Today Nokia introduced the Nokia C5 for TD-SCDMA (C5-01), an affordable and classically styled candy bar smartphone. It runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian OS 9.3 and features a 5 megapixel camera and stainless steel materials. It ships with support for a number of services including 139 mail box, Fetion IM, MM Ovi Store and a range of pre-loaded content. The C5 for TD-SCDMA will be available, in China, from Q3 2010.
Nokia today announced the Nokia X5 for TD-SCDMA, a mid-range music focused handset for the Chinese market. It runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 on Symbian 9.3 and features a 5 megapixel camera with dual LED flash, a dedicated music key allowing one touch access to CMCC Music and ships with a range of services including MM-Ovi Store and Fetion IM. The Nokia X5 for TD-SCDMA will become available, in China, during Q2 2010.
Nokia has released their Q1 2010 results, reporting an operating profit of €488 million, with net sales €9.5 billion (up 3% YoY). Nokia's device and service division's profits were €831 million, up 52% year on year. Margins in devices and services were 12.1% (up 1.3% YoY and down 5% QoQ). Converged devices sales (smartphones) were 21.5 million, compared with 13.7 million units in Q1 2001 (up 57% YoY) and 20.1 million units in Q4 2009 (up 3%). As such, worldwide smartphone marketshare was 41%, up 1% sequentially and 3% year on year. Full story and comments below.
Google Maps for S60/Symbian just got itself an update to v4.1. No, not free real time navigation - that's still coming for Symbian - but voice searching, along the same lines as its existing Google Search applet. Just hold down the green (Call) key and say what you'd like to search for, etc. There are also minor updates to its Settings menu and a new 'Report a problem' function. Some quotes, links and screenshots below.
Five Digital Chocolate games are free for a few days in Nokia's Ovi Store: Tower Bloxx New York, Crazy Penguin Party, Nightclub Fever, Rollercoaster Revolution and Dictator Defense are all free as part of a rolling promotional campaign that Nokia seems to be running with some of its Ovi Store publishers. Grab 'em while you can?
A java game that's essentially a cross-platform port. Doesn't sound promising, does it? Yet UniWar confounds the sceptics by being, in Ewan's words, 'faultless'. Whether playing alone or in online multi-player mode, the game looks great and has all the options and gameplay mechanics needed. Now available in the Ovi Store for both S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition phones, here's the full UniWar review here on our Ovi Gaming site .
A major new firmware, version 31.023, is now available for the Nokia E72. The update introduces several new pre-installed applications: Ovi Sync, Advance Communication Manager, Smart Connect, and Internet radio. Additionally, a number of the core applications have been updated including Ovi Maps (free navigation and location sharing version), Web (to version 7.2), and Ovi Store. There are also the usual bug (e.g. the spacebar bug) and performance fixes. Read on for further details and screenshots.
If you're in the 'why can't Nokia do a camera phone with 18 megapixels and 10x optical zoom?' camp then Nokia imaging supremo Damian Dinning (the guy behind the N73, N82 and N86) waxes lyrical here on the impracticalities of fitting such optics, sensor and supporting elements into a phone form factor. These things, as you'll see, are always a lot more complicated than meets the eye!
In the run up to their Q1 2010 earnings call, Nokia are getting a number of firmware updates out the door. The Nokia E51 has now had a big update, from v300.34.56 to v410.34.001 firmware, available as a 80MB download through Nokia Software Update or Ovi Suite. A full backup and restore is needed for the E51, since it's old enough not to have User Data Preservation.
No, not a cheap attempt at Google search traffic on male enhancements, but another serious look at the ever changing, ever growing statistic that is phone screen size. Steve Litchfield looks at devices and use cases past and present, from Psion Series 5 to Apple Newton to Dell Axim to Nokia 7710 and through to the Samsung i8910 HD in the current day. Initially cautious over whether phones might get too big, Steve points out that a 4" display is more a 1995 phenomenon than a 2010 one....
A beta version of Nokia Messaging for Social Networks, also known as the Communities application, has been made available, via Nokia Messaging and Nokia Beta Labs, for the Nokia E72, E71 and E63. The application, which provides access to messaging and other features of social networks; currently Facebook and Twitter are supported. Communities is already available for Nokia's Symbian^1 (S60 5th Edition) devices and is the application that will provide social networking functionality out of the box on the Nokia C6 and E5.
Numo Solutions, the developers of SMS Preview, have announced they have passed the 1 million download mark on Ovi Store. SMS Preview shows a preview of incoming text messages, in a bubble that floats above other screen content, for a user defined period of time. It provides an improvement over the built in 'new message alert', which only tells you that you have received a message. Numo Solutions say that SMS Preview is being used in more than 170 countries on 50 different types of handsets.
In All About Symbian Insight 114 Ewan, Steve and Rafe share their thoughts on Nokia's announcement of the Nokia C6 and Nokia E6. We also shares news of Sony Ericsson's Q1 2010 results, the renewal of Sports Tracker, firmware updates for various phones and Numo Solution's Ovi Store success. You can listen to AAS Insight 114 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In a late-breaking(!) addition to his extended Camera Nitty Gritty series, Steve Litchfield looks at the EDoF cameras in some of Nokia's S60 smartphones, explains how the Extended Depth of Field technology works and compares performance to traditional focussing units. With photographic examples, he shows how choosing EDoF for the upcoming E5 was a very smart move indeed for the (skill level of) target users.
VisionMobile is currently conducting a survey of mobile developers to understand the current state of mobile development and look at future trends. VisionMobile are looking for developers willing to participate in short phone interview or an online survey, with a chance to win prizes for taking part. The study is being funded by O2's Limtus and consequently the key results will be made publicly available.