Nokia today announced the Nokia Oro, a premium Symbian^3 smartphone. Material used in Oro, which is based on the Nokia C7, includes 18 carat gold plating around the edges, high quality Scottish leather on the back and a single sapphire for the home key. Key hardware features include pentaband 3G radio, 3.5 inch AMOLED screen with toughened glass, 8 megapixel EDoF camera and comprehensive connectivity options. The Nokia Oro comes in a nice box and will be available in Q3 in select markets and cost upwards of €800 before taxes and subsidies.
Japan's NTT DOCOMO has announced it summer 2011 collection of mobile devices. Out of twenty-four devices six are based on Symbian^2. They includes devices in the STYLE series (SH-11C and F-10C), PRIME Series (SH-10C and F-09C) and SMART series (F-11C). Also announced is the Fujitsu Loox F-07C, which dual boots Symbian (phone mode) and Microsoft Windows 7 (PC mode).
Nokia has, over the last year or so, increased the number of case and accessories it makes for its mid tier and high end device. The latest addition is a set of Angry Birds snap-on covers / cases for its Symbian^3 devices (Nokia N8, C7, C6-01, E7, X7). Ideal for expressing your Angry Birds love and a possible safety-net for those Angry Birds moments when you're phone goes flying towards a wall (accidentally we're sure). The cases should be available from high street and online retailers in the next month or so.
Thanks to Sergejs for not only videoing Damian Dinning's talk on mastering the N8's camera, at the recent iReporter do in London, but also doing some editing to reduce the best bits into a more palatable 8 minute version, embedded below. Of course, there has been no shortage of N8 camera tips here on AAS over the last six months, but seeing tips in video form is always an accessible way of learning.
Rafe'll be along soon with his own hands-on analysis of the Nokia E6 and X7 prototypes, but until then here's a very interesting little text interview with Chris Probert, the E6 product manager, answering some of the questions that you (and I) have about this new qwerty candybar device, the follow up to the popular E72. The questions cover display brightness, screen size, the lack of an optical sensor, the use of EDoF camera and software compatibility. Worth a read.
Although in theory linked to Nokia's 'Shorts' competition, N8 owners may be interested in Ari Partinen's nice blog post, "8 expert movie making tips for your Nokia N8", which echoes many of the things I've been saying over the last year and, bar a few small typos, is a nice bookmarkable piece that should improve anyone's N8 video capture.
There are two items of interest for All About Symbian readers in Phones Show 136, out today. Firstly, (nearly) the whole thing was shot on the Nokia E7, small EDoF camera and all, demonstrating that for even semi-pro video capture, these EDoF lenses do a darned fine job, better in good light even than the large-sensored Nokia N8. Also of interest is that the show starts with a five minute tour of my own person N8/Symbian setup. Intended for people who aren't AAS geeks, you may still be curious to see what I've got loaded at the moment and why.
Nokia today introduced its fifth Symbian^3 device, the Nokia E6-00, a business and communication-focussed smartphone. With its 2.46 inch, VGA resolution capacitive touchscreen and accompanying full QWERTY keyboard it represents a continuation of the popular Nokia E71 and E72 line.
The E6 features a 8 megapixel EDoF camera, with the ability to record 720p (HD) videos, 8GB of mass memory, a microSD card slot, (the very popular) 1500 mAh BP-4L battery, integrated GPS and comprehensive connectivity options (pentaband 3G, Bluetooth, microUSB and b/g/n WiFi). It will be available, in three colour variants (Black, Silver and White) this quarter (Q2), at a cost of €340 (£300/$490) before taxes and subsidies.
Nokia today announced the X7, a Symbian smartphone with an entertainment focus and premium design. It features a four inch AMOLED touchscreen, well suited for video playback and gaming, an 8 megapixel EDoF camera, comprehensive connectivity options and a full range of social and entertainment software. It has a premium design, which mixes glass and stainless steel, to give a distinctive style with diagonally inset corners and a gently curved back. The X7 will be available in Q2 at a cost of €380 (£335/$548) before taxes and subsidies.
Along with the Nokia E6, it will be one of the first devices to ship with the Symbian 'Anna' software update. This update brings enhanced text entry capabilities (portrait QWERTY and split screen text entry), an improved browser, a fresh icon set and numerous other performance and usability improvements.
Proving, perhaps, that S60 3rd Edition isn't dead, Nokia has just completed its update of the diminutive qwerty-based E72 to v54 firmware (from v52). For non-network locked phones, anyway. It's an over-the-air update, just over 1MB in size (though this varies according to region), and is listed as containing "performance and usability improvements". Comments welcome if you can elaborate on our brief changelog below after updating your E72.
All things come to they that wait. In this case the Nokia E7, finally available to buy now in the Nokia UK web store at a substantial £499 inc VAT, though this comes down to £469 if you buy it with a pay-as-you-go SIM and is in fact completely free on a £35/month/2-year contract, so that does seem to be the way to go if you were planning on serious voice and data use anyway.
More than likely completing the PR 1.2 roll-out on Symbian^3 devices, the AAS C6-01 has received its v14.002 firmware update. Taking care of some smaller issues such as Mail for Exchange, and keeping the various Ovi applications up to date (including Ovi Maps and Ovi Store), this isn’t the big PR 2.0 update that’s been long promised, but is still a recommended download.
I was interested to see that the Nokia N8 made number three in ZDNet's "My top 5 smartphones", as listed by Matt Miller in his regular column. It's an American site, of course, so the number one pick is something we've never even seen in the UK, the HTC Thunderbolt, while numbers two and five aren't exactly widely available. But the N8 slots in quite happily at three, with the iPhone 4 at four.
“Rafe!” I asked, “can I look at the flying French Quadricopter for Friday?” A subdued nod over Skype was forthcoming, and I headed to the Ovi Store to grab the free Qt download for the AR.Drone. This is Parrot’s Wi-fi enabled, live webcam streaming, computer stabilised, helicopter-esque, flying peripheral – and it’s time for a brief video review. Did I forget to mention that the actual AR.Drone isn’t a free download...
