There are two items of interest for All About Symbian readers in Phones Show 136, out today. Firstly, (nearly) the whole thing was shot on the Nokia E7, small EDoF camera and all, demonstrating that for even semi-pro video capture, these EDoF lenses do a darned fine job, better in good light even than the large-sensored Nokia N8. Also of interest is that the show starts with a five minute tour of my own person N8/Symbian setup. Intended for people who aren't AAS geeks, you may still be curious to see what I've got loaded at the moment and why.
Nokia today announced the forthcoming availability of Symbian Anna, a software upgrade for all Symbian^3 devices. The update is focused around three key objectives: delivering improved usability, enhancing enterprise functionality and improving developer productivity. The update underlines the importance of, and Nokia's ongoing commitment to, Symbian. Symbian Anna will ship with new devices later this quarter and be available to all existing Symbian^3 devices in a similar time frame.
Nokia today introduced its fifth Symbian^3 device, the Nokia E6-00, a business and communication-focussed smartphone. With its 2.46 inch, VGA resolution capacitive touchscreen and accompanying full QWERTY keyboard it represents a continuation of the popular Nokia E71 and E72 line.
The E6 features a 8 megapixel EDoF camera, with the ability to record 720p (HD) videos, 8GB of mass memory, a microSD card slot, (the very popular) 1500 mAh BP-4L battery, integrated GPS and comprehensive connectivity options (pentaband 3G, Bluetooth, microUSB and b/g/n WiFi). It will be available, in three colour variants (Black, Silver and White) this quarter (Q2), at a cost of €340 (£300/$490) before taxes and subsidies.
Nokia today announced the X7, a Symbian smartphone with an entertainment focus and premium design. It features a four inch AMOLED touchscreen, well suited for video playback and gaming, an 8 megapixel EDoF camera, comprehensive connectivity options and a full range of social and entertainment software. It has a premium design, which mixes glass and stainless steel, to give a distinctive style with diagonally inset corners and a gently curved back. The X7 will be available in Q2 at a cost of €380 (£335/$548) before taxes and subsidies.
Along with the Nokia E6, it will be one of the first devices to ship with the Symbian 'Anna' software update. This update brings enhanced text entry capabilities (portrait QWERTY and split screen text entry), an improved browser, a fresh icon set and numerous other performance and usability improvements.
Every so often, Rafe lets us 'moonlight' over at other sites, in this case the Ovi Daily App blog. Which is where I've been reviewing Headlines, an innovative way of subscribing to and presenting news feeds in a visual and user friendly manner. It's fair to say that I encountered a number of limitations along the way, but at least some of these can be fixed in a future version and my review is, overall, optimistic.
If you've ever considered developing applications and selling through the Ovi Store, then you might like to read a blog post by Sebastian Brannstrom (@Teknolog). Sebastian is the author of the now de facto podcast agent "Podcatcher". In the post he explains why he put Podcatcher on the Ovi Store, and shares some of his sales data. It's an interesting read with some very unexpected results. Read on for more.
Qt is the open source application framework that Nokia has been promoting for over a year. While more and more Symbian applications are being built in Qt (pronounced "cute"), you may or may not realise quite how many you're actually using. Indeed, some are more apparent than others. However, thanks to a list compiled by Rita El Khoury over at Fonearena, you can find out how many high-profile applications are actually made in the Qt framework. Read on for more details.
Is it a marketing tie in for the School Holidays in the UK? Is it the third title in a long line of addiction? Is it a pretty smart game in its own right? Angry Birds Rio is all that and more. Now available in the Ovi Store, Rovio’s latest release promises a continuation of the adventures of the feathered fury, as well as showing 21st century marketeers an interesting angle in promoting a motion picture.
Updated for the 2011 Season, the official F1 timing application is one of those must-have applications for a niche group – the smartphone users who are also Formula 1 fans. Last year’s review (here) covers all the relevant ground, but with Symbian^3 handsets now available, can you still keep up to date with the hectic pace, fastest sectors and lap times during a race weekend?
Proving, perhaps, that S60 3rd Edition isn't dead, Nokia has just completed its update of the diminutive qwerty-based E72 to v54 firmware (from v52). For non-network locked phones, anyway. It's an over-the-air update, just over 1MB in size (though this varies according to region), and is listed as containing "performance and usability improvements". Comments welcome if you can elaborate on our brief changelog below after updating your E72.
All things come to they that wait. In this case the Nokia E7, finally available to buy now in the Nokia UK web store at a substantial £499 inc VAT, though this comes down to £469 if you buy it with a pay-as-you-go SIM and is in fact completely free on a £35/month/2-year contract, so that does seem to be the way to go if you were planning on serious voice and data use anyway.
Nokia recently posted a clarification that Symbian was “Not open source, but open for business”. It is worth taking a moment to consider the collaborative environment Symbian now exists in. Prior to Nokia’s deal with Microsoft, we saw the closure of the Symbian Foundation and with it, the end of Symbian’s time under the Eclipse Public Licence (EPL). Developers were rightly concerned about just how ‘open’ Symbian would be. Read on for our analysis.
More than likely completing the PR 1.2 roll-out on Symbian^3 devices, the AAS C6-01 has received its v14.002 firmware update. Taking care of some smaller issues such as Mail for Exchange, and keeping the various Ovi applications up to date (including Ovi Maps and Ovi Store), this isn’t the big PR 2.0 update that’s been long promised, but is still a recommended download.
The Qt labs team has just announced the release candidate (RC) for its Qt Software Development Kit (SDK) 1.1. This follows from its recent beta release. The final release, following this RC, will allow developers to take advantage of all the latest Qt features and submit Qt 4.7 based applications to the Ovi Store. However, it should be noted that Qt 4.7 will not support S60 3rd Edition, which sadly, but predictably, points to a deprecation of that version of Symbian. Read on for more details.
I was interested to see that the Nokia N8 made number three in ZDNet's "My top 5 smartphones", as listed by Matt Miller in his regular column. It's an American site, of course, so the number one pick is something we've never even seen in the UK, the HTC Thunderbolt, while numbers two and five aren't exactly widely available. But the N8 slots in quite happily at three, with the iPhone 4 at four.
