Nokia today announced the Nokia Digital Radio Headset (DAB) accessory for its Symbian^3 handsets (N8, C7-00, E7-00 and C6-01). Using Symbian^3's USB OTG technology it allows you to listen to and control DAB radio. DAB radio offers clearer reception, higher quality audio and a larger range of stations than traditional FM radio. The DAB headset will be available from Friday 22nd October, with first availability via the Nokia UK shop, at a cost of £44.99.
Swype, an alternative text entry system, is now available, via Ovi Store, for Nokia's Symbian^3 devices (Nokia N8 and Nokia C7). It replaces the current landscape QWERTY keyboard. Words are entered by tracing one continuous finger path, spelling out the word, across an on-screen QWERTY keyboard. The system also includes feature such as auto-capitalisation and spacing, intelligent editing, custom dictionary and much more. Swype provides, potentially, a faster text entry method, albeit with a small initial learning curve.
Now this is the sort of marketing I'd like to see Nokia do more of. Working with a band to both enhance their life on the road and also show off what the smartphone can do. In this case the band 'Kill It Kid' and the Nokia N8 - the introductory video is embedded below. A dozen of these, all with different popular bands in different countries, all going viral among the youth, and there'd be no need to mess around with 'X factor' apps, I reckon....
It used to be that mobile phone networks were scared of being nothing more than pipes for data and calls, so they added extra features to make them portals rather than pipes. But the increasing number of smartphones coming to market mean they now have another approach to ward off this fear – the added value on top of the Operating System to make the network version of a popular handset 'better' than the stock factory model. But in the process, this creates a handset that's not what the end-user expects, creates user interface discrepancies, and frustrates their own customers as to the capabilities of the device they see talked about online, and the one in their hand. Have the networks forgetten how to balance their needs with the needs of the users?
Let's say you worked in Nokia marketing and had a great idea. Given that the company was sponsoring the X Factor, one of the largest entertainment shows in the world, each year, why not have an X Factor application? One that could be promoted before each ad break, riding the current wave of app-frenzy, showing off what the phones can do and also getting an even wider audience for the content? Fabulous. Meanwhile, back in reality....
Based on Web Runtime and a little clunky round the edges, but nevertheless free and available now in the Ovi Store is Nokia Shopping List, screenshotted below, with multiple lists to help you with your weekly/daily/special shopping trips. As usual with this genre of application, you just cross items off as you buy them, then clear the list at the end, ready for next time round the supermarket/mall.
One novel promotional idea the Ovi guys and gals had a few months back was to produce a promotional magazine in the Issuu 'virtual' format - here's issue 1 of the 'Ovi Guide', from the Spring. Issue 2 has just been released at a whopping 44 pages and, though biased towards marketing Nokia's products, does have plenty of app mini-reviews, plus some useful tips and pointers in it. Moreover, it's glossily implemented, embedded below on this page (if your browser window is wide enough!) and well worth a detailed look.
Since the dawn of time (1993), Symbian devices/smartphones have had various three or four-fingered salutes to kill things and, importantly, to bring them back from the dead should the unimaginable happen. The keys required to 'hard reset' a S60 phone have varied over the years because of differences in form factors and button availability, but it seems one of Forum Nokia's writers has discovered the magic combination for the Nokia N8 and other Symbian^3 phones, see below.
Now that didn’t take as long as the N8! Nokia’s Conversations Blog is reporting that the Nokia C7, announced last month at Nokia World, is now shipping to customers. Making it the second Symbian^3 device to hit retail, the C7 matches the majority of specs of the N8, missing out the HDMI port, 12 megapixel camera, and of course has a reduced price tag.
Definitely not recommended for anyone reading this, but fascinating reading nevertheless is iFixit's teardown of the Nokia N8, with numerous valuable insights into how the N8 was made, including titbits like the AMOLED display not being fused to the outside glass so that, in theory, you don't have to replace both if you break the latter. Details of the various chips inside are also of interest, though I'd warn again - do not try this at home. Leave N8 dismantling to your local Nokia Care Point!
We apologise for the never-ending stream of news items about the N8, but it's hard to shut up when exciting things appear day by day. In this case it's Nokia's home-grown Panorama application, first seen in the likes of the N86 8MP and N900, but now customised for the N8 and made available in the Ovi Store. See below for screens and a sample of its output.
Nokia has just released an official iSync plug-in for the N8, meaning that Mac owners can now do a full Contacts/Calendar sync to the Mac Address Book and iCal. See below for some screen proofs and notes - there are some changes to the way Calendar sync works with iSync on Symbian^3 phones.
There's a great post here by Ari Partinen with tips on taking better portrait photos with the N8, specifically looking at how he achieved the professional shot reproduced below, with nothing more than the Nokia N8 and some white material (as a reflector). Well worth a read and, if nothing else, shows what Xenon-lit fill-in flash can do to improve smartphone photos - even in broad daylight.
Forgive the blatant plug, but this is one Phones Show programme that you might want to catch. Inside show 122 there's my video review of the Nokia N8 - trying to summarise this device in 1500 spoken words over 10 screen minutes wasn't easy - you can judge my efforts below, as the show is embedded for your convenience. There's also a mini review of the Motorola Flipout, a diminutive but capable qwerty smartphone.
A couple of interesting links of interest in the last 24 hours over on Nokia's official blog. Nokia’s new devices and the environment looks at some facts behind progress at keeping phones and their packaging as 'green' as possible. I guess when you're selling over a million phones a day then you have to really worry about the impact you're having on the planet! Also of interest was this drum-thumping post on entitled Nokia ranks number one as mobile Web platform, referring to new stats from Opera that show that in the top 20 tech-capable countries, in 16 of them a Nokia device was the leading phone used to browse the web. Some quotes below from each.
