As Ewan puts it, it's another madcap show - All About Symbian Insight number 30 right here, in which we talk about Missing Sync for Symbian, the launch of the Nokia E71 and E66, plus first thoughts on the Motorola MOTO Z10. Note that this show was recorded last Thursday and so predates Tuesday's Symbian announcements - we'll bring you audio content to do with this very shortly.
With the release of the 2.4"-screened, QVGA E71, some naive bloggers were shouting down Nokia for not putting in a VGA display. Here's why the bloggers got this one wrong - in my humble opinion, of course! Comments welcome. And at what point in the future do you think VGA will become practical and affordable in 'phones'?
Yup, at long last the Motorola Z10 is in the house and here's the first fruits: a hands-on Gallery for this camera/camcorder-focussed UIQ 3 smartphone. I'll be shooting my video review for the Smartphones Show and then this is going to Ewan for an in-depth review: is the Z10 too late to make a splash in the smartphone market? The hardware's certainly of high quality, as you can see in the MOTO Z10 gallery itself.
Rafe and Ewan are joined this week by Ricky Cadden as they take on the week's news and hot topics (recorded before Monday's announcements, but don't let that put you off) in Insight 29, a.k.a. AAS podcast 80. They cover the 'Evening with S60' in Boston, the LG KT610 clamshell, iGoogle and the new Google Reader for S60, Cloud Computing and Social Services, plus more N-Gage musings. Oh and they covered some new update from an American manufacturer in Cupertino...
Do we need all these different models and form factor variants of smartphones coming out? Ewan thinks so, arguing for variety from a ecological viewpoint. E71 or iPhone? - plenty of room for both in the marketplace, and rightly so, according to Ewan.
If you've been watching Nokia Beta Labs, you'll have seen Nokia's attempt to expand Download! into a web shop. All very well and good, but hardly unique and it's ultimately just another place to download commercial demos and a few Nokia utilities from, before side-loading them in from a PC. Why has Nokia bothered, given that they already have a far better distribution system in Download! on each device? Read on for my thoughts...
Over on All About N-Gage, we've just published a special in-depth article looking at the pros and cons of touchscreen phone gaming, and we ponder whether Nokia should start making touch-based N-Gage games. Is touchscreen gaming the mainstream future or just a niche market? And does it matter either way?
Nine months ago, Steve looked at the then-new Apple iPhone, pitched against the also-new Nokia N95 8GB flagship - with the release of the iPhone 3G, it's high time for a rematch. It's evident that the iPhone 3G has closed the gap and wins in some areas, but there are still holes in its functionality that you could drive a motorhome through, leading to another overall N95 8GB victory.
In AAS Insight #28 Rafe, Ewan and Steve discuss some of the news from the past week including Trolltech, Mail for Exchange 2.5 and the Symbian Smartphone Show before moving on to the general waffle topics: firstly S60's increasing integration with the PC and web, secondly smartphone statistics and definition.
In this article Steve explains, step-by-step, how you can use your Nseries phone to create a time-lapse video using the sequence mode of the camera application and a quick bit of video editing. He has also included a quick example of his own, but we would like to see your examples too.
Just to prove they were listening during all those S60 Summit seminars, Rafe and Ewan focus in this feature on S60's Web Run-Time (WRT), which was heavily promoted at the event. They cover what it is, where it's going and what it will mean for developers and end users. In addition, Rafe recorded this podcast, talking to Ganesh Sivaraman about WRT and all things widgetey.
In AAS Insight 27, the latest All About Symbian podcast, we talk about some recent firmware upgrades for a number of devices before moving on to a wide ranging discussion from topics out of last weeks S60 Summit. Areas covered include the future of user experience, Samsung and the S60 platform, the future of software development and widgets and WRT.
This is 2008 and, being away from home, I wanted to revisit some of the free satellite navigation applications that I'd previously played with over a year ago - surely one of them had developed into something that could get me home? Or is successful real time navigation still the preserve of the commercial applications like Nokia Maps, Wayfinder, CoPilot, etc.? Here's my attempt to find my way home using amAze, Nav4All and Google Maps for Mobile...
Wednesday morning sees the start of the S60 Summit in Barcelona, with Rafe and Ewan in attendance, more from them as it happens. See below, though, for photos and information on so-new-it's-almost-vapour Nokia N100 - the ultimate S60 smartphone? Plus my thoughts on Nokia's design strategies - maybe some of these will be taken on board by the manufacturers represented at the summit?
In AAS Insight 26, the latest All About Symbian podcast, covers opinion on new devices (HTC Touch Diamond, Apple iPhone 3G, Blackberry Bold), looks ahead to the S60 Summit, gives a first impression on the Nokia N78, the N-Gage games transfer issue and the launch of Nokia Maps 2.0.
