Rafe is off to Finland for an event tomorrow, Nokia Open Lab, which "brings together a diverse group from across social media to discuss the future of mobile as well as content creation". There's more on Open Lab at events.nokia.com/openlab/, where there's a 'virtual event', too, open to all, from 10am – 6pm CET. A Tangler discussion forum will be appearing on the event site soon, and also at www.tangler.com/forum/nokia-open-lab. And, of course, Rafe will be bringing back photos, reports and insight, for posting on AAS next week. Stay tuned....
Stuff.tv are pretty prolific in their video output, often visiting smartphone territory - in this show they look at 5 of the top camera-phones, including the Nokia N82. Despite not having as many (gimmicky?) features as the opposition, the N82 seemed to come out overall winner (if the other presenter could have picked it as well, I think she would have).
The advantages and disadvantages of lens covers on camera-equipped phones is a hotly debated topic. Recent Nseries devices have seen a mix: N78, N95 8GB and N96 (no lens cover) versus N79, N85 and N95 classic (with lens cover). In the first in a series of articles on contentious camera issues, Steve looks at the question of whether scratches on the camera's protective glass really make a difference.
There's an interesting interview here, on SymbianOne, with The Astonishing Tribe (TAT), who are behind the transitions and other animated elements in S60 3rd Edition FP2 and also, apparently, behind the Samsung i450's novel Music player application. While you're visiting you might also want to read this piece on a UIQ developer's perspective on the Symbian Foundation. Both are well worth a read over lunch or tea!
Every S60 3rd edition handset will now be able to run the Mail for Exchange application, Nokia have announced. That's a total of 43 handsets,across the Nseries, Eseries and regular S60 range. With MS-Exchange a popular corporate mail and syncing solution, removing the software barriers to any S60 device being able to run this application is a sensible move, and should help in a number of markets, including the USA. Read the full story for a video discussing the news.
UPDATE: Nokia have formally announced this, and Rogers will initially integrate Nokia Maps and the N-Gage service to their High-Speed Network. Ewan MacLeod is over at CTIA, and has posted an intersting tit-bit on Mobile Industry Review, namely that Canadian network Rogers will be "taking their [Nokia's] Ovi platform." I'm sure Ewan will post up more on this later, but for now, having Nokia provide the phone and the network software (even if it is just Ovi Sync) should raise eyebrows in a number of quarters.
Today, in an online event, Nokia summarised and demonstrated its recent additions to the Ovi.com service offering: Ovi Suite - a PC software offering media management and phone sync, Files on Ovi - an online file storage and remote access to PC files, and Ovi Sync - a service which syncs contacts, calendar events and notes to Ovi.com. Read on for more details.
Symbian today issued another press release indicating that a further 10 companies (Acrodea, Brycen, HI Corporation, Ixonos, KTF, Opera Software, Sharp, TapRoot Systems and UIQ) have added their endorsement for the planned foundation. Last week Nokia announced it had reached an agreement with Samsung to buy the remaining share in Symbian pathing the way for the completion of the plans outlined in June.
Our daughter site, All About N-Gage (AAN), has launched a new section: Unofficial Games. It is a listing of some of the best stand alone S60 games. Each entry has a brief description, download link, and, in most cases, link to an in depth review. Don't forget, you can also find all sorts of in-depth N-Gage focused content in the other sections of AAN.
Hotelzon, a corporate hotel online booking company, has launched a native S60 search and booking tool, Hotelzon Mobile, with GPS integration. All very swish, and well implemented, if a little over the top for something with less than 300 UK hotels in its portfolio. Still, a good effort, and a pointer, for others, as to the way things should be done in the future. Screenshots and links below.
Just a memory jogger about Nokia's Ovi virtual event, starting in under an hour (2pm BST, 3pm CET) at http://events.nokia.com/. There's currently an 8 minute video overview of the Files component, but today's virtual event will add a similar video for the PIM data section (Contacts and Calendar), plus there's a Q&A session with the product managers. If you miss the event, there's another chance tomorrow morning, starting at 6am BST.
Gartner's latest survey of the the mobile marketplace shows the growth of smart-phones continuing, with a worldwide increase in the order of 16%, but with a particularly large jump in the US market. Total Q2 sales were 32.2 million, and reflecting the recently released Symbian figures, Nokia retained the largest market share (47.5%), but with slower growth than others in the market.
Guest contributor Nick Anstee signed up to be one of the first to get a Nokia N96, as part of a limited 'wildlife' run. Read on for his first impressions of the N96 [text updated heavily], after almost a week of intensive playing, plus photos of the device and some really nice photo samples taken on the device.
Pre-order information on Expansys suggests that Nokia's Comes with Music handsets may have a premium of around £70-£85. Comes with Music gives you unlimited music downloads for a year (and the right to keep that music at the end of the year). However it is must be noted that these prices should be considered speculative and subject to change. Read on for more details.
Theme supremo PiZero just launched what he calls his 'Premium' theme pack. All gorgeously understated and 100% SVG, so as to scale onto any device, I set Ewan to try them all out and deliver a verdict as to whether they're worth paying for. Although he sits on the fence slightly, he's sorely tempted and ends up recommending them. And at only ten Euros, for many of us is it not also a good way of saying thanks to PiZero for all the free themes over the last 2 years?
