Screens to get brighter, more sensitive, thanks to Gorilla Glass 2

We've gotten used to all our phones now coming with Gorilla Glass, meaning no more casual scratches and no need for screen protectors. Well, 'Gorilla Glass 2' has now been announced by Corning, its creators, at CES 2012, scheduled to start going into smartphones towards the end of the year, and claimed to be 20% thinner yet as tough as the original, meaning that screens can be brighter and more sensitive when used with capacitive touch technology.

Symbian roundup at Nokia World 2011

The focus at Nokia World 2011 was, of course, very much on the launch of Nokia's first Windows Phone devices (Lumia 800 and 710), but there was plenty of Symbian Anna and Belle goodness across the various booths and stands too. To give you a flavour of the Symbian presence at the event, here's a virtual tour of (some of) what was on display.

Symbian updates emphasised, new hardware for Series 40 and Windows Phone

The bad news - no new Symbian hardware at Nokia World 2011. The good news is that mention was specifically made of the existing ten next-gen Symbian^3/Anna/Belle handsets and commitment to keep the updates coming - it's safe to say that Belle will be on all ten devices fairly soon, variants and versions notwithstanding. Six new phones were launched today at the event, four using Series 40 and two running Windows Phone.

Nokia World 2011 Live

Nokia World keynote and hardware launches to be webcast

Symbian Belle - software update delivers user interface renewal

Nokia today announced Symbian Belle, the latest software update for the Symbian^3 platform. In Belle, the focus is on UI improvements, with extensive changes to key elements such as the homescreen, widgets, status bar, dialogs, notifications and menu system. Belle also delivers further application updates (Web), improved NFC functionality and streamlined software updates.

Symbian Belle will be available first on the trio of new Symbian smartphones that Nokia announced today: Nokia 600, 700 and 701. It will also be made available for the Nokia N8, E6, E7, X7, C7 and C6-01 by download via PC and over-the-air. Nokia will announce the timing of the updates for existing devices closer to availability.

Nokia Connection: N9 MeeGo Harmattan and Series 40 announcements

Nokia made a number of important announcements today at its Nokia Connection event in Singapore. The Nokia N9, a MeeGo Harmattan smartphone, was announced. Equally important was the announcement that Qt would be at the core of bringing applications to the next billion users, indicating that Nokia intends to bring Qt to its mobile phone devices. Nokia also announced three new Touch and Type Series 40 devices.

Nokia Connection: Symbian Anna in July, 10 more Symbian devices to come

At today's Nokia Connection event in Singapore Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, announced that the Symbian Anna software update for the Nokia N8, C7, C6-01 and E7 would start shipping in new devices in July and would be available for all existing device owners to download by the end of August. He also announced that, over the next 12 months, Nokia intends to bring 10 new Symbian based smartphones to the market.

Stephen Elop's keynote at Qualcomm's Uplinq

At Qualcomm's recent Uplinq conference, Stephen Elop, Nokia's CEO, gave a keynote in which he described the decision process that led to Nokia's February 11th smartphone strategy shift and outlined the five key elements of the third mobile ecosystem that Microsoft and Nokia are building. In this news story we have transcribed the key passages and here you will find Elop's answers to many of the most commonly asked questions about Nokia's new strategy and vision for the future.

361 Degrees podcast episode #6 - Windows Phone Mango

Following on from last week's episode, which focused on Blackberry, here is the sixth episode of the 361 Degrees podcast. This week episodes focuses on the Windows Phone Mango update, following Microsoft's recent media event. 361 Degrees is a podcast all about mobile technology, created by Ben Smith of Wireless Worker and co-hosted by Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review and Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian. 

Microsoft previews Mango - next release of Windows Phone

Yesterday Microsoft offered the media a preview of Mango, the next release of the Windows Phone platform. The release will deliver more than 500 new features, with an emphasis on communication, apps and the Internet. Mango will also see wider language support, the addition of 1500 APIs for developers and significant performance improvements. Mango is scheduled to arrive in the autumn and will be the version that Nokia uses on its first Windows Phone devices, scheduled to appear in 2012 in quantity.

Jason Hawkes demonstrates the N8's camera by shooting the UK from the air

Nokia is continuing to push the photo capture abilities of the Nokia N8. In the HD Horizons project, sponsored by Nokia, Jason Hawkes, who has specialised in taking aerial photographs for twenty years, has been capturing UK landscapes and landmarks from the air. We've got access to some of the early images, which offer a remarkable demonstration of the N8's capabilities.

Ewan at SXSW 2011: Roadtesting the Nokia E7 - part 5

Ewan at SXSW 2011: Roadtesting the Nokia E7 - part 4

Ewan at SXSW 2011: Roadtesting the Nokia E7 - part 3

Ewan at SXSW 2011: Roadtesting the Nokia E7 - part 2

Every year Ewan disappears to South by South West (SXSW) in Texas with his podcaster's hat on - and every year we give him something interesting to road test. This year, the kilted road warrior is taking his turn with the Nokia E7 Communicator and in this second video in the series (embedded below), he looks at social networking on the device. All delivered in inimitable chatty Ewan style. Fans of Emu will be delighted to learn his feathered friend has now joined him in Austin, having taken a longer flight (it's a lot of flapping to get to the USA) and may well appear in an upcoming video....

Shooting the UK from the air - with a Nokia N8

As I write this, Jason Hawkes, one of "the world’s most respected aerial photographers", is flying round some of the UK's most stunning (large) locations on a 5 day 'shoot', attempting to capture some innovative aerial photos using just the Nokia N8, to show what can be achieved with "the phone that's always with you". Well, yes, if you also have a helicopter chartered, in this case! Embedded below is an intro video to the project, plus some quotes from the press release. We'll have more from the 'HD Horizons' project in a week or so's time, complete with some of the photos captured on Jason's N8.

NFC (Near Field Communications) demoed on the Nokia C7

Thanks to Jay for highlighting a video demo of NFC on the C7 over at Mobile World Congress. Every C7 has a NFC chip but there's no software to drive it, at least not yet. What's demoed below is a prototype interface, showing how to find out more about a product that you 'touch' with your C7. Early days, obviously, though with Samsung also really getting into NFC for their 2011 smartphones as well, you have to think that this could be the year NFC emerges into the real world.

Reports of Symbian's death have been overstated

Two days after its investor-focused Strategy and Financial meeting, much covered in previous stories, Nokia held a more consumer-focussed press conference just before Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. While the overall message was no different to Friday's event, Nokia did provide some additional details on its short-term Symbian plans. These include a wave of new devices and significant software updates for Symbian^3. [Story updated after Rafe got back from the event]

Nokia's new strategy and structure, Symbian to be a "franchise platform", MeeGo still in long term plans

At its Strategy and Financial Briefing event today in London, Nokia has outlined its "new strategic direction, including changes in leadership and operational structure to accelerate the company's speed of execution in a dynamic competitive environment". Some more quotes below, but in short this means a reorganisation into "Smart Devices" and "Mobile Phones", and adding a new OS platform to its portfolio, with Windows Phone becoming Nokia's "primary smartphone platform" and Symbian becoming "a franchise platform, leveraging previous investments to harvest additional value". More below, and more through the day, of course. Rafe's on the ground, see the other Coveritlive news item.