point', and at the N97 as a modem, before laying into Ovi Maps for not including gradient information or cycle routes. He also wishes there was a way to import Point Of Interest information for special events (like the Fringe). Happy watching!
We here at All About Symbian have been using Ovi Store for quite a while now, and have noticed a number of things that need to be fixed or could be improved. We don't doubt the effort and resources that Nokia has put into this so far, but we think it's fair to demand that Ovi Store lives up to the same general standards as other online content shops. Here are 23 suggestions for the Ovi Store team's to do list, neatly categorised into 'urgent', 'gripes' and 'suggestions'!
Nokia today announced the Nokia 5230, a lower mid-tier, music and Ovi service-centric device for €149 (before taxes and subsidies). The device runs S60 5th Edition on Symbian and key features include a 3.2" screen, homescreen Contacts Bar and Media Bar, 2.0 megapixel camera, A-GPS, 3.5mm audio jack and integration with Nokia's Ovi services. The 5230 will be available from Q4 2009. Read on for full details.
Version 1.1 of Skyfire, the mobile browser that aims to offer a 'PC-like' browsing experience, is now available. The update delivers a number of significant improvements including zooming and scrolling optimisations, updated reconnect behaviour, better recognition of mobiles sites, and support for legacy WAP sites. Read on for our short initial preview.
Ricky Cadden is definitely one of the most respected reviewers in the Symbian/phone world and, as official AAS-friend-in-the-USA, he brings us all a detailed, seven part review of Nokia's new budget qwerty slider, the 6790 'Surge', complete with extensive AT&T cripplingcustomisations. Here, for your reading pleasure, are his unboxing, his first impressions, 5 things he hated about the device, 5 things he loved, the (anti)social 6790, and finally Ricky's opinions of the 6790's hardware and software.
Somewhere there's a bundle of ex-Symbian employees quietly muttering “I told them the way forward was a two-box solution....” What to make of the announcement of the Nokia Booklet 3G (beyond the fact that they're consciously avoiding the term 'netbook', even though every single post, tweet and message about this device is going to call it the Nokia Netbook)? Read on for my thoughts on this new mobile device...
Nokia today announced the Windows based Nokia Booklet 3G, a mini-laptop (netbook) device. Key features include a (claimed) 12 hour battery life, 3G/HSDPA and WiFi connectivity, HDMI port (for HD video out), 10" glass HD-ready display and integrated A-GPS. The Nokia Booklet weighs in at 1.2 kilograms and is 2cm thick. Market availability and pricing information will be announced at Nokia World next week.
Sequence Point Software's ARound project is now in beta, a free download for the Nokia N97 and compatible S60 3rd or 5th Edition phones. The project's aim is to incorporate feed data from Twitter, from geonames.org and from landmarks databases, combining the live camera viewfinder and compass and GPS information to produce an augmented reality solution for Symbian. Screenshots and links below.
Lara Croft has returned to N-Gage in Tomb Raider: Underworld. This time the aim of the game is to retrieve Thor's Hammer. Tomb Raider was one of the more popular N-Gage classic games, and this new version has a similar style. But in contrast to the original version, which was a full port of the classic version of the game, Underworld is a simple N-Gage port of a limited Symbian version of the Underworld game which was released last year. Oh dear.
Just released is The Phones Show 88 - with mini-reviews of the HTC Magic and LG KS360, plus a big feature on Touch (the in-vogue system) vs Button-driven (the old guard?) phones - is one better than the other? See also the QVGA (phone) and VGA (desktop) RSS feeds.
Ahead of my own, slightly more formal AAS review of the Nokia E52 and of Rafe's video review, Asri al-Baker has also been using this new ultra-slim Eseries phones and here he reports back on his impressions after two weeks. Highlights for him are 'the best keypad in Nokia's smartphone history', the new, faster version of Web and all the Eseries interface tweaks.
It's part 5 of Ewan Spence's 'real world' test of the Nokia N97 at the Edinburgh Fringe and it's embedded below. In this wide-ranging part, he looks at 5800-to-N97 familiarity, at one-handed use, about how parts of the S60 5th Edition interface are like the Mimbari Grey Council (a Babylon 5 reference!), about the lack of a keylock clock (out of the box), about a Facebook widget that's just sllooooowwww, plus he explains why the N97 should come with the full editing version of Quickoffice, before finishing with some E75 comparisons and the observation that the N97 is like the stunning prom date which goes badly wrong... It's all below, in Ewan's inimitable style.
Symbian has made available the first draft of the overall top level specification which will make up Symbian^2 ('Symbian Two'). There are several points of interest to pick out, notably the processor support, FAT (file system) performance improvements, the 'Graphics' support, the integrated SQLite and the fact that screen size is still fixed at 5800/N97 level. Nothing earth shattering then, but still nice to see Symbian being so open about everything.
Nokia today unveiled the 'Nokia 5800 Navigation Edition'. The device ships with lifetime voice-guided drive and walk navigation licenses for Nokia's Ovi Maps software and service. Included in the box is a Nokia self-mount car kit, consisting of a Nokia Car Charger (DC-4), Car Holder Pack (CR-103), Rotating swivel adaptor (AD-69) and Easy Mount (HH-17). The 5800 Navigation Edition will start shipping in Q3 and is expected to cost €285 before taxes and subsidies. Read on for further details.
