Nokia has published a video showcasing its partnership with optics maker Carl Zeiss, with an emphasis on the implementation of the Nokia N8's camera. The video details the specialised knowledge need to create the optics, highlights the importance of robustness and discusses the key camera characteristics. While the video has a marketing message, it does offer a rare behind the scenes glimpse of what goes into making a high-end camera phone.
What a great idea - step through the alphabet and pick the best Symbian application starting with that letter. And, impressively, every letter has a great suggestion here in 'The Essential A-Z of Nokia Apps', from Angry Birds to Zuma. Well worth a quick scan - maybe you can come up with better suggestion here and there?
An update to Ovi Store application, version 2.08, is currently being rolled out, by Nokia, for its Symbian^3 devices (N8, C7, C6-01, E7). Along with improvements at the server-side, the update enables the automatic detection and provisioning of updates for applications that have already been installed. Users will be automatically prompted to download and install the client update when they next open the Ovi Store application.
Offscreen Technologies has announced the release of its in-house integrated development environment (IDE), free of cost to anyone who wishes to use it. Named Origo, it can be downloaded from origo.offscr.com, along with various guides and further information on its use. Origo allows users to write once and automatically package their application for Symbian^3, S60 5th Edition, S60 3rd Edition, Maemo 5 and Windows Phone 7. Offscreen Technologies Ltd. states that it has published over 150 applications, and has had over 70 million downloads via the Ovi Store.
The Nokia X7 can be pre-ordered from the Nokia UK online shop for £399 SIM Free, £359 on PAYG or from free on a £25 per month contract. It also available for pre-order in Nokia online stores in Germany (€459), Italy (€429) and China. Pre-orders will also be available from a number online retailers shortly. The pre-order page indicates delivery will take place at the end of June.
Bloomberg Businessweek has published an in-depth article, titled 'Stephen Elop's Nokia Adventure', which describes how Nokia's new CEO is trying to turn the company around. It covers his first 8 months at the company and looks at the story behind Nokia's new strategy. There's a lot of interesting detail about the decision making behind Nokia's smartphone strategy, which took place in the first few weeks of 2011.
Today, Nokia Beta Labs released Nokia Play To for Symbian^3. This application allows you to show and play media, stored on your phone, over WiFi, on compatible devices, such as TVs, home audio systems and PCs. The application uses DLNA, which means no configuration is need once WiFi is on and all devices are connected to the same network. It's a great way to show off your latest photo, videos and music download to your friends.
Under the title of "Destination E7", Nokia's latest promotional stunt has been to give two Scots girls E7s and lend them a VW camper and set them the challenge of setting up a 'pop-up shop' in London (postcode E7, get it?) a week later, sourcing all their inventory along the way. Along with a cameraman, of course, to record the results for the embedded highlights video below.
Nokia's Battery Monitor utility has been proving its worth on many of our smartphones over the last six months, first in beta and then in production form. The UI of the previous version was implemented in Web runtime, whereas this new version 2.0, exclusively for Symbian^3-powered phones, has a UI fashioned from Qt and is slicker and faster as a result. There are significant other improvements too, detailed below.
Nokia today updated its outlook for Q2 2011, substantially downgrading previous forecasts. The company says it now expects net sales to be "substantially below its previously expected range of €6.1 billion to €6.6 billion" and that, "Devices & Services non-IFRS operating margin could be around break even", against a previously expected range of 6% to 9%. Multiple factors are impacting Nokia's Devices and Services business, including competitive dynamics and a product mix shifting towards to lower end and pricing tactics by Nokia and certain competitors.
Nokia has announced, via its Conversations blog, quoted below, that the Nokia E6 and X7 are now shipping. Both devices are due in for review in full retail form at All About Symbian imminently and will receive the usual comprehensive testing. The two phones use the new Symbian Anna version, and this is expected to start rolling out to other Symbian^3 phones soon. Watch this space.
The Nokia E6 can be pre-ordered from the Nokia UK online shop for £349 SIM Free, £339 on PAYG or from free on a £25 per month contract. It also available for pre-order in Nokia online stores in Germany (€429) and Italy (€399). Pre-order will also be available from a number online retailers shortly. The E6 is expected to starting shipping towards the end of June.
Shazam, the music identification service, has updated its Symbian client to version 3. The update features a cleaned up user interface. The main screen now only features the large button which triggers audio sampling. The buttons for your previous 'tags' and Shazam music charts have been moved to the top of the screen as tabs, along with a new settings page. The latter gives access to upgrading to the paid version of Shazam, as well as linking to one's Twitter and Facebook accounts. Read on for more details and screenshots.
Nokia Bubbles, the interactive screen saver, has been re-released at Nokia Beta Labs. This should be of interest to anyone who had problems or missed it the first time around. Prior versions of Nokia Bubbles required testers to install a beta version of the Qt libraries. That caused so many problems for testers that Nokia had to issue a .SIS file to downgrade their Qt files. Now however, Nokia Bubbles works with the current Qt libraries and is installed with Nokia Smart Installer, thus avoiding the earlier issues. Read on for more details and screenshots.
In an interview with the Nokia Conversations blog, China Edition, Nokia's CEO, Stephen Elop, said that "software updates to Symbian devices are expected until at least 2016", and that there is " a long history still to be paved for Symbian in the future". While Nokia has previously made it clear that Symbian investment would continue, the 2016 date is a definitive statement and may be further in the future than some have anticipated.
