It's part 3 of Ewan Spence's 'real world' test of the Nokia N97 at the Edinburgh Fringe and it's embedded below. In this part, he looks at some interface oddities, and at Email and Web use. A couple of minor items of errata: the GMail Java application can go fullscreen in portrait mode too, but it's not obvious - you have to dive into Settings | App Mgr | Installed apps and highlight Gmail, then use Options | Suite Settings, turning the on-screen keyboard 'Off'. Also, the E75 uses microUSB as well as the N97. OK, scroll down to watch!
It's August and it's the time of year when Ewan Spence disappears into the caverns of Edinburgh to report for his Fringe podcast - and we do like to load him up with something he hasn't seen before and ask him to road test it properly. This year it's the Nokia N97 and embedded below is the second of his reports, covering the N97's keyboard and camera. Comments welcome, as usual, along with any questions for the bearded one!
It's August and it's the time of year when Ewan Spence disappears into the caverns of Edinburgh to report for his Fringe podcast - and we do like to load him up with something he hasn't seen before and ask him to road test it properly. This year it's the Nokia N97 and embedded below is the first of his reports. And yes, it includes an unboxing - of sorts! Comments welcome, as usual, along with any questions for the bearded one!
The Symbian Foundation has announced that the Symbian Smartphone Show The Symbian Exchange & Exposition (with the name change, the acronym is now the friendlier SEE 2009) will be taking place on 27-28 October 2009 at Earls Court 2, London. More details below, plus you can expect an All About Symbian meet up on the evening of the 26th, venue to be arranged.
In All About Symbian Insight 77 (AAS Podcast 137), there is news of Truphone's extended support for Nokia and the 5800 continues its best selling streak. Rafe talks about Nokia and Intel's strategic tie up and reports back from the launch of the HTC Hero. Ewan shares news of AdSense for applications, which leads to a general monetisation discussion. You can listen to AAS Insight 77 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Another new batch of games has appeared in Ovi Store, the full list is below. (Incidentally, if anyone from Nokia is reading this, could you please take a look at the Ovi Store servers and find out why some games are constantly appearing and disappearing!) Anyway, on with the new games, you can see them listed below in alphabetical order. Most of the new games seem to be from the publisher Playfon, who are apparently making their Ovi Store debut.
The Nokia 5630 XpressMusic (Symbian S60 3rd FP2, 3.2 mp autofocus camera, Wi-Fi, 3.5G, 600mhz CPU) has quietly become available through various channels in Europe including the official online shops of Nokia Finland, Nokia Germany and Nokia Italy, it's starting to appear in normal retailers too, and is available to pre-order in areas and shops where it isn't yet on sale. The 5630 is designed for S60 users on a budget, and the unlocked SIM-free model in most places seems to be around 200 euros plus taxes, which is among the lowest launch prices so far for a smartphone. (Note that the Nokia Germany shop currently only stocks the Comes With Music edition which costs more due to its unlimited music downloads bundle.)
In All About Symbian Insight 73 (AAS Podcast 132) Steve, Ewan and Rafe discuss SkyFire's 1.0 release, introduce Ovi Gaming and offer some perspective on the Ovi Store 3 days after the formal launch. In the second part of the show Rafe talks about the launch of the Sony Ericsson Satio (formerly Idou) and then the team discuss the E75 in 60 seconds. You can listen to AAS Insight 73 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
At an event tonight in London, Sony Ericsson has formally launched the 'Idou' concept as the 'Satio', to be available Q4 this year. Rafe's on the spot and will report here shortly in much more detail. See, for example, the AAS Twitter feed. Two other non-smartphones were launched, with equally 'modern' names, it's a new chapter for Sony Ericsson, it seems. The Satio will have its media player integrated with YouTube and Picassa, plus there's full Play Now Arena support. Plus the already-known specs, including the 12 megapixel stills camera and Xenon flash. More below. Don't go away....
Yesterday Rafe had the opportunity to attend Nokia's Design Day: The Inside Story. The event, held at Nokia's London design studio, offers a closer look at a number of design projects. This year the topics included iconography (a global design language), gestures (future interaction methods), homescreens (empowering users through personalisation), and the Nokia N97 (merging the physical and online world). We'll have more detailed coverage next week, but, as a taster, here are a few images from the day.
Just a brief note that Rafe's at Nokia's Design Day in London today and is posting updates on the AAS Twitter account through the day, so you might want to follow this, if you're not already.
The N79 certainly seems a suitable device for a hardy, dusty, GPS-enabled, solar-powered cycle ride across the globe. Susie Wheeldon, Jamie Vining and Iain Henderson are using 'Nokia N79 Active' devices to find their way (Nokia Maps) and keep track of their heart rate (Sports Tracker), as they make their way through 15 countries in travelling 12,000 miles. It's all being powered by thin-film solar panels attached to their bike paniers. You can follow their progress over the next nine months on www.thesolarcyclediaries.com. Photo and bits from the PR below.
For those of you interested in Ewan Spence's continuing travels, he's currently away for just over a week, in Moscow, helping commentate on the Eurovision Song Contest. No, really. He'll hopefully be using his mobile tech to fire in photos, tweets and the odd app review and anyone interested can also, of course, follow his main blog for other miscellany.
Sorry, we should have posted this a few days ago, but Vodafone Mobile Clicks is an annual competition for mobile developers that finishes on the 14th May, with a 150K Euro prize. This is the first year that the contest has been open to UK entrants. On Twitter, see hashtag #vmc, or follow @vmc2009 or @momolondon for contest news.
