Intuwave have made available a beta version of mRouter 3 the software used to connect many Symbian smartphones to PC's. Improvments include tighter integration with Bluetooth, improved ease of use (including set up wizards, setting of preffered devices and more). There are also several technical improvement relating to developers, security and support for Symbian OS 8.0.
Hardcore MobitopiansRuss Beattie, Matt Croydon and Erik Thauvin have released LifeBlogger, a tool to allow Nokia's LifeBlog application to post to your own Blog using the common XMLRPC interface. Worth checking out, before Nokia's official plug-in arrives.
Ewan's had that same thought he has every month. "If Brian May can loose his PDA, so can I," as he performs his regular back-ups. And he's wondering out loud what's more important. The Phone? Or the information on the phone? Read On.
In this photo contest, we want to see your most Unusual Photos (taken on a Symbian Phone). So please upload your Unusal photos to the Photo Contest 014 folder. Vote will start on 8th August 2004 to pick a winner. Winners Photo is displayed on Main Gallery page and can select next category.
Over at The Register, Colly Myers speaks very candidly. Right from the start, he pitches the idea that an all-in-one device might not be the nirivana everyone expeects. "You end up with a 'spork' - a combination of a spoon and a fork. It's no good as a spoon and no good as a fork."
Canalys have published the latest marketsare figures from the EMEA mobile device market. In it the figures show 94% marketshare for Symbian OS. Nokia have sold 1,351,400 units, Sony Ericsson 149,500 and Siemens 61,490. Nokia currently represents 85% of all Symbian devices sold.
Perhaps predictably after the news of Cabir comes news that an anti virus program has been released for both UIQ and Series 60. SimWorks Anti Virus from SimWorks claims to protect your phone against virus. Updates are delivered by additional install files to update virus defintions. At this stage there are not any serious Virii in the wild so you don't really need this!
It's a tough world out there for mobile phone users, carriers, handset vendors and OS (writes John Lettice at The Register). Lettice has a very lengthy piece on Digital Rights Management, looking at the OMA spec that is carried by Symbian.
As reported by TechJapan Sharp is planning to use Symbian in future phone, intially in its higher end offerings. Sharp see Symbian as a way to eaiser global distribution and diffferentiation of their handsets (currently 70% ship domestically). Not all Sharp phones will be Symbian OS powered, but it is clear that Symbian is at the heart of Sharp's future phone startegy.
Hobbies Photo Contest vote is open. You now have 3 photos from which to pick you favourite(s). *View Photos & Vote by Clicking Here* Poll closes on 26th July 2004! & Good Luck to all who entered.
As well as a pro-rata purchase of Psion's old stake in Symbain, Symbian's partners have participated in another rights issue to the value of £50 million. All of Symbian's shareholders have taken part. The Symbian split now stands at Nokia 47.9%, Ericsson 15.6%, Sony Ericsson 13.1%, Panasonic 10%, Siemens 8.4 % and Samsung 4.5%.
Sony-Ericsson, Siemens and Panasonic are taking up their pre-emtion rights to purchase a pro-rata share of Psion's stock in Symbian, along with Nokia (the FT Reports). Apart from Samsung, all of Symbian's partners are purchasing shares due to Psion's departure. This leaves Nokia with an overall 49% stake in Symbian, significantly less than the 68% it could have ended up with if they were the sole buyer.
Matt Croydon points out the surprising news that the Nokia 7650 is two years old today. Given how pedestrian the 7650 now seems when compared to devices like the BenQ P30 and the Sendo X, Matt's look back is a nice gentle read, over at PostNeo.
One of the unsung sites for Symbian (unless you;re a dyed in the wool coder) is NewLC. They've just announced a competition for programmers where they're looking for the best Open Source app in any language (under Symbian OS). Details here, and the competition site is here.
This weeks category is Hobbies. We want to see your Best Photos (taken on a Symbian Phone) that represent your Hobbies. So please upload your images to the Photo Contest 013 folder. Vote will start on 12th July 2004 to pick a winner. Winners Photo is displayed on Main Gallery page and can select next category.
