At last week's Symbian Exchange and Exposition, Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) showed, during the keynote, a concept video of what a future Symbian UI might look like. The video shows a typical use case: accepting an invite to a party via Facebook and, the next day, attending the party. There's a glimpse of a new look homescreen, complete with social web integration, navigation and mapping features enhanced by augmented reality functionality. Read on to view the video and my comments.
At the SEE 2009 show, Ewan chats to representatives from Qt (the cross-platform runtime destined to become the default environment for Symbian^4 and beyond), Navteq (the mapping data guys now owned by Nokia) and Opera (makers of the popular Opera Mini proxy browser). It's all in AAS Podcast 155.
To give you a taster of SEE 2009, here's a little video selection (embedded below), with three interviews I did at the event: with Tieto (Qt developers, in this case), TAT (demo of '3D' interface) and Stantum (demoing their resistive multitouch testbed). Watch out for Rafe's video tour of the whole event and for various (longer) audio podcasts in the coming week.
It's the official All About Symbian 'live' podcast from the SEE 2009 show, including: Ewan interviews with Lee Williams, a virtual audio tour of the show floor, Rafe interviews Jan Ole Suhr, the guy behind Gravity, Ewan interviews Bill Ray, from the Register, about the challenges facing the Symbian Foundation, plus Ewan, Steve, Rafe and Stuart (Clark) round up Day One of the show.
To wet your appetite for SEE 2009 on Tuesday/Wednesday, here's a weekend video to enjoy, embedded below, in which Symbian CEO Lee Williams talks freely about why Google's Android isn't the best way forwards. He also talks about Symbian's strategy to add new ODMs (original design manufacturers) from China and the Far East. Interesting stuff, though sure to provoke comments!
Just a quick note that in two hours time, at 5pm BST, Symbian are giving away a second batch of 50 free tickets to their Tuesday night party at the Science Museum. You know the drill - free drinks, entertainment and all the industry networking you could want didn't get a chance to get done during day one of the Show.
The Monday evening before the Symbian Show, branded SEE09 this year, traditionally provides fertile ground for mobile related 'fringe' events - and this year is no exception. Fitting around other events, we will be having a small, informal pub get together. So from 5:30pm or so until around 8:00pm we'll (Rafe, Ewan, Steve) be in the Windmill pub, which is just a few minutes away from Oxford Circus. More below, including a map, if you're in London and want to come along!
NAVTEQ would literally like to take you for a ride at SEE. Along with the usual activities, NAVTEQ Network for Developers (NN4D) will be giving developers the opportunity to gain an insight into how NAVTEQ gathers mapping and location information.
The annual Symbian show kicks-off in just under two weeks. This year’s event promises to be busier than ever, with more demands on the time of attendees. To help you figure out your priorities, I will be highlighting a few key exhibitors and speakers over the next few days. Today, Accenture.
In what they are calling the Great Symbian Science project, Symbian have announced a huge party on the evening of Tuesday the 27th October at The Science Museum, in the middle of their SEE 2009 conference. If you run a company or can help with sponsoring their bar then they'd like you to get in touch. And if you're an individual and you'd like to attend then they're going to be giving away free tickets from midday GMT (1pm BST) this Friday.
In All About Symbian Insight 89 (AAS Podcast 151), Rafe and Steve talk about the recent release of version 20 firmware for the Nokia N86 8MP. Rafe and Ewan report back from Over the Air (OTA) where they listened to presentations on Symbian approach to evolving UI and Nokia's Qt strategy. There's also discussion about Nokia's acquisition of Dopplr. You can listen to AAS Insight 89 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Rafe reports back from the recent (September 2009) Ovi Developer Day in London, with details on all the main speakers and the issues raised (and responded to). Rafe notes in particular (and welcomes) a sea change in Forum Nokia's attitude to developers. There are also a number of interesting facts and stats about the Nokia Ovi Store.
Yes, another year has passed and the annual Symbian bash is upon us. But with a slight twist, with the Symbian Foundation now well established and with the whole ecosystem, like much of the rest of the mobile industry, definitely in something of a state of flux. SEE (Symbian Exchange and Exposition) 2009 is free to attend and easy to get to. But what's on offer this year, what should you look out for? Steve Litchfield provides a few pointers...
