Also coming out of Nokia Connections in Singapore today are some new accessories for your smartphone, giving you a number of options based around charging and audio. With speakers, home stereo adaptors, Bluetooth headsets and a fast charger for micro-USB devices.
At today's Nokia Connection event in Singapore Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, announced that the Symbian Anna software update for the Nokia N8, C7, C6-01 and E7 would start shipping in new devices in July and would be available for all existing device owners to download by the end of August. He also announced that, over the next 12 months, Nokia intends to bring 10 new Symbian based smartphones to the market.
Nokia Connection, a regional showcase for Nokia's South-East Asia and Pacific customers, takes place tomorrow at the Marina Bay Sands hotel in Singapore. Keynote speeches, starting at 10 am Singapore time (3am UK time), will be given by Stephen Elop (Nokia CEO), Mary McDowell (EVP Mobile Phones), Marco Argenti (SVP Developer) and Marko Ahtisaari (SVP Design). The event's website notes that these will include the "global launch of brand new mobile devices and related services".
Last Thursday Fujitsu announced the F-022 phone for the Chinese market. The flip form factor phone, which is based on Symbian, is the result of a collaboration with fashion brand Folli Follie. Features include a fashion conscious design (glitter-motif, embedded zirconium jewel, detachable fragrance chip), 8.1 megapixel camera and water/dust resistance. The phone will be available from Beijing Digital Telecom (also known as D-Phone) shops from the 24th June.
Google has presented an interesting survey on mobile usage to the Mobile Marketing Association forum in New York (reports Search Engine Land). Admittedly sponsored by Google itself, it combines two surveys on mobile habits and, surprisingly, includes Symbian. The two key points to take away are that more than half of smartphone users go online each day, and over 80% of people search for local information, and the vast majority of them will act on what they find.
Nokia and Elle have joined forces to find the next fashion correspondent. We're not sure how much of a crossover there is between the average All About Symbian reader and fashion followers, but we do know our audience is a diverse and talented group. And this is a good opportunity to mention the Nokia N8 pink (and see the embedded video for a chance to win one), which was recently announced by Nokia and is being used in the promotion.
Somewhat bizarrely, Nokia Social 1.3 has received a formal release - through the Ovi Store, reports ZOMG, it's CJ. Build 1.3 (215) is now online and downloadable. Interestingly, build '215' is also available through Sw_update for the Nokia X7, so presumably we'll see this version through Sw_update for the likes of the N8, C7 and E7, in due course. There are some installation caveats and oddities though...
Following on from last week's episode, which focused on the phones of yesteryear, here is the eighth episode of the 361 Degrees podcast. This week episodes focuses on international roaming, including the services we use for data and what the future might hold. 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.
Back in March last year, I had a look at the Qt based Wordpress client for Symbian. Back then I said it needed to "fill in some obvious gaps and improve the stability" and I've recently gone back to see how the client has progressed in the last year. The good news is that this is still the best mobile client for Wordpress out there, but the improvements have made it even more useful.
Nokia is currently in the process of closing its Nokia branded online stores in a number of countries. The online stores for France, Spain and the Netherlands have already closed and the majority of the others, including the UK, will follow in due course. Nokia has indicated that the closures are part of a company wide overhaul. While the closure of the online stores may be seen in some quarters as symbolic of Nokia current malaise, the reality is that their contribution to Nokia sales was negligible.
Nokia has re-branded its developer portal brand from Forum Nokia to Nokia Developer. At the same time the website has been redesigned, with an aim of making it easier to understand and navigate. The site operates overs six major areas: design, develop, distribute, devices, resources and community. Nokia Developer continues to support four key technologies: Java (Series 40), Web (Series 40 and Symbian), Qt (Symbian) and Windows Phone.
Our own David Gilson is fast becoming a self-made expert on resurrecting Symbian^3 phones which have got their (software) knickers in a twist. We've previously posted his “When beta testing goes bad” article, looking at solving Qt install issues. Now David's had problems with the Ovi Store client refusing to start - and found the answer came from an unexpected source.
Nokia China, in conjunction with China Mobile, has announced the forthcoming availablility of two new TD-SCDMA (Chinese 3G) Symbian^3 smartphones - the Nokia T7-00 and the Nokia 702T. The T7-00 has a body similiar to the Nokia N8, but with an 8 megapixel EDoF camera and a clear black display. The Nokia 702T is a China specific variant of the Nokia E6. The handsets will be available in Q3 and will ship with the Symbian Anna software update.
Nokia has announced that it has signed a patent license agreement with Apple, ending all patent litigation between the companies. The financial structure of the agreement consists of a one-time payment payable by Apple to Nokia and ongoing regular royalties to be paid by Apple to Nokia. The exact amounts involved are confidential, but the "agreement is expected to have a positive financial impact on Nokia's recently revised outlook for the second quarter 2011", so the sums must be very substantial.
Communications tool Fring has received a new client update for Symbian handsets, which you can download direct to your handset from m.fring.com. Bringing together a number of IM protocols as well as VoiIP protocols, such as Google Talk, alongside Fring's own system to allow users to video and audio calls, Fring promises to be a central hub to help you keep in touch, while potentially saving money compared to the cost of making calls over your network provider.
