Thanks to ares for the heads-up that Opera Software have been busy, releasing its Opera 9.5 web browser for UIQ 3 with widget support today. For technical reasons (lack of RAM?), it's only compatible with the SonyEricsson P1, W960, G700 and G900. Opera has also updated people on progress towards v9.5 for S60 - more on this in the weeks to come.
Sigh. Another month, another needless high profile security scare. The BBC should know better. In this case, they talk to a Mr Coney, who (surprise, surprise) happens to sell security software. He's quoted as saying "One of common types we see now runs amok on the Symbian platform. These viruses work their way through the contact book, sending themselves out to every subscriber who has been called or has called that handset." What a load of rubbish, timed to go live on the eve of the Symbian show, too. Read on.
It's all very well standing there smugly with your new Nokia N or Eseries phone, knowing that it's functionally superior to your friend's Apple iPhone. But when you both turn on your devices, it's the iPhone that people gather round, partly because of the larger screen, but also partly to watch its party tricks. Watching these tricks, you might well ask: 'Why can't my S60 phone do that?' Chances are, it can, with a few software caveats...
On monday it's time for the Evening with S60 London. However as things do not kick off until 7:30pm and as the AAS team are in town we thought we would hold an informal get together before the event in a local pub. So from 5:30pm or so we'll be in the Windmill pub which is just a few minutes away from the Nokia Flagship Store.
While we were sitting in the AAS Editorial Chat room yesterday, mulling over the last minute tweaks to Rafe's review of Comes With Music review (see here), Rafe started talking about setting up the referral fees. Turns out that this was to make sure the 5310 CWM package was in the AAS Phone Store (you do realise we have one and that you help the site when you buy through it?), but for a moment I thought that there were referral fees passed onto sites that recommended music tracks. Which got me thinking...
I can't resist linking over to AAS regular Matt Radford's latest post over on All About iPhone, talking about why the release of the S60 5th Edition-powered Nokia 5800 XpressMusic is going to be good for the Apple iPhone. At the latter's launch, the talk was on how it would be good for the mainstream phone industry - both views were absolutely right, as is Matt's observation that there will never be a 'winner' or a 'finish line' in this industry, just continuing advancement and improvement.
Back at last year's AAS Pub Meet (was it really that long ago?), Julie agreed to help me with a comparative review of Sat Nav applications for S60. We've produced odds and ends during the year, but you may be wondering where the promised head-to-head mega-review is. Good question. Read on if you're not offended by the sight of a grown woman (Julie) having a really good rant....
Nokia continue to explore virtual worlds with their meetings in Second Life, and tonight sees the next event organised by the Connected Worlds in Team. Meeting in the Blarney Stone bar in the Dublin Sim of Second Life (direct link to venue in Second Life), Hydra Shaftoe will be chairing a discussion on European Communities inside Second Life, followed by 'live' music from Bedford Banstand, relayed from The Bedford in Balham, South London. It all starts at 11am SL time (around 7pm in the UK).
Rafe's been trying out Nokia's newest Music service offering, Comes with Music - for real, with a full retail package. There may be some caveats with the system (PC/MSIE-only, DRM-heavy), but overall he comes away very impressed. How is the PC client to use and what's the overall experience like for a new music-loving phone user? Can you retro-fit CwM to an existing handset? What can you do and what can't you do with the downloaded music? Find out in Rafe's definitive Comes with Music review.
Nokia today released its 3rd quarter results for 2008. Converged mobile device shipments (S60 phones) were 15.5 million (down from 16 million in Q3 2007) including 9 million Nseries and 3 million Eseries devices. Sales and profit were down, but the gross margin in the device and services division increased (36.5% from 36.1%). Nokia's market share fell to 38%, from 39% last year and 40% last quarter.
The next two years could be trickier than expected for the nascent mobile advertising industry (thinks Tricia Duryee at MocoNews). Agencies are likely to become more conservative in their approach, focusing on proven strategies to get the marketing word out. That could prevent advertising initiatives on various mobile platforms making a large impact on revenue.
I have to confess a liking for the Boy Genius Report - all very American, but they don't pull their punches. In this case going over the first Google Android device, T-Mobile's G1, with a very Steve-like critical eye and pointing out a number of serious 'version 1' flaws and summarising the challenge facing Android. Also excellent is the G1 Review, from Matthew Miller, on ZDNet's Smartphone and Cellphone blog. Android looks set to be one of Symbian's more significant competitors in the years ahead.
Argh! It's another press release promoting another new application and service for your pocket computer. Many years ago the joke was, that of the ten thousand Palm OS applications available, six thousand of them were on-screen digital clocks - the more advanced ones had an alarm feature as well... Reading about yet another 'innovative product connecting your mobile phone's video to the web' might have pushed me over the edge.
Take Nokia USA, 30 Nseries still and video finalists, plus pro director Spike Lee, and what do you get? An arty music video, entitled 'Humanity'. Ostensibly showing off what sort of footage you can grab on Nseries smartphones. Which is all very well, though if someone could explain to me what the song 'Love is not the enemy of life' means......
Now this is pretty trivial, but bear with me. Am I so unusual in matching a phone's theme to its body colour and styling? Below the break I've illustrated the idea with the silver Nokia N82, but I'd welcome your comments and feedback. What other device/theme pairs work very well?
