Having seen All About Symbian get a serious freshening up this week (design, discussions, structure, etc.), today sees The Phones Show also getting the spring clean treatment... in err....the autumn! As of Phones Show 120, released today, the show is 720p HD - and yes, it's still all filmed on phones. In this case the Samsung i8910, but it's appropriate that show 120 covers my verdict on the top 5 720p-shooting smartphones. You might recognise the no. 1 in the list - and you'll also recognise the E5, the subject of my hands-on video review.
SPB Mobile Shell has been a popular homescreen replacement for Nokia and Samsung S60 5th Edition phones, but the Sony Ericsson Vivaz's alternative front end was seemingly more of a challenge to displace. SPB have now officially released Mobile Shell for the Vivaz and Vivaz pro today. Both devices have graphics acceleration and plenty of RAM, so performance definitely won't be an issue. More below....
The saga of continually improving user firmware for the Samsung i8910 HD continues with the release of two new firmware alternatives. From HyperX, featured before on AAS, comes 'HX-V8-32', rolling in faster application icon display, extra keyboard options, numerous small bug fixes and better compatibility with Nokia's Symbian software. From 'faenil' comes 'n2o4', nicknamed 'The Queen'(!), Read on for screens, links, changelogs and more...
Orange UK have announced a new service called HD Voice, which will give superior audio call quality over its 3G network on selected phones. Available free of charge, the service will initially be available to a small set of phones; Nokia's 5230, X6 and E5, plus the Samsung Omnia Pro. Having listened to test calls, it is a vast improvement, but not quite up to the claimed "Crystal Clear" quality as claimed. Click through to read our commentary.
Self-proclaimed Position Art genius Stavros would have been proud, it seems that his art form is alive and well. At least according to the Ovi Blog's recent Sports Tracker competition, in which people were invited to send in their best captured 'tracks'. Here are the position art winners and, because I know you're wondering, here's Stavros's original Position Art mega-site "The World is my Canvas" - go on, browse around and watch - it's still a hoot, even two years on!
Nokia Care, which provides support and help for Nokia's complete product range, has opened a Twitter account @NokiaHelps. They are inviting people to send in their queries, to which, they will, if possible, provide a reply. Support by Twitter is necessarily limited by the short messages involved, but for some will be more convenient that posting to a forum or calling a support line.
Nokia today announced that it plans to acquire Motally Inc., a privately held US company, which provides analytics services for mobile websites and applications. In addition to basic tracking and demographic reporting, Motally's main product offers the ability to track user behaviour within applications.
Just in time for this weekend's V Festival event featuring the likes of Kasabian, the Kings of Leon, Paul Weller, the Pet Shop Boys and many others, the official V Festival application has been updated and the new version is live in Ovi store (existing users should get notified of the upgrade automatically). There are some innovative features, including a customisable map and schedule planner, but it is also a great example of how a well executed application can add value to a real world event.
Never mind the date on the official download page, DivX Labs has officially released v1.0 of their ubiquitous mobile player for all S60 3rd Edition and 5th Edition smartphones (direct SISx links). Version 1.0 "has numerous updates and simplifications to the UI. It also has touch-screen support for S60 5th Edition users." Initial feedback shows that desktop class DivX files (unsurprisingly) generally have bitrates that are too high for the limited processor speed in most current Symbian handsets. A figure of 600kbps is recommended as a maximum.
Nokia Beta Labs add-on shot at an integrated 'social' experience has now been closed, pending the arrival on the High Street of a full commercial implementation of the ideas and feedback in both Contacts and Ovi Maps in Nokia's Symbian^3 smartphones. Note with the discontinuation of the Beta program you will no longer have access to the Nokia Messaging for Social Networks service.
Nokia has taken the beta label of its free Symbian Signing program, demonstrating Nokia's long term commitment to lowering costs for developers placing their applications in the Ovi Store. Previously the cost for a developer to sign their first Symbian application was $215, with an additional $15 for every signing instance thereafter. In order to participate in the free signing program developers need only become Ovi Store publishers (necessary to publish content in the Ovi Store), which means paying a one-off fee of €50.
The online service element of Sports Tracker, the application that lets you track exercise activities (workouts) and turns your Nokia smartphone into a GPS sports computer, is now available. The online service allows you to see at a glance information about each activity, easily visualise your workouts, make comparisons and share activities with others via the Sports Tracker website, Facebook or Twitter. Read on for more information and screenshots.
The saga of continually improving user firmware for the Samsung i8910 HD continues with the release a few minutes ago of the impressive HX8, rolling in, among other things, intelligent virtual keyboard/keypad rotation, portrait qwerty added, Music player now has full kinetic scrolling and is skinnable, plus more dynamic 'on the fly' interface customisation options, including changing camera codecs and browser user agents. And those are just the changes since HX7... 8-) Links, changelogs, videos and screens below.
