Darla's back on the scene and in good investigative form, as she uncovers Nokia Backup, an official online backup service that may or may not be related to Ovi, plus she announces and demonstrates a brand new beta service, Nokia Email, offering push email from your existing mailboxes. Comments welcome.
PictBridge compatibility is something often forgotten in Nokia's Nseries smartphones - in a real world example, I show how it works. Now you can print photos directly and quickly, wherever you are in the world!
London Calling is this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists host. Coming to you during Wimbleton week from London, with plenty to talk about, including more Symbian Foundation musings.
There was always going to be one big topic for in-depth discussion in the latest AAS Insight Podcast - the announcement of the Symbian Foundation. Rafe and Steve are joined by Stefan and Ewan to talk over the ground-breaking news, and shoot a bit of Midnight Pool into the bargain.
As shown below, the Nokia E71 is now recognised in Nokia Software Update. Latest firmware is v100.07.76, should you want to double-check your new device, not that I've noticed any real bugs - although we can hope for new features at some point.
Warner Music Group become the third of the so called 'Big Four' music labels to sign up to Nokia's "Comes With Music" program. Sitting alongside Sony BMG and Universal, this accounts for between 65%-70% of the total music market depending on which figures you use. Only EMI are outside of the program now - and once they come on board expect a big PR push from the Finns.
Guest writer Justin Berkovi reports back on the brand new and innovative Nokia CK-300 car kit, which reduces control hardware to a minimum and relies instead on using your smartphone's display. Here's Justin's lavishly illustrated review, his first for All About Symbian.
Thanks to all the people who emailed in with this - I'd held off posting about it because I thought it was an accidental leak, but this comprehensive (Flash-based) Nokia N96 interactive demo has been online for a while now and not removed, so presumably it's 'final', especially as we're now within a month or so off seeing the first N96 in the shops.
Nokia's free Mobile Web Server started out as a 'what's the point in that?' project, but with v1.4 released, including GPS and network location support, it has reached the 'hmm.... now that has potential' Bluesky-thinking stage. Worth checking out, though (as usual) watch your data use/tariff. (via Symbian Guru)
The current run of poor N-gage games is to be expected, argues Ewan. Every games platform has this problem, it's just a question of maturity and of time. The launch titles for N-Gage classic were worse and even those for the bestselling Sony PSP were comparable. What do you think of N-Gage so far and do you agree with Ewan? Comments welcome.
Two new-ish blogs for your reading pleasure were pointed out this weekend, and in the spirit of the rapidly opening Symbian, two of the executives, David Wood and John Forsyth have set up their own blogs. Outside the company, and representing their own personal views, you can find them at www.dw2-0.com and johnforsyth.blogspot.com.
If you've tried out the new Midnight Pool game on N-Gage, you may have spotted that, four hours after the game being released, I'd completed it and was sitting atop the N-Gage Arena rankings. Which really isn't a boast, since Midnight Pool is simply far too easy. I explain why, with copious screenshots and comments on interface (good) and performance (bad) in my in review of Midnight Pool over on All About N-Gage.
PyS60 (or Python for S60) has been evolving nicely and it now extremely useable as a 'quick' programming language for smartphones. And there's a shiny new version for wannabe developers to play with. See the announcement and changelogs at the usual place at Forum Nokia.
The Motorola MOTO Z10 represents a very different side of UIQ 3 (and Symbian) to the more familiar devices from Sony Ericsson. In his inimitable style, and in part 1 of our full review, Ewan looks at the Z10's form and general design, finding quite a bit to like in the process. Future review parts will cover built-in software, media handling and camera functions.
Of course Rafe's upcoming E66 review will be even more informed(!), but in the meantime, I've been very impressed by the thoroughness of Alfredo Padilla, in this exhaustive multi-page E66 review. Well worth a read if you're weighing up the strengths and weaknesses of this replacement for the popular E65.
