Vodafone UK customers (PAYG and monthly) apparently all get free data from Christmas Day to New Years Day - yes, it's only 50p a day, but still a handy little stocking filler from the big V? And got to be handy for all those people unwrapping Vodafone-branded phones and wanting to try them out for free....
Smaato are a name you've probably never heard of - even if you're a developer. Yet, if the latter, it's a name that should be well and truly on your radar - Smaato serve up over 3 billion ads each month, in both mobile applications and in mobile web sites. I found all this out when I interviewed Ragnar Kruse, Smaato's founder and serial entrepreneur, a few days ago in London, just after the Heroes of the Mobile Screen event and not that long after Google bought out Admob, one of Smaato's partners - an aspect I was keen to chat about. The full 20 minute video interview is embedded below - recommending watching for all, but especially for developers.
Tomi Ahonen's writings are always worth a read, especially when they're short enough that you can spare to time to read them(! unlike many of his essays...) Here he makes the good point that mobile bandwidth is a finite resource and that we're fast approaching a tipping point where bandwidth may actually become more expensive and not less, due to to the increased airwave contention.
In All About Symbian Insight 98 (AAS Podcast 162), we discuss the weeks news including closing Nokia Flagship Stores, Skype for Symbian Beta and Nimbuzz's Twitter integration. We also discuss some of the information that came out of Nokia's Capital Market Day, Steve's interview with Lee Williams (Executive Director of the Symbian Foundation) and offer insight into future Ovi Store developments. You can listen to AAS Insight 98 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
In October Nokia announced it was suing Apple over patent infringements with regards to the iPhone and GSM, UTMS and WLAN technologies. Today Apple announced that it had filed a counter-suit against Nokia. In the counter-suit, which has been filed in US District Court of Delaware, Apples denies all claims of infringement against it and further alleges that Nokia 'chose to copy the iPhone' and as a result has infringed on 13 of Apple's own patents. Such counter suits are common in patent disputes where each side tries to establish as strong as negotiating position as possible.
One million downloads a day. That's the popularity of the Ovi Store, reports ME News from a Nokia round-table this week. Although still in its first iteration, with a new version of the store due early in 2010, and many will comment that ring-tones and wallpapers as well as applications will be included in that number, it's a significant number.
With Symbian taking a right royal bashing in the tech industry gossip columns in recent months, I was determined to get Symbian's side of the story. Heading to their HQ in London, I collared Executive Director Lee Williams for a 20 minute interview, putting over my (and your questions). Here's the interview, transcribed in full (grab a coffee first). And, if you prefer, embedded below is a condensed 9 minute video version, forming the lion's share of my Phones Show programme 97.
During Nokia's Capital Markets Day event, held yesterday, a few screenshots showing Symbian^3 were shown off as part of Kai Öistämö's (Nokia EVP, Devices) presentation. While the big Symbian UI rewrite will not happen until Symbian^4, there are still some significant changes in Symbian^3. Read on for further details and commentary.
In All About Symbian Insight 97 (AAS Podcast 161), we discuss the release of Qt 4.6 and why it is important (Symbian and Maemo support, Qt Mobility APIs). We answer a range of user questions ranging from Ovi Suite for Mac, through N86 firmware and E72 software, to discussing what's the best current imaging phone. You can listen to AAS Insight 97 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
At its annual Capital Markets Day, Nokia has laid out its masterplan for 2010 and beyond. Extracts from the full press release are reproduced below (there are several nuggets of interest) and Rafe and Ewan weigh in with a few comments of their own. None of them will come as a suprise to regular readers, but it is good to see Nokia laying out a framework for the next 12 months.
Nokia have filed suit in San Francisco against a number of LCD manufacturers (including Samsung and LG) claiming they colluded to fix pricing on LCD panels (reports Bloomberg). In Nokia's words “the liquid crystal displays were incorporated into Nokia mobile wireless handsets... [and] artificially inflated the price of liquid crystal displays ultimately incorporated into LCD products purchased by Nokia, causing Nokia to pay higher prices.”
The times, they are, as the bard quoth, a changin' - Google Maps Navigation now provides free turn by turn voice instructions on Android-powered phones in the USA, and it's only a matter of time before the licensing restrictions and map rollouts get sorted for real time navigation in many other countries. And all for free. But this still leaves a window of opportunity for Nokia to step in and change this landscape in an even bigger way - right now. And sell a truckload of phones in the process, worldwide. Read on for my thoughts.
In All About Symbian Insight 96 (AAS Podcast 160), we discuss recent rumour around Nseries in 2012 and the related Symbian / Maemo debate. Then there's news coverage of the Nokia 6700 Slide and Spotify on Symbian. We finish with a number of reader questions ranging from the web as a platform to buggy firmware and augmented reality. You can listen to AAS Insight 96 here or, if you wish to subscribe, here's the RSS feed.
Bill Perry, one of the senior services managers for Forum Nokia, has blogged about the Ovi Store and some of the numbers driving the growth. Over 100 devices, in 20 countries, with the N97 and the 5800 being the top devices. The average user has downloaded 8 items and there's been 70% growth in October's downloads compared to September.
I've now used most of the major smartphone application stores now and have, at last, worked out where they're all going wrong. You see, Apple get stick for applying a little editorial censure and not allowing every app submitted to make it into the live App Store. But what we need is for Apple - and Nokia - and Google - and Microsoft - and Samsung, Sony Ericsson and the other pretenders - to get dramatically more heavy handed. Read on.
