In All About Symbian Insight 109 (AAS Podcast 173), Rafe and Steve start off with a Sony Ericsson theme - they talk about the recent Satio firmware upgrade and some first impression views on the Sony Ericsson Vivaz. Steve then reports back on the latest release of YouTube for Symbian, Rafe shares news of Qt 4.7's preview release and the podcast concludes with a discussion of Ovi Maps' new pricing on older devices. You can listen to AAS Insight 109 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Sony Ericsson's latest, their second generation S60 5th Edition smartphone, has arrived. It's smaller and lighter and more modern that you might believe, allied to superb camera and camcorder functions - but has Sony Ericsson made the same mistake as on the Satio and not put enough effort into the software? I find out, in the first part of my Vivaz review.
On the road on his USA gaming and new media trip, Ewan's been power-trialling a couple of accessories. The word 'power' is important here because that's what the Proporta USB TurboCharger 3400 and Powertraveller powermonkey-eXplorer provide - stored power for your smartphone and other electronics. Here are Ewan's on-the-road experiences with the two gadgets.
You may have heard myself praise Nokia's 'hero' battery, the Lithium-Polymer BP-4L, rated at 1500mAh, and used in everything from the E61 to the E90, most Eseries devices seem to be based on it, plus it's the core of the likes of the 6650 and N97. Anyway, it turns out that David Gilson (of this parish) reviewed a third party 'drop in' (i.e. no new phone back needed) replacement for the BP-4L, rated at 1900mAh, back at the end of 2009. Having updated it with new information (it works properly in the N97, but didn't in the original phone), I thought you'd be interested in having a read too.
Nokia is currently transforming itself from a hardware company to a hardware+services (solutions) company. At MWC 2010, we spoke to Tero Ojanperä, EVP of Services, in order to get an insight into current progress. Over a wide-ranging interview we cover a number of topics around Nokia's service strategy including how Ovi fits into Nokia's software platform strategy, the thought processes that led to free navigation, the importance of services compared to phone hardware, getting content onto the Ovi Store, the importance of partners and much more.
The Sony Ericsson Vivaz has arrived for review, enabling me to start testing its unique HD autofocus camera. See below for an embedded version of my test footage, plus a little sunlight video taken in London by Sony Ericsson a few days ago. The good news: the video is excellent, the autofocus quick and silent; the bad news: audio's a little on the quiet side. Still, pretty astounding for such a small camera unit in such a small smartphone. See below.
Continuing from our previous Sony Ericsson Vivaz videos we look at some of the key design charcteristics of the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro (human curvature, light reflection effects and material choices), compare the Vivaz and Vivaz Pro on video, take a brief look at some of the different colours that will be available and get a demo of the handset shooting video and uploading to YouTube. Taken together these videos help you get a clearer picture of Sony Ericsson's new Symbian^1 handsets.
As work has continued on Sony Ericsson's take on S60 5th Edition with the Vivaz, it's not surprising that the Satio has reaped the benefit, inheriting benefits and fixes. Widely panned on release six months ago, the Satio finally delivers on a bit more of its promise with this update, 'R2AK', a 108MB download, which has been dribbling out for some product codes but is right now available using the Sony Ericsson Update Service in Western Europe. Comments, changes, links and more below - though I have to warn you that some of the core bugs and issues remain unresolved.
Just a little weekend link of interest: a writer with the marvellous name of Hagop Kavafian for the NokiaLB site has produced a detailed and fairly insightful review of the Nokia E55. Do take his opinion of the E55's camera with a pinch of salt though - I don't think he really understood the idea behind EDoF (Extended Depth of Field) and I'm tempted to suggest that there might have been dirt on his E55's camera glass....
Alpine Electronics today announced a strategic partnership with Nokia and Navteq to bring a new car integration technology called 'Terminal mode' to car 'infotainment' systems. It integrates Nokia smartphones with in-car systems allowing, not only the usual call functions, but also the use of smartphone-based services (e.g. Ovi Maps navigation) and content (e.g. music) via the high resolution screens and audio systems embedded in the car. The integration also offers the opportunity for automotive-specific widgets on the phone, including fuel levels and engine status.
Nokia and T-Mobile USA today announced the forthcoming availability of the Nokia Nuron. The Nuron is a T-Mobile customised version of the Nokia 5230 and is termed a 'smartphone for the masses'. It operates on T-Mobile's 3G network and will come pre-loaded with Ovi Store (including operator billing) and Ovi Maps (including worldwide free navigation). It will be one of the cheapest smartphones available in the US market.
Phones Show 104 just went live, with three Top 3s, i.e. my (and the rest of the Phones Show team's) assessment of the top 3 phones in the world, in each of three categories. Overall, three Symbian handsets make the 'chart', out of nine slots. There's also a demo of Vlingo voice recognition on the N97 mini.
