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.
You may remember, almost three months ago, that I featured news of an innovative URL-to-application wizard: AppMe, claiming to create an installable Symbian application (for use on a homescreen shortcuts bar or simply in the main app menu) from any Internet page. It worked, too, though the wizard itself was desktop browser-based and a little rough around the edges. Well, AppMe is back, it's slicker, it's more rounded, it has its own mini 'app store' and it's now mobile too. More below.
I am pleased to be able to introduce you to the first episode of the 361 Degrees podcast. This is a podcast all about mobile technology, created by Ben Smith of Wireless Worker and co-hosted by Ewan MacLeod of Mobile Industry Review and Rafe Blandford of All About Symbian. The first episode covers the trend for the specialisation of converged smartphones, with specific discussion around the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play.
There's an interesting piece over at Gary Moncrieff's blog today that struck a chord with me. He talks about slick applications like SPB Shell, Profimail and Gravity but then explains why he'd rather go with Nokia's built-in solutions for Symbian^3 because they're far better integrated into the homescreen and Contacts. Go have a read and see if you agree.
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.
The wonderfully named Maximiliano Firtman, over at his Mobile Web Programming blog, has been testing Symbian Anna's web browser (on the new Nokia X7) and here reports positively on its speed and interface, but he also raises questions about the relative lack of HTML5 support, supposedly critical for a 2011 browser.
Over on ReadWriteWeb, Mark Watkins takes a global look at the world of the check-in, the act of letting a social network such as Foursquare or Gowalla know where you are. He’s not sure that these location networks are able to maintain their growth or stay as a pure service. What do you think?
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.
Every so often, Rafe lets us 'moonlight' over at other sites, in this case the Ovi Daily App blog. Which is where I've been reviewing Headlines, an innovative way of subscribing to and presenting news feeds in a visual and user friendly manner. It's fair to say that I encountered a number of limitations along the way, but at least some of these can be fixed in a future version and my review is, overall, optimistic.
If you've ever considered developing applications and selling through the Ovi Store, then you might like to read a blog post by Sebastian Brannstrom (@Teknolog). Sebastian is the author of the now de facto podcast agent "Podcatcher". In the post he explains why he put Podcatcher on the Ovi Store, and shares some of his sales data. It's an interesting read with some very unexpected results. Read on for more.
Qt is the open source application framework that Nokia has been promoting for over a year. While more and more Symbian applications are being built in Qt (pronounced "cute"), you may or may not realise quite how many you're actually using. Indeed, some are more apparent than others. However, thanks to a list compiled by Rita El Khoury over at Fonearena, you can find out how many high-profile applications are actually made in the Qt framework. Read on for more details.
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.
Nokia recently posted a clarification that Symbian was “Not open source, but open for business”. It is worth taking a moment to consider the collaborative environment Symbian now exists in. Prior to Nokia’s deal with Microsoft, we saw the closure of the Symbian Foundation and with it, the end of Symbian’s time under the Eclipse Public Licence (EPL). Developers were rightly concerned about just how ‘open’ Symbian would be. Read on for our analysis.
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.
