In All About Symbian Insight 121 we share the best of the previous week's news: SEE 2010 dates, Nokia E73 Mode, Nokia Bike Charger and more. The team then briefly discuss the marketing messages around the Nokia N8, before moving on to some commentary on data rates and the data crunch. Finally Rafe reports back on some of the NRC demos he saw as part of Nokia's recent 'Open for Ideas' event. You can listen to AAS Insight 121 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Nokia and T-Mobile USA have announced the forthcoming availability of the Nokia E73 Mode. It is, effectively, an operator specific variant of the Nokia E72, which was released last year. However, there are a number of cosmetic changes and the 3G bands have been changed to suite T-Mobile's network. Notably, for a operator branded Nokia handset, it will ship with a range of Nokia services, including Ovi Maps and Ovi Store. The E73 Mode will be available from June 16th for $69.99 on a two year contract.
Announced at the same time as today's Nokia Bicycle Charging kit are four new low end Nokia C series phones. While none of these phones run Symbian or could be considered anywhere close to today's smartphones, they do offer a timely reminder that low cost devices continue to dominate overall sales. The C1-00 (€30) and C2-00 (€45) are Nokia's first dual SIM phones, a feature that some smartphone users would love to have. Moreover, they illustrate the breadth of Nokia's service ambitions with the C2-00, C1-01 and C1-02 phones supporting Nokia Messaging and Ovi Life Tools. It is such devices that will, on a global basis, be the biggest engines for social change.
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!
Crack open the Symbian powered NTT Docomo smartphones and you’ll likely find a chipset by Japanese manufacturer Renesas. In the future, that might be true of more Symbian powered devices, as the company has announced they are now part of the Symbian Foundation, bringing their "advanced mobile chipset technologies and expertise to the Symbian ecosystem."
Here's the latest in my series about taking older, classic (2008 or before) hardware and finding out how far it can be taken to work to best effect in the modern day. You'll have seen the features on the Nokia E61i and E90 - now here's Pimping the Nokia N82 - a quirkily styled candybar that sat at the top of Nokia's hardware tree for ages - and in some ways still does.
As part of its promotional activities for the N8, Nokia is releasing a series of overview videos presented by Chris Bennetts, a Senior Product Manager at the company. The first video covers the homescreen, messaging, Internet and mapping functionality; rather than just linking to it or embedding it, we've broken this video down in detail as it offers some great insight as to what you can expect from both the N8 and how, in many places, the UI and applications of Symbian^3 have been reworked. Read on for further details.
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.
You may remember that, 18 months ago, Christmas 2008, I wrote a feature: Robustness, the Forgotten Factor, in which I gave my estimates of the most (and least) robust of the (then) current crop of smartphones. As we head into summer in the Northern hemisphere, I thought an update to the 'chart' might be in order, just looking within our Symbian-powered world this time. See below for my illustrated listing and then leave your comments!
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.
Published a few minutes ago (MP4s will be up shortly) was The Phones Show 112, including a spot on The Great Outdoors (starring the black Nokia N82) and my tips on taking better video with your Nokia N96 (or other camera-smartphone). It's embedded below, for watching convenience.
During an interview with Reuters, Lee Williams, Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation, has said that the first Symbian^3 phone will come from an Asian manufacturer rather than Nokia, although he declined to say which one. He also indicated that the Symbian^3 code is "nearly ready" and than he expected to have a "very mature" Symbian^4 ready in the first quarter of 2011.
