More than two years after its debut, the Nokia 5800 has received yet another firmware update. Taking it to version 52.0.007, the latest build is a small (5MB) update including changes to the touchscreen sensitivity and rotation, newer versions of the Web Browser and Ovi Maps, and improved connectivity over Wi-fi. The new firmware is rolling out around the world and the various network-brands and regional variants of the 5800, so if you're still waiting, take the time to back up your smartphone. Just in case.
Nokia's Ovi Suite just got itself a new version number (3.0, albeit in 'beta') and a whole new interface - it now has even larger ambitions in terms of managing your phone's music and maps from your Windows PC, plus there's integration with the Ovi Store itself, with application recommendations. Below are the official changelog, the launch video and relevant links. Comments welcome on how this works out for you!
Kudos to the web programmers and the rest of the team at GSM Arena, who have produced the really rather cool 'Photo Compare Tool'. Essentially they've taken a large number of recent phones and smartphones and shot the same three test photos with each (ISO 12233, Grey and Colour). You can then choose which three phones you'd like to compare using the drop-down pick lists and click any of the offered crops to show the full photo in the main window. Oh heck, just go try it, you'll see what I mean. Curiously, the Symbian-powered camera champions, the Nokia N86, Samsung i8910 and Sony Ericsson Satio aren't represented, but there's still plenty of other Symbian (and Maemo) interest. Full list below.
Nokia has announced it has appointed Jerri DeVard as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer. A new Marketing and Communication organisation will be formed under the CMO, which will bring together Nokia's Marketing, Brand Management, Communications and select Industry collaboration activities. DeVard will sit on the Nokia Group Executive Board, underlining the seniority and importance of her position, but will report to Niklas Savander, EVP of Nokia's Markets unit.
Nokia’s Beta Labs latest release might be an old-school diagnostic tool, but the Nokia Connectivity Analyzer is a welcome addition to anyone either having issues with their Wifi or 3G connecting, looking to find out where the problems are on a slow connection, or just want to map the dead Wi-fi spots in their house. It’s a free download, but obviously with the caveats that go with a “beta” designation - and the 'techy' nature of the tool.
Following on from last month’s beta 2 release, Opera has announced the final release of Opera Mobile 10.1, a native web browser for Symbian. Since the beta release, there’s been a further update to the javascript speed increase – now up to nine times faster than Opera 10.0. Along with the server side compression, geo-location plug-in, and their rendering engine, the Opera browser continues to be one of the leading Symbian applications. More, and links, below...
Earlier this year Nokia, in conjunction with Tim Kring, created and ran a transmedia project, a gaming / story telling event across multiple participation forms. Conspiracy for Good involved play in the real world, over the Internet and on mobile phones. This YouTube video, embedded below, offers a summary of the Conspiracy for Good project. It shows not only the scale of the project, but also gives a good summary of the various games, events and activities involved.
Version 32.0.007 of the Nokia 5530's firmware was released today, the update is available via over-the-air download. There is nothing noticeable in terms of user experience updates. According to other sources, there is a small number of language specific bugs that have been addressed. In our own examination, Web has received a minor update too. Click through for further details.
Last week Nokia announced that the Ovi Store had reach the milestone of 3 million downloads a day, an increase of 1 million from the beginning of September. All About Symbian's Ovi Store tracking estimates there have been around 710 million downloads from Ovi Store since June 2009, with half of this total coming in the last 5 months (from July onwards). We estimate that Ovi Store will reach the 1 billion download mark in February 2011. Read on for some further numbers.
Many of us have used Pizero's themes on our S60 phones for years - just published over on the Symbian blog is a short video interview (also embedded below) with the man himself, Michele Cerretta, who was manning the theming kiosk at SEE 2010. Bear with his English, and let his themes speak volumes?
AAS fans might like to note that our very own Rafe Blandford and David Gilson have been the guests on The Phones Show Chat podcast over the last two weeks, Rafe in chat 64 and David in chat 63, providing analysis with their own particular slant, notably with much mention of MeeGo, still prominent in the news following the conference last week, but also with masses of Symbian chat as well. Worth a listen to one of them over your lunch-hour? Also, see below for an important URL change for 3-Lib and The Phones Show - my old web server is disappearing up Sky's tailpipe at the end of 2010!
You'll remember that, in addition to Symbian and the low-end Series 40, Nokia also now supports MeeGo, the development of the old Maemo system and Intel's Moblin. The first MeeGo conference was held last week, in Dublin, and you may be interested in this conference roundup over on our sister site, All About Meego, with some interesting and personal accounts of the event from members of the community.
Take one super-knowledgable smartphone fan, steeped in Symbian especially. Put him in Japan and then throw every cutting edge tech demo and every flagship newcomer from NTT DoCoMo at him - and let him take as many photos as he wanted. The result is a great illustrated read from Clinton Jeff, looking at both Symbian-powered and proprietary phones and smartphones, plus a number of new technologies - as usual, some of these will be standard in the rest of the world in a few years time.
A new firmware, version 052.005, is now available for the Nokia E72. It is a minor update, with a number of small bug fixes (time zone corrections, keypad autolock fix, device management fix) and application updates (Adobe Reader). The update is available over the air or via the PC based Nokia Software updater. E72 owners should be automatically alerted when the updates becomes available for their device.
