This Googlified version of the Powerpoint slides from a recent Windows Mobile development session makes interesting reading (hint: use ctrl-A in your browser, to highlight all the white-on-white text) and, between all the techy mumbo jumbo, seems to show Microsoft thinking along the same lines as Symbian OS (and specifically OS 9), but with timelines maybe 2 years behind in many areas. Comments welcome.
In an attempt to flesh out my dismissal of the need for a separate third party firewall utility for Symbian OS, I thought a little testing was in order. I grabbed the nearest S60 phone (a Nokia 6630) at random, pointed at the Internet's leading port tester/prober and sat back and watched. How did Symbian OS do? Updated: also tested Nokia 9500 over W-LAN.
Nokia's full Q1 2006 report is now out (warning, long and lots that isn't relevant here). Of note is that the Nokia N70 is estimated to be the world's top selling 3G phone and is Nokia's highest revenue-generating device, and that sales in the USA have doubled, year on year.
Nokia UK has announced the Finnish giant's first online shop, for purchase of SIM-free hardware and accessories. The URL is www.nokia.co.uk/shop. This should set the cat among the pigeons among mobile phone retailers in the UK and is perhaps long overdue.
CTIA and The Smartphone Summit, held at the start of April in Las Vegas, was one of the flagship mobile phone events in America. Rafe was there, from All About Symbian, to find out how the North American continent is viewing smartphones in 2006. His full report is online now.
Darla reports on F-Secure anti-virus software being made available for S60 3rd edition, Symbian OS 9 smartphones. Hang on. Er.... but with Platform Security in OS 9, there's absolutely no way for malware to install and propagate. Which means that noone will ever be able to infect anyone else. So... what's the point in anti-virus software? Its existence was tenuous at best under Symbian OS 7 and 8. Under Symbian OS 9.... Comments welcome.
AllAboutSymbian caught up with Bruce Carney, Symbian's head of Developer Marketing, at the recent CTIA show in Las Vegas. How many Symbian OS apps are there, why isn't freeware counted and why all the fuss over Platform Security? Here's the full interview.
Steve mulls over his favourite theme, convergence, and tries to spot where it's all going to end. If all phones are smart, there's no real point in talking about smartphones...
Nokia's S60.com has announced that all the S60 3rd edition N and Eseries smartphones from Nokia will feature the MPEG-4 AVC codec. So the full list of products reads: N71, N80, N91, N92, E60, E61 and E70. Also known as H.264, this is the video standard for the next few years and a version of it is used in consumer Blu-Ray and HD-DVD formats.
Interesting to see figures coming from Telephia, which included Pan-European (UK, G, Sp, F, I, Sw) sales for Nokia's main S60 smartphones. The 6630, N70 and 6680/81 each sold around 1.5 million units in Q1, 2006, way more than any other smartphone and comparable to mass market proprietary best sellers like the RAZR. (via Nokia Phones) [Thanks to those you wrote in pointing out my maths error yesterday!!]
There's an interesting overview of the role of Symbian devices in the enterprise over on symbian.com this week. Might be worth forwarding the URL to the relevant IT managers in your company?
There's a huge significance in Russell Buckley's vision of the future, I know there is, even if the realisation is still a few years in the future. Here's part 2 of his musings over on MobHappy, and here's part 1, in case you missed it. If I were Russell, I'd be considering a trip down the patent office...
Steve rants on poor journalism and provokes debate over initial user experience with S60. How is it possible that a six year old can use S60 without help but a professional reviewer found it disappointingly awkward?
Push email is arriving at a Symbian smartphone near you shortly, and Ewan's been living with push email for the last 3 weeks while in the USA. A welcome tool or nagging distraction from the business of life? Push email treads a fine line. Comments and experiences welcome!
More bold talk from Nokia, now the world's biggest camera maker, with 100 million cameraphones sold in the last year alone, and with Konica and others withdrawing from the standalone market. Next in Nokia's sights, unsurprisingly, are music players and camcorders.
