Rafe (and Ben Smith) were extremely busy at last week's Nokia N8 hands-on, taking dozens of top quality photos of the first Symbian^3 smartphone in all its OLED aluminium Xenon-equipped glory. In this interactive Nokia N8 gallery, Rafe takes the time to comment on each photo and what it shows. Grab a coffee and settle down to some serious N8 virtual hands-on time.
The modern marketeer has their work cut out for them with smartphones - the traditional methods don't always work, so it's a good thing that Nokia's ecosystem is helping them find a new way to get their message out and reinforced with their customers. The Ovi Store and the App Wizard are two new elements in the quest to try and find a way to make advertising on smartphones effective... through applications. Read on for some thoughts.
In All About Symbian Insight 123, the team discuss the news of the Nokia X5-01 and X6 8GB, which were launched at Nokia Connection in Singapore. Ewan gives us an overview of the Nimbuzz application, before Rafe explains that Symbian^3 is now functionally complete. Finally, Rafe and Steve discuss their thoughts on what they learned at the recent Nokia N8 hands-on event. You can listen to AAS Insight 123 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Starting with a throwaway line from a US podcast, Steve Litchfield works up a head of steam over the ever-slipping battery life standard in our smartphones. How long is long enough when it comes to keeping a modern smartphone going on a single charge? Are we destined to need to carry around mobile chargers in our pocket in 2011 or is there a better way to go? Surely making it through the day is a fundamental that should never be compromised?
Fujitsu, the second biggest manufacturer of Symbian based phones, and Toshiba have signed a memorandum of understanding to merge their respective phones businesses. Toshiba will transfer its mobile phone business into a new company and Fujitsu will acquire a majority of shares in the new company (suggesting Fujitsu is the dominant partner in this deal). The companies hope to take the number one spot in the domestic Japanese market, but will also be developing handsets for the world market.
As part of Nokia's 'Open for Ideas' event, I had the opportunity to attend the Tampere Innovation Experience @ Demola day, which included a showcase more than 40 research projects that had been guided by open innovation principles. I teamed up with The Really Mobile Project's Ben Smith to shoot three videos of NRC (Nokia Research Centre) demos. The first video covers the Nokia Image Space research, with a demo of the Image Space mobile client on a Nokia N900.
Nokia Conversations are running a poll to find out how users backup the data on their phones. Of course, some of the options are for Nokia's own services, although it's good to see plenty of scope in the options for third party solutions. Now could be a good time to cast your vote if you've had a bad experience with the likes of Ovi Sync. More below, including some constructive criticism for the pollsters!
With the imminent arrival of both the Apple iPhone 4 and the Symbian-powered Nokia N8, I thought it high time to pitch the two head to head. In fact, while doing so, why not widen the comparison to include the other non-Nokia Symbian flagships, the Sony Ericsson Satio and Samsung i8910 HD, both of which have similar specifications, plus throw in the Android flagship (in the UK) as well - the HTC Desire? The result is hopefully a comprehensive cross-section of the top end smartphones of 2010.
Steve and I were in London yesterday to get our first full hands-on with the Nokia N8, the company's first Symbian^3 phone. We'll be bringing you a range of coverage, including our detailed first impressions and some extra analysis, but to kick things off we have a 'first-look' hands-on video. The video offers a quick look through many of the key applications, demonstrating the single tap interaction model and other Symbian^3 UX changes. It is also an opportunity to get a feel for the responsiveness and performance of the device, although it is important to note that the N8 is still running pre-production software.
In this feature, Ewan summarises a variety of ways of using your Symbian smartphone to marshall the ever-growing list of 'things you've got to do' - some apps, some widgets and some cloud-based solutions, so something here should take your fancy?
Not that anyone here at All About Symbian could ever manage this (no, I don’t want this as a challenge!) but Dan Roberts has written about the potential effects that the information overload is placing on people. “Our data suggests that if you are not giving yourself a break, you are hindering your brain's ability to consolidate memories and experiences," said neuroscientist Lila Davachi. More quotes below.
David Gilson brings the Nokia E72 story right up to date, giving his own review take on the device now that it has received the first two rounds of firmware updates from Nokia. What has been fixed, what's still broken and who can the E72 be recommended for? With links, photos and opinion, this is a definitive summing up of the E72, mid June 2010.
In All About Symbian Insight 122, we share the best of the previous week's news: Expedia hotel booking in Ovi Maps, Nokia 5228, Nokia Notifications and Tesco's Clubcard application. Steve shares his thoughts on the visibility of various screen technologies in bright sunlight, including a hands-on with Super AMOLED, and Rafe explains last week's Symbian Baidu tie up. Finally, the team discuss the launch of the iPhone 4 and the high-end device landscape. You can listen to AAS Insight 122 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
As part of its promotional activities for the N8, Nokia is releasing a series of overview videos presented by Chris Bennetts, a Senior Product Manager at the company. The third video covers the Music application and the N8's HDMI out functionality; rather than just linking to it or embedding it, we've broken this video down in detail to offer you some insight into the N8's music software and HDMI-out feature. Read on for further details.
Video calling on mobiles has been a reality in most of the world for five years now - and it's been a disaster in terms of take-up rate. Yet Apple comes on the scene with their new FaceTime - video calling - 'feature' and seems to have nailed it in terms of making people want it. Read on for my thoughts on what has the rest of the world been doing wrong and for the use case that Apple has, quite correctly, identified and exploited.
