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How is Nokia's Ovi Store doing? I mean really doing?
It's been some time now since launch, so how well is the Ovi Store doing for Nokia? Is it providing enough applications for end users and a good user experience? Are developers knocking down the web-doors to get listed in the store? Or is it all being hushed up because it's not gaining any mind share at all? I wonder aloud what's going on...
Communicator head to head: The Nokia 9300i, E90, E75 and N97
The single biggest form factor for true smartphones in Western Europe in the last five years has arguably been that of the 'Communicator', a term coined by Nokia for its 9000 series, initially running on GeOS and then on Symbian OS 6 and (later) Symbian OS 7 with the likes of the 9500 and (here) the 9300i. Then came the oddball E90 and a slightly more mainstream E75, while Nokia's Nseries picked up some similar action in the shape of the N97. But how do they compare, head to head? Is there a true modern day successor to the Psions and Nokia 9210s of old?
Phones Show Chat 7 and The Ultimate Smartphone
Just live on the interwebs is Phones Show Chat 7 (the companion audio chat based around my video podcast), in which Tim Salmon and I talk about the Nokia 5730's keypad, the HTC HD2 and the Nokia N900 (and other large screen devices), comments on Symbian's place in world marketshare, plus we specify and design our own ultimate smartphone. Available also as a RSS feed and iTunes podcast.
The official Nokia E72 pre-order
The rather hotly-anticipated (and now slightly late!) Nokia E72 is now officially available for pre-order from the Nokia online shops. Here in the UK it's £359 including VAT. The E72 improves on the bestselling E71 with a better camera, new software pack (including more Ovi services built-in, plus the full editing version of Quickoffice 6 Premier) and optical trackpad.
Voice to everything - Vlingo reviewed
Available for quite a few S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition phones, Vlingo promises web searching, email, text and Facebook status updates, all with voice-to-text speech recognition. But how well does it work in practice? Not perfectly, it has to be said, but it's close enough to make it worth trying out with your voice and in your own use case. Here's my Vlingo review.
AAS Insight 89 - N86 v20 firmware, Dopplr and OTA 09
In All About Symbian Insight 89 (AAS Podcast 151), Rafe and Steve talk about the recent release of version 20 firmware for the Nokia N86 8MP. Rafe and Ewan report back from Over the Air (OTA) where they listened to presentations on Symbian approach to evolving UI and Nokia's Qt strategy. There's also discussion about Nokia's acquisition of Dopplr. You can listen to AAS Insight 89 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia 5730 XpressMusic - part 2 - Software and Multimedia
Nokia's night-life-optimised red 5730 XpressMusic gets its final verdict from me in this, part 2 of my All About Symbian Nokia 5730 review, looking at its software bundle and its camera and multimedia. I also give a summary of the device: "There is absolutely no doubting the functionality quotient of the Nokia 5730 Xpressmusic - there are buttons for everything and more applications that most geeks could comfortably embrace."
Analyst sees Symbian shipments reaching 180m by 2014
Juniper Research, a telecoms analyst firm, recently released a report on Mobile Open Source Operating Systems, which predicts open source platforms will remain predominant and that, by 2014, Symbian handset shipments will increase from 87 million to 180 million per year, with Android and Limo adding 40m/year extra and taking the open source total to 220 million/year. Such analyst reports are educated guesses, but it does provide an antithesis to the 'Symbian is doomed' line that was popular, in some quarters, earlier this summer and a good jumping off place for some further platform thoughts. Read on for more.
Nokia 5730 XpressMusic - part 1 - The Hardware
The consumer-focussed sister phone to the successful Nokia E75 has now appeared and I've been exploring what's different, what's good and what's bad. Is the 5730 really a case of 'fashion over functionality'? Or is it one of the most feature packed, and yet relatively cheap smartphones in the world? There are several surprises here, some good and some bad, but overall I came away impressed.
Nokia N86 v20 firmware adds face detection and camera improvements
The Nokia N86 8MP has received its v20 firmware upgrade a full week or so ahead of schedule, with v20.115 now available over the air (*#0000# on your homescreen) and via Nokia Software Update. There's a changelog below, but all you need to know is that this preserves user data and is a must-have - it's 8MB, large for an over the air update, takes over five minutes to apply and updates getting on for 6% of all OS files and modules. Read on.
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