In All About Symbian Insight 63 (AAS Podcast 120) we briefly cover the N-Gage news out of GDC (1 million profiles, accelerometer Bounce and device support). Steve and Rafe mull over the importance of the underlying changes in S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2, before chatting about the importance of homescreens, with reference to TouchWiz on the Omnia HD. You can listen to AAS Insight 64 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Why the big deal over problems with multitasking in a phone? Why the cries of "Can't be done" from the Apple world? I've been multitasking on just about every device I've owned since 1993.... What's really behind the current negative thinking over background applications on the iPhone? I put forward my experiences with Psion, EPOC and Symbian-OS powered devices over fifteen years as evidence that a well-written operating system shouldn't need kludges like Apple's 'Push notification' scheme.
In a regular new feature, here's a round up of the rest of last week’s mobile development news. This week FleaC, Rhomobile, and froglogic are in the news and there's a reminder of the Betavine Widget 2009 competition.
I've been investigating the fact that Nokia Maps' online searching for full UK postcodes is currently broken, the last two or three characters are always missing in the results - a spokesman for Nokia said "We are aware of the problem and are working to get it fixed as soon as possible". More data points would be welcome - If you're outside the UK, do full postcode searches work in your country at the moment?
Lots of people now have flat-rate data plans for their phones, but these plans usually aren't flat-rate when you're in a foreign country. Using data while abroad has traditionally been very expensive, but the EU is now trying to introduce caps on data roaming charges. Under the plan, data roaming charges would be capped from July 2009 at 1 euro per megabyte, falling to 50 cents per megabyte by July 2011. These are caps so phone networks could charge less of course, but they could not charge more.
In a GDC-inspired AAS podcast special, Ewan sits down with Jakko Kaidesoja (Nokia's VP of Games, Services and Software) to discuss the current status of the N-Gage ecosystem. It's a wide-ranging discussion and there's a LOT of meat in here, despite it only clocking in at 16 minutes - a must-listen for anyone remotely interested in N-Gage.
There's more from Symbian Foundation's David Wood here, talking about the steps needed to get to a working SF phone, including a couple of the clearest 'picture speaks 1000 words' diagrams I've seen in a long time.
Ho yes. At SXSW last week, after talking to Ewan in our podcast, Nokia's Molly Schonthal joined Chanse Arrington and Cathy Brook to ham it up at the VIP Lounge, singing (well, more like talking) all about Comes With Music. See the video below!
In a follow up to my popular series, from August 2008, investigating the practicalities of a S60 smartphone owner switching to an Apple Mac as the desktop counterpart, I report back after a couple of months of living the Mac life for real. What improvements have their been to the software available and does using a Mac and OS X now offer a more seamless smartphone experience than a PC and Windows?
More Carnival of the Mobilists goodness over here this week, in Carnival 166. Always good to read - the posts help round out one's mobile industry knowledge!
Yes, Ewan's heading off for a three week tour of the USA, taking in social media and gaming events. To try and add a little Symbian spice to proceedings, we insisted he take the Nokia 5800 with him, to really try it out 'on the road'. This is the sixth of his regular video reports, embedded below, letting us know how he's getting on with S60 5th Edition and the 5800. In this part, Ewan answers some feedback questions and talks more about the PIM apps with regard to touch integration, before describing why Nokia Maps is a better bet than Google Maps for the overseas traveller. Oh, and watch out for the battlestar-sized stylus and the Black Helicopter....
On Tuesday Nokia announced it would be 'streamline operations in several units and functions'. Approximately 1,700 employees will be affected, mainly in the UK, USA and Finland. While the economic environment and Nokia's longer term cost-cutting plans are largely responsible, Nokia says some cuts are a result of the Symbian acquisition.
Much has been made of the Apple iPhone and T-Mobile G1's capacitive touchscreens, with many proclaiming them superior to the humble 'resistive' touchscreens that have been used since the dawn of time (oh, ok, since about 1995). But is it as simple as the one technology being superior? What advantages does 'resistive' tech have and what else do you need to know?
Google has flipped the switch on StreetView for the UK and The Netherlands. At least, it has if you live in one of a dozen or so major cities. Reading isn't included (sob), but London, Bristol, Liverpool, Birmingham, Cambridge, Sheffield and a number of others are all present and correct (see coverage map in full story). Comments and additions welcome if you'd like to try your home city.
In a move that's utterly unsurprising, Nokia has announced its intention to close its file sharing site, MOSH. The intentions of this site were never crystal clear at the best of times and it has often been host to warez and adult material, all available without controls in place. MOSH is expected to close before the Ovi store opens in May.
