I forgot to mention that Smartphones Show 53 went live a couple of days ago, with some nice video footage of the Nokia and Sony Ericsson S60 and UIQ 3 hardware launches, shot by Rafe, plus comments from me, iPhone tips and a look at how far the Nokia E90 has taken me since my Psion-toting days, ten years ago. Rafe's Mobile World Congress video clips will feature in their entirety in exclusive AllAboutSymbian video podcasts in the next few weeks, so stick around.
Knuckle down for the real thing, guys and gals, AAS proudly presents Rafe's definitive hands-on preview of the recently-announced Nokia N96. From the DVB-H TV receiver to the new codecs to the music controls to the auto-geotagging of photos, it's all covered. Rafe spent quite a time with the N96 and it shows. Read the feature to find out how the N96 compares to the N95 variants and to the N82 - is there a definite flagship?
Some events for your diary, should you be in the area. I'll start with the one I'm at(!). On March 5th at the 3Bs in Reading, UK, there's a chance to try out the Nokia N82 to take Xenon-flash photos and see me with my rock band, Shed Music. The fun starts at 8.30pm. On the same night, March 5th, WOM World are holding an Nseries get together at the Crown, in London, from 6.30pm. Finally, there's an S60 event in Milan, Italy on March 11th from 8pm. Phew!
With the MWC and now GDC events under our belt, Ewan Spence draws from all the clues that Nokia has been dropping and comes up with a connected, converged epiphany into the future of gaming. The unification of smartphone functions, social networking and gaming is just around the corner, perhaps. Personally, I can't see any real showstoppers.
Google has released a native client for Google search for S60 phones. The application, available via the Google mobile site, places a shortcut to a Google search box on the Idle screen (unfortunately only for devices with either a 'Ctrl' or 'pencil/edit' key), but is also accessible via the usual application launcher on all devices. Typing in a query to the search box and pressing search opens up Web and takes you to the results page for that Google query in one go. It uses the new Google Mobile search service we mentioned a few weeks ago. Read on for more.
Nseries video supremo James Burland echoes many of my own sentiments in chewing Nokia out over the VGA capture in its Nseries devices - the resolution ticks the right box but fails miserably for frame rate and focus. A justified rant? I think so.
After the brace of S60 devices announced at MWC, I've done an update to my comprehensive S60 comparison table. Still a few 'Unknown's, so comment if you can help fill any in. Also of note is that Forum Nokia now has the official specs of the new Nokia devices online.
Nokia is calling on mobile developers with new ideas to take part in its Mobile Games Innovation Challenge, and at least one winning game will be published by Nokia on its new N-Gage platform (which is based on S60 3rd Edition). Entries will be accepted from the 3rd of April 2008, so if you're interested it might be worth starting work now. Established developers and publishers can already apply to publish commercially on the platform, or find out more on the N-Gage developer site.
I couldn't resist passing on Nokia's Nseries team's latest marketing skit, showing off the inner workings (ahem) of the Nokia N78. Funny stuff, see below!
You've got to love all the cool widgets and utilities coming out of Nokia Beta Labs. They just announced the availability of Nokia Text Messenger, a Windows Vista desktop gadget to show your received text messages and let you send new ones.
3D graphics benchmarks aren't the 'be all and end all' when it comes to games playing performance, but they're a good clue as to how capable a device is. So it was interesting to find out about a regularly updated and bookmarkable table of OpenGL ES benchmarked smartphones. It's topped by the 'if you believe Nokia' obsolete N93 and the N-Gage 1st access smartphone, the N81, comes in a lowly 22nd. Read on for comment.
The 'Vase' is just a concept device, to be sure, but it got me thinking. Is this the way to handle a smartphone interface where there's enough functionality to overwhelm beginners? Maybe yes, maybe no, but it's a question that's good to ask.
