So we've been waiting months for Nokia's Ovi Sync. And along comes Nokia Backup instead, ostensibly everything that Ovi Sync will be. The two have got to be linked, surely? I've been trialling Nokia Backup and it's a bigger and better system than you might think, with what I think is a world first. Read on.
Darla's back on the scene and in good investigative form, as she uncovers Nokia Backup, an official online backup service that may or may not be related to Ovi, plus she announces and demonstrates a brand new beta service, Nokia Email, offering push email from your existing mailboxes. Comments welcome.
PictBridge compatibility is something often forgotten in Nokia's Nseries smartphones - in a real world example, I show how it works. Now you can print photos directly and quickly, wherever you are in the world!
London Calling is this week’s Carnival of the Mobilists host. Coming to you during Wimbleton week from London, with plenty to talk about, including more Symbian Foundation musings.
There was always going to be one big topic for in-depth discussion in the latest AAS Insight Podcast - the announcement of the Symbian Foundation. Rafe and Steve are joined by Stefan and Ewan to talk over the ground-breaking news, and shoot a bit of Midnight Pool into the bargain.
Two new-ish blogs for your reading pleasure were pointed out this weekend, and in the spirit of the rapidly opening Symbian, two of the executives, David Wood and John Forsyth have set up their own blogs. Outside the company, and representing their own personal views, you can find them at www.dw2-0.com and johnforsyth.blogspot.com.
I'd noticed new icons for the elements in Google's Mobile services homepage yesterday but hadn't thought any more of it - it turns out that each element has had a new intro page written, explaining the difference between the download and web-based versions. As ever, try it at m.google.com - screenshots below.
Something we've heard and talked about over and over again recently is that Nokia and others have all recognised that the future belongs to 'services and software' and that the hardware has become 'a commodity'. This is all a bit jargonistic and in this feature Steve explains these phrases in plain english from the point of view of the consumer.
In another of our regular podcast interviews, Ewan Spence talks to David Wood, EVP Symbian, on some of the finer details on the Symbian Foundation. Launched ten years to the day after the announcement of Symbian, Wood discusses a number of issues around the new strategy of the Symbian partners.
Some of you may remember an article we carried last year about what cameraphones mean for the UFO phenomenon. Well, it seems that the first Symbian-UFO encounter has now taken place in Liverpool, and involved an N95 filming seven strange lights in the sky...
Now the dust is starting to settle on the surprise announcement of the Symbian Foundation, many commentators are looking at the bigger picture - including ourselves, here at All AboutSymbian. Rafe has been looking at the strategic implications of the deal, and explains why it increases the chances of Symbian achieving long term success.
As Ewan puts it, it's another madcap show - All About Symbian Insight number 30 right here, in which we talk about Missing Sync for Symbian, the launch of the Nokia E71 and E66, plus first thoughts on the Motorola MOTO Z10. Note that this show was recorded last Thursday and so predates Tuesday's Symbian announcements - we'll bring you audio content to do with this very shortly.
You'll know him as kflyer from our forums, but Miyuru also runs his own blog and sites - and he's also a nice kid and has given me a heads up on several news stories this year. Miyuru's created a survey of some of the Symbian/smartphone questions that most of us are interested in - it only takes 2 minutes to go through, so why not give it a try? I'll make sure the results get linked to here afterwards.
The Symbian Foundation website is now online, and carries a few more details on the project. The big news is the commitment to move the platform to be open source (using the Eclipse Public Licence) and have this freely available to all. The foundation itself is set to commence operations in the first half of 2009, and the annual membership fee will be $1500. Until the open sourcing, membership will be the route to obtain the platform royalty free for device manufacturers. Naturally, membership is not required to develop for the platform, that remains open to all, just as it is now.
