S60 has long been without any form of Wikipedia application besides the mobile web site. There are now two applications in early development, but do either of them significantly add to the mobile web site experience? David Gilson has been comparing all three and answers that question in this feature.
What happens when you get challenged to break an unbreakable phone on the floor of CES in Las Vegas? Well Dan Simmons from the BBC's Click team managed to do what every one of us has secretly tried to do, and break the phone. The out-take is now online at BBC News.
In All About Symbian Insight 100 (AAS Podcast 164), we first look back at the decade just gone and consider how far we've come, before looking ahead to what will happen in the next decade. Steve brings news of an i8910 firmware update, Ovi Maps Racing and more and the teams answer questions relating to N97 Exchange support and briefly discuss what to expect at MWC You can listen to AAS Insight 100 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Tomi T Ahonen is about as authoratitive an industry analyst as you can get and has written a lengthy but all-encompassing analysis of the smartphone world going into 2010. Where will the fortunes of Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, RIM and others lie? Read Tomi's session with his crystal ball to find out!
At CES, the huge Las Vegas event happening this week, Nokia has a big stand and you can see some of the setup behind it in a video, embedded below. In addition to the Climate Mission game (see previous news item), Nokia has announced (but not made available yet) Ovi Maps Racing, another homegrown title, integrating the real world streets around your position (or another destination of your choice) with a virtual racetrack - so, effectively, you can race around your own local roads. I've also embedded the trailer for Ovi Maps Racing below, for your interest.
A few brief updates from the world of The Phones Show. Programme 99 is now available, with my nine minute recommendations of smartphones to buy for seven different categories of user (you'll remember that I shortlisted these on AAS?) Plus our very own Tim Salmon and I have finished Phones Show Chat 19 and 20, one hour audio podcasts, both now available for download. Comments welcome on any of this content.
A snow-bound look around the phone world at what's popular and what's hot - and my annoyance that yet again Form is leading Function (e.g. "I just want something that's pretty and with a touchscreen"). Mind you, I'm a self-confessed geek and I don't have any clothes sense, so what do I know? Read on for a Steve rant...
No, not that hell. Michael Hell, previously of Symbian Freak and a geek after my own heart for the last 5 years, and someone whose opinion I respect. And he's just produced an interesting Top 10 phones of 2009, split into numbers 10 to 6 and then numbers 5 to 1. And the top pick will surprise you, but it's entirely defensible.
Two totally unrelated stories for your interest over a nice hot cup of tea... 1) A look back at Palm's 2009 on Royal Pingdom and how they failed to make the most of their early advantage with WebOS and the Palm Pre; 2) Nokia's Rick Simonson doing a non-denial denial that the Finnish company would be interested in buying Palm. We're certainly living in interesting times, and I wonder what the mobile landscape will look like in a year's time.
The company behind popular social media application Shozu, which allows you to upload images, videos and content to your network of social media sites (such as Flickr and Facebook), has been purchased by Critical Path. Existing users have been reassured the service will continue to run, and the service appears to be a good fit with Critical Path's white labelling of message solutions to clients.
GPS, like many modern technologies, is often taken for granted. Yet it's quite a bit more fragile, in terms of operation, than you might think. Here are some facts and tips that may help your own smartphone GPS experience.
If you have ever found your LED-illuminated camera phone photos to have a strange colour tint, David Gilson has a video tutorial to show you how to get your friends and family looking more like themselves, using a generic desktop computer with the multi-platform open source editor, The GIMP.
Published on Christmas Eve by Symbian Foundation Executive Director Lee Williams, there's an interesting article here detailing his thoughts on Symbian's role in the industry in 2010 and beyond. I've also quoted a few paragraphs below, with comment.
You can usually trust James Whatley to have his head screwed on more or less straight when it comes to assessing the merits of various phones and smartphones - I suspect even more go through his hands than through mine.... Anyway, he's written up his judging process for The Really Mobile Project 'Phone of the year' and.... I think you'll be surprised. And then you'll go "Well, yes, I see his point". Interesting stuff, though my phone of the year is the less mass market Nokia N97 mini - it's just a shame this came in so late in 2009...
Following on their action in October, Nokia have asked the US International Trade Commission to investigate Apple, alleging that '[they infringe] Nokia patents in virtually all of its mobile phones, portable music players, and computers'. The patents in question cover the areas of user interface, camera, antenna and power management technologies. Read on for more.
