Nokia's first S60 touch device, the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, also known colloquially as the 'Tube', will go on sale in the UK on Friday 23rd January for £249 SIM Free (includes VAT). For the first week, it will be available exclusively through the Nokia Flagship Stores in Heathrow Terminal 5 and Regent Street. From Friday 30th January, the Nokia 5800 will then become available through Vodafone, O2, Orange, T-Mobile UK, Virgin Mobile, Carphone Warehouse and Phones 4U. You can now also pre-order the 5800 from Nokia's online store.
I finally found time to take my Smartphone Choosing Grid into 2009, adding devices like the Nokia N96, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, HTC Touch HD, Blackberry Storm and T-Mobile G1 into the mix. As usual, simply tick your preferences and have your perfect smartphone picked for you! How accurate is it now? Feedback welcomed below...
I just squeezed in a last programme of The Phones Show before Christmas. No 72 includes a video demo of YouTube in Web on the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, News, Conclusions from my AAS series on phone cameras, hands-on thoughts on the Samsung Omnia, plus a demo of installing an app from the Android Marketplace.
Now this is good timing for the many people (including us) now in possession of the Nokia 5800 XpressMusic. Although many S60 3rd Edition applications run on the device, the implementation doesn't really fly very nicely with the touch-screen. Epocware have always been quick off the mark and they've now announced that all their S60 applications have been optimised for S60 5th Edition. So that's the usual Handy Safe, Handy Shell, Handy Weather, and so on. Screenshot of Handy Shell running on the 5800 below...
While we wait (not too long) to debrief an exhausted Rafe after Nokia World, Engdaget Mobile's Paul Miller has done a good job of getting his hands-on thoughts on the new Nokia N97 down in print. Some interesting points (and also in the comments), even if he doesn't approach the device as an existing S60 fan. My own take is that yes, it's incredibly early in the N97's development cycle - for something 6 months from availability, it's actually looking quite stable and fast - look where the Sony Ericsson X1 was 6 months from its release...
Nokia's NW 2008 home page is filling out nicely, with video slots, a live video feed and a discussion board. Most intriguingly, the 'Countdown' link is attached a panel branded 'Nseries 2009' - surely this means that there's an Nseries device about to be launched? I was half expecting something in the Eseries line, but maybe Nokia is about to surprise everybody! Am I reading too much into this?
If you've been following the semi-official S60 blogs over on S60.com then note that the old blog feeds have just been discontinued and the blogs archived. There are now just two main feeds/blogs to follow in your feed reader: S60 Living and Developing on S60. A simpler system and less confusing all round!
My Phones Show 67 just went live, with a hands-on preview and thoughts on the S60 5th Edition-powered Nokia 5800 XpressMusic ('Tube'), plus a cross-platform feature analysing 'Which phone should you buy?'. Note also the RSS feeds for the standard and hi-res versions of the show, for your feedreader, browser or iTunes. And yes, Rafe's official AAS preview of the 5800 is coming soon, don't worry....
Symbian has released Ruby for Symbian OS to the Open Source software developer community. Ruby is "a powerful dynamic language that reaches the heights of the pure Object Oriented Programming paradigm" and is popular in many developer communities.
There's an interesting interview here today in which Richard Bloor talks to Antony Edwards, Vice President, Developer Product Marketing at Symbian, discussing how developers will be able to contribute to the Symbian Foundation, the challenge of software distribution and how the Symbian Foundation's developer program is shaping up.
Kudos to neois over on Forum Nokia for producing a layman's illustrated guide to S60 5th Edition, looking at it from the point of view of a S60 3rd Edition user. If a picture's worth 1000 words, then this is a veritable thesis.
