Winding up his three week tour of the USA, taking in social media and gaming events, with a loan Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, Ewan arrives back in chilly Scotland, dons half a dozen sweaters and sets about summing up his experiences in the last part of his video diary, below. Perhaps tellingly, he says he's tempted to get his own as his main smartphone. If you'd like to see more video diaries, do please comment and let Ewan know!
Just before the deadline we want to point out a few more April exclusives. There's the Symbian Foundation powered toaster (Smart Toaster X, from Hussel & Robbs, the first Symbian^2 appliance) and the TEXT'N'WALK application from Looflirpa (innovative camera usage).
In this video, embedded in the story below, we exclusively preview a new Samsung Omnia HD feature - personal inductive charging. The Samsung Omnia Personal-ORiented Interface For Inductive Charging (SOPORIFIC) uses the electrical field generated by your own body to re-charge the phone's battery. All you have to is hold the phone and it recharges before your eyes. Apparently you get one minute's talk time for ten minutes of skin contact. Obviously there are limits to this technology, but it is great to see the technical barriers being pushed back.
Nokia's 5800 XpressMusic has sold fairly well, but where does Nokia go from there? Well, you're about to find out as All About Symbian takes a look at the latest variant model: the Nokia 5800 Sauna Edition. Coated with a special humidity-resistant plastic and preloaded with a thermometer/hygrometer application, this is aimed squarely at the consumer market.
Rafe continues his in depth preview of the OLED-screened, touch-driven, S60 5th Edition-powered Samsung Omnia HD. In this, part 2, he looks at the multimedia capabilities of the phone, specifically the still and video camera interface and performance, plus the playback and other media functions. In part 1, he covered the general design and hardware. Part 3, coming soon, will cover the other software elements of the phone.
AT&T today officially confirmed that they would be carrying the Nokia E71 on their network in the form of the E71x. The E71x comes in black and, in contrast to the E71, runs S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 2 (S60 3.2 on Symbian OS 9.3). The phone supports the US 3G bands (850/1900 Mhz) and retains the WiFi connectivity and GPS from the E71. It comes with a variety of AT&T services including AT&T Navigator (turn by turn GPS navigation), AT&T Music, XM Radio, CV-stream, Xpress Mail, Mobile Instant Messaging and Video share. The E71x will cost $99, on a 2 year contract, after a mail-in rebate ($50).
Why the big deal over problems with multitasking in a phone? Why the cries of "Can't be done" from the Apple world? I've been multitasking on just about every device I've owned since 1993.... What's really behind the current negative thinking over background applications on the iPhone? I put forward my experiences with Psion, EPOC and Symbian-OS powered devices over fifteen years as evidence that a well-written operating system shouldn't need kludges like Apple's 'Push notification' scheme.
Nokia is apparently clearing down stocks of its older smartphones - in this case what I'd call 'classic' smartphones - the still awesome N82 (in black or silver) is in the Nokia UK shop at the bargain price of £199 including VAT (sales tax), SIM/contract-free and unlocked. Staggering. The black version's there too, though 'Out of stock' messages have popped up recently - your mileage may vary. Anyway, grab them while you can. Xenon flash, candy bar form factor, accelerated graphics, you know you want to....
Another Nokia 5800 tutorial for beginners, this time we're taking a look at the e-mail options currently available on the 5800. We cover the basics of how to set up a POP or IMAP e-mail account on the phone's built-in messaging app, how to make new e-mails alert you just like text messages, how to set up multiple e-mail accounts on the same phone, and more. (We haven't covered the dedicated Nokia Messaging e-mail client or Gmail's Java client because they don't yet have proper 5800 versions.) As always, you can see a complete list of these how-to articles on our 5800 tutorial index page.
Rafe takes an in-depth preview look at Samsung's top of the line S60 5th Edition-powered Omnia HD, with 8mp camera, HD video recording and playback, 3.7" capacitive touchscreen and more.... In this first part of his detailed preview we cover the general design and hardware details of the phone. Parts 2 and 3 will cover the multimedia and other software elements of the phone respectively.
Yes, Ewan's heading off for a three week tour of the USA, taking in social media and gaming events. To try and add a little Symbian spice to proceedings, we insisted he take the Nokia 5800 with him, to really try it out 'on the road'. This is the seventh of his regular video reports, embedded below, letting us know how he's getting on with S60 5th Edition and the 5800. In this part, Ewan looks at the phone's camera, from the point of view of still photos and video, finding that it really struggles indoors and in low light, plus he finds the Camera application's interface less than seamless.
Below the break is the HQ, wide-screen version of the latest video demo/promo for the upcoming N97, now showing some additional screens and transitions. All pretty convincing, though of course the proof will be in the pudding, as we say in the UK! Watch this space.
Just a note that if you're the owner of a UK-bought 'red' Nokia 5800 and have been champing at the bit for a bit of v20 firmware action, it's now online for you, bringing faster operation, Search, geotagging in Camera and more. See Nokia Software Update or check your on-device firmware updater with *#0000# etc.
In a follow up to my popular series, from August 2008, investigating the practicalities of a S60 smartphone owner switching to an Apple Mac as the desktop counterpart, I report back after a couple of months of living the Mac life for real. What improvements have their been to the software available and does using a Mac and OS X now offer a more seamless smartphone experience than a PC and Windows?
In All About Symbian Insight 63 (AAS Podcast 120) Rafe gives some insight into iPlayer, Steve talks about YouTube's S60 client application and both talk about their views on Samsung's Omnia HD. You can listen to AAS Insight 63 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
