Anssi Vanjoki, marking his first day as Nokia's Head of Mobile Solutions, and in the face of recent widespread criticism of Nokia's high end device performance and strategy, has come out with some hard hitting statements in a feature on Nokia's Conversations blog. He underlines the importance of Symbian for Nokia, suggests that a Symbian^4 powered Nseries device is 'a very strong possibility', says that, for consumers, MeeGo will mean having 'true computing power in your pocket' and that MeeGo gives Nokia the ability 'to take mobile technology beyond the smartphone'. Read on for further details.
In April, Nokia announced a raft of new phones, including the side-sliding C6. The first sign of this phone coming to market has appeared today with Play.com now taking pre-orders. Play have priced the C6 at £269.99 (UKP) which is £30 below the listed recommended retail price. As with most early orders there is an an early adopter premium. Nokia's original press release set the C6 at €220, which roughly translates to approximately £213 (UKP, including VAT) at current exchange rates. We recommend holding back for now, as lower prices should be appearing once the C6 is officially on the market.
Another day, more major firmware updates from Nokia, this time for even older devices, again rolling Maps 3.3 with free navigation into the ROMs - excellent to have. v500.21.009 for the two year old E71 and E66 also brings the very latest editing version of Quickoffice and latest Ovi Store client, plus bumps to Music player and to Lotus Notes Traveler, among the usual minor improvements and fixes.
In a move to placate a lot of very unhappy mobile web users (including myself), the BBC’s Anthony Sullivan hopes that the upcoming BBC Accessibility Tools will allow people to replicate the “low graphics” version of the BBC News website. Unfortunately, for people who’ve been using that version of the site for over ten years, it feels like they’ve lost a close friend. There’s a lesson in here for web developers around the world, read on.
This year’s theme at the Symbian Exchange and Exposition has been announced as "free", both free as in the Operating System, but also that the event continues to be free to attend and you are "free to connect and free to help shape the future of the mobile industry." It runs on the 9th and 10th of November 2010, in Amsterdam, with more details at the SEE website.
The (unbranded) Nokia N97 'classic' was given a big update today, to firmware version 22.0.110, available right now Over The Air, as a 5MB download and shortly via Nokia Software Update. The previous firmware version was v21.0.102. Version 22 is a significant update because it includes Ovi Maps 3.3 with the free navigation, saving the user from having to use up around 10MB+ of the precious system disk C: for these two combined. More and an attempt at a changelog below. The N97 mini should also now see v12 firmware, which is equivalent, though I can't test this personally.
With my tongue slightly in cheek and with the news that sheds(!) are now firmly back in fashion, I wanted to mention a growing trend in the tech world - that of fiddling, customising and tweaking. Of devices, of their firmware and of their software. It's all huge fun, of course, but if you want to keep your life on track and blood pressure down then I'd suggest having a second, fallback device, also synced to everything you know and love...
Community based UK MVNO Giffgaff has extended their offer of free mobile internet to all users until the start of October. Giffgaff launched without an automatic way to charge for data, they said “hey, data is free up to 100mb a day,” and planned to charge for data at the end of June. Well, now it’s the end of June, and O2’s core data network is in the middle of being updated. So it’s free data till October for GiffGaff users.
Nokia Beta Labs have announced the first release candidate for the next version of Nokia Software Updater (NSU). The beta test is open until the end of August. In addition to managing firmware, the new version of NSU will now offer application updates, much like the built-in Software Update application on Nokia phones.
Virgin Mobile (the UK MVNO under Richard Branson’s Virgin Group) has launched an interesting summer promotion on S60 5th Edition handsets, in conjunction with Nokia, and it ties in with one of the largest summer music events - the V Festival. Branded editions of the Nokia X6 and 5230 are now available from the company, along with some rather nice software tweaks.
In these times of recession, it's more vital than ever to watch your pounds (or Euros) - if you need (or lust after) a new(ish) Symbian-powered smartphone then why not think of getting something second-hand, on eBay, at a fraction of the new price? Or if you're trying to raise cash by reducing your smartphone stash that's been gathering dust under the desk, then read on for some comments and example selling prices as at the end of June 2010.
It's worth noting that, though we haven't linked to it for ages, the Carnival of the Mobilists is still going strong, here's Carnival 228 over at MSearchGroove, featuring one of our own posts from last week. Always worth keeping track of for some generic mobile reading. Follow future Carnival posts and news on Twitter @COTMobilists
No, not a video editor, as the name might suggest, but rather an experimental way of jumping around your video collection. Working on any S60 5th Edition phone but so far only tested on the N97 and 5800, Nokia Video Cuts is available for trial and feedback now. I've included screenshots, links and an intro video below. If you like or dislike the app then please feedback to Nokia Beta Labs using the links they provide.
It's Snake, but with levels, power ups and something of a complete overhaul (though staying in 2D) and it's out now in the Ovi Store, with a trial version. At which point I look through my review archives to find a suitable review - and I don't have to look any further than Mr Snake himself, Ewan Spence. Here's his full Ovi Gaming review of Snake Revolution.
