In All About Symbian Insight 125, we welcome David Gilson to the podcast for the first time. This week we round up a lot of news including a rallying cry from Nokia's Anssi Vanjoki, details on SEE 2010, firmware updates for the E71, E66, N97 and N97 mini, SkyFire's market retreat, Nokia 5230 pricing and more. In the main part of the podcast David tell us about his experiences with the Sony Ericsson Vivaz Pro, Ewan talks about The Big Roll in Paradise and Rafe reports back from a 3UK briefing. You can listen to AAS Insight 125 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
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.
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.
As part of the invitation to spend a morning with the Nokia N8 (ok, quite a lot of N8s - in various colours and states of readiness) on Monday, I grabbed Damian Dinning, Nokia's imaging supremo, to chat about the device and specifically its media capture capabilities. See below for the video interview and accompanying notes - there are several interesting points which I hadn't appreciated before.
Nokia Connection is an annual event in Singapore where Nokia showcase their current device and service portfolio and address the SEAP (South East Asia and Pacific) market. This year it is being held on Monday June 14th (tomorrow) at Conrad Centennial Singapore. Asri al-Baker is attending the event on behalf of the Malay language SymbianKu blog, but will also be reporting back for AAS and AAM.
Around 36 hours ago, Apple unveiled its latest iPhone 4 to the world - excellent build materials on it, but I believe that they - and Nokia - and others - are missing an important trick: what happens when you take your oh-so-portable smartphone out into the world. A world where the birds are singing, the people are smiling and the sun is shining. And you can't see a blessed thing on your smartphone's display. Returning to a theme from exactly a year ago, I compare some recent device displays to prove a very, very important point.
During a recent visit to Nokia's Espoo (Helsinki) offices, I had the opportunity to look round Nokia's Experience Lounge, which showcases all of Nokia's latest products and services - from Ovi Maps and Nokia Messaging to the latest Nokia handsets. As an additional bonus, tucked away in one corner of the room, is a set of shelves that contain one of almost every Nokia phone model ever produced. So how to share this with loyal readers? Film a walkabout of course!
In All About Symbian Insight 120 Rafe reports back on the first part of his trip in Finland to find out about Nokia's approach to innovation. Rafe and Steve then discuss the Nokia-Yahoo partnership announced this week, the release of Nokia Messaging for IM for Nokia's S60 5th Edition phones, the game Creebies and an interview with Symbain's Lee Williams that suggested the first Symbian^3 phone will arrive from an Asian manufacturer (rather than Nokia in the form of the N8). You can listen to AAS Insight 120 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
The initial website for this years annual Symbian show recently went live. They reveal that SEE 2010 will take place in Amsterdam at Beurs van Berlage on the 9th and 10th of November. On the site you can find the basic information about the event and register your interest in attending as well as find out more about sponsor and speaker opportunities. SEE 2010 could be the venue for the first substantive look at the new UI of Symbian^4 and will set the scene for the Symbian ecosystem as it moves towards what is likely to be very busy 2011.
Here in Norway for Eurovision week (culminating in the final tonight), the last 7 days have been rather hectic for me, but one I always enjoy (others may disagree). Reporting from the Eurovision Song Contest is a great test of mobile connectivity and productivity. So what have I been using at the biggest television show on the planet? I've been finding a number of S60 5th Edition apps invaluable and hope that some of them will help others venturing abroad with their smartphone. Read on for some old favourites and some new additions.
Earlier this week, as part of Nokia's 'Open for Ideas' event, I spent some time at Nokia's Espoo offices in Finland. At one end of the building there's a Nokia Experience lounge where you can see all of the latest products and get demos of the latest services. Here's a quick visual look at some of the products and services being showcased. We've got much more to come from the 'Open for Ideas' event, which was about understanding Nokia's approach to innovation.
There's an open invite out for Symbian fans in London from 5pm onwards on June 14th - Tahir Mahmood and others from the Foundation are welcoming people with ideas and suggestions, with a particular focus, I imagine, on a new 'Kudos' system that Tahir is setting up. There's also free beer, apparently. Full details over on the official Symbian Foundation blog.
One of the side effects of being part of an ecosystem of an 'open' operating system is that, at some point, you'll be roped in to help out. One such thing is happening with the Symbian Foundation's Bug Squad, which convenes regularly for bug-squashing days (e.g. today), here's how you can get involved.
During a recent visit to Nokia's London design office, I had the opportunity to spend a few minutes with a Nokia N8. The device was a prototype and we were asked not to switch it on as the Symbian^3 software is still being worked on. However, I thought it would still be worth sharing a few initial impressions and pictures of the hardware below. The N8, which was announced in late April, is due out at the end of the summer. Read on for more and a Nokia N8 mini-gallery.
In All About Symbian Insight 118 Ewan and Rafe share their thoughts on a visit to Nokia's design HQ in London, the release of Sports Tracker and memory performance on Ewan's X6. The second half of the podcast features an outside broadcast recorded at the recent #NokiaNav event in Richmond. Rafe and Steve are joined Julien Fourgeaud and discuss the event and related accessories and activities. You can listen to AAS Insight 118 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
