Top Italian theme creator p@sco seems to have gotten so fed up with cheap and nasty themes from others that he's started a new initiative, Symbian Certified Themes . It's early days yet, if you're a theme developer and feel your creation is up to scratch then check it out. Also of note is a 20 year certificate that you can download and use.
No, don't get too excited, this isn't an official device. And we don't normally go overboard on fan-made concept devices. But Nikolay Andreev has gone to significant lengths to mock-up and explain his ideas for a Nokia nWAVE smartphone , taking design cues from Nokia's 7710 and Apple's iPhone, allied with N95-level hardware spec. Well worth a watch and comments welcome.
Ewan's been trialling Wavelog, a new blogging client. Although it does the job, he found the application too restrictive for advanced users and too hard for beginners to get to grips with. Here's the full Wavelog review .
Symbian today announced that at the end of November 2007 cumulative Symbian OS phone shipments reached 30 million. It took 10 months to go from 10 million to 20 million phones, but has only taken a further 8 months to reach 30 million. Japan is a mature market so this growth is likely on the back on increased market share (50% to 65% year on year as of June 2007).
Steve's been looking at GooSync; which promises to sync up your smartphone's PIM data to the relevant Google applications (specifically your Gmail contacts list and Google Calendar data) as an alternative to being tied to Outlook and Microsoft. Can SyncML on the smartphone, and a bit of third party magic, come up with a solution for his data?
Prominent mobile blogger Rita El Khoury has been writing up a fortnight with the Nokia N95 8GB, trying to impress the Lebanese nation, bit by bit, day by day. It's been a fascinating read throughout the last half dozen or so posts. Here's the last in the series, and it handily contains links to all the other parts. If you're looking to get the N95 8GB, this is a good real world read.
More from me on the UIQ 3 front in Smartphones Show 51, with my video review of the Sony Ericsson W960i, plus (non-Symbian) iPhone tips from fellow AAS-er Matt Radford. View the Smartphones Show via YouTube here, or grab the MP4, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes.
The first firmware update for the N82 is going to have a subtle change we've been looking for; the preservation of User Data (writes Kevin at the S60 blog). The plan is that when you do upgrade the firmware, your applications and settings will remain intact . Three caveats; 1) you should still back up your data first; 2) It's only for the N82; 3) you'll need to wait a bit longer for the first N82 firmware upgrade to arrive.
Although I'm never sure about the whole Flash-only site, there's no denying the commitment of both Nokia's Nseries marketing team and its recruited bloggers, as they travel the world to demo what the N82 can do. Here's the Urbanista link, which you can revisit during the next three weeks to see who's travelling, what they've snapped and where they are.
