It's nice when your app gets a facelift without even having to lift a finger. The Ovi App Wizard team has given all widgets created with their system a facelift, with a smoother interface, less quirks and with full Symbian^3 compatibility. Details and screens below, but suffice it to say that if you've downloaded a news/ RSS widget (e.g. the All About Symbian one) from the Ovi Store, then it's worth removing it and re-downloading - the new version will be worth it.
This week we've seen an increasing amount of speculation that the Nokia N8 has been delayed. This speculation is the latest in a long line of rumours about the N8's availability; something which has seemingly become almost standard for high profile devices. This time round the rumours range from a delay of a few weeks up to around a month and a half. So what's the reality? Has the N8 been delayed?
Both Gartner and IDC recently published predictions of where the smartphone world will go over the next four years, in part backing up each others conclusions, but with some divergence. Pulling out the trends and actual figures needed a little more digging, but I've averaged the two sets of predictions and filled in (and interpolated where necessary) to give you a chart that's a lot easier to take in. Are both Gartner and IDC infallible? Certainly not, but the combined chart should give a more balanced prediction than the current fashionable 'Symbian is toast' rhetoric...
The Ovi Blog has posted the news today that a large swathe of Nokia's self-published game titles in the Ovi Store are now available free of charge. Some of these titles were already free, but its a nice reminder and there are some fun titles in the mix, including one of my favourites, Big Roll in Paradise.
Coinciding with Nokia World and the current season are a number of promotional videos from Nokia that highlight aspects of Symbian^3 that we haven't seen before on All About Symbian. Ahead of review devices arriving that actually run the new version of the OS and interface, I thought it would be useful to embed some of these videos below, for viewing over your morning coffee. Take the marketing spin with a pinch of salt in each case, but there are useful demonstrations of how the relevant parts of Symbian^3 will work.
Never more than in the last year or so, smartphone enthusiasts have been decrying Symbian and advocating switching to an Android smartphone or Apple iPhone. "Enough is enough" they cry, "I'll be able to do so much more if I switch!". Errr... no. Not really. Having used many Android phones and having been using the iPhone and other iOS devices over the last two years, I've come to the conclusion that the grass really isn't greener on the other side of the fence - it's just a different colour altogether.
Sometimes journalists put two and 'x' together to make four, and when they're right, careers are made. This weekend, TechCrunch have tried to make a similar jump and announced that they reckon that "Facebook is Secretly Building A Phone," a claim that Facebook have denied (reported at Mashable and others). With a broader stroke of a brush, I hope the Symbian Foundation is paying attention, because Symbian OS in a short production run of handsets would have made a lot of sense.
Facebook Places has made the jump from 'US Only', to 'UK and US Only', and it’s given us a chance to have a look at the newest location-based game in town. And while it’s a nice first step, the ability to check in on devices and platforms other than the iPhone/iPad is going to be needed for a critical volume of users.
We've seen N8 photo samples before, but especially link worthy today is the guy who effectively created the N8 and its camera, Damian Dinning (also of this parish), putting up over 140 of his best N8 9 and 12 megapixel photos as a Flickr set. Some stunning examples in here, all un-retouched, though it's worth noting that Damian's also got pretty good at taking photos - the user element should always be borne in mind!
An interesting closing paragraph from Kevin Tofel’s observations on developing for Symbian OS sums up some of the issues facing Nokia and Stephen Elop over the next few months and years. Tofel was covering the event for GigaOm, and has talked to a number of developers to ask “what’s it like to develop for Symbian?”
Some smart thinking on the part of Nokia at the Nokia Developer Conference, taking place alongside NokiaWorld 2010, with every developer picking up a new Nokia N8 to test and develop their applications. It’s a similar strategy that was used to get last year’s Nokia N900 into the hackers hands, and it should help the availability of new and tweaked/ported software when the N8 gets to public availability in the next few weeks.
In case you didn't watch the two-plus hour live streaming of the Nokia World 2010 keynotes yesterday, don't worry, for you can watch the best bits at your convenience, below, a special edited version from the Nokia Conversations team. In addition to footage of the main speakers, you also get to see lots of the attendees and their devices - bonus points for picking out any familiar faces! The main speakers featured are Niklas Savander, Anssi Vanjoki and Purnima Kochikar.
For Nokia's S60 5th Edition phones, there's a new version of Ovi Maps in town - v3.6, in 'beta' and offering a facelift, public transport lines, search suggestions, feature-packed 'place' pages, location sharing via SMS or email, check in and social network integration, live traffic assistance and more. Full details, a video and links below.
As part of its Nokia World announcements, Nokia today introduced the Nokia C7-00, a mid-range device, running Symbian^3, in a touch slab form factor. Features include a 8 megapixel EDoF camera with the ability to record HD (720p) video, a 3.5 inch AMOLED screen, 8GB of internal memory, microSD card slot, integrated GPS and comprehensive connectivity options. The C7 will be available in Q4 at a price of €335 before taxes and subsidies.
More devices from Nokia World 2010, as the Nokia C6 (more specifically the C6-01) running Symbian^3 makes an appearance. It’s a touch based device, but unlike the existing C6, it’s lacking a keyboard. What it does have though is Nokia’s latest screen technology (the Clear Black Display), HD 720p video capture, 8 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, MicroSD support, A-GPS and the usual Ovi Suite, connectivity options and accessories. Availability is down as Q4 210 for 260 Euros, naturally before taxes or network subsidy.
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