Just a note that Tim Salmon and I went rather overboard on Symbian-powered phones in the latest Phones Show Chat, no. 23, here. Though in theory cross platform, we found ourselves debating Nokia N97 mini, Samsung i8910 HD, Sony Ericsson Satio and even Nokia N85, in the usual mix of review material, Q&A, tips and rants. If you want to subscribe in Podcasting, here's the feed to add.
Did you see the single numebr tweeted by Symbian yesterday? Prefixed by the tag #symbiancountdown, the number 108 was released to the world. With no explanation. So we've put our thinking caps on, wondering what this Symbian Countdown could be. Is your favourite theory in here?
I have to admit that, like Rita el-Khoury, when I saw the proud boast by a Palm Pre Plus reviewer that they had managed to run 50 apps at once in its 512MB of RAM, I'd thought: well, some Symbian devices of yesteryear and a few from today could match that. Rita's taken the time to demonstrate this on the Samsung i8910 HD, managing 50 apps (and more) at once in only 256MB of RAM. Cool little post. Though I reckon I could get close to 50 on the unmodified Nokia N95 8GB, E90 or E71, for example. Anyone care to try?
Coming on the eve of Apple's big tablet release and Nokia's Q4 09 results announcement, IDC gathered all their numbers, analysts and (ahem) runes and produced a forecast for the smartphone market in 2013. Unusually, for an American data analysis firm, there's surprising understanding of the worldwide scene, with the headline stat being that the smartphone market will exceed 390 million units per year by 2013, with Symbian holding on to its world marketshare lead over the next three years. Quotes from the IDC press release and my own predictions below.
When it comes to Twitter applications (perenially popular, it seems), Symbian and S60 have no shortage of choice. Guest author David Gilson has done a mass review of all the Twitter applications he could find for S60, and presents us with a detailed feature comparison, along with a number of recommendations.
While some of us are still waiting for our favourite Symbian smartphone manufacturer to widely embrace capacitive touch screens, have you spared a thought for the next leap in touch screen technology? Well, your next generation touch screen could be utilising Quantum Tunnelling Composites (QTC).
Ewan's been looking back to the Apple Newton and forward to Thursday's Apple tablet launch, using these as markers to chart the growth of information sharing in the wider smartphone world. Soup was the past, APIs are the future, he reckons!
In All About Symbian Insight 102 (AAS Podcast 166), the team start with news of Sony Ericsson's Vivaz and its continuous focus HD video capture capabilities. We move on to an in-depth discussion of Nokia's Ovi Maps announcement last week. The final item in this weeks podcast is a quick mention for the new beta version of Ovi Suite. You can listen to AAS Insight 102 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Guest author Matt Radford (of All About iPhone) borrowed my Nokia N97 mini for a few weeks recently. His aim? To see if he could switch to it from his beloved Apple iPhone. Matt was a hardened Symbian user in times past with a love of the S60 2nd Edition-powered Nokia N70, so this was an especially interesting experiment.
Everyone has been wondering why Ovi Maps hasn't been offered, for convenience, through the Ovi Store client - and, with the release of the new all-free, official v3.3, that's exactly what Nokia has done, indicating a high degree of confidence on its part. Great to see it heading up the store, anyway, and now merely a download away. And a side note for those for whom this doesn't appear - many other S60 3rd Ed FP2 phones will work fine with Maps 3.3 - just grab the closest version via your desktop and side-load it.
Last year, David Gilson compared Google Maps and Ovi Maps, controversially finding that Google Maps (for Mobile) had the edge. However, Nokia has now announced that voice guided road navigation for Ovi Maps no longer requires a subscription fee and is available to all. Read on to see how this game-changing move effects the battle of the maps! (Note that this article is a rewrite and does contain some of the original text.)
As the Symbian Foundation finish transitioning the OS and its applications over to the EPL (Eclipse Public License), various individuals and companies are responsible for different 'packages' - two such are the Image and Video editors. In the first such move, these two packages have just been transferred from one 'owner' to another. In this case, it's respected company Ixonos who has taken on responsibility and there's an interesting interview with Mikael Laine from Ixonos here on the subject.
For anyone who's digging the new Nokia Ovi Suite all-in-one system and who wants to both to live on the bleeding edge and have a say in how Ovi Suite develops, note that v2.1 has been opened up to public beta testing. There are some links and change notes below to help you make up your mind...(!)
Ewan takes a sideways look at the addition of Lifecasting to Ovi Maps this morning - what implications are there for bringing this social element into a mapping and navigation product? And what challenges remain in this area for Nokia? How will this release change the world? Read on in his Lifecasting editorial.
Nokia today announced that it is releasing a new version of Ovi Maps with free walk (pedestrian) and driving (car) turn-by-turn, voice guided navigation functionality. Ovi Maps has global coverage, with 74 countries covered by its navigation services. Maps for all regions will be available, for free, for loading over the air or pre-loading via a desktop computer. Traffic information and city guides, from Lonely Planet and Michelin, will also be made available at no extra cost. There's an initial set of devices, in terms of availability, with more compatible devices to follow. See below.
This is an industry-shifting move; Nokia is essentially changing the economics of the consumer GPS navigation market overnight. It will give its phones a significant differentiator on shop shelves and has long term strategic implications for the future of location services. Read on for further details and analysis.
