The rumours of a Nokia Netbook have lit up the internet. Even though it would have been hard to deny, the opportunities for Nokia's software services would surely outweigh the cost of building a commodity consumer electronics device. Ewan explains why.
Thanks to a clever developer DOSBox, a DOS emualtor, has been ported to S60. This could potentially give you access to an essential applications from the past as well as a variety of games such as Tank Wars or Prince of Persia. Less usefully, given the speeds involved, it also means is now possible to run Windows 3.1 (and possibly Windows 95 too) on your phone.
The beta of Ovi Contacts (the service formerly known as Contacts on Ovi, which was formerly known as Nokia Chat...!) has been updated for S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 phones (e.g. the Nokia N96 and N85). For existing users, there are no major feature additions, but a number of bugs have been fixed and the application and service is more stable, which should broaden its appeal. Read on for a quick look at Ovi Contacts.
Trust Ricky and the team to come up with useful info on making more of the Nokia 5800's rather intractable Contact RSS feed home screen - here's a slightly convoluted but working walk through, focussed on seeing a friend's Facebook or Twitter status/streams. There's also a detailed review of the Nokia N79 Active 'pack' and the new Sports Tracker 2.0, with built-in heart rate monitor.
Living in Reading in the UK, I've been used to seeing a gradual computerisation of everything to do with the city's travel network, right down to electronic signs at some of the busier bus stops - it's clear that there's now computer awareness of all trains, buses and roads. Which begs the question as to why some or all of this data couldn't be put online for Joe Public to access. There's now an answer for Reading (and for several other UK cities), thanks to mxData and their new MetroTV mobile application, screenshots and details below.
The Nokia 5800 XpressMusic will be available in Australia on the 20th of March, and the Comes With Music all-you-can-eat subscription service will launch there simultaneously. The Nokia 5800 will have a recommended retail price of 979 AUD (£440) for a device with a 12 month Comes with Music subscription.
It's all about the App Stores and Content Stores now. That's the wave of the future, didn't you know? It'll drive devices sales, the revenue will get shared between developers, networks and manufacturers, and all will be well with the world. But hold on, what happened to last year's Golden Child? Let's find out.
In contravention of the prevailing spirit of the age, I find myself unconvinced by a touch interface on a phone, having tried using both Apple iPhone and Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, both of which I've rejected as my main device for different reasons. And, for a change, there's survey data (see the postscript) to back up my crazed(!) opinions - it seems that the majority of the great unwashed also prefer physical buttons to touch...
You'll forgive me appearing to be sucking up to the 'boss', but Rafe has done an exemplary job with his photography at this year's Mobile World Congress. Witness the first of his in depth photo galleries, this time featuring the highest specification phone any of us is likely to hold in 2009, the Samsung Omnia HD, running S60 5th Edition. Rafe takes us over the device in gory detail, so enjoy!
Rafe's back from the Mobile Word Congress, so this is Steve and Ewan's first chance to quiz him on what he found out. In an extended Insight, we look at the hardware and services from the phone manufacturers that were on show in Barcelona.
The Phones Show, programme 76, is now up, with my own compilation of MWC news and thoughts, plus musings on Google Latitude and a demo of the wierdest 5800 XpressMusic bug... Of special note is that there's a new theme tune (hurrah) and that I've finally hit on the Holy Grail of Nseries-shot MP4 video editing - it's the new iMovie 09 on Mac OS and it's stonkingly good. More on this shortly on AAS.
Ewan, proud owner of the Nokia N85, has decided to do a direct comparison of his phone with the new N86 8MP, widely leaked as originally intended on being the N85 8MP. What are the essential differences between the two devices, how significant are they, and were Nokia right to go with the new model number? Ewan says 'Yes', and Rafe agrees, in a special editorial postscript, although their reasons for agreeing are somewhat different - as you'll see.
It seems that Samsung Mobile Innovator's team signed a version of Python for S60 a few weeks ago - and then forgot to tell anyone. You can grab it here, look for post no. 10. Note that this isn't a complete system, in that there's no signed 'Script shell', so you can't run scripts directly. However, Python apps packaged properly as SIS files should now work OK on the Samsung INNOV8 and i7110, which is a good start. Screens below the break. Now, Samsung programming wizards, how about a working firmware update mechanism, eh?
S60.com are giving away free licenses for Epocware's acclaimed Handy Shell for a limited length of time. You've got to be quick though. Handy Shell takes over from the standard S60 standby screen, providing more information (including weather) and giving easier access to specific applications. Once logged in, see the My Exclusives section for download and license information.
Over the last six months on All About Symbian in my 'Camera Nitty Gritty' series, I've tackled a number of phone camera-related issues head on and tried to draw conclusions, even though they sometimes fly in face of phone marketing. In this article, I provide an index to all the Camera Nitty Gritty articles and also summarise some of the individual article conclusions. Xenon flash, resolution, apertures, branded optics, it's all here and neatly broken down.
