As part of research for PDA Essentials, I've been doing some serious testing. And there's one aspect of the new Nokia 9300i smartphone that doesn't come up to scratch. Unfortunately, it's the aspect for which the 'i' version was created...
The S60 blog team have put up a few morsels on this new non-Nokia S60 device. Interesting stuff, even though I still refuse to buy any device who's name I can't remember...
Here's the week's Carnival of the Mobilists (a.k.a. all sorts of interesting articles about mobile computing), hosted by C Enrique Ortiz. Have a good weekend!
The first Symbian OS 9.1 and first S60 3rd Edition phone have started shipping in the form of the Nokia 3250. The 3250 is Nokia's mid-teir music smartphone and costs 350 Euros. The Nokia N91 will start shipping in Europe in the first week of April, and follow in the Middle East and Asia in the second week of April. Shipping dates for the US market are not yet available. The Nokia N91 is Nokia's high end music phone and will cost 700 Euros
Add the programmer of a new Rapid Application Development system to some sample content from myself, plus a free weekend and you get a full working S60 application. No, really. Guest writer Francesco Aliverti-Piuri takes up the story, as part of demoing how his SoProMach system works.
In an interesting (but niche) development, Nokia has licensed content from the Discovery Channel for demoing on its forthcoming N92 TV handset. Darla's got the details...
SmartMovie, always a competent (though quirky) video conversion system for Symbian-based devices, has recently embraced the terrific CoreMP4 codec and boasts much better performance. Steve Litchfield reviews the result, tested in this case on the Nokia 9500 and N70.
The official support pages for the Nokia 3250 are now availble on the Nokia.com site. Material available includes an interactive demo of the functions and features of the phone, the user manual and some additional software for the phone. Nokia support pages usuaully appear just before the phone in question is shipped.
You may remember that PDA Essentials magazine, the only UK newsstand publication to feature smartphones, disappeared at the end of 2005 with the bankruptcy of its publisher, Highbury? Just a heads-up that it's back, under Imagine Publishing, and here's the web site to prove it. OK, so it's little more than a placeholder, but still worth bookmarking for the future.
Forum Nokia has annouced details of the Designed for S60 Devices Logo program for Developers. The program features a logo that developers can use in their application marketing. For end users the logo shows the application is designed for S60 and that the application provider will tell you which devices the application will run on.
Symbian's main web site has just gotten itself a face lift! Well worth a browse. First impressions? Lots of curves and better organised menus/sections.
The Nokia N series includes smartphones that have the potential to replace yet another home gadget - the camcorder. Steve Litchfield muses on the current abilities and where the technology will undoubtedly go.
Six Apart, the blogging software and service provider, has acquired SplashBlog. Six Apart have acquired the technology and development team including John Chaffee. Chaffee will lead the mobile group at Six Apart and will be responsible for integrating the SplashBlog wireless sync protocols and mobile technologies into the Six Apart product line.
Yet another neat Internet-hosted idea that fully supports Series 60 smartphones - Orb lets you view your pictures, videos and Media Center TV channels, from your smartphone, anywhere in the world. But yet again, it's only practical on an unlimited data plan. Sigh....
Nokia seem to be adding regularly to their impressive Flash-based N series site. Added recently seem to be this spotlight on the upcoming N80 and a similar multimedia fest for the clamshell N71. Good stuff...
