In All About Symbian Insight #40 (AAS Podcast #93) Rafe, and Steve discuss SMP (Symmetric Multiprocessing) on Symbian OS and what some of the key benefits might be. Steve gives us his first impressions of the Nokia N79 and finally there's some chat about gaming on the N-Gage versus the iPhone.
A new version of Nokia Photos, a media (images and video) sync and management application for your PC, is now available through Nokia Beta Labs. The new version, 1.5, has a new look to fit in with the Ovi branding, improved support for importing images from non-Nokia devices, tools for adding and visualising geo-tagged images, and improved integration with Share on Ovi and other Nokia services. Read on for further details.
Admittedly the question is up there with 'Why does the beach get wet when the tide comes in?', but Tzer2 asks the question "Why do so many gadget fans buy devices on their launch day?", producing an easy to read essay on the cult of the early adopter. And argues, in the process, that their zeal (and expenditure) is good for all of us in the long run...
Over on All About N-Gage, resident gaming Jedi Ewan Spence has put Star Wars: The Force Unleashed through its paces on the N-Gage platform, including the innovative "cellweaver" control system designed specially for mobile phones. Is the force with this game, or is it just a pile of bantha fodder? Read the review to find out...
In the second part of my 'Camera Nitty Gritty' series, I look at the relative advantages and disadvantages of the different flash technologies used in phone cameras: Xenon, LED and dual LED. With examples, I demonstrate the increased illumination from LED to Xenon and also show the differences in the speed of capture.
Following on from Ewan's thoughts yesterday on the freedom in the Symbian/S60 developer world, I have to say that I take a slightly different view. Over and over, I'm finding that applications I download (from developer sites, from AAS, from Handango, etc) can't easily be installed, each coming up with 'Expired certificate'. Read on for a Steve rant....
In All About Symbian Insight #39 (AAS Podcast #92) Rafe, Steve and Ewan cover Nokia Open Lab 08 in the first half of the podcast; Rafe introduces some of the key themes and ideas that were discussed. In the second half of the insight we discuss the live streaming of video from a mobile phone.
When your application is blacklisted because it duplicates the functions on the phone, something has gone wrong, thinks Ewan Spence, who considers the issue of a single monolithic app store, and tells why he thinks the Symbian way is better.
The advantages and disadvantages of lens covers on camera-equipped phones is a hotly debated topic. Recent Nseries devices have seen a mix: N78, N95 8GB and N96 (no lens cover) versus N79, N85 and N95 classic (with lens cover). In the first in a series of articles on contentious camera issues, Steve looks at the question of whether scratches on the camera's protective glass really make a difference.
Today, in an online event, Nokia summarised and demonstrated its recent additions to the Ovi.com service offering: Ovi Suite - a PC software offering media management and phone sync, Files on Ovi - an online file storage and remote access to PC files, and Ovi Sync - a service which syncs contacts, calendar events and notes to Ovi.com. Read on for more details.
In All About Symbian Insight #38 (AAS Podcast #91) Rafe and Steve chat about where the Nokia N96 lines up, firmware updates to the Nokia N95 and N95 8GB, look forward to Comes with Music announcements and touch on Symbian's Q2 results. The main part of the insight covers the newly released Samsung I8510 and our first impressions of its 8 megapixel camera.
Steve and I have had the Samsung i8510 (a.k.a. the INNOV8, in some markets) for the best part of a week, putting it through its paces. In all honesty, it's too early for a full review because there are some things needing to be attended to by Samsung, but what Steve was really interested in was how well the screen, 8 mp camera, focussing camcorder and DSP-powered music playback performed. I hope you'll be interested too. [Monday morning: We've updated the sections on playing videos, on music playback and application compatibility]
...In which I am impressed by a couple of examples of superbly 'joined-up' applications from the iPhone world. Can the Symbian ecosystem compete? What advantages does the iPhone have to help the creation of joined-up apps and is there hope for similar software for S60 users? Comments welcome - can you think of any similarly impressive Symbian examples?
Rafe gives his first impressions of the Nokia N79, along with detailed analysis on exactly who it will appeal to and where it fits into Nokia's burgeoning Nseries range. The hardware is the main focus as Rafe takes an early look at a prototype of Nokia's latest Nseries 'candybar' handset.
What was once the latest hot feature on our smartphones has become the 'without that I'm not buying it' necessity. Ewan takes a look at the features that were once the hot news but have become little more than requirements in the spec list and why this march of progress isn't going to stop in the near future.
