A little off topic, but then this is Friday/weekend and we're all supposed to be letting go a little - I've been moaning a lot in the podcasts and on The Phones Show about how Symbian OS and other mobile OS roundly trounce Apple's iPhone (much as I love it in other ways) in terms of what I consider vital to a modern device: multitasking, something which Symbian OS pioneered in handhelds. Here's a very well written piece, and witty with it, written by Engadget's Editor-in-chief, Joshua Topolsky, talking about exactly the same issue. Mind you, if Apple responded and introduced proper multitasking, the iPhone would present an even bigger threat to the other devices and platforms. Comments welcome!
Google has now formally launched its mobile 'product search' system for users in the UK, USA, Germany and South Korea. I've put some screenshots below - essentially you can type in any product (e.g. while standing in a shop) and get a bunch of the best deals from around the web. In Web, go to (or create a bookmark for) www.google.com/m/products or www.google.co.uk/m/products (or similar for Germany and S.Korea).
In All About Symbian podcast 138, Rafe talks to Daniel Rubio, Chief Architect of the Symbian Foundation, about his role (Daniel also heads up the Symbian Foundation Architecture Council) and the importance of SHAI (Symbian Hardware Abstraction Interface).
Launched today in Nokia's Ovi Store is a free Bing widget:- you'll recall that this is Microsoft's next-gen answer to Google's main search site. Offering Web, Mobile web, News, Images and Videos, the tabbed interface gives you results almost instantly, since content is cached for each tab/data type. Some screens and comments below.
Slightly off topic, in that the main device covered isn't powered by Symbian OS, but The Phones Show 85, now online, should be required watching for any smartphone fan in that James Burland demonstrates somewhat emphatically the huge graphical processing power inside the Apple iPhone 3GS. Yes, yes, we know that Nokia for one have chosen not to go down this route, so consider this a look at what might have been if the N95 had been a taste of things to come in the S60 world...
With Rafe indisposed, Insight #78 could have been a double header between Steve and Ewan, but that wouldn't be rock and roll enough, so James Whatley (The Really Mobile Project) joins us to chat firmwares, betas, messaging and travelling technology. Listen in on the fun or subscribe via the AAS Podcast Feed.
What a silly game of Chinese Whispers. The Guardian newspaper in the UK quotes 'industry insiders' as saying that Nokia is going to introduce an Android device, something which I thought made no sense, and then half the Symbian ecosystem blogs jump up and down giving credence to the story. Nokia has stepped in, thankfully, and firmly quoshed the bloggers' fun and games, with a press statement via Reuters. For the record, I think the 'insider' was confused - no doubt they were thinking of the upcoming Maemo tablets and thought that this was in some way linked to Android.
With the Symbian Foundation set to provide an open source smartphone OS, hardware partners with off the shelf components, and a huge amount of software ready to be placed into a smartphone, is the time right for the smaller companies to come back to Symbian? Ewan considers the potential rise of the boutique range of smartphones in 2010. Read on...
Faced with a dead Nokia N86 that refused to charge, I didn't panic - armed with the luxury of some of other devices to hand, I was able to get the N86 and its battery revived and working properly. And, in the process, learned that all Nokia's batteries are electrically interchangeable. Maybe these concept will save the day when your precious S60 phone appears to have died? At the very least, add this to your 'Things to try' check list!
The Phones Show 84 is now public (embedded below too), with a reprise commentary on the Nokia E75, a hands-on review of the Nokia N86 8MP and a interview with the Symbian Foundation's Executive Director Lee Williams, asking him some of your questions, on the subjects of robot duck overlords, LTE, touchscreens, open source OS and, of course, which phone does he personally use(!)
One of the questions sent into the All About Symbian podcasts has got me thinking. It was along the lines of "are you looking forward to the Nokia N97 or the N86 more?", and my honest answer, out of those two, was the N97. But reflecting a bit more on the question, and while the journalist in me wants to see the N97 in action (probably around this year's Edinburgh Festival, but more on that in August), the consumer in me doesn't feel the need to step up.
"Breathe, breathe in the air"... So sang Pink Floyd in 1973. And now it's competition time here on AAS. Inspired to give away some N79 hardware, I've put together a video competition, embedded below. All you've got to do is work out how many phones I'm showing and what they are. Easy, eh? The first correct answer in the comments wins. Only one go each, mind you, so guess well...
The Symbian Foundation has announced that the Symbian Smartphone Show The Symbian Exchange & Exposition (with the name change, the acronym is now the friendlier SEE 2009) will be taking place on 27-28 October 2009 at Earls Court 2, London. More details below, plus you can expect an All About Symbian meet up on the evening of the 26th, venue to be arranged.
