Carnival 160
Our cousin site once-removed, All About iPhone, hosts this week's Carnival of the Mobilists, number 160, with some excellent generic mobile reading to start your week...
Recent News - General - Page 81
Why Nokia Music Store's DRM Dependence is Horribly Flawed
Regulars to AAS will know that I hate DRM (Digital Rights Management). Not because it stops me getting stuff for free, though that would undoubtedly be some people's reason, but because it gets in the way of how I want to use content that I've paid for. See below for a tale of woe - I was trying to give Nokia Music Store one last chance and it let me down yet again. Oh, and did I mention that I hate DRM?....
WIP's Mobile Jam in Barcelona
Wireless Industry Partnership (WIP), a networking organistion for developers and developer organisations, is a holding another of its Mobile Jam sessions in Barcelona on the last day of the Mobile World Congress. The event allows developer to get together with their peers and talk about issues impacting the mobile industry and mobile development.
Betavine's £20,000 Widget competiton
Last week Betavine, Vodafone's open mobile developer community, launched Widget competition. In addition to a first prize of £20,000 the winner will receive promotion of their widget in a Vodafone market, potentially reaching millions of users. Vodafone is using the Opera Widget Manager as the widget development platform and asks that developers target the N95, N96, N78 and 6210.
Run your life and create a successful blog with just a phone?
That's just what AAS regular kflyer has been doing for the last few years. No PC needed, just a Series 40 (and then S60) phone, writing articles, managing Wordpress, answering email and so on. Opera Mini is one particular star of the show here, but Miyuru also deserves credit for sticking at such an ambitious task in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. In this article, he describes how he's been able to manage his blog using just his phone.
Google ... and ebooks too
Google's desktop web site has been offering the text of public domain and other licensed books for a while, but they've just launched a mobile version as well, books.google.com/m . Ostensibly formatted for Android devices and the iPhone, it works after a fashion on S60 devices too, with their Webkit-based browsers. Some screenshots below to show how it works...
You'll Need A Crowd To Survive 2009
Previously it was a race to get as many people to buy your phone as possible. Now the name of the game is to get as many people to register and use your software as possible – and if they happen to buy a phone as well that's perfect. How does the strategy work out? Let's find out.
NS Basic adds S60 5th Edition/Touch support
NS Basic, the hybrid (and cross-platform) Basic/object-oriented development system has officially added "support for Symbian OS S60 5th Edition". The new v1.1 of the NS Basic SDK also features "an improved user interface for applications created with the tool". See the NS Basic release for pricing and more. (via Symbian One)
It's So Top Secret I Can't Even Show You This New Phone
Everyone is looking for the next thing in technology. Many companies and smartphone prototypes are made to test out radical ideas to see if they work. Power users are hoping that the next phone will do the 27 things they need it to do; regular users want it to make calls; and half of us wonder why the IrDA port is still there. I reckon it's all about the different directions people try to pull their smartphones, and ultimately all this pulling ends up determining the true direction of change. Read on...
The Phones Show 75. Starring..... the Nokia N82
The Phones Show 75 is now live, with something of a personal essay on device convergence, demonstrated on the Nokia N82 (though a few other devices could have filled the same role as well). Plus a hands-on review of Noka E71 rival, the Blackberry Bold 9000.
Camera Nitty Gritty - Part 12 - Scene Modes, Colour Tone and White Balance
In this, part 12 of my long running series on smartphone cameras, I look at whether any or all of Nokia's fancy scene modes and adjustments make any significant difference and I work out which ones you should ignore and which ones you should remember.... Can you just leave everything on 'Automatic'?
Buddycloud gets the once over
Kudos to SymbianpOp and getting there first with a detailed and illustrated look at the new version of Buddycloud. This free software (for Java, S60, etc. and with special emphasis here on touch and S60 5th Edition) lets you interact with friends, with full status and (favourite) location updates, derived from GPS, cell towers and Wi-Fi, plus there's interoperability with the likes of Twitter and Facebook. An interesting read!
The Perils of Fortune-telling in the Mobile World...
Not exactly current news, but perhaps this might cheer someone up who's having a bad day: digging through AAS's archives reveals a series of predictions made in June 2002 by a venture capitalist giving a speech at a mobile developers conference. You can read some of these gems below, and I think you'll agree it's pretty amazing how "on the money" his forecasts have been...
You'd Best Be Believing In Ghost Stories, The Pirates Are Here
With news that a single application for the iPhone will 'crack open' any iTunes purchased app, the spectre of mass piracy arrives on the latest platform. It's a problem that every mature platform has to deal with, and it boils down to a simple phrase. Read on...
Maximising Battery Life on the Nokia 5800
Nokia's 'Tube' already has great battery life. But Tzer2 wants to go to the max and has penned an excellent 'how to' on maximising the battery life on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic... and on just about any other comparable phone, for that matter. Some great (if sometimes extreme) suggestions here.
