All About Symbian - News Headlines

News Headlines - Links of Interest

Camera shootout: Nokia N8 vs Apple iPhone 4S vs Samsung Galaxy S II

I've been very impressed by the technical knowhow of 'theycallthislife' and there's a new post up comparing the cameras of the Nokia N8, Apple iPhone 4S and Samsung Galaxy S II, the three best camera phones in the world right now. With good example shots that can be examined in full detail and with interesting analysis, it's well worth a ten minute read. As to the winner, let's just say that the iPhone 4S comes closer than any other contender has in the eighteen months the N8 has been available....(!)

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 12:26 UTC, Feb 5th || Comments

A day (still) made of glass!

Corning, the company behind the Gorilla Glass in our smartphones, has produced another of its inspirational 'here's the future' videos and, as with the original one, it's well worth watching. There are two versions of the video, actually, I've embedded the expanded one below, complete with video guide to all the (probable) tech used. Seems like touchscreens really are the new buttons? [PS. Watch out for the medical sequence - it's something we're used to seeing only in Sci-fi]

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 8:36 UTC, Feb 4th || Comments

At last, CBD explained in one image

When Nokia introduced CBD (ClearBlack Display) at Nokia World 2010, for the C6-01 and E7 models, there was an element of uncertainty involved as to how this technology worked. Certainly it was incredibly effective at cutting out reflections from ambient light, but noone seemed to know the full details. After much digging, we established it was something to do with polarising layers, but only now do we see a clear depiction of how CBD works.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Links of Interest at 15:41 UTC, Feb 2nd || Comments

Worldwide phone and smartphone stats, Q4, 2011

Most of the numbers are now in for Q4, 2011 and, while some are estimates, we now have a pretty good idea of the state of the mobile industry for the last quarter. Phones grew 6% year on year, smartphones by a whopping 63%, with the latter now at 36% of the overall market. The top three companies were the same by either metric - Apple, Samsung and Nokia are way ahead of the rest.

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest, Industry at 8:51 UTC, Feb 2nd || Comments

Qt SDK 1.2 released

An updated version of the Qt SDK, version 1.2, was released today. It contains all the tools required to create Qt applications for Nokia's Symbian devices. The new version includes Qt Creator 2.4 (bringing improvement to the QML editor and numerous bug fixes) and Qt Mobility 1.2 (improved API access to Bluetooth and NFC).

# Posted by Rafe in Links of Interest, Developer at 19:19 UTC, Feb 1st || Comments

Four Pizero Premium themes free for a few days

Available free for a 'limited time' are four 'Premium' themes from one of our favourite S60 3rd Edition/S60 5th Edition/Symbian designers, Pizero. The themes are Aurora, Paradise, Magma and Azure and I've included links to all the free download pages below. Grab 'em while you can!

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 16:31 UTC, Jan 29th || Comments

JoikuSpot 2012 Edition debuts

The popular JoikuSpot wi-fi tethering utility for Symbian just got itself a big '2012 Edition' product update, now re-implemented in Qt and working just on Symbian Anna and Belle handsets only. More details below, but the main functional changes are better control over who connects to your phone-hosted signal and how much data they use, plus a My JoikuSpot service to keep a log of (and optionally share) when you've connected and what transpired.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 14:16 UTC, Jan 24th || Comments

N8 named Techradar camera champion (again)

TechRadar has updated its set of camera phone reviews to pitch the N8 against the iPhone 4S, Samsung Galaxy S II, Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc and others - you may not be surprised that, even 15 months after first availability, the N8 still came up as top dog, though the new iPhone also got a special mention or two.

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 13:53 UTC, Jan 16th || Comments

The DIY quad-pod phone stand

In the spirit of my own cardboard (DT-29 copy) phone stand, Aliqudsi, over on My Nokia Blog, has had a brain wave and used two bulldog/binder clips to create a four legged, stable stand for his N8, though it will also work for any other similar device, ostensibly for holding the camera phone up for stable filming, without worrying that it will fall over. Clever stuff...

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 14:23 UTC, Jan 11th || Comments

Nokia Configuration Tool graduates from beta

Nokia Configuration Tool, a Windows PC application for system administrators to manage the settings of Symbian phones through a USB cable or Bluetooth, has now graduated from Nokia Beta Labs and is formally available for enterprise users as version 6.3.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest at 10:59 UTC, Jan 5th || Comments

Nokia Car Mode available - for Belle

Apparently, Nokia Car Mode for Nokia Belle based devices is now available at the Nokia Store, in two versions, with and without MirrorLink, see the quoted links below. Nokia Car Mode provides easy access and a simplified user interface to the most relevant applications on your phone for in-car use. "The simplified user interface and well designed interaction creates less distraction for the driver than a traditional smartphone user interface."

