Symbian World are running an interview piece with Boris Raczynski, founder of Mojo's Studio and the man behind Twittix (reviewed here on AAS). He talks about the Studio, upcoming plans for Symbian OS applications and where he sees Symbian going in the next three years.
Everyone else at AAS has asked if I can get as many Start Trek puns into this news story – the Nokia 5800 Star Trek edition coming out on May 1st in the UK (and I'm assuming a few more territories as well). And you know what? I'm not going to, because this is actually a pretty savvy mode on their part.
In previous articles, I've been more than happy to praise the S60 Music player. Unfortunately, it has just not kept up with the changing pace of technology. On the N95 and N95 8GB vintage devices, the music app was far better than the leading MP3 players of the time, notably the iPod Nano. But the iPhone music app has vaulted over the S60 app.... what could the Espoo Engineers learn from Cupertino Coders?
In All About Symbian Insight 68 (AAS Podcast 126) Rafe and Steve talk about the upcoming Ovi Store in relation to Widsets, N-Gage and uploading content, before sharing their recent device purchases. Steve explain why he prefers his device with an Xenon flash and Rafe talks about 3's and Orange's service strategy. You can listen to AAS Insight 68 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In an affectionate companion feature to my "Ten Things that Nokia Did RIGHT in making the 5800 XpressMusic" from last month, I now present "Ten Things that Nokia Did WRONG in making the 5800 XpressMusic". There we go, never ever say that I and All About Symbian aren't balanced!
Asri al-Baker steps up to the pedestal with a brief tutorial on setting up IMAP folders and Gmail labels in the new Nokia Messaging application. Look out for more 'how to's for Nokia Messaging in the near future.
Boy oh boy, Python for S60 is coming along nicely. Just in time for the likes of the Ovi Store, too. New in v1.9.4, out today are a single signed runtime, an improved application packager, easier runtime deployment, new APIs and a full-screen mode for the likes of the Nokia 5800.
Every week seems to bring new themes for our smartphones, many of which introduce us to ever wackier and more artistic sets of icons for the applications we're familiar with. In this rantfeature, I argue that there's efficiency and elegance in keeping icons close to the originals, keeping the workload for our poor beleaguered eyes and brain down....
According to a report in the Finnish national daily Helsingin Sanomat, the Nokia chief executive Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo estimates that the 5800 XpressMusic now accounts for "1 in 5 of all touchscreen phone sales worldwide". This figure was also mentioned in Nokia's Q1 results conference call and was repeated today at Nokia's AGM. It's a pretty good start for S60 5th Edition...
Nokia Messaging, Nokia's combined email service and client, main aim is to deliver an easy to set up and use consumer email solution for Nokia's devices. A preview release for S60 5th Edition (Nokia 5800) is now available via the Nokia Beta Labs site. The S60 5th Edition version is optimised for finger touch and includes, optionally, the 'push' element of the Nokia Messaging service.
Nokia has launched (via Beta Labs) a new web-based service and Web Runtime widget, entitled Green Explorer, aiming to help you live and travel in more eco-friendly fashion through tie-ins with green organisations and community involvement. See below for some screens, notes and links.
Nokia are not confirming the numbers of Comes with Music users, but in the UK at least, analysts Music Ally has come up with a number for active users... 23,000 people. It should be noted that this only represents sales of a specially branded new Series 40 handset (plus the ageing N95 8GB) in the Carphone Warehouse, but with a huge marketing campaign those numbers (which are backed up by the music labels, so it must be in the ballpark) must be seen as a disappointment. Read on for my thoughts.
A couple of quick links to desk clock utilities that have cropped up in the last few days: DesignClock offers, time, a background, a calendar and message counts, and works on both S60 3rd Edition and 5th. While Desk Flicker Clock is exactly as it sounds, running on S60 5th Edition only.
You've heard from Rafe, Ewan and myself on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, the first S60 5th Edition smartphone. But, it now being April 2009, it's time for the fourth AAS team member to weigh in. Tzer2 reports back with terrifically detailed thoughts on this device after a solid three months of use, day in and day out. How did the 5800 stand up to such intense real world pressure? Surprisingly well, it seems that the only role the 5800 disappointed in was that of camera phone.
The Nokia E75 is now available in the UK. It is available from the usual SIM-free sources, including the Nokia UK Shop, for a cost of £375. We'll have the first part of our E75 review online shortly. Also now available, SIM-free, is the Black/Silver variant of the Nokia 5800 Xpress Music (which is the colour variant Orange are selling).
