In June this year, we reviewed version 1.0 of Business Calendar. This was the first serious attempt in years at replacing the built-in Symbian Calendar application. Even though the 1.1 update addressed several of our criticisms, there was still some missing functionality. Fortunately, version 1.3 has been released with a number of new features, including multiple homescreen widgets. Read on to find out whether this is now the ultimate Calendar replacement.
The Indian branch of PCWorld has posted a favourable review of the Nokia 701. PCWorld thought the phone’s best features were its bright IPS TFT screen, Symbian Belle operating system, and classy design inherited from the Nokia C7. You might want to compare the review to our own 701 coverage. PCWorld rates 701’s battery life as “good”, thanks to the new BL–5K battery. The review goes on to make a big point of complaining about the 701’s EDoF camera though. Readers should note that the 701 has a much improved EDoF system than found in other Symbian devices, see our feature on EDoF2.
The Nokia Store application is currently inviting users to claim a number of free gifts. The store has had several rounds of free gifts in the past where users could claim paid-for applications free of charge. On offer in this round of pre-Christmas cheer is: Camera Lover Pack, Angry Birds, Moodagent, Nimbuzz free and eBuddy. However, contents may vary from device to device. Read on for more details.
We periodically link to James Burland's Flickr-based Nokia N8 photo award series - and this month's is a cracker, with my favourite show pasted below. It's still amazing what people get this camera-centric smartphone to do and these examples prove it's still top of the heap, even a year after release.
Not Symbian-related directly, but I did note that Nokia has launched 'Nokia Maps Creator', aimed at letting people make small edits or additions to existing maps - and edits are available to all Nokia Maps users 'immediately'. Initially, this is only for 'previously unmapped' countries, but it's possible that moderated edits might come to other countries in time. Some links and quotes below.
The best web browser for Symbian just got itself an update. Following the update to Opera Mini last week, its big brother, the full-on browser Opera Mobile has also now been updated, to v11.5.1. The main change is enhancements to language choice and predictive text in the search field, but there are also a ton of bug fixes.
Andrew Orlowski's posts on Psion, Nokia and Symbian over at The Register are often a rollicking read, especially for geeks interested in Symbian's past. This five page article is all about Hildon, the UI (and indeed 'platform', or so argues the piece) that was evolved to Series 90, used in the Nokia 7710, and which underpinned a revamped Series 80, used in the Nokia 9500 and 9300. One for Symbian historians, definitely!
Nokia has put up a super-glossy four minute reminder of its innovations over the last 25 years, from the first mobiles through the advanced audio telephony codecs today - it's a good watch (embedded below) and is a reminder, among other things, of the sheer number of telephony patents stacked up at Nokia HQ (remember that Apple had to pay up earlier this year?).
Just updated in the Nokia Store but also available via the web directly, is the latest and greatest version of Opera Mini, v6.5.1, adding predictive text input and a choice of input languages in the search field. We've quoted the changelog below, along with the links you might need.
When the Nokia 701 was announced, I leapt up on its specification with my editor's hat firmly in place. "BL-5K battery, 1300mAh" read the press release. Having owned the Nokia N86 and having played with the C7 and X7, all with the same battery, "that's got to be a typo" I asserted and insisted that Rafe fix it to "1200mAh" for our news story. As it turns out, the Nokia 701 ships with a new 'variant' of the BL-5K that we haven't seen before, rated at "1300mAh". Have there been chemical tweaks inside?
Smartphone sales statistics are now out for Q3, 2011, thanks to Gartner. Sales of Symbian-powered smartphones in the quarter were down 10 million from last year's total, at just under 20 million, but still notably higher than sales of Apple's high profile iOS devices. Sales of Android-powered devices were the strongest, at just over 60 million in the quarter. Some quotes, comment and a table below.
Last week Nokia announced the availability of the Qt 4.7.4 release bundle for Symbian. This is the same release that is shipping in Symbian Belle handsets and is now also available for Symbian Anna handsets. The bundle contains Qt 4.7.4, Qt Quick 1.1, Qt Mobility 1.2, Qt Webkit 2.1.1 and Qt Quick Components 1.1 for Symbian; collectively representing a major release for Qt on Symbian.
Nokia Maps 3.8, which was in beta for a while but then formally released for Symbian Belle devices, is now rolling out via a 16MB download in SW_update (in 'Applications' on each phone) for the Symbian^3/Anna phones like the Nokia N8 too. Screen proof and brief notes below. Although the usual component-based installer is probably at work behind the scenes, the update via SW_update is silent - just a six minute wait while it all installs. Drive, Weather, Check-in, Guides, etc. are all present and correct, in addition to the usual maps-centric functionality.
After a month in beta, Nokia Suite (for Windows) has been formally released via the usual Nokia PC connectivity pages, replacing the former Ovi Suite. It's not just a name change though. In addition to the label, there are functional changes, we've included a brief changelog below. The new release version is 3.2.100, replacing the latest beta 3.2.98 that had been in Nokia Beta Labs.
Nokia's next-gen 'QML' implementation of its Store client continues to advance, in beta form to v3.18.036, with more fixes, as listed in the quote below. Also offered (in theory) is a set of free premium apps/themes for C7 owners - if I sound unsure then it's because our editorial C7 didn't get offered anything!
