What can the networks do to promote third party applications (asks James Parton at Vision Mobile)? This is a well argued editorial, as Parton looks at the rise of the manufacturer’s application stores – but he reckons the stores are full of ‘dumb’ applications, labelling them 1.0, with no context of their user, location or environment. And that’s where the mobile phone networks need to act as enablers.
It's true that the accessory title rather gives the game away and isn't inspiring, but this is an accessory that's much needed in the smartphone (and general camera phone) world. Steve Litchfield muses on a predecessor and and reviews the latest product that claims to be able to hold your phone while it snaps or videos away.
In his latest Ovi Gaming review, Ewan takes to the skies in Polarbit's strangely realistic WW2 aviation shoot 'em up. With Armageddon Squadron often being sighted in the Ovi Store for free, this is definitely one to snap up, even if you'll need decent flying skills and plenty of patience to progress all the way to the end.
Nokia today announced the availability of Ovi Maps 3.3 (3.03) for the Nokia E71 and E66. The updated version brings the free worldwide pedestrian and car navigation edition of Ovi Maps to these devices. Nokia says the release is a result of listening to consumer feedback: 'you spoke, we listened', says the press release. The E71 and E66 versions do not include the Lonely Planet guides due to technical constraints, but the core navigation offering is the same as that found on more recent devices.
In an unusual double-header review pair, David Gilson looks at two new mini-apps from S60 5th Edition specialists and AAS favourites, Offscreen Technologies: Egg Timer Touch and Sticky Notes. I won't insult your intelligence by explaining what each app does here - the names are giveaways(!) - but you can read David's reviews by clicking on the relevant links.
If you thought my text reviews of the Vivaz here on AAS were a little generous to Sony Ericsson, then you might appreciate my Phones Show 107 review of the phone, where - maybe - it's possible I got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. Or maybe the Vivaz really is that flawed... There's also your Desert Island Smartphone (poll) results. Enjoy.
Last week saw my departure from safe waters into the world of hardware modding, in an attempt to get round the problems in Samsung's latest firmware for its i8910 HD flagship, ending with me installing firmware 3.17 (which has itself since been updated!). In this followup article, I talk about what came next, some of the issues I faced, how I tried to overcome them and what I've had to learn to live without.
Over on his own blog this time, our own David Gilson has been reviewing the latest idea for charging your 'spare' smartphone batteries - the SBC, or "Smart Battery Charger". With spacers to fit most Nokia batteries, this does seem a great way to charge your spares without having to cycle them through the actual phone(s).
If, like me, you'd like to see the Symbian freeware scene grow and grow, why not take a look at this appeal over on the Symbian Foundation blog? Craig is trying to amass votes so that the idea of a freeware test system can get progressed within the organisation - take a look and add your tuppence worth if you agree that it's a good idea!
PDF+ has come a long way from Psion days, a lifespan of well over 10 years. But it seems that it's left somewhat wanting in 2010, as David Gilson pounds it with his PDF document collection and compares it to the Quickoffice Adobe LE PDF reader. PDF+'s developer is very active on AAS, so expect a lively response below and perhaps look out for an updated version and an updated review in due course.
comScore have recently published a couple of press releases which contain interesting statistics about smartphone market penetration and mobile platform market share. For example, people are twice as likely to buy a smartphone in Italy than they are in Germany. Symbian's strong position in Europe is shown by market share figures of 47%, 55% and 74% in the UK, Germany and Spain respectively. The figures provide a contrast to the frequently reported US market share figures and demonstrate the degree of regional differentiation.
They say a picture is worth a thousand words. In which case it would be helpful if, sometimes, Tomi Ahonen actually did a few diagrams, to keep general article length down(!) His latest missive, "Repeat After Me: The Rival to the Blackberry is NOT the iPhone" is still well worth a read though, aimed at putting some much needed perspective into the tech world's obsession over each month's rather misleading Admob phone-browser-ad stats.
It's all very well making up ridiculous, improbable stories to accompany April 1st each year, but what of the real stories that have surprised us in the past, any of which might well have made a decent April Fools story in their own right? Below, Ewan and I list a number of contenders. You won't be an April Fool for reading!
Furtiv, the Share Online plugin maker, recently passed its 100,000th download on the Ovi Store, and has announced the end of its beta stage. Users who installed plugins from Furtiv's mobile site over a month ago are advised to upgrade. More below...
Ewan girds his sporran and risks valuable C: disk space to install the latest Qt runtime and Nokia's in-beta Wordpress client. For all its unfinished nature, this seems to be one client that reeks of quality and possibilities - if you run a Wordpress blog then keep your eyes peeled on this new way of managing your content from a touch-based Symbian smartphone.
