So much better than traipsing across the world, enduring hours of travel and sitting in a stuffy theatre - Nokia are doing another worldwide webcast 9am tomorrow (Thursday). The subject's not officially announced but clever money is on an expansion of their mapping and navigation software systems (e.g. that in the N95) into the wider S60 world.
Just as we're about to get our hands on the first 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices, Nokia go and announce S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2... In addition to ease-of-development benefits, this comes with "Usability enhancements supporting ease of use in (for example) messaging, multitasking and downloading. Feature Pack 2 also enables instant media playback during downloading and animated notification of inbound calls." More details and actual screenshots are available here on S60.com. The full Nokia press release follows....
In another superb and comprehensive piece, our very own Krisse analyses the successes and (mainly) the failures of the original Nokia N-Gage, then looks at the way the new next-gen gaming platform will directly address each problem. It's all looking rosy - apart from the name! Krisse explains...
With the Nokia N92 and DVB-H mobile TV still not really established in most of the world, I was interested to see Marek Pawlowski's blogged review of his data-based 'Mobile TV' experience on a S60 smartphone. The jury's still out on the best way to provide TV on a smartphone, but suffice it to say that Marek was seriously underwhelmed by his trial.
According to a report on Pocket Gamer, a secret workshop for American and Asian publishers and developers on Nokia's next gen gaming platform was held in Santa Monica last week. Perhaps most notable in the article is the incredible list of publishers that apparently attended the event: Disney, Sega, Sony, Universal, Square Enix, Capcom, THQ, Glu Mobile, Digital Chocolate, EA, Tecmo, Namco and Vivendi. The article also claims 3rd party publishers just got their development kits in January, which could suit a Summer launch and Xmas advertising push fairly well (old generation N-Gage titles usually took 6 - 12 months to make). These revelations seem to confirm what All About Symbian exclusively revealed last October. Another event will apparently be held in Madrid next week for European publishers and devs.
Two interesting Friday tech stories from the good old BBC: the advance of GPS into smart mobile devices (bringing us back to the Nokia N95 and its successors), and the takeover of the Internet by botnets, with 50% of all warez apps containing trojans (yes, the Beeb is mainly talking about PCs, but take note if you frequent the same sites and think twice before downloading cracked Symbian OS apps)...
Nokia's results are in for the last quarter of 2006, you can read the full press release here. In short: Nokia's sales are up to record levels, their market share has remained at 36%, S60 models are increasingly playing a part in the entire company's lineup, not just from its Multimedia division (who sold over six million Nseries smartphones in Q4 alone) but also the main Mobile Phone division (the 5500 and 6290 are mentioned in the report as highlights of the quarter) and the business-oriented Enterprise division (who make the Eseries).
It's All About Symbian podcast number 11, in which Rafe chats to Ewan about his experiences at CES 2007 in Las Vegas, along with comment on the iPhone and a brief look ahead to 3GSM in three weeks time.
This was from a few weeks ago but we all missed it. According to Telephia, European smartphone use is now up to almost 9% of the whole phone market - Italians apparently lead the way, with one in five phones being a smartphone. Here's the full article. Via Nordic Wireless Watch
Rounding out our CES (Consumer Electronics Show) 2007 coverage in style, we (well, mainly Rafe) present AAS video podcast number 6, 11 minutes long and featuring plenty of video of the new Nokia N76 and N93i, plus extensive photo sets for general CES, the N76 and the N93i. Full text reviews of both devices will be along in due course.
It's AAS audio podcast no. 10, in which Rafe sat down for an in-depth interview with Antti Vasara, Nokia's Eseries enterprise manager, for a wide ranging discussion on the marketplace, Nokia's viewpoint and some of the specific areas in business that these devices can address.
Just as we're about to get our hands on the first 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 devices, Nokia go and announce S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2... In addition to ease-of-development benefits, this comes with "Usability enhancements supporting ease of use in (for example) messaging, multitasking and downloading. Feature Pack 2 also enables instant media playback during downloading and animated notification of inbound calls." More details and actual screenshots are available here on S60.com. The full Nokia press release follows....
Having now had a day or so to mull over the iPhone launch and the media frenzy surrounding it, I've been pondering the fact that in one important way, the iPhone definitely IS a 'break through' device, while Ewan refutes Jobs' 'Five years' boast by casting a satirical eye back five years instead and then describing what we have today.