In All About Symbian Insight 134, we start with news of new, community created Samsung i8910 firmware, which leads to a discussion of Samsung's mobile platform choices. Rafe discusses the Ovi Files closure and talks about how the thinking behind Nokia's Ovi service strategy has evolved. David shares his PixelPipe Send and Share experiences, before bringing news of UK operator Orange's HD Voice service. Ewan talks about Swype, an alternative text input entry system, which is now available in beta. Finally, Steve gives his first opinion on the Nokia E5.
Do you have a monthly, weekly or even daily data limit on your mobile account? I know I do, which is why we leapt at the appearance of Data Monitor as a utility to help keep track of usage. However, with barely more data-gathering functionality than the built-in Log utility and with an intrusive and hard-to-configure, always-on 'ticker', it seems that Data Monitor isn't ready for the prime time just yet, as you can read in David Gilson's review.
To kick-off our coverage of Nokia's new budget QWERTY slate smartphone, the Nokia E5-00, we have our usual gallery, with commentary, showing off some of the key hardware features. In summary? The E5 has rock solid build quality, good design and a decent hardware specification, but there's are some budget-linked constraints to note. All-in-all though, it is an attractive entry into the mid tier smartphone market.
Nokia Experts reports that Ovi Files, Nokia's remote file access and cloud-based file mirroring/storage solution, will be discontinued on October 1st. The announcement is a set back to Nokia's Ovi service ambitions, but with relatively few users and low awareness, the long-term impact is likely to be small. A number of third party services, such as SugarSync and DropBox, provide a similar service for those who need to move from Ovi Files.
The Nokia E72 has received a OTA firmware update from version 031.023 to 051.018, and is an 11MB download. It is a significant update with a wide range of changes. Notably, Web sees an upgrade to v7.2.6. Along with updates, there is the usual statement of "stability and performance improvements", but these come along with a massive 450+ bug fixes. Click through for more details.
David Gilson reviews the free Pixelpipe Send and Share, the new incarnation of the popular uploading service that works independently of Nokia's Share online and thus works more seamlessly, using a wider range of file types and (presumably) on more devices. It's all win, win, win until David points out a few caveats, including less flexible authentication and a greater need to do some of the set up using your desktop's web browser.
You may want to check 'Sw update' on your Nokia S60 3rd Edition or 5th Edition phone, as it seems that there's a pre-Nokia World 2010 update available for all phones, fixing minor bugs (including correcting and enhancing Nokia's Wi-Fi location system) and possibly preparing the way for additional services. It's a full 8 to 10MB update (depending on device) and installs over the air. There's no change in the basic version number (3.4) but the build number is (obviously) higher, now at '278'. More below.
In All About Symbian Insight 133, we start with news of the Nokia 5250, Nokia's cheapest ever smartphone, following which, Steve shares some more detail from his recent reviews of Let's Golf and Mommax's Mains Battery Charger. Rafe talks about Nokia and Intel's new joint laboratory for 3D mobile user experiences. Finally Ewan gives us his commentary on the the re-branding of Nokia Music to Ovi Music. You can listen to AAS Insight 133 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Applications are rarely completely static. Anything with a decent amount of functionality is bound to have either flaws - which then hopefully get fixed - or planned improvements. The big question is how to best to get these new versions out to users. In this news editorial, I look at how application updates work for the three big smartphone platforms of the moment, Symbian, iPhone and Android. What can those in the Symbian world learn or implement?
Self-proclaimed Position Art genius Stavros would have been proud, it seems that his art form is alive and well. At least according to the Ovi Blog's recent Sports Tracker competition, in which people were invited to send in their best captured 'tracks'. Here are the position art winners and, because I know you're wondering, here's Stavros's original Position Art mega-site "The World is my Canvas" - go on, browse around and watch - it's still a hoot, even two years on!
Thanks to my kind editor at Smartphone Essentials magazine, he's let me republish a truck load of my own Q&A mini-articles from 2009's issues right here on All About Symbian. I've been adding these to our Support section (what do you mean, you didn't know we had one?) and a summary of the questions in part 1 of my big update is listed below, with links. All part of keeping AAS a definitive resource!
In All About Symbian Insight 132, we start with a quick reminder that mobile data coverage is not universal, especially in rural areas. Rafe shares news of the V Festival application and the availability of the SugarSync client for Symbian. Ewan brings news of a new Foursquare client for Symbian, which leads to a broader discussion of location check-in services, Facebook Places and location availability. In the latter half of the podcast, David shares some final thoughts on the Nokia C6 and highlights the importance of battery life. You can listen to AAS Insight 132 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Bookatable, a European-based restaurant booking service, has been added to Ovi Maps. As with other Ovi Maps integrations (TripAdvisor, TimeOut, Expedia, Qype), the service is available via 'More' from the main Ovi Maps menu. It gives rapid access to a mobile optimised, location aware, version of the bookatable.com service, which runs within, and is connected to, the Ovi Maps application. The aim is to offer a superior user experience to the typical restaurant-phone-around to check availability and book a table.
Never mind the date on the official download page, DivX Labs has officially released v1.0 of their ubiquitous mobile player for all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition smartphones (direct SISx links). Version 1.0 "has numerous updates and simplifications to the UI. It also has touch-screen support for S60 5th Edition users." Initial feedback shows that desktop class DivX files (unsurprisingly) generally have bitrates that are too high for the limited processor speed in most current Symbian handsets. A figure of 600kbps is recommended as a maximum.
