At its annual Capital Markets Day, Nokia has laid out its masterplan for 2010 and beyond. Extracts from the full press release are reproduced below (there are several nuggets of interest) and Rafe and Ewan weigh in with a few comments of their own. None of them will come as a suprise to regular readers, but it is good to see Nokia laying out a framework for the next 12 months.
Returning to a familiar theme but with a new twist, I caught myself doing something rather silly and rather telling. Reprising the pros and cons of touchscreen phones in the face of almost universal acceptance, seemingly, it does rather seem as though a tipping point has been reached. Read on for my Dec 2009 thoughts on 'Touch vs non-Touch'...
A fun discussion with Om Malik and Nokia's Services EVP Tero Ojanpera has been posted on GigaOm. Malik rightly points out that, given his previous coverage, this wasn't going to be a chat over tea and cream cakes for the Finn. Still, it's a good sign that it did happen. My comments below.
Qt 4.6 was released by Nokia this morning. This is the first full release version of Qt to natively support Symbian and Maemo 6. Also released today is the second technology preview for Maemo 5, which enables (partial) common development between Maemo and Symbian for the first time. Additionally a technology preview of new Qt APIs, from the Qt Mobility project, has been released; these cross-platform APIs provide common mobile related functionality such as location, contacts, messaging and bearer management.
Symbian and Orange are teaming up in the 'Symbian Developer BootCamp' in London on January 13th 2010. This is completely free and is "the ideal place to gain insight and hands-on experience with the Symbian Mobile Platform, leveraging our Runtime tools including Web, Adobe Flash Lite, Python, and QT". Intriguingly, they "will also have a limited number of Symbian devices to give away, these will be distributed on a first come, first served basis." Wonder how long those will last!
Nokia have filed suit in San Francisco against a number of LCD manufacturers (including Samsung and LG) claiming they colluded to fix pricing on LCD panels (reports Bloomberg). In Nokia's words “the liquid crystal displays were incorporated into Nokia mobile wireless handsets... [and] artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices.”
As I observed almost a year ago, the pairing of a Symbian smartphone and an Apple iPod Touch makes a huge amount of sense in terms of their complimentary strengths. And now Mike Macias is rightly making similar observations, pointing out that the Nokia E71 armed with JoikuSpot (for sharing its data connection via Wi-Fi) makes a perfect partner for the latest 2G iPod Touch. The best of both worlds? Food for thought, at least!
The times, they are, as the bard quoth, a changin' - Google Maps Navigation now provides free turn by turn voice instructions on Android-powered phones in the USA, and it's only a matter of time before the licensing restrictions and map rollouts get sorted for real time navigation in many other countries. And all for free. But this still leaves a window of opportunity for Nokia to step in and change this landscape in an even bigger way - right now. And sell a truckload of phones in the process, worldwide. Read on for my thoughts.
UK Gaming site Pocket Gamer has delivered a well thought out and researched piece about piracy and online content. While primarily about gaming and the new rush for downloadable content, the landscape is remarkably similar to the software markets for smartphones. Looking at all angles, the final statement "...whatever excuses any of us have employed for justifying a pirated game are well and truly dead." is one that we'd stand by here, but it covers some new ground in the world of App Stores, current estimated levels of piracy and public opinion.
There is a lottery whenever you download an application for your Symbian Samrtphone. I don't mean the lottery of whether you'll be able to re-download the app (although that can still be a concern); I don't mean the lottery of getting the right platform variation in terms of 3rd or 5th Edition or something even older (although that can be a concern as well); nor am I thinking about the “will the security certificate still be in date” when I install the app (seriously – who thought that expiring apps would be a good idea?)
Knowing he owned a Nokia N86 and iPhone, I arranged for Nokia Creative guy James Burland to get a review Turbocharger 3400 from Proporta - this is the revamped device, not the original white one I reviewed two and a half years ago. As it happens, James has published the review over on All About iPhone, so go read it there, I too can vouch for the usefulness of the bigger Proporta charger.
I'll be accused of cherry picking links again, but what the heck, it's nice to see a USA tech web site giving space to the Nokia N97, in this case pitching its camera against that of the HTC Touch Pro 2 (Tilt 2) and the (also 5 megapixel) Motorola Droid. As perhaps might be expected, the N97 rather runs away with the test, but then the Nseries cameras haven't been in doubt for a while.
UK customers on Vodafone take note! The company is promoting their Vodafone Live! service with a bundle of 28 chrismassy ideas, and you can find out those ideas on the Live! portal. Just to make it a bit more attractive the network are having a Free Mobile Internet Friday tomorrow for all internet traffic. Both 'pay as you go' and 'pay monthly' customers will not be charged for using the internet tomorrow.
In All About Symbian Insight 96 (AAS Podcast 160), we discuss recent rumour around Nseries in 2012 and the related Symbian / Maemo debate. Then there's news coverage of the Nokia 6700 Slide and Spotify on Symbian. We finish with a number of reader questions ranging from the web as a platform to buggy firmware and augmented reality. You can listen to AAS Insight 96 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
When is a game not a game? When it's more an online proof of concept, as Ewan found out in his review of Smart Trivia from the Ovi Store, with barebones interface and enforced cellular connection. At least the questions themselves are OK, plus there is multi-player action. Can Smart Trivia go for gold or will it fail the starter for ten?
