On the day of the announcement of the Nokia N73 and N93, no prizes for guessing what Symbian's David Wood's latest topic is over on symbian.com. In Insight no. 8, he goes into even more detail than I've done in the past, estimating that the smartphone is on the verge of forcing into extinction over 30 categories of mobile device or service.
To go along with the new NSeries devices, Nokia have announced three new Bluetooh headsets. One lightweight (BH700), a minimalist (BH-300) and one dubbed the 'classic' (the BH-600). More after the break.
This Googlified version of the Powerpoint slides from a recent Windows Mobile development session makes interesting reading (hint: use ctrl-A in your browser, to highlight all the white-on-white text) and, between all the techy mumbo jumbo, seems to show Microsoft thinking along the same lines as Symbian OS (and specifically OS 9), but with timelines maybe 2 years behind in many areas. Comments welcome.
In an attempt to flesh out my dismissal of the need for a separate third party firewall utility for Symbian OS, I thought a little testing was in order. I grabbed the nearest S60 phone (a Nokia 6630) at random, pointed at the Internet's leading port tester/prober and sat back and watched. How did Symbian OS do? Updated: also tested Nokia 9500 over W-LAN.
Nokia's full Q1 2006 report is now out (warning, long and lots that isn't relevant here). Of note is that the Nokia N70 is estimated to be the world's top selling 3G phone and is Nokia's highest revenue-generating device, and that sales in the USA have doubled, year on year.
Steve Litchfield adds a playable piano to Musician, a Python project of his for Series 60, and casts an objective eye over the state of this newest S60 development language. How easy is it really to get to grips with and what does the future hold?
CTIA and The Smartphone Summit, held at the start of April in Las Vegas, was one of the flagship mobile phone events in America. Rafe was there, from All About Symbian, to find out how the North American continent is viewing smartphones in 2006. His full report is online now.
Equipped with a Nokia N70 or N90 and off for a long Easter weekend? Why not leave the camcorder at home and try shooting your video all on the smartphone? Steve Litchfield did just that a week ago and here he reports back and assesses the pros and cons.
AllAboutSymbian caught up with Bruce Carney, Symbian's head of Developer Marketing, at the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas. How many Symbian OS apps are there, why isn't freeware counted and why all the fuss over Platform Security? Here's the full interview.
No, not another site from Rafe and the team, this is a hugely important FAQ from Forum Nokia explaining the ins and outs of the changes needed in applications in the move to Symbian OS 9 (with Platform Security). A must-read for anyone even remotely interested in developing applications for the next gen of Symbian-powered hardware.
Having a mini-keyboard seems all the rage on Enterprise devices, but what if you're on a device that doesn't have one? Well you could live with T9 input, or look at the Bluetooth enabled Freedom Mini Keyboard. Steve Litchfield has reviewed it, and, while it's got some potential, it's a very niche product.
Ever helpful, Ewan has prepared a quick reference guide to the brand new Symbian OS powered smartphones that are specifically aimed at music playback, with comparison to the ubiquitous iPod. Food for thought, though don't forget that almost any recent Symbian OS device can also play back stereo music too...
In a further Insight article at Symbian.com, David Wood deconstructs the myth of a mobile Operating System being a commodity, the all-conquering Linux-Phone, and how (naturally) Symbian OS has addressed these problems. As Wood points out, the arguments he is hearing sound similar to the debates about how search was solved and no innovation was needed... just before Google launched.
