While I'm sure the problem is not as simple as he makes out, Robert Scoble's reasoning on why Palm can now rule the American smartphone market and why both Microsoft and Nokia are out the game, makes for a great rule of thumb. In short, there are six smartphone/OS competitors (Nokia, Microsoft and Palm as mentioned, plus Apple, Research in Motion and Google Android) and only four US networks (AT&T, Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile). Now the music has stopped, there are no seats left for the phones from Espoo and Seattle. Read on for my take on all this....
Hurrah! It seems that THQ and/or Nokia have changed their minds, and the apparently cancelled Worms for N-Gage has been un-cancelled. This is great news for the next gen N-Gage as the game was very well received on the original gen N-Gage, and should be even better on the new platform thanks to the bigger screen size and better internet connectivity. Nokia chose to mention All About N-Gage's "Most Anticipated Game" reader poll in their Worms announcement, so perhaps AAN's readers managed to get Nokia to see how much demand there is for this game.
In All About Symbian Insight 55 (AAS Podcast 108) we look at the UK launch of the Nokia 5800 MusicXpress, talk about the 'Curse of Silence' vulnerability (stops SMS messages from being received on some S60 handsets), before discussing our first impressions of the Palm Pre. You can listen to AAS Insight 55 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
A major firmware update for the Nokia E71, version 200.21.188, is now available. The new firmware adds the Internet Radio and My Nokia application, adds two new themes, adds a number of usability improvements and contains a large number of stability and functionality updates including improved WLAN support, more power efficient 3G and improved camera performance.
I'll admit that Nokia's DT-29 phone stand, as shipped with the 5800 XpressMusic is somewhat more professional than my own paper clip version. Aaron, over at the N82 blog has put up a gallery of photos and comments on how well it works propping up his N82 for video watching and capturing - I think he's right and Nokia should market this as a standalone accessory. [Updated: see below for the PDF template to Make Your Own]
Judy Breck asks, over on Smart Mobs, if it's about time for a mobile phone with a dual screen? The thought is inspired by the new Lenovo laptop that has an extension to the regular screen in the lid that slides out to the side, providing an almost Cinerama experience. I suspect that my reaction would be similar to any Symbian OS follower, namely a discrete cough before pointing out the Nokia Communicators.
One of the delights of the web is just how much useful stuff there is out there for travellers. From running round on a trip and trying to remember which hotel you are booked into, how to get there and working out if you have enough credit left in the local currency, is exactly what a smartphone is good for. While there are a number of “Travellers Toolkit” applications out there, with a mix of free and premium functions, most of these services can be found for free online or replicated with the built in S60 applications.
Don't get too excited, as this isn't a commercial product yet, but Nokia have shown off Locate Sensor, a tiny gadget that can be attached to anything precious and then which communicates with your S60 phone. If the aforementioned gadget then gets separated from you, you can track it down (direction and distance) up to 100 metres away. So perfect for keys, laptop, etc. There's a reverse mode, too, which can act as an anti-theft device. See Electric Pig for more info and photos.
If you're a mobile game company interested in publishing your games on the N-Gage platform, you may want to check out their slightly updated Developer Application Process page. This page used to only mention becoming a first party developer. However, the application form now also says it can be used to apply to be a third party publisher, so presumably you can now publish your games on N-Gage without giving up ownership of them.
Well spotted Symbian World for this find: a complete, functional touch-driven painting application for S60 5th Edition (and thus the 5800 XpressMusic) over at Forum Nokia. Although Mobile Paint is only an 'example' app, you can still save your creations in JPG form. Don't worry about all the source code bits, you only need to install one of the SIS files, etc. Screenshots and links below...
Programme 73 is now live (and also via iTunes, as usual, in QVGA and VGA formats), mainly featuring a monster video review of a production sample of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. As per my AAS review, it's littered with both pros and cons, but there's no doubting that it'll find its very own market.
As you'll have seen from other Internet news sources, Palm have launched their long-awaited next generation platform and flagship, the 'Pre' [pronounced pree]. Having been propped up again and again by venture capital money, we've all been wondering what was there to keep the investors excited, and now we know. It's non-Symbian but very much of interest, see the details and comment below.
With CES currently in full swing, the future of two of our tech world memory card formats has been announced. First and foremost, SDXC has been launched, the successor to SDHC. The 'XC' stands for 'eXtended Capacity' and allows cards of up to 2 Terabytes (that's roughly 2000 GB) and up to 104MB/s for read/write speeds. Presumably 'micro' versions of SDXC will also appear at some point, for phone use. Secondly, the M2 cards used by some Sony Ericsson UIQ 3 smartphones are set to be superceded by 'Memory Stick HG Micro', also promising up to 2TB and with 60MB/s transfer speeds.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas Nokia has announced that the Nokia E63 will shortly be available in the US. The Nokia E63 is a QWERTY-equipped S60 phone and is effectively a budget version of the Nokia E71. It has a 2.0 megapixel camera, WiFi and 3G connectivity, and runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1. It will have an esitmated retail price of $279 (unlocked) and will be available in the 'coming weeks'.
It seems that the Symbian Foundation has an interim web site up, with the main thing of interest being that you might like to apply for a job with it, in San Francisco or Finland. Fancy a change and a chance to influence the next five or ten years of mobile phone OS development? (via David Wood)
