Sony Ericsson's latest, their second generation S60 5th Edition smartphone, has arrived. It's smaller and lighter and more modern that you might believe, allied to superb camera and camcorder functions - but has Sony Ericsson made the same mistake as on the Satio and not put enough effort into the software? I find out, in the first part of my Vivaz review.
Some say his beard is made of stainless steel. Some say he relaxes by hanging upside down from the light fittings. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 3 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230 / Nokia Nuron). In part 3, Ewan goes shopping, mapping and walking.
Our latest MWC video features a walkabout with Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, in Hall 1 of exhibition area. The video summarises some of the key messages of the Symbian Foundation from the event. There's discussion of the buzz around Symbian at MWC, the formal launch of Symbian^3, the Open Screen Project (which the Symbian Foundation had just joined), the importance and strengths of Qt to Symbian developers going forward, the Sony Ericsson Vivaz and the bright future for Symbian.
Google's drive for world domination around your country has been going nicely, judging from the fact that Street View just went live for virtually all the UK. Yes, every last track, every last estate road - it's all there in glorious technicolour on your smartphone. Google Maps for Mobile itself is available from the usual m.google.com/gmm and to see Street View you need to long tap on any location and pick 'Street View' from the pop-up menu.
Nokia is currently transforming itself from a hardware company to a hardware+services (solutions) company. At MWC 2010, we spoke to Tero Ojanperä, EVP of Services, in order to get an insight into current progress. Over a wide-ranging interview we cover a number of topics around Nokia's service strategy including how Ovi fits into Nokia's software platform strategy, the thought processes that led to free navigation, the importance of services compared to phone hardware, getting content onto the Ovi Store, the importance of partners and much more.
The YouTube Mobile client for S60 has gone through more versions than I've had flavours of ice cream recently, but at last the one we've all been waiting for has appeared. Version 2.4 (build 4) has full support for YouTube favourites, plus search suggestions and a revamped layout on S60 5th Edition phones like the Nokia 5800. Read on.
Some say he plays tiddlywinks with 50p pieces. Some say he plays electric guitar secretly at 5am each morning. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 2 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges (also known as a real world test of the Nokia 5230 / Nokia Nuron).
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has arrived for review, enabling me to start testing its unique HD autofocus camera. See below for an embedded version of my test footage, plus a little sunlight video taken in London by Sony Ericsson a few days ago. The good news: the video is excellent, the autofocus quick and silent; the bad news: audio's a little on the quiet side. Still, pretty astounding for such a small camera unit in such a small smartphone. See below.
After resisting the persistent trend of touch screen smartphones, David Gilson reports on his experience of living with some S60 5th Edition touch screen phones, namely the Nokia 5230 and N97. Could it be that, like me, he finds the biggest strength of touch screens isn't that they respond to touch?
Over on our Ovi Gaming site, Ewan goes hunting through the Ovi Store to find a free little game to while away part of his long trans-Atlantic flight - and finds the Bejewelled clone 'Cube Touch: Match' - which fits the bill perfectly. Describing the game as more "Zen" than challenge, this is an interesting title that's worth keeping in a (purple) corner of your mass memory or memory card, it seems.
Continuing from our previous Sony Ericsson Vivaz videos we look at some of the key design charcteristics of the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro (human curvature, light reflection effects and material choices), compare the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro on video, take a brief look at some of the different colours that will be available and get a demo of the handset shooting video and uploading to YouTube. Taken together these videos help you get a clearer picture of Sony Ericsson's new Symbian^1 handsets.
As work has continued on Sony Ericsson's take on S60 5th Edition with the Vivaz, it's not surprising that the Satio has reaped the benefit, inheriting benefits and fixes. Widely panned on release six months ago, the Satio finally delivers on a bit more of its promise with this update, 'R2AK', a 108MB download, which has been dribbling out for some product codes but is right now available using the Sony Ericsson Update Service in Western Europe. Comments, changes, links and more below - though I have to warn you that some of the core bugs and issues remain unresolved.
Some say he has a pet polar bear. Some say his beard glows gently on the darkest night. All we know is, he's called Ewan Spence. Part 1 of a series of short videos from Ewan is embedded below, along with some of his 'diary' commentary, as part of his gaming and blogging spring trip to San Francisco (GDC) and Austin (SXSW). Rafe set him a series of challenges, Top Gear style. There's even a cameo by The Stig.
In this interview, recorded in Barcelona at MWC 2010, we talk to Christof Hellmis, Director Navigation & Routing Solutions at Nokia, about Ovi Maps and Nokia's location strategy. It is clear that location has an enormously important role to play as a key enabler in the future of mobile - and this piece will give you an insight to Nokia's viewpoints and attitudes. We cover the story behind the recent release of the Ovi Maps 3.3 with free navigation, potential future improvements to Ovi Maps, the Ovi Developer SDK, future directions and much more.
Always good to see a company from the now defunct UIQ world make waves in the S60 5th Edition world - CellPhoneSoft's latest is a port of their BigBen utility, a "combined clock screensaver, key lock, and reminder utility for S60 smartphones." Some screens and links below.
