The public availability of Motorola's much anticipated RIZR Z8 UIQ phone is drawing nearer. The latest indications suggest it will be in the shops in Europe in the first half of June. Motorola has put up a video of one of its TV commericals for the Z8 here. The commercial is directed by the noted Danish director Nicolai Fugslig (you may remember his Bravia bouncy ball commerical).
Smartphones Show 33, now live and on YouTube, has a hands-on review of the WinMob-powered HTC S710, plus a video feature looking at ten things current smartphones can do that the otherwise cool Apple iPhone can't. The ten are demo-ed on current S60 3rd Edition hardware, but many also apply to other Symbian OS-powered devices.
Although available for most other Symbian OS platforms, AquaCalendar for UIQ 3 is reviewed here by P990 devotee and guest writer Asri al-Baker. Summary: plenty of eye candy and functionality, Asri reckons it makes PIM more fun!
We have now drawn the winner of our W950 competition - congratulations to Alan - the W950 is on its way to you now. Read the full story for some extra details. We will be having more competitions in the future - watch this space!
Interesting post over on 'See Into S60' about the ultra convergence typified in the 'Boo Hoo for You' video, worrying that with so many security and ID-related functions built-in, losing your smartphone or having it fail might be catastrophic. Read on for the link and my thoughts...
Rafe's been getting down to business with Sony Ericsson's latest UIQ 3 smartphone, the P1i. Combining all the best bits of the M600 and P990, along with four times the RAM and a few welcome extras, the P1i looks extremely promising. Here's Rafe's illustrated hands-on preview.
(Becoming more regular) guest writer Asri al-Baker solves the problem of a burgeoning SMS inbox on his P990i with a third party utility, SMS Diary. Here's the review, and it's worth noting that it's available for S60 and other UIQ flavours...
In the first of what will hopefully be a series of new style audio podcasts in 'magazine' format and (eventually) with special guest slots, Rafe, Ewan and I all contribute to AAS podcast 23, covering Mobipocket Reader, choosing between current S60 favourites and the Sony Ericsson P1i.
Symbian have released their Q1 2007 figures, highlights include a total of 15.9 million phones shipped in the first 3 months of the year, cumulative shipments of 126.4 million and cumulative shipments in Japan of 20 million Symbian OS phones.
The UIQ 3-running Motorola MOTORIZR Z8 is definitely the Symbian OS smartphone that we at AAS want to get our hands on next. Gizmodo were at Motorola's conference a couple of days ago and videoed some of the main Z8 animated slideshows. Good stuff and in many ways this will give the Nokia N95 a run for its money (thanks, Stefan).
Guest writer Asri al-Baker is a huge fan of LCG's X-plore file manager for UIQ 3 smartphones such as the Sony Ericsson P990i. Disregarding the non-standard interface and a few small niggles, he's been using the review format to show off what X-plore can do.
Mobhappy's Carlo has been blogging about his briefing from a Motorola VP, talking about future UIQ 3 smartphones to follow up the MOTORIZR Z8. Apparently there are some announcements tomorrow....
Ewan reviews the Merriam-Webster range of Dictionaries for Symbian OS smartphones, trying them out in detail on the Nokia E61i. See the review for links to UIQ versions. Summary? Slickly programmed and competent, they do what they say on the tin.
Rafe's been getting down to business with Sony Ericsson's latest UIQ 3 smartphone, the P1i. Combining all the best bits of the M600 and P990, along with four times the RAM and a few welcome extras, the P1i looks extremely promising. Here's Rafe's illustrated hands-on preview.