Some say he can shout across the Forth Bridge and be heard on the other side. Some say he can't pronounce the word "badminton". All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 5 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). We set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230/Nokia Nuron), all delivered by the Stig. In part 5, Ewan accepts a photographic challenge and goes seeking tips from a 'pro'.
The halls of Austin have been cleared of the SXSW Interactive crowd, to be replaced with the bands, managers, promoters and fans of the music conference. And that’s brought a sea change to a certain factor: it’s almost impossible to spot more than a handful of iPhones. From the reaction in the halls, Nokia have a chance to win over America this year.
Navteq, at Mobile World Congress 2010, showed off their new mapping collection system called Navteq True. The system, which is placed on top of a vehicle, combines a LIDAR system, multiple panoramic cameras, and positioning (GPS and IMU) sensors. Navteq is part of Nokia and its digital mapping products underlie numerous location products and services, including Ovi Maps. In this video we get a closer look at the system, see some of the data it collects and find out what implications it has for digital maps.
Thanks to Norman John for spotting online that at least one of the existing holes in the functionality of the Sony Ericsson Satio and Vivaz has now been plugged, semi-officially. 'Equaliser' is now a free download in the PlayNow store and is a tiny 17kb standalone utility whose music chip presets are honoured by the main Media/Music player. Hopefully this will become more integrated in future firmwares?
Ovi Maps 3.3, with free navigation, is now available for the Nokia N86. The new version is available via the SW Update application (listed as 'Ovi Maps with free navigation') and is 8240kb in size. As stated previously, Nokia are making Ovi Maps 3.3 available across selected S60 3.2 devices, step-by-step, either via direct download or via firmware updates. Read on for a few screenshots and a compass tip.
Having linked your YouTube and Google accounts last year, YouTube has now enforced the use of the latter's password for signing into YouTube from mobile clients such as the Symbian/S60 version (available in, for example, the Ovi Store and on m.google.com). Screens and more info below.
In the second part of my review of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz (here's part 1), I look at the Vivaz's unique selling point, its much-vaunted camera and camcorder capability. Just how good is it in practice (compared to previous champion devices like the Nokia N86 and Samsung i8510) and is there anything else you should know about the Vivaz's camera arrangements? Included are numerous samples and a montage of demonstration video footage highlighting the continuous autofocus.
eBooks have been a part of the Psion/Nokia/Symbian scene, on and off, for 15 years now. Admittedly, it's more 'off' than 'on' at the moment, but that's absolutely no reason for you not to take a hot drink and 30 minutes to read Michael Mace's epic feature on 'The Future of Publishing: Why eBooks Failed'. He looks at the topic from every angle and in terrific depth. What I'd now like to see is for a commercial eBook platform really take off on Symbian: suggestions for current contenders welcome if you agree?
Our latest MWC video is a tour around the Qt stand, looking at some of the Qt-enabled devices - from phones to printers and appliances. Mobile developers and users have been hearing more and more about Qt in the last 18 months. It is the future application framework for both Symbian and MeeGo (Nokia's two open platforms going forward). However, as this video demonstrates, Qt is already a well established technology and the 'Qt everywhere' slogan has already been realised.
Much as All About Symbian doesn't encourage the hacking of Symbian smartphones, we do feel that the Samsung i8910 HD is a special case - a super-high-spec smartphone that has been somewhat under-curated by the manufacturer. And the device has attracted those who want to mod, not for installation of illegal software, but for genuine improvement of the device. Which is why I'm happy to link to the industrious Andy, aka 'HyperX', who has been beavering away to produce firmware HX-V3-16, details and link below.
In this video interview, recorded just before MWC, we speak to Scott Weiss (User Interface Technology Manager at the Symbian Foundation and Chair of the Symbian Foundation UI Council) about the Symbian Foundation UI and some of the initiatives and projects that Symbian is undertaking around UI topics. You'll hear about some of t
he key user experience changes, the UI workshops and the UI pattern library.
Some say he's secretly part of Finnish Rock band Lordi. Some say he only needs 5 minutes sleep a night. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 4 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230 / Nokia Nuron). In part 4, Ewan takes on the Stig-delivered challenge of finding a party, having a drink and messing around with FourSquare.... [Hmm... sounds like a 'jolly' to me.... Ed]
Nokia have opened a crowd sourcing initiative, "Design by Community", to find out what form customers would like future Nokia phones to take. Each week, members of the public can vote on different aspects of mobile phone design. See below for all the details and links.
The native Opera Mobile 10 and the Java-based Opera Mini 5 have finally graduated from their long standing beta status, with Opera Software officially announcing that the two applications are now "consumer ready". There's a quote and introduction video embedded below. Both work on all Symbian smartphones.
As part of the activities at its MIX10 conference Microsoft has announced that the Beta of Silverlight for Symbian is now available. Microsoft describes Silverlight as 'a cross-browser, cross-platform implementation of the .NET Framework for building media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web on desktop computers'. The current Beta lets you run Silverlight applications and content in the standard Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) web browser.
