It's true that the accessory title rather gives the game away and isn't inspiring, but this is an accessory that's much needed in the smartphone (and general camera phone) world. Steve Litchfield muses on a predecessor and and reviews the latest product that claims to be able to hold your phone while it snaps or videos away.
In his latest Ovi Gaming review, Ewan takes to the skies in Polarbit's strangely realistic WW2 aviation shoot 'em up. With Armageddon Squadron often being sighted in the Ovi Store for free, this is definitely one to snap up, even if you'll need decent flying skills and plenty of patience to progress all the way to the end.
In an unusual double-header review pair, David Gilson looks at two new mini-apps from S60 5th Edition specialists and AAS favourites, Offscreen Technologies: Egg Timer Touch and Sticky Notes. I won't insult your intelligence by explaining what each app does here - the names are giveaways(!) - but you can read David's reviews by clicking on the relevant links.
If you thought my text reviews of the Vivaz here on AAS were a little generous to Sony Ericsson, then you might appreciate my Phones Show 107 review of the phone, where - maybe - it's possible I got out of bed on the wrong side that morning. Or maybe the Vivaz really is that flawed... There's also your Desert Island Smartphone (poll) results. Enjoy.
Last week saw my departure from safe waters into the world of hardware modding, in an attempt to get round the problems in Samsung's latest firmware for its i8910 HD flagship, ending with me installing firmware 3.17 (which has itself since been updated!). In this followup article, I talk about what came next, some of the issues I faced, how I tried to overcome them and what I've had to learn to live without.
Over on his own blog this time, our own David Gilson has been reviewing the latest idea for charging your 'spare' smartphone batteries - the SBC, or "Smart Battery Charger". With spacers to fit most Nokia batteries, this does seem a great way to charge your spares without having to cycle them through the actual phone(s).
PDF+ has come a long way from Psion days, a lifespan of well over 10 years. But it seems that it's left somewhat wanting in 2010, as David Gilson pounds it with his PDF document collection and compares it to the Quickoffice Adobe LE PDF reader. PDF+'s developer is very active on AAS, so expect a lively response below and perhaps look out for an updated version and an updated review in due course.
comScore have recently published a couple of press releases which contain interesting statistics about smartphone market penetration and mobile platform market share. For example, people are twice as likely to buy a smartphone in Italy than they are in Germany. Symbian's strong position in Europe is shown by market share figures of 47%, 55% and 74% in the UK, Germany and Spain respectively. The figures provide a contrast to the frequently reported US market share figures and demonstrate the degree of regional differentiation.
Ewan girds his sporran and risks valuable C: disk space to install the latest Qt runtime and Nokia's in-beta Wordpress client. For all its unfinished nature, this seems to be one client that reeks of quality and possibilities - if you run a Wordpress blog then keep your eyes peeled on this new way of managing your content from a touch-based Symbian smartphone.
In our latest video Ian Hutton (Technology Management at the Symbian Foundation and chair of the Feature and Roadmap Council) explains how the Symbian Foundation's roadmap is put together. We learn about how its community driven nature is directed and driven through external package owners and internal technology managers. Ian also talks us through some of the big themes for the next few releases of the Symbian platform including improvements to the user, developer and device manufacturer experiences. Watched as a whole it is also a great introduction to how Symbian is seeking to shape the future of mobile.
You'll have seen my previous 'retro' article, looking at pimping the Nokia E61i, an early 2007 device that can now be picked up for pocket money but which still has a unique form factor. The same applies, but 'in spades', to the Nokia E90, released only a few months after the E61i but sporting the full Communicator form and also S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1, plus SDHC support. Like the E61i, it too had a few performance bottlenecks, so how did I get on pimping the Nokia E90 to 2010 standards and might it possibly challenge the mighty (ahem) N97?
In All About Symbian Insight 111 (AAS Podcast 175), Rafe and Steve talk about the outstanding value provided by the Nokia 5230 (highlighting T-Mobile's recent offer). We also look at Mobile Documents, with an emphasis on its file streaming technology, as well as Shazam's 1 million downloads from Ovi Store, the Nokia 6788i and MM-Ovi Store before considering some listener questions. You can listen to AAS Insight 111 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia have tweaked the Ovi Store with some changes that should prove popular to most users; clearer information about the content you are browsing, more stars when rating applications, and review devices noted. Read on for more about these changes, including screens and info on a new Ovi Store client.
David Gilson is a S60 veteran, mainly using 3rd Edition, but hadn't used a touchscreen device until recently (with the 5530). Going for broke, we arranged for a him to go all the way, to trial a Nokia N97 for a month, looking forward to the chance of getting a fresh take on this most-talked-about Nokia flagship, unencumbered by disappointments from the device's early firmwares. Not that it made much difference in terms of the N97's known hardware limitations, but it's still good to get David's take.
If you've been following my continuing review of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, you'll know that it has a small but perfectly formed body and a great camera/camcorder, plus a glitzy new homescreen and media suite. But how does it stack up as an overall smartphone, in comparison to devices like the Nokia X6? What about application load-out and compatibility? Here's the final part of my Vivaz review.
