So how will did Nokia's Comes With Music project do over the festive period? While exact numbers haven't been released by Nokia (or The Carphone Warehouse, who were distributing the phones with the service), an interview in The Financial Times quotes someone familiar with the sales being "OK, but not earth-shattering."
We all love phone comparison pieces. I love writing them. You love reading them. And then the world and their dog love arguing until gone midnight about why the comparison is valid/invalid/pointless (delete as applicable). Below, I'm mulling over both sides of the argument, pitching a Nokia N82 against the 5800 XpressMusic and the Apple iPhone 3G to try and make a serious point.
Many people are now reporting that the North American variant of the Nokia N96 has now got its own v12 firmware update (see here for our earlier post), including, according to Gearlog, compatibility with the new Mail on Ovi service. Can anyone upgrade and report back on how this works?
Over on All About N-Gage, we've just started a poll to find people's favourite N-Gage game of 2008. Head on over to the survey thread to vote, and remember this is just a silly bit of fun! :-) You may also want to check out the results of AAN's end-of-year readers poll, where we asked which phone they used for N-Gage, and which announced game they were most anticipating.
A completely new game from one of my favourite S60 developers, MicroPinball: Casino is now online in demo and commercial form in the AAS software store. Screenshot below. The graphics are pretty smooth on all portrait QVGA S60 phones, despite using software rendering.
I despair of the irresponsibility of the mainstream bloggers around the world who have gone into meltdown today over this announcement of an obscure bug in old versions of Symbian OS Messaging. Some comment and a link below. Short version. Move on, nothing to see. And no, you still don't need to pay money to a security firm...
Not wishing to sound too much like a 'fanboy', but in anecdotal praise of Nokia's build quality and following on from my own brush with death (oh, ok, a pavement), we have a bunch of crazy Russians trying to destroy a 5800 XpressMusic (long text version here) and CJ's 'dad' hammering an N95 for a year. Just rounding off 2008, you know...
In this, part 10 of my (ahem) long running series, I look at the difference sensor and aperture size can make in phone cameras, for both stills and video. As real world examples of both good and bad, I use the Nokia N95 8GB and the 5800 XpressMusic. See below for links to other articles in the series.
Looks like we're getting to the stage where serious apps and games can now be written in Python for S60 - witness Jomtris, released today, complete with (late) festive theme, which works on all devices with portrait QVGA displays. Screen and links below.
Engadget has been reporting that Nokia and fellow Finnish company Polar, a 'leading brand in sports instruments and heart rate monitoring', are planning to get together to integrate phones and Bluetooth aids such as heart monitors. Sounds good to me and a match made in heavenFinland.
It's the first N-Gage survival horror title and it involves killing large numbers of zombies in a wrecked airport. But is it any good? Find out with Ewan as he goes a-blasting in Resident Evil: Degeneration. Along the way he finds the game design too 'square', the default controls too frustrating and the graphics too limited. Yet, despite all this, he still recommends it overall as 'fun' for all would-be zombie vigilantes...
I finally found time to take my Smartphone Choosing Grid into 2009, adding devices like the Nokia N96, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, HTC Touch HD, Blackberry Storm and T-Mobile G1 into the mix. As usual, simply tick your preferences and have your perfect smartphone picked for you! How accurate is it now? Feedback welcomed below...
News of the FCC's approval of Samsung's S60 flagship for official use with North American networks is quite significant, or so reckons our friend Ricky Cadden - I'll let him discuss its appearance over 'there'. Mind you, the big question is, when will Samsung get its bug-fixing, firmware-updating act together so that sites like AAS can actually finish their detailed device reviews? Watch this space...
Here's the scenario. You've shot a video (or two) on your Nokia Nseries smartphone, at VGA quality through a Carl Zeiss lens and up to 30 frames per second. And you want to be able to show it to the world in your blog. YouTube is the obvious choice, but how can you ensure that people see your clip to best advantage? Here's my intermediate-level 'How to'.
Over on All About N-Gage, we're asking readers to take part in an end-of-year survey to find out which phone they use for N-Gage, and which announced N-Gage games they're most looking forward to in 2009. Click on the link to find out more...
