Bewitched by the new Nokia N77? A fabulous use of ultra converged high-tech? Or a restrictive, distracting and debilitating waste of time? In this editorial, I put forward my own opinion, m'lud, the case against mobile TV.
And with energy levels rising round the blogosphere we come to 3GSM 2007 at last. So many things we've not been allowed to talk about but which will be announced at 10am GMT on Monday... Watch this space for analysis, photos from the launch events and more... Rafe's in the thick of things in Barcelona - wish him good health and plenty of bandwidth!
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...
Almost unnoticed in a post about another topic, the official N-Gage Blog recently revealed for the first time a specific month for Nokia's Next Gen Gaming Platform's launch: September 2007.
If you're into trivia, pub quizzes or fact finding, note that my free Trivopaedia (... a trivia enecyclopaedia) has had a huge update and is now up to v2.2, with over 300 entries. It runs inside (the also free) Mobipocket Reader for all Symbian OS-powered smartphones. Comments welcome!
Since his preview of the Nokia N95 mid week, you've all been bombarding Rafe with questions, some in the forums and some by email. In 'Your questions answered' Rafe attempts to answer them all. UPDATED
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.
Thanks to the E-series blog for spotting that Nokia Team Suite (an office contact manager/facilitator, previously only on the E50) is now available for free for other S60 3rd Edition devices through Nokia's over-the-air app system, Nokia Catalogs. Comments welcome on compatibility/availability with various devices...
In case this isn't already bookmarked in your RSS reader, my video podcast the Smartphones Show now has programme 22 live, with a video review of the Sony Ericsson W950i, my thoughts and video of the Apple iPhone and a shortened version of Rafe's N76/N93i video snippets.
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....