An updated version of the the Symbian Design Guidelines, recently published on Nokia Developer, shows the future look and style of the Symbian UI, which is scheduled to be delivered as part of the next Symbian update. The update, which is likely to be called Symbian Belle, offers one of the biggest visual changes in Symbian's history (for AVKON UI at least), although, in UI terms, it is more of an evolution than a revolution.
Thanks to Yash for the heads-up that Nokia has added the much-respected Joikuspot Premium to its 'Gift' section in the Ovi Store for some S60 3rd Edition phones, the E52, E55 and E72. Screenshot proof below - essentially, Joikuspot Premium turns your phone into a full Wifi-tethering solution for hooking up your tablet and laptop. The usually free 'Lite' version is restricted to just 'http' traffic (i.e. web browsing), so it's great to see this full solution, also without cost.
A new beta version of Nokia Maps, 3.08, has been released through Nokia Beta Labs, which brings a number of changes to the Drive (car navigation) functionality of the application. The most important of these is the ability to use live traffic information to automatically route you around traffic jams and other delays. There's also a new look and feel to the user interface (including a "Just drive" mode), the ability to set a contact as a destination and an easier to use Settings menu. The new beta also marks the brand switch from the Ovi Maps to Nokia Maps.
Not a big enough application to warrant a full review, but I still wanted to highlight GPS Toolbox as a cheap utility that satisfies a very specific need: looking under the hood at what your Symbian^3 smartphone's GPS is doing. How good or bad is your satellite lock and where exactly are you in terms of latitude and longitude?
Rabble-rouser Tomi has linked to a very salient set of statistics, gathered across 3 million web sites, looking at mobile Internet access, sorted by operating system. The source page can be customised, but I've snapped the last year's worth below, clearly showing that the sheer weight of Symbian OS users, all gradually discovering the mobile Internet, still outshadowing iOS and Android in terms of share.
Yesterday Nokia released Qt Quick components 1.0 for Symbian, a UI component (widget) set for Qt Quick application developers and designers. The set provides a ready made set of QML based UI building blocks, that are designed to have the same look and feel as the standard (native) UI. The 40+ components cover the major UI elements including toolbars, buttons, sliders, lists, dialogs and many more.
Having recently started updating the browsers and Maps of many older devices, running S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition, Nokia has now released a performance update across the board for the Ovi Store client for all (most?) pre-Symbian^3 smartphones. Version 1.12(5) is an optional (rather than mandatory) update and replaces v1.10 in most cases. There's no official changelog yet, but I did see noticeably snappier performance on my test devices.
A clutch of Wednesday links of interest for your delectation. Firstly, Jenny from the Ovi Blog has put up a nice feature (part quoted below) explaining the demise of the chat function in Ovi Contacts and the switch to Ovi Chat. Secondly, there's a well balanced multi-part review of the Nokia X7 by David Phelan over at The Register. And thirdly, the Nseries blog has put up an interesting list of 10 magical things about NFC (Near Field Communications). Right, now back to our Nokia E6 review.....
A new firmware for the Nokia N97 mini, version 30.0.004, is now available OTA (17MB) or via Nokia Software Updater (Ovi Suite). This is part of the series of updates to older devices that Nokia announced last week. Updates include a new version of the browser (7.3, the same as that shipping with Symbian Anna), updated Maps (3.6) and emoticon support in Messaging.
An interesting one here from Orange, which asks "if you have five minutes to spare, could you do some good?" Their latest application, "Do Some Good" does the asking and lets you fill in surveys, helping out charities in your local area, sharing ideas and generally being a jolly good person and helping out others in the world.
Another week, another experimental application from Nokia Beta Labs. Nokia 3D World Gaze looks very interesting and innovative. Available initially for just the Nokia E7 and N8, it offers a look through the 'transparent' globe around you, at maps and photos. Some quotes below, see also the download page, available after signing into Beta Labs.
Following on from last week's episode, which focused on Nokia, here is the ninth episode of the 361 Degrees podcast. This week episodes focuses on bothersome things; we talk, grumpy old men style, about some of the (many) things that annoy us about mobile phones. 361 Degrees is a podcast all about mobile technology, created by Ben Smith of Wireless Worker and co-hosted by Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review and Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian.
Synchronica, a UK based company that provides mobile messaging solution, is to acquire Nokia's operator branded messaging business. This business provides a number of American operators with branded email and IM applications and services. In addition, under a professional services contract (outsourcing), Synchronica will take over the development of the related Series 40 client software and the messaging gateway, which is used by both Series 40 and Symbian devices.
Filmmakers last year may have spotted the "Nokia Shorts" competition, where successful pitches were handed two Nokia N8 smartphones, a small shooting budget, and sent out to create something wonderful. And the winning wonderful? It's called "Splitscreen: A Love Story", directed by JW Griffiths, has just debuted at the Edinburgh Film Festival... and it's embedded after the break.
Well spotted Yash for noticing that both Opera Mini and Opera Mobile have received big updates, to versions 6.1 and 11.1 respectively. There's the main changelog below, but I'd highlight the iPhone-like web page text selection as the main reason to upgrade. They're both free, work on all Symbian phones, and are available now from m.opera.com in the 'other' web browser on your Symbian device.
