The new edition of Greenpeace's Greener Electronics Guide has ranked major electronics manufacturers according to environmental friendliness, and Nokia has remained the clear leader scoring 6.9 out of 10. Fellow Symbian manufacturers Samsung and Sony Ericsson were both in second place with 5.9 out of 10, but most companies didn't fare so well (Nintendo is by far the worst with just 0.8 out of 10).
Those of you in or around San Francisco on the 4th December might be interested in attending the Symbian Partner Event, being held in the Palace Hotel on that day from 8.30 am. This is a free event, which is open to all, with keynotes, exhibitions and discussion panels. More information and registration can be found at the Symbian Partner Event site.
Our friends at Mobile Industry Review our holding a Christmas draw /raffle in aid of two charities: Childline and the UN Foundation. There are a number of prizes on offer including two Nokia 6650s, a netbook computer, various feature phones and a number of accessories. It's a great chance to get yourself an early Christmas present. The full details are available on the MIR website.
In AAS Insight 49, we have brief news of a new version of Mobile Web Server, and a forthcoming TD-SCDMA S60 phone. The main part of the podcast is divided in to two parts: Rafe discusses his time at a recent Developer Day in Budapest while Steve, from the 17 minute mark, tells us about his visit to Nokia's hardware testing facility. If you want to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Earlier this week (original story below) we wrote a story about the Pantech C630 phone which had been reported as running Symbian OS. We can now confirm that this is not the case. The Pantech C630 is not a Symbian phone. Please accept my apologies for the misleading news story. While we always strive for accuracy on All About Symbian we do have to balance this against keeping you informed in a timely manner.
Sometimes we at AAS Towers get review hardware that we're allowed to keep for many months - in these cases, it means that it's practical to move everything over and use such a device as our main phone, day in, day out. In such a situation is Ewan with the Nokia N85. The data transfer process wasn't without its hitches though and there's one critical piece of software whose absence is causing Ewan's blood to curdle. Read on...
Tucked away on Nokia's press release page is the announcement of the 6260 Slide, a non-smart phone based on the latest 6th Edition version of their proprietary Series 40 platform. What's remarkable though are the 6260's tech specs: 480x320 screen resolution, WebKit web browser (same engine as S60 and Safari), 5 megapixel Carl Zeiss autofocus camera, built-in GPS, Wi-Fi and tri-band 3.5G HSDPA/HSUPA. Would the average phone buyer really see any difference between this and an S60 device when they're deciding what to buy?
Nokia's supposed Sports Tracker replacement, viNe, is now available to all, it seems. It geotags photos and videos and lets you plot them later on the viNe web site. More on this later, I suspect. What do you think of Nokia viNe? The jury's still out chez Litchfield.... (via CJ)
Tim O'Reilly has posted some interesting thoughts on the use of voice in the mobile interface, sparked by Google's recent voice powered search application for the iPhone. His first idea, that an easily accessible and usable mobile device will put people closer to 'the cloud' is one worth thinking of, especially when you consider how much faster accessing your online data would be when using speech recognition.
Yes, it's the long awaited part 2 of Rafe's definitive hands-on preview of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, a.k.a. the 'Tube', this time covering all aspects of multimedia, from camera to Web to games. The touchscreen and wide display make for a unique form factor among Nokia's current line-up, and Rafe leaves no stone unturned in his quest to evaluate the device.
Despite a few misgivings over the status of the items people might download (especially cracked applications), it's good to see SymTorrent continuing to receive updates; version 1.4 adds browser integration support, selectable file downloads within torrents and improvements in speed and stability. There's also a promise of S60 5th Edition support in the near future.
The Java-running, proxy-based, web browser Opera Mini v4.2 has now been officially released, with new Skins support, faster servers, compatibility with the mobile version of YouTube and Opera Desktop note syncing. Read on for more.
Not just for developers, Forum Nokia's web site has been an invaluable resource for everybody connected with Nokia, S60 or Series 40 over the last few years. As of 10 minutes ago, Forum Nokia has re-launched its web site with a new look and a new 'I want to', mission-based structure. If this wasn't in your Nokia/Symbian bookmarks before, then time to take a look now. Screenshot of the new home page below...
Should a mobile phone that can play an MP3 be regarded as an MP3 player? That's the question Jemima Kiss asks over at The Guardian's Digital Content Blog. That total of 32.1 million MP3 players sold last year includes a significant percentage of smart(ish) phones, of the order of 75%, which makes the headline figure 'a little disingenuous'. I disagree. Read on for my thoughts....
Not quite free but very close to it, you can now buy the updated puzzle game Quartz 2 Deluxe for S60 3rd Edition and UIQ3 devices for just €0.78 from Clickgamer (that's about 66 pence or 1 US dollar). As well as a single player mode the game also features internet and bluetooth multiplayer, and multiplayer versus computer opponents.
