AAS's Steve Litchfield has long been very sceptical about touchscreen-based phones, but the iPhone's new technology touchscreen and User Interface have wholeheartedly converted him to the concept. However, he's not impressed by the iPhone's lack of features and immature Operating System, and thinks this is where Symbian has the upper hand. Click on the link to read Steve's vision of a future where smartphones combine the best of both worlds, with iPhone-style interfaces and Symbian-style cutting edge features.
I doubt most Nokia N76 buyers in the UK (it's been an exclusive with Vodafone, remember) were reading my review, so I'd love to know the reasons given by users, but a reliable source is quoted as saying that "Vodafone has decided to withdraw the Nokia N76 with immediate effect. This is due to the high level of customer returns of the phone." Can anyone at Vodafone fill in more detail?
According to The Register, phone giant Motorola has now slipped into third place behind Nokia and Samsung, after a loss-making Q2 2007. El Reg thinks Moto should make more high end handsets, so would that mean more Z8-style Symbian UIQ3 models?
In a not-too-surprising statment, Nokia has announced the intention to equip all of its future devices that have built-in GPS with 'Assisted GPS' (using satellite ephemeris info, loaded over a data connection to give the GPS locking procedure a big head start - see also my feature on Assisted GPS technology). This includes the N95 now, of course, through the v12 firmware update, though watch out for the keypress bug.
OK, so I got my hands on an Apple iPhone for a while (it's had to go back now... sob). Lovely piece of kit, but what I really wanted to know was how it would stack up against the Nokia E61i (effectively one of the smartphones ridiculed by Steve Jobs as 'having too much plastic'). Smartphones Show 38 is the result. Oh, and I threw in the W950i as well, to add some music focus... Links: YouTube, MP4 format, RSS. Enjoy...
Now this is interesting. Ratza in our forums has determined that the Nokia E70's camera (the same as that in the likes of the N70 and a dozen other S60 smartphones?) is optimised to focus at 1 metre, rather than infinity, as was previously presumed. He's even knocked up a Python script to prove the point.... More in the forum thread!
WOM World has been asked to pass on the following warning from the Healthy Computing Volunteer Group to Rafe, myself and anybody else thinking of using the Nokia N95. Video link...
AAS regular and committed P-series fan Asri al-Baker takes Sony Ericsson's latest R6D23 firmware update to task, although he admits at the end of the day that it's still a worthwhile step, thankfully with less new bugs than fixes for old ones.
Ultra convergence, as exemplified in the Nokia N95, is a topic I've commented on in the past, and not always in a positive way. Read on for some thoughts on the recent v12 firmware upgrade and a link to a very relevant essay...
AAS's Steve Litchfield has long been very sceptical about touchscreen-based phones, but the iPhone's new technology touchscreen and User Interface have wholeheartedly converted him to the concept. However, he's not impressed by the iPhone's lack of features and immature Operating System, and thinks this is where Symbian has the upper hand. Click on the link to read Steve's vision of a future where smartphones combine the best of both worlds, with iPhone-style interfaces and Symbian-style cutting edge features.
How do you case the world's best selling smartphone? Not easily, as 
Ultra convergence, as exemplified in the Nokia N95, is a topic I've commented on in the past, and not always in a positive way. Read on for some thoughts on the recent v12 firmware upgrade and a link to a very relevant essay...
