With the imminent arrival of both the Apple iPhone 4 and the Symbian-powered Nokia N8, I thought it high time to pitch the two head to head. In fact, while doing so, why not widen the comparison to include the other non-Nokia Symbian flagships, the Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung i8910 HD, both of which have similar specifications, plus throw in the Android flagship (in the UK) as well - the HTC Desire? The result is hopefully a comprehensive cross-section of the top end smartphones of 2010.
IM and voice network specialist app Skype is now available on the Sony Ericsson S60 handsets. Usable over WiFi or cellular data connections, you can download the application direct to your handset by visiting skype.com/m in your browser. Skype is, of course, also available for many Nokia S60 devices via the Ovi Store.
As well as the X5, Nokia also announced a new variant of the X6 at the Nokia Connection event in Singapore. The capacitive screened fifth edition device will now have a model that ships with 8GB of of storage for music and multimedia. Expected price is 225 Euros and should begin shipping in Q3 2010.
In All About Symbian Insight 122, we share the best of the previous week's news: Expedia hotel booking in Ovi Maps, Nokia 5228, Nokia Notifications and Tesco's Clubcard application. Steve shares his thoughts on the visibility of various screen technologies in bright sunlight, including a hands-on with Super AMOLED, and Rafe explains last week's Symbian Baidu tie up. Finally, the team discuss the launch of the iPhone 4 and the high-end device landscape. You can listen to AAS Insight 122 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
The website for Sports Tracker, an application which turns your phone into a GPS sports computer, is now accepting pre-registrations for its online service. The online service will allow you to upload workouts (tracks) from your phone to be visualised, analysed and shared on the website. By registering now you can reserve the username you wish to use, get a notification when the site will goes live, and import your existing Nokia Sports Tracker data.
Thanks to a heads-up, we've learned that TV CatchUp, a free, on-demand all-channels system for UK residents, is now working with Symbian OS and Web. It's a public beta, so expect a few things not to work properly. Point Web at m.tvcatchup.com, sign up for a new account, and away you go. More details below.
With the football World Cup 2010 (eh, what, is something happening today?) starting this evening and going on for all eternity a month, you'll be wondering how you can keep track of the goings on in South Africa on your smartphone. Whether out and about or on the sofa, there are plenty of options to keep you informed and entertained. Read on for some suggestions.
A firmware update to the Nokia 5530 is now available. Going from v20 to v30 includes some additional applications, performance improvements, and most significantly, universal kinetic scrolling and S60's latest version of Web. Full details below.
Did you notice the launch of the 5228 yesterday? Hopefully you did, but did you pay it much attention? I suspect that in the rush to cover more exotic devices announced in San Francisco, that the geek circles will have skipped over what could easily be labelled as “yet another 5800 variant”. I just want everyone to stop and think for a moment.
It used to be just receiving a call, or picking up an email via a push SMS (good old email-to-text gateways back in the nineties). Now, to impress people with your phone in the pub, you need something a little bit better - and it tends to be a game. So what should your Symbian-powered touchscreen smartphone be ready to show off when called into action? Ewan and I run through the Top Ten contenders...
The Nokia 5228, a variant of the Nokia 5230 was launched in Germany yesterday, reports Symbian World. The 5228 has the same styling and design as the Nokia 5230 and broadly similar specifications. However it lacks the 5230's 3G cellular radio and integrated GPS. It ships with a range of Ovi services including Ovi Store and Nokia Music Store. The Nokia 5228 will be available in July 2010 at a price of €139 including taxes.
Good news from Furtiv, the makers of plug-ins for Nokia's Share Online application. According to their blog, they have passed the 250,000 downloads mark through the Ovi Store, and are now beta testing plug-ins for MySpace, LinkedIn and TwitPic, due to popular demand. More below.
