Following Ewan's first (hardware) and second (software, conclusions) review parts for the Nokia C5-03, he and Emu continue to do things the wrong way round and take on a new Internet meme - a reluctant (to send back to Nokia) 'video reboxing'. Embedded below. Oh, and be sure to watch to the very end - that Emu's a sneaky bird...
There have been various widget-making (i.e. Web Runtime shortcuts, in this case) systems tried out, but AppMe is possibly the easiest so far. Find a mobile-friendly web site you want to go to often (for example, something you'd normally set a bookmark in Web for....), paste its address into the AppMe wizard, choose an icon, and you're halfway there already. Read on for links and a walk-through. The end result: web sites on your menu or homescreen, properly labelled (on the menu) and with the icons of your choice.
A couple of links of interest from Mike Macias that I've just stumbled across and thought you'd like. Firstly, a piece from Mike himself in which he reminds us that there's a one-tap way to bypass Nokia Messaging service and thus gain reliable access to your Gmail account. And secondly, a pointer to a super (and comprehensive) Purple theme from the wonderfully named (for a computer guy) Logon Aniket that's available in customised versions for everything from S60 3rd Edition FP1 onwards.
Open up the Ovi Store client on your Symbian^3 smartphone and you should have a mandatory update available, which offers 'full Arabic Support, better installation support for Qt-based apps and numerous fixes', plus a new blue/green startup screen, miscellaneous other small fixes and, significantly, for all phones of all vintages, an upgrade (at Nokia's end) to their Search algorithms.
The Nokia Bicycle Charger accessory is now available in select markets. It can be bought from Nokia's online shops and other select retailers; the Nokia UK online shop is selling it for £25. The accessory uses pedal power to recharge the battery in your phone. It works by attaching a dynamo to the wheel that generates power as you move. Those using the accessory will need to maintain a speed of at least 4 mph and no more than 31 mph to provide sufficient energy for effective charging.
Canalys, a market research company, today published its figures for "Q4 2010 global country-level smartphone market data", which show Android (33.3 million) overtaking Symbian (31.0 million) as the biggest smartphone platform, with Apple (16.2 million) and RIM (14.6 million) in third and fourth places respectively. The figures will not be without controversy as there are differing estimates to both sales and overall market volumes from different sources. Nonetheless, the figures underline the huge growth in sales of Android based devices in 2010.
Nokia has released its Q4 2010 results, reporting an operating profit of €884 million (down 23% Year-on-Year), with net sales of €12.65 billion (up 6% YoY). Nokia's device and service division's profits were €1090 million, up 10% from Q3. Margins in devices and services were 11.3% (down 4.1% YoY and up 0.9% QoQ).
Nokia sold more than 5 million Symbian^3 devices. Total converged devices sales (mainly Symbian-powered smartphones) were up, at 28.3 million, compared with 20.8 million units in Q3 2009 (up 36% YoY) and compared with 26.5 million units in Q3 2010 (up 7%, QoQ). Worldwide smartphone market share was 31%, down 6% sequentially and 9% year on year, due to the overall smartphone market growth, estimated up by a huge 63% YoY. [Post updated with extra charts and quotes]
Our very own Rafe Blandford joined Tim Salmon and I (about 25 minutes into the 80 minute show) yesterday to record Phones Show Chat 72, worth a listen if you'd like to hear Rafe talking about not just Symbian, but all platforms and all phone tech. There's plenty of Symbian content in Phones Show 130 too, released this morning - skip over the Dell Streak review and you'll get a peek at my 'gear', plus a short spot about the 'gone but not forgotten' Nokia 7710 - remember that?
Nokia Reader, a simple RSS reader, was released today on Nokia Beta Labs as an experimental prototype. The application features push notifications (making use of Nokia's new notification service API), a content directory and homescreen widget integration. It provides a clean and efficient way to consume and be notified of updates to your favourite feeds while on the move. The application is available for most S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3 phones.
In late December an updated version, 1.08 (206), of the Ovi Store client for S60 5th Edition phones was made available. This version should now be available in all markets. To encourage users to upgrade Nokia is offering a number of free gifts when you upgrade. These gifts include free copies of Shazam Encore (music recognition) and Doodle Jump (platform game).
Nokia today announced the release of the Qt 1.1 SDK Technology Preview. The new SDK, based on Qt 4.7, is a merge of the Nokia Qt SDK 1.0 and the previous Qt SDK. The release gives developers an early opportunity to familiarise themselves with the next version of the SDK. A key theme of the release is to allow developers to easily get started with Qt Quick development on Symbian, Maemo 5 and the desktop. The new SDK also makes it easier for Symbian developers to use native APIs in their code.
The Nokia C5-03, launched back in October 2010, is now available from the Nokia Online Shop, priced at £189 SIM-free. The C5-03 is billed as "a stylish and affordable 3G touch smartphone" and has the usual Ovi Maps/navigation, Nokia Email and comes bundled with a range of extras, including Doodle Jump, Shazam Encore, ESPN and Real Football Mini Edition, so should get new smartphone users off to a good start. More below.
Swype, an alternative text entry system based on finger 'swipes', now supports additional languages. A number of language packs have been released for both the S60 5th Edition and Symbian^3 versions of Swype and are now available via Nokia Beta Labs. Additionally an updated version of Swype, for Nokia's S60 5th Edition, has been released, which fixes a number of bugs. An updated version for Symbian^3 will appear in the Ovi Store in the near future.
There's a superb article published today over on Mobile R'n'R by Rita el-Khoury, listing the ten things you should do first with a new Symbian smartphone to ensure you get the very best experience, from replacing the browser and social clients to automating and customising the look and feel. This is one to bookmark and recommend to friends who are eying up the likes of the Nokia N8 and C7, methinks....
A recent post of the Nokia Beta Labs blog indicates that Nokia will be discontinuing its augmented reality test-bed application - Nokia Point and Find. However it goes onto say that the underlying augmented reality (and visual search) technology will be incorporated into "the future of key experiences like Maps and Search". The technology may also become available to third party developers, presumably through a service API or similar provision.