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 8:10 UTC, Jan 3rd || Comments

Symbian OS still on top, according to StatCounter

Thanks to a reminder from WebProNews, it's instructive to look again at the smartphone world via StatCounter, a pro service embedded on many web sites which tracks the browser and OS used to access them. And, reflecting the still enormous installed base of Symbian-powered smartphones across the world, Symbian still (for web access, at least) still dominates the world, at 31%. The full graph is below, along with some comments.

# Posted by Steve in Miscellaneous, Links of Interest, Industry at 9:09 UTC, Dec 30th || Comments

Nokia launches the 801T for China TD

Designed exclusively for China's TD-SCDMA 3G network, Nokia has announced a new Symbian-powered smartphone, the 801T, described as 'a special design for business-focussed elite high-end users'. It's notable for being the 'industry's first stainless steel unibody smartphone' and has a 4" CBD display, NFC, an 8 megapixel EDoF camera with dual-LED flash, 720p HD video recording and built-in CMMB mobile TV (with antenna). More below.

# Posted by Steve in Hardware, Links of Interest at 12:00 UTC, Dec 29th || Comments

Nokia Suite 3.3 debuts - in beta

For anyone using Windows who likes to live a little on the wild side, there's a brand new version of Nokia Suite, 3.3, available over on Beta Labs today. There's emphasis on the ease of update to Belle when it becomes available, so I suspect that both backup and firmware handling modules have been improved, plus there are improvements to proxy server handling, to message syncing and organisation. And newer is better when it comes to connectivity, right? Some quotes and links below.

# Posted by Steve in Software, Links of Interest at 16:01 UTC, Dec 22nd || Comments

Another day nearer Christmas, another ringing N8 endorsement?

I make no apologies for another N8-related link of interest. With the end of the year approaching, it's not just me that is rounding up and summarising the smartphone world. The Mobile Tech Bishop has written a detailed and heartfelt analysis of his mobile use, covering several previous Nokia flagships, culminating in the Android-powered Galaxy S II. At which point the N8 starts to edge the SGS II out of the picture - literally. A good read!

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 10:19 UTC, Dec 19th || Comments

... but what a camera

Onlyfoolsandmobiles has a nice little Sunday post up, eulogising the Nokia N8's camera (again), specifically for landscape shots, giving a few tips on settings and showing off some truly beautiful examples. Click through his links for Flickr sets from the N8 by other users too.

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 10:15 UTC, Dec 18th || Comments

Nokia Pulse gets a big update, Maps Suite tweaked

If you've been brave enough to throw yourself into the Beta Maps Suite, note that there's a big update to Pulse, its core module that allows you to share your location and activities with friends and relatives with other Symbian phones loaded with the software. Changelog and links below, and the usual caveats apply about beta software and backups!

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 11:51 UTC, Dec 14th || Comments

361 Degrees S02 E05 - £100 to spend at CPW

In episode 5, season 2, of the 361 Degrees Podcast the set themselves a 'fun' challenge - to choose a new pre-pay mobile phone costing less than £100 to give as a as a Christmas present. To keep thing fair we limited our shopping spree to UK retailer Carphone Warehouse. The underlying idea of the episode was to look at the products on offer at the lower end of the market, an area that doesn't usually receive much attention.

# Posted by Rafe in Links of Interest at 14:54 UTC, Dec 12th || Comments

Minor updates to Nokia Maps and QML Store

Another day, another update or two - ho hum... Strictly for those you actually need them, but meriting a quick mention in passing, there are bug fix updates out today to Nokia Maps for Symbian Belle (available via the Store) and to the beta QML Store client for Symbian^3/Anna, fixing a specific 'black screen' error on installation (i.e. if it's working for you, you don't need the fix).

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 8:49 UTC, Dec 10th || Comments

Spotlighting the N90 - from 2005!

You've got to love someone who respects the past. Sergejs Cuhrajs, as guest writer on Nokia Connects, has put up a heart felt and perspective-laden look at one of this (and my) favourite Nokia designs ever, the first real 'transformer' phone, the N90. This was the first Nokia smartphone to feature Carl Zeiss optics and its form factor remains almost unique even today.

# Posted by Steve in Links of Interest at 17:05 UTC, Dec 7th || Comments

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